Da Sheng World
Jinmen
As Meng Qifeng explained the various abilities and divine arts of the Heavenly Dragon People of the Eastern Continent to Li Xijun,
an ancient, steady carriage rolled down the official road paved with cinders. It bore no ornamentation whatsoever, only a coat of varnish against insects, with its natural wood grain plainly visible.
The carriage compartment was much larger than an ordinary one, yet it had no canopy or tassels. A layer of blue cloth covered its roof, the four corners hanging slightly down to shield against wind and rain without appearing ostentatious. The curtains on either side were made of plain linen and half-rolled up, vaguely revealing woven mats and several simple cushions within. It was neither shabby nor extravagant.
Only the two fine horses drawing it stood out. Their coats were dark and glossy, each with a single horn atop its head and dense dragon scales covering its four legs. They were dragon-kind with thin Dragon Blood.
This caused the merchant caravans and others queued at the city gate to move aside.
These worldly-wise travelers, who journeyed north and south and even crossed between the Eastern and Western Continents, knew perfectly well that anyone able to use Dragon Scale Horses must be an extraordinarily distinguished person—perhaps even a Heavenly Dragon Person of the imperial family.
Several figures within the merchant association's crowd quietly vanished one after another.
One of them even flashed into the shadow beneath the city wall in an instant. Like a fish slipping into water, he darted rapidly through one shadow after another, crossed the inner river where Wangjiang Restaurant stood, and entered the Britannian Rose Kingdom's consulate on the opposite bank.
A moment later, a short, stout man emerged wearing a black silk top hat, sporting a gentleman's mustache, and carrying a somewhat bloated figure.
He clapped his hands, and a massive steam-emitting mechanical arm rose from the earth in the garden behind the house, opening its palm.
The gentleman stepped onto it with elegant strides and allowed the mechanical arm to rise into the air, overlooking all of Jinmen.
"It seems our leading actor has stepped onto his destined stage."
He took out a pipe, lit it, and drew deeply, revealing a contented expression.
"Honorable Mr. Boyan, allow me to see how much strength the Manifest Saint True Lord of the Eastern Continent still possesses after losing his official post and the blessing of the people's power."
As his words fell,
a beam of radiance shot straight into the sky from the Black Night and Underworld Goddess Church, which had been preaching in The Bund below.
In an instant,
chilling whispers of Lost Souls and the shrill cries of underworld flutes rang throughout Jinmen. Dense deathly aura, nearly tangible, transformed into dark clouds that blanketed everyone overhead.
The skies across the entire Jinmen region instantly became night.
Winds of loneliness, coldness, and death howled through the heavens.
The plunging temperature filled the city's people with panic, causing widespread unrest.
Just as the black Dragon Scale Horses pulled the carriage through the bustling streets and arrived beneath Wangjiang Restaurant,
the two Dragon Scale Horses with thin Dragon Blood suddenly let out shrill neighs.
The carriage abruptly stopped in the crowded street, drawing countless gazes.
Li Xijun and Meng Qifeng, dining beside the window, looked over curiously as well.
Yet the roiling, spinning black clouds overhead made them both raise their heads and stare.
Li Xijun, who had achieved minor Spirit Condensation, suddenly sensed an ominous chill of death.
Fortunately, he received no Divine Oracle-like warning. It seemed not to be a life-or-death crisis.
Moreover, after sensing the Grand Luo Mark in his Sea of Consciousness and finding that its traversal function was still operating normally,
his mind immediately calmed. He even watched the changing anomaly in the sky with some curiosity.
However, Meng Qifeng, a well-informed local martial artist of Jinmen who had reached Viscera Refinement Completion, went pale.
"Th-this Celestial Anomaly is definitely the work of a high-sequence member of the Black Night and Underworld Goddess Church!"
As he watched the scene, as though night had descended and the underworld itself had arrived, even breathing became extremely difficult. His voice trembled uncontrollably with terror.
Fortunately, at that same moment, a figure flew out from Jinmen's provincial administrative office.
The man wore official robes, yet iridescent light flowed around him. He was like a True Man, but also like a temple statue or an arhat.
"Zhili Governor-General Tang Yongzhen of Jinmen is here! You barbarians first brought warships into our harbor, and now your church has acted without authorization. Do you intend to violate the continental treaty and start another great war?"
Governor-General Tang Yongzhen, dressed in official robes and surrounded by flowing radiance, shouted sternly.
His voice, full of majesty and kingly authority, shook heaven and earth.
It possessed a strange power that soothed the panicked, terrified citizens below.
Meng Qifeng's expression eased considerably, and he exclaimed in delight, "Lord Tang is an Astral Projection True Man with a fourth-rank official post. Blessed by the people's power of Dasheng, unless the other side has a Sequence 2 divine servant or a Sequence 1 angel, we're safe!"
Upon hearing that classic flag-raising statement, Li Xijun immediately felt something was wrong.
And, as expected,
the radiance originating from the Black Night and Underworld Goddess Church trembled.
A figure clad in a black night-owl feather robe, holding an orange oil lamp, appeared in the sky as well and began to chant:
"Supreme existence who holds dominion over secrecy,"
"Eternal night abyss that devours light and life, cradle of peaceful sleep that soothes pain, lord of the River Styx where all beings return,"
"By the Divine Oracle of the great Black Night and Underworld Goddess, I shall invite the people of Jinmen, the port at the northern gateway, to witness the Goddess's greatness and become the Goddess's people."
"Lord Tang Yongzhen, I have come today under Divine Oracle to reveal a Divine Miracle and formally preach in Dasheng's northern lands. So long as you acknowledge the Black Night Church's official status in Dasheng's north, nothing will happen today."
As his words fell, the black-robed man released terrifying pressure far surpassing Tang Yongzhen's Astral Projection Realm.
This drastically changed Zhili Governor-General Tang Yongzhen's expression, and he roared:
"A Sequence 2 Potion Practitioner has trespassed into Jinmen! Does your Black Night Church truly intend to violate the Eastern-Western treaty of old?"
Eternal darkness and death bore down like the heavens themselves were collapsing.
Fortunately, an official seal abruptly appeared behind the Zhili Governor-General. A map of a flood dragon coiling around river veins was carved upon it.
After it appeared, the seal seemed to possess some peculiar power. The Zhili Governor-General, who had nearly been overwhelmed, suddenly surged with momentum, his displayed might swelling severalfold as he barely managed to contend with the Sequence 2 Potion Practitioner opposite him.
Yet every citizen in the city could tell that this was merely a situation he could barely maintain for the time being.
Then, from somewhere distant, came a faint sigh.
"Sigh. It would be one thing if your church could not compete with the others on the Western Continent,"
"but there are so many prosperous cities in the southeastern Guangdong region, and you handed them all over to the God of Light and Holy Spirit Church for nothing. Why come to Jinmen in the north to cause trouble on the territory of my Eternal Life Taoist Temple?"
As the words fell, heaven and earth, the Six Harmonies and all directions, became dim, hazy, and chaotic.
A sense of purity and peace spread from the void—without clamor, without love or hate, without life or death or parting, as though one had returned to the soul's homeland, perfect and tranquil.
Eternal Life Mother, Vacuum Hometown!
Countless believers of the Eternal Life Taoist Temple throughout Jinmen fell to their knees and prayed devoutly.
However,
it seemed that no one noticed
that along with this unexpected development,
came a flickering sword-light, neither fully real nor unreal, capable of annihilating souls and emptying all things.
By the time the Sequence 2 Black Night Church practitioner confronting Tang Yongzhen in the sky noticed it, that incomparably sinister sword-light, made specifically to slay souls, was already nearly piercing his body.
Even the orange lamp in the black-robed man's hand began flashing frantically.
"Ruler of rules and order,"
"Weaver of contract lines, Lord of reckoning for the price of all beings;"
"Please bear witness to this balance—"
Li Xijun saw a golden radiance emerge from the Western Continent merchant association serving the Goddess of Scales and Fairness, the very association he and Meng Qifeng had just been discussing.
A blonde woman appeared in the sky, dressed in a robe chiefly of starry-night purple velvet woven with gold thread and silver silk, holding a set of scales.
A weight appeared in her hand, and she placed it upon the left tray.
In an instant, the sword-light that had nearly pierced the black-robed man's body halted, revealing an almost transparent magical Flying Sword seemingly flowing with dawn and dusk.
"With myself and the Scales Church as the weight, I wager upon your action."
She calmly recited the declaration. Sure enough, another large golden weight appeared on the left side of the scales.
At the same time, a special five-colored weight appeared and dropped onto the right tray.
The scales seemed to become balanced.
This made Yin True Man, the master of the Eternal Life Taoist Temple hidden within the void, reveal himself. With his white hair and long beard drifting in the wind, he indeed possessed the bearing of an Immortal.
"President Annie, does the Scales Church, which has always claimed neutrality and commerce, intend to intervene as well? Do you truly think my Eternal Life Taoist Temple is some harmless place?"
Yin True Man's sleeves billowed, and forty-nine iron zombies covered head to toe in green fur abruptly appeared from thin air. Their ghostly wails and shrieking souls made them seem even more terrifying than the Black Night Church had been.
"It is merely that a gentleman has made a transaction with us. Please wait here for a while, Yin True Man. When the time comes, our merchant association will naturally offer one hundred souls of low-sequence Potion Practitioners."
These words were transmitted through a secret Potion ability, known only to the two of them.
To outside observers, however, after Yin True Man questioned her and received no response, the two sides merely appeared to have fallen into a standoff.
As the deathly firmament carrying the underworld drew ever closer,
as Governor-General Tang Yongzhen found himself struggling more and more,
and as Meng Qifeng's face turned bleak with despair,
the carriage curtains on the street below the restaurant were lifted. A thin, gaunt scholar stepped out, his temples and beard already largely frosted white. Shaking his head, he sighed.
"This old man has only just arrived in Jinmen today, and the orthodox god churches of the Western Continent are already impatient to make a move. What a coincidence. What a coincidence indeed."
After saying that, he suddenly stood there without moving.
Divine Light rose from above his head and instantly transformed into a gigantic Dharma manifestation dozens of zhang tall.
The manifestation wore ancient Confucian scholar's robes, yet held a Taoist ritual sword in its left hand and a demon-subduing vajra in its right. It stood upon dragon and elephant, with purple qi spanning the heavens overhead, and its face was identical to that of the elderly man.
"Even when a True God descended in those years, I, Li Boyan, did not die. Today, even without an official post or the blessing of the people's power, killing a mere Sequence 2 is still as easy as turning my hand!"
With that, the Taoist sword in the manifestation's hand shot forth like flashing lightning, like a long rainbow crossing the sky. Brilliant sword-light swept past, and the night-black clouds that had nearly crushed heaven and earth and covered Jinmen suddenly shattered, revealing a sword scar that stretched for several thousand meters and scattered starlight and moonlight from beyond.
The sword's momentum did not diminish. It turned into a golden line and cleaved the Sequence 2 black-robed man from the sky in two, leaving only innumerable scattered black night-owl feathers drifting through the air.
At that moment, heaven and earth throughout Jinmen fell silent!
The gigantic Dharma manifestation, dozens of zhang high, swept its gaze across all directions, above and below the Six Harmonies.
At some point, the gentleman in the top hat had vanished. The blonde merchant association president had vanished. Even Yin True Man of the Eternal Life Taoist Temple, with his Immortal bearing, had retreated into the void.
Meng Qifeng stared blankly at the Dharma manifestation in the sky, his face filled with envy and reverence. Then, as though recalling something, his expression became dejected. He murmured forlornly, "I only hate that I lack the talent for Spirit Condensation and can only walk this dead-end path of martial arts. Practitioners of the three teachings are the superior path after all."
Li Xijun, who cultivated the martial arts of the Main World, naturally said nothing. He merely continued looking curiously toward the carriage and the thin elderly man upon it.
However,
at that moment, a small, timid figure seemed unable to suppress her curiosity about what was happening outside.
While everyone in Jinmen stared dumbly upward at the Manifest Saint True Lord's Dharma manifestation,
she quietly poked her head out and climbed from the carriage, timidly yet curiously surveying bustling Jinmen and everything beyond it.
Her dark-red hair reached her waist, and her deep rose-red eyes gazed timidly at the sky. Her moist, beautiful eyes curiously took in the various foods lining the street, and she could not help sticking out her pink tongue and pursing her lips.
Judging solely by her lovely face, she should have been an exceptionally beautiful young girl.
Yet beginning behind her ears, fine, pure-white dragon scales had already covered her entire body. Even beneath her loose, luxurious clothing, those dragon scales remained visible, as did the dragon claws formed from her draconic arms.
Li Xijun instantly recalled what Meng Qifeng had said earlier—the Ninth Princess, despised by the Da Sheng Imperial Family and born with a naturally defective body.
It was said that while the imperial family prized the bloodline of the Heavenly Dragon People, they were ordinarily no different from regular people and were all quite handsome and beautiful.
Only in battle would they reveal the various features of dragons.
Their aesthetic sense was no different from that of ordinary people.
Yet the Ninth Princess could not control the bloodline within her body. Her dragon-person form was always visible, and she had never taken on an ordinary human form. There had long been unfavorable rumors calling her a freak, and even the palace maids often avoided her.
However,
in Li Xijun's eyes, this girl who resembled a humanoid dragon was simply an enormous, gleaming treasure.
Every movement of hers overflowed with the true essence and beauty of a pure-blooded dragon species.
Compared to the Kui Wood Flood Dragon at Bocheng Zoo, that creature was practically just a stray by the roadside.
Simply observing the dragon-person girl made him feel as though his Stance Training was about to start moving on its own.
If he could observe her day and night, then never mind reaching 100% proficiency in the Azure Dragon Heaven-Reaching Method—even 100% master-level proficiency would be no problem!
"So beautiful!"
Li Xijun could not help but voice his admiration.
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