Chapter Ninety-Two: Morning Journey to the Northern Sea, Evening at Cangwu [Seeking First Subscription]
A bead of cold sweat slid down Bai Lihong’s brow.
“Before I submit, may I ask a question, senior?”
His voice was low, as though he could no longer bear the pressure, and he asked with great caution.
“Compared with your submission, I would rather kill you.”
The old man of the underworld spoke coldly.
“Since senior has given me the choice to live, it must be because there is something about me you value. If I die, does that mean you will never obtain what you seek?”
In adversity, Bai Lihong’s mind became instead clearer than ever.
He cut away all distractions and fixed his gaze upon the Book of Skills.
Rather than waiting for a miracle, he would create one himself.
Using the Book of Skills to advance required a certain amount of time.
“You do have some wit.”
The old man of the underworld laughed. A mysterious force warped the void, and though his face still could not be seen, one could tell he was smiling.
“Tempering the blood throughout the body, giving rise to vital blood from within it: the stronger the hidden essence contained in the blood, the greater the power of that vital blood. There was once a human immortal who deduced that within the Body Tempering Realm, blood refinement is the limit.”
The old man paused, then continued, “You are not of any sect, and you relied on a jade slip inheritance of the Six Paths of Subduing Demons Scripture to spare yourself the painful process of reading and memorizing it. But the jade slip’s effect is only to let you understand what the text records; it cannot help you directly comprehend the entire scripture.”
“Even a true genius, if he can grasp the method of blood refinement in three months, already possesses remarkable talent.”
“But you have refined blood to the ninth level.”
“The martial path takes the shattering and tempering of bones as its foundation. For one round of bone tempering, from all the geniuses I know, the fastest still needs ten days. The farther one advances in bone refining, the more time and resources it consumes in multiples, not to mention whether one can even comprehend the wondrous changes of bone refining’s six transformations.”
“Refining apertures is the most grinding of all.”
“After spending several days, one may not even be able to locate a single exact aperture within the human body.”
“And yet you have completed the cultivation of the entire circuit of apertures.”
“Throughout history, of all who have achieved such a feat, only one is recorded in the annals.”
“I have granted you the favor of living because I want your cultivation insights. From beginning to end, word for word, write them out.”
“If you do not have them, then it means you obtained a heaven-defying opportunity.”
“And if I can seize that opportunity from you, I will be even happier.”
The old man, whose face could not be seen, was as thin as dead wood, as though a gust of wind could topple him.
Yet the whole of Fairness Town was enveloped beneath his will, and Bai Lihong was like a bird in a cage, with neither road to earth nor path to heaven.
What the old man of the underworld had said was precisely the thing Bai Lihong had always feared others would discover.
Tempering the body was a process that required a long time.
Profound martial methods could shorten cultivation time, but not in a single leap.
Bai Lihong rapidly reviewed his own experiences.
He needed an excuse to delay this underworld monster before him.
The Kun demon?
The mysterious power beneath the ground?
The underworld may already know both.
What had the underworld always been seeking?
The Gate of the Yellow Springs!
If the ancient Ice-Scar Lady Han Su could be revived, why could gods and demons not be revived as well?
But could such an excuse truly be spoken aloud?
Even if he escaped, what about the future...
If there was still a future.
Then he would have time to reach the summit of this world’s martial dao.
And fear nothing.
“The Gate of the Yellow Springs.”
Bai Lihong suddenly whispered it.
His voice was so soft it was almost inaudible.
But everyone present from the underworld was, in the mortal world, an evil cultivator capable of destroying an entire city.
How could they fail to hear what Bai Lihong said?
Especially those four words: the Gate of the Yellow Springs.
“What did you say? Tell this old man everything you experienced in Mount Dali, in full detail. I am willing to give you time to share your story.”
The old man of the underworld sounded excited.
He forced himself to remain restrained, but the matter of the Gate of the Yellow Springs was of enormous importance.
It was the very mythic relic the underworld had been seeking all along.
They had searched Mount Dali for hundreds of years, yet the Gate of the Yellow Springs had never been found.
If not for the underworld obtaining a sliver of information from the second generation Chief Inspector of the Divine Watch, they would already have given up on Mount Dali.
The underworld had waited too long for this mythic object.
“I can tell you, and even show you some things, but you must guarantee my safety. Do not think of enslaving me with underworld talismans. You know better than anyone what the ninth level of blood refinement can do.”
Bai Lihong seemed to have found his confidence.
“Brat, if you want to die, I shall oblige you. If you still refuse to speak, I will first break your limbs, bind you, and bring you back to the underworld’s main altar. I will still have a way to obtain the secrets you know.”
The old man stepped forward, and heaven and earth changed color.
Bai Lihong retreated in terror.
In that instant, he saw the endless demons of the Nine Netherworlds pounce upon him and tear him apart.
Golden light flashed over his body, and vital blood surged, driven to its utmost.
Yet his vital blood was suppressed by the power of the underworld expert before him, unable to extend more than three feet from his body.
Terrifying beyond measure!
The person before him had already cultivated to the point where he no longer feared the blazing, yang nature of vital blood.
“I’ll speak, I’ll speak.”
Bai Lihong was drenched in sweat.
After dragging it out for so long, he had finally thought of a way to escape.
Gongyang Yan could save him.
In Gongyang Yan’s hands, there was absolutely a trump card of devastating power.
And not just one.
The Gulian royal clan had placed her here to break the prophecy, so they would surely have bestowed upon her a spear sharp enough to pierce the heavens.
There was also the wooden blade that had forced back the ancient Ice-Scar Lady Han Su.
Either one could deal with this old monster.
That meant he only needed to escape, and there would still be hope.
Not to flee Fairness Town only to have the monster chase him down anyway, leaving him with the same dead end.
“Lady Gongyang, I fear I must trouble you again.”
Bai Lihong sighed inwardly.
He had been too arrogant lately.
A random old fiend from the evil path had appeared and left him with no way to fight back.
“This matter must begin with the Night of a Hundred Ghosts. Of course, it also involves the ancient Ice-Scar Lady Han Su.”
To make the old monster believe him, Bai Lihong opened with those two matters at once.
They were precisely the two things the underworld cared about most.
“Continue.”
The old man of the underworld believed him.
“At that time, I was still a Demon-Suppressing apprentice. I had only cultivated the Blood Essence Art. When the Demon Suppression Bureau issued a mission to eliminate beast demons, I took it at the risk of my life, for the sake of merit.”
“Cut the nonsense.”
The old man interrupted coldly.
“You will not get a second chance.”
“Night fell, and the hundred ghosts came marching. As a mere Demon-Suppressing apprentice, I was certain to die. I fell into the ghost market, where countless malicious spirits discovered me. Just as I was preparing to end my own life, lest I be devoured by them, a voice entered my mind.”
Bai Lihong whispered.
His voice trembled.
Clearly, he had fallen back into the memory of that terror.
“The Book of Skills advanced Skyward Wander.”
“Would you like to spend one hundred skill points to gain a thread of the mystery of wind?”
“Raise the mystery of wind to its limit.”
“Deduct 9,900 skill points. The mystery of wind has been raised to the maximum.”
This was unquestionably the single greatest expenditure of skill points in Bai Lihong’s life.
In that instant, he heard the wind whispering in his ear.
Countless insights surged into his heart, and the flood of information nearly froze his mind.
“Why did you stop?”
“The will of a demon god saved my life. It ordered me to find the ancient Ice-Scar Lady Han Su. It said that, in order to break the restraint laid down by the second generation Chief Inspector, Han Su borrowed the hands of ordinary people so that she could be excavated and taken out of Mount Dali, escaping the control of the Netherworld Underworld.”
“Nonsense. How could ordinary people dig up the coffin of the ancient Ice-Scar Lady Han Su from Mount Dali?”
“The fact is exactly as I said. The ice has still not melted to this day. If you do not believe me, you may go and see it at the ancestral residence of the Fu family.”
Bai Lihong spoke and thought at once, while all ninety-nine threads of the mystery of wind were drawn into the seed of the primal embryo.
The dazzling seed of the primal embryo seemed to be infused with a precious tonic.
“The underworld has dug Mount Dali down to bedrock and still did not find the ancient Ice-Scar Lady Han Su. What you speak of, a broken will of a demon god, is nothing but absurdity. In the primordial era, the demon gods had long vanished.”
“The Black Heaven deity has revived. Surely your underworld cannot be ignorant of that?”
Bai Lihong countered.
The old man of the underworld fell silent and began to think.
Bai Lihong, meanwhile, had merely pieced together a story of possession by the will of an old demon god, based on the information he knew, mixing truth with falsehood.
“Where is the demon god’s will now?”
“It has already left, pursuing the ancient Ice-Scar Lady Han Su. For in her hands she holds a key, a key that opens the Gate of the Yellow Springs. Otherwise, if you have truly dug Mount Dali to bedrock, why could you still not find her coffin?”
The more Bai Lihong spoke, the clearer his logic became.
Apart from the existence of the demon god’s will, everything else was his own former conjecture, half true and half false.
He glanced at the more than sixty thousand, nearly seventy thousand, skill points remaining.
Then he looked at Skyward Wander.
“Skyward Wander: Having grasped the true essence of wind, one may, through deduction, uncover the hidden divine power within Skyward Wander. This divine power allows one to travel north sea by morning and reach the misty parasol trees by evening.”
His movement technique had already reached its limit.
But that was still not enough!
“The Book of Skills, deduce Skyward Wander.”
“Deduction begins.”
A massive torrent of information surged in his mind.
A terrifying giant beast appeared, like a demon god from myth and legend, its colossal body occupying the whole firmament.
Suddenly, the old man of the underworld stopped thinking.
A幽 glimmer pierced the mysterious field, and his gaze fell upon Bai Lihong.
“Has the demon god’s will remained on you?”
That sinister aura seemed to freeze Bai Lihong in place.
“Skyward Wander? The true essence of wind?”
“I have decided. I shall enslave you first, then interrogate you carefully.”
A hand like withered bark reached out, carrying boundless demonic power, and seized at Bai Lihong.
[Spent 10,000 skill points, comprehended the supreme divine power: the Kunpeng Escape Art.]
[Kunpeng Escape Art: Supreme divine power, first level: Spreading Wings Through the Nine Heavens, beginner stage (100/1,000,000)]
“Wait! Han Su stole the art of immortality from the Gate of the Yellow Springs!!!”
Bai Lihong roared.
At the same time, in his mind, he used the Book of Skills to accelerate the upgrade of his technique.
“The Book of Skills, raise Spreading Wings Through the Nine Heavens to the proficient stage.”
[Ten thousand skill points deducted. Kunpeng Escape Art, first level, advanced to proficient.]
It was as though the wind itself had paused.
“Art of immortality?”
The old man’s hand hesitated.
“Spreading Wings Through the Nine Heavens!!!”
At that moment, a colossal Kunpeng manifested behind Bai Lihong, and its terrifying majesty instantly tore apart the underworld’s projection.
The spiritual energy stored in all three hundred and six apertures was drained in an instant.
“Ant, you seek death!!!”
The old man of the underworld seized with his hand.
What he caught, however, was only a gust of wind.
Bai Lihong had already ridden the wind and shot straight into the ninth heaven.
Tearing through space, he fled a hundred li away.
Bang!
His figure slammed hard into the Demon-Suppressing Tower.
By then, Bai Lihong’s body was covered in wounds and crisscrossed with bloody marks.
Too fast.
The escape was too swift, leaving no time at all to merge into the wind. At such speed, the wind became like blades and shattered his Thirteenfold Golden Light Body-Tempering Art.
His flesh and blood suffered tremendous injury.
Pain struck; his spiritual sense was exhausted; the stored-up vitality and blood within him were drained dry.
To unleash this supreme divine power, every ounce of force in his body had been emptied in an instant.
In his dazed consciousness, he saw over East Coast City a white-clad youth descending from the nine heavens, sword in hand, as though he were cleaving the sky itself, slashing toward the netherworld illusion formed from the dark clouds.
“Am I going to die?”
At that moment, he was like someone who had consecutively released the Blood Suppressing the River and Mountain technique dozens of times.
Then, just then, bones gave rise to vital blood, flowing like a warm current through every limb and bone.
It eased him back from the brink.
“The Book of Skills, deduce the Blood Refining Return to Origin Art.”
“Deduct 5,000 skill points. Deduction of the Blood Refining Return to Origin Art successful. Obtained the Myriad Things Return to Origin Cauldron Art!!!”
[Myriad Things Blood-Refining Return to Origin Cauldron Art: Heaven gives birth to all things to nourish man, yet man has nothing with which to repay heaven! Realm: ten refinements, beginner stage (0/1,000,000)]
In his blurred consciousness, Bai Lihong uttered, “Advance this art.”
Having said that, he fell asleep.
In an instant, immense vital blood was born, and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth surged in like a tide.
In the blink of an eye, Bai Lihong was wrapped in a cocoon of blood.
“The underworld. Donghou Army Lord.”
Gongyang Yan arrived through the air at Fairness Town.
She saw the old man of the underworld, shrouded in mysterious power and impossible to make out.
Then she saw Linghu Xue.
In an instant, the knot in her heart was undone.
Heaven and earth’s spiritual energy roiled.
Rainbow radiance of seven colors enveloped her body.
Scriptures, like talismans, wrapped around her.
“You enslaved my comrade and killed my Iron Elder. Good. Very good.”
Spiritual energy surged about Gongyang Yan.
Thunder rolled across the firmament.
It turned into violet thunderbolts, pouring down from above.
She drew a wooden blade and looked coldly at the Army Lord of Donghou in the underworld.
“Girl of the Gongyang clan, impressive. You want to borrow this old man’s hand to break through the boundaries of heaven and earth, to comprehend the Way of Laws, and ascend to Supreme Divine Power.”
The Army Lord of Donghou laughed. “If Young Master Yu were to come, this army lord would retreat three thousand li. But a girl is still somewhat lacking.”
Then he looked at the youth who came riding a sword, sword qi soaring to the skies.
“Second on the Hidden Dragon Ranking, Jiang Dongliu of the Yin-Yang Celestial Sect.”
“Interesting.”
“Pity you have not yet comprehended the true essence of yin and yang.”
The old man swept his sleeve, and the aura of the netherworld devoured all light, transforming into a curtain of abyss that swept across Fairness Town and shrouded the land.
“Old thief, die.”
“Thunder Prison Saber Scripture, Evil Extinction.”
With a single slash, the curtain of the netherworld shattered, Fairness Town was cleaved in two, and the terrifying blade qi left behind a chasm a hundred zhang deep.
Jiang Dongliu turned and fled on his sword.
He feared Gongyang Yan would turn and slash at him.
“Old Ancestor Gongyang has gone mad, giving the century-nourished saber intent of a Martial Saint to Gongyang Yan.”
Jiang Dongliu cursed.
That one strike was a strike at the peak power of Old Ancestor Gongyang.
But after using it, Gongyang Yan would likely be injured by the saber intent as well.
She would be left half-crippled.
After venting her fury, Gongyang Yan gazed at the thick clouds roiling with purple lightning and thunder.
Using the technique of turtle-breathing, she restrained the spiritual energy aura within her body and forcibly suppressed the breakthrough.
“Have you seen through it?”
Gongyang Yan said coldly.
Gone was the fierce, rampaging battle spirit from before.
She turned and returned to the city.
By repeatedly using her trump cards, she had frightened away formidable enemies.
Yet Gongyang Yan understood that the wooden blade contained only one strand of saber qi.
She had merely, by a subtle method, revealed some traces of a Martial Saint’s token.
The hundreds of wind-blade wounds on Bai Lihong’s body were rapidly healing as he advanced to the tenth refinement of blood tempering.
At the same time, old strength was exhausted, and new strength was born.
A far more terrifying surge of vital blood leaked from Bai Lihong’s body.
In the underground prison beneath the Demon-Suppressing Tower, hundreds upon hundreds of demons revealed looks of terror.
“A blood refiner!”
“Damn blood refiner, quickly put away your vital blood.”
“We...”
Vital blood seeped through the walls and fell into the cells.
“Aahhh!”
The demons howled in agony.
The weaker ones were directly bathed in the blazing, yang power of the vital blood and perished amid their screams.