The Heavens: A Qing, the Yue Girl at the beginning

About 300 kilometers west of Tokyo, in the Tama River Mountains in Yamanashi Prefecture, meters underground in the Thunder Valley, there is a red underground river called "Akagi River". Its temperature is close to human body temperature, and its color is blood red, like a mixture of hematite and blood.

Hidden in this underground world are the remains of the hybrid civilization of the R-Japan God Age thousands of years ago. At that time, they used bricks made from a mixture of stone powder and metal to build cities, and used bronze and special iron-containing metals to cast giant towers, thus establishing a glorious ancient country.

However, time flies and years are merciless. Under the huge disaster, all of this has long been completely buried. Those once magnificent buildings are now only ruins, washed away beyond recognition by underground rivers.

The streets paved with metal square bricks have long been eroded by water, but the signs of the former prosperity can still be recognized. The huge copper wind chimes are inlaid on the rock wall alone, and occasionally impacted by the water, making a low and distant echo in the claustrophobic space.

The iron houses were squeezed and deformed by the rock formations, as if they were prisoners of time, forever frozen in that moment. They witnessed the rise and fall of the hybrid civilization of the Age of Gods, and now only the cold outlines remain, telling of the glory and tragedy of the past.

Also in this underground where chaos and order are intertwined, Yamata no Orochi, the weak "God", is now wrapped in white filaments and is swimming slowly in the Akagi River in an almost curled up posture, or perhaps walking on the streets of the past.

Its body was gigantic and deformed, with eight heads each connected to a slender neck. The cervical vertebrae were like tangled vines, twisting and growing from different parts of the torso, presenting an unnatural beauty and a bit of heart-pounding horror.

A silver-blue glow flickered in the blood-red waves. It was a group of ghost-toothed vipers swimming silently. Their scales reflected a cold light in the dark river. Python-like shadows also flashed in the blood-red river. They were the mutated hydra monsters and blind eels.

In the dark underground, the dragon subspecies multiplied rapidly and became food for the Yamata no Orochi. The dragon vipers were completely suppressed by fear in front of the majesty of the ancient dragons, and they were only worthy of sharing the leftovers of the gods.

At this moment, a sudden change broke the tranquility of the underground world. The Yamata no Orochi suddenly stopped swimming, and its eight heads seemed to be pulled together by some force, staring at an uninvited guest who had inexplicably appeared in the underground world.

There, a handsome boy sat on a broken bridge that was rusted and hanging in the air in front of him. Although his figure seemed thin, he seemed out of tune with this dark underground world. His existence itself was a miracle, a harmony and abruptness beyond common sense.

He calmly took out a high-power flashlight from his arms, and the beam of light instantly illuminated the eighteen huge dark golden pupils of the Yamata no Orochi, causing the ancient "god" to shrink his pupils slightly. It was an instinctive vigilance and fear of unknown forces.

Its body was seen moving backwards, and the bone sword at its tail, "Ame-no-Kurosakumo Sword", was naturally pulled out from under its body. The sharp blade was shining with a faint cold light, pointing straight forward, its muscles were tense, ready to go, like a divine weapon that could be unsheathed and used at any time.

It is hard to imagine that this deformed ancient dragon, which is fifty or sixty meters long, would actually show an appearance of facing a powerful enemy in its own territory.

Although the Yamata no Orochi has long lost the ability to release its words, it can still rely on its instincts to control a large range of elemental forces. For example, it can create a major earthquake or tsunami, just like the 7.3 magnitude Hanshin earthquake nine years ago.

This is the authority granted to it by the holy bones that possessed it, which allowed Susanoo, one of the most powerful descendants of the White King in history, to be transformed into a gigantic monster wandering outside the human world, a pitiful existence that was infinitely close to the bloodline of the ancient dragon, but was ultimately unable to completely complete its evolution.

The surrounding group of ghost tooth vipers felt an unprecedented tense atmosphere. Although they did not smell any powerful bloodline power in the boy, they stopped swimming and kept a safe distance, and even their breathing seemed to become cautious.

One man and one dragon just stared at each other, time seemed to stand still, the invisible spiritual realm twisted to form waves of elemental turbulence, eroding and shattering the nearby rugged rock walls.

Finally, it was the boy who broke the silence first. The ancient dragon script sounded like an ancient spell, and the voice reverberated in the Red Water. Every syllable contained an irresistible power. It was the meaning of asking the other party whether he wanted to conclude an ancient contract with him.

The eight heads of the Yamata no Orochi swayed slightly, as if it was listening, or thinking, and finally uttered a series of long and deep syllables as its response. All this was absolutely unknown to any outsider.

……

At the same time, in the Three Gorges Kuimen, which is also a bronze city 300 meters underground, after a brief exchange with Zhao Qing, Constantine activated the central alchemy matrix. The city that had been sleeping for two thousand years was awakened again, and countless mechanical structures began to operate.

Because the emergency resuscitation consumed too much energy, he is currently staying in the house to replenish energy from the alchemical matrix. He has entered a state of short-term hibernation, wrapped in a white silk cocoon and guarded closely by Samson. Zhao Qing, on the other side, is leisurely touring the city under the guidance of another dragon servant.

Just as she had expected, there was indeed a large space used for alchemical production in the Bronze City. After passing through several gates guarded by living spirits and seeing many small snake-faced human sculptures rotating and moving along the way, she, a man and a dragon, finally arrived at the factory area here.

Inside the huge factory building, bronze pillars supporting the entire space like towering ancient trees, hundreds of meters high, each of which was carved with intricate dragon patterns. Golden and silver light wandered on the pillars, extending to the bronze walls at the bottom and top, as if they were living things.

"There shouldn't be much ore left in the city. We need to find new sources of ore... Copper, iron, tin, lead, and mercury are all indispensable. If you have these minerals, you can exchange them for the alchemical products in our city at the most favorable price."

The 15-meter-long dragon spoke in a hoarse and unpleasant voice, and quickly bypassed several giant pillars and came to a sculpture of a snake-faced man holding a scepter. It spit out a silver-gray key from its mouth, gently grasped it with its winged hands, and inserted it into a notch on the top of the scepter.

With a slight "click" sound, the sculpture's eyes suddenly lit up, and two bright rays of light intertwined into complex runes, which instantly spread through the alchemical circuits between the bronze column walls, activating the alchemical matrix of the entire factory, and the blazing white light illuminated every corner.

The first thing that catches the eye is the three-dimensional multiple rotating wheels that resemble a celestial sphere. They are cast from more than a dozen bronzes of slightly different colors, and their surfaces are covered with intricate patterns, as if they are a miniature of the stars in the universe.

Driven by the power device, these wheels rotate slowly, making a low and rhythmic sound. They not only bear the task of transporting materials and energy, but also seem to be responding to the natural forces between heaven and earth in some ancient way.

The giant alchemical furnaces are the core of the production line. They are in the shape of Vermillion Bird, but are a strange version with scales and feathers. They are incredibly large, each one is a hundred meters high, and occupies almost half of the space in the entire factory.

Inside the furnace, flames burned fiercely, melting the metal raw materials thrown into it into boiling liquid, but there was no trace of smoke or dust. Only pure light and hot energy surged in it, overflowing from the translucent side screw cover.

Whenever the Suzaku furnace spewed out flames, softened black and bright metal balls would flow out from the protruding scales in the upper and lower rows respectively. The former were impurities in the ore, and the latter were the "purified gold" obtained through purification.

Thousands of alchemical puppet craftsmen shuttled between the flames and light. They had various shapes. Some held pliers and skillfully clamped the red-hot metal ore in the furnace; others held carving knives and meticulously carved ancient dragon characters on the blanks that were about to be formed.

Others climbed up onto giant hammer-forging machines and cutting machines that were tens of meters high, using complex joysticks and dials to control the processing process; alchemical reactors of various colors and densely packed pipes were distributed on both sides of the assembly line, receiving numerical signals input remotely by the craftsmen.

The movements of these puppet craftsmen are precise and efficient. They seem to be able to sense every subtle change and adjust their operations in time to ensure the production of the most perfect products. Everything is in order, as if the entire production line follows some ancient and strict rules.

Zhao Qing jumped onto the walkway that was constantly rotating on the edge of the Hun Tian Wheel, and soon came to a production line that looked simple but was actually the main product of the current product. Layers of spirally rising and falling reaction kettles poured in colorful unknown solutions one by one, and after a series of complex chemical reactions, they became clear and transparent.

"This is the rust-removing alchemical potion that Bronze City needs most right now."

The dragon servant turned his head and introduced: "According to the perpetual motion pendulum and the alchemical dial, this place has been corroded for nearly two thousand years, and the oxygen has long been completely exhausted... Therefore, in addition to the requirement of rust removal, the normal composition of the air must be restored as soon as possible."

Continuing to go deeper, Zhao Qing soon saw the production lines of items such as air separators and water pumps. Their function was to maintain the environment of the Bronze City, pump out excess water in the city, and extract pure oxygen for pressurized combustion in the furnace.

Next, she was taken to the core area of ​​the alchemy factory - the production line of mass-produced small alchemy cores, and witnessed the entire process of the alchemy core from raw materials to finished products.

I saw rows of delicate robotic arms dancing in the interweaving of light and shadow, precisely manipulating various materials, from the initial liquid metal being injected into the mold, to fusion, compression, and reshaping, after countless processes of tempering and carving, finally becoming alchemical cores that sparkled with strange light.

These cores are undoubtedly the pinnacle of the dragon clan's alchemy technology, equivalent to the status of chips in modern human technology.

Their material properties can spontaneously change periodically over time, including hardness, toughness, conductivity, thermal conductivity, etc., thereby exhibiting different functions and characteristics, which increases the complexity of mechanical technology by hundreds or thousands of times.

Next to the alchemy core production line, Zhao Qing also saw the assembly line used to manufacture various common mechanical parts.

Gears, bearings, connecting rods, sleeves... Although these parts are small, they constitute the basis of the entire Bronze City mechanical system. With the blessing of alchemy, they appear to be extremely strong and precise.

Zhao Qing noticed that perhaps because of the dragon tribe's pursuit of artistry, all large devices and products not only had exquisite craftsmanship and perfect design, but also had exquisite decorations and patterns, mainly in the style of the Han Dynasty, and seemed to be deeply influenced by local humans.

In the elegant and melodious ancient music played by a bronze instrument that automatically played according to the rhythm of the alchemy production line, they were either dragons and phoenixes dancing, or auspicious clouds lingering, and there were also typical images such as the Jade Rabbit, Golden Osmanthus, Nine-tailed Fox, Three-legged Crow, and Feathered Immortal, which perfectly combined practicality and beauty. At the same time, Zhao Qing also sensed that in the hidden compartment under the factory building, there was a huge dragon corpse of 80 to 90 meters long. It seemed to be located at the bottom of the city. As a sacrifice for the foundation of the bronze temple, although it had died for thousands of years, its remaining pressure was still far above that of the dragon servant.

"The sudden attack two thousand years ago was largely due to the fact that the king slaughtered seven local dragon nobles, including two extremely powerful ancient dragons, and turned them into living spirits of the seven deadly sins, which led to a targeted siege..."

The dragon servant picked up two pieces of ore from the nearby pile and threw them into the Suzaku furnace, sighing:
"I wonder what the living conditions of dragons and humans will be like after thousands of years? Will the 'Council of Elders' still be hiding behind the scenes, secretly controlling everything in the world?"

The Dragon Elders Council? Hearing this, Zhao Qing was thoughtful and could not help but think of a lot of related information. From the extraordinary size of the second-generation ancient dragon's corpse, he understood the huge gap between the second-generation species.

She thought for a moment and replied, "The Elders' Council is indeed very well hidden... In addition, the mining production of human society outside has improved a lot compared to two thousand years ago. It is more than enough to supply the entire Bronze City..."

"Even if it is 'recycled metal' level materials, I have unique channels to obtain them." This naturally refers to the spiritual mineral resources in the Sword Dynasty world.

……

"Speaking of which, this place is only a hundred miles away from Baidi City in Kuimen, Three Gorges."

In the world of Sword Dynasty, at midnight, on the edge of a valley near the Goddess Peak of Wushan Mountain, Zhao Qing's original body stood up from a stone chair she had made casually, took a sip of wild tea in a stone bowl, and spoke lightly.

In front of her was a very flat bowl-shaped valley. The moonlight was pouring down, the clouds were misty, and the endless short trees were immersed in the milky mist. It looked like a deep lake, faintly exuding a sense of vicissitudes and antiquity. However, upon closer inspection, it seemed that nothing could be discovered.

Although it is only half a mile away from the secret place of the magic array hidden in the valley, if you have not reached the cultivation and perception of the seventh level of moving mountains, you will not be able to detect its existence even if it is close, let alone peek into its secrets.

Even at noon, when the power of the formation was at its strongest, it was just an imperceptible phenomenon in the misty environment. At other times, it was as if it had never existed and was wiped out by the entire world.

"You're tired of eating camellia and wild fruits, but you're not ready to take action yet?"

Xia Mi put down her teacup, her eyes sparkling with curiosity and confusion. She had been waiting here since noon, witnessing the sunset and the moonrise, but she never saw any unusual movement in the formation, and she couldn't help but wonder:
"I have been watching from noon till now, why haven't you made any moves? The so-called formations are all designed based on the terrain to guide the energy of the surrounding heaven and earth. Why don't you let me launch a local high-intensity earthquake to destroy the formation here?"

"How could it be so simple? How could the one who set up the formation not have considered such a rough method of breaking the formation in advance?" Zhao Qing shook his head and replied softly: "Look at the formation. Even the blind dragon, which is best at drilling into the ground, couldn't escape. This shows how powerful it is."

"This formation is called the 'Blue Thunder Sky Absolute Formation'. Its energy mainly comes from the 'Sun True Fire' that is extracted and stored from the sunlight in the mountains every day. It does not rely on the energy of the earth veins here... But at midnight, it is undoubtedly at its weakest. This is the best opportunity for me to break the formation."

Before she finished speaking, her body suddenly floated up like a huge snowflake. Countless small black ice swords circled rapidly, forming a transparent ball of light that wrapped around her, reflecting the dazzling sword light. When Zhao Qing rose to a height of more than a hundred feet, they suddenly shot out.

Thousands of cold sword energies rushed into the water mist at the edge of the formation like a violent storm, blowing away a corner of it on the spot, revealing the plants inside that were frozen in the air as if absolutely still. The latter suddenly turned into countless lines carrying murderous intent and collided with it.

In the blink of an eye, terrifying golden beams of light shot up into the sky and locked onto the "invading" target. The external sword energy melted away quickly like snow under the scorching sun, while the recoil and agitated force of the formation directly acted on Zhao Qing's spirit.

They transformed into messy branches and thorns, which would forcibly pierce and destroy her sea of ​​consciousness, and spread to the meridians throughout her body, aiming to destroy the enemy's cultivation. There was no fluctuation of vital energy in the process, but a pure spiritual confrontation and the mystery of controlling energy with spirit.

Unfortunately, as soon as he appeared, he was trapped by Zhao Qing in a boundless and empty spiritual realm, unable to touch any real things. He could only continue to lose strength in the assimilation of Ji Han, and was pulled by the invisible gravity to gradually fall into the vast North Ocean below.

And when this counterattack force was stuck in the "quagmire", Zhao Qing quickly drew several strokes in the air, and countless black stripes spread chaotically in the air, gathering in front of his fingertips, flowing out a layer of sword energy that was like blooming stars, thin and sharp, slashing straight forward.

The sword light disappeared in the mist, leaving no trace, but it caused the vital energy of heaven and earth wherever it passed to be displaced and transformed into a vast and empty vacuum, presenting a feeling of space collapse and tidal tearing, silently decomposing the blocking golden light column and actually cutting open a passable path.

……

Everything in the world has its own vital energy, but the original breath of all things flows within and cannot be sprayed out at will.

But at this moment, all the plants and trees in the array gate, once exposed to a different aura from usual, began to wantonly spew out the original aura within them, which made the countless plants and trees in the array gate like countless unruly swordsmen.

Although their cultivation base was extremely low, the incomparably chaotic aura they exhaled formed a huge chaotic formation. This was the legendary "Chaos" formation that had long been lost. It was the secret method of the "Sword Tomb", the most powerful sect in the past. It was difficult to understand even for those above the Seventh Realm.

In Zhao Qing's opinion, this was equivalent to the person who set up the formation back then specially "enlightened" a sword spirit of the peak level of the seventh realm to guard this place, using plants and trees as true spirits, talismans to cast meridians, crystal stones as qi sea, vital energy circulating, and sword intent lasting forever.

It is worthy of the name of "Sword Tomb" as the inheritance has truly realized the concept of using plants and trees as swords. Even with her attainments in swordsmanship, she has received a lot of inspiration from it. Comparing it with the information about the Eight Realms of Enlightenment that Zhao Qing knew, she realized the changes in the vital energy laws contained therein.

She spent several hours and sparred with the "Chaos" sword intent outside the formation for hundreds of times, which was a bit rigid and stiff due to its limited wisdom. She gained a lot. Not only did she find dozens of flaws in the opponent that could be induced to reveal, but she also understood a lot of the contents of the "Lingxu Sutra" given by Qi Jinshan.

Finally, Zhao Qing performed a Vacuum Breaking Sword that was not recorded in the scriptures. With this secret sword of Lingxu Sword Sect that was most proficient in breaking restrictions, he easily tore open a corner of the outer edge of the Qinglei Tianjue Formation, and casually pulled Xia Mi with him, and entered the outer non-core area of ​​the formation together.

After passing through the thick mist that seemed to separate the inner and outer worlds, the two seemed to have arrived in a completely new world. The valley before them was completely different from what they had seen before. It was no longer shrouded in mist and mysterious, but had become a dry river valley, empty and silent.

There was not a single weed or tree in the valley, only densely packed oval crystals covering the entire ground. They were like countless crimson rubies, slightly transparent, flowing with hot air, and there seemed to be golden flames burning inside.

Zhao Qing and Xia Mi strolled in the crystal-paved valley, feeling the hot breath and energy fluctuations around them. They looked up at the sky and saw that the clouds that seemed to fill the entire valley were pushed away and floated dozens of feet above the ground.

In the center of this valley, there stands a huge building, made entirely of green mountain stones.

This building is extremely square, with a base of about three hundred meters and gradually shrinking upwards, like a huge mausoleum, except that there are curved arches around the base and every ten meters upwards, with lush green trees and vines growing inside, giving it an air of vicissitudes and antiquity.

This gives people the feeling that it is a garden built by the royal family. But even if it is a garden built by the royal family, such a solid building cannot be just to enclose the rare flowers and trees inside. There must be deeper secrets and purposes hidden behind it.

"According to the records in the classics, these stones should be the so-called 'sun sand', which is a rare mineral similar to fire-attributed spiritual stones. They can be used to assist in practicing fire-related or positive energy techniques. But it seems that they can also be sold as rubies."

Zhao Qing picked up a red crystal stone, held it in his palm, felt the temperature inside, slowly injected the hot true energy into it, conducted a simple test, and then suddenly threw it into the air, shredded it into pieces with sword energy, and detonated it into a ball of red-gold flames.

"Is the Sun's True Fire released by the previous formation stored in these crystals?"

Since the energy environment in the formation was extremely stable, the power of the explosion was greatly suppressed, but Xia Mi beside him still had a strange look on his face: "Using them as power, we should be able to create a very powerful combat alchemical puppet. If we equip it with heavy armor..."

"It is indeed a highly versatile material, but unfortunately we don't know how much of this mineral is available in the outside world."

Noticing that the scattered heat was absorbed by the crystals beside him, Zhao Qing nodded and continued to walk deeper. He soon came to the entrance of an archway and felt the gravity inside was several times higher than that outside. "We will see the blind dragon later."

"I hope this creature isn't too ugly, or perhaps there's no room for beautification." Xia Mi, who had long planned to tame the giant ground-walking insect and make it his subordinate, picked up seven or eight pieces of Fiery Sun Sand and put them in his pocket, then followed Zhao Qing across the boundary of the garden.

At the same time, she also released a seemingly ordinary earth-type word spirit.

...(End of chapter)