Chapter 1: His Amazing Perseverance Had No Audience

Chapter 1: His Amazing Perseverance Had No Audience

The sun hung high in the sky, impartially showering its light and heat upon the world, regardless of age, status, or wealth. Love, in its greatest form, is dispassionate.

A fawn waded through a stream, while a bird flitted through the forest.

At first, only a dim red dot could be seen lighting up on the horizon, rapidly approaching.

A fiery tail formed a line of fire, as if a deity were wielding a brush, slicing through the sky.

The thousands of miles of the State of Zhuang's territory were almost scorched by this fiery line. Suddenly, a black light shot up into the sky, blocking its path.

A chilling connection was established between heaven and earth, and vital energy surged. From east, west, north, and south, a deadly aura arose and connected!

This corner of the sky in the northeast of the State of Zhuang was enveloped in dark clouds.

The clear day suddenly darkened.

A muffled groan echoed in the air: "Nine Fiend Profound Yin!"

The light only tangled with the cloud of malevolence for a moment before falling from the sky.

The light fell faster and faster, growing larger and larger, until finally...

It howled like a falling star!

......

The outskirts of Maple Forest City were sparsely populated. There was only a small Taoist temple, which had long since fallen into disrepair and abandonment.

"Boom!"

The fiery point crashed to the ground, creating a huge crater, but it seemed to be constrained by some force, and the aftermath did not spread. When the rolling smoke and dust dissipated, a man in a flame-red robe appeared.

This man had sword-like eyebrows and a handsome appearance. The intricate and elegant patterns on his red flame robe made him extraordinary. However, his disheveled hair and the cracks in his robe revealed his somewhat awkward situation.

"I never thought that Zuo Guanglie would die in this desolate place..." The man in the flame-red robe glanced around, understanding his surroundings, and asked with a strange sense of loss, "What is this place called?"

The sudden darkening of the day and the fall of a meteor had already terrified the few beggars living in the dilapidated temple. They were kowtowing in front of the temple gate. Hearing the question, one of them tremblingly said, "Imm... Immortal Sir, this is the outskirts of Maple Forest City, this temple... we... we don't know its name."

The man in the flame-red robe moved his fingers slightly, preparing to wipe out these beggars.

In this era of great strife, the various states were constantly at war. But in recent years, no war has been as fierce as the great battle between Qin and Chu. Both sides invested nearly 100,000 cultivators, and the valley plain at the center of the battle was devoid of vegetation, and the ground sank for hundreds of miles.

As a key figure on the losing side, especially since he single-handedly broke through Hangu Pass and almost reversed the situation, he had no reason to complain about being hunted down from heaven and earth.

However, these beggars were also beggars of the State of Zhuang. Since the State of Zhuang dared to secretly aid the tyrannical Qin, allowing them to set up an ambush within their borders... these people deserved to die.

But Zuo Guanglie turned his hand and extinguished the sparks that had appeared on his fingertips.

"Zuo Guanglie, ah Zuo Guanglie, is this your magnanimity? Taking your anger out on these pitiful people that no one cares about?"

After muttering to himself, Zuo Guanglie sighed, "You may leave."

He turned his back, his eyes already on the ink-black sky. His enemies were there, those strong individuals hidden in the shadows, closing in like a pack of wolves, were the ones that Zuo Guanglie wanted to kill!

The beggars were pardoned and got up to run. Only the beggar who had answered first hesitated for a moment in front of the dilapidated temple, but his companion beside him gave him a hard tug, causing him to stumble: "Do you want to die?"

The beggars ran wildly, probably never running like this for themselves in their lives.

Zuo Guanglie did not shift his gaze, but frowned slightly, "Aren't you taking your companion with you?"

Within the range of his spiritual awareness, there were no secrets.

The wooden statues of deities in the Taoist temple were long gone, or perhaps they had been burned by the beggars for firewood. But under the offering table lay a weakly breathing beggar, motionless, probably counting down the days until his death - this was the reason for the previous beggar's hesitation.

It was human nature not to carry burdens when fleeing for one's life. But Zuo Guanglie could not ignore it.

Those who came from the battlefield knew the meaning of comrades the most. Zuo Guanglie was well aware of his almost exhausted body, but he would not forget what had brought him to this day.

The words of the mysterious immortal were not to be refused by the beggars, they even swarmed back in a rush.

Exhausting all their strength, panting heavily.

But in the eyes of some who were focused here, they were no more tenacious than an ant, nor faster than a snail.

It was really... too slow!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The dense, piercing sound that suddenly approached from the horizon.

It was countless semi-transparent water arrows flying like a swarm of locusts, gathered by some force and shooting towards Zuo Guanglie.

The water element was surging wildly in this piece of heaven and earth.

The semi-transparent rain of arrows formed a huge funnel, covering half the sky!

This was a very representative large-scale destructive Taoist technique of the Qin military, Ten Thousand Stream Arrow Rain.

"Here it comes!"

Zuo Guanglie raised his head and looked at the sky, the strong wind stirring his flame robe and long hair. He raised his right hand high. The wide sleeves of the red flame robe slid down, revealing an arm carved like jade.

Fair and powerful.

A red light cluster was born in the palm of his hand, and in the next moment, it radiated brightly. The intense light radiated in all directions.

It was as if Zuo Guanglie had single-handedly raised a sun!

This was his unique Taoist technique, with which he became famous at the Yellow River Assembly at the age of fifteen.

Scorching Sun!

Countless semi-transparent water arrows refracted the sunlight falling from the sky into a myriad of colors, and in the next instant, they were dyed red.

That was an incomparably violent, incomparably scorching red!

With Zuo Guanglie's right hand as the center, the sky within a hundred feet was covered in red, and the Ten Thousand Stream Arrow Rain was emptied.

This scene was so magnificent that it was difficult for anyone to notice the faint ink marks at the edges of the painting.

Before the Scorching Sun spread out, countless arrows had already escaped and fallen wildly. The group of running beggars fell to the ground one after another. Their corpses were densely covered with penetrating holes.

They didn't even have the chance to let out a scream before they died.

Life was so fragile.

"Slaughtering indiscriminately, is that also your Dao?" The corner of Zuo Guanglie's mouth curled into a sneer, the words seemingly directed at no one. But a pair of eyes as bright as stars were gradually covered by a cold emotion.

"Anyone who dares to hold back when killing Zuo Guanglie is a complete fool." Accompanied by a cold voice, a group of cultivators wearing black uniform robes landed, vaguely sealing off the four directions.

The leading cultivator had a thin face and a pale complexion. The black robe he wore had frost patterns embroidered on the corners.He had a pair of narrow eyes, and he stared intently at Zuo Guanglie with those eyes: "A mere ant, is also in your eyes?"

As he spoke, the black-robed cultivators who had arrived with him were already casting spells. Their movements were astonishingly uniform, as if they had been cast from the same mold.

A series of eighteen translucent water snakes suddenly took shape, whistling and crisscrossing in the air, biting towards Zuo Guanglie.

From their appearance to their attack, not a moment was wasted.

Under their exquisite manipulation, the low-level Daoist technique of the 'Kansnake Binding' was especially fierce and ruthless.

Zuo Guanglie's expression did not change, he stretched out his hands, and a flame blade formed in his palms.

"Gongyang Bai."

He casually held the flame blade, turned a few times in the air, and cut all the approaching water snakes in two.

For Daoist techniques of the level of the flame blade, he no longer needed to cast spells at all.

"Since you've even brought the Nine Fiends Profound Yin Formation, why waste our lives with such boring Daoist techniques!"

"Please don't misunderstand..." Gongyang Bai spread out his hands in front of his body, and suddenly raised them upwards, "My respect!"

The bodies of the water snakes that fell to the ground not only did not dissipate, but instead jumped up in the next moment, severed tails growing heads, and half heads continuing tails.

Dividing into two, and two dividing into four... Under the influence of the Nine Fiends Profound Yin Formation, these water snakes became more and more ferocious.

This was a completely new change to the 'Kansnake Binding', never seen before. It could be said that it gave the 'Kansnake Binding' a new life, giving this Daoist technique a broader application space. It must have been the result of the Qin State military's painstaking research.

It was the 'Chaos Water Snake Den'.

Hiss~ Hiss~ Hiss~

The sound was ear-piercing and heart-wrenching.

Dense, ferocious water snakes surrounded Zuo Guanglie, as far as the eye could see, as if he were trapped in an endless snake den!

He seemed to be in a desperate situation.

But his voice still rang out, clear and firm.

"Ying Wu is willing to mobilize even the Nine Fiends Profound Yin Formation, I ought to die. But this broken Daoist temple doesn't even have a name... How is this nameless place qualified to bury me, Zuo Guanglie!?"

Flames suddenly rose from his body.

Burning fiercely, baring fangs and brandishing claws.

This fire ignited anything it touched, forming lines from points, and spreading instantly.

The fire-attribute Daoist technique, 'Prairie Fire'.

At the age of seventeen, he used this technique to burn and kill thousands of Yin demons, shaking the desolate borders!

The entire 'Chaos Water Snake Den' burned, and countless water snakes struggled and hissed in the flames, turning into water vapor.

In the rising and whistling water vapor, Zuo Guanglie soared into the sky, his long hair flying, his aura violent.

At this moment, an eagle's cry suddenly arose!

A black giant eagle swooped down from the sky, facing Zuo Guanglie directly, its wings suddenly waving.

Hundreds of iron feathers roared towards him with the light of blades, each blade of light being a different sword style, either fierce or venomous.

The light of the blades rained down, pouring down, cutting Zuo Guanglie back into the snake den.

Mechanical Beast - Blade Feather Flying Eagle.

On the back of the flying eagle, a barefoot man with a mask covering his face and a copper box suspended on his back stood in the wind, silent. Or rather, his words were already in the light of the blades.

Supported by the Nine Fiends Profound Yin Formation, ten thousand snakes grew wildly, constantly being reborn. The 'Prairie Fire' technique lost its persistence, and was slowly dissolved.

Prolonged defense inevitably leads to defeat, and water snakes constantly carved wounds on Zuo Guanglie's body, bringing out blood. Zuo Guanglie only grunted, waving the flame blade with one hand, only cutting back the water snakes attacking vital points.

Ten thousand snakes devoured his body, and the Profound Yin scraped his soul.

From the veins bulging on his forehead, one could see the pain he was suffering, but his gaze was firm, and his other hand was still casting spells.

He never gave up for a moment!

Gongyang Bai glanced at the man on the back of the flying eagle and no longer hesitated. He clasped his fingers together, held them in front of him, and his long hair moved without wind, "If you surrender now, you can still have a complete corpse sent back to your homeland! Because... I can't even control the power of the next Daoist technique!!"

The temperature dropped sharply, and a white frost condensed on his brow. The entire 'Chaos Water Snake Den' stagnated, covered by a layer of solid ice.

This was the most Yin and most cold, indestructible Extreme Cold Profound Ice.

And this Daoist technique was the secret technique of the famous Qin State family, the Gongyang family, driven by the power of blood, the 'Profound Ice Dungeon'.

Those who enter this dungeon, their breath condenses into frost in one breath, their blood flow freezes in two breaths, and their flesh stiffens in three breaths.

The water snakes froze into ice snakes, and Zuo Guanglie was also covered in white frost.

Gongyang Bai silently watched all this, and in the next breath, the blood flow would freeze.

But!

Everyone present suddenly heard the sound of a river rushing, that surging and激荡 like a raging wave, that was Zuo Guanglie's blood was surging!

"Boil! Blood! Burn! Soul!"

His flame robe was burning, his long hair was burning, his eyebrows and eyes were burning, his flesh and blood were burning, his soul... was burning!

Body and will, life and soul, everything was burning.

The solid ice melted into water, the flowing water vaporized, and both the 'Chaos Water Snake Den' and the 'Profound Ice Dungeon' collapsed in an instant. In the white mist, Zuo Guanglie had become a fire man.

He looked down at his flaming hands and murmured, "Worthy of being a dynasty's forbidden technique. In this power, I seem to see... the true meaning of fire."

Then he suddenly looked at the Blade Feather Flying Eagle in the sky, "Too weak."

As soon as the words fell, he had already appeared in mid-air.

The barefoot masked man tapped his toes, and the whole person fell upside down, letting the precious Blade Feather Flying Eagle be destroyed into ashes by the raging flames!

"Too weak, Mo Jingyu!" Zuo Guanglie crossed his hands, and the Daoist technique was completed in an instant.

Flame flowers seemed to be born out of thin air, but they were endlessly alive. The entire sky was occupied by flames, the sky, the earth, everything in the battle space was ablaze.

Even the Fiendish clouds condensed in the high altitude by the Nine Fiends Profound Yin Formation seemed to have become the firewood of the raging fire!

Flame Flowers Burn the City!

This Daoist technique can be said to be Zuo Guanglie's most genius creation, at the age of nineteen he used this technique to break a city in one battle!

Flame flowers, extremely beautiful, and also the ultimate power.

The masked man named Mo Jingyu spread his hands wide as he flew backwards, each finger connected to a translucent silk thread, the other end of the silk thread connected to the copper box, and suddenly pulled out!

Puppet Flying Crows!

His ten fingers were like threading flowers, and dense puppet crows flew out of the box, rushing towards those flame flowers. Each crow would extinguish a flame flower, but the flame flowers seemed endless, and the number of crows flying out became less and less.Gongyang Bai disregarded the backlash from the breaking of the Xuanbing Dungeon, made a hand seal, and touched his index finger to his chin, suddenly opening his mouth! A white, misty frost surged out, extinguishing the flame flowers wherever it went.

A secret bloodline art: Exhaling Frost!

The group of Daoists he brought didn't hesitate either, and all made hand seals.

The water vapor from the collision of the flame flowers and white frost in the air gathered visibly in the sky, forming white clouds. Then the white clouds turned overcast, cloud drawing cloud, cloud stacking cloud.

Suddenly, a torrential downpour, screaming through the air.

Gathering Qi, accumulating clouds, stacking overcast clouds—a combination of three Daoist arts, resulting in this continuous barrage of rain!

"Too weak..." Zuo Guanglie, engulfed in flames, shouted, "Too weak!"

His aura exploded and soared, his pressure like a mountain collapsing.

In the sea of fire, he roared to the sky, "Extreme Flame Power, Burning Heaven and Boiling Seas, Ancestor Zhurong, Enter My Body!"

Inside him, a point of fire, different from the others, suddenly expanded.

With just this change of expansion, crows in the sky spontaneously combusted! The overcast clouds instantly dissipated!

The cultivators surrounding Zuo Guanglie coughed up blood.

Even Gongyang Bai's face turned pale: "How is it possible! Where did he get the Zhurong Seed! And how could he mobilize Zhurong's true form?"

"This is Zuo Guanglie..." Mo Jingyu timely cut off the connection with the puppet crows, now with a pair of mechanical iron wings spread on his back, hovering beside Gongyang Bai, his voice heavy, "A figure who almost single-handedly broke through Hangu Pass!"

In this huge, infinitely expanding fire-dao power, Zuo Guanglie roared: "Who is qualified to kill me!"

"Come on! Mo Jingyu!"

"Gongyang Bai!"

With a wave of his hand, fire dragons tore through the sky, forcing Gongyang Bai and Mo Jingyu to retreat repeatedly.

"What noble families! Aristocratic clans! Geniuses! In front of me, do you dare call yourselves that? You bunch of weaklings, cowards, incompetent fools!"

He seemed to be driven mad by the Zhurong Seed, losing his sanity.

"Family shame, national hatred, impossible to wash away with a river or sea!"

He laughed, laughed until tears flowed, but the tears were instantly burned dry.

"A fine head is here, who can cut it off?"

"Only I can kill my body, only Zhurong can burn my soul!"

Behind him, there was a faint, supreme, majestic phantom of a god holding a fire dragon, the powerful pressure suffocating.

"Who can kill me?!"

Mo Jingyu reached behind, wanting to open the copper box he was carrying, to use his last resort. But his hand trembled constantly, and he didn't have the strength to open the lid.

In his spiritual sense, there was no wilderness, no ruined temple, not even a single person. Only fire, only boundless waves of flame. The surging temperature almost warped space and almost incinerated his thoughts.

Before such powerful power, what difference was there between him and those dead beggars?

…

In the sky, a cold light came from the west.

Gongyang Bai only caught a glimpse of this scene, and had the illusion of his eyes being cut! He had no time to explore, because in the instant he saw it, the cold light had already reached Zuo Guanglie, and swept past!

Zuo Guanglie's roar stopped abruptly.

"So noisy."

A young man in white suddenly appeared.

He had an extremely cold face, standing sideways, as if always keeping a distance from the world.

He slowly sheathed his sword, his voice as flat as could be.

Zuo Guanglie's head fell abruptly, rolling around on the ground a couple of times, but because he had used Boiling Blood and Burning Soul, not a drop of blood could spurt out.

Only at this time did an ear-piercing, thunderous screech sound in the air!

That was the sound of the white-clothed man's sword coming from the west, cutting through the sky!

…

Gongyang Bai and Mo Jingyu exchanged a look, both seeing the great horror in each other's eyes.

"Li Yi, I am under the order of His Highness Ying Wu..."

But Gongyang Bai only got this far before stopping, not even finishing his sentence, then in the next moment picking up Zuo Guanglie's head and fleeing.

Because the white-clothed man had already turned his gaze towards him.

His hair, his eyebrows, his eyes, even the corners of his lips, all had the sharpness of a sword. His eyes were as flat as lukewarm water.

But this lukewarm water carried a chilling indifference.

Whether they were geniuses inherited from the ancient holy temples, or the world's leading noble bloodlines.

No one dared to ask why, no one dared to say another word.

Only a series of fleeing backs.

…

Zuo Guanglie was dead, but the Zhurong Fire Seed in his body had not dissipated, and was still slowly expanding.

This power was simply not controllable by the exhausted Zuo Guanglie. He was just a trigger, a medium, using his talent and determination to allow the great power of Zhurong's true form to have a trace, a moment of venting in this world.

The white-clothed man shook out a black token, watching in silence.

The black token was silent for a long time before a domineering voice sounded, "Quits."

As soon as the voice fell, the token, made of extraordinary material, seemed unable to withstand the voice, and instantly shattered into countless black fragments, sliding through Li Yi's fingers, rustling down.

Only after all the Daoists had left and the token in his hand had shattered, did Li Yi tilt his head slightly to look at the expanding Zhurong Fire Seed.

He stretched out a slender, white hand, his five fingers forming a pocket.

Only at this moment, when no one could notice, did he show a hint of childlike innocence in his usual lukewarmness and indifference.

He said softly, "Boom!"

The moment his five fingers opened was exactly when the Zhurong Seed exploded.

An invisible force bound this explosion, preventing it from spreading, only blasting Zuo Guanglie's body into countless pieces of meat.

Crimson flame flowers bloomed to their heart's content in the small world, extremely brilliant for a moment, taking in splendor in one place.

This ultimate beauty was only for him to enjoy alone.

The corners of Li Yi's mouth turned up slightly, but he retracted it in an instant.

The fireworks were over.

He didn't look at what Zuo Guanglie's body had left behind, and he didn't have the slightest nostalgia, his body turning into sword light, and disappearing in an instant.

…

From beginning to end, in the battle that took place outside this nameless ruined temple, no one paid any attention to the ruined temple.For powerful cultivators, the insignificant Zhuang Kingdom was hardly worth a glance. To the three thousand miles of land that comprised the Zhuang Kingdom, Maple Leaf City was as insignificant as dust. And even to the small Maple Leaf City itself, this dilapidated temple in the wilderness had long been forgotten.

But this ruined Taoist temple was not entirely devoid of life.

There was a beggar, on the verge of death, simply waiting for the end.

He was prepared to die and was in the process of waiting, but he hadn't died yet, and he had "heard" this magnificent battle from beginning to end.

When the battle ended, and everything returned to silence.

He was still alive.

He might have been lucky, but the word "lucky" seemed so out of place with him. His tattered clothes, emaciated, sickly appearance, and even his almost detached breathing, all defined misfortune.

But he was alive after all.

He thought for a moment, then with great effort, rolled over, emerging from under the altar.

He gritted his teeth, using all his strength, and struggled, wobbling, to stand up.

He stood up in the end.

It was one hundred and thirty-seven steps from the altar to the outside of the temple.

It was three hundred and twenty-four steps from the temple entrance to Zuo Guanglie's corpse.

The beggar silently counted the steps he took, constantly telling himself that he was almost there.

Almost there.

Every muscle in his body protested, trembled.

No one knew where he found the strength to move forward.

His astonishing perseverance had no audience.

Now he stood before Zuo Guanglie's corpse; this arduous journey had finally come to an end – if that pile of minced meat could still be called a corpse.

He slowly, slowly squatted down, but squatting was too exhausting, so he simply sat down.

He was truly very ill. Even through the dirt that obscured his features, one could still see a weak, ghastly paleness.

His hands were even trembling.

Trembling as he groped through that pile of minced meat, groping.

Minced meat, minced meat, bone fragments, a broken piece of some kind of metal, minced meat, finger bones, an unrecognizable piece of wooden debris…

A bottle!

Turning over the unidentifiable mass of flesh and blood, he discovered a broken jade bottle!

The mouth of the bottle had been completely blasted away, leaving only half of the body.

The beggar suppressed his slightly heavy breathing and brought the jade bottle closer to his face.

He carefully removed a piece of flesh that was plugging the bottle's opening and looked into the bottom of the bottle.

He saw the only remaining item in the bottle, a round, jet-black pill, and his breath hitched.

He recognized it, it was the Meridian Opening Pill he had longed for, once possessed, and then lost!