Chapter 278

A Core Formation old monster was already in his twilight years.

The hair on his head only had a few strands left clinging to his scalp, unable to be tied into a Daoist crown, so it could only be tied with a peach wood hairpin. He held a phoenix-tail whisk, and his tall, withered body was nothing but skin and bones.

The old monster closed his eyes tightly. His withered white skin suddenly turned deep purple, from a deathly pale with no vitality to an eerie, greasy feeling, like the slippery human skin of a bloated corpse. His qi and blood were faint and almost imperceptible, but the deep, majestic, and eerie aura still made people's hearts tremble.

Qian Chen saw through this person's background at a glance. In front of the Supreme Heavenly Demon, showing off their shallow demonic path was only laughable.

"Another one who turned himself into a ghost... Among the methods of extending life, this kind of method is the most inferior. It is the so-called 'not enough yang longevity, so use yin longevity to make up for it'."

In the countless realms of the cosmos, for some reason, matters of the netherworld are all managed by local deities, and there is no proper netherworld like the heavenly realm, nor are there gods in charge of the netherworld. And the closest thing to the netherworld reincarnation is the Yu Yu Jiuyou Demon Realm.

The demonic path manages a very important part of the netherworld laws. The boundary between life and death is therefore not clear.

At the last moment of their lives, these cultivators use demonic path methods to transform themselves into a half-human, half-ghost, half-alive, half-dead state.

On weekdays, they follow the ghost path, staying in the world with yin longevity, and only consume yang longevity when enjoying themselves in the human world or during great battles. In this way, one year of yang longevity can allow them to live for another hundred years, but during this period, they will become more and more like ghosts. Most of them cannot live for a hundred years before they become real ghosts.

"In fact, even if they have a hundred years of yin longevity, the moments they are truly awake are few and far between."

Qian Chen coldly swept a glance at those old monsters. Noble families seek to be canonized as gods after death, so not many use this method to extend their lives. But lower-level cultivation families pursue family foundation, and there are countless old, undying monsters in the clan.

It's just that this method is taboo to the divine path, so these old monsters cannot appear openly. Therefore, these old monsters are usually not seen. This time, there were no human divine deities, city gods, or land gods monitoring in the Thunder Sea secret realm, so many of these old, undying monsters came.

"Foundation..." Qian Chen sneered in his heart.

"How many ancestors of my Louguan Dao have ascended? Even if it is difficult to achieve immortal karma in this life, whether it is for the sake of the Dao that the soul is scattered, or entering the Dao path again in the next life."

"Attaining the Primordial Spirit, living forever, and ascending to the heavenly realm is the true foundation."

"Turning oneself into something neither human nor ghost, sitting in the family, nominally to suppress qi fortune for the family's descendants and accumulate foundation, but in reality, refusing to die, squeezing the growth space of descendants, devouring qi fortune, and occupying resources. Old and undying, this is called a thief... these people are family thieves, life thieves!"

Qian Chen was extremely disdainful of this, otherwise he would not have used the demon cave to connect the ancestral graves of the noble families in the surrounding counties, turning the eight demon bodies suppressed in the demon cave into terrifying curses that entangled these people.

As for the ghost transformed by the old monster, Qian Chen was also very familiar with it; it was a purple-skinned Yaksha.

There are many kinds of Yakshas. Qian Chen once used the Moon Demon Painted Skin Sutra to peel the ghost skin of two indigo-faced ghost king Yakshas. Strictly speaking, they were stronger than this purple-skinned Yaksha.

It is also the way of stealing heaven and changing days, and living a precarious life. The demonic path can transform itself into a Moon Demon that Yaksha ghost gods fear, and seize their longevity. But the Lei family's old monster could only abandon part of his human body and yang longevity, mix blood with ghosts, devour blood food, worship ghost objects, and transform into a hybrid Yaksha.

The old monster who transformed into a purple-skinned Yaksha was more like a dead person than a living person at this moment. He headed toward the life lamp, his mouth and nose no longer breathing.

As he gradually approached the human-figure bronze lamp, the lamp flame on the life lamp did not flicker in the slightest.

The black-faced man Ma Laohei, who was standing beside Qian Chen, clicked his tongue: "The old monsters of noble families are ruthless enough. Guo Lao used the aura of decay of someone about to die to cover his vitality and steal life oil. And these old monsters simply transformed into ghost gods and dead people, not even counting as living people. No matter how you burn vitality, you can't do anything to them."

The overseas loose cultivator also sighed: "It seems that the longevity lamp oil accumulated in this demon cave for thousands of years will all be cheap for these old monsters!"

Qian Chen shook his head calmly: "That's not necessarily true..."

The Jin family old monster who had previously wanted Qian Chen to reveal the secret of the bronze human-figure life lamp and let bygones be bygones sneered: "Are the methods of our noble families something you can speculate about?"

"Just a purple-skinned Yaksha, it's only the lowest-level ghost god in the Nine Nethers. Wanting to steal life oil from the hands of a bronze human figure, it would be almost enough if a Flying Yaksha came." Qian Chen was blunt and retorted.

"Flying Yaksha?" Ma Laohei looked at Qian Chen with wide eyes, waiting for his explanation.

"The Flying Yaksha is the most ferocious existence among ghost god Yakshas. When zombies in the world reach Mahayana, the beastly ones transform into Hou, the divine ones transform into Ba, the fierce ones transform into demons, those without flesh are Unchanging Bone, and the demonic ones transform into Flying Zombies. Flying Zombies—are a kind of extremely powerful Flying Yaksha."

"Besides that, Corpse-Dissection Immortals who practice Taiyin Refining Form, once they go astray and transform into ominous demon objects, may also cultivate into Flying Yakshas. There are also Flying Yakshas in the Yu Yu Jiuyou Demon Realm. These demon objects are terrifying existences that even Yang Spirit True Persons find very troublesome, and the strong ones among them can fight Primordial Spirit True Immortals. How can this half-human, half-ghost purple-skinned Yaksha compare!" Qian Chen explained in great detail.

Someone from the Lei family sneered: "Just a loose cultivator who has read some miscellaneous books, also coming here to show off. This bronze human-figure lamp, doesn't my uncle-grandfather know more about it than you?"

"When he retrieves the lamp oil, what value do you still have?"

Qian Chen said calmly: "Your uncle-grandfather who knows everything, has he ever thought—the bronze dragon snake on the life lamp is guarding against living people stealing lamp oil, but such a large bronze human figure is there... what is it guarding against?"

Hearing this, Lei Yu was shocked and hurriedly said to the family disciples beside him: "Go and call your fourth ancestor back!"

The old monster who was approaching the life lamp had already reached out his hand to reach for the lamp in the human figure's hand. He slowly reached out, holding a small jade bottle in his hand, which was also a magic treasure of excellent quality.

The smell of earth rust and copper rushed toward him from the bronze human figure. The cold human figure had no vitality, and the cast bronze face was eerie and strange. At this time, a strange feeling of oppression spread inexplicably throughout the old monster's body, making his body tremble uncontrollably.

It was as if it were the instinct of that evil ghost Yaksha.

The old monster slowly turned his head and saw a ferocious bronze face already close to him. The terrifying aura that made him tremble rushed toward him, and a bronze giant hand pierced through his chest, ripping his internal organs out alive.

The Yaksha body was so intimidated by that aura that it couldn't move a single bit.

The Lei family old monster, whose heart had been dug out, screamed crazily. Starting from the top of his head, his whole body melted like a candle, turning into a pool of purple liquid, causing the life lamp fire to turn into an eerie ghostly white.

Qian Chen sighed: "If he hadn't transformed into a ghost god body, he might have had some power to resist. But using a Yaksha body to steal lamp oil, isn't this just sending himself to death? What do you think those strange underworld artifacts and those eerie human-figure god statues in the ruins of the Tianzhou era are guarding against? What are the various arrangements in this tomb, the human-figure bronze lamps, resisting the invasion of?"

Lei Yu raised his head, looked at Qian Chen, and said word by word: "In ancient times, the Earth Immortal Realm was connected to the Nine Nethers. After many powerful cultivators died, to prevent their own corpses from being invaded by the Nine Nethers, they set up various means in their tombs, using the ways of witches, demons, and the Xuan Sect to resist the darkness from the Nine Nethers."

"At that time, when the emperors and princes of the divine dynasty died, there were powerful Qi Refiners, martial artists, and wizards loyal to them who voluntarily sacrificed themselves, transforming into ghost gods guarding the mausoleum in the tomb. At the same time, they would also slaughter cultivators, demon beasts, and various other living beings as sacrifices. At most, one emperor's mausoleum would have a million living beings sacrificed. There were dozens of undying existences buried within."

Qian Chen nodded slightly: "During the period of the Hundred Schools of Thought contending in the Middle Ages, the sages of the Hundred Schools severed the connection between the Divine Land and the Nine Nethers. Since then, the Nine Nethers could no longer easily invade, so there was no longer a need to set up means in the tomb to guard against those eerie things."

After the bronze human figure made its move, it seemed to trigger a chain reaction. Several nearby bronze human figures came to life, carrying life lamps, and attacked the Core Formation old monsters who were approaching them, killing them mercilessly.

That Core Formation old monster who had transformed into a stone statue and wanted to steal life oil was also torn to pieces by two bronze statues.

On both sides of the tomb passage, the bronze human figures all came to life and killed those old monsters closest to them. If the Core Formation old monsters wanted to use magic power, they would have their longevity burned out by the life lamp. If they wanted to transform into ghost objects to resist, they had no power to fight back against the Snake-Controlling God that restrained ghost objects.

In just a few breaths, four or five Core Formation old monsters died miserably.

Even many Penetrating Law cultivators who were slightly closer had their longevity burned. Ma Laohei saw with his own eyes a young Jin family cultivator who, because he wanted to save an ancestor, had his vitality ignited by the life lamp and visibly aged, his hair turning half gray.

After that person barely escaped, he counted on his fingers, his hands still trembling uncontrollably. A moment later, he looked up in horror and said: "I can only live for another twenty years... I can only live for another twenty years! But I'm only forty! My two hundred years of longevity are gone! I..."

Looking at the bronze human figure in front, in horror, he actually took a step back.

A gust of cold wind blew, and right before everyone's eyes, his body turned into white bones, scattering on the ground with a clatter.

Soon, even that pool of white bones turned into fly ash.

Everyone's scalp went numb. This path, the bronze human-figure lamps on both sides of this path, were eerily terrifying. Killing Core Formation cultivators was like slaughtering chickens. Several old monsters who had not made a move out of caution looked at those human figures, their backs feeling as cold as ice, as if they had seen some peerless fierce spirit.

The cultivators of several families quickly moved forward, staying away from this section of the road. Many people stared tightly at Qian Chen, their eyes almost wanting to choose someone to devour, to bite him to death alive.

This kid is too much; he knew so much, yet watched them go to their deaths.

"Actually, I also heard it from hearsay, many things are just rumors. I haven't seen it with my own eyes, how would I know it's true?" Qian Chen said with an innocent face.

The green ox following beside Tao Kan looked at his appearance and, through the state of rumination, muttered in a low voice: "That kid is full of bad water, harming people everywhere, he has a bit of my old ox's style."

The several great noble families who had fled the tomb passage in a sorry state counted their own lost personnel and were almost driven mad with anger.

Jin Zhong, the head of the Jin family, looked at Qian Chen and said coldly: "Regarding this road, these few lamps, what else does the young friend know? It's better to confess first, otherwise it's hard for me not to suspect that you want to use this demon cave layout to kill people from our families!"

Qian Chen said calmly: "Even if I don't say it, do you still dare to make a move?"

Jin Zhong revealed a cruel smile: "As long as one person is willing to sacrifice themselves for the family, they can fight to the death to kill you here. You harmed several elders of our Jin family; if you still refuse to confess, what's wrong with sacrificing a Penetrating Law cultivator to kill you, this scourge?"

After saying this, several death soldiers of the Jin family stood out.

That old cultivator Guo crossed his copper pipe and stood beside Qian Chen, saying: "This young man has the grace of saving my life. My old bones can only use this life to repay it!"

Ma Laohei also chuckled: "It's easiest for us loose cultivators to suffer losses because we don't know as much about some secrets as you noble families. It's not easy for such a 'Know-It-All' to appear, and I still want to rely on him to save my life in this dangerous place and earn some benefits!"

That overseas loose cultivator also came to stand beside Qian Chen. Except for those who couldn't retreat, several loose cultivators with relatively strong cultivation all vaguely stood on Qian Chen's side.

The atmosphere between the loose cultivators and the noble families was tense. On this tomb passage where magic power was restricted, if the loose cultivators still didn't dare to wrestle with the noble families, they would have lived in vain for so many years.

If they still didn't know how to unite, they might as well just be dogs for the noble families!

Qian Chen looked at the situation. There were dozens of loose cultivators on this side, about twenty or so standing on his side, and most of them only vaguely had the intention of using him and would not completely fall out with the noble families for his sake. As for the noble family side, just the Jin and Lei families had more than a hundred people. Not to mention cultivation, they far exceeded them in numbers.

Qian Chen chuckled and compromised as they wished. He touched his chin and said: "Regarding the layout of this tomb passage, I don't know much either. I've said most of what I can say, what else do you want to know?"

"The method of obtaining life oil... should be more than just the one you mentioned!" Jin Zhong opened his eyes and pressed.

He calculated well. If this question was asked, someone on the loose cultivator side would inevitably be tempted, which could isolate Qian Chen to the greatest extent.

Qian Chen sighed faintly: "I only know a few methods for stealing life oil. I said it, whether you can do it or not is your problem!"

"There are still a few more!" Whether it was the noble family side or the loose cultivators, hearing Qian Chen's words, they all had the urge to grab him and search his soul.

Especially the noble families, who always boasted of long inheritance, many talents, and knowledge far exceeding loose cultivators. Unexpectedly, they couldn't even come up with one method, while Qian Chen knew several means.

Everyone looked at Qian Chen together, waiting for him to say the method of stealing lamp oil.

"The bronze life lamps here, although the form is ancient, their foundation is still the art of the Xuan Sect, which is connected to the Dao Sect's method of 'Big Dipper Extending Life and Injecting Death'. If someone knows the method of 'Seven Star Lamp' to pray to stars and extend life, they can take advantage of the situation to set up an array with the lamp and borrow the lamp oil on it to extend life, without even having to risk stealing the lamp oil." Qian Chen said a method that was unexpected to everyone, but after thinking about it carefully, it was reasonable...

Everyone heard it and felt that the layer of paper had been poked through, convinced that this method was undoubtedly correct...

But...

Someone on the noble family side cursed: "If we knew this Dao Sect secret transmission, would we still need you to say it?"

Tao Kan also walked behind, carrying the green ox, and shook his head: "Secret arts like the Seven Star Lamp are probably only passed down in those few great Dao Sect schools. The Langya Zhuge clan should also have them, but the value of such arts even exceeds all the demon treasures here... how can it be something we can obtain?"

Jin Zhong's face was also ugly. He just wanted to say a few more words to sow discord.

Qian Chen added: "If you don't know the method of praying to stars and extending life, 'Big Dipper injects death, South Dipper injects life', if you have arrays, spells, or supernatural powers related to the South Dipper and Big Dipper, you can also give it a try!"

Everyone looked at each other. Spells about stars in the world are rarely passed down, let alone spells about the kings of stars like the Big Dipper and South Dipper?

Qian Chen shook his head helplessly: "If this method doesn't work, borrowing the power of the divine path and using the wish power of all living beings can also trade with the bronze human figure to exchange for oil. One or two wish power refined into heavenly silver can probably exchange for one drop of lamp oil."

Once this was said, the loose cultivators on this side had awkward expressions. Their foundation was shallow, and it was really difficult to have any connection with the divine path.

And the noble family side also had ugly faces. Tao Kan sighed: "Although my Tao family has relatives with the Wei Chenghuang, the incense in the Wei Chenghuang Temple for half a year can only refine two taels of heavenly silver. It's not even enough to refine one's own divine power, how could it be used to exchange for longevity items?"

"After all..." Tao Kan shook his head slightly and stopped talking.

After all, the Wei Chenghuang's longevity is heavenly salary yin longevity. When the Heavenly Court evaluates performance, it is bestowed for three or five hundred years at a time, so how could they care about that one or two years of lamp oil.

It was the loose cultivators who suddenly asked: "How to exchange incense wish power for lamp oil?"

"By the method of divine sacrifice!" Qian Chen answered.

That person immediately borrowed incense candles and many magic treasures for setting up the altar from other loose cultivators on the spot, set up a simple altar under the bronze human figure, set up a ritual to offer sacrifices, and after a set of rituals, he saw that a life lamp on the bronze human figure suddenly dimmed by three points, and the bronze human figure holding the lamp slowly turned its head to face that person.

The atmosphere suddenly became eerie and gloomy. When the bronze human figure responded, both the noble families and loose cultivators had their bodies tense, and their breathing became difficult from nervousness.

But the bronze human figure did not make a move, but stared deeply at that person for a moment, and then that loose cultivator took out two broken ritual vessels, on which indeed remained not-weak incense wish power.

After the two divine path ritual vessels were accepted by the bronze human figure, three drops of lamp oil like amber jelly flew out from the life lamp on its head and fell into the loose cultivator's hand.

It was actually feasible!

Everyone looked at this eerie scene, and many people had their hair standing on end, and goosebumps broke out in horror! The young man from the Lei family said in horror: "This bronze human figure, is it alive?"

Qian Chen glanced slightly and said: "The Snake-Controlling God is also a god. Since it is a god, it has divinity. Even in a state of neither life nor death, it can still respond."

The loose cultivator who obtained the lamp oil returned to the road and saw many old monsters among the noble families staring at him fixedly. Even among the loose cultivators in the same group, many had malicious looks in their eyes.

His scalp went numb, knowing that he had become a hot potato.

He immediately said: "Selling three drops of life-extending lamp oil, not accepting spirit fields or properties, not accepting credit, cash transaction!" Among the noble families, several old monsters looked at each other, transmitted their voices to the loose cultivator, and both sides traded on the spot.

A moment later, the loose cultivator sent out the three drops of lamp oil with satisfaction and returned to the crowd.