~
"...Lord Medicine Sovereign fought desperately to hold off Old Dragon Head, but the Fire Dragon Palace had come out in full force, and most of our Spring Returning Church's high-ranked cultivators were away. We couldn't resist for long, and only this handful of us escaped!" Alchemy Spirit Child said, his face bleak. Then he murmured reproachfully, "Perhaps Lord Medicine Sovereign already fell in that battle. It's all our fault for not returning in time...!"
"...Afterward, we organized several counterattacks, but the gap in strength was too great. If the Heavenly Dao Sect's treasure ship hadn't arrived, Old Dragon Head of the Fire Dragon Palace might have killed us all!" A burly, bearded middle-aged Bearded Man beside Alchemy Spirit Child hurried to add when he fell silent.
"Oh!" Li Xiaoya's expression grew grave after hearing their account. He rose to his feet, his thoughts churning. So the Spring Returning Church had been destroyed so easily largely because that sunlike weapon had breached its defensive restrictions and destroyed the Ten-Thousand-Year Treasure Tree, then blasted away most of its other defenses. That tree in particular was supposedly more than just a tree-it was a tree spirit that had attained sentience. Once awakened, it would have been a moving fortress, yet that beam had destroyed it in a single strike. If there was a weapon in the Cultivation World powerful enough to do that without the Spring Returning Church detecting it... At that thought, realization jolted through Li Xiaoya, and he cried, "The Four Symbols Spirit Cannon! The Fire Dragon Palace used the Four Symbols Spirit Cannon!"
"What? The Four Symbols Spirit Cannon?" Everyone cried out, staring at Li Xiaoya in confusion.
"Do... do you mean the Four Symbols Gate's legendary super-long-range spirit cannon, the Four Symbols Spirit Cannon?" the burly, bearded middle-aged