Druid Fairy

Chapter 207 Fruit
Li Mengjin's sword was icy cold and sharp, carrying a resolute momentum that seemed to sweep away all obstacles, aiming straight for the emperor's throat. Victory seemed to be within his grasp.

Instead of fear, the emperor's face showed extreme contempt and tyranny.

"You traitorous scoundrel, how dare you commit regicide?!"

With a furious roar, the emperor's twelve-chapter robe fluttered without wind, and a solid imperial dragon aura, as solid as molten gold, soared into the sky, forming a visible golden dragon-shaped shield in front of him!

"clang!"

Li Mengjin's sword, sharp enough to cleave mountains, struck the dragon-shaped shield, producing a deafening clang of metal against metal, and could not advance an inch further!
A powerful and vast force of recoil traveled along the sword, and Li Mengjin felt his blood surging, and was actually forced back three steps.

"What?" Li Mengjin's pupils shrank sharply. He had never imagined that this reclusive and scheming emperor would possess such unfathomable cultivation!
Before he could launch another attack, eight ghostly figures blending into the night quietly appeared on either side of the emperor's figure on the altar.

They were dressed in black, tight-fitting clothes without any markings, and held strangely shaped curved swords. The aura emanating from them was cold and deadly. Each of them was a top expert comparable to the Great Perfection of Qi Refining!
"Dragon Shadow Guard!" the Duke of Zhenguo exclaimed in alarm. "Protect Vice Commander Li!"

These eight Dragon Shadow Guards were the emperor's most private and loyal shadow troops. Each of them was trained from childhood to become a death warrior, and their combat power far exceeded that of ordinary imperial guards.

As soon as they appeared, they formed a battle formation, their blades flashing like a net, instantly entangled Li Mengjin and Li Yuanhu and the others who had just rushed up.

In an instant, the top of the altar was filled with the glint of swords and the palpable killing intent.

The emperor didn't even glance at the battle behind him.

He took a step forward, holding the Imperial Seal, a symbol of imperial power, his face filled with a madness that seemed to want to control everything.

"A bunch of idiots."

He laughed wildly, raising the imperial seal high, "The fate of the Great Yu Dynasty, the faith of all the people under heaven, are all my power! Today, I will not only not be devoured by the vengeful dragon, but I will also use it as a furnace, and the fate of the nation as the true fire, to refine the dragon's soul, transcend the mortal world, and achieve an unprecedented hegemony!"

He wasn't trying to sacrifice himself, but rather to turn the tables and completely take control of this evil dragon from the Nine Netherworlds!
"By imperial decree! All dragons unite as one, guided by their divine souls!"

The emperor bit his tongue, spitting a mouthful of golden blood onto the jade seal. The jade seal shone brightly, no longer radiating the gentle imperial dragon aura of before, but transforming into a dark golden beam of light filled with aggression and a devouring desire, which slammed into the illusory dragon figure in mid-air that was locked in a stalemate with the Li family!

"Ow!!!"

The vengeful dragon let out a roar that was both painful and exhilarating.

Its body, composed of pure resentment, was not integrated with this energy containing the emperor's divine will and the nation's destiny. Instead, it was as if it had been injected with the most violent catalyst!

Its size increased dramatically again, and dark golden bone spikes and armor began to grow on its jet-black dragon body.

Golden divine flames burned fiercely in the eye sockets of the nine heads, revealing no longer chaotic greed, but the emperor's own cold and wise gaze!

A bizarre symbiotic relationship formed between it and the emperor! The emperor became the brain of this vengeful demon, while the demon became the emperor's most powerful weapon!
"This is true power!"

The emperor's voice overlapped with the dragon's roar, creating a terrifying, soul-shaking sound. With a thought, the newly born "Emperor Dragon" launched a world-destroying attack.

Its head was flung into the sky, and a thick, dark golden dragon breath, like a doomsday punishment, blasted directly at Li Pingcan's dissipating projection!
The other head turned towards Li Mengyue, and the mental impact formed by the mixture of resentment and imperial dragon energy transformed into an invisible blade that pierced straight into her sea of ​​consciousness!

The remaining seven heads simultaneously opened their massive mouths, spewing out an overwhelming torrent of resentful black flames that covered the entire top of the altar, indiscriminately attacking Li Mengjin, Li Yuanhu, and the others who were fighting a fierce battle with the Dragon Shadow Guards!

In an instant, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse!

Li Pingcan's projection was ultimately just a projection of power. After taking the dragon's breath head-on, he let out a sigh and dissipated into countless points of light.

The illusory image of the osmanthus tree behind Li Mengyue shattered inch by inch, and her face turned as pale as paper. If it weren't for the "Phoenix Tears" jade pendant given to her by the Empress Dowager shattering at the last moment and blocking the fatal blow for her, her soul would probably have collapsed on the spot.

Li Mengjin, Li Yuanhu, and others faced even greater dangers.

The Dragon Shadow Guards' battle formation was already strange and difficult to deal with, and with the addition of this all-pervasive resentful black flame, they could only struggle to hold on, and several deep wounds that exposed bone appeared on their bodies in an instant.

"It's over!" The emperor's voice echoed above the altar.

Just when everyone was feeling hopeless, a lazy voice, tinged with helplessness, suddenly rang out between heaven and earth.

"Sigh...you really are causing me trouble. You've almost torn down this altar for worshipping Heaven."

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw a figure appear in the sky at some unknown time.

The man was dressed in a simple blue Taoist robe, holding a whisk in his hand, and riding a white crane with an air of otherworldly elegance.

He looked to be no more than thirty or forty years old, with a handsome face, but his eyes seemed to contain the entire starry sky, ancient and profound.

It was none other than Li Mengyue's master, the Grand Preceptor of the Great Yu Dynasty, Qingxu!
Qingxu sighed inwardly, his thoughts seemingly traversing hundreds of years.

He still remembers that the founding emperor ascended the throne amidst a pool of blood. In order to suppress the villains from all sides and stabilize this precarious country, he ultimately chose to embark on this forbidden path of drinking poison to quench his thirst.

At that time, Emperor Taizu knelt before him, pleading with this recluse to guard this secret that could allow the dynasty to continue, yet was also a heinous crime.

Looking at the devastated land and the displaced people, he finally agreed.

For hundreds of years, while keeping his promise to cover up the existence of the vengeful dragon for the royal family, he was constantly searching for a foolproof way to completely sever this ill-fated relationship.

He observed generations of emperors, watching as their hearts were slowly eroded by the vengeful dragon under the temptation of immortality and power, yet they always maintained their last line of defense.

However, no one expected that this emperor would be so ruthless and insane in this generation!
Not content with merely surviving, he even attempted to turn the tables, merging with the evil dragon to become a demon and treating the entire world as his personal pasture! This had completely crossed the line that Qingxu could tolerate.

"Imperial Preceptor?" The emperor's pupils contracted, then he said sternly, "Qingxu! Are you also going to betray me? Don't forget, who gave you the position of Imperial Preceptor!"

"Your Majesty's words are wrong."

Qingxu flicked his whisk, and the white crane slowly descended, hovering above the altar. "This humble Taoist is the National Preceptor, appointed by the people of the Great Yu Dynasty through their offerings, not by Your Majesty's personal favor. My duty is to uphold the nation's destiny, not to aid and abet evil."

He gazed at the Emperor's Wrathful Demon Dragon below, a hint of pity and resolve in his eyes. "The Emperor's entrustment was to 'protect the nation's destiny,' not to 'become a demon king.' Your Majesty, you have truly fallen short as emperor, already succumbing to demonic ways and unworthy to be a ruler."

"You're courting death!" The emperor was furious. He controlled the Emperor's Wrathful Dragon, splitting off one of its heads and spewing out a devastating dragon breath that shot straight towards Qingxu.

Faced with this terrifying attack, Qingxu simply smiled faintly. He stretched out his other hand, palm up, and an ancient scroll, seemingly woven from starlight, slowly emerged.

"All the stars in the heavens, heed my command!"

He tossed the scroll into the air, and it opened by itself without wind. In an instant, a vast star map covering the entire sky above the capital city was suddenly unfurled!

Qingxu's mind raced: "I have searched for hundreds of years, but I have never been able to find a way to sever the contract without causing the nation's fate to collapse instantly. I never expected that this junior of the Li family would possess such a pure and powerful life Dao technique. By confronting the vengeful dragon head-on, he has created this unique opportunity! They have forced the root of the contract out of nothingness. This is the 'glimmer of hope' that I have been waiting for!"

Countless stars twinkled on the map, moving along mysterious trajectories, and a supreme law power originating from the primordial universe, representing the order of heaven and earth, descended with a thunderous roar!

The violent dragon breath, upon entering the range of the star map, vanished as quickly as it had entered the sea, easily dissipated and dissolved by the circulating stellar power, without even causing a ripple.

"What kind of magical artifact is this?!" For the first time, fear pierced the emperor's voice.

"This is not an external thing, but the order of Heaven." Qingxu's voice became solemn and dignified. "Your Majesty, you have offered the fate of the nation as a sacrifice. Then this humble Taoist priest will today ask the stars of the heavens to set your tainted national fate right!"

He pointed his fingers like a sword and gently touched the center of the star map!
"Use Tian Shu as the guide, Yao Guang as the blade, slash!"

On the star map, the Big Dipper suddenly shone brightly! Seven brilliant starlight converged into a seven-star divine sword that stretched across the sky. Instead of slashing at the demonic dragon's body, it carried the supreme divine power of severing cause and effect and reshaping the laws, and slashed fiercely at the invisible connection of destiny between the Emperor's Vengeful Demonic Dragon and the Great Yu Dynasty!
"Crack!"

A sound, seemingly emanating from the depths of the soul and signifying the shattering of some ancient covenant, suddenly resounded!
"Do not!!!"

The emperor and the Demonic Dragon of Imperial Vengeance simultaneously let out heart-wrenching screams. The bloody pact that had bound the royal family for hundreds of years had been severed at its very root by Qingxu using the power of the Zhou Tian stars!
Deprived of the nation's resources, the aura of the Emperor's Vengeful Dragon declined wildly like a flood that had been released, and its body began to become illusory and unstable.

The emperor himself suffered an unprecedented and terrifying backlash. His imperial dragon aura dissipated instantly, and his painstakingly cultivated cultivation shattered like a mirage. He aged at a visible speed, transforming in an instant from a majestic middle-aged emperor into a dying old man on the verge of death!
"puff!"

He spat out a mouthful of black blood, fell from mid-air, and crashed heavily onto the altar.

The contract was broken, the demonic dragon was severely injured, and the emperor was deposed!

Qingxu single-handedly reversed the entire battle in an instant!

The crisis is not over yet.

In its final frenzy, the severely wounded Emperor's Wrath Dragon slammed its nine heads together and exploded!
But it did not dissipate. The overwhelming primal resentment, mixed with the emperor's last remaining vicious curse, transformed into a pitch-black "rain of resentment," covering the entire altar and beginning to spread down to the capital city below!

This resentful rain is extremely polluting; ordinary people who come into contact with it will go mad, while cultivators will be plagued by inner demons!

This is its final revenge on the world!

"Huh, stubborn."

Qingxu snorted coldly, about to activate the star map again to purify the rain of resentment that filled the sky.

Just then, Li Mengze, who had just begun to solidify the initial form of his "Taoist temple" with his father's help, suddenly opened his eyes.

"Imperial Advisor, leave this to me!"

With one step, the power of the newly born "Hundred Herbs Dojo" was released without reservation.

Centered on him, the phantom of an ancient tree of life, reaching to the heavens and the earth, reappeared. This time, the tree's branches and leaves were no longer simply used for attacks, but transformed into a gigantic, emerald-green vortex!
"All things flourish and all rivers flow into the sea!"

The rain of resentment falling from the sky was completely drawn in by this life force, like rivers flowing into the sea, and was continuously sucked into the vortex of the ancient tree of life!
Li Mengze actually intended to use his own dojo to devour and purify all the resentment and curse that was enough to pollute the entire capital!
This is a high-stakes gamble. If he succeeds, his Daoist temple will be fully established and his cultivation will skyrocket; if he fails, he will be overwhelmed by resentment and suffer eternal damnation!
Qingxu watched this scene with a hint of approval in his eyes. He put away the star map and quietly protected him.

He thought to himself, "Cause and effect are inextricably linked. The old sins have been eradicated, but new calamities arise. I have severed the contract, but I cannot erase the resentment of this century. This mess must ultimately be cleaned up by the people of the new era. This child is indeed a responsible one."

Above the sky, the resentful rain gradually thinned, eventually being swallowed up by the ancient tree of life. Emerald green light and pitch-black resentment clashed fiercely within the ancient tree, producing muffled thunderous sounds.

The countless dark resentments transformed into ferocious venomous snakes and evil spirits, frantically corrupting every inch of the verdant branches and leaves.

Li Mengze did not choose to suppress the rebellion by force.

The core of the Druid tradition is not only life, but also "balance" and "transformation." He endured the excruciating pain of his soul being torn apart, opened the entire shrine, and allowed the torrent of resentment to wash over him.

The ancient tree of life embraces and envelops these unclaimed resentments with an almost compassionate attitude.

On the verdant branches and leaves, faint silver patterns slowly emerged. These were the imprints of the Taiyin purification power left by his younger sister, Li Mengyue, and they were now resonating perfectly with his life field.

The muffled thunder within the tree gradually subsided, replaced by a harmonious rhythm of growth and purification of all things.

Finally, at the very top of that ancient tree, after an extreme collision and fusion of countless resentments and boundless vitality, a fruit slowly condensed, its entire body as black as ink, yet with mysterious Dao patterns flowing across its surface, emitting a strange fragrance of life!
(End of this chapter)