Chapter 397: Golden Legend, Flame of Extreme Drought

A serene, secluded valley, lush with verdant bamboo.

A slender waterfall, fifty to sixty feet high, tumbled from the cliff top onto the emerald surface of a deep pool below. It kicked up a fine mist that lingered, neither scattering nor thickening.

Gentle, uniform daylight diffused through the valley, piercing the fine threads of water torn from the waterfall by the jagged cliffside, making them look like white gauze suspended in midair.

At this moment, Fu Juemin was sitting quietly on a cyan rock by the side of the pool.

By now, all the goals he had set for this trip had been accomplished—the Bodhi Golden Body Formula and the Emperor Jiang Bell, one of the twelve Heirloom Magical Artifacts.

In fact, the results had even exceeded his expectations.

Fu Juemin’s gaze lowered, falling gently upon the nearby stone-strewn bank. There lay the Winged Double Rings—one cyan, one red—and the corpse of Xie Mingzhi.

At his command, Hong Huan had already taken Wei Jie’s body and started back to Yingjing.

On this trip to the Lushan Martial Arts Library, aside from the few who stayed behind in Xunyang, every person the Nine Banners sent with Wei Jie into Lu Mountain was now dead, every last one of them.

‘I don’t know what kind of tremors will shake the Nine Banners in the Demon Capital when the news gets back. In any case… I’ve perfectly completed the mission Helu “assigned” to me. The rest is up to Helu to handle.’ He had sent Hong Huan back early precisely to give Helu a heads-up.

“Xie Mingzhi… Xie Mingzhi…”

Fu Juemin sat on the cyan stone, murmuring the name.

Suddenly, he raised a hand. A wisp of formless True Gang emanated, and the scattered pebbles on the ground flew up on their own, burying Xie Mingzhi’s corpse in the blink of an eye and forming a small grave mound.

‘To be honest, I didn’t really want to kill Xie Mingzhi. As a core figure in the Southwest Fire Cloud Army, Xie Mingzhi was a rare military talent in this age. His death would have a huge impact on the Fire Cloud Army. Without “Marshal Ming,” the pressure on the Xin Republic’s Government Army on the Southwest battlefield would be greatly reduced, and the situation in the South would undoubtedly change again. Although I don’t like the Fire Cloud Army, compared to the Xin Republic’s Government, who are in bed with foreign powers, I would have preferred to let Xie Mingzhi live and cause more trouble for the Xin Republic.’

‘Unfortunately, thanks to the Winged Double Rings, Xie Mingzhi and the Hou Beast were bound together, sharing a single pool of Vitality. Once the Hou Beast died, he couldn’t have lived, even if I hadn’t killed him.’

The sound of the waterfall was like white noise, drowning out all other sounds and making the valley, called “Youhuang,” feel utterly still and cold.

Who would ever know that the world-famous Marshal Ming of the Southwest Fire Cloud Army now lay silently in an unmarked grave at the bottom of this valley?

Fu Juemin stretched out his hand and made a grasping motion. The Winged Double Rings, lying a short distance away, immediately let out a clear hum, leaping up from the ground and landing one in each of his palms.

His fingertips lightly brushed over the rings, tracing the patterns on their surface. Fu Juemin could faintly sense the power of two distinct “Dharma” contained within the twin ring blades.

“Life… Death…”

‘Dharma requires “power” to be activated. Xie Mingzhi wielded the Death Ring by relying on his own Vitality and lifeblood. I can do the same.’

After a moment’s thought, Fu Juemin raised his left hand and used a fingernail to lightly slice open a cut on the inside of his left forearm.

Fresh blood flowed from the wound, slowly trickling onto the red jade Death Ring.

With a flicker of his thoughts, he simultaneously separated a trace of Innate Primordial Liquid and merged it with his blood.

In just an instant, the Death Ring, having absorbed Fu Juemin’s blood which was suffused with immense Vital Energy, suddenly flared with a brilliant light, becoming like a ring of red-hot iron.

Fu Juemin casually swung the ring through the air.

The moment he swung, he clearly perceived a power within the ring being gently triggered.

That familiar sensation—of time standing still, of space congealing like amber—manifested once again in his hand.

“VMMMM—”

The Red Ring trembled, and an extremely sharp, mournful cry, like that of a dying bird, suddenly echoed through Youhuang Valley!

“SCREEE—!”

A huge arc of red light shot out from Fu Juemin’s hand, silently slicing through the air before vanishing in a flash.

Immediately after, the slender waterfall pouring from the valley’s peak was severed in its middle, separating into upper and lower sections without any warning.

The sound of the falling water abruptly ceased.

This feeling of “separation” lasted for nearly two full breaths before gradually fading.

His eyes gleaming, Fu Juemin put away the Death Ring and picked up the cyan jade Life Ring.

He performed the same operation once more.

When he swung the Life Ring, it produced a clear, misty radiance that was dense and did not disperse.

As the ring blade vibrated, a clear, soaring birdsong filled the air, brimming with vigorous life!

‘The Winged Double Rings… one for life, one for death. One for defense, one for offense…’

Having finished testing the rings and more or less figured out their individual functions, Fu Juemin had a sudden thought: ‘What would happen if I swung both rings at once?’

Not stingy with his lifeblood, he tried it.

Unfortunately, no special phenomenon occurred.

It wasn’t that the Winged Double Rings’ power was so limited, but rather that he could only draw out the “Dharma” within them to this extent at his current level.

‘To swing both rings and merge the Dharmas of Life and Death, I’d need to use true ‘power.’ Using my Vitality and lifeblood is, after all, not the proper path…’

But even so, as one of the twelve Heirloom Magical Artifacts—and a fully unsealed one at that—setting aside the “Dharma” within, the Winged Double Rings themselves were Divine Weapons made of extraordinary materials.

‘Besides, the size of these ring blades is just about right for me to use in my Demon Body state. Although I’ve never trained in any Ring Skills and they feel a bit awkward, having a weapon is always better than having none…’

The “Life and Death Technique” within the Winged Double Rings also served as an excellent reference for Fu Juemin in comprehending his own Dharma.

He put the twin rings away with considerable satisfaction. Any last vestiges of pity he felt for Xie Mingzhi’s death had now vanished completely.

He didn’t leave Lu Mountain immediately. The main reason was his eagerness to stay and sort through the spoils from his battle with the Hou Beast on Celestial Waterfall Peak.

In that battle, he and the Hou Beast had brought down Celestial Waterfall Peak, completely destroying the great wonder of Lu Mountain’s “Celestial Pool.” He had also used up all his accumulated Innate Primordial Liquid. But compared to the gains from the battle, none of that was worth mentioning.

The Hou Beast had provided Fu Juemin with a full five Skill Points!

And…

An unprecedented, brilliantly golden Talent!

—[Flame of Extreme Drought]!

In his Talent Bar, the four golden words swirled with a powerful texture, exuding wisps of ancient, mysterious charm.

Fu Juemin calmly extended his right hand and, with a thought, activated the Talent.

In an instant, his body trembled slightly. A wisp of flame, as fine as molten gold, slowly bloomed in the palm of his right hand.

And yet, this tiny flame gave off an indescribable, immense heat.

The terrifyingly high temperature instantly vaporized all the moisture in the air around Fu Juemin, forming an invisible field of dryness that continuously expanded further and higher with each passing moment.

In the blink of an eye, all the moss covering the cyan stone beneath him withered, turning a scorched yellow before flaking away.

“HAAAAH—”

With a long exhale, Fu Juemin closed his fist, and the flame vanished.

The temperature in the surroundings, which had been continuously skyrocketing, finally began to slowly drop.

‘It’s so much stronger than [Hundred-legged Fire Walk]. Worthy of a Golden Level Talent, indeed. Of course, its consumption of Innate Primordial Liquid is just as fierce. This little bit of [Life] I have isn’t enough anymore…’

Fu Juemin felt that the four top-tier Great Demons serving as Tributors for the Demon Capital Nine Banners might be stronger than the Hou Beast in terms of raw power, but when it came to bloodline and pedigree, they couldn’t necessarily compare to this Hou.

After all, the Hou Beast was a Heaven and Earth Alien Species born of drought. During the great drought in the Southwest, in the few short years it took for the Fire Cloud Army to rise, it had evolved from a simple Demon to a Ba drought demon, and then from a Ba to a Hou. This was a testament to its extraordinary bloodline.

The last creature Fu Juemin had seen with such an astonishing growth rate was the Zhu Yan that had emerged from the Luan River with him.

‘With this [Flame of Extreme Drought], I can consider reconstructing my [Flame Monarch] Demon Body again… The flames from the Hundred-legged Fire Centipede’s Talent are supremely yin and vile, while the Hou Beast’s fire is supremely hard and yang. The two complement each other perfectly. The new [Flame Monarch] Demon Body might hold some unexpected surprises for me…’

A glint in his eyes, Fu Juemin rested his fingers lightly on his knee.

‘Next, I’ll go into seclusion here in Youhuang Valley for a while. I have two main tasks. First, fuse the [Flame of Extreme Drought] and reconstruct the [Flame Monarch] Demon Body. Second… is to create a ‘Dharma’!’

Dharma! Dharma! Dharma!

The “Dharma” that Fu Juemin had been obsessing over!

The “Dharma” he intended to create this time was not the “Four Demon Buddha Forms” derived from the four great Iron Body Strange Skills, nor was it the “Life and Death Technique” within the Winged Double Rings. It was the “Five Calamities” Dharma of the Five Aggregates Muddy World Saber.

When Fu Juemin killed the Hou Beast and absorbed its Demon Soul, he had witnessed countless scenes of catastrophic drought within the memories it carried.

The Hou Beast’s memories were almost entirely related to “drought”!

And from them, he had gained endless Spiritual Light regarding the “drought” of the Five Calamities.

Now was the time to use this Spiritual Light as nourishment and cultivate a “Dharma” that was his and his alone.

Thinking this, Fu Juemin gently closed his eyes.

First, he activated [Gui Cang], allowing his physical body to fall into a dormant state to nurture his Vitality and build up a sufficient reserve of Innate Primordial Liquid for fusing the Talent and reconstructing his Demon Body.

At the same time, he released his Consciousness, slowly immersing his mind into the Hou Beast Demon Soul.

In an instant, scenes of “no rain falling from the heavens, scorched earth for a thousand miles” began to flash through Fu Juemin’s mind like a revolving lantern…