If he didn’t have any help, then Longyao’s soul-consciousness alone wouldn’t be able to support such a barrier no matter what, but if someone helped, who would that person be?
The answer was self-evident.
If Youshan Lingyu really did skin Longyao, rip out his tendons, and kill his entire clan, then how would Yan Tianhen dare to go and ask for Longyao’s help in such a situation?
He still remembered that back then, Heaven’s Wail had begun to spread from Youshan, passing by the Northeast Land, and tearing towards the west. Looking up, the clouds and sky that had been torn into pieces were everywhere, and the purple and black evil Qi came all the way. The reflection on the ground was a mirror image of the sky — large cracks as deep as the abyss tore through the land.
Countless evil creatures crawled from heaven and earth. When they came to the surface, they ate everyone that they saw. They looked like humans, but they were uglier than humans. They were even more terrifying than demons. After all, demons had the same intelligence as humans, but this kind of evil was the most vile between heaven and earth. They were lowly life forms created from the most dirty, cruel, shady, despairing, and cold Qi in the world. They only knew about ecstasy in tearing apart flesh with their teeth and killing.
There was no purpose in them and they couldn’t understand human language, so there was no loophole and there was no possibility of peace. Such an existence was the most fatal.
Originally, the evil Qi could not be condensed into an entity, just like the spiritual Qi between heaven and earth, which could only be absorbed, but could not be transformed into an actual form.
But when Heaven’s Wail appeared, an evil Qi cultivator came from a nearby big world. With his own power, he was able to enlighten the evil spirits of the entire Nine Lands into evil creatures that completely obeyed his commands.
They were like fierce tigers trapped in a desperate situation and starved for ten thousand years. They wantonly killed the unlucky creatures in the Nine Lands. Even if countless Taoist disciples fought with their lives, they couldn’t stop the evil creatures from invading like a wave.
The Heaven’s Wail and Earth Fissure had almost spread to the North Land.
At that time, a true dragon that seemingly appeared out of nowhere had been entrenched in the North Land for many years. The people of Hidden Spirit Holy Sect had seen the talent and strength of the true dragon.
In the past, the North Land was still under the jurisdiction of the Star Sect. One day, a dragon arrived and took a fancy to Star Sect’s mountain top. Without a word, he beat the Star Sect into a mess and entrenched himself at the top of the mountain, refusing to leave.
Could the Sect Master of Star Sect swallow this insult? Of course not.
He led hundreds of disciples who were driven out of the sect to report to Spirit Sect.
As soon as Spirit Sect heard that its little brother was bullied by a snake that jumped out from nowhere, of course it couldn’t bear it. Thus, Spirit Sect sent Chang Sheng, the chief disciple of Spirit Sect at that time, and Lingyu — a little disciple who had been in the sect for ten years and was strong enough to carry out missions alone — to meet that snake.
Lingyu had a fight with the dragon, and Lingyu lost within 100 moves.
After that, Chan Sheng came forward and fought with Longyao. Their fight shook Heaven and Earth, and countless mountains were leveled.
In the end, Longyao really didn’t want to fight anymore, so he sat on the ground. “Damn, to think there’s actually such a talented person in this shabby small world. This Venerable has learned something new today. But the dragons are born to live in a place with beautiful mountains and rivers and abundant spiritual Qi. If you don’t find a more suitable place for me to live, then I won’t be polite.”
Lingyu squatted in front of the giant dragon’s head and patted him on the head. “Dragon, if you can make yourself smaller, will you follow me to Spirit Sect?”
Longyao lifted his eyes. “What’s Spirit Sect? Is the water there tasty?”
Lingyu giggled. “Spirit Sect, that is the place with the most abundant spiritual Qi in the entire Nine Lands. The sky and the sea are connected, and the mountains and rivers are clear and beautiful. You can eat as much spiritual Qi as you want. Although the place where you are entrenched now is good, but in the entire North Land, there is only such a mountain top that can still be considered pretty. If you don’t believe me, go to the side and take a look. Isn’t there endless desert, dust, and mud here? Let alone water; very few mountain tops are nearby.”
Longyao was skeptical. The place where he landed was here. Otherwise, he would not stay here and insist on not leaving. But if the surrounding environment was truly so bad, then he would never stay here anymore.
“What’s more, you said you are a true dragon, right?” Lingyu blinked. “We also have a family over there, which is said to be the descendant of the dragon clan, but none of them has a dragon form more mighty and beautiful than yours. Just looking at the horns on your head, your aura is much superior to theirs.”
Longyao became interested. He sharpened his claws on the stone. “Is that true?”
Lingyu: “I can’t beat you anyways. If I lie to you, you can beat me up again.”
Chang Sheng didn’t know whether all dragons liked to gather together. In any case, after being fooled by Lingyu with a few words, Longyao decided to pack his luggage and follow them to Spirit Sect.
Since then, Spirit Sect gained a new guardian beast for their mountain.
The suspected descendants of the dragon clan living near Spirit Sect also became a real official organization. Longyao received the courtesy and warm welcome of the entire dragon clan. A few years later, Longyao was promoted to the Patriarch of the Nine Lands’ dragon clan, despite not having any blood relations with the clan.
Lingyu had a lot of scoundrel friends, and Longyao was one of his best friends. Together, the two committed countless acts that made chickens fly and dogs jump, which caused the whole Spirit Sect to be miserable.
However, later, Lingyu killed his master, destroyed his spiritual core, and cultivated evil Qi. He killed countless people along the way and went to the Demon Realm to become the emperor. Since then, he declared a complete break with the entire Nine Land’s orthodox Dao.
After that, Longyao took the entire dragon clan and moved their roots to the North Land, a place the dragon clan didn’t actually like.
Longyao swore in front of Spirit Sect: “The Longyao Clan, from now on until its collapse, vows to defend the North Land and will never allow demons to set foot in the Central Plains!”
The break between Longyao and Lingyu started here.
In the end, Heaven’s Wail and Earth Fissure still spread to the sky and the earth in the North Land.
This was the last line of defense of the entire Nine Lands. If even the North Land became completely eroded by Heaven’s Wail and Earth Fissure, then the Demon Realm’s Youshan Lingyu would be able to create an evil creature army without ever leaving the demon world. He could command those condensed evil creatures, starting from the edge of the Demon Realm and even the Northern borders, to spread all the way to the south and swallow up the entire Nine Lands.
All of the sects begged the Longyao Clan.
The Dragon Emperor said, “I will kill the liar Youshan Lingyu.”
After that, he single-handedly slaughtered his way to the edge of the North Land, where he met the Demon Emperor Youshan Lingyu. No one could tell what happened afterwards.
Everyone only knew that the Dragon Emperor died a violent death. On that day, he was skinned and thrown back to the dragon clan like a worm. His breathing was faint, his lifeline was thin, and he was completely in a state of near death.
However, it was too late to send someone to find a pharmacist for treatment.
That night, the Dragon Emperor’s body disappeared. Later, reliable news came from somewhere saying that Youshan Lingyu had retaliated against the Dragon Emperor and thrown him into the black abyss.
However, the Heaven’s Wail and Earth Fissure in the North Land stopped spreading towards the North. And with the death of Longyao, the Dragon Tomb Holy Land appeared. Starting from the North Land, these already-formed Heaven’s Wail and Earth Fissures actually began to return the same way they came, like an invisible hand was slowly mending those cracks.
The evil creatures lost the source of evil Qi supporting their bodies, and naturally lost their vitality. One by one, they turned into evil Qi again and dissipated in the Heaven’s Wail and Earth Fissures.
That battle gave the Nine Lands’ orthodox Dao time to recuperate for a decade. However, the newly recovered Longyao Clan lost their beloved emperor. Since then, they had been in a state of seclusion, but they had complied with the instructions of Longyao before his death. Even if the Dragon Emperor was destroyed, they must guard the North Land. They defended the land for ten thousand years.
Later, Chang Sheng went to the Demon Realm to seek a peaceful coexistence. Then he saw the Demon Emperor Youshan Lingyu wearing a black robe with gold and silver thread embroidered on it. The shape was surprisingly that of a dragon!
Especially those two horns — apart from Longyao, there was no one else who had them!
Chang Sheng asked, “Why did you embroider Longyao’s true form on your clothes?”
Youshan Lingyu, dangling a smoking pipe in his mouth, looked contemptuously and said with a smile, “Well, it’s the only true dragon in the Nine Lands, and once beat me. I skinned him, ripped out his tendons, broke his bones, and then embroidered his form on my clothes to show that even the true dragon is just another opponent who suffered defeat at my hands.”
Chang Sheng: “You are beyond saving.”
Youshan Lingyu: “The illness has already seeped into the bones. Why save me?”
After that, they had nothing to say for a long time.
Thinking of the past, Lin Xuanzhi did not show any expressions on the surface. He was still the Huarong Sword Venerable whose expression would not change even if Mount Tai collapsed. However, in his heart, the seas and rivers were already overturned, as if an earth-shattering explosion was about to occur.
A Youshan Lingyu who skinned opponents and pulled out their tendons — yeah right. A Demon Emperor who’s beyond saving — yeah right.
He’s afraid that in reality, Youshan Lingyu probably understood better than anyone how to completely destroy evil spirits and return peace to the Nine Lands.
Lin Xuanzhi had already guessed this in his heart, but he couldn’t get the evidence, so he always gave up and didn’t think about it anymore. Even though he secretly investigated, who could easily tell him about events that occurred ten thousand years ago?
Lin Xuanzhi thought about what happened in the past when he was alone that night in Myriad Dao Academy’s Little Penglai, but there was only one thing he dared not think about and couldn’t think about–
That is, if the Youshan Lingyu back then never betrayed the orthodox Dao and never committed such crimes like betraying the world from the beginning to the end, but instead took advantage of the trend and risked having his name go down in history as the target of infamy in order to walk the opposite path in the name of betrayal. In reality, he was living miserably in order to save the common people and never received forgiveness or understanding even until his death.
If that was true, then I… How can I face myself?
When he thought about Lingyu’s thin back walking alone with blood in his hands in the dark, Lin Xuanzhi felt the pain of penetrating his heart and gouging out his bones.
It wasn’t that he was forcibly trying to whitewash Youshan Lingyu, but that too many clues were laying before his eyes. He had no choice but to re-examine the complicated and confusing past through a bystander’s eyes.
“If the Dragon Tomb is broken, then what should we do ah?”
“It was perfectly fine before… How come it became like this?“
“The Dragon Tomb is not in the time and space of the Nine Lands to begin with. Will we die in this crack between time and space?”
Even though the disciples were protected by Lin Xuanzhi’s barrier, they still couldn’t help feeling frightened when looking at the earth-shattering phenomenon. Not only the disciples of the Longyao Clan, but even these top cultivators who were ranked highly in the Nine Lands were also unable to restrain or maintain their usual immovable posture.
“Huarong Sword Venerable, what’s the situation now?”
“Huarong Sword Venerable, will your protective barrier be able to withstand the collapse of the sky and the earth?”
“Huarong Sword Venerable, it’s useless for us to wait here. We’d better think about countermeasures in advance and how to escape.”
