Chapter 188 — The True Man Claims Mounts (Part One)

Prince Xuanyuan, a man of wide experience, naturally recognized the treasure that Yuanyuan Zhenren had summoned from his gourd. With the Apricot Yellow Flag shielding him, the man already stood in an unassailable position. Prince Xuanyuan had interrogated Qianji Laodao's Yuanyan and learned that Kunlun possessed no offensive dharma weapon to match Li Duo, and he had also obtained the method for opening Kunlun's mountain-protecting formation. Only then had he dared to meet them head-on. To be safe, he had even laid down the Blood River Great Formation, thinking that with the help of the Extreme Yin Laodao, the Great Strength Bear King, the Six-Eyed Toad, and Wen Yanlan, these formidable allies, he could surely annihilate Kunlun in a single stroke. Each one of these mighty ones, placed among the Central Plains Daoist sects, would have been an invincible overlord—even Wen Yanlan, the weakest in cultivation of them all. United, should even an immortal descend from Heaven, they could slay him in one blow. What hidden Kunlun masters had they to fear? Little did he know that although Qianji Laodao was aware he had a mysterious martial uncle, the two treasures—the Apricot Yellow Flag and the Immortal-Slaying Flying Dagger—were unknown to him.

This too was Kunlun's rule: only when Yuanyuan Zhenren attained the Dao and ascended could the treasures be passed down, generation after generation, ever thus.

With a *puchi*—a soft, wet sound—as Yuanyuan Zhenren burned incense and bowed, intoning once more, "Turn, precious one!" the blood demon that Prince Xuanyuan had dragged forth and used for the body-substitution spell was struck from its neck, revealed in its true form, and dissolved into a spatter of foul blood that poured down and melted into the churning waves of the bloody sea below.

These three blood demons were originally clones that Prince Xuanyuan had refined from underworld-merged foul blood and the deathly malevolence of the earth's depths; they were also called the Three Corpses Yuanyan. He had meant to use them against the Shushan Sect a thousand years ago, but before the refining was complete, the Shushan Sect's Purple-Green Twin Swords had destroyed his physical body. The three blood demons had been on the verge of taking form, and over the thousand-odd years while Prince Xuanyuan recovered his power, they gradually absorbed underworld-demon qi, developed consciousness, and became something like monsters—different from dharma weapons and magic treasures. This was truly beyond Prince Xuanyuan's expectations. But after all, these three blood demons had been forged by Prince Xuanyuan himself, fused with his heart's blood and primordial essence; they were equivalent to his own clones, save that they had their own consciousness. When Prince Xuanyuan sensed Li Duo, he immediately used his clones as substitutes and thus escaped disaster.

Otherwise, even one stronger than Prince Xuanyuan would have met with utter annihilation of body and spirit.

Once enveloped in the white light of the gourd, the primordial essence was fixed in place, consciousness thrown into oblivion, unable to transform or escape. Be it immortal or god, none could evade death. It never left a survivor—truly a treasure of the most vicious order, a one-strike certain-kill weapon that would not be recalled until blood was seen. There was none of the Daoist transcendence and compassion in it; rather, it bore the shadow of a demonic dharma weapon.

For this reason, the towering figures of Kunlun through the ages had established this rule: use the treasure as little as possible, lest one create too much slaughter and add to one's own karmic burden. The Apricot Yellow Flag had not been passed down; it was because Yuanyuan Zhenren had, in a moment of private motive, taken it for himself while in seclusion cultivating Kunlun's supreme secret method and sitting at the生死 barrier. To guard against the intrusion of heart-demons as his yin spirit swelled, he needed the Apricot Yellow Flag's protection. Otherwise, Qianji Laodao would never have fallen to Zhou Xuan; he might even have captured Zhou Xuan and brought him back to Kunlun.

Thus one sees that every peck and every drink seems governed by a certain fixed fate.

"What a vicious treasure!"

Watching the white qi behead that blood demon, Zhou Xuan sighed inwardly. "By comparison, that counterfeit in my disciple's hands is far inferior. If the little fox used that fake to fix the Extreme Yin Laodao's primordial essence, she'd be beaten to death—it couldn't even hold him. Between the genuine article and the fake, something seems to be missing. But what of it? Even Yun Cen can't fathom it—what am I puzzling over? Better to think of a countermeasure. The Xuanyin Banner must not fall into that old demon Xuanyuan's hands. Kunlun is simply too powerful, and tangled up with that old nun Wuzhen, it's a tiger with wings. And that bitch Ling Yan is stirring up trouble too. It seems this Zhenren's good days are over. If trouble's coming, let it come hard—settle it once and for all! I'll stake everything on this one throw!" Zhou Xuan made his resolve in secret.

In truth, Zhou Xuan could have hidden himself within the West Sea Immortal Estate; with its powerful prohibitions, Kunlun, however mighty, would not dare come knocking. But the Great Freedom Palace was Yunxia's natal home. Could Zhou Xuan stand by and do nothing? Look at Wuzhen Laoni's disposition—she was no kind soul either, extremely bigoted, and would surely collude with Kunlun to suppress the Great Freedom Palace. Zhou Xuan could not tolerate that, and in an instant he settled on a vicious scheme.

Seeing Xuanyuan shout "The wind's foul—time to pull out!" and the like, the Six-Eyed Toad, the Great Strength Bear King, and Wen Yanlan—having witnessed the Extreme Yin Laodao's instant death and the beheading of another blood demon—were all greatly astonished at the treasure's ferocity. Each raised a gust of demon wind, whipping up a sky-blotting torrent of bloody water that rolled toward Yuanyuan Zhenren and Wuzhen Laoni, buying time to flee Kunlun's cave-heaven. The enemy's treasures, one for attack and one for defense, were flawlessly matched, and their cultivation was profound; for the moment there was no way to deal with them, and they had lost a powerful ally besides. Better to devise another plan. In any case, the blood had defiled Kunlun; to recover its vitality would likely be impossible. No cultivator could dwell in Kunlun's cave-heaven any longer—a sect without its cave-heaven was, even if not destroyed, ruined.

"The old ancestor has gained something too! Though I lost the Extreme Yin Laodao, I've obtained the ninety-nine and eighty-one Xuanyin Banners, and destroyed Kunlun's foundation. Haha, the old ancestor is still invincible! I had clones to draw off the aura of that Immortal-Slaying Flying Dagger—a pity, a pity, only two blood demons left. Only my Three Corpses Yuanyan can substitute clones for the true body. Ah! If only the Apricot Yellow Flag weren't so hard to break—otherwise, in that single instant, with my fourth brother and the Great Strength Bear King's Ghost-White-Bone Banner, I could have slain that little Daoist Yuanyuan."

Prince Xuanyuan rode his blood light and in an instant was out of Kunlun's cave-heaven, flying far away. Seeing that Yuanyuan did not pursue, he breathed a sigh of relief, slowed his pace, and only then saw several trails of demon wind, black qi, and green light flying up behind—the Six-Eyed Toad, the Great Strength Bear King, and the others.