Chapter 99: The Awakening of the Heavenly Scripture

“As expected of a grandmaster art—its power is truly terrifying.”
Qingxi was startled as well.
In his rush toward the city wall, he had bitten down hard and spent three thousand five hundred strands of Five-Element Essence to fully master the grandmaster art *Ninefold Sword Wave*.
He had only meant to gain one powerful technique, yet he had to use it at once.

With a ninefold increase in true energy, even at only a mid-Primordial level, the power he unleashed was something even the Primordial Perfected could not have matched.
If the Burning Demon had used a Black-Iron-level art, this would not have ended so badly.
He had simply assumed that because Qingxi was only mid-Primordial, even his ordinary martial arts could crush him effortlessly.
He had not expected this result.

“Grandmaster art, then… are you heir to a king-tier master?”
Though split in two, the Burning Demon still had a strong pulse of life and was hanging by a thread.
In his hometown of Kunxu, anyone wielding such a formidable art would be the heir of a king-tier warrior.

“No. I am the heir of the Dragon!”
Qingxi raised his hand, and before the demon’s confused eyes a long, blue-gold book with hollow filigree appeared out of thin air.

“Dragon’s heir?”
“And what is he doing with that book?”
“To exorcise me?”
Those thoughts flashed through the demon, and then he was shocked to see Qingxi swing the ancient volume and strike downward.

“Crash!”
The demon shattered on impact, and the flames clinging to him were extinguished at once.
He never imagined he would not die by a sharp sword or a ruthless blade, but by a mere book.
If he could live it again, he would have chosen a far more dignified death.

Opening the No-Word Heavenly Book, Qingxi saw no scratches on its surface, and he brightened:
“Who would’ve thought this ruined book was so hard?”
Little Assist pointed out, “Although your innate martial soul is useless in most situations, it is still extraordinarily hard.”

Before he could finish, a scarlet light burst from the demon, circled in the air once, and sank into the No-Word Heavenly Book.
Qingxi froze.
Little Assist fell silent.

On the formerly blank first page, a flame totem had appeared.

“What happened?”
Not receiving any feedback from the book, Qingxi immediately activated the system’s read function and got a surprisingly pleasant notification.

[Type: Innate Martial Soul]
[Name: No-Word Heavenly Book (Awakened)]
[Note: It’s like one thing only—you can’t beat its hardness. At this tier, no one can pierce it, including the owner of the martial soul. Already awakened: whenever the host kills a creature with the Heavenly Book, that creature’s primary arts are recorded in it for the host to use.]

“Ah! Astonishing, system!”
Little Assist exclaimed in admiration. “No one expected the master’s innate martial soul to be this strong!”
Qingxi rolled his eyes. “Who just said my innate martial soul had no use?”
“Who called this a ruined book just now?” Little Assist shot back without backing down.

Qingxi twitched his lip, thinking to himself that Little Assist had become shameless; at this rate, the assistant would outgrow him.

After a moment, he folded the shattered remains of the Burning Demon into system storage and kept siphoning its elemental essence and blood energy.
“Ting,” Little Assist announced promptly, “one low-grade spatial seal obtained!”

After doing that, Qingxi turned and looked at the dozen or so figures arriving.
Li Kanti, Du Liang, Du Kang, Lin Feng, Dragonhorse, Little Vajra Ape, and several practitioners of the Primordial Realm all wore grave expressions.

“Shidi, where is the Burning Demon?”
When Li Kanti saw Qingxi unharmed, he sighed in relief.
Though Qingxi had shown mid-Primordial power—an arrow for each Primordial demonic foe—Li Kanti believed he alone should not have been able to kill a Primordial Perfected demon.

“He ran faster than Dragonhorse. When I arrived, there was no trace of them at all, so I stood here for a while wondering if I should even bother with life,” Qingxi said with a long sigh, his face full of mock regret.
The grandmaster art could not be revealed yet, so he had to lie.

Dragonhorse stared at him, bewildered. “How can a Primordial Perfected speed outpace me? Even in the Linggang Realm I’m no slouch; they aren’t faster than I am.”
Li Kanti did not doubt him. He patted Qingxi’s shoulder, respect in his eyes.
“Shidi, you did more than enough. From the city tower, it was my poor sight, my mistake. Please forgive me.”

The city lord, Du Liang, was equally moved. He bowed in thanks.
“Qingxi, true disciple of the Lingyuan Sect, you have indeed proved your brilliance. Without you, Wufu City might not have held. On behalf of five hundred thousand citizens, thank you!”

“As cultivators, it is our duty to protect our home. It is only natural.”
Qingxi blinked, then changed the subject.
“By the way, what of the demons you cut down?”

“They’re still there.”
Li Kanti pointed toward the wall.

“Shidi, if not for you, we certainly could not have held. So all the merits of this battle belong to you.”
“With my gratitude.”
Qingxi accepted at once, making Li Kanti’s lips tighten.

It had been a mere courtesy, and yet Qingxi truly took it all.

How infuriating.
Li Kanti’s jaw trembled, but thinking of Qingxi’s strength, he gave up any thoughts of today’s reward points.
Though he and Du Liang had each slain a demon, against Qingxi it meant very little.

After putting every demon into system storage, Qingxi happily returned to the city lord’s mansion.
As for the first demons that had slipped away, at the moment the Burning Demon was cut down they had vanished into the deep woods at impossible speed, all trace gone.
Qingxi planned to rest first and then pursue.

He locked himself in his room, simultaneously converting the outer-heaven demons’ essence and blood energy while opening the No-Word Book.
He flipped to the first page and saw the flame totem waiting there.
He poured some true energy into it; the totem shot forth a tongue of fire and reduced the wooden chairs and desk before him to ash.
He quickly brought down *Hanlight Sword* to unleash freezing breath and extinguish it.
Little Assist teased, “Everyone says don’t play with fire indoors. Now you know that.”

“Did you just say that?”
“You did just say it a moment ago.”
“Too late to lecture, then.”

Qingxi snorted and shut the book, privately noting that the Burning Demon’s fire was formidable indeed; taken by surprise, even a Primordial adept could be burned alive.
Then his gaze settled on the three-thousand-page No-Word Book, and his smile sharpened.
“If I could fill the whole thing and release three thousand arts at once, wouldn’t I be unbeatable?”
Little Assist replied, “Wake up. Do you even have that much true energy?”
Qingxi ignored it, tucked the No-Word Book away, and left the room.

He knew he could not stay in Wufu City.
Rather than wait for outer-heaven demons to strike again, he would take the initiative.
That way he could gather more Five-Element Essence.
And, of course, more points on the Demon-Suppression List.
At the thought that reaching the top ten on the secondary board would grant access to the archives of the three major second-tier powers, his heart raced.
With the system’s scanning, reading, and copying functions, he was certain he could strip away those three powers’ accumulated resources in no time.