Chapter 1 Liang Province

Liang Province has always been mountainous, with very little flat land. In addition, dynasties that established their capitals in the Central Plains needed Liang Province as a natural barrier. Therefore, Liang Province has historically been impoverished.

Compared to the Central Plains, which was just across the border, it was like heaven and earth.

Whoosh~

Among the mountains, the air currents surged, and a male eagle with a wingspan of three meters swooped down with a roaring gale.

Amidst the flying sand and rocks, a person descended from the eagle's back.

The person wore a long gray robe, carried a long sword on his back, and had a simple and ordinary face.

His name was Feng Cheng, known as Yan Yun Ke (Misty Cloud Guest), a well-known expert in Yang Province. Ten years ago, he had achieved Great Success in Qi Channels, but what he relied on to make a name for himself was the alien beast, the Putiān Eagle (Sky Soaring Eagle), under his command.

He had obtained this Putiān Eagle when he was a teenager. When he first got it, it was only the size of a palm, and it only grew to its current size after fifty years.

For fifty years, the man and the eagle had been connected in mind and spirit. When facing enemies, it would always soar above a thousand zhang, and once it found a flaw, it would strike and kill people amidst the misty clouds. Hence, the title Yan Yun Ke.

Upon learning of the imperial court's bounty, he reckoned that his ability to escape was second to none in the world. Even if he couldn't win, he could still escape.

Thus, he had been tracking An Qisheng all the way here.

After learning about An Qisheng's news, he had been staring at him in the sky, sleepless for three days and nights.

The moment he landed, his heart was filled with surprise and doubt:

"How could he suddenly disappear?"

For the past three days and nights, he had been chasing An Qisheng's footsteps.

He had seen him from the clouds, killing one tracking martial artist after another, and he had also seen many martial artists hanging far behind like a pack of wolves.

But just now, he had suddenly lost An Qisheng's aura.

Even with the Putiān Eagle's powerful and inhuman vision, it hadn't seen how the old Taoist had disappeared.

It was as if, in an instant, all of his aura had vanished into these vast mountains.

"How did he do it?"

Feng Cheng was filled with surprise and doubt.

The Putiān Eagle was a natural-born alien beast. Its ability to track people wasn't just through its eyes, but also through its ability to sense the subtle changes in the spiritual Qi of heaven and earth.

How could a person walk in the world without causing fluctuations in the spiritual Qi of heaven and earth?

But the reality was such, and he had no choice but to believe it.

Screech~~~

Suddenly, at this moment, the Putiān Eagle let out a shrill cry, flapping its wings and creating a rolling air current.

"Hmm?"

Feng Cheng's heart leaped, and before he could think, he had already leaped ten zhang into the air.

The Putiān Eagle emitted an increasingly urgent and shrill scream, caught Feng Cheng, spread its wings, and soared into the sky like an arrow, instantly breaking through the layers of clouds and fleeing into the sky.

It seemed to have been greatly frightened.

"What happened?"

Only after flying hundreds of zhang into the air did Feng Cheng look around in surprise and doubt.

The mountains were peaceful, without the slightest movement.

The sky?

Feng Cheng's heart trembled, and he looked as far as he could.

He saw a shadow, more than ten zhang long, coming through the wind and thunder in the clouds thousands of zhang away. Its speed was much faster than the Putiān Eagle.

"That is... a top-tier alien beast, a Hanjiao (Frost Flood Dragon)?"

Seeing the vaguely visible, huge head with horns like a dragon's head, Feng Cheng was horrified.

In Jiu Fu Jie, there were many spiritual beasts and alien creatures, and among the most outstanding were the Jiaolong (Flood Dragon) species with strange supernatural powers in legends.

Legend has it that the Dragon King Armor, one of the eight Celestial Weapons, was made by that Celestial after killing a true dragon with a body length of three hundred zhang in the boundless sea ten thousand years ago, using its dragon scales, dragon bones, and dragon skin.

Afterward, it was supplemented with countless natural treasures.

Even another Celestial Weapon, the Vault of Heaven Sun-Piercing Bow, was related to that true dragon. Legend has it that the bowstring of the Sun-Piercing Bow was the dragon tendon of that true dragon!

This Hanjiao was equivalent to a Divine Meridian expert!

Roar~

A long roar like a cow or tiger shook hundreds of miles.

The Putiān Eagle under Feng Cheng became more and more frightened, flapping its wings desperately and flying wildly.

Roar~

After a sonic boom-like roar.

In Feng Cheng's wide-eyed gaze, the speed of the Hanjiao, which was more than ten zhang long, suddenly increased sharply!

In an instant, it had broken through a hundred zhang in the air. The speed was so fast that it dragged out an unknown length of sonic boom air current behind it.

It was terrifying!

"Escape! Escape! Escape quickly!"

Feng Cheng's face was pale. He lowered his body, and the true Qi all over his body poured out like a flood from a floodgate. Regardless of whether the Putiān Eagle could withstand it, he poured it into its body in one go.

Screech~

Affected by the impact of true Qi, the Putiān Eagle let out a shrill cry. It seemed as if a layer of bloody light spewed out from its body, instantly dyeing its feathers red.

Its speed increased sharply!

But Feng Cheng's pale face became more and more desperate, because the Hanjiao, which was traveling through the wind and thunder, was getting closer and closer.

"Ah! Go! Go quickly!"

Feeling the aura behind him getting closer and closer, Feng Cheng suddenly stood up, stomped his feet with a bang, and with a shrill scream, the Putiān Eagle's speed increased by another three points.

"Kill!"

With a long roar, Feng Cheng's clothes were torn to shreds by the raging wind.

Having depended on each other for fifty years, this eagle was already his most important relative. Between life and death, he thought he would abandon the eagle and flee.

But he couldn't help but turn around and strike!

He held the long sword upside down in one hand, bent his back, and the long sword turned into a dragon of cold light amidst the clanging sound, tearing apart the oncoming stench, and stabbing straight at the Jiaolong's head, which was the size of a house.

At this moment, Feng Cheng forgot about life and death.

And he finally saw that there was a figure on the Jiaolong's back.

It was a figure wearing a straw raincoat, like a fisherman.

The strong wind howled in the sky, and the air current was like a knife, enough to tear apart iron and stone, but the raincoat-clad man's body was as steady as a rock. In such a terrifying wind, even his clothes didn't move at all.

"Pre..."

Feng Cheng seemed to see hope and wanted to transmit his voice.

Boom!

But in the next moment, the sword light shattered instantly. The Hanjiao didn't even dodge, and directly crashed through Feng Cheng's sword light network, which could cut gold and break iron, with a bang.

It crashed into his body.

What would be the power of a behemoth more than ten zhang long and weighing more than 200,000 jin crashing at a speed exceeding the speed of sound?

At this moment, Feng Cheng felt it.

In less than a finger's breadth of time, the true Qi wall, the Qi Channel network, and even the muscles and bones all over his body exploded!

Like fireworks.

Roar~

In the violent roar, the Hanjiao's momentum didn't diminish. With a more ferocious posture, it charged towards the Putiān Eagle.

Unexpectedly, after a cry, the Putiān Eagle

also turned around and swept across like a knife with its wings spread.

"What deep affection between master and servant..."

On the back of the Jiaolong, the raincoat-clad man sat cross-legged. Seeing this, he raised his eyelids slightly and commented:

"How interesting."

Crack!

As the words echoed, the Hanjiao swallowed the Putiān Eagle in one gulp.

Roar!

In a joyful roar, the Hanjiao's speed slowed down slightly, and it circled amidst bursts of sonic boom-like sounds.

It overlooked the vast mountains.

"Although I don't know how you disappeared, you can't escape..."

The raincoat-clad man muttered to himself, a faint, dark, and deep light flashing in his eyes:

"My sect's holy son, was the focus of the world's attention when he was alive, and should be mourned by the world when he dies!"

The Hanjiao's body shook, as if it sensed something. After a reluctant roar, it swooped down and charged towards the mountains.

Then, in the distant deep mountains, a hunter looked up to the sky and couldn't help but change his expression drastically.

In his eyes, a 'sun' emitting endless light fell from the sky, rushing into the deep mountains with an extremely terrifying power.

What followed was billowing smoke rising into the sky, and the raging flames that soared into the sky like thousands of fire dragons.

On that day, thick smoke billowed from the mountains of Liang Province, and a great fire burned thousands of mountain peaks. Between the swallowing flames, thousands of hunters and many Jianghu (martial arts world) figures died in the mountains.

Fortunately, a heavy rain fell seven days later, extinguishing the raging flames.

But by this time, millions of wild beasts had been forced out of the mountains by the flames and were fleeing frantically in all directions.

In a short period of time, countless mountain villages on the sides of the mountains completely disappeared, and countless farmlands were destroyed.

There were even incidents of wild beasts attacking the city gates, and the losses were immeasurable.

For a time, Liang Province was shocked, the Central Plains was shocked, and the Da Feng imperial court was furious!

Experts from the Jinyiwei (embroidered-uniform guard), the Six Doors, and the East and West Factories rushed to Liang Province at almost the fastest speed. The armies stationed in the major city gates of Liang Province were also dispatched to hunt down wild beasts and provide relief to the victims.

Many Jianghu sects in Liang Province, under the leadership of the Huangjue Temple, also joined this disaster-like event.

Later records show that this fire burned for seven days, killing thousands of hunters, hundreds of Jianghu figures, and up to hundreds of millions of wild beasts. Even with Da Feng's proper response, the wild beasts' impact on the population still resulted in tens of thousands of deaths.

It took a full nine months to calm down.

And after the disaster, the casualties among the displaced refugees were more than ten times that of the wild beast attacks.

Historically known as the Red Sun Disaster!

........

"The Red Sun Disaster..."

Running amidst the raging flames in the mountains, An Qisheng's eyes were cold and stern.

His figure rose and fell at times, sometimes galloping, sometimes hiding. Wherever he passed, the flames couldn't get close, and the surrounding thick smoke and poisonous gas couldn't approach him at all.

The Red Sun Disaster.

He had seen this disaster in Feng Qingxuan's original life trajectory.

In the original trajectory, Yun Haitian killed Feng Qingxuan and Wu Shuang, the two rising stars of the Demonic Sects, with serious injuries. Then, the Red Sun Dharma King came riding a dragon and annihilated the Righteous Knights Sect and more than a thousand Jianghu experts at the gathering in one battle.

Afterward, he traveled 80,000 miles a day, destroying seven cities directly and indirectly, causing millions of deaths!

After this incident, the imperial court's experts hunted him down for seven months.

However, the Hanjiao traveled back and forth, traversing 80,000 miles a day, which even Divine Meridian experts couldn't match, so it was impossible to hunt him down.

In the end, it was the old monk Yixiu from Huangjue Temple who came out of seclusion. Taking advantage of his serious injury to the Beggar Gang leader, Wang Jianglong, he unleashed a Lion's Roar on the top of the mountains and shook the Hanjiao above the thousand-zhang sky to death. The Red Sun Dharma King escaped with minor injuries,

and the matter came to an end.

He had stayed in the Righteous Knights Sect for two months, and then wandered around Liang Province for more than a month, not concealing his information at all, allowing thousands of people to hunt him down. His purpose was to lure this old demon into the mountains.

And now, it was already the seventh day.

For the past seven days, whenever he sensed that the Hanjiao was about to leave, he would expose his aura to attract the attention of the Red Sun Dharma King.

Then he would hide.

He had forcibly dragged the Red Sun Dharma King into these mountains for seven days.

Boom!

A deafening roar echoed in the mountains a dozen miles away, like a meteor falling to the ground. The dust raised was like a mushroom cloud rising into the air. Even from a dozen miles away, An Qisheng could feel the ground shaking madly under his feet.

With a single thought, a Divine Meridian expert can shake the 'spirit,' connecting the surrounding ten miles of heaven and earth spiritual Qi that merges with true Qi, thereby unleashing unimaginable terrifying power.

If its Qi belongs to thunder, it will be like a heavenly thunder falling. If its Qi belongs to wood, it can determine the life and death of all trees with a single thought. If its Qi belongs to fire, it can burn mountains and boil the sea with a single thought!

And at this time, the Red Sun Dharma King, who was circling above the mountains of Liang Province, had the most scorching and intense Great Sun spiritual Qi in the world.

With a single thought, he could burn mountains and boil the sea.

With a single strike, ten miles would be destroyed!

The terror of his power was something that ordinary Divine Meridians couldn't match at all. Even in the Six Prison Demonic Sect, he was a peerless expert second only to the Six Prison Demonic Sovereign, Pang Wanyang.

Before Pang Wanyang rose to prominence, he and the White Lotus Lady were known as the Two Saints of the Demonic Sect.

His strength was not comparable to ordinary Divine Meridian experts.

"As expected of an expert who can kill the Holy Son. To be able to last seven days under this old man's pursuit, even if you die, you can be proud enough!"

Above the dome of the sky, an indifferent and cold voice descended, suppressing the sound of the flames exploding in the mountains.

Between the opening and closing of the Red Sun Dharma King's eyes, his heart was filled with coldness.

With his martial arts, he didn't know how many years it had been since he had encountered a Qi Channel expert who could be chased by him for seven days and seven nights.

When he was at the Qi Channel stage, no Qi Channel expert could escape his pursuit.

The person below was stronger than the scope of the Qi Channel stage.

The Hanjiao roared accordingly.

It was naturally fond of cold and afraid of heat. In these sea of flames, its temperament became more and more violent.

But even it couldn't lock onto the elusive figure in the ten thousand miles of mountains at this time.

"Unfortunately, you can't escape."

Above the Hanjiao, the Red Sun Dharma King stood with his hands behind his back, like a great sun suspended in the long sky:

"You're far from being able to compare to this old man in terms of endurance!"

The Red Sun Dharma King's aura became more and more intense.

His patience was naturally excellent, otherwise, he wouldn't have retreated into seclusion in the frozen lake for twenty years after losing to the Taibai Sword, Mu Qingfeng, more than twenty years ago.

Unfortunately, even after twenty years of seclusion, he still failed to take it one step further and push himself to the supreme realm of Taiyin Wuji. He was still not as good as Mu Qingfeng,

nor could he compare to that amazing junior of his in the Demonic Sect.

Whoosh whoosh~

Amidst the rolling smoke, An Qisheng moved and shifted, extremely fast, two steps being one li.

The sound of his figure and footsteps combined with the whistling of the air currents and merged with the sounds of the surrounding intense burning, with almost no extra noise.

During the run, his inner true Qi rolled and moved, boiling and激荡, giving birth to limbs and bones, under his powerful mental strength鼓荡, spreading to the six Yang chiefs.

Whether it was the two months in the Righteous Knights Sect, the month in Liang Province, or the seven days in the mountains burning with flames, he had never stopped his pace of condensing the Qi Channel.

And at this time, it was about to be completed.

And once the Qi Channel was completed, countless martial arts that required great success in Qi Channel could be practiced and performed.

During these seven days, he had repeatedly entered a dream while running to fight against the Red Sun Dharma King, but unfortunately, his chances of winning were less than 10%.

And when the Qi Channel reached great success, he wanted to try it.

Was the Divine Meridian really invincible!

"Red Sun Dharma King..."