Chongming Xianzong

Chapter 332 Puppet Bridge

According to what the predecessors said, most of the essence of Guanshan Cave is in Yueming Palace. Whether it is the golden elixir or the ivy, these precious things all come from here.

Regardless of whether it is the Flying Dog Plank Road, the South Ghost Cave, or the Fire Spirit Cave, they are just different paths leading to the heart of the Yueming Palace in the Guanshan Cave.

According to the notes of the monks who entered the cave earlier, when the bell rang, it was the time for Yueming Palace to open. Therefore, Yuan Feng, Chu Yanran and others were willing to stop fighting and rushed to Yueming Palace together.

All five of them could be considered as first-rate foundation-building cultivators. How could the few miscellaneous soldiers they met on the road stop them? In just a moment's time, the five of them gathered outside Yueming Palace.

Yueming Palace, this towering palace is surrounded by a group of low mountains, like a pavilion in the clouds, shining with the stars.

The glazed tiles of the palace glowed with a faint blue light under the moonlight. A long corridor paved with bluestone was quiet and solemn, with jade carvings of various shapes placed on both sides.

Outside the palace wall, there were waves of pine trees and colorful lights. The bell sounds did not stop but became louder and louder, and there seemed to be an accompaniment of fairy music, the lingering sound lingered for a long time.

Everyone is familiar with earthen foundations, but palaces like the Siyueming Palace are rare.

Taoist Hei Lu sighed in his heart: "No wonder all the cultivators who have entered the Guanshan Cave Mansion said that the Moonlight Palace is not like what an ordinary Jindan Villa should have."

"This is the Yueming Palace." Lang Yi stared at the tall palace. Whether he could obtain the legendary longevity pill or the ivy produced in the Guanshan Cave was crucial for him, an old cultivator who didn't have many days left to live.

Considering that Lang Yi was just a casual cultivator, he had risked his life to fight with others for food and nourishment when he was young. Otherwise, how could he have surpassed so many sects and families and secured the position of the number one cultivator in Hong County?
Because of this, he had innumerable old injuries on his body, which naturally shortened his lifespan considerably.

An ordinary person who has established a true foundation can live for four decades, but if Lang Yi had not found and taken a lot of longevity pills and studied longevity techniques in recent years, and if he had not practiced the most nourishing wood-attributed techniques, he would probably not have lived to even two hundred years.

Of course, the means used were somewhat cruel, and small families like the He family were exploited and fell into decline.

But if not, how could Lang Yi be alive?

A general's success is the result of the sacrifice of thousands of men. By this time, Lang Yi had already taken several longevity pills that were easy to obtain. Among the spiritual objects that were still available and effective, only the ivy and the longevity pill were available.

Therefore, whether Lang Yi can buy enough time to make the fake elixir and prolong his life and be reborn depends on this majestic palace.

The rest of the people might not be as anxious as Lang Yi, but they certainly have their own plans.

It is easy to imagine that the fight between the five people after they enter the palace will be extremely brutal. Not to mention whether the alliance between Yue Lan and Yuan Feng is reliable, even if a white moonlight like Chu Yanran gets a treasure like the Golden Elixir, it is not surprising that she will be killed by Yue Lan.

Although the predecessors remembered that there were no restrictions at the gate of Yueming Palace, the old cultivator Lang Yi was still very cautious. He urged a second-level low-grade puppet to push open the palace gate, and after quickly walking in to confirm that there was nothing unusual, the five of them entered the palace together.

When you enter the palace, the first thing that comes into view is the huge jade steps. Every step seems to be treading on clouds and mist, making you feel like you are walking in a fairyland. A faint fragrance of magnolia flowers comes to you, accompanied by the spiritual energy, making you feel relaxed and happy.

Taoist Heilu and Chu Yanran did not rush to explore the palace, but at the same time, they extended their spiritual consciousness behind them, and then a sigh arose in their hearts at the same time.

Suddenly, the bells stopped ringing, the fairy music ended, and the smoothly glazed porcelain door slammed shut.

In their opinion, Kang Dabao and the others may not have encountered any accidents, but they have missed the greatest opportunity of this viewing cave. If they cannot enter the Yueming Palace, they can only wait until the half-month period is over and be teleported to the outside of the cave by this other palace.

After the door was closed, even Yuan Feng's expression was not good. This time, the opening time of Yueming Palace was much earlier than what was written in the previous note.

Yuan Xiyue and the female cultivator of the Zhang family did not enter the palace together, which made it difficult for him to carry out his plans beforehand. This was not a good thing for him.

What's even more terrible is that Yuan Xiyue actually fell into the hands of Kang Dabao, who is "good at bullying women". After entering Yueming Palace, he had no time to rescue her. What will happen to her after she leaves the palace?

When he met Yuan Xiyue again, he found out that the eldest daughter of the Yuan family might have been pregnant!
That is enough to nourish the body of Yuan Yin for two centuries. I wonder how well it can nourish Master Kang.

Blessings and disasters go hand in hand, now that the matter has been settled, there is nothing to be sad about. The people in the palace who have established their foundation are all people who know the pros and cons, and they know that the best plan now is to retrieve the spiritual objects as soon as possible, so as not to look back and lament that they have returned empty-handed after going out.

If Kang Dabao and Qi Buxiu can’t come in, then just let them not come in. They can just take some spiritual objects back with them.

The five of them were silent for a while. The palace was completely silent except for the gurgling sound of a spiritual spring in the middle of the palace.

It was unknown how long it had been, Yue Lan drew out his flying sword and summoned the Fire-walking Half-Chi, and the "Slaughter Sword" in Yuan Feng's hand also began to buzz.

Chu Yanran was not afraid at all. The six-sided colorful embroidered bamboo-frame gold-wire lamp on her waist, which had turned into a palm-sized lamp, suddenly lit up, and two lightning swords shot out first and hung in the air.

The Taoist in black shoes held the Tingquan Sword upside down, glanced at Yue Lan with his phoenix eyes, and without saying a word, he pressed down the flying sword in Yue Lan's hand, making it heavy. The latter immediately became cautious, thinking that this Taoist might be more difficult to deal with than he thought.

"Ahem," Lang Yi, who was the most nervous, spoke first. He said in a deep voice, "My fellow Taoists, I am presumptuous to give you advice. Now that we have an opportunity, please put aside your disputes. Compared with the elixir that is related to the path of Taoism, the grudges you had in the past are not worth it at all. Please don't lose sight of the main point and chase after the trivial."

Lang Yi's words actually made the murderous atmosphere in the air less tense. He certainly didn't speak to mediate because he was worried about the lives of the other four people.

Just like before when he was outside Yueming Palace, he did not utter a word; but after all, the intensity of the battle outside just now was still within the acceptable range, and Yue Lan and the Black Shoe Taoist had not left the battlefield.

Now that they have entered the legendary Moonlight Palace, no one can stay out of it.

Among those who can live to this age in the world of cultivation, how many of them are not old and shrewd people?

If the two sides really want to fight to the death now, with me, an outsider caught in the middle, there is no reason why they would not join hands and defeat me sooner or later.

By then, I'm afraid there won't even be a complete corpse left, so Lang Yi doesn't dare to dream of profiting from it.

"In my opinion, what Brother Lang said makes a lot of sense. Yanran, what do you think?" Yue Lan put away his flying sword, stroked the Fire-walking Half-Chi and asked softly.

Facing Yue Lan's somewhat sticky gaze, Chu Yanran naturally didn't even look at him. Only the Taoist Hei Lu beside him said at the right time: "What Elder Yue said is not wrong. After we pass the test of the puppets in the palace, we will make plans later."

Lang Yi was relieved to see that everyone listened to his advice. To show his sincerity, he walked in front and led everyone to the Puppet Bridge of Yueming Palace.

The five people had different thoughts, but they moved in unison. They stopped together when they reached the outside of the covered bridge.

There are many first- and second-level puppets in the Puppet Gallery Bridge that were collected by Master Guanyu from the Pingrong battlefield in his early years. It is said that these puppets were originally trained to resist the army of monsters from the mountain barbarians, but for some unknown reason they were never put into use, so they were placed in this villa by Master Guanyu.

No one could tell whether this legend was true or not, let alone the five people. However, they all knew how powerful this Puppet Bridge was.

This puppet corridor bridge has not only puppets, but also a third-order formation made by the great cultivator Guanyu himself. Even though most of it has been broken down due to lack of maintenance, it should not be underestimated for these cultivators below the fake elixir level.

According to research by some interested people, since the Guanshan Cave Mansion was found, there have been as many as ten cultivators at the peak of the foundation-building stage who died on this puppet bridge.

It can be seen that what the predecessors said, that only after entering the Yueming Palace will one face the real test of entering the Guanshan Cave Mansion, is not false.

This covered bridge is much more dangerous than the roads that everyone had passed before. Unless one has abilities far superior to those of his peers, it would be difficult to pass it alone.

This is also the reason why Lang Yi was able to persuade everyone to temporarily put aside their hatred.

The predecessor who had such a feat the last time had already achieved the Golden Elixir. But he did not remember much about the notes he left behind during his trip to Guanshan Cave, because three years after he achieved the Golden Elixir, he died in another secret realm.

Facing such a dangerous place, the five people dared not lose their vigilance. They had to be alert to the dangers of the corridor bridge and the people they were traveling with. For a moment, no one moved.

In the end, Lang Yi was the most anxious and suffered a loss, so he entered the corridor bridge first. Since someone took the lead, the other four did not delay and entered one after another.

It was the first time for the Taoist Black Shoe to be in such a dangerous place. Before he could take a closer look, he saw that Lang Yi, who was leading the way, had been blocked by a corundum puppet. The wood method of this old cultivator was indeed the best in Yunjiao. No wonder a man with such a brilliant vision as Fei Nan'an specially asked the head of Kang to go to him to practice wood method.

"Here!" Lang Yi waved his fingers, and a ray of light appeared on his fingertips. A huge tree appeared out of thin air in front of the old cultivator. The tree had no roots, but had thousands of vines. The treetop shook, and countless fallen leaves, along with vines that stretched dozens of feet long, pounced on the corundum puppet.

The corundum puppet was tall and strong, indeed extremely powerful, but it was slow and clumsy in its movements. Caught off guard, its huge body was tightly entangled by the vines grown by the Lang Yi giant tree.

That’s not all, the fallen leaves were coming towards the corundum puppet like a swarm of bees.

In just a moment, the sound of "rustling" continued to be heard, and pieces of jade chips fell to the ground continuously. The corundum puppet had no power to fight back at all, and was shaved off a thick layer by the sharp fallen leaves like flying knives.

Taoist Heishi saw that the huge body of the corundum puppet was reduced from two meters in height to half a meter in length in just a short period of time and could no longer fight. He thought more highly of Lang Yi.

You have to know that this puppet is not necessarily weak. Even if it encounters a late-stage true cultivator like Ye Zhen, the leader of the Shujian Sect, the outcome is still unknown.

The fact that Lang Yi defeated him so easily was beyond the expectations of the Black Shoe Taoist. The other three were also in the same situation, but after thinking about it, they understood.

The old cultivator obviously did this deliberately to show off his strength. Even if he was considered a first-rate figure below the level of fake elixir, he definitely could not use this level of Taoist magic at will.

This is to show sincerity and to establish authority silently. He wants others not to treat him as a soft persimmon that can be manipulated at will and to not have bad intentions towards him easily.

Just as Lang Yi expected, his plan had an immediate effect. Not only did the Black Shoe Taoist change his mind about him, but the other three people also changed their minds. At least before Lang Yi got any definite benefits, he was still safe.

Everyone stepped on a pile of first-grade Danhuang stone fragments that seemed quite valuable in the eyes of a certain leader. As for the puppet movement, the egg-sized second-grade high-quality Danhuang stone essence was taken by the greatest contributor Lang Yi.

Others could see that there was no joy on the old cultivator's face. It seemed that it was just as he said, apart from the spiritual objects that could prolong his life, he really didn't care about anything else.

This is also true for those who have obtained the Golden Elixir. Although this rare elixir is good, not every foundation-building cultivator is qualified to take it.

Take Lang Yi as an example. He has reached the peak of foundation building for many years, but because there is no one to guide him, it is difficult for him to find the way forward and it is difficult for him to complete his theory of alchemy.

In this case, even if he took the Golden Pill, it would not increase the probability of success by 20%. He would probably just die from the collapse of his Tao foundation, and he would have wasted a pill that could determine the rise and fall of a family for hundreds of years.

Except for Lang Yi, no one else present had such troubles.

Taoist Heilu has been practicing for less than a hundred years, so it is rare for him to have such achievements; Chu Yanran is just over half of her life span, but she has been the number one female cultivator in Yunjiaozhou for many years; even if Yuan Feng and Yue Lan are slightly older, they still have several decades to perfect the theory of alchemy.

In other words, even Yue Lan, whose future is uncertain among the four, still has at least a few decades to verify the fake elixir.

But everyone can easily empathize with Lang Yi's state of mind. The practitioners meditate and seek enlightenment, sit by the green lamp, and fight for their lives. Who can tell whether Lang Yi today will be himself tomorrow?

A shattered corundum puppet was not enough to make everyone lose their vigilance. The arrival of the evil guest made these cold monsters guarding this place excited. One by one, the huge monsters lying on the corridor bridge stood up, roared strangely, and rushed over.

The corundum puppets were covered in golden light, and they swung their swords violently as they moved forward, causing spiritual jade stones to fall like raindrops.

Taoist Heilius and his companions did not dare to delay, and they used sword lights, giant trees, short spears, spirit beasts, and palace lanterns together, and finally they worked together to take on the show of force from the dozen puppets. Without any sign, dozens of flames suddenly descended from the sky above the corridor bridge.

Judging from the naked eye, this raging force is about to burn the world to ashes.

“Is this the Lihuo Fentian Formation set up by the legendary cultivator Guanyu?” Taoist Heilius pondered. The incomplete formation was so powerful, and one wonders how exquisite it would be when it was in its full glory!
However, he was not afraid of the raging flames. He first chopped off the head of a corundum puppet in front of him, and then aimed his next sword at the thick armor on the chest of another corundum puppet, where the puppet's movement was located.

"Don't worry, there are still people blocking the way ahead!"

Facing the raging flames, Yue Lan's face froze. Even the fire-element Banchi who was beside him did not show any relief at all. He opened his mouth and sucked away most of the flames, while the remaining small part continued to rage.

Yue Lan didn't even think about it, he used his footwork to the extreme and dodged sideways.

The fire was very powerful. It first burned up the huge tree used by Lang Yi, and then forced Yuan Feng to pull back his short spear. The Taoist in black shoes was startled. Seeing that the power of the flames was even greater than he had expected, he was about to use all his strength to withstand the remaining fire.

At this time, the wick of Chu Yanran's palace lantern suddenly lit up, and the lamp cover flew up. The beautiful woman murmured something, and the remaining flame was attracted by the sparks of the wick, swallowed into the palace lantern, and turned into nutrients for the magic weapon.

"It turns out that Chu Yanran's palace lantern can actually swallow fire." The rest of the people only then knew about this unexpected surprise.

Even the Taoist Hei Lu knew this for the first time, and thought to himself, "As the saying goes, 'one thing conquers another'. Chu Yanran's palace lantern magic weapon is not an ordinary magic weapon. If it weren't for the fire-type half-Chi raised by Yue Lan, which also has the ability to swallow fire, why would Chu Yanran need me to help her fight Yue Lan?"

When the rest of the people saw this scene, they also felt a strange feeling in their hearts.

The first to be affected was Yue Lan, who was obsessed with Chu Yanran. Seeing that the power of Chu Yanran's magic weapon was beyond his expectations, he was half worried and half happy.

"If Yuan Feng hadn't deceived me, I would have been able to obtain all the magic weapons this time! Even if my clan abandons me and the sect hates me, I may still be able to accomplish something!

After forming the golden elixir with Yanran, we will become a pair of immortal lovers. Let alone Yunjiaozhou, even Shannan Road, I can roam freely! But Yanran's palace lantern magic weapon is really powerful, and the black shoe Taoist is really difficult to deal with. I don't know whether what the child said is true or false, oh, if he dares to lie to me..."

Yue Lan was furious. When the raging flames died down a bit, the corundum puppet was not used to him and slapped him with its big hands, which had the power to split mountains and crack the earth.

The Fire Half-Chi instantly shot out from Yue Lan's neck and rushed towards the giant jade palm. During this process, the Fire Half-Chi's body swelled up to the thickness of a bowl and a foot long, and its tail spurted with spiritual fire.

The giant palm that the corundum puppet stretched out first was cracked, and the Fire-Element Half-Chi was hit by the pupil technique of the other corundum puppet. He twisted his body in pain and screamed in shock!

"Damn you bastard!" Yue Lan dealt with the puppet in front of him first, and then his flying sword flew out, gouging out the gem crystal eyes of the corundum puppet that injured the Fire Element Half Chi. But behind him, another short halberd wrapped in spiritual light pierced into the thick armor on the chest of the puppet and lifted it up.

With a "click", the movement was exposed. The Fire-Element Half-Chi seized the opportunity, opened its huge mouth, and a column of flame gushed out.

The "Karala" movement was burned and exploded, and this huge monster could no longer cause harm.

With Chu Yanran's palace lanterns to ward off fire, the power of the remaining formation left by Master Guanyu was mostly eliminated. With the five of them working together, these powerful corundum puppets did not cause them too much trouble.

Until they walked out of the Puppet Bridge, only Yue Lan's Fire-Element Half-Chi and Lang Yi, the lone old cultivator, suffered some minor injuries.

The Taoist priest in black shoes was holding a relatively intact corundum puppet and examining it. Everyone else turned a blind eye. Only Chu Yanran came over after she finished regulating her breathing and reminded him, "You don't need to look at it any more. Our predecessors have already remembered that this puppet is useless once it leaves this bridge."

"Is this true?" Taoist Heilu suddenly became interested.

Chu Yanran nodded lightly: "Not only that, the puppets we just smashed will be intact again when the next round of Guanshan Cave Mansion is opened. Even if you brought one out today, there will be no less in the corridor bridge next time."

"Is it so magical?" Taoist Hei Lu thought. Chu Yanran added: "If not, Guanshan Cave Mansion would not be called the most magical Golden Elixir Mansion by all the cultivators."

Fellow Daoist Hei Lu wanted to ask more, but Yue Lan on the other end had already walked over and said with a frown, "You two Daoists, please take a rest. We must continue on our way."

The smile on Chu Yanran's face suddenly disappeared, and the Taoist in black shoes restrained his expression and nodded in agreement.

Neither of them noticed that when Yue Lan left, he made a strange seal in his hand.

At the same time, Chu Yanran felt that there was something strange about her body. Her beautiful eyes flashed, and she said to the Taoist Heishi, "Daoyou..."

(End of this chapter)