Quinn Shepherd inspected the Heavenly King idol's Azure Dragon Crescent Blade; the blade was real, not made of stone.
When they first arrived at the Temple of the Sea-Guarding King, Quinn had already examined everything in detail. He distinctly remembered that the Heavenly King idol held no blade—certainly not a massive Azure Dragon Crescent Blade like this.
Even more astonishing, there were traces of blood on the blade.
Quinn was about to reach out and touch it, to see if it was real blood, when Grandpa Blind's bamboo staff slid over, lifting his wrist aside. Grandpa Blind grinned, "Quinn, don't be so curious. You could get yourself killed."
Quinn shuddered, suddenly recalling when Village Chief led him through the darkness—a single drop of demon blood had withered every flower, tree, and blade of grass for hundreds of meters.
If the blood on the Azure Dragon Crescent Blade was real, then last night's bizarre events must have truly happened. In other words, the Heavenly King idol had really gone out to behead the Eastern Sea Dragon King, and this drop of blood was the Dragon King's.
"A spirit blade isn't something to mess with lightly," Grandpa Blind said quietly, seeming to read Quinn's mind.
Quinn laughed, "I'm not Grandpa Lame—I won't go around causing trouble and try to haul the Heavenly King's blade home. I just want to collect the Dragon King's blood from the blade. It's Dragon King blood from a true divine dragon; maybe I can use it to refine medicine."
Grandpa Blind praised, "Quinn, you're always resourceful and thrifty."
Quinn took out a jade vial and carefully collected the drop of Dragon King blood from the Azure Dragon Crescent Blade, sealing the bottle tightly.
In the courtyard of the Temple of the Sea-Guarding King, a gigantic stone dragon head had smashed a deep pit into the ground, its surface still streaked with fresh blood.
Quinn took out a box, then used yuanqi threads as sword energy, carefully controlling them to scrape the blood into the box.
He approached the dragon head's neck; the severed surface was perfectly clean, as if sliced by an impossibly sharp blade. Just from this cut, he could imagine how domineering, swift, and keen that strike must have been!
Though the dragon head was just a statue, the wound's smooth cut still radiated overwhelming blade-intent—a realm of saber mastery.
If I sat here and studied the dragon head's severed surface, I could probably comprehend a saber art as domineering as Grandpa Butcher's pig-slaughtering blade. Too bad there's no time—we have to move on.
Quinn felt a pang of regret—if he could grasp the saber art hidden within, the blade-intent and saber realm would contain a god-level profundity. The aura alone could frighten a crowd to death.
Grandpa Mark urged, "Quinn, let's go!"
Quinn hurried after him, calling for the Dragon-Qilin. He tried to mount, but after being ridden all night by the Heavenly King idol and fighting battles, the Dragon-Qilin felt sore and exhausted. As soon as Quinn climbed on, the beast howled like a slaughtered pig.
Quinn quickly jumped off. The Dragon-Qilin complained, "I must be cursed. Last night a statue rode me all night! Grandpa Blind, you're good at fortune-telling—can you exorcise me?"
Grandpa Blind shook his head, "That's not really my specialty. I only do fortune-telling and exorcisms once in a while. I can't help with this curse—just rest for a night and you'll be fine."
The Dragon-Qilin was skeptical, but decided to trust him.
They traveled north for thousands of li, and the terrain suddenly sank lower. The further north they went, the lower it got. Quinn looked back and saw they had descended from several mountain ranges, surprised.
Granny Sue said, "This looks like a basin—mountains all around, and a plain above. We've come down from the plain into the basin. It's pretty big."
They looked around and saw towering mountains, dense forests, and ravines cutting through the basin—very different from the rest of the Great Ruins.
The basin was vast. Sometimes, as Quinn and the others walked along the foothills, they spotted red coral branches—gorgeous as rubies.
Granny Sue picked a coral branch to make a hairpin. Suddenly, a strange beast leapt out of a mountain hollow—it looked like a giant lobster, over ten feet long, with seven or eight legs, waving its claws at them.
"Lunch is settled!" Grandpa Blind exclaimed, delighted.
By noon, Quinn roasted the beast until its aroma filled the air. The golden, oily roe made everyone's mouth water. Grandpa Mark had long abandoned his vegetarian vows and ate contentedly, leaving only a pile of shells.
Quinn wondered aloud, "How can there be such strange beasts here? There's no water around."
Just as he spoke, distant mooing echoed through the hills. The forest shook as several fish beasts, drawn by the scent, emerged—each with a fish's body, six sturdy legs, and voices as loud as cattle.
Quinn watched as the fish beasts sped toward them, their legs like transformed fins, covered in huge, mirror-like scales that reflected sunlight in every direction.
"Now that we're full, let's not kill anything else needlessly." Grandpa Mark released his aura, scaring the fish beasts away.
His imposing presence frightened off the fish beasts—and even startled the 'birds' in the forest. Quinn looked up to see a flock of winged fish fleeing through the sky.
He opened his Azure Firmament Heaven-Eye and saw distant black shadows shifting atop the hills—giant octopi with huge heads retreating into their lairs, not daring to provoke them.
One of the octopi was startled and spat out a cloud of black ink, blanketing over a hundred mu in darkness.
They continued on, passing several fish-people—fish-headed, human-bodied hunters wielding steel forks.
"The Great Ruins is a bizarre place," Grandpa Blind muttered.
Quinn had grown up here, always seeing these strange creatures. He'd assumed fish and shrimp were supposed to run wild all over the land, so he was only briefly surprised and didn't think much of it.
But Grandpa Blind, Granny Sue, and the others hadn't always lived here. They knew what fish and shrimp were like in the outside world, so they found it strange.
Granny Sue looked around and murmured, "This must've once been a great sea. Fate is strange—when the sea vanished, the creatures had to come ashore and change their habits. But this kind of transformation... it's almost too much."
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Grandpa Blind also found it bizarre. Suddenly, the Dragon-Qilin exclaimed, "I feel like I've been here before..."
Quinn was puzzled and laughed, "You and the Patriarch have been here before?"
The Dragon-Qilin shook his head. "No. I mean, last night a god rode me here."
They passed a village; the people were Great Ruins survivors, all looking lost and helpless.
Quinn stepped forward to ask around. An old man said, "Yesterday something strange happened. Dragon King temples for hundreds of li around were destroyed, and so many dragon idols had their heads chopped off! We used to pray at the Dragon King temples for good weather, but now, with so many destroyed, everyone feels uneasy..."
Quinn was shocked and asked for details. The old man replied, "Last night there was a huge storm. Everyone in the village was woken up, and outside was pitch black. Over many houses, water hung in the air, floating above the roofs without falling."
Quinn was stunned. Water floating above rooftops?
"The waves were loud and noisy, with light shining through the water. Lots of people even saw dragons!"
The old man continued, "It was like a sea suspended in the sky. Shouts and killing echoed down from above, and I saw lightning crackling in the water. Only at the fourth watch did it stop. At dawn, the water was gone, but the trees looked like they'd been rained on all night, their crowns dripping. Then we found out so many Dragon King and dragon god temples had been destroyed. Some temple caretakers said they saw the stone dragon idols fly away."
Quinn's eyes widened. The stone dragon idols flew away?
"They say a monk living in Divine Dragon Gorge saw, in the middle of the night, a god king carrying a blade riding a fat, strange beast burst in, chop off the Divine Dragon King's head with one stroke, and leave carrying the head..."
After gathering all the news, Quinn returned to tell Grandpa Blind, Granny Sue, and Grandpa Mark. The three looked at each other in shock.
This was all too bizarre.
Last night's events felt both real and unreal—idols delivering decrees in the dark, the Heavenly King idol wielding a blade to slay dragons, the Dragon-Qilin being ridden like a horse all night. Now, the Great Ruins survivors claimed the sky had turned into a suspended sea, and dragon gods had all been decapitated.
Piecing all this together, it was clear last night's events were real.
"Last night, that idol said the decree came from His Majesty in Carefree Haven. That's a big problem."
From Granny Sue's mouth came an old woman's voice: "I think..."
"Amitabha!"
Grandpa Mark transformed into a great Buddha, suppressing Granny Sue's heart-devil. Meanwhile, Grandpa Blind moved to immobilize her. Both elders were tense, but together they managed to pin down Granny Sue's demonic side.
Quinn wiped cold sweat from his brow and urged, "Let's go, let's go—if we don't reach Great Thunderclap Temple soon, Cult Master Tyson Li might pop out and cause trouble again!"
They hurried onward, and soon reached Divine Dragon Gorge, where countless dragon statues encircled a vast lake. At the center stood a colossal Divine Dragon King idol.
Many dragon statues around the lake had toppled, each decapitated by a single clean stroke, their heads scattered on the ground. Even the central Divine Dragon King statue had lost its head, which had vanished entirely.
"Heavens..."
Granny Sue slowly regained consciousness, saw the carnage, and groaned, "The Great Ruins is so mysterious... Are these stone idols just statues, or incarnations of living gods? I truly don't understand..."
"Amitabha!"
Grandpa Mark radiated Buddha light, and from his brow a white-robed monk manifestation flew out, darting into Granny Sue's forehead to sit and guard her heart. He said gravely, "We can't afford any more delay. I'm barely holding him down! Tyson Li's primordial spirit is merging with Granny Sue's fast, and her cultivation has already broken through to the Life-and-Death Realm! Any more delay, and Tyson Li will fully seize her body and become its master!"
Grandpa Blind asked in a low voice, "How long can you hold him down?"
Grandpa Mark shook his head. "I can still suppress him for now, but if I use too much force, I might hurt Granny Sue's soul."
Grandpa Blind said decisively, "We need to hurry!"