STNS: Chapter 542 (Patreon)

Body of the Celestial White Tiger was Wu Jian’s trump card. It was a technique that unleashed the power of Baihu, the white tiger who had been worshipped and extolled as the deity of the White Tiger Sect. The drops of Baihu’s blood that flowed through his veins burned with power and caused the qi they contained to flood his meridians and dantian, granting him far greater power than someone at his cultivation base should possess.

His cultivation quickly skyrocketed, breaking through the second subrealm of the Seeker Realm, then the third, fourth, fifth, sixth. His cultivation reached its peak after he smashed into the Realization Realm. His power was so overwhelming that his body could not contain it. White particles of qi erupted from him. The ground quaked and split apart underneath his feet. It was as if the very atmosphere was trembling from his increased strength.

“THERE YOU ARE!!! DRACONIC SOVEREIGN’S DIVINE JUDGEMENT!!!”

Because of the power leaking from Wu Jian’s body, Xie Longshan was able to find him easily. His qi surged, and while it didn’t increase, the amount he was outputting caused the buildings around him to crumble away. It wasn’t long before the qi that Xie Longshan was releasing took shape, changing from an agglomeration of pure power to an entity. A long, serpentine body with brilliant wings appeared above him. Scales containing the power of a thunderstorm sparked to life and eyes of glowing azure peered at the building behind Wu Jian hid with the barely repressed desire for destruction.

What… is that?!

***

Zhou Lihua had set up a first-aid station outside of Azure Dragon City. There were a lot of people who had been injured during the riots that Wu Meiying had incited and the events that followed it. Because Wu Jian had asked her to keep casualties to a minimum, Wu Meiying had tasked Zhou Lihua with looking after the citizens of the city and the people who had come from outside to attend the wedding.

She had been doing everything she could to heal those who had been injured, which mostly involved feeding them alchemy pills that she had refined. Zhou Lihua had stocked up on numerous healing pills. She had a massive stock of everything from simple Blood Replenishing Pills and Healing Pellets to mid-grade Bone Marrow Cleansing Pills and Low-Grade Regeneration Pills. Since some injuries were more severe than others, she administered pills based on the severity of each case. More serious cases were helped first.

There were all number of injuries, from people with simple cuts and scrapes to people who were missing limbs. Most of the people who were missing a limb lost them during the intense fighting that broke out between Wu Meiying and Xie Longyu. These limbs had not been severed but obliterated. Many of them had gotten caught up in one of Xie Longyu’s attacks, which had blasted apart their limb and destroyed it entirely.

Zhou Lihua could not restore missing limbs. If she had the Eternal Genesis Rebirth Pill, then she could reattach a limb, but regenerating a limb was beyond her. She was fairly certain it was beyond any alchemist in this world. Maybe there was an alchemist in the Nine Heavens who could refine pills that restored limbs, but here, in this small sealed world, there was no one. Zhou Lihua would have to ask Wu Meiying if there was anyone capable of regenerating lost limbs after this was all over. Seeing so many people without arms and legs caused her heart to grieve.

“Here, take this, little one.”

Zhou Lihua was currently administering first aid to a young boy no older than 10 or 11. He had been separated from his family and didn’t know where they were. The crying boy had an awful injury on his leg. It was a long gash that had torn through his muscles and reached down to his bone. Zhou Lihua could actually see the white bone behind all the blood.

The crying boy could not take the pill and swallow on his own, so she pushed the pill into his mouth and forced him to chew. This was a Low-Grade Regeneration Pill. It was a Tier 5 pill that only alchemists of Osmium Rank or above could refine. Even though it had regeneration in its name, the pill could not regenerate lost limbs, but it could heal severe wounds easily. Even as she knelt beside the crying boys bed, she could see the muscles and flesh mending together as if time itself was being rewound. It wasn’t long before the wound itself was gone as if it had never existed.

The boy stopped crying and looked at where his wound had been. He blinked several times like he couldn’t believe it.

“Huh? It doesn’t hurt anymore…”

“It feels much better, right?” Zhou Lihua smiled as she stood up and ruffled his hair. “Now, come along. We need to find someone who can help locate your family.”

“Un, okay, big sis.”

She led the boy outside and went in search of someone from the Flood Dragon Clan. They were the ones helping her.

“Lili,” someone called out.

Zhou Lihua turned her head and smiled at Wu Meiying and Hou Jingshu as they walked over to her.

“I’m glad to see you two. Jingshu, I’m happy to see you again.”

Hou Jingshu smiled. “Thank you for your help. I know it must have been hard.”

But Zhou Lihua shook her head. “Think nothing of it. Friends should always help each other.”

“Besides,” Wu Meiying added, “we’re all much more than just friends.”

Hou Jingshu and Zhou Lihua blushed a little at her insinuation, just a little. But it was also true. All three of them were romantically involved with the same man. In some ways, that made them akin to sisters. Even before they became romantically entangled with Wu Jian, however, they had been good friends.

“Big Sis…?” the young boy tugged on her sleeve.

“Who is this?” asked Wu Meiying.

“Oh. His name is Xie Fang,” Zhou Lihua said. “He was injured and lost his parents when the battle broke out. I’m looking for Loong Mei to help me search for them.”

Wu Meiying nodded. “Do not worry. I can help you find them.”

“That would be a big help.”

Wu Meiying would actually be better than Loong Mei. She could search the world’s timelines to help her locate people, even those she had never met, so long as she had a clear idea of who she was searching for.

Yet before they could even begin, an eruption of qi so powerful that it forced her and every other person present to their knees washed over the first-aid station. The poor boy she had been helping passed out right away, drool and foam frothing out of his mouth. Zhou Lihua would have liked to help, but she could barely move. The most she could do was lift her head to try and seek out what had caused this feeling.

And what she saw made her tremble.

In the middle of the city was a massive dragon. It was obvious from its ethereal appearance that this was not a real dragon, but one composed entirely of qi. Even so, the dragon’s very presence made her tremble. Even her dantian quaked as she beheld the sight of what could only be Qinlong, the great deity who was worshipped as a god by the dragon clans of the Da Continent.

“This is not good,” someone said from outside her field of vision.

Zhou Lihua craned her neck to find Loong Mei standing next to her. While Zhou Lihua was the person in charge of actually healing everyone, this woman was in charge of the first-aid station itself. She had been directing all the people who had injuries and creating a place for those who had fled the city after the fighting broke out.

“What… what…?”

“That is Draconic Sovereign’s Judgement,” Loong Mei said as if she knew what Zhou Lihua wanted to ask. “It is the Azure Dragon Clan’s proudest divine art, their most powerful technique. It summons a celestial projection of Qinlong. It releases heavenly lightning that can destroy everything in its path. There is very little that can stand against it. However, it can only be used once per bloodline generation and only the clan head can use the true version.” Loong Mei was staring hard at the projection. “Wu Jian must have pushed Xie Longshan to the brink.”

Zhou Lihua looked at Loong Mei for a moment longer, then turned back to face the dragon. Her heart trembled as she stared at it. Somewhere within the city, confronting that thing, was Wu Jian.

Please… be safe…

***

Yánhuǒ Tiānzhǐ stood in the center of a ruined cityscape full of burning corpses. The members of the Azure Dragon bloodline, the elders who had pretended to rule from on high because they couldn’t see the leaves from the trees, lay around him in varying states of decimation. Their most powerful elder, Xie Longyu, lay at his feet, his face half destroyed and his limbs missing. He had lasted the longest against Yánhuǒ Tiānzhǐ. The phoenix would give the man credit. Despite being vastly outclassed, he had fought with everything he had.

Not that it mattered anymore.

The battle had not lasted very long. Even outnumbered as he was, Yánhuǒ Tiānzhǐ had not broken a sweat against the elders. They were more powerful than the Flood Dragon Clan had been, but that was comparing apples to oranges. Nine multiplied by zero was still zero.

In either event, Yánhuǒ Tiānzhǐ was not paying attention to the bodies of those he killed. He stared at the massive construct of Qinlong. It had been a long time since he’d seen this technique being used. Back when he was just a tiny hatchling and barely understood the difference between heaven and earth, he had challenged the previous Azure Dragon Clan leader and been demolished by this very technique. He had managed to escape with his life only because the clan leader of the time had been a merciful man. The sensation he felt coming from that projection was not as powerful now as it was back then, but it was still strong enough that Yánhuǒ Tiānzhǐ would not willingly take such an attack.

“It looks like that child of man is about to meet his demise,” Yánhuǒ Tiānzhǐ hummed thoughtfully, then shrugged. “Well, whether he lives or dies is none of my business. I did what was asked of me. Now it is time to find that goddess and make sure she keeps her end of the deal.”

Yánhuǒ Tiānzhǐ turned away from the scene, and as he did, his body burst into flames and he disappeared, leaving behind the destroyed remains of the Azure Dragon Clan in his wake.

***

Wu Jian stepped out from behind the building and confronted Xie Longshan’s technique. Running would do him no good. He understood that. This was not an attack he could escape from. Maybe if he was willing to teleport somewhere far away, but doing so would only put those he loved in harm's way. There was no telling what Xie Longshan would do to Zhou Lihua, Wu Meiying, and Hou Jingshu, who should have all been waiting outside of the city for him by now.

“You’re quite brave to confront me like this. Brave… but also stupid,” Xie Longshan said with a sick grin as he locked eyes with Wu Jian. “This is the strongest technique of the Azure Dragon Clan. Even if you’ve gotten a power boost, the amount of qi at your disposal is insignificant compared to my clan’s sublime powers.”

“Your technique is indeed powerful… but I think I can beat it,” Wu Jian said with quiet confidence.

Xie Longshan snarled. “You’re nothing more than a brat who has eyes but cannot see! Your blindness shall be your demise!”

As if responding to his emotions, the massive dragon construct opened its mouth, and all the qi that had been flowing through its body gathered there. A tiny spark ignited. Then it exploded. Lightning and wind raged, transforming into a swirling gale of pure power that caused the atmosphere to distort. Buildings were torn asunder and flowed into the sphere of qi, where they were compressed, crushed under the force of the technique’s power. Wu Jian likely would have been pulled into that technique and similarly destroyed, but he remained locked in space.

“DIE!!”

With a shout, Xie Longshan unleashed his attack. Everything around the dragon’s mouth shattered. Time and space were destroyed as a massive beam of power recklessly tore through the sky, zooming toward Wu Jian.

Yet Wu Jian did not run. He held his sword aloft. Pale Moon glimmered in the light as he gathered in qi, condensing it along the blade. The white qi withered and vanished as he gathered it all along his sword and compressed it into a blade so fine that it couldn’t even be seen. Sweat formed on his brow as he eyed the attack traveling toward him. It felt like time had slowed down as he waited patiently for the attack to reach him. This would be the last attack. Everything would be decided here. Whether he lived or died would depend on whether or not he could defeat this technique.

It was all or nothing.