The Path to Immortality Begins with the Life-Extending Lamp

Chapter 79 Five Temples Offering Ghosts
From the moment we reached that boundary marker, we had only traveled eight hundred paces. How could we have been so suddenly and without warning be possessed by a nightmare?
Li Qing stopped in her tracks, her cold, dark eyes scanning the path she had come from, but she found nothing.

"There was no trace of evil spirits, not even the slightest fluctuation of yin energy; it was as still as a dead land!"

But why is that?
Raise the Southern Dipper Life-Extending Lamp two inches higher, and with the infusion of Xuan Yin Qi, the cold white candlelight suddenly shone brightly, the candle filaments resembling the hazy moonlight, dispelling all the disharmony and gloom within a radius of several hundred feet.

The distorted meaning that had seemed to obscure the five senses and six consciousnesses finally disappeared!

Sure enough, not far behind Li Qing, beneath the boundary marker, something was half-buried in the sand. From that object, a silken thread seemed to suddenly extend, connecting Li Qing.

If it weren't for the ever-burning flame of the Southern Dipper's Life-Extending Lamp, which illuminated that strand of soul so brightly, Li Qing would have truly fallen for its trick!

With a flick of his finger, the fire in the stone flew from Li Qing's hand, transforming into a fiery whip that struck the mottled iron plate.

jingle……

Just as the object was being whipped away by the fire whip, producing a series of crisp sounds, Li Qing also raised his lantern and watched intently. Flames lit up around him, and he was about to make another move when he saw that it was a magic bell. After being flung to the ground, it did not change and simply crashed to the ground.

Is it an unclaimed magical artifact? Or did I somehow trigger the restrictions on this magical bell?

After pondering for a few breaths and seeing that there was no movement for a long time, Li Qing gently flicked out the fire in the stone at her fingertips, and the fifty-two Southern Bright Fire Stars beside her also disappeared like fireflies.

Let's get closer and take a look.

The magic bell on the ground was flicked by the fire whip in the stone, and the mottled stains on its surface fell off, revealing its ancient, reddish-gold interior.

The bell is covered with Taotie inscriptions and cauldrons, its surface shimmering with spiritual light, making it truly extraordinary!

It seemed to emanate a Taoist aura, much like an unclaimed magical artifact.

Upon seeing this, Li Qing raised an eyebrow:
I've only just entered the underworld, and I can find magical artifacts just by walking around?
This is such a pleasant surprise!

With the Heavenly Palace Profound Qi completely covering his body, Li Qing used a burst of Qi in his palm to seize the magic bell. In an instant, he picked it up, and with a burst of Xuan Yin Qi wrapped around the bell, he shook it, suddenly dispersing the mottled and obscure objects on the bell.

It really is a complete Soul Dao Bell!

A burst of Qi lifted the crimson bell and brought it a few feet in front of Li Qing. The spells and restrictions on the bell, which summoned ghosts and captured souls, shone brightly. However, as soon as it got close to Li Qing, it began to circulate involuntarily.

"One hundred and eighty magical restrictions, the bell for summoning ghosts and capturing souls?"

A sudden realization flashed through Li Qing's mind.

Such a ritual bell was often hung by prominent families of the previous dynasty in front of their mountain gates and temples as a warning and protection.

If any ghosts or spirits approach, this magic bell will automatically sway. However, the magic restrictions within each bell are different. This particular bell is for summoning ghosts and capturing their souls, forcing all kinds of ghosts and spirits to lose their senses and imprison them in place.

One hundred and eighty restrictions are already a type of magic artifact capable of affecting those at the Purple Mansion Foundation Stage.

Li Qing used his primordial energy to penetrate the interior of the magic bell and found that the magic restrictions inside were still intact and there was no master seal. It was indeed the talisman that this underworld had hung under the locust trees and eaves of various places in the past.

Moreover, this object seems to have been unactivated and has been gathering dust for a long time. Only Li Qing, who possesses the Dragon Spine Ghost Pyramid, triggered the ghost-summoning and soul-capturing restriction within it as soon as he approached it...

"One hundred and eighty forbidden items, that's a very good haul!"

With a sigh, Li Qingqie collected the primordial energy, held the Southern Dipper Life-Extending Lamp in one hand, and took the magic bell that could be held in one hand into his palm. He began to forcibly cleanse the magic artifact with primordial energy, pondering its usage.

The power of the magic bell is far less than that of magic artifacts such as banners, talismans, swords, and magic needles. The magic bell, which has 180 restrictions, is also related to the non-killing and targeted function of summoning ghosts and capturing souls. It is still inferior to Li Qing's paper ghost sedan chair with 72 restrictions.

However, it's already an excellent start.

The dim candlelight slowly approached the center from the southern shore of the Penghai Yin Palace, with the occasional sound of bells echoing through the air...

Each time the magic bell rippled, Li Qing could glance to the side and, through the connection on the soul-capturing bell, immediately spot the wandering ghost's figure.

And with the candlelight casting shadows, a spark flew from the stone. Li Qing then took the Myriad Souls Banner in his palm, hung the Soul-Capturing Bell on top of the banner, and used the Myriad Souls Silk to create boundless power, either strangling and killing the Yin ghosts and corpse ghosts, or gathering their energy and causing them to retreat.

After proceeding cautiously for about half an hour, Li Qing finally looked up in front of the massive mountainside buildings and saw five enormous temples that seemed to blend seamlessly with the mountain rocks and ancestral halls, their style completely unlike that of the Southern Kingdom.

The Temple of the Princes and Kings, with two Zhao and two Mu guarding the founding ancestor, faces west from the east, towards the capital city.

This is truly an extraordinary underworld!
Here, Li Qing sensed an aura similar to that of You Tian—oppressive, despairing, and accompanied by a silent stillness.

The underworld he inherited with the ghost mother, Cui Qu'er, now consists of only a front street and two small courtyards. However, this underworld is vast in size, with ancient bluestone paving the ground, which has long been eroded by flowing water, leaving behind many shellfish remnants. Five ancestral temples stand among the dark stone mountains, with the highest point reaching nearly two hundred feet.

Unlike the Qishan Underworld, which is forever lost in the netherworld, this is a magnificent underworld built by carving into the mountain. As you get closer, a primitive and desolate aura comes over you. Back when the six ancient ghosts ruled together, this place must have been a powerful and influential place.

The fact that the temple was used to worship ghosts indicates that at least five or more spirits or deities from the Yin realm once lived there!
"Since Senior Brother Bu Lingxu is willing to use this Yin Temple as a place to explore the two realms of Zifu Qi Refining, then the greatest danger there must not be greater than that of Zifu Foundation Establishment." There are two realms of Zifu Foundation Establishment. One is to build a primordial Dao foundation in the dantian, which serves as a warm bed for the Great Dao and a source of nourishment for the principles of law, so that the primordial spirit and the intent of law within can be brought into being.

The foundation of the Purple Mansion Dao has just begun to be built, and the Daoist essence and Dharma meaning are not yet perfect. This imperfect foundation is called the lower foundation of the Purple Mansion.

By emulating the great Dao of Heaven and Earth, one forges one's own path and begins to cultivate one's own Dharma intent; this is the foundational realm of the Purple Mansion.

If that were all, the risks would be manageable, and it would be a place of ghosts and spirits, so the Penghai Yin Mansion would be much less terrifying for this ghostly man, Li Qing.

Li Qing stood outside the underworld, flicked his finger to draw in a wisp of energy, and after sensing the aura of the crowd within it, he immediately flipped his wrist and hid the Ten Thousand Souls Banner in the storage gourd at his waist. However, the gourd's mouth remained open for a long time, as if he could summon the Ten Thousand Souls Banner again at any time.

Putting away the Myriad Souls Banner was merely to conceal his wealth. For these ordinary Purple Mansions, a single Myriad Souls Banner with a thousand restrictions was enough for them to fight to the death. Li Qing was unwilling to go through the same ordeal as Liu Huangzhou so easily.

However, the gourd's mouth was not closed, which also meant that Li Qing could refine the Soul Banner at any time and dare to compete with the Purple Mansion.

Along the way, the residual auras of wind, fire, water, and other elements from the Purple Mansion dissipated in the square in front of the Underworld. Li Qing picked up the lantern, bypassed the chaotic area, took two steps into the air and escaped, and entered the Underworld directly at the shortest distance.

Looking at the ancestral temple in front, with the two Mu and two Zhao temples on the left and right, Li Qing hesitated for a moment, then strode into the first temple on the left, the Three Mu Temple...

The other cultivators from Pengguo were very familiar with this Yin Mansion, unlike Li Qing who was so cautious and had already entered those temples!

The Five Directions Temple was crafted from five black mountains. The name of this ancient kingdom is unknown, but its scale is certainly not small. Each temple can be considered a mountain grotto.

This underworld was established according to the five ancestral temple system of feudal kings, and is extremely ancient.

Facing the ancestral temple, to the left is the Mu Temple, where descendants of odd-numbered generations are enshrined after their deaths; to the right is the Zhao Temple, where descendants of even-numbered generations are enshrined.

The more ancient ghosts and gods, however, accompanied the ancestral temple, so much so that there were nearly three hundred statues of ghosts and gods in the ancestral temple!

The two senior brothers from the Plain Clothes Sect naturally entered the Ancestral Temple. They had already explored the temple three times, but they still hadn't managed to open up the outer side chamber.

Yan Danling and her fellow disciples did not reunite. At this moment, they saw the female Taoist priest walk quickly into the Second Generation Zhao Temple, drawing her sword with one hand. Her robes shone with dazzling light. Immediately, a cyan sword aura rose into the air and shattered a stone helmet beast that charged in front of her.

Behind this guardian beast, ferocious creatures resembling stone-helmeted lions swarmed in one after another, some even including many ghosts!

In this underworld, there are still many mindless ghosts and gods left, and their chilling malice almost reaches out to the female Taoist priest.

Yan Danling, however, remained calm and composed. She reversed her grip on the magic sword and made a hand seal with one finger.

"I possess a spirit in my left eye, born from the divine light. I beg the Flying Spirit Child to aid me in slaying the enemy!"

With a clear shout, a divine light shot into the sky from her gleaming left pupil, like a scorching white line with a nose and eyes at the end. It charged towards the stone-helmeted beasts in front of her, and the terrifying divine light was like the sun descending. In an instant, it swept across and ruthlessly annihilated the many stone-helmeted lion-like beasts.

The female Taoist priest's hand gestures changed again, and she shouted sharply, "I have a divine thought in my right eye, which is said to be the Morning Yin Child. Please descend the moonlight to protect me!"

As soon as she finished speaking, another divine light leaped out from Yan Danling's right eye, transforming into a three-foot-tall Morning Yin Child, holding osmanthus flowers in his hands, with a precious light hanging down, like a cold moon veil falling, blocking all the unseen attacks within.

The inner cultivation of spirit does not involve training soldiers and horses, exorcising ghosts and spirits, nor does it seek bravery and violence; it simply involves guarding the one within the body.

Within the internal organs, sensory organs, meridians, and acupoints of the human body, one cultivates the Yellow Court technique, visualizing various deities guarding these organs. These are the "body deities," governed by the Niwan Palace.

The ancient cultivator who refined his spirit once boasted:

I possess 108,000 apertures, commanding 108,000 gods. I open the outer realm of the Lingxiao Palace, and all the immortals bow their heads in utter disgrace!
The upper limit of refining the spirit is also like this. The ultimate method of refining the spirit through the cycle of heaven can evolve a true divine court around the body, refine the spirit to become an immortal, and be called the master of immortals!

Yan Danling cultivated the Five Internal Organs Spirit and the Seven Apertures Spirit. In her two divine eyes, one is the Great Sun Flying Spirit Child and the other is the Moonlight Morning Yin Child. The Great Yang governs killing, and the Great Yin guards the body. She can expel evil and eliminate wickedness, and maintain her true cultivation.

By simply summoning the divine spirits of the two eyes, all evil within this stone palace was annihilated.

The female Taoist priest, draped in a gauze robe embodying the radiance of the moon, raised her magic sword and plunged back into the altar, taking down a ceremonial sword from the altar. At the same time, two divine children swiftly transformed into divine light and returned to her eyes, filling them with spirituality once more.

Yan Danling retreated swiftly, glancing only once at the jade curtain that was inexplicably being moved behind the hall as she turned around. Immediately, Yan Danling flipped over and leaped out of the inner room at an even faster speed.

"As expected, there's an old ghost from the Day Traveler's Realm inside!"

"Fortunately, I finally got my hands on this exquisite ceremonial sword with six hundred magical restrictions."

In the heat of battle, she even summoned two spirit bodies that were not yet fully manifested, just to quickly kill the evil spirits and buy time. If the other Purple Mansion Daoists in the temple saw this, they would definitely scold her for being reckless.

Such a risky gamble turned out quite well!

A magic sword with six hundred forbidden levels is enough for her to use until she ascends to the Purple Mansion...

(End of this chapter)