Chapter 163: Crushed by a Giant Hand, Rewards as Vast as Mountains

Chapter 163: Crushed by a Giant Hand, Rewards as Vast as Mountains

“Evil dragon, how dare you resist!”

Jiang Xuejun’s willow-like eyebrows shot up like two flying swords, emitting a shocking, soaring fierce aura.

The two golden dragons coiled around each other, their golden light intensifying, their bodies expanding even more, and dragon scales becoming visible one by one.

Each scale was the size of a winnowing basket, and on them, ancient and mysterious characters appeared—tadpole-like scripts, ancient dragon script.

The two golden dragons each spewed a burst of dragon flame, instantly evaporating untold thousands of tons of lake water. For a moment, even the lake water before them seemed to vanish. Although each layer of the defensive water screens was made from special heavy water refined by the Red Chi Dragon, they couldn’t withstand the dragon flame even for a moment.

“Ah! You vile slave! How dare you injure this venerable one! I will utterly annihilate you, so you never transmigrate again!”

The Red Chi Dragon’s body was covered in patches of charred black burns. It had lost all its previous majestic demeanor and looked utterly disheveled. Moreover, the dragon flame couldn’t be extinguished and kept burrowing into its body, causing it to howl in pain.

“An evil dragon remains an evil dragon—stubborn and unyielding!”

Being cursed by this Red Chi Dragon, frost seemed to spread across Jiang Xuejun’s face. The dignity of being the head disciple of Miaozhen Temple had been offended by this little dragon that hadn’t even passed its First Heavenly Tribulation.

“Great Vajra Sumeru Hand!”

With a light shout, a giant vajra hand, about an acre in size, suddenly descended from the sky. Its muscles bulged, containing infinite strength.

The Red Chi Dragon was squeezed by this giant vajra hand and was brutally crushed into a blurry mass of flesh. This impressive, nearly hundred-level Elite Tier Red Chi Dragon had just lost its life.

“This is a true capture spell! My Kasyapa’s Thousand Hands and my Primordial Qi Capture Great Method are pathetically weak in comparison—they’re worlds apart!”

Ye Rong watched from the side, feeling exhilarated and unable to control himself. Such overwhelming power made him deeply envious.

The Great Vajra Sumeru Hand was a Buddhist capture Dao Spell similar to Kasyapa’s Thousand Hands. In terms of grade, it might not be much higher, but the huge gap in levels between the two individuals and the difference in the level of this capture Dao Spell were what created such a vast disparity.

Although Yan Yingmu was a top-tier figure in the Daoist tradition, she was on good terms with several Buddhist monks and nuns. It was normal for her to have learned a few Buddhist Dao Spells through exchange. That Vajra Pāramitā Ship was clearly a Buddhist vessel as well.

Jiang Xuejun used some unknown supernatural ability. With a flick of her sleeve, the Red Chi Dragon’s flesh was instantly collected and stored away.

“The Red Chi Dragon’s Inner Elixir. Take it. When you return, give my regards to the Demon Subduing True Lord.”

Ye Rong quickly took the round, still-warm Inner Elixir, which seemed to contain immense vitality.

“Thank you, Fairy Jiang. I will definitely convey your greetings to my master.”

The Red Chi Dragon’s Inner Elixir could be used for alchemy, refining Magic Treasures, and had various other uses. Consuming it directly gave a twenty-five percent chance of obtaining the Red Chi Dragon bloodline. It increased the Qi and Blood upper limit by 300 and reduced the experience required to learn all Five Elements Dao Spells by three percent. It could not be stacked with other bloodlines. Players with existing special bloodlines should be cautious about consuming it to avoid conflicts, which could have serious consequences.

These were all the attributes of the Red Chi Dragon’s Inner Elixir. Of course, it didn’t mention what severe consequences might occur if consumed by someone who already had another bloodline, but it probably wouldn’t be good.

Bloodline conflict could wash away the original bloodline and even risk Qi deviation, leading directly to the miserable outcome of dropping five Levels.

“A one in four chance of bloodline transformation isn’t that high anyway.”

Ye Rong glanced at it and tossed it into his Universe Pouch, completely unmoved.

Back when he chose his reward from the Sect Minor Competition and faced the Black Gold Spirit Pill that could turn all his bones into black gold bones, he hadn’t been tempted. Today, facing the Red Chi Dragon’s Inner Elixir, he felt the same. Even if it were a one hundred percent success rate, his answer would still be the same.

Such low-tier bloodlines or spirit bones couldn’t move him. Only high-tier bloodlines or heaven-defying spirit bones were enough to stir his heart.

Once a bloodline or spirit bone was chosen, it was irreversible and set in stone early on. If a stronger, higher-tier option appeared later, it would be too late for regrets.

“Let’s go! Back to the temple!”

He boarded the Vajra Pāramitā Ship, which whooshed and transformed into a golden light, instantly traversing the vast, misty expanse and thousands of miles of waterway.

…

Ye Rong was in a hurry to turn in the Merit Stele quest. He made an agreement with the Long-Legged Lady to return to the Taihu Lake area after some time to do quests with her. Then he immediately went to Lin’an City, bought a Dragon Riding Light Escape Talisman, and teleported back to Chengdu City.

“I owe her a huge favor this time. Even a Red Chi Dragon’s Inner Elixir is no ordinary item. I’ll have to find an opportunity to repay her with something of equal value in the future.”

Qingcheng Disciples he met on the road greeted him actively, using respectful titles like “Uncle Yijian” and “Chief.” Ye Rong felt that the treatment he received seemed even more enthusiastic than before. He wondered what changes had occurred within the Sect during the short time he was away.

In front of the Merit Stele, it was still quiet. Only the Merit Stele and the Ancestral Hall stood here, and ordinary Qingcheng Disciples usually didn’t come here without reason.

“Submit one Red Chi Dragon Inner Elixir?”

“Yes!”

Of course, Ye Rong clicked the confirm option. He couldn’t wait to see what the rewards for this Merit Stele quest would be.

He also wanted to judge whether it was worth spending great effort and energy to continue the other Merit Stele quests.

“Quest to slay the Red Chi Dragon and submit its Inner Elixir completed. Verifying Player identity… Level 41 Qingcheng Disciple… Correcting and adjusting quest rewards…”

“What… what’s happening?”

Ye Rong was stunned. He had never seen this situation before—rewards not being issued immediately after turning in a quest.

“Could it be a bug, a program error? Hmph, didn’t the Shengfeng game company boast that Far Shore wouldn’t have a single bug? If I report this error and help fix this loophole, they should at least compensate me with a Ninth-Grade Flying Sword.”

He was lost in wild fantasies, summarizing the experiences and gains from his trip to Taihu Lake.

“Quest rewards adjusted according to Player Level. Karma Points: 10,000. Sect Contribution: 500 points. Ancestral Hall cultivation time: One day. Randomly increase one cultivation method by two Levels.”

A series of quest rewards bombarded him, leaving Ye Rong dazed. It took him a while to react.

So many rewards were clearly because Ye Rong had over-fulfilled this quest by a huge margin. If a normal Player completed it at the appropriate Level, the rewards would definitely be greatly reduced and not as rich.

After all, it was absolutely impossible for a Level 41 Player to slay the Red Chi Dragon and retrieve its Inner Elixir.

Even the Long-Legged Lady had only assisted her senior sister Jiang Xuejun in killing the Red Chi Dragon. Saying ‘assist’ basically meant watching the scenery from the side and casually earning some quest rewards. Although it was much more comfortable than for ordinary Sect disciples, it still couldn’t compare to the benefits Ye Rong obtained this time.

Karma Points and Sect Contribution were one thing—they just saved him some time spent on slow accumulation. But the one day of Ancestral Hall cultivation time was different; it was exceptionally precious.

Up to now, no one had clearly figured out how to obtain Ancestral Hall cultivation time. It seemed you got this reward only for making significant contributions to the Sect.

Added to the one day previously distributed to every Tianshu Hall disciple, Ye Rong now had two days of Ancestral Hall cultivation time saved up.

“Hopefully, I can accumulate ten or so days and then enter the Ancestral Hall all at once to reap enough benefits!”

As for the final reward—randomly increasing one of his cultivation methods by two Levels—this benefit could be big or small.

“Qingcheng Sword Art, let it be the Qingcheng Sword Art! Then I could soar straight to the nineteenth Level, only one step away from perfection!”

He shouted wildly in his heart. But when he opened his personal stats panel and looked at the cultivation methods section, it hadn’t moved at all; it was still at the seventeenth Level.

“Fine, then let it be the Qingcheng Qi Refining Method. Going from the fifteenth to the seventeenth Level would also save me a period of hard training.”

He continued looking, but it still hadn’t changed. The Qingcheng Qi Refining Method remained steadfastly at the seventeenth Level.

“Come on! Are you kidding me? Did it really get assigned to the least cost-effective Immovable Wisdom King Sword Art?”

But when Ye Rong moved his gaze down to the Immovable Wisdom King Sword Art, he discovered it was still at the tenth Level, completely unchanged.

“Wait! There’s one more place!”

Suddenly, he remembered a place he had always overlooked. He flipped over to look, and sure enough, it was true—

Chongxu True Scripture, current stage: Fourth Level!

“Haha, good karma is just invincible! Compared to this, what are two Levels of the Qingcheng Sword Art?”

Ye Rong was so excited he jumped up directly. Because cultivating the Chongxu True Scripture required having the corresponding Dao Scrolls for each Level, he hadn’t considered that possibility. Unexpectedly, it actually happened.

These quest reward Levels increasing the cultivation method by two actually ignored the requirement for Dao Scrolls and skipped it directly.

Ye Rong took out the fifth volume of the Chongxu True Scripture’s Qian scroll. He gently patted it, and sure enough, he could now start cultivating the fifth Level.

“This is a huge win! The biggest drawback of these non-Sect inheritance Dao Scrolls is their lack of continuity. If you lose a Dao Scroll, it’s hard to find and complete the set again. I never expected to bypass this difficulty here and charge straight through.”

He had often searched for the few missing pages of the Chongxu True Scripture in auction houses and commercial districts, but he never found any.

Not only the specific pages he was missing, but he hadn’t even encountered the Chongxu True Scripture itself as a whole. Using it as a keyword on the Forum yielded no mentions either. It was highly possible that this particular Dao Scroll hadn’t appeared at all during the Closed Beta.

He had already commissioned Lei Laohu to help him collect any Dao Scrolls related to the Chongxu True Scripture, as well as a few other pieces of equipment he could use.

Ye Rong was now one of Lei Laohu’s main suppliers of goods. These professional merchants needed to maintain good relationships with super players. Otherwise, their shops would lack sufficiently good stock, and it would be hard to build a reputation. So, Lei Laohu would definitely put his heart into Ye Rong’s commission and do his best to keep an eye out and purchase the requested items.