bookbashuk Chapter 22 Crossing the Northern Regions Zhangjia Stone Village
Chapter 22 Crossing the Northern Regions Zhangjia Stone Village
The northernmost region of the eastern wilderness.
The red earth was vast and desolate.
The wind whipped up reddish-brown sand and gravel, which rustled against the rock face.
Three months have passed since we parted ways at the Jade Void Sect in the Southern Region.
Li Xian traveled thousands of miles.
I walked for who knows how many thousands of miles.
They live in the wilderness, sleep on the earth at night, drink dew in the morning, and swallow the sunset at dusk.
He is attaining enlightenment.
It is also hammering "tools".
Once a cultivator enters the Sea of Wheels, they can refine a weapon at each minor realm.
Most people try to do too much at once and end up not getting anything done.
The Daoist scriptures say: When the four realms of the sea of suffering, the spring of life, the bridge of the spirit, and the other shore are united, one must refine only one thing to achieve greatness, which is called: "One thing can break through all laws."
Li Xian doesn't need any extra weapons.
His tool was a "millstone".
At first, the millstone was only the size of a cherry, with a blurry outline.
In March, Li Xian drew upon the divine power of the Bitter Sea, poured the Azure Emperor's spiritual liquid upon it, and subjected it to millions of hammering, stretching, and compressions.
The ultimate hand-rubbing technique.
He poured all the dozens of jars of spiritual liquid obtained from the Immortal Transformation Pool into it.
Finally, the rough blank was formed.
It is about the size of a palm, dark gray in color, and simple and unadorned.
On the surface of the millstone, Li Xian used his divine sense as a blade, fighting thousands of times to painstakingly carve hundreds of Dao patterns from the fragment of the "Heaven-Mending Immortal Scripture".
Its essence is naturally formed.
This instrument is called the "Chaos Grinding Wheel".
It does not emphasize killing techniques, but has only one absolute rule—to crush all things, return to the original "chaotic origin" or "original energy of the Great Dao", and nourish oneself.
On the day the vessel was completed, the Azure Emperor's spiritual liquid was exhausted.
The vast vitality, fed back by the millstone, cleansed Li Xianfan's body.
The other shore has reached its extreme.
According to the Daoist scriptures, the ultimate realm of the other shore requires experiencing nine lives and nine deaths.
Ten days of desolation, ten days of vitality, repeating this cycle nine times, are necessary for a complete transformation and the opening of the Daoist palace's divine treasures.
Li Xian has completed her first transformation.
Today is the second time.
He walked in the desert, his long hair gray, his skin withered and clinging to his bones, his eyes sunken, without a trace of life.
A walking, dried-up corpse.
A cluster of stone houses appeared on the horizon ahead.
The stone village where Master Zhang was located was 70,000 li away from the fifteenth mining area of Yaoguangyuan District—Li Xian's destination.
He stepped into the village, leaned against a section of dilapidated stone wall, and closed his eyes to regulate his breathing.
The villagers saw him in this state.
They were simply regarded as refugees fleeing from disaster and were ignored.
Half a day later.
The sound of horses' hooves shattered the tranquility of Shizhai.
Dozens of scaly horses galloped in; they were bandits.
The leader, with a full beard, sat on his horse, holding a broad-bladed, blood-stained knife, looking down at the villagers who had gathered around him.
Chen the Beard.
"Old Zhang, the half-month deadline is up." Chen the Bearded Man spat out a mouthful of phlegm. "Hand over the five jin of Yuan."
Zhang Wuye, the village chief of Shizhai Village, walked forward shakily, leaning on his cane.
"Boss, the mines are exhausted. For the past two weeks, the villagers have been digging day and night, but they've only managed to find two ounces of slag. We beg you, Boss, to grant us a few more days."
"Grace period?"
A one-eyed bandit next to him sneered and lashed Zhang Wuye's back with a whip.
The old man's frail body flew three feet, crashing heavily to the ground, coughing up blood.
"grandfather!"
A boy of about twelve or thirteen years old rushed out, his eyes bloodshot, and picked up a stone to throw at the one-eyed bandit.
"court death!"
The one-eyed bandit drew his long knife and slashed at the boy's head.
"stop."
Chen Da Huzi spoke, the blade stopping an inch above the boy's head.
The one-eyed bandit turned around: "Boss, if we don't kill a few of these bastards, they won't know what respect is."
"Fool." Chen the Bearded man glanced at him coldly. "If you kill the sheep, what will you eat next year? Killing the goose that lays the golden eggs is something only low-life bandits do. We need to make a living slowly and steadily."
He dismounted, walked up to Master Zhang, and patted the old man's face with the back of his knife.
"Rules are rules. If you don't have the means, you'll have to take someone else's place."
Chen Da Huzi's gaze swept across the crowd and landed on a young girl.
Lei Ying.
Wang Shu and Lei Bo's older sister.
The girl was seventeen or eighteen years old, dressed in coarse linen clothes, which could not hide her beautiful face.
More importantly, she possesses the bloodline of the ancient Silver Blood Royal Family.
Although not yet awakened, their vital energy and blood far surpass that of ordinary people.
"Take her away." Chen the Bearded Man pointed at Lei Ying. "That'll count as three jin of Yuan. The remaining two jin will be paid up next month."
Two bandits pounced on her like wolves and tigers, twisting Lei Ying's arms around her back.
"Let go of my sister!"
Wang Shu and Lei Bo, two children with red eyes, rushed forward, only to be kicked to the ground by the bandits.
Lei Ying's face turned pale, and she didn't cry out. She knew that resistance would only lead to more deaths in the village.
Master Zhang knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly:
"Boss, she's just a child, please have mercy..."
Chen Da Hu Zi didn't bother with any more words and turned to walk towards Lin Ma.
In the corner.
Li Xian opened her eyes.
Within the withered, lifeless body, the heart beat extremely slowly.
thump.
The sound wasn't loud, but the horses ridden by the dozens of bandits present all went weak at the same time, and they knelt on the ground, defecating and urinating.
Chen Da Huzi froze, then suddenly turned around.
Li Xian, who looked like a dried-up corpse, stood up by leaning against the stone wall.
He didn't look at Chen Dahuzi, nor at Lei Ying; he was simply calculating.
"Forty-one bandits. Three at the Life Spring Realm, one at the Divine Bridge Realm. It will probably take about three seconds to kill them all."
The player's thought process.
This is the fastest way to gain Master Zhang's trust.
Li Xian raised his right hand, and in the Sea of Bitterness, the palm-sized Chaos Millstone trembled slightly.
There was no divine light soaring into the sky, no overwhelming pressure.
Only a single, purest, and most primal force of attrition, centered on Li Xian, instantly enveloped an area of a hundred feet in radius.
"Who's pretending to be a ghost!"
Chen Da Huzi roared, unleashing his Divine Bridge Realm cultivation. His blood-red blade flashed with a blinding red light as he slashed at Li Xian through the air.
Li Xian did not dodge.
He spread his five fingers and pressed forward lightly.
In the void, a dark, millstone-like phantom flashed by.
The moment Chen Da Hu Zi's blood-stained blade touched the illusory millstone, along with his right arm holding the blade, it instantly turned into particles finer than dust.
There was no blood splattering, no screams.
Chen Da Hu Zi froze in mid-air. His body, starting from his right arm, disintegrated and weathered at a visible speed, leaving only wisps of pure life energy dissipating into the air.
"thump."
A clump of grayish-white powder fell to the ground; it was ashes.
The entire room fell silent.
The remaining forty bandits stared wide-eyed, making terrified gurgling sounds in their throats.
run.
That was their only thought.
Li Xian flipped his wrist and gently pressed down.
The chaotic millstone rotated half a circle.
The forty bandits, along with the scaled horses beneath them, froze in place.
Immediately afterwards, like a sand sculpture weathered for thousands of years, they all crumbled into dust.
Li Xian put her hand down.
All that remained on the ground was a thick layer of ash and the remains of a few weapons that had not been completely crushed by the millstone.
three seconds.
no more, no less.
Grandpa Zhang and the villagers stood there, their minds blank—they couldn't comprehend what had just happened.
Li Xian walked up to Master Zhang, speaking calmly without the slightest arrogance of a benefactor.
"I need a place to retreat into seclusion."
As if waking from a dream, Master Zhang, trembling all over, knelt down on the ground:
"Thank you so much for saving my life, Immortal Master! Please come inside, Immortal Master. We'll make room for you in the best stone house in the village right away!"
Lei Ying broke free from her restraints.
He pulled his two younger brothers to kneel down and kowtow.
Li Xian ignored their kneeling and walked straight into the depths of the village.
The second transformation is nearing completion, but resources are depleted.
"What should we do next? Should we rob the bandit Ma Kou in reverse, or...?"
He stopped, turned to look at Master Zhang, and posed a question that struck at the heart of the matter.
"Old man, were your ancestors surnamed Zhang, and were you a descendant of the fifth-generation Yuan Tian Master?"
The wind blew through the stone village, stirring up the ashes on the ground. Zhang Wuye looked up, and a look of horror burst forth in his cloudy eyes.