"Last time, we left off with the old man on the river unleashing an immortal pellet, its Sword-Ray striking straight at the wicked flood dragon."
"This sword strike seemed utterly ordinary, yet in truth, it changed the colors of heaven and earth."
"The waves split in two, exposing the ravines along the riverbed! The aftershocks of Sword Qi rippled outward, and the drifting clouds overhead surged away in all directions in an instant!"
"Sword light darted around the wicked flood dragon, cutting from the crown of its head to its tail. Its hide split and flesh burst open, its blood gathering into red lotuses in midair, drifting and fluttering back into the river."
"By the time everyone came to their senses, both the little boat and the old man had vanished without a trace. Only the bloody glow of that Great Yao on the river and the phantom images of the Illusion Formation overhead remained, lingering for dozens of days."
The storyteller snapped open his folding fan, concealing his face as he lowered his voice.
"From that day onward, cultivators from the Chu Lands flocked there like ducks to water. Many cultivators from other kingdoms even came on account of its fame."
"Throughout the cultivation world of the Chu Kingdom, speculation about that Straw-Cloaked Old Man on the river abounded."
"Some said he was a rogue cultivator of great power who had crossed westward from the Immortal Island in the Eastern Sea to roam the mortal world at his leisure."
"Others guessed he was an ancestor of one of the Six Great Sects, traveling the world, who happened to return to the Chu Kingdom and lent a hand."
"But the Six Great Sects of the time went home and searched through every kind of ancient text and secret record, yet