Seventh Turn Takes the Field

The next day, Li Xiao rarely allowed himself to sleep in.

Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the window lattice, falling warmly across the bed.

He turned over without any hurry to rise, simply lying there lazily as he listened to the faint sounds of horns and troops assembling from somewhere beyond the window. Yet his heart held little tension.

Compared with the city's defenders and cultivators, who faced the enemy as though a great calamity loomed over them, he seemed almost too leisurely.

If the sky fell, the tall ones would hold it up. Those Sixth Turn and Seventh Turn powerhouses were the true protagonists of this decisive battle. As a Marrow-Piercing cultivator, even if he worried himself sick, he would be worrying about the wrong things.

What mattered most now was improving his own strength.

He closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into his sea of awareness. The words on the Panel surfaced clearly the instant his thoughts touched them.

Line by line, his gaze eventually settled on the Seven Orifice Insect ritual.

Of the seven rituals, most had now been completed.

Yet three still remained unfinished.

One qian of powdered bone from an Eighth Turn Venerable.

Three drops of Essence Blood from one who possessed Dragon Qi.

Three drops of Essence Blood from a Sixth Turn Great Demon.

Every one of these requirements was as hard as climbing to heaven.

Eighth Turn Venerables were beings one could count on one's fingers in the entire Human Race. Even if any of their bones had been left behind, the great factions would surely keep them under tight guard as treasures that suppressed their sects. A Marrow-Piercing cultivator like him did not even have the qualification to approach them.

Still, once news came from the Sword Sect, if he