Chapter 115: Filial Piety

Xu Guanwen’s claw gripped hard, and on the boundless earth, only a few small stones bounced joyfully.

Yet at this moment, shadows on the aerial moon stirred, and a streak of light flashed across a withered branch beside Yushan.

Xu Guanwen could not budge Wei Yuan’s Dao foundation, deeply shocked—he immediately unleashed his full strength and pulled again!

With a cracking sound, the giant claw manifestation shattered four of its claws from overexertion; Xu Guanwen cried out in pain, his face instantly turning deathly pale.

Suddenly, a streak of light shot through the air, impossibly swift.

Xu Guanwen let out a deafening, earth-shattering scream—a slanted, massive gash appeared on his giant claw manifestation; the streak of light slashed through, cleaving his manifestation cleanly in two!

The Immortal Lord’s spiritual thought had severed him—no mere long-standing manifestation like Xu Guanwen’s could withstand it, let alone one with no defense whatsoever. This wound was no trivial matter; Xu Guanwen teetered on the brink of death, ready to perish at any moment. He gritted his teeth against the agony of his Primordial Spirit tearing apart, staggered upward, and tried to flee—but suddenly, the surrounding heavens and earth changed!

Qingming had recognized its master; the ten-thousand-li rivers and mountains had fused with it. Where it once could manifest only a hundred-zhang range, it now expanded to a thousand zhang. After manifestation, all surrounding heavens and earth lay within Wei Yuan’s mind—his spiritual sense stirred, and every force of heaven and earth within a thousand zhang crushed down upon Xu Guanwen, making his movements agonizingly slow.

A mere thousand-zhang force of heaven and earth was still insufficient to bind a manifestation—but Qingming was an immortal artifact, and the ten-thousand-li rivers and mountains were an unparalleled Dao foundation; their combination made Xu Guanwen sink like quicksand, every lift and step sluggish.

How could he accept death so easily? He struggled desperately. Wei Yuan felt his Dao power draining rapidly—within moments, more than half was gone! Suppressing a dying manifestation’s thrashing was truly difficult.

Xu Guanwen’s manifestation had already been severed by the Immortal Lord’s spiritual thought, held together only by his magic power—so all Wei Yuan needed to do was buy time, wait until Xu Guanwen’s magic power ran dry, and then deliver the final blow. But even Wei Yuan’s Dao power could not withstand Xu Guanwen’s dying struggle; in moments, his Dao power was nearly exhausted, the bindings on Xu Guanwen rapidly weakening, and he was about to break free.

Suddenly, from within Wei Yuan’s mind, the moon spat out a thick black mist—thicker than the previous three—and a single thought entered Wei Yuan’s consciousness.

Wei Yuan had no time to ponder—he channeled his newly gained fortune to activate the Heaven’s Rebel. The surrounding heavens and earth darkened instantly, shifting from noon to dusk. An ancient, terrifying aura enveloped all things; every sentient being collapsed to the ground, utterly subdued.

Wei Yuan leapt upward, clutching a withered branch, and drove it fiercely into the giant claw manifestation in midair!

Xu Guanwen let out a piercing scream—the fused claw split apart, unable to reattach, then began to disintegrate.

Wei Yuan had used a branch from the Moon Osmanthus Immortal Tree—an immortal artifact of supreme rank—while the Heaven’s Rebel fortune pressed down from above; together, they finally shattered Xu Guanwen’s manifestation.

The manifestation collapsed. Xu Guanwen fell helplessly to the ground, landing on his back, motionless.

The flesh-mountain-like Wu clan, shaken by the fortune, finally reacted—roaring, it raised a ten-zhang-long tentacle and whipped it down at Wei Yuan!

Wei Yuan thought, and Qingming activated, transforming the nature of the surrounding heavens and earth. With Qingming’s aid, the ten-thousand-li rivers and mountains he manifested grew vastly stronger—in moments, he turned the hundred-zhang radius around him into a pure earthly realm!

The flesh-mountain Wu clan screamed as if scalded by boiling oil—blisters swelled and burst across his skin, spewing ink-green bodily fluid. The fluid boiled instantly upon contact with pure qi, turning into thick clouds of blue smoke. The flesh-mountain howled in agony, retracting its tentacle mid-swing, fleeing wildly from the hall. He had come soundlessly and swiftly as wind and lightning, but now he moved slowly, clumsily, his body continuously burned and eroded by the pure qi. Yet Wei Yuan knew clearly: with his body reduced to this state, the Wu clan must be immensely powerful—pure qi alone could not kill him.

Wei Yuan squeezed out the last dregs of his depleted Dao power, pointed a finger—and a stone sword shot forth. In midair, its blade ignited with blazing fire, streaking downward to pierce one of the Wu clan’s tentacles, pinning him in place, then searing the wound fiercely.

This was a new Dao technique that Wei Yuan had just grasped in the past few days:

Immortal Sword · False Sun.

The flesh-mountain Wu clan could not break free—he turned to sever the pinned tentacle, the true act of self-amputation to survive. But suddenly, a golden cauldron appeared in midair—it grew with the wind, expanding in moments to two zhang wide. Wei Yuan pointed—and flames erupted within the cauldron, descending to crush down upon the flesh-mountain, sealing it entirely beneath and burning it fiercely!

This was a Dao technique Wei Yuan had just grasped—he had not yet named it.

Wei Yuan forced out a few more drops of Dao power he had thought gone, pointed upward again—and a luminous jade mountain appeared in the sky, falling like a meteor, accelerating from slow to swift, smashing the golden cauldron and the flesh-mountain alike into thin paper, leaving behind a hundred-zhang-wide, ten-zhang-deep celestial crater on the earth!

With a thunderous crash, the remaining hall collapsed entirely, nearly burying Wei Yuan alive. He struggled out of the rubble, limped to the edge of the great crater, and looked down.

The jade mountain had been recalled; the Immortal Sword · False Sun and the golden cauldron, unnamed, had become two shattered stones on his Dao foundation. At the crater’s bottom lay only a slurry of flesh and fluid, continuously emitting ink-green vapor, which the pure qi turned into swirling blue smoke. The smoke rose into the air, then transformed into a misty drizzle, falling upon the earth—wherever the rain landed, life surged forth.

Wei Yuan endured the agony of his depleted Dao power, exhaled deeply, and at last, it was over.

One must admit: manifestations were truly hard to kill. Even after being struck by the Immortal Lord’s spiritual thought, even after Wei Yuan exhausted every trick—he still nearly let Xu Guanwen escape. Without the Immortal Lord’s spiritual thought, Wei Yuan would have died ten times over. Without the moon granting him additional fortune and guiding him to use the Osmanthus branch, he could not have stopped Xu Guanwen. Now, looking back, Wei Yuan finally felt waves of dread.

In truth, Wei Yuan had intended to plan carefully, to maneuver against his opponent. But Xu Guanwen had planned to deliver hundreds of thousands of mortals to the alien race—Wei Yuan, enraged, had no time to strategize before being forced into direct combat.

!.

Wei Yuan had no other choice—without Qingming recognizing him as master, he could never have defeated Xu Guanwen, even with the Immortal Lord’s spiritual thought ambush. If Xu Guanwen had escaped, Wei Yuan would have had to flee immediately; otherwise, in two days, once Xu Guanwen stabilized his wounds and returned, escape would be impossible.

Around the hall lay only broken walls and ruins; the few structures that had barely survived now collapsed entirely under the jade mountain’s aerial strike. The Wu clan’s tentacle warrior, an Yunshen-level cultivator, had been crushed outright by the jade mountain’s blow—Wei Yuan now understood, firsthand, the sheer power of a jade mountain strike.

On the ruins, Xu Guanwen’s shadowy form rose—his Primordial Spirit.

Seeing the shadow glance around, desperate to flee, Wei Yuan’s mind stirred—he used Heaven’s Rebel to crush it from above, then reached out and seized Xu Guanwen’s soul and Primordial Spirit, dragging them into his mind, placing them before the moon. The moon’s shadow stirred, swallowing the soul and Primordial Spirit whole—and Wei Yuan understood its meaning:

Filial Piety!

Then, gazing at the seven thick strands of fortune floating before him, Wei Yuan felt the urge to kneel and bow his head.

(End of Chapter)