Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 407 Master Zhou Gets Involved
A quarter of an hour later, Li Wuxiang's spirit returned to his body with a head full of wicked ideas. He opened his eyes again and saw that the old Taoist priest on the right side of the cave seemed to have finished whispering with his disciples and had probably decided how to make his move.

Turning back to look into the main cave, Zhou Xiang had already entered the darkness of the cavern, using his lightness skill to explore the wide and deep cave, occasionally reaching out to touch the cave walls, as if he were inspecting his new house.

The group from the sect had just concluded that if Zhou Xiang was a member of the Five Mountains True Form Sect, then the remaining five sects would definitely send someone out of their respective regions to deliver the immortal's remains to the Blood God Sect. The reason he's not in a hurry and is still lingering in the blessed land is probably because all six sects want him to arrive first to see what the situation is like there—one wrong move and he might run into Mei Qiulu, which would be a death sentence!

Regarding how to use this person, before Lou He and Zeng Jianqiu's news came back, everyone had three ideas.

Zhang San's first thought was, "Sect Leader, why don't you just kill him, pretend he's gone back to the Five Mountains True Form Sect, see who's easy to deal with and kill that person too? Kill them one by one, and eventually get to the main altar and find a way to kill their sect leader, right?"

The second idea was what Chang Buqing and Jie Qiufeng relayed: "Sect Leader, you should lure him in, use the magic of the Xie Zhi to bewitch him, and then have him take you back to the True Form Sect to lie low. Then we'll see what to do next."

The third idea came from She Mu: "Zhou Xiang is also a human being, but the Five Sacred Mountains Emperors are not. Sect Master, you can also try to influence him and persuade him to abandon darkness and embrace light. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Zhou Er's bloodline became a member of our Sword Sect?"

The three ideas were all more conservative than the last, but what Li Wuxiang didn't know whether to like or not was that they didn't seem to care much about what would happen to the Taiyi Sect; all they were thinking about was the Sword Sect.

Another thing that made him happy was that none of these people were afraid when they were hiding in the Myriad Transformations Cube; they were all troublemakers.

As the sect leader, Li Wuxiang was thinking a bit more than them. The news had already been passed on to Mei Qiulu, and she would find ways to guard against the remaining five, essentially waiting for them to run into her trap... no, waiting for them to tire themselves out. Meanwhile, he could focus on dealing with Zhou Xiang.

Zhou Xiang's cultivation level was unknown, as he was protected by numerous magical spells. However, even if it was confirmed that he possessed a cultivation level equivalent to the Nascent Soul stage, Zhou Xiang would still not want to confront him directly unless absolutely necessary.

Having fought Xu Zhen before, he knew there were countless evil supernatural abilities in the world, things that couldn't be measured by cultivation level. And now he held a secret—the six Great Emperors of the Xuan Sect were no longer human. If he could turn Zhou Xiang against them, it would be far more useful than killing or imprisoning him!

Since he himself dared not make a move easily, he certainly did not believe that the old Taoist priests and their ilk could actually kill Zhou Xiang.

So the people in the North Cave had only one purpose—to provide the necessary conditions for his later timely assistance.

Li Wuxiang stood up, and the old Taoist priest also came out. The two exchanged glances, and Li Wuxiang asked, "When will we make our move, and how?"

"Let's do it now," the old Taoist priest said in a low voice, glancing into the main cave at the same time. "See that hole in the ground?"

There are many underground caves on the ground of the main cave. When we came in, the old Taoist priest introduced the largest one, saying that there seemed to be layers of magic inside, which must have been left by the previous owner of the cave. He also said that there were cloud ears inside.

Li Wuxiang nodded: "You mean the one with medicinal herbs?"

"That's full of the talisman techniques we've accumulated over the years. We'll use it when we encounter a tough situation. Usually, I'll have a disciple accidentally fall in, and then call for someone to rescue him. But we're all outsiders here, so you're practically one of his own. You'll jump in and say you've triggered a restriction, then ask him to rescue you. Once he's down there, I'll activate the grand formation to refine all the spells on his body, and then things will be much easier."

"what about me?"

"There's a small hole at the bottom of that cave. Once you go down, you'll see a darkened rock that looks like a person sitting there. Go around to the back and you'll see it. You'll exit from there yourself—"

Li Wuxiang waved his hand: "Stop it. Impossible. If anyone's going down, it'll be your people."

"If my men go down and get stuck there, and I don't go to rescue them, but instead tell them to go and rescue them, do you think they're stupid?"

Li Wuxiang pointed to himself: "Do I look like an idiot?"

The old Taoist frowned: "Then you won't contribute?"

"I brought these people to you, so how can I be considered not contributing?"

"Alright, if that's how you put it, then any armor or weapons he has on him after this is all mine."

"I didn't say I wanted it."

The old Taoist priest nodded: "Alright. Go and call him over, and tell him we need to entertain him and get to work."

Li Wuxiang immediately headed into the main cave. Zhou Xiang watched as they explored further and further, a sense of excitement on his face as if he had finally found his own territory.

Li Wuxiang walked to his side and said in a low voice, "Senior."

Zhou Xiang didn't look at him, but instead stroked the cave wall and sighed: "Li Xiao, what comes to mind when you look at this place?"

"what?"

"Can't imagine what it used to be like? Long ago, before the Sixth... Taiyi Emperor attained enlightenment, there were already cultivators living and cultivating here. This is not a cave, but one that was carved out by people using supernatural powers and tempered by water and fire. It's just that because it was located in a blessed land and was gradually influenced by the local earth veins, it slowly became what it is today."

Li Wuxiang genuinely didn't see it. However, he knew that if he were a member of the Five Mountains True Form Sect, he would never act so familiar with feng shui and landforms.

"Alas, back then there were no Golden Immortals, or even True Immortals. The sky was clear and bright above everyone's head, and there were no powerful beings suppressing them... If we were born back then, cultivators would have felt that everyone had the potential to attain enlightenment. But now, we have things weighing on our heads and in our hearts."

Zhou Xiang's thinking is somewhat reactionary. Is he dissatisfied with the Five Sacred Mountains Emperor?
However, the person who could say these things to me was quite easygoing. In this day and age, someone who is easygoing is either extremely powerful or extremely innocent.

So he said, "Senior, I want to tell you something."

"Well, you tell me."

"How about we leave tonight? I have a feeling something's off about the people here."

Zhou Xiang was taken aback and turned to look at him: "Something's not right?"

"I can't really explain it, it's just a feeling. Dao Shiye and his six disciples, I noticed that their cultivation methods were all different, yet they addressed each other as master and disciples... I felt they weren't like master and disciples, but rather like they were just temporarily teaming up. That's how bandits are."

Zhou Xiang stared at him for a while: "Sigh. I told you, don't fight over things here with me."

"Senior, I'm not..."

"So you're saying I'm bad at judging people?" Zhou Xiang shook his head. "Where in the world are there so many vicious and wicked people? Besides, even if there were, I wouldn't care. With me, everyone gets one chance."

Li Wuxiang opened his mouth, but in the end he only sighed: "Then I won't say anything. Dao Shiye asked me to call you over, senior, saying he wants to entertain you."

Zhou Xiang walked straight past him, with Li Wuxiang following behind.

As he approached the entrance to the main cave, he saw the old Taoist priest and four other disciples squatting beside the large pit. One of the disciples had already gone down, and the old Taoist priest was pointing from above: "...Yes, go down a little further. You can't harvest from the top anymore; if you keep harvesting there, you'll die. Go down a little further—"

The person at the bottom of the pit said, "Master, you've never been that deep before..."

"What are you afraid of? I'm watching you from up here, go without worry!" the old Taoist priest shouted, then turned to Zhou Xiang, "Senior, I'll have him pick some cloud ear fungus for you to try, this stuff—"

Before he could finish speaking, a loud cry of "Ah!" rang out from below, followed by a dull thud as something fell to the ground, and then silence. "Chen An!" a disciple beside the old Taoist priest cried out in alarm, "What happened to you?!"

But Chen An below remained motionless. It was Li Shun who called his name. He called twice more and then jumped down, his toes touching the protruding stone surface in the pit several times before disappearing into the darkness.

The old Taoist priest tried to stop him, but failed: "Hey! Be careful!"

Zhou Xiang didn't go over, but watched from a distance and said in a low voice, "You can see people's true colors in times of crisis. These two brothers seem to have a good relationship."

Li Wuxiang remained silent.

Just then, another cry of alarm came from the pit: "Master, it's here—ah!"

Chen An also let out a loud shout, then fell silent again.

"Li Shun!" another disciple shouted, and immediately jumped down as well.

Immediately afterwards, the old Taoist priest shouted, "Wang Pu! You scoundrel!"

After shouting that, he jumped down himself.

There are two left, Zhang He and Liu Wen, who are also called "Master!"

The two of them jumped down as well.

Li Wuxiang couldn't bear to watch any longer. He couldn't help but raise his hand and slap his head. Dao Shiye's method was really too crude. If he had known they were playing this game, he would have asked them what they were planning to do just now—

“Look, do they look like bandits?” Zhou Xiang smiled slightly. “The bond between the senior brothers is deep, and their master also cares for his disciples. Li Xiao, you’ve misunderstood them.”

Huh? Li Wuxiang was stunned and truly speechless.

Zhou Xiang looked at him and pointed again: "That's Yin marrow earth energy down there. What, do you think they're putting on an act for me?"

……

After landing at the bottom of the pit, the old Taoist saw Chen An, Li Shun, and Wang Pu, who had gone down first, lying motionless on the ground. He was furious and kicked each of them, cursing in a low voice, "You damn fools! You fell down like that? Huh? You, a Qi Refining cultivator, fell down like that? Do you really think you're some mortal here to gather herbs? I told you to trigger a restriction before you cried out, and you fell down? You don't care about your own flesh and blood, do you? I'll skin you alive tomorrow! What are you pretending for now? Get up!"

He then turned and berated Zhang He and Liu Wen, who had jumped down after him: "What are you two bastards doing jumping down like that? Are the people up there idiots? Aren't they supposed to be loving fathers and filial sons? Huh?!"

Zhang He and Liu Wen looked up together and whispered, "No, Master, we thought of that too... That's why we're afraid that person will notice something's wrong, so we're staying with you for safety. We can still be safe together..."

The old Taoist priest suddenly said, "Shh."

When Zhang He and Liu Wen looked up, he also looked up and glanced up.

The cave was very deep, but they had all been down there before. It was a deadly cave, and the master and his disciples would set up talismanic formations inside whenever they had free time, making it increasingly powerful. Therefore, they knew that the cave wasn't actually straight up and down, but rather curved. Now, looking up, they should see only the dark cave walls.

But the old Taoist felt that something was wrong with the cave wall above—it looked darker than usual, as if it were blocked by a dark shadow.

He moved his feet, about to jump up and take a look. But as soon as he circulated his internal energy, he immediately felt a cold, stabbing pain in his chest and abdomen, as if a long needle had been pierced into him!
Just then, Zhang He and Liu Wen said, "Master, why is it so...so down here today..."

Before they could finish speaking, their bodies went limp and they collapsed together.

The old Taoist priest quickly stepped aside and kicked the two men, shouting, "Get up!"

Seeing that they didn't react, he bent down and quickly touched their necks—their breathing was intermittent, their internal energy was obviously extremely disordered, and they had already fainted.

He then touched the necks of the three people on the ground and found the same thing.

He'd been tricked! Chen An didn't fall on purpose!
The old Taoist priest was momentarily unsure what kind of attack he had been hit by, but he quickly realized it was either a potent poison or some kind of formation—certainly not something set up by him and his master. He immediately held his breath, but it was no use. An extremely cold aura was seeping into his body from the bottom of the cave; this chill was ridiculously powerful and impossible to dispel.

He dared not attempt another jump, so he could only climb the cave wall with his bare hands, trying to get out. As he climbed, he wondered to himself, "Who did this?!"
Li Xiao? If he's so capable, what's he doing bringing people here?
Zhou Xiang? He saw through it!? No, how could he see that... Li Xiao tricked me!?

……

“It was the Yin Marrow Earth Qi that I just activated.” Zhou Xiang smiled slightly. “Did you think I was just wandering around here? I was activating the Earth Qi to reshape this place and fill these caves with the underground river water below. But before I could say anything, Dao Shiye’s disciples went down. Well, that’s fine, it allowed me to witness their master-disciple relationship.”

Li Wuxiang immediately realized that the first two people who went down earlier—at least the first one, Chen An—had actually taken the act to reality.

He immediately sensed something was wrong, guessing what the old Taoist would think once he went down and realized something was amiss. Just as this thought crossed his mind, he heard the old Taoist shout from the ground: "Senior! Be careful of Li Xiao! He's trying to harm you!"

Li Wuxiang darted forward, about to unleash a torrent of curses to confuse the situation, when he heard Zhou Xiang laugh and say, "You suspect him, and he suspects you. Li Xiao, look, if you two don't trust each other, how many troubles will arise within the sect in the future?"

He shouted again, "Dao Shiye! Don't overthink it, come up! Below is the Yin marrow earth energy that I accidentally stirred up. Don't circulate your qi, just slowly climb up!"

Li Wuxiang wasn't sure if the old Taoist had understood, but in any case, the dog stopped barking. After a while, he saw the old Taoist rest one hand on the edge of the stone pit, pause briefly, and cautiously peek his head out.

Zhou Xiang looked at him and smiled: "It's not that Li Xiao wants to harm you. Come on up."

Dao Shiye looked at Zhou Xiang, then at Li Wuxiang, gritted his teeth, and jumped up.

Zhou Xiang asked, "Are they still down there?"

“…Ah,” the old Taoist priest said warily.

"I'll go bring them up." Zhou Xiang leaped down. As he passed by, the old Taoist priest shuddered, almost losing control and about to attack. But when he saw Zhou Xiang actually jump into the pit, he turned and glared at Li Wuxiang.

"I can't even be bothered to talk to you." Li Wuxiang pointed at him. "We agreed to work together, and now you're going to expose my secrets? Don't fucking look at me. It really was him. He said he wanted to bring the underground water up, and now he's jumped in himself. What are you going to do with your five disciples down there too?"

The old Taoist looked at him suspiciously again, as if trying to figure out whether what he said was true or false.

Then, without a word, he turned around, raised his hand into the air, and a sinister little banner appeared in his hand: "Life and death are predestined, but there is a way to die, hahahaha! What to do?! Refine them together!!"

A huge boulder immediately fell from the top of the pit, like a lid of a furnace, sealing the opening tightly with a bang. Then, two circles of crimson runes lit up on the surrounding stone ground, and heat surged out from the cracks in the stone lid—"Start the furnace!"

(End of this chapter)