Chapter 378: Victory

That is eternal.

The woman in white stumbled into the Chi Shen Jing realm, her mind buzzing with a deafening hum; in her daze, she could not tell what had happened.

This hammer strike possessed no technique, nor was it splendid, yet it was filled with the most pure power and the most wild beauty, leaving an unforgettable impression on all who beheld it.

She stared, stunned.

Only the sound of thunder exploded; the bronze giant tower shattered in response, and a black long dragon roared angrily, carrying the rolling sound of thunderstorms.

It pierced through that brilliant blade light like a night-black curtain, the green steel tower walls... where the bell's tip pointed, where the dragon's head aimed, everything seemed as thin as paper being pierced.

It knocked the Blade Master from the darkness horizontally into the air, pushing against him as if intending to strike him out of the heavens!

Boom!

After a moment, the light and shadow on the green steel tower scattered; under the white-clad woman's gaze, the Blade Master completely vanished.

"This hammer strike..."

"Master, Dao Master."

Li Yuan stood up and went out the door, preparing to find Old Dragon Head to ask about the origin; just as he pushed open the door, he saw the large tiger cub lying on the grass outside.

"Sit."

Wang Jin looked on, his heart inevitably aching a bit; separated by tens of thousands of li, every single character consumed a vast amount of incense.

The divine-level blade technique created based on the spiritual image is, exceptionally, something that can only be performed before entering the Dao; at the level of refining the viscera, or even refining the marrow and exchanging blood, it is almost impossible to solve.

"The number one under heaven must change hands!"

"Passing through the Gao Feng Heaven with a physical body without dying, that old turtle is naturally no ordinary being."

Regarding the Dragon Demon Great Pill, I specifically asked Old Dragon Head earlier; this is the king of spiritual pills secretly transmitted by the Star-Picking Tower. In terms of medicinal power, it is not stronger than the Dragon-Tiger Great Pill; it is merely that its power is violent and lacks any healing effect.

Wan Wan Zhuliu frowned slightly; after finishing reading the incoming letter, he flicked his finger, and various characters appeared, seemingly communicating with the person on the other side through that token.

Beneath the fourteen-layered giant ship, tens of thousands of elite armored soldiers cast iron chains into the cloudy sky, dredging up various heavenly treasures that exist only in the Gao Feng cloud sea, such as star sand, Gao stone, and meteoric iron.

Wang Jin did not take up that thread of conversation; he did not want to go to the fourth layer of Gao Feng Heaven, and instead said:

Hoo hoo~

But the rank of the Black Whale is not inferior to the Subduing Demon Blade; naturally, using it as a hammer and propelling it with the Splitting Sea Black Whale, one can break through the ten interlaced Subduing Demon Blades!

But if it were not the Splitting Long Yingchan Bell, how could that suddenly explosive hammer strike have come about?

"It is not located..."

"The eighth layer is already very good."

The Black Whale is very pure; I paced back and forth, my heart unable to calm down. When Xia Lu drew the blade for me that day, I had to maintain the Chi Shen Jing realm, and I could not see clearly.

"Is that a package?"

Li Yuan had many doubts in his heart, so he could only sit and wait.

One must know that Xia Lu is still a long way from having largely mastered the refining of the viscera!

His spirit relaxed a bit; Li Yuan broke free from the influence of the Subduing Demon Blade intent, thereby verifying the power of the Black Whale combination, and he was very satisfied in his heart.

"The four directions are the heavens; the Four Directions Temple takes its name from this, so its location must be fixed. Perhaps it exists beneath the fourth layer of Gao Feng Heaven, or perhaps, it is not located anywhere."

Li Yuan bowed in greeting.

"It really is that old fellow..."

Wang Jin's face twitched; is that how one wastes incense?

Bang!

Long Xi Xiang pinched his long eyebrows, his heart inevitably filled with shock and suspicion; upon such careful observation, he had failed to detect the fluctuation of that Splitting Xia Lu Sha hammer.

Subsequently, it also shattered and vanished.

"... Full of nonsense; even playing chess is not peaceful."

"Is this a letter from Master Wu Yang Jian?"

"If I can wear the Crimson Blood Pattern Dragon Armor, this time, I will achieve a great victory... never mind, such speculation is meaningless."

Drawing the blade inevitably leaves traces; for the sake of stability, naturally, all traces must be cut down. Next time, Long Xi Xiang will not do this either.

Wang Jin's eyebrows relaxed.

The green steel tower shook violently until it collapsed completely, and that single

giant blade also dissipated within the light and shadow.

Without the command of the weapon, even if one is also a master of a Daoist Tianyun Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing, one would have absolutely no chance of winning.

"What about this Tower Master?"

On the fourteenth layer, Wan Wan Zhuliu leaned against the railing, looking down at the cloud sea, while a middle-aged scholar bowed and reported:

Now even Long Xi Xiang was speechless; it was just ordinary today. On any other day, he would definitely not play chess with that old fellow. ~Is it growing horns?

The number is too high; one can only perish together.

"Brother Wan, according to my calculations by Wu, that old turtle does not come from the Four Directions Temple, but it must come from the heavens; we must capture it..."

The rolling Gao Feng winds, capable of tearing apart fine steel and leaving marks on divine weapons, came rushing forth, yet were split into seven by the Dun Tian Zhou, and the giant ship sailed across the sky.

Li Yuan frowned slightly; he still wanted to see what this Green Steel Tower Master actually looked like, and of course, he also remembered the big pie the former one had painted earlier.

"Above the eighth layer of Gao Feng Heaven, there are indeed many treasures, enough to make up for the consumed incense."

Armored soldiers shuttle through the various layers, collecting and recording the dredged items.

Li Yuan's corner twitched; he felt both heartache and anger. So someone knocked the cat out?

"Is it not located?"

Inside the room, Li Yuan grunted, quickly opening his eyes; he felt his mind buzzing chaotically, as if he had truly been hacked to death by chaotic blades.

"Does this Zhenwu King walk every realm so steadily? No wonder he is the number one of the current age..."

It seems my guess was indeed wrong.

"This old turtle really has no secrets left, it's been several months now. They say Steward Wu is still in closed-door recuperation. Calculating the four years of deduction afterward, the price to pay is no small matter."

"Who did it?"

In the night, in the great courtyard, Hai Yu Xuanjing's face flushed red, unable to hold back a soft cry.

Li Yuan was startled. That little tiger cub had two bumps on its head, one on each side, looking rather like budding horns.

By the same logic, he felt that a great victory was no longer far off for him either.

Wan Wan Zhuliu's brows were tightly furrowed. He gazed into the sea of clouds; wherever his eyes reached was a vast blank, and trying to find a great temple whose state of existence was unknown was truly like fishing for a needle in the sea.

A whole conversation!

On the chessboard, the two were locked in a fierce battle. Only the constant tap-tap of pieces could be heard; neither needed to think before placing their stones.

Only when he looked into that green steel pagoda did he see Li Yuan amid the drifting dust.

Wan Wan Zhuliu gave a faint response, turned and sat down, playing chess with Wang Jin, who was draped in white armor.

"Woo~"

Very quickly, a game of chess began with the old dragon-head's defeat.

Light and shadow drifted down across the sky. Watching the divine saber dissipate along with the giant pagoda, Li Yuan let out a long breath, and crisscrossing saber scars immediately appeared on his body.

Even if it meant perishing together, at the very least, he had stood at the very front.

He had prepared to try several times, but never expected to succeed on the first try.

The great temple opposite was still lit.

Compared to dying in a single slash at the very beginning, he could now withstand two hundred slashes on his own strength alone. Such progress — how could he possibly be dissatisfied?

He even fought twice?

Watching the long saber remain intact within the light screen, Long Xi Xiang came back to his senses, exchanged a glance with Xia Lu, and had already summoned the Dragon Tiger Recuperation Furnace.

Li Yuan closed the courtyard gate, walked slowly to the great temple. Inside, the old dragon-head and Dragon Dao Master sat facing each other, sipping tea and playing chess, as if nothing had happened at all.

Has he no conscience anymore......

"Good!"

Kneading his brow to ease the pain, Li Yuan's thoughts drifted; he could not help but recall those crisscrossing Eleven Slashes of Demon Subduing.

Neither of them looked up.

The woman in white was still in a state of immense shock and astonishment. She simply could not figure out what had happened, but at this moment, she had no time to ponder it.

"~Ah!"

"Looking for what?"

Daoist Li, who had won a bitter victory, did not underestimate in the slightest. This Zhenwu Wang's title of number one under heaven truly held not a drop of water.

Seeing this bell at this moment, he felt quite delighted in his heart.

"Erase all traces."

As he entered and exited the Zi Shen Jing, Li Yuan seemed to hear a voice — high-pitched and somewhat shrill, like... a man's voice?

Wang Jin swept a glance around before focusing his attention to examine closely.

"Hmm?"

"What about the Four Directions Temple?"

Just as he was about to inquire, his gaze suddenly sharpened. The killing intent that abruptly surged forth made even Dun Tian Zhou pause; the fourteen-story tower ship above and below, with its countless thousands of guards, all felt a chill in their hearts.

As he spoke, Wan Wan Zhuliu seemed to sense something. He pulled a palm-sized token from his bosom, gave it a pat of true qi, and various characters immediately appeared upon it.

Hai Yu Xuanjing paid him no heed; he reached out and flipped the entire chessboard upside down onto the table, sending the pieces clattering to the floor: "Try playing again?"

After unleashing that hammer with all his might, Li Yuan's mind went completely blank, only returning to himself when he heard the familiar sound of the divine saber shattering.

"Huff!"

"That's Xia Lu's hammer, isn't it?"

The characters flowed:

Huff huff~

"I, Wu, have spent months deducing and calculated that this old turtle is already in the East Sea, or heading north, seemingly searching for something......"

"What a pity, above the fourth floor the danger is too great; ordinary guards cannot even keep their footing. Otherwise, the fourth floor would be the true treasure ground......"

Li Yuan's spirit was greatly invigorated. He had waited over a year for this big fellow to grow, but upon a closer look, his eyelid could not help but twitch:

Xia Lu looked around. Inside the room, outside the courtyard, there was not the slightest trace of presence, but further off in the night, a golden light flickered — it came from the Ancient Elephant Spirit Dragon Demon-Subduing Pestle.

"You......"

The First Slash of Demon Subduing was a divine-grade saber technique based on spirit imagery. Even though he felt his Yu Xuanjing true qi was no inferior, he had ultimately never learned similar moves and could not resist.

Wan Wan Zhuliu gently stroked the divine saber, his gaze deep and dark:

"My lord, in seventeen days, we have salvaged eight thousand jin of star sand, four hundred Yun Gang stones, eight Gang Cloud flowers, and forty thousand jin of meteoric iron......"

"Is this waiting for you?"

The facts were exactly as he had anticipated.

Amid the ruins, the man in white stretched out both arms. Purple qi surged from the earth, and a brand-new yet somewhat indistinct bronze pagoda slowly rose from the ground.

"That Dragon-Subduing Divine Saber can likely wound the divine soul......"

"Balancing yin and yang, the harmony of dragon and tiger is the proper way. To only attack and not defend may give one the upper hand for a time, but in the end, one will still lose."

Dragon Dao Master pinched a chess piece between his fingers, his two long brows fluttering up and down — clearly in an excellent mood:

He carefully carried the little tiger cub back into the room, kneading it with true qi to reduce the swelling. After quite a while, he pushed open the courtyard gate.

"Mm, that 'if' is meaningless too — Daoist simply has it. ~"

Letting out a long breath, Li Yuan felt some joy in his heart. Using Wan Wan Zhuliu as a mirror, at the very least his path in the Organ Refining realm was steady and solid.

"Victory!"

"Continue gathering."

~Won!"

Wan Wan Zhuliu casually placed a piece.