Chapter 292: Seventh Sea, Assassination
The lowest layer is the Asura Layer, with many places being undeveloped areas, filled with fierce insects and departed spirits, and countless unknown dangers.
Ku Rong Hall and Divine Prison are built in the Asura Layer.
Heavenly Principle Hall is the chief of the four halls, located at the northernmost part of the twenty-eight prefectures in the Mortal Layer, built against the mountain, with buildings layered one upon another, covering the entire mountain body.
From afar, layers of buildings and formations block the entire view, very grand and magnificent.
Most of the buildings here are remnants left by the Ancient Bhakara Sect, with obvious Buddhist characteristics.
The shaft leading to the Sacred Heart Layer is located on the mountain peak.
Fourth Divine Son Wang Shu arrived at Heavenly Principle Hall and bowed to a stone statue with a snake head, dragon claws, phoenix wings, dog tail, and human body at the center of the spacious Great Hall.
“Reporting to Master, my younger brother’s remnant soul sensed his aura. The sword he holds must be the Divine Snow Sword.”
“According to the information this disciple investigated, Li Weiyi entered the Underground Immortal Mansion together with Tang Wanzhou.”
“This disciple went to Divine Prison and personally interrogated the prisoners who traveled with Tang Wanzhou. Li Weiyi was indeed taken away by Southern Venerable. Now it can almost be confirmed that the person who fled into Southern Clear Palace is Jiu Li Hidden Sect’s Hidden Person, Li Weiyi.”
“This disciple is extremely puzzled. Li Weiyi opposes the Divine Cult everywhere. At the Hidden Dragon Lantern Festival, he killed more than twenty Five Seas Realm heavenly prodigies of the Divine Cult. Dao Seed Realm’s Wang Shouxin, Wang Zhi, and Zuo Shi all died by his hand. The Divine Cult’s intelligence system in Qiu Prefecture City suffered heavy losses.”
“For such a person, not only was he not imprisoned in Divine Prison, but he can also freely enter and exit Southern Clear Palace. How chilling for the deceased cult members.”
“Everyone in the world says he is already crippled! But whether he is crippled or not can only be known after investigation.”
The statue’s eyes opened, and the entire Great Hall turned into an ocean of light rain: “You want to obtain the seven strange insects in his hand?”
“Yes!”
Fourth Divine Son was very calm and added: “I also very much want to seize that ghost flag on him and offer it to Master. Of course, what I want most is to eliminate the hidden danger for the Divine Cult and avenge the deceased cult members.”
The statue let out a laugh: “Southern Venerable Yao Qingxuan is from the Jiu Li tribe and protecting Jiu Li Hidden Sect’s Hidden Person is a matter within reason. But protecting a murderer who killed countless rice person geniuses is truly not something a Venerable should do. Wang Shu, you fear no power and think only of the Divine Cult’s future. Go ahead boldly without worry.”
With Master’s support, Fourth Divine Son was overjoyed inside, his gaze calm: “But after he hid in Southern Clear Palace, he hasn’t come out again, which is quite tricky. This disciple dares not barge into Southern Clear Palace.”
The statue said: “Your younger brother died by his hand. From a personal emotional standpoint, no matter how extreme your actions, the Divine Cult’s various Elders can understand and will certainly stand by our own Divine Son.”
“Moreover, Southern Venerable made a mistake in this mission. Whether she can keep her Venerable position is still unknown, and she probably can’t afford to concern herself with Li Weiyi.”
Fourth Divine Son’s personality was cautious, not wanting to offend Southern Venerable too badly: “I think it would be better to force him out of Southern Clear Palace and then capture him. Conveniently, the Divine Cult has quite a few hostages in hand, locked in Divine Prison and tortured, or using their blood to irrigate the rice paddies—it’s too lenient on them.”
The statue said: “Since you have your own ideas, act accordingly! Additionally, you must intensify your cultivation. That woman from the Yang Family is said to be sprinting full force toward the third realm of Dao Seed Realm, completing in one year the path you took seven or eight years.”
“Sikong Jingyuan and Sikong Yanlun are also about to return from training in the Nether Realm of the Dead, with reportedly great advances in cultivation.”
“If you do not quickly condense a Dao Lotus, in half a year or a year, your ranking among the Divine Sons and Divine Daughters will likely be in an awkward position.”
Fourth Divine Son’s gaze darkened: “As long as I seize the larvae of the seven Marquis-level strange insects, this disciple’s status in the cult will surely rise to just below that of the Divine Son Chief Seat. Li Weiyi, this disciple will definitely capture him.”
……
Li Weiyi completely ignored the outside matters and immersed himself in cultivation. Accumulation in the Five Seas Realm is a long process every martial cultivator must go through.
In the blink of an eye, two months had passed.
With the help of the time cocoon, his actual cultivation time had at least doubled.
Standing in the Blood Mud Space, he struck out a casual palm without using any technique, immediately producing a dragon’s roar.
The palm force caused the air to explode.
The qi imprint in the shape of five fingers flew more than ten zhang before completely dissipating.
“The remaining two pieces of dragon bone: one refined into the palm bone of the left hand, one into the palm bone of the right hand.”
Li Weiyi moved his hands, feeling his palms unusually heavy, as if weighted with thousand-jin iron. In the short term, it was hard to resolve this discomfort.
But the increase in power was very obvious.
The item taken out by Du’e Temple as a reward was naturally extraordinary, claimed to allow a Five Seas Realm martial cultivator to contend with a Dao Seed Realm martial cultivator after refining one piece.
One year had passed since the Hidden Dragon Lantern Festival.
Li Weiyi had never stopped body cultivation.
After achieving Dao Body, in the past year, he had refined one jin of immortal soil and quite a bit of divine stove wood, doubling both his physical body power and strength.
Without breaking through to Dao Seed Realm, without essential metamorphosis in life force, the speed at which his physical body absorbed immortal soil grew slower and more difficult.
Jar Master had said that to cultivate a “Longevity Body” capable of clashing head-on with Longevity Realm giants using the physical body alone, about ten jin of immortal soil needed to be refined.
Without breaking through Dao Seed Realm, two jin of immortal soil was Li Weiyi’s current limit.
The divine stove wood used for refining tendons and shaping skin faced the same predicament; the body could hardly absorb more.
It was precisely because he was trapped in the shackles of body cultivation that Li Weiyi refined the two pieces of dragon bone to enhance his strength.
What gave him even more headache was.
Cultivation in the Seventh Sea had reached a stalemate with no spring fluid left.
The 50,000 drops of spring fluid previously purchased had used 36,000 drops for cultivating Feng Fu. Now with Seventh Sea Zu Tian expanded to 14,000 mu, the spring fluid was completely depleted.
The remaining Dao Fruit also had little magic energy left inside.
Li Weiyi thought of the market town he had visited before: “There, perhaps spring fluid can be purchased, but without a life token, leaving Southern Clear Palace is extremely dangerous.”
“Additionally, where does the money come from? This is a huge sum!”
Exiting the Blood Mud Space, Li Weiyi pondered how to raise money and walked out of the formation light gauze where the Buddhist Pagoda was located, heading toward the formation where the rice paddy was.
After several days of secluded cultivation, he was starving.
In his boundary bag, the food prepared in advance for entering the Underground Immortal Mansion was almost entirely consumed.
Only two months had passed in the real world, but for him, it had been four or five months in Southern Clear Palace. He really missed a bowl of hot soup. Yao Qingxuan was a longevity seeker who could go long periods without hunger or thirst; Southern Clear Palace simply had no meat food.
Walking in the dimly lit garden.
All around were white courtyard walls, black fake mountains, and purplish-red glowing ancient trees.
He had walked this path countless times and always felt Southern Clear Palace was very safe, without maintaining constant high-intensity vigilance.
Suddenly.
He sensed something abnormal.
He abruptly stopped, looking at the shadows of branches and leaves on the ground, feeling as if walking on water, with ripples like waves appearing underfoot.
“Who’s there?”
Heavenly Nerve spread out like a spider web.
Heavenly Eye opened at his brow, illuminating the entire garden as bright as day.
Li Weiyi’s hair stood on end, his back aching; without thinking, he knew he had already been struck once.
The opponent lurked in the shadows, skilled in concealment, seizing the moment of his inner thoughts for a killing blow.
But Li Weiyi wore Blood Handprint Demonic Armor, blocking the sneak attack.
“Bang!”
His internal organs shook violently, and his body was flung forward.
His physical body was already extremely tough, enduring the strike without heavy injury, only lightly wounded.
He would never give the opponent a chance to pursue. Magic energy surged madly from his body, activating the Blood Handprint Demonic Armor. Blood mist and blood-colored scriptures quickly dispersed, filling the entire garden.
During the process of being flung back, Li Weiyi forcefully twisted his body and saw the assailant’s figure with the Heavenly Eye.
The opponent was extremely fast, a mass of black mist holding a wooden sword covered in blood patterns, stabbing like lightning.
On that wooden sword, Li Weiyi sensed an unprecedented eerie aura.
He dared not touch it.
His right hand formed a sword finger and pointed out.
“Whoosh!”
Ci Hang Kai Guang Finger was majestic and domineering, turning into a beam of light that flew out and collided with the incoming wooden sword.
The wooden sword was deflected, and the black mist figure retreated repeatedly, emitting a low, pained roar.
Li Weiyi now had cultivated the Seventh Sea, refining sixth tier qi. The combat method intent light shadow behind him reached six zhang tall—no Five Seas Realm martial cultivator’s combat method intent could reach this height.
How could an ordinary Dao Seed Realm martial cultivator block this finger?
“What audacity, daring to intrude on Southern Venerable’s territory.”
After landing on the ground, Li Weiyi ignored his injuries. A beam of spiritual light turned into a fire whip from his brow. The whip was dozens of zhang long, carrying Golden Crow Flame, blindingly golden, and suddenly whipped at the black mist figure.
“Boom!”
The air exploded into flame.
Golden Crow Flame burned all the plants in the garden to ashes.
The black mist figure screamed in agony, flying out and crashing into a fake mountain, landing on the ground motionless.
Li Weiyi drew the Yellow Dragon Sword, his figure darting forward, sword finger aimed.
He saw the figure on the ground clearly.
He was slightly stunned.
It was actually a rice scarecrow, dressed in black, human-sized.
Because it had been struck by the Golden Crow Flame long whip earlier, the straw crackled and burned, quickly turning to ashes. In the ashes, at the heart position, there was a flash of blood light.
It was a fist-sized blood crystal, engraved with numerous runes.
“Crack!”
The blood crystal’s energy was exhausted and directly shattered into powder.
“No wonder it concealed itself without any aura—it was a rice scarecrow. For a single rice scarecrow to be strong enough to rival a Dao Seed Realm martial cultivator?”
Li Weiyi felt lingering fear.
If earlier it had stabbed not at his back but his head, that would have been terrifying.
The six Phoenix Wing Moth Emperors arrived upon hearing the noise, flying around him.
They six had grown considerably larger but hadn’t reached one chi, approaching that limit yet unable to break through.
“It’s a puppet rice scarecrow from Heavenly Principle Hall.”
Yao Qingxuan walked from the stone path, beautiful as if stepping out of a painting, coldly frosty, her gaze icy. She retrieved the blood-patterned wooden sword from afar into her hand and glanced at it: “Power of curse!”
Only then did Li Weiyi breathe a sigh of relief, his taut nerves easing slightly as he circulated magic energy to heal: “Heavenly Principle Hall? Senior Yao, you’re finally back. It seems Heavenly Principle Hall doesn’t have you this Venerable in their eyes?”
“If they truly dared not to regard me, the one coming to kill you in Southern Clear Palace wouldn’t be just a rice scarecrow!”
Yao Qingxuan added: “Still alive is good; it wasn’t in vain that I rushed back immediately upon hearing the news. Surviving the puppet rice scarecrow’s assassination shows your cultivation and strength have grown greatly again.”
Li Weiyi was surprised inside: “Senior came back specifically to save me?”
“Before Hall Master An left the headquarters, he said you could help the golden rice grow and instructed me to protect you thoroughly.”
Yao Qingxuan’s chill lingered, her fragrant sleeve flicking as she threw out the wooden sword in her hand.
“Whoosh!”
The wooden sword flew out of Southern Clear Palace, streaking across a hundred li of sky, piercing through Heavenly Principle Hall’s protective formation light gauze and embedding into the door of one of the Great Halls, the entire sword body sinking in.
Several figures rushed out from Heavenly Principle Hall, looking at the wooden sword, all exchanging glances.
“Yao Qingxuan can barely protect herself, unable to even catch a Tang Wanzhou, losing all face. Yet she remains so aggressive in protecting that kid thoroughly—truly interesting. Doesn’t she care about avoiding suspicion?” An astonished elderly voice sounded in Heavenly Principle Hall.
Southern Clear Palace.
Yao Qingxuan said: “This sword is a warning. Those old guys in Heavenly Principle Hall will know my stance. Those outside the rules won’t act against you, and no one will dare intrude into Southern Clear Palace again.”
Li Weiyi said: “Why does Heavenly Principle Hall want to kill me? What’s the difference between outside the rules and within?”
“Killing to repay life is within the rules. You killed quite a few Divine Cult masters; their kin seeking revenge from you—I can’t interfere! Of course, if among these kin some old guys act, I can help you take it.” Yao Qingxuan said.
Though Li Weiyi knew Yao Qingxuan was protecting him only because of the golden rice and An Xianjing, he still felt a warmth in his heart and sincerely bowed in thanks.
“These two months, have you seen Tang Wanzhou?” Yao Qingxuan suddenly asked, her gaze fixed on him.
