Chapter 100

"On his body... is that a golden vein?" Yao Yin said.

The light in Yin Twenty-four's pupils converged, and she said coldly: "I'm afraid so, otherwise how could he, with an Eight Springs cultivation base, defeat a Nine Springs Pure Immortal Body with all hundred veins silver?"

Yao Yin said: "But, I heard that being able to temper one or two golden veins is an incredible achievement. On his body, one, two... I simply can't count them..."

Li Youyi suddenly laughed loudly: "I understand! We were attracted by that purple cistanche and mistakenly broke into this ash region. But why could we see it in the spider cave? If I'm not mistaken, we must rely on it to go back."

"It is the root and source of everything!"

Under the illumination of the golden veins on his body, the falsehoods in the ash region could not deceive Li Youyi's Heavenly Penetrating Eye.

He found the correct position of the purple cistanche; it was not in front, but behind, beside a sand dune very far away. It was probably several miles away, but he could see the purple light it emitted from afar.

It was like a purple divine lamp, shining in the depths of the darkness.

"Let's go, follow closely behind me, don't fall behind, and don't be influenced by other mental hallucinations."

Li Youyi maintained the golden veins and the golden Heavenly Penetrating Eye on his body, glanced at Yin Twenty-four and Yao Yin, his expression froze, and he immediately withdrew his gaze, not daring to look a second time.

With one hand pinching a finger seal and the other holding the Huang Long sword, he walked at the very front, walking quickly toward the sand dune where the cistanche was located.

After the three of them walked several hundred meters, the wind suddenly picked up.

"Rustle!"

The wind blew up the black sand, and many sparks flew out from under the sand, emitting a scorching light, just like a pile of fire that hadn't burned out. As the wind blew, the sand, which was like plant ash, began to burn.

It wasn't just in one place, but appeared in large patches.

Yao Yin said nervously: "I remember now! Grandfather once said that in an ash region, the ash is only the appearance; the most terrifying thing is the embers."

"What embers?"

Li Youyi didn't dare to turn around.

The mental technique taught by Master Spirit Tablet was too much of a pitfall, difficult to control freely. The mental eyes of other great mental masters were not this evil at all; how could it be possible to just happen to be able to pierce through veils?

Yao Yin's footsteps faltered, and she pointed in horror at a burning sand dune ahead, trembling: "Ember spirits... humanoid ember spirits..."

Li Youyi had already seen it; on a sand dune a mile away, six humanoid figures appeared.

They were tall and short; the tall ones were three or four meters tall, while the short ones were like children. Their bodies were composed of burning plant ash, extremely bright in the wind, constantly flying out sparks.

It was too strange; they didn't look like living organisms at all.

"They're coming... run!"

Li Youyi gasped, immediately performed the Clear Void Cicada-Chasing Step, and rushed toward the direction of the cistanche at the fastest speed.

Behind him, Yin Twenty-four grabbed Yao Yin, erupted with the speed that only a Five Seas realm Wu Xiu could have, and crossed several zhang in one step.

The six ember spirits were extremely fast. As they charged over, the sky was full of sparks, like fire rain under the night sky. They let out roars that did not belong to humans, and the entire ash region was filled with sand, with wild winds howling.

Yin Twenty-four was already full of regret; she shouldn't have agreed to Li Youyi bringing Yao Yin here. Those six ember spirits were simply not something her current cultivation could resist; once encountered, how was this battle to be fought?

"Clang, clang!"

A deep, muffled bell sound rang out.

A huge camel, three or four meters tall, appeared out of thin air on the ground, half-virtual and half-real, its head held high, its fur bright.

Li Youyi, with his upper body bare, sat on it and reached out a hand to her.

Yin Twenty-four reached out to take it, and after borrowing the force, she carried Yao Yin and landed on the camel's back. She naturally had questions in her heart, but now was definitely not the time to satisfy her curiosity.

Escaping this place was the top priority.

A whistling sound rang in her ears; the camel's speed was actually faster than some exotic beasts.

It was thought that it would only take a few breaths to rush to the bottom of the sand dune where the cistanche was located.

"Awoo!"

The ember spirit with the largest body let out a long howl, and spat out a long dragon formed of sparks from its mouth, which wandered in mid-air and quickly chased the camel in front.

Yin Twenty-four turned around and stood up, mobilizing the Dharma Qi in her body, and continuously injected it into a mirror-shaped magic tool.

From the mirror surface, a bright beam of light shot out and collided with the fire dragon.

"Boom!"

The fire dragon exploded, turning into a brilliant and dangerous fire rain.

Li Youyi threw out the ghost flag, released the nether mist, and blocked all the falling fire rain.

Getting closer and closer to that cistanche, Li Youyi's eyelids contracted, and he realized that ahead was actually a dried-up ancient riverbed, over a hundred meters wide, with a drop of seven or eight meters between the riverbank and the riverbed.

The cistanche was growing on a large yellow mud boat stranded on the riverbed, its roots embedded in the top of a skeleton's head.

The camel stopped on the bank, and Li Youyi didn't dare to go any further.

The scene before him was too creepy; no matter how he looked at it, it wasn't right. He felt that he might have been deliberately led to this place. He had been set up back in the spider cave.

Yin Twenty-four's eyes were fixed: "A dried-up big river in an ash region, that yellow mud boat... it doesn't look normal no matter how you look at it. Are you sure we want to go?"

Li Youyi frowned and looked back.

The roaring of the six ember spirits was endless, and they were catching up quickly.

"I... I'll try it. Grandfather said that I am destined to have some intersection with the ash region..."

Yao Yin suddenly spoke.

She stood up on the camel's back, faced the rear, and then triggered her special bloodline. A cold air that made Li Youyi and Yin Twenty-four's skin ache was released from her body.

"Pop, pop!"

A dense sound of ice cracking rang out on Yao Yin's jade-white skin, spreading from her fingertips and feet upward, passing her slender neck, and the cracks spread over her flawless, beautiful face.

The end of the cracks was her pair of blue-gold gemstone-like pupils.

"Whoosh—"

In her pupils, blue brilliance illuminated the darkness, and a loud cry faintly rang out, as cold air surged wildly toward the six ember spirits.

The six ember spirits that had caught up felt the aura of their destined nemesis, stopped in unison, and then slowly retreated.

Having only persisted for a moment, Yao Yin's pupils bled, and she sat back on the camel's back limply, falling into Yin Twenty-four's arms.

Li Youyi had clearly felt an unusual demonic aura erupt from her body just now, and he was somewhat surprised, looking at Yin Twenty-four.

"Don't look at me! I only found out today that she still hid such a method." Yin Twenty-four stroked the ice cracks on Yao Yin's body, and seeing her eyes tightly closed and her breath weak, she felt heartbroken.

Li Youyi said: "You didn't even know this? Aren't you her sister?"

"Cousin!"

Yin Twenty-four corrected, her gaze then falling on the yellow mud boat stranded on the riverbed: "Her state is very bad; she might not make it through. Last time in the spider cave, her ice-soul cold air erupted, and it was you who fed her a mouthful of cistanche to survive. I think we might not have any other choice..."

"No need to say more, I understand. Let's go!"

Li Youyi was not a person without human feelings.

What's more, to leave this ash region, they had to go to that yellow mud boat to investigate.

The camel leaped up and jumped onto the dried-up riverbed.

The riverbed was full of pebbles, with only a thin layer of black sand, and he finally had a sense of security from having his feet on solid ground.

The yellow mud boat was about thirty meters long, with only a rough hull structure remaining, appearing extremely simple. Perhaps because it had been stranded here for too long, the complex structure had rotted into mud.

Arriving under the boat, Li Youyi put the camel into the Evil Camel Bell and looked back, discovering that the six ember spirits were standing on the opposite riverbank, eyeing them covetously, but not daring to enter the riverbed.

"If I had known, I shouldn't have been greedy. This world is even more bizarre and dangerous than I imagined."

Li Youyi sighed like this and looked at Yin Twenty-four, who was holding Yao Yin: "You wait below, I'll go investigate first."

"Is it useful? If we can't escape, we'll die anyway."

Yin Twenty-four tapped her toes, her figure leaped up, and she landed on the yellow mud boat first.

Placing Yao Yin on the ground and holding the mirror-shaped magic tool, she walked cautiously toward the skeleton at the bow of the boat. Being able to stand out and become a Hidden Person, Yin Twenty-four was naturally not timid, but at this moment, her back was getting colder and colder, and her head and soles were icy.

Because the purple official robe on the skeleton, which had been sitting here for who knows how many years, was actually spotless, like new clothes that had just been put on.

Under the illumination of the purple brilliance of the cistanche on its head, the official robe flowed with radiant colors, and the cloud-dragon pattern on the chest badge was lifelike, the dragon form vigorous, riding the clouds and mist.

Inside the official robe, there was only a skeleton; no one knew how many years it had been dead.

Li Youyi leaped onto the boat a step later and looked toward the bow, discovering that Yin Twenty-four was actually rummaging through the skeleton, completely uninhibited, and he couldn't help but admire her immensely.

"Any discoveries?"

Confirming there was no danger, Li Youyi walked over.

Yin Twenty-four fished out a golden imperial edict from the bosom of the skeleton's official robe, and after opening it, Dharma characters emerged one by one. After reading it carefully, she said: "Sure enough, it's a Provincial Governor, consistent with the pattern on the official robe's badge... This is his appointment edict... Governor of Yan Province..."

"Yan Province was one of the nine provinces under the jurisdiction of the Nine Li tribe a thousand years ago, and it has long been swallowed by the Nether Realm of the Dead. Could it be that he has been dead for a thousand years? But why would he come here by boat and die here?"

Li Youyi looked toward the winding and wide river channel: "Could it be that this ancient river can lead to Yan Province from underground?"

"There is that possibility."

Yin Twenty-four found key information on the edict: "It is indeed a figure from a thousand years ago; the seal on the appointment is 'Chan Hai Guan Wu,' and it is stamped with her Son of Heaven seal."

The four words "Chan Hai Guan Wu" made Li Youyi's heart stir, and he hurriedly stepped forward: "Let me see."

After Yin Twenty-four handed the edict to Li Youyi, she continued to rummage, and under the skeleton's right hand, she discovered a square treasure box. Immediately, a look of excitement appeared on her face: "This... could this be the legendary Provincial Governor's seal?"

"Why so excited? Can you still use it to take office?" Li Youyi closed the edict and laughed.

Since there was no danger, his mood was naturally much better.

Yin Twenty-four said: "You really don't understand anything! The two most important treasures that a Provincial Governor can use to suppress a province are the official robe and the seal; both are incomparably precious magic tools."

"The official robe represents defense and speed. Look at that cloud dragon on the badge; legend has it that a dragon soul is truly sealed inside, which is the Provincial Governor's mount. You must know that Chan Hai Guan Wu once slaughtered dragons, divided the dragon soul into three hundred parts, and then refined them into three hundred sets of Provincial Governor official robes."

"The Provincial Governor's seal is for attacking, capable of shaking mountains and moving peaks."

"These three hundred sets of battle soldiers made the Lingxiao Palace's rule as solid as a rock a thousand years ago, and those demon kings and millions of gates were all suppressed into submission. Unlike the current Provincial Governors, who are all like mud figures, and no one takes them seriously."

Li Youyi immediately stopped looking down on them, hurriedly leaned forward, and said with extreme seriousness: "Before entering the spider cave, you said that everything inside belonged to me."

"I only said the cistanche belonged to you; I don't want a single bit of the treasure medicine."

Yin Twenty-four opened the treasure box containing the official seal, and after taking out the seal, her joy vanished, and she sighed: "If it belongs to you, then it belongs to you, but the money I owe you is cleared!"

"Good!"

Li Youyi naturally knew this was a huge profit, so he agreed immediately.

Yin Twenty-four's scheme succeeded, and she smiled: "Forgot to tell you, the Provincial Governor's official robe and seal on him have already fallen into dormancy."

"You must know that before every Provincial Governor takes office, they need Chan Hai Guan Wu to personally activate the two treasures, so that they can possess battle might. Once the term expires, the two treasures automatically fall into dormancy and must be returned to the imperial court."

"A thousand years ago, the reason why the catastrophe erupted in the Lingxiao Life Realm and almost all three hundred provinces fell was largely because Chan Hai Guan Wu went missing, the Provincial Governors' terms ended one after another, and the official robes and seals lost their power."

"If the Provincial Governors still possessed the power of the official robes and seals, it shouldn't have been a problem to hold onto one or two hundred provinces. Instead of being like now, with only twenty-eight provinces remaining."

"You are not allowed to go back on your word! Anyway, my debt of several hundred million copper coins is considered wiped out!"

Li Youyi's thoughts turned a hundred times, and he thought of many things in an instant. Finally, he nodded and fixed his gaze on the cistanche growing on the skeleton's head. He wanted to know why it could project into the spider cave?

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