Three Cries of "Hong Yun"

"There is a Nine-Turn Golden Elixir in the bottle. Consider it your payment. Once the task is done, I shall reward you further."

Yellow Dragon swallowed the words on the tip of his tongue.

A Nine-Turn Golden Elixir! A supreme pill refined by the Supreme Pure Saint himself. A single pill could elevate a living being to Great Luo Golden Immortal on the spot!

And the jade bottle was an acquired Spirit Treasure.

The enormous reward swept away Yellow Dragon's fear of the danger. He bowed at once and accepted the Supreme Pure Saint's task. "This disciple accepts your decree!"

The Supreme Pure Saint nodded faintly. He had expected that response.

Another streak of clear light flew out and became a palm-sized piece of jade-like metal. Yin and yang energies flowed across it, forming a Supreme Ultimate Diagram of extraordinary profundity.

"I grant you this. Within it, I have sealed a fragment of my divine power. If your life is in danger, release it, and it will protect you."

Yellow Dragon received the piece with both hands. It felt warm and smooth. Though it looked like metal, it was gentler and cooler to the touch than the finest innate Spirit Jade, and it carried a Dao resonance of its own.

With this divine power protecting me, as long as no other Sage intervenes, I can come and go anywhere in the vast Primordial World, can't I?

Yellow Dragon carefully tucked both treasures against his body.

The Supreme Pure Saint said no more. He raised a hand and drew it lightly through the void.

Without a sound.

A spatial rift appeared before Yellow Dragon. Its edges repeatedly closed and tore open, while a heart-stopping aura poured from within.

A deep passageway slowly formed in the rift, leading to a place unimaginably far away. The sight filled Yellow Dragon with dread.

He took a deep breath and touched the piece of jade-like metal in his robe. Some of his fear of the unknown faded.

Turning to Xuandu, he swiftly sent him a message through divine sense, explaining how to open and control the formations at his sanctuary. "Junior Brother Xuandu, I don't know how long I'll be gone. Please help look after my Five Elements Daoist Sanctuary...!"

Xuandu returned his bow, his expression earnest. "Rest assured, Senior Brother. With me here, nothing will happen to it."

Yellow Dragon nodded and summoned the Five Elements Tower above his head. A shield of five-colored light enveloped him, and he stepped into the spatial rift!

He did not know how much time passed. Perhaps it was only an instant, or perhaps a long while. Then his body suddenly felt light, and he could once again sense the laws of heaven and earth.

Boom! Before Yellow Dragon could react.

A wave of aura laden with the remnants of violent, destructive laws crashed into him like a towering wall of water. It struck the shield cast by the Five Elements Tower, sending ripples across it and nearly knocking him off his feet.

When he finally steadied himself, he saw the sky buried beneath layer upon layer of churning dark-red dust. It blotted out the daylight, leaving the land below in an apocalyptic dusk.

The sight gave Yellow Dragon no clue whether he was at the center of Hong Yun's self-destruction or somewhere on its outskirts.

The dust was so dense that his eyes could see no farther than a hundred meters. As the particles swirled and collided, they gave off a strange, low hum that made his heart pound and left his mind agitated and unsteady.

Yellow Dragon considered it briefly. If I can't see what's around me, I'll have to use my Primordial Spirit!

He slowly extended a trace of his Primordial Spirit beyond his body and swept it across the hundred meters he could see. When nothing unusual happened, he probed into the dust-filled sky.

A fierce wind swept countless dark-red particles past him,

But the instant his Primordial Spirit touched the dark-red dust—!

Sss!

A faint sizzling sounded, like a drop of water falling onto a red-hot iron!

"Argh—!"

The portion of Yellow Dragon's Primordial Spirit that had entered the red dust was corroded away in an instant. The corrosion then raced along that trace toward him.

Yellow Dragon reeled as though struck. The damage to his Primordial Spirit tore an involuntary groan from his throat. His face went deathly pale, and veins bulged at his temples.

The pain was not in his body. It seared the very source of his Primordial Spirit!

It felt as though billions of poisoned needles were piercing him again and again while he was roasted over a blazing fire. The agony battered his soul without mercy!

Yellow Dragon immediately severed the portion of his Primordial Spirit outside his body, leaving it to be devoured by the dark-red dust.

This isn't ordinary dust at all! It's the Nine-Nine Soul-Scattering Sand Hong Yun refined within the Soul-Scattering Gourd. It specifically attacks the Primordial Spirit, wearing away the soul and True Spirit!

Cold sweat poured down True Person Huang Long's face. Fortunately, he had not sent out his Primordial Spirit at full strength. He sat cross-legged, took several soul-nourishing spirit herbs from the Mysterious Yellow World, and swallowed them. Then he placed a tea leaf in his mouth and circulated the Yuanshi Golden Canon to soothe and restore his injured Primordial Spirit.

He also summoned the Pure World White Lotus to protect and purify his Primordial Spirit. Only after a long while did the damage fully heal and the searing pain deep in his soul finally disappear.

Still shaken, he looked toward the red sand haze that continued to churn and blot out the sky. Unprecedented alarm and gravity filled his eyes.

"Such vicious soul-scattering red sand... Even with its master dead and no one controlling it, it corroded my Primordial Spirit so easily!" he muttered, a faint tremor in his voice.

"Even Hong Yun, whom everyone in the Primordial World considered a good-natured soul, refined such a vicious technique. I suppose none of these mighty figures who reached Quasi-Saint are simple!"

Using his Primordial Spirit to explore was out of the question.

Yellow Dragon sat in silence for a long time, regulating his breath and considering what to do next. Since he could not determine where he was, he would start here.

With the Mysterious Yellow World Pearl, he did not need to worry about running out of spiritual energy. He could keep going for tens of thousands of years if necessary.

He dared not be careless. Steadying his mind, he solemnly took out a purple-gold gourd.

Dao patterns flowed across its surface, with a faint rosy glow contained within. It was the Purple-Gold Gourd his eldest martial uncle had given him, a top-grade innate treasure.

In Journey to the West, this gourd was famous. Its wielder only had to call out an opponent's true name. If the opponent answered, the gourd would draw them inside at once. In a short while, they would dissolve into blood and pus, body and soul destroyed.

In a place like this, he wants me to call out Hong Yun's name while holding this gourd?

Does Eldest Martial Uncle want to collect Hong Yun's soul?

Or...!

He dared not speculate further about the Sage's intentions. He simply summoned the gourd as his eldest martial uncle had instructed.

The gourd hovered in the air, Dao patterns flowing across its surface. It gave off a gentle, mysterious pulse that briefly drove the dust from a small area around it.

Yellow Dragon channeled his Magic Power into his voice, making it ring like a great bell. Into the dust-filled sky, he called three times:

"Hong Yun!"

"Hong Yun!"

"Hong Yun!"