Dragon Canon

Wei Yuan searched the corpse of the dead Avatar-stage monster for quite some time, but found nothing. Its body was as dry as dead wood, and its armor had weathered over the long years, becoming as brittle as porcelain. As for the weapon in its hand—which appeared to be a long saber—the blade had been worn away, leaving only the hilt.

The only thing of any value was its skeleton, which felt slick and cold to the touch. It had probably undergone some sort of transformation after being steeped in yin qi for so long.

Apart from that, the most essential part of its entire being seemed to be that mass of yin qi.

Wei Yuan found the woman, and the two returned to the spot where they had discovered the creature. There was a natural platform there, with a stone chair placed upon it. According to the woman, the monster had been sitting in that chair the whole time, right up until they burst in.

The woman found only a stone slab engraved with characters. Other than that, there was nothing else of note. The noon hour had almost passed, and Wei Yuan could sense more yin qi surging from deeper underground, along with another faint but terrifying pressure. So, he led the woman out of the temple.

Over the past couple days, Wei Yuan had conducted multiple tests and discovered several things. One, once noon had passed, the undead monsters’ strength would surge dramatically. Their speed would double, and they would be able to leave the temple and roam the forest. Some particularly powerful undead monsters would even develop a layer of mystic energy shield. He would have to empty at least half of his sword box to kill one like that.

By this point, Wei Yuan had very few flying swords left. Deciding that there was no need to take further risks, he shouldered the Avatar-stage monster’s corpse and returned to the village with the woman.

Upon returning to the village this time, due to the dramatic increase of spirituality in his Dao Foundation, Wei Yuan suddenly sensed faint fluctuations about a li away from his position. They were subtly altering the fundamental laws of this region. The sensation was somewhat like that of a realm stone, but not quite the same. To be specific, it wasn’t as thoroughly transformative as a realm stone.

Back at his residence, Wei Yuan continued working to replenish his supply of flying swords. Surprisingly, the now sentient Dao Foundation stage warrior quickly mastered the techniques for crafting flying swords and began producing them inside the Great Realm as well.

His speed in crafting flying swords was only slightly slower than Wei Yuan’s. A short while later, Wei Yuan realized that the warrior’s understanding of material properties matched his own exactly, which was why the quality of the flying swords he produced was identical down to the last detail.

Moreover, it knew no fatigue nor weariness. It seemed capable of crafting flying swords until the end of time.

Dao energy was Dao energy. One portion of Dao energy would not suddenly become two portions.

Wei Yuan’s Dao energy had a limit, and replenishing it after use required a certain amount of time. Crafting this type of launchable flying sword was equivalent to indirectly storing Dao energy that would otherwise go unused and only unleash it all at once when needed. This allowed him to unleash firepower far exceeding his normal capabilities, which was why he placed great importance in this ability of his.

But now that his Dao Foundation stage warrior had become sentient, Wei Yuan suddenly realized he no longer needed to craft the sword himself. He could only recover so much Dao energy in a given amount of time, and this one Dao Foundation stage puppet was enough to consume all of it.

It was around this time Wei Yuan suddenly realized that a night where he didn’t need to craft flying swords felt a little... empty? Thinking back to what he’d read in Xu Wenwu’s records, he could not help but feel a twinge of unease. Surely idly wasting his time like this wouldn’t diminish his good fortune, right?

Wei Yuan was still lost in thought when the woman returned and said, “The village elder wishes to see you.”

Wei Yuan was taken aback. There actually was a village elder?

After experiencing events such as the Paper Wedding Gown, the Realm of Coldbelow, and the Pure Land of the Arhat’s True Blood, Wei Yuan had become somewhat paranoid. From the very beginning, he’d suspected that this village didn’t actually exist—that it was merely a figment of the woman’s imagination.

Since the village elder was asking to see him, Wei Yuan naturally wanted to learn more about this mysterious village. It might be a bit presumptuous, but the shadow in the moon would not have purposely opened a passage to this place if it wasn’t harboring some sort of colossal secret.

The woman took Wei Yuan by the hand and walked with him for an entire li along a winding mountain path. They went up and down the slopes until they finally arrived at a courtyard with three houses. Several other houses surrounded the courtyard, with lights glowing inside them all.

Wei Yuan entered the main hall and sensed an elderly woman seated in the seat of honor. SHe was flanked by two elderly men. A painting hung on the wall of the main hall, but Wei Yuan could not perceive what it depicted.

“Please, take a seat.” The elderly woman sounded very kind.

Once Wei Yuan had settled into his seat, the elderly woman said, “It has been many years since we last saw a fellow human from outside. So long, that it spans from the time I can first remember, right up until now, with one and a half feet in the grave.”

Wei Yuan bowed and said, “I will never forget the debt of gratitude I owe you for saving my life. May I ask where this place is, Elder?”

“According to the legends spoken to us by our ancestors, far, far to the south lies the realm of our human race. If you’ve come from there, then we are to your north. I do not know exactly how far away it is.”

“What races live in the surrounding areas?”

“To the east are the Liao, and to the west are the Shamans. But they’re very far from us, and since this is deep in the mountains with nothing around, they wouldn’t come here.”

After a while, Wei Yuan learned the history of this village.

Going back two dynasties from the Great Tang, there was a brief Haotian[1] Dynasty. The Haotian Dynasty lasted only 700 years—a particularly short-lived reign in the history of the human race.

Toward the end of the Haotian Dynasty, the emperor appointed a mysterious qi cultivator as the Great Heavenly Master. The Great Heavenly Master calculated that numerous “nodes of fortune” were scattered across the world, so the emperor secretly dispatched multiple expeditions to these nodes throughout the land to suppress them. It was an effort to salvage the dwindling national fortunes of the dynasty.

Alas, many of these fate nodes lay deep within the territories of the other races, so these expeditions were essentially suicide missions.

The ancestors of this village were part of one such expedition. After enduring countless hardships and traveling for over thirty years, they reached the far north, where they finally arrived at the node of fortune mentioned by the Great Heavenly Master and discovered a temple hidden deep within the mountains.

The entire expedition was young when they had set out on this journey. There was even an Avatar-stage couple who weren’t yet forty at the time. But by the time they had crossed the territories of the foreign races and reached their destination, they all bore the marks of hardship and age.

They had settled here and raised families. They then tasked their descendants with the duty of guarding these nodes of fortune for all generations. This was the mission of this village.

When a human left the human realm, they aged rapidly, and their lifespans were reduced to only 20% or 30% of normal. Furthermore, since they were venturing deep into foreign lands, they dared not use intact realm stones either. They could only carry realm stone fragments to make the environment slightly less harsh on them.

More than 7,000 years had passed since the fall of the Haotian Dynasty.

Wei Yuan asked, “What exactly is inside these nodes of fortune? And what is the point of you living here?”

The elderly woman replied, “I don’t know what’s inside either. My grandfather once speculated that it might be a convergence point of the earthly veins. As for what purpose we serve by living here, I have no idea. All I know is that our ancestors’ mission was to live here, make this our home, and continue our lineage. No matter what, there must be living humans in these mountains. As for the specific reason, perhaps only the late Great Heavenly Master would know.”

Wei Yuan’s heart stirred, and he began to form some conjectures.

While studying Fortune Theory, his teachers had once explained that some people’s bloodline were born in response to Heaven’s will. To put it bluntly, they were born under the influence of some great fate operating in the unseen. These people’s bloodlines often served special purposes, such as suppressing the feng shui of a certain land, forcibly alter a nation’s fortune, delay the occurrence of certain disasters, or give birth to some strange entity that was not of this world.

According to the elderly woman’s account, the ancestors of this village must have all possessed such special bloodlines and were sent here to guard the node of fortune and to alter the national fortune of the Haotian Dynasty.

However, Wei Yuan was a student of centralized learning at the Palace of Absolute Beginning. Many ancient secrets that had previously been kept hidden were revealed during the curriculum. It was why Wei Yuan’s cohort possessed knowledge and insight far surpassing that of previous generations.

Combining this with the appearance of those undead monsters in the temple, Wei Yuan had a different hypothesis: perhaps these people were sacrificing their own bloodline generation after generation in an attempt to bring something into being.

According to his teachers’ lectures, such practices resembled the blood sacrifices conducted by the Shamans. No matter how noble the justification, the product of such rituals rarely produced anything good, and those orchestrating such schemes were rarely good people.

The Palace of Absolute Beginning had a clear definition of what constituted “good” and “evil”.

“Good” referred to anything that benefitted the human race’s survival and proliferation, or contributed to its growth and prosperity. This was also defined as the “greater good”. The “lesser good” referred to anything that aided the continuation of the Palace of Absolute Beginning.

“Evil” was the opposite of all these definitions.

Considering the situation, Wei Yuan naturally decided against calling them out on it. He didn’t even try asking questions. All he needed to do was observe carefully, and various clues would naturally come to light on their own.

The elderly woman was visibly tired after talking for some time. She said, “Young Master, I see that you possess extraordinary fortune and outstanding abilities. In the future, you might have the opportunity to return to the ancestral lands of the human race. This elderly woman has several treasures passed down from our ancestors. Once you’ve left descendants in this village, I will present you with a few items that will aid your return to the human realm.”

“Thank you, Elder.”

The elderly woman continued, “There is one more thing. When you return to the human realm, would you mind speaking to the current Emperor of Haotian and ask him to relieve our clan of its duties, or to send someone else to replace us? Our clan is on the verge of extinction. Even with the descendants you leave behind, we will be wiped out within a hundred years. Yet someone must continue to live in these mountains.”

Wei Yuan replied, “The current Son of Heaven is the Emperor of Great Tang. The Haotian Dynasty fell seven thousand years ago.”

“I see. Well, a pardon from the Emperor of Tang will work too. As long as it is the sovereign of the human race who issues the order, it makes no difference.”

Wei Yuan smiled wryly. “Great Tang’s territory is vast, and the Emperor reigns high above. How can I possibly gain an audience with him so easily?”

The elderly woman replied calmly, “It doesn’t matter. All we can do is to do our best and leave the rest to the heavens. We’ve lived here for thousands of years, and we’ve long since given up any hope of returning alive to the human realm. It’s just that I’m old now, and I suddenly don’t want my descendants to end up like us—spending their final days in these wild, snow-capped mountains. If it weren’t for the legends that all village elders are required to memorize, I would’ve thought that the so-called ‘human realm’ consisted of nothing more than this one village.”

“If you have the time, Elder, perhaps you could write down a full account so I may present it to the Emperor of Tang when I return?”

The elderly woman smiled kindly and exclaimed, “Ah, I see you’re testing me. Very well, there’s still plenty of time. I’ll go back and think it over. I haven’t written in so many years; I’ve almost forgotten how.”

In the village, knowledge was passed down orally from generation to generation. People learned to read and write, but they never recorded any important matters in writing. Today, only a few dozen people remained in the village, and most of them were advanced in age.

Finally, the elderly woman handed Wei Yuan a pale blue night pearl and said, “This pearl was brought here by our ancestors long ago and has been nurtured in my body for over a hundred years. It contains pure yang blood qi, and it will help you ward off the bitter cold of these deep northern regions. If you’re going down the temple, having it will also make things a bit easier.”

Wei Yuan took it and scanned it with his perception, only to be instantly seared by the blood qi contained within. As if a mortal touching a red-hot iron with their bare hands, he was forced to withdraw his perception immediately. The blood qi contained within this pearl was likely equivalent to the lifetime of cultivation of an Avatar.

“Elder, this is far too precious.”

The elderly woman smiled and said, “You’ll leave behind descendants, and in a decade or so, the entire village will belong to them. Consider this pearl an advance on your reward.”

“Then I’ll accept it.” Wei Yuan put the treasure pearl away, then left with the woman and returned to the stone hut.

It was now late at night. Though the sky was bitterly cold, a bonfire blazed inside the house and made it as warm as spring.

The two lay down as usual, but Wei Yuan refused to sleep this time. His hand resting on the woman’s body began to move.

“Go to sleep!” The woman pushed him away with her hand, but accidentally touched a place she shouldn’t have. The sudden burn caused her to pull her hand back in fright.

She turned her head, about to scold him, but Wei Yuan was already lying behind her. As she turned, their lips met.

Fiery passion suddenly flared up between the two. It seemed hot enough to set the entire house ablaze!

It was a long, long time before their lips parted. Then, Wei Yuan declared in a husky voice, “It’s time I repay my debt. Tonight will be a sleepless night.”

1. Meaning Clear Sky. ☜