Across four battlefronts, seven dragon scions clashed with the invading human cultivators, their fights shaking heaven and sea alike.
With Pure Yang Heaven's resurgence and the complete collapse of the "Three Floating Sects Below," the so-called "Three Yang Sects of the Mortal Realm" finally ushered in their own era of glory, their influence blazing brighter than ever.
Princess Ping'an, having replaced the late Thousand-Petaled Buddha-Hand Chrysanthemum, had yet to advance to the third rank, but she had already begun carrying out duties as a Guardian Deity, answering directly to the orders of the Yanfu Son, especially when the orders promised merit and spoils.
This battle was, in essence, a full-scale human offensive against the true-blooded dragon race.
With a Dao Child leading the charge, the human great cultivators struck without hesitation.
Every dragon slain meant an entire lineage could nurture at least one new Star-Seizer expert. No one in their right mind would let such an opportunity slip away.
Before the Dragon Palace, Jing Qian stood tall.
In his right hand gleamed the Immortal Sword Embryo, upon which countless "Longevity Blessing Swords" surged, each one nurturing the blade's karmic destiny.
In his left hand rested the Yin Sword, whose seals he was reforging with Pure Yang secret arts.
To him, the layers of suppression engraved upon the weapon were no more than paper wards; by running his forging mantra from hilt to tip, he could unravel them with ease.
At this moment, Jing Qian stood at the absolute height of his power.
Before him were five remaining Star-Seizer Dragons, and within his heart, battle-lust crackled like thunder and fire ready to ignite at any instant.
Beneath his feet, Ao Run had already entered the Dragon Palace, seated beside the Dragon-Drawing Pillar.
She was undergoing the most critical cultivation of her entire life.
If she succeeded in subduing the Vast Sea Dragon Palace and seizing control of the Dragon-Drawing Pillar, she would rebuild her cultivation foundation from the ground up, her future path open straight into the upper third rank.
When that day came, bolstered by her heritage, she would reign over the entire Vast Sea as its undisputed Dragon Queen.
Fate was a curious thing.
Only days ago, she had been a prisoner under watch, an abandoned daughter with no claim to dragonkind's throne.
But the moment she met Jing Qian, everything changed.
She broke free from her shackles and soared upward, though the price she paid was heavy.
The debt she now owed him was heavier still.
Yet, as she sat in the heart of the palace and felt Jing Qian's aura standing guard outside, an unfamiliar feeling crept into her chest.
It made her uneasy.
Still, her tempered Dao heart quickly steadied. With a calm breath, she shut out all distractions and threw herself wholly into cultivation.
On the front lines, the tide of battle shifted with breathtaking speed.
But with foresight against confusion, the humans now held an overwhelming advantage.
The five dragons that had escaped the first ambush were racing toward the Dragon Palace until, midway, instinct screamed a warning.
They were ancient beings, each long past the folly of youth.
In an instant, all five broke formation and scattered like startled beasts.
Jing Qian's Three-Life Eye flared open.
Within his divine sight, the fleeing dragons' paths intertwined into a single luminous web.
When the moment came, he raised the Immortal Sword Embryo high, then crossed thousands of miles of ocean in a single strike.
This time, he didn't bother with invisible sword energy.
Instead, he drew the black jade blade from the dimensional void itself, swinging it through the world in a sweeping arc of purest darkness.
For the first time, Jing Qian revealed his true combat power before all of the Ying Futuo Realm.
The first dragon to meet him barely had time to roar.
Its colossal body was cleaved clean in two, and both halves instantly dragged into the dimensional void.
A torrent of dragon essence poured into the Sumeru Furnace, sending the black cat Xi Li, who tended it, into a euphoric trance, twitching blissfully beside the cauldron.
Jing Qian didn't stop.
Following his predetermined path, his sword cut through the sea once more.
The second dragon met its end in the same breath.
Jing Qian's form flickered beside its neck, one swing, one headless corpse, another body claimed by the void.
Then came the third.
Then the fourth.
Then the fifth.
The five mighty dragon lords of the sea, rulers of their domains, fell like vegetables before the butcher's knife.
And the fact that their killer was but a seventh-rank cultivator sent shockwaves through the entire realm.
...
In the Palace of the Human Emperor, Ying Kun and Ying Hao were watching the battle through a divine mirror, eyes wide.
Such a war between humans and monsters could not possibly escape the Emperor's notice.
But witnessing Jing Qian's dominance was a wholly different experience from watching Shang Xi's legendary duels.
After all, back in the Zhuo Ling Grotto-Heaven, Ying Hao himself had fought Jing Qian once.
Back then, Jing Qian had not yet joined Pure Yang Heaven, a wandering rogue without the sect's full inheritance.
Though powerful even then, he had ultimately fallen to Ying Hao's hand.
And now, after only a few short years, Ying Hao could no longer even raise his voice before him.
The young prince stared blankly at his uncle, awe and disbelief in his eyes.
"Uncle," he murmured, "as a son of the Ying Clan… could I ever hope to rival the Pure Yang Dao Child?"
Ying Kun was silent for a moment, then sighed softly.
"Your gift of apprenticeship… might not be enough," he said.
"Let me think of something more fitting."
...
Inside the Zhuo Ling Grotto-Heaven, the old fishing hermit was receiving an unexpected guest.
To his mild surprise, the Wuchang Ghost Emperor had come in person, paying a private visit to his peer.
The reason for this clandestine meeting was simple: both had witnessed, with their own eyes, Jing Qian's astonishing display of power.
The Ghost Emperor spoke first, wasting no time on courtesy.
"I believe the new Yanfu Son is far more suitable than No-Eyes.
Why not wait a while and see how this newcomer grows?"
"No-Eyes carries far too much karmic baggage. Bring him into the fold, and who knows what chaos he might cause."
The old hermit remained calm and steady, his tone like still water.
"Once a decision is made, it should not be changed lightly.
We, who stand among the second rank, are not like others; our every action shakes the balance of worlds."
"And besides, how do you know this new Dao Child won't stir up even greater karma?"
"True, the boy is neither arrogant nor cruel when he needn't be, but his sword knows no mercy. He is no benevolent soul either."
"If you're uneasy about No-Eyes, then keep watching a while longer.
The Blood River and Three Poisons are about to return to the world.
This Dao Child still has many tribulations to survive before he can claim enlightenment."
When Jing Qian reappeared before the Vast Sea Dragon Palace, all five dragons he had hunted were dead, their remains turned into nourishment for his ascension.
The kitchen spirits in his Sumeru Furnace were in a frenzy, scrambling to harvest and refine the rich dragon fat.
The gains from this Vast Sea campaign were now beginning to manifest.
Sweeping his Three-Life Eye across the other battlefields, Jing Qian saw that the fights there were under control.
The dragon princes caught in those traps were already sinking deeper into defeat; he did not need to intervene.
So he turned his focus back to cultivation.
Seated cross-legged before the Dragon Palace gates, he summoned forth his Saint's Manifestation, beginning to absorb the Blue-Blood Fate Flames stored within his furnace.
Over time, Xi Li, the black cat, had traded countless sea-creature corpses with the kitchen for these flames, amassing an enormous reserve.
Now, Jing Qian is prepared to consume it all in one go.
Tens of thousands of Blue-Blood Flames, thirty thousand in total, were drawn into him like a tidal surge, each one transmuted into raw Life Essence.
The sheer scale of it was staggering. No peer of his rank, not even the wealthy Ying Clan, could dream of such a fortune.
In half a day, he had absorbed every spark that Xi Li had painstakingly gathered.
His Life Essence reserves soared to nearly twenty-nine thousand units, a tremendous leap forward.
He was evolving at a terrifying rate, no bottlenecks, no limits.
For him, battle-fed cultivation was not a theory; it was a viable, thriving strategy.
For most, slaying a single dragon would demand months of digestion, converting that essence into stable cultivation.
But Jing Qian's foundation was monstrously deep.
A dragon's worth of essence barely made a ripple, swallowed whole in an instant.
There was no qualitative shift, so naturally, he resolved to expand his hunt.
He had only just seized control of the Dragon Palace, yet his eyes were already on new prey.
Behind him, the Vast Sea Dragon Palace was undergoing a miraculous transformation.
The once-gaping sword scar was mending, its fissures knitting together, and as it did, Ao Run's bond with the palace's Spirit Engine deepened.
With no great demon daring to interrupt her cultivation, her victory in the Dragon Heir Struggle was now all but certain.
She would soon seize the title of Dragon King of the Vast Sea.
And according to their prior agreement, it was now Jing Qian's turn to reap his share of the spoils.
Before the war began, the two had already divided the spoils cleanly:
If Jing Qian ensured her success, all the other dragon heirs' treasuries would be his to plunder.
With Ao Run's progress secure, the time for harvest had come.
In a blink, Jing Qian vanished from the Dragon Palace and crossed thousands of miles of ocean, descending upon another deep-sea lair, one belonging to a slain dragon prince.
Within lay vast treasures and the Fate Flames the dragon had stockpiled.
Drawing his Immortal Sword Embryo, Jing Qian cleaved through the protective formation in a single stroke.
At once, Xi Li and a host of ghostly minions flew forth, streaming into the palace to loot everything of value.
The palace itself would remain reserved for Ao Run's future rule, but all treasures, elixirs, and flames now belonged to him.
While his minions pillaged, Jing Qian flashed away again, descending toward a small nearby island.
At first glance, it was an unremarkable Life Island, its vitality faint, its spiritual energy weak.
Yet its population was massive, over a hundred thousand humans, crammed into half the size of Jiangzhu Island.
This was a "Human Feed Island", where the dragon race bred humans as livestock.
Under Jing Qian and Ao Run's pact, all such islands and their populations were designated as Jing Qian's spoils.
He turned into a streak of light, diving beneath the waves to the island's foundation.
Then, drawing his Immortal Sword Embryo, he swung horizontally, slicing a ring around the entire landmass.
The island shuddered, severed cleanly from the seabed.
A massive spatial rift opened above, like a cosmic maw, swallowing the island whole, humans and all.
Within the Sumeru Dimension, the floating Fragmented Star, now half-filled with seawater, received the island's arrival.
The ten thousand terrified mortals experienced the journey between worlds, half-dead with fear, yet unknowingly saved from a lifetime of slaughter.
Jing Qian stood over the sea, eyes closed, attuning himself to the subtle changes within Sumeru.
It might have been just one island and a hundred thousand souls, but for his dimension, it was nothing short of a revolution.
For the first time, intelligent life existed within his world.
A mystical force stirred an ineffable blessing that arose from the Lord of Myriad Phenomena, Master of Sumeru, flowing into Jing Qian's own body.
He concentrated, feeling his mind sharpen, his divine sense expand, his spiritual awareness growing by nearly seven percent in an instant.
Through that surge of enlightenment, he finally began to comprehend the true wonder of his divine authority as the Master of All Phenomena within Sumeru.
It turned out that, as the master of a dimension, one could draw upon the authority of that title, receiving power proportional to the growth of the dimension itself.
Within this framework:
The total mass of matter inside the dimension enhanced the master's spatial divine abilities and significantly reduced their mana expenditure.
The collective intelligence of living beings within the realm bolstered the master's divine consciousness and sharpened their mental clarity.
The density of spiritual energy strengthened the master's own cultivation and magical reserves.
Before this day, Jing Qian's Sumeru Dimension had possessed a modest base of matter, enough to offer noticeable spatial enhancements.
However, the realm's sentient wisdom and vital energy density had been abysmally low, providing almost no benefit.
But when Jing Qian moved the first island and its people into Sumeru, the blessing from sentient intelligence suddenly surged a monumental leap.
From this, he realized that the presence of intelligent life yielded the greatest gains of all.
Even the addition of an entire Fragmented Star to his domain had improved his spatial power by barely twenty percent, roughly the same as the boon granted by the arrival of three hundred thousand souls.
It was, in essence, a new path for growth, a way to strengthen himself by expanding his own world.
With that revelation, Jing Qian acted at once.
He flashed across thousands of miles to another human-fed island.
At first, his intent had been purely practical to diversify the Sumeru environment and save humans from their monstrous overlords.
But now that he understood the true nature of the feedback loop, those very populations had become living elixirs for his cultivation.
He dove beneath the sea again, brandishing the Immortal Sword Embryo, and began his work.
In short order, another island was carved free and transplanted into the Fragmented Star.
A hundred thousand new people joined his realm, and his spiritual sense expanded once more, markedly stronger.
The sensation was intoxicating.
Each "population harvest" brought tangible growth; it was almost too good to be true.
Soon, his Three-Life Eye flared wide, sweeping across half the Vast Sea.
Every island under monster control was instantly marked as a target in a grand abduction campaign.
He became like a tireless bee flitting from flower to flower, digging up islands and ferrying them into Sumeru.
Before long, he had taken ten islands in total, his population surpassing one million souls.
His mental power had nearly doubled.
Yet the Fragmented Star's spiritual density soon reached its limit.
Any further would risk overburdening the environment, turning prosperity into collapse.
Though reluctant to stop, Jing Qian wisely ended his "population collection" for now.
If he overfilled the realm, conditions would deteriorate, and death would follow.
He realized something profound: beyond training, battle, and killing, there was a third pillar of cultivation, world management.
But governance was not his strength.
Fighting, slaying, and conquering, yes.
Building societies, nurturing life, spreading education, and awakening minds decidedly not.
His Three-Life Eye spun rapidly as he tried to devise a construction plan for Sumeru's continued development.
For the first time in his cultivation, he found himself thinking: I need help.
But who could he trust enough to bring into his inner world?
Apart from ordinary mortals, there were few candidates except perhaps the ghosts imprisoned within his Hell Scroll.
Jing Qian turned his gaze toward the distant Sea of Resentful Souls, a spark of strategy forming in his mind.
A workable plan began to take shape.
Still, he did not rush to act on it.
The business in the Vast Sea had to be settled first before he could move on.
With a flicker of motion, Jing Qian vanished, reappearing above one of the still-raging battlefields.
There, Good Corn rode upon the back of the Ghost Phoenix, locked in a fierce duel with Ao Hua.
The little corn spirit was clearly fired up, its three Heavenly Mandates fully unleashed, pouring into the phoenix.
Its roots pierced deep into the bird's body, lending even its single wisp of Lesser Immortal Qi to bolster their combined might.
Though not yet mature, the little corn's support was impressive.
As it chased the dragon relentlessly, it shouted:
"O wicked dragon! I am the Supreme Protector God of the Yanfu Path!
Submit at once and serve the Dao Child in his cultivation!"
"When the Dao Child attains enlightenment, you and I shall ascend together to the Mountain of Immortal Qi!"
"Otherwise, with your crude foundation, you'll be nothing but dust before that mountain. How will you ever achieve the Dao?"
The little corn spirit's arrogance was boundless, hounding Ao Hua like a pest.
Yet for all its power and bravado, its combination with the Ghost Phoenix lacked a decisive killing strike.
Though battered and drained of most of its Immortal Energy, Ao Hua's life was not yet in danger.
Watching from the sidelines, Jing Qian decided it was time to intervene.
He lifted his hand and released an invisible sword aura, infused with the Yin Sword, which shot straight toward Ao Hua.
The dragon, struggling to maneuver against its pursuers, felt a sudden, piercing force cleave into its forehead.
A gaping wound split its brow, nearly shattering its skull.
Pain exploded through Ao Hua's body; it roared, writhing in agony.
Seizing the opening, Good Corn dove from the Ghost Phoenix's back, transforming into a streak of light that landed squarely on the wound.
Its roots burrowed madly into the dragon's flesh, while its Soul-Seed Mandate erupted, implanting a unique Soul Seed deep within Ao Hua's spiritual sea.
In an instant, the dragon's soul was seized.
Jing Qian's miraculous corn spirit had subdued yet another mighty being after the Ghost Phoenix, now a true dragon!
In the hierarchy of the Ying Futuo Realm, Jing Qian's cultivation foundation stood first, and Good Corn's stood second together; they reigned supreme.
Standing to the side, Jing Qian quietly guarded his little corn's cultivation, his Three-Life Eye scanning the other battlefields.
There, too, the tide was turning one by one; the remaining dragon scions were meeting the final chapters of their long and fateful lives.
The eldest dragon prince, Ao Zhen, was being crushed beneath the talons of three divine birds: the Phoenix, the Celestial Crane, and the Great Roc, each one a natural nemesis of dragonkind.
Because of this, Ming Ji, though only at the Sub-Spirit stage, was able to use a third-rank Dragon God's son as nourishment to reforge her natal Spirit Construct, advancing her Dao by leaps and bounds.
Both sides of the battlefield were, in their own ways, refining dragons, yet Good Corn, already well-practiced in the art, was far more efficient.
After swiftly subduing Ao Hua, the little corn spirit commanded the Ghost Phoenix to drag the dragon's body into the Void Realm, where it intended to "re-educate" the creature and make it truly understand the terrifying power of the "Supreme Protector God."
Meanwhile, on the other battlefield, Ao Zhen clearly sensed Ao Hua's life aura vanish.
He did not know whether his brother lived or died, only that his own chances of escape were now utterly gone.
In despair, Ao Zhen gathered every last shred of his power, straining against the suppressive Sub-Dragon Spirit Construct, and forced open a narrow gap.
Then, with all the strength left in his body, he let out one final dragon roar.
That roar was deep and far-reaching, echoing through clouds and sea alike, piercing down into a hidden abyss deep beneath the Vast Sea.
It was the final cry of the dragon race, a declaration made in blood and despair.
Within that cry was a message:
The true dragons would abandon their dominion over the Vast Sea, surrendering the entire region to another.
As the roar faded, the sea itself began to tremble a vast and ancient vibration rising from the ocean floor, as though some slumbering god were awakening from the depths.
All across the Ying Futuo Realm, countless beings turned their eyes toward the sea, sensing the disturbance.
Jing Qian was no exception.
Ao Zhen's final act had already drawn his full attention.
He opened his Three-Life Eye to its fullest, focusing on the anomaly beneath the waves.
And then he saw it in the depths that even his divine sight could not normally penetrate, a small fissure appeared in the darkness.
From within it swam out a tiny white whale, no larger than a common dolphin.
Jing Qian immediately focused his divine sight upon it, but before he could even blink, the whale had crossed tens of thousands of miles, appearing beside Ao Zhen in an instant.
To traverse such a distance in a single thought, this was an extraordinary feat of spatial mastery.
The whale exhaled softly, releasing a bubble that expanded outward, encasing everyone, human and monster alike, within a sealed sphere.
As it circled the bubble, its gaze lingered on the three divine birds suppressing the dragon, and it spoke in a calm, almost lazy tone:
"Ao Zhen, your Dragon Palace grows weaker with every generation.
It seems it's time I report this to the Western Máng Dragon Heaven, and take the Vast Sea for myself."
"Since you've already promised it to me, I'll be the one to handle the Dragon Palace's affairs."
"The next cycle of destiny will belong not to dragonkind… but to my Kunpeng lineage."
Having said that, the small white whale turned its attention back to Ao Zhen, shaking its head as it prepared to dive into the bubble.
But before it could move, another figure appeared silently beside it, a young man with a sword.
Jing Qian had arrived.
He bowed slightly and spoke with composure:
"Senior, why must you intervene in the conflict between me and the dragons?"
"Pure Yang Heaven bears you no enmity. Why stand in the way of my path to Dao?"
The white whale glanced at him, utterly indifferent, its voice mild yet imperious:
"As of this moment, the dragons have ceded the Vast Sea to the Kunpeng clan.
You have slain far too many within these waters.
I will not pursue past grievances, but you will leave the Vast Sea at once."
Its tone brooked no argument. Though it showed no killing intent, it dismissed Jing Qian's status outright, as if he were a minor annoyance.
Jing Qian could only shake his head.
Under his Three-Life Eye, he could see the whale's Immortal Qi surging like rivers, a being of the second rank, and among that rank's upper echelon.
Once, he would have had no choice but to flee before such a creature.
But not today.
Instead of arguing, Jing Qian spread open a dimensional rift behind him.
From within it, the Sword Ring's spatial Möbius loop began to turn, twisting reality as it aligned with the material world.
Within that ring, the terrifying Ren Chong Sword Qi ignited, locking directly onto the small white whale.
The next moment, the creature burst apart like a fragile bubble, vanishing without a trace, leaving only its voice echoing in the air:
"Boy, why such a murderous heart?"
"Couldn't we have discussed this peacefully? Why use such a dreadful weapon?"
"Fine, fine, take the Vast Sea then. I'll return to my slumber. Just don't bother me again!"
Jing Qian smirked faintly, suppressing the Sword Ring and sealing it back within the Sumeru Dimension.
Truth be told, he had been reluctant to unleash that Ren Chong Sword Qi, but the old Kunpeng's quick submission had saved him the trouble.
What he didn't know was that the instant that sword aura flared, the Kunpeng's ancient soul had nearly shattered in terror.
Because that sword, the Ren Chong Sword Qi, was nothing less than a nuclear deterrent.
Even among the mighty of the second rank, no one dared face it head-on.
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