Chapter 145: The Nether Realm of the Dead

Li Youyi secretly pondered whether, with Chan Hai Guan Wu's current power, it was still possible to reactivate the Prefecture Overseer's official robe and seal. If they could be reactivated...

The capabilities of these two items were truly extraordinary.

Especially that official robe, which had a dragon soul sealed within and seemed to possess the ability to open spatial passages.

"The Nether Realm of the Dead is bound to be extremely perilous; we must not proceed any further!"

The pitch-black sky ahead was too eerie. The Nether Realm of the Dead had once been able to swallow over two hundred prefectures of the Lingxiao Life Realm; the terrifying entities and departed spirit giants within were absolutely far beyond what they could currently imagine.

Li Youyi asked, "Can your mother find us? Or rather, will she really risk coming to find us?"

"What do you mean by that?"

Li Ling was displeased and added, "My mother and I share a blood connection. With her profound cultivation, she can naturally find me by sensing it."

Li Youyi said, "I don't mean to doubt her cultivation. I just feel that the depths of the Mang Mountain range are dangerous, and you have many siblings—you are the fourth, right? Your mother manages the overall situation of the Cangli tribe in Yao Guan City. Would she disregard the big picture for the sake of one child?"

Li Ling was no longer so certain and said, "Even if my mother doesn't come, my brother will definitely come."

"Fine, the view here is decent, so let's rest and adjust for a while, waiting quietly for reinforcements to pick us up."

Li Youyi sat cross-legged in meditation, though he did not truly rest. A sense of urgency and crisis remained in his heart, so he employed the Qi Tempering Art to temper the magic power in his Qi Sea.

The ten springs surged together, and magic power was born continuously.

At the same time, he drank from the Golden Spring to forge his bones.

His previous exchange with that elderly freak of the third realm of the Five Seas made him realize that his biggest current weakness was the purity of the magic power within his body.

First-grade Five Seas Qi against third-grade Qi would be crushed in an instant.

Fortunately, he could compensate for the gap by relying on the advantage of his battle soldiers.

But using battle soldiers like the Huang Long Sword, the Evil Camel Bell, and the Black Iron Seal casually was equivalent to a child carrying gold through a busy market; sooner or later, it would lead to big trouble.

Having a strong personal cultivation base was the only true foundation.

For him now, the fastest way to increase his strength was Qi tempering. Because when he was at the Ten Springs cultivation, his magic power combined with the Immortal Mist was already comparable to first-grade Five Seas Qi.

After breaking through to the Five Seas, the quality of the magic power in his body was actually quite close to second-grade Qi.

Li Ling looked at him with a complex expression. It was different from what she had imagined; there was no storm after the truth was revealed, nor was there a life-or-death break after being deceived. He seemed to care, yet also seemed not to care that much.

How should she treat this accidental relationship going forward?

Should they go their separate ways after escaping the Mang Mountain range, or continue to maintain a warm friendship?

She did not know where the future would lead; perhaps only after Chan Hai Guan Wu had truly spoken with him would there be a result.

If Chan Hai Guan Wu really married him, wouldn't she have to call him Master in the future? Li Ling's thoughts drifted in strange directions.

Slapping her forehead, she woke herself up.

"This place is dangerous; I cannot be as carefree as he is."

Li Ling released points of mental power from between her brows, which drifted into the forest.

Each point of light was like an eye, allowing a Great Mentalist to see places invisible to the naked eye.

Half a day later.

A residual shadow flashed.

Chen Lian rushed up the cliff and landed on that open area halfway up the mountain. He observed the surroundings carefully, and then his sharp eyes fell to the ground.

He appeared to be in his twenties, capable and spirited, wearing Wind-Riding Boots, and was a cultivator of the fourth realm of the Five Seas.

"Swish! Swish!"

Two elderly men in black iron-cloth battle suits, both of the third realm of the Five Seas, soared up one after another and landed on Chen Lian's left and right. Both held nearly two-meter-long broadswords, vigilantly guarding the surrounding mountain forest.

After investigating, Chen Lian said, "They lingered here for a long time and just left; their vigilance is high. It's Li Ling; it's her aura. No wonder she could tame the tiger-leopard beast."

One of the elders was a bear-like freak with an unparalleled sense of smell.

He quickly found the faint scent remaining in the air. He looked down the mountain, along the vast and dense dark forest, all the way to the towering mountain range a hundred miles away: "Such audacity, they have headed toward the Nether Realm of the Dead!"

Chen Lian held a seven-toothed halberd and said, "The road back to Yao Guan City is cut off; war has broken out there, with experts slaughtering each other and armies marching. We can only pursue them. If we can capture Li Ling, even if the Jiuli tribe experts catch up, I will have enough bargaining chips."

The other monkey-like freak elder hesitated: "Is that woman really Cangli's sister? Some soldiers said she is exceptionally powerful, and it was she who used a seal to smash through our army's runic mist domain."

"My judgment will not be wrong. Go!"

Chen Lian stepped on his Wind-Riding Boots and jumped off the cliff. Magic power clouds and a long river of swift wind appeared beneath his feet, and a flowing mist bridge appeared in the void. In a moment, he had pursued them for several miles.

It was Li Ling who, using her mental power, discovered Chen Lian and the others tracking them in advance, so she and Li Youyi escaped a step ahead.

Standing in the forest twenty miles away, the two looked back at the three figures on the open area halfway up the mountain.

Li Ling's pupils were lit by spirit fire, forming a foot-long beam of light: "That is the third-ranked expert of the younger generation of the Chen Palace, Chen Lian, a supreme expert second only to Chen Wenwu and Chen Xun. He often followed my brother to ask for cultivation advice and was very diligent. His elders even wanted him to marry me, but my father politely declined."

Li Youyi asked, "Compared to the elder of the third realm of the Five Seas we killed earlier, who is stronger?"

Li Ling said, "To have only reached the third realm of the Five Seas at such an old age, it is highly probable that the elder broke through to the Five Seas from the Seven Springs. But Chen Lian broke through from the Eight Springs, and I heard he has already reached the fourth realm of the Five Seas in Burial Xianzhen. Their combat power cannot be mentioned in the same breath. Strange, logically speaking, he should be in Burial Xianzhen right now... Wait for me..."

Li Ling and the tiger-leopard beast pursued Li Youyi, who was fleeing rapidly.

Li Youyi said, "It's been so long; with your mother's cultivation, she would have arrived by now if she were coming!"

Li Ling knew what he wanted to say and hurriedly said, "She must have been held up; my mother loves me very much."

"My meaning is that the battle that broke out in the valley may have already caused a chain reaction. Yao Guan City itself is a powder keg; the situation is tense, and since we ignited it, it naturally exploded completely," Li Youyi said.

Li Ling did not know what a powder keg was, but she could understand his meaning: "It must be so, so my mother and brother were just held up; it's not that they don't care about my life or death."

"So fast!"

Li Youyi looked back and happened to see Chen Lian stepping on the mist bridge. The pressure in his heart increased greatly, and he pushed his speed to the limit.

The towering mountain range on the horizon was getting closer and closer.

Most parts of the mountain range were bare, without vegetation. On the cliffs, rows of hanging coffins were placed, and tombstones stood like a forest.

Here were buried the countless heroic spirits of that great war a thousand years ago!

The closer they got, the more they could feel the majesty of the mountain range before them.

Li Youyi had wanted to head to the Mountain Lord Taiqing's tomb to rendezvous with Yin Thirteen, Yao Yin, and the others, but now he couldn't stop at all. His figure leaped up, climbing the steep cliff wall.

No matter what the scene was like on the other side of the mountain range, there was absolutely no possibility of stopping now.

Li Ling continuously released flame light trails, like a jumping, swaying spider, her speed not much slower than Li Youyi's.

An hour later, the two entered the wind and snow zone at the top of the mountain range.

The cold wind howled like a fierce ghost roaring; if they didn't use magic power to stabilize their bodies, it could blow people away.

The cold in the wind seemed capable of freezing blood and drilling into flesh and bone; even Five Seas martial cultivators found it extremely uncomfortable.

The magic power and mental power in both their bodies were consumed greatly, and the snow under their feet was deeper than their knees, making their speed slower and slower. They could only let the tiger-leopard beast transform into a giant beast to carry them forward.

The pitch-black sky was low, as if it were within reach, bringing infinite oppressive emotions to people.

On the tiger-leopard beast's back, Li Ling curled up in Li Youyi's arms, and the two held up the Ghost Flag to resist the cold wind.

Her petite body was shivering from the cold, and she held the Nether Lamp for warmth: "Chen Lian seems to have been shaken off. Is he afraid to head to the Nether Realm of the Dead?"

"I think it's because his Wind-Riding Boots consume a huge amount of magic power, which even four Qi Seas cannot withstand. He doesn't dare to pursue in a weakened state, fearing an ambush from us. We were able to instantly kill a martial cultivator of the third realm of the Five Seas; how could he possibly underestimate us?" Li Youyi analyzed.

After Li Youyi killed Chen Song, he obtained a pair of mid-grade magic artifact Wind-Riding Boots and understood their characteristics.

Li Ling said, "How about... we ambush him here?"

Li Youyi was surprised, not expecting her to be so bold: "Has Chan Hai Guan Wu recovered?"

"We... we are actually also very strong, and we have the tiger-leopard beast and seven Phoenix-Winged Moth Emperors; we have a chance of winning," Li Ling said.

Li Youyi was not surprised that she could recognize the Phoenix-Winged Moth Emperors, because the Chan Hai Guan Wu within her had this ability.

"The risk is too great; there's no need for that. It hasn't reached the point where we must fight for our lives."

Li Youyi lifted a corner of the Ghost Flag. On the snowfield behind them, there was only a long string of huge footprints, which would soon be wiped away in the wind and snow.

They had already reached the mountain ridge, where strange rocks formed peaks, ancient prayer flags fluttered, and dozens-of-zhang-high giant steles were engraved with characters from a thousand years ago. There were also skeletons and rusted armor embedded in the mountain rocks, possessing a very epic flavor, telling the history of the past to the descendants passing through this place.

"Woo!"

A neat and uniform army appeared out of thin air in the snow, wearing heavy armor and holding long spears. Their faces were all pale and colorless, without any aura of life, and they approached the tiger-leopard beast.

"It seems to be an army of departed spirits..."

Li Ling was not a little frightened and prepared to release spirit light flames to attack and drive them away.

Li Youyi stopped her.

That ancient army of departed spirits, after sensing a certain aura on the back of the tiger-leopard beast, quickly moved away and disappeared into the wind.

"They should be the heroic spirits of that great war a thousand years ago. They have turned into ghosts and are still patrolling the mountain ridge. I guess it was the Master's aura that scared them away," Li Ling said.

They crossed the mountain ridge.

They completely entered the eternally dark Nether Realm world.

Standing on high ground, they looked toward the land of the former Yun Prefecture.

The mountains were dark, the earth was vast and desolate, and there were areas on the horizon where blue flames gathered, looking like a ghost city. A great river flowed beneath the mountain, reflecting a faint white shadow.

Leaving the snow zone at the top of the mountain ridge, the cold dissipated, and Li Youyi put away the Ghost Flag.

The air was still cold, completely different from the Life Realm, but it was bearable.

Li Ling held the Nether Lamp and said, "We won't go down to the foot of the mountain. We must not enter the Nether Realm of the Dead. We will head north along the mountain range, and we can reach Zhi Prefecture, one of the seven prefectures of the Southern Region. After passing Zhi Prefecture, it is Qiu Prefecture, one of the ten prefectures of the Central Plains."

Li Youyi's ears twitched, and he looked up at the mountain ridge they had just walked over, where the wind and snow filled the sky.

In the howling cold wind, there was a low, sobbing sound of a flute, which became clearer and clearer.

"It's him, hide quickly..."

Li Youyi was no stranger to this flute sound and was very wary, so he immediately activated the stealth power of his night-traveling clothes and quickly lowered his body.

The Nether Lamp in Li Ling's hand turned dim, and she lay down beside him.

"Boom!"

On the snowy ridge at the top of the mountain, two figures were in a fierce duel, with sword chimes ringing out from time to time and dragon roars erupting.

The mountaintop exploded continuously, causing an avalanche, the roaring sound shattering the silence of the Nether Realm of the Dead.

Li Youyi stared intently and saw the dazzling light feathers on Jiang Ning's back, feeling surprised: "She is actually still hunting the Longmen successor, fighting all the way from Burial Xianzhen to the Nether Realm of the Dead?"

Beside him came Li Ling's cold voice: "A dignified Luan Terrace Angel cannot even take down a Longmen brat; it seems the Lingxiao Palace has indeed declined significantly."

Her tone was completely different!

I'm much better today, just a little soreness and fatigue, which no longer affects my typing at all.

Seeking monthly tickets!

(End of chapter)