Chapter 39: Dragon-Blooded Overlord Power Fantasy (38)

The news that Yin Xubai, the champion of the Grand Assembly of Three Thousand Daoist Laws, was defeated by a female disciple of the Wuji Sect whose bone age was only forty spread across the entire cultivation world overnight.

A Soul-Formation realm expert at forty, the Dragon-Singing Sword, the Vast Ocean's Surging Tides, and the Heavenly Evolution Sword Technique.

Any single one of these alone would have caused a sensation in the cultivation world, yet all of them were concentrated in a single disciple!

While the arena match between Su Bai and Yin Xubai in the Eastern Region had triggered such a massive uproar, Qin Yang in the Southern Region had likewise risen to fame by virtue of his two natal magic treasures, the Stunning Vision Sword and the Nirvana Abyss Bow, alongside a heavenly fire, the Southern Brilliance Flame.

The duel of the tenth day had just concluded, and disciples in both the Eastern and Southern Regions were frantically sending messages to their respective elders. Images of the Dragon-Singing Sword were being widely circulated within communication jade slips.

[I told you all beforehand to sign up for the Bixun City sub-venue in the Eastern Region. Many brothers refused to believe me back then and insisted on following Pei Yizhou to the Southern Region's sub-venue, blathering on about how Pei Yizhou is a grandmaster of the sword path. Who was it that argued with me, claiming our Eastern Region produced a female disciple of the Wuji Sect while the Southern Region produced a male disciple of the Wuji Sect, and therefore swordsmen who wanted to learn the sword path should register in the Southern Region? This young lady is simply worth two of them combined!

Though I am lacking, let me roughly tally it up: Su Bai won five hundred and seventy-three consecutive matches, using a total of two hundred and eighty-six sword techniques. The sword she openly displayed was the Heavenly-grade treasured sword, the Solitary Wild Goose Sword, as well as the Dragon-Singing Sword, which ranks second on the Divine Weapon Registry (she was able to resonate with the dragon soul of the Dragon-Singing Sword, suspected to be her natal sword). Her commonly used sword techniques include the Vast Sea Ephemera Sword Technique, the Three Thousand Falling Petals Embracing Moonlight Sword Technique, the Lotus Blossoming in the Sun Sword Technique, and the Sun-Born Radiance Sword Technique, all of which rank in the top ten.

In addition, there is the long-lost ancient sword technique, the Heavenly Evolution Gods Sword Technique. Because it has been lost for ages, the Heavenly Evolution Sword Technique does not hold a spot on the sword technique rankings, so this one is counted separately.

As for spells, she has used the top-ranked water-type spell, the Water Cloud Script, First Stage: Gazing at the Sea Tide, Second Stage: Vast Ocean's Surging Tides; along with top-ten ice-type spells such as Freezing a Thousand Miles and the Ice-Flame Two-Poles Formula, totaling eighty-seven spells. The one she used most frequently was the Water Cloud Script, Second Stage: Vast Ocean's Surging Tides.

Known information: Su Bai personally admitted that her cultivation is in the Soul-Formation realm (specifics unknown). Over three hundred cultivators above the peak Nascent Soul realm—such as Xie Ningqing, peak Nascent Soul of the Kunwu Sect; Zeng Ning, Great Circle of Nascent Soul from the Heavenly Sword Sect; Zhao Zhi, peak Nascent Soul of the Taiyuan Sect; and Lin Qingyan, Great Circle of Nascent Soul from the Pure Wind Sect—have been defeated at her hands. In the final match, the Kunwu Sect's Yin Xubai, a favorite to win the championship, suffered a crushing defeat during their discourse on the Dao (logically speaking, one doesn't reveal their trump cards before the finals, and since this final arena match was of little consequence, although Yin Xubai revealed one trump card, the Nine Heavens Imperial Lightning Formula, I refuse to believe he didn't hold anything back; my blind guess is either a contracted beast or a heavenly fire).

This was Su Bai's first time participating in the Three Thousand Daoist Laws Dao Discourse Assembly. I do not know if she followed convention by keeping a trump card in reserve, but if these five hundred and seventy-three consecutive victories still failed to force out her trump card, it can only be said that her talent and mental fortitude have reached a hair-raising degree.

The above is a rough tally. Seniors, please supplement and correct me.

Also attached: footage of the Dragon-Singing Sword being unsheathed.]

1l: Ahhhhh it's the Dragon-Singing Sword! Saving a spot in the front row to watch the footage.
2l: She won the moment she drew the Dragon-Singing Sword. I'm crying.
3l: Thanks for the invite. Bought a full-price ticket to Bixun City in the Eastern Region and watched Su Bai's matches from start to finish. Standing in the second row and watching the Dragon-Singing Sword leave its scabbard already puts me ahead of ninety percent of the cultivators in the cultivation world.
4l: Big sister, do you need a Dao companion? (Bashful, let's not be too rigid about gender~)
5l: Soul-Formation at forty?! I thought anyone under two hundred reaching Soul-Formation was already damn impressive.
6l: Looking at it this way, could Qin Yang from the Southern Region also be a Soul-Formation expert at forty? After all, he also won five hundred and ninety-six consecutive matches in the Southern Region, and he even has a heavenly fire like the Southern Brilliance Flame, which ranks in the top ten of the heavenly fire registry, right in his hands!
7l: You still can't compare the intensity of the Shaver's arena between the Southern and Eastern Regions, right? Because of Pei Yizhou, the Southern Region's sub-venue was indeed a bit more hyped this year, but looking at the statistics, the proportion of cultivators above the Nascent Soul realm in Bixun City was higher by a quarter than Flying Eagle City where Pei Yizhou was. Flying Eagle City had a higher proportion of Golden Core cultivators than Bixun City by a fifth (though the Golden Core base is larger), so looking at winning streaks really doesn't prove much.
8l: Right, and besides, none of the Soul-Formation big shots in the Southern Region went to challenge Qin Yang (which is a bit regrettable), so we can't rule out the possibility that Qin Yang is just a relatively formidable peak Nascent Soul or Great Circle of Nascent Soul expert.
9l: Didn't ancient texts say that every ten thousand years a Ziwei Emperor Star blessed by destiny would emerge? The Heavenly Dao's resources and fortune are fixed. I don't believe two Ziwei Emperor Stars can suddenly pop up out of nowhere.
……
151l: The OP at least looks like a swordsman from a major sect, managing to recognize four of the top ten sword techniques. I also watched this disciple's matches from start to finish in person, but I only recognized the Vast Sea Ephemera Sword Technique out of those four. However, because my master primarily practices the Scale-Gathering Moon-Gazing Sword (ranked seventh on the sword technique registry), during the two hundred and thirty-seventh match, one of her moves definitely started with the Scale-Gathering Moon-Gazing form (Footage).
152l: Primarily practicing the Scale-Gathering Moon-Gazing Sword? I'm blindly guessing that the poster above is a disciple of Ling Su from the Heavenly Sword Sect?!
153l: Holy crap, Ling Su hasn't taken in an apprentice in a century. This poster is definitely a big shot!
……
373l: To add a sentence: in the three hundred and forty-second match, what she used was precisely the Hidden Dragon Entering the Abyss Sword, which ranks in the top ten of the sword technique registry (Footage).
374l: I haven't read many books, don't lie to me. Is there any big shot who can come explain whether what the person above said is right or wrong tvt?
375l: Impossible. Her initial stance for the Hidden Dragon Entering the Abyss Sword was completely wrong. 373 must have never studied sword techniques; if the very first sword move is wrong, how can you execute Hidden Dragon Entering the Abyss afterwards? Furthermore, in that match, she clearly started with the Scale-Gathering Moon-Gazing form. Go compare it with the video of the Scale-Gathering Moon-Gazing Sword from earlier and you'll see.
……
376l: Shut up, poster above. Her subsequent sword flow is completely different from Scale-Gathering Moon-Gazing. For instance, the third sword of Scale-Gathering Moon-Gazing should be a horizontal slash and vertical chop, but her third sword used her right hand to lift the sword and execute consecutive hacks.
……
456l: I cultivate the Hidden Dragon Entering the Abyss Sword and also know a thing or two about Scale-Gathering Moon-Gazing. 373l is correct; what she used was indeed Hidden Dragon Entering the Abyss. As for why her first and second sword moves differed from the usual Hidden Dragon Entering the Abyss, it was because she disassembled the Hidden Dragon Entering the Abyss sword technique into several parts and nested them sequentially within the Scale-Gathering Moon-Gazing Sword. That is why it appeared both like Hidden Dragon Entering the Abyss and like Scale-Gathering Moon-Gazing. Actually, the previous analyses were mostly on the mark, but combining Hidden Dragon Entering the Abyss and Scale-Gathering Moon-Gazing is indeed an approach that ordinary people would not dare to try lightly. Since she was able to disassemble sword moves and integrate them, her comprehension of the Hidden Dragon Entering the Abyss sword technique must have reached a realm beyond our reach.
457l: Cultivates the Hidden Dragon Entering the Abyss Sword as their main path? My god, might I ask if the poster above is Sword Sovereign Qingwu?
457l: The Heavenly Sword Sect's guest elder, Sword Sovereign Qingwu? Looking at his signature, it really seems to be him, oh?
458l: Flushing out so many big shots is something we never expected (Complicated jpg.)
……
559l: To be honest, I'm already feeling a bit numb. I feel like this young lady is no longer a person from the same dimension as us. But after all your arguments across so many floors, let me say this: the Thirty-Seventh ranked Two-Forms Oblivion Sword on the sword technique registry—there's no way she knows that one, right?
560l: She already knows sword techniques from the top ten of the registry, why wouldn't she know a mere seventeenth-ranked Two-Forms Oblivion Sword?
561l: The Two-Forms Oblivion Sword ranks thirty-seventh on the sword technique registry because rumor has it that this technique requires entering the Ruthless Dao to unleash its maximum power. However, no cultivators in the world today who know the Two-Forms Oblivion Sword have ever practiced the Ruthless Dao, which is why it was ranked thirty-seventh. The reason he said that is because he believes this young lady cannot enter the Ruthless Dao, and therefore cannot wield the true Two-Forms Oblivion Sword either.
……
Southern Region, Flying Eagle City.

Qin Yang was also looking at this thread, which had received tens of thousands of replies, on his communication jade slip.

The Holy Venerable's divine soul had been slumbering for six years without waking. During these six years, he had entered the desolate valley forbidden area of the Southern Region, surviving near-death to contract the ancient magical treasure, the Nirvana Abyss Bow, and subsequently contracted the Southern Brilliance Flame in the Chaos Forest, harvesting the Prajna Azure Lotus that grew alongside it. The Prajna Azure Lotus was extremely precious; because it contained the purest Primordial Wood Qi from when the heavens and earth were first cleaved, it could practically reshape all things. Yet even after obtaining the Prajna Azure Lotus, how to use a azure lotus to reshape one's dantian was something even the Mirror Void Isle, preeminent in medical arts, would not dare to claim had even a half-percent chance of success.

What the Mirror Void Isle dared not do, the [Dragon-Haunting Heaven System], acting as the agent of the Heavenly Dao, dared to do. It could also be considered a blessing in disguise: after reshaping his dantian with the Prajna Azure Lotus, even if Qin Yang failed to form a flawless ten-percent Golden Core, he was able to communicate with the spiritual Qi of heaven and earth through the Prajna Azure Lotus, breaking through the upper limit that a physical dantian could ordinarily achieve.

Qin Yang cultivated with such untiring devotion not for the sake of the six-year appointment, but because the [Dragon-Haunting Heaven System] had said the exact same words as the Holy Venerable when it first bound him: The Candle Dragon would awaken, and the heavens would tilt and fall; hence, the Heavenly Dao dispatched an emissary wishing to help Qin Yang slay the dragon.

Since he was able to bind with the system, Qin Yang had also asked the [Dragon-Haunting Heaven System] whether Su Bai's drastic change in temperament over the past few years was likewise due to binding with a system.

That question nearly scared the Dragon-Haunting Heaven System to death.

Before this novel world first birthed its own will, it was a female-perspective web novel. Across the boundless stretches of time, the novel world eventually developed consciousness, thereby transforming the illusory into reality and establishing itself within the primordial chaos.

However, everyone within the novel world was endowed with consciousness—everyone except the protagonist of this book, Jiaojiao.

Jiaojiao was more like a puppet.

In the initial version of this novel, the author, in order to pander to audience trends and construct a web novel filled with bittersweet romance and overbearing pampered sweetness, set up Jiaojiao's character persona to exist almost entirely for the male protagonist, "Qin Yang."

For the sake of anguish, she was ordered never to resist, and a series of accidental misunderstandings were arranged so that Qin Yang mistakenly believed he deeply loved Yun Zhu, viewing Jiaojiao merely with sibling affection; furthermore, the irresistible fate of the Heavenly Dao was imposed, causing Qin Yang and the Vermilion Bird to experience spiritual union to create twists and turns for this romance.

For the sake of pampering, the early stages used the childhood-sweetheart, innocent-amusement dynamic between Qin Yang and Jiaojiao as a gimmick; the middle stages used Qin Yang's willingness to fall out with Yun Zhu for Jiaojiao's sake as a selling point; and the later stages concluded with Qin Yang achieving success, taking only a single ladle from the weak waters, and doting exclusively on Jiaojiao alone.

The novel achieved massive success. Yet when this novel world birthed its will, Jiaojiao, who should have been the protagonist, failed to develop consciousness.

She was merely a puppet whose entire destiny had been pre-set; she did not understand how to resist, nor did she understand what the Dao was.

When the world first birthed consciousness, it collapsed because Qin Yang failed to defeat the Candle Dragon. At the moment the world was overturning, the [Little White Flower Saint Mother] system took a fancy to this novel world—back then, the [Little White Flower Saint Mother] system was still a renowned major system. Thus, with the approval of the Heavenly Dao, it expended immense effort to reboot the world.

There are two scenarios when a system wishes to insert the soul of a prospective deity into this world.

First, the original body dies.

Second, the so-called protagonist has failed to develop consciousness.

Therefore, after the world was rebooted, the unconscious Jiaojiao logically came to be replaced by a prospective deity.

"That girl, she probably bound herself to some sort of 'Severing Love and Passion System' out of lovesickness after you left the sect to temper yourself. Perhaps because of this severing of love and passion, she blunderingly entered the Ruthless Dao. The Dao heart of someone who enters that path is exceptionally pure, so with the help of the Severing Love and Passion System, her temperament underwent a drastic transformation, and her journey along the Dao went smoothly."

Although the [Dragon-Haunting Heaven System] had a competitive relationship with 888, since this world dared to follow a conquest-style route, Qin Yang's affection for Jiaojiao truly had its favorability maxed out. Coupled with the fact that the [Dragon-Haunting Heaven System] had just bound with Qin Yang and seen his half-dead, lovesick state, it did not dare to tell Qin Yang the truth under any circumstances.

The [Dragon-Haunting Heaven System] was terrified that Qin Yang would throw a tantrum and quit, dragging the entire world down to perish alongside his Jiaojiao.

"Then how can I make Jiaojiao remember the decades of affection between us?"

Because the [Dragon-Haunting Heaven System] had saved him from certain, desperate doom, Qin Yang trusted it implicitly and asked once more.

The [Dragon-Haunting Heaven System] could still remember the expression on Qin Yang's face when he spoke those words.

It was like a drowning person finally grasping the last straw of survival; his entire being seemed to be hauled out of the darkness and into the light, and even his originally dim and lifeless eyes relit with a faint gleam.

Yes.

It had descended like a god, appearing omnipotent, while he was merely a living creature struggling for survival under the Heavenly Dao. What could it possibly plot against him for?

The Heavenly Dao needed someone to slay the dragon, so he would slay it.

Everything was logical and reasonable.

Yet what he did not know was that Jiaojiao was born because of him, but ultimately died because of him as well. Even the [Dragon-Haunting Heaven System], this so-called savior sent down by the Heavenly Dao, merely wished for him to continue living within this colossal lie and continue fulfilling his irresistible mission—

Slay the dragon.

Slay the dragon for this world.

And even more so, slay the dragon for the Heavenly Dao.

The [Dragon-Haunting Heaven System] pondered for a moment and said airily, "Perhaps once you become stronger, she will break through the shackles that the Severing Love and Passion System has placed on her."

Over these past six years, the reason Qin Yang cultivated with such grueling diligence was precisely because the [Dragon-Haunting Heaven System] repeatedly whispered in his ear that he had once abandoned Jiaojiao in pursuit of the Dao of becoming stronger, and therefore Jiaojiao, striving to move closer to him and avoid becoming a burden, had also begun pursuing the Dao of becoming stronger.

Little did he know that the path to becoming stronger is inherently a path that requires severing all illusory thoughts.

Qin Yang remained silent, perhaps recalling that he, too, had once made similar choices when striving to become stronger to slay the dragon.

Yet the [Dragon-Haunting Heaven System] cared little what Qin Yang was thinking; it coaxed him step-by-step, saying that Jiaojiao entering the Ruthless Dao was for the pursuit of strength, and therefore only by becoming stronger than her could he possibly make Jiaojiao recall the decades of deep affection between them.

Setting aside the fact that Jiaojiao, being a puppet, had long since been replaced, once someone enters the Ruthless Dao, how could they ever turn back so easily?

Such clumsy rhetoric was actually believed by Qin Yang.

Perhaps it was because he had no choice but to believe.

"Six years have passed, and she has indeed grown very strong."

The Dragon-Haunting Heaven System said within Qin Yang's sea of consciousness, "Qin Yang, are you prepared? The six-year appointment is here; you must not lose. You must make her look at you in a new light!"

Qin Yang clenched his fists and looked out into the distance.

"I certainly will."