Liu Jing and the True Treasure

Han Li was furious!

Not because he had been soft-hearted and saved that Senior Brother Wang, forcing him to use the Smoke Step to fight the demonic man. No, his anger was directed at Liu Jing and the others for failing to seize the opportunity to destroy the remaining three Blood Servants while they were still in their transformation cocoons. If those three completed their transformation, the situation would become truly dire.

He had seen Senior Brother Wang about to fall to the Ice Demon’s lethal strike and, remembering the debt of assistance during the fight with Qingwen, had flashed over to save him.

The demonic man, enraged by Han Li’s intervention, had then fixated on him, attacking relentlessly. Han Li had been forced to engage. But he quickly concluded that this Ice Demon was indeed a thorny problem for the others and was best dealt with by himself. Another fallen comrade would leave them critically understaffed for the battles ahead.

Now he had tied up this demonic man, yet the others were merely watching his fight, not even attempting to attack the other three light cocoons. What a wasted opportunity!

He could vaguely guess their reasoning. They were not ignorant of the chance but were terrified by the Ice Demon’s strange invisibility and the death it had already caused. They were afraid of what a fully transformed Blood Servant might become. Even knowing that fully transformed enemies would be even more troublesome, they hesitated, perhaps even considering retreat.

But Han Li had not come here merely to destroy the Black Fiend Sect. He had another, predetermined goal. He would not retreat so easily. And this half-transformed Ice Demon, while dangerous, was manageable with caution. In Han Li’s eyes, this one was not as difficult to deal with as that bald-headed giant had been.

This demonic man had merely made his body transparent, allowing for extreme speed and the manipulation of cold air. His so-called invisibility was an illusion of pure high-speed movement, similar to Han Li’s own Smoke Step. It was just harder to detect because of his transparent, eerie form.

However, this bizarre movement technique was only effective on the ground. If everyone took to the sky and opened the distance, unleashing large-scale spells, they could force him to reveal himself. A demonic beast’s physical speed could only be terrifying over short distances; over a longer range, it could never match a cultivator’s flying artifact.

Liu Jing and the others had simply never experienced such close-quarters combat. Naturally, they found the enemy ghost-like and impossible to counter. But Han Li himself often fought in this manner, so he was well-versed in dealing with it.

With this in mind, Han Li suddenly swung his silver sword, forcing back the demonic man’s claws. He appeared for a moment and shouted loudly:

“Brother Liu! Fly into the sky! Continue attacking the three Blood Servants! I won’t let this one leave the ground to harass you!”

Having spoken, Han Li’s figure flickered and vanished again. In reality, his silver sword had become a blur of motion, forcing the Ice Demon back step by step, giving him no chance to take flight.

The silver sword in Han Li’s hand was a trophy from the Blood Forbidden Trial. It was sturdy enough to block the demonic man’s claws without damage. However, the sword couldn’t harm the man’s ice claws either, which he found quite remarkable.

Liu Jing heard Han Li’s words and, after a moment of thought, understood his intention. But he wore a hesitant expression. A fierce contradiction raged within him.

Although Liu Jing came from a large cultivation clan, he had been kidnapped by a heretic cultivator in his childhood. He had endured a dark period of torment and abuse and had nearly died. Rescued by his family, he had later become a disciple of Li Huayuan and made progress in his cultivation.

But the shadow of his childhood events remained. He harbored a deep hatred for heretic cultivators. He adhered to an iron-blooded principle of killing every one he met, showing no mercy to any practitioner of deviant arts he discovered.

This crusade had given him immense satisfaction and a vast, positive reputation. Even some disciples of the Seven Great Sects with higher cultivation levels looked at him with admiration.

On the surface, Liu Jing remained composed, but he had become addicted to this feeling of being revered. Later, his active campaign to eradicate heretics was driven more by a desire for the adulation of others than by pure conviction.

Of course, he was careful to hide this motivation deep within his heart. In his dealings with others, he still seemed to be that righteous, justice-seeking, iron-blooded “Senior Brother Liu” who despised evil.

The Black Fiend Sect before him was undoubtedly the most powerful and most deserving evil cult he had ever encountered. But its strength was also the greatest he had ever faced. He had no confidence that ordinary magical tools could kill the remaining three Blood Servants. An attack that was too weak would only allow them to complete their half-transformation prematurely.

If one half-transformed enemy was this difficult to deal with, the appearance of three more would leave their group outmatched and likely dead.

If they retreated now, their expedition would have been a complete failure. They would have alerted the enemy for nothing. The Black Fiend Sect would surely go underground and disappear again. All the reputation he had painstakingly built over the years would be utterly ruined.

The thought of others looking at him with contempt made Liu Jing’s chest tighten with unbearable anguish.

Han Li’s urging had pushed him to the edge of a decision.

“Senior Brother Liu, should we retreat? The Black Fiend Sect’s strength is far beyond our expectations. If we don’t leave now, it will be too late.”

Senior Brother Wang, the one Han Li had saved, approached hesitantly and whispered. Liu Jing could clearly see the cowardice in his shifty eyes.

“Retreat? If I do that now, I will be seen as a coward in the eyes of my fellow disciples.” Liu Jing thought to himself bitterly.

“Everyone, fly into the sky and protect me. Leave the remaining three Blood Servants to me.”

Liu Jing said calmly, a faint smile on his face.

Within his heart, he thought to himself, “It seems I have no choice but to use that thing. Only then can I win this fight and preserve my reputation. Even if it is my life-saving treasure.”

“Senior Brother Liu? You want to take on the remaining Blood Servants alone?”

Not just Senior Brother Wang, but all the others nearby wore expressions of disbelief. Seeing this look on their faces gave Liu Jing a deep sense of satisfaction.

Outwardly, however, he maintained a nonchalant demeanor. Without another word, he flew into the air on his artifact and solemnly took a fiery red jade box from his storage pouch.

In that moment, Liu Jing had fully regained his usual composure, radiating confidence. The others exchanged glances and, feeling a sliver of hope, flew up into the air as well.

Looking at the jade box in his hand, a flicker of reluctance crossed Liu Jing’s face. But then, his expression hardened. He clapped his hands together onto the box.

With a crack, the box shattered into pieces, revealing a peculiar talisman wrapped in a red glow.

The talisman bore the image of a blazing firebird. The bird flapped its wings and flew around within the talisman, as lively as a real bird. Its eyes even glowed with a faint blue light, occasionally darting around.

What was even more astonishing was that the moment this talisman appeared, waves of scorching heat began to radiate outward. The temperature within a few dozen meters rose sharply, baking those nearby and leaving them incredibly parched.

Song Meng and the others, who had just approached, witnessed the appearance of this astonishing talisman.

“A Talisman Treasure!” Song Meng exclaimed upon seeing it.

“No, that’s not an ordinary Talisman Treasure… That is a True Treasure!”

Senior Brother Wang, upon seeing the talisman that resembled a Talisman Treasure but with vastly different properties, cried out as if he had seen a ghost.

The words “True Treasure” sent a shock through those who knew what it meant.

A so-called “True Treasure” was a type of Talisman Treasure, but it was fundamentally different from ordinary ones.

First, an ordinary Talisman Treasure could at most contain one-tenth of the original magic treasure’s power. A True Treasure, however, could hold a staggering one-third of the original treasure’s power. This made it incomparably superior to any common Talisman Treasure.

Second, a True Treasure required the original owner to refine it using a bloodline method. Only a descendant bearing that specific bloodline could activate and wield the True Treasure. Anyone else attempting to infuse it with spiritual power would cause it to self-destruct.

With such advantages, it seemed obvious that all ancestral legacy talismans would be True Treasures. However, the True Treasure had a significant flaw.

Its greatest drawback was that, despite being able to hold several times the power of an ordinary Talisman Treasure, it could only be used once. Once activated, its power would be released all at once, with no exceptions. There was no chance of a second use. In terms of practicality, it was therefore far inferior to a common Talisman Treasure.

But the real reason True Treasures were so rare was another, extremely harsh condition.

The moment a magic treasure was refined into a True Treasure, the original treasure would permanently lose that portion of its power forever. It could not be restored through further refinement. This was a condition that many cultivators on their deathbeds could not bring themselves to accept for treasures they had cherished like their own lives. They would rather leave several ordinary Talisman Treasures for their descendants.

Some cultivators joked that True Treasures were even rarer than magic treasures themselves in the cultivation world.

This statement, while a slight exaggeration, was not far from the truth.