Chapter 373: The Battle Isn't Over Yet

"

Clouds drift above the ethereal mountains, where palace feathers appear. In the green bamboo forest, the heart finds peace.♪

"

Who's singing? Why does it sound so unpleasant? It hovers between being off-key and not, which creates a grating dissonance that makes it difficult to listen.

Wang Sheng tried to open his eyes, only to find himself in complete darkness. Following the direction of the voice, he looked up and found a lake above him. He felt as if he were upside down, head toward the ground and feet pointing skyward.

A small boat floated on the lake. At its bow stood a man in a fine silk robe, his face hidden from view.

A name rose inexplicably in Wang Sheng's heart: Ziwei.

He struggled to twist himself upright, desperate to get a clear look at the man who had created the Heavenly Ziwei Sword Art. Yet no matter how hard he tried, he remained suspended upside down above the water.

As the lake began to sink into darkness, the man seemingly noticed Wang Sheng. Hands clasped behind his back, he tilted his head up, a faint smile gracing his blurred face.

His lips moved slowly. Wang Sheng didn't hear anything, yet what the man had said reached his mind. Having long grown accustomed to telepathically communicating with Yaoyun, he quickly made sense of the words before they faded.

"

I didn't expect someone to still be practicing the Heavenly Ziwei Sword Art. Since I never took in disciples in my lifetime, I thought my Daoist heritage would be lost forever.

"

You have done well. When you perfect the Heavenly Ziwei Sword Art, you will naturally find the other Dao traces I left behind. They may aid your cultivation. I devoted half my life's effort to that art. Do not let it be forgotten, Inheritor of Pure Yang.

"

"

Your Majesty!

" Wang Sheng cried out. The darkness had already consumed the lake and the boat, wrapping even the indistinct figure within its grasp. Nevertheless, he still asked, "

Where is the Heavenly Court now?

"

The man only smiled before the darkness swallowed him completely. There seemed to be countless meanings hidden in his reaction, though it could also just be nothing more than a simple expression of relief.

In the endless void, Wang Sheng stood dazed. A tugging force pulled at him, drawing him forward. The pull grew stronger, accelerating him. A faint white light then glimmered ahead. A boundless sea of stars surged forth, engulfing him.

Right after, his consciousness returned to his Nascent Soul. He immediately issued a mental command to begin an internal inspection of himself.

His Heavenly Abode had regained a faint radiance, and his qi sea was once again rotating. His enchanted power reserves were still only a tenth full, and his Nascent Soul was still weary, but he had at least recovered a trace of mental energy.

The prolonged battle had drained him, but he was at least already replenishing some of his primal qi. Still, he felt a deep emptiness rising from his very bones, like the hunger of a mortal who had gone days without food. He began drawing in primal qi. The dense primal qi around him immediately surged into him like a mighty river.

A sense of fulfillment and joy filled his heart.

Dao traces...

"Dao traces? What are those?" Wang Sheng muttered softly.

When he opened his eyes this time, he saw the summits of endless snow-capped mountains. Cross-legged, his Dao Body was drawing in the surrounding primal qi on its own, bringing him back to peak condition.

He turned his head, finding his senior sister sitting cross-legged at his side as well, already deep in meditation.

"Brother! How do you feel?" Wang Xiaomiao cried out in delight. She rushed to his other side and pressed her small hand to his forehead.

Wang Sheng felt a little awkward. Upon waking, the first person he noticed had been his senior sister, overlooking his younger sister.

Following Xiaomiao's exclamation, Mu Wanxuan opened her bright eyes and turned to him, glimmering with joy like starlight. She, too, reached out and put her hand against his forehead.

Does he have a fever or something?

Surely, there are better ways to express concern than checking my temperature...

"I'm okay now, Senior Sister. I have almost fully recovered."

"

Mm.

" Mu Wanxuan breathed a sigh of relief.

She brushed her delicate hand lightly across his cheek. Wang Sheng warmly met her gentle and affectionate gaze.

Had it not been for the deliberate cough of his master behind him and the heavy auras lingering in silence nearby, the two could have forgotten Xiaomiao's presence and embraced each other.

Xiaomiao rolled her eyes, feeling drained and too tired to even complain.

Mu Wanxuan quickly withdrew her hand and playfully winked at Wang Sheng. She then closed her eyes once more, pretending to cultivate.

Wang Sheng hurriedly rose to his feet. He turned and respectfully bowed to his master and the elders who stood on a snowdrift.

"Greetings, Master and esteemed seniors."

Stroking his beard, the Celestial Master laughed softly. "No need for excessive ceremony."

𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Qing Yanzi smiled. "Come here and talk with us."

Wang Sheng picked up Spiritless that lay beside him and impulsively grabbed his sister's arm to pull her along. It was best to acquaint her with the strongest elders of the cultivation world.

Walking up to the Daoist elders, Wang Sheng realized that they stood on the tallest summit of the Aukuili Mountains. The town was at the foot of the mountain.

Arrays covered the peak, making the primal qi of heaven and earth converge toward them while shielding the area from fierce winds and freezing currents.

From the summit, Wang Sheng looked down and saw Daoist-robed figures moving all over the place. Some searched across the slopes, while some went in and out of caves. Others sat cross-legged in secluded corners, quietly meditating.

It had been just over four hours since the great battle had ended.

The Celestial Master gently asked, "Are you badly injured, Fei Yu?"

Wang Sheng bowed. "I'm not in any great harm; I was just exhausted earlier. Thank you for your concern, Senior."

Qing Long Zhenren chuckled. "The new generation always outdoes the old. Disciples eventually surpass even their masters. You have protected thousands of mortal lives from those foreign fiends alone. Truly commendable work, Fei Yu."

Seeing Wang Sheng at a loss for words, Qing Yanzi stepped in. "Do not flatter him further, Senior. Young people have unstable hearts. Praise can carry them away."

Wang Sheng seized the change of topic to ask what had happened after he had lost consciousness. To his surprise, the Daoist masters gathered here had stayed only because they wanted to wait for him to wake up out of worry about his injuries.

Qing Yanzi briefly recounted the battle. According to him, the Daoist sects' strongest group had wiped out every Dark Faction cultivator, suffering only light wounds in the process. Afterward, a few Daoist elders who specialized in ritual work performed on-site rites to deliver their enemies' spirits.

A Daoist master had also worried that corpse cultivators would use the corpses. Hence, several Daoists expended their power to unleash the Samadhi True Fire, reducing the bodies to nothing but dust.

Wang Sheng looked down, finding the ground below scorched black.

"Where are the Dark Faction's leaders?" he asked, fearing that those dangerous people had escaped.

"Rest assured that they had all been executed," Qing Yanzi answered. Hesitantly, he added, "Galina was a cunning foe. We had to use extra measures to eliminate her. Even so, Senior Xi Lian preserved a remnant of her soul—a tiny bat."

Wang Sheng frowned. "Why, though? Wouldn't it be for the best to completely eradicate her?"

Qing Yanzi smiled. "Senior Xi Lian did intend to destroy it, but she said that since this duel between our cultivation world and the Dark Faction ended in our victory, we shouldn't leave empty-handed. She had since gathered the souls of many modern vampire princes, dukes, and marquises. Now, she's leading two to three dozen people with storage artifacts to search and, well, haul away the Blood Race's treasures."

Wang Sheng was completely speechless.

So much for the great Daoist sects... Well, Big Sister does have a point. Let's just count these as spoils of war for now.

The elders nodded and smiled in satisfaction. Naturally, they had sent disciples to follow Xi Lian and profit from the haul. Though Xi Lian would take the "lion's share," each sect would still receive a modest portion.

Qing Yanzi also mentioned that Lady Meng had already returned since she could not stay away from the Small Nether Realm for too long. The Nether Gate vanished with her departure, and the array on the peak dissipated after the enemy's destruction.

Meanwhile, the Special Warfare Unit had arrived a little later and taken away the thousands of rescued hostages. They gathered at a nearby airport and began their journey home.

Only a few hours had passed from the beginning of the battle to the rescue of the vast majority of hostages. The Hua Republic's cultivation world had decisively proven its strength.

Moreover, the Hue Republic's government had released footage that several Daoist masters had taken of the entire battle. For foreign nations, the videos were terrifying to behold.

Qing Yanzi added, "Now that the Dark Faction barely has any forces left, a few seniors proposed that we use this opportunity to root them out entirely. We can't let the Blood Race survive. The werewolves have even contacted us, claiming they wish to cooperate in exterminating the vampires, but we haven't replied to them yet.

"Anyway, we'll split into three teams and wipe out the other foreign corrupt forces. You just focus on rest and recovery, but before you do, we'd like your opinion on this, Little Sheng."

After thinking about it for a moment, Wang Sheng replied, "I'll let you and the seniors decide, Master. Those werewolves are no saints, though. We need not bind ourselves to them. If they act, let them act. On that note, I have one more matter to report."

"What is it?"

"Miss Dale sought aid from the Light Faction several times, but they did nothing. When we deal with the Dark Faction, I suggest we make sure not to overlook the Light Faction as well."

"I agree," Qing Long replied coldly. "Those foreign practitioners claim to be righteous, yet they just sat around while a battle raged at their doorstep. They cannot be trusted. They probably hope for our cultivation world and the Dark Faction's mutual destruction. Such intent deserves punishment."

The sect master of Mount Mao warned, "They still claim to be on the side of righteousness. If we act rashly, we may harm the international image of the Hua Republic."

"

Hehehe.

" Smiling, the Celestial Master of the Longhu Mountains stroked his beard. He then recited a line of Daoist scripture. "Virtue arises from purity; the essence of the sacred teaching is simple and true. Sometimes hidden, sometimes apparent, yet always genuine."

Afterward, he added, "I possess talismans that can mask one's aura and create illusions. I will give some to the masters. If we can't go about it openly, we can just disguise ourselves and do it covertly."

Qing Long smiled. "Good idea. The Shu Sword Sect has a way to test whether karmic burdens have shackled a person. It's called the Heart-Testing Sword Incantation. I can teach it to you all. We should seek out the truly sinful and eliminate them."

"We don't have to be so rigid," another reasoned. "Eliminating them means protecting ourselves. Though Dao practitioners should not slaughter the innocent, foreign cultivators who eye us like prey do not deserve mercy. Their deaths are well deserved."

"Killing is unnecessary. We can just destroy their cultivation instead, which spares us from succumbing to heart devils."

"I agree. Since the Light Faction turns a blind eye to the trouble that the Dark Faction causes anyway, what use do they have for their cultivation?"

"That's right! We should cripple their top cultivators!"

Wang Sheng and Xiaomiao watched the small circle of elders plan subterfuge and punishment. The siblings then exchanged dismayed glances. They felt as though their bright hopes had been hurled to the ground and countless cloth shoes had crushed them to pieces.