Dao Equaling the Heavens
Chapter 72 - 72 64 The Initial Cry of the Dragon

72: Chapter 64 The Initial Cry of the Dragon 72: Chapter 64 The Initial Cry of the Dragon Feng Baizhou watched the sun climb slowly, until it was high noon and the royal ceremony in the palace had ended.

By now, the Crown Prince likely had left the palace with the imperial decree and ritual implements to worship at the Imperial Temple, thereby carrying on the Dragon Vein.

Gu Wen had yet to emerge, but Feng could sense that the other was still inside; hence, he was in no rush.

According to the original plan, Zhao Feng should have just finished the enthronement ceremony in the palace and be en route to the Imperial Temple.

All Gu Wen needed to do was to serve as the nourishment for the Crown Prince to refine the Taoist Soldiers after the grand ceremony ended, which was his initial purpose.

They had intended to eradicate the Gu family, to kill its last remaining son.

Although it probably wouldn’t pose too much danger to the Zhao family, out of habit they snuffed out any potential causes and effects.

Now, due to Yu Hua’s influence, they felt it was better not to provoke the other party.

Even if the Taoist Heavenly Girl might have already forgotten.

“The time has come, Marquis Wen, we should head for the Imperial Temple.”

Inside the room, Gu Wen slowly opened his eyes, a glimmer of deep red spreading out, rushing from the room to envelope Feng Baizhou, causing his pupils to shrink suddenly as the temperature of his body plummeted by several degrees.

“The nine level heavens hold the imperial sons dear, beyond the doors, the five ranks of nobles are revered.”

Gu Wen slowly stood up, a torrent of killing intent spilled out like a breach in a dam, and the sky over Bianjing darkened.

A red dragon gradually rose, its crimson scales shimmering brilliantly, coiling in the sky and looking down upon mortals on the ground.

Its tail stretched down to the earth, forming a carpet of soil that transformed into a coronet, providing footing for Gu Wen’s first step out of the room.

He slowly exhaled, and the west wind blew, causing all things to wither.

In this Daqian, imperial power was supreme, the Zhao family had fitted everyone with a dog’s collar, and loyalty and filial piety served as the chains, and they said both thunder and rain were signs of heavenly grace.

The Emperor practiced alchemy, plundering the wealth of the world, leaving countless people homeless as a sign of heavenly grace.

The Emperor built Taoist temples, demolishing Bianjing’s civilian residences, making people homeless, cursed as wild subjects, also counted as heavenly grace.

The Zhao family robbed me of my chance for immortality and plotted against my destiny, all as heavenly grace.

The Immortal Sects came one after another, all saying that the Sovereign of Dao could not be defied.

Their rules, their views, what they taught, what they decreed, Gu Wen rejected it all, declaring:

“I prefer the drunken reveler in plain clothes, unrestrained by heaven and earth.”

With his right hand, he grasped the void, and the heavy spear came to hand, a wisp of spear energy attached like wildfire, the once ugly exterior transformed into a weapon of slaughter.

The court ministers and noble descendants would today become bones beneath his feet!

Feng Baizhou broke into a cold sweat, his breathing rapid, to the point that it might stop.

He finally made a great effort to break free of the dharma form’s influence, that brief yet deadly moment, even a Third Realm powerhouse was unable to make sense of the situation.

Unable to comprehend how a mere family servant could suddenly become a fierce primordial beast, a formidable dragon crossing the river.

To the point where his first reaction in front of the other was not to respond but to run!

Feng Baizhou was merely a half step into the acquired realm, his foot moved backward but hadn’t landed yet.

Gu Wen’s figure flashed, already within six feet, the Flame Dharma form unleashed.

His gaze filled with killing intent, he marshaled all his strength and thrust the spear with the power of ten thousand catties.

Feng Baizhou could scarcely see Gu Wen’s movement, only felt his body’s most powerful lifeline shatter, boundless killing intent enveloping him, boundless silence drowning his senses.

Boom!

A loud explosion shook half of Bianjing, and three buildings of the Gu Residence collapsed in succession, the outermost high wall also toppled with a thunderous crash.

Feng Baizhou was flung a hundred meters, rolling dozens of times on the ground before he could barely stop, spitting out mouthfuls of fresh blood.

He clutched his chest where his robes had been reduced to tatters, his chest cavity a blur of blood and flesh, wisps of ‘red smoke’ emerging.

That was the killing intent he had forced out with his mana, twisted with the killing intent, hence it resembled smoke.

However, killing intent typically can only harm the divine soul, and it is extremely difficult to directly injure someone.

Just as with mana and spiritual energy, if one does not use Daoist skills to condense it, simply tossing out more spiritual energy is like a gust of wind.

Killing intent is just more lethal, but its essence hasn’t changed much.

Normally, practitioners of the Demon Path would mix killing intent with their cultivation technique, thereby utilizing killing intent in the same way they use spiritual energy.

Gu Wen’s killing intent was different; it was forthright and honest, without any mix of foreign substances, purely killing intent.

He didn’t need to accumulate it through killing, didn’t need to enhance it with secret techniques, nor did he need to refine it with demon skills.

A single breath of his heart’s energy was enough to match the slaughter of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

“You…

you are the peerless warrior from the Dragon Bridge that day…”

Feng Baizhou finally remembered, his eyes filled with disbelief.

“Impossible, when did you possess the foundation of the Dao, and moreover, you’re even stronger than you were on the Dragon Bridge…

This can’t be possible!”

Not only is it impossible for a mere servant to possess such strength, but Gu Wen was not even his match that day.

How many days had passed, and he was already struggling to take even one move from his opponent.

Gu Wen’s body slightly arched, and with the Third Level of the Moonset Step, he leaped nine meters forward, unlike the ten meters in a single breath, it was now a step of ten meters.

The air tore with a crack, and the blue stone slabs of Bianjing’s main road shattered, a storm of killing intent enveloped by lance might swept forward like a tsunami in an instant.

Feng Baizhou was no mediocrity, having lived over a thousand years of bizarre battles with extensive experience, although unable to understand Gu Wen’s extraordinary realm increase, his bodily reaction wasn’t sluggish, as he summoned a White Lotus.

Mana surged, the treasure lotus opened its blossoms wide, and the lance might hit it with a deafening impact.

With one attack endured, he immediately began preparing a counterattack; silver needles flew out from Feng Baizhou’s sleeve, one was a magic artifact, a hundred were a spiritual treasure.

Gu Wen did not consider retreating.

With a step, he thrust out another mighty and heavy spear blow, the White Lotus spiritual treasure cracked slightly, and Feng Baizhou was plowed back a meter, the stone slabs beneath his feet uplifted.

His only hope rested on the silver needles; if he chose to attack, he would inevitably sustain an injury.

To engage in a clash without first probing and understanding the opponent and immediately exchange injury for injury, clearly, he was either not a veteran fighter or even a new generation’s chosen one, too juvenile.

Could it be, he really was…

In one-tenth of a breath, another spear thrust fell, ten spears punctured forth in a single breath, and the lotus blossoms further shattered.

The silver needles seemed to fly for half an eternity before finally striking Gu Wen’s body.

Clang!

The silver needles were deflected, a shadowy figure enshrouded Gu Wen with a mysterious black color; the Xuanwu Spirit Form activated the Spiritual Jade Body Protection Skill, his body became like iron, transformed into a copper bell.

This was the marvelous use of the Spirit Form, with an enhancement corresponding to Daoist skill.

Similar to the distinction between magic artifacts and spiritual treasures, the power is related to the material quality of the object itself; having a spiritual treasure enables a cultivator to use it more intuitively and with less division of concentration to control.

The Spirit Form is the ‘spirit’ of Daoist skills, allowing a cultivator to possess a completely autonomous Daoist skill, generally having its most suitable system.

Feng Baizhou’s pupils shrank, he exclaimed in a lost voice, “A Holy Spirit Form?

You’re not Gu Wen!

You’re just from a distant branch of the Gu family; it’s impossible you could have had access to cultivation methods!”

All things compared must have their highs and lows, among countless skills, the Five Elements are the foundation and the source of all skills; among them, the most supreme is the Sanqing Taoist Sect’s Five Holy Spirits.

How could Gu Wen have the method to refine the Five Holy Spirits, and how could he have done it?

Initially, not one of their main branch had been left precisely because they feared someone with the aptitude for cultivation would secretly hide their progress.

It must be known that those who could refine the Dao foundation were all naturally made, and if they did not actively use mana, they would rarely be exposed.

In the Immortal Land, everyone is a chosen one, whether currently or in the past, but there was never a waste.

So, Gu Wen was the mortal chosen, at least until the night five years ago, he was but an ordinary person.

And today, he had already surpassed himself?!