The Fierce Hurricane Gorge stretched for thousands of miles. The entire gorge looked as though it had been swept by hurricanes, leaving it utterly devastated. The howling gales never let up.
A boulder weighing tens of thousands of pounds was caught by a passing hurricane and slowly lifted into the air. As it rose, the terrifying gale sliced it apart until the massive boulder was reduced to dust, scattering across the gorge.
Two figures, one large and one small, appeared at the gorge's entrance. The terrifying hurricane vanished into thin air dozens of meters away from them, leaving them completely untouched.
Long Jiuyyao stared wide-eyed at the boulder as it crumbled to dust, deeply shocked. Even a low-tier Nirvana Realm expert couldn't shatter a boulder weighing tens of thousands of pounds into dust in an instant.
Yet any random hurricane in this gorge could do so with ease. Its terrifying destructive power was worthy of one of the Three Great Perilous Lands.
"Jiuyyao, even a Two or Three Yuan Nirvana expert couldn't shatter that Wind Split Rock, which weighed tens of thousands of pounds, into dust so easily. The destructive power of the Fierce Hurricane is already comparable to a full-force strike from a Six Yuan Nirvana expert," Yuan Gan explained.
Nirvana was divided into nine yuan, which could be grouped into three stages: One to Three Yuan Nirvana was low-tier, Four to Six Yuan was mid-tier, and Seven to Nine Yuan was high-tier.
The two entered the gorge. They had only been outside it before, and now that they were inside, they could feel that the Fierce Hurricanes were far more terrifying than they had looked. But under Yuan Gan's protection, the terrifying gales felt as cool as an ordinary breeze, nothing like the force that had just destroyed the Wind Split Rock.
The two strolled through the gorge at an unhurried pace. The wind element was most concentrated at the gorge's summit, but that place was also extremely dangerous, since the Fierce Hurricanes there were all comparable to full-force strikes from Nine Yuan Nirvana experts.
But to Yuan Gan, who had already reached the highest echelon of the continent, that was nothing.
By now, Yuan Gan was nowhere near Long Jiuyyao. He had already reached the summit.
Long Jiuyyao's body, however, was covered in red and blue bruises. They were caused by the Fierce Hurricanes within the gorge. His life wasn't in danger, but it certainly hurt.
The Fierce Hurricanes had astonishing destructive power, but they were also effective at tempering the body. So Yuan Gan directed every gale around them at Long Jiuyyao. Of course, he weakened them first; otherwise, Long Jiuyyao couldn't have endured them.
The bruised patches on Long Jiuyyao's body had split open, leaving streaks of blood. The Ancient Dragon Bone glowed with a Dark Gold Radiance, strengthening his muscles and bones to resist the gales.
Among the Four Hegemons of the Demon Domain, the Dragon Clan was renowned for its powerful physical bodies. Those with high-grade Dragon Bone had even mightier physiques. On top of that, they could use the power of heaven and earth to temper their bodies, making them stronger than others at the same level.
As Yuan Gan put it, "No pain, no gain."
Long Jiuyyao slowly pressed on, step by step toward the summit. As he went, the gales gradually grew stronger, and his physique grew stronger along with them.
Long Jiuyyao wasn't annoyed by what Yuan Gan was doing. On the contrary, he was enjoying himself. It hurt, but he could feel his body growing stronger.
At the summit, Yuan Gan gazed at Long Jiuyyao, who was pushing forward in the distance, his eyes filled with approval. Of course, he hadn't forgotten why they had come.
He formed hand seals, and a thousand-zhang Golden-Eyed Giant Dragon coiled around the mountaintop, swallowing like a whale. It devoured all the wind element within a thousand meters of the summit.
The giant dragon became intangible and colorless, then shrank into a wind-element energy sphere a few meters across. Yuan Gan took out the Gale Ancestral Rune he had gotten from Long Jiuyyao and merged it into the sphere.
The instant the Gale Ancestral Rune merged with it, the energy sphere shrank slightly, then returned to its original size. At its center, the rune slowly devoured the wind element of the Fierce Hurricane Gorge.
Seeing this, Yuan Gan curled his fingers. The entire gorge trembled, and Long Jiuyyao, who was tempering his body, stumbled and nearly lost his footing.
"It's starting!" Long Jiuyyao stopped and looked toward the summit.
Countless strands of wind element slowly flowed into the intangible energy sphere, continually nourishing the Gale Ancestral Rune as it grew.
After completing this step, Yuan Gan took out a palm-sized, triangular jade tablet divided into three colors: green, red, and blue.
As Yuan Gan infused it with Yuan Power, the three colors on the tablet burst with dazzling light. A barrier a hundred zhang wide rose before him.
The Rainbow Brilliance Ancient Tablet ranked fifty-second on the Ancient Divine Object Ranking. It could seal and isolate anything. It could even withstand three full-force strikes from a Samsara Stage expert who had already touched the aura of Reincarnation.
It was the first line of defense protecting the Gale Ancestral Rune. The barrier concealed the rune, masking its aura as well. The summit returned to the way it had looked when they first arrived.
Yuan Gan exhaled, then came to Long Jiuyyao's side. "Jiuyyao, I've safely set up the Gale Ancestral Rune. Stay here and temper your body."
Long Jiuyyao didn't refuse or say anything. He simply nodded and watched Yuan Gan leave, then turned and walked into the heart of the Fierce Hurricane's domain to slowly temper his body.
There were no shortcuts to tempering the body. You could only endure it, repeatedly hardening your body against the blows.
At the center of an endless lake in the Yin Dragon Mountain Range, a Blue Haired Girl kicked pebbles at her feet, looking thoroughly displeased. Her mind was filled with that detestable Long Jiuyyao.
An old man in a gray robe appeared beside the Blue Haired Girl without a sound. "Blue Girl, who upset you? Tell me, so I can enjoy it too."
"Father! Do you really enjoy making fun of your daughter?" Lan Xinhuang stamped her foot.
Of course, Lan Xinhuang didn't tell him what had happened. How could she bring herself to speak of something so embarrassing?
Lan Xinhuang went straight to the Bamboo Grove and sat on a rock. She put her fingers to her red lips and gave a clear whistle.
The instant she finished, a Shadow Figure shot through the bamboo grove, leaped onto the rock, and coiled around her shoulder.
The Shadow Figure stopped. It was a centipede resembling Zi Lin, though there were differences. It was slightly smaller, but its entire body gleamed like the sun, golden-bright. It had six eyes, slender silver legs, and a touch of red at each foot's tip. Its feet could cleave gold.
Most unusual of all, it had a pair of green phoenix wings and a pair of silver-white mandibles, both razor-sharp. Its name was the Golden Back Phoenix Wing Centipede.
Old Bai hadn't explained the whole story. The Ancient Spirit Worms, the Black Back Nine Head Centipede, and the Golden Back Phoenix Wing Centipede were natural opposites. They were born as Twins, one yin and one yang, male and female.
They followed different paths of evolution depending on how they were raised. That was why it differed from Zi Lin.
"Qing Yu, I met someone detestable during my travels this time," Lan Xinhuang said, stroking its green phoenix wings.
"Ts-ts!" Qing Yu nodded and hissed.
"Hm? Why didn't Blackback come?" Lan Xinhuang looked around but didn't see the familiar figure.
She leaped down from the boulder and, with Qing Yu, walked through the bamboo grove. Two caves, one large and one small, came into view. After a moment's hesitation, she went straight into the larger cave.
Inside, there was no stench as she had expected. Instead, the cave was filled with a rich, pleasant fragrance. The nest still held traces of the natural fragrance of the heavenly treasures that had been devoured there.
Spirit worms that devoured heavenly treasures weren't like the demonic beasts that ate flesh and blood, so there was no smell of rotting meat.
Looking at the now-empty nest, Lan Xinhuang knew that the Black Back Nine Head Centipede—now Zi Lin—had already left.
Little Black Back and Qing Yu had been inseparable since they were young, just like Lan Xinhuang and Qing Yu. Now that Little Black Back was gone, she couldn't help feeling reluctant to part with him.
"Wait, no one usually comes here. How did Blackback leave?"
Lan Xinhuang composed herself, left Blackback's cave, and headed for the Bamboo House, determined to ask her father what had happened.
The cave wasn't far from the Bamboo House. She spotted Old Bai at the Stone Pavilion at a glance.
"Father, where's Blackback?" Lan Xinhuang asked bluntly.
"Someone took him and even gave him a nice name: Zi Lin," Old Bai explained.
"Zi Lin. It is a nice name." Lan Xinhuang shook her head. "No, who took him? Why didn't you stop them?"
"Girl, I would have stopped them if I could. When I found out, Zi Lin had already begun evolving." Old Bai gestured for her to sit down and talk.
Lan Xinhuang understood. Just as she had once unwittingly helped Qing Yu evolve and become inseparable from her, the same thing had happened to Blackback and Zi Lin.
"Do you know what his name is?" Lan Xinhuang asked.
"Long Jiuyyao, the adopted son of Yuan Gan, the Dragon Clan Chief," Old Bai replied calmly.
"What!" Lan Xinhuang gasped. She spat out the tea she had just sipped, and at the sound of that name, her anger erupted like a volcano.
"Crack!"
She crushed the teacup in her hand.
Old Bai was an ancient monster who had lived for who knew how many years. He noticed how Lan Xinhuang's usual composure differed from her fury at hearing Long Jiuyyao's name. Combined with her bad mood when she'd first returned, he knew the Blue Girl had a grudge against Long Jiuyyao.
All right. He had barely left my territory before bullying my precious daughter. This wasn't over.
Long Jiuyyao, tempering his body in the Fierce Hurricane Gorge, had no idea that overprotective Old Bai had already marked him as a target—and that this would become his misery.
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