Knife splashing

Chapter 265: Mystery of the Underworld
The sky was dark and the morning mist was thick.

The mountains are piled with rocks and covered with vines and green grass. The cliffs on both sides are steep and the vegetation is lush, like a green barrier.

An ancient road can be vaguely seen among the rugged rocks, but it is desolate and deserted, as if buried by time.

The Yelang Ancient Road is not just one, but has many origins.

Emperor Wu of Han sent troops to dig the canal in order to intimidate the Kingdom of Dongyue.

There is the Bai Road, also known as the Yelang Road, which was built under the order of Emperor Qin Shihuang.

The Dangyang route is even older, dating back to before the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. People from ancient Bachu could either go down the river to the sea via this route, or depart from Shu and go from Dianzhou to Shentu (ancient India).

Once upon a time, it was also a prosperous place for trade.

But now, it has long been abandoned, and only occasionally can one see the ancient Bai people's hanging coffins between the cliffs on both sides.

The morning mist is hazy, and the shadows of tigers are colorful.

The giant tiger transformed by Liu Gang slowly crawled out of the mist, its two large lantern-like eyes flashing bloodshot. It looked at the opposite cliff among the dense forest and grass and growled, "We're there! That's it!"

Li Yan looked up and saw that on the opposite cliff, there were statues of different sizes carved, similar to the Buddhist grottoes, but they were all Taoist gods.

Covered by weeds and vines, many statues have been broken into pieces, and some have even lost their heads, making it look like a lost relic.

This place is located in the central area of ​​the Yelang Ancient Road, surrounded by mountains. It seems that a dragon once turned over here. The ancient road is filled with rocks everywhere, and even small lakes have formed in some places.

If Liu Gang hadn't led the way, we would never have found it.

In the center of the opposite grotto, there is a suspended Taoist temple, which looks to have been in disrepair for a long time, and even the plank roads leading up the mountain on both sides are only left with a few wooden stakes.

As for the Taoist temple, only ruins are left.

Li Yan narrowed his eyes slightly, "Why is it so desolate?"

A trace of nostalgia flashed in Liu Gang's eyes, and he said in a deep voice: "Unlike me, Madam has a gentle heart and has not changed her character after returning to life."

"When we both came back to life, I had no attachment to the world and lived in seclusion in the mountains to practice cultivation, but she was still able to travel around and do good deeds, but she hid her identity and presented herself as 'Xiang'."

"She saved a lot of people back then and accepted a few disciples. Even though she kept a low profile, there were still a lot of people surrounding her, forming a hidden lineage of practitioners."

"This Earthly Immortal Cave was originally built by the disciples, but later on, the ignorant Ten Courts of Hell, the 'Living Yin Messenger', came and even attracted a Dharma lineage to spy on it."

"Although we have repelled them, if things continue like this, they will cause trouble sooner or later. I have decided to transform the Earth Immortal Cave."

"I got Yu Ji's collection of books, and I am familiar with his immortal methods. So I took my disciples to dig up several tombs of the kings of Chu and Han, took out the decorations from them, and placed them all in the Earth Immortal Cave."

"Those methods are ruthless, but they are also much quieter."

Li Yan, on the other hand, noticed something else and said, "Senior, I am a little curious, what is the difference between the 'Living Yin Messenger' of the Luofeng lineage and the 'Living Yin Messenger' of the Ten Courts of Hell?"

It was not easy to meet such an old antique who knew many secrets of the world, so Li Yan naturally asked whatever he could.

Unexpectedly, Liu Gang fell silent after hearing this, as if he was thinking of something bad, and shook his head and said, "I can't say anything about this matter."

"This kind of thing involves the deepest secrets of Xuanmen. Although the younger generation can borrow the power of those who have successfully ascended to the gods, they will not be allowed to reveal any of it. It is said that it will violate the Heavenly Law."

"Those of us who have returned to the living may sound powerful, but we are actually just pitiful creatures. We made arrangements in the living world in advance, and after falling into the netherworld, we dare not run around randomly, waiting for the right time to return to the living world."

"I don't know what's going on in the underworld."

"But after living for so long, I can vaguely see clues to some things."

"In the pre-Qin period, living ghost messengers had already appeared, but they called themselves 'Messengers from the Underworld'. In the Han Dynasty, they were called 'Visitors from Mount Tai'. Their heritage is the same as ours, and they all come from the Luofeng lineage."

“Perhaps, it has something to do with the Conferred Godhood.”

"Since the introduction of Buddhism, things have changed again. The number of 'living ghost messengers' in the Luofeng lineage has become fewer and fewer."

"By the end of the Tang Dynasty, many of them had become living ghost messengers who received orders from the Ten Hells of Hell. Their inheritance was no longer the Luofeng Sutra, but the Six Paths Sutra, and their actions became more secretive."

"I have always been on guard against them, so I have been secretly investigating. It seems that these people have contacts in secret, and they are in Taishan and Fengdu. They basically do not participate in Xuanmen affairs..."

Li Yan got the hint, "Is it related to the incense in the world?"

"maybe."

Liu Gang seemed a little annoyed. "If you don't become a god, it's ultimately your fate. I can't explain what the underworld is. You will know it when you die. There's no point in thinking about it."

After saying that, he looked across and said, "The entrance to the Earthly Immortal Cave is inside the Taoist temple. There are many arrangements inside, and no matter how high your Taoist level is, you can't bear it."

"After you go in, follow my instructions."

As soon as the words fell, there was a low growl.

In an instant, dense crowds of ghosts swarmed out from the surrounding area, using their hands and feet to climb towards the Taoist temple from all over the cliff.

The plank road on the mountain has been destroyed, but it obviously can't stop these evil spirits.

They climbed and jumped, moving very fast.

The ghost creature could only use the body it attached to for three days, so it didn't care. Its hands and feet were covered in blood and flesh, and even the bones were worn out.

And the people from the Ghost Cult were obviously on guard.

Call ~
As soon as we reached the cave entrance, raging flames burst out.

The phosphorous fire and kerosene immediately burned the ghosts into fireballs, which rolled down the mountain with thick smoke.

But the terrifying thing about the ghosts is not their physical bodies.

Before the body fell to the ground, a fishy and foul wind blew up and flowed into the Taoist temple through the cracks.

However, there are also some arrangements in the Taoist temple.

There were pieces of white talisman paper hanging inside, with strange runes outlined by a black pen. They shook violently and directly dispersed the ghosts and spirits.

Li Yan frowned, "It's the Hellfire Gun."

He is very familiar with this thing.

It is not a high-end gadget made by Xuanmen craftsmen, but a bamboo tube Hellfire Gun. Although it is crudely made and cannot be carried around, it is simple and cheap to make.

It seems that the Tiansheng Sect has abundant resources. Even though the imperial court occupied the phosphate mine in Zhujiabao, they continued to produce this thing.

"Little tricks."

Liu Gang didn't care and let out another low growl.

The minions on the cliff immediately changed their strategy. Only a few of them approached the cave entrance, then suddenly opened their mouths and spewed out dense black smoke.

Those black smokes were actually all poisonous insects similar to mosquitoes.

After the poisonous insect was sprayed out, the several ghosts became like deflated balls, quickly shrinking and falling to the ground without any movement.

What a sinister old ghost!

Li Yan remained calm and glanced at Liu Gang.

He had gotten some information from the other party's words.

First, after returning to life, one has to practice again.

The second is the body to be occupied after returning to the world. It is best to start from the fetus, unless you can create a body that suits yourself.

Therefore, the bodies of Liu Gang and his wife, who practiced the "Taiyin Body Refining Technique", were coveted by the Ghost Cult.

The physical body should be like hardware, and the soul like software. Even if the soul is very powerful, if the physical body cannot keep up, the body may be even worse than in the previous life.

If nothing unexpected happens, the people of Tiansheng Sect will search everywhere for treasures from heaven and earth in order to build a strong body for their "Tianshenggong".

Of course, there is another situation.

Shortly after an ordinary person's death, their body has not yet decayed. If they are reborn by some strange coincidence, they are still ordinary people. At most, they will turn into evil spirits after death.

This old ghost's physical body was taken away, and he took possession of the fetus of a tiger of a different species, and transformed himself into a demon. However, with a human soul in a tiger body, his Taoism skills were definitely not as good as in his previous life, so he acted extremely carefully.

But the most terrifying thing is inheritance and experience.

He returned to the world to practice cultivation several times, and only knew the "Northern Emperor Sutra", the inheritance of the White Taoist, Yu Jifang's magic, and the "Changshen Immortal Library".

He is proficient in various techniques and has rich experience.

Just thinking about it makes my scalp tingle. On the other side, the situation also took a turn for the better.

As the poisonous insects swarmed into the Taoist temple on the stone wall, screams were heard from inside and the Hell Fire Gun also stopped firing.

The dozen or so tigers controlled by Liu Gang had already climbed up the hillside silently, and they jumped left and right on the protruding rocks and rushed directly into the Taoist temple.

These ferocious beasts in the mountains are not afraid of any talismans.

For a while, screams and roars were heard one after another in the Taoist temple.

Soon, everything inside became quiet.

"go!"

Liu Gang let out a low shout and jumped down the hillside.

Li Yan drew out his Dust-Breaking Sword with a clang and followed closely behind.

At this moment, the sun finally rises in the distance.

When the sunlight pierced through the morning mist and shone into the valley, all the ghosts, including Liu Gang and Li Yan, had already entered the Taoist temple cave.

Silence returned to the valley again.

Only in the sky, Lu San's falcon soared up and down, and then landed on the opposite branch, quietly looking at the dilapidated Taoist temple...

…………

"When will the reinforcements arrive?!"

In the Dangyang County Yamen, Sharifei was a little anxious.

In the lobby, Magistrate Zhang and Captain Yang remained silent.

They were also a little embarrassed. They didn't expect that something like this would happen just after they asked for help yesterday.

Judging from what Sha Lifei said, he was warding off disaster for Dangyang County.

Yang Chengzi of Zhenwu Palace was also somewhat helpless, and shook his head and said, "The current situation in Ezhou is that there is a shortage of manpower everywhere. I am only a junior disciple, so I really don't know."

At this time, a yamen runner ran in and said in a hurry: "Report to the lord, there is a Taoist outside, saying that he came from Wudang Mountain."

"Please come quickly!"

Magistrate Zhang's eyes lit up and he hurried out to greet him.

Naturally, the others were not slow either.

When everyone arrived at the gate of the county government office, they saw a Taoist standing outside. He was wearing a black Taoist robe, with a long sword on his back. He was tall, had a full beard, and carried a huge wine gourd on his waist.

He was drunk and smelled of alcohol. After seeing everyone leaving, he chuckled and said, "There are so many people... I can't drink as much as them."

Pfft!
Before he could finish his words, he fell to the ground and began to snore.

When everyone saw this, they all looked at each other in surprise.

A trace of anger appeared on Sha Lifei's face. He turned around and sneered at Yang Chengzi, "You coward, I really have eyes."

"The Zigai Mountain has been infiltrated by evil spirits. They promised us reinforcements, but instead they sent a drunkard to order us around, right?"

Yang Chengzi was embarrassed at first, then he looked at the drunk Taoist on the ground, and he didn't know what he was thinking of. His eyes were full of excitement, and he said in a trembling voice:
"He, he is Master Yu Longzi!"

Sharifei noticed something was wrong and asked carefully, "Very powerful?"

“It’s more than amazing.”

The Zhushan Sect disciples nearby were also full of admiration in their eyes, "This Senior Yu Longzi is the most powerful demon hunter in Ezhou!"

…………

The Taoist temple in Dixian Cave was hollowed out of the mountain wall. It looked ancient from the outside, but even simpler inside. It was just a stone cave with rough and uneven surroundings.

After entering the door, there is a large hall with stone pillars as beams. The white talisman papers pasted on them have been torn into pieces by the tiger.

There were more than a dozen corpses lying on the ground, but they were only bitten to death. Now they were possessed by ghosts, twisting their bodies and slowly crawling up...

Three statues of gods stand on the stone platform of the altar in the main hall.

These three statues are all carved from stone, with snake bodies and human heads, but their appearances are different.

From left to right, the first one has a snake body like a dragon, with human arms, wearing leaf clothes, and has twelve heads, looking in all directions, and each head has a dragon horn...

The second one also had a snake body, but had three heads, with the sun, moon and stars carved on its forehead...

As for the third, it had nine heads, all wearing crowns.

The three statues are very old and covered with dust. They are about to collapse after years of erosion and their faces are blurred.

Li Yan frowned and asked, "Whose god is this?"

The tiger transformed by Liu Gang said in a deep voice: "The Xuanmen today is really ridiculous. They know the Jade Emperor and the Buddha, but they don't know the Three Sovereigns!"

"I have inherited the Three Emperors Sutra from my master, and I dare not forget my roots, so I worship the ancient Three Emperors."

"The Emperor established the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, which were divided into sixty Jiazi, and therefore twelve heads were used to symbolize..."

"The Emperor of Earth established the sun, moon, stars, yin and yang, and used three heads to symbolize them..."

"There are nine emperors of the human race, who divide the world into nine states and rule them, using nine heads as a symbol..."

As he said this, he knelt on the ground and kowtowed respectfully.

The huge tiger body seemed a little cramped, but extremely pious.

Li Yan suddenly realized.

It turned out that Liu Gang's foundation was the "Three Emperors Sutra".

The origin of this scripture is mysterious.

There is a rumor that Bao Liang, the "Immortal Governor" of the Jin Dynasty, discovered it on a stone carving in a cave while climbing a mountain and copied it down for practice.

Some also say it came from Bo He, a Taoist priest in the late Han Dynasty.

It is said that the Three Emperors Classic contains the genealogy of ghosts and gods, the key points of cultivation, and various secret methods. What is more troublesome is that it says "Any prince who has this text must be a king, and any woman who has this text must be a queen."

This is a big taboo.

Therefore, during the Zhenguan period, Emperor Taizong ordered it to be destroyed.

After Liu Gang kowtowed, he stood up, looked behind him, and let out another low growl.

Wow!
The surrounding ghosts immediately used their hands and feet to bypass the three statues and crawl towards the cave at the back.

Li Yan took a look and picked up a Hellfire Gun on the ground.

Liu Gang obviously also recognized this thing. With a low growl, several ghosts immediately turned back and picked up all the remaining Hellfire Guns.

After seeing this, Li Yan became secretly alert.

To be honest, these ghosts are not as powerful as the rampant soldiers, let alone the Lu soldiers and Yin soldiers, but they are extremely flexible after possessing them.

There must be enough corpses to be equivalent to an undead army.

Coming to the grotto at the back, we saw caves of various sizes chiseled out, as well as traces of smoke and fire and broken pottery jars. These should have been the original residences of the believers.

But now, it has also been ruined.

And through this grotto, there is a natural cave, covered with stalactites, sloping downward and deep into the earth's veins.

When entering the cave, Li Yan realized something was wrong.

Snapped!
A bloody handprint suddenly appeared on the ground in the distance.

Then, more bloody handprints appeared.

clap clap clap!
Accompanied by the pungent smell of blood, dense bloody handprints spread throughout the cave, pouring in like a tide...

　Second update later
　　
　
(End of this chapter)