Chapter 252 - 249: A Great Enemy Arrives
Chapter 252: Chapter 249: A Great Enemy Arrives
Flying Snow City, Changping Square manor.
Li Ping was living a quiet life of cultivation.
One day, Shi Yutong came to his door, asking Li Ping to concoct a Pill for her.
Li Ping politely led her to a seat in the pavilion and instructed a puppet to serve Spirit Tea.
Shi Yutong seemed a bit distracted. When she revealed the Pill she wanted Li Ping to concoct...
Li Ping couldn’t help but be surprised. "The Dragon Suppressing Pill? Sect Leader Shi, this is the Pill you wish to have made?"
It was no wonder he was surprised. The Dragon Suppressing Pill wasn’t created by the Human Race, but was a unique Pill belonging to the Aliens.
As far as Li Ping knew, a certain degree of reproductive isolation existed between different Alien races. Even if they intermarried, they couldn’t produce offspring.
The Dragon Suppressing Pill was a Pill created by Alien Alchemists to solve this very problem.
After intermarrying, Aliens only needed to take this Pill regularly to successfully bear children.
However, because the Dragon Suppressing Pill was a Tier Two Upper Grade Pill, only High-tier Cultivators among the Aliens could afford to use it. The commoners and Low-tier Cultivators of the Alien races simply didn’t have the financial means.
As for the Human Race...
When humans intermarried with other Aliens, they could conceive offspring without this Pill, and their mixed-blood descendants would possess most human characteristics.
For example, they needed a Spiritual Root to cultivate, and they required the assistance of a Spirit Vein to cultivate and break through to new realms.
Shi Yutong herself was a prime example.
...
So when Shi Yutong suddenly came asking for his help in concocting the Dragon Suppressing Pill, he was naturally very curious.
Shi Yutong shook her head helplessly. "Yes. I won’t hide it from you, Brother Li. A junior of my mother’s came to her for help with this Dragon Suppressing Pill, and my mother then ordered me to resolve the matter for him."
"I see," Li Ping said, understanding dawning on him.
He knew that Shi Yutong’s mother, Qianxue Master, was a Yeti, so her junior was naturally a Yeti as well.
Qianxue Master was a person who acted on her emotions. Faced with a junior who came seeking help, she agreed to solve the problem on the spot.
She didn’t even make the junior prepare the Spiritual Materials needed for the Alchemy; instead, she instructed Shi Yutong to provide them.
And so, that led to Shi Yutong coming to ask Li Ping to perform Alchemy today.
Li Ping could sense the impatience in Shi Yutong’s tone.
If Qianxue Master hadn’t already agreed, Shi Yutong would never have come to Li Ping over this, not wanting to disrespect her mother.
Although she was of mixed blood, she had grown up in a human city and received a human cultural education. She had long since considered herself a member of the Human Race and did not identify with the half-Yeti bloodline within her.
Moreover, when she was born, Qianxue Master was already a Core Formation Master who had lived for three hundred years. Most of her close relatives from the Yeti Race had already died of old age.
These so-called juniors who now sought out her mother were separated from her by several generations. Their relationship was distant, and Shi Yutong had never considered them family.
In the past, her father had been the Chief Steward of Flying Snow City, and he had shielded them from many troubles.
Her mother had been protected too well by her father. Unlike him, she didn’t understand the ways of the world and was even a bit naive in her actions, which left Shi Yutong feeling rather helpless.
Flying Snow City would be hers in the future. She didn’t want her mother to waste resources that belonged to her on those so-called juniors.
Even more so, she didn’t want the Yetis to see Flying Snow City as their own private backyard because of her mother.
After the Dragon Suppressing Pill was successfully concocted, she planned to have a good talk with her mother.
Li Ping didn’t know what Shi Yutong was thinking. If he had, he would have deeply agreed with her.
’When I was still on Earth, this kind of problem always bothered me deeply,’ Li Ping thought. ’During the New Year holiday, I just wanted to reunite with my close family and get some rest. But instead, a lot of relatives I barely ever saw would come to visit, and I could only force a smile.’
’I often thought that if I didn’t have to go out and visit relatives during the New Year, and if they didn’t come to my house, then the New Year would probably be a perfect holiday.’
’But my parents didn’t see it that way. They, on the other hand, seemed to thoroughly enjoy spending the long holiday visiting friends and family.’
...
The Dragon Suppressing Pill was not among those covered by Li Ping’s peerless talent.
After he explained the situation, Shi Yutong provided him with the Pill Formula for the Dragon Suppressing Pill.
Before coming to the Land of the Far North, he had rarely concocted Tier Two Upper Grade Pills. He probably would have failed a few times with a new Pill Formula like this before getting the feel for it.
But in his years in Flying Snow City, he had concocted many Tier Two Upper Grade Pills, and had even made a Tier Three Pill.
With so much practice, even without the 100% success rate bonus from the Tree of Inheritance, his success rate for concocting the Tier Two Upper Grade Dragon Suppressing Pill wouldn’t be low.
This time, he performed exceptionally well and succeeded with the very first furnace.
Ten gleaming yellow Pills, each the size of a pigeon’s egg, burst from the Pill Furnace and flew out, landing in the Jade Bottle Li Ping had prepared.
Then, under the control of his Magical Power, the Jade Bottle flew before Shi Yutong. "Sect Leader Shi, I have not failed my mission!"
Shi Yutong inspected the Pills and a smile appeared on her face. "Thank you, Brother Li."
After seeing Shi Yutong off, Li Ping once again immersed himself in arduous cultivation.
After more than a decade of diligent Alchemy, he had absorbed enough Innate Spiritual Mechanism from Tier Two Upper Grade Pills to break through to the Core Formation Stage without any hindrance.
For him, Core Formation was currently the most important matter.
...
In a region near the eastern edge of the Land of the Far North.
A black Flying Ship shot out of the desert, heading deep into the snowy domain. Standing aboard was a bald figure in a large, emerald-green robe—it was none other than Lu Kuang, the Grand Elder of the Western Wilderness’s Spirit Control Sect.
Gazing down at the ice- and snow-covered land below, Lu Kuang wore an ugly expression.
Lu Kuang had long been a servant of the Red Flood Dragon King of the East Sea. After botching the task he’d been given, he didn’t dare think of hiding the truth, making excuses, or running away.
After all, the Red Flood Dragon King had planted a Restriction in his Divine Soul. A single thought from his master would be enough to kill him instantly.
The Soul Splitting consciousness the Red Flood Dragon King had left in the body of the Tier Three Red Flood Dragon had dissipated after killing Xiao Changkong, so he had lost his channel of communication with the king.
Thus, after confirming that the Cyan Cloud Secret Realm had been destroyed, he had no choice but to secretly leave the Western Wilderness with the Red Flood Dragon.
He had spent decades carefully crossing the Vast Sea, the Great Zhou, and the coastal waters of the East Sea, finally reaching the deep-sea domain occupied by the Flood Dragon Race and meeting the Red Flood Dragon King.
Facing the Red Flood Dragon King, he held nothing back, respectfully recounting everything that had happened.
When he finally mentioned that the ’Three Yin Soul-Slaying Sword’ the Red Flood Dragon King desired had likely been lost in the spatial turbulence, Old Demon Lu had expected the king to fly into a rage and punish him severely.
But to his surprise, the Red Flood Dragon King wasn’t angry.
After a moment of thought, it told Old Demon Lu that it had previously sensed the aura of the ’Three Yin Soul-Slaying Sword’ appearing in this world through a special Secret Technique. Originally, it had assumed this meant Old Demon Lu had succeeded.
Now that it was clear Old Demon Lu hadn’t been the one to bring it out, it was likely that the Three Yin Soul-Slaying Sword had been flung out of the spatial turbulence by the force of the Cyan Cloud Secret Realm’s destruction.
Old Demon Lu was stunned, but also pleasantly surprised by this unexpected turn of events.
However, the Red Flood Dragon King’s special Secret Technique could only vaguely sense the general area where the Three Yin Soul-Slaying Sword was located; it couldn’t pinpoint its exact position.
Therefore, it didn’t punish Old Demon Lu in the end. Instead, it gave him a mission: to hurry to the general area it had sensed and, using his human identity, conduct a thorough investigation.
Find the Three Yin Soul-Slaying Sword and bring it back!
"I hope you can redeem yourself this time. Do not disappoint me again. Otherwise, you know my methods!"
The Red Flood Dragon King’s chilling voice seemed to still echo in his ears, and Lu Kuang, standing on the Flying Ship, couldn’t help but shiver.
He knew this was the last of the Red Flood Dragon King’s patience. If he failed this mission, he would surely die!
"Sigh!"
Old Demon Lu sighed.
The vast region stretching from the desert in the south to the Ice Sea in the north was the area where the Red Flood Dragon King had sensed the Three Yin Soul-Slaying Sword.
He now had to figure out a way to meticulously search this vast area and find that Three Yin Soul-Slaying Sword!
Old Demon Lu subconsciously reached for the Spirit Beast Pouch at his waist, but it was empty.
Refining a soul fragment through Soul Splitting was not only incredibly difficult but also consumed precious resources. Even with the Red Flood Dragon King’s power, it had only been willing to refine a single one.
Back then, the Red Flood Dragon King had ordered one of its descendants to pose as his Spirit Beast, mainly to use the bloodline connection between them to host its soul fragment.
Now that there was no need to host the soul fragment, the Tier Three Red Flood Dragon naturally wouldn’t stay with him anymore and had returned to its race.
’Fortunately, this Land of the Far North is even more barren than the Western Wilderness. Core Formation Cultivators are pitifully few, and most of them are only at the Early-stage Core Formation. With my strength, even without the Red Flood Dragon’s assistance, I can still dominate!’ Old Demon Lu silently reassured himself.
He was, after all, a Late-stage Core Formation Cultivator. In a backwater place like the Far North, he could be considered a top-tier expert.
"According to the records, there are eight Main Cities in the Land of the Far North." Old Demon Lu recalled the information he had gathered under a false identity in the Great Zhou. "There’s a Main City about 200,000 li from my current position. I’ll head there first to gather some intelligence!"
Trying to search the entire vast area sensed by the Red Flood Dragon King by himself would be impossible; even the remaining hundred years of his lifespan wouldn’t be enough.
The only method he could think of was to use the power of the Human Race in the Land of the Far North to do it. This was also why the Red Flood Dragon had ordered him to find the Three Yin Soul-Slaying Sword instead of coming itself.
The range of a Late-stage Nascent Soul Cultivator’s Divine Sense was only about forty thousand zhang.
Given the vastness of the Land of the Far North, for even a Nascent Soul Cultivator to scan the entire area with their Divine Sense would be an unimaginably massive undertaking.
Furthermore, the Three Yin Soul-Slaying Sword might have fallen into the hands of a Cultivator and been hidden in their Storage Bag, where Divine Sense couldn’t detect it at all.
In contrast, as a High-tier Cultivator, Old Demon Lu could mobilize all the humans in the Land of the Far North to help him search.
The chances of finding the Three Yin Soul-Slaying Sword would naturally increase greatly.
However, considering the peculiar nature of this evil object, the Three Yin Soul-Slaying Sword, Old Demon Lu didn’t dare to openly post a bounty for it.
He was still trying to figure out how to discreetly borrow the power of the humans in the Land of the Far North.
「Several dozen days later.」
Old Demon Lu appeared before Red Maple City, one of the eight Main Cities of the Land of the Far North.