12dz Chapter 81 The Vanished First-Class Daoist Lineage
Chapter 81 The Vanished First-Class Daoist Lineage
Chapter 81 The Vanished First-Class Daoist Lineage
The female warrior flicked her wrist slightly.
The enormous tiger was tossed away in her hands like a tiny kitten, barely a month old.
A look of confusion flashed in the mountain tiger's eyes. It hadn't even had time to figure out how it had taken to the air before a terrified roar followed. The roar quickly faded into the night wind, then was abruptly cut off by a deafening crash.
The air currents were rolling in.
The bonfire inside the temple was almost extinguished by the strong wind, but it reignited in the next instant, the orange-red flames leaping violently.
Everyone felt a blur before their eyes.
The female warrior wearing a straw hat had vanished from her spot and reappeared outside the temple gate in the next instant.
Her figure left a blurry afterimage in mid-air, her right leg rising high before crashing down like a battle axe.
He kicked the mountain tiger in the side.
Click.
A clear, dull sound of bone cracking rang out.
The tiger's pupils suddenly dilated, then quickly dilated again. Blood seeped from its mouth, nose, eyes, and ears simultaneously, bleeding from all seven orifices. The terrified roar abruptly ceased, as if an invisible hand had gripped its throat.
He died on the spot.
The massive tiger carcass, propelled by inertia, tumbled down the hillside like a rolling log. A series of dull thuds echoed along its path, crushing rocks and snapping bushes before finally coming to rest amidst a cloud of dust in the rubble below.
After doing all this, Chen Heng clapped his hands.
She turned around and walked lightly back into the temple gate, the edge of her straw hat swaying slightly, revealing a section of her well-defined chin.
"Are you all alright?" Chen Heng asked in a cold voice.
It's as if what I just casually swatted wasn't a monstrous tiger that was wreaking havoc, but a buzzing mosquito.
Lu Guicang opened his mouth, but couldn't say a word for a long time.
He stared blankly at the tall, elegant woman before him. Beneath the shadow of her straw hat, a face as radiant as the moon was revealed.
Those eyes were as clear as a mountain stream, yet they carried a lingering sharpness, as if they could see right through people's hearts.
The flickering firelight inside the temple reflected on her profile, outlining her features with a soft halo.
At that moment, Lu Guicang felt that the entire dilapidated mountain god temple was illuminated by something emanating from her.
It was an aura that defied description, as if all the spiritual energy in the world had converged on her alone, making everything around her pale in comparison.
He came to his senses and quickly clasped his hands in a fist and bowed.
"Thank you so much for saving my life, young lady! My name is Lu Guicang, and I am honored to serve you."
Before he could finish speaking, Chen Heng waved his hand.
"It's good that you're alright."
She replied casually, her tone nonchalant, then walked past Lu Guicang and returned to sit down by the campfire. Her straw hat was pulled low over the brim again, resuming her aloof and silent demeanor.
The other two young men next to them did not get up from beginning to end.
One of them was still holding the book, his gaze calmly moving across the pages, as if he hadn't noticed what was happening at the door at all.
One of them glanced up, then continued poking at the fire in front of him, adding two more pieces of dry firewood.
It was as if the earth-shattering scene just now was nothing more than an ordinary thing like eating and drinking.
Lu Guicang stood there for a while, still processing what had just happened.
That woman looked to be no more than twenty years old, yet she possessed such terrifying power.
Who exactly is she?
He quietly observed the young man holding the book.
Although the young man did not make a move, he remained calm throughout, showing no sign of panic, as if he was certain that the mountain lord was nothing to fear.
This composure is not feigned.
Lu Guicang swallowed hard and didn't ask any more questions.
When you're out and about, it's better not to pry into some secrets than to try to find out.
He sat down again by the fire, leaning his back against the mottled wall, staring at the broken steel knife on the ground, his heart still pounding. And so, in this slightly eerie atmosphere, the night slowly flowed by.
The first rays of dawn pierced through the gaps in the shadows of the ancient, somber trees, dispelling the darkness within the temple.
The night has finally ended.
After daybreak, the two teams packed their belongings and bid each other farewell in front of the temple gate.
Lu Guicang bowed deeply in Chen Heng's direction, then led the caravan down the official road. Even after walking quite a distance, he couldn't help but look back once more.
The three figures had already walked away along another mountain path and gradually disappeared into the morning mist.
Below the hillside.
Zhao Cheng'an stopped and looked down at the tiger's corpse lying in the pile of rocks.
That mountain lord was indeed enormous; even though it was dead, its remaining body still exuded a sense of oppression.
He crouched down, carefully examined the gaps between the tiger's claws and the condition inside its mouth, and then stood up.
"This tiger's size has surpassed the limits of the mortal realm. It must have been through some fortuitous means that it consumed some herbs containing spiritual energy, or lived in an environment permeated with spiritual energy for a long time, causing a mutation in its bloodline."
He patted the dirt off his hands and continued, "I've encountered similar things several times along the way. The wild animals in the mountains are unusually large, wells that have been abandoned for many years have started to flow again, and even some herbs have shown signs of spirituality."
"Overall, the spiritual energy of the seven kingdoms is recovering."
"It's a pity it's stained with human blood, otherwise, if it continued to cultivate, it might have become a spirit or monster," Chen Heng said from the side. "Since it has broken the precept against killing, leaving it alive will only make it a greater scourge."
"But this is actually quite normal."
Zhao Cheng'an gazed at the distant mountains shrouded in morning mist and said to himself, "According to ancient records, this region of the Seven Kingdoms was not a low-spirit area a long time ago."
"There is even a very strong lineage of cultivation here, with a complete inheritance and stable spiritual veins."
Chen Heng frowned slightly: "You mean, this area becoming a low-spirit zone wasn't a natural disaster, but a man-made one?"
"Very likely." Zhao Chengan nodded.
Previously, in the Floating Scale Cave, he had tried to consult historical materials about the Seven Kingdoms region more than once. However, all the books he had searched for were vague about the cultivation lineage of that thousand years ago, with only extremely scattered fragments of information recorded.
That lineage is called the Mingxu Sect, and it is a first-rate lineage.
A first-class Daoist system with a complete lineage, abundant spiritual veins, and enough to support the cultivation of a large number of cultivators was almost completely erased a thousand years ago. All related records were destroyed or sealed, as if an invisible hand had forcibly dug that history out of the world.
What exactly happened on this land a thousand years ago?
Chen Heng's voice interrupted his thoughts, her tone tinged with curiosity: "Speaking of which, how's your homework preparation going? How much of the material for those courses at Tongming Mountain have you reviewed?"
Zhao Cheng'an was brought back to reality by this question, and his expression visibly fell.
He was silent for a moment, then let out a long sigh: "What else can we do? There's a path to the mountain of books, diligence is the way; the sea of learning is boundless, hard work is the boat. As long as you don't die from studying, study like there's no tomorrow. The content is just too much and too complex—"
Seeing his worried expression, Chen Heng couldn't help but ask again, "Is it really that difficult?"
Zhao Cheng'an did not answer, but simply turned to a page of the thick book in his hand, which was thick enough to be used as a brick, and silently handed it to her.
Chen Heng glanced down at it.
The page was covered with densely packed diagrams of runes and annotations of coupling paths, like ants swarming across the paper. Lines of technical terms she didn't quite understand lined the margins, and just a glance at them made her temples throb.
Chen Heng remained silent for a few seconds, then quietly pushed the book back.
"Thanks for your hard work."
She patted Zhao Cheng'an on the shoulder, her tone unusually tinged with sympathy, "I used to envy you for being accepted into the Golden Core Dao lineage. Now it seems—well."
"7
She paused, but didn't say the rest of her sentence.
But the meaning is already quite clear:
If I were in there, I probably wouldn't last more than a few days before being kicked out.
Zhao Cheng'an gave a wry smile and stuffed the book back into his Qiankun bag.
"Let's go."
He patted the dust off his clothes. "Once we get over that mountain, we should be able to see the city walls."
The three continued walking along the mountain path.
The morning sunlight gradually dispelled the fog, clearly outlining the contours of the official road ahead.
The number of pedestrians on the road gradually increased. There were peddlers carrying loads, farmers driving oxcarts, and couriers riding fast horses galloping past them, raising a cloud of dust.
The air was filled with the scent of the countryside.
We walked a little further on.
On the flat, open land ahead, the outline of a majestic city slowly appeared on the horizon.
The towering city walls appeared bluish-gray in the sunlight, with banners waving on them and people and vehicles coming and going in an endless stream in front of the city gate.
We've finally arrived at the capital of the Great Yin Dynasty.