Above the heavens, lightning serpents danced madly.
Like roaring giant dragons, they tore through the air and burst forth with blinding radiance.
In that instant, Yellow Springs Road seemed to have been illuminated as brightly as day.
Seeing Fang Heng atop the Thunder Dragon, the Horse-Face man's gaze darkened slightly.
"Could Your Excellency give this old man some face?"
"As long as Your Excellency stands aside today, this bottle of Profound Yin Spirit Liquid shall be yours."
The Profound Yin Spirit Liquid was worth a fortune.
This Horse-Face evil cultivator was certainly generous with his offer.
Unfortunately...
"Heh-heh—"
"I am more interested in the head upon your shoulders."
His icy words carried dense killing intent.
Accompanied by the Thunder Dragon's roar, they echoed through the heavens.
Beneath his mask, the Horse-Face man's aged face darkened like still water, livid and green.
Mad killing intent flickered in his gloomy eyes.
"Good! Good! Good!"
The Horse-Face man laughed in extreme anger.
As an evil cultivator, he had always acted wildly and without restraint.
If the Nine Yin Absolute Meridian had not been so important, and if he had not wished to avoid unnecessary complications, why would he have lowered his head to Black Impermanence before him?
Yet unexpectedly, his concession had only fueled the other party's arrogance.
"Countless people have wished to take this old man's head."
"But every last one of them became ghosts beneath this old man's hand."
"Today, I shall add one more to that number."
As his words fell, the Horse-Face man's ten fingers moved in rapid succession, forming an eerie hand seal.
Immediately afterward, dense yin qi shot into the sky.
Like columns of wolf smoke!
As though it had solidified into substance!
Within that chilling ghostly qi, the sounds of ghosts weeping and wolves howling could still be heard.
"Five Ghosts Return as One, Reaching Heaven and Sealing Earth."
As the Horse-Face man's voice fell, Fang Heng clearly sensed it.
The auras of the five ghost creatures began to merge, five becoming one and fusing together.
As the five ghosts' auras intertwined, a colossal ghost creature towering between heaven and earth appeared before Fang Heng.
It stood thirty zhang tall, with two horns and four arms.
Its terrifying pressure seemed to freeze even the air solid.
When Shen Qiushui saw the colossal ghost creature, her lovely face turned even paler, utterly bloodless.
Her breathing quickened, her full chest rising and falling.
If the Horse-Face man struck with full force from the start,
she absolutely would not be able to withstand even a single move.
Though the Horse-Face man spoke arrogantly,
he was actually extremely cautious within.
Thunder cultivators of the Daoist School were simply the natural bane of their lineage.
Even if the thunder cultivator before him possessed an aura
that did not appear particularly strong, merely at the Object Manipulation Realm and seemingly not worth fearing,
he still did not dare to be the slightest bit careless.
Especially that terrifying azure lightning above the heavens.
One glance was enough to tell that it was no ordinary lightning.
Could it be the Divine Firmament Sect's Wood-Thunder Divine Lightning?
No!
It was somewhat similar, yet different.
This azure lightning seemed even more fierce and forceful than Wood-Thunder Divine Lightning!
From the very first move, the Horse-Face man used his trump-card technique.
When the five fourth-realm yin souls' energies merged,
their strength was enough to contend with a fifth-realm yin soul.
No matter how strong a thunder cultivator was, could he truly cross three realms and emerge victorious?
The colossal yin soul planted its feet upon the earth, like a small mountain, exerting immense pressure.
An ordinary Object Manipulation Realm cultivator facing such a terrifying yin soul would likely not even have the courage to attack.
"Fortunately, I was cautious enough."
"Before acting, I had already made foolproof preparations!"
Fang Heng thought to himself, faint lightning flickering in his pitch-black eyes.
The five bolts of Wood-Thunder Divine Lightning stored within the Heavenly Thunder Token had long since been released, transforming into the five Thunder Dragons above the heavens.
The five Thunder Dragons seemed to have sensed the colossal ghost creature's provocation.
Their roars rang through the clouds.
Five Thunders Striking the Top!
The moment he moved, he went all out.
With a turn of his right hand, Fang Heng's jade-like palm descended.
The five Thunder Dragons were like the five fingers in his palm, as obedient as an arm directing its fingers.
Boom—
The five Thunder Dragons contained destructive power.
With the force of thunderbolts, they crashed down.
Blinding light!
Heaven-shaking thunder!
It was as if they were venting boundless fury.
That endless fury all descended upon the colossal ghost creature.
The scene was like the might of Heaven itself.
Shen Qiushui's eyes shimmered with brilliant light.
Her admiration was like the surging Yangtze, rolling on without end.
Everyone outside said that the Ninth Prince was a sickly weakling.
Only today did she realize that hearing a hundred times was not as good as seeing once.
His Highness was so fierce and unyielding, so brutally formidable.
Shen Qiushui's limpid autumn eyes seemed as though they might melt into threads.
As for the Horse-Face man, his feelings at this moment were entirely opposite to Shen Qiushui's.
Deep unease and unresolvable confusion rose in his heart.
What kind of technique was this?
Could an Object Manipulation Realm thunder cultivator be this powerful?
"Break for me!"
The Horse-Face man shouted sharply.
He controlled the colossal ghost creature, swinging up its fist and smashing it fiercely toward the Thunder Dragons.
Boom—
The massive ghost claw and the azure Thunder Dragon
collided head-on in midair.
Black and azure intertwined and clashed in the void.
The shockwaves they unleashed spread in every direction.
Even ghost creatures hundreds of zhang away that failed to dodge in time were swept by the aftershocks and immediately scattered into ashes.
After the light flickered away,
the colossal ghost creature's claw had vanished without a trace.
It had actually been forcibly severed by the Thunder Dragon.
The Horse-Face man's heart sank to the bottom.
In merely one exchange, the colossal ghost creature had suffered a crushing loss.
Fang Heng was not surprised in the slightest when he saw this.
The Horse-Face man had only seen the Thunder Dragon's strength, yet failed to see the forcefulness of the Soul Reaper Envoy destiny.
It could be said that every one of Fang Heng's attacks was a critical strike against yin souls and ghost creatures.
"Fall!"
Lightning crashed down.
Violent as rain.
It came wave after wave, as though it had no end.
A scorched, oppressive scent filled the air.
Even breathing seemed to carry the stinging pain of lightning.
Boom—
Boom—
Boom—
Boom—
When all five Thunder Dragons had descended,
Crack! Crack!
The sound of shattering rang out.
As the colossal ghost creature was ground to pieces by the Thunder Dragons, terror surged straight to the Horse-Face man's crown.
"Run—"
As long as the green hills remained, there would be no shortage of firewood!
At this moment, the Horse-Face man could no longer concern himself with the Nine Yin Absolute Meridian.
The only thought in his mind was escape.
This place was Yellow Springs Road, naturally suited for ghost dao escape arts.
A streak of dim light shot into the sky.
It sped toward the exit of Yellow Springs Road.
It moved so swiftly that it seemed to leave afterimages throughout the void.
"Black Impermanence, this old man will remember today's grudge. Next time..."
"Next time?"
"There will be no next time!"
Fang Heng snorted coldly.
How could he do something as foolish as letting a tiger return to the mountains?
As his words fell,
five Lightning-Attracting Banners in five different positions bloomed with dazzling purple light.
Faintly, they echoed the Thunder Dragons above the heavens.
"Wood-Thunder Divine Lightning, rise!"
Fang Heng circulated his mana, and azure lightning erupted from his palm.
Guided by the Lightning-Attracting Banners, it shot toward the distant fleeing figure.
In less than a single breath,
a lightning cage appeared out of thin air.
It shrouded Yellow Springs Road.
At the sight of this, the Horse-Face man's vision went black.
How could he fail to realize that Black Impermanence had been plotting against him all along?
"White Impermanence, you are despicable and shameless."
"You actually plotted against me!"
The Horse-Face man roared, his eyes splitting with fury.
He placed the entirety of today's defeat upon Shen Qiushui.
If not for her scheming, how could he have fallen into such desperate straits?
The lightning cage gradually shrank.
Seeing that it was about to descend upon him, the Horse-Face man finally panicked completely.
"Black Impermanence, spare my life."
"From this day onward, I am willing to serve you like an ox and horse, I dare—"
Before he could finish speaking, Wood-Thunder Divine Lightning crashed down.
Rumble—
Rumble—
Lightning and thunder intertwined.
Mixed within them was the power to destroy everything.
As though it meant to wipe all things between heaven and earth clean.
Three breaths later.
The thunderstorm dispersed.
The Horse-Face man had been reduced to nothing, not even bones remaining.
Not even scraps of flesh were left behind.
Only a white finger bone fell to the ground.
Fang Heng picked up the finger bone. It was icy cold, like a block of ice.
It looked ordinary, no different from any common finger bone.
Yet it had remained completely intact beneath the bombardment of the Wood-Thunder Divine Lightning. Clearly, it was no ordinary object.
Fang Heng put away the finger bone and walked toward Shen Qiushui.
Shen Qiushui had long since exhausted her strength and was holding on solely through sheer will.
Now that the battle had ended, her legs gave out, and she collapsed into Fang Heng's arms.
The faint fragrance of a young woman drifted to his nose.
"Miss Shen, are you all right?"
"Mm... I'm just a little tired!"
Feeling the hand around her slender waist, Shen Qiushui's pretty face grew slightly hot. She did not dare raise her head to look Fang Heng directly in the eye.
"The Yellow Springs Road isn't safe. Let's leave first."
"Mm... I'll leave everything to Your Highness."
After returning to Listening Rain Pavilion, Fang Heng hurriedly fed Shen Qiushui a Rejuvenation Pill and helped her regulate her breathing.
A quarter of an hour later, the pallor on Shen Qiushui's face finally faded, replaced by a healthy flush.
"Thank you, Your Highness, for saving me."
"For this life-saving grace, I have no way to repay you..."
"So this time, you've finally decided to give yourself to me?"
Fang Heng teased her. This seemed to be the second time Shen Qiushui had said she had no way to repay him.
Shen Qiushui instantly flushed crimson, her pretty face seeming as if it could drip blood.
Lowering her head, she gave a soft snort through her nose.
In a voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz, she murmured,
"If Your Highness truly insists that I give myself to you, it isn't impossible..."
"Cough, cough!"
Fang Heng hurriedly coughed, cutting Shen Qiushui off.
A joke was one thing.
But if he truly crossed the line, Fang Heng had no idea what the Martial Prime Minister, that daughter-doting maniac, might do.
"Miss Shen, are you cultivating the Fiction School's inheritance?"
Seeing Fang Heng change the subject, a faint flicker of disappointment appeared in Shen Qiushui's eyes.
However, she quickly composed herself.
"Your Highness's gaze is truly sharp. You saw through my lineage at a glance."
"I cultivate the Fiction School's inheritance."
"Hasn't the Fiction School's inheritance already been severed?" Fang Heng asked curiously.
Among the Hundred Schools of Thought, aside from the four lucky survivors—the Agricultural School, Military School, Mohist School, and Yin-Yang School—the other inheritances had long been swallowed by the river of history.
"I was fortunate," Shen Qiushui said softly, a trace of reminiscence surfacing in her eyes.
"I was frail from childhood and was diagnosed with the Nine Yin Absolute Meridian. I could not practice martial arts, had no spiritual root, and could not cultivate the Dao."
"I thought cultivation would be forever beyond my reach in this life."
"But... when I was twelve, I discovered a cave while out on a spring excursion."
"Inside the cave, I found a jade slip containing the Fiction School's inheritance."
"Who would have thought that, by stumbling into it blindly, I would actually be able to cultivate the Fiction School's inheritance?"
"Also, I found the Fengdu Pass in that cave."
After hearing Shen Qiushui's experience, Fang Heng found it all too familiar.
A fortuitous encounter in a cave—wasn't that the standard configuration for a protagonist in fantasy webnovels?
"Does Lord Martial Prime Minister know that you cultivate the Fiction School's inheritance?"
Shen Qiushui shook her head and looked at Fang Heng with pleading eyes.
"Father still doesn't know. Please help me keep it secret, Your Highness."
"Rest assured. I won't tell the Martial Prime Minister."
"Thank you, Your Highness. I suppose I owe you another favor now."
Shen Qiushui paused, then shifted the topic.
"I've already reached the end of my Fiction School inheritance."
"I attended today's trade fair to trade for the Fiction School's subsequent inheritance."
"I never expected it to be a trap Horse-Face had laid for me."
"I was too careless and fell into the snare!"
Shen Qiushui's eyes dimmed. Recalling what had happened in the City of Life and Death, her face was still full of chagrin.
"That Horse-Face man was after your Nine Yin Absolute Meridian?" Fang Heng asked.
Shen Qiushui nodded lightly, saying in anger,
"The blood of someone with the Nine Yin Absolute Meridian contains dense yin energy. To ghostly beings, it is a tremendous tonic."
"Horse-Face somehow discovered my Nine Yin Absolute Meridian. He wanted to capture me and take me back to raise ghostly creatures."
Shen Qiushui did not dare imagine how miserable her fate would have been if the Horse-Face man had succeeded today.
The way she looked at Fang Heng grew ever more grateful and gentle.
"And that subsequent Fiction School inheritance?"
"Fake!"
Shen Qiushui sagged in despair. Her eyes were lifeless, and gloom weighed heavily on her heart.
Seeing her like this, Fang Heng rubbed his chin and said calmly,
"For the Fiction School to grow stronger, there are methods besides obtaining the subsequent inheritance."
"Writing more popular novels—I know that, of course..."
"But my The Legend of Heroine Shen is already considered an extremely popular novel."
"Even the imperial consorts in the palace read my novels."
When Shen Qiushui mentioned The Legend of Heroine Shen, she was both proud and helpless.
Proud that she had such talent for writing storybooks, enough to create the most popular novel currently in Yujing City.
Helpless because the Fiction School inheritance had a low ceiling.
Even though she had written a popular novel, her strength remained utterly unremarkable among cultivators of the same realm.
She was even inferior to Fang Heng, who was in the Second Realm.
Fang Heng smiled knowingly.
The Legend of Heroine Shen was the ceiling of Great Qian.
But it was not the ceiling of novels.
There were more stories in his mind than he could count.
Just one line—"Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river"—had remained popular for who knew how many years.
"Miss Shen, I have a story here. Listen to it."
"A poem says: Before chaos parted, heaven and earth were in turmoil; vast and boundless, no one could be seen..."
At first, Shen Qiushui only listened because she did not wish to dampen Fang Heng's enthusiasm.
But before long, she was completely engrossed.
His Highness actually possessed such talent for writing novels as well.
If he did not write novels, it would simply be a waste.
Sword Pavilion.
One of the Ten Great Dao Courts.
The sacred land in the hearts of countless sword cultivators.
The maiden in azure robes was tall and slender.
Her features were valiant, making it difficult to tell whether she was male or female.
Deep determination showed between her brows and eyes.
The maiden in azure took out her master's relics and carefully inspected them.
A chessboard... chess pieces...
"I hope this exchange for a movement-art treasure goes as smoothly as a ship before the wind."
"Master, if your spirit has awareness in the Nine Springs below, please bless your disciple."
Sword Pavilion, main hall.
"Has the Saintess made any unusual moves today?"
"Reporting to the Pavilion Master, everything is normal with the Saintess. There are no signs of her attempting to flee."
"It seems that her previous failed escape attempts have made the Saintess understand just how formidable you are, Pavilion Master."
"Do not let your guard down!"
"The Saintess's marriage concerns an alliance by marriage between our sect and the Divine Firmament Sect. There must not be the slightest mistake."
"This subordinate obeys."
Prince's Estate.
"Your Highness, you're back."
Yun Menglan sniffed the scent on Fang Heng's body, then spoke with resentment on her pretty face.
"Your Highness, would you like this servant to prepare betrothal gifts for you and go to the Martial Prime Minister's Estate to propose marriage?"
"Cough, cough!"
"Menglan, what nonsense are you talking about?"
Fang Heng shot her a glance. From Yun Menglan, he could smell vinegar thick in the air.
"Your Highness needn't comfort me."
"This servant is merely a maid. How could I compare to the Martial Prime Minister's only daughter, a golden branch and jade leaf?"
Seeing Yun Menglan's jealousy, Fang Heng wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled the beautiful woman into his embrace.
"I only met Shen Qiushui today to have some tea."
"Tea? What kind of tea leaves you covered in someone else's powder fragrance?"
As Yun Menglan's jealousy continued to brew, Fang Heng simply hoisted her over his shoulder and headed toward the bedroom.
Yun Menglan immediately cried out in surprise.
"Your Highness, in broad daylight, you..."
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