The Forbidden Path to Immortality - Chapter 176

Chapter 1: Promise (Part 2)

Yin Sanren smiled faintly and gestured.

Following her gaze, Li Xun saw a long banner propped up at one side of the pavilion. The pole was ten feet tall, most of it displayed outside. The banner’s fabric was simple, a pale black with green and gold inscriptions. It rippled in the wind, creating a subdued look.

“This is the Soul-Falling Banner, housed in the pavilion. It can capture and stabilize the soul. If we can extract the secrets known by the remnant soul, we simply capture it within the banner and then fix it with the Yin Pearl and Poison Sting. With some additional manipulation, we can eventually extract the information. However, the soul will inevitably be shattered afterwards.”

She was clearly a deliberate figure. However, even though she described this ruthless method lightly, Li Xun, a ruthless person, praised her. “Excellent! Take this banner to the center of the lake.”

He had no idea how long this interrogation of the remnant soul would take, so to avoid delaying other matters, he planned to use the spectroscope there to control the situation in the Southeast Forest Sea. After all, Yin Sanren’s methods could be used anywhere.

Yin Sanren nodded briefly, saying nothing more, took the banner, and departed. Li Xun then looked at the little girl, Yingning. His gaze captivated her, and her already flushed face seemed to take on a new coat of cinnabar. Her color shone like a rosy rosy glow, her eyes gradually thickening with moisture. Her timidity and endearing beauty fully revealed her natural charm, unintentionally and unintentionally captivating.

Truly a natural little spirit.

Li Xun sighed as he heard the little girl’s soft explanation: “This is Master Yin’s daily assignment, and I don’t really want to…”

“Really?”

Li Xun’s question sent the little girl practically into tears.

Seeing this, he stopped teasing the child and smiled, “This is probably how the Yin-Yang Sect trains its disciples. Just treat it with a normal attitude.”

The little girl softly responded, still nestled in Li Xun’s arms, making no move. Perhaps it was a hint? Li Xun’s index finger twitched, but thinking about the young girl’s critical juncture in foundation building, his initial agitation subsided. He took the initiative to straighten the girl, then slowly gestured for her to follow.

Yingning followed cautiously behind, gathering her clothes with minimal movement. She couldn’t match Yin Sanren’s composure. The area ahead had been a complete mess, and when she cleaned up, she often focused on covering up everything, revealing more here and there. Yet, even in her awkwardness, she still possessed the innocent demeanor expected of a girl her age.

Li Xun pretended to be oblivious, pacing leisurely ahead. He could sense the young girl trying to explain something to him, and several times he tried to speak but swallowed his words.

Because of the young girl’s gentle nature, Li Xun wasn’t prepared to act like a kind and gentle master. Keeping Yingning in a state of fear and caution would be beneficial for both her and himself. So, he continued to play dumb until he reached the small pavilion in the center of the lake.

Yin Sanren was there preparing, but Li Xun ignored her and sat on a stone bench, opening the spectroscope and zooming his field of view to the easternmost edge of the controlled area. Over the past two days, cultivator activity there has been particularly intense, and it seems to be attracting troops from the Southeast Forest Sea to gather there.

However, the spectroscope’s field of view is a million miles away from the winding path, and Li Xun is unable to obtain further information.

“Is the demon phoenix still occupying that place?”

Li Xun calculated it had been two days. With its current behavior, even if there weren’t any ghosts, they would become known, not to mention that it was a dangerous place.

With almost everyone’s attention focused there for the past two days, the Southeast Forest Sea has become considerably quieter. It’s a pity that without the forbidden control of Wuyinxuan, any plans would be much more difficult.

With a sigh, he glanced sideways and saw Yin Sanren, dressed in a nun’s attire, and with the long banner, he looked even more like a demonic Taoist. He smiled, then turned to Yingning and said, “Come and see what’s in the mirror. If you see anyone you know, tell me.”

Yingning responded obediently. Yin Sanren had already indicated that the preliminary preparations were complete. Without further ado, Li Xun took out the jade bottle containing Wu Ji’s residual soul and handed it to her, asking her to use her power.

Seeing Yin Sanren about to open the bottle, Li Xun suddenly asked, “Do you know Wu Ji?”

This was the first time he mentioned the remnant soul’s identity to Yin Sanren. Yin Sanren frowned slightly and replied, “Wu Ji is Wanru’s uncle. Within the sect, she’s considered a member of the Sun Sect, and they have some casual ties here.”

The Sun Sect official, who was one of the successors to the Yin-Yang Sect leader, was opposite Yuehua Changshi.

Yin Sanren was probably referring to the one who had previously competed with Qin Wanru for the position of leader. Before Qin Wanru took control of the sect, the Sun Sect had also been experiencing great hardship. Wu Ji’s betrayal was understandable.

Li Xun nodded, signaling her to begin. Yin Sanren immediately opened the bottle and released the remnant soul. With her keen eyesight, she recognized its identity at a glance. She glanced at Li Xun, but said nothing, without hesitation. With a flick of the dark banner, the remnant soul dissipated into a wisp of smoke and was absorbed.

As the soul smoke attached itself to the banner, the green-patterned golden seals suddenly shone. The flowing light seemed to form a vortex, drawing the remnant soul into it. Suddenly, a faint scream echoed, prompting a hundred more to respond. Instantly, ghostly voices chirped in the hall, as if a chilling wind blew from beneath his feet.

Li Xun narrowed his eyes. Within the swirling light of the banner, he could vaguely see the shadow of Wu Ji. Her beautiful face was completely enveloped by a murderous aura. She struggled to break free, but was entangled in the countless clouds of smoke, unable to escape.

Yin Sanren casually pointed, and a deep purple light flashed. A needle-like point appeared on the remnant soul’s forehead, and it froze, instantly being dragged into the smoke.

The incantation flowed from Yin Sanren’s parted red lips, and a moment later, a faint murmur echoed from the long banner. Li Xun had been in the Ghostly Shadow Devouring Sect for a long time. Although he had not specialized in the art of controlling ghosts, he could discern ghost language. With a moment’s concentration, he understood most of the ghostly language.

The ghostly whispers contained Wu Ji’s entire life’s memories and experiences. These fragmented and disjointed pieces of information lacked coherence, suggesting Li Xun’s use of the Soul-Snatching Technique was rather overbearing.

Li Xun frowned and commanded, “I want her most recent memories related to your sister and disciple.”

Yin Sanren’s expression showed clear doubt, but his incantation continued, only deepening. Conversely, the ghostly whispers within the banner grew sharper. Li Xun meticulously discerned and eliminated irrelevant details, slowly unraveling the thread.

The key to this matter lay with the now deceased “Chanyu.”

This female cultivator, described by Qin Wanru as the first to betray the sect, was the youngest junior sister of Yin Sanren’s generation and had always been close to Yu Shi. Wu Ji, on the other hand, shared a common mastership with Chanyu, and their friendship was also very close.

Yin Sanren had snatched the Xuanying, created through the Blood Fusion Technique, from the North Pole and initially entrusted it to Chanyu for care. Later, as events unfolded, this secret was kept secret from her.

However, Chanyu’s subsequent recruitment by Gu Yin was orchestrated by Yu Shi and Yin San Ren, the master and disciple. Yu Shi was already aware of this, and so, upon regaining consciousness after Qin Wanru abducted her, he immediately broke with his eldest daughter, leading to the subsequent events.

Wu Ji, now a mere remnant of her soul, was another hidden threat to Chanyu within the Yin-Yang Sect. Initially, she hesitated, but after Chanyu’s swift and swift death by Qin Wanru, and after she learned that crucial secret, she felt her only chance

of survival lay in betrayal. Li Xun finally understood the entire story, but he also discovered that the secret Wu Ji had “revealed” seemed inconsistent with his previous knowledge. The discrepancy lay not in the context, but in a specific aspect.

Due to the two hands involved and the remnant’s state, the specific details were fuzzy. Li Xun struggled to discern, but could only understand that Yin San Ren’s intention in taking the Xuan Infant was to prepare for the Forty-Nine Tribulations, not simply to refine the elixir…

“Master.”

A sudden voice shattered Li Xun’s concentration. He was startled for a moment, then glanced back coldly. Yingning, who had just spoken, was struck by his piercing gaze, her face paling instantly. However, Li Xun observed the girl more closely, and saw

a look of fear and confusion on her face. Li Xun sighed, his expression unrefreshed, and he asked calmly, “What’s the matter?”

The girl timidly pointed a finger at the image on the spectroscope. Li Xun turned back, initially nonchalant, but his eyes soon fixed on her.

“Communication Flying Sword?”

The shimmering sword light above the Southeast Forest Sea was clearly the unique brilliance of the Mingxin Sword Sect’s Communication Flying Sword, and not just one, but six.

The sword lights connected, flowing through the air like a string of pearls, dazzling enough to attract the attention of countless passing cultivators.

The flying swords circled for miles above the forest, appearing dazzling, but more like the frantic flight of a headless fly. And that area…wasn’t that exactly where Li Xun had last been in the Southeast Forest Sea?

At this thought, Li Xun suddenly realized that these flying swords were seeking him!

Li Xun wasn’t initially familiar with the art of flying sword communication, but after meeting Shui Dielan, he learned a great deal about it from her.

While it could accurately locate targets thousands of miles away, seemingly a supernatural power, it was actually a form of Gu magic.

When Li Xun officially became a full disciple of the Mingxin Sword Sect, he left a drop of his blood essence in the ancestral hall, which was then stored in a jade bottle in a side hall. This was a common practice for every disciple, and the Ghost Devouring Shadow Sect followed a similar

process. At the time, Li Xun had assumed it was akin to a blood oath, but it wasn’t until Shui Dielan reminded him that it was actually a basic Gu magic technique known as “blood identification.” The only difference was that the Mingxin Sword Sect used it simply to communicate with disciples below the mountain, while the Ghost Devouring Shadow Sect could employ it in a variety of deadly ways, such as the ancestral curse!

Because it was based on Gu magic, flying sword communication relied entirely on the aura of a cultivator’s blood essence to locate its target. If the target cultivator dies or uses secret techniques to seal their aura, the communication flying sword cannot accurately reach them. It can only hover at the last point where the target’s aura disappeared until its energy is exhausted.

Six sword beams appearing simultaneously like this can only occur continuously over a few days.

What could possibly have caused the sect to urge six flying swords to come?

Li Xun felt his eyelids twitch, and his thoughts quickly connected with what Qin Wanru had said a few days ago…

He had a vague idea why the rumor of “Ling Zhu’s murder” had suddenly spread in this world.

At this moment, the ghostly voice on the long banner suddenly stopped. Yin Sanren turned around and indicated that the remnant soul had been unable to resist and had vanished into thin air.

Li Xun no longer cared about the gap in the middle. He would only ask Yin Sanren about it later. He nodded slightly, and his figure suddenly disappeared from the pavilion and reappeared above the southeast forest.

He wasn’t foolish enough to retrace his steps. Instead, he appeared in a sparsely populated area hundreds of miles away, using a communication flying sword to soar through the air in mere breaths that none of the observing cultivators could follow.

Li Xun collected six finger-long flying swords in quick succession, and without delay, after confirming his surroundings were clear, he slipped back into the Mist Hidden Pavilion.

Meanwhile, Yin Sanren had just placed his long banner diagonally outside the pavilion, observing the spectroscope with interest. Upon seeing Li Xun return, he smiled, “Qingming is truly worried about you!”

Li Xun didn’t know what to say. He sat on a stone pier and read through the messages from the flying swords, then lost the energy to even object.

The order of the flying swords was easy to arrange; the first one spoke the most gently, simply stating that the sect’s mountain protection techniques were damaged and that he needed to return to oversee the repairs. The date was the same day he had infiltrated Zuowang Peak and engaged Mingji and Qingming.

It’s all his own fault…

Sighing, Li Xun read the following messages. From the second message onward, the tone shifted from urgent to stern, then even sterner to more urgent. By the sixth, it was just two words: “Return! “

Li Xun was momentarily silent as he read the string of messages. Seeing

him like this, Yin Sanren reached out, took the flying sword, and read the information on it. After a pause, she asked suspiciously, “I’m afraid the timings don’t match. Where was Lingzhu last seen?”

“In the Beiqi Mountains.”

Li Xun lowered his brows, calculating the time from the first flying sword message to today, which had been about half a month. Even at the speed of the flying sword, it would take two days and nights to reach Lianxia Mountain from the Beiqi Mountains, not to mention the time Lingzhu would need to return. The sect’s swift response was truly unreasonable.

“Unless someone tipped off Lingzhu about her death, all they needed to do was relay the news that the flying sword couldn’t reach them. There was only one sect in the Northern Qi Mountains who could deliver this information promptly and convince the sect without a doubt… the Shuijing Sect!”

Yin Sanren smiled brightly upon hearing Li Xun’s judgment. “Mr. Shuijing truly has a kind heart, inspired by his need to help others.”

Li Xun pursed his lips, pondering for a moment before finally smiling. “He’s truly kindhearted.”

This wasn’t a good comment. Li Xun knew Mr. Shuijing’s intentions perfectly. The sly fellow was clearly trying to establish Lingzhu’s death with this move, effectively wiping him out of existence.

To put it mildly, it was a way to give Li Xun a way out; to put it bluntly, it was a direct threat and a threat! However,

Mr. Shuijing’s timing was impeccable, and even if Li Xun saw through his intentions, it would be difficult for him to bring him to justice. (“If it weren’t for this incident, what would have happened if I had accepted his kindness? It’s a pity…” Li Xun stood up and paced slowly in the pavilion: “It’s not impossible for Shui Jing to contact the sect and the immortal master here. It’s the fifteenth day of the first month. I have been in the world as Lingzhu for two days, so I sent the communication flying sword to follow me. During these two days, the sect cultivators on the coast of the East China Sea must have received the news and rushed here. Calculating the date, we are about to enter the Southeast Forest Sea.”

At this point, he suddenly paused and sighed: “If it weren’t for these two days of preparation, I’m afraid we would have met them by now. A careless word would have wasted all our efforts.”

Yin Sanren He had been listening to him quietly until this point before he said, “Master, are you going to meet them?”

Li Xun put away the six flying swords for communication and shook his head, saying, “It’s not advisable to meet them head-on. The message on the flying swords told me to go back to the mountain to pick up the swords before heading to the East China Sea.

This doesn’t make sense. It just so happens that the previous preparations have turned out to be a blessing in disguise, so why not continue with it?” At this point, he frowned in thought and remained silent. Yin Sanren knew that he was thinking freely and didn’t say much. Yingning, who was standing beside him, had not yet recovered from the fear just now and would not speak. For a while, the pavilion was silent, with only the light and shadow on the spectroscope interweaving and blurring.

Li Xun quickly made a decision: “Will it hinder your studies if Ruoyu leaves you with me to go to Yingning this time?”

“I’ve already taught you all the foundation-building techniques. If it only takes ten days or half a month, it won’t be a problem.”

Li Xun nodded. What Yin Sanren can do, You Yi can’t; and what You Yi can do, Yin Sanren can do even better.

This operation on the East China Sea coast might be a decisive battle. Bringing Yin Sanren with him would give him a much better chance. Besides, after what just happened…

Thinking of this, his voice turned cold. “Tell me everything that Wu Ji said just now.”