Chapter 99

"On him... are those golden trace veins?" Yao Yin said.

The light in Hidden Twenty-Four's pupils converged, and she said coldly: "I'm afraid so, otherwise how could he defeat the Hundred Meridians All-Silver Nine Springs Pure Immortal Body with Eight Springs cultivation?"

Yao Yin said: "But, I heard that being able to refine one or two golden trace veins is a very remarkable achievement. On him, one, two... simply countless..."

Li Li Youyi suddenly laughed loudly: "I understand! We were attracted by that purple cistanche and accidentally 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 trace veins on his body, the illusions in the ash region could not deceive Li 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. I'm afraid it was 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.

"Go, follow closely behind me, don't fall behind, and don't be affected by other thoughts or hallucinations."

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

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

After the three of them walked out for hundreds of meters, the wind suddenly picked up.

"Rustle!"

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

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

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

"What embers?"

Li Li Youyi didn't dare to turn around.

This mental technique taught by Master Spirit Tablet was too pitfall-prone, difficult to control freely. Other great mental masters' mental power eyes were not so evil at all; how could it be possible to just happen to be able to pierce through veils?

Yao Yin's steps paused, and she pointed at a burning sand dune in front in horror, trembling: "Ember spirits... human-shaped ember spirits..."

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

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

Too strange, they didn't look like life forms at all.

"They're coming... run!"

Li 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, Hidden Twenty-Four grabbed Yao Yin and erupted with the speed only a Five Seas Realm martial cultivator could have, crossing several zhang in one step.

The six ember spirits were extremely fast; as they rushed over, the sky was full of sparks, like fire rain under the night sky. They made roars that definitely didn't belong to humans, and the entire ash region was filled with sand, with wild winds howling.

Hidden Twenty-Four was already extremely regretful in her heart; she shouldn't have agreed to Li Li Youyi bringing Yao Yin here. Those six ember spirits were simply not something her current cultivation could contend with; once encountered, how should this battle be fought?

"Clang clang!"

A dull 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, with its head held high and its fur bright.

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

Hidden Twenty-Four reached out and took it; after borrowing the force, she carried Yao Yin and landed on the camel's back together. 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.

Thinking about it, it would only take a few breaths to reach the bottom of the sand dune where the cistanche was located.

"Awoo!"

After the largest ember spirit let out a long howl, it spat out a long dragon gathered from sparks, which wandered in mid-air and quickly chased the camel in front.

Hidden Twenty-Four turned and stood up, mobilized the magic energy in her body, and continuously injected it into a mirror-shaped magic tool.

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

"Boom!"

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

Li 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 Li Youyi's eyelids contracted; only then did he discover that in front of him 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 grew on a yellow mud boat stranded on the riverbed, its roots tied to the top of a skeleton's head.

The camel stopped on the bank, and Li Li Youyi didn't dare to move forward.

The scene before his eyes was too creepy, and it didn't look right no matter how he looked at it; he felt that he might have been deliberately lured here. He had been set up in the spider cave.

Hidden Twenty-Four's gaze was fixed: "A dried-up big river in the 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 Li Youyi frowned and looked back.

The hissing sounds of the six ember spirits were endless, and they were catching up quickly.

"I... I'll try it; Grandfather said that I and the ash region are destined to have some kind of intersection..."

Yao Yin suddenly spoke.

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

"Pop pop!"

Dense ice-cracking sounds rang out on Yao Yin's jade-white skin; from her fingertips and feet, it spread upward, and after passing her slender neck, cracks permeated her perfect and flawless beautiful face.

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

"Whoosh—"

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

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

After only persisting for a moment, Yao Yin's pupils bled, and she sat back on the camel's back limply, falling into Hidden Twenty-Four's arms.

Li Li Youyi had clearly felt an unusual demonic aura erupt from her body just now; he was somewhat surprised and looked at Hidden Twenty-Four.

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

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

"Cousin!"

Hidden Twenty-Four corrected, then her gaze fell 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 that she survived. I think we might have no other choice..."

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

Li Li Youyi was not a person without human feelings.

What's more, to leave this ash region, he had to go to that yellow mud boat to investigate one way or another.

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

The riverbed was full of pebbles, and the black sand was only a thin layer; finally, there was a sense of security of having his feet on solid ground.

The yellow mud boat was about thirty meters long, with only a rough hull structure left, 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 Li Youyi put the camel into the Evil Camel Bell, looked back, and found that the six ember spirits were standing on the opposite riverbank, glaring like tigers watching their prey, but they didn't dare to enter the riverbed.

"If I had known, I shouldn't have been greedy; this world is more strange and dangerous than I imagined."

Li Li Youyi sighed like this and looked at Hidden 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."

Hidden Twenty-Four pointed 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, Hidden Twenty-Four's courage was naturally not small, but at this moment, her back was getting colder and colder, and the top of her head and the soles of her feet were icy.

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

Under the illumination of the purple light of the cistanche on the top of its head, the official robe was flowing with light and color, and the cloud dragon pattern on the chest patch was lifelike, with the dragon form vigorous, riding the clouds and driving the mist.

Inside the official robe, there was only a skeleton left; who knew how many years it had been dead.

Li Li Youyi flew onto the boat a step later and looked at the bow, discovering that Hidden Twenty-Four was actually rummaging through the skeleton, simply having no taboos, and couldn't help but admire her incomparably.

"Any discoveries?"

Confirming there was no danger, Li Li Youyi walked over.

Hidden Twenty-Four took out a golden imperial edict from the bosom of the skeleton's official robe; after opening it, Dharma characters emerged one by one inside. After reading carefully, she said: "Sure enough, it's a Prefecture Governor, matching the pattern on the official robe patch... This is his appointment edict document... Yan Prefecture Governor..."

"Yan Prefecture was one of the Nine Prefectures under the jurisdiction of the Nine Li clan a thousand years ago, and it had long since 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 Li Youyi looked toward the winding and broad river channel: "Could it be that this ancient river can lead to Yan Prefecture from underground?"

"There is that possibility."

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

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

After Hidden Twenty-Four handed the edict to Li Li Youyi, she continued to rummage, and below 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 Prefecture Governor's Seal?"

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

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

Hidden Twenty-Four said: "You really don't understand anything! The two most important treasures that a Prefecture Governor can use to suppress a prefecture are the official robe and the seal, both of which are incomparably precious magic tools."

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

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

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

Li 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 that the cistanche belonged to you, and I didn't want a single bit of the treasure medicine."

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

"Good!"

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

Hidden Twenty-Four's scheme succeeded, and she smiled: "Forgot to tell you, the Prefecture Governor's official robe and seal on him have already fallen into silence."

"You must know that before every Prefecture 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 silence 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 prefectures fell was largely because Chan Hai Guan Wu went missing, the Prefecture Governors' terms ended one after another, and the official robes and seals lost their power."

"If the Prefecture Governors still possessed the power of the official robes and seals, holding onto one or two hundred prefectures should not have been a problem. Instead of being like now, with only twenty-eight prefectures remaining."

"No going back on your word! Anyway, my account of hundreds of millions of copper coins is considered wiped out!"

Li Li Youyi's thoughts turned a hundred times, thinking of many things in an instant; finally, he nodded and stared at the cistanche growing on the skeleton's head. He wanted to know why it could project into the spider cave?

Seeking monthly votes!

(End of chapter)