I was forced to cultivate immortality when I just wanted to lie down

Chapter 324 Minor Calamity, Beating the Son

Releasing his grip on the cliff face, Xu Qing jumped straight down to the bottom of the cave.

There were three forks in the road ahead. The passageway in front of them was filled with malevolent energy, and the yin energy was sharp as knives and swords. Xu Qing used the straw spirit paper figure as a puppet to explore it.

Unexpectedly, as soon as the paper figure entered the cave and before it could go any deeper, it was slashed by unseen weapons. In an instant, paper scraps flew everywhere and turned into a pile of paper dust.

It is foreseeable that if a living person were to go in, they would probably be immediately chopped into a human stump!

Xu Qing picked up the tattered paper lantern from the ground and finally understood why his paper crane and lantern had lost their connection.

The murderous aura emanating from this passageway alone is something that mere paper offerings cannot withstand!
Xu Qing then looked at the two passageways to the left and right. The left hand was filled with a deathly, turbid aura; if a person inhaled it, it would be no different from ingesting arsenic.

In the right-hand passageway, the walls are carved with images of starving ghosts, their mouths open, sucking away people's vital energy. If a person enters, they will inevitably become emaciated and turn into food for the hungry ghosts within moments.

Xu Qing observed the characteristics of the three passageways, lost in thought.

Those who cultivate the Tao face three major calamities: lightning, yin fire, and bifeng (a type of wind).

However, living beings in the world also suffer from three minor calamities: war, plague, and famine.
When people's hearts are disordered, they fight endlessly, and there is war and conflict everywhere. Humans kill each other, which is the calamity of war.

The plague, as its name suggests, refers to the rampant spread of disease in the world.

Famine refers to natural disasters, such as droughts and floods that cause food shortages and large-scale famines; the phrase "when people are starving, they eat each other" refers to famine.

Buddhism teaches the cycle of formation, existence, decay, and emptiness. The three minor calamities occur at the end of the "existence kalpa," which is the period in each minor kalpa when human lifespan decreases.

When human lifespan decreases to thirty years, a famine occurs, lasting for seven years, seven months, and seven days. During this period, no vegetation grows, and corpses of the starved are everywhere.

When human lifespan decreases to twenty years, a plague strikes, lasting for seven months and seven days, during which the disease rages and many die.

When human lifespan decreases to ten years, a calamity of war occurs, lasting for seven days. During this time, even plants and trees become weapons, and humans kill each other to the point of extinction.

The three passages of the ghost cave beneath the temple correspond perfectly to the three minor calamities of the mortal world.

"Was this passageway mechanism specifically designed for people?"

Xu Qing became increasingly confused. The Yinhe Ancient Road was already sparsely populated with living people. This place where gods returned to the ruins was understandable for protecting against ghosts and demons, but what was the point of protecting against people?
However, when Xu Qing thought of Ji Lingzhou and Han Renshan, who had just broken into the Ghost Cave, he found the design of the Ghost Cave to be exceptionally reasonable!
This cave had existed for a long time without being noticed by ghosts, but it was unearthed by living people from outside the Yin River.

Considering the minor calamities formation in the cave, Xu Qing didn't believe there was no explanation for this.

"There are three passageways. If Ji Lingzhou explores one of them and Han Renshan explores another, then we still need one more person to explore the last passageway."

Xu Qing instantly realized what was going on. After Ji and Han entered the Ghost Cave, the red-robed giant from the Bone Temple tried several times to lure him into exploring the Ghost Cave as well.

If we include him, then there will be exactly three of us!
At this moment, Xu Qing even had the illusion that the three of them entering the Ghost Cave was part of the red-robed giant's scheme.

Xu Qing narrowed his eyes. He didn't care what was in this ghost cave. As long as he collected the corpse, he would turn around and leave!
Even if he encounters something uncontrollable, he will not stay in the Ghost Cave and wait to die like Han Renshan and the other two.

Take a radical approach: at worst, we could just rip this ghost cave and the bone temple above it off with a single axe blow!
To be on the safe side, with the opening of the Heavenly Book, he can also leave the game at any time and stop playing with his opponent!
But before that, he wanted to see what exactly this Bone Temple Ghost Cave was all about!

Xu Qing placed his hands on the ground, channeling his power through his spine and using his Unyielding Bone Divine Power to instantly connect with the Yin Meridians beneath the earth!

At this moment, he was like an old Chinese medicine doctor, and the entire underground cave was like a patient coming for a consultation.

Xu Qing listened to the pulse and examined the pulse to observe its signs. Threads of invisible earth vein fluctuations were like a spider web, transmitting various pheromones to him.

Focusing his mind, Xu Qing ignored the left and right passageways and first connected the 'spider silk' to the passageway filled with the evil energy of swords and weapons.

As the earth's energy surged upwards, Xu Qing used his sustenance to examine the body, seeing through layers of earth veins to the scene at the end of the tunnel.

At the end of the passageway, there is an underground temple with seven solemn and ancient gilded characters inscribed on it: "Temple of the True Lord of the Dragon and Tiger Mysterious Altar". Through the temple door, the evil mist inside is thick, and all the evil spirits are almost solidified.

Just as Xu Qing was about to put in more effort and investigate more closely, he suddenly saw two eerie green will-o'-the-wisps lit up in the darkness!

Along with it came the suppressed roars of wild beasts. Xu Qing felt a chill run down his spine. The two will-o'-the-wisps in front of him were not lanterns at all, but clearly a pair of wild beast eyes!
"WTF!"

Before anything hidden inside the temple could detect or pursue it, Xu Qing quickly withdrew his supernatural powers and returned.

The aura of wild beasts in the temple was extraordinary; Xu Qing had never seen a demon with such a strong demonic aura before.

Even Bai Qiuyu, who has nearly a thousand years of cultivation, cannot compare to him.

Xu Qing opened her eyes and looked at the passageway in front of her again.

The road ahead is treacherous. Even a martial arts master would likely perish under a hail of swords and blades after only a few steps.

Xu Qing's indestructible body could naturally withstand it, but the thing hidden in the temple was too ferocious. He wasn't here to cut down mountains and destroy temples, so there was no need to provoke the thing at the end of the passageway.

Besides
Xu Qing thought of the inscription on the plaque in front of the temple and fell into deep thought.

He never expected that there would be an underground temple beneath the Bone Temple of the Exorcist True Lord, and that it would happen to be the temple of the legendary Xuan Tan Long Hu True Lord.

The things hidden beneath this bone temple seem to be far more complicated than he imagined.
However, he's just a corpse collector; what do he care about all the secrets hidden here?

Xu Qing ignored the underground temple and turned his gaze from the main path to the two side paths on the left and right.

The left passageway was filled with deathly turbid air. Although it was equally dangerous, as long as one was careful not to let the deathly air enter the body, even a living person could enter, let alone Xu Qing, who could smell the deathly air as if it were the aroma of flesh.

As for the passageway of starving ghosts on the right.
Xu Qing was equally unafraid. Once he went in, it was still uncertain who would absorb whose life force!

"The passage ahead is too heavily guarded by weapons, so Ji Lingzhou and the other person cannot pass through. They can only enter the left and right passages."

Xu Qing covered the ground with both hands and once again used the Undying Bone Divine Power to reconnect the Heavenly Pillar Earth Vein.

At the end of the left-hand passage, Xu Qing saw the figure of Ji Lingzhou, a member of the Cangyi Rebellion; the right-hand passage went deeper, winding for about five or six miles, where Xu Qing also spotted the figure of Han Renshan, a rebel from the Tianxin Sect.

However, the aura of these two was clearly different from that of ordinary martial arts masters.

At this moment, the auras of the two had far exceeded the realm of grandmasters, and were still rising endlessly.

Xu Qing was surprised. Could there really be a chance to become an immortal down there?
Looking at the incredibly eerie underground tunnel before him, Xu Qing felt as if he were being told by others that he was a perfectly normal, living person.

This made him feel even more ridiculous than when a seasoned courtesan was given the title of a pure and chaste woman by others.

What kind of divine encounter could be found in this ghostly cave?
After a moment's thought, Xu Qing chose the passageway where Ji Lingzhou was located, which was the closest available.

Although the aura of this leader of the Cangyi Gang continued to rise, it had not yet reached a level that posed a threat to Xu Qing. However, if this continued unchecked...
Xu Qing estimated that in another half month, when the forty-seventh day is over, the other party might actually reach a level close to that of the Ghost King Duo'e!
What kind of opportunity could enable a grandmaster to break through the limits of mortals and touch the realm beyond the ordinary martial arts in such a short time?

Filled with a strong sense of exploration, Xu Qing ignored the deathly aura around him and made his way to the end of the passageway without any hindrance.

Inside the empty room containing only a stone coffin, Ji Lingzhou, dressed in an indigo brocade robe, lowered his head and let out a hoarse roar that was difficult to understand, appearing as if he were a fool.

Xu Qing stood at the entrance of the passageway, observing politely without disturbing anyone.

The other party's state was beyond his expectations. Xu Qing did not sense the presence of the immortal affinity, but instead sensed another strange aura that made him feel very familiar.

Ji Lingzhou sensed something was wrong. He suddenly looked up, his eyes bloodshot, towards the entrance of the tunnel.

"A stranger? Could it be that you've also come seeking a path to immortality?"

Their eyes met, and Xu Qing's expression froze.

The person before me had white hair and red eyes, a prominent forehead with three prominent ridges, and bony spurs protruding from his spine. His brocade robe was tattered. Looking at his hands, they were bluish-black and withered, the sharp nails gleaming with a cold, eerie light—he looked exactly like a bloodthirsty demon!
What kind of divine favor did the other party receive to become like this?

Those who know him might say that Ji Lingzhou is the leader of a rebel group; those who don't might think that he has bumped into a zombie relative from eight hundred years ago!

"Tsk, look at this little guy. Even the Demon Exorcist True Lord is quite handsome compared to you."

Xu Qing's mouth is like a knife; it can cut through people's defenses without needing to be sharpened.

Ji Lingzhou, who always paid attention to his appearance, turned cold and asked again, "Who are you? How dare you be so insolent in front of a Celestial Being!"

"A celestial being? You think you can be a celestial being?"

"If you were a celestial being, I'd be a model citizen and a paragon of virtue! Pah, disgusting!"

Xu Qing spat, his face full of disgust.

"What a waste of a corpse! He used to be so good! He looked so respectable. How could he have been so foolish as to turn himself into this inhuman and ghostly state?"

Xu Qing kept chattering away, while Ji Lingzhou's anger surged to his head.

"shut up!"

Ji Lingzhou suppressed his anger and asked, "Who exactly are you? There are thirteen chieftains and five envoys guarding the Bone Temple. How did you manage to find this place?"

Xu Qing smiled and said, "Me? I'm a funeral director. I'm here to arrange your funeral. As for the Bone Temple, it's already surrounded by the Eight Banners Marshals, just waiting for your funeral!"

"Marshal of the Eight Banners." Ji Lingzhou stood up, stretching his limbs as he walked towards Xu Qing with a gloomy face.

"So you were just a lackey of the court, aiding and abetting the wicked. Today I have attained the status of a celestial being, and I can use you as a sacrifice to my banner!"

"Tsk! Whether you can perform the flag-raising ceremony is another matter, but I have already sent away your thirteen commanders and five envoys. Also, you can insult people all you want, but don't use the Great Yong's lackeys to insult people!"

Xu Qingxiang's assistance to the Eight Banners Marshal was for his own twelve-year plan, and had nothing to do with the Great Yong. He himself had no good feelings towards the Great Yong, so calling him a lackey of the Great Yong was no different from insulting someone!
Upon hearing that Xu Qing had wiped out the entire team he had painstakingly cultivated, Ji Lingzhou immediately lost his composure.

"You bastard! I'll skin you alive to vent my hatred!"

Xu Qing's face darkened; this commander was capable of swearing.

The two couldn't agree on anything, and after only a few words, they overturned the table.

Seeing Ji Lingzhou's ferocious bone claws coming at him, Xu Qing curled his lips, as if he were watching a child playing with something.

That's not how you use your claws.

Dodging the bone claws that could split mountains and shatter rocks, Xu Qing, while strolling leisurely, also extended his own zombie claws.

The claws, forged from unyielding bone, gleamed with a chilling light, and a layer of corpse-fiend aura remained condensed on them, giving them an overall strange and beautiful appearance.

In contrast, Ji Lingzhou's Rakshasa Bone Claw is like a patient with onychomycosis meeting a professional manicurist.

This is the real Corpse King's Claw, a subterranean aesthetic forged through countless trials, something that Ji Lingzhou, a half-baked heretic, can't possibly imitate!

The two claws collided instantly. There was no clanging of metal against metal, nor the grinding sound of hard objects colliding. Ji Lingzhou only heard a few crisp sounds before all ten bone claws landed neatly on the ground.

"."

Ji Lingzhou's pupils dilated violently. At this moment, he realized that the other party was no ordinary martial artist!

Stimulated by the excruciating pain, Ji Lingzhou's remaining sanity was awakened, and a sense of fear at being crushed by a higher being of the same kind instantly overwhelmed his previous bloodthirsty ferocity.

His arrogance, stemming from his first encounter with a power other than that of a Grandmaster, completely vanished.

The surprise of obtaining the 'fate of immortality' had vanished from Ji Lingzhou's face, which was now covered with strange runes.

"What kind of monster are you?"

At the same time, Ji Lingzhou was horrified and drew his long sword. With the support of his superhuman power that surpassed that of a martial arts master, Ji Lingzhou's body was covered with a protective aura, and his sword energy crisscrossed in his hand!

At this moment, with the sword in his hand, he regained his confidence!
A series of blinding, cold lights converged into sword shadows, seemingly capable of tearing the air apart. In an instant, the small tomb chamber was filled with sword marks more than half a foot deep.

Enveloped by the sword intent, Xu Qing curled his lip again.

Such exquisite martial arts swordsmanship would undoubtedly be unparalleled in the secular world. However, in the eyes of Xu Qing, who had practiced the Xuan Nu Sword Technique, the opponent's swordsmanship was like a rough piece of work full of flaws.

In short, what the hell is this?! What a waste of all that divine power.

Xu Qing felt that if he used the Xuan Nu Sword Technique to counter it, it would be disrespectful to the sword technique and would be too low-class!

Xu Qing simply took out the mourning stick used in funerals and swung it at the inhuman-looking thing in front of him!
The mourning staff, also known as the filial piety staff, is five feet five inches long and entirely white. It is a white banner held by the filial sons and grandsons during the funeral procession of the deceased.

According to folklore, this stick has the effect of striking down evil spirits that cannot be dispersed.

Similar to stir-frying your children and grandchildren with bamboo sticks, you can beat them without losing anything!
"You wretched child, you know nothing of propriety, righteousness, or shame! Today I will teach you what rules and regulations truly mean!"

Xu Qing let out a low shout, and his body surged with corpse energy, enveloping the mourning staff. He then lashed out at Ji Lingzhou, striking her head and face repeatedly!
As the club struck him, Ji Lingzhou was stunned. For a moment, he even hallucinated, as if the young man in front of him had become his biological parents, and he had become the child who had done wrong in the past. The irresistible majesty made him not dare to swing the sword in his hand.

Xu Qing didn't care about anything else. After a brutal beating, a corpse with tears and snot streaming down its face and its eyes wide open appeared in the tomb.

(End of this chapter)