Cut Open the Wood and Find Jade, Three Sealed Letters

People were not the same as one another.

Even two people walking shoulder to shoulder—just like Liu Dongqing and Jiang Xiuyong on this journey—clearly displayed an enormous difference in temperament and decisiveness.

The same was true here.

Although the aged shaman had shown a kind of extreme grief, and a certain resolve in facing life and death head-on, on the young shaman's face, Liu Dongqing keenly detected that even with death before him, he still held concern for these mountain folk.

A person with concerns and hesitation in his heart therefore had a handle others could seize.

Liu Dongqing had experienced far, far too many similar encounters over the past several years.

Similar words had once repeatedly sounded from Manager Hou's mouth, enough to almost string together into a splendid, majestic essay.

He remembered, within every similar method of persuasion, every tiny expression of Manager Hou's, every subtle turn, every sentence's tone, whether light or heavy.

This overly abundant experience meant that the instant Liu Dongqing settled on his thought, he naturally, almost with exhilarating ease, completed an entire weave of rhetoric.

Every word and every sound from him was like an invisible sharp blade, ruthlessly piercing through the young shaman's mind.

Even—

the might of this set of rhetoric in Liu Dongqing's hands even surpassed the Bright Candle Sun-Scene Lesser Azure Light Incantation, all the more highlighting the vast demonic intent of the Innate Sacred Sect.

It was very effective.

Almost the instant Liu Dongqing's words fell, they made the young shaman sink into a struggle like a battle between heaven and man.

And at the same time, Liu Dongqing completely eased off the rhythm of attack against this young shaman. The chaotic azure light no longer scattered toward the man's figure, but instead burst out again and again toward the surroundings.

For a time, more of the firelight spreading across Autumn Water Plateau was dyed a deep azure color.

The raging flames grew another three-tenths fiercer in an instant.

Liu Dongqing seemed to be using this action as a soundless speech, urging the young shaman to make a decision.

For every measure the fire grew fiercer, it meant the crisis facing the fleeing mountain folk grew by one measure.

The crackling thunder of the flames seemed, at this moment, to powerfully resonate with the young shaman's frail yet distinct heartbeat.

Thump—thump—thump—

Before such extreme pressure, it seemed that the moment the young shaman's lips moved, the aged shaman had already foreseen his choice.

"Junior Brother—"

But this call, in this moment, was like the final force that snapped the young shaman's taut heartstring.

Almost the instant the aged shaman's words fell, from within the sea of fire filling the sky, the young shaman's urgent cry had already rung out.

"Fine! This poor Daoist will take my Demon Refining Mystic Sect's inheritance and exchange it for the lives of my Red Crow Tribe's mountain folk!

Ridiculous... ridiculous...

We and you alike, all of us treat the inheritance of a sacred land and great sect that has already been destroyed as some good thing.

But in truth, it is not.

Before the great calamity of life and death, only now did I see clearly, only now did I think it through—this Demon Refining Mystic Sect inheritance is the greatest curse beneath the heavens!

How many people lived for it, died for it, and lived lives worse than death for it!

Looking at today, it seems you two have gotten what you wanted, but one day, you will regret it!

The Southern Frontier Mountain Range is not a heaven and earth that can shelter you without worry!

The karma of the Demon Race shattering mountains and wiping out sects in the past is in fact not very far from you at all!

This poor Daoist will wait on the road to the River of Forgetfulness, waiting for the sight of you also falling bodily into the Netherworld!"

As he poured out this deathbed curse in a voice gone hoarse with exertion, immediately after, without waiting for Liu Dongqing to react, the young shaman abruptly raised his hand and pointed from afar toward the north side of Autumn Water Plateau.

"Inside the largest ancient tree in front of the rear mountain cave, the three sealed book caskets brought by my senior brother and me are sealed away.

The inheritance you want is right inside them!

Go! If you go a little late, once the wildfires sweep the plain, even the inheritance jade slips will split apart in the blaze's scorching heat!

Three sealed letters...

Ha! All three lines of our sect's inheritance are there, but each inheritance jade slip has only one last chance to be read by divine thought! I wonder how you two will divide them!"

By the end of his words, only a smile of pure malice remained on the young shaman's face.

Only, before any more venomous words could come from the young shaman's mouth, just as the illusory figures of the two fire crows soared high into the sky, and the young shaman, having utterly given up resistance, left his center wide open, Liu Dongqing did not hesitate in the slightest. The instant his Daoist fingers swept down, a beam of azure light wrapped in unimaginable scorching heat tore open the flesh at the young shaman's chest and pierced through his heart meridians.

The instant he finished doing all this.

Liu Dongqing no longer paused in the slightest. He did not even spare a glance for the other battlefield where pairs were locked in mortal combat, and simply wheeled around, striding like a shooting star over the ever-fiercer sea of flames as he raced toward the direction the young Shaman had pointed.

At the same time.

In the sea of flames behind Liu Dongqing.

The aged Shaman burst out in a peal of resolute, unbridled laughter.

"What? Why are you looking at me with eyes like that?

"Do you hate this old man for not perishing together with my junior brother?

"But why must your granddaddy do as you wish? Why!"

Jiang Xiuyong's voice, so ashamed and enraged it was almost shrill, abruptly pierced out from within the sea of flames.

"Stubborn fool. You're courting death!"

As his words fell.

A surging blaze of aura that did not belong to Jiang Xiuyong shot up into the heavens in an instant.

The eruption of that aura even made Liu Dongqing, who had been striding swiftly along, come to a sudden halt.

When he turned his head and looked back, he saw a beam of black-red light soaring into the sky. The bright radiance hung suspended in midair for an instant, revealing the illusory image of a feather fan.

In the next instant, that feather-fan phantom wrapped itself in firelight and Sha Qi that filled the sky, manifesting a divine charm of the Ding Fire Path that made Liu Dongqing's heart almost palpitate, then, like a meteor descending into the world, it smashed down viciously toward the aged Shaman within the sea of flames.

Boom—

In that instant, the entire Autumn Water Plateau seemed to tremble along with it.

So this is Jiang Xiuyong's trump card as a young master of an aristocratic clan?

How many more trump cards like this does he have?

In that instant, all kinds of thoughts surged again and again through Liu Dongqing's mind.

At the same time, Liu Dongqing's steps no longer stopped. He hurried across the last stretch, and that ancient giant tree had already appeared before his eyes.

Blazing flames were already burning upon its vast crown.

Several cracks had also run through the trunk from end to end, and under the reflection of the firelight, Liu Dongqing could already see jade light glinting back from several places.

The inheritance was right before him.

Liu Dongqing could no longer suppress the excitement in his heart.

With a wave of his hand, surging azure light, heavier and denser than ever before, enveloped the entire giant tree within it.

Bang—

Shattered wood chips immediately scattered and flew in all directions within the azure light.

At the same time, three jade slips—one crimson, one dark red, and one dark green—also shot out horizontally along with the wood chips.

Liu Dongqing saw them clearly.

On the surface of that crimson jade slip was carved a line of ancient seal script: the Scarlet Crow Secret Seal Fire-Devouring Flame-Rising Spirit Incantation.

On the surface of that dark-red jade slip, likewise written in a line of ancient seal script, was the Nine Serpents Five Fires One Baleful Qi Tail-Biting Life-Breathing Art.

And on the surface of the final dark-green jade slip, there was likewise ancient seal script: the Ghost Vine Blood-Draining Bone-Devouring Pill-Subduing Art.

The instant the three jade slips flew to a height, they began falling in different directions.

At the same time.

Having used his trump-card method, Jiang Xiuyong's hurried footsteps, just a step slower than Liu Dongqing's, had already sounded from the sea of flames behind Liu Dongqing.

It's too late to take them all. How should I choose?

In the time it took for sparks to fly from flint, Liu Dongqing's thoughts spun wildly.

Then.

In the next moment.

He raised his hand, and azure light swept forth. The two red jade slips, one bright and one dark, were both seized into Liu Dongqing's hand.

Behind him came Jiang Xiuyong's voice, sounding as if he had already been enraged to the extreme.

"Senior brother! Leave behind the Ding Fire inheritance!"