Chapter 535: The Legendary Figure

"This is fucking interesting!"

Sha Li Fei looked at the surrounding courtyard walls and sneered coldly: "Is this some kind of demon nest?"

As he spoke, he drew his flintlock pistol with a metallic clatter from his waist.

The bodyguards in the courtyard were also terrified, quickly drawing their weapons and backing against each other, scanning the surroundings.

Shunyuan Escort Agency belonged to the Huangling Sect, specializing in transporting items for the Daoist sects; they had accompanied Wang Tianzuo and seen many strange things on the road.

But they had never encountered anything like this before.

The animals above were clearly minor spirits that had gained sentience and cultivated some power, utterly unafraid of humans.

Squeak!

Hss~

They stared down, making various sounds.

Shunyuan Escort Agency had only Wang Tianzuo and one apprentice as sorcerers; the rest were ordinary people, at best martial artists familiar with certain taboos.

Hearing these sounds, they were immediately bewitched.

Their eyes turned vacant, and their weapons clattered to the ground.

"All of you get the hell out!"

Seeing this, Sha Li Fei flew into a rage, one hand gripping the throat of the weasel's corpse, the other raising his pistol to press against Wang Tianzuo's head.

At these words, all the small animals fell silent at once.

Lu San was clearly also angry.

His face darkened as he pulled a scale from his robe.

This was a scale from the "Tuo Shi."

After forming a pact with this great spirit, he could now draw upon its power; this scale had been made into a talisman as a conduit.

Huh~

As Lu San chanted a spell, a violent wind erupted around them.

The dominant aura of the "Tuo Shi" spread outward.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The minor spirits were instantly terrified and vanished without a trace.

"Hmph!"

Sha Li Fei let out a cold snort, his eyes filled with suspicion, and asked quietly: "Lu San, why let them go?"

He knew that although these minor spirits were numerous, their cultivation was weak; Lu San had more than enough power to subdue them.

At the very least, he could have killed half of them.

"Something's off."

Lu San frowned slightly and shook his head: "When I entered the city, I saw the Guanxian City God Temple was packed with worshippers; I heard they hold annual sacrifices to Erlang Shen, and there's even a temple to General Yang Si by the river mouth."

"Ordinary minor spirits wouldn't dare come near."

Sha Li Fei pondered, "You mean someone's behind this?"

"Save the man first, then we'll talk."

Lu San nodded and immediately went to the group, forming a hand seal with his left hand while shaking his bead necklace, then tapping each escort's forehead with his right hand.

Pat! Pat! Pat!

A series of taps, and all of them regained consciousness.

These men had merely lost their souls; easily remedied.

Wang Tianzuo, however, was more complicated.

Lu San first fetched a red cord, tightly binding the old weasel's corpse, then formed a spell and pressed his finger onto Wang Tianzuo's forehead, lifting upward.

Huh~

Dark winds surged; a thick black smoke roared from Wang Tianzuo's mouth, spiraling into the old weasel's corpse.

Soon, Wang Tianzuo's gaze grew vacant—he seemed to regain a flicker of awareness, then fainted.

"Master!"

His apprentice, watching nearby, looked frantic.

"No worry. His soul is wounded—he just needs to sleep it off."

Sha Li Fei and Lu San offered reassurance.

They had seen this before, several times.

Whether it's a spirit possession or soul disturbance, the soul always suffers; the unlucky become fools, the slightly luckier still need half a month to recover.

The opponent held back—Wang Tianzuo wasn't seriously hurt.

That was also why Lu San didn't go all out.

First, they needed to find out why someone was targeting them.

Thinking this, Lu San walked to the old weasel and spoke coldly: "Since you're awake, stop pretending."

At these words, the old weasel immediately opened its eyes.

Bound by the red cord and sealed with restrictions, it struggled once, realized it couldn't escape, then glared with its glossy black eyes at Sha Li Fei and Lu San.

"What are you staring at?"

Sha Li Fei glared back. "I know you can speak human speech. Since you're caught, just confess—who sent you?"

But the old weasel remained unmoved, even closing its eyes, as if awaiting death.

Lu San frowned slightly and began making clicking, chattering sounds, speaking in the Upper Tongue to communicate.

The old weasel seemed to react, but still said nothing.

Sha Li Fei finally lost patience, drawing his Guanshan dagger. "If you want to die, I'll oblige!"

"Wait!"

At that moment, Wang Tianzuo, who had been unconscious, slowly came to, and seeing this, hurriedly stopped him. Supported by his apprentice, he staggered to the old weasel and weakly asked:

"Was it Brother Lu who sent you?"

This struck a nerve—the old weasel instantly bristled. "Y-you traitor!"

Its human speech was clumsy; it stammered out the insult, then burst into chittering, clicking sounds in the Upper Tongue.

Sha Li Fei and the others were utterly confused.

But Lu San frowned. After the weasel finished, he turned to Wang Tianzuo and asked gravely: "Wang Lao Ge, who exactly is this person you mentioned?"

Wang Tianzuo was equally baffled. "He goes by Lu—known in the Jianghu as Lu Laohei. I only know he's a shaman from a nearby village, quite renowned among Guanxian sorcerers."

"I had a good relationship with him, so I asked him to investigate. But he suddenly flew into a rage, told me to stay out of this, and then I was bewitched..."

"What happened? What's going on?"

Lu San glanced at the grim-faced weasel and shook his head. "That man is dead—he dropped dead right after leaving the city."

"These spirits came to drag you back for questioning."

"Dead?!"

Wang Tianzuo was even more stunned. "Brother Lu just left me—how could he..."

"Don't rush."

Lu San turned back to the old weasel and whispered in the Upper Tongue for a while.

Then, he simply tore off the red cord binding it.

Swish!

The old weasel broke free and darted up the wall.

Seeing Lu San didn't pursue and had restrained Sha Li Fei's pistol, it hesitated, chittered frantically, then leapt into the darkness.

"Quick, follow!"

Lu San gave a low command, and everyone rushed out after it.

The ancient city of Guanxian was deep in night, the streets pitch-black and utterly empty.

Strangely, the dogs in the surrounding alleys seemed terrified, cowering in their dens, trembling silently.

Under the moonlight, the old weasel ran down the street, occasionally stopping to look back—as if waiting for them.

The group quickened their pace, following closely.

Soon, they reached the city gate of Guanxian.

To their shock, the city guards were rigid, eyes vacant, with giant rats or weasels perched on their shoulders.

The gate, which should have been closed, stood wide open.

Sha Li Fei's expression turned grim. "So this is Erlang Shen's territory—and yet the spirits run rampant, so brazenly?"

Lu San whispered: "Didn't you notice the City God Temple is turning a blind eye? Let's see what happens first..."

As they spoke, the group passed through the gate.

Squeak! The old weasel let out a low cry, and immediately, rustling erupted from the surrounding trees and thickets—the escaped minor spirits reappeared.

With companions, the old weasel no longer feared them, leading them forward toward the mountains behind the ancient city.

At the entrance to a mountain path, the old weasel stopped.

The group looked up and saw a corpse lying across the path, beside it coiled a massive snake.

The snake was patterned, as thick as a man's thigh; upon seeing them, it slowly raised its head, glaring with cold eyes, flicking its tongue.

Squeak!

The old weasel approached, chattered in the Upper Tongue, as if negotiating; the snake slowly retreated several paces, yet remained sharply alert.

By now, Sha Lifei and the others had begun to suspect something.

"It's Brother Lu…"

Wang Tianzuo's face darkened; supported by his disciples, he struggled to the corpse, crouched down, and examined it.

The man wore black clothing, his face covered in thick whiskers, skin rough, a tobacco pipe tucked at his waist—he looked exactly like an old farmer working in the fields.

Please… collect… (!)

His eyes bulged wide, black blood oozing from all seven orifices, as if he had seen something terrifying—his death was horrific.

"It's my fault."

Wang Tianzuo's face filled with regret: "If only I hadn't…"

Lu San patted his shoulder, then crouched, tore open the corpse's chest garment, and felt two inches below the heart—his fingers touched a hard lump of flesh.

"It's a jujube pit curse."

Lu San said gravely: "Master Wang told me about this. It has nothing to do with Brother Wang—it must have been cursed days ago."

Saying this, he drew his waist dagger and sliced open the lump.

Squeak!

The surrounding minor demons stirred in agitation.

But they quickly fell silent.

Lu San slit the flesh and pulled out a single jujube pit.

The pit bore a strange rune, as if naturally grown, caked in blood, and still emitting a faint chill when held in the hand.

Lu San said gravely: "This is the curse of the Sanfa Sect. They bury the corpses of the wrongfully dead beneath jujube trees, chant the incantation on the first and fifteenth of each month, and pour foul blood to nourish them."

"When mature, they yield a dozen or so cursed jujubes. Once someone eats one and the incantation is spoken, the pit bursts through the stomach and drills into the heart, killing instantly."

"Again, the Sanfa Sect!"

Sha Lifei frowned, stroking his chin.

The Sanfa Sect was a folk magical sect of the southwest—neither wholly good nor evil, half shaman, half Daoist—with no fixed monastery and scattered transmission.

Some protected local communities.

Others turned to evil, using spells to harm people.

Their curses were brutal; once in Chongqing Prefecture, a Sanfa Sect sorcerer used a traveling opera troupe's lives to shield a wealthy family from disaster.

"The Sanfa Sect…"

Wang Tianzuo clenched his teeth: "This matter involves either the Shu Prince's mansion—or that Wuxiang Young Master!"

Lu San, lost in thought, turned to the old weasel and began speaking in the upper dialect, muttering softly in exchange.

Apparently, having learned the cause of death, the minor demons had completely dropped their hostility, chattering among themselves.

And Lu San's expression grew increasingly astonished.

Sha Lifei, burning with curiosity, couldn't help asking: "Brother Lu, what's going on?"

Lu San looked at the corpse on the ground and shook his head: "Have you ever heard the story of the Seven Sages of Meishan?"

"Of course."

Sha Lifei nodded quickly: "In operas, they're said to be the younger brothers of Er-lang, the Manifested Holy True Lord."

Lu San said gravely: "The opera's prototype is them. Meishan is actually 'Mei Mountain.'"

"They're a secret sect devoted to the Sichuan Lord Er-lang…"

…………

Before dawn, Li Yan opened his eyes.

He had slept early last night; the spiritual qi of Mount Qingcheng was abundant. Though chilly, he had slept soundly.

Waking up, he felt refreshed.

In good spirits, Li Yan stepped outside and went to a stone platform before Chaoyang Cave, drew in breath, and stretched his limbs.

His martial skill had long entered the Hua Jing stage.

His Pi-Gua style opened and closed like a cracking whip, blending Red Fist's thrusting and chopping as the root, Eight Methods as the transformation—powerful, yet with a single point of crimson strike.

The two styles had been fully fused.

His movements were not fast, but each punch and palm sent vibrations through his chest and abdominal fascia, faintly echoing like thunder—his aura was astonishing.

This was the next step in martial cultivation.

Li Yan must fuse all his spirit, will, flesh, tendons, and strength into one, embracing the elixir as a primordial whole.

Once the elixir was successfully formed, not a single ounce of strength would be wasted; his energy channels would flow long and unbroken, with no flaw in his power circulation.

At this stage, he had reached the physical limit.

His strength would not increase much further, but he could fight for extended periods.

The ancient generals who could ride horses, swing heavy weapons, and cut through enemy ranks seven times in and out without exhaustion—those were the ones who had achieved the Embracing Elixir state.

The next step: once the Elixir gestates a "Force," one can summon Gang Qi to enhance fists, feet, and weapons—this is called Gang Jing.

As year-end neared, snow sealed the mountains; Chaoyang Cave had no other guests, but many Daoist acolytes remained.

Hearing the commotion, they all rushed out, staring in stunned silence as Li Yan practiced his forms.

Watching martial practice was traditionally taboo.

But they glanced once—and couldn't look away, as if drawn by some magic.

At that moment, Ling Yunzi arrived and frowned upon seeing it; he was about to rebuke them, but Wang Daoxuan smiled and stopped him.

"Don't worry—Young Master Li has no such taboos."

"Thank you."

Ling Yunzi bowed solemnly and instructed the acolytes: "Seize this opportunity—watch closely. Don't speak of this afterward."

Instantly, all fell silent, watching.

Qingcheng's martial arts were naturally renowned, but such chances to observe a master's practice were rare.

Even Ling Yunzi felt a sudden insight.

Today was an unusually clear day.

Unconsciously, the distant sun rose higher.

The instant the sun crested the distant peaks, thousands of golden rays poured over Chaoyang Cave, turning the steep cliffs into glittering sheets of broken gold.

Li Yan, already in a state of self-forgetfulness, stirred inwardly, turned toward the east, opened his mouth wide, and drew in a deep breath.

Whether illusion or not, all present felt a fleeting flash of purple within the golden sunlight streaming from afar.

"Purple Qi comes from the east…"

Ling Yunzi was startled; seeing Li Yan's closed eyes, he knew the young man had gained something—and felt a pang of envy.

"Purple Qi from the east" was not as mystical as legends claimed—it wouldn't grant enlightenment of the Dao—but it was still an opportunity, capable of purifying body and spirit.

Many waited days without ever catching such a chance.

Huh~

Li Yan slowly exhaled a turbid qi, feeling utterly clear, fine sweat beading his forehead, his mind washed clean.

"Congratulations, Young Master Li."

Ling Yunzi hurried forward to offer his felicitations.

"Luck—Qingcheng truly is a Celestial Grotto and Blessed Land."

Li Yan humbly replied, then said: "Master, you've come. Let's eat first, then we'll set out."

"No need!"

Before he finished speaking, a figure flashed onto the path across the mountain…

(End of chapter)