Chapter 20: The Ancient Immortal's Remains
In the miasma-filled Bony Forest, Lu Qingyang squatted in a pile of rotting leaves, counting Spirit Stones, his fingertips stained with the brain matter that had splattered from the Cultivator he had just counter-killed. Su Li leaned against a half-broken lightning-struck tree, wiping a bronze casket, when she was suddenly hit on the shoulder by a flying Storage Pouch—it contained all the belongings of three mummified corpses.
"Fifty-fifty split," Lu Qingyang licked the cracked cut on his tiger's mouth, the qingmu spirit pearl warming slightly in his Dantian. "If Su Xianzi finds it dirty, Mr. Lu doesn't mind doing it himself." He deliberately shook the marrow jade he had dug out from the bottom of a mummified corpse's boot, its emerald green glow making the cinnabar between the young girl's brows appear even redder.
Su Li kicked the Storage Pouch back, and the bronze casket's patterns suddenly resonated with the qingmu spirit pearl. "Daoist Lu's greed reminds me of the Treasure Seeking Rat kept by Taiyi Pavilion." Before her words finished, seventy-two poisoned flying daggers broke through the air, the silver bells attached to their handles shaking with soul-capturing demonic sounds. Lu Qingyang rolled behind the young girl, and the paralyzing vine seeds in his sleeve scattered like a celestial maiden's flowers.
"Ding!" The flying daggers struck the suddenly wildly growing iron-thorns, and the poison corroded the vines with a sizzling sound. A richly dressed Fat Man leaped down from the tree canopy ten feet away, a jade pendant on his waist carved with the "Myriad Treasure Chamber of Commerce" emblem. "Hand over the Ancient Immortal's relics, and this Young Lord will grant you whole corpses."
Lu Qingyang stared at the dust-repelling pearls embedded in the other party's boots, his Adam's apple bobbing. "Fellow Daoist, these Cloud-Treading Boots are worth at least three hundred Spirit Stones on the market, aren't they?" As he spoke, he quietly crushed the illusion Talismanic Incantation in his embrace, and the Nascent Soul pressure mixed with the fragrance of the rotten bone flower permeated the forest. The Fat Man's expression changed drastically, and he retreated three steps, only to see that the source of the pressure was a limping mountain monkey gnawing on poisonous vine fruit.
"You're seeking death!" A nine-ringed golden-backed broadsword split an ancient tree that three people could barely embrace. Lu Qingyang dragged Su Li into a suddenly collapsing crevice in the ground. The hourglass in the qingmu spirit pearl space inverted; three breaths in the outside world were enough for him to set up seven layers of traps in his Sea of Consciousness—rotten bone flower pollen mixed with netherworld water vapor steamed in the tunnel, and the pursuers' screams became a fading background sound behind them.
The murals in the underground palace were mottled, and the ancient Cultivators' heroic figures of riding Dragons and slaying Dragons were gnawed beyond recognition by moss. Lu Qingyang touched the sword marks on the wall, marveling, "If this move, 'Heavenly River Reversing,' were carved into a Jade Slip, it would be worth at least five thousand..." His voice abruptly stopped. Blood seeped from the cracks in the bluestone bricks, suddenly congealing into a Talismanic Incantation. The Restriction imprint on Su Li's wrist glowed like a branding iron.
"Blood Curse Tracking." The young girl tore off the blood-stained fabric from her cuff. "Within three hours, it can be sensed within a hundred-mile radius..." Before she finished speaking, Lu Qingyang had stuffed the fabric into the bronze casket. The moment the casket lid closed, the blood-colored Talismanic Incantation flowed along the patterns into the qingmu spirit pearl space, dyeing half an acre of the herb garden crimson.
The roar of chains breaking came from deep within the underground palace, and the eye sockets of thirty-six qing tong (bronze) puppets lit up with ghostly flames. Lu Qingyang ran, scattering Exploding Flame Talismans behind him. The shattered Puppet parts clanged against the spiritual power shield Su Li had erected. When he turned the ninth fork in the road, he suddenly braked—a white jade coffin was embedded in the rock wall ahead, and a thousand-year-old cold mist seeped from the coffin lid's cracks.
"Cold Marrow Jade!" Lu Qingyang's pupils constricted. This palm-sized coffin lid fragment alone was worth the price of a foundation establishment pill. As his fingertips touched the coffin, seventy-two golden Restriction lights bounced him back ten feet. Su Li seized the opportunity to throw out the bronze casket. The taotie pattern on the casket's surface bit into the Restriction's gap, and two surges of ancient spiritual power collided, collapsing half of the dome.
When the female corpse in the coffin sat up, cradling a bronze sword, Lu Qingyang was still clinging to a beam, prying off night-luminescent pearls. The map of the Eastern Wasteland hanging from the scabbard made his breath catch—the marked location of "Burial Dragon Abyss" perfectly coincided with the Old Drunkard's Legacy. The female corpse's hollow eye sockets turned towards the bronze casket, and her jaw opened and closed, making a sound like metal striking stone. "Ye clan... sinful blood..."
Su Li suddenly coughed up blood with golden threads, and the Taiyi Pavilion imprint on her collarbone transformed into chains, wrapping around the female corpse. Lu Qingyang seized the opportunity to pounce on the bronze sword. The moment his palm touched the sword hilt, a Dragon shadow in the qingmu spirit pearl space let out a long cry. The Restrictions around the female corpse disintegrated layer by layer, transforming into streaks of light that entered his glabella. Among the vast fragments of memory, the Old Drunkard's youthful face flashed—in a green robe and jade crown, wiping a blood-stained qingmu spirit pearl in the Taiyi Pavilion's Forbidden Land.
"So you were a secret agent planted by the Ye clan." Lu Qingyang wiped his nosebleed, the sword's edge lifting Su Li's chin. "No wonder you could always accurately find Ancient Tombs when we encountered danger." The young girl tore open her clothes, revealing a hideous sword scar on her chest. The Taiyi Pavilion imprint was consuming her vitality. "If Daoist Lu is willing to share half a wisp of Dragon Soul with me, Mr. Su is willing to offer the 'Taiyin Refining Form Scripture' in return."
The underground palace suddenly trembled violently. The Myriad Treasure Chamber of Commerce members followed the blood curse to their location. The Fat Man Young Lord sacrificed the Mountain River Seal to suppress the coffin, but then saw Lu Qingyang bite his tongue and spray blood onto the bronze sword. "You want the remains? Mr. Lu will add some fuel to the fire!" The moment the Dragon patterns on the sword body awakened, the entire underground palace transformed into a Dragon-Imprisoning Grand Formation. Seventy-two coiled Dragon pillars spewed thunder and fire, trapping everyone in the formation's core.
Su Li seized the opportunity to press the bronze casket onto the formation's central hub. Nine divination slips flew out of the casket, forming a Dun Jia secret diagram. When Lu Qingyang dragged her into the 'Gate of Life,' he didn't forget to snatch the Fat Man Young Lord's dust-repelling pearls. "Fellow Daoist, Mr. Lu will be taking these Cloud-Treading Boots. Consider it payment for helping to break the formation!"
At the edge of a cliff in a torrential downpour, the two fell from a Void Realm crack. Lu Qingyang hummed a tuneless ditty, feeling his bulging Storage Pouch, when he suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck—Su Li's dagger was pressed against his throbbing artery. "Give me half a wisp of the Dragon Soul, otherwise..."
"Does Su Xianzi know what Soul-Nourishing Wood is?" He slowly pulled out a charred, withered branch. A tender bud on the branch was absorbing the Dragon Soul's Qi, unfurling its leaves. "This young sapling of Mr. Lu's happens to lack a cauldron for warming and nourishing a soul." The dagger clanged to the ground. The young girl looked at the Dragon-shaped patterns appearing on the withered branch and finally showed her first genuine smile since they had met.
The angry shouts of the Chamber of Commerce Cultivators came from below the cliff. Lu Qingyang flicked the dust-repelling pearls into the deep ravine. "Fellow Daoists, take your time searching. Mr. Lu still needs to hurry and sell these Cloud-Treading Boots!" As he turned, he deliberately bumped Su Li's hairpin askew, and while she was tidying her hair, he slipped the Jade Slip truly containing the Ancient Immortal's Legacy into the hidden layer of her shoe—the female corpse in the coffin had clearly told him with her lips before she dissipated: "The qingmu spirit pearl devours its master. Be wary."