The Path to Immortality Begins with the Life-Extending Lamp

Chapter 71 The Junior Sister Who Inherits the "Legacy"
In Linyuan Mountain.

Since the previous falling out with the White Bone Path, the mountains have been filled with unease, but good news has been coming one after another.

The four directions of the corpse cave are intersecting, and the plan to tear apart the corpse cave is complete. The Purple Mansion Corpses in the Corpse Mountain will be completely wiped out. Only the large tombs will be divided into fragmented parts, and the threat will be greatly reduced.

The Taoist Dingshan, who had reached the pinnacle of the Purple Palace in three years, emerged from the Corpse Cave and returned to the mountain gate.

The Yin Palace of the White Bone Path, which the Ancestor had taken, will be given to him at today's banquet upon his return to the mountain.

With the return of the Taoist of Dingshan, the Imperial Edict Academy, the Alchemy Academy, and the Myriad Law Academy, which had suffered losses in recent years, also returned to the mountain. Only the head of the Imperial Edict Academy was still in the south, negotiating with the old poison master of the Poison Gu Division...

The Taoist priest, who looked to be about twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, stepped onto the summit of Linyuan Immortal Peak and entered the Ancestral Hall amidst many envious and respectful gazes.

"Dingshan, you're amazing!"

"Uncle Dingshan spent sixty years in seclusion, three years, and obtained the Corpse Wandering Dao Military Strategy, directly attaining the Purple Mansion Upper Foundation. He's amazing."

"..."

The Taoist of Dingshan single-handedly subdued the six corpse generals, killed four and controlled two, and cleansed the corpse cave. This is the greatest achievement of the four academies!

However, in less than sixty years of cultivation, he has already reached the foundation of the Purple Mansion, and will be a being capable of looking towards the Yin God.

At this moment, in the Ancestral Hall, Master Yin stood before the many prayer lamps.

Yin Zu was dressed in a purple robe with the Eight Trigrams symbol, wearing a lotus crown, and walking with the steps of the Big Dipper. He held up a jade plate horizontally in his left hand, which looked like a blue dragon walking horizontally. He led many purple palaces and strode towards Ding Shan Dao Ren.

"Dingshan!"

"Since you entered the Dao, you have diligently cultivated without ceasing, studied the Daoist methods meticulously, harmonized with the light and darkness above, distinguished yin and yang below, commanded troops and horses, and comprehended the illusory form and the forgotten existence. You have created your own work, 'The Wandering Corpse Dao Military Strategy,' which is your literary achievement!"

"He alone led the Imperial Guard, guarded the Western Barbarian Lands for a long time, and finally achieved his goal in one battle. This is his military achievement."

"After sixty years of trials, a foundation for a superior Dao has been laid; this is a divine achievement!"

"Among the three generations of Linyuan, Dingshan is the leader, and he has the aura of a world-shaking era."

Yin Zu also highly valued this great-grandson of his disciple. This one sentence almost determined Ding Shan Dao Ren's position as the head of the three generations!

The former leader of the second generation was Chen Jin, who is now the abbot of Tiannan Temple.

"I brought over a Netherworld, but this Netherworld is only three acres in size, which is really stingy."

"Since you specialize in commanding troops, I have used the Technique of the Heavenly Pot to refine it into a seed of divine power, which is called 'Circle in the Palm of Your Hand.' Today, I bestow it upon you in the hope that it will protect your future path..."

Those who believe in the concept of a round heaven and a square earth hold the universe within their palms.

This seed of supernatural power is incredibly precious. Within the palm of one's hand lies a realm of Yin and Yang, where one can delve into the study of the Heavenly Realm and control the sun and moon, or retreat to create a Mysterious Corpse Palace, commanding hundreds of corpse soldiers in one's palm.

Many Taoist priests were filled with envy...

However, the situation was quite different for the Taoist disciples in the various courtyards below.

This time, the two major threats in the southwest were suppressed at the same time, and many Taoist disciples and even Taoist priests died in the battle.

Those who have family descendants or disciples inherit the deceased's Taoist skills and knowledge, and are to carry the deceased's expectations to a higher level on the path of Tao.

And at this time in the outer courtyard.

Enter the Taoist hall.

A young girl, not yet of marriageable age, was practicing her life cultivation technique, the Eight Trigrams of the Wandering Dragon, in the courtyard where she lived with many Taoist disciples.

Suddenly someone knocked on the door and called her out by name.

"Zhao Wan'er".

"Was it Li Qing, a disciple from the outer courtyard, who, through a proxy, bypassed all the rules to be brought into the Tiannan Temple?"

The few blue-robed Taoist disciples stood outside, frowning and asking questions with grim expressions, which nearly frightened the girl, who was only eleven or twelve years old at the time.

Does that mean someone who got in through connections has to be expelled from the Taoist temple?
Zhao Wan'er thought of Senior Brother Li, whom she hadn't met since entering the temple, and could only nod.

"You'd better think this through carefully. Did Fellow Daoist Li Qing recommend you through a special channel, or did you legitimately enter through the sect's examination?"

One of the burly Taoist disciples stepped forward, forcing a smile that looked more like a grimace, and began to patiently guide the Daoist.

"Yes, Senior Brother Li told Grandpa that I could enter the temple..."

The little girl was so scared she was about to cry. She was gripping the door frame with one hand, her lips were pursed, and tears were welling up in her eyes, but she dared not let them fall.

Damn it! Is this an idiot? Doesn't he understand what I mean?

These blue-robed Taoist disciples were still not giving up and wanted to continue to lure the girl into showing weakness. With a loud bang, the old lecturer from the Taoist Hall arrived with a dark face.

"Which department are you from? Have you no shame?"

The white-bearded old man strode out from another corner of the courtyard and blocked the entrance hall.

These bastards.

If a Taoist disciple in the temple goes missing or dies, his mustard seed bag and Taoist skills will be determined by the Inner Court General Affairs Hall and passed on to the relevant descendants.

Naturally, there were also some ruthless individuals in the General Affairs Department of the Inner Court who used various methods to transfer the inheritance rights of certain people.

Then they would use other means to seize the deceased's mustard seed bag for themselves. Judging from these few blue-robed Taoist disciples, this is probably what they did!

The faces of the Taoist disciples from the General Affairs Hall immediately darkened, their expressions shifting for a long time, but in the end, they still dared not be too bold.

He glared hatefully at the old man, then threw out a piece of paper with black writing on it, along with two iron certificates from the Governor's Office, which landed on the young girl.

"Li Qing, also known as Zhulong Shangren, assisted General Liu in the Western Barbarian Lands and made great contributions to the opening up of the Southeast Campaign. The Governor's Office has awarded him two iron certificates for great merit."

"Since he is missing, he may be dead. Since you are the one he recommended, you should accept the reward on his behalf."

"Sign your name quickly and get the handover done as soon as possible!"

The blue-robed Taoist priest was not at all friendly. He roughly shoved an ink brush into Zhao Wan'er's hand and impatiently urged her to sign the papers and leave as soon as possible.

If it were something else, he would have plenty of ways to keep it for several years or even more than a decade if he set his sights on it.

However, the Great Merit Certificate of the Tiannan Governor's Office was personally delivered by the clerk of the governor's office. Since Li Qing had disappeared, only his junior or fellow disciples could receive it on his behalf, and the clerk had to personally hand over the receipt to the governor's office.

If this little girl were naive, they might have had a chance to intervene, but she's incredibly stubborn, insisting on what happened to Li Qing and her grandfather...

What other methods do they have to manipulate things?
Damn it, those are two great merit certificates!

Each iron token grants entry to any of the four inner courtyards, allowing the holder to choose a complete top-tier spell, or a superior magical artifact or elixir.

This alone could sustain a person at the highest level of Qi Refining.

This temptation, which even a top-level Daoist disciple couldn't resist, was actually picked up by a frighteningly stupid little girl?
"Let's go, what bad luck!"

These three or five Daoist disciples from the Inner Court's General Affairs Hall were extremely agitated. When they received the reply slip, they shoved aside the lecturer from the Initiation Hall and stormed off.

The old lecturer, equally displeased, stared at the group, but his heart trembled when he turned and saw the two bronze and iron certificates in the girl's arms. These were extraordinary items; these certificates were only awarded for outstanding merits in the prefecture!
“Child, that’s you…”

"This……"

For a moment, the old lecturer's mind was in turmoil. It wasn't that he had become greedy; he was an old Taoist disciple with one foot in the grave, and he was being cared for by the temple. What wicked thoughts could he possibly have?

But this is a really big deal!
With two great merit certificates, she couldn't possibly protect this child who was still a novice, no more than eleven or twelve years old. There were quite a few unruly fellows in the temple.

"Alas! Come with me, and I will take you to see Dean Bai..." The old lecturer sighed deeply, having no other choice but to go and find the dean.

In the Lin Yuan Mountains, his family's "legacy" was about to be inherited by the granddaughter of Old Zhao, his "junior sister".

Li Qing knew nothing about these things!

If he knew, those scoundrels in the General Affairs Department would probably be counting down the days until they die...

At this moment, Li Qing was still watching the "soul-summoning ritual" from the sidelines on the ship.

This is a secret method from the folk tradition of the Tokaido region, which can often bring back the souls of people who have died from suffocation, drowning, freezing to death, minor knife wounds, blunt force trauma, etc., and whose bodies have been dead for no more than two or three hours.

That's truly a brilliant method!

Seeing this, Li Qing stared intently at the ritual performed by the priests, listening to their incantations, and even analyzing whether the effect would be better if they used the Southern Dipper Life-Extending Lamp to cast the spell.

He loved this kind of magic that allowed him to avoid death and prolong life, to tug at the gap between life and death.

Li Qing even considered that she would find an opportunity to ask them for the complete "Soul-Summoning Guide" afterward.

Sure enough, after the elders finished performing the "soul-summoning" ritual, the two cultivators lying on the deck, surrounded by a pile of white candles, suddenly coughed violently, rolled over, and vomited up the seawater that was choking them.

"These two are complete idiots!"

Pei Chuanzun immediately pointed at his two men who had narrowly escaped death and began to berate them without any mercy.

They were tasked with guarding the ship, but they ended up feeding the fish at the bottom of the sea. What a character they are.

It's truly thanks to my benevolent heart, Master Pei, that these two would have been buried under the sand, beyond saving!

Of course, the various wandering knights and Taoists on the ship also knew that Captain Pei was tough on the outside but soft on the inside, so they chuckled and joined him in muttering curses.

All those young men have followed Pei Jiu back and forth so many times over the years, and it's all because they admire him for this one thing.

If something happens, Master Pei and Master Guan will really do their best to get you out of trouble!
"Sir, let's ignore these two scoundrels for now. We need to thoroughly check the ship, just in case something strange has sneaked in."

A person in charge stepped forward with hands clasped and said solemnly.

If some ghostly thing really gets into the cabin and stabs through the bottom of the ship halfway through the journey, then they're all doomed!

"Okay! Go ahead, bring more people with you. It'll be hard work, you'll have to make a few more rounds."

"This matter is not to be taken lightly. Anyone who drops the ball will be punished according to the family rules."

At this moment, many cultivators and armored soldiers gathered together again.

Pei Jiu gave a stern warning, and then each of the wandering knights and Taoists at the upper level of Qi Refining led their skilled men to patrol the area thoroughly, inside and out.

Besides the two ship captains, only Li Qing was not assigned any missions.

Li Qing didn't know the way inside the ship at all, and he would find it troublesome to find it. Besides, some of the secret compartments were not suitable for an "outsider" like him, so he simply stayed on the deck.

The purple-blue dragonfish was still swimming around in the sea, and the pale floating corpses on the seabed, which were not yet visible, were immediately shattered by the undercurrents stirred up by the dragonfish!

In this vast and boundless sea, the dragonfish of the same realm is even more terrifying than the flood dragon. It is a giant beast with the power to dominate the sea and has almost absolute control over the ocean currents.

The man had spent almost half of his fortune to raise this purple-blue dragonfish.

Li Qing stared blankly at the giant beast that occasionally poked its head out of the sea, and suddenly remembered that "Zhu" had been in that narrow beast-taming bag for a long time.

Pei Jiu, standing to the side, watched the dragonfish patrolling the sea, then suddenly seemed to think of something amusing. He turned to look at Li Qing and said:
"Hahahaha, I remember you wanted to go to Six Spirits Mountain to buy a Beast Taming Cage, and then you were tricked into coming here overseas to find the Beast Taming Sect?"

The little Taoist's experiences were so legendary that Pei Jiu couldn't help but burst out laughing whenever he thought about them.

Seemingly realizing that he had laughed a bit too much, Captain Pei suppressed his laughter and continued.

"The art of beast taming is easy to learn; you just need to feed it until it dies. But to cultivate it deeply and meticulously, feeding it food, teaching it demonic arts, and forging its combat techniques, is a vast field of knowledge."

"Look at Brother Guan Dao's dragonfish. It's a real glutton. It's not even fully grown yet. I don't know how many Dao Zhu have been put into it."

This has always been the way of beast taming, and the pipe man sighed and shook his head upon hearing this.

However, when it comes to beast-taming skills, he, Daoist, is considered one of the best in the East China Sea. Since this involves his own region, Daoist rarely joked with Li Qing.

"What kind of beast do you wield, young friend Li? Why don't you release it and let us see? Just how precious is it that you would fall for such a big scam?"

The two Purple Mansions teased each other relentlessly, making Li Qing unable to hold back any longer. After only a moment's hesitation, she untied the beast-taming pouch from her sleeve and released the "candle".

But then a fiery dragon, its entire body a deep crimson, landed on the deck.

The thirteen-zhang-long dragon coiled up, and almost got angry when it saw Li Qing. Its six-crowned dragon horns kept nudging and rubbing against Li Qing's arm.

After being locked in the dark room for more than half a month, "Candle" was truly exhausted. Upon seeing the two Purple Mansions beside it and hearing the distant roar of the Overlord Sea, it immediately straightened up, but then it had no idea where it was.
"Oh? So it's a dragon, but it's a fire-type dragon, a mountain dragon species!"

Upon seeing the dragon, the pipe dweller sighed but also nodded slightly, acknowledging Li Qing's abilities.

Although it's just a dragon, its appearance is truly excellent, and it deserves a lot of effort to raise it properly.

"Back then, I had my eye on the Dragonfish with the Overlord Sea bloodline and another River-Turning Flood Dragon. Unfortunately, the Flood Dragon was not very capable of stirring up big waves in the sea. After much thought, I decided to start with the Overlord Sea Dragonfish..."

"You've raised this dragon terribly! The beast-taming pouch is too small, isn't it? Even its red mane is worn out, and it's too weak. It's obvious it's never been touched by blood!"

In his opinion as a half-dragon tamer, Li Qing was not a very qualified master, but he could accept it because of his age. After all, even at that age, Daoist himself was still eagerly feeding beasts for other Daoists.

"Don't put it in that cloth bag yet. This little guy is still quite small. You can take it in on the upper deck. When we get to the Beast Taming Immortal Sect, I will help you choose a beast cage from the Flame Dao."

This seemingly emotionless but actually stoic Daoist became animated when discussing the art of dragon taming. Upon seeing Li Qing, a complete novice in the field, he naturally felt compelled to offer some guidance.

"Oh, thank you, Captain!"

Li Qing immediately bowed and thanked them. Zhu also smelled the sea breeze. The six-crowned dragon head secretly glanced at the dragonfish that could swallow him whole. It was indeed ferocious.

Li Qing had long heard of the Dragon-Taming Lord of the East Sea; the way of dragon-taming among beast tamers had already established itself as a separate lineage in the East Sea.

However, the best dragons are sea dragons, followed by river dragons; this is the category of fish-dragons.

As for the dragon in these mountains.

Zhulong is not a dragon, but a mountain god!
The Yellow Dragon is the central celestial spirit, the Flame Dragon is often the spirit of earth fire, the Earth Dragon is mostly the spirit of earth veins, and the Wood Dragon is conceived from the green spirit wood energy...

The path of a snake shedding its skin to become a dragon, or perhaps like the "candle" which is born carrying precious jade, is extremely rare;
Or they might rely on flood control to sweep away thousands of miles with water vapor, causing harm to all directions. Needless to say, such ferocious creatures only appear once every few decades or hundreds of years, and once they appear, they earn a bad reputation in the local state and county annals.

This snake-shedding dragon is difficult to replicate, and there are even fewer references available for raising it! It is often avoided by dragon tamers.

(End of this chapter)