The Path to Immortality Begins with the Life-Extending Lamp

Chapter 118 Next Stop—East China Sea

The last few days of anchorage at sea.

The "candle" entered the octagonal dragon-shaped pillar. The vast space, resembling a red crystal mausoleum, made it feel very comfortable. It simply coiled within it, sensing the faint dragon energy emanating from the central dragon pillar.

After being refined and adjusted, the royal carriage was casually placed on one side of the incense table. The royal carriage, which resembled a soft canopy on top, was exquisite and elegant, as luxurious as a royal procession.

The six Ding and six Jia twelve life tablets are hung under the canopy, constantly evolving the laws and restrictions within them. The six Ding, six Jia, six Ren, six Yi... it seems that they will not stop until all sixty restrictions of the Jiazi Tai Sui have been deduced!

With everything prepared, Li Qing unusually leaned against the soft couch on one side, doing nothing, simply closing her eyes to meditate and calming her mind, lying flat for two days.

"I must first return to Guihua Mansion in Jiangnan Province. I have been away from home for nearly seven years. I wonder if my father and brothers are still well..."

"If it weren't for Prefect Yin's help back then, I would probably have sunk into the underworld and become an ignorant ghost. It was also the old Prefect Yin who gave me a letter of thanks and led me to Lin Yuan Mountain to cultivate Taoism. When I returned to Jiangnan, I must thank him in person."

Even though he was still in the abbot's quarters, a wave of sorrow had already washed over him.

My elder brother is already married and had a daughter five years ago. But should we guide her into the secluded world to cultivate the path to immortality?
My parents are old and I need to travel to the immortal sect to ask for some miraculous elixirs for them.
If it were before, when Li Qing was stuck at the Qi Refining stage, struggling daily against the Xuan Yin Qi that was eroding her meridians, she would not have had so many thoughts.

But now, he is a Purple Mansion cultivator, a celestial being who has lived for three or four hundred years and has witnessed the rise and fall of nine generations. Now that he has returned to his hometown, everything will be different.

"Perhaps it's the fear of returning home that's making me so sentimental?"

Li Qing chuckled, shook her head to dispel her worries, and with a flick of her sleeve, she scooped the hexagonal dragon pillar and the Hunyuan Huagai Chariot into the yellow gourd.

This gourd was nurtured by the divine will of the Yin Ancestor of Linyuan Mountain, and was born with a world of three zhang in diameter.

It is not a space created by opening a mustard seed in Sumeru, but an inner world born in the beginning!
Mustard seed pouches, mustard seed bracelets, storage rings, etc., cannot be nested one after another. As mustard seed spaces, if two mustard seed spaces are compatible, there is a high probability that the two mustard seed voids will squeeze and collapse each other.

However, the gourd of heaven and earth is different. Within its three-zhang-long interior, the world is extremely stable. It can hold a mustard seed bag and a beast-taming bag, and it can also block theft techniques such as the Three Immortals Returning to the Cave and the Heaven-Stealing Saint Hand.

This seemingly simple storage gourd actually contains the true mysteries of the void, a rare treasure that is hard to find anywhere else, not even in the capital's various prefectures or overseas immortal sects.

Li Qing was uninvolved in all affairs, and all he needed to do was hang this palm-sized yellow gourd at his waist. That was enough!
After waiting for half a day, finally, the Beast Taming Immortal Sect's Sky-Covering Beast arrived carrying a treasure raft.

Stepping out of the magic boat and onto the top of this immortal peak platform, one's eyes are immediately drawn to a beast resembling the "Cloud Kun" of the Floating Sky Continent. The Kun beast is estimated to be two miles long, with a body as majestic as an island. On its dark blue back, it carries a not-so-large Cangmu Cloud Pavilion.

"Honorable Master Li, is Master Li present?"

Above that colossal shadow that blotted out the sky, auspicious clouds piled up to form a three-hundred-foot-high cloud ladder, hanging down from the wooden pavilion of the Cloud Ferry Treasure Raft, leading straight to the Immortal City.

The journey of the Cloud Sky Beasts is a rare spectacle in the Beast Taming Immortal City, with such terrifying beasts approaching the level of Yin Gods!

"Please take care, Lord Li. When you return to your sect, please send a message to Chaojiang Prefecture."

"Young friend Li, please go ahead. We should be able to return in two months at most..."

Seeing that the Cloud Sky Beast had arrived, the two Taoists, Pei and Guan, stepped aside to let Li Qing ascend the cloud ladder. At the same time, they bid a gentle farewell to Taoist Li from afar.

The group experienced a great deal during their nearly two-year overseas trip.

The two calamities of the various kingdoms, the battle of the dragons, and the calamity of the Heavenly Venerable—they had all been involved, but fortunately, they were not affected by them.

Even if the chaos of the dragons in the seas of those nations continues for several more years, until the final victor among the six or seven great dragons emerges, ascends to the position of Dragon King, and establishes a "Dragon Palace" in the seas of those nations, then perhaps true peace will finally arrive.

Gazing at the Taoist priest in cloud robes ascending the cloud ladder step by step, the two ship captains couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

They watched as this Lord Li went from being an ignorant disciple of the immortal sect through various experiences to now directly attaining the Purple Mansion realm.

Li Qing's exceptional adaptability and rapid advancement, coupled with the endless stream of trump cards that clearly intertwine the paths of immortals and demons, truly inspire both awe and fear!
The hundred or so wandering swordsmen on the magic boat either clung to the railing or landed beside the ferry crossing in the immortal city, gazing up at the man who was about to reach the top of the cloud ladder...

"it is good!"

Li Qingyuan glanced at the many wandering knights below, gave a soft reply, and then lifted his foot to land at the end of the cloud ladder, on the back of Yun Kun.

This colossal beast, resembling a floating island, hovered quietly in the low sky, with the winds of all seasons swirling around it, creating an ancient and distant sound around its body.

Immediately, a Taoist priest emerged from the treasure pavilion on the back of the ferry beast and bowed to greet him.

"Fellow Daoist Li, heading towards the Eastern Sea Route of the Southern Kingdom?"

"Please follow me!"

The middle-aged Taoist priest raised his right hand to pick up the Cloud Crossing Pass for comparison. After confirming that it was correct, his expression softened, and he invited the distinguished guest to stay inside.

Just as Li Qing lifted her leg to step across the threshold.

Suddenly, a celestial child riding a crane appeared from nowhere and stopped the group from a distance.

"Brother Li, Brother Li from Tiannan, please wait a moment."

The little fairy boy, draped in a blue cloud-patterned robe of the Hunyuan Sect and holding a scroll of ancient seal script bamboo slips, flipped over and landed on the back of the cloud-kun. He then bent down and patted the giant beast, chuckling:
"Good boy, I'll only take up a little while!" Yun Kun sighed, his long, desolate, and ancient cry echoing for hundreds of miles.

The exquisitely beautiful child, with two topknots on his head and two tiny feet slapping happily on the back of the giant beast, ran quickly toward Li Qing and his companion.

"The Master asked me to deliver a secret scroll to Brother Li in Tiannan. He will surely find it useful in the future!"

Before her right foot even touched the ancient wooden steps of the pavilion, Li Qing turned her head and saw that the boy had already approached her with incredible speed.

Are they from the Hunyuan Sect?
Li Qing took the bamboo scroll and thanked the fairy boy. He gently unfolded it and found it to be a book written in the Northern Kingdom's Phoenix Script. The title on the right was "The Record of the Six Heavens Spiritual Mirror".

Below, facing you, are images of spiritual objects inscribed with Daoist principles:

Horned scales, born from the Yin Spring of the Netherworld, belong to the category of Xuan Yin. They are warm and cool, and can be cooked into delicacies with cold fire. They have the effect of strengthening the soul.
Jade Mist Root, produced in the mountains of the Eastern Region of the Netherworld, is warm in nature and can purify the Qi. Its roots and stems can be cut to allow it to regenerate, making it very easy to cultivate. It can also be planted in the vicinity of the Underworld.

Xuan Shui Fu...

"this?"

Just as Li Qingcai had glanced at the bamboo slip, the Xuan Yin Qi around him suddenly erupted, causing the void a hundred feet wide to grow cold. In an instant, dark blue frost flowers condensed, and even the breath of the ferryman beside him manifested as white vapor.

"Fellow Daoist!" The Daoist, not knowing why, immediately revealed a wisp of his aura to dissuade Li Qing. He was a top-level Daoist at the Purple Mansion Foundation stage.

The young Taoist who delivered the bamboo slips was not frightened by Li Qing at all. He leaped backward and jumped out of the area covered by the cold air, sticking out his tongue.

"The real culprit!"

"Ignore you."

Immediately, the bell on the child's wrist jingled, and the white crane that had been perched in the distance moved with a gust of wind, hoisting the child onto its back, flapping its wings, and flying away.

Only Li Qing, whose expression was unpredictable, and the Daoist who was subtly restraining him remained.

"Does Fellow Daoist have any grudges with the Hunyuan Sect?" Cheng Du Daoist looked at this scene and didn't know which side to stand on for a moment, so he could only ask tentatively.

Li Qing's face was cold, but he remained silent and turned to go straight into the Cangmu Cloud Pavilion.

Damn it, what does the Hunyuan Sect mean by this?!
A treasure trove of Netherworld Spiritual Materials and Yin Beasts? Is this a test for me?
Clutching the scroll tightly in her sleeve, Li Qing's thoughts became tangled.

The Qishan Domain of the Underworld is his biggest secret to date. The five immortal sects of the Southern Kingdom have set their sights on the Netherworld. Even the descendants of the Weak Water Sheep Clan of the Ancient Six Heavens could not protect their own foundation and had no choice but to seek help from the tiger. They invited the Taiyi Sect to explore the Weak Water Underworld together.

The Qishan Mountains, stretching for eight hundred li, are truly extraordinary!

Fangqishan, where the human-faced owl and the Cui family once had a co-existence pact in the underworld, is home to hundreds of ghosts roaming within and ox-headed and horse-faced demons patrolling the mountain outside... Li Qing has no intention of following the example of that sheep family and handing over the underworld to others.

Even after taking his seat in the elegant room, Li Qing still felt uneasy.

"What exactly did the Hunyuan Sect discover..."

At this moment, a hundred miles away in the clouds, atop the highest Star-Picking Tower in that immortal city.

A female Taoist priestess from the Hunyuan Sect, draped in flowing robes and cloud-like sleeves, sat in a warm pavilion. A white crane landed on a corner of the eaves, while a beautifully carved fairy boy was complaining in the hall.

Faced with the child's accusation, the Yin God couldn't help but chuckle, and only gave him two servings of osmanthus cake, coaxing him away with kind words.

Looking around again, all the Hunyuan altar masters who had besieged "Tai Sui Tian Zun" that day were sitting in this warm pavilion!
"Master, what do you mean?"

The Taoist who cultivated the Heavenly Hand watched the child skip away with the osmanthus cake in his hand, and then looked at the youngest True Person in the sect with a puzzled expression.

He really didn't understand. They had previously been lenient towards Tian Nan Dao Ren, so why were they suddenly testing the Six Heavenly Ghost Gods behind him?

“Tiannan Temple, Ghost Prince - Li Qing, born in Guihua Mansion in Jiangnan.”

“Behind him is a great demon, a fierce demon from the Netherworld, who roams the world day and night and obeys his every word.”

"As you all know, since the war between the five heavenly demons and monsters, the Netherworld was shattered and humanity prospered, leading to the current prosperity."

"But everything has yin and yang. The Netherworld is shattered and broken. What good is the Heavenly Capital alone? If the Netherworld does not exist, whether it is the path of immortals or the path of ghosts, once one reaches the pinnacle of the Yin God, there will be no further progress..."

The female Taoist priest, her colorful sleeves fluttering, moved a golden goblet over and slowly shook her head, saying:
"The Five Immortal Sects of the South and the Divine Dao Lineages of the Mountains and Rivers of the North all aim to explore and reunite the Netherworld, seeking the Yin-Yang Elixir to enable rulers, ministers, and advisors to complete the missing Great Dao and achieve the opportunity to become a Yang God..."

"Hehe, isn't the existence of this one from Tiannan Temple itself a nail driven into the Netherworld?"

"Just give him a copy of the Netherworld Spirit Mirror and teach him to prepare properly. It won't take too long; he'll eventually figure out the purpose behind it."

"Two years from now, let's have someone from our sect visit Mount Linyuan in Tiannan. Our Hunyuan Yiqi Sect shares the same origin as that Yiyuan Qi Dao sect. We should join forces with them to form a world-opening team and explore the Netherworld together!"

(End of this chapter)