Fragments

The battle concluded, and Yang Qingyun let out a long sigh of relief.

This fight, while seemingly simple, had not been easy. For Yang Qingyun at his current level, a single claw strike from a Viscera Refining Realm demonic beast would have been fatal or severely injurious! Furthermore, if he hadn't cultivated the Six Harmonies Saber martial skill, its lethality might not have been enough to break through the beast's defenses. Throughout the engagement, Yang Qingyun had remained tense, not daring to let his guard down even for a moment.

Fortunately, it was all over!

"So it was a black panther," Yang Qingyun thought to himself as he looked at the headless corpse lying on the ground.

He considered himself lucky. This type of demonic beast wasn't like the insectoid monsters such as mantises, whose remains could be taken back and cooked. The meat offered significant benefits for a martial artist's Blood Essence cultivation. In his past life, after the Spiritual Qi Resurgence, he had indeed hunted demonic beasts to aid his cultivation.

He twirled his saber, flicking the blood off the blade. He didn't immediately attend to the black panther's corpse. After sensing no further threats in the vicinity, he turned and walked towards the center of the valley he had spotted earlier, shrouded in thick fog.

The ground beneath his feet was dry and covered in fallen leaves, its vitality completely drained. Ahead, the ground dipped, forming a pit several yards across. In the center of this pit grew a strange tree, about three to four meters tall and as thick as a bucket. Its massive roots twisted and coiled like vines, and its sparse branches were adorned with a few dew-kissed, vibrant green leaves.

The entire tree was clear and translucent, emitting a faint glow, with wisps of white mist perpetually swirling around it.

"Jade Bamboo Dragon!" Yang Qingyun exclaimed, his voice filled with shock as he exhaled. It was this very sight that had momentarily stunned him, leading to the black panther's ambush. Fortunately, with his past life's thirty years of experience, he had reacted quickly and seized the opportunity to strike back and kill it.

Gazing at the vibrant Jade Bamboo Dragon before him, Yang Qingyun let out a long sigh. His eyes were filled with a complex mix of emotions. After the Spiritual Qi Resurgence in his previous life, countless plants had been blessed by heaven and earth, absorbing Spiritual Qi and transforming into spiritual medicine. Yang Qingyun couldn't possibly recognize them all. After all, he hadn't been a master of the Way of Alchemy, nor a powerful expert who could access numerous treasures and spiritual medicines.

Yet, the Jade Bamboo Dragon before him was something he was intimately familiar with, able to recite its details even in his dreams. It was, in essence, the spiritual medicine he had yearned for in his past life!

"The Jade Bamboo Dragon can produce a spiritual sap called Jade Dew, possessing immense vitality. While it can't regrow severed limbs, it can easily mend a martial artist's injuries, even repairing old, hidden wounds. Moreover, it contains a significant amount of Spiritual Qi, which, upon consumption by a martial artist, can directly boost cultivation and refine one's aptitude to a certain degree."

Yang Qingyun slowly approached the Jade Bamboo Dragon, gazing at the "tree" before him, its green so vibrant it seemed to drip. He silently recited the information he had learned about this heaven and earth spiritual item in his past life. His eyes held a mixture of longing and regret, filled with wistful reflection.

"If it were my past self, finding this Jade Bamboo Dragon, I would have been ecstatic!"

"After all, while it couldn't fully restore my depleted foundation, it could at least heal some of my injuries. Perhaps it was that final bit of healing that I needed to break through to the Innate realm."

Shaking his head slightly, Yang Qingyun cast aside the myriad of distracting thoughts. He took out a jade bottle from his bosom, approached the Jade Bamboo Dragon, raised his long saber, and gently sliced its verdant trunk. A wound immediately opened, and from it, the Jade Dew, a greenish, shimmering white spiritual sap, began to drip, gradually filling the jade bottle.

At that very moment, as the last drop of Jade Dew fell, the entire three-to-four-meter-tall Jade Bamboo Dragon began to shrivel at a visible rate. Its previously crisp green color vanished, quickly turning a withered yellow. Within mere moments, the once vibrant Jade Bamboo Dragon had died, leaving behind only a dry, withered husk, like an emaciated old vine that had perished long ago.

However, Yang Qingyun didn't leave just yet. He peeled away the dry fibers of the Jade Bamboo Dragon layer by layer, extracting a thumb-sized, walnut-like, gray tree core from its center!

This tree core wasn't of much use on its own, but to the Jade Bamboo Dragon, it was a seed. If it could find a place rich in Spiritual Qi in the future, it might be able to grow again.

"Jade Dew is a type of heaven and earth spiritual item. While consuming it directly greatly benefits a martial artist's cultivation, its best use is as a primary ingredient with Spirit Ginseng to refine the Spirit Ginseng Jade Dew Pill."

"Below the Blood Changing Realm, a single one of these pills can restore all Blood Essence and heal injuries that are on the brink of death. It replenishes Qi and blood, practically serving as a second life!"

Yang Qingyun mused to himself.

While he wasn't as ecstatic about obtaining the Jade Bamboo Dragon as he would have been in his previous life, having the Spirit Ginseng Jade Dew Pill as a safeguard for a second life wasn't bad either!

After storing the tree core, just as he was about to leave, Yang Qingyun suddenly sensed something was wrong.

"Falling Stars, Mountain God's Advent. If the 'Mountain God' was this Jade Bamboo Dragon, it would have burned to ashes during its descent!"

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

Yang Qingyun realized a blind spot.

Immediately, he looked around, gazing at the sunken terrain beneath his feet, which looked like a meteor impact site. He quickly picked up his steel saber and cleaved open the dried husk of the Jade Bamboo Dragon.

Soon, the ground beneath, hidden by its massive roots, was revealed!

"What is this?!"

Yang Qingyun's face showed shock.

It was a broken, incomplete fragment, palm-sized, pitch-black, made of an unknown material. Mysterious, profound patterns were inscribed on it, as if they depicted the ultimate truths of heaven and earth!

At first glance, in Yang Qingyun's eyes, a world-splitting blade light appeared, cleaving through the heavens and earth, slashing towards him, seemingly intent on annihilating his very soul!

The firmament collapsed, chaos was born and extinguished!

The world before him shattered completely in that instant, and the world met its end!

Yang Qingyun stood there, frozen!

Shock, terror, he felt as if he had fallen into an endless dark abyss, utterly unable to move a single finger!

In that moment, he seemed to be transported back to the final moments of his previous life, during his arduous journey, when celestial beings from the nine heavens waged war. The terrifying residual energy swept across thousands of miles of land, and he, utterly powerless to resist, was instantly obliterated along with the vast landscape!

Am I going to die?

Yang Qingyun's mind went blank, However, just as that blade light, like a river of stars descending from the nine heavens, was about to strike and kill him, the blade light suddenly trembled, as if struck by a terrifying attack. It let out a mournful cry and shattered with a boom!

The sky was filled with fragments scattering like shooting stars, one piece seemed to pierce a weak figure, falling from the nine heavens, traversing countless billions of miles through spatial turbulence, eventually landing in a vast, nameless expanse of green mountains and forests.

Finally, that fragment of blade light merged with the palm-sized, pitch-black fragment before him, locking into place!

All illusions vanished, the world spun and then settled.

Yang Qingyun stood dumbfounded, the black fragment still embedded in the ground before him, as if nothing had happened, as if everything that had occurred was merely an illusion.

"What was that slash..."

Yang Qingyun murmured, lost in thought.

The fragment before him stood silently, emitting an incomprehensible, invisible sharpness, giving one the feeling of a blade piercing directly towards their heart.