Blood Debt!

On the open ground outside the Earth Armor Dragon's lair, the people of the Iron Ox Tribe stared blankly at the distance.

The cave that had sheltered them for eight days had now become a gigantic furnace.

They could clearly see endless flames burning inside the cave, turning the stone walls of half the mountain bright red.

If not for the waves of icy water cooling them, magma might already have been flowing down the mountainside.

Yet thick smoke poured from the cave mouth and shot into the sky, as if a volcano were about to erupt.

"Th-this..."

Zhamu, Qingshi, Old Blind Man, and the others exchanged glances, their eyes wide with shock.

"This... was really caused by Brother Zhou cultivating?" Zhamu could hardly believe it.

"Even a Xiantian Lifeform making this much commotion would be outrageous." Old Blind Man, Qingshi, and the others stared with their eyes practically bulging. Rubbing his eyes, Old Blind Man felt they had grown considerably larger over the past few days.

"Mm." Xiangcao nodded.

She had been standing guard outside the cave where Zhou Hao was cultivating. When she noticed something was wrong, she had immediately told the tribe to leave.

"Could he really be about to do it all in one go, entering the Xiantian realm the very first time he cultivates?" Xiangcao watched the halfway point of the little mountain, eyes shining with anticipation.

That was where Zhou Hao's cave lay—and where the water and fire raged most fiercely.

The water and fire inside the mountain shone through the thick stone, forming a huge circular pattern on the smooth outer wall, one half blazing red and the other blue-gray.

The pattern looked like two fish entwined head to tail, concealing some mysterious profundity.

When Iron Ox saw one of his tribesmen about to rush inside and retrieve his belongings, he hurriedly told Zhamu and the others to stop him.

"Let the things burn. As long as everyone's safe, we can buy new ones when we get to Jade Dragon City," Iron Ox called out. "Zhamu, take everyone to the Mountain Forest Camp first. We'll set out once Brother Zhou finishes cultivating."

These past few days, they had been able to stay in the cave without coming out, but the Black Sly Beasts couldn't.

Zhamu and the others had fenced off a patch of land in the forest and kept the Black Sly Beasts there.

It was lucky the beasts weren't in the cave. In the panic, everyone had fled for their lives, and the Black Sly Beasts would surely have either burned to death or frozen in the icy water.

If they had to walk tens of thousands of li to Jade Dragon City, it might take them a whole year—or even longer.

"All right." Zhamu agreed. Qingshi, Old Blind Man, and the others helped organize everyone.

"Xiangcao, we should move farther away and keep watch, too." Iron Ox thought for a moment. "This little mountain is only a couple hundred zhang tall, and most of its interior has been hollowed out.

"Brother Zhou's cultivation of the Chiming Nine Heavens Map is drawing on Lunar True Water and Solar True Fire. If the entire mountain collapses, we'll be caught in it, too."

"All right." Xiangcao realized he was right.

The cave was now filled with raging flames and icy water. Even a great demon couldn't enter.

Xiangcao took Zhuzi's hand and was about to leave with Iron Ox and the others when Zhuzi pointed at the sky and cried, "Big bird, big bird! Auntie, there's a big bird in the sky!"

"A big bird?" Xiangcao, Iron Ox, and the others looked up.

At some point, a gigantic bird of prey had appeared above them.

In the sunlight, its feathers gleamed with a cold, metallic sheen.

Two figures stood on its back. One was a young man, who raised the long sword in his hand and swung it straight down.

Hiss, hiss, hiss—

Dozens of sword auras, like bloody-red threads, whistled down from the sky.

"No!" Iron Ox's eyes instantly reddened. "Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"

But the sudden turn of events left ordinary tribespeople with no chance to react as quickly as battle-hardened warriors like Zhamu and Old Blind Man.

"Ah!" "No!" "Ah!"...

Horrified screams rang out.

The threadlike sword auras swept through nearly a hundred Iron Ox tribesmen. Some were struck several times, their bodies sliced into pieces.

"Zhamu!" Iron Ox rushed over.

When the sword auras fell, Zhamu had shoved the tribesmen beside him out of the way, but the blades had slashed diagonally from his shoulder straight through his body. He was spitting blood in great mouthfuls; he could only breathe out, not in.

Zhamu wasn't the only one. Old Blind Man had lost an arm, and Qingshi had a gaping wound across his chest and abdomen, his innards spilling out...

In an instant, the ground was filled with cries of agony, and blood stained the earth red.

In the blink of an eye, the Iron Ox Tribe had been plunged into a living hell.

"You killed the young master of my Black Hand Tribe and thought you could escape? Not one of you Iron Ox tribesmen will leave here alive today!" A cold voice rang down from the sky. It belonged to the young man who had wielded the sword and unleashed the sword auras.

Seeing the young man, Ren Liang trembled all over and stammered, "E-E-Elder Ye Feng..."

"Renzha?" Ye Feng spotted Ren Liang, who was shaking like a leaf. "Motai Jie is dead, yet you survived. Tell me! Who killed Motai Jie and Black Wind?"

The Iron Ox Tribe didn't even have a Xiantian Lifeform. Ye Feng refused to believe that the great demon Black Wind could have fallen to its people.

But he had examined the traces left at the battlefield outside the Iron Ox Tribe's camp. Black Wind, Motai Jie, and the hundred Black Armor Guards had indeed died there.

Destroying the Iron Ox Tribe was a trivial matter. Finding the culprits who had killed Motai Jie and Black Wind was the real priority.

"Die!"

An arrow glinting with silver shot up from the ground toward Ye Feng with a whoosh.

"An ordinary Post-Heaven peasant thinks he can hurt a great Xiantian Lifeform?" Ye Feng scoffed and casually knocked the arrow aside.

Following its path, he spotted Xiangcao, her face streaked with tears.

"So Motai Jie died because of you? How interesting."

A lewd look crept into Ye Feng's eyes. "Don't worry, I won't kill you. Once I've slaughtered your tribesmen, I'll take you back with me. What Motai Jie failed to accomplish, I'll do in his place."

Ye Feng raised his sword, ready to slaughter the remaining Iron Ox tribesmen, when a sudden bang rang out.

The cave, still belching thick smoke, had grown too cold and hot for its stone walls to bear. The rock above it suddenly cracked apart, and countless fragments came crashing down.

"Hm?" Ye Feng saw a huge breach open in the middle of the mountain. Within, a figure seemed to flicker in and out of view, surrounded by water and fire.

The burly figure behind him, who had remained silent until now, suddenly spoke. "A breakthrough through comprehending the Dao?"

"A breakthrough through comprehending the Dao?" Ye Feng was startled and hurriedly looked closer.

Inside the cave, scarlet flames and deep-blue water flowed like two enormous fish in a Taiji Diagram, spinning around each other before the young man as he moved his hands.

Between the young man's hands were two miniature stars, one Lunar and one Solar, also spinning around each other as if in pursuit.

"Th-this..." Ye Feng's expression changed dramatically with shock. "Could that be the legendary Chiming Nine Heavens Map?"

A cultivation method capable of drawing on the two Supreme Stars, Lunar and Solar, while commanding water and fire—according to Ye Feng's knowledge, it could only be the legendary first method of God-Devil Body Refining: the Chiming Nine Heavens Map.

When he had first begun cultivating, he had tried to practice it too, but he hadn't even managed to pass the first threshold of entry.

The reason body refiners could crush Qi Refiners at the same level was that body-refining techniques demanded even more monstrous requirements: comprehension, aptitude, and soul strength were all indispensable.

It was commonplace for cultivators to reach the Xiantian Lifeform realm or even the higher Purple Mansion realm through Qi Refining, yet never manage to break into body refining.

"He's comprehending the Dao? Has he already grasped a fragment of the Dao governing the workings of heaven and earth?" Jealousy flared in Ye Feng's heart like a sudden burst of flame.

Even though he was already in the late Xiantian stage, he had only just reached Unity of Heaven and Man. Yet the young man in the cave was not only cultivating the first method of God-Devil Body Refining, the Chiming Nine Heavens Map—he had surpassed Unity of Heaven and Man and reached the legendary realm of the True Meaning of the Dao...

"I have to stop him!" A murderous look flashed through Ye Feng's eyes as he swung his sword at the opening in the mountainside.

Hiss, hiss, hiss—

Countless bloody threads sliced through the air and streaked toward the cave.

Xiangcao panicked. She drew her bow and fired four more arrows in quick succession, but the great demon Golden Winged Eagle beat its wings and knocked them aside.

"No!" Xiangcao could only watch helplessly as the threadlike sword auras plunged into the cave.

Whoosh!

When the sword auras cut through the rocks and reached within several zhang of Zhou Hao, they suddenly seemed to hit an invisible barrier.

As the Taiji Diagram formed from the powers of water and fire spun before Zhou Hao, it seemed to wield an invisible force that ground everything to nothing. The bloody sword threads circled with the diagram several times, then silently vanished into thin air without even touching his body.

"I refuse to believe this."

Having lost face in front of Commander Yuan, Ye Feng grew even angrier. He snorted and was about to unleash another sword aura.

"Move."

At the burly figure's command, Ye Feng hurriedly stepped aside, moving to the Golden Winged Eagle's tail.

Whoosh!

The burly figure flung out a streak of red-gold light. It shot straight into the cave and halted only when it struck the Water-Fire Taiji Diagram before Zhou Hao, revealing a red-gold copper staff about five feet long.

Unlike the sword auras, which had no tangible form, the Red Gold Copper Rod was a physical object propelled by tremendous force. Although it met the invisible grinding power of the Water-Fire Taiji Diagram, it still managed to pierce through.

Zhou Hao had been sitting with his eyes closed, immersed in his realization. The impact jolted him out of his state of Dao comprehension, where he had been "without thought or intention," and his eyes flew open.

"You ruined my chance to comprehend the Dao!" Zhou Hao's eyes turned ice-cold as he punched the tip of the Red Gold Copper Rod.

Whoosh!

The Red Gold Copper Rod shot back like an arrow loosed from a bow, flying several times faster than it had come. A hand covered in bloody demonic patterns caught it outside the cave.

"Damn it!" Zhou Hao seethed with hatred.

For a cultivator, cutting off someone else's chance was like killing their parents. This enmity could never be reconciled!

"Boy, did you kill Motai Jie?" A voice outside the cave made Zhou Hao understand at once: the Black Hand Tribe had come after him.

"I did." Zhou Hao replied coldly, then immediately began to stir the Power of Taiyin and Power of Taiyang within his body.

The Cloud Seal patterns that had troubled him through both his lives had now vanished. He had gained an immense boon, even grasping a fragment of the unfathomably profound Dao.

"I'll enter the Xiantian realm first, then kill you." Through the breach in the cave wall, Zhou Hao could see two figures standing atop the gigantic bird of prey.

"Draw them in!"

The fully activated Power of Taiyin and Power of Taiyang surged through every part of Zhou Hao's body.

Under the guidance of his divine sense, the Power of Taiyin and Power of Taiyang—forces that had once been incompatible as water and fire—wound around each other like Yin-Yang fish and gradually began to merge.

In the boundless depths of the void, beyond barriers separating countless worlds, the two enormous Supreme Stars—the Solar Star and Lunar Star—each sent down a wisp of Solar True Fire and Lunar True Water. They appeared at Zhou Hao's sides as the powers of water and fire between heaven and earth were drawn forth and gathered of their own accord.

Boom!

Before this power, the entire mountain exploded as if countless tons of explosives had suddenly detonated in its heart.

The mountain's shattered rocks sprayed in every direction. Before they could fall, the icy power of the Lunar True Water froze them solid; then the flames swept over, shattering and burning everything to nothing.

In the blink of an eye, the mountain had turned into an endless cloud of dust, swirling like smoke.

Through the haze, the phantom forms of the Moon Rabbit and Three-Legged Golden Crow appeared dreamlike, circling Zhou Hao.

"Water and fire descend from heaven to nurture the Xiantian..." Ye Feng stood dumbfounded behind the burly figure, watching as the young man absorbed the Solar True Fire and Lunar True Water. The exposed skin of his body shone with a captivating luster, as if he were the most perfect creation in the world.

"He—he entered the Xiantian realm just like that?" Ye Feng didn't want to believe it.

It had been at least a thousand years since anyone across the Great Wild Plains had been said to enter the Xiantian realm through the Chiming Nine Heavens Map.

Although this was the first time Ye Feng had witnessed such a miraculous scene, he had studied the Chiming Nine Heavens Map and knew what signs accompanied a breakthrough. There was no mistaking them.

"Zhou Hao, he killed Big Brother Zhamu and so many, so many of our tribesmen!" Xiangcao cried out in anguish.

Zhou Hao had now shed his mortal body and entered the realm of Xiantian Lifeforms.

With the aid of Lunar True Water and Solar True Fire, he had also forged a perfect Xiantian God-Devil body.

Hearing Xiangcao's voice, Zhou Hao opened his eyes.

With the mountain's stone walls gone, nothing blocked his view.

Below, the Iron Ox Tribe lay in a scene like a blood-soaked hell. The sight made Zhou Hao's eyes split with fury.

The Lunar Divine Pattern and Solar Divine Pattern on his back instantly drew on their power.

Boom! Boom!

A gigantic Fire Dragon and a gigantic water dragon appeared from nowhere, then surged straight toward the Golden Winged Eagle in the sky.

Zhou Hao himself shot forward like an arrow.

Blood debt... had to be repaid in blood!

I'll try to finish another chapter today, as an extra update for my fellow villager Liunian Qingtan's alliance leader donation!

Suifeng bows in gratitude to everyone who has tipped or voted!

I'll thank everyone one by one in the bonus chapters.