Volume Two: The Weapon Codex Chapter 119: Half a Step to a Blood-Stained Robe

The Azure Dragon Guard typically remains closely tethered to the Formation Spirit, only venturing out to the location of Liu Xiaoyi and the others when disturbed by some external influence.

Li Jue, having barely recovered a sliver of his strength, hurriedly channeled the Golden Light Formation, tracing a pattern beneath the feet of the Azure Dragon Guard to anchor it in place.

"The Azure Dragon Guard possesses a portion of the Azure Dragon’s power from the Four Symbols. We must take it slow; do not meet it with brute force!" Knowing the true extent of its lethality, Li Jue shouted this warning to Liu Xiaoyi repeatedly.

Liu Xiaoyi, however, refused to yield. Relying on the keen edge of his Green Radiance Sword, he drifted before the Azure Dragon Guard and struck down with a single blow.

The Azure Dragon Guard, frustrated by its inability to move and demonstrate its full prowess, saw an opportunity presented on a silver platter. With its True Qi surging, it clashed its Azure Dragon Sword against the opponent’s blade.

As the two edges collided, Liu Xiaoyi felt a gale roaring in his ears. His entire body was flung backward, uncontrolled, until he slammed into the wall behind him, only then coming to a jarring halt.

"Brother Liu, the Azure Dragon Sword shares a common origin with the Formation Spirit. Unless we weaken the spirit, we cannot defeat this Guard!" After casting the Golden Light Formation, Li Jue lay flat on his back, gasping for air. Currently, the only thing effectively limiting the opponent’s performance was a faint golden light spanning a three-zhang radius.

Liu Xiaoyi could not harm his opponent, and the others were even less capable. The Azure Dragon Guard let out a roar, chanting incantations as its aura surged violently; it was only a matter of time before it broke free from the constraints of the golden light.

Before that could happen, they needed a solution. Liu Xiaoyi decided to bring out all the magical treasures he possessed. He threw the Fire Seal with one hand and retrieved the Zhenyuan Mountain with the other, attempting a pincer attack to suppress the Guard.

The results, however, were disappointing. While the Fire Seal provided some suppression, it drained the mana from Liu Xiaoyi’s dantian within seconds, forcing him to retract it in alarm. As for the Zhenyuan Mountain, it failed to even pierce the Guard’s protective aura, being blocked entirely.

The disparity between the two treasures was immediately apparent; the Fire Seal was an artifact meant to suppress the prosperity of the Nine Provinces, incomparable to a mere Zhenyuan Mountain.

"Then I can only see if my Divine Light has any effect. Brother Li, does this Azure Dragon Guard count as a spectral entity?"

Hearing this, Li Jue shook his head awkwardly. "The Azure Dragon Guard is composed entirely of pure True Qi. It possesses no consciousness; it is controlled by the Formation Spirit." He knew Liu Xiaoyi possessed Taoist arts capable of dealing with souls, but unfortunately, the Guard was not a soul.

Just as the group was at their wit's end, the Azure Dragon Guard suddenly flickered with light. A look of terror appeared on its face, and then, before their eyes, it vanished within the golden light.

"Quick, help us up! We must find the Formation Spirit immediately—someone has beaten us to it!"

There was only one reason for the Azure Dragon Guard to disappear: the Formation Spirit was under attack and faced the danger of being seized.

Li Jue’s suspicion was spot on. Not far from a rhombus-shaped crystal shrouded by the Azure Dragon’s phantom, stood a man in black holding a horsetail whisk. Beside the Formation Spirit, clutching the Azure Dragon Sword, stood an elderly man with graying whiskers.

"He Qingyan! Your master and uncle both died under the blade of my Azure Dragon Sword years ago. How fitting that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree—I shall take your life today as well!"

He Qingyan, wielding his whisk, had carved a path through the obstacles, sweeping away every puppet he encountered with the valor of a thousand men.

"The Ninth Elder of the Sacred Monarch Palace!" Looking at the man who had murdered his master, He Qingyan’s eyes burned with hatred. The True Qi surging in his dantian made his very skull vibrate. "I spent ten years painstakingly honing my craft for the sole purpose of purging the Sacred Monarch Palace and taking your dog head to offer as a sacrifice to the spirits of my master and uncle!"

The whisk in his hand was an extraordinary artifact, the result of ten years of heart's blood. A single flick could sever the mana threads between a puppet master and their puppets, neutralizing the master's power at its source.

The remotely controlled puppets he encountered along the way turned into useless scrap once their threads were severed, easily destroyed by the martial artists flooding in from all directions.

The Ninth Elder could not bear such unnecessary losses. Originally seated at the upper level to command the Two-Polarity Formation, he had personally descended into the Azure Dragon Tower to intercept He Qingyan, who was on the verge of destroying the Azure Dragon Formation Spirit.

Had he not, three strokes of that whisk would have not only annihilated the Azure Dragon Guard, but the tower itself would have ceased to exist.

"Your master had some talent back then, enough to force me back from the Formation Spirit. Your uncle, however, lacked the mettle and was stabbed to death by me in an instant!" The Ninth Elder sneered through gritted teeth. "Look at yourself—you dare storm our gates after learning a few tricks? Your master was a failure, and naturally, the apprentice is a pig!"

As he spoke, the Ninth Elder split into three, attacking He Qingyan simultaneously. This cloning technique could create up to thirteen clones at full power, indicating that the Ninth Elder was not even using his full strength.

He held no regard for his opponent. In his eyes, He Qingyan was merely a brat. After all, the boy's sect had been uprooted entirely; what could a single stray survivor possibly accomplish?

The Azure Dragon Sword swung down, only to be bound inch by inch by the green silk of the whisk. All three of the Ninth Elder’s clones froze in mid-air.

"You can disperse my mana? What kind of weapon is this!" The Ninth Elder attempted to reform his body, only to find that the mana of his clones could not merge; instead, it was being dispersed into the heavens and earth along the green silk.

As the silk gradually lengthened and began to envelop the Ninth Elder’s body, He Qingyan sneered: "If you must die, let it be with the knowledge of why! Are you familiar with the Weapon Catalog?"

"The Weapon Catalog? Could this whisk be one of them?" The Ninth Elder was shocked. Even the lowest-ranked item on the Weapon Catalog was not something an ordinary weapon could shake.

"Indeed! It is the three-hundred-and-thirty-third entry: the Carefree Whisk!"

While wandering the world, He Qingyan had inadvertently discovered this divine weapon at the bottom of a shallow sea, hidden beneath seaweed and silt.

After years of careful nurturing, the Carefree Whisk rewarded him by becoming the cage that now trapped the Ninth Elder.

The Ninth Elder did not know what the Carefree Whisk was, but while he could still move his eyes, he frantically attempted to channel the Formation Spirit to feed him mana, hoping to drive the green silk back.

Instead, the silk advanced rather than retreated, instantly solidifying into three silkworm cocoons. The Ninth Elder fell silent.

He Qingyan stepped toward the Formation Spirit with a blank expression. The phantom of the Azure Dragon roared at him impotently. The Formation Spirit itself possessed no means of attack; having lost its Azure Dragon Guard, it was like a toothless tiger, forced to watch helplessly as the whisk swept across it.

*Swish! Swish! Swish!* The whisk fell three times, the Azure Dragon phantom turned to dust, the light outside the Azure Dragon Tower shattered inch by inch, and the Formation Spirit was dispersed by the green silk. Suddenly, a voice came from behind He Qingyan: "Good! A genuine one!"

"Who..." Before he could finish, he saw the green silk of the whisk shoot backward, piercing through He Qingyan’s body.

Blood sprayed, staining the robes of a man in gray standing behind him. This man wiped his robes with a handkerchief, muttering with a sigh: "Tsk tsk, youth is so full of vitality; it can spray a full half-step away."