Volume 1, Chapter 517 – Heart of Heaven

“Jia Xu?”

Hearing the name from Zhuge Liang’s mouth, Liu Bei’s gaze tightened slightly.

Within Jiuzhou, Jia Xu was also a long-famous master of military strategy, specializing in the military school’s arts of yin-yang and strategic configurations.

He had always been elusive and unpredictable, and had long since vanished from sight. No one knew how he had become involved with Zhang Xiu.

Pfft!

The instant Zhang Xiu’s figure disappeared, Zhao Yun’s flesh split open, and countless cracks appeared across his body, leaving him on the verge of coming apart.

Just as Zhang Xiu had said, the time he had spent on the path of the spear far exceeded Zhao Yun’s by more than tenfold. His mastery had long since reached perfection.

Just now, in his haste to win, Zhao Yun had already been fighting with his life on the line, completely abandoning defense, and Zhang Xiu’s spear had grievously wounded him.

Before Liu Bei and the others could even step forward, a figure emerged from the main hall below and caught Zhao Yun’s falling body with one hand.

“General Zhang, I trust you have been well.”

Liu Bei was no stranger to Zhang Ren. As the commanding general of the Shu region, his fame was no less than that of the Northern Spear King, and they had met before.

“My respects, Imperial Uncle Liu.”

Zhang Ren nodded in greeting, then turned and carried Zhao Yun into the hall.

“Allow me to treat Zilong’s wounds first.”

Liu Bei and his party entered in a line and, one after another, offered incense before Tong Yuan’s spirit tablet to bid him farewell.

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After settling Zhao Yun properly, Zhang Ren went into the back mountain of Penglai. A short while later, he returned carrying an immortal herb about a chi tall.

Its leaves were orange-green, with faint light twined around their tips. Strands of Dao aura coiled about it, and the body of the herb was covered in fine, dense scales.

At the sight of the immortal herb, even Zhuge Liang, who had remained calm throughout, changed expression. He stepped forward, examined it closely, and could not help but sigh.

“So it really is Immortal Scale Grass. I had only seen a few scattered lines about it in ancient records. I never imagined such a wondrous thing truly existed in this world.”

“What is Immortal Scale Grass?” Liu Bei asked.

“Immortal Scale Grass is an immortal root born from the nourishment of Azure Dragon essence blood. Not only does it prolong life, but according to legend, it even possesses the strange power to help one ascend to immortality.”

Before Zhuge Liang could explain further, Zhang Ren spoke first.

“It is more than enough to completely heal Zilong’s injuries.”

At those words, Liu Bei and the others were filled with solemn respect. Very few people could resist the temptation of such an immortal medicine. Zhang Ren could easily have kept it for himself.

To ascend to immortality.

What a seductive phrase that was. To resist an external temptation of that level spoke of a mind so steady it was almost frightening.

“Judging from the quality of this Immortal Scale Grass, after it came into being, it must have absorbed no small amount of flood-dragon blood. No wonder the flood dragons of the North Sea have grown weaker and weaker in recent years.”

Zhuge Liang’s gaze drifted around the Immortal Scale Grass, and he shook his head slightly. Over tens of thousands of years, no one knew how many flood dragons this herb had devoured.

“This was originally one of Master’s relics. Zilong has fought to the death to defend Penglai until now, so this Immortal Scale Grass should naturally belong to him. Master likely thought the same.”

Zhang Ren glanced at Tong Yuan in the ice coffin, and the emotion in his eyes was obscure and difficult to read.

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Then his palm shook. The Immortal Scale Grass was melted by blazing blood and qi, ultimately turning into a ball of clear green liquid that condensed into a thin stream and flowed downward.

A pale-cyan dragon-shaped phantom appeared and followed the thread of green liquid into Zhao Yun’s body.

As the Immortal Scale Grass entered him, the wounds on Zhao Yun’s body began to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye, and a layer of dark scale-patterns flickered faintly across his skin.

Only after the entire immortal herb had entered Zhao Yun’s body did Zhang Ren withdraw his hand and look at Liu Bei.

“I must trouble Imperial Uncle Liu to take Zilong back to Jiuzhou first.”

“What does General Zhang intend to do?” Liu Bei’s eyes flickered. For the moment, he could not quite grasp what Zhang Ren was thinking.

“Zilong’s temperament is too stubborn. What is overly rigid is bound to break, and that is not a good thing. Penglai is only a dead thing. Whether it remains or not is of no real importance. There is no meaning in defending it to the bitter end.”

Zhang Ren shook his head slightly and said calmly,

“I will take Master’s body to the Heavenly Mountain, where someone will look after it. As for Penglai… I will bury it in the sea, as a form of compensation for all that Penglai has taken from the North Sea.”

“I understand. Then I will take Zilong and go ahead. Take care, General.”

Hearing this, Liu Bei said no more and hurried away with Zhao Yun.

The situation in Jiuzhou was murky and ever-changing. He did not have much time to waste outside and had to return to take charge of the broader situation.

After seeing Liu Bei and the others off, Zhang Ren strode up into the sky, standing upon the void, and took out a long spear.

Boom!

The gigantic mountain range stretching across ten thousand li lost the force keeping it suspended and came crashing down. Thunderous roars exploded as layer upon layer of seawater was compressed together, and a heaven-surging tsunami rolled toward every corner of the seas.

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The many treasures glimmering across the mountains gradually sank into silence within the deep sea.

After doing all this, Zhang Ren gazed toward Jiuzhou and muttered to himself,

“Zilong, may you and I never meet again.”

…

…

Jiuzhou.

Across heaven and earth, spatial passages crisscrossed one another, yet the direction in which they converged was strangely the same. All of them led toward the divine capital.

One figure was moving against the current, rapidly putting distance between herself and Luoyang.

In order to search for Liu Bei and the others, Shi Lan had traveled through Yuzhou, Youzhou, Yanzhou, Nanyang, and other places in succession, but had found nothing.

Fortunately, Liu Bei’s army was not difficult to locate and was likewise near Luoyang. From Guan Yinping, she learned that Liu Bei had already gone overseas.

After learning this, Shi Lan felt much more at ease. With reinforcements there, given Zhao Yun’s present cultivation, no matter what happened, he should not die.

Quite apart from any progress she had made in the martial path, this trip to this world had already benefited her immensely from the pair of double pupils alone.

But coming out of Lingyang was not easy, and the time she could remain in this world was already running short. Shi Lan planned to take advantage of the chaos engulfing Jiuzhou and see whether she could fish for some further gains in troubled waters.

Once she returned to Lingyang, she would have to face the world-ending great tribulation. Naturally, the more confidence she could gain beforehand, the better.

Buzz.

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Just as Shi Lan was hurrying on her way, a somewhat muffled boom sounded in the sky not far away.

Towering waves of blood and qi shook the nine heavens. The laws there were thrown into utter chaos and were violently crushed apart.

Clearly, extremely powerful martial experts were fighting there.

Shi Lan had seen no fewer than eight or ten battles like this along the way, so she was not surprised.

After glancing over twice, she changed direction and prepared to take a detour.

She had not yet gotten far when a crimson divine rainbow tore through space ahead of her and cut off the spatial passage she had opened.

In the next instant, the battlefield that had just been in the distance appeared right beside her.

One side consisted of only a little more than ten people. They wore crimson armor covered in dragon-pattern reliefs and protected a middle-aged man and a child in their center.

The middle-aged man wore imperial robes. His face was extremely pale, and he lay within a carriage with his eyes shut, holding a three-foot divine sword that was entirely crimson-red like meteoric iron.

The child looked no more than three or five years old and clung to the carriage shaft, his face full of panic, his fingers clenched tightly around a jade-colored register.

That jade register instantly drew Shi Lan’s attention. Her senses for source force were now extremely sharp, and the source force on that jade register was so dense it was startling.

“That is half a Heart of Heaven!”

Reincarnation sucked in a cold breath.

“The Heavenly Dao is being far too bold!”