The Forbidden Path to Immortality - Chapter 46

Chapter 2: Mechanism

About half an hour later, footsteps were heard again from behind. Li Xun, who had already sensed something, turned around and said with a smile, “Senior Sister Ying, are you here to seek advice again?”

Ying Cai’er smiled faintly, looking at Li Xun with a rather inquiring look. After sizing him up two or three times, she smiled and said, “You’re a rather eccentric person, quite interesting! Tell me, what do you want to do by sneaking me here?”

Her words held a different meaning amidst her arrogance, subtly guiding Li Xun’s thoughts in that direction.

Li Xun knew very well that if he really believed it, he would probably not get a sweet kiss, but a solid slap in the face and an embarrassing laugh!

This woman was very interested in ** men! But compared to Yin Sanren and Qin Wanru, she was still far behind! Li Xun pretended to be unaware of her hidden meaning and smiled at her, “Senior Sister Ying, you are too serious. I may not be sneaky, I am just cautious.

” “Actually, Senior Sister Ying should understand what I mean. I just want to know, are you serious about the matter of Senior Sister Ye?”

“Of course!” Ying Caier responded without hesitation, “Ye’er is the closest to me in the sect, so naturally I have to take care of her!”

“Then I am serious…”

Caier suddenly interrupted Li Xun with a strange long tone, her bright eyes flashing, the light in them changing and unpredictable.

She lowered her voice, leaned forward slightly, and smiled lightly, “Junior Brother Baigui, looking at you like this, you are not going to say that you were pretending just now to bluff us!”

Li Xun raised the corner of his lips slightly, “In a way, it’s true! “

Ying Caier’s bright eyes flashed, and the smile on her face changed subtly, and the atmosphere around them immediately changed.

Li Xun pretended not to notice, and continued calmly: “Senior Sister Ying has been by Madam’s side for so many years, she should know very well, right? Senior Sister Ye has excellent qualifications and a solid foundation. She is a talented person. Logically, Madam appreciates such disciples the most, but why has Madam let her go all these years?”

Ying Caier curled her lips and said disapprovingly: “So many disciples…”

“Senior Sister, are you deceiving me? Don’t you understand?” Li Xun’s smile became gentler, but the content was already aggressive.

“What kind of vision does Madam have? She can tell at a glance whether a disciple’s cultivation level is high or low! Senior Sister Ye is both talented and beautiful, and she is already conspicuous; coupled with Senior Sister Ying as the ‘inside response’, the time, place and people are all right, but it is still like this… Senior Sister Ying, have you never asked Madam what is going on?”

“Who dares to ask? I can’t even hide it! “Ying Caier lightly dismissed the question, “Look at your expression, do you know?”

Li Xun shook his head and smiled, and stopped talking to Ying Caier, turning around and leaving.

Since she was born, Ying Caier had never seen such a man who didn’t give her face. She was stunned for a moment, and when Li Xun walked more than ten steps away, she woke up and said angrily: “Hundred ghosts!”

Li Xun turned around when he heard the voice, with a smile on his face: “Senior Sister Ying, your attitude is not correct. You don’t do things that the lady doesn’t like, but ask me to do it. How can this be justified?”

Ying Caier was stunned for a moment, then she realized her slip of the tongue, and was a little embarrassed for a moment, but it was only a flash, and then she said righteously: “If it’s not a difficult thing to do, why would I ask you for help?”

“Well said! “Li Xunyue knew Ying Caier’s character very well, so he was more than capable of dealing with her.

He clapped his hands and smiled, “Senior Sister Ying asked me for help, and I had no objection. But until now, Senior Sister Ying still hasn’t told me what she wants me to help with. Of course, if it’s the so-called ‘Teaching Day’ or something like that, there’s no need to waste words! “

Ying Caier’s pretty face turned pale with anger at his words. In her eyes, the temperament of this Taoist Baigui was unpredictable. Sometimes he looked like a good old man who was easy to talk to, and sometimes he was unruly to the extreme. In an instant, his mind changed a lot, and he was almost more difficult to deal with than those cunning elders!

However, Ying Caier was not an ordinary person after all, and she quickly adjusted her mood. After the change of her face, she returned to her usual state.

She curled her lips. This man is really shrewd and won’t suffer any loss! Okay, Junior Brother Baigui, I was wrong!” She put her hands together and shook them towards Li Xun as if she was worshiping a ghost. She said she was apologizing, but in fact she had no sincerity at all.

And this is exactly her true nature, which is much more credible than the so-called “sincere face”.

Li Xun knew when to stop. He bowed and returned the greeting: “Senior Sister, you are too kind. I just want to understand some things… For example, which immortal do you want to poke with me as a spear?”

There was a hint of sarcasm in his words, but he smiled and seemed to be joking, which matched Ying Caier’s attitude perfectly.

Ying Caier rolled her eyes at him and said unconvincedly: “Tell me the truth, how did you guess it?”

“I guessed it! And it’s what you just told me, Senior Sister.” Li Xun kept his mouth shut. This answer was a bit evasive, and Ying Caier’s face changed again.

However, before she could get angry, the man opposite revealed some of the real information: “And Senior Sister Ye herself behaves well and knows how to advance and retreat appropriately. She is not someone who has never seen the world.

“But her mind… is fragile, which is a contradiction in itself. Later I thought about it again, and then I realized that Senior Sister Ye was particularly sensitive to our sect’s soul-shaking magic…”

Li Xun smiled slightly and bowed slightly to Ying Caier: “I don’t need to say the rest!”

Ying Caier raised her eyebrows. This rather rude action, when she did it, was unique in its own way. After looking him up and down again, she smiled and applauded: “Junior Brother Baigui is really amazing! No wonder Master appreciates you so much! Well, you gave me face, and I will naturally give you face in return!

“Yes, Ye’er is in some trouble. It’s not easy for me to come forward, so I have to ask you, the great master who can melt the void, to help!”

Li Xun shrugged: “The person who can make Senior Sister Ying dare not to step forward, you want me, a new junior brother, to offend, how generous of you, Senior Sister!”

Afraid of offending him, are you not afraid of offending me? “

There was no “threatening” ferocious look on Ying Caier’s face, but this smiling look was a different kind of pressure.

It’s a pity that Li Xun didn’t care.

He revealed a bit of laziness in his smile: “It can’t be said to be offensive or not, but I understand as a junior brother. Since you dare to say it, I’m afraid that method has been used long ago. As a junior brother, I will be hit by a knife if I stick my head out, and I will be hit by a knife if I shrink my head. I’m just waiting to receive it! It’s just that I haven’t figured out who to let chop it!”

Ying Caier’s eyes rolled, and said with a smile: “Wrong, wrong! Junior brother Baigui, you still don’t understand after all! Some people are born ungrateful. If you don’t offend him, he may not be grateful to you!

“So, you should calculate it this way. You will either be appreciated by me and Ye’er, or you will get nothing, and you will be hated by me by the way. This account is very easy to calculate!”

Li Xun laughed out loud when he heard the words. He was bold and unrestrained, and he was a different kind of momentum.

Yet, at this moment, his tone softened. This drastically different demeanor made it even harder to understand his true intentions. “Well, as long as Senior Sister says it’s okay, then fine… But, Senior Sister, you should at least tell me that person’s name, right?”

Ying Cai’er squinted her eyes at him for a long moment before she raised her chin slightly, her smile growing sweeter. She beckoned Li Xun, “Come closer!”

Tenghua Valley at night is undoubtedly the most treacherous, ugliest, and most dangerous time of the day. Darkness is the most delicious seasoning for the restrictions that permeate the valley. If the restrictions vary in ten thousand ways during the day, then at night, the complexity increases by at least three times!

Some disciples, unable to discern even the most basic changes, are forced to remain indoors at this time, or die under the restrictions without a single apology!

Disciples who can travel freely at night always enjoy certain privileges within the valley.

Gui Wuzang is one of this “privileged class.”

He is one of the twelve elders of the Ghost Devouring Shadow Sect and a direct disciple of Bishui Jun. He holds a certain reputation within the sect, and even throughout the entire Xie Sect and Tongxuan Realm!

At this moment, another person’s name was racing through his mind: “The Hundred Ghosts Taoist, that lowly, independent cultivator, clinging to Madam Yan’s influence and becoming complacent… Like this bitch, she never learns her lesson. How many fools has she seduced?” For

the past two years, he’d been carrying out tasks around Tenghua Valley under his master’s orders. While his mission hadn’t been accomplished, he had already acquired six cauldrons within the valley. Ye Ru was the most exceptional of these.

Not only was she blessed with abundant vitality and a strong foundation, but more importantly, she was incredibly beautiful! Her beauty was among the best in the entire sect, and she was adept at exploiting it.

It was precisely because of her skillful use of her beauty that she was able to win his favor and maintain her level of skill.

Furthermore, because of this, Ye Ru was also able to boldly seduce other fools to help her.

How many such fools had he taught a lesson in the past two years?

Tonight, he’d add another!

Thinking of this, Gui Wuzang chuckled. He didn’t care about Bai Gui’s cultivation level, even if it were pure. Even if his Soul Controlling Technique and Soul Exorcism, Soul Refining, and Heart-Connecting Technique were cultivated simultaneously, reaching the realm of “Mysterious Transformation,” he could easily defeat that fool!

He was going to Bai Gui right now to make him understand that there are some people in this world you can’t mess with!

After taking two more steps, Gui Wuzang frowned and paused.

Ahead lay a sparse forest. Due to years of lack of sunlight and the infestation of dense Yin Qi, the trees had long since mutated, their leaves now gray-green and hard as iron.

The dark night wind blew, and the branches clashed, creating a clanging sound, a chilling atmosphere that was eerie and murderous.

Amidst this sound, the previously stable Qi slowly shifted.

A strange aura lingered in the air, a dark, inscrutable aura delicately twitching the energy connections that bound the restriction. If he took three more steps forward, the energy would sense the movement and the restriction would activate.

“Who’s there?” Gui Wuzang wondered. This was clearly a sect technique, and the caster was in the forest. Could it be that Baigui knew he was going to mess with him, so he was using it as a show of force?

The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed, yet he remained unfazed.

“Are you the only one who knows the three pulse-leveling techniques, and no one else?” Gui Wuzang sneered, unfazed, striding forward. As he took his third step, he gathered his hands together, instantly capturing the seven shifted energy streams. With a gentle rub, he perfectly returned them to their original positions.

Just as he was basking in the pride of this unassuming technique, a gentle greeting echoed from the forest: “Brother Gui, you called me over. What do you want to teach me?”

“Huh?”

Gui Wuzang was stunned by the incoherent words. “I called you?” What did he mean?

Just as he was stunned, the branches in the forest rustled slightly, and a figure emerged. He was dressed in a green Taoist robe, his hair tied up in a bun, and he smiled amiably. At first glance, he looked radiant and elegant. His half-smiley eyes were fixed on Gui Wuzang’s still-stretched arm.

Only then did Gui Wuzang realize that the arm he had just swung with the “Three Methods of Pulse Calming” had been a greeting.

“Damn it!”

Gui Wuzang cursed inwardly. If he still didn’t understand that this man was out to cause trouble, then all his centuries of training would have been for nothing! Moreover, looking at this person’s demeanor and this unfamiliar face…

“Hundred Ghosts?” He asked tentatively.

“Hello, Senior Brother Gui, we rarely met before!” Li Xun smiled and cupped his hands, his face full of sincerity, “Senior Brother Gui called me, but do you have any instructions?”

Gui Wuzang looked at the other party’s indifferent expression and laughed, “So it’s really you, Junior Brother Baigui! We rarely met before, but today just happened to be the day, I have something to talk to you about!”

Li Xun raised his eyebrows, and the smile on his face became even warmer, “What do you want to talk to me about, Senior Brother Gui?” Gui Wuzang

laughed loudly, and while laughing, he reached out to pat Li Xun’s shoulder, “It’s a trivial matter, a trivial matter! I just want to teach you… the principles of being a human being!”

The last few words all came out from between his teeth. At this moment, he stretched out his arm, clasped his five fingers on Li Xun’s shoulders, and then performed several changes, sealing the meridians, dislocating the bones, locking the throat, and then pushing Li Xun against the big tree behind him.

Li Xun’s face was still in a state of confusion, but half his body was numb and he couldn’t move. His throat was pinched by fingers, making it difficult for him to breathe. At this moment, he was hit on the back again, and his face immediately turned purple.

Seeing him like this, Gui Wuzang sneered: “Junior Brother Baigui, I am still a little more inexperienced than you… I don’t care what you want to do tonight, now I have you in my hands, and everything must be done according to my will!

“I don’t care what Ye Ruxu gave you, or what you promised her. If you want to play with my woman, you should at least show some respect – for Madam Yan’s sake, how about I cripple one of your arms?”

“Brother Gui?”

Li Xun’s face was grim, but he still looked confused.

Seeing him like this, Gui Wuzang slightly loosened his grip on his throat and let him speak.

Li Xun forced a wry smile on his face: “Brother Gui, what exactly are you talking about… It doesn’t matter! Gui

Wu Zang was stunned when he heard this, then suddenly woke up. His eyes focused and he exerted force on his hands. But the strange thing was that in the gap where his strength was about to arrive, he unexpectedly got a stitch in the side!

The sudden surge of foul air made his hand go limp, and then Bai Gui twisted his body with extreme flexibility like a loach and escaped from his grasp. This was even more surprising than the inexplicable stitch in the side!

He had clearly sealed Bai Gui’s qi channels and removed his arm, so how did he do that?

Li Xun didn’t give him time to think. After escaping, he turned and moved behind a tree. A gust of wind blew, and the branches and leaves rustled. Gui Wu Zang lost sight of Li Xun in the blink of an eye.

This was a typical case of a cooked duck flying into the sky!

Gui Wu Zang was embarrassed and annoyed, and for a moment he was furious: “Bai Gui, come out! Is it a man to hide like this?”

“Brother Gui, you are too polite!”

Li Xun’s voice drifted through the forest, ethereal and unpredictable. “Brother, you’re using your fellow disciples as your cauldron, utilizing local materials. I, your junior brother, can’t imitate you!” Gui

Wuzang ignored this skillful distortion of his voice. With a few swipes of his eyes, he leaped up, charging towards a point in the forest!

“Go to hell!”

Where his fist pointed, Li Xun’s figure, like a ghost, appeared, drifting out, then gradually faded into the darkness.

Gui Wuzang shattered a large tree, but didn’t even touch the corner of Li Xun’s clothes.

“Shadow Devouring Body?”

The scene before him looked familiar, and this made Gui Wuzang wary. The movements used by the Hundred Ghosts resembled the Shadow Devouring Skill, one of the sect’s most advanced techniques, yet they were also somewhat ambiguous. It seemed that these Hundred Ghosts were not to be underestimated!

He suppressed his disdain and stopped his attack. Instead, he stood still, forming a seal with one hand and pulling a copper bell from his bosom with the other. “Welcome!”

He gazed at the pitch-black woodland with a cold smile. A light tremor of his hand sent a shimmering ring of bells through the forest.

Like a sudden gust of wind, the distorted trees trembled in unison, the clashing of branches and leaves gathered by an invisible force into a single, chorus of sounds. Amidst this unified chorus, not even the slightest noise escaped his grasp!

“There it is!”

Gui Wuzang was certain he had tracked the ghosts’ movement, but he didn’t rush forward. He shifted his hand seals again, and the bronze bell flew out, slicing a faint streak of light through the darkness. As if possessed of eyes, it nimbly twisted between the trees, darting directly towards the ghosts’ location.

This wasn’t all; he continuously shifted hand seals, mobilizing hundreds of Qi within and without him. He wielded his true energy, and with a single stroke, a brilliant green light shone through the air, floating gently before him, casting a pale green hue on his face.

Gui Wuzang chuckled, then produced a palm-sized skull and tossed it into the azure light.

The moment the skull entered, a scream, too piercing for a human to bear, erupted. Without wasting a single breath, the piercing sound waves converged into a single beam, slashing like a sharp sword towards the location of the hundreds of ghosts. The sharper the scream, the further it went from human endurance, eventually fading into silence.

But the invisible sword, formed from the concentrated sound waves, became increasingly powerful. Wherever it struck, iron-hard branches and leaves were cleaved in two, crushing everything in its path!

The bronze bells dancing in the air presented a different scene. The faster the bells flew, the slower their tinkling became. The jarring sound and rhythm disrupted the entire space, unsettling even an ordinary cultivator.

Watching the hundreds of ghosts sway and leap, Gui Wuzang was overjoyed, his attacks becoming even more ruthless. In a blink of an eye, half the forest had been shredded.

Guessing that the Hundred Ghosts had reached their limit, he scowled, “Boy, today I’ll teach you a lesson! You’ll learn that there are some women you can’t touch!”

A torrential downpour of sonic sword energy suddenly surged threefold, instantly razing a ten-foot-wide forest to the ground. Li Xun had nowhere to hide, and the next, even more ferocious blow was about to unleash.

But just at that moment, a sigh echoed in Gui Wuzang’s ears.

“What a fool!”

Before Gui Wuzang could even grasp the meaning of the words, a series of light explosions filled his ears. In the blink of an eye, he saw the surrounding Qi undergo a dramatic shift!

At least a thousand Qi strands shifted significantly, each shift representing a continuous shift in the vital energy of heaven and earth.

When these shifts coalesced and interacted, the restriction was triggered!

“Impossible! I clearly used the suppression formation!” Gui Wuzang’s mind froze. This simply couldn’t be possible!

He possessed more experience than any other disciple in the valley.

He knew, of course, that the valley was densely packed with restrictions, and the slightest deviation could trigger a terrifying, lethal attack.

Therefore, fighting in the valley required preemptive deployment of suppression techniques to stabilize the surrounding Qi to ensure safety.

He was certain he had used these techniques before striking, but what was happening now?

The situation left him no room for further thought. Driven by the shifting Qi, the surrounding Heaven and Earth Qi was already roiling. Countless bursts of latent energy intertwined and collided, forming surging turbulent currents that pushed against him from all sides, attempting to shake him.

Any deviation would trigger even more powerful impacts, a chain reaction that would be truly disastrous for him.

For now, Gui Wuzang could only grit his teeth and cling to his position. But frozen in this position, any method of dissipating the force was useless. Condensed by the powerful forces from all sides, he suffered internal injuries and spat out a mouthful of blood in a disastrous manner.

At that moment, another sigh echoed, and a gentle breeze brushed the back of his neck.

“Hundred Ghosts!”

Gui Wuzang’s eyes were bloodshot. The swift transformation from ruler to ruled had already driven him mad, and this mocking voice instantly shattered his sanity! Gui Wuzang,

unsure where he’d gotten the courage, completely disregarded the restrictions on killing. With a sharp scream, he spun around and delivered an elbow—

a dull crunch of flesh and bone. Feeling something strange at the elbow, he was startled, then burst into laughter. Turning his head, he saw that the Hundred Ghost’s chest had been dented by his elbow, the broken bone piercing back into his internal organs, killing him half as much!

But… why did the Hundred Ghost have that expression on his face?

Before Gui Wuzang could comprehend it, the Hundred Ghost screamed and fell backward. At that moment, a cold shout echoed from not far away: “Gui Wuzang, how dare you!”

It was Madam Yan’s voice. Gui Wuzang was startled and involuntarily looked up.

He had barely raised his face when a sudden gust of wind blew from below. Hundred Ghosts, having fallen, raised their toes, and they stabbed him in the jaw.

The kick was powerful! Gui Wuzang’s teeth clashed with a clang, and the scene blurred.

Meanwhile, his mind went blank, with only a vague sense that the shifting energy flowing around him was being pulled by an inexplicable force, instantly converging. That force… was incredibly powerful!

As Madam Yan and her disciples rushed to within twenty steps of the scene, they saw Hundred Ghosts Taoist collapsed, his life or death uncertain. And then, Gui Wuzang, swayed half a step back by the touch of Hundred Ghosts’ toes.

Then, the energy shifted, and a barrier erupted. The surrounding vital energy, drawn by the barrier, instantly coalesced and mutated!

In a flash, a stream of pure Nine Nether Sword Qi burst forth from the earth, piercing Gui Wuzang’s neck and penetrating his brain like a piece of thin paper.

Gui Wuzang’s head deflated instantly. In that instant, his brain and blood were completely sucked away by the sword energy, leaving no residue!