Chapter 39: Chan Sea Mistview’s Choice
“Could it be… shouldn’t we probe?”
There wasn’t a trace of the cold air and chill from when Li Ling killed the Earth Wolf King Army soldiers in Zangxian Town on her body, and she continued, “To join the Cang Li Tribe, one must have a clean identity and upright character. Don’t be angry, okay? You have so many magic tools on you, and I didn’t touch them, right? If I had acted when I was pretending to faint earlier, you wouldn’t have had much defense, would you?”
“So, for friends who have lived and died together, my character is still decent.”
“By the way, why did you save me earlier and drag me ashore? Do you like me?”
Li Weiyi was speechless and walked away quickly.
He always felt there was something off about Li Ling, a familiar feeling he couldn’t quite pinpoint, but her cultivation was too high, so he couldn’t investigate, and he just wanted to keep his distance.
“Don’t go, you haven’t answered me yet! In the Departed Spirit Fog Domain, only someone with commoner bloodline can lead the way safely. Going deep inside is very dangerous.” Li Ling said.
Li Weiyi had heard this from Zhao Zhizhuo, but he had a reason to return to the Blood Sea, no matter the danger.
If he didn’t go back, everyone on the bronze ship would just be waiting to die.
Li Ling jogged to catch up with him: “I have to tell you the truth. After being hit by the stone monkey flying needles, I rushed into that desolate house where you were hiding, and indeed I wanted to drag you onto the same boat. But what I analyzed in Zangxian Town wasn’t wrong, right? In that situation, the two of us—together we live, apart we die.”
“It’s no longer important!”
Li Weiyi deliberately exposed his back to her, testing if she really had no interest in the magic tools.
She didn’t attack or steal, which plunged Li Weiyi into deep confusion, completely unable to guess her purpose in chasing after him.
Li Ling was barefoot, her jade feet stepping on gravel and thorns, keeping pace right beside Li Weiyi: “In Zangxian Town, you have to know that anyone in my dire situation would make the same choice. Moreover, at that time, I just saw you as a little thief who deceived my brother and plotted against him.”
“It’s different now. You’re actually a pretty good person.”
“How about we be friends? Later in the Cang Li Tribe, I’ll cover for you. If we encounter the same situation again, I’ll let you go first, and I’ll stay behind to cover the retreat.”
Li Weiyi stopped and stared at her.
Li Ling blinked her lively eyes, her eyelashes trembling, and said, “You dragged me ashore, and you’ve saved the Cang Li Tribe… your character is absolutely fine. With your current Five Springs cultivation, I can help you find a decent position in Jiu Li City, marry you to a beautiful wife. I have a cousin who’s eight days away from turning sixteen. Come with me to her coming-of-age ceremony and see if you hit it off. Entering the Cang Li tribal school is fine, but Jiu Li Dao Academy might be a bit difficult!”
“Young Lady Li, stop following me. I’ve already felt your good intentions. I still prefer your cold demeanor. Why don’t you revert to that?”
Li Weiyi really couldn’t tell how much of her words were true and how much false, and he secretly decided that once he met up with his senior disciple brother and the others, he absolutely couldn’t go to the Cang Li Tribe. Thinking of that glance she gave him from the eaves, thinking of her chopping people like cutting vegetables, the current her gave Li Weiyi a very unreal feeling.
As for Gao Huan…
He had a pure immortal body; the Cang Li Tribe surely wouldn’t mistreat him.
Li Ling said, “You’re planning to go to the Blood Sea Coffin Dock? Your companions are all over there? Those magic tools of yours aren’t all from opening blind coffins, are they?”
“Swish!”
Li Weiyi mobilized his magic power and shot forward rapidly.
“Already impatient?”
Blue mist light marks flowed over Li Ling’s feet as she chased after him at an even faster speed.
You chase me, I chase you, rushing dozens of miles.
Li Weiyi slowed down and noticed the surroundings gradually becoming eerie. In the forest, many motionless human figures appeared, standing in the mist, all turning their heads to stare at him.
They had no vitality, some by the riverbank, some in the bushes.
It was too creepy; Li Weiyi’s back felt a chill.
“Don’t wander around anymore. If we go further, I might not even be able to bring you back.”
Li Ling reached out and grabbed him.
Li Weiyi was puzzled: “When you go to the Blood Sea for coffin scooping, don’t you follow the Sui River out?”
Seeing Li Weiyi finally willing to talk to her calmly after hitting a wall, Li Ling couldn’t help but smile: “It’s not that simple! The Departed Spirit Fog Domain may only be two hundred miles wide, but it’s one of the few forbidden zones in the entire Lingxiao Life Realm. The internal space is very chaotic and constantly changing.”
“Following the Sui River, you won’t reach the Blood Sea; you’ll only end up in the even more dangerous Nether Realm of the Dead.”
“In the Jiu Li tribe, only the nine priests’ disciples—less than a hundred Nether Lantern Guide Envoys in total—can find the way through the Departed Spirit Fog Domain.”
“You?” Li Weiyi said.
“Mm!”
Li Ling nodded proudly: “Every year, many people get lost in the Departed Spirit Fog Domain and the Nether Realm of the Dead. Yesterday, we encountered two lost women, one of whom was a pure immortal body.”
“What do they look like?” Li Weiyi asked hurriedly.
Li Ling said, “The pure immortal body, of course, is beautiful like a heavenly immortal, but like Gao Huan, with no cultivation traces. The other one was in red clothes, with a white bone wind chime tied to her waist.”
“Where are they?” Li Weiyi said.
Li Ling had been closely watching Li Weiyi’s expressions and laughed, “I guessed it—the two demon women who bewitched my brother are with your group. One test, and it’s clear! You must have obtained some exotic treasure, right? Otherwise, why would two people consecutively undergo pure immortal body metamorphosis?”
Li Weiyi suddenly understood her purpose in chasing him and probed, “You’re not a pure immortal body, are you? I can feel that although your skin is flawless, like immortal spirit forming the shell, there’s an essential difference from the young tribe leader and Gao Huan, but I can’t pinpoint what it is.”
Li Ling was stung by Li Weiyi’s words, hesitated for a moment, then said bitterly, “I can only count as a half immortal body; I didn’t complete the full metamorphosis. The fundamental difference between half immortal body and pure immortal body is the bones—having only flesh and blood without immortal bones.”
Li Weiyi thought that if she drank Golden Crow Blood, she’d probably metamorphose into a pure immortal body.
But did she really see him as a friend who had lived and died together?
Until he saw through her, Li Weiyi couldn’t treat her as a friend.
Li Ling said very sincerely, “Let me take you to the Blood Sea shore. Without my help, you won’t make it! See these departed spirits? They’re the weakest, with almost no attack power. But if you encounter blood-colored fierce souls or fiend demons like the thousand-headed dragon vine, your chances of survival are minuscule.”
“What conditions?” Li Weiyi asked.
Li Ling said, “No conditions, I just ask that you harbor no more resentment… Mm, consider it what this young lady owes you from Zangxian Town.”
Li Weiyi was half-believing: “Fine! If you take me to the Blood Sea, our grudges are settled. Xie Jin keeps his word. Which direction?”
Li Ling suddenly sat on a moss-covered stone, hand pressing the wound on her abdomen: “I’m too badly injured; I’m afraid I can’t walk.”
…
Li Weiyi carried Li Ling forward through the fog domain.
Her figure was very slender, but unusually heavy, and…
“You weren’t hit by the stone monkey flying needles at all!” Li Weiyi felt no stiffness in her body, only softness and elasticity, whether from his hands or his back.
Li Ling held a nether lantern in one hand and draped the other around Li Weiyi’s neck, her voice crisp, pleasant, and lazily comfortable: “I was! But I carried secret medicine, and after taking it, the stone poison was neutralized.”
“Is there any truth in what you say?” Li Weiyi said.
Li Ling said, “My master said that a girl alone outside must learn to protect herself. Tell only seven parts of words to people, feel only three parts of emotion.”
The Nether Lantern Guide Envoys indeed had real skills; the path was very winding, sometimes requiring long detours. But from start to finish, they encountered no danger. Just as Li Weiyi was almost losing his sense of direction, he faintly heard waves in his ears.
He quickened his pace and soon exited the fog forest, the view ahead instantly opening up.
Reaching the seaside, a bloody and decaying smell hit them.
On the blood-colored ocean floated densely packed coffins of all sizes, piled like mountains.
The shore was littered with paper money, empty coffins, and broken bones; in the distance, yin mist stretched endlessly, with no sea-sky boundary line visible, naturally no bronze ship either.
Dozens of feet to the right was an ancient, dilapidated ferry terminal, its blue stone dragon-carved archway still standing tall. A long, straight stone-paved causeway extended from the ferry terminal toward the deep sea, disappearing into the mist.
Li Weiyi set Li Ling down, a surge of strong joy rising in his heart—he was about to see his senior disciple brother and the others again. His senior disciple brother could be considered his only remaining family in this world.
But at the same time, an urgent desire to become stronger welled up; otherwise, after picking up the scientific expedition team members and boarding the ship, how would they survive? If he went to the Cang Li Tribe, he felt he’d be firmly in Li Ling’s grasp, a stifling sense of depending on others.
If he now had Seven Springs strength, or even broke through Feng Fu and Zu Tian, not only couldn’t Li Ling do anything to him, but even the elders of the Cang Li Tribe would probably recruit him like they did Gao Huan.
“Splash!”
Li Weiyi rushed toward the ferry terminal, boarded the causeway, and sped toward the deep sea.
“Xie Jin, you… seeking death?”
She hurriedly lowered her voice, not daring to speak loudly, and stopped at the ferry terminal edge upon chasing over.
Every time they came to the Blood Sea for coffin scooping with tribe members, they had to scatter paper money, light incense sticks, offer offerings—none of the rituals could be skipped. Most importantly, no loud noises, and absolutely no boarding the causeway or venturing deep into the Blood Sea.
The tribe elders had warned that otherworld coffins floating to the Blood Sea Coffin Dock were either sinister or extraordinary; the vast majority were abnormal.
A slight misstep could stir up things they couldn’t provoke.
She had heard too many stories about the Blood Sea Coffin Dock. Watching Li Weiyi disappear into the mist, she didn’t dare chase, and asked, “Senior, pursue?”
“Splash!”
Li Ling’s back burned hot, blood mist filled the air, and a nearly jade-materialized white bone stepped out from her body.
Zen Sea Observing Mist’s long hair danced in the wind, some flesh and blood already growing on the bones. Gazing at the eerie, gray-misted Coffin Sea, she sighed, “Forget it!”
Li Ling’s vitality drained severely, her face pale and weak: “This junior doesn’t understand. Earlier on his back, such a good opportunity—why didn’t senior act?”
“Because of hesitation!”
Zen Sea Observing Mist couldn’t explain too much to her.
Forcibly taking Li Weiyi’s blood and soul spirit to complete the Sun Marriage Ritual would put her in a dominant position in their relationship henceforth. Just like Li Weiyi marrying into her family.
This was the scenario she most wanted!
But doing so, if Li Weiyi’s cultivation surpassed hers in the future, the backlash would be extremely severe.
Having her lower her stance to beg Li Weiyi, to have him give large amounts of blood and soul spirit for the Sun Marriage Ritual, was a hurdle in her heart she couldn’t pass.
The so-called “Sun Marriage” was the exclusive bloodline energy of that ancient clan, allowing the departed to live a second life and walk the cultivation path again by marrying back to the Yang Realm.
The price was becoming the wife or husband of that ancient clan’s descendant.
Before the ritual’s completion, it was based on the departed’s will.
Thus, Zen Sea Observing Mist could choose to forcibly complete the Sun Marriage Ritual, but Li Weiyi could not. In that tomb on the bronze ship, she had forced herself on him, injecting one of her soul thoughts into his brow, but the ritual was only half-complete when Li Weiyi broke free and escaped.
Similarly, the guardian wives or husbands sought by ancient clan descendants in infancy were based on the guardian’s will.
But once the ritual was complete, the ancient clan descendant would have stronger say.
For example, if the ancient clan descendant died, the Yang Giver must die. But if the Yang Giver fell, it had minimal impact on the ancient clan descendant.
Or, the Yang Giver must stay within a certain range of the ancient clan descendant; the allowable distance increased with their rising cultivation.
To reverse life and death, the price naturally wouldn’t be small.
Zen Sea Observing Mist had ambitions to reverse death and climb back to the peak of cultivation. But being controlled by Li Weiyi went against her inner pride and ambitions.
“Perhaps try making friends first, see if he’s truly worth entrusting. When the time is ripe, open up and talk it over. Being nominal spouses but actual close friends or allies—isn’t that a better way to help each other?” Zen Sea Observing Mist thought of a compromise.
So far, Li Weiyi’s impression on her was not bad.
In Li Weiyi’s eyes, she was already labeled a white bone demon; with preconceptions, friendly interaction was hard. She needed a new identity, which was one reason she chose Li Ling as her vessel.
As for Qi Shanshan, Zen Sea Observing Mist had left a soul thought, unlocking her wisdom, so there shouldn’t be any slip-ups.
“Da! Da! Da…”
Sudden rapid footsteps came from the forest.
Moments later, three figures appeared at the Blood Sea shore. Leading was Yan Qingqing. It was she who, with her unparalleled sense of smell, tracked the path Li Weiyi and Li Ling had taken to find this place.
Shi Jiuzhai had issued a death order; they had no choice. No matter how dangerous the Departed Spirit Fog Domain, they had to brave it.
