Chapter 523: Desire to Seize the Soldiers

"You have what you seek, and so do I."

Since their goals did not conflict, Li Yuan and Zhou Ying hit it off immediately, and their conversation went quite pleasantly.

Zhou Ying was very straightforward, and Li Yuan did not dawdle either; after exchanging a few words, he took out from his bosom a map he had just drawn.

"This is?"

Zhou Ying cast a glance.

The map was centered on the path of the Shan Xuan Jing, seemingly a map of the You Jing, and upon it were eleven marked points.

"These twelve marked points correspond to twelve Daoist Tianyun Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing. This junior needs the senior's help in exploring which of these marks corresponds to which Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing."

Li Yuan was very direct; this was the purpose of his coming to seek Zhou Ying.

"You, you want to scheme for other Daoist Tianyun Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing?"

Zhou Ying's brow furrowed deeply: "Little friend, a Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing cannot be held in multiples. Since you already possess the Splitting Sea Yu Xuanjing Hammer, why…"

"Senior, the saying that a Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing cannot be held in twos is not entirely accurate. As I know, the imperial court's Town Martial King Wan Wan Zhuliu carries both the Demon-Subduing Dragon God Blade and the Sea-Calming Shan Xuan Tortoise Shell."

Li Yuan instinctively held back a hand, citing Wan Wan Zhuliu as an example.

Even carrying two great Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing, it does not mean both have acknowledged a master. Still, after Zhou Ying rebutted once, he did not press further, but nodded in assent: "With this map, exploring one or two is no trouble at all. Leave it to this old man."

"Many thanks, Senior."

Li Yuan bowed in thanks.

"Little friend need not be so polite."

Zhou Ying took the map, but inwardly felt quite flattered.

The one bowing was the unparalleled prodigy through the ages, the only one who could open the Eight Directions Temple. His courtesy was naturally different from that of an ordinary person.

"This junior will do his utmost to help the senior enter the temple."

"Many thanks, little friend."

The two conversed a few more lines, and Li Yuan rose to take his leave.

When seeing Li Yuan off at the temple gate, Zhou Ying thought for a moment, then still took out a palm-sized hammer:

"Little friend, this hammer was carved by this old man from his spirit form. If you need to contact me, simply crush it and wait a moment; this old man will surely come!"

"Many thanks, Senior."

Li Yuan took the hammer, bowed once, and only then turned and departed.

Zhou Ying watched him vanish into the darkness, then picked up the map. After a brief identification, he had already set off toward the nearest marked point.

"Neither dead nor alive, this old fellow is rather eerie."

Not long after leaving the temple, Li Yuan heard the voice of the little mother dragon; while he had been conversing with Zhou Ying, she had been somewhat restless.

"Eerie?"

Li Yuan frowned slightly, somewhat suspicious: "Why didn't you mention it before?"

When he had met Zhou Ying previously, he had been wearing the Dragon of Illusion's Sash.

"You don't trust me?"

There was a note of grievance and a touch of anger in the little mother dragon's voice: "If that's the case, don't ever ask me again."

Daoist Li was somewhat speechless; this little mother dragon's temper was getting stranger and stranger.

"Mm?"

His heart stirred slightly, and Li Yuan took the Dragon of Illusion's Sash in hand. Sensing it carefully, he seemed to detect a difference; this whip seemed to have gained a measure of roundness and harmony compared to before entering the Eight Directions Temple?

'It seems this little mother dragon did gain some benefits inside the Eight Directions Temple.'

Li Yuan understood in his heart, and naturally soothed her with a few words.

"Hmph!"

Considering that he was going to seek out her Ji De Shen Jing for her, the little mother dragon gave a cold snort, but still spoke of her discovery:

"That old man should have been partially eroded by the You Jing, only he suppressed it by some unknown means."

"Eroded?"

Li Yuan's heart stirred. As for how Zhou Ying had survived over a thousand years in the You Jing, he had previously been quite curious; now it seemed, just as Zhou Ying himself had said.

He was not truly alive at all.

"Only the Primordial Fire can withstand the erosion of the You Jing, but even possessing the Primordial Fire, long residence in the You Jing will inevitably lead to erosion. Only a god can dwell in the You Jing forever!"

The little mother dragon was at first a bit halting, but later became eloquent, speaking of the terror of the You Jing and the might of the gods, at times reverent, at times envious.

"No wonder even the gods need the Primordial Fire."

Li Yuan's thoughts were subtle, but he opened his mouth to interrupt her, urging her to sense her own Shen Jing.

"Oh, oh."

Only then did the little mother dragon remember the main business. She focused her spirit to sense, and after a long while drooped her head in dejection; clearly there was no harvest at all.

"It's fine, we'll search slowly."

Li Yuan comforted the rich lady dragon, lightly squeezed the token, and had already returned to the Eight Directions Temple.

"One entry and exit is forty days."

At the foot of the mountain, Li Yuan sensed the token, did not feel too much heartache, and once again activated the token, opening the You Gate to head to the next location.

"Nothing."

"No…"

"Ah! My Shen Jing, this old lady's Shen Jing!"

After several such attempts, Li Yuan could still keep his composure, but the little mother dragon was already going somewhat frantic. After shifting several more times, Li Yuan too began to feel the pain.

Nine round trips in total, he had expended an entire wisp of seventh-tier incense, and the time on the token had shrunk from two and a half years to a year and a half.

If it were not for the thirteen hundred strands of seventh-tier incense the little mother dragon had mentioned, he would not do such a thing even if beaten to death.

"Again!"

The little mother dragon was thoroughly worked up, urging Li Yuan on.

"... Again!"

Li Yuan glanced at her, gritted his teeth, and activated the token once more.

Hum—

Passing through the Ghost Gate, Li Yuan was clad in armor, Shou Chi Zhong in hand. Just as he was warily surveying his surroundings, the little mother dragon's shrill voice rang out in his heart:

"Li Yuan, I found it, I found it!"

With a whoosh, the Dragon Sash shot into the air — if Li Yuan hadn't grabbed it in one swift motion, it would have darted right off.

"Right there!"

The Dragon Sash pulled taut as a straight line, pointing into the darkness ahead.

"How far?"

Li Yuan swept his gaze around, doing a quick mental calculation — this place was already very far from the path of the Mysterious Whale.

"Three hundred of these far."

With a twang, the little mother dragon stretched out her body, and the Dragon Sash instantly elongated to three hundred meters.

"One hundred and eighty li?"

Li Yuan frowned.

That distance wouldn't amount to much in the outside world, but this was You Jing — who knew if they might run into some strange beast or strange land.

"My Po De Shen Jing is still here after all!"

The little mother dragon was extremely excited.

"Still have to waste forty days."

Li Yuan gritted his teeth — a whole year had already been wasted, so he didn't care about this one more time. Steeling his heart, he activated the token once more, transferring through the Eight Directions Temple,

and following the direction the little mother dragon indicated, teleported one more time.

"Right there!"

Stepping out of the Ghost Gate, Li Yuan took out a handful of incense offerings and tossed them up. By the faint glow of the incense, he could make out the outline of the Po De Shen Jing not far away.

It looked like an earthen mound, barely ten-odd meters tall, not a blade of grass on it — utterly unremarkable in appearance.

"Ah, how did it shrink to just this little?"

The little mother dragon saw the small mound too and was completely stunned.

"It hasn't been corrupted yet."

Li Yuan sensed briefly, detected no aura of strange beasts, and with some relief in his heart, headed toward the mound.

Over eleven teleportations in total, he had only run into three strange beasts — mainly because the emergence of the Eight Directions Temple had drawn an extremely large number of strange beasts.

Yooo~

Following the little mother dragon's directions, Li Yuan stepped onto the mound. The light and shadows around him flickered, and without the slightest dizziness, he had already entered this ruined Po De Shen Jing.

Ruined. Desolate.

This Po De Shen Jing was very small — looking up, one could only see a stretch of gray-black scorched earth, along with broken walls and crumbling ruins right before one's eyes.

From the outline, Li Yuan simply couldn't tell what this Po De Shen Jing had originally looked like; he could only barely make out that what lay before him should have been a cluster of buildings.

"Whoosh!"

The Dragon Sash slipped from his hand and plunged headlong into the broken walls and ruins ahead.

Li Yuan didn't stop it — his attention had also fallen on that spot. Through the ruins, a dark mysterious radiance rose before his eyes: not Daoist Tianyun Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing, but incense offerings.

"There's incense offerings!"

Li Yuan's heart eased. Searching for this little mother dragon's Po De Shen Jing had actually had an element of gambling to it — after all, one thousand three hundred strands of seventh-tier incense offerings was too great a temptation.

But he had also prepared himself for losing the gamble. Fortunately, he had won.

"Crash, crash, crash~"

Dirt and stone flew as the little mother dragon, wrapped around a dazzling bundle of incense offerings, darted back with a mournful face:

"Gone, all gone... only two strands of Origin Fire are left, the rest, the rest are all destroyed..."

The little mother dragon was deeply wounded, her spirit crushed as if dead — but Li Yuan's eyes went wide. That bundle of incense offerings actually contained two strands of incense offerings — two hundred wisps of seventh-tier incense offerings!

"Smack!"

The little mother dragon flicked her tail and tossed the incense offerings to Li Yuan. He hurriedly reached out to catch them, while she had already plunged back into the crumbling ruins.

"I'm rich!"

Holding that bundle of incense offerings, dazzling as a furnace, Li Yuan's heart raced — the faint pangs of regret from earlier had long since vanished without a trace.

"Two hundred strands of seventh-tier incense offerings!"

Li Yuan's mouth was even going dry — all the incense offerings he had obtained before added together weren't this many.

If he threw them all into that token, he could stay in the Eight Directions Temple for two hundred years; or, listen to fourteenth-tier Listening Sound two hundred times, and advance his Palm Sound Seal to eighth tier.

If he merged weapons, even at half success, it would be a hundred seventh-tier divine weapons!

"No wonder the Monks of Xin Yi Jiao are obsessed with gambling... wait, no — this Daoist is investing, betting one to win two hundred!"

Taking a deep breath to suppress the pounding in his heart, Li Yuan stored this large bundle of incense offerings into his Palm Weapon space, and only then had the leisure to survey this ruined Po De Shen Jing.

"Crash~"

"Bang!"

"Boom!"

In the ruins, the little mother dragon's actions went from gentle to forceful, and finally to outright frenzy. With two thunderous roars, mud, sand, and stone from the ruins scattered and flew in all directions.

In just a moment, she had turned the entire ruins upside down.

"My 'Mirage Boat,' my 'Cloud Light Mirror,' my 'Tongshi Sphere'…"

In the ruins, the little mother dragon wailed in her heart. She refused to give up, flipping through every tile and piece of rubble, and in the end only rolled up a pile of junk to bring back.

"My Po De Shen Jing has been mostly destroyed."

The little mother dragon's heart felt as though cut by a blade, and fury surged to the heavens; she wished she could drag out the person who had refined her into a long whip and kill him several hundred times.

"My condolences."

Elder Li Dao had no idea how to comfort her; the joys and sorrows of humans and dragons could not be shared. His own heart was pounding, his mood at its absolute peak.

"…Ah!"

The little mother dragon screamed in a frenzy, tossed aside that pile of junk, and plunged headfirst into the ruins. This time, however, she wasn't searching for things—she meant to take back this shattered Po De Shen Jing.

Hum~

The shattered Po De Shen Jing began to tremble violently.

【121】 Li Yuan grabbed that pile of junk glinting with the light of blades and withdrew from the Po De Shen Jing. He saw the light flickering atop the earthen mound, then collapsing inch by inch inward.

Li Yuan grabbed the pile of broken weapons glinting with blade-light and withdrew from the divine realm, only to see the earthen mound flashing with light, then collapsing inch by inch inward.

But he paid it little heed; his gaze had already fallen on that pile of junk.