The Path to Immortality Begins with the Life-Extending Lamp

Chapter 65 The Dagger is Revealed When the Map is Unfolded

"Here are six golden Ganoderma lucidum plants and six Star Pills."

"This beast-taming pouch is only five zhang and six zhang in size, which is still too small for the Candle Dragon under the Venerable Dao's command. Perhaps you should go to the Six Spirits Mountain, where the Beast Taming Sect members are most skilled at making beast-taming cages, which even contain magical restrictions that can be adjusted in size..."

Li Qing had accumulated a great deal of military merit, which he immediately exchanged for in the Southeast Camp!

Leaving aside the golden lingzhi, a tribute from Shu, he exchanged six star ingots made from the essence of stars for a hundred taels each. This essence of stars is something that does not exist in Tiannan and mostly comes from the North, making it extremely rare. Li Qing took it without hesitation.

The remaining battle merits were exchanged for a beast-taming pouch, but judging from "Candle's" disgusted look, the space in the beast-taming pouch was indeed a bit cramped!
But there's really nothing we can do about it! If he were to frequently hide in the Netherworld or enter and leave the city, his physique would be quite inconvenient.

Perhaps we should heed the words of this scholar-official and go for a stroll in Qingping Prefecture - Liuling Mountain?
Seemingly sensing Li Qing's hesitation, the refined scholar-official stroked his beard and smiled:

"Why do you hesitate so much, Venerable Daoist? Qingping Prefecture is on the border with Tiannan. The round trip, including the time for trading and entering the market, will take less than two weeks."

"However, the gate of the Six Spirits Mountain is unknown to most people. You can go north for a hundred miles past Nanchong County. At the ferry crossing to the north, there are often large dragon boats belonging to the government. They cross the Five Streams, pass the White Snake Mountain of the Six Spirits Mountain, and then head to the East Sea..."

"Since you wish to leave Western Mang, why not go there directly? I can tell that you, the Dragon Lord, do not particularly like the appearance of this Beast Taming Pouch!"

Perhaps the words of the scholar-official moved Li Qing, for "Candle" once again rubbed its head against the door frame, looking pitiful and extremely unwilling to enter the black bag. Li Qing's original plan to return to the mountains to cultivate was also interrupted at this moment.

Not long ago, in the "Boar Demon Workshop" in the Southern Lands and in the Ghost Daoist's mustard seed bag, I really fattened up my Dao coins. It's only right to spend tens of thousands of Dao coins to find a mid-to-high-grade beast-taming bag for "Candle".

So Li Qing bowed and took his leave, then rode the dragon and fled far away, heading straight for the north of Nanchong County.

The captains in the southeastern camp were quite reluctant to part with him. This powerful Taoist priest, who preferred quiet contemplation, rarely interfered with anything except for practicing some apocryphal texts and rituals and doing some skinning and sacrificial work. How could they not like such a person?

Commandant Liu and Commandant Bai Du stood side by side in front of the main tent's banner, gazing at the departing figure of the Candle Dragon, filled with emotion.

"I heard that Venerable Zhulong is the legendary Ghost Prince, Li Qing?" Commander Liu asked tentatively, having also received news of what happened on the Corpse Mountain today.

"What, Commandant Liu, you've also heard about Liu Huangzhou's affairs?" Bai Du neither admitted nor denied it, but he was very cunning.

"Hahaha, I've heard a bit about it. After all, it's the biggest ghostly calamity that has plagued our Tiannan Prefecture in recent years!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than Commander Liu realized something was amiss. This Bai Du had a very close relationship with that "Candle Dragon Master." When they were cutting down mountains and destroying graves, he always followed the Taoist priest in and out of the mountains...

Commandant Liu, not wanting to offend that devilish man, added another sentence:
"Back when I was pacifying the southern lands, the governor ordered: 'Let the swords not be sheathed for three days to slaughter the mountain.' Heh heh, I've slaughtered 100,000 men..."

The implication seemed to be that Commander Liu wouldn't hold onto such a matter so tightly!

The Western Mang Corpse Cave is merely a microcosm of the various prefectures in the Southern Kingdom, representing the destruction of the evil spirits and demons left behind by the immortals and the scholars of the Southern Kingdom during that chaotic era.

During her time in the Corpse Cave, Li Qing gained a superficial understanding of her true self.

He was not a great Confucian scholar; he was merely a Taoist priest possessed by a vengeful spirit and with some talent.

He would die if attacked by heretics; he would be powerless to stop the vengeful spirits from going out of control; there were plenty of capable people who could handle the Western Mang corpse calamity, and it was not his place to make any compensation...

So-called spiritual practice is nothing more than restraining the ego; he is just an ordinary person after all!
Once you understand this, you'll no longer feel depressed or needlessly agonizing over things.

At this moment, riding the Candle Dragon, soaring through the blue sky, drifting for hundreds of miles, striking the clouds and looking down at the southern land, he had never felt so free.

"Zhu, go to Qingping Prefecture and prepare a high-quality beast-taming pouch for you. It should have various sizes of magic seals; you can choose whichever you prefer."

Li Qing sat cross-legged on the huge dragon head and asked Zhu Xiang a question.

"hold head high!!"

Zhu was naturally happy to hear this, as long as he didn't shrink into that black bag, it would be difficult to even turn over in there.

It seems to be a beast-taming bag. At the very least, the space should be one-tenth the size of the beast to be tamed, so that there is a little room to breathe. Otherwise, what is the difference between it and sitting in a death row?
The man and the dragon soared through the sky, and in just over an hour they crossed the entire Nanchong County in northern Ximang. Sure enough, there was a waterway to the north.

Despite the fact that this waterway is somewhat turbulent and not very wide, after clearing away all the obstacles in the south, one can travel all the way down to the East China Sea along this waterway.

Where is the waterway where the scholar-official said that large dragon boats from the south often stayed?
Li Qing and Zhu hesitated by the river for a long time. It seemed that the scholar-official said that the river passed through the Five Streams and could lead directly to White Snake Mountain, one of the Six Spirit Mountains. Should we go along the river ourselves?
The speed at which the paper sedan chair could disappear was even faster than that of ordinary boats. It was just unknown whether they would get lost, given that there were five waterways in the Five Streams.

Just as Zhu was pondering this on the side, suddenly, a dragon's head emerged from the water, followed by sections of a dragon's body made of fine steel. It was indeed a "dragon boat".
"Hey! Kid on the shore, wanna take a boat?"

The dragon boat opened its massive mouth, and a haughty boy of about fifteen or sixteen years old jumped out, rudely shouting at Li Qing.

Seeing the boy's young age, Li Qing couldn't help but feel a little suspicious and hesitantly asked:
"I am going to White Snake Mountain in Qingping Prefecture. Do you... know the way?"

"Can you really pilot such a massive puppet dragon boat?"

These two consecutive questions really agitated the young ship owner, and in a short while, the energy of his Purple Mansion was released.

"It's just a lousy Beast Taming Sect, what's wrong with them not knowing the way? Three thousand Dao Zhu!"

Three thousand?

Li Qing raised an eyebrow, feeling that this person was trying to trick him. How could it be so expensive?

When the young boat owner saw that the Taoist priest looked unhappy and didn't even want to pay three thousand taels of silver, he almost lost his temper.

"What kind of look is that? I'll personally escort you, with a Grand Master of the Purple Mansion Puppet Dao protecting you. Water ghosts, corpse demons, and old dragons—who would dare block your way? These three thousand Dao coins might not even cover the damage I inflicted on the dragon boat repairs..."

Upon reflection, what he said does make sense, especially considering that the Purple Mansion Daoist piloted the dragon boat and then transported the dragon boat to White Snake Mountain.

After much deliberation, just for the sake of this Purple Mansion Puppet Dragon Boat, Li Qing secretly backed down and was willing to pay the three thousand Dao Zhu.

After reaching an agreement with the young man from the Purple Mansion, and just as Li Qing was about to board the ship, he was stopped by the young man from the Purple Mansion again.

"Put the beast in your beast-taming pouch, or don't blame me if something happens!"

This appalling attitude only made Li Qing no longer doubt that the officials' cultivators were like this...

However, little did he know that he had truly boarded a pirate ship, and as Li Qing stepped into the mouth of the dragon boat, the young man outside revealed a sly smile.

"Alright, East Sea, Beast Taming Immortal Sect!"

"Hehe, it's not my fault for lying to you, you're the one who applied to the Beast Taming Sect."

"We're so far, almost out of the Southern Kingdom's territory. Once we get there, we must double the price, at least 30,000 Daozhu, before letting this kid off the ship!"

As the young man laughed and joked, he unleashed his magic power, causing the entire Thousand Machine Puppet Dragon Boat to completely close and sink to the bottom of the water. In an instant, it disappeared without a trace, seemingly transforming into flowing water and heading straight for the East Sea at an incredible speed.

The dragon boat was incredibly fast, and the puppets' surfaces seemed to be covered with river-turning spells and restrictions. In just over an hour, it had left Tiannan Prefecture and seemed poised to head east without stopping. Li Qing entered a completely dark cabin, where she noticed faint lamps on the walls. She flicked a spark of true fire from her fingertip into one of the lamps, illuminating the entire cabin, which was an extremely simple room.

Li Qing didn't think much of it, since it was the Prefectural Chief Instructor who had introduced him, so he sat down on the wooden bench and waited quietly...

It was also the moment Li Qing left Tiannan Prefecture!

Tiannan Temple.

The Taoist on duty at the summit of Lin Yuan Immortal Peak sensed many unusual occurrences today and quickly stepped forward to investigate, clutching his barrier token.

It's not a strange beast from the mountains, and the children in the temple wouldn't casually sneak up to the top of the mountain to play around if they had nothing to do.

"Perhaps it's just an illusion!"

After checking again and finding that everything was alright, he turned around and headed back down to the cave.

Sudden.

A figure suddenly appeared behind him.

Before the Taoist priest on duty could even cry out in alarm, the figure moved with magical power and instantly knocked the priest unconscious. Fortunately, the person seemed to be somewhat wary of Tiannan Temple and restrained himself, not going for the kill.

"This Master Yin was a killer when he was young, we can't afford to cause any deaths."

"However, this is really exciting. Why does Yinghuo like to recruit the most outstanding disciples of various sects into the organization?"

"Tsk tsk tsk, I can't believe it. How furious must the old master, nearing the end of his lifespan, be that one of the promising talents he found in his later years was abducted, causing such a stir in all directions?"

"It's so exciting!"

The sallow-faced man knocked the guard unconscious, yet he was both nervous and excited; his right hand even trembled slightly as he picked up the barrier token.

Heaven have mercy, this "Jupiter" of the eleven luminaries has lived half his life as an honest Taoist priest, how could he have done such a thing?
However, with a simple hand gesture, he activated the barrier token and entered the Immortal Peak of the Abyss...

In less than twenty breaths.

Yin Zhenren, who was confronting several ancient demons far away outside the Demon Mountain in the southwest, immediately sensed it. His expression changed drastically, and he reached out with his right hand to the sky. In an instant, the stars shifted and the sun and moon reversed within a hundred miles.

It nearly frightened those ancient demons.

However, seeing that the Taoist priest had finally backed down, these ancient demons tacitly agreed to give him a way out, setting a buffer zone with a distance of a thousand miles as the boundary!
Yin Zu manipulated the art of the Pot Heaven, and with a thought of his Yin Spirit, he traveled a hundred miles in an instant. When he returned to the Immortal Peak of the Abyss, he found that all the restrictions on the Immortal Peak of the Abyss had been destroyed.

Did a spirit enter Lin Yuan Mountain?
"Which old sage is having a sudden urge to die?"

Yin Zu remained calm, and with a turn of his body, he entered the main hall, where he saw that the restrictions within the hall had been completely destroyed.

The life lamps of all the Purple Mansion Daoists and the true disciples of each academy in the hall were not damaged, and the top-level ritual artifacts in the hall were not touched.

Only the Seven Star Lamp in the east corner of the rear hall was overturned and extinguished.

That was the Seven Star Lamp lit for Guilang-Liqing in the past, and it can be considered half a soul lamp and half a lamp for praying for good fortune!

The old master's eyes flashed with a cold light, and he finally lost control of his anger.

When the Yin God was enraged, strange phenomena arose. Pure Dharma intent manifested over a hundred miles, and above the abyss-like sky, the sun and moon, stars and precious light all converged in one place.

The coexistence of day and night, the coexistence of yin and yang, this inexplicable paradoxical phenomenon shocked the entire immortal mountain.

The Taoist priests and their followers in the mountains were bewildered and at a loss as to what had happened.

At this point.

Master Chen Jin of Tiannan Temple slowly stepped into the main hall. He had also unleashed half of his Yin spirit, only slightly slower than Yin Zu, barely keeping up behind, and chased all the way back to the mountain gate.

Looking back at the various changes that had occurred at the Immortal Peak of the Abyss, he calmly recounted them.

"It seems that everything was premeditated."

"From Shanyang County, Wuxi Longjun, Liuhuangzhou, Baigudao... and now to the methods of the Natural Witchcraft lineage, they have silently broken through many restrictions and overturned the Seven Star Lamp!"

"Grandmaster, Li Qing is no longer in Tiannan Prefecture, is he? It seems someone has turned him away? Or perhaps he has been betrayed and fled..."

Chen Jin didn't continue speaking, since it was the Yin family's visiting card that brought him into the mountain, and he couldn't say anything more in front of Yin Zu.

But I'm afraid that someone has already set their sights on the Ghost Mother and his Tiannan Temple.

"Good, good, well, this was premeditated!"

Yin Zu was so angry that he laughed, as if he were looking towards the southern lands three thousand miles away, following that aura.

A man and a woman stood together on the clouds. The woman was barefoot, walking on the clouds and holding up a magical umbrella. The middle-aged man beside her had a sallow complexion and did not look like a southerner at all. He looked more like a person from the Ba Kingdom in Sichuan.

"Yinghuo is just a little brat. Is it worth offending Yin Shashen, the god of death who controls demons?" After the thrilling moment, the sallow-skinned man was extremely frightened when he looked back.

He must be out of his mind to do this kind of thing with "Yinghuo" and "Chenxing"!
"Whether Guilang joins us or not is none of my business, but this feeling of breaking fate with my own hands is what really matters."

"Isn't it wonderful?"

The woman was stunningly beautiful. She raised her right hand and plucked a wisp of mist, which was hazy and indistinct, and her words were full of mystery and charm.

If it weren't for the fact that "Jupiter" has been part of the Eleven Luminaries for a long time, I would have actually believed her nonsense.

'You call that breaking fate? You call that the legacy of evil, harming others without benefiting yourself, as if you have some serious illness!' Jupiter cursed inwardly.

"Alright, let's retreat. Chenxing is almost at the East China Sea..." The woman opened her Feather Transformation Umbrella, and with a flick of her Yin Spirit, she vanished into the distance in an instant.

"Have you gotten tired of playing around in this southern land? The chief still has important business for us to attend to!"

The planet Jupiter behind him also looked astonished and uncertain, and quickly transformed into a ghost and fled.

Just a few breaths later, the hundred-mile sea of ​​clouds was completely sealed off, as if an immortal was holding a bag, and the hundred-mile sky was held in the palm of his hand!
Unfortunately, Yin Zu was still a step too late...

(End of this chapter)