Mortal: The Path to Immortality

Using their respective agility, the two pushed off the falling boulders, constantly adjusting their balance.

After an unknown amount of time, my feet sank slightly, and I finally landed steadily in this deeper, more hidden cave.

As soon as they stood still, both of them cautiously spread their divine senses and looked around this secluded place with some surprise.

This hidden cave is quite large. Coral spirits emitting a ghostly blue glow also grow on the surrounding stone walls.

Looking towards the center of the ground, a huge ancient array plate was discovered, but unfortunately, the array had been smashed into pieces.

Beside the shattered array plate stood an unusual spirit tree, about three or four zhang tall.

The spirit tree was quite peculiar, with white branches like jade, covered with green and blue leaves that emitted a warm glow in the dim light.

The skeleton of an ancient cultivator was leaning against a spirit tree.

The remaining clothing on the skeleton still faintly bore the flame patterns unique to the Demon Flame Sect.

Its finger bones were still tightly clutching a piece of silk that was still shimmering with a faint spiritual light.

Unfortunately, the silk seemed to have been violently torn apart in a struggle before its death, leaving only half of the scroll in its hand, with a fairly clean cut.

"Hahaha! Found it! I finally found it!!"

Upon seeing the spirit tree and the silk, Helian Yu, who was standing at a distance, was slightly stunned. Then, his face twitched violently, and he burst into hysterical laughter.

His eyes were fixed on what the skeleton was holding, and he was somewhat incoherent:

"The Fusang Core and the Qingyang Treasure Scroll! So the rumors were true! With these two items, I can finally forge the legendary sacred fire! Hehe...hehehe!"

Lu Nanzhu suppressed the doubt in his eyes and looked at Helian Yu, who had fallen into madness, through the mask.

Although he didn't know what the "Fusang Core" and "Qingyang Treasure Scroll" were, he keenly realized that he had stumbled upon some great hidden treasure by accident, and it seemed that this item was of great importance to this young envoy of the Demon Flame Sect.

Helian Yu laughed wildly for a while, then suddenly turned to look at Lu Nanzhu. The hatred on his face earlier seemed to have been somewhat diluted by the immense joy of the treasure's appearance.

"Although I really want to explain to you, you'd better just die here!"

This place is deep within the Sealed Fire Abyss, and is protected by ancient restrictions, making it difficult even for Nascent Soul cultivators to detect!

The madness in his eyes gradually subsided, and he smiled:

"Once I eliminate you completely today, I can peacefully seclude myself here to refine the Sacred Flame and successfully break through to the Core Formation stage. Hehehe!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than Helian Yu's figure suddenly swayed, and he once again grabbed the "Youhuang Blade" and attacked Lu Nanzhu without warning.

Unlike his previous rage and madness, his current strike was exceptionally steady, displaying not only skillful offense and defense but also a resolute killing intent that replaced the restlessness in his eyes.

"They're quite serious."

Lu Nanzhu muttered a curse in his heart, but dared not slack off in the slightest.

With his abundant spiritual power and excellent agility, he successfully dealt with these attacks.

Although he was able to forcefully parry the opponent's attack imbued with demonic flames using the "Netherworld Blade" in his hand.

However, Helian Yu was, after all, a genius in the late Foundation Establishment stage, and his combat experience was equally extensive.

In the brief moment between their close combat, Helian Yu's lips moved slightly, and without warning, he opened his mouth and spat out several balls of demonic flames directly at Lu Nanzhu's face.

Faced with Helian Yu's attack method, which was extremely uncivilized by cultivators, Lu Nanzhu frowned and had no choice but to keep his distance.

The instant he landed, he touched his storage bag, and with a flash of spiritual light, more than a dozen puppets were instantly thrown to the ground.

These puppets, made entirely of sandalwood, scattered like living things as soon as they landed, under the control of divine sense, subtly surrounding Helian Yu in the middle.

"Puppets? You kid from Spirit Beast Mountain, you've got quite a few skills."

Helian Yu paused, then snorted coldly.

Although he spoke dismissively, the speed and mobility of these puppets did indeed exceed his expectations for a time.

While Helian Yu was focusing his attention on the puppets that had suddenly attacked, Lu Nanzhu had already summoned an array plate from behind.

He pointed forcefully at the array plate, and in an instant, more than a hundred spiritual energy threads shot out from the array plate, accurately connecting to the black sandalwood puppets—instantly, a "Thousand Machine Suspended Thread Array" was formed.

With the buffs provided by the array plate, the dozen or so puppets, which were originally moving swiftly, began to display the strength of cultivators at the peak of the Qi Refining stage.

However, Lu Nanzhu knew very well that the power of this formation largely depended on the puppets' own abilities. Now, facing Helian Yu, a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, it could probably only barely hold out for a moment.

He set up this formation not to kill the enemy.

Taking advantage of the moment when the formation was binding Helian Yu, Lu Nanzhu took out the "Flat Ruler" talisman from his storage bag.

His expression was solemn as he poured all his magical power into the battle, intending to end it in one fell swoop.

A short while later, Helian Yu, who was breaking the puppet formation in the formation, suddenly discovered that countless dense, ruler-shaped beams of spiritual light had gathered in the air and were rushing towards him.

He tried to use his escape technique to evade, but the few remaining puppets, controlled by the spirit silk, frantically pounced on him and entangled him tightly.

Left with no other choice, Helian Yu had to frantically activate the protective demonic flames within his body to fight off the enemy, while simultaneously using his protective armor to withstand the attacks.

Violent explosions continued unabated within the formation.

Wherever the ruler-shaped spiritual light passed, the puppets were instantly smashed into a shower of wood chips. Immediately afterward, the protective armor on Helian Yu's body also shattered completely under this terrifying continuous bombardment with a crisp sound.

After a while, the violent fluctuations of spiritual energy in the cave gradually subsided.

The "Flat Heaven Ruler" talisman in Lu Nanzhu's hand was now dim, its power almost exhausted.

Meanwhile, Helian Yu, disheveled and covered in blood, knelt on the ground, his robes tattered and bloodstained, panting heavily.

"He survived a hit from the talisman!?"

A hint of shock flashed in Lu Nanzhu's eyes through the mask.

He frowned, and his right finger twitched slightly, indicating that he was already planning to use another move.

"You've really got some skills to push me to this point."

Helian Yu gritted his teeth and stood up, wiping the blood from his face.

He stared at Lu Nanzhu and slowly took something out of his pocket.

It was a peculiar lamp, and above its almost dried-up wick, a faint blue flame was now trembling and floating.

The moment he saw the blue flame clearly, Lu Nanzhu's gaze sharpened, and he blurted out:

"Azure Sun Demonic Flame!?"

"Hmph! You do have some knowledge, after all." Helian Yu held the lamp in one hand, glaring angrily at Lu Nanzhu.

"I have spent a lot of effort collecting and refining these sacred flames from countless cultivators who practice the 'Azure Sun Demon Fire Technique' before I finally managed to accumulate this little bit."

"To witness the power of the sacred fire before you die, you've lived a worthwhile life!"

After saying that, he blew hard on the bronze oil lamp.

call--!

That faint blue flame instantly surged, transforming into a massive blue torrent of fire, carrying terrifying heat, and rushed towards Lu Nanzhu.

Back when he was guarding the sect's mines, Lu Nanzhu had personally witnessed the domineering nature of this fire. Ordinary magical artifacts and formations were simply no match for it; it was as if anything it encountered would be burned.

He dared not take the hit head-on, and instead dodged and weaved through the vast underground cavern.

Meanwhile, the massive blue stream of fire, under Helian Yu's control, relentlessly pursued it, melting everything in its path in an instant.

Just as Lu Nanzhu managed to slip behind the spirit tree during a clumsy maneuver, the situation changed.

Helian Yu's expression suddenly changed as he was unleashing a torrent of firepower. He abruptly pulled back the lamp in his hand, forcibly stopping the massive blue flames that had already reached the spirit tree.

Even Helian Yu himself was shaken by the force of the forced backlash and let out a muffled groan.

"This tree is very precious to him."

Lu Nanzhu, who was hiding behind a tree, took in this scene and understood what was happening.

Having found the other party's weakness, Lu Nanzhu used the spirit tree as a natural cover while taking out the fan magic weapon and fiercely fanning out dozens of needle-shaped spiritual lights in Helian Yu's direction.

"Utterly shameless!!"

Helian Yu was furious when he saw that the other party was so shamelessly using the spirit tree as a shield, leaving him nowhere to unleash his holy fire and forcing him to passively endure the other party's sneak attacks.

He strode forward, swung his Youhuang Blade, and decisively cleaved the spirit tree in two, storing it along with the half-piece of silk in his storage bag.

Seeing this, Lu Nanzhu did not hesitate at all.

He seized the opportunity and used all his strength to unleash "Song of Heavenly Steps" to rush upwards, following the direction from which he had fallen, trying to leave this hidden cave.

During his flight, he secretly took out an array plate from his storage bag.

"Don't run!!"

Seeing that Lu Nanzhu was about to escape, Helian Yu, who had already accepted the spirit tree and silk, was not about to let him go. His face was ferocious, and he also rode his magic weapon, transforming into a purple-red fire cloud, and chased after him with murderous intent.

In this ascending passage, both of them moved at extremely high speeds.

In just a few breaths, Helian Yu, who had transformed into a fiery cloud, had already caught up with Lu Nanzhu.

However, Lu Nanzhu, who was flying ahead, suddenly turned around.

He suddenly raised his right hand and slammed the array plate, which had already been activated, down hard on Helian Yu's face.

The five-colored light instantly intertwined into a net, which was the "Inverted Five Elements Formation"!

"Go down!"

Lu Nanzhu shouted and activated the formation, pressing down forcefully, forcefully slapping Helian Yu, who had transformed into a cloud of fire, back to the hidden cave along with his flying magical artifact.

The five-colored light flowed and transformed into an incredibly thick protective barrier, completely sealing off an area of ​​several dozen feet in radius.

At this moment, Helian Yu, holding the lamp, was trapped in the center of the formation. Looking at the completely closed five-colored array walls around him, for the first time, a deep sense of surprise and fear appeared in his eyes:

"Puppets, formations, escape techniques, talismans... It's already quite difficult for an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator to master even one of them to this extent, but you..."

Few ordinary cultivators can use formations, and seeing Lu Nanzhu use two formations in succession, and these formations seemed to be quite powerful, Helian Yu began to feel worried.

He looked at Lu Nanzhu outside the formation and demanded sharply, "Who exactly are you!? Could it be... a personal disciple of some old monster from Spirit Beast Mountain?"

Outside the light barrier, Lu Nanzhu's expression was cold and stern. He made no attempt to answer and focused solely on manipulating the formation.

"Hmph! With your formation, you can't stop me." Seeing that the other party did not answer, Helian Yu gritted his teeth and once again activated the flame of the lamp in his hand.

boom!

The flames were extremely powerful, transforming into a ball of intense heat that surged towards the restrictive light barrier of the "Inverted Five Elements Array".

Under continuous burning, the five-colored light shield showed faint signs of dissolving.

However, Lu Nanzhu, standing outside the formation, remained calm and unhurried.

With his powerful divine sense, he keenly perceived that after releasing this wave of fire, the spiritual light around Helian Yu in the formation had obviously dimmed.

The domineering blue flames must have also consumed a great deal of spiritual energy from the cultivators themselves.

Lu Nanzhu's eyes turned cold, and he used his left hand to gently pat a spirit beast pouch at his waist.

A swarm of silvery-white insects flashed by, and hundreds of "Spirit-Eating Bees" with five-colored spiritual light flowing around them buzzed as they flew out.

As soon as the spirit insects appeared, they obeyed the command and passed through the array restrictions that were not guarded inside, fearlessly rushing towards the lamp and surrounding Helian Yu, who was holding the lamp.

They clung to the lamp, trying to devour the wisp of spiritual fire, but under the intense heat of the sacred fire, they were all burned away, turning into black ash and falling to the ground.

"These insects think they can devour this sacred fire? Don't even dream about it!"

Seeing this, Helian Yu breathed a slight sigh of relief, concentrated his remaining magic power, and continued to attack a certain part of the array's restrictions.

"These insects won't do, so I'll add some more."

Standing outside the formation, Lu Nanzhu actually pulled two more spirit beast pouches from his waist and flicked his wrist to send them into the formation.

The bag burst open with a bang, and in an instant, tens of thousands of "Spirit-Eating Bees" emerged from the bag like a vast, silvery-white cloud, instantly entering the upper part of the inner side of the barrier.

He summoned the spirit insects and drove them to attack Helian Yu in the formation.

Faced with the endless swarm of insects, Helian Yu panicked completely and hurriedly activated his fire to drive away these disgusting insects.

However, as time went on, he gradually found himself unable to keep up.

Because the mana in his body and the spiritual fire in the lamp were both consumed too much, the flames that were being activated became intermittent and gradually degenerated into small clusters of fire.

Although many of the "Spirit-Eating Bees" were burned by the blue flames, the endless swarm of insects behind them, under the command of Lu Nanzhu's divine sense, forcefully used their physical bodies to block the counterattack of the small fireballs in place of the array restrictions.

Gradually, Helian Yu's magical power was almost exhausted, and the lamp went out completely.

Seeing that the battle was over, Lu Nanzhu, who was outside the formation, raised his hand and summoned back the remaining spirit insects.

His hands gripped the control panel of the Inverted Five Elements Array once more, intending to unleash the array with all his might one last time to end the conflict completely.