Fragments

The battle was over,

and Yang Qingyun let out a long sigh of relief.

The battle had seemed simple, but in truth, it had not been easy.

At least for Yang Qingyun as he was now, there was no way he could withstand a claw from a Demonic Beast at the Viscera Refining Realm. If he were scratched by one, he would basically either die or be gravely injured!

Moreover, if he had not cultivated the martial technique Six Harmonies Saber, without the killing power of a martial technique, he probably would not have been able to break through its defenses!

Throughout the battle, Yang Qingyun had kept his mind taut, not daring to be careless in the slightest.

Fortunately,

it was all over!

"So it was a Black Panther."

After getting a clear look at the headless corpse lying on the ground, pitch-black all over, Yang Qingyun muttered inwardly.

He had been lucky.

This kind of Demonic Beast was not some insect monster like a mantis. After killing it, he could still take it back and stew it for food, which would greatly benefit a martial artist's Qi and Blood cultivation.

In his Previous Life, after the Spiritual Qi Resurgence, he had hunted Demonic Beasts to aid his cultivation.

He flourished his saber, flicking the blood from its blade.

He did not immediately deal with the Black Panther's corpse.

After sensing that there was nothing nearby capable of bringing him a sense of danger, he turned and walked toward the center of the misty valley he had seen earlier.

At this moment, the ground beneath his feet was utterly parched, covered in fallen leaves, with all vitality stripped from the soil.

The ground ahead had caved in over that area, forming a pit several dozen feet across.

And in the center of the pit,

there grew a strange tree three or four meters tall, with a trunk as thick as a barrel. Its plump roots twisted and coiled like vines, while its sparse, spreading branches were dotted with two or three lush, emerald-green leaves!

The entire strange tree was crystalline and translucent, radiating a faint glow. Wisps of white mist lingered around it without dispersing!

"Jade Bamboo Dragon!"

Shock appeared on Yang Qingyun's face as he let out a long breath.

It was this very thing that had caused him to lose focus for a moment when he first saw it, allowing the Black Panther Demonic Beast to launch its ambush.

Fortunately, counting the thirty years of experience from his Previous Life, he could be considered well-seasoned. He had quickly regained his senses and taken the opportunity to counterattack and kill it.

As he gazed at the lush, emerald-green Jade Bamboo Dragon ahead, Yang Qingyun suddenly let out a long sigh.

At this moment, his eyes were filled with complex emotions.

After the Spiritual Qi Resurgence in his Previous Life, countless plants had received the favor of Heaven and Earth, absorbing the Spiritual Qi between Heaven and Earth and transforming into Spiritual Herbs.

It was impossible for Yang Qingyun to recognize them all.

After all, in his Previous Life, he had not been a grandmaster of alchemy, nor had he been a powerhouse capable of coming into contact with countless treasures and Spiritual Herbs.

But the Jade Bamboo Dragon before him happened to be something he knew extremely well. He could even recite its relevant description from memory in his dreams.

This could be said to have been the Spiritual Herb he had dreamed of obtaining in his Previous Life!

"The Jade Bamboo Dragon can produce a type of spiritual sap called Jade Dew. It possesses an extremely powerful vitality. While it can't regrow severed limbs, it can easily heal a martial artist's injuries, even repairing old hidden wounds. It also contains a considerable amount of Spiritual Qi. After consuming it, a martial artist can directly increase their cultivation and refine and improve their aptitude to a certain degree."

Yang Qingyun slowly walked up to the Jade Bamboo Dragon. Looking at the tree before him, verdant and dripping with life, he silently recited the description of this Heavenly and Earthly spiritual treasure that he had learned back then.

Reminiscence and lament filled his eyes,

along with endless emotion.

"If it had been me in my Previous Life, finding a Jade Bamboo Dragon like this would have driven me wild with joy!"

"After all, although it could not completely replenish the foundation that had been squeezed dry in me back then, it could at least repair my body somewhat. Perhaps all I had needed was that little bit of restorative power. If so, I might have been able to use it to advance to the Innate Realm."

Yang Qingyun shook his head slightly,

casting aside the many distracting thoughts in his mind.

He took a jade bottle from his robes, walked up to the Jade Bamboo Dragon, and raised the long saber in his hand. The blade lightly scored its emerald-green trunk, and a wound split open.

Immediately afterward,

the emerald-green Jade Dew spiritual sap, shimmering with a gentle white light, began to drip out, gradually filling the entire jade bottle.

At that very moment,

as the final drop of Jade Dew fell,

in the blink of an eye,

the entire three- or four-meter-tall Jade Bamboo Dragon began to shrivel at a visible speed. Its former bright emerald green faded away, rapidly turning withered yellow.

In the space of a few short breaths, the previously vibrant Jade Bamboo Dragon had died.

Only a withered, shrunken husk remained.

It resembled a dried, gaunt old vine that had been dead for who knew how many years.

Yang Qingyun did not leave just yet. He peeled away the layers of dried fiber from the Jade Bamboo Dragon and took out a tree core from its center, about the size of a thumb and walnut-shaped, gray all over!

This tree core itself did not have much use,

but to the Jade Bamboo Dragon, it was a seed. If he could find a place rich in Spiritual Qi in the future, perhaps he could grow another one.

"Jade Dew is a type of Heavenly and Earthly spiritual treasure. Although consuming it directly offers tremendous benefits to a martial artist's cultivation, the best use is still to combine it with a Spiritual Ginseng as the main ingredient and refine the Spirit Ginseng Jade Dew Pill."

"For martial artists below the Blood Changing Realm, just one of these pills can restore all their Qi and Blood and heal injuries severe enough to bring them to the brink of death. It restores vitality and replenishes blood—in short, it is practically a second life!"

Yang Qingyun pondered inwardly,

Although he was not as deliriously delighted as he would have been in his Previous Life upon obtaining the Jade Bamboo Dragon, having the Spirit Ginseng Jade Dew Pill as a safeguard offering him a second life was still quite good!

After putting away the tree core,

Yang Qingyun was just about to leave when he suddenly sensed that something was wrong.

"Falling Stars, Mountain God's Advent. If the 'Mountain God' is this Jade Bamboo Dragon, it would probably have burned itself away completely when it fell!"

"This Jade Bamboo Dragon isn't the Mountain God! The true opportunity lies elsewhere!"

Yang Qingyun realized the blind spot in his reasoning.

Immediately afterward,

he looked around,

then gazed at the sunken ground beneath his feet, which looked as though it had been struck by a meteor. He hurriedly picked up his steel saber and hacked apart the dried remains of the Jade Bamboo Dragon.

Very soon,

the ground at the bottom, hidden beneath its massive roots, was revealed!

"What is this thing?!"

Horror appeared on Yang Qingyun's face.

It was a broken, incomplete fragment, the size of a palm, pitch-black all over and made of an unknown material. Profound, unfathomable patterns were carved across it, as though they had engraved the ultimate principles of Heaven and Earth!

At first glance,

a blade-light that reached through Heaven and Earth appeared in Yang Qingyun's eyes. It cleaved apart the sky and earth and came slashing toward him, as though it intended to annihilate his soul in one stroke!

The firmament collapsed, and chaos was born and destroyed!

The world before his eyes shattered completely in that instant. The world had reached its end!

Yang Qingyun stood there in a daze!

Shock,

fear,

his entire body seemed to have fallen into an endless dark abyss, unable to move even a finger!

At that moment,

he seemed to have returned to the final instant of his Previous Life. Amid his life of drifting from place to place, he had encountered immortals and gods battling above the Nine Heavens. The terrifying aftermath had swept across thousands of miles of Heaven and Earth, and he had been utterly powerless to resist as he and that vast stretch of Heaven and Earth were crushed to pieces in an instant!

Am I going to die?

Yang Qingyun's mind went blank,

yet,

just as that blade-light, like a galaxy descending from the Nine Heavens and cleaving through the stars, was about to fall and kill him, it suddenly shuddered violently, as though it had encountered some terrifying attack. It let out a mournful cry, then exploded with a boom!

Fragments filled the sky like meteors scattering across the Nine Heavens.

One of them seemed to have pierced through a frail figure, causing it to fall from the Nine Heavens. It streaked through the spatial turbulence across who knew how many billions upon billions of miles, ultimately landing in an unnamed, boundless stretch of green mountains and forest.

Until finally,

that fragment of blade-light merged with the palm-sized, pitch-black fragment before his eyes, locking together in place!

All the illusions vanished,

the heavens spun, and the world returned.

Yang Qingyun stood rooted to the spot. The black fragment remained firmly stuck in the ground before him, and nothing had happened, as though everything that had occurred just now had been no more than an illusion.

"That slash—what was it?"

Yang Qingyun lost himself in a daze and murmured to himself.

The fragment stood silently before him, radiating an intangible sharpness beyond comprehension. It gave him the terrifying sensation that a blade was stabbing straight toward his heart.