Chapter 339: Shatter the Tian Gang, and Only Then Can One See the Divine!

Woooo~

In the Mi Jing of Long Residence's rear courtyard, Long Long Yingchan sat cross-legged. A sphere of light, its origin unknown, drifted and spun before him, and within it scenes played out.

Looking closer, it was the gate of Longhu Mountain, where Douyue saw Xie Xie Tongzhi off.

"Sigh."

Long Long Yingchan let out a breath:

"Isn't being alive good enough?"

The Dragon Dao Master was somewhat weary at heart. Over forty years off the jianghu, and even those he had old grudges with seemed to have forgotten what sort of temper Long Xi Xiang had back in the day.

Though in his heart he felt Xie Xie Tongzhi was a fool, as Dao Master, Long Long Yingchan had no choice but to consider the consequences of this man's death.

"Given Junior Brother's temper, before throwing his life into a desperate fight, there's a very good chance he'd choose to send Xie Xie Tongzhi away first."

Long Long Yingchan's pair of long brows unconsciously flicked up and down; he knew Long Xi Xiang very well.

Before his serious injury, Long Xi Xiang's reputation, both in the jianghu and within the imperial court, was terrible. He was obsessed with martial arts to the point of madness, and his strikes were vicious. Long Long Yingchan had lost count of how many times he'd cleaned up after him.

The quiet of these past forty-plus years was not only because his injuries were truly severe; the greater reason was that he'd grown forgetful, unable to hold a grudge.

"With his Wu Gong, killing Xie Xie Tongzhi is no real problem. With a little planning, luring him out of the city to deal with him wouldn't be much of an issue either, but he can't hide it from Wei Wei Tianzuo."

Long Long Yingchan weighed the matter in his heart.

The grudge between the Changhong Sword Sect and Longhu Temple had long festered; Xie Xie Tongzhi's death wouldn't trouble him in the slightest, but if a stir were kicked up at this particular moment, he'd find it a headache too.

Those sword-mad fools of the Changhong Sword Sect may be stupid, but Wei Wei Tianzuo was no easy mark.

But to talk Long Xi Xiang out of it…

Just thinking about it gave Long Long Yingchan a headache. His long brows flicked, and he felt a touch of gloom in his chest: "To play it safe, this old man will have to act myself."

Sighing inwardly, Long Long Yingchan regretted for the umpteenth time that he shouldn't have taken on this Dao Master business back in the day.

"Master." At that moment, footsteps came from outside.

"Enter."

Long Long Yingchan flicked the sphere of light before his eyes into nothingness, shook out his sleeves, and rose to his feet.

Long Long Yunfeng led a burly man into the rear courtyard, then bowed and withdrew.

"Dao Master, what important matter did you summon me for?" Shan Shan Qing Song cupped his hands in greeting.

"The Longhu Longhu Dandan is nearly finished."

"Hm?!" Hearing this, Shan Shan Qing Song's expression shifted slightly: "So soon? Won't Martial Uncle wait a little longer?"

"The Longhu Dandan still needs some time to finish refining, but your Martial Uncle has already begun gathering his momentum. Over forty years—he can't wait any longer."

Long Long Yingchan turned around.

Shan Shan Qing Song's face took on a slightly bitter look: "Martial Uncle is a man blessed by heaven; he'll surely break through and rise again, shattering the Tian Gang."

"And if he can't break through?" Long Long Yingchan sighed.

After his probing in the Longhu Pagoda, he believed Li Yuan had the possibility of catching up to Wan Wan Zhuliu, but to accomplish it in just over a year—the likelihood was still extremely low.

With Long Xi Xiang at stake, he'd spare no effort to try even the slimmest chance, but as Dao Master, he had to make more preparations.

He gave Shan Shan Qing Song a casual glance: "This batch of Longhu Longhu Dadan should yield one supreme-grade pill, five upper-grade, and six lower-grade. These six lower-grade ones, this old man intends to give to you—Douyue, Han Tong, Fang Long, Yundao, Long Yunfeng—one each."

"This disciple thanks the Dao Master." Shan Shan Qing Song gave a wry smile, knowing he couldn't refuse, and could only accept.

"Entering the Dao is like leaping the Dragon Gate. Apart from igniting one's spirit and qi-blood with the resolve to die and risking everything in one try, there's no other way. If you want to grind it out slowly, that absolutely won't work."

A world-class Longhu Dadan, and not one or two of them want it—Long Long Yingchan felt helpless too. The older one gets, the more afraid of dying—it's no empty saying.

Take Shan Shan Qing Song: in his earlier years he was fierce and resolute, a man who threw himself into deadly fights without a thought for his life, but now that he's old, he barely has the courage to even attempt breaking through to the Tupo Sect.

"This disciple understands."

Shan Shan Qing Song's expression was wooden. He cupped his hands: "This disciple needs to make some arrangements for what comes after, so I'll take his leave first."

"Go."

Long Long Yingchan didn't want to keep him either; he waved a hand and sent him off.

"Sixty-one percent, and we can fill the gap left by Junior Brother's death. Sixty-two or sixty-three percent, and this old man can breathe easier. Sixty-four percent…"

Long Long Yingchan shook his head—almost impossible.

The difficulty of entering the Dao was such that even he, who'd walked that path once, still felt a lingering dread; how much more so for others?

If it weren't dangerous to the extreme, how could it possibly frighten so many Zhun Sect masters under heaven?

"Li Yuan's talent is top-notch, but to fight for a mutual kill is absolutely not something done in a day. Though Junior Brother has been planning for forty years, a gap is a gap."

"Wan Wan Zhuliu at the Sect Master realm is even more terrifying than he was at the Tongmai stage."

"The hope is slim."

In the rear courtyard, the Dragon Dao Master paced back and forth, pondering Long Xi Xiang's posthumous affairs.

The Great Dragon Gate Master's fall, coming right before and after the Various Dao Martial Exhibition, and with the imperial court stirring restlessly—he had to make more preparations in his heart.

"After the Exhibition, Long Xinglie should be able to achieve it naturally. As for that lad Li, I'd estimate he still needs about ten years of refinement… Within sixty years, if one of the two can shatter the Tian Gang…"

As his thoughts drifted slightly, Long Long Yingchan suddenly looked up. Through the faint connection with the Nourishing Furnace, he sensed an unusual aura.

"Coming from the main peak of Dragon Gate?"

Li Yuan felt himself splitting apart… in the literal sense.

The instant that Demon-Slaying First Blade was unleashed, the true qi wrapped around his body, the thunder dragon, along with his own true-qi body, split clean in two in an instant.

This was the second time, and he simply couldn't think of any way to break through or defend against it.

But this scene, he had already deduced many times on the road here, and in the end, based on the terrain of Gushan Iron Chains, he'd come up with a way to drag the enemy down with him.

"It worked!"

In the final instant after being slashed out of the divine realm, he saw his own half-broken body, empowered by the Cracksea Mysterious Whale Hammer, wielding the heavy hammer to smash Wan Wan Zhuliu apart.

"Finally!"

Beneath the green pine, Long Xi Xiang slowly closed his eyes, and an immense joy welled up within him.

Boom!

Rumble!

It truly was like a meteor falling, slamming into the earth.

When Long Long Yingchan drifted onto Lonely Mountain, he saw that the clouds and rosy clouds across the sky had all been torn apart by the blast; at the other end of the iron chain, the blast mingled with smoke and dust rose billowing.

Like a mushroom cloud, soaring a hundred meters into the air.

Even separated by several hundred zhang of iron chain, he felt the gale rushing at his face.

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Hum~

Beneath the green pine, Long Xi Xiang sat in solemn, majestic repose, like an old Buddha enshrined in a temple; the giant elephant and the azure dragon came from afar, shrinking their forms, circling around him as they moved.

Gradually, Bai Guang rose and swelled, like a stretch of clouds unfurling.

The dragon and elephant softly cried, leaping into the clouds.

"Dragon Elephant Vajra Heaven! As expected, no destruction, no establishment."

The Divine Realm was cracking, reshaping; Long Long Yingchan was dazed for a moment, and after several breaths, he too had no choice but to withdraw from this place.

"This, this…"

Inside the small temple, Long Long Yingchan came back to his senses and looked at Li Yuan, whose brows were tightly knit within the Bai Guang as if in extreme agony; uncertainty flickered in his eyes.

It had only been a few days since he was at Dragon Tiger Pagoda—even a once-in-an-eternity talent couldn't possibly undergo another transformation this quickly, could it?

"Hah!"

But he had no time to think; with a sweep of his long sleeves, a great hand formed from true qi had already seized Li Yuan and shoved him outside the temple gate.

Yu Yu Xuanji then sat cross-legged, placed both hands on Long Xi Xiang's back, and torrents of true qi, vast as the sea, poured forth to aid him in his no-destruction-no-establishment.

"This blade strike is absolutely not something a Meridian-Opening martial artist can withstand!"

Rubbing his brow, the agony of being cleaved in two still left Li Yuan with lingering fear; the moment he closed his eyes, that blade strike would appear again.

Having been sliced in two twice in succession, he hadn't even been able to see the full form of that blade technique—only him, wielding the dragon transformed into a blade.

"This is a divine-grade blade technique that can only be unleashed after cultivating a Spirit Form."

The first time he was cleaved in two, Li Yuan realized this and abandoned the notion of attempting to draw his blade again after comprehending the Mysterious Whale Diagram.

In a short time, he could not possibly withstand that blade strike—or rather, even with comprehension of the Mysterious Whale Diagram and the augmentation of the Mysterious Whale Hammer, mutual destruction was the only viable way to draw his blade.

"Among those of the same rank, no one can surpass this person; at most, mutual destruction."

"Mm, this Daoist agrees."

Li Yuan slowly opened his eyes and saw the temple gate tightly shut; within, Bai Guang flickered as if present yet absent, and from it he sensed a suppressed yet overwhelming aura.

"Your master is breaking through to establish anew; this old man must aid him in shattering the Celestial Gang!"

Long Long Yingchan's voice rang out directly in Li Yuan's mind.

"Shatter the Celestial Gang!"

Sensing the fluctuations emanating from within the small temple, a smile immediately appeared on Li Yuan's face.

His already thick thighs grew even thicker.

Hum!

The faint, indistinct fluctuations spread outward with the small temple at their center; the clouds and mist over Dragon Mountain suddenly thickened, and before long, the entire mountain was shrouded within them.

"Hm?!"

In the small courtyard opposite the temple, the little tiger cub, who had been lazily lying about sunbathing, seemed to sense something.

She sprang up with a 'whoosh', every hair on her body standing on end, as if greatly startled.

"Someone is shattering the Celestial Gang?!"

With a 'pop', she crashed through the window; the little tiger cub leapt onto the roof and stared at the small temple veiled by clouds and mist, her eyes full of disbelief.

These clouds and mist covered Dragon Gate's main peak, blocking the fluctuations from spreading outward, but she was so close that she could naturally sense the strange aura emanating from within.

"Long Xi Xiang?!"

How could that be?

The little tiger cub's eyes went wide; others might not know, but how could she not know who had wounded Long Xi Xiang?

"He actually… extracted Wan Wan Zhuliu's blade intent?!"

Shocked beyond measure, the little tiger cub felt his head buzzing with noise, and only after a good while did he see Li Yuan staggering to his feet outside the small temple.

"It really is him!"