Chapter 200: Refining Spirit Remains
In the void.
Two true dragons with extraordinary divine might appeared, their imposing aura making Qin Yun and Lan Yiyi’s minds sway, especially the starkly different water and fire attributes which possessed strong visual impact.
The two only instinctively felt that this water-fire dual dragon was somewhat strong.
But the Gu God had already cried out in shock:
“How is that possible?”
His remaining head had bulging eyes, appearing both fierce and comical.
According to his knowledge, the ancient saints could at most activate one secret treasure at this stage, yet the person before him had activated two at once, and not only that, he had even erupted with two completely different spiritual power attributes.
“What exactly is his background?”
The Gu God was somewhat panicked. He naturally recognized that the compass was likely the one Ning Qi had snatched from the Chiyang Martial Saint; this matter had already spread far and wide, making everyone in the world fear this ferocious Heavenly Sword Ancient Saint.
But Ning Qi clearly would not give him time to think carefully.
The previous multiple probes had been for this very moment.
Now that he had confirmed the Gu God’s reality, he naturally would not hold back any longer.
After obtaining the Great Sun Compass, his control over spiritual power had advanced to a higher level. At this moment, it was perfect to use the Gu God to practice; he formed a hand seal, and the water-fire dual dragons immediately charged out in unison.
It could be seen.
Between these two true dragons evolved from spiritual power, there was some kind of connection, making their power even stronger for each other—absolutely not just as simple as adding one more true dragon.
Water and fire attributes were inherently clashing, but Ning Qi comprehended the Myriad Daos and had long formed different insights into many artistic conception paths. He had also reached the ultimate realm in both water artistic conception and fire artistic conception. At this moment, with a casual pinch, borrowing the change of yin-yang fusion, he forcibly made water and fire coexist and mutually amplify each other.
The true dragons roared.
The dragon flames carrying blazing aura were extremely domineering, burning the golden light in the sky into successive retreats.
Fire refines true gold!
This imperfect Gengjin Spirit Body indeed had astonishing defensive power and was particularly effective at resisting sword dao sharpness, but its weakness was also more pronounced: it feared fire attributes even more.
Under such spiritual power dragon flames, no golden fists or golden palms could withstand being burned clean.
The Gu God roared in fury, erupting spiritual power with all his might.
But he still could not halt the decline and was completely suppressed.
He was shocked and furious. Finally, he gritted his teeth and stopped attacking, switching to full defense. He had thoroughly accepted the fact that he could not do anything to Ning Qi, but that did not mean he would surrender without a fight. The Gu God’s eyes flickered as he perceived the white mist shrouding everything around him.
At the beginning, he had not taken this white mist power to heart, but now, it was very likely blocking his escape route.
That’s right.
He already had the intent to retreat.
“Heavenly Sword Ancient Saint, do you really want to fight me to the death?!” The Gu God roared, his bones already beginning to boil and scorch hot. Realizing something was wrong, he said, “Today, I willingly admit defeat. You take them and leave.”
Ning Qi chuckled lightly:
“To the death? Sorry, it’s you die, I live.”
His eyes were indifferent.
Both emotionally and rationally, at this point, he would not let the Gu God go again.
With a pinch of his fingertips forming a hand seal, the two true dragons immediately changed again. Amid the surging spiritual power, their dragon bodies expanded violently, directly suppressing the Gu God who was preparing to flee. The Gu God’s little scheme naturally could not escape Ning Qi’s eyes.
Roar!
The true dragons long chanted. The two true dragon bodies entwined together, forming a dual dragon trapping the enemy formation. From afar, the two dragon heads looked like one body, as if a single true dragon had grown two heads at head and tail. In their winding rotation, there was even profound yin-yang mystery contained within.
The next instant.
The two true dragons simultaneously spat out their breaths.
One was water, extremely icy cold; the other was fire, extremely blazing hot!
Amid Qin Yun and Lan Yiyi’s shocked gazes, the Gu God was trapped within. The two vastly different powers made him enjoy extreme agony, his miserable cries resounding through the ancestral land.
Water-fire refines golden bones!
This scene was somewhat shocking.
Hearing the Gu God’s miserable screams, a trace of pleasure arose in Lan Yiyi’s eyes. Just moments ago, she had thoroughly figured it out: so what if her past life had been manipulated? That was only the past. As long as she broke free of the shackles, her future life would still be hers to control!
Those past false experiences, she no longer wished to dwell on them carefully—they held no meaning. Grasping the future was what mattered most.
She glanced sideways at Qin Yun, feeling the warmth in her hand, and smiled sweetly.
The two exchanged a look, both understanding each other’s intent.
“Ah!!!!”
“I was wrong, Heavenly Sword Ancient Saint, I was wrong!!”
The Gu God’s miserable pleas for mercy rose continuously. At first, he was still tough and cursing, but gradually, he could not hold on. There was no way around it—that kind of intense pain was simply too terrifying.
Water-fire spiritual power rampaged and intertwined over the Gengjin Spirit Body.
That sensation was thousands of times more terrifying than death by a thousand cuts.
He felt his soul was about to collapse.
The protective golden light continuously dispersed, and the flesh and blood on his head slowly vanished.
This was not because Ning Qi had some penchant for cruel killing, but because he wanted to obtain a more useful spirit body skeleton. Otherwise, violently refining it would naturally kill the Gu God more easily, but the obtained skeleton would also lose much of its spirituality—this was not something he wished to see.
He had already regarded this spirit body skeleton as his own possession.
Only by slowly boiling the frog in warm water, gradually wearing away the mark within, could he obtain the complete spirit skeleton.
The Gu God was still screaming miserably, but his voice had grown increasingly weak.
Ning Qi merely watched calmly. Seeing the previously arrogant Gu God now humbly begging for mercy, he just shook his head. If the other had remained tough to the end, he would have thought a bit more highly of him, but now, it instead made him disdainful.
Time passed.
It was unknown how long had gone by.
The water-fire dual dragons in the sky had also shrunk considerably. The two true dragons finally stopped moving, and with a beckon from Ning Qi, they turned into spiritual power and drilled into the King Yu Bead and the Great Sun Compass.
At this moment, in the void, where was the Gu God’s figure?
Only a skeleton emitting faint golden light floated and sank, without a trace of flesh and blood or organs, like a perfect work of art.
Joy rose in Ning Qi’s eyes.
This was an unexpected delight.
Originally, he had thought this trip would at most let him see what wonders the long-famous Blood Emperor Gu held, but he had not expected to obtain such a metal-attribute spirit skeleton. The Gu God’s painstaking schemes had ultimately made wedding clothes for Ning Qi.
Ning Qi casually pointed out a strand of sword qi that slashed onto the spirit skeleton, immediately producing a crisp clanging sound.
“This spirit skeleton’s hardness surpasses any divine weapons and sharp tools I’ve seen. In the future, it might even be used to forge a secret treasure.” A smile appeared at the corner of Ning Qi’s mouth.
However.
What attracted him most about this spirit skeleton was still the rich metal-attribute power contained within.
In this way, he had gained another piece of foundation.
During this period.
He had been deducing the path to promotion to Martial Saint.
He had ambitions.
Not merely to step into the Martial Saint Realm, but to borrow the opportunity of spiritual energy revival to consecutively break through several realms.
According to the White Mountain Old Daoist, on the day of spiritual energy revival, spiritual energy would be newborn with unprecedented activity, providing great benefits for Martial Saints breaking through realms. The ancient saints planned to seize this chance to return to the peak in one go.
Ning Qi lacked that past foundation and could only seek another path.
Martial Saints cultivated five elements spiritual power, so he could only use five elements external objects to forcibly make up for his foundation, striving to soar into the sky with this opportunity. Otherwise, missing this chance, even with spiritual objects later, he would have to proceed slowly.
Now that he had obtained the King Yu Bead, Great Sun Compass, and Gengjin Spirit Skeleton—three treasures corresponding to water, fire, and metal attributes respectively—if used properly, when spiritual energy revival came, he could step into Three-Realm Martial Saint in one go!
At that time.
With his foundation, even if those ancient saints returned to the peak, he would have no fear and could even easily suppress them!
Even more easily than now.
With this thought, his heart grew somewhat heated.
It was just a pity that such spiritual objects were too rare. Otherwise, if he could gather five elements spiritual objects, he might reach Five-Realm Martial Saint in one go!
Then.
Ning Qi shook his head with a wry smile. He was being a bit too greedy; obtaining three was already extreme luck, and he dared not hope too much for the rest.
Casting aside the various stray thoughts.
Ning Qi waved his hand, storing the Gengjin Spirit Skeleton into the King Yu Bead.
Everything was calm again.
Qin Yun and Lan Yiyi walked over, looking at the Southern Border Ancestral Land that had now completely turned to dust before them. Shock filled Qin Yun’s eyes. Only now did he realize just how perversely strong his Ninth Junior Brother was. He shook his head with a wry smile, thinking how laughable his past attempts to catch up to his Ninth Junior Brother had been.
Lan Yiyi was also somewhat dazed. The scene of her being trapped on the altar prepared for sacrifice was still from yesterday, yet now it had turned to nothingness.
The Gu God who had manipulated her life was thoroughly fallen.
Finally.
She raised her head, unprecedented vitality brimming in her eyes once more, even her breathing lighter.
She was free!
Lan Yiyi stepped back, solemnly bowing to Ning Qi:
“Thank you, Heavenly Sword Ancient Saint! This grace shall never be forgotten!”
Ning Qi waved his hand with a smile:
“It’s just one favor for one favor. Miss Lan, you used half your lifespan to save my Eighth Senior Brother; otherwise, who knows when he would have awakened. Now I’ve slain the Gu God in return—we owe each other nothing.”
As he spoke, he added somewhat teasingly:
“On the contrary, this title of Heavenly Sword Ancient Saint feels a bit too distant. Perhaps it won’t be long before Miss Lan has to call me Ninth Junior Brother as well.”
He quietly tossed out an assist.
Upon hearing this.
Lan Yiyi’s pretty face instantly flushed red.
Qin Yun lightly coughed, his gaze drifting uncertainly around them, and the hands they had been holding separated as if electrocuted.
Ning Qi could not help but laugh heartily.
Then he was pulled by the arm by Qin Yun and led to the other side.
The slight tension in the atmosphere after the great battle immediately dissipated.
After laughing.
Ning Qi began carefully examining the Southern Border Ancestral Land, now ruined beyond recognition by the battle’s aftermath. Strands of heaven and earth power lifted the broken ruins, but as expected, nothing was found.
He was not surprised, merely instinctively searching once.
In a battle of this level, it was basically impossible for anything useful to remain; even divine weapons in the eyes of Heavenly Human Realm Martial Artists would be blasted to pieces.
“Miss Lan, may I ask where the Gu Worms of Southern Border are inherited from?” Curiosity flickered in Ning Qi’s eyes.
Compared to the world’s common martial way system, Southern Border’s Gu Worms were undoubtedly somewhat miraculous, compatible with the martial way while having various wondrous uses. For example, the Life-Sharing Gu Lan Yiyi had used earlier had saved Qin Yun’s life.
The Blood King Gu and Blood Emperor Gu had uses for breakthroughs.
And now, the Gu God’s Gold-Devouring Gu had nearly allowed him to condense a Gengjin Spirit Body—truly extraordinary.
This naturally sparked his desire to inquire.
Lan Yiyi thought for a moment and said:
“It’s already untraceable where they are inherited from. According to the unified saying of Southern Border’s tribes, it seems our bloodline differs from Great Yan’s people, allowing us to awaken a destined Gu through Southern Border secret techniques.”
“In Southern Border, everyone has only one destined Gu, awakened through secret technique baptism upon adulthood, accompanying them for life. My destined Gu is the Life-Sharing Gu, while the Gu God’s destined Gu is the Gold-Devouring Gu.”
Ning Qi asked:
“Where do these destined Gu come from? Why have I never heard of these miraculous creatures before?”
Lan Yiyi shook her head and said:
“Correctly speaking, before I awakened it, there was no such unique thing as Life-Sharing Gu in the world. During my adulthood baptism ceremony, the power of bloodline and sacrifice descends onto pre-prepared reserve Gu, then mutates them.”
“The so-called reserve Gu are actually creatures chosen by preference as carriers, such as cicadas, snakes, centipedes, toads, and so on. Before mutating into various destined Gu, they are actually the most ordinary creatures.”
Ning Qi suddenly understood:
“So, the actual source of power is still your bloodline and that miraculous ceremony?”
Lan Yiyi nodded and said:
“That’s right. Some tribes once experimented on Great Yan people; even performing the ceremony yielded no destined Gu. Even after intermarriage, half Southern Border bloodline didn’t work—it must be pure-blooded Southern Border people. Thus, Southern Border people never intermarry with outsiders.”
Shock appeared slightly on Qin Yun’s face.
Ning Qi grew even more curious.
He had a feeling that this baptism ceremony was like praying to some powerful existence for a grant of power.
Lan Yiyi continued:
“However, in recent years, for some reason, the destined Gu appearing in Southern Border tribes have grown weaker and weaker. Powerful destined Gu rarely appear, and the later the martial artist’s stage, the smaller the role their destined Gu plays—most destined Gu only have auxiliary effects.”
“By comparison, I actually think the martial way is the true path to the heavens.”
“If you’re interested, I can give you Southern Border’s baptism secret technique.”
Now, these things held no importance for Lan Yiyi. Almost all of Southern Border’s top experts had died to infighting and Ning Qi’s hand; the remnants could not stir up waves, and she no longer had any interest in managing them.
Ning Qi nodded with a smile.
He was indeed very interested and planned to study it when he had time later.
In his view, Southern Border tribes’ bloodline was merely the medium to activate the baptism ceremony; perhaps other methods could substitute.
Afterward, Ning Qi voiced another doubt in his heart:
“Do you know where the secret technique the Gu God taught you came from?”
By his senses, with the Gu God’s foundation, he should not know such a secret technique, one that could perfect the Gengjin Spirit Body via bloodline inheritance no less. Moreover, the Gu God clearly knew much about the ancient saints.
He always felt there was something not simple behind this.
