Eighty-Seventh Chapter: Nine Netherworld Devours the Moon
As Lu Qingyang glided over the nether river on his bronze abacus, the Nine Netherworld finger bone in his embrace suddenly emitted a bone-chilling coldness.
The corpse lanterns floating on the river surface burst one after another, and the dark green phosphorescent flames illuminated a hundred headless Yin Soldiers on the shore, with the words "Yellow Springs" on the bronze armor of the leader seeping black blood—this was a sign that the Corpse Suppressing Talisman he had snatched from Taiyi Pavilion three days ago had Failure.
"Damn it, the twenty High-Grade Spirit Stones I paid bought me a defective product!" he cursed, flinging out seventy-two Substitute Talismans, which transformed into golden-armored strongmen to battle the Yin Soldiers.
His left hand, however, seized the opportunity to reach for his waist, replacing the fake Soul Binding Rope he had acquired from a Ghost Market vendor with the genuine article from the Yin Soldier commander, his movements so practiced it was as if he had rehearsed them a thousand times.
From the bottom of the river, a monstrous muddy wave suddenly surged, and three Nascent Soul Stage Ming Jiao opened their putrid, gaping mouths.
Lu Qingyang flipped his hand and conjured the Tai Xu Yin Yang Seal; the moment the precious Seal soared into the air, the incomplete pages of the Huangquan Duer Sutra hidden in his sleeve spontaneously combusted, and the eerie blue flames actually reflected fear in the eyes of the Nether Dragons.
"So, you recognize your old master?" he sneered, biting his fingertip and smearing his essence blood onto the swapped Soul Binding Rope.
As the chain coiled around the Nether Dragons' necks like a venomous snake, the Nine Netherworld finger bone suddenly erupted with a bloody glow, and a bronze coffin slowly rose from the cracks in the riverbed—it was precisely the resting place of the first Sect Master of Huangquan Sect.
The moment the coffin lid shifted, Lu Qingyang's pupils constricted.
Inside lay not withered bones, but a young man bearing a seventy percent resemblance to him, with a "Greedy Wolf" Dao pattern on his brow, exhaling and inhaling moonlight.
The finger bone in his embrace suddenly flew towards the person in the coffin; he flung out three Soul Devouring Nails, only to see the nail tips turn into molten iron the moment they touched the corpse.
"After three hundred years of bitter waiting, the fated one has finally arrived." The corpse's eyes snapped open, and what flowed within its pupils was the scene of Lu Qingyang performing the Gluttonous Soul Devouring Art, "Does this Innate Dao Body of mine still please your eyes?"
Lu Qingyang suddenly tore open his Daoist robe, revealing a Soul Transfer Formation drawn in cinnabar on his chest: "Old Ghost of Yellow Springs, do you recognize the Xuanyin Sect's Heaven Swapping Earth Changing Art?"
The moment the Formation lit up, the Yin Soldiers within a hundred li radius simultaneously clutched their heads and wailed—he had actually refined three hundred living souls into the Formation's core, and they were now frantically devouring the Soul Power emanating from the coffin.
Veins bulged on the young corpse's forehead, and he raised his hand to summon the Nine Netherworld Fire.
Lu Qingyang, however, hurled the Jade Slip in his embrace into the flames; the hundred thousand wronged souls sealed within the pages ignited upon contact with the fire, forming a monstrous barrier of resentment over the nether river.
Taking advantage of the corpse's distraction in suppressing the wronged souls, he stepped on the abacus and lunged directly for the secret compartment at the bottom of the bronze coffin—where the true Complete Manual of the Huangquan Duer Sutra was hidden.
"You junior seek death!" The corpse formed a hand Seal, and the entire nether river inverted, forming a water prison.
Lu Qingyang suddenly pulled out half a osmanthus cake and crushed it; the Soul Devouring Gu hidden within the cake crumbs actually drilled into the corpse's seven orifices along the water flow.
This was a secret Gu of the Hehuan Sect that he had stolen from Liu Sanniang's hairpin while flirting with her at the Drunken Immortal Pavilion.
The moment the corpse's movements froze, Lu Qingyang had already pried open the secret compartment.
The instant his fingertips touched the scripture, nine heavenly lightning bolts shattered the Netherworld barrier—it was the remnants of Taiyi Pavilion and Cultivators from Huangquan Sect attacking simultaneously.
He spat out bloody foam, stuffing the scripture into a secret pocket in his trousers, and with a backhand, flung out ten Illusion Talismans; the talismans transformed into illusory figures of Liu Sanniang, each lightly shedding her robes.
"Lu! Qing! Yang!"
A real roar came from the clouds, and Liu Sanniang's true body's Seven Emotions Bewitching Immortal Tent covered half the sky.
Lu Qingyang seized the opportunity to activate the Earth Evasion Art, but collided with the Xuanming Iron Wall set up in advance by Huangquan Sect.
He spat out broken teeth, then suddenly slammed the Tai Xu Yin Yang Seal onto his crown—this was the method of 'Soldier's Disintegration' recorded in the Jade Slip, allowing him to briefly gain Nascent Soul Stage cultivation.
The surging Spiritual Qi shattered three of his ribs, but Lu Qingyang laughed wildly, utterly unconcerned: "Do you all know the greatest secret of Huangquan Sect?"
He tore open the title page of the scripture, revealing a marriage certificate written in virgin's blood inside, "This Innate Dao Body is the illegitimate child of your Sect Master and the previous Saintess of Hehuan Sect!"
The myriad killing moves in the sky suddenly froze, and Liu Sanniang's face was even uglier than the nether river water.
Lu Qingyang took the opportunity to crash into the bronze coffin, using the recoil to break through the barrier.
The scripture in his embrace suddenly seeped black blood, manifesting a star map of Huangquan Sect's main altar in the Void Realm; he stared at a location marked "Blood Pool," the greed in his eyes almost solidifying.
Three days later, Lu Qingyang was sprawled in a coffin shop in the Demon Cultivator black market, gnawing on a chicken leg.
Seven copies of the translated Huangquan Duer Sutra hidden beneath the coffin lid had already been sold, each priced at three hundred High-Grade Spirit Stones.
When the ninth buyer lifted the coffin lid, he suddenly pointed a chicken bone at the other's nose: "Fellow Daoist, your glabella is dark; I'm afraid you've been practicing a pirated Cultivation Technique?"
"You!" The Demon Cultivator flared up, conjuring a mourning stick, but was knocked unconscious by the coffin shop owner with a pipe.
Lu Qingyang hummed a little tune, tossing the newly acquired Spirit Stones, when a graceful shadow suddenly appeared at his feet.
Liu Sanniang's Crimson Serpent Rope wrapped around his neck, her voice sweet as if laced with poison: "Does Young Master Lu know that Huangquan Sect has offered a bounty of a hundred thousand Spirit Stones for your head?"
"What a coincidence." He pulled out a recorded Jade Slip, the image showing the young corpse in the bronze coffin, "A scene of Lady Liu reuniting with your esteemed father should be worth two hundred thousand, shouldn't it?"
While the woman's aura was in disarray, he backhanded a handful of Hehuan Powder, and the sound of tearing fabric came from the mist—it was a fake body conjured by a Puppet Talisman.
At midnight, Lu Qingyang squatted in a mass grave, inscribing a teleportation Formation.
The location of the blood pool indicated by the scripture's star map actually coincided with the "Nine Netherworld Soul Devouring Formation" recorded in the notes of Taiyi Pavilion's first Pavilion Master.
When he pressed the Nine Netherworld finger bone onto the Formation's core, what emanated from underground was not Spiritual Qi fluctuations, but the wailing of myriad living souls.
"So that's how it is..." He caressed the tiny inscription on the inner side of the finger bone, then suddenly burst into laughter, "The so-called Yellow Springs Blood Pool is actually a living Pill Furnace that Taiyi Pavilion has been refining for a thousand years!"
Huangquan Sect's main altar, a hundred li away, suddenly shook, and twelve life-bound soul lamps extinguished one after another.
Lu Qingyang, however, had already escaped deep into the earth's pulse ; the scripture and Jade Slip in his embrace were merging, gradually revealing an ancient emblem where "Taiyi" and "Yellow Springs" intertwined.
When the first wisp of blood pool Spiritual Qi surged into his Meridians, his shattered Golden Core finally condensed into a three-inch-tall Nascent Soul, but that Nascent Soul had two horns on its forehead, clearly a manifestation of the Gluttonous Beast.
"Is Mr. Lu's grand gift satisfactory to you all?" He lightly kissed the recorded Jade Slip towards the Void Realm, the image frozen on the enraged face of Huangquan Sect Master.
The Taiyi Huangquan Tribulation in his embrace automatically turned a page, revealing the words "Greedy Wolf Devours the Heavens" in the lower volume, and on the Nine Heavens above, the Greedy Wolf star on the Life-Governing Star Disk was emitting a fierce light unseen for a hundred years.