Chapter 144: Deep In The Mang Mountains
Zou Wu exotic beast’s speed was lightning-fast, incomparable to ordinary Five Seas Realm martial cultivators.
The deformed humanoid race old man diving down had caught up only by borrowing flight capability. The magic energy on his body was incomparably pure, several times stronger than Li Weiyi’s, at Five Seas third-tier qi.
Before his figure arrived, the magic energy cloud had already pressed down on Li Weiyi and Li Ling, like countless silk threads wrapping around their bodies.
Li Weiyi treated it as a formidable enemy, gripping the Yellow Dragon Sword tightly. Magic power surged wildly inside him through one hundred twenty gold veins, converging toward his arm, breaking through the suppression of the magic energy cloud.
In the instant the deformed humanoid race old man entered four zhang range, he seized the opportunity and slashed out a long dragon-pattern sword light, like a yellow sword river.
The battle-hardened deformed humanoid race old man, rich in experience, saw the extraordinary nature of the Yellow Dragon Sword. His body abruptly halted in midair, and he spat out a three-inch-long crimson flying sword, colliding with the incoming dragon-pattern sword light.
“Boom!”
The crimson flying sword was nurtured in his lung leaves sea of qi, glaring like a ball of flame, with speed like flowing light and immense power. But after piercing the dragon-pattern sword light, its speed sharply dropped, and it was shaken away by Li Weiyi’s horizontal sword.
Struck by the residual force of the dragon-pattern sword light, the deformed humanoid race old man fell to the treetop, instantly pulled dozens of zhang away by the Zou Wu exotic beast.
“Five Seas Realm third realm!”
Li Weiyi held his sword, staring intently at the deformed humanoid race old man catching up again.
In the farther darkness, several deformed humanoid race figures flew in midair. Judging by their speed, all were at Five Seas Realm level. On the ground, powerful auras were also approaching continuously, several of which were much stronger than that deformed humanoid race old man.
“Zou Wu’s target is too big. Five Seas Realm deformed humanoid race flying in midair can see us from over ten li away. This won’t work; we can’t escape at all like this.”
Li Weiyi’s mood was heavy as he asked, “How long until Zen Sea Observing Mist can recover her power?”
Li Ling couldn’t give him an exact answer. After pondering for a moment, she said, “I have a way to hide Zou Wu.”
Li Weiyi said, “In that case, when that deformed humanoid race old man catches up again, we’ll join forces and kill him at the fastest speed, then go invisible and flee in another direction. The other San Chen Palace Iron Clothes Army masters are still far away and will surely lose our trail because of this. Do you have an invisibility method?”
“I am a Heavenly Fire Realm great mind master; of course I have invisibility means,” Li Ling said.
The strength of a Heavenly Fire Realm great mind master could rival a Five Seas Realm third realm martial cultivator. Those with profound attainment and numerous means could even suppress Five Seas Realm fourth realm martial cultivators.
Li Ling had broken through to Heavenly Fire Realm not long ago, so naturally she was not the latter.
“Rumble!”
Zou Wu exotic beast charged madly through the forest, earth shaking and mountain swaying, splintering all trees in its path.
After running another seven or eight li, that deformed humanoid race old man caught up again, like a huge black bat weaving between the trees, not approaching closely but maintaining at least ten zhang distance, using magic energy to control that flying sword for harassment attacks.
He knew very well that with his cultivation, he couldn’t kill the two on Zou Wu exotic beast’s back. Forcing an interception would be extremely dangerous.
But if he could delay them until the Iron Clothes Army’s large group of masters caught up, those two would be unable to escape even with wings.
“We can’t stalemate like this; let’s act now.”
Li Weiyi patted the insect tube, and seven Phoenix Wing Moth Emperors flew out first, heading in seven different directions to surround the deformed humanoid race old man in the night curtain, sealing off his retreat.
Immediately after, he leaped up, leaving Zou Wu’s rear, intercepting the deformed humanoid race old man flying ten zhang away.
“Roar!”
A dragon’s roar sounded, and a yellow dragon shadow appeared under his feet, as if riding a dragon, majestic and extraordinary.
The deformed humanoid race old man let out a light eh, seeing the profundity of Li Weiyi’s movement technique, but he didn’t take it to heart.
From their previous clash, he had gauged the opponent’s reality: magic energy only at Five Seas first-tier qi, at best early Five Seas Realm second realm cultivation, merely blocking his flying sword by relying on that powerful sword in hand.
A child wielding a heavy artifact—this was no good thing; most ended with the person dead and the artifact lost.
Unable to slow down in rapid flight, the deformed humanoid race old man spat out his flying sword and instantly clashed with the intercepting Li Weiyi.
“Bang bang!”
The flying sword and Yellow Dragon Sword collided over a dozen times in succession.
Firelight bloomed, sword qi overflowed.
From midair all the way to the ground, Li Weiyi’s final slash turned that three-inch-long crimson flying sword into fragments, destroying it on the spot.
“You…”
The deformed humanoid race old man was furious enough to nearly spit a mouthful of blood; that was an extremely precious mid-grade magic tool, a huge loss.
The opponent’s bronze war sword was absolutely more than high-grade magic tool quality.
Without the flying sword, he dared not engage Li Weiyi in close combat even more, turning to soar away, planning to widen the distance.
“Bang!”
A Phoenix Wing Moth Emperor burst from behind, impacting his body.
Wearing iron cloth battle robe, he chose to take it head-on.
The tiny moth’s power far exceeded the deformed humanoid race old man’s estimate, comparable to a full-force punch from a Five Seas Realm second realm martial cultivator; his body instantly lost balance from the impact.
Li Ling held the now cat-sized Zou Wu in her arms and appeared on the ground below the deformed humanoid race old man. Dozens of bright, brilliant light marks flew from her brow.
Like a glowing grass, it grew rapidly, becoming over ten zhang tall.
Every grass leaf was incomparably sharp, burning with flames capable of incinerating a Five Seas Realm martial cultivator’s physical body, wrapping around the deformed humanoid race old man and quickly burning through his protective magic energy.
“Heavenly Fire Realm!”
As the deformed humanoid race old man’s body fell downward, he mobilized magic energy, injecting it into his iron cloth battle robe. Immediately after, a zhang-tall battle intent figure manifested, propping open the flame light marks.
How could Li Weiyi give him a chance to break free? One sword cleaved through the air.
“Pfft!”
The deformed humanoid race old man raised his arm to block, but how could he block the Yellow Dragon Sword?
His arm and brow were both pierced through.
Withdrawing the sword, the deformed humanoid race old man’s corpse thudded to the ground.
Disappointment flashed in Zou Wu’s eyes as it waved its claws, clearly wanting to join in.
“Go!”
Li Weiyi had no interest even in stripping the iron cloth battle robe from his body. He recalled the seven Phoenix Wing Moth Emperors, immediately activated the high-grade magic tool night-walking clothes’ invisibility power, and vanished, fleeing toward another direction in the night curtain.
Li Ling held the Nether Lantern, its light shifting from blue to dim, then her whole person blending into the night.
Of course they didn’t think this would shake off the Iron Clothes Army pursuers, as the ground traces couldn’t be erased in time.
But when the pursuers had to slowly search for ground traces to proceed, how could they catch up?
Two hours later.
Li Weiyi and Li Ling had penetrated hundreds of li deep into Mang Mountain Range, their body’s magic energy and mind power nearly exhausted. Fortunately, the pursuers’ auras behind were completely gone, evidently having temporarily shaken them off.
Taking this opportunity, Li Weiyi released the seven Phoenix Wing Moth Emperors, letting them clamp and carry the two off the ground for a stretch, thus breaking the ground traces.
They continued onward.
The peaks in the mountain range grew increasingly majestic and towering, like giant statues, their summits completely submerged in clouds.
In the sky, harsh cries occasionally sounded as huge flocks of departed spirit bone birds flew overhead. One could imagine that even flying deformed humanoid race martial cultivators, if penetrating this deep, absolutely wouldn’t dare fly above the treetops.
The forest ground was thick with yin energy, with large numbers of stone horses, stone tigers, stone figurines, stone tablets… Every few steps, terrifying sounds emanated from the darkness.
Sometimes rapid running footsteps, sometimes children’s laughter, or a woman’s murmurs.
Li Weiyi and Li Ling slowed their pace, desperately recovering magic energy and mind power, converging their auras as much as possible.
The cat-sized Zou Wu leaped and ran at Li Ling’s feet, occasionally stopping to bare its teeth and hiss into the darkness, looking fierce.
Mang Mountain Range depths teemed with departed spirit fiend demons; this was no strange matter. With Li Weiyi’s current Five Seas Realm cultivation, he wasn’t afraid of ordinary evil things, far bolder than before.
Both were taciturn, completely unlike their former laughing and cursing.
Free from falsehood, returning to truth.
Li Weiyi broke the silence, saying, “I’ve heard that every mountain peak in Mang Mountain Range is an emperor’s tomb, burying many ancient heavenly emperors. Is that true?”
Li Ling was preoccupied, her pretty face grave: “There’s that saying! Supposedly, all heavenly emperor-level powerhouses of Yingzhou since ancient times would bury themselves in Mang Mountain Range. Because it’s near Blood Sea and Departed Spirit Fog Domain where otherworld coffins gather, it’s a world-famous extreme yin land. Being buried here offers a chance to reverse life and death.”
“Of course the legends are exaggerated; it’s impossible for every peak to be an ancient heavenly emperor tomb. Digging such a tomb rashly, even a Longevity Realm powerhouse might suffer calamity.”
“In fact, many peaks in Mang Mountain Range have been hollowed out by tomb raiders, with remarkable burials, but not reaching ancient heavenly emperor level.”
Both had magic energy radiance flowing in their legs, stepping two or three zhang per stride.
They arrived at a mid-mountain area with open terrain. Li Weiyi stood at the cliff edge, gazing toward Yaoguan City direction.
The sky was dim, yin energy steaming between the trees.
“By my calculation, it should be dawn, so why is the entire sky covered in dark clouds, with no light visible?”
Li Weiyi felt the terror of Mang Mountain Range depths; the celestial phenomena here were completely different from outside. Being in it made his mood suppressed and stifled, only wanting to leave quickly.
Li Ling pointed behind him: “Look over there!”
Li Weiyi turned to look.
Hundreds of li away, an extremely grand mountain range lay like a giant dragon, stretching east-west.
From ground to mountaintop height was probably six or seven thousand meters, like a black barrier at heaven and earth’s end, blocking all sight.
The dark clouds overhead still had faint brightness, but the cloud layer over that distant mountain range was pitch black, like impenetrable black cloth.
Li Ling said, “I’ve never been to the depths of Mang Mountain Range. But that should be the final mountain ridge of Mang Mountain Range, the last defensive line of that great battle a thousand years ago. Crossing it leads out of Lingxiao Life Realm into the boundless Nether Realm of the Dead.”
“It’s said that a thousand years ago, the other side of the mountain range was also a Jiu Li prefecture called Yun Prefecture.”
“According to those elders who crossed the mountains to Departed Spirit Market for transactions, Yun Prefecture is completely shrouded in darkness, its former villages and market towns reduced to desolate ruins. Former cities, due to Heaven Earth Spring existence allowing growth of various precious medicines, have been occupied by departed spirits and fiend demons, turning into ghost cities and demon domains.”
“Yun Prefecture has no human traces; only some powerful cultivators dare venture into the darkness to former prefectural cities or sect ruins, seeking treasures and classics lost for a thousand years.”
“This San Chen Palace Iron Clothes Army troop probably borrowed passage from Yun Prefecture, circling from the other side of the mountains to Yaoguan City, descending like heavenly soldiers and catching us off guard.”
In Li Weiyi’s mind appeared the image of Governor Zhu Qin Feng of Yan Prefecture who died underground in Jiu Li Insect Valley. He asked, “What about Yan Prefecture then?”
Li Ling wasn’t very clear and uncertainly said, “Yan Prefecture seems to be even further west of Yun Prefecture.”
