To the north of Qingtian County lay Qingtian Mountain, where Zhong Ang had first engaged in cultivation. Only after achieving success did he start preaching and establish properties in the human world, setting up the Main Altar within the county town.

Life in the mountains was austere, yet Zhong Ang constructed the Main Altar with magnificent splendor, akin to a royal palace, and even surrounded himself with many concubines.

For cultivators engaging in marital relations, it was possible to ensure that their Primordial Pill remained intact by absorbing the Yuan Yin and Yuan Yang from their partner, thereby avoiding pregnancy. However, to conceive offspring, one would have to merge their own Yuan Yin and Yuan Yang with that of their partner.

Lady Bao Xiang had slept with countless men over thousands of years yet had never let her Yuan Yin be dissipated, always drawing upon the Yuan Yang of others to nourish her Primordial Pill, thereby increasing her effort without having offspring. That was until she met Zhuge Jingwo and was moved to passion, unable to restrain herself. With her Primordial Spirit out of control and her Yuan Yin breached, she merged with Zhuge Jingwo's Yuan Yang and thus became pregnant with a child.

The Yuan Yin and Yuan Yang were extremely precious; it was like the Emei Sect, which emphasized entering the Dao with a pure body. If one lost their purity, they would have to undergo Soldier Disintegration and start their cultivation anew in another life. It was crucial to maintain a trace of Innate Primordial Qi without dissipation, cultivating the Primordial Spirit internally and accumulating good deeds externally. With accomplishments in the Dao and actions in the human world, one could reach Perfection in their Dao Level and ascend smoothly without facing Heavenly Tribulation, and it was even easier to achieve Body Ascension.

Other fringe sects may not care about this, but excessive dissipation of Primordial Qi also affected one's Dao Level. Though Zhong Ang had a throng of wives and often transmitted teachings to female disciples, reveling in boundless pleasure in their tender company, he had truly let his Yuan Yang dissipate only once, giving birth to a son named Zhong Gan.

Today was the Golden Flower Festival, and as the Young Sect Leader of the Holy Sect, Zhong Gan should have been in the county town. He had recently captured a mystical Demon Bird which he was exceedingly fond of, and these past days he had been taming it in his cave. Stubborn like a hawk, the bird was difficult to tame and stubbornly resisted until it had recently become somewhat subdued. Because of this, Zhong Gan was delayed.

It was only moments ago that he emerged from Qingtian Mountain with the bird, when from afar he saw the sky above the town alight with colorful splendor, recognizing it as his father's Flower Evil Divine Gang. At first, he thought his father was demonstrating Miracles in front of the people to strengthen the believers' faith. However, when the Flower Evil Divine Gang was retracted, he sensed that something was amiss, and he hurried onto his Flying Sword to rush over. Witnessing his father being split in half, his eyes filled with blood, he merged into Human Sword Unity and flew over, maneuvering his Sword Control to slash at Shi Feiyang, while also raising his personally refined Golden Flower Divine Nails, transforming them into numerous golden lights shooting forward, and even signaled the Demon Bird to join in the attack.

His father's Primordial Spirit was ascending the mountain when he witnessed this scene, and his soul turned cold. If his son stood no chance against an enemy he could not defeat himself—he had barely managed to escape using the Blood Light Escape Technique, risking his life—the foolish boy should have been fleeing rather than rashly engaging in a duel, as if he thought his life too long to endure!

He called out loudly to his son, urging him to run fast. As the form of the Primordial Spirit, cloaked in the Blood Light Escape Technique, his flight speed was extremely fast, far exceeding that of a Flying Sword. Yet, lingering just a bit ahead of his son, Shi Feiyang acted swiftly, releasing a Golden Light Giant Hand that snatched his son out of thin air while his White Light Sword followed soon after, transforming into a dazzling long rainbow that sliced at Zhong Gan, first encountering the Golden Flower Divine Nails and reducing them into a sky full of golden stars in an instant, and when it moved to kill Zhong Gan, the Demon Bird suddenly spat out three bright green inner cores, wrapped in green flame, surprisingly catching the White Light Sword.

Shi Feiyang found the bird quite peculiar, standing roughly two zhang in height, with legs that were nearly one zhang and four feet long, though only as thick as a chicken egg and too slender and lengthy. At first glance, it resembled an Immortal Crane, with feathers of emerald green covering its body and a head much like that of a human, complete with a curved, hook-like eagle beak, and human-like hands at the joints of its fully spread wings.

This creature, much like those in Roc Bay, had already cultivated a partial human form!

Seeing Zhong Gan turn to flee, with the Demon Bird's three inner cores difficult to break, Shi Feiyang employed a Spell to create an Illusion, first deceiving the bird, then using the technique "Light Splitting and Shadow Capturing" to step next to Zhong Gan in an instant. He vibrated his White Light Sword into a spiral of sword light several zhang long, entangling Zhong Gan, who was merging Body and Sword in flight, within it. Then, with a breath of True Qi, he planned to shred Zhong Gan and his sword together into segments.

Zhong Gan knew he was in trouble when he saw the white sword light approaching. His guts twisted in terror, and in desperation, he used his sword qi to sever his little finger on his left hand and employed it as a decoy to take the hit. Meanwhile, he turned himself into a streak of red blood light, sprinting forward suddenly then taking a sharp turn, not heading back north to Qingtian Mountain, but instead flying southward.

Shi Feiyang tightened his grip on the White Light Sword with a series of "clacks," shredding Zhong Gan's flying sword into several pieces, along with the piece of finger within it. The main target, however, had escaped. Just then, the demon bird swooped in again, spreading its steel claws as wide as carriage wheels, aiming for Shi Feiyang's head.

Shi Feiyang neither dodged nor avoided, instead extending his hand...

His fingers appeared fair and slender, without a single callus, as if a fan could bruise them—an illusion far from the reality that they were actually Dragon Claws.

Others would normally require a spell to capture another's flying sword, infusing their fingertips with True Qi, or employing techniques like Light Splitting and Shadow Capturing or Divine Demon Capturing. But not him; he simply grabbed with brute force. Take Situ Ding's family heirloom Jukui Sword, for instance—he simply seized it, and it crumbled to scrap in his grip!

He recognized the demon bird's claws were formidable, but he knew they would not outmatch his own Dragon Claws, so he grabbed back without fear. His small hand against the large claws, the bird's sharp talons clasped around his entire arm. This bird had trained its claws—they could split mountains and cleave stones, much more powerful than the talons of ordinary evil spirits turned into fierce birds. It dug its sharpened tips into his flesh, causing Shi Feiyang considerable pain. As the bird prepared to unleash its inner core, Shi Feiyang, with no time to control his sword, reached with his other hand to catch the bird. He struggled a few times but managed to seize its neck tightly. The bird flapped its wings furiously, using its human-like hands at the joints to go for Shi Feiyang's eyes, but Shi Feiyang promptly imprisoned it within the Yu Ding.

At that moment, Zhong Gan had already reached the airspace above the county, encountering an entity flying in from the south.

The entity, humanoid but not quite human, was shrouded in a mass of dense, black smoke, moving as quickly as lightning, with a small white ape in tow, conversing with Zhong Gan.

Shi Feiyang concentrated his gaze and recognized it as the Primordial Spirit of an Ape Spirit without a physical body, merely an aggregation of the Three Souls and Seven Spirits gradually cultivating. It had progressed from formless and intangible to formless but substantial, and eventually, it acquired a tangible form with true substance!

Whereas most cultivators' escape of the Primordial Spirit typically presents merely as a shadow without substance, reaching an extremely high realm is required to gain a physical form, one akin to a True Master just before Ascension.

This Ape Spirit's Primordial Spirit was not yet as substantial as a true physical body, but it was mighty in its own right. Were it not for the swirling black smoke around it, one might mistake it for an ape just emerged from a coal pile.

Shi Feiyang understood their conversation; listening briefly, Yuan Jing shared a brief exchange with Zhong Gan and was filled with a sense of common enmity, "Zhong Daoist friend, stand aside for now and witness Yuan Hua wield the newly-refined Immortal Sword to slay the enemy and avenge our Sect Hierarch!"

Without waiting for Shi Feiyang to arrive, he flung the little ape he brought with his left hand, letting it drift gently onto a rooftop. Then with his right hand, he performed Sword techniques, summoning forty-nine Flying Swords to circle around him. His sharp voice cursed as he bared his fangs, "You dare come to the Southeast to wreak havoc; do you recognize Yuan Hua from Mo Xiao Peak of the Big Boss Mountain?"

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