Chapter Fifty-Six: Spirit Ruin Tracing Back to Ancient Times
Azure Ruin Market's dilapidated walls and broken bricks glowed with quiet blue phosphorescent flames. Lu Qingyang squatted before the collapsed 'Scripture Pavilion' plaque, his fingertips caressing a half-broken Jade Slip inscribed with the 'Profound Yin Pill Art'. In the distance, the hum of a floating boat could be heard as five Taiyi Pavilion Disciples, stepping on cloud-patterned boots, swept past the broken walls. The Spiritual Qi scattered from their flowing robes awakened the Spirit-devouring insects sleeping in the rubble.
"Fellow Daoist, you have good taste." A limping Old Daoist hobbled over, leaning on a bronze lampstand. The flickering wick clearly contained the remnant soul of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator. "Although this Jade Slip is missing the latter half, it records a secret method of using Yin Ming Grass to replace Profound Ice Dew..." Before he could finish, Lu Qingyang had already crushed three Illusion-Shaping Pills. The pill mist transformed into seven illusory figures, simultaneously pouncing on different stalls.
His true body, using a blinding spell, slipped to the southwest corner, beneath a lightning-struck tree. The lightning-attracting talismans hidden in his boot soles gently brushed against the scorched wood. As the Taiyi Pavilion Disciples were attracted by the lightning, he had already used the qingmu spirit pearl to wrap and take away three Millennium Lightning-Patterned Mushrooms parasitic in the heart of the tree. The hourglass illusion within the pearl reversed, and the mushroom caps immediately gained centuries' worth of purple patterns.
"Daoist Lu is still as thorough as a wild goose plucking feathers." Su Li's illusory figure floated out from her Yin and Yang fish Jade Pendant. The Taiqing patterns on her skirt were much fainter than three years ago. Her fingertip touched the bronze wine zun in Lu Qingyang's arms. The 'Burial Dragon' characters secretly carved at the bottom of the zun glowed with blood-red light: "The artifact spirit of this zun has swallowed at least three Golden Core Flood Dragons. If you use it as a chamber pot, be careful when it retaliates..."
"Fairy Su, could it be that you're craving my Spirit Tea, watered with Flood Dragon urine?" Lu Qingyang flicked the wine zun, startling the Treasure Seeking Rat in the pearl's medicine field, which scurried about frantically. He intentionally splashed the wine at Su Li's illusory figure, then laughed as he watched the Meridians map appear amidst the rising spiritual mist: "The Yinkui Sect's 'Nine Revolutions Soul Forging Art' is indeed profound. Su Gu Niang's half-soul body can probably withstand three strikes from a Golden Core Cultivator."
A clear sound of a glazed lamp shattering suddenly came from the east end of the market, and eighteen soul 引魂 lamps floated in a formation. Lu Qingyang smelled bone-dissolving powder mixed in the soul-condensing incense. He pulled a fat Cultivator, who was setting up a stall by the roadside, to shield him. The Seven Fiends Gourd hanging from the Cultivator's waist erupted with black light, absorbing all the incoming poisonous needles.
"Old Black Duan, you owe me three High-Grade Spirit Stones!" Lu Qingyang took advantage of the chaos to stuff the Lightning-Patterned Mushrooms into the other party's sleeve, while he, hidden by the crowd, moved towards the bronze cauldron at the center of the formation. The Spirit-Sealing Chains entwined around the cauldron suddenly came alive, coiling towards his neck. The qingmu spirit pearl spontaneously burst forth with green light, and the artifact spirit, silent for three hundred years within the cauldron, let out a wailing cry like an infant.
The fat Cultivator conjured the Nether Ghost Fire from his gourd, and the flames illuminated the mottled inscriptions inside the cauldron. Lu Qingyang's pupils constricted—this was clearly the 'Nine-Orifice Exquisite Cauldron' that had gone missing from the Taiyi Pavilion's Forbidden Land. At the cauldron's ear, there still remained the Sect mark he had forged with Gold-Corroding Water ten years ago. Back then, disguised as an Artifact Refining apprentice, he had sold this fake cauldron to that arrogant Senior Brother Ye.
"Lu! Qing! Yang!" Ye Wuchen's Sword Qi sliced through the market's mist. His Natal Flying Sword, 'Dragon Slayer,' carrying the Golden Core's oppressive might, roared towards him. Lu Qingyang flipped his hand and slapped a certain protrusion on the cauldron's belly. The cauldron suddenly shot out thirty-six long-sealed Sword Qi—precisely the contingency he had buried years ago.
The moment the Sword Qi collided with the Flying Sword, Lu Qingyang had already crushed a Earth Evasion Talisman and burrowed into the Ancient Tomb passage beneath the bluestone slabs. The putrid Yin Qi was mixed with the scent of Dragon Saliva Incense. Dark red liquid seeped from the cracks in the tomb bricks, revealing fragments of the 'Blood River True Scripture' under the illumination of the qingmu spirit pearl. He used his Divine Sense to imprint the scripture as he fled, not forgetting to throw a handful of Spirit Stone fragments, soaked in mind-bewildering powder, behind him.
"You should at least leave some thoughts for Senior Brother Ye." Su Li's illusory figure flickered, and her fingertips condensed ice crystals, sealing off the three pursuing Corpse-Eating Gu. Lu Qingyang kicked open a decayed coffin and pulled out a half-roll of Jiao Xiao from the accompanying bronze sword sheath. The map of the East Sea Secret Realm drawn on it resonated with the turtle shell left by the Old Drunkard.
At the end of the tomb passage, the sound of flowing water could be heard. A crystal coffin floated at the source of the Blood River. The female Cultivator in the coffin had a cinnabar mark between her brows, and the star patterns on her moon-white Daoist robe were identical to Su Li's Jade Pendant. Lu Qingyang's qingmu spirit pearl suddenly flew out of his hand. The dragon blood grass, growing wildly in the pearl's medicine field, pierced through the Void Realm, wrapping the crystal coffin into a cocoon.
"Taiyin Body..." Su Li's voice trembled, and her illusory figure solidified by three points. Lu Qingyang, however, stared at the bronze key hanging from the female Cultivator's waist. Its patterns perfectly matched the fragment he had obtained from the Burial Dragon Abyss three years ago. When he tried to investigate with his Divine Sense, the crystal coffin suddenly erupted with moonlight, illuminating the hidden Grand Heavenly Star Formation on the tomb ceiling.
The moment Ye Wuchen's Sword Qi blasted open the tomb wall, Lu Qingyang bit his tongue and sprayed his essence blood onto the qingmu spirit pearl. As the hourglass illusion reversed, ten years passed in an instant within the pearl, and he took the opportunity to imprint the 'Blood River True Scripture' and the Star Formation map into his Divine Sense. When the flow of time returned to normal, he happened to be slumped beside the crystal coffin, clutching the bronze key he had somehow taken.
"Junior Brother Lu, such skill." Ye Wuchen's sword tip spat cold light, and behind him, the Soul-Binding Chains of Taiyi Pavilion's Enforcement Hall appeared. "Three years ago, you stole the qingmu spirit pearl, and now you're meddling with the Star Palace's lineage..." Before he could finish speaking, the female Cultivator in the crystal coffin suddenly opened her eyes, and the swirling galaxy in her gaze drew everyone into an illusion.
Amidst the swirling galaxy, Lu Qingyang glimpsed an Ancient Battlefield. The qingmu spirit pearl transformed into the Divine Jianmu Tree, piercing through heaven and earth. As his Divine Sense was about to collapse, the Treasure Seeking Rat, long silent within the pearl, suddenly spoke in human words: "Kid, use the Yinkui Sect's methods to refine this old man into an artifact spirit!"