Dragon Canon

As he soared over the lands, Wei Yuan suddenly sensed something faintly present deep within the earth. The sensation was very peculiar, as if it were a call from his very bloodline.

He looked down and seemed to catch a glimpse of a colossal entity hidden deep underground. At a glance, it appeared to stretch several hundred li, or perhaps even over 1,000 li!

But the sensation vanished in an instant, and Wei Yuan knew that the time was not yet right. He was still too weak at the moment; only after raising his cultivation level would he have the chance to return and investigate in the future.

Now that the True Dragon descendants had surfaced, Wei Yuan felt that the entire world was growing increasingly bizarre.

But for now, he had to leave this place first. He would return when he was powerful enough. Wei Yuan increased his input of Dao energy, but soon discovered that his speed was only rising marginally. The astral gale blowing toward him was only growing fierce, and every slight increase in speed now consumed a significant amount of Dao energy.

Wei Yuan slowed down slightly to conserve his Dao energy, when suddenly several figures shot up into the air from the snow-capped mountains below! Had Wei Yuan not reacted quickly enough to swerve in time, he would have been intercepted by them!

Wei Yuan’s mind raced as he made a wide detour and continued flying rapidly toward the southwest. By now, he could clearly make out those figures. They were all high-level Avatars of the Liao.

With the two sides now no more than 1,000 zhang apart, Wei Yuan did not immediately accelerate to full speed. Instead, he manifested a pair of wings and attached them to either side of the frame[1]. With these wings in place, the frame instantly felt lighter and rose more than 100 zhang into the air. He had to reduce the Dao energy he used to keep airborne to keep his balance.

In Xu Wenwu’s world, everyone understood the basics of mechanical winged flight. Xu Wenwu had of course documented them as well. However, in this world, flying artifacts and treasures were constantly emerging, and cultivators were capable of performing short-distance flight on their own. That was why the cultivators of the Palace of Absolute Beginning had originally shown little interest in it.

But Wei Yuan was carrying Zhang Sheng—who had become a mortal—and being pursued by multiple Avatars at the moment. Every fraction of Dao energy had to be conserved. That was why he finally recalled the existence of fixed wings and attached them to his contraption. As expected, it indeed saved a significant amount of Dao energy required to maintain flight.

There was also the astral gale ahead.

Among Daoist techniques, there was a Dao spell called the Wind-Deflecting Spell. It generally involved forming a circular shield to divert the astral wind to either side. Wei Yuan had also studied this technique, and he knew that the advanced version of the Wind-Deflecting Spell could effectively treat the wind as if it were nothing. But fundamentally speaking, it was just a way to use Dao energy to split the gale and send it off to either side, so it consumed just as much Dao energy as any other method.

At that moment, Wei Yuan suddenly recalled the texts on the Water Blade Spell written by Immortal Lord Tinghai. Wasn’t the passage detailing how to optimize the shape of a Water Blade perfectly suited for this situation?

Wei Yuan immediately used his Dao energy to form a massive Water Blade, enveloping both himself and Zhang Sheng within it and leaving only the two jets exposed. As peculiar as the combination seemed to be, the amount of Dao energy he consumed to fly instantly plummeted, and he felt much more at ease. So, he maintained his original speed and kept a safe distance from the Avatars chasing him. It was also just outside the range of their Dao spells and mystic artifacts.

The Avatars pursued relentlessly, and in the blink of an eye, nearly an hour had passed. Wei Yuan’s speed hadn’t slowed in the slightest, but the Avatars’ hearts were racing, and their blood and qi were boiling inside their bodies. They were already beginning to struggle.

The Avatars briefly conferred while chasing Wei Yuan. Suddenly, one of them ignited their essence blood, causing their speed to surge dramatically. They were trying to cut around to his front and block his path!

Startled, Wei Yuan instantly accelerated, causing a blood red cloud to surge out of his body! He shot forward like a meteor streaking across the sky, racing neck-and-neck with the Avatar burning his essence blood. In the blink of an eye, the two of them had left the other Avatars far behind.

The Avatar gritted his teeth and persevered. He refused to believe that a mere Dao Foundation could possibly outmatch him in a contest of mystic energy and essence blood!

Wei Yuan was emanating such dense blood qi it seemed as if his body would explode. By the looks of it, he could collapse at any moment. Yet he staggered on, refusing to die.

Seeing Wei Yuan in such a pitiful state, though suffering himself, the Avatar gritted his teeth pressed on. A teatime passed this way. Wei Yuan still hadn’t collapsed, but his pursuer could no longer withstand the strain.

The Avatar finally stopped burning his essence blood and slowed down. He was just about to hurl a few threats when he suddenly saw that Wei Yuan had stopped as well. Not only that, he had instantly appeared in front of him with a Dragon Guard on each side!

Wei Yuan opened his mouth and exhaled a breath of frosty air; the biting aura of the Ice-Class Divine Tree instantly freezing the Avatar’s mystic energy. Immediately after that, the three unleashed a barrage of sword strikes, instantly killing the Avatar. Wei Yuan then snatched a pouch from the Avatar’s waist and turned to flee once more.

By the time the rest of the Avatars reached the scene, all they saw was the Avatar’s blood-stained corpse plummeting toward the earth.

Everyone gasped in shock, and this time, they dared not chase after Wei Yuan alone. They relentlessly pursued him together.

The blood qi Wei Yuan had released earlier was, in fact, a ruse. Dragonhawk had possessed a vast amount of blood qi; even just a tiny fraction was enough to make it seem like he was about to explode and die.

Seeing the Avatars hot on his heels, Wei Yuan remained unflustered and produced another two jets, mounting them on the frame.

Then, all four jets fired simultaneously, pushing Wei Yuan’s speed to a whopping 800 li per ke. He shot off into the distance, leaving the Avatars far behind in the blink of an eye, and within moments, vanished from their perceptions as well.

It wasn’t until they had flown several hundred li that Wei Yuan shut down the two extra jets, slowing his speed back down to 500 li per ke. This speed was close to the limit for Avatars, and even Dragonhawk couldn’t sustain it for long. Therefore, there was no way those Avatars could catch up to him.

Thanks to the added wings and the gigantic Water Blade enveloping him and Zhang Sheng, his energy consumption had been reduced by a whopping 50%. At this speed, his dao energy was only depleting slowly, allowing him to fly for a very long time.

Moreover, Zhang Sheng hadn’t lost her perception. She guided Wei Yuan to add several more small mystic arrays to the machine and make it even more seamless and integrated.

After flying for another two hours, Wei Yuan activated his concealment ability and made a sudden turn, flying straight west toward the Shaman realm.

An hour later, the Liao woman wearing silver ornaments descended from the sky, appearing at the spot where Wei Yuan had made his sudden turn. Complex patterns flickered in her eyes as she observed the spot for a moment. She then looked toward the west and sneered, “Trying to escape to the Shaman realm? No matter where you flee, you’re doomed!”

She suddenly accelerated, streaking across the sky like a meteor as she gave chase toward the west.

Shortly after she departed, a figure with a lizard’s head and standing several zhang tall appeared at the spot, radiating a murderous aura. It immediately set off in pursuit in the direction she had gone.

The border between the Shaman realm and the Liao realm was a spectacle of breathtaking beauty.

The green qi of the Shaman realm and the yellow qi of the Liao realm were intertwined, but at the same time, they were clearly separate. Villages could occasionally be seen below, all situated at the very heart of their respective territories.

There were some places where the green qi and yellow qi were indistinguishable, blending into a single mass. However, all vegetation and living creatures within these mixed regions were distorted in some way, and there was no shortage of terrifying beasts. Constant battles between these beasts could be witnessed at any moment, with madness and bloodshed everywhere.

Wei Yuan flew very low, staying only a few dozen zhang above the ground. As he swept past, ferocious beasts would occasionally surge into the air, lunging viciously to take a bite. Unfortunately for them, Wei Yuan was too fast. These beasts all struck thin air and could only watch helplessly as he flew away.

In this borderland, there were also cities. Most of them were small, but they were surrounded by high walls and deep fortifications, with formidable defenses. The qi flowing around these cities were purely Shaman or Liao, and it wasn’t until several hundred li away that its purity began to decrease.

Looking down at the scene below, Zhang Sheng said, “Be it the Shamans, the Liao, the Mountain Dwellers, or the Ghost Chariots and the Lis[2] you haven’t met yet, when they gather in large numbers, they’ll gradually alter the surrounding natural environment. These cities are, in fact, equivalent to our realm stones.”

Wei Yuan asked, “Now that you mention it, why do we, the humans, need to use realm stones? Why couldn’t we achieve the same effect when we gather in numbers?”

Zhang Sheng replied, “I’ve pondered this same question for a long time back in the day. But despite consulting many seniors, none of them could give me a clear explanation. They were more or less saying that this is simply the way of the world.”

“It would be so much better if we didn’t need realm stones,” Wei Yuan said with a sigh.

The expansion of the human race was fundamentally constrained by the realm stones. The size of their territory was directly determined by the number of realm stones they possessed, yet the human population was growing far faster than the territory could expand. Consequently, every so often, the human realm would be forced to expend a portion of its people. Whether through famine or war, most of these calamities stemmed from this grim reality.

But Zhang Sheng had a different opinion. “We humans are situated in a region beset by constant conflict. If we weren’t constrained by the realm stones, if we had expanded too rapidly, it is very possible we might have provoked the other races into uniting against us. If that ever happened, then the extinction of our race would be just around the corner.

“Striking a right balance in this regard is incredibly delicate work. Even a sage would find it difficult to get it right. Moreover, no two humans share the exact same mind, and everyone desires to expand a little more. Who would be willing to expand their territory less unless they couldn’t help it? That is why using the realm stones to maintain this balance is actually a good thing.”

Wei Yuan pondered about it, his thoughts growing deeper the more he considered it.

The two circled around the Shamans’ cities and ventured deeper into the Shaman realm. Then, Wei Yuan turned southeast, tracing a winding path as he flew toward the human realm.

From the beginning, he had sensed a faint sense of danger behind him. It had not changed even after he had entered the Shaman realm. It would appear that his Liao pursuers had not yet given up. That was why Wei Yuan kept his concealment ability activated throughout the journey—it also allowed him to maintain a steady speed of 500 li per ke. Although his flight trajectory was complicated, he still drew one or two thousand li closer to the human realm every two hours.

Had it not been for the second fruit Bao Yun had given him, Wei Yuan certainly would not have been able to escape so smoothly. The fruit ensured that even when Wei Yuan exerted his Dao energy to the fullest, he would leave only an insignificant trace behind. Even a high cultivator with a natural talent for tracking would have to stop every so often and search carefully in order to track him down.

And had it not been for the Yin Yang of Reversal Pendant, either Wei Yuan or Zhang Sheng would have surely perished in that climatic battle. And without one another, none of them would have survived in the end.

In short, without the life-saving items delivered by Bao Yun and the Bao Clan, both master and disciple would have long since turned to dust. And because their cultivation levels were so low, they wouldn’t have amounted to a speck of dust in the annals of history.

Zhang Sheng was the current-generation prodigy of the Skyblue Hall and among the best of the best even in the entire Palace of Absolute Beginning. Despite this, she did not possess a single life-saving item and had to rely on a gift from the Bao Clan to save her life. Moreover, Zhang Sheng only had it because Wei Yuan was thick-skinned enough to accept it in the first place. Otherwise, given his master’s temperament, she would have rather died than accept such a favor.

Thinking of this, Wei Yuan simply couldn’t bottle up his feelings any longer and asked, “Just how did our Skyblue Hall end up this poor?”

Zhang Sheng replied irritably, “Are you sure you don’t know why?”

Wei Yuan countered, “I’m a reason, but I’m not the main reason. Most of the resources I consumed were either borrowed from outside or earned over the past decade. In other words, the hall was already destitute even before I arrived! Take you for example. You’ve never owned even a decent mystic artifact!”

“Well, it all begins with your grandmaster, Fenhai....”

But Wei Yuan’s horizons were much broader than before, and he was no longer so easily deceived. He immediately retorted, “There is no way Grandmaster could have consumed that much resources.”

Trueman Fenhai was only an Avatar, and his Avatar didn’t really consume much resources. No matter what, he couldn’t possibly have drained the entire Skyblue Hall of its wealth.

“Well, it all begins with Founder Xuan Yue....”

As they journeyed further south, their pursuers were ultimately unable to keep up. The two talked about Palace secrets along the way, and before they knew it, night had fallen. Wei Yuan found a natural cave, hid himself inside, and carefully arranged the interior. Then, he took out a strip of cloth to blindfold himself....

“It’s getting late. Let’s get some rest early!” Wei Yuan’s voice was full of anticipation.

1. Now it’s a plane. Kinda. ☜

2. There’s a Cheli in Chapter 76 that has been temporarily corrected to Ghost Chariots and the Lis, because they are clearly different here. I could be totally wrong and Cheli may turn out to be a region or something but since we haven’t even seen a speck of these races in the latest raw chapters I’m not concerned. This is just a reminder. ☜