Flower Fox opened his mouth, not knowing how to explain.
He harbored the same doubts. Confucian Scholar Tong Xuan's learning was clearly inferior to Mister Wild Fox's by an unknown margin. If Confucian Scholar Tong Xuan possessed such abilities, then what of Mister Wild Fox?
Yet Mister Wild Fox had died, and Huqiu Village had been slaughtered.
"Old Sage Classics teach only learning, not application."
Beside him, Su Yun was still struggling to rein in his qi and blood, trying to draw the qi-blood flood dragon back into his body. "Though Mister Wild Fox's learning was profound, he did not understand how to use it."
He raised his head, a ghostly light flickering in his eyes. "And Mister Shuijing said that Ancient Sage's Ultimate Skill has already fallen behind the times. What the city teaches now is New Sage Absolute Arts. So we must leave the countryside. We must enter the city!"
Flower Fox and the three little foxes felt rather heavyhearted. As fox demons, they both feared and longed for the city.
They instinctively feared the people of the city. Huqiu Village had been massacred by city folk, yet they also yearned for life in the city.
If fox demons like them did not enter the city, they would not be able to learn the newest ultimate arts, and sooner or later, they would be exterminated.
Su Yun had just drawn back his qi and blood when his expression suddenly changed. His old wounds burst open again, qi and blood gushing from them and spraying with a hiss!
With the qi-blood flood dragon entering his body, the violent qi and blood added within had exceeded what his body could bear!
He had achieved Flood Dragon's Chant's third attainment, Qi-Blood Manifestation, transforming into a flood dragon, because he had stolen the cloud of qi and blood from The Whole Village Eats to strengthen his own qi and blood. This caused his vital energy and blood to increase enormously.
But the crucial point was that while his cultivation had improved, his body had not improved along with it.
The inner heaven and earth within him could not contain so much qi and blood. The Heaven-Earth Great Furnace inside him rumbled from being stretched to its limit, nearly bursting apart!
Seeking an outlet, the excess qi and blood flowed from his old wounds and out of his body. As his qi and blood drained away, his pupils gradually shrank as well, the Immortal Sword's shadow about to block them completely!
"No wonder Mister Shuijing told me that I had to cultivate Great Furnace Transformation to the sixth level before I could heal my eyes."
Su Yun's face darkened as he allowed the excess qi and blood to drain from his body.
His field of vision gradually darkened as well, returning to darkness.
"Still, I have already achieved Flood Dragon's Chant's third attainment. From now on, my cultivation of Great Furnace Transformation will only become faster."
The youth raised his head, thunder booming beneath his feet. "Very soon, I will cultivate Great Furnace Transformation to the sixth level and heal my eyes!"
The flood dragon's tribulation was gradually nearing its end. The thunder became sparse, and the clouds slowly thinned.
After dawn, a rope silently descended from the sky above Snake Ravine. A little fox the color of a civet cat clutched the end of the rope and landed without a sound.
The instant the little fox's front paws touched the ground, he darted into the forest in a flash to hide, secretly peering around in all directions.
After a while, the fox demon found several pieces of dried cow dung in the woods. He came beneath an old tree, dug a pit, and buried the dung inside.
After finishing all this, the little fox respectfully kowtowed several times to the old tree. Only then did he get up and whisper to it.
The old tree suddenly shook its branches and leaves. Two dim old eyes grew from its trunk, and a mouth emerged from its bark. In a deep, muffled voice, it said, "Little one from Huqiu Village, stop tickling me... The fighting last night was too fierce. Two old things from Yellow Village died, and the other three fled for their lives. Niu Family Village also suffered heavy casualties. Even the lead bull's horns were broken. The Whole Village Eats was terribly underhanded, secretly poisoning people. He poisoned more than a dozen capable fighters from Linyi Village, and even poisoned a monk. But he was captured by city folk too. They said they would use him as a mount."
"Earth Lord, The Whole Village Eats was captured by city folk?" the little fox demon asked in surprise.
This fox demon was Li Xiaofan. Because he was the cleverest, he had been sent to gather information.
"Captured, but not taken away."
The old tree spirit suddenly shuddered and lowered his voice. "A dragon really is buried in Fallen Dragon Valley! That dragon turned into a ghost and flew out of Fallen Dragon Valley, rescuing The Whole Village Eats. The two city folk were injured as well and fled in panic."
Having gathered the information, Li Xiaofan walked out of the woods, mimicked a partridge's call several times, then tugged on the Immortal Rope.
After a while, Su Yun slid down the rope. Flower Fox, Qingqiu Yue, and Hu Buping followed him down.
Su Yun sneezed several times and rubbed his nose. It was too cold in the sky. Unlike Flower Fox and the others, he had no fur, and the howling cold wind of the night had nearly frozen him stiff.
"So much happened last night?"
Li Xiaofan told them what he had learned. Su Yun and the fox demons were astonished. "There really is a dragon in Fallen Dragon Valley? A dragon that turned into a ghost?"
Hu Buping said excitedly, "The dragon ghost rescued The Whole Village Eats. Is it planning to eat him? I really want to go take a look!"
"Let's go back and sleep first." Su Yun turned and walked away.
The fox demons hurriedly followed him.
Yet none of them noticed the Bi Fang Divine Bird standing atop the cliff, leisurely preening its feathers.
Su Yun and the others returned to Tianmen Town. Tianmen Town was bustling with activity, its residents busy with their own affairs. Along the way, the youth greeted the townspeople, and they warmly responded. The four foxes, meanwhile, kept their heads lowered and tails tucked, behaving themselves and staring straight ahead.
Tianmen Town remained overcast, yet sunlight alone shone down upon Su Yun's residence.
They ate a little, then collapsed into bed. After a night of exertion, they were truly exhausted.
Outside Tianmen Town, a firebird circled through the sky. After a while, a woman holding a flower-patterned parasol approached at an unhurried pace. The Bi Fang Divine Bird suddenly flapped over and, with a swish, plunged into the parasol in a shower of sparks.
The Bi Fang Divine Bird vanished, becoming the image of a firebird on the flower parasol.
Beneath the parasol stood a woman from the Tong Family of Shuofang City. Graceful and alluring, she stepped lightly into Tianmen Town.
Tianmen Town was as peaceful as ever. The townspeople busied themselves with their own matters. Uncle Qu had climbed atop Heaven Gate, chipping away at it with a ding-ding-clang. Aunt Luo was tending her apothecary. Sister Fang'er was chatting and laughing softly with a neighboring youth, her face tinged with shyness.
Uncle Xu was an old medicine jar, sickly as ever as he carried a medicine pot outside to dump the dregs, spreading them across the road.
Grandma Le was scolding Grandpa Le for peeping at Aunt Luo. Grandpa Le sat upright, head lowered, hands on his knees, without saying a word.
The woman with the flower parasol entered the town and saw a groom brushing down a horse. A drunkard stood in a corner, urinating against the wall. In an open window of the building across the street, a pretty young woman sat before a mirror, dressing herself.
Downstairs, a man was removing the door planks. He had likely just gotten married, so his business had opened later than usual.
There was also a bun shop by the street, steam billowing from its bamboo baskets. A waiter with a towel draped over his shoulder busily attended to customers, his cries ringing out without pause.
Smiling, the woman with the flower parasol walked down the middle of the street toward Su Yun's residence.
At that moment, the clamor of the street suddenly vanished. Time seemed to come to a complete standstill. Everyone turned their heads in unison, their eyes fixed directly upon the woman with the flower parasol, utterly motionless.
Even the drunkard urinating against the wall had twisted his head around in an eerie manner.
More strangely still, even his stream of urine hung suspended in midair. The steam from the bun shop's baskets had frozen as well, and the bits of stone Uncle Qu had chiseled from Heaven Gate floated in the air, perfectly still.
Throughout all of Tianmen Town, only the clack-clack of the flower-parasol woman's wooden clogs against the bluestone pavement remained.
The woman with the flower parasol sneered, her cold voice drifting from beneath the parasol. "Playing gods and ghosts! The Tong Family of Shuofang is conducting business here. All unrelated parties, withdraw at once!"
There was still no sound in Tianmen Town.
The flower-parasol woman stopped. The parasol lifted slightly, revealing the lower half of her face beneath her eyes. She said coldly, "Unless you wish to have your entire clan exterminated..."
"Little girl, has no one told you that this is No-Man's Land? We were exterminated long ago."
The woman with the flower parasol spun around sharply, looking toward Heaven Gate at the end of the street.
Atop Heaven Gate, Uncle Qu began moving again, chiseling the designs on Heaven Gate as ding-ding sounds rang out.
"There is only one person in this world who can give orders to Tianmen Town. That person is Emperor Ping of Yuanshuo."
Uncle Qu continued chiseling Heaven Gate with utmost seriousness. All around Tianmen Town, the mist suddenly dispersed, and at the instant it did, every house, pavilion, shop, and townsman in the town crumbled away!
The woman with the flower parasol was horrified. Tianmen Town was now filled with grave mounds, overgrown with wild grass, with rubble strewn everywhere!
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