Chapter 282: Entering The Underground Immortal Manor
Li Weiyi looked at the time cocoon that had become extremely faint and immediately recalled the Dao Ancestor Tai Chi Fish hovering above his head, left the blood mud space, and returned to the room.
He peered through the gaps in the door and window; the sky had already brightened.
Tuoba Butuo’s voice rang out from outside: “Brother Weiyi, it’s already Chen hour; we must depart on time at the third quarter of Chen hour.”
Li Weiyi put away the formation flags and responded to him.
Tuoba Butuo’s footsteps faded away, and Li Weiyi fell into contemplation: “Only Chen hour? How is that possible?”
When he arrived at Qifeng Ancient County City last night, the sky was already completely dark, very late.
Returning from Tang Wanzhou’s camp tent, it was at least Zi hour.
“I entered the blood mud space, all in all, only four hours.”
“In the calamity fire realm, refining one Star Day Pill takes at least three days. Even reaching the Spirit Mind Master realm, with refining speed two or three times faster than before, it would still take at least one day. But now, I have clearly completely refined the Star Day Pill I swallowed… Where is the problem?”
“The time cocoon?”
Li Weiyi looked inward at his Spirit Realm.
The Mind Power Star had not only fully recovered but had also grown larger, brighter.
Li Weiyi let out a long sigh, temporarily suppressing various doubtful thoughts, put the Seven Little Ones into the insect bag, wore the governor’s official robe inside, the blood handprint demonic armor as middle layer, and draped outside the second-grade Hundred Character Artifact Battle Robe removed from Zuo Shi’s corpse.
He wrapped the Yellow Dragon Sword in black cloth and carried it on his back.
With everything prepared, he walked out of the room, following the scent of meat to eat breakfast first.
After eating, Li Weiyi met up with Tuoba Butuo, came to the open ground outside the camp tent, and selected mounts.
The Tan Zhou Tuoba Clan had unique skills in beast taming and rearing.
Tuoba Butuo selected a two-meter-long fire fox for Li Weiyi and explained: “The fire fox’s size is not as large as other exotic beasts, but in underground spaces, it is the most practical, not only fast, but also superior in reaction, jumping, and sensitivity to danger compared to those big fellows.”
“Of course, even so, it is just a means of transport. If we really encounter danger, we still have to rely on ourselves.”
On the open ground outside the camp tent.
The martial cultivators gradually gathered, no one daring to be late.
They were all taciturn, half of them over sixty years old, but appearing only forty or fifty.
Tang Wanzhou walked out of the camp tent, dressed in dark men’s clothing, wearing metal arm guards and leg guards, her figure tall and straight, with extraordinary bearing, space qi flow circulating around her.
After a few words of instruction, she mounted a three-meter-long three-tailed snow fox and led the thirty-seven riders grandly toward the entrance of the underground immortal mansion.
The loud hoofbeats stirred up rolling dust, alarming the people and horses from various powers in Qifeng Ancient County City.
Every move of Snow Sword Tang Court attracted attention under heaven.
“That young lord of the Northern Territory is going to probe the Eighth Path again; who knows what she discovered inside to be so obsessed.”
“It is said that to enter deep into the Eighth Path, Snow Sword Tang Court has already lost quite a few masters.”
“Previously, they entered in small groups, no more than ten people. This time, the scale is huge, with masters like clouds; either they have great confidence, or they seek something great.”
“How about… following them? Maybe we can pick up some scraps?”
The crowd stirred, all having great confidence in Tang Wanzhou, this young lord.
Greed overcame reason, so they all followed.
Two old men with identical appearances, short and thin, with scythes at their waists, appeared at the city gate, exchanged a glance, and revealed eerie smiles in their eyes.
In the next instant, they vanished together with the bloody wind and sand.
…
The barren wilderness had only dense grave mounds and tombstones.
Over the past half year, the ground had been trampled by countless martial cultivators and exotic beasts, with not a blade of grass growing, like a Gobi desert.
A ground crack over a hundred li long appeared before Li Weiyi, dozens of zhang deep, with cliff faces; it was unimaginable that this was the destructive power caused by the Transcendent Great War.
He carefully sensed.
He could detect the Transcendent power fluctuations that had not completely dissipated even now.
“Rumble!”
Tang Wanzhou was the first to stop at the cliff edge, gazing at the endless ground crack before her, her eyes revealing longing light, and boldly said: “Qilin Zhuang tore the earth with a supreme magic tool, his combat power unmatched under heaven. At that time, this lord could also do it, surpassing it.”
“Let’s go, down!”
The Thirty-Eight Riders reached the bottom of the ground crack and ran another dozens of li, where many giant stones appeared in the soil.
Some giant stones were stele-shaped, engraved with ancient script.
Others were stone pillars, stone gates, stone horses, stone tigers… the largest were over ten zhang high, majestic and grand. Li Weiyi, coming to the underground immortal mansion for the first time, felt greatly shocked.
Here was nearly a hundred meters from the ground.
The buildings became denser and more orderly, with stone steps appearing, and huge bronze beams.
The bronze beams were embedded in soil and rock, rust-stained, extremely ancient, and ubiquitous.
Beside him, Tuoba Butuo told Li Weiyi: “When this place was first discovered, there were still many jade stone pillars, lapis lazuli tiles, black silver Buddha statues, black iron Buddha shrines… everything valuable was completely looted!”
Along the way, they encountered martial cultivators from major powers, who all retreated upon seeing Snow Sword Tang Court’s team.
Upon formally entering underground, the light suddenly dimmed.
Each mount had a fist-sized stone lamp hanging from its neck, illuminating the passage.
Li Weiyi, Tuoba Butuo, and another four Spirit Mind Masters closely followed behind Tang Wanzhou, at the front.
The outer area of the underground immortal mansion had long been cleared out, so everyone was relaxed, with no tense atmosphere.
Li Weiyi was still pondering last night’s bizarre events: “Even if the time cocoon is truly extremely profound, it requires powerful mind power to weave. Otherwise, lasting only one or two days, what use is it?”
“I added sixteen thousand magic energies; even going to Tanggu Sea and using the Fusang Divine Tree for quenching, it would take three months to fully cultivate the Sixth Sea, then begin the Seventh Sea.”
“If I activate the pale green fish eye in Tanggu Sea, with the two combined, would it be faster?”
“Still need to quickly boost mind power first; otherwise, activating it once nearly collapses the Mind Power Star.”
“If I become a Two-Star Spirit Mind Master, perhaps I can maintain the time cocoon longer.”
Thinking of this, Li Weiyi took out a Star Day Pill and swallowed it openly.
Even with the magic tool battle robe covering, large swaths of bright light still surged wildly from his skin.
“Little friend Li, what you took was a Star Day Pill?”
An elderly voice rang out beside him.
Li Weiyi looked over.
It was the Number One Mind Master of the Shan Li tribe, old man Shan Ze. His mount was a blue-eyed golden tiger brought from Li Zhou, raised for a Jia Zi, with combat power comparable to a Dao Seed Realm demonic beast, extremely powerful aura.
Among the Jiu Li tribe members Li Weiyi knew, like Hidden Lord, Li Songlin, Cang Li, Yin Nine, Yao Xingyue… almost all were upright, so he naturally had goodwill toward Shan Ze.
There was nothing to hide.
With the other’s mind power attainment, daring to ask meant he had some certainty.
Li Weiyi said: “Does Senior Shan Ze also know Star Day Pills?”
A smile appeared on old man Shan Ze’s round fat face: “This is a good thing, a high-grade dharma pill, but the pill formula is held by the Imperial Court; only available at high price in the Underworld Market and from the Imperial Court’s Transcendent great clans. It is said one Star Day Pill costs eleven or twelve thousand Spring Coins.”
“What? How much?”
Li Weiyi exclaimed in shock, realized his gaffe, and quickly lowered his voice: “That expensive?”
Shan Ze said: “This is a high-grade dharma pill! With your One-Star Spirit Mind Master’s mind power attainment, just three pills can expand the Mind Power Star to its limit, gaining the conditions to impact Two-Star Spirit Mind Master. Other One-Star Spirit Mind Masters would take at least two or three years for this process.”
Li Weiyi’s heart ached, and he slapped his thigh hard.
Back then, for Nine Calamity Fire Refinements, swallowing nine Star Day Pills in a row equaled eating a million Spring Coins.
No wonder Spirit Tablet Master said at the time that using high-grade dharma pills for calamity fire cultivation was a serious waste.
What left him even more speechless was swallowing another Star Day Pill last night to recover mind power, wasting over a hundred thousand Spring Coins in vain.
Not counting the one just swallowed, he only had nine left.
From now on, each one must be used on the blade.
“Old Li must pay money; Li Ling took away eight, worth nearly a million.” Li Weiyi thought to himself.
Hearing Shan Ze say Li Weiyi was already a Spirit Mind Master, immediately, gazes of surprise came from the team.
They all knew the various jokes about this Jiu Li Hidden Sect’s Hidden Person being crippled, who would have thought he had made a comeback, taking a new path in mind power.
No wonder he risked traveling with them old generation figures; definitely for the Spirit Platform Blazing Star Stone fragments.
Shan Ze transmitted with mind power, sighing: “Your Jiu Li Hidden Sect’s energy is truly great; you can obtain any cultivation resources. Little friend Li, does the Hidden Sect have Transcendents?”
Though Li Weiyi had goodwill toward Shan Ze, it was not trust.
Any power surely has mixed elements.
Even Zuo Qiu Gatehouse governed by Confucian Dao propriety had ungrateful greedy sorts like Zuo Qiu Cang Wu and Zuo Qiu Qingying. The Jiu Li tribe had long been seriously infiltrated, naturally requiring more caution.
Li Weiyi sighed: “I am just a junior; how could I know such secrets? Don’t think being a Hidden Person means anything; in fact, I haven’t seen many Hidden Sect elders. And from what I know, the Jiu Li Hidden Sect has several Hidden Persons; Li Jiufu and Li Jiao from the Hidden Dragon Lantern Festival were both Hidden Persons.”
Yin Nine and Yin Eleven came from Jiu Li Hidden Sect; it was no secret.
Shan Ze nodded lightly: “Those two are indeed extraordinary, actually able to communicate with the Jiu Li God; Hidden Persons live up to the name. Your Hidden Sect is still superior; unlike the Nine Great Tribes, who over so many years have only cultivated one Cang Li.”
…
Walking along the underground passage for over a dozen li, the terrain gradually opened up.
Before them appeared a grand palace complex brightly lit with lamps, valuables all looted, but just from the copper walls weighing over ten million jin each, its former glory and prosperity could be seen.
The formations in the main hall had been broken, allowing straight entry.
The mounts entered the main hall gate, and Li Weiyi immediately felt a strong space fluctuation. The heaven and earth energy aura changed accordingly, with ancient Zen chanting Buddhist chants entering the ears.
His chest felt scalding hot.
Li Weiyi did not dare take it out.
He could guess it was definitely the Buddha’s Sarira on the Tai Chi Fish, sensing something and glowing hot.
Li Weiyi feigned calm and asked: “Is this considered formally entering the underground immortal mansion? Entering the legendary ancient immortal’s Feng Fu? The Ancient Bhakara Sect’s Ancestor Court?”
Tuoba Butuo nodded: “This is the entrance main hall, enshrining the Bhakara Buddha Ancestor Statue; the entrances to over a hundred passages are all distributed in the hall.”
“Did you hear any sounds?” Li Weiyi asked.
Tuoba Butuo was slightly stunned and listened carefully: “Slaughter and fighting? That’s normal; whether entering or exiting the underground immortal mansion, all must pass through this entrance main hall. Some old guys with strong cultivation hide their identities and specifically hunt martial cultivators nearby coming out, robbing treasures.”
“No need to worry; seeing the young lord, they will flee like startled birds.”
What Li Weiyi referred to was naturally not this; he asked no more and followed Tang Wanzhou into the several qing-sized hall. That overwhelming grandeur hitting the face caused great impact to his heart; he had never seen such architecture.
The hundred-zhang-high Bhakara Buddha Ancestor Statue towered ahead like a mountain peak.
