The Path to Immortality Begins with the Life-Extending Lamp

Chapter 137 Beginning and End

Northwest of Tiandu.

This place is the border of the imperial dynasty called Great Zhou.

A towering locust tree stood abruptly behind the mansion, its trunk bearing a ghastly, bitter expression. At this moment, a deep crack appeared on the locust tree, stretching seven or eight zhang (approximately 33-40 meters) from the crown down.

"Strange, who has this troublemaker Taibai offended this time?"

Moreover, by using the technique of transformation to avoid calamity, it evaded the attack that came along the substitute witch puppet. The locust tree then transformed back into its original human form, which was a yellow-faced man.

Upon closer inspection, he was none other than the Wood Star - Jupiter who had infiltrated the Immortal Peak of the Abyss and overturned Li Qing's Seven Star Soul Lamp years ago.

The man couldn't help but touch his forehead, where the skin was still cut by the Long-Hate Ghost Scissors, and a few drops of scarlet blood slowly dripped down.

"Fortunately, there was only one killing method, and no voodoo curses..."

After wiping away the few drops of blood, Sui Xing breathed a sigh of relief, relieved that she had escaped unharmed.

It seems like a battle of magic from afar, but the actual fight is against the most unpredictable altar curse and killing spell. The risks he is taking are by no means small.

He had just saved Taibai with the substitute puppet, but the Everlasting Curse of Sin came knocking on his door, almost tearing his Niwan Palace apart.

Jupiter could only sigh and send a message back to the green, vertical-pupiled obsidian:
"I blocked an attack; the attacker seems to be very powerful. If there's anything else coming, I can't help!"

The profound Yin death energy and lingering hatred contained in that scissor strike had an extremely high origin, and it actually found its way to its own head through the connection of the substitute witch puppet. This was truly frightening.

Just as Ying Zhuyao was using the Substitute Fate technique to fight him from afar, a dignified and elegant man leaned against the windowsill of the warm pavilion and watched him the whole time.

This is the Sun, who is the temporary partner for this mission with Jupiter.

"Is it that hotheaded swordsman who committed a crime and needs someone to settle things? You really are always there to help, Jupiter."

"Sun" was extremely young, and his every move exuded nonchalance as he chuckled and teased the man in front of him.

"No! Venus and Mars once saved my life, so I should repay them." Jupiter slowly shook his head, his words somewhat evasive.

Riyou - the Sun, the fourth son of the royal family of the Southern Kingdom, whose surname was Li and given name was Yu, entered the Heavenly Palace after presenting a dragon-shaped celestial boat.

Unlike the other luminaries who were invited, this Sun luminary volunteered to join the Heavenly Palace. Although no one knew why the leader of the Heavenly Palace let him in, everyone usually kept their distance from this Sun luminary!
This guy is clearly someone sent by the Southern Kingdom to monitor the Heavenly Palace.

He even tried to turn some of the other luminaries against him on more than one occasion, and the previous "Taiyin" died because of this.

Jupiter and the Sun were on a mission and finally found their target.

However, one person was entrusted by Mars to set up an altar on the spot and perform a life-saver ritual for Venus-Taibai from afar.
The other person simply watched the target leave leisurely, even though the target was only a Purple Mansion Upper Foundation cultivator!

The mission can be considered a failure...

"The legendary Five-Colored Sky-Mending Technique of the Jade Spirit School is a true Taoist method that can mend the sky. The leader wants to obtain it for reference. If we didn't manage to find any successors of the Jade Spirit School this time after we stirred up the enemy, we'll probably never find them again."

"Jupiter, this is all the trouble that Mars himself caused!"

The prince of the Southern Kingdom chuckled, opened his folding fan, and turned to leave. Since the mission had failed, he would have to return to the Southern Kingdom to rest for a while.

The Heavenly Palace has its sights set on the nine-headed immortal bird west of the Heavenly Capital, and is also plotting the art of "mending the sky." What exactly are they planning to do?
The organization's actions are so perplexing that they are truly baffling...

And in the dark heavens.

Ox-Head and Horse-Face fought their way out of the Qishan Domain. The blood of the Yin God True Persons shed from their hearts resonated with the rules of the Netherworld, and immediately transformed into clusters of spiritual blood crystals that took root in the ground. This top-quality yang spiritual blood was enough to move every great ghost that had shaped the body of a day-roaming ghost.

The hundred ghosts that had been surrounding them immediately lost their composure and began to fight over the Yang-type blood crystal. If there were enough of such precious blood, perhaps another Ghost King could emerge from among these great ghosts who roamed the world day and night.
"So, the two Heavenly Ghost Lords, Ox-Head and Horse-Face, are merely earth spirits of this blessed land of Yin Mountain, bound spirits of the Yin God Realm?"

The same was true of the Seven-Colored Phoenix Feather Flying Boat of the Taiyi Dao Sect that day. Once it left the Qishan Domain, the Ox-Headed Corpse and the Horse-Faced Spirit ceased their pursuit, as if their innate duty was solely to protect the eight hundred miles of Yinshan Mountain...

As the royal carriage departed, Li Qing sat upright beneath its fragrant canopy, swallowed a pill, and observed the area outside the East Fence Garden.

This was his first real journey through Qishan. He glanced at the black skeleton imprisoned in the mansion opposite, and the royal carriage left the ground. In an instant, it had traveled more than ten miles away. The six Ding, six Jia, and twelve paper gods followed the carriage, and the first place they went was the alleys of the North Mountain.

That was the starting point of the battle between the two Yin Gods and the hundred ghosts, and also the battlefield where the fierce and violent attacks of Ox-Head and Horse-Face swept across the sky. The five metal essences that had been scattered in the five internal organs of "Taibai" were now like golden clouds scattered all over the ground, and there were also a few scattered clusters of prismatic blood crystals growing in the ruins.

The hundred ghosts had already chased after the two Yin gods in the direction they had retreated. The true blood of the Yin gods that had been spilled along the way was so intoxicating to them that they even started fighting and vying for it at the foot of the mountain.

"What a pity! If a true Yin God had indeed perished in Qishan, and his Daoist essence and blood had been obtained by the Hundred Ghosts, perhaps another powerful ferocious beast at the level of a Prefecture Lord could have emerged!" "But if that were the case, it would become an obstacle to my control over Qishan..."

Li Qing dismounted from the carriage, and the Ten Thousand Souls Banner rose from his palm. The banner, which was nine feet and six inches long, captured all the golden clouds that were scattered on the ground and used them for his own purposes. The corpses of the night-wandering spirits and day-wandering ghosts were dragged out by the twelve paper demons and put into the mustard seed bag.

The five metal essences are: the essence of metal, the essence of black iron, the brilliance of mithril, the essence of nine tins, and the frost of bronze.

Only after being refined a hundred times can gold be called refined gold.

To refine a single strand of the five metal essences requires three hundred bushels of each of the five metals through a hundred refinements! It seems that this five metal essences, which spread like golden clouds across the ground, must have taken an unknown amount of effort from "Taibai" to refine. Once it dissipates, it can be considered a great loss of vitality.

The nine-zhang banner swayed in the wind, and the bell and tripod symbols and the "No Clothes" talisman on it shone brightly. With the intent of killing with golden spears, it forcibly absorbed the essence of the five metals into the symbols and bell and tripod characters.

The gathering of 80,000 strands of celestial essence was enough to completely transform this Soul Banner. The Soul Banner, which was subject to a thousand restrictions, was now blessed with talismans and regenerated ghostly weapons and magical restrictions... The banner turned dark gold, and the armor on its surface resembled golden patterns. The cauldron book transformed into weapons, and the five essences and five injuries intertwined, giving rise to killing diagrams such as the Bone Hook Halberd, the Head-Severing Axe, and the Heart-Piercing Sword!
By refining this banner with the essence of the five metals, Li Qing can save himself sixty years of arduous work...

Such a commotion naturally attracted some wandering day-roaming ghosts, especially the clusters of true blood crystals not far from Li Qing. Such attraction was irresistible to both the vengeful ghosts and the human-faced owl.

Before the two ghosts even got close, several dark golden runes descended from the sky. The runes were shaped like mountains on top and ghosts on the bottom, with the character "嵬" on them. It was as if five ghosts were carrying a mountain, and in an instant, they suppressed the two wandering ghosts to the ground.

Li Qing did not use any other spells, lest the noise attract other evil spirits. The precious banner arrived shortly afterward. Without any killing intent, he simply rolled up the seven-foot banner, which resembled a dark golden dragon, and with a few "crack" sounds, he completely annihilated the wandering ghost!

Only then did Li Qing slowly approach the collapsed and chaotic ruins, bending down to collect the several crimson blood crystals on the ground.

"The Yin God's true blood, containing the essence of law and the Dao, fell into the Netherworld and neither gathered nor dispersed, actually transforming into clusters of true blood crystals?"

The Yin Spirit Realm transcends the life essence of existing beings; the "Primordial Spirit" is another level of Yu's "Dao".

Unfortunately, this item has no effect on Li Qing unless he can master the art of alchemy and refine it into a spiritual elixir.

Gathering up the remnants of the battlefield, Li Qing looked up and saw that the "Ox-Headed Corpse" and "Horse-Faced Spirit" had vanished from Qishan Mountain, seemingly having chased after Taibai and the other two and gone far away.

The ghosts in the mountains started fighting over the true blood of the Yin God.

The drowned ghost, with ghostly water dripping from its body, reflected the inverted world of the well in the pool, blocking the way for other ghosts;

The hungry ghost, with its fangs and large belly, had already picked up a cluster of blood crystals and crunched them into its stomach.
The Ghost Mother was finally freed from restraint and revealed her complete Netherworld Domain. It seemed as if black water whirlpools were spreading in all directions, and strands of pale yellow grass ropes hung down from the sky, covering an area of ​​dozens of miles around Qishan. Even the water pool of the drowned ghost could not get close. The Ghost Mother's Dharma form wandered around the ghost realm and collected clusters of Yin God Blood Crystals into her bag.

In the distance, wave after wave of chilling energy drew ever closer.

Li Qing gazed down at the foot of Qishan Mountain, and the Ghost Mother below seemed to sense something, suddenly turning around.

With just one glance, as if summoned by Li Qing, she decisively turned back. The ghost realm instantly began to shrink, and the Ghost Mother's Dharma Image slowly disappeared along with the ghost realm.

Seeing the Ghost Mother turn around, Li Qing finally relaxed and stood in front of the Qishan Underworld to wait for her return.

It's just the precious blood of the Yin Shen Zhenren, not the location of his primordial spirit. There's no need to wade too deep into this muddy water!
The mountain is teeming with giant ghosts, and the risks far outweigh the rewards.

After waiting for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, until the ghostly creature from the Netherworld crossed the mountain gate, traversed the various mansions, and landed before Li Qing, he stepped forward a few paces, turned his head to look at the Ghost Mother, and asked gently:
"How many Taibai Blood Crystals did you seize?"

"Let's go back to the manor first. I have three more clusters here, you can have them all..."

Li Qing stretched out his right hand, grasped the Ghost Mother's wrist tightly, and led her into the royal carriage. He looked around at the flying and howling human-faced owls, but he had no intention of lingering any longer. In an instant, he got into the carriage and returned to his residence.

How big is the Netherworld?

According to the bamboo slips sent by the child of the Hunyuan Immortal Sect, the shattered Netherworld is known to contain nearly three thousand different realms of varying sizes. In addition, there is the vast and boundless shattered space. Even if a True Person of the Yin God Realm were to fly away for a hundred years, they might not be able to see all of the Netherworld in its present state.

As a second-best option, the two Yin spirits were banished to the Netherworld, and for a short time, they would no longer be able to appear in the Heavenly Capital...

As soon as Li Qing returned to the Underworld, the old owls in the mountains were already howling around the East Fence Garden, carrying with them the corpses of ghostly spirits from the battlefield that had spread even further.

This was an agreement between Li Qing and the three-headed skeletal owl. It was said that if they really wanted to help, there would be no need to fight the Yin God. They could simply have the owl clan gather the remains of those evil spirits over...

By this time, the owl clan had already sent out countless rounds of corpses, dozens of nocturnal and even daytime roaming demons, piled up on the back street of Dongliyuan, waiting for Li Qing to take over.

He was not stingy, and took out seven or eight Yin-related flowers, fruits and pills from the limited stock in the Underworld to give back to them.

After sending the owls away, Li Qing turned around and closed the East Fence Garden. On one hand, he took pills and even swallowed the Nether Pearl to restore his Xuan Yin Qi, and on the other hand, he began to set up the "Six Luminaries Thunder and Fire Refining Ritual".

Taking this opportunity, refine the remains of the hundred ghosts that have just perished into their most fundamental life essence, and strengthen and upgrade the "Five Peaks Suppressing Ghost Minor Divine Power"...

(End of this chapter)