Dragon Canon

Wei Yuan’s hair stood on end in an instant; he immediately realized he was being targeted and went on high alert.

It felt as though a gentle breeze had passed him by, though Wei Yuan did not sense anything. Suddenly, a cat’s yowl came behind him. When he turned to look, he saw a massive white tiger materializing out of thin air and swiping its paw at the empty air. Something darted beneath the tiger’s claw and caused the lightning-fast strike to miss its mark.

The white tiger was Trueman Chu He’s spirit pet. It had shifted into combat mode in the heat of the moment. However, there was a gash on its shoulder—only it knew when it had taken the wound.

At the same time, Trueman Chu He crawled out from underneath the white tiger, his body covered in dust and dirt, and his face deathly pale. The sneak attack had appeared without warning; had the white tiger not reacted so swiftly, the old Daoist would likely be missing an arm or a leg already.

Without needing a warning, the cultivators of the Palace of Absolute Beginning immediately spread out, covering each other’s flanks and keeping watch in all directions.

Just then, Wei Yuan’s instincts flared up again. Without pausing to think, he summoned three curved cauldrons and linked them together, forming a perfect circle that covered him completely.

More than a dozen streams of black qi tore through the air, striking the circular barrier. To everyone’s surprise, they produced a clanging, metallic sound! Every stream of black qi was a split-second too late, deflected by Wei Yuan’s barrier of cauldrons and scattering wildly in every direction. However, the scattering fire also threw his sect fellows into disarray.

Trueman Chu He let out a bloodcurdling scream. It was because a stream of black qi had slashed him in the buttocks.

Seeing that Wei Yuan had sealed himself inside a ring of cauldrons, the shadow swiftly rose into the air, preparing to strike through the opening above.

But just as it reached its position, it saw Wei Yuan producing another circular cauldron and placed it over the opening, effectively sealing it shut. Now, there wasn’t even the slightest gap left.

The shadow seemed at a loss for a moment. Then, it erupted in fury and unleashed a hail of blade-like black qi at everyone.

There was a series of clanging and clattering. Wei Yuan’s improvised turtle shell deflected every single attack, proving incredibly sturdy.

Trueman Chu He let out another agonized scream as two black qi sliced his calves—one of them had been deflected by Wei Yuan.

Meanwhile, Wei Yuan cast a spell inside his turtle shell and summoned several fiery meteors from the void, slamming them onto the ground around him. Amidst the deafening roar, waves of fire surged outward and swept everything in the vicinity clean.

The white tiger burst out of the flames with Trueman Chu He clenched between its jaws. A small part of the old Daoist’s eyebrows had been burned into a crisp.

the shadow let out a shrill shriek under the barrage of meteors, seemingly in pain.

Just then, the Devil Suppressing Nine Level Pagoda materialized out of thin air and froze the shadow in place. Right on cue, a slender beam of light streaked across the sky, striking the shadow.

“Beautiful!” Yu Zhizhuo clenched his fist and cheered, the sight of the familiar sword light filling him with joy.

Zhang Sheng silently sheathed Void Cutter and drew Parting Sorrow instead.

The shadow rapidly fled the scene after it was split in two. But midway, the two shadow fragments merged back into one, as if it had never been injured.

Two screams suddenly rang out from the periphery. Judging by the voices, they were two Dao Foundation stage cultivators who had followed them into the grotto-heaven.

No longer feeling like he was being targeted, Wei Yuan removed his turtle shell and rushed toward the source of the screams at full speed. A team of three cultivators had originally been stationed here on guard duty, but now, only one remained. He was standing frozen in place, completely petrified with fear.

Two long trails of blood snaked across the ground, winding deep into the palace complex. Clearly, the shadow monster had dragged the two cultivators into the depths of the palaces.

Wei Yuan shook the surviving cultivator vigorously and asked, “Did you get a clear look at that thing? What did it look like?”

“N-no, I did not! It seemed to be able to turn itself invisible. Only two of its talons were visible, and it sliced them open in an instant...” the cultivator answered while trembling uncontrollably.

“Go join up with the others,” Wei Yuan ordered before following the trail of blood deeper into the complex. The trail of blood stretched all the way to the entrance of a certain palace, where it turned and disappeared inside.

Zhang Sheng and Ji Liuli were also there. They waited for Wei Yuan to reach them before stepping through the palace gate.

The shadow monster was incredibly fast. Only breaths had passed from the moment the screams rang out to the time the Palace cultivators arrived, yet it had already dragged off two men and fled into a palace a hundred zhang away. Wei Yuan hadn’t even caught a glimpse of it.

Upon entering the palace gate, they found a vast courtyard that was only slightly smaller than that of a feudal lord. If this were outside the grotto-heaven, this courtyard alone would be considered an overstepping of regulations.

As he stepped into the courtyard, Wei Yuan sensed his surroundings growing cold and damp. The sky was visibly dimmer as well. The blood trail had split into two, leading into the side halls on either side.

Are there two of them?

Wei Yuan did not act rashly. Instead, he scanned the courtyard with his perception, searching for any hidden mechanisms or traps. Ji Liuli stayed where she was to set up an array, while Zhang Sheng stood on guard.

In the blink of an eye, Ji Liuli’s array was complete. A blinding golden light rose from the center and pierced through the gloom that shrouded the palace, allowing the light of day to shine upon the structure once more.

“I’ve dispelled the yin qi entrenched in this place, but we still must be careful. The yin qi here is unusually strong, yet there are no vengeful spirits anywhere. It is rather strange.”

The three of them discussed their next course of action briefly and ultimately decided not to split up. They would search the side halls from left to right.

The side hall on the left was very dim. It seemed something had once been enshrined here, but it had been violently destroyed. Now, it lay in complete disarray.

Wei Yuan accidentally kicked a piece of wood that made an odd sound. He picked it up and noticed it was covered in a sticky substance.

A drop of that substance fell from above, landing precisely on the piece of wood.

In the blink of an eye, a shadow plummeted from the ceiling, lunging straight at the trio below!

The Devil Suppressing Nine Level Pagoda manifested immediately, slowing the shadow’s movements by a third. What had previously been imperceptible was now finally discernible. Zhang Sheng, wielding two swords, exchanged hundreds of blows with the shadow in an instant. In the end, he took a hit but returned three in kind.

It all happened in the blink of an eye. Zhang Sheng staggered backward, blood trickling from the corners of his mouth, while fragments of the shadow scattered through the air. The monster let out a shriek and vanished into thin air.

Over a dozen flying swords whistled through the air and struck the spot where the monster had been, but they were a split second too late and struck nothing.

“What kind of monster is that?” Zhang Sheng and Ji Liuli asked at the same time, only to realize the next second that neither of them had gotten a clear look.

Zhang Sheng held his sword up to take a look. The blade was coated with a layer of slime. He gave it a little poke, but a wisp of smoke immediately rose from his fingertip, leaving a small charred mark.

“Be careful—this monster’s bodily fluids can corrode a cultivator’s physical form.” Zhang Sheng’s immortal sword glowed and obliterated all of the slime.

Wei Yuan said, “We mustn’t spread ourselves thin.”

Besides the three of them, the rest of the Palace’s cultivators had surrounded the palace, ready to intercept the shadow monster once Zhang Sheng and Ji Liuli had forced it out. Not only was the monster incredibly powerful, its speed was especially terrifying. It was among the fastest even among Avatars. If the group spread out any further, their lives would be in grave danger.

Wei Yuan immediately issued orders to a cultivator empowered with fortune, who then relayed his instructions to the others.

It was at this moment the Devil Suppressing Nine Level Pagoda suddenly materialized on its own. A shadowy figure darted beneath it and noticeably slowed down. Instead of retreating, Zhang Sheng stepped forward to meet it in combat, unleashing a flurry of dual-sword strikes while his fourth immortal sword slowly descended. The moment he caught the enemy’s aura, his immortal sword would automatically sever their primordial spirit.

At the same time, Wei Yuan raised his spear and took a step forward, unleashing a mighty Reversal. However, he only managed to strike thin air.

Wei Yuan forced down the churning Dao energy within him and fired again. Amid a deafening roar, a shower of lead pellets erupted from the muzzle—only to completely miss their mark once more.

But this time, Wei Yuan saw it clearly: the shadow monster was still in front of his spear when the muzzle flashed with fire, but when the light blazed and the pellets left the barrel, there was nothing but emptiness ahead—the monster had already dodged by then.

This was the outcome while it was being suppressed by the Devil Suppressing Nine Level Pagoda as well. Otherwise, he likely wouldn’t even have been able to make out its movements.

Zhang Sheng let out a muffled grunt as he took another hit and returned three sword strikes in kind. A trickle of blood ran down his nose; his injuries were clearly no small matter. As for the shadow monster’s wounds, no one could say for certain.

Two piercing screams suddenly rang out from outside the palace—they were straggling cultivators who hadn’t had time to regroup.

It had just finished fighting Zhang Sheng here, and in the blink of an eye, it had already ambushed and killed other cultivators hundreds of zhang away from the scene?

Wei Yuan felt a chill run down his spine. He had never witnessed such speed before! Moreover, the monster’s nature was bizarre. Without understanding its origins or characteristics, he couldn’t even lock onto it with his perception.

Before Wei Yuan could devise a countermeasure, a cold, clammy sensation suddenly washed over him. He knew immediately that he had been targeted once more.

A sense of clarity suddenly struck Wei Yuan, and his consciousness propelled out of his body and the surrounding mist due to the influence of an external force. From his high vantage point, he could see clearly that strands of nearly invisible threads were reaching out from the shadows and probing toward his body, seeking to tangle him.

Wei Yuan realized that if he were ensnared by these threads, the monster would lock onto him, and a storm of attack would follow. He couldn’t possibly fend off such an assault; it would all come down to whether his physical body could withstand the punishment.

Just then, streaks of pale red sword qi appeared around Wei Yuan, severing every thread attached to his body as swift as lightning.

Reluctant to give up, the shadow monster extended even more threads to entangle Wei Yuan from all directions. In response, the pale red sword qi grew in number until there were seven of them in total. In the end, seven streaks of sword qi struck simultaneously and severed every thread. Black threads fell all around him like falling black snow.

This was an attack at the level of the primordial spirit. Wei Yuan had not yet reached the Avatar stage, so he shouldn’t have been able to perceive it. And yet, for some unknown reason, it seemed as though the level of existence of his primordial spirit had been greatly elevated, allowing him to observe everything from a higher level.

The invisible battle was extremely intense, but had his primordial spirit not been elevated, Wei Yuan’s impression of it could be simply described as: “The shadow monster attempts to lock onto Wei Yuan. It failed!”

I guess the Bay Laurel Immortal Tree is good for something... Wei Yuan praised the spirit plant inside his head.

No sooner had he finished praising it than he saw a strange, faintly glowing thread emerge from the void. It was pointing directly at him. But despite the thread being so conspicuous, the Bay Laurel Immortal Tree seemed completely oblivious to it, continuing to battle the ordinary threads around it.

Wei Yuan panicked, but his primordial spirit was in a special state right now. He was completely immobilized and powerless to act. He could only watch as the thread landed on him and entered his sea of consciousness.

At that very moment, Wei Yuan suddenly remembered: it was a thread of karma. His teacher had once demonstrated it during a centralized learning class.

However, this was a True Lord-level technique. Back then, True Lord Yan Shi himself had performed the demonstration himself. Upon taking the stage, he had waved his hand and transformed the classroom into an endless void. It allowed them to see countless bright and dazzling karmic threads crisscrossing through the space. The entanglements of karma between him and his fellow classmates were especially intricate.

Wei Yuan was still young at the time. His only response to the wondrous spectacle was to gape in awe.

But now, seeing the thread of karma fall upon him, all Wei Yuan felt was shock and anger. Did this monster intend to bind him in some karmic bond? Did it not realize a Great Karmic Curse could befall him at any moment?

After the karmic thread entered his sea of consciousness, it suddenly veered off to the side and wrapped itself around the Bodhi tree that had just sprouted. The branches and leaves of the Bodhi tree swayed as it pulled at the thread and absorbed it continuously.

The karmic thread tightened with each pull, and the shadow monster seemed unable to bear the burden. Finally, it snapped, and the Red Lotus Bodhi absorbed it entirely.

Wei Yuan finally understood what was happening here: this was a clandestine struggle between World Rulers, and the Red Lotus Bodhi that had taken form before a Buddha was what had allowed him to witness it.

This was what they meant by, “Piercing through the veil of delusion.”