Chapter 104: Exploration

Li Li Tongya rode the wind with the Xu Xu Yangping couple out of the market, headed straight south, and flew for several hours.

He was not afraid of these loose cultivators stealing or besieging him. After all, loose cultivators practiced first-grade techniques and swallowed miscellaneous energy. Like those mountain tribe Qi Refining cultivators, three or five of them couldn't keep him, not to mention that the river true essence was thick and fast. He would go and see before discussing the situation.

He chatted carefully with the two about the details on the way, and only then did he find that this cave dwelling was on the south bank of Moon-Gazing Lake, less than two hundred miles away from his Li family's Lichuan Mouth.

"The opportunities in the world are truly unpredictable. Our Li family has been intensively farming on the south bank for decades, and we haven't discovered this cave dwelling. The Xu Xu Yangping couple just landed on a small island in the lake to rest, but they happened to encounter a great drought and picked up this bargain."

Pondering for a few breaths, Li Li Tongya saw a small island with jagged rocks in front of him, on which sat a person with a plain face, a long saber on his knees, sitting quietly and practicing.

"Brother Zhang!"

Xu Xu Yangping landed, laughed, and bowed. He turned his head to introduce to Li Li Tongya:

Zhang Yun hurriedly stood up and bowed, staring at the river true essence on Li Li Tongya for a while. Xu Xu Yangping also introduced him.

Li Li Tongya bowed in return, seeing that this person's true essence was clear when he finished his cultivation, and claimed to be quite knowledgeable about formations, he secretly judged:

"This person is probably not a loose cultivator. There is no family surnamed Zhang in this area. If this person didn't report a fake name, nine times out of ten he is inseparable from the three sects and seven gates!"

Not to mention Li Li Tongya secretly vigilant on the side, Zhang Yun was humble, but he couldn't hide his excitement on his face, pointing to the water beside the small island and explaining:

"During the time you left, I studied this cave dwelling for a while. It should be a cave dwelling of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, at least two or three hundred years old!"

Hearing this time, Xu Xu Yangping's eyes went straight, excited, and he said repeatedly:

"This is rare!"

Zhang Yun nodded and explained:

"I heard that Moon-Gazing Lake was originally called Dayueze in ancient times, and the spiritual energy of the ten-thousand-mile mountain marsh was compelling. It was the place where the Moon Brilliance Origin Mansion was located. Naturally, there were many cave dwellings. Later, the terrain changed and it gradually dried up, leaving only the current Moon-Gazing Lake."

Lin Lin Jingyi couldn't hold back and hurriedly asked:

"Brother Zhang, do you have a way to enter?"

"Naturally."

Zhang Yun nodded. Several people pinched the water-avoidance formula and entered the water, stopping at a fracture in the riverbed. He raised the long saber in his hand and slashed. Numerous patterns and formation seals appeared on the stone wall in front of him, and a formation with brilliant white light appeared in front of him.

Zhang Yun hurriedly formed a seal, shot three thin and long jade wedges from his hand into the formation, grabbed three thin, pale white chains, each connected to a jade wedge, emitting a faint light.

"Two fellow Daoists, take it."

Zhang Yun threw the two chains, and Li Li Tongya and the three urged their magic power to pour into the jade wedges.

"This person really has two brushes."

Li Li Tongya opened his eyes, poured magic power into his hand, and was more certain in his heart that this person's background was extraordinary. He said that he was prepared, and began to look at the surrounding environment, looking for an escape route.

A pitch-black cave dwelling entrance appeared in front of him, and a large amount of lake water poured in. Fortunately, several people were prepared. Several water-avoidance formulas hit the cave entrance first, blocking the seawater hard.

Four people looked at the pitch-black cave entrance and stopped at the same time. Looking at each other, they all saw hesitation in each other's eyes.

"Three... then I will go first!"

Zhang Yun laughed, patted his storage bag, and sacrificed a light yellow wooden shield. Xu Xu Yangping glanced at the magic tool in his hand, his expression solemn, and followed Li Li Tongya silently.

After walking a few steps, a foul stench hit his face, making the couple want to vomit, and they hurriedly stopped breathing. Li Li Tongya, on the other hand, had already held his breath before entering the cave dwelling, and didn't feel anything.

Li Li Tongya glanced at Xu Xu Yangping low, and both saw vigilance in each other's eyes. True essence surged, ready to take action at any time.

"This Xu Xu Yangping likely doesn't know Zhang Yun's background. If they were acting together to cheat me, they wouldn't bring Lin Lin Jingyi, which would be a handle for others. Now they also know something is wrong and are secretly guarding against it."

Just as he was thinking this, Xu Xu Yangping's spiritual sense transmission sounded in his ears, and he saw his slightly uneasy voice:

"Brother Li, this person is likely not as simple as a loose cultivator. We have misjudged, and we are likely to suffer."

Zhang Yun in front was open and honest, looked at the cave dwelling, and his magic light shone brightly, taking everything into his eyes.

The cave dwelling was quite spacious. In the center stood a massive, pillar-like crystal several zhang high, upon which coiled a giant snake-like skeleton. The ghastly white bones and interlocking long teeth were quite eerie, and a blood-red orb floated within the skeleton's wide-open mouth.

The round bead floated lightly, with dots of crystal clear blood light, looking round and bright, quite good-looking. A snow-white long spear was still inserted on the ground, shining with silver light.

The spiritual energy inside the cave was quite dense, on par with the cave dwelling at Mount Meichi Mountain. However, the entire cave was a ghastly large karst cave, spanning over a dozen mu. One could not see the end from the entrance, and it was chillingly gloomy.

"Oh, it turns out to be a demon general's cave dwelling!"

Zhang Yun kicked the rotten bones on the ground, turned back to look at Li Li Tongya and the three, and said with some disappointment.

"I thought it was a Foundation Establishment cultivator who wanted to build a cave dwelling in the water. It turned out to be a snake demon!"

Xu Xu Yangping and the others also showed disappointment. Foundation Establishment demons have already transformed, and they will learn some formations and alchemy, but demons still like to swallow spirit objects to digest them slowly, and they don't like to leave any inheritance, which naturally means less harvest.

"There are many snake descendants in this cave, all of which were sucked dry of essence and blood by this guy, becoming cultivation resources."

Crossing the dense snake corpses, several people circled in the cave, all corpses and flying ash, both human and animal. The storage bags on the corpses were all gone.

"Huh."

Zhang Yun scanned with his spiritual sense, fished out two jade slips from the dust, read them in front of the two, put them on the ground in disappointment, turned around and said:

"Truly a poor monster. It is estimated that all the wealth was exchanged for spirit objects and spirit pills, and it fought hard to break through to the Early Zifu, but these two jade slips were sealed with secret seals, and they couldn't be sold, so they had to be left here to eat dust."

Then he laughed loudly and continued:

"Early Zifu is not so easy to break through!"

"I wonder..."

Xu Xu Yangping bowed, quite respectfully to Zhang Yun, and asked:

"What magic arts are these two jade slips?"

Zhang Yun looked at him and laughed:

"They are the 'Blood Mo Law Book' of my Golden Feather Sect and the 'Jianghe Great Mausoleum Sutra' lost after the destruction of the Lingyu Gate. The former needs the secret seal of the Mount Qingchi Sect, and the latter also needs secret methods to solve. You couple don't have to think about it."

Xu Xu Yangping and his wife were stunned. Li Li Tongya on the side had already retreated several steps, holding his long sword tightly, and the Moon Palace Sword Arc that had been accumulated for a long time was already ready to go.

"Brother Xiao, don't be nervous."

Zhang Yun smiled at Li Li Tongya, looked at the long sword in his hand that was buzzing without being unsheathed with fear, and continued:

"'Jianghe One Qi Technique', I still recognize the Xiao family's technique. My father sent it to the Xiao family with his own hands that year."

Li Li Tongya was stunned, and a look of shock appeared on his face in time. Without thinking, he threw out a question to cover up, frowning:

"Is Brother Zhang here specifically to take back the 'Blood Mo Law Book'?"

"Not so..."

A look of embarrassment appeared on Zhang Yun's face, explaining:

"I was ordered by the sect to go out to find a cave dwelling. I didn't know this was Brother Xiao coming to find the 'Jianghe Great Mausoleum Sutra', and I broke in by mistake."

Li Li Tongya was stunned after hearing this, his brain running like lightning, his face slightly unhappy, and he whispered:

"I have been looking for this cave dwelling for more than ten years, but I didn't expect these two to find it first, and then I saw Brother Zhang, thinking that your sect was also interested in this thing."

"Where, where! With the relationship between our two families, how could the Golden Feather Sect covet the 'Jianghe Great Mausoleum Sutra'."

Zhang Yun waved his hands repeatedly, and the Xu Xu Yangping couple on the side were stunned, feeling their legs trembling and sweating profusely, feeling that they had fallen into the confrontation between these two major forces, wishing they could run away.

"Damn it, this Li Li Tongya is also a disciple of a large sect. Now my couple has become lambs to be slaughtered!"

The two retreated silently, already preparing to flee quickly, but disturbed Zhang Yun, seeing him turn his head and smile at the two.

"I will solve the trouble for Brother Xiao first!"

Zhang Yun laughed, slashed at Xu Xu Yangping with a saber, and Xu Xu Yangping on the side stood up with cold hair, holding Lin Lin Jingyi

Zhang Yun was cultivating at least a third-grade orthodox technique, swallowing pure heaven and earth spiritual energy. Xu Xu Yangping had just broken through to Qi Refining, and the technique he practiced was common goods; he didn't even have a proper Qi-gathering formula and was swallowing crudely refined impure energy. How could he be Zhang Yun's match?

Just like Li Li Tongya had easily killed the Ji family's Qi Refining cultivators back then, Zhang Yun cut off his head in just over a dozen strikes. Ignoring Lin Lin Jingyi's repeated pleas for mercy, he killed him casually, then turned his head and smiled at Li Li Tongya:

"These rogue cultivators are truly trash."

Li Li Tongya's expression was calm, but his spine felt secretly cold. Watching Zhang Yun silently pick up the two men's storage bags, he deeply realized the dominant status of the Three Sects and Seven Gates in the cultivation world and mused to himself:

"If my family didn't have the orthodox techniques brought back by Jing'er from the sect, I'm afraid I would be slaughtered by others just like these two rogue cultivators, like mere grass."

Then he saw Zhang Yun smile:

"The techniques are divided like this. As for this inner core and magic treasure, who among us shall choose first?"

After speaking, he raised an eyebrow, and without waiting for Li Li Tongya to reply, he said excitedly:

"How about you and I each unleash one sword strike and one blade strike; whoever wins chooses first!"

Li Li Tongya had just seen Zhang Yun deal with Xu Xu Yangping; his technique didn't seem much higher than his own "Mysterious Water Sword Technique" and "Jianghe One Qi Technique," and he had the highly explosive Moon Palace Sword Arc as a foundation, so he mused:

"At this moment, I must absolutely not show weakness."

Thus, he slowly lifted the sheathed long sword at his waist. Intense white light burst forth from the gap in the scabbard, and he laughed aloud:

"Good!"

Having said that, he drew his sword and rose. A moon-white sword arc whistled out, causing Zhang Yun to let out a strange cry:

"You're cheating!"

The blade energy in his own hand had also been secretly accumulating for a long time, and he rose fiercely. The sword energy and blade energy collided, and the booming sound made their clothes flap violently.

Li Li Tongya stumbled a step to neutralize the force, while Zhang Yun took the strike head-on without wavering. He let out a muffled groan, clearly having suffered a minor internal injury, but he smiled on his face:

"You retreated!"

"We each take our techniques. I want this Foundation Establishment peak monster inner core; this Foundation Establishment level magic treasure can be left to your family."

Li Li Tongya did not want to get entangled further, so he nodded and said in a deep voice:

"Agreed. As long as I, Xiao, can obtain this technique, it counts as fulfilling the elder's instructions."

The two each collected their items. Zhang Yun and Li Li Tongya left the cave one after the other, and Zhang Yun said with a low laugh:

"Your sword technique is not bad!"

Li Li Tongya was just about to be humble when he saw Zhang Yun speak urgently and quickly:

"The Golden Feather Sect's promise to True Person Xiao Chuting remains. As long as that old ghost Chi Wei dies, the Xiao family will have the Golden Feather Sect behind them. I ask your clan to consider this carefully."

Li Li Tongya was shocked, his mind filled with terror.

"True Person Xiao Chuting?! Xiao Xiao Chuting has already become a Early Zifu?! No wonder the Golden Feather Sect is so polite to the Xiao family."

"A promise? I'm afraid that once that so-called ancestor Chi Wei of the Mount Qingchi Sect dies, their strength will shrink significantly. What kind of scheme are the Xiao family and the Golden Feather Sect planning..."

Zhang Yun blinked slyly and continued in a low voice:

"Even if you are not a member of the Xiao family, it doesn't matter. Have all the Foundation Establishment cultivators in your family prepared; there will be turmoil sooner or later."

Li Li Tongya shook his head and smiled:

"Brother Zhang is joking."

Zhang Yun laughed, patted his brocade pouch, and drove his flying shuttle away.

Li Li Tongya remained in place, pondering for a few breaths. Fearing that Zhang Yun might still be nearby, he simply sat cross-legged and began to cultivate. It wasn't until night fell again that he used a Qi-concealing formula and flew toward Li Xia Prefecture for a while before circling back to the Li family.

As Li Li Tongya flew over Mount Mount Lijing, he saw a sea of plain white clothes below. His heart skipped a beat, knowing something had happened. He stepped on the wind and landed on the mountain. Seeing white cloth draped everywhere in the courtyard and Li Li Xuansuan wearing mourning clothes, he asked in a hoarse voice:

"What happened?"

Li Li Xuansuan shuddered unexpectedly. Seeing Li Li Tongya, he knelt down stammering, took off the Green Crow Bow from his waist, and handed it over, choking with sobs:

Li Li Tongya was stunned for a moment. The mood he had felt from obtaining the technique and magic treasure vanished instantly. Certain premonitions and signs had come true, and he called out in a low voice:

"I know."

He turned his head away. The two stood on the mountaintop in silence for a long time before Li Li Tongya spoke:

"Take some of the clothes he usually wore and bury them in the family cemetery, together with your grandfather and father."

Seeing Li Li Xuansuan nod, Li Li Tongya wiped the corner of his eye and instructed softly:

"Remember to follow the order, and leave a spot for me in the middle."

"Yes."

Still two chapters combined into one^

(End of chapter)