Chapter 195: Wangchuan Flower

Xu Chen felt somewhat discouraged.

These two old geezers were much more difficult to deal with than Feng Feiyi had described; these ordinary items alone were simply not enough to move them.

Just as he was contemplating whether to take out a few more truly good items to bribe them, Feng Zhao suddenly whispered a few words into the ear of one of the elders; the elder's body shook and his face showed extreme astonishment, then after a moment of hesitation, he sent a voice transmission to Xu Chen:

"Our people say you have a very strange object kept outside that can fly within Minghuang Di Jie. If you are willing to leave that object behind, I can consider letting you go to the Ancestral Temple once."

Now it was Xu Chen's turn to hesitate.

What Feng Zhao spoke of was certainly that Clam Shell Boat.

The experiences of the past few days of wandering told him that the utility of the clam shell was immense, perhaps even more important than finding information at the Feng Clan Ancestral Temple.

Because the Feng Clan had lived here for who knows how many years and were incomparably familiar with the situation of the Ancestral Temple, if they said there were no clues, then it was almost certainly 90% true that there were no clues; the remaining 10% was nothing more than a faint, lingering hope Xu Chen held onto himself.

If the Ancestral Temple truly recorded the path to the Mortal World, these human descendants would absolutely not be content to be trapped here.

At the very least, the tone of the elder's own speech just now had already expressed this helpless sentiment.

But if he lost the Clam Shell Boat, Xu Chen would lose a very powerful defensive Magic Treasure.

This shell could withstand even the impact of a Fourth-Rank Soul Beast, greatly increasing his chances of surviving in this dark, sunless place.

If not for the clam shell previously, he might have already perished, let alone saved Feng Feiyi and successfully arrived at this savage tribe where the human race resided.

Therefore, after weighing the options, he decided to give up this opportunity.

Because according to Feng Feiyi, there was not only this one tribe of the Feng Clan nearby, but several other gathering places for human descendants; if this place would not keep him, there would surely be another place that would. He decided to go to other tribes to try his luck.

Thus, Xu Chen could only sigh and cup his hands, saying: "That clam shell is something I found in the Underworld River; I still have use for it and cannot give it up, so I must apologize. However, I still hope to use some items to exchange with the Feng Clan for map information on other nearby tribes."

The face of the elder who had been speaking immediately fell, and he revealed a cold, sinister look: "Since that is the case, say no more. You must leave here immediately and do not appear near the Feng Clan tribe again, otherwise, we will kill you!"

Xu Chen was silent for a moment, waved his hand to collect the pile of miscellaneous items on the ground into his Storage Bag, then nodded lightly and said: "Since it is so, I will not disturb you further. Farewell!"

After speaking, Xu Chen turned and walked away without looking back. A low clamor and commotion broke out among everyone in the cave, and Feng Zhao and a group of strong men stepped forward in unison to block Xu Chen's path, clearly not wanting to let him leave just like that.

"Naxiyunnietuga..."

Feng Feiyi angrily stepped forward, trying to push the group of men away, but Feng Zhao and the others refused to yield. Xu Chen's expression also slowly turned cold; he turned to look at the elder who had spoken earlier and sent a cold voice transmission: "Could it be that you want to kill me now?"

The elder was silent for a moment and said: "We do not want it to be this way, but that object is of great use to us. This is also a very reasonable exchange opportunity for you."

"Haha..." This time, Xu Chen directly released his Divine Sense, enveloping everyone in the hall, and said with a face full of mockery: "Do not think wrongly. I am indeed here to ask for your help, but in reality, I am also helping you. Once I truly find the way out, it will also be great news for you; perhaps you will also be able to leave Minghuang Di Jie and return to the Mortal World from then on. Besides, do you think that just because there are many of you, you can really keep me here?"

As he spoke, a green light soared from the top of Xu Chen's head, transforming into a Bronze Ancient Mirror that hung above him. At the same time, he flipped his hand and grasped the Profound Green Thunder Fire Pestle. Accompanied by a large amount of Yuan Qi being poured into the two Magic Treasures, the Spectral Mirror immediately released a Green Light Array projection that enveloped his entire body, and thunder light surged on the Thunder Fire Pestle, crackling and popping as it released blinding lightning.

A powerful and terrifying aura instantly enveloped the entire stone cave hall.

Everyone exclaimed and retreated. The two elders' faces changed drastically. Feng Zhao and the others hurriedly released rolling Soul power to resist this aura, while all of them took out their Giant Forks and retreated in terror.

Xu Chen looked at the two elders and smiled faintly: "This is the lair of your Feng Clan. All of your hundreds of women, children, and elders are here. If you want to kill me, you must be prepared for your clan to be wiped out. At worst, I will perish together with you today. After all, if I cannot find the way out, I will soon die here anyway. Whether I die a day early or a day late, there is actually not much difference."

Facing the two Magic Treasures with terrifying auras that Xu Chen had suddenly released, the two elders finally understood that Xu Chen's strength was not as simple as they had seen earlier; it was clearly hidden very deep.

They had never heard of these two strange Magic Treasures, which, while opening their eyes, made them even more certain that Xu Chen was indeed a person from the Mortal World.

Linking this to Xu Chen's experience of falling from the Mortal World into the Underworld and his journey of wandering alone in the Underworld River to get here, they instantly became even more terrified, feeling that they had completely misjudged him. Therefore, one of them hurriedly waved his hand and said a few words loudly. Feng Zhao and the group of men all nervously and slowly put down the weapons in their hands. Once the atmosphere in the hall had eased slightly, the elder finally managed to squeeze out a stiff, ugly smile and sent a voice transmission:

"Please do not be agitated. Let us talk things over properly."

Xu Chen sneered: "I was talking properly just now."

The red patterns on the elder's face could not help but twitch and distort a few times, and he could only hurriedly continue to send a voice transmission: "Since you are unwilling to give up that object, we will not force you. However, apart from that object, the other things on you are of no use to us. Our Feng Clan does indeed have ancestral teachings that non-Feng Clan members are not allowed to enter the Ancestral Temple. But if you can produce other useful things from Minghuang Di Jie for us, we can make an exception and let you go in once."

Xu Chen immediately breathed a sigh of relief, thinking to himself that if you had said that earlier, it would have been over.

Ancestral teachings are just like oaths; they are no different from passing wind.

He had originally felt that the few Minghuang Di Jie items he had found were strange but likely useless to these Minghuang people, so he simply hadn't taken them out. Now that the other party had given him a way to step down, he put away his two Magic Treasures, then wiped his hand across his Storage Bag, and instantly, a bulbous plant blooming with a hundred flowers appeared.

As soon as this flower was brought out, the temperature in the entire hall dropped sharply, and a thick, cold mist surged in the air. As everyone exclaimed and retreated, many people let out loud cries of shock, and even the two elders' faces changed drastically.

The elder who had spoken earlier pointed at the white flower in Xu Chen's hand, his withered yellow beard and hair trembling incessantly, so excited that he was at a loss for what to do.

Feng Feiyi also excitedly rushed to Xu Chen's side and exclaimed: "Wangchuan!"

These three words were incomparably clear. Xu Chen naturally heard them clearly as well. Although it was just a homophone, he still turned his head sharply to look at Feng Feiyi and asked via voice transmission: "What does that mean?"

Because the two words "Wangchuan" also had legends in the Mortal World.

It is said that there is an Underworld beneath the earth, controlled by ghosts and gods. After people in the world of the living die, they pass through the Ghost Gate Pass into the Underworld, travel the Yellow Springs Road to be reincarnated, and Wangchuan is a river on the Yellow Springs Road.

Although these are all folk stories, the Immortal World has never denied this claim.

When mortals die, their souls naturally scatter.

But if a cultivator dies, it does not necessarily mean they are completely gone. As long as their Soul is strong enough, they might exist in the state of a Yin Spirit. Whether they can go to the Underworld to be reincarnated is unknown, but after becoming a Yin Spirit, some strange things do indeed happen, and they come into contact with things that flesh and blood cannot touch.

Those who practice Qi cultivation firmly believe in this.

The higher one's cultivation, the clearer one's understanding of this world becomes. For mortals, ghosts and gods are legendary stories, but for cultivators, they are truly existing things, just difficult to come into contact with.

In history, countless immortal-cultivating predecessors are said to have been to the Underworld, and many Immortal Sects even have surviving Jade Slips that can prove it.

This includes Yuqing Hall; when Xu Chen was observing and studying a large number of secret techniques last time, he had indeed seen some records about Yin Spirits and ghosts inside, otherwise, there would not be such inconceivable and miraculous Spirit Pills as Ghost Pills.

And the Wangchuan Flower had once appeared in some of the records of Yuqing Hall.

The Ghost Spirit True Monarch who invented the Ghost Pill clearly stated in the Jade Slips he left behind that he had once traveled through the Underworld with his soul and had seen a large number of blooming white flowers.

Although some questioned whether this Ghost Spirit True Monarch had developed hallucinations because he practiced with his Yin Spirit and made himself ghostly, which of the great cultivators who could reach the Spirit Realm was not a person of profound Dao practice and a firm Dao heart? How could they easily have hallucinations?

And the legend of the Underworld is nine times out of ten the Underworld.

This is also a consensus in the Immortal World; it is just that no one knows where the Underworld is.

The Black Wind in the Black Wind Ridge rift, as Wuyazi hinted, is the Nether Qi leaking from the Underworld.

After Xu Chen fell down, not only was there an Underworld River in the sky, but in this Minghuang Di Jie, there was also a flower called Wangchuan. It can be seen that many legends and sayings in the Mortal World are not just imagined out of thin air.

Linking this to the fact that these Minghuang natives were also descendants of the human race who guarded this place ten million years ago, it proves even more that the claims about the Underworld and the Underworld were once real, and it was only because the passage between the Underworld and the Mortal World was severed that, under the erosion of the passage of time, they slowly turned into mythological stories.

"The Wangchuan Flower is very useful to us; it is very difficult to pick." Facing Xu Chen's question, Feng Feiyi's voice trembled slightly.

Xu Chen then handed this Wangchuan Flower to the elder and said: "Since it is useful, that is for the best. I will use this flower to exchange for the opportunity to enter your Ancestral Temple, how about that?"

The elder hurriedly took the incomparably cold flower with both hands and took a deep breath. As a wisp of cold mist was inhaled into his nostrils, the strange red patterns on the elder's face instantly faded significantly.

"It has been so many years since I felt this comfortable!"

In Xu Chen's mind, a sigh of incomparable comfort and contentment rang out.

(End of chapter)