Chapter 292: Seventh Sea, Assassination

The Underground Immortal Mansion is spherical, not a flat layer.

Over the past thousand years, the Twin Rice Sect has roughly divided the developed areas into three layers: upper, middle, and lower.

The uppermost layer, the "Sacred Heart Layer," is the cultivation site of the two Rice Ancestors. It is extremely mysterious, rarely visited, and contains the ultimate secrets left behind by the ancient Po Jialuo Sect.

The middle layer, the "Mortal World Layer," is the safest and most fertile area, heavily protected and isolated from other regions.

The Mortal World Layer is divided into twenty-eight prefectures, each spanning dozens of miles. These are the cultivation areas and benevolent rice planting zones for the sect's young disciples, responsible for propagation and education.

The Spirit Valley Hall holds the greatest authority in the Mortal World Layer.

Even foreign sect members belonging to the Heaven Hall, upon arriving at the main altar, have their residence and cultivation arranged by the Spirit Valley Hall and must submit to its management.

The lowest layer, the "Asura Layer," contains many undeveloped areas filled with fierce insects, lingering spirits, and countless unknown dangers.

The Withered Glory Hall and the Divine Prison are built within the Asura Layer.

The Heaven Hall, the head of the four halls, is situated at the northernmost end of the twenty-eight prefectures in the Mortal World Layer. It is built against a mountain, with buildings stacked upon buildings and formations covering the entire mountain body.

Looking from afar, layers of buildings and formations obscure the entire view, appearing grand and imposing.

Most of the buildings here are remnants of the ancient Po Jialuo Sect, with distinct Buddhist characteristics.

The skylight leading to the Sacred Heart Layer is located at the summit.

The Fourth Divine Son, Wang Shu, arrived at the Heaven Hall and kowtowed before a stone statue with a snake head, dragon claws, phoenix wings, dog tail, and human body.

"Reporting to Master, my younger brother's remnant soul sensed his aura. The sword he holds must be the Divine Snow Sword."

"According to the information I have gathered, Li Youyi entered the Underground Immortal Mansion together with Tang Wanzhou."

"Based on the news I've investigated, Li Youyi was taken away by the Southern Venerable. It is now almost certain that the person who fled into the South Clear Palace is the God-Hidden Person of the Nine Li Hidden Sect, Li Youyi."

"I am extremely puzzled. Li Youyi has been working against the Divine Sect everywhere. At the Hidden Dragon Lantern Festival, he killed over twenty geniuses of the Five Seas Realm from the Divine Sect. The Dao Seed Realm cultivators Wang Shouxin, Wang Zhi, and Zuo Shi all died at his hands. The Divine Sect's intelligence system in Qiuzhouzhou City has suffered heavy losses."

"For such a person, not only was he not thrown into the Divine Prison, but he can also freely enter and exit the South Clear Palace. How chilling this must be for the fallen sect members."

"The world says he is crippled! But whether he is truly crippled or not, only by probing can we know the truth."

The stone statue opened its eyes, and the entire hall turned into an ocean of light: "You want to obtain the seven rare insects in his possession?"

"Yes!"

The Fourth Divine Son replied calmly, adding: "I also want to seize the ghost flag he carries to offer to Master. Of course, what I want most is to eliminate the hidden danger for the Divine Sect and avenge the fallen sect members."

The stone statue laughed: "The Southern Venerable, Yao Qingxuan, hails from the Nine Li clan. It is only natural for her to shield the God-Hidden Person of the Nine Li Hidden Sect. But shielding a murderer who has killed countless talented Rice Sect members is truly not how a Venerable should act. Wang Shu, you do not fear power and are dedicated to the future of the Divine Sect; feel free to act boldly."

Having gained his master's support, the Fourth Divine Son was overjoyed, his expression calm: "But after he hid in the South Clear Palace, he never came out again, which is quite troublesome. I dare not break into the South Clear Palace."

The stone statue said: "Since your brother died at his hands, from a personal standpoint, any extreme action you take will be understood by the elders of the Divine Sect; they will surely stand by our own Divine Son. Furthermore, the Southern Venerable has failed in her recent mission; whether she can keep her position as Venerable is still unknown, so she likely cannot spare the attention to protect Li Youyi."

The Fourth Divine Son was cautious and did not want to offend the Southern Venerable too deeply: "I believe it would be better to force him out of the South Clear Palace before taking him. Coincidentally, the Divine Sect holds many hostages in the Divine Prison; letting them suffer there or using their blood to fertilize the rice fields is too easy on them."

The stone statue said: "Since you have your own ideas, act as you see fit! Also, you must intensify your cultivation. That woman from the Yang family is reportedly going all out to break through to the third realm of the Dao Seed; in one year, she has walked the path that would take you seven or eight years."

"Sikong Jingyuan and Sikong Yanlun are also about to return from their training in the Nether Realm, and their cultivation is said to have greatly advanced."

"If you do not condense a Dao Lotus as soon as possible, in half a year or a year, your ranking among the Divine Sons and Divine Daughters might fall into an awkward position."

The Fourth Divine Son's expression darkened: "As long as I obtain the larvae of the seven Commander-level rare insects, my status in the sect will surely rise to just below that of the Divine Son Head. Li Youyi, I will definitely capture him."

Li Youyi ignored the affairs of the outside world and immersed himself in cultivation. Accumulating strength in the Five Seas Realm is a long process that every martial cultivator must experience.

In the blink of an eye, two months passed.

With the help of the Time Cocoon, his actual cultivation time had at least doubled.

Standing in the Blood Mud Space, he performed no techniques, simply striking out with a palm, and a dragon's roar echoed.

The force of the palm made the air vibrate.

A palm-shaped energy imprint flew over ten feet away before completely dissipating.

"The remaining two dragon bones—one refined into the palm bone of the left hand, and one into the palm bone of the right hand."

Li Youyi moved his hands, feeling an abnormal heaviness, as if weighted by a thousand-jin iron; it would be difficult to resolve this discomfort in the short term.

But the increase in strength was obvious.

The items taken from the Due Temple as rewards were naturally extraordinary; it was said that a Five Seas Realm cultivator who refined one piece could challenge a Dao Seed Realm cultivator.

A year had passed since the Hidden Dragon Lantern Festival.

Li Youyi had never stopped his physical cultivation.

After achieving the Dao Body, over the past year, he had refined another jin of Immortal Soil and many Divine Stove Woods, doubling his physical strength and toughness.

Having not broken through to the Dao Seed Realm, his life essence had not undergone a fundamental transformation, and the speed at which his body absorbed Immortal Soil was becoming slower and more difficult.

Master Lingwei had once said that to cultivate a "Longevity Body" and shake a Longevity Realm giant with physical strength alone, one needed to refine about ten jin of Immortal Soil.

Without breaking through to the Dao Seed Realm, two jin of Immortal Soil was Li Youyi's current limit.

The Divine Stove Wood used for refining tendons and sculpting skin faced the same bottleneck; his body could hardly absorb any more.

It was because he had fallen into a bottleneck in physical cultivation that Li Youyi had refined the two dragon bones to enhance his strength.

What gave him an even greater headache was that his cultivation of the Seventh Sea had fallen into a stalemate due to a lack of Spring Liquid.

Of the 50,000 drops of Spring Liquid purchased earlier, 36,000 were used to cultivate the Wind Mansion, and now the Seventh Sea Ancestral Field had expanded to 14,000 square feet, and the Spring Liquid was completely exhausted.

The remaining Dao Fruit also had very little magic power left inside.

Li Youyi thought of the town he had visited earlier: "Perhaps I can buy Spring Liquid there, but without a command plate, walking out of the South Clear Palace is extremely dangerous."

"Furthermore, where will the money come from? This is a huge sum!"

Exiting the Blood Mud Space, Li Youyi pondered how to raise funds, walked out of the formation light veil of the Buddha Pagoda, and headed toward the formation where the rice fields were located.

After several days of seclusion, he was famished.

In his boundary bag, the food prepared before entering the Underground Immortal Mansion was almost all eaten.

Only two months had passed in the real world, but for him, he had been in the South Clear Palace for four or five months, and he really missed a bowl of hot soup. Yao Qingxuan was a Longevity Realm cultivator who could go without food or drink for long periods, and the South Clear Palace had no meat-based food at all.

Walking in the dimly lit garden.

All around were white courtyard walls, black rockeries, and purple-red glowing ancient trees.

He had walked this path countless times and had always felt the South Clear Palace was extremely safe, never maintaining high-intensity vigilance.

Suddenly.

He sensed an abnormality.

He stopped abruptly, looking at the shadows of the branches and leaves on the ground; it felt as if he were walking on water, with many ripple-like patterns appearing under his feet.

"Who is it?"

The Heaven Divine Scripture was released like a spider web.

The Heaven-Penetrating Eye opened in the center of his brow, and the entire garden became as bright as day.

Li Youyi's hair stood on end, his back ached, and without thinking, he knew he had been struck by a blow.

The opponent was lurking in the dark, skilled in concealment, and had struck while he was deep in thought, intending to kill with a single blow.

But Li Youyi was wearing the Blood Handprint Magic Armor, which blocked the sneak attack.

"Boom!"

His internal organs shook violently, and his body was thrown forward.

His physical body had been refined to an extreme degree, allowing him to withstand this blow without being severely injured, suffering only minor wounds.

Not giving the opponent a chance to follow up, he surged his magic power to activate the Blood Handprint Magic Armor. Blood mist and blood-colored scriptures quickly dissipated, filling the entire garden.

As Li Youyi was thrown back, he forcibly twisted his body and used the Heaven-Penetrating Eye to see the attacker's figure.

The opponent was extremely fast, appearing as a mass of black mist, holding a wooden sword covered in blood patterns, stabbing out like lightning.

On that wooden sword, Li Youyi sensed a strange aura he had never seen before.

He dared not touch it.

He pinched his right hand into a finger and pointed it out.

"Whoosh!"

The Compassionate Navigation Aperture-Opening Finger was fierce and domineering, turning into a beam of light that collided with the stabbing wooden sword.

The wooden sword was deflected, and the black mist figure retreated repeatedly, letting out a low, miserable roar.

Li Youyi was now cultivating the Seventh Sea and had refined the Sixth-Order Qi; the battle intent light shadow behind him reached six feet in height, a height no Five Seas Realm martial cultivator could match.

Which ordinary Dao Seed Realm cultivator could withstand this finger?

"How bold, daring to break into the Southern Venerable's territory."

After landing on the ground, Li Youyi ignored his injuries, and a spirit light fire whip flew from his brow. The whip was dozens of feet long, carrying Jin Wu flames, its golden light blinding, and it lashed out fiercely at the black mist figure.

"Boom!"

The air ignited.

The Jin Wu flames burned all the plants in the garden to ashes.

The black mist figure screamed, fell, crashed into a rockery, and stopped moving.

Li Youyi took out the Yellow Dragon Sword and flew over, pointing his sword at the figure.

He saw the figure on the ground clearly.

He was slightly stunned.

It was actually a straw man, dressed in black, the size of a real person.

Because it had just been struck by the Jin Wu flame whip, the straw crackled and burned, quickly turning to ashes. In the ashes, at the position of the heart, there was a flash of blood light.

It was a blood crystal the size of a fist, covered in numerous runes.

"Crack!"

The blood crystal exhausted its energy and shattered directly into powder.

"No wonder it could hide without any aura; it was a puppet straw man. How can a straw man be as strong as a Dao Seed Realm cultivator?"

Li Youyi felt lingering fear.

If it had stabbed at his head instead of his back just now, that would have been truly terrifying.

The six Phoenix-Winged Moth Emperors arrived at the sound, flying around him.

The six of them had grown quite a bit, but they hadn't reached a foot in length; they were approaching that limit but were unable to break through.

"It's a puppet straw man from the Heaven Hall."

Yao Qingxuan walked over from the stone path, as beautiful as if she had stepped out of a painting, cold as frost, her eyes extremely icy. She took the blood-patterned wooden sword into her hand and glanced at it: "The power of a curse!"

Li Youyi only then relaxed, his tense nerves easing slightly as he circulated his magic power to heal: "The Heaven Hall? Yao Senior, it seems the Heaven Hall does not take you, a Venerable, seriously?"

"If they truly dared not take me seriously, it wouldn't have been a straw man that broke into the South Clear Palace to kill you!"

Yao Qingxuan added: "You are still alive, which is not in vain for me getting the news and rushing back immediately. Being able to survive an assassination by a puppet straw man shows that your cultivation and strength have increased significantly."

Li Youyi was surprised: "Senior, did you return specifically to save me?"

"Before Hall Master An left the main altar, she said you could help the Golden Rice grow, so she asked me to ensure your safety."

Yao Qingxuan's body was filled with an unmelting chill; she waved her sleeve and threw the wooden sword.

"Whoosh!"

The wooden sword flew out of the South Clear Palace, streaked across a hundred miles of sky, pierced through the protective formation light veil of the Heaven Hall, and inserted itself into the door of one of the halls, the entire sword body passing through.

Several figures rushed out of the Heaven Hall, looking at the wooden sword, all staring at each other.

"Yao Qingxuan is already in trouble herself, failing even to capture a Tang Wanzhou, losing all face. Yet she is still so aggressive in protecting that boy; it's truly interesting. Does she not avoid suspicion?" A hoarse, elderly voice sounded from within the Heaven Hall.

South Clear Palace.

Yao Qingxuan said: "This sword is a warning; the old fellows in the Heaven Hall should know my attitude. No one outside the rules will attack you again, and no one will dare to break into the South Clear Palace."