Chapter 100

This place is ominous and strange; what the naked eye sees is not necessarily the true scene on the yellow mud ship.

Li Youyi once again employed the Heavenly Connection Eye mental technique, while simultaneously, all the golden trace veins on his body emerged, breaking through all illusions to cast aside the false and return to the true.

Within his field of vision, jade-white auspicious light ascended.

The underground riverbed remained dry, but the yellow mud ship beneath his feet transformed into a spotless, immaculate jade dharma boat. The boat was over thirty meters long, and shimmering precious light enveloped the surrounding heaven and earth.

The jade boat was crystal clear and exquisitely structured, with countless dharma scriptures floating and sinking within it.

"This... this is what a sacred boat for a person of the Prefecture Overseer's rank should look like. The decay of the yellow mud ship was merely an illusion, not its true appearance. This sacred boat must be of a very high grade!"

Li Youyi suppressed the exclamation in his heart and couldn't help but wonder: what level of cultivation realm had that Prefecture Overseer from a thousand years ago reached?

Everything seen previously had been an illusion.

The true Prefecture Overseer Seal was not kept in a treasure box, but was as massive as a millstone, over two meters tall, placed at the bow of the boat, silently releasing a majestic aura.

The purple Cistanche was actually growing on the top of the Prefecture Overseer Seal, its medicinal flesh crystal clear and fragrant.

The dharma Qi between heaven and earth condensed into visible gaseous streams, flowing continuously toward the Prefecture Overseer Seal, and was subsequently absorbed by the Cistanche.

"Ssh!"

Li Youyi swung his sword, slicing off a piece of the medicinal flesh, and handed it to Yin Twenty-four: "Take this and feed it to Yao Yin!"

The ancient skeleton sitting on the ground beside the Prefecture Overseer Seal was startled awake; its skull lifted, staring at Li Youyi in front. Then, its entire skeletal frame clicked and clacked as it slowly stood up.

Li Youyi was so shocked his scalp felt like it was about to explode, and he quickly retreated.

"It really is a malevolent object."

It was absolutely this skeleton, which hadn't fully died, that had lured him here.

The skeleton, wearing purple cloud-dragon official robes, did not reveal a ferocious demeanor after rising, nor did it attack. Instead, it tidied its clothes and hat, raised its hands to cover its knees with the official robes, and knelt before Li Youyi with great respect, saying loudly: "Your subject, Yanzhou Overseer Zhu Qinfeng, pays respects to the Son of Heaven."

With a thud, the skull struck the ground heavily.

His voice was slightly aged, but it did not come from his mouth; it seemed to come from within his bones, or perhaps from between heaven and earth.

If not for the fact that Yin Twenty-four and Yao Yin were still on the boat, Li Youyi would have truly wanted to turn and run; he couldn't even hold his sword steady. This withered bone with a terrifyingly grand background was clearly mistaking him for someone else!

Yin Twenty-four could not see the true scene, nor could she hear the true voice; she was currently holding Yao Yin, feeding her the precious medicine.

Li Youyi slowly retreated toward them, holding his battle sword in a defensive posture.

The skeleton kneeling on the ground lifted its head and said sorrowfully: "In the five-year war, Yanzhou fell into the hands of the dead spirits, and darkness swallowed the light. I led all the soldiers and civilians to defend the prefecture city, and after three more years of bitter fighting, we never saw reinforcements. The fifteen rescue teams sent out vanished without a trace."

"Three years of siege, one hundred and thirty-two battles, large and small; water and food in the city were exhausted, and of the million soldiers and civilians, only eighty thousand remained."

"I am guilty! I led the eighty thousand wounded and disabled to flee through the ancient underground river, abandoning the city, and the entire territory of Yanzhou fell... Alas... Woe is me..."

Li Youyi felt the desolation and sorrow radiating from the skeleton, hearing the helplessness and pain in its tone.

Infected by its emotions, the fear in his heart lessened slightly, and he calmed down, pondering why the other party would mistake him for the Son of Heaven.

This Yanzhou Overseer named Zhu Qinfeng's Son of Heaven was, without a doubt, Chan Hai Guan Wu.

Why would the other party think he was Chan Hai Guan Wu?

The skeleton kneeling on the ground continued: "Entering the ancient underground river, we were pursued by the Ember Spirit army and fled here, where the eighty thousand soldiers and civilians died one after another. As I lay dying from heavy wounds, I left this single thought upon the Prefecture Overseer's official robes, waiting only for the Son of Heaven to come here so I could report everything; though I die, I have no regrets."

After speaking the final sentence, the skeleton's shoulders and neck bones clicked simultaneously, and it slumped down completely, silent once more.

"So he only had a single thought left, waiting here for that Son of Heaven in his heart."

Li Youyi's fear vanished completely, filled with deep emotion; he stepped forward, a sense of admiration actually arising in his heart.

He had already given his all, yet Yanzhou still fell.

A thousand-year thought, waiting only for his lord.

Only upon seeing his lord would he draw his final breath.

Master Lingwei had been observing the outside world with mental power, and his voice emerged from the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish: "If I am not mistaken, Chan Hai Guan Wu left something on you. That is why Zhu Qinfeng mistook you for her."

Li Youyi nodded slightly, struggling to recall his few encounters with Chan Hai Guan Wu, not letting a single detail slip.

Even if she left something, it should have been his own blood that she absorbed.

"What could it be?" he muttered to himself.

Master Lingwei said: "Chan Hai Guan Wu's cultivation is far higher than ours, reaching a level the three of us cannot fathom. Her methods must be extremely secretive and brilliant. However, she is currently very weak, while your cultivation is rising rapidly; you should be ahead of her. Find her as soon as possible and resolve this hidden danger."

In Li Youyi's mind, the portrait of the red-clothed fairy on the tombstone emerged, followed by the bone demon in the tomb, and finally the figure of Qi Shanshan.

"To think she secretly tampered with me."

Facing an existence like Chan Hai Guan Wu who stood at the pinnacle of the world, Li Youyi felt significant pressure, viewing her as his most powerful enemy. But right now, it was clearly not the time to think about how to deal with her.

How to escape was the most urgent priority.

"I understand, it's the official robes."

Master Guan's voice suddenly sounded, and he added: "That thought of Zhu Qinfeng's borrowed the dharma Qi within the Cistanche to activate the Prefecture Overseer's official robes, subsequently opening the purple mist passage to guide you here. I once served as a Prefecture Overseer; even if the official robes fall into silence, as long as the fire of the thought within is not extinguished, they can be used once or twice more."

"Youyi, put on the official robes and use your mental power to probe whether Zhu Qinfeng's residual fire of thought still exists within. If it does, immediately use dharma Qi to activate it."

Li Youyi put away his Heavenly Connection Eye, and the golden trace veins on his body dimmed and faded.

The brilliant jade dharma boat beneath his feet instantly turned back into a yellow mud ship, making it impossible for a moment to distinguish what was real and what was illusory.

After bowing three times, Li Youyi crouched down and quickly stripped the purple official robes from the skeleton, racing against time, while shouting: "You take Yao Yin and get off the ship first to wait for me!"

Yin Twenty-four did not understand why, but guessed that Li Youyi must have found a way to escape, so she immediately picked up Yao Yin and jumped off the yellow mud ship.

Li Youyi quickly put on the purple official robes.

Both the chest and back were embroidered with cloud-dragon patterns, the wide cuffs were decorated with silver buttons, and the waist was adorned with a wide brocade belt inlaid with exotic gems and jade pendants.

The official robes could automatically shrink or expand according to the wearer's physique.

"Whoosh!"

Li Youyi put on the official hat, formed finger seals with both hands, and released mental light, injecting it into the official robes.

Using mental perception, a vast and dark world within the official robes was instantly presented in his sea of consciousness. In the darkness, he could see Zhu Qinfeng's sporadic residual fire of thought rapidly dissipating and extinguishing.

"Great! As long as these fires of thought are not completely extinguished, the official robes can be activated one more time."

Li Youyi jumped off the yellow mud ship, not caring about the issue of exposure, and activated the spatial power of the Buddha Relic to collect the entire ship into the blood-mud space.

Seeing the yellow mud ship vanish into thin air, Yin Twenty-four was naturally stunned.

Li Youyi shook his arms, and magic power surged simultaneously from all eight spring eyes in his body, injecting into the official robes he wore.

The vast world within the official robes was simply like a bottomless pit, impossible to fill.

Watching Zhu Qinfeng's fire of thought rapidly extinguishing, Li Youyi broke out in a cold sweat, shouting: "What are you standing there for? Come help me, inject all the dharma Qi in your body into the official robes."

Yin Twenty-four came to her senses, stepped forward without a word, pressed her palms against Li Youyi's back, and injected surging dharma Qi.

"It's no use, the Prefecture Overseer's official robes have gone silent; my dharma Qi cannot be injected," she said.

"Then why can I?"

Li Youyi muttered a sentence to himself, his eyes suspicious, secretly thinking: "Could it be related to what Chan Hai Guan Wu left in my body again?"

There was no time to think carefully; Li Youyi employed the Jade Void Breathing Method, pushing the eight spring eyes in his body to the limit. His body was completely illuminated by magic power, and the dharma Qi transformed into brilliant clouds swirling around him.

"His magic power and dharma Qi are actually entering the Prefecture Overseer's official robes. Could he be a descendant of Chan Hai Guan Wu? But I've never heard of Chan Hai Guan Wu having a Dao companion, so how could she have descendants?" Yin Twenty-four was completely baffled.

"Boom!"

Wisps of purple mist overflowed from the official robes, transforming into purple cloud clusters.

A look of wild joy appeared on Li Youyi's face, and he shouted: "Follow me!"

Pulling Yin Twenty-four along, the three of them vanished into the purple mist.

"Whoosh!"

The next instant, the three returned to the pitch-black spider cave.

The sound of flowing water from the underground blood river reached their ears.

Yin Twenty-four took out a blood-light gem to illuminate the surroundings, letting out a long sigh of relief: "We finally made it back! How did you do it? How did you know the Prefecture Overseer's official robes could bring us back? Why could your magic power activate them?"

Within the official robes, Zhu Qinfeng's fire of thought had completely extinguished, and Li Youyi's magic power could no longer be injected.

The purple mist shrouding the official robes rapidly dissipated.

Li Youyi did not immediately respond to Yin Twenty-four's questions, but looked around; the ash region had vanished without a trace, as if it had never appeared. If not for the Prefecture Overseer's official robes he was wearing, he would have even suspected that everything was a hallucination.

On the stone wall ahead was a cave the size of a face.

The cave was covered in spider webs.

He could sense the aura fluctuations of the Four-Winged Spider King within the cave, hidden very deep.

The Four-Winged Spider King possessed intelligence and, sensing the aura of a Five Seas Realm martial cultivator, hid inside, not daring to come out.

Li Youyi shook his head in disappointment; he had even learned insect language from Master Lingwei, preparing to subdue the Four-Winged Spider King and gift it to Senior Sister Cai. But it didn't dare show its head; it turned out that malevolent insects were also bullies who feared the strong.

Riding the flat boat, they returned upstream, driven by Yin Twenty-four's dharma Qi.

After exiting the spider cave, Li Youyi had already taken off the official robes and folded them neatly, saying in a calm but threatening tone: "Everything you saw today must rot in your stomach. If a third... or fourth person finds out, you should know the consequences."

Yin Twenty-four stood at the bow, her brows furrowed: "Is that all you're going to threaten? I feel that if the secrets on you are leaked, it will trigger a storm in the martial arts world."

"You can go tell the Hidden Lord and try! I guarantee I will live well, but you might not!" Li Youyi added: "Not killing you to silence you isn't because I'm soft-hearted, but because I trust you."

Yin Twenty-four's heart rippled slightly, but she immediately suppressed the corners of her mouth, saying in a deep voice: "I feel uneasy; this matter is strange, especially since that ash region didn't seem to be too far away. We should report it to the Hidden Lord."

Li Youyi certainly didn't believe that, with his current cultivation and the power of the official robes, he could cross too far an underground space.

Therefore, he agreed with her point of view; the ash region was very likely nearby.

"Then let's make up a story, compare notes first, and then tell the Hidden Lord what we can."

Li Youyi was somewhat uneasy about Yin Twenty-four, and added: "The Hidden Lord was the Hidden Person of the previous sixty-year cycle, while I am the Hidden Person of this cycle. You must take orders from me, not him."

Yin Twenty-four rolled her eyes, very much wanting to tell him: you aren't the Hidden Person yet.

Li Youyi noticed the eyeballs moving under Yao Yin's eyelids, and said: "Since you've woken up, stop pretending. The three of us will compare notes together. You are most likely Hidden Twenty-six, and from now on, you must also take orders from me. You should know better than I do what the outcome of betraying the Hidden Person is."

Yao Yin sat up; the ice cracks on her skin had completely dissipated, returning to being moist and delicate. The medicinal power of the Cistanche indeed had a suppressive effect on the ice-soul cold energy in her body. She said in a pleasant, beautiful tone: "Very well, Yao Yin swears loyalty to the Hidden Person until death."

Li Youyi nodded with satisfaction.

"Such grand official authority! No wonder they say that once someone wears the official robes, they can never take them off for the rest of their life!" Yin Twenty-four said coldly with sarcasm.

(End of chapter)