Old Refining Spirit

Dayuan Dynasty, Qingzhou Prefecture.

Compared to the remote and isolated Qingping County, Qingzhou Prefecture is a central and important place within a radius of thousands of miles, and is also the outer sect headquarters of the world's leading Taoist sect - "Xuantian Sect".

The official road was bustling with activity. There were elegantly dressed young masters from noble families, as well as wandering cultivators carrying long swords and covered in dust, all heading towards Qingzhou Prefecture. For today was the Xuantian Sect's once-a-decade "Ascension Ceremony."

A rather simple blue-canopied carriage mingled leisurely among the crowd.

The one driving the carriage was Xiaoman, who had changed into a clean blue ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress). Although the little girl was still thin, her cheeks had finally regained some color. Along the way, the mountain bandits who tried to rob them, the weasel spirits that blocked their way in the middle of the night demanding rewards, and even the century-old flying zombie they encountered at the mass grave, were all refined into elixirs by the blind Taoist priest in the carriage, skin and bones intact.

Xiaoman now even feels that as long as this Taoist priest Li is around, even if the sky falls, he can crush it and chew it like candy.

Inside the carriage, Li Xuangeng sat cross-legged with his eyes closed. He wore a brand-new, plain moon-white Taoist robe, and still had the same three-finger-wide white silk blindfold covering his eyes. His left hand rested casually on his knee, and his fingertips gently played with the string of "bone-white flowing beads" that had been polished to a gleaming shine.

"Daoist Master, we can see the city gates of Qingzhou City just ahead." Xiaoman lifted the curtain, her tone filled with a mixture of longing and awe for the big city. "I've heard that all the immortals of the Xuantian Sect can fly on swords and summon wind and rain!"

"Flying on a sword? Commanding the wind and rain?"

A gentle smile appeared on Li Xuangeng's lips. He did not lift the curtain, but slowly poured the vast and boundless [Creation True Qi] within his body into his eyes. The [Qi Observation Technique] pierced through the curtain of the carriage and was projected onto the majestic city ten miles away.

The Taoist text *Tian Yuan Yu Ce* states: "To find the dragon by observing its qi, first observe its momentum, then examine its form."

To the naked eye of mortals, the city walls of Qingzhou City were ten zhang high, entirely constructed of massive blue stone blocks, with carved beams and painted rafters on the city gate towers, displaying a magnificent and imposing sight. In mid-air, several dazzling sword lights would occasionally pierce the sky, causing the people below to bow in worship and shout, "A true immortal has descended to earth!"

But in Li Xuangeng's "mind's eye," the scene before him instantly transformed into a terrifying purgatory scroll that could drive any normal cultivator mad on the spot!

Qingzhou City is not a sacred place for cultivation at all.

The city wall, which was ten zhang high, appeared to be made of countless pale skeletons whose marrow had been drained, when illuminated by the earth's energy. Thick, foul-smelling dark red blood seeped from the cracks in the wall.

The seemingly peaceful protective array in the sky (the sect's protective array) was actually an enormous, semi-transparent fleshy shield made of countless intestines and internal organs sewn together! This fleshy shield was like a giant respiratory organ, rhythmically opening and closing, greedily drawing away the life force of millions of mortals within the city with each breath.

What surprised Li Xuangeng the most were those so-called immortals who were "flying on swords" in mid-air.

What were those swords? They were clearly giant, mutated leeches covered in barbs and dripping with green venom! The "immortals" dressed in expensive Taoist robes had their feet firmly embedded in the leeches' flesh. There was even a crack in their spines, from which several tentacles covered in slime extended, controlling the monsters beneath their feet like puppeteers.

"I see……"

Li Xuangeng's slender fingers abruptly stopped moving the prayer beads, and his Adam's apple bobbed heavily beneath the white silk, emitting a very clear swallowing sound.

"Heaven and earth are ruthless, treating all things like straw dogs. The Xuantian Sect treats all mortals as blood-sucking farms. Has the cultivation world of the Great Yuan Dynasty become so distorted that it's even too lazy to pretend anymore?"

Instead of feeling fear, he experienced an unprecedented hunger. In his view, all the high-ranking cultivators in Qingzhou City were high-quality medicinal herbs.

"Xiaoman, let's go into the city." Li Xuangeng's gentle voice came from inside the carriage, with a hint of barely concealed laughter. "Today is a good day. This humble Taoist is going to unleash a massacre... oh no, I mean, to open the furnace."

~Ascension Ceremony, Outer Square of Xuantian Sect~

In the center of Qingzhou City, at the outer gate square of the Xuantian Sect.

The plaza was already packed with tens of thousands of young men and women, as well as various independent cultivators, who had come to participate in the "Ascension Ceremony." In the very center of the plaza stood a towering black boulder, three zhang high—the "Spirit Testing Stone."

The rules for cultivating immortality in the Great Yuan Dynasty are strict. If a mortal wants to embark on the path of immortality, he must pass the test of the Spirit Stone and be found to have a fourth-order spiritual root of "Heaven, Earth, Black, and Yellow" before he can become a disciple of the Xuan Tian Sect.

Li Xuangeng, accompanied by Xiaoman, mingled with the group of rogue cultivators and slowly entered the square.

His faded old Taoist robe, along with the white blindfold, made him stand out awkwardly among the group of richly dressed, arrogant young men from prominent families.

"Get out of my way! All of you, get out of my way! Don't you have eyes?"

Suddenly, an extremely arrogant shout came from behind the crowd.

Accompanied by heavy, foul-smelling footsteps, the once crowded people scattered in terror to both sides, as if Moses had parted the Sea.

A young man dressed in golden silk armor with an extravagant face swaggered forward, riding on the back of a "Blazing Lion" that was over ten feet long. The lion was engulfed in crimson flames, its eyes like copper bells, and every breath it exhaled emitted a scorching sulfurous odor, terrifying the surrounding rogue cultivators so much that their legs went weak and they almost knelt on the ground.

"It's Wang Teng, the second young master of the Wang family of Lingnan!"

"My God, he actually tamed a second-tier, low-level demonic beast, the Fiery Lion, as his mount! The Wang family truly lives up to its reputation as a great clan of cultivators!"

"Shh, keep your voice down. Young Master Wang Teng has a terrible temper. If he sets his sights on you, you won't even know how you died!"

Whispers of awe and obsequiousness rose from the surrounding area.

Wang Teng thoroughly enjoyed the awe-inspiring gazes of thousands. He was riding his mad lion, preparing to cut in line to the very front of the spirit-testing stone, when he suddenly noticed that in the very center of the road stood Li Xuangeng, dressed in white, unmoving, and Xiaoman, trembling behind him.

"Blind bastard, didn't you hear what I said?! How dare you block the Wang family's path? Do you want to die?!"

Wang Teng's eyes widened in anger, and he suddenly lashed out with a long whip inlaid with spirit stones, creating a sonic boom in the air as it was aimed directly at Li Xuangeng's face!

Faced with this fierce whip, Li Xuangeng didn't even turn his head.

He merely raised his gentle, jade-like face slightly, the white silk ribbon pointing directly at the arrogant "Flaming Lion".

Under Li Xuangeng's [Aura Observation Technique], this was no noble spirit beast at all. It was a deformed mangy dog ​​with its genes destroyed, its limbs forcibly sewn together with those of other demonic beasts, and its body covered in foul-smelling corpse spots! The flames on its body were actually phosphorescent flames produced by burning the resentment and poison within its body!

"How dare you, a beast, bark at me?"