Nine-Nine Soul-Scattering Gourd

The three calls were like a pebble dropped onto churning water. In this dust-choked world of chaotic laws, they raised not the slightest ripple.

After the third call, only the wind continued to howl.

But Yellow Dragon held his breath and focused. Clear light flickered in his eyes as he watched closely.

Sure enough, tiny, exceedingly faint red sparks began to appear amid the turmoil, flickering like candles in the wind.

They were as fine as dust and scattered far apart. Each carried a trace of spiritual energy: fragments of Ancestor Hong Yun's True Spirit, dispersed in every direction after he blew himself up!

The sparks seemed to awaken at the Purple-Gold Gourd's strange pulse and Yellow Dragon's calls. They began to flicker in resonance with the gourd.

Slowly, they broke free of the earth and drifted toward its mouth, one speck at a time.

They moved so slowly it was agonizing, as though the devastation had frozen time itself.

Yellow Dragon kept track. Gathering the sparks scattered across a few hundred meters took several days!

His heart sank at the sight.

At this rate, who knew how many years it would take to cross this vast, shattered land and collect every fragment of Hong Yun's True Spirit?

"This really is a thankless job!"

Anything his senior martial uncle had entrusted to him personally was bound to be no small matter.

He dared not move the gourd too soon, lest he interrupt its collection of Hong Yun's True Spirit and ruin his senior martial uncle's plans.

But he could hardly sit idle and wait.

Several days later, when no more red sparks entered the gourd from the surrounding area, it dropped into Yellow Dragon's hand on its own.

As the areas cleared of Hong Yun's True Spirit grew, the Soul-Scattering Gourd's red sand filling the sky began to avoid them.

Yellow Dragon moved to another area and called out three times again. Specks of red light appeared and slowly gathered toward the gourd.

Seeing that the gourd could work on its own, Yellow Dragon returned to the area he had finished and sent out his Primordial Spirit to examine this dead, chaotic land.

Beneath the ground, the Earth Veins and Spirit Veins had long since shattered. Spiritual energy was utterly exhausted, baleful and turbid energies seeped out without end, and not a trace of life remained.

"This wasteland is even worse off than Penglai Immortal Island."

Yellow Dragon sighed, but excitement filled his eyes.

If he restored life to this region, he would gain merit, Creation Origin, and a reward from the Supreme Pure Saint. Three rewards for one task. What did it matter if he spent tens of thousands of years here? It would hardly be the first time.

His mind made up, he summoned the Pure World White Lotus. It floated in the air, shedding a soft, pure white glow.

The lotus turned slowly, scattering wisps of purifying Spirit Light that swept through the land like a spring breeze.

Wherever they passed, the dust and violent residual energy in the air, along with the baleful and turbid energies released by the shattered Earth Veins and Spirit Veins, were cleansed away.

The dark red haze dispersed, replaced by a freshness like a mountain forest after rain. Faint though it was, Yellow Dragon could breathe easier.

After purification came repairing the Earth Veins, moving Spirit Veins into place, and finally restoring life. He knew the process by heart.

He began with the broken network of Earth Veins beneath his feet.

The Earth Veins here had shattered. Yellow Dragon pointed at their broken ends and gathered countless fragments with his Magic Power. Then, using that power like needle and thread, he carefully rejoined and cleared the severed, blocked veins.

At the same time, he separated a tiny Spirit Vein from the Mysterious Yellow World, carefully brought it out, and planted it at a node in the newly cleared Earth Veins.

With the Earth Veins partly restored and a Spirit Vein planted, Yellow Dragon channeled his Magic Power and used the Sweet Dew Technique.

He drew water-aspected spiritual energy from the Mysterious Yellow World and mixed it with his pure Magic Power. It became a fine rain of life-giving Sweet Dew.

The rain soaked into the parched earth. Nourished by its vitality, the seeds he had scattered earlier broke through the soil and sent up tender green shoots.

In moments, flecks of life appeared across the dark red, lifeless ground.

The earth revived, plants sprouted, and life began to return to the wasteland.

As it did, wisps of pure Creation Origin seeped from the reviving earth.

Yellow Dragon was ready. Using the Creation Origin Condensation Technique, he gathered the wisps and stored them within his body.

With his Golden Immortal cultivation, the Sweet Dew Technique, and the Pure World White Lotus, he restored the land several times faster than he had once restored Penglai Immortal Island.

Whenever the Purple-Gold Gourd finished gathering the red sparks in one area, Yellow Dragon moved on with it, continuing to purify and repair the land, coax forth life, and collect Creation Origin.

If he finished restoring an area before the Purple-Gold Gourd was done, he used the time to study the lingering traces of law left by the Quasi-Saints' battle at the edge of the still-chaotic region. His cultivation and understanding steadily deepened without him realizing it.

Time flew. The sun rose, the moon set, and tens of thousands of years passed in the blink of an eye.

From high above, one could see that green life had returned to more than half of this vast, dark red land that had once been utterly dead.

Dark red haze still covered much of the rest, but flecks of green were steadily spreading through it.

After tens of thousands of years of gathering, the Purple-Gold Gourd held more and more fragments of Hong Yun's True Spirit. Its sense of the fragments still scattered outside grew sharper.

In time, the pull from its mouth reached farther and gathered them faster.

Inside the gourd, countless red sparks had joined together, faintly forming an exceedingly thin red cloud!

One day, Yellow Dragon had just restored life to a new area and was about to study the traces of law in the chaos ahead.

Riiip!

Without warning, space split open directly before him!

Wild Spatial Turbulence churned within the rift, giving off an aura that made Yellow Dragon's heart clench.

He sprang back, gripping the protective treasure his senior martial uncle had given him. The Five Elements Tower hovered above his head as he braced himself.

But no mighty cultivator emerged from the rift.

Instead, a crimson glow wrapped around an object shot out with incredible speed!

The moment it passed through, the rift closed as though it had never appeared.

The red light stopped in midair and faded, revealing a gourd, crimson from end to end and covered in naturally formed Dao patterns!

"The Nine-Nine Soul-Scattering Gourd!"

Disbelief filled Yellow Dragon's eyes.

After Hong Yun blew himself up, Spatial Turbulence had swallowed this treasure too. Yet it had somehow escaped!

As though it had a mind of its own, the Soul-Scattering Gourd paused in midair and sensed Hong Yun's True Spirit inside the Purple-Gold Gourd.

It circled the Purple-Gold Gourd several times, trembling slightly. Then it stopped, pointed its mouth at the other gourd, and released a faint red light that flew inside.

Yellow Dragon saw it clearly. Though the red light was small, it held a hundred times more spiritual energy than all the fragments of True Spirit he had gathered over the years combined!

Once it had released the light, the Soul-Scattering Gourd's crimson glow dimmed noticeably. As though its spirit had left it, it drifted down into Yellow Dragon's outstretched hand.

It felt warm to the touch, as though it still held a trace of its former master's warmth and Obsession.