Ji Yuan, currently in Juntian Prefecture, stayed up the entire night in his inner world to carefully guard the white chess piece that belonged to Yin Zhaoxian. Once the chess piece absorbed a little of the red Qi covering its surface, Ji Yuan would immediately replenish it.

He was so careful because the heat on the white piece had not subsided.

In fact, Ji Yuan knew that it would not be very useful for him to just sit there and watch, and that the chess piece would be able to go to the alchemy furnace on its own to absorb the overflowing red Qi.

But after all, it was his best and only friend in his life who had just suffered an accident, so he wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway. Fortunately, as he waited, he also worked hard to refine the energy of the five elements and the spiritual energy in his Dantian.

Although the old flood dragon whom he had met that year was nominally Ji Yuan’s friend, their relationship was not that deep, as they had only chatted once.

The white piece’s heat did not subside until dawn, when the warmth finally stopped coming back, and Ji Yuan heaved a sigh of relief.

Ji Yuan, who had been sitting cross-legged all this time, exited his inner world and lay back on the bed.

Then, he thought back to the most anxiety-inducing situation of the night, and laughed at himself.

“This True Fire of Samadhi… is really fierce…”

Ji Yuan’s face grew serious after he had made fun of himself.

“Master Yin, Master Yin, what on earth did you get into…”

In the moment when the True Fire of Samadhi collided with Madam Hong, Ji Yuan could also feel the demonic energy ad could even vaguely hear a resentful scream.

The other party obviously hated Yin Zhaoxian. Even though it later attracted the City God of Chunhui Prefecture, Ji Yuan could not be certain that the City God had captured the demon.

‘What if he failed to capture it? ’

Ji Yuan narrowed his eyes. As the saying went, distant water wouldn’t quench immediate thirst.¹ He and Master Yin were separated by an entire province, which was a distance of over than two thousand li in a straight line, not to mention the mountains, rivers, and various complex terrains in between. In addition, Ji Yuan might be a little directionally challenged,²

so it would be difficult for him to get there in a short period of time.

This True Fire of Samadhi technique could only be used once, and never a second time. Otherwise, Master Yin may very well be refined to death by the true fire in the furnace even before the demon died. And the next time, the demon would definitely be on guard.

However, that demon was quite powerful, and even if Ji Yuan were there in person, he would not dare to confront it. It had only been seriously injured by the True Fire of Samadhi when it had been caught off guard.

Although it had only been swept away by the flame and was not actually burned, that flame was no ordinary fire, but was the flame of the infinite True Fire of his alchemy furnace. Being burned by it would definitely not be pleasant.

Ji Yuan kept thinking of countermeasures. He wanted to ensure that his best friend would be safe. It would be best if he could execute the demon. After all, Master Yin was not only an important piece for the sake of humanity, but also Ji Yuan’s best friend.

‘Execute?’³

Ji Yuan’s own thoughts suddenly made him realize something, and he turned his gaze to his bedside.

Now that he was traveling, the Green Vine Immortal Sword had been floating behind him, hidden.

Because the immortal sword had already formed a sword spirit, the sword was able to conceal its own body. Nor only could ordinary people not see it, but even immortals and demons who had not reached a sufficient level of cultivation would not be able to sense it. It was like the books in Heavenly Script.

In a sense, Heavenly Script could be regarded as a kind of text that imitated the formation of a spirit, so the immortal sword, which itself grew a spirit, would naturally find it easier to perform similar actions, and would be more active in performing them. Apart from its master, few people could see it. This, along with the ability of flight, could be regarded as one of the magical abilities granted to the Green Vine Sword after it had formed a sword spirit.

Seeing Ji Yuan looking at him, the Green Vine Sword beside the bed floated up and flew to Ji Yuan’s side.

‘Although I may not be strong enough to face that kind of demon out of the blue, I have the Green Vine Sword! If I prepare for it well, I may have a chance!’

With this thought, Ji Yuan sat up again and drew the Green Vine Sword out of its scabbard, without releasing any of its sword light.

“It’s up to you this time!”

Hum…

Although it didn’t quite understand what its master meant, the Green Vine Sword still responded.

Ji Yuan took a deep breath, and captured the sound of the word “Edict” in his mouth. The mysterious yellow energy in his inner world flowed out along the golden bridge, guided by Ji Yuan’s spiritual energy to the fingertips of his right hand.

His fingers seemed to weigh thousands of pounds, and his fingertips bled red.

Ji Yuan made sword fingers out of his right hand and pointed them at the sword. The mysterious yellow energy surged out alongside his spiritual energy and blood, and he repeatedly wrote one single word in seal script.

“Execute, execute, execute, execute…”

After each character was written, the next would become even more difficult to write, and would consume even more energy. In the end, the energy of his Dantian was completely used up, and he had to convert part of his spiritual energy into red Qi⁴ to write the next character, and so on for the ones after that.

By the time he had finished writing all of the repetitions of the character, the body of the sword held forty-nine “execute” characters. Ji Yuan was already pale and dizzy, and it was already three -quarters-of-an-hour past noon.

As the last “execute” fell, Ji Yuan forcibly resisted the dizziness, and guided a strand of Yang energy from Heaven and Earth to seal it within the Green Vine Sword’s body.

The bloodied characters drawn from mysterious yellow energy on the Green Vine Sword gradually disappeared in a flash of light, restoring the original appearance of the sword.

“Hooh…hoo…hooh…”

Ji Yuan leaned against the wall beside his bed, feeling drained. He touched his numb and itching nose with his hands. There was indeed a trace of blood.

The Green Vine Sword had been accumulating energy for three years, and it still held tremendous power. Its expenditure in cutting wild fruits on the mountain was negligible. Ji Yuan used the mysterious yellow Qi to issue a decree, writing the word “execute” 49 times in a row, determined to combine it with the power of the Green Vine Sword to kill the wounded demon.

After all, it was a powerful, transformed monster. Ji Yuan had no idea how much he needed to do, so he used all of his tricks.

However, although he was not sure whether it would work, during the writing process Ji Yuan focused on being determined to kill the being, without any mental fluctuations, in order to build up momentum for the Green Vine Sword.

The Green Vine Sword was now suspended in front of the bed, neither making a sound nor flying around. It seemed as if it were being pressed down by a heavy aura, keeping its sharp edge hidden and sealed away.

When Ji Yuan recovered a little, he grabbed the scabbard and slowly sheathed the Green Vine Sword. Then he walked to the bed in the guest room, propped open the wooden, turned around, and instructed the Green Vine Sword:

“The flame of the True Fire of Samadhi is not so easy to bear. Go to Master Yin quickly and use the trace of the True Fire to track down the evil spirit and execute it! Remember, it is a transformed monster. You can only use one sword strike at your peak strength, and then your power will decline. If you fail in one strike, you must not continue fighting!”

Buzz…

The sound of the Green Vine Sword was subtle but powerful, and its restrained sword intent blurred the air within two inches of the sword.

“Alright, go on!”

Ji Yuan’s tired voice finished.

Swoosh…

The Green Vine Sword turned into a stream of light and flew out the wooden window, soaring into the sky. In less than a dozen breaths, it had risen to a high altitude, and traveled rapidly along the wind. Its blade pointed towards Chunhui Prefecture in Ji Province in the distance. Its speed was actually beyond Ji Yuan’s imagination.

Spirits were difficult to conceive, and difficult to form; the underlying principles of fate were as mysterious and profound as the practice of enlightenment. There were only few famous immortal artifacts and spiritual treasures in the entire world of immortal cultivation. The reason why Ji Yuan, who had always been conservative when measuring power, determined that it was an immortal sword was because the sword spirit had already arisen, and it was intelligent and fully formed.

Ji Yuan looked at his immortal sword flying into the sky and stopped worrying about whether it would succeed. He muttered to himself.

“I’m a little envious…”

Another burst of dizziness came over him. Ji Yuan shook his head, returned to the bed, and sat cross-legged. He used the Qi Guiding Technique to gather spiritual energy.

As waves of spiritual energy converged to nourish his body, Ji Yuan’s discomfort gradually faded away.

T/n: the bromance is strong in this one

1. 远水解不了近渴: Chinese proverb, implies the need to come up with an immediate solution to a problem – a vague future solution won’t work.
2. T/n: Well at least he’s starting to be self-aware
3. 斩 (zhǎn): to behead (capital punishment), to chop. This word comes up a LOT (similar to “edict”), and might also be translated as “cut” or “behead.” I translated it as “execute” because of the connotations and how it’s later used.
4. If you will recall, this is specifically the refined Qi in the Dantian

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read