The Sword Pill Leaves Its Sheath

Li Boyang had always been a man of action, and this time was naturally no exception.

As Li Boyang sank his consciousness into the sea of consciousness in his Dantian, the Sword Pill within him began to stir.

This was Li Boyang's first attempt to drive the Sword Pill out of his body. He was unsure what the consequences would be, but he knew he could not stand by and watch Xiluo die.

Hum!

It seemed like the ringing of a sword, yet might have been nothing more than an illusion.

The instant Li Boyang's consciousness sank into the Sword Pill, his perspective detached from his flesh.

His ordinary five senses vanished, replaced by the Sword Pill's mysterious perspective, something akin to a sixth sense.

Li Boyang was very familiar with this perspective.

Back when he was an embryo, he had used this very perspective to observe what was happening outside.

Hum!

In an instant, the golden Sword Pill turned from insubstantial to solid and flew out of his Dantian.

During this process, Li Boyang did not feel the connection between his consciousness and his flesh break. Instead, it felt as though his soul had split in two.

One portion of his soul remained in his flesh, while the greater portion merged with the golden Sword Pill.

With a thought, the golden Sword Pill adjusted itself and shot out. It could not have been more fitting to describe it as an arm obeying his fingers, going wherever his will led.

Whoosh!

By the time the sound of something slicing through the air rang out.

The golden Sword Pill had already flown through the gap in the door and was hurtling toward the battlefield more than ten kilometers away.

What Li Boyang failed to notice, however, was that the instant the Sword Pill shot out.

A little girl who looked no more than six or seven was standing a short distance outside the door, watching everything unfold with her jaw hanging open.

In this age of widespread food shortages and malnutrition.

The little girl was probably a little older than she appeared.

Even so, the sight of that streak of golden light shooting out of the house left the little girl rooted to the spot, unable to collect herself for a long time.

"The... the mountain god... has manifested!"

Only after the golden light had vanished completely from her sight did the little girl, who could barely speak clearly, stammer those words.

Whoosh!

Golden light tore through the air and slashed across the sky.

Flying at supersonic speed, the Sword Pill soon reached the vicinity of the battlefield.

The golden Sword Pill arrived in a flash, with its sonic boom only afterward echoing through the air.

It was so fast that Ruifu, still in battle, had no time to react before one of its heads was severed by a single sword strike.

"Aah!"

With a scream of anguish.

Ruifu, now left with only one head, abruptly spewed even fiercer flames.

Seizing this opportunity, the crimson leopard trod upon fiery clouds and passed through the flames, lunging to bite viciously at the sole remaining dragon head with almost ghostlike speed.

Who could have expected that Ruifu's head would react at the very last moment?

"Damn mountain ghost! You're courting death!"

Grief and fury mingling, Ruifu endured the terrible pain and turned its head, surging Sha Qi sweeping up the flames and taking solid form.

Whoosh!

Just then, the golden Sword Pill, which had already flown far away, actually wheeled back again.

Before Ruifu could perish together with Xiluo.

The golden Sword Pill broke through layer upon layer of Sha Qi and flames, successfully severing Ruifu's second head.

The entire process flowed like clouds and water, completed in a single breath.

Ruifu was as helpless as cattle or sheep awaiting slaughter, leaving even Xiluo, who had already resigned herself to death, dumbfounded.

As for Li Boyang, the one responsible?

He was still immersed in the exhilarating sensation of flashing blades and sword shadows.

Pouring his whole being into the golden Sword Pill, Li Boyang experienced a subtle sensation unlike that of inhabiting flesh.

Breaking the sound barrier, killing without a drop of blood clinging to him...

Driven by Li Boyang's will, the golden Sword Pill possessed power far beyond his flesh, whether in speed, lethality, or agility.

Without his noticing, fragments of memory awakened.

They were memories of when, after Li Boyang arrived in this world, the strange old man had refined him into a Sword Pill.

At the time, Li Boyang's heart had been filled with rage and killing intent. Using that rage and killing intent as a medium, he had broken free of the cauldron's restraints and attacked the strange old man.

Their battle had spanned thousands of kilometers, until the strange old man was slain near Flying Peak.

Are these the memories I lost?

Without the restraints of flesh, Li Boyang seemed exceptionally calm in his Sword Pill form.

No, "calm" was no longer quite an accurate description of Li Boyang at this moment.

More precisely, without the stimulation of various biological hormones, Li Boyang in this state was closer to being unfeeling and indifferent.

-Without emotion or desire, without awareness or sensation.

Li Boyang instinctively knew that if he allowed this state to continue, he would once again become the cold Sword Pill he had been back then.

Having lived two lives, Li Boyang clearly had no intention of severing his emotions and desires to become a cold instrument of slaughter.

Thus, almost without the slightest hesitation.

After tracing a graceful arc through the sky, the golden Sword Pill flew back the way it had come without looking back.

Whoosh!

Just as when it had arrived, the golden Sword Pill abruptly vanished again.

Only Xiluo remained, gazing thoughtfully in the direction where the Sword Pill had disappeared, unable to collect herself for a long time.

Rumble...

Only when Ruifu's body fell from the sky, sending up a cloud of dust in the mountain forest.

Did Xiluo come back to her senses and return to her original wildcat form with a rather strange expression.

It was also at this moment that faint Sha Qi welled out of Ruifu's corpse and flowed along the earth veins toward Li Boyang's location.

"Ruifu, white-winged and two-headed, is a dragon. Whoever slays it dies."

Seeing this, Xiluo hesitated, but ultimately could only shake her head in regret.

For she knew she was powerless to stop the flow of Sha Qi.

Ruifu was a ghost god born of heaven and earth and nurtured by Sha Qi, a dragon-bird of dragonkind.

Any creature that killed Ruifu would inevitably suffer Ruifu's curse and be possessed by Sha Qi.

This was also a major reason why the Goddess of War from a thousand years ago, despite being capable of killing Ruifu, had ultimately chosen only to seal it away.

When the golden Sword Pill severed Ruifu's first head, Xiluo knew things had become troublesome.

She had originally intended to bite through Ruifu's second head before Li Boyang could, killing it first herself.

What Xiluo had not expected was that the golden Sword Pill would turn around so quickly and swiftly sever Ruifu's second head.

"That fellow was far too rash. Truly, the ignorant know no fear!"

Mumbling indistinctly, Xiluo began gathering clouds and spreading rain, sending down sweet dew to extinguish the remaining ice and fire Sha Qi.

This was Xiluo's Divine Ability as the mountain god of this region.

She had to deal with the lingering effects of Ruifu's death as quickly as possible before she could visit Li Boyang again.

"Even dead, you leave so much trouble behind..."

"Elder sister was right. You really are a jinx."

Looking at Ruifu's mutilated remains, Xiluo hesitated, but ultimately chose to drag them back to the nearby mountain god temple.