Walking alone with a sword, slaying ghosts and gods

Chapter 561 A Millennial Scheme Opens a Gap in the Heavens, A Moment of Flames Ignites the Mountain Peak (Seeking Donations and Subscriptions!)

As the Netherworld Scorpion was swallowed by the Nine Li Cauldron, the Yin energy of the desolate forbidden land slowly subsided, leaving only the devastation and scorched earth that covered millions of miles around, silently telling the story of the earth-shattering battle that had just taken place.

Lu Cheng stood on the wrecked bow of the giant flying ship, his face as pale as gold paper. His Taoist robe had long been corroded by the poison and was now tattered, revealing a wound below that was covered in black mist and was slowly crawling and healing.

Each rebirth brings not only life and power, but also excruciating pain and a huge drain on the life force of the thirty-six layers of the Mysterious Heaven Divine Art.

But his posture remained upright, his gaze burning like lightning as he stared at the illusory image of the Nine Li Cauldron slowly disappearing from his palm.

To cultivate the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts, one must subdue and tame the true spirit blood within the body, which requires countless arduous battles, something Lu Cheng was already accustomed to.

"The scenery above the nine heavens, after becoming an immortal? It's truly... something to look forward to."

"Master!"

Just then, Daoist Shisheng approached from behind on his flying sword, his young face filled with concern and fear.

Yun Huang'er followed closely behind, her face pale from the loss of her magical power, yet still unable to conceal her beauty. Looking at the lingering deathly aura surrounding Lu Cheng, she whispered, "The power of the Ghost Scorpion is incredibly domineering. Master has been injured in his very essence; perhaps we should return to the ship to rest..."

"It's alright!" Lu Cheng waved his hand to interrupt, his voice weak but unusually firm.

"The sect is in imminent danger; every breath is crucial to the lives of countless fellow disciples and the sect's foundation. Huang'er, immediately activate the Void Anchor and locate Mount Taiqing! Shi Sheng, activate the 'Star Core Furnace' and return at full speed!"

"Disciples obey!" Seeing that his mind was made up, Shi Sheng and Yun Huang'er dared not say anything more. They used their escape light to disappear into the huge ship in a few flashes.

The Xuan Tian Divine Art, cultivated to the thirty-sixth transformation level, is Lu Cheng's greatest secret. Therefore, the entire giant spirit airship had previously operated in seclusion, only responsible for providing magical power, maintaining the formation, and repairing the ship. Apart from that, they knew nothing about who they were fighting.

Shi Sheng and Yun Huang'er were disciples of Lu Cheng, so they knew a little more, but all they knew was that they were fighting a ninth-tier desolate beast, the Netherworld Ghost Scorpion.

As for why they did this, and how they fought, they knew nothing about it until now.

After the great battle ended, looking at the devastated world and the Netherworld Scorpion, a ninth-tier wild beast that had clearly disappeared, Shi Sheng and Yun Huang'er felt even greater reverence for their master, Lu Cheng.

"Our master is a true immortal seed, a genius of unparalleled talent. The higher the realm he reaches, the faster he cultivates. Alas, if I could receive even one or two tenths of his true teachings in this life, my cultivation journey would not have been in vain." During the flight, Shi Sheng said to his Daoist partner with emotion.

"Being able to serve such a divine figure as Master is already an immense opportunity. You are the reincarnation of the ghost infant's true spirit. If you had not met Master, would you have achieved your current level of cultivation?"

"I'm the same. If I hadn't followed my master, I probably wouldn't have reached this level even after several lifetimes of cultivation," Yun Huang'er said.

"A fly's flight is but a few steps. But if it attaches itself to a steed's tail, it can travel a thousand miles!"

Om-!
A deep hum emanated from the depths of the Giant Spirit's steel keel, causing ripples to spread through the surrounding space.

The dim runes on the ship's surface suddenly lit up, like a galaxy drifting by, outlining smooth and majestic lines.

The core furnace at the heart of the ship roared to life, and a ghostly blue light shone through the cracks in the ship's walls, casting an eerie glow on the surrounding desolate and gloomy sky.

The giant flying ship first flew through the wild world, constantly accelerating. As time went by, it accelerated to a certain speed.

In front of it, ripples of void spread out, forming a huge vortex anchor point that locked onto the coordinates of the Taiqing Mountains.

The next moment, this eighth-tier giant spirit warship, symbolizing the foundation of a sect with ten thousand years of history, tore through the space of the desolate forbidden land, transforming into a deep, shadowy figure that devoured light, and disappeared into the void passage:

Although he had subdued the Netherworld Scorpion, Lu Cheng still had many things to do. On one hand, he needed to replenish the Xuan Tian Life Force he had previously depleted as quickly as possible. On the other hand, he also needed to train and discipline the Netherworld Scorpion, not necessarily to make it completely obedient, but at least to enable it to lock onto its targets.

In this regard, Lu Cheng had already prepared a plan by consulting the sect's ancient books before taking action.

The wild beasts of the savage world are numerous, possess great magical power, and are of low intelligence. Over the countless years, Lu Cheng has not been the only cultivator who has sought to utilize their power.

Some attempts succeeded, but most failed.

Some cultivators have attempted to tame the Netherworld Scorpions, but almost all of them died from the Netherworld Corrosive Poison. Lu Cheng's advantage lies in the fact that he possesses the Nine Li Cauldron, and his margin for error is relatively high.

The journey back to the Taiqing Sect was uneventful.

In this primordial world, where the workings of nature are in disarray, everything is naturally restrained by the methods of divination.

Otherwise, given how much the Nightmare Demon Ancestor "cared" about Lu Cheng, he would have intercepted Lu Cheng as soon as he left the sect.

Even if Duan Tianyan immediately relayed the message after Lu Cheng teleported away from the sect, the vast Wilderness World, even with the power of the Nightmare Demon Ancestor, would not be able to find Lu Cheng for a short time.

Unless, of course, Lu Cheng Dao Ren's fate is truly astonishingly low.

As the giant flying ship entered the Taiqing Mountain and Taiyue Peak region, the familiar spiritual energy contrasted sharply with the oppressive demonic atmosphere outside the mountains, which was isolated by the "Purple Qi Sky-Patrolling Five Thunder Immortal Array," which slightly lifted Lu Cheng's spirits.

Without lingering, and even declining the summons and inquiries of Xuanqing Daozun, he simply explained the matter of subduing the wild beasts and then plunged directly into the Jade Profound Cleansing Vein Cold Spring at the deepest part of the Cold Light Cave.

The Jade Profound Cleansing Spring inside the Cold Light Cave was originally a precious spring used by many high-level alchemists of Taiqing Mountain to refine spiritual pills. It also generated considerable profits for the sect every year. However, after Xuanqing Daozun handed it over to Lu Cheng Daoist, this cold spring became his personal property.

Alchemists on Mount Taiqing can ask for spiritual spring water to refine pills once or twice, but if it happens too often, they will have to share the profits from the refined pills.

The icy, bone-chilling spring water permeated his entire body, fiercely clashing with the residual corrosive poison within Lu Cheng's body, producing a hissing sound and rising wisps of foul black smoke.

This Jade Profound Cleansing Vein Cold Spring is connected to the spiritual veins of the entire Taiqing Mountain. Even the most potent poisons at the Mahayana realm cannot defile this ever-flowing, undisturbed cold spring. Instead, the poisons are slowly washed away and dissolved by its gurgling flow.

Lu Cheng circulated the "Mysterious Heaven Divine Art" to heal his internal injuries. At the same time, he began rapidly browsing through a vast collection of sect secret texts in his sea of ​​consciousness, including "Illustrated Compendium of Ten Thousand Spirits," "Secrets of Raising Ancient Beasts," and "The Essence of Poisonous Gu Techniques."

Day after day, time quietly slipped away in the misty, chilly air of the cold spring.

Lu Cheng sat like a withered rock, his body immersed in the Jade Profound Cold Spring. His breath was repeatedly tug-of-war between severe injury and weakness and the ever-growing vitality, experiencing the process of detoxification, repair, rebirth, and destruction before rebirth.

The wondrous effects of the Mysterious Heaven Divine Skill were once again on full display. Each time he pushed his physical body to its limit and then reshaped it with the support of the cold spring and elixirs, it was as if he were forging a piece of peerless divine iron, removing the dross and keeping the essence, making his own magical power more and more refined and condensed. He had clearly touched the threshold of returning to the Void Perfection.

Meanwhile, Lu Cheng's vast divine sense searched through endless ancient texts for the crucial "bait" and "punishment."

Year after year, after nearly a hundred years, Lu Cheng finally pieced together a feasible method from the mountain of ancient books and fragments piled up in the sect: the Instinct Guidance Method!
This method does not require profound and complex spirit beast contracts, which are ineffective against wild beasts. Instead, it precisely grasps their innate instinctive desires and aversions, using specific elixirs as stimuli to train them in the most basic conditioned reflexes.

Bait Pill: Soul-Devouring and Bone-Corroding Pill. Utilizing the Netherworld Scorpion's instinct to devour extremely yin and poisonous spiritual objects. Lu Cheng selected several spiritual objects he favored most from countless records in ancient texts: the essence blood of powerful beings on the verge of death, pure yin energy crystals, and a highly poisonous rare flower called "Bone-Corroding Spiritual Flower" that grows in the Nine Netherworld.

After emerging from seclusion, he sought out a high-level alchemist and, combining the experience of the Taiqing Sect's alchemy masters with their understanding of medicinal properties, repeatedly experimented and consumed countless materials before finally succeeding in refining the Soul-Devouring Bone-Corroding Pill.

This pill was dark in color, like congealed filth, and emitted a strange odor that was a mixture of sweet fragrance and pungent decay.

For the Netherworld Scorpion, this small pill contains several spiritual items that it desperately desires, and long-term consumption will gradually make it dependent on it.

However, Lu Cheng also realized that it was ultimately impossible to control a ninth-tier wild beast with such pills. The physical body of a ninth-tier wild beast would soon develop resistance to them, and before long, these expensive pills would become useless.

"However, for me, it's enough to be able to play a role in that battle. I don't expect to control uncontrollable forces through such a thing."

The first type of drug, "Pure Lotus Powder," is a potent stimulant. The second type, however, is prepared in a completely different way; Lu Cheng seeks a stimulant that the Netherworld Scorpion utterly despises.

According to ancient records, after extensive screening and comparison, Lu Cheng narrowed down his targets to several types: Pure Lotus, a special sixth-order spiritual medicine that can be used to refine Demon-Exorcising Pills. These pills are specifically designed to suppress demonic possession and are very helpful for cultivators to overcome demonic tribulations. They are also a precious spiritual item that assists in the formation of the Nascent Soul stage.

The powder is made from millennia-old lightning-struck wood, fragments of "Liyang Flame Crystal" containing traces of the essence of heavenly fire, and the essence of a unique herb called "Bitter Prison Grass".

These four substances are not poisons specifically designed for the Ghost Scorpion, nor will they cause any real harm to a ninth-tier wild beast. However, they can make the Netherworld Ghost Scorpion feel irritated, disgusted, and even instinctively want to destroy it, just as a mortal would find something extremely repulsive. With the bait and the punishment in place, the training of this wild beast can truly begin on the right track.

Furthermore, as time goes by, with the self-burning and self-refining of the Samadhi True Fire and the cleansing of the Jade Profound Cleansing Vein Cold Spring, Lu Cheng's internal injuries are gradually recovering, and even his magical power has slightly improved. If he has enough time to cultivate slowly, Lu Cheng is confident that through hard work, he can open the door to advancing to the Integration Realm.

After Mount Taiqing had been closed for a thousand years, on this day, a corner of the Purple Qi Sky-Patrolling Five Thunder Immortal Array, which had been shining brightly in the world for a thousand years, suddenly dimmed.

Then, centered on this dim spot of spiritual light, a jet-black "ink pupil" appeared in the void!
The once pristine and auspicious cloud-shrouded mountain is now tainted by overwhelming demonic energy.

Centered on the "Ink Pupil" rift, thick, ink-like demonic clouds rolled and spread, obscuring the sun, moon, and sky.

Countless hideous demonic shadows converged into torrents of filth, continuously flying out and impacting the magnificent light barrier protecting the Taiqing Mountains.

Any plan is more difficult to succeed the more complex it is.

But from another perspective, it is like an individual or even a family deceiving each other for thousands of years, even deceiving themselves, just like a person who never lies suddenly lying, with an extremely high chance of success.

Most importantly, the Purple Qi Sky-Patrolling Five Thunder Immortal Array, which was formed by the fusion of the supreme secret techniques of the Taiqing Sect and operated on the basis of the earth veins of many immortal mountains, was now dim and uncertain. On the huge barrier, countless runes were flashing wildly and emitting mournful cries of being unable to bear the burden.

Duan Tianyan has indeed opened a corner of the mountain-protecting formation, and it will definitely not be able to close it again in a short period of time.

"Brother, I still feel there's something fishy about this!"

On this side of the Demon Prison, before Mo Tong.

The Nightmare Demon Ancestor, who was no different from the one a thousand years ago, said this. He instinctively felt that Duan Tianyan was not of one mind with them.

Unfortunately, the two almost never actually met. Duan Tianyan's limited number of adventurous outings only resulted in him visiting the two Demon Ancestors, Jiyuan and Tianming. He happened to be out on those occasions and thus missed meeting them.

"So what if there are some ambushes? The Taiqing Sect has no more than five Mahayana cultivators. If we encounter an ambush, even if we are no match for them, are we not allowed to leave?"

Unlike the Nightmare Demon Ancestor, who has placed his hopes for a breakthrough on someone in recent years, the Silent Abyss Demon Ancestor and the Heavenly Nether Demon Ancestor have long been looking forward to the tens of thousands of years of accumulation within the Taiqing Sect.

By sacrificing the blood of this major human sect to the demonic path, the Silent Abyss Demon Ancestor could extend his existence by at least five thousand years, a temptation he could not refuse.

Moreover, the Demon Ancestor of the Silent Abyss was arrogant. Even in the incomplete ninth-order immortal array, as long as he was not besieged by more than five Mahayana cultivators, he could still come and go as he pleased.

After speaking, the Demon Ancestor of the Silent Abyss and the Demon Ancestor of the Heavenly Netherworld were the first to fly into that black pupil of space.

These Mahayana Demon Ancestors exchanged divine senses, exchanging thousands of words in an instant. Therefore, in fact, the moment the Space Black Pupil opened, the Silent Abyss Demon Ancestor and the Heavenly Nether Demon Ancestor had already flown in.

Then, the Nightmare Demon Ancestor followed.

"Indeed, although the Taiqing Sect should have some ambushes, they are useless in the face of absolute power."

"This ninth-order grand formation has indeed been partially destroyed, and it will be extremely difficult to repair in a short time. This is an opportunity that will not come again!"

Inside Mount Taiqing, various colors of lightning surged and exploded on the purple array wall. Each strike annihilated large swathes of demonic shadows. The demonic energy and lightning collided violently, rising up a dazzling mixture of scarlet and pale light, emitting a deafening roar.

However, the number of demonic creatures flying out from that black pupil of space was simply too great, impossible to kill or destroy completely, and each attack was like a vicious termite, greedily consuming the already nearly depleted spiritual energy of the earth veins of the immortal array.

Fire Spirit Peak, Duan Family.

Former fellow disciples, now bitter enemies. Swords clashed, their gleaming light soaring into the sky!

"The Duan family has betrayed the sect; everyone has the right to kill them! Kill them!"

"kill!"

"The Taiqing Sect has been sealed off for a thousand years, and its foundation is exhausted. It will surely be destroyed today. Our relatives and family are behind us. Kill these dead survivors and hold out until the Holy Ancestor comes to our aid!"

Numerous magical treasures shimmered and intertwined in mid-air, while countless shadowy figures and sword lights crisscrossed.

"Kill! Kill the traitors!"

"kill!"

Everywhere he looked was blood red. On this side were the sons of the Duan family who had died, and on the other side were the cultivators of the Taiqing Sect. Duan Tianyan stood in the ancestral hall of his family, his body trembling, his eyes filled with blood and tears.

"Husband, husband, don't cry. You did the right thing. No matter who wins or loses between Taiqing and the Holy Sect, you will be a hero. The blood of the Duan family was not shed in vain!"

In Duan Tianyan's arms, a beautiful woman smiled gently, wiping away the blood and tears on her husband's face.

She knew how much suffering this man had endured for a thousand years; finally, he could rest in peace.

However, she could no longer stay by his side.

Because Ji Qingqing was a spy sent by the demonic path to monitor Duan Tianyan.

The two bodies separated, and Duan Tianyan held a crimson longsword in his hand, which had already pierced through the chest of his wife in his arms.

If Taiqing wins, she cannot be kept.

If the Holy Church wins, she doesn't need to live.

The Duan family has already shed so much blood; this final glory cannot be tarnished in the slightest.

On each peak and in each vein, countless disciples of lower realms, led by the deacons and elders of their respective peaks, sat in meditation at specific array points, their faces pale but their eyes resolute, pouring their meager magical power into the foundation of the mountain array without reservation.

Each time the great formation was subjected to a fierce attack, a backlash would travel along the earth's veins, causing many low-level disciples to cough up blood and collapse to the ground, whereupon fellow disciples would immediately take their place.

Danxia Peak, Tianzhu Peak, Yuding Peak... all the peak masters, true disciples, and Void Returning Elders were deployed to the front line.

Swords flashed, magical treasures gleamed, and a torrent of spells poured out from the attack nodes reserved in the great formation like a torrential rain, clashing fiercely with the high-level demonic cultivators who rushed up the formation walls.

Severed limbs and remains fell like rain, indistinguishable as human or demonic blood, which mingled with spiritual blood and demonic blood, seeping into the rocks and flowing into streams.

The air was thick with the stench of blood, burnt remains, and a sense of despair as spiritual energy dissipated.

In the Daoist Temple Square in front of the Taiqing Palace, the Xuanqing Daoist Master stood expressionless, holding a whisk, his beard and hair dancing in the turbulent air currents.

Each violent backlash from the demonic array's impact caused the current leader of the Taiqing Sect to sway slightly, with dark red seeping through his Taoist robe.

But his deep eyes remained fixed on the three figures above the nine heavens outside the formation, figures as deep as the abyss and as powerful as a prison, radiating the might to destroy the world—the Silent Abyss Demon Ancestor, the Nightmare Demon Ancestor, and the Heavenly Nether Demon Ancestor!
The three Demon Ancestors sat atop a pitch-black throne formed from demonic energy, seemingly the source of all demons, coldly looking down upon the ant-like struggles below.

As if casually plucking strings of a zither, the Demon Ancestor of the Silent Abyss tore through the sky with each light touch, and with each touch, a dark, almost tangible beam of demonic light tore through the air and struck the same point of the Five Thunder Immortal Array. The light screen then collapsed and deformed violently, causing even more intense turbulence and casualties within the array.

The ninth-order immortal array was repelling them, so what should have been an instantaneous teleportation became a slow descent, but it made no difference to the final result.

"Old Daoist Xuanqing, how long can your tortoise shell last?" The sinister voice of the Heavenly Nether Demon Ancestor seemed to come from the deepest abyss, piercing through the great array barrier and resounding in the hearts of every Taiqing disciple, carrying a viciousness that could freeze one's soul.

"Stubborn resistance will only increase your suffering!" The Nightmare Demon Ancestor said indifferently, but his eyes and divine sense kept scanning every corner of Taiqing Mountain, searching for Lu Cheng's aura, which was a "destined encounter with immortals" that he could not afford to miss.

(End of this chapter)