The Sun-Swallowing Scripture

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Chapter 22: The Sun-Swallowing Scripture

Chen Beiwu was not being alarmist. There was a cautionary tale to back him up.

A few years earlier, the cultivation world of Far Sky County had been rocked by the year's most dramatic sex-scandal murder case.

A genius at the Qi Refining stage had been courting the daughters of two major Golden Core lineages at once, only for a rival to expose undeniable evidence of his "masterful time management" on the spot.

Before long, the man had vanished from the cultivation world without a sound.

After the story spread, many cultivators dismissed it as a rumor. The daughters of Golden Core lineages were heaven's favored daughters-how could two of them fall for the same insignificant Qi Refining cultivator? But Chen Beiwu knew for certain that it had really happened.

Chen Beiwu knew that Qi Refining genius and had met him several times.

The man's name was Chen Xiuran. He was exceptionally handsome, a renowned heartthrob in Pingchen Township, and also Chen Beiwu's distant older cousin.

Chen Xiuran's good looks defied description. Whenever he went shopping, a whole crowd of women would trail after him, asking for his contact details.

But his heart was firmly set on pursuing the Dao. He turned down every beautiful woman who offered herself to him, yet could never refuse cultivation resources delivered to his door. In the end, he had chosen to feast on two fragrant bowls of soft rice, living off two women and provoking Golden Core aristocratic clans with strict family codes.

By now, the grass on his grave was probably three feet tall.

"Hey, what are you thinking about?" Xu Lingling waved a hand in front of Chen Beiwu's face, her eyes never leaving the jade slip in his palm.

"What do you think? Admiring a beauty, of course." Chen Beiwu glanced at her and turned to leave.

"Wait!" Xu Lingling suddenly jogged over.

Chen Beiwu stopped, his brow creasing slightly. "What is it?"

"Here. A gift to congratulate you on reaching the seventh layer of Qi Refining. Don't get the wrong idea."

As soon as she finished speaking, Chen Beiwu felt a tremendous force strike his right palm, nearly knocking him to the ground. Meanwhile, Xu Lingling ran off into the distance, her ears faintly red.

Apparently too embarrassed by giving a gift for the first time, she did not even watch where she was going. She seemed completely oblivious when her right elbow struck an ancient tree by the roadside.

Crack! The ancient tree snapped and crashed heavily to the ground, kicking up clouds of dust and making the corner of Chen Beiwu's mouth twitch.

This girl gets this embarrassed just giving someone a gift. What would happen if things went a step further and she hugged someone? Would she get so flustered that she snapped her boyfriend's bones?

The hellish image made Chen Beiwu shake his head.

Stop right there!

She had been kind enough to give him a gift. He should not let his imagination run wild.

Chen Beiwu lowered his head and looked at the jade bottle in his palm. Three bold characters were written on it: "Frostfall Pill."

"This..."

When he saw the pill's name clearly, Chen Beiwu froze, his expression complicated.

Elsewhere, Xu Ziqing threw her arms around Xu Lingling and deliberately teased her. "Lingling, are you really that rich?"

She had watched everything that happened and knew perfectly well that her best friend liked Chen Beiwu. She usually just pretended not to know, to avoid damaging their friendship.

She believed that as long as she kept expressing her affection for Chen Beiwu in front of her best friend, someone as shy as Lingling would never compete with her.

But now it seemed that even a cornered rabbit would bite.

Perhaps giving Chen Beiwu a gift had pushed Xu Lingling too hard and backfired.

Xu Lingling's cheeks flushed uncontrollably at her words. "It wasn't expensive," she murmured in her defense. "Teacher Li only charged me four hundred spirit stones per pill, exactly half the market price for Frostfall Pills. Buying three together came with a discount, too. They only cost a thousand spirit stones."

"Besides, I did it to save someone. It had nothing to do with money," she added.

At that, Xu Ziqing smiled meaningfully. "So many cultivators in Far Sky County die from serious injuries every year. Why haven't I seen you open your kind heart and save them, Lingling?"

Xu Lingling was immediately lost for words.

;psme&;psme&

"Chen Beiwu is the man of many girls' dreams at Shouhe No. 2 Middle School. It's perfectly normal for you to fall for him, Lingling." Xu Ziqing turned to look at the sky.

"Actually, I..." Xu Lingling wanted to explain, but could not get anything out.

Then she saw her best friend extend her right hand toward her, as though issuing a challenge to a duel. "Lingling, how about we each rely on our own abilities and compete fairly from now on?"

Looking at Xu Ziqing, who seemed like a goddess beneath the sunlight, Xu Lingling could not help staring in a daze.

Who am I kidding? In private, I'm not ladylike at all, and I'm always breaking things. How could I compete with my generous, gentle best friend?

The cultivation room.

"This is a headache!" Chen Beiwu sighed, his gaze shifting between the spell jade slip and the Frostfall Pills.

Too many peach blossoms could become a tribulation of their own.

Accepting one gift would have been one thing, but together, the two gifts were far too valuable. Their combined worth exceeded a thousand low-grade spirit stones.

If either of Xu Ziqing's parents took a dislike to him and wanted to make trouble, they could use these gifts as grounds to have him fitted with silver bracelets and sent off to mine.

Thinking so much is useless. When all is said and done, I'm just not strong enough.

Otherwise, I could do whatever I wanted. Chen Beiwu glanced at the messages on his phone.

Unsurprisingly, both Xu Ziqing and Xu Lingling said that a gift given was like water spilled: there was no taking it back. They told him to accept their gifts without worry.

No choice, then. I'll have to find a time to give Xu Ziqing, Xu Lingling, and Teacher Li Jiacheng gifts in return to thank them. Chen Beiwu picked up the spell jade slip and looked at Iron Egg.

"Woof?"

Iron Egg tilted his head in confusion.

"Do you want to get stronger?" Chen Beiwu asked solemnly.

Iron Egg's eyes lit up, and he barked excitedly. "Woof, woof, woof!"

"Excellent. I have a Heavenly Dog Swallowing the Sun Scripture here, passed down from ancient times. Look at the patterns on this jade slip. See that golden line? It means the jade slip contains the embryonic form of a supreme-grade fire spell Divine Ability," Chen Beiwu declared extravagantly.

Iron Egg's canine eyes widened further and further, and he seized the jade slip in his mouth.

"Easy. Don't bite through the jade slip."

Chen Beiwu patted the dog's head. "Listen. The embryonic form of this Divine Ability is called Blazing Flame Pull. It can gather the world's fire-aspected spiritual energy into a fire python capable of both attack and defense. The fire python has seven forms, and its strongest form can instantly break through a second-realm lesser demon's defenses."

Iron Egg excitedly scraped at the ground, his tail spinning like a wind-and-fire wheel.

He knew what a second-realm lesser demon was.

The imposing Azure Thunder Tiger from yesterday, which had almost scared him into wetting himself even from far away, was a second-realm lesser demon. That fellow had looked so powerful, so overbearing!

"Well? Want to learn it?" Chen Beiwu asked.

Iron Egg nodded furiously.

"Then should we change how we split the Jade-Scale Snake?"

"Woof!"

"Very good." Chen Beiwu nodded slightly. "Since your heart is firmly set on pursuing the Dao, I'll entrust this embryonic Divine Ability to you. Remember, coat your tongue with demonic energy and lick the jade slip to activate the instruction."

The moment he finished speaking, Iron Egg began licking the jade slip furiously.

Having successfully sparked Iron Egg's enthusiasm for learning, Chen Beiwu chuckled inwardly.

He had not deceived Iron Egg. Blazing Flame Pull's strongest form, in which the python transformed into a dragon, could instantly break through a second-realm lesser demon's defenses. But there were two prerequisites: the caster had to reach Foundation Establishment and comprehend the second-tier Supreme-Grade Spirit Art, Blazing Dragon Shatter.

(End of chapter)