Chapter 83: nine profound Devours Spirit
The Chaos Qi erupting from deep within the earth's pulse dragged Li Chang'an down a thousand zhang, and the thirty-six Formation Flags shattered into dust in the gale.
He yanked off the Taiyi Cauldron ear embedded in his collarbone; before the golden blood could drip, it was devoured by the Void Realm, and the dark red moss wriggling on the surrounding stone walls let out a thirsty hiss.
"Could this moss be a Gu worm raised by the Hehuan Sect's old hag?" Li Chang'an cursed, crushing three antidote pills, when a green light suddenly burst from his sleeve—the Celestial Silkworm Silk boots he got from the Saintess transformed into a streaking light, wrapping around his right foot and carrying him diagonally across the jagged rock face.
His left fingertips, however, secretly clutched five Thunderfire Talismans, ready to throw them at the spirit-devouring moss relentlessly pursuing him.
The moment the cold wind brushed past his ear, he suddenly spun around and threw the Talismans.
Before the thunderfire could explode, the Talisman paper was corroded into black ash by the sticky liquid secreted by the moss.
Li Chang'an's pupils constricted; the Hidden Edge Sword unsheathed with a Dragon's roar and a tiger's howl, and wherever the Sword Qi swept, the moss turned to charcoal, but the Sword's edge struck the rock face, sparking—this was no ordinary mountain rock, but nine profound rock mixed with starfall iron!
"One hundred thousand Spirit Stones are indeed not easy to earn..." He stared at the new notch on the Sword, his heart aching, when he suddenly felt a burning sensation from the silk boots on his feet.
He looked down to see the Hehuan Sect's mark on the boot pointing towards a certain crack, and immediately sneered: "Su Yue Li, that demoness, indeed hid a tracking Talismanic Incantation in the boots; when this old man..."
His words abruptly ceased.
The aura of taichu true dew gushing from the crack made his Adam's apple bob, but his Divine Sense swept through and found no living creature.
Li Chang'an licked his chapped lips, then suddenly joined his fingers like a blade, cutting his palm, and drew nine Spirit-locking Talismanic Incantations in the Void Realm with his essence blood—the incomplete 'Blood Talisman Scripture' he dug out from a demonic cultivator's tomb back then was just right for this moment.
The moment the incantations took shape, the hundred-zhang rock wall collapsed with a roar.
Li Chang'an stepped into the core of the Secret Realm with a light step, and was met by nine giant bronze cauldrons arranged in a formation, with dark golden liquid boiling within them—precisely the taichu true dew.
A bronze ancient mirror suspended in the center of the cauldron array reflected his distorted face, and the inscriptions on the mirror's edge were the lost ancient seal script of ten thousand years.
"I'm rich!" His eyes gleamed as he pounced on the ancient mirror, but a bone-chilling cold came from his waist.
The Hidden Edge Sword unsheathed on its own and lay before him, its Sword Spirit emitting a mournful hum—a phantom identical to Li Chang'an's face slowly emerged from the mirror, only this phantom had demonic horns on its forehead and was wreathed in the pressure of a Soul Transformation Stage cultivator.
The phantom raised its hand and summoned three giant cauldrons to smash down; before the cauldrons arrived, the pressure had already made Li Chang'an's Golden Core almost shatter.
He spat out blood foam and activated a magic incantation; seventy-two Ice Soul Talismans formed a frost array, and the true dew on the cauldrons solidified upon contact with the cold, actually forming golden amber in mid-air.
Taking advantage of this gap, he bit his tongue and spat out his vital essence blood, and the Hidden Edge Sword, wrapped in blood light, stabbed towards the ancient mirror's Ontology.
"A mere Golden Core ant dares to covet the Xuan Tian Mirror?" The phantom sneered, flicking the Sword's edge away with a finger.
But Li Chang'an suddenly grinned, revealing stark white teeth, and his left hand had somehow already touched the mirror's edge, his palm firmly pressed against a fragment broken off from the Taiyi Cauldron!
Amidst the ear-piercing clang of metal, the ancient mirror emitted a mournful tremor.
The demonic Qi around the phantom dissipated, and Li Chang'an seized the opportunity to wedge half of the cauldron ear into the mirror frame's crack, then kicked it fiercely: "Get down here for your grandpa!"
The mirror surface cracked in response, and the scattering fragments cut several bloody gashes on his face, but he didn't care, tearing off the mirror knob—which turned out to be half a bronze key inscribed with the words "nine profound."
The Secret Realm suddenly shook violently, and the nine giant cauldrons successively sank into the earth's pulse.
Li Chang'an, clutching the three bottles of true dew he had snatched, fled in a panic, with countless skeletal arms reaching out from the Void Realm cracks behind him.
He drank the true dew as he ran, his shattered Golden Core greedily devouring the spiritual power, and as his Qi Sea churned, a three-inch tall Nascent Soul outline vaguely formed.
"Little thief, don't run!"
A furious shout came from above, and seven Sword Lights cut off his escape route.
The Taiyi Pavilion's Hall of Punishments Elder, stepping on a chasing soul banner, and the net formed by his Disciples behind him had already enveloped all directions.
Li Chang'an wiped the blood from his face, then suddenly pointed behind the crowd and cried out in surprise: "Look! Su Yue Li is dancing the Heavenly Demon Dance!"
While everyone was stunned, he threw out ten illusion Talismans.
The Talisman paper transformed into thousands of alluring female phantoms, each dancing gracefully in sheer veils, with bare shoulders.
The Hall of Punishments Elder roared "shameless scoundrel," but the mountain-Seal he conjured smashed three bones of his own Disciple's legs.
Li Chang'an had already slipped out of the encirclement using an earth-Escape Talisman, not forgetting to tie the stolen bronze key to his belt to show off.
Three hundred li away, in a desolate mountain temple, Li Chang'an slumped before a dilapidated divine statue.
He tore open his clothes to check his injuries; the wound on his chest, eroded by demonic Qi, already showed bone, but he chuckled, staring at the bronze key in his hand: "Something that makes the Taiyi Pavilion chase like mad dogs must be a key to some hidden treasure..."
Before he finished speaking, two faint lights shot out from the divine statue's eye sockets.
After the decaying clay peeled away, a Sword Casket cast from profound iron was revealed inside.
As soon as Li Chang'an's Divine Sense touched the Sword Casket, a chilling Sword Qi sliced through the hair on his forehead, and the words "Punish Evil" appearing on the casket's surface made his hair stand on end—this was actually the vital Sword Casket of the Sword Immortal Luo Jiuchen from a thousand years ago!
"This item is fated with this humble Daoist." He rubbed his hands, approaching the Sword Casket, with thirty-six Spirit-sealing nails secretly clutched in his sleeve, ready to be unleashed.
The moment his fingertips touched the Sword Casket, a bloody array diagram appeared on the ground of the entire ancient temple, and seventy-two bronze coffins burst out of the earth, each coffin lid inscribed with the Talismanic Incantation "Those who move it shall be punished."
Li Chang'an's hair on the back of his neck bristled, and the Hidden Edge Sword spontaneously protected its master, slashing at the nearest coffin.
The Sword's edge struck the bronze coffin, sparking, and a harsh scratching sound of fingernails against metal suddenly came from within the coffin.
He threw out all his Thunderfire Talismans with a backhand, but as he retreated violently, he crashed into the suddenly closed temple door.
"Enter my nine profound Tomb, all become Gravekeepers." A hoarse voice simultaneously sounded from each coffin, and Li Chang'an was startled to realize that the bronze key in his hand was resonating with the Sword Casket.
He gritted his teeth and splashed the true dew onto the Sword Casket, and in the instant the spiritual power surged, he suddenly inserted the key into the crack on the casket's surface.
The moment the Sword Casket opened with a roar, ten thousand zhang of green light engulfed the ancient temple.
Li Chang'an was sent flying by the Sword Qi, crashing through the wall, his seven orifices bleeding, yet he desperately clung to the Punish Evil Sword that flew out of the casket.
The Sword hummed, trying to break free, but he actually bit the Sword's edge and mumbled, cursing: "This old man suffered three heavenly lightning strikes just to snatch the taichu true dew, how can I let you, this iron lump, benefit from it!"
The Punish Evil Sword suddenly fell silent, and a vertical pupil opened at the hilt.
Li Chang'an stared at it for a moment, then suddenly sneered: "So it's a Sword Spirit whose Realm has fallen; what's with pretending to be an ancient divine weapon?"
Saying this, he took out half a bottle of true dew and poured it onto the Sword's body, "Follow me, Li, and I guarantee you'll reform your Sword body within a hundred years."
The ground suddenly trembled violently, and the seventy-two coffins exploded simultaneously.
Ancient corpses wrapped in Talismanic Incantations broke out of their coffins, the leader with a golden Talisman on its forehead, actually a grave-guarding Puppet refined from the corpse of the Taiyi Pavilion's first Pavilion Master.
Li Chang'an dragged the Punish Evil Sword and turned to run, not forgetting to tear off the divine statue's kasaya to wrap the Sword Casket.
"All Qi in the heavens, my Sword connects to the nine profound!"
The incantation echoed through heaven and earth, and Li Chang'an bit his fingertip to draw a decree on the Punish Evil Sword's body.
The Sword Spirit let out an unwilling hum, but had no choice but to burst forth with Sword Qi, slicing through the pursuing corpse Puppets.
Wherever the golden Sword light passed, the bronze coffins turned to dust, and he took the opportunity to press the bronze key into the Sword Casket's hidden compartment, and a teleportation array's glow immediately rose from beneath the ancient temple.
"Li is leaving!" He laughed loudly as he leapt into the array's core, but the Punish Evil Sword suddenly turned its edge and stabbed towards its master's back.
At the critical moment, the Celestial Silkworm Silk boots at his waist erupted in a pink mist, and Su Yue Li's charming laughter came from within the mist: "Fellow Daoist, the shoe debt you owe this concubine, it's time to repay it."
The teleportation array shifted its position in the mist, and the last image Li Chang'an saw was the brilliant Sword light of the Punish Evil Sword piercing through the ancient corpse's golden Talisman.
When he fell from the Void Realm, besides the Sword Casket key, he also had half a bronze finger bone inscribed with "Nine Nether"—that was a burial object he pilfered from the Taiyi Pavilion's first Pavilion Master's corpse.
A thousand li away, at a cold pond, the Punish Evil Sword trembled violently, stuck on the shore.
Li Chang'an lay in the shallow water, coughing up fragments of his internal organs, but he grinned, staring at the markings on the finger bone: "The Taiyi Pavilion hides the secret of the Nine Nether; a hundred thousand bounty might have been set too low..."