Sixty years later, within the walls of the Nine Mansion, the Zoroastrian Fire Order flickered with flas. At the sa ti, Nanny Yuan’s body ignited in a fierce blaze.
This was the pact between Nanny Yuan and Star Covering: if she failed to escape East Market Street unhard this ti, Star Covering would activate the Zoroastrian Fire Order and burn Nanny Yuan alive.
"Nanny Yuan..."
Inside the coffin, Star Covering was overwheld with grief.
When Jing Deng died, Star Covering thought she deserved it. But now, with Nanny Yuan gone, Star Covering felt as though he had lost a family mber.
"What a sha, couldn’t pry anything useful from you,"
Yuan Buyu gazed at Nanny Yuan, curled amidst the flas, and sighed.
Nanny Yuan was gone,
and Zhou Xuan’s Mountain and River Map finally detached itself from the Kongming Mirror.
The tattoo-like reflection of the mirror rged with the tattoo Bone Teeth had illustrated in the real world.
The Mountain and River Map expanded with the wind, transforming from a small scroll to stretch across the entire East Market Street.
"Move the prefectures."
Zhou Xuan, influenced by the incense fire Taoist’s previous use of the Mountain and River Map to manipulate nine state capitals, had now learned how to wield the map himself.
But due to his limited incense fire cultivation, Zhou Xuan—currently at six sticks of incense strength—could only move two prefectures within the map.
His arms stretched skyward, palms pressing downward as if holding the heavens aloft. From the map, Ping Shui Prefecture and Mingjiang Prefecture slowly peeled away.
The two prefectures descended from the map, their combined weight of tens of thousands of pounds pressing heavily onto the Fire Sect disciples’ Long Whip Fire Formation.
The flowing flas of the fire formation imdiately shrank under the imnse pressure. The formation conjured by twenty to thirty disciples, each at five sticks of incense, was barely holding up.
But they dared not abandon their effort. If they withdrew the long whips now, the weight of Ping Shui Prefecture and Mingjiang Prefecture would crush their bones and sinew.
"Descend, keep descending."
Zhou Xuan pushed his palms downward with force. The fire formation had been pushed to its limits, and cracks had already begun to form in the foreheads of several disciples.
"Fall!"
Zhou Xuan shouted fiercely once more.
Fueled by Zhou Xuan’s iron-willed determination, the prefectures descended another ten feet.
The force of this descent carried unimaginable weight, tens of thousands of pounds, causing all twenty to thirty Fire Sect disciples to collapse to their knees. The fire whips in their hands shattered piece by piece.
With the fire whips destroyed, there was no longer any resistance to halt the descent of the prefectures. When they plumted to the ground, East Market Street erupted with the blossoming of twenty to thirty vivid, blood-red flowers...
This battle left East Market Street littered with corpses and shattered remains.
"Disciple, your cultivation approach truly differs from everyone else’s,"
Yuan Buyu remarked to Zhou Xuan while fanning himself.
"Master, with just and the Mountain and River Map, suppressing so many at five sticks of incense—isn’t that a bit overpowered?"
Zhou Xuan, now facing his enemy for the second ti since mastering the Mountain and River Map, felt his technique was overwhelmingly brutal.
"That’s what I wanted to discuss."
Yuan Buyu gestured to the bodies scattered across the ground and explained, "In Jing Country, every stick of incense makes a significant difference in power. For instance, one-on-one, five sticks of incense cannot defeat six sticks.
But what about many against one? Even the fiercest tiger fears a pack of wolves. Five or six individuals at seven sticks of incense might risk their lives to overpower soone at eight sticks of incense.
Generally, soone at six sticks of incense, surrounded by five or six at five sticks, would have only a slim chance of survival.
Now, you faced twenty to thirty at five sticks. Ordinarily, they should have been capable of eliminating you with ease. But your overpowering technique defies convention, turning the advantage of greater incense power into an opportunity for reversal—that is exceptional."
Yuan Buyu continued, "Low-incense cultivators relying on numbers to kill soone vastly stronger than themselves is nearly unheard of."
Zhou Xuan felt elated, experiencing for the first ti the sheer might of Nuo cultivation.
Every Tangkou disciple who fully cultivated one stick of incense could uncover another layer of techniques.
A storyteller’s technique above nine sticks of incense was called the "Will Heavenly Book," while Bone Teeth’s technique above nine sticks of incense was known as the "Mountain and River Map."
"The Mountain and River Map is indeed a formidable combat technique. As for the Will Heavenly Book, I’m tempted to condense one and see it for myself,"
Zhou Xuan said.
"When you do, I want to witness the event,"
Yuan Buyu replied.
...
At East Market Street, the Fire Sect’s ambush involving Nanny Yuan and the clever diversion had fully captured the attention of the God Traveling Departnt.
Currently, the departnt was entirely empty.
Before the Magic Artifact Monitoring Tripod, there was no one left standing guard.
The lion-headed, human-bodied "Qunxing" erged through ti, standing before the tripod.
"Using Zhou Xuan to divert the God Traveling Departnt’s attention was a strategy born of necessity."
Qunxing knew that with the close connection between Zhou Xuan and the God Traveling Departnt, if Zhou Xuan was in danger, the departnt would deploy all its efforts to East Market Street.
But if the God Traveling Departnt fully committed to East Market Street, would Nanny Yuan be able to escape with her life?
This ploy to ultimately destroy the "Monitoring Tripod," which relied on the strategy of luring the tiger away from the mountain, had been dood to result in Nanny Yuan’s death from the very outset of planning.
"Nanny Yuan, don’t bla —it’s the Fire Sect’s relentless persecution,"
Qunxing muttered. Beneath his impressive and robust fra lay imnse hidden power.
He swung his right fist, aiming a ferocious punch at the body of the tripod.
"Boom!"
A deafening impact reverberated, unleashing powerful shockwaves. Yet, Qunxing noticed sothing strange about the sensation—it felt unnaturally soft, almost like striking a cushion...
Qunxing stared closely and saw that the body of the tripod was already covered in dense cracks.
The four-legged tripod hadn’t shattered completely because soone else had intercepted his punch.
That person was the Painter.
The Painter lay collapsed before the tripod, his chest shattered and mangled from the force of the blow.
He recited a Protective Divine Spell, rising slowly as he caressed the tripod and murmured, "It’s broken, but at least it didn’t shatter outright."
"You should be at East Market Street."
"I’m supposed to be at East Market Street, but the Young Master was clever. He judged that your plan was the tiger-luring strategy, so I ca back."
"Even if you’ve returned, you can’t stop from destroying this tripod."
"Is that so?"
Lanterns belonging to the God Traveling Departnt returned one by one to the monitoring room,
and Music Masters, Shang Wenjun, Li Chengfeng, Hua Qingying, and others arrived in succession.
Yuan Buyu had once explained to Zhou Xuan that the current reality of cultivation in Jing Country was that even the fiercest tiger fears a pack of wolves. Two cultivators at eight sticks of incense, along with two disciples nearing eight, could engage Qunxing in a life-or-death struggle that even he couldn’t escape unscathed.
"Everybody, get out of my way!"
Qunxing’s formidable body began to rampage once more. He aid to destroy the Monitoring Bronze Tripod with sheer physical strength, but there was one thing he didn’t dare to reveal—his true capability.
Qunxing, this towering figure hailing from Divine Brilliance Star Country, concealed his true nature as a nine-stick of incense cultivator in the human world...
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