Chapter 66: God Of Jiuli
Those with combat power able to rank in the top ten of Seven Springs Hall, besides their own exceptional talent and strong strength, must also have magic tools at hand.
Magic tools are also part of strength.
Xue Zheng was naturally no exception; the four-foot ring-handled saber in his hand was a low-tier magic tool granted to him by the Yang Clan when they recruited him.
With the protection of this magic tool, even when struck by the lightning released from the Black Iron Seal, he did not completely lose his combat power. He lay on the ground, holding his saber on guard, his eyes deadlocked on Li Weiyi who was approaching with sword drawn, possessing the desperate fighting spirit of someone ready to fight to the death.
Li Weiyi wanted to step forward and deliver a fatal blow.
But arrows shot by Murong Xiao from afar flew in.
“Youngster, the debt you owe the Chang Lin Gang, this old man will personally collect.”
The drawn-out voice of Chang Lin Gang Deputy Gang Leader Tang Yan came from deep in the dense forest.
The terrifying qi energy of a Five Seas Realm expert made the leaves in the forest fly up one after another, surging forward like waves following his figure. The leaves, imbued with magic power like flying daggers, impacted into the tree bark.
“Your strength is not weak. Wait until I break through one more realm, then I’ll use you to test my sword.”
Li Weiyi tossed these words at Xue Zheng, immediately sheathed his sword, and fled southward.
Moments later.
It turned into a mass of pitch-black nether mist, accompanied by bell sounds rapidly receding into the distance.
Xue Zheng relaxed in his heart, exhaling a long breath; it had been too dangerous just now, he had already prepared himself psychologically to use his final ultimate technique for mutual destruction.
Among all opponents he had encountered in the Spring Gushing Realm, Li Weiyi was not the strongest, but he was the one who had pushed him to the most dangerous situation.
Break through one more realm?
“He wants to charge to Nine Springs Supreme Person?”
Xue Zheng naturally believed Li Weiyi was currently at the level of opening Eight Springs.
After all, Li Weiyi was neither a special deformed humanoid race nor a pure immortal body, just a mortal, and to have such combat power at Eight Springs Realm was already quite impressive.
Chang Lin Gang Deputy Gang Leader Tang Yan arrived.
Murong Xiao also gathered over.
Tang Yan glanced at Xue Zheng with his charred black arms and coldly questioned: “What happened? With you two’s strength, even joining hands you couldn’t deal with him?”
Murong Xiao said: “He very likely not only cultivates martial arts, but is also a mind master.”
Xue Zheng moved his painful and numb arms, unafraid of Tang Yan, and said indifferently: “He is very likely a successor seed of the Lei Xiao Sect, wielding a powerful lightning magic tool, and also an unknown escape magic tool that can produce bell sounds.”
He did not mention that space treasure.
“Lei Xiao Sect?”
Tang Yan’s expression changed slightly.
The Lei Xiao Sect was located in the Eastern Territory, one of the ten million sects of the Lingxiao Life Realm, possibly even the foremost.
Xue Zheng nodded: “Besides successor seeds cultivated by the ten million gateways and ten million sects, who in the Spring Gushing Realm could possess so many magic tools? Back then, Cang Li in the Spring Gushing Realm also wielded multiple magic tools for protection.”
The more Murong Xiao thought, the more she felt Xue Zheng’s analysis made sense, saying: “No wonder the Cang Li Tribe values him so much, no wonder at such a young age his combat power is so overwhelming. The Cang Li Tribe must have known his identity long ago!”
Tang Yan pondered for a moment, then his gaze turned icy cold: “So what if he’s a successor seed of the Lei Xiao Sect? Those ten million gateways and ten million sects cultivate multiple seeds like raising gu, only the final survivor becomes the true successor. Besides, if he dies in this Mang Mountain Range, who would know if he perished in the belly of an exotic beast or under the claws of a fiend demon?”
Xue Zheng was afraid Tang Yan wouldn’t dare provoke the Lei Xiao Sect, and immediately agreed: “Anyway, he never revealed his identity, who knows if he’s really a successor seed of the Lei Xiao Sect? The most important thing now is to carry out the Young Lady’s orders. But the magic tools on him…”
Tang Yan instantly understood, laughing: “The few magic tools on him that only we know about, we’ll naturally secretly divide them up, no one is to leak a single word. Bring back a corpse, that’ll be enough to account to the Young Lady.”
……
…………
The giant camel released by the Evil Camel Bell was fast, but it consumed too much magic power.
After Li Weiyi opened Six Springs, he could only ride it for a quarter of an hour, and in the end still had to rely on his two legs.
Perhaps only after entering the Five Seas Realm, opening the sea of qi, or breaking through Eight Springs “Feng Fu”, Nine Springs “Zu Tian”, and gaining the ability to store magic power, could he sustain it for long.
Over the next five days, Li Weiyi fled through the mountains and ridges while healing his wounds.
Every hour, Spirit Tablet Senior would point out the way for him once.
Tang Yan, Xue Zheng, and Murong Xiao occasionally caught up, but Li Weiyi did not fight them head-on; each time he escaped in extreme peril, and his injuries never fully healed. Once, he was nearly severely wounded by Tang Yan, escaping only by borrowing the Evil Camel Bell and Black Iron Seal.
From beginning to end, the Guardian Wife never appeared, and it was unknown if she felt he had been too close to Li Ling and Cai Yutong during this time. In any case, Li Weiyi felt it unreliable to pin his hopes for survival on her.
Five days later.
Li Weiyi dragged his battered and exhausted body, traveling day and night with no more than two hours of sleep per day, finally crossing hundreds of miles to reach the edge area of the Jiu Li ancestral realm.
Standing above a waterfall halfway up a mountainside, gazing far into the distance.
An extremely majestic snow mountain sat in the distance, surrounded by countless steep and treacherous mountain peaks and rolling hills, with only the mountainside visible, everything above shrouded in clouds.
The surrounding dozen or so mountain peaks were already very spectacular, but they were completely overshadowed in momentum by the central snow mountain.
Behind Li Weiyi, the stone coffin that had been lying flat on the ground suddenly stood up.
A voice from the coffin transmitted: “See that most majestic and magnificent snow mountain? It resembles a crown, with snow accumulating on it year-round without melting.”
Li Weiyi said: “Could that be the Cang Wang Tomb?”
“No!”
Stone Coffin Senior said: “That’s the Jiu Li God Mountain; legend has it that under the ancestral snow mountain is buried the Jiu Li God Chi You. Whether he’s truly buried there is hard to say, but the Jiu Li God Mountain absolutely ranks among the top three most dangerous and mysterious places in the entire Southern Territory. Even when my cultivation was at its peak in life, venturing in nearly cost me my life.”
Li Weiyi had long heard the name of the Jiu Li God, and at first was truly startled, as it was too similar to that figure from ancient Huaxia mythology, hard not to evoke associations.
Hearing Stone Coffin Senior speak this way, Li Weiyi’s heart naturally stirred with waves again.
He had already guessed nine or ten parts of this coffin’s identity; his strength in life was such that the current tribe leaders, sect masters, and old ancestors of Li Zhou absolutely could not see his back. To raid his own ancestral tomb and nearly not return?
Stone Coffin Senior continued: “Legend has it, the Jiu Li God had a total of eighty-one sons, all buried around the Jiu Li God Mountain, transforming into the mountain peaks and hills before your eyes. Nine of those eighty-one children are the ancestors of the current Jiu Li nine great tribes.”
“Then what about the remaining seventy-two?” Li Weiyi asked.
This evidently hit Stone Coffin Senior’s knowledge blind spot!
After a half pause, Stone Coffin Senior continued: “Cang Wang was the eldest son of the Jiu Li God and the ancestor of the Cang Li Tribe, buried in the place closest to the Jiu Li God Mountain. It’s the first mountain peak to the right of the snow mountain!”
Li Weiyi saw that mountain peak; it had great momentum, its summit nearly reaching the clouds.
Stone Coffin Senior said: “However, this vast forest area occupied by the ancestral realm is extremely dangerous, harboring many guardian forces left by ancient sages, even powers of the Jiu Li God. If not following one of the few paths to survival, even a Longevity Realm practitioner entering would likely shed a layer of skin.”
“So as long as we enter this ancestral realm, we’ll be much safer; those pursuers behind, even with ten times the courage, they wouldn’t dare intrude.”
“Next, I’ll proceed with you.”
“You raise the Nine Emperor Banner; it can silently open the light veil barrier guarding the ancestral realm.”
An hour later, Li Weiyi arrived below the waterfall, shouldering the stone coffin and holding the over three-meter-long white Nine Emperor Banner, like a funeral escort, and after opening the boundary light veil, formally stepped into the Jiu Li ancestral realm.
Too eerie!
Upon entering the ancestral realm, the sky instantly darkened, as if entering night.
All around was deathly silent, not even a bird call to be heard.
The sky dome appeared with dense stars… remarkably like the Milky Way Galaxy…
Li Weiyi was stunned for a moment, immediately asking Stone Coffin Senior, who informed him that the ancestral realm could be called as such, so it was definitely different from the outside world, a small world arranged by the Jiu Li God.
As for the stars in the sky dome, they had been like this since ancient times; Stone Coffin Senior said even he could not comprehend it.
“From here, could it be possible to walk back to Earth?”
Li Weiyi was muttering this in his mind when ahead, a hundred-meter-tall hill suddenly writhed, raising a bull head the size of a palace hall, its eyes releasing a soul-shaking majesty.
Countless rocks rolled down from its back with a clatter.
The night was thick, hard to see clearly. But Li Weiyi’s scalp went numb; he only wanted to turn and flee—this place was too dangerous, not somewhere for his current cultivation to come.
Stone Coffin Senior said: “Don’t panic, it’s the tomb guardian beast Mud Ox. Use the Nine Emperor Banner to open the way; it won’t harm you.”
How could he not panic?
Li Weiyi held his breath, forcing a stiff smile at the hill-like mud ox, and tiptoed past from below, always feeling that bull head was staring at him. Fortunately, after circling past, that massive head lowered back, no longer moving.
“Clatter!”
He proceeded along a stream emitting night glow, the water like a luminous silk ribbon.
After only half an hour, green glowing orbs suddenly emerged from underground, each containing basin-sized shelled creatures. They had mantis-like sharp claw arms, humanoid heads, appearing extremely sinister and terrifying.
Li Weiyi gulped wildly, his hand gripping the Nine Emperor Banner constantly sweating.
“Don’t panic, they’re the tomb-guarding insect race Yan Ha clan. Sweep the Nine Emperor Banner over them, and they’ll make way.” Stone Coffin Senior was very calm.
“So big… you say they’re insects?”
Li Weiyi could feel these Yan Ha were not simple; each one gave a stronger sense of danger than Xue Zheng, so following instructions, he lightly swung out the Nine Emperor Banner.
The Yan Ha on the ground indeed became docile, automatically clearing a path.
After passing the area occupied by the Yan Ha, Li Weiyi couldn’t help asking: “Jar Master, what exactly are we going to the Cang Wang Tomb to retrieve? Given the danger here, I feel I could train for two more years before coming.”
Stone Coffin Senior laughed: “Relax, without over ninety percent certainty, I wouldn’t let you take the risk. Besides, you’re no longer at Five Springs but Six Springs, and you’ve even cultivated out the last bit of insufficient mind power. I think the danger is now minimal…”
“Someone!”
Li Weiyi heard something and immediately planted the Nine Emperor Banner upside down on the ground, squatted down, and looked toward the direction the sound came from.
