Chapter 47: Myriad Transformations Imagery Array

As Wang Ping had expected, Jing Wu Ming paid no attention to Tie Lanshan behind him, and even from time to time drew his bow to scare him a few times.

Each time Tie Lanshan was frightened and hastily dodged, this action made Jing Wu Ming burst out laughing.

Taking this opportunity, he would again increase the distance; in the vast mountains, once the distance became too great, it was easy to lose the target.

When Jing Wu Ming crossed another ridge, Tie Lanshan looked ahead with a grim expression.

After a night of pursuit, it was now high noon; he was sure he had lost his quarry, before him towering endless mountains stretched, and boundless forests extended without end.

Finding a cultivator here would be as hard as climbing to heaven.

For a moment he involuntarily felt despondent, but this emotion was quickly swept away.

After all, he was Tie Lanshan, having survived many years of the Jing family's encirclement and pursuit; negative emotions were merely a temporary vent, soon suppressed.

Over these many years, he had grown accustomed to suppressing himself in this way.

"Jing Wu Ming!"

"The grudge for killing my son—we cannot coexist under the same sky; someday I will…!"

"Brat! Do you really want to fight to the death with me?"

"Heh! The fish will die, but the net may not break!"

Tie Lanshan was about to utter a vicious oath when suddenly Jing Wu Ming's voice came from his left front.

Immediately afterward he recalled the voice of that mysterious young cultivator.

Tie Lanshan's face rarely showed an excited expression; he hastily rose on the wind and flew toward the source of the sound.

Jing Wu Ming had become a heart disease for him; if he could not be slain, he would likely never achieve Foundation Establishment in this lifetime.

Beneath an unnamed ancient peak, Jing Wu Ming covered his left shoulder wound, looking at the young man before him with shock and anger; he could not imagine why he had been found.

After shaking off Tie Lanshan, there was clearly no one behind him.

Just as he was preparing to enter a beast's lair inside the mountain to heal his wounds, he was ambushed by a sudden black flying nail that pierced his protective spiritual light and lodged in his left shoulder.

Then came the dialogue that Tie Lanshan had just heard.

"Fellow Daoist!" Jing Wu Ming hastily called out, this time not addressing him as "brat" but sincerely as a fellow Daoist.

Wang Ping had no time to waste talking with him, for he had sensed that Tie Lanshan was flying toward this place on the wind.

He flipped his right hand, and a crystal Heaven-Overturning Seal appeared in his palm.

The next moment, the thrown Heaven-Overturning Seal expanded in the wind; by the time it reached Jing Wu Ming's head, it had grown to three zhang in size.

Then the Heaven-Overturning Seal came crashing down heavily.

The heavily injured Jing Wu Ming could not block the Heaven-Overturning Seal's attack and was directly smashed into minced flesh.

Wang Ping beckoned with his hand, the Heaven-Overturning Seal appeared in his palm, then he flipped it over and it vanished outright.

After three breaths, Tie Lanshan descended from the sky; he resolved that, even if he had to risk his life, he would hold Jing Wu Ming back and not let him escape again.

"Fellow Daoist! I come to help……you?"

The final "you" oddly carried a question mark.

It sounded extremely awkward.

Wang Ping flicked the storage bag in his hand, glanced at Tie Lanshan in good spirits, and saw him staring blankly at the pool of blood on the ground.

Suddenly he could not hold back his tears, first sobbing softly, then gradually growing louder.

The wailing sobs echoed in the woods; Wang Ping silently withdrew.

………

Half an hour later, at the foot of a mountain, Wang Ping sat cross-legged, facing him was Tie Lanshan.

At this point he had recovered, and Wang Ping again saw in him the extremely ruthless aspect of that night.

"Thank you, fellow Daoist, for avenging me; I now have only these great pills left on my person—if you need them, please take them all."

Though Tie Lanshan is hot-tempered, he is extremely generous in his actions, directly taking out all his spirit pills and blood pills from his person and handing them to Wang Ping.

Wang Ping glanced and thought, "What a good haul—twenty spirit pills, twenty-one blood pills."

If this were actually taken out to sell, I truly wouldn't know how much it could fetch.

Accordingly, Wang Ping was not polite; he reached out and took ten spirit pills and ten blood pills, enough to advance his cultivation to the peak of Qi Refining.

Seeing Wang Ping take only half, a flash of unusual color crossed Tie Lanshan's eyes.

"Fellow Daoist, if you fancy any of my belongings, aside from the family heirloom manual, you may take anything else."

Wang Ping also did not beat around the bush, speaking directly: "I don't know how you became like that in the Gathering Treasure Workshop Market back then, something even I failed to notice; another matter is how you managed to craft so many strange magical devices."

At the Gathering Treasure Pavilion Market, Tie Lanshan stared blankly, then gave a bitter smile: "As it turns out, fellow Daoist, you recognized me from the very start."

"The first and second questions actually amount to the same thing."

Saying this, Tie Lanshan patted his storage bag, and a wooden plaque appeared in his hand.

Wang Ping watched silently, waiting for what came next.

Tie Lanshan also wasted no words, explaining directly:

"This wooden plaque is made from the rare phantom wood of the cultivation world. I have refined three pieces in total, each engraved with a portion of the Myriad Transformations Imagery Array; once the three plaques are simultaneously activated, they will produce illusory power!"

Saying this, Tie Lanshan spoke with a proud expression:

"The phantom wood combined with the Myriad Transformations Imagery Array, the illusory power it arouses cannot be seen through even by the divine sense of a Foundation Establishment cultivator."

Wang Ping: "Then why didn't you use this wooden plaque to escape!"

Tie Lanshan couldn't help but sigh, saying:

"Jing Wu Ming pursues people relying solely on feeling; unfortunately his feeling is often precise, and even if there is occasional error, he follows the principle of 'better to kill mistakenly than let slip,' killing all suspected targets outright, so I have been hunted by him to the point of heaven having no road and earth no gate—fortunately I met you, fellow Daoist."

Wang Ping nodded and asked:

"Tie fellow Daoist, you might as well demonstrate again; I, Wang, am very curious about this transformation technique."

Tie Lanshan nodded, and two or three strands of spiritual power shot into the wooden plaque respectively, then he placed it on his body.

An astonishing thing happened; Tie Lanshan actually turned into the likeness of Jing Wu Ming.

Wang Ping couldn't help but rise to his feet, looking ahead and behind, even employing his spiritual sense to investigate, yet he could find no flaw whatsoever.

Even his protective spiritual light manifested as a blue water-element spiritual light.

"Fellow Daoist, this myriad-transformations illusion formation is truly miraculous; even one's protective spiritual light can be changed!"

Tie Lanshan gave a proud smile:

"What's this? Fellow Daoist, just watch!"

Having said that, Tie Lanshan's cultivation actually appeared to be at the Foundation Establishment stage.

Even his aura was exactly the same.

Wang Ping was extremely pleased and got straight to the point, saying:

"Iron Daoist, would you be willing to part with this myriad-transformations illusion formation?"

Tie Lanshan laughed heartily and said in a refreshing tone:

"There's no problem with that, though this myriad-transformations illusion formation is merely a first attempt, and the phantom wood is only a hundred-year-old specimen. Fellow Daoist Lan, if you're not in a hurry, let me refine it a bit and then give you a new set of the myriad-transformations illusion formation—how does that sound?"

Wang Ping pondered briefly, then nodded, and then told him that he would be going to the Treasure Gathering Pavilion to participate in the auction, and at that time he could go there to find him.

Seeing this, Tie Lanshan's face lit up with surprise and delight as he said:

"I didn't expect Fellow Daoist to also be going to the Treasure Gathering Pavilion for the auction—what a coincidence, I am too! Why don't we go together?"

Having said that, he gazed at Wang Ping with an earnest expression.

Since they shared the same destination, they immediately decided to recuperate from their injuries here before proceeding to the Treasure Gathering Pavilion.