Chapter 145: Deep in the Longshan Mountain Range

The Zouwu beast was swift, incomparable to ordinary Five Seas realm Wu Xiu.

The elderly man of the Deformed race who dove down had only caught up by utilizing flight abilities. His magic power was incomparably pure, several times stronger than Li Youyi’s; it was the third-tier Qi of the Five Seas.

Before his figure even arrived, a cloud of magic power had already pressed down upon Li Youyi and Li Ling, like thousands of silk threads binding their bodies.

Li Youyi faced a formidable enemy. He gripped the Yellow Dragon Sword tightly, his internal magic power surging wildly through his 120 golden meridians, converging toward his arm to break through the suppression of the magic power cloud.

The moment the Deformed elder entered within four zhang, Li Youyi seized the opportunity and slashed out a long, dragon-patterned sword beam, resembling a yellow river of swords.

The Deformed elder was a veteran of a hundred battles with rich experience. Seeing the extraordinary nature of the Yellow Dragon Sword, he stopped abruptly in mid-air and spat out a three-inch-long crimson flying sword, which collided with the incoming dragon-patterned sword beam.

"Boom!"

The crimson flying sword had been nurtured in his lung-lobe Qi sea; it was as dazzling as a ball of flame, and its speed was like a stream of light, carrying immense power. However, after piercing through the dragon-patterned sword beam, its speed plummeted, and it was knocked away by Li Youyi’s horizontal sword strike.

Suffering the impact of the dragon-patterned sword beam’s residual force, the Deformed elder fell to the treetops, instantly widening the distance from the Zouwu beast by several dozen zhang.

"The third realm of the Five Seas!"

Li Youyi held his sword, staring fixedly at the Deformed elder who was catching up once more.

Further away in the darkness, several Deformed figures were flying in mid-air; judging by their speed, they were all at the Five Seas realm level. On the ground, there were also tyrannical auras constantly approaching, several of which were far stronger than that Deformed elder.

"The Zouwu’s target is too large. With Five Seas realm Deformed beings flying in mid-air, they can see us from over ten miles away. This can’t go on; we won’t be able to escape at all."

Li Youyi’s mood was heavy. He asked, "How long will it take for the Chan Sea Fog to recover its strength?"

Li Ling could not give him a definite answer. After a moment of contemplation, she said, "I have a way to hide the Zouwu."

Li Youyi said, "In that case, when that Deformed elder catches up again, you and I will join forces to kill him as quickly as possible, then use stealth to change direction and flee. The other experts of the Three Chen Palace Iron-Clad Army are still far away and will surely lose their target because of this. Do you have a stealth technique?"

"I am a Great Thought Master of the Heavenly Fire realm; I naturally have stealth methods," Li Ling said.

The strength of a Heavenly Fire realm Great Thought Master was sufficient to rival a Wu Xiu of the third realm of the Five Seas. Those with profound attainments and numerous methods could even suppress a Wu Xiu of the fourth realm of the Five Seas.

Li Ling had only recently broken through to the Heavenly Fire realm, so she was naturally not the latter.

"Rumble!"

The Zouwu beast galloped through the forest, shaking the earth and mountains; trees were shattered wherever it passed.

After running another seven or eight li, the Deformed elder caught up again, like a giant black bat weaving through the trees. He did not get close, maintaining a distance of at least ten zhang, using magic power to drive that flying sword to harass them.

He knew very well that with his cultivation, he could not kill the two people on the back of the Zouwu beast; intercepting them by force would be extremely dangerous.

But if he could stall them until the large group of Iron-Clad Army experts caught up, those two would have no way to escape.

"We cannot remain in this stalemate. Let's act now."

Li Youyi tapped his insect tube, and seven Phoenix-Winged Moth Emperors flew out first, surrounding the Deformed elder from seven different directions in the night, sealing off his retreat.

Immediately after, he leaped from the Zouwu’s rump to intercept the Deformed elder flying ten zhang away.

"Awoo!"

A dragon’s roar rang out, and a yellow dragon shadow appeared beneath his feet. He looked as if he were riding a dragon, his bearing extraordinary.

The Deformed elder gave a light grunt of surprise, seeing the profoundness of Li Youyi’s movement technique, but he did not take it to heart.

From their previous exchange, he had already gauged the opponent's strength: the magic power was only at the first tier of the Five Seas, at most just entering the second realm of the Five Seas. It was only by relying on that powerful sword in his hand that he had blocked his flying sword.

A child holding a heavy weapon was never a good thing; it usually ended with the person dead and the weapon lost.

The Deformed elder could not slow down while flying at high speed. He spat out his flying sword, and in an instant, he clashed with the incoming Li Youyi.

"Bang! Bang!"

The flying sword and the Yellow Dragon Sword collided more than ten times in succession.

Sparks bloomed, and sword Qi overflowed.

They fought from mid-air all the way to the ground. With Li Youyi’s final sword strike, that three-inch-long crimson flying sword was shattered into fragments and destroyed on the spot.

"You..."

The Deformed elder was so angry he nearly spat out a mouthful of blood. That was an incomparably precious mid-tier magic tool; the loss was immense.

The opponent’s brass battle sword was definitely of a grade higher than a high-tier magic tool.

Having lost his flying sword, he dared even less to engage Li Youyi in close-quarters combat. He turned and flew away, preparing to widen the distance.

"Bang!"

A Phoenix-Winged Moth Emperor rushed out from behind and slammed into him.

Because he was wearing Iron-Cloth battle armor, he chose to take the hit head-on.

The tiny moth possessed strength far exceeding the Deformed elder’s estimation, comparable to the full-force punch of a Wu Xiu of the second realm of the Five Seas. His body was instantly thrown off balance by the impact.

Li Ling, holding the Zouwu which had shrunk to the size of a kitten, appeared on the ground below the Deformed elder. Dozens of bright, brilliant light marks flew out from between her brows.

Like a glowing blade of grass, it grew rapidly, turning into over ten zhang in height.

Every blade of grass was incomparably sharp, burning with flames capable of incinerating the physical body of a Five Seas realm Wu Xiu. It entangled the Deformed elder and quickly burned through his protective magic power.

"Heavenly Fire realm!"

As the Deformed elder fell downward, he mobilized his magic power and injected it into his Iron-Cloth battle armor. Immediately after, a zhang-tall battle-method intent figure manifested, pushing the flaming light marks apart.

Li Youyi would never give him a chance to break free, and he struck out with a sword that tore through the air.

"Puchi!"

The Deformed elder raised his arm to block, but how could he stop the Yellow Dragon Sword?

Both his arm and his brow were pierced through.

With a sword-sheathing motion, the Deformed elder’s corpse hit the ground with a thud.

The Zouwu showed a look of disappointment in its eyes, waving its claws, clearly wanting to participate.

"Go!"

Li Youyi didn’t even have the interest to strip the Iron-Cloth battle armor from the body. He recalled the seven Phoenix-Winged Moth Emperors and immediately activated the stealth power of his high-tier magic tool, the Night-Walking Cloak. His figure vanished, and he fled toward another direction in the night.

Li Ling held the Underworld Lamp; the light turned from blue to dim, and then her whole person merged into the night.

They certainly didn’t think they could shake off the pursuers of the Iron-Clad Army this way, because there was no time to erase the tracks on the ground.

But when the pursuers had to slowly search for tracks on the ground to continue forward, how could they catch up to them?

Two hours later.

Li Youyi and Li Ling had already penetrated several hundred li into the Longshan Mountain Range. Their internal magic power and thought power were almost completely exhausted. Fortunately, there were no auras of pursuers behind them; they had clearly shaken them off for the time being.

Taking this opportunity, Li Youyi released the seven Phoenix-Winged Moth Emperors, which grabbed the two of them and flew for a distance, thereby cutting off the tracks on the ground.

They continued forward.

The peaks in the mountain range became increasingly majestic and towering, like giants, with their summits completely submerged in the clouds.

In the sky, shrill cries could be heard from time to time as flocks of giant Death-Spirit Bone Birds flew overhead. One could imagine that if those flying Deformed Wu Xiu were to penetrate this deep, they would never dare to fly above the treetops.

The ground in the forest was heavy with Yin energy, appearing with large numbers of stone horses, stone tigers, stone figurines, and stone tablets... Every time they walked a distance, hair-raising sounds emerged from the darkness.

Sometimes it was the sound of rapid footsteps, sometimes the laughter of children, or the murmurs of a woman.

Li Youyi and Li Ling slowed down, desperately recovering their magic power and thought power, restraining their auras as much as possible.

The kitten-sized Zouwu jumped and ran beside Li Ling’s feet, stopping from time to time to bare its teeth and hiss at the darkness, looking fierce.

It was no strange thing that the depths of the Longshan Mountain Range were full of Death-Spirit Evil Demons. With Li Youyi’s current Five Seas realm cultivation, he did not fear ordinary evil things, and his courage was far greater than before.

Both of them were silent, not at all like the playful, bickering selves they once were.

Leaving behind the false, returning to the real.

Li Youyi broke the silence and asked, "I heard that every mountain peak in the Longshan Mountain Range is an emperor’s tomb, burying many ancient Sons of Heaven. Is that really the case?"

Li Ling was preoccupied, her pretty face solemn: "There is such a saying! It is said that the Sons of Heaven of Yingzhou have buried themselves in the Longshan Mountain Range since ancient times. Because this place is close to the Blood Sea and the Death-Spirit Mist Domain, where coffins from other worlds gather, it is a world-renowned land of extreme Yin. Being buried here might offer a chance to reverse life and death."

"Of course, the legends are surely exaggerated. It’s impossible for every peak to be an ancient Son of Heaven’s tomb. If a Longevity realm expert were to rashly excavate such a tomb, they might suffer disaster."

"In reality, many peaks in the Longshan Mountain Range have been hollowed out by grave robbers; there are extraordinary tombs, but they don’t reach the level of an ancient Son of Heaven."

Magic power glowed on their legs as they moved, taking two or three zhang per step.

Arriving at an open area halfway up a mountain, Li Youyi stood at the edge of the cliff, looking toward the direction of Yaoguan City.

The sky was dim, and Yin energy steamed between the trees.

"Calculating the time, it should be dawn. Why is the entire sky covered by dark clouds, with no light to be seen?"

Li Youyi felt the terror of the depths of the Longshan Mountain Range. The celestial phenomena here were completely different from the outside. Being in it made him feel depressed and stifled; he only wanted to leave as soon as possible.

Li Ling pointed behind him: "Look over there!"

Li Youyi turned to look.

A hundred li away, a magnificent mountain range, like a giant dragon lying prone, stretched across the east and west.

The height from the ground to the top of the mountain range was likely six or seven thousand meters, like a black barrier at the end of the world, blocking all sight.

The dark clouds above their heads still had a faint brightness, but the clouds above that distant mountain range were completely dead black, like a dense, impenetrable black cloth.

Li Ling said, "I have never been to the depths of the Longshan Mountain Range. But that place should be the final ridge of the Longshan Mountain Range, the last line of defense in that great war a thousand years ago. Once we cross it, we can leave the Lingxiao Life Realm and enter the boundless Realm of the Dead."

"It is said that a thousand years ago, the other side of the mountain range was also a prefecture governed by the Jiuli tribe, called Yunzhou."

"According to the elders who have crossed the mountain range to trade in the Death-Spirit Market, Yunzhou is completely shrouded in darkness. The former villages and market towns are desolate, leaving only ruins. The former cities, because of the existence of Heavenly Law Earth Springs, can grow all kinds of precious herbs, and have been occupied by Death-Spirits and Evil Demons, turning into ghost cities and demon domains."

"In Yunzhou, humans are extinct. Only those with powerful cultivation dare to penetrate the darkness, heading to the former prefectural cities or sect ruins to search for treasures and classics lost for a thousand years."

"This Iron-Clad Army of the Three Chen Palace must have borrowed the path from Yunzhou, bypassing the other side of the mountain range to reach Yaoguan City, which is why they descended like divine soldiers, catching us off guard."

In Li Youyi’s mind, he thought of Zhu Qinfeng, the Yanzhou Governor who died in the depths of the Jiuli Insect Valley, and asked, "What about Yanzhou then?"

Li Ling was not very knowledgeable and said uncertainly, "Yanzhou seems to be located even further west of Yunzhou."