Sword Sect Outer Sect

Chapter 229 The Straw-Clad Guest of Jiangxian Pass

Xin'an Prefecture, outside Yingjing, the capital of Chu.

Boyang Mountain.

Following Wang Ke's instructions, Song Yan maneuvered the Red Dust Fighter and landed it somewhere in the mountains. Then, the group disembarked from the flying boat.

Xiao Song was in high spirits as his contract with the employer was about to end and he would be able to receive the last portion of the Luozhen Teng.

He looked at Wang Ke and casually asked, "Now that you've arrived in the capital of Chu, what are your plans next?"

The protective barrier on the other party has been destroyed. If no one is protecting them, they could easily run into trouble.

"My protective barrier has been destroyed by Yuanzhen. According to the rules of my sect, my travels must be terminated in advance, and I must return to the Central Region to report the situation."

"How are you going to get back?"

The Central Region is still very far from the State of Chu.

Wang Ke chuckled and turned his palm over; there was a white piece.

The white piece shattered with a bang, and the spiritual light transformed into a withered vine overflowing with golden luster.

"Well, I can't reveal that." Wang Ke handed over the elixir, his tone relaxed, showing no sign of apprehension.

"I must thank Fellow Daoist Song for escorting me this time. If we have the opportunity to meet again in the future, we will definitely have a drink together."

See you again sometime?
Hehe, maybe.

During his travels, Song Yan occasionally encountered several familiar faces, because the Chu Kingdom was such a small place.

Some of them even knew where he was, but he went out of his way to find him and meet him.

But once you leave the Chu Kingdom, let alone the Central Region, even in the surrounding nine kingdoms of the Southern Region, in the vast sea of ​​people, where is there any chance of meeting again?

It might be possible, but the probability is extremely low.

However, Song Yan knew that the other party was just being polite and didn't take it to heart.

"must."

He accepted the fallen vine and bowed respectfully.

Wang Ke and Song Yan parted ways here.

After parting ways, he walked slowly through the mountains towards the north of Boyang Mountain, his steps slow but his pace incredibly fast.

We arrived at a deep valley.

"Fortunately, when Senior Brother Meng traveled to the Chu Kingdom before, he left a teleportation array here. Otherwise, it would have taken me forever to fly back to the Central Region."

"Senior Brother Meng is truly prescient."

Wang Ke smiled broadly, seemingly in a good mood.

Although he told Song Yan that he was returning to the mountain gate ahead of schedule, Chu was actually the last stop for him in the nine kingdoms of the Southern Region.

"It's a pity that the gold page of the chess manual is not one of the ancient games, otherwise this would have been a perfect ending."

He was in a great mood.

He was so kind that he even allowed the three unfamiliar cultivators who were following him to enter the valley with him.

From the moment he parted ways with Song Yan and the others, Wang Ke sensed the presence of the three of them.

Actually, he wasn't exactly a stranger, because the leader was one of the evil cultivators who had targeted him a few months ago.

I never expected to be squatting here until this time.

"You're really patient."

These three were at the peak of Qi Refining, two at the ninth level of Qi Refining, while he appeared to be a mere mortal with no magical power...

These people seem to have an extremely steady and experienced approach to things.

Wang Ke stood by a pool of water, and before he could make a move, three beams of spiritual light flashed simultaneously in the valley.

Three magical artifacts and three magical spells shot towards Wang Ke at an extremely fast speed.

Only now did the three who had been following them reveal themselves, and they attacked from different directions.

Six beams of spiritual light simultaneously engulfed Wang Ke's body.

The three of them slowed down their rapid movements, seemingly surprised that it would be so easy.

"Heh, I didn't expect this person to really be just an ordinary mortal."

"That shouldn't be the case... I saw him take out his storage bag before. Perhaps he encountered some misfortune and lost his cultivation?"

"There are such good things in this world."

"Why say such things, brother? Go and take off his Qiankun bag."

The last man's gaze was somewhat fiery: "I've seen him before; his Qiankun bag is clearly not simple."

The man in green who was leading the group nodded and stepped forward.

However, at this moment, a sudden change occurred.

Wang Ke's shattered body suddenly broke apart, turning into five or six chess pieces that fell to the ground.

"Oh no! This person..."

The man in green was extremely experienced; he knew perfectly well that he had fallen into a trap.

At the same time, sparks of light suddenly gathered beneath his feet, condensing into several crisscrossing ink lines.

It resembled an intersecting phantom on a giant chessboard.

Along with the crisscrossing ink, three white chess pieces also converged, forming to the left, right, and behind the man in green.

"Place the piece."

A voice came from somewhere in the valley, and before the words were finished, a white chess piece suddenly fell to the ground.

pat.

The white piece landed in front of the man in green, and a strange sense of danger surged in his heart.

Unfortunately, it's too late.

"Grapes."

Amidst the horrified, furious expressions of the other two, all the spiritual energy in the green-clad man's body, including his protective spiritual energy, began to rapidly dissipate outwards.

His face visibly aged, and in almost an instant, he lost all vitality.

The rapidly dissipating spiritual energy converged at a certain point in the valley.

The other two looked towards an ordinary tree where Wang Ke was sitting cross-legged.

The spiritual energy drawn from the green-robed cultivator has now gathered in his hand again, only this time it has turned into a black chess piece.

"Foundation... Foundation Establishment Realm!?"

A single chess piece instantly killed a cultivator who had reached the peak of Qi Refining.

Even now, how could these two still not understand what level the other was at?

"Senior! Let go..."

pat, pat.

Almost instantly, the phantom images of chessboard star positions appeared beneath their feet.

The two black pieces fell at the same time, the sound like rain hitting bluestone. Before the two could even let out a scream, all their spiritual energy and vitality were drained away, turning them into chess pieces.

"We're about to leave the Chu Kingdom, and this can be considered as punishing evil and eliminating wickedness for the cultivators here."

The illusory image dissipated.

"Hmm..." He held out his palm, revealing three chess pieces, one black and two white. "This doesn't break the sect's rules."

Wang Ke didn't even glance at the three people's storage bags.

He stood up and continued walking into the deep valley.

Walked for a while.

At the end of the valley, beneath the waterfall, Wang Ke finally found the teleportation array pattern carved by his senior brother years ago.

He sat on the ground in a very unladylike manner and directly swept away the moss and dust covering the array patterns with his hands.

Then, with a flick of his hand, the eight chess pieces floated up and slowly hovered and moved in the air.

Until a certain moment, it suddenly fell and landed on the teleportation array pattern.

The eight chess pieces transformed into spiritual light the moment they were placed and disappeared into the formation.

A mysterious fluctuation slowly emanated from the teleportation array. After countless years, this teleportation array was finally about to welcome its second user.

Wang Ke walked forward unhurriedly, a light of black and white rising from him. He suddenly turned his head and glanced in the direction of the Chu capital.

“Song Yan…Song Yesheng.”

He chuckled softly before the light engulfed his figure.

"It's really interesting."

……

After parting ways with Wang Ke, Song Yan took Xiao Ju and Xiao He and headed northeast.

"Yanyan, where are we going?"

Xiao He's eyes sparkled; clearly, she wanted to visit the legendary capital of Chu, and that's why she asked that question on purpose.

"Here."

With a casual gesture, Song Yan pointed to a winding, continuous gray-black city wall on the distant horizon.

Under the sunlight, the pass looked quite ancient, like the spine of some ancient creature.

"Senior Song, what place is that?" Xiao Ju asked.

"Jiangxian Pass".

The maps and materials obtained by Dongyuan Sect could not possibly cover all the markets and gathering places of cultivators in the Chu Kingdom.

After all, some gathering places for independent cultivators are not large in scale, and may be established overnight under the leadership of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Or perhaps overnight, the powerful backer behind them falls from grace, and all their supporters scatter.

However, most of the larger and more historically significant markets and neighborhoods would naturally be marked.

For example, the place in front of them is one of the largest gathering places for independent cultivators in the Chu Kingdom.

"Jiangxian Pass".

A "city" where cultivators gather.

On one hand, Song Yan was planning to find a market town to prepare everything needed for Foundation Establishment, and then focus on accumulating cultivation to return to the sect and establish his Dao foundation.

The scale of Jiangxian Pass was unmatched in the Chu Kingdom.

On the other hand, this travel means going thousands of miles and seeing what's happening in the world.

I've never seen anything like this before. Since I'm already here, it's good to broaden my horizons.

……

Snapped.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please listen quietly. Today, the sound of the gavel will not be about the secrets of the Celestial Dynasty, nor will it be about the inner palace."

"Let me tell you about the origin of Jiangxian Pass, the number one immortal city in our Chu Kingdom."

With a clapper strike, the folding fan began to gently wave.

"It is said that thousands of years ago, a vicious dragon appeared in the water veins of this Chu region, and no one knows where it came from... Ah, this reader has a lot of experience."

"That's right. Back then, in the mortal world, it was still called 'Former Chu'."

"Although this evil dragon's origin is unknown, its strength is not simple."

"Its entire body is black and red, like black jade stained with blood. Its eyes are like stars and its scales are like thorns. When it breathes, clouds rise for hundreds of miles, and mountains collapse."

"This is incredible..."

"A fourth-tier great demon!"

Upon hearing this, the audience gasped in shock.

"You are all knowledgeable and well-connected immortals, so you must know that this fourth-tier great demon represents the strength of the Nascent Soul realm!"

"How can we break this fourth-order demonic calamity? Does our Chu Kingdom have any Nascent Soul cultivators now?" The storyteller asked himself and answered, "No."

"During the pre-Chu era a thousand years ago, did we have any predecessors at the Nascent Soul stage?"

"Let me explain slowly."

He sold it out.

“This wicked dragon and monster will wreak havoc on the human world during lunar eclipses and solar eclipses. When the people of the eighteen counties downstream of the Chu River see the black moon in the sky and the blood-red light at night, they know that they are about to suffer the calamity of the dragon drinking from the river.”

"Do you know how rampant it is?"

"Back then, the cultivation world in our Chu Kingdom was not what it is today with these six major sects."

"Among the six major sects at that time, there was one called the Ziyuan Sect."

"This name may be unknown now, but if I were to mention another name, you may have all heard of it."

"That is the youngest Core Formation cultivator recorded in the history of Chu, True Man Qingyan."

"He broke through in seclusion at the age of 126, and after three years, he achieved the Golden Core Dao at the age of 129. He came from the Ziyuan Sect."

"Back then, on that day, the entire Ziyuan Immortal Sect held its annual sacrificial ceremony to honor its ancestors, open its gates wide, and recruit disciples."

"Who would have thought that the evil dragon would churn up the rivers and seas, tearing through the air and attacking, its tail a thousand feet long, sweeping across the mountain gate. Instantly, the immortal mountain collapsed and the sect crumbled."

"The poor mortal immortal seedling who had just been recruited into the sect, who had just seen the path to immortality, was swept away by the demonic wind and turned into blood droplets fluttering in mid-air, and died instantly."

“The cultivators of the Purple Origin Sect fought one after another. The current sect leader risked all his cultivation essence to draw down three bolts of Purple Heaven Divine Lightning, but it had no effect at all.”

"The beast yawned and spewed out a cloud of foul-smelling poisonous mist, which caused all the grass and trees within a hundred miles to wither and decay."

"In a single day, the Ziyuan Sect lost all its disciples and its sect leader. One of the six major sects vanished from the world."

The storyteller's folding fan suddenly unfolded, revealing a picture of a dragon amidst clouds and mist.

As the saying goes, "If the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold; if the rabbit dies, the fox will grieve."

"With the Ziyuan Sect destroyed without cause, how could anyone else dare to harbor any illusions? This evil dragon must have come with ill intentions."

"It can be said that thanks to this evil dragon, all the cultivators in the Chu Kingdom united, including the other five major sects who were still vying for spiritual veins, and vowed to drive this evil dragon out of the Chu territory."

"All the Golden Core cultivators from the five major sects, both overt and covert, plus the Golden Core elders from other ordinary sects, and the rogue cultivators of that time..."

"Thirty-nine Golden Core cultivators from across the country have gathered! Their swords gleam and their magical artifacts are truly magnificent."

"At that time, the sect leader of Xuanyuan Sect, Daoist Xuanming, held the Seven Treasures Demon-Suppressing Pagoda in his hand, its seven-colored mysterious light soaring to the heavens; the sect leader of Zhongmiao Sect offered up the Yin-Yang Mirror, causing mountains and rivers to hang upside down, and the sun and moon to lose their brilliance..."

"The seniors were like the Eight Immortals crossing the sea, each displaying their unique abilities."

"What can be done..."

"That evil dragon is, after all, a fourth-order great demon. Ordinary Taoist techniques are completely useless against it, and ordinary magic weapons and treasures crumble upon contact with it."

"The most dangerous one was Master Du Guan, the former abbot of Huadu Temple. He took the lead, wielding a great pestle, and went straight for the eyes of the evil dragon."

"Ladies and gentlemen, what is the power of Master Du Guan's Vajra wrathful Dharma body?"

"That was a Buddhist profound skill cultivated for over 180 years, yet it was spewed with poisonous breath by the evil dragon at will, instantly causing half of its body to rot and severely damaging its vital energy."

At this point, the entire room fell silent.

There was a pause.

"Just when the entire Chu Kingdom was filled with lamentations across its four provinces and thirteen prefectures, and the immortals were filled with despair..."

"One morning in the mist, a small boat suddenly appeared on the river."

“An old man in a straw raincoat sat alone at the bow of the boat, wearing a bamboo hat and with a gourd of wine hanging from his waist.”

"To be honest, the old man's appearance was truly ordinary. He was neither afraid of the dust nor the river, just like an ordinary fisherman."

"How strange!"

"Unexpectedly, the evil dragon, upon seeing this person, acted as if facing a formidable enemy. Its thousand-foot-tall demonic body soared into the air, creating hundreds of turbid waves on the river and unleashing a torrential downpour within a ten-mile radius."

The storyteller's pace quickened.

"The old man casually tossed out a fish basket, and in the blink of an eye, the fish basket flew into the sky and transformed into a vast array."

"In an instant, thousands of mirages rose from the river surface, the Eight Gates Formation locked down the four directions, and sword light appeared in the Nine Palaces, making it impossible for the evil dragon to defend itself!"

"The most amazing thing was yet to come. Seeing that the evil dragon was trapped in the vast array, struggling left and right like a turtle in a jar, the old man flicked a ball from his fingertip and slashed it with his sword finger."

"The immortal pill was not much larger than an ordinary elixir, yet all the immortals showed expressions of shock."

Suddenly, the Immortal Pill transformed into a sword light, its sharpness undiminished, aiming straight for the evil dragon's brow!

Snapped.

The gavel fell heavily.

"If you want to know what happens next, let's listen to the explanation next time."

(End of this chapter)