Chapter 219: The Culprit
After trying, this coffin could only be opened from the Head of the Coffin and pushed toward the Tail of the Coffin.
Li Weiyi was careful and cautious, first pushing open the coffin lid by one foot.
……
Yang Qingchan, who looked exactly like Yang Qingxi, her corpse was shockingly lying inside, revealing a face as pale as paper yet exquisitely beautiful like a painting.
First using mind power perception, then swiftly probing her neck and heart pulse with his finger.
Blood had cooled completely, heart pulse severed.
Dead beyond dead.
Only then did Li Weiyi finally relax, pushing open the coffin lid to three feet, her upper body completely revealed.
Yang Qingchan’s corpse had its hair, clothes, and makeup all carefully tended, clothes neat, adorned with various ornaments, lips and brows painted. If not for the bloodless face, she seemed merely asleep.
Her cultivation stood at the peak of Five Seas Realm, physical body strong, even after soaking in water for seven days, still as if just dead, skin fine as jade, without any damage.
Inside the coffin was indeed as the Jar Master said, covered in formation script.
Li Weiyi turned her face to the side, revealing the sword wound on her neck.
This wound was from seven days ago when she forcibly broke free from under Li Weiyi’s sword, cut by the Yellow Dragon Sword.
“Not right! The wound has deepened, severing the carotid artery.”
Li Weiyi remembered clearly, the Yellow Dragon Sword had cut her, but absolutely had not severed the carotid artery.
Moreover, he had not urged magic energy onto the Yellow Dragon Sword at the time, so even if it really severed the carotid artery, with Yang Qingchan’s cultivation, she could fully mobilize magic power to temporarily seal the wound.
And the peculiar destructive power inherent in the Yellow Dragon Sword itself, currently, only targeted evil spirits and departed spirits, not humans.
“Someone forged the wound, creating the illusion that Yang Qingchan was killed by my sword severing her carotid artery, dying from excessive blood loss.”
In Li Weiyi’s view, this was purely superfluous.
Whether he killed Yang Qingchan or not, he and the Sui Sect were already mortal enemies.
If targeted at him Li Weiyi, adding this layer of framing crime was utterly meaningless.
What then was the opponent’s real purpose?
He flipped the corpse over, back facing up.
Li Weiyi pinched a finger seal across his brow, the Heavenly Eye manifesting.
What should have been an extremely alluring jade back was instead covered in large patches of dark purple, the injury from seven days ago when struck by Tao Yanyan’s hammer.
Yang Qingchan had been wearing defensive battle robe at the time, the hammer wound on her back not fatal, bones unbroken, only internal organs shaken. Under the Heavenly Eye, the Six Desires Talisman also manifested, covering her entire back.
Even after seven days dead, the runes had not fully dissipated.
The Six Desires Talisman was naturally terrifying, created by the Ancient Heavenly Emperor’s “Six Thoughts Heart Demon,” used to control the hearts of the world. In the era of the Six Thoughts Heart Demon, every martial cultivator reaching Five Seas Realm had to plant the Six Desires Talisman in their body.
However, the Six Desires Talisman of that time had six kinds of power, each representing one of humanity’s six desires, with each of the six demonic officials mastering the antidote for one type of rune.
The Six Desires Talisman popular among the evil path, now hidden in the shadows of the world’s structure in the Lingxiao Life Realm, represented only one of the six desires.
This kind of rune was not easy to deploy.
If on that day Yang Qingchan had not been too severely injured, the Six Desires Talisman struck by Bai Shu would have been shattered by her protective magic energy before even approaching her.
“There must be some other fatal wound!”
Li Weiyi released Er Feng, letting it search for wounds on Yang Qingchan’s body and traces of subtle magic energy.
Er Feng moved inside Yang Qingchan’s clothes, forming a bulge.
After a while.
This bulge stopped at the corpse’s heart area.
After drilling out from the collar, Er Feng used mind power to inform Li Weiyi that there were extremely subtle magic energy fluctuations remaining near Yang Qingchan’s heart, but no wound.
“No wound, yet magic energy fluctuation remnants remain. In other words, this is equivalent to using magic energy to grip her heart, preventing it from beating, causing her heart to stop while alive.”
“How could this be? With Yang Qingchan’s high cultivation, she couldn’t even resist?”
This method of death was too bizarre.
Er Feng’s next words resolved his doubts.
It informed him that the strand of remnant magic energy fluctuation did not belong to a Five Seas Realm martial cultivator.
“This is impossible! How would a martial cultivator above Five Seas Realm dare to kill during the Hidden Dragon Lantern Festival?”
Li Weiyi immediately released mind power, injecting it into Yang Qingchan’s heart area, probing carefully.
Nothing found.
The opponent’s methods were exceedingly brilliant; only a special living being like Er Feng could detect traces.
“Could it be…”
A look of incredulous shock and confusion appeared on Li Weiyi’s face, and in his mind emerged Yao Qian’s elegant figure as a gentleman.
The only way to kill Yang Qingchan without repercussions from Du’e Temple was if a high-level member of the Sui Sect did it themselves.
The only Sui Sect high-level who appeared that night was Yao Qian.
“Beneath the facade of unity and brightness, the Sui Sect’s interior is so dark. Though, the killing method was rather gentle.”
Li Weiyi did not believe Yao Qian killed Yang Qingchan just to frame him.
At most, it could be called… incidental framing.
Li Weiyi was too lazy to ponder deeper reasons; clarifying the true killer of Yang Qingchan would make him feel less bothered in his heart!
“Yao Qian probably thinks his methods are clean. Plus, with the corpse soaking in water for days, all traces are gone. Heh heh, what a gentleman…”
The dead deserve respect.
After tidying Yang Qingchan’s appearance, Li Weiyi was about to close the coffin lid and leave.
Suddenly, he sensed something amiss.
The coffin was a full zhang long, while Yang Qingchan’s corpse was placed at the Head of the Coffin. In other words, the Tail of the Coffin had over a meter of space left.
Head heavy, feet light—too unbalanced.
“Crash!”
Li Weiyi fully pushed open the coffin lid, revealing the space at the Tail of the Coffin.
A foot-long jade box was hidden there, tightly attached to the tail end.
The jade box had runes deployed on it.
The runes were connected to the coffin.
Li Weiyi’s eyes darted around; he did not think this was a burial item and quickly used the Yellow Dragon Sword to break the runes. Opening the jade box and probing with mind power, it indeed held another universe inside.
The jade box was refined from a martial cultivator’s inner world sea of qi, with space ample for dozens of cubic units.
The stolen Spring Coins and the bets from the martial cultivators on the final day were all inside.
Li Weiyi felt exhilarated; this feeling of loss and recovery was truly wonderful. Food for the Seven Little Ones grown to seven inches—no more worries. It should even suffice for future cultivation in the Sixth Sea Feng Fu.
He hurriedly moved the jade box out and stored it in the Blood Mud Space.
The Spirit Tablet Master’s voice transmitted from the Blood Mud Space: “This Otherworld Coffin is actually a fine battle treasure. Internally, it has two formations—one attack, one defense—complementing each other perfectly.”
“Oh!”
Li Weiyi, in the midst of closing the coffin lid, immediately had a thought and asked: “What level can the power of this coffin’s attack formation reach? Can it still be activated?”
The Spirit Tablet Master said: “This Otherworld Coffin’s attack formation is a nine-layer overlay of Mysterious Light Formations; each layer’s mysterious light power does not reach Dao Seed level. But with nine layers stacked, ordinary Dao Seed Realm martial cultivators would likely struggle to withstand it. The only flaw is that the formation’s mysterious light releases all at once.”
“You see, the white substance embedded on the Blood Mud Coffin is still in a half-virtual, half-solid state, indicating the mysterious light within the formation remains.”
Li Weiyi’s thoughts grew stronger!
Originally, upon discovering the stolen Spring Coins in the coffin, he had considered using this chance to hide in the coffin and ambush Hua Yuzi.
Yang Qingxi was no match for the martial cultivators of the Far West Ash Region; the formation in the fourth courtyard, not laid by a Spirit Mind Master, definitely wouldn’t hold long.
When she was captured, or her consciousness seized, and Hua Yuzi came for the Spring Coins, Li Weiyi could catch him off guard and kill him.
With Li Weiyi’s current cultivation, under surprise attack, it was entirely possible to kill Hua Yuzi.
At worst, he could heavily injure him.
The remaining Chen Wenwu and Left and Right Attendants posed no fear to Li Weiyi. Even if he couldn’t beat their combined attack, he could fully escape.
Killing Hua Yuzi would be like lopping off an arm from Luan Sheng Lin You… no, breaking one of his legs. From then on, Luan Sheng Lin You could only hobble on one leg, unable to tend to both Western Territory and Southern Territory simultaneously, or balance attack and defense.
Just like, if the Imperial Court lacked Jiang Ning, that extremely capable second-in-command, Ge Xian Tong’s days would be much harder.
The chance of success was high, but too risky!
Any slight mistake would have severe consequences.
So Li Weiyi had previously abandoned the idea, unwilling to take the risk.
Now it was different; if the coffin itself had a terrifying attack power, plus a defense formation. If Li Weiyi still didn’t dare seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, then the “two insects” evaluation he sent to Long Dian and Lu Cangsheng could only be swallowed back down himself.
“Boom!”
A massive sound came from the direction of the fourth courtyard.
Hua Yuzi had used the Hundred Character Scripture Magic Tool to forcefully assault the formation.
Li Weiyi hesitated no longer, jumping into the coffin, shifting Yang Qingchan’s corpse to the Tail of the Coffin, and lying at the Head of the Coffin in invisibility state, hand pinching the Ci Hang Kai Guang Finger.
As soon as the coffin lid opened, he would strike immediately.
If it wasn’t Hua Yuzi opening the coffin, he would directly activate the attack formation, indiscriminately dealing with all martial cultivators entering the mourning hall. The Spirit Tablet Master had already told him the activation method for the attack formation.
This coffin had likely been checked by people from the Far West Ash Region when searching for hiders; they just hadn’t discovered the jade box at the Tail of the Coffin.
As long as Yang Yun didn’t expose him, Hua Yuzi would definitely open the coffin personally, without defenses.
Li Weiyi fully released his hearing—to confirm if Yang Yun had exposed him was simple. Just listen for whether martial cultivators from the Far West Ash Region were heading to the carriage to investigate.
Li Weiyi’s worries were evidently unnecessary.
One after another Sui Sect martial cultivator killed in front of him by the Left Attendant’s cruel methods, with Yang Yue’s screams of skinning echoing in his ears—this was a nightmare Yang Yun wouldn’t dare dream, and he soon fainted from fright. Of course, it could also be from not eating for seven days, sheer weakness.
The formation was breached not long after.
“Yang Qingxi, you no longer even have the qualification to buy your life now!”
“Haha, her human skin—Qi Jin wants it; I’ll peel it personally later.”
The voices of the Left and Right Attendants rang out successively.
Immediately after, came cries of agony from young Sui Sect martial cultivators. Facing the top masters of the Far West Ash Region, even forming a combined attack formation, they only withstood dozens of strikes before collapsing.
“Young Lady, don’t worry about us, escape quickly!”
“Young Lady, I’ll go first… ah…”
……
The screams gradually faded.
The sounds of battle did not stop.
Li Weiyi, lying in the coffin, knew the younger generation of Sui Sect was left with only Yang Qingxi! She definitely couldn’t escape; two Calamity Fire Realm Great Mind Masters from San Chen Palace were overseeing the formation—it was impossible for her to flee.
Capture was only a matter of time.
Beyond everyone’s expectations, Yang Qingxi erupted with successor level combat power, at the cost of injury upon injury, repelling Hua Yuzi and bathing in blood to break through the encirclement.
She did not choose to attack the formation screen but descended from the rooftop at lightning speed, instantly leaping into the mourning hall.
The Left and Right Attendants closely pursued.
“Qingxi, surrender—there’s still a way to live.” Chen Wenwu also caught up.
Yang Qingxi, entering the mourning hall, had eyes cold and sharp, full of killing intent and ferocity. She hurled her broken sword at the pursuing Chen Wenwu. Her fingers slammed heavily on the Tail of the Coffin of the Blood Mud Coffin, releasing a ring of Spiritual Light Flame.
Instantly, the coffin, which could not be opened from the Tail of the Coffin, was pushed open by her.
“Swish!”
She directly leaped into the coffin.
