Chapter 68 : Chapter 68
Chapter 68: Feng'er May Have Struck First, but That Was No Excuse for That Unfilial Son to Strike Back!
“Appoint her as the Snake General!”
Naturally, Cheng Yu had no intention of refusing such a formidable helper freely delivered into his hands.
The moment his words fell, a mysterious and ineffable force of majesty drifted out from within his body.
Like silken threads, it wound itself around the snake demon.
The snake demon shuddered all over. The dragon-might about her body dispersed, and the golden essence blood within her began to be stripped away, leaving behind only the purest Heavenly Serpent Bloodline.
As the Snake General beneath the True Martial Emperor, she had no need for the seemingly noble and mighty bloodline of the dragon race.
It was enough for her to be a proper snake.
At the same time, Cheng Yu felt an indescribable bond form within his mind.
It linked him to the snake demon.
【Congratulations, Host. You have successfully subdued the “Snake General”!】
【Please find and subdue the “Turtle General” as soon as possible. Gather the “Turtle and Snake Generals” and take command of the Great Dao of Yin and Yang’s Mutual Resonance!】
“So it’s done just like that!”
Beneath the True Martial Emperor stood the Turtle and Snake Generals.
Cheng Yu had inherited the True Martial legacy, and now he had already subdued one of them.
When he looked again at the snake demon now nuzzling against him, her movements had grown even more intimate.
He slightly circulated the aura of the Demon-Slaying Dao Canon.
At once, the snake demon straightened in stern obedience. Under Cheng Yu’s command, she lashed her tail violently against a massive boulder.
With a thunderous crash, the stone shattered on the spot.
The snake demon had submitted to Cheng Yu completely and would obey his every order!
But Cheng Yu soon discovered a very serious problem.
That phantom certainly knew how to subdue a Great Demon. It had beaten the snake demon until she no longer dared act up and had utterly submitted.
But in another respect, that phantom knew only how to beat, not how to heal.
Originally, she had possessed strength comparable to a Grandmaster. By aura alone, she had frightened countless experts into fleeing in panic.
Yet after that forceful lesson just now, less than a tenth of her strength remained.
She was left with only about the level of a Ninth Rank martial artist.
Fortunately, Cheng Yu did not care too much.
So long as Grandmasters did not appear, the Ninth Rank was already the summit of the martial world.
He could always find a way to heal her later.
He looked at the snake demon and nodded. “From now on, your name is Susu.”
From the information he had received in his mind, the snake demon was female.
So Cheng Yu gave her this name according to a memory of his own.
He had absolutely no intention of imitating some legendary senior.
He truly could not bear that sort of fate.
Besides, the Demon-Slaying Dao Canon recorded that the Turtle and Snake Generals beneath the True Martial Emperor symbolized the union of yin and yang and the Dao by which all things were brought forth.
Although the Turtle General was still a very distant prospect, the two were destined by heaven to be a pair.
Cheng Yu had absolutely no strange tastes.
The moment Susu heard that she now had a name, she stared blankly at Cheng Yu.
Although she had slumbered here for a thousand years and possessed an enormous body, her intelligence was only at the level of a four- or five-year-old child.
Once she understood, she began wagging her tail foolishly in delight.
She had never known her parents, and now she finally had a name!
Cheng Yu paid little attention to Susu circling around in excitement and instead surveyed the surroundings.
Who could have imagined that beneath Sword-Forging Manor there would be such an enormous hidden space?
Now that Susu had shrunk down, the true appearance of the nearby environment was finally revealed.
Spirit plants and spirit herbs grew wantonly among the rocks, and objects brimming with spiritual energy lay scattered everywhere.
Though a terrifying Great Demon had made her lair here, Sword-Forging Manor’s judgment had not been wrong. This truly was a land of opportunity!
Most likely, it was a ruin left behind by some unimaginably powerful existence from ages long past.
Cheng Yu even saw faint strands of dragon-might seeping from the ground.
A Dragon Vein!
A thousand years ago, before Great Qian was founded, Great Demons ran rampant.
The Progenitor of Qian slew demons and established Great Qian.
At that time, Susu had slumbered here, in this place that had already been a treasure land to begin with, absorbing dragon qi in order to grow.
A thousand years passed.
Susu had grown immensely powerful and awakened. The slightest movement from her caused dragon qi to leak outward.
The Dragon Abyss Sword sensed the dragon qi.
Sword-Forging Manor concluded that the core of the Dragon Vein lay beneath the mountain, and so they began excavating.
In the end, just as success was within reach, all their efforts came to nothing, and Cheng Yu led men to raid and exterminate them.
Naturally, Cheng Yu was not going to waste such an opportunity.
He drew out the Demon-Slaying Sword and employed the Dragon Abyss Sword’s Dragon-Might Sword Intent.
The dragon qi within the underground Dragon Vein was rapidly drained dry, greatly strengthening the Dragon-Might Sword Intent.
If Cheng Yu were to use the Dragon-Might Sword Intent now, it would certainly be even more terrifying than it had been in He Qin’s hands.
It was only that his current martial realm was still too low. If he forced it into use, the consequences would not be any lighter than He Qin’s had been.
He could not use it carelessly.
But as a final trump card, it was already terrifyingly powerful.
He also gathered up all the heavenly materials and earthly treasures one by one.
The Demon-Slaying Dao Canon was all-encompassing and contained countless arts of alchemy and medicinal compounding.
Those treasures could be put to the greatest possible use in his hands.
What delighted Cheng Yu most of all was that among the heap of heavenly materials and earthly treasures, he discovered something extremely unusual.
It was a damaged jet-black banner.
Though tattered and entirely devoid of power, Cheng Yu was still drawn to the ancient and profound patterns upon it.
It was absolutely no ordinary object!
He reached out and picked up the banner.
The system’s voice rang out beside his ear.
【Material acquired for one of the True Martial treasures—the True Martial Black Eagle Banner: a Heaven-Grade banner-type weapon!】
【Please collect the remaining materials as soon as possible!】
Cheng Yu could scarcely believe what he had just heard.
The True Martial Black Eagle Banner!
The Demon-Slaying Dao Canon also recorded that it was known by another name, the Heaven-Shrouding Banner, and possessed the divine power to blanket the sky and veil heaven and earth!
Even those standing at the summit of the martial path would find such a level hard to reach.
And this was another supreme treasure used by the True Martial Emperor, one on the same level as the Demon-Slaying Sword before it had been damaged.
He Qin had already proven with his life that the heavenly armament Dragon Abyss Sword, ranked upon the Heavenly Armament List, was not worth mentioning before the Demon-Slaying Sword.
If Cheng Yu could obtain the True Martial Black Eagle Banner as well, then even though it would most likely, like the Demon-Slaying Sword, not be the genuine complete version, his strength would still reach an unimaginable level.
Even slaying a Ninth Rank martial artist against the odds would no longer be impossible!
And with Susu’s help as well, trampling the sects of the world beneath his feet and raiding giants on the level of the Nine Great Sects would no longer be the fantasy of a fool.
A sharp gleam flashed through Cheng Yu’s eyes.
“The Nine Great Sects... River-Severing Sect, just wait for me...”
...
While Cheng Yu subdued Susu, gained a mighty helper, and harvested no small number of treasures, the entire jianghu fell into complete chaos.
Especially throughout Dragon Abyss Path and the neighboring regions of Jiangnan, all jianghu martial artists were left stunned and fearful for their lives.
The reason those lofty figures were so terrified was because one piece of news had spread.
The Jinyiwei had destroyed Sword-Forging Manor!
He Qin, along with many elders and disciples, had died on the spot.
Among the surviving disciples, those guilty of grave crimes were executed immediately.
The rest were thrown into Jinyiwei prisons, where the only fate awaiting them was to be crippled of their martial arts and reduced to slaves and servants!
The once lofty disciples of Sword-Forging Manor had now fallen completely into chains.
Everything of value within Sword-Forging Manor had also been emptied out and confiscated. Massive seals were slapped across its gates.
When experts who had ties to Sword-Forging Manor arrived, all that remained to them was fury.
Because the place had been wiped out in the truest sense.
Not even the chickens and dogs had been left alive.
The once flourishing great sect had fallen into a dreadful silence.
Only blood on the ground and earthen graves all across the mountain remained.
And this was only because Cheng Yu, merciful enough to fear the outbreak of a plague, had specially ordered all the corpses buried...
In Jiannan Circuit, another region of Jiangnan, a graceful and beautiful mountain stood amid drifting mists, wreathed in an almost immortal aura.
The mountain road was filled with people carrying children on their backs, some dressed in fine silks, others in coarse hempen garments.
All of them had come to seek treatment from Divine Physician Ma.
Within one of the small courtyards set along the mountainside, Zhao Xichun sat by the bed of the unconscious Cheng Feng, tears glistening at the corners of her eyes.
Not far away, Cheng Zhenjiang stood with his hands clasped behind his back, pacing back and forth.
“Why has Divine Physician Ma still not come? What if Feng’er’s injuries worsen because of this delay?!”
When Cheng Yue heard her father complain again, she could only sigh helplessly.
“Divine Physician Ma will not come until he finishes seeing patients at noon. No matter how anxious you are, Father, it will do no good.”
Then she looked at her heavily wounded little brother and felt nothing but pain in her heart.
Cheng Zhenjiang grew angrier and finally roared, “That unfilial wretch truly is wicked to the bone! He hid his strength this deeply, and on top of that he struck his own younger brother with such a heavy hand!”
“Feng’er may indeed have struck first, but he only did so in a moment of desperation. How dare that unfilial son strike back!”