Sudden Upheaval: The Du Household's Summons
"Good! Impressive!"
Seeing Kong Wenxuan cut the snake demon they had fought for so long in two with a single strike, Kong Yuling, Kong Yutang, and the others could not help cheering aloud.
Kong Yutang looked at Kong Wenxuan with envy and said, "Nephew Wenxuan, the bloodline inheritance you received from our ancestors is incredible. It's a pity that what we inherited was the Peacock Soul-Bewitching Scripture left by Ancestor Jianling. Its illusions are powerful, but their killing power is limited. Sigh..."
As for how long the True Spirit Realm had existed and how many years bloodline cultivation had been passed down, perhaps only the few foremost True Spirit Lineages in the realm knew.
But every bloodline cultivator and Lineage believed that their ancestors-the source of their bloodlines-must have been exceptionally powerful beings in the distant past, or their bloodlines could not have endured to this day.
Thus, in some bloodline cultivator Lineages, there was nothing particularly strange about a member receiving a bloodline inheritance different from everyone else's. Their fellow Lineage members would simply assume that they had inherited the bloodline of an even more ancient ancestor, or even the inheritance of the bloodline's source.
In the Kong Household, for instance, most bloodline cultivators received the Peacock Soul-Bewitching Scripture left by Ancestor Kong Jianling, who had raised the Lineage's bloodline to the rank of Ninth-Grade True Spirit.
But without a doubt, the peacock bloodline had already existed before Ancestor Kong Jianling, and naturally, it had a corresponding bloodline inheritance. The Kong Household's genealogy simply contained no record of it, so its members knew nothing about it.
When Kong Wenxuan awakened his bloodline, he received an inheritance different from the rest of his Lineage. The patriarch and the others believed he had obtained a bloodline inheritance from an even more distant age, before Ancestor Kong Jianling.
After seeing Kong Wenxuan's cultivation speed and combat strength, the Lineage had also wanted its members to cultivate the Five Elements True Scripture he had inherited.
But the results showed that without the aid of the inherited bloodline, the Lineage members achieved even worse results cultivating the Five Elements True Scripture than they did with their own inherited Peacock Soul-Bewitching Scripture, so they later gave up.
If all the Lineage members were to cultivate the Five Elements True Scripture, they would probably have to wait until Kong Wenxuan once again raised the Lineage's bloodline to the rank of Ninth-Grade True Spirit and imprinted the inheritance into the Peacock True Spirit Star and their own peacock bloodline. Only then might it be possible.
The group waited until the snake demon was completely dead, dealt with its remains, and continued their patrol.
The Kong Household now had four such patrol teams, each with five members. They took turns patrolling Peacock Ridge and the hundred li surrounding it, protecting the ridge and the Lineage.
A month passed in the blink of an eye. Kong Wenxuan successfully refined the last piece of thick mountain stone, using it to refine the yellow peacock feather into a First-Tier Superior-Grade Law Artifact, the Yellow Earth Divine Sword. At the same time, his cultivation smoothly broke through to the Qi Refining Seventh Layer, making him a Late Qi Refining cultivator.
The Yellow Earth Divine Sword had its own mysteries and Divine Ability's power: a heavy sword had no edge; the greatest craftsmanship appeared unworked!
After refining the Yellow Earth Divine Sword, Kong Wenxuan tested it. It could attack and defend: in attack, it broke skill with force; in defense, it was as solid as the earth, without a weakness to exploit.
Together with the Azure Wood Divine Sword's ability to split its sword light and the Black Water Divine Sword's tide-like sword force, the Five Elements Divine Swords were already beginning to show their mysterious power, though only three had been refined.
Kong Wenxuan was quite satisfied with them.
However, after testing the Yellow Earth Divine Sword's power, he put it away and considered how to refine the remaining two divine swords. To refine the red peacock feather into the Crimson Fire Divine Sword or the white peacock feather into the White Metal Divine Sword, he needed enough First-Tier Superior-Grade spirit fire or spirit metal materials.
Yet obtaining First-Tier Superior-Grade spirit materials, whether by buying them at the Cuckoo County market or exchanging Lineage contribution points for them, was no simple matter.
With the contribution points and Spirit Stones the Lineage distributed for his daily patrol duties, he would have to save for a long time, delaying the speed and progress of his cultivation.
But for the moment, Kong Wenxuan could find no other way to obtain Spirit Stones or spirit materials, so he could only sigh to himself.
One day, he and his teammates were patrolling a hundred li west of Peacock Ridge. This was the boundary of the territory the Du Household had allotted to the Kong Household. Beyond it lay the territory of the Flamingo Lie Household, another servant-cultivator Lineage that had pledged allegiance to the Du Household.
After looking around and finding nothing amiss, Kong Wenxuan and the others prepared to continue along their patrol route and return from the other side to Peacock Ridge, where the Lineage was based.
Just then, however, the cries and movement of startled birds and beasts came from the west, from the land controlled by the Flamingo Lie Household. Kong Wenxuan and the others turned and saw frightened birds and beasts fleeing toward them. Among them were even several flamingo spirit birds raised by the Lie Household.
In the Lie Household's hands, these flamingos were spirit birds, but if they flew into the Kong Household's Peacock Ridge, they could only be considered Demon Beasts. There was no telling how much trouble they might cause on Kong territory.
"Something has probably happened to the Flamingo Lie Household!"
Seeing this, Kong Yuling spoke gravely.
"Quick! Stop those flamingos. We can't let them charge into the Lineage's territory."
Kong Yushan, the patrol team's captain, immediately called out.
The others all took action. Kong Yushan, Kong Yutang, Kong Yuling, and Kong Wenxiong each summoned a peacock feather manifested by their bloodline Divine Ability. The feathers were different colors, and the eyes at their ends flashed, releasing dazzling, mind-bewildering illusory light. The oncoming birds and beasts, including the flamingos, were instantly dazed and fell to the ground.
A few of the flamingos were quite strong, however, and quickly shook off the illusions. Screeching, they swooped at the group and opened their beaks to spew flames at them.
Kong Wenxuan formed a sword seal with his hand and summoned the three divine swords he had refined. The Yellow Earth Divine Sword flew around him like a hard slab of stone, directly blocking and extinguishing the flames a flamingo spat at him.
The Azure Wood Divine Sword flickered in midair and split into twenty-one streaks of azure sword light. They slashed at the flamingos, striking them out of the sky and stopping them from continuing their attack.
Finally, the Black Water Divine Sword thrust out, its sword force still like a tide: unceasing and surging, it rolled like floodwaters, capable of drowning and destroying everything in its path.
Screech!
With a shrill scream, the flamingo at the front was pierced through by the Black Water Divine Sword, and blood spilled onto the ground.
Kong Wenxuan changed his sword seal several times, and the Black Water Divine Sword thrust out again and again. Working with the divided sword light of the Azure Wood Divine Sword to suppress them, it swiftly struck each of the attacking flamingo demon birds to the ground.
Those remaining were mostly ordinary birds and beasts, and it would do no harm even if they ran into Kong territory. The group paid them no further attention and instead gazed toward the Flamingo Lie Household, wondering what had happened there, whether they should go investigate, and whether they should hurry to notify the Du Household in Cuckoo County.
But while they were still hesitating and speculating, a beam of starlight shot into the sky from the direction of the Flamingo Lie Household. It burst open, gathered, and manifested as a lifelike cuckoo. The bird raised its head and cried out, its call spreading in every direction.
Even from nearly a hundred li away, Kong Wenxuan and the others could hear it.
Kong Wenxuan even sensed the projection of the Cuckoo True Spirit Star that had appeared in the Qi sea of his Dantian tremble slightly, as if reacting to it. But in the next instant, it was suppressed again by that wisp of Five-Colored Divine Light.
Kong Yuling, Kong Yutang, Kong Wenxiong, and the other teammates beside him also sensed something, and their expressions changed.
"That's the Du Household's signal to summon people! We need to go help!"
Captain Kong Yushan's expression changed slightly as he spoke gravely.