Three Cries of "Hongyun"

"There is one Nine-Turn Golden Elixir in the bottle, to be your reward. Once the matter is done, I shall reward you further."

The words at Yellow Dragon's lips were swallowed back in an instant.

A Nine-Turn Golden Elixir! A supreme treasure pill personally refined by the Supreme Pure Saint—one pill alone could allow a living being to become a Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal on the spot!

And there was even a jade bottle at the level of a postnatal spirit treasure.

The immense reward instantly swept away Yellow Dragon's scant fear of danger. He immediately bowed and accepted the Supreme Pure Saint's task. "This disciple accepts the decree!"

The Supreme Pure Saint gave a slight nod, having anticipated his reaction long ago.

Another streak of clear light flew forth, transforming into a palm-sized piece of jade-iron. Yin and yang energies flowed naturally across its surface, evolving into a Supreme Ultimate pattern of profound mystery.

"I bestow this item upon you. It contains a thread of divine ability I have sealed within. Should your life be in danger, simply activate it, and it will protect you."

Yellow Dragon accepted the jade-iron with both hands. It felt warm and smooth to the touch; though it looked like metal, it was even gentler and cooler than the finest innate spirit jade, with Dao rhythms naturally formed upon it.

"With this divine ability to protect me, so long as no other Saint acts, can't I come and go as I please throughout this vast prehistoric world?"

Yellow Dragon carefully tucked the two treasures close against his body.

The Supreme Pure Saint said no more, merely raising a hand and lightly drawing across the void.

Without a sound.

A spatial rift appeared before Yellow Dragon, its edges continuously closing and splitting apart, while a heart-palpitating aura emanated from within.

At the center of the rift, a deep passage slowly emerged, connecting to someplace endlessly distant and filling any dragon with dread at the sight.

Drawing a deep breath, Yellow Dragon touched the jade-iron in his robes, and his fear of the unknown immediately faded somewhat.

He turned to Xuandu at his side and swiftly sent a divine-sense message, informing him of how to open and control the formations at his own Daoist sanctuary. Earnestly, he said, "Junior Brother Xuandu, I do not know how long this journey will take before I can return. Please help your senior brother look after my Five Elements Daoist Sanctuary...!"

Xuandu wore a grave expression as he returned the salute. "Rest assured, Senior Brother. With me here, nothing will happen."

Yellow Dragon nodded. He summoned the Five Elements Tower to hover above his head, its shield of five-colored light enveloping him as he took one step into the spatial rift!

Who knew how much time passed—perhaps only an instant, perhaps an age—before Yellow Dragon suddenly felt his body grow light, once more sensing the existence of the world's laws.

BOOM!!! Before Yellow Dragon could react.

An aura mixed with remnants of countless violent laws of destruction crashed head-on like a towering tidal wave, slamming against the shield emitted by his Five Elements Tower. Ripples spread across it, and Yellow Dragon was nearly sent flying.

After he finally stabilized himself, he saw that the sky was shrouded in layers upon layers of endlessly churning dark-red dust and smoke, blotting out the light of heaven and turning the land below into an apocalyptic dusk.

This sight left Yellow Dragon unable to tell whether he was in the center of Hongyun's self-destruction or on its outskirts.

The smoke was so thick it could not be dispersed. With his naked eye, he could see no farther than a hundred meters around him. The drifting dust collided and swirled against itself, producing a strange low hum that made Yellow Dragon's heart quiver, his mind restless and his soul unstable.

Yellow Dragon pondered briefly. "Since I cannot see the situation around me, I can only use my Primordial Spirit!"

A wisp of Primordial Spirit power slowly extended beyond his body, sweeping through the hundred-meter range visible to his eyes. Finding nothing unusual, it continued probing into the smoke that filled the sky.

A fierce wind swept past, carrying countless particles of dark-red dust.

Yet at the very instant Yellow Dragon's Primordial Spirit came into contact with that dark-red dust—!

Sizzle—!

An exceedingly faint burning sound rang out, like a drop of clear water falling onto a red-hot branding iron!

"Ugh—ah—!"

The portion of Yellow Dragon's Primordial Spirit that had entered the red dust was instantly corroded into nothingness, and the corrosion followed that wisp of Primordial Spirit back toward Yellow Dragon himself.

Yellow Dragon reeled as though struck by a heavy blow. The erosion of his Primordial Spirit drew an uncontrollable groan of pain from him. His face went deathly pale, and veins bulged at his temples.

This pain did not affect his physical body—it directly scorched the very origin of his Primordial Spirit!

It felt as though hundreds of millions of poisoned needles were piercing him over and over, while he was simultaneously roasted over blazing fire. This terrible agony madly battered his divine soul!

Yellow Dragon immediately severed the Primordial Spirit outside his body, allowing it to be corroded by the dark-red dust.

"This is no ordinary dust! It is the Nine-Nine Soul-Scattering Sand, a divine ability Hongyun refined within the Soul-Scattering Gourd. It specifically counters the Primordial Spirit, wearing away divine souls and true spirits!"

Cold sweat streamed down True Person Yellow Dragon's face. Fortunately, he had not released his Primordial Spirit at full strength to investigate. He immediately sat cross-legged, took several spirit herbs that nourished the divine soul from the Mysterious Yellow World, swallowed them, then placed a tea leaf in his mouth. Activating the Yuanshi Golden Canon, he slowly nurtured and nourished his injured Primordial Spirit.

He then summoned the Pure World White Lotus to guard and purify his Primordial Spirit. Only after a long while did the damage to his Primordial Spirit finally heal completely, and the searing pain that had sunk deep into his soul was thoroughly driven away.

Still shaken, he looked toward that expanse of red-sand miasma, which continued to churn and blot out the sky. His eyes were filled with unprecedented shock and gravity.

"What terrifying soul-scattering red sand... It is so tyrannical that even with its master dead and gone, with no one controlling it, it can still so easily corrode my Primordial Spirit!" he murmured, his voice carrying a faint, barely perceptible tremble.

"Even Hongyun, universally acknowledged throughout the prehistoric world as a good old fellow, refined such a vicious divine ability. Sure enough, none of these great figures who achieved quasi-Sainthood are simple!"

The path of investigating with his Primordial Spirit had been completely cut off.

Yellow Dragon sat silently where he was, regulating his breath for a long while as he considered what to do next. Since he could not investigate where he was, he would simply begin from here.

With the Mysterious Yellow World Pearl, he did not need to worry about exhausting his spiritual energy. He could hold out for tens of thousands of years without issue.

He did not dare slacken. First, he guarded his mind closely, then solemnly took out a purple-gold gourd.

Dao rhythms flowed across the gourd's surface, with rosy light faintly concealed within. It was precisely the Purple-Gold Gourd his eldest grand-uncle had given him, a top-grade innate treasure.

In Journey to the West, this gourd was quite famous. So long as one held this treasure and shouted an opponent's true name, if that opponent dared answer, they would instantly be drawn into the gourd. Within the time it took to burn three sticks of incense, whoever had been sucked inside would be reduced to pus and blood, body and soul annihilated.

With this gourd, in a place like this, should he call out Hongyun's name?

Was Grand Uncle Master trying to gather Hongyun's soul?

Or...!

He did not dare dwell any further on the Saint's intentions. He merely followed Grand Uncle Master's instructions and offered up the gourd.

The gourd hung in the air, Dao patterns flowing across its surface as it gave off gentle, mysterious ripples that temporarily dispersed the smoke and dust in a small area around it.

He circulated the mana throughout his body and into his mouth, amplifying his voice until it rang like a great bell. Toward the smoke and dust filling the heavens, he shouted three times in succession:

"Hongyun!"

"Hongyun!"

"Hongyun!"