Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 297 Becoming an Immortal! Becoming an Immortal!
Without the slightest hesitation, Li Wuxiang took off the elm bark from his body, tossed it around to trap the two of them, and then tied a knot tightly.

Lou He and Zhao Yu almost shouted together—

"Li Wuxiang, what are you doing? Huh?"

"Master, it hurts! It hurts so much..."

"Endure it!" Li Wuxiang shouted, channeling his true energy to lift the two men up. His flying sword cleared a path ahead, breaking down trees along the way, while he himself traversed through the debris and dust, returning to the cave entrance where the swordsmen were hiding in just a dozen breaths.

The commotion startled those inside the cave. Mei Qiulu emerged, first seeing Li Wuxiang, then noticing he was dragging something, and exclaimed in surprise, "Li Wuxiang, what are you doing—"

"These are Lou He and Zhao Yu! Senior Sister Mei, save them!"

"Lou He!? Zhao Yu!?" In the short time she was stunned, Li Wuxiang darted into the hole.

A dozen or so swordsmen stood up, watching as he placed the object on the ground, and hearing them shout again—

"Master, you fell and hurt me! It hurts, Master..."

"Senior Sister Mei, I've become an immortal! Haha! Senior Sister Mei, our swordsmen are saved! I've found a way to become an immortal! Haha!"

Everyone inside the cave was stunned. Mei Qiulu paused outside the cave for a moment before returning. Li Wuxiang immediately asked, "Senior Sister, did you use your Yang Spirit to see?"

“I saw it. My spirit is chasing after that thing, so you don’t need to worry.”

"...Kong Jingci is inside, Senior Sister, please don't kill him yet."

Mei Qiulu nodded: "I understand. I'll see where he goes—what's going on between the two of them?"

"We've become immortals! Didn't I tell you? We've become immortals! Senior sister, come here, I'll make you an immortal too—"

"Lou He, shut up!" Li Wuxiang shouted at him. Zhao Yu was about to speak, but seeing this, he quickly shrank back with a thud. The dozen or so swordsmen watched, their bodies trembling, and they couldn't help but purse their lips.

"Lou He and I went to find something to eat. We walked all the way to the stream and met Zhao Yu. She said she was being chased by a corpse demon, so I asked Lou He to watch over me and go see what that corpse demon was—it's the one that your spirit is following right now, Senior Sister."

"The Corpse Demons must have been pieced together using the magical treasures and people from the Thirty-Six Sects. I saw Kong Jingci among them, and I figured there were countless others like him, so I didn't intend to kill them. But they took a hit from my sword—it was easy for me to kill the Golden Core cultivators of the Thirty-Six Sects with that sword, but it only crippled them. The cultivation of these Golden Core Corpse Demons is stronger than that of Golden Core cultivators."

"Then I came back and saw the two of them like this." As Li Wuxiang spoke, everyone noticed the red veins on the thing—they seemed to have a life of their own, burrowing and reconstructing something within its body, while some of them split off and climbed onto the ground, seemingly trying to climb onto other people. But after trying for a while, they seemed uninterested in the swordsmen present, only heading towards Li Wuxiang.

However, Li Wuxiang was already at the Nascent Soul stage, and his spiritual energy was extremely abundant. This thing seemed to want to but dare not, so it could only hover on the ground around him. By the time he finished speaking, it had spread out like fungal patches around him.

Mei Qiulu nodded, then raised her fingertips and emitted a sword light that enveloped Lou He's face: "Lou He, do you still recognize me?"

"I recognize you, Senior Sister! I've found a way to become an immortal! Doesn't that make a great contribution to our Taiyi Sect? Can I come back now, Senior Sister?"

"What method have you found to become an immortal?"

"None of us expected this! The secret to immortality lies within the Heavenly Crafts Sect!" Lou He's face seemed to have real flesh and blood, his eyes darting around as he spoke. "It's the Blood Nerve! Look, Senior Sister, if you let this Blood Nerve crawl onto your body, you'll know how happy I am right now. My magical power is boundless!"

Blood nerves... meridians...

"The Yi Jin Jing!?" Li Wuxiang took a step forward, and the meridians on the ground in front of him immediately shrank back. "Are you talking about the Yi Jin Jing on Zhao Yu!?"

"No, no, no, Li Wuxiang, the Yi Jin Jing is just a name that the Tian Gong School made up. It's actually called the Blood Scripture! It was bestowed upon us by the Blood God!"

Blood God? What Blood God?! I've only ever heard of one Blood God, the one who once advised Zhao Qi to do it!

These corpse demons are connected to the magical treasures of the Thirty-Six Sects, to the original dragon body of the Ninth Prince, and to the "Yi Jin Jing," a treasure of the Heavenly Crafts Sect.

"Senior sister, you keep an eye on them. I need to find someone on Mount Ling to ask them!"

Li Wuxiang immediately shouted in his mind: "Zhao Qi! Zhao Qi!"

In his own mind, he had only been out of contact with Zhao Qi for a few days—from the time the Heavenly Master of Destiny descended and the great changes occurred at Mount Ling until now.

But in reality, almost two months have passed. How is Zhao Qi doing over there? Has he been affected by the strange phenomena in Ling Mountain?

no respond.

He then shouted again, "Dragon Might True Lord, Dragon Might True Lord!"

There was still no response. Not only was there no response, but Zhao Qi's presence could no longer be sensed, just like when Zhao Qi was almost scattered by Wu Meng in the Coffin City.

An ominous thought arose in Li Wuxiang's mind. He hesitated for a moment before gritting his teeth and shouting, "...Blood God...Blood God!"

A deafening roar filled his ears, as if an endless sea of ​​blood was unfolding within his divine sense. Li Wuxiang felt as if he were seeing a crimson world, a red different from that of Mount Ling, a chaotic yet radiant bright red, as if he were seeing another world, and the underlying color of that world was red!

Then he finally heard Zhao Qi's voice, as relaxed and cheerful as before, but it also seemed to carry an extra layer of profound authority.

"Li Wuxiang? Hahaha, that's wonderful, Li Wuxiang! I've been looking for you for ages! Li Wuxiang, I've become an immortal! I've found the way to become an immortal!"

Become a god, my ass!
Now he gets agitated whenever he hears the words "become an immortal"!
"Zhao Qi, you...you've become the Blood God?"

"Ah? You know of my fame too? Great! Li Wuxiang, come here, I'll teach you how to become an immortal!" "I..." Li Wuxiang took a few deep breaths in his mind and whispered, "I can't find you. Are you still on Mount Ling?"

"Hahaha, Mount Ling? You mean Mount Ling Blood Sea? How could I be there? That's where vengeful ghosts dwell! I've already achieved enlightenment, so of course I'm in the Outer Heavens. I'm in the Crimson Heaven now, my own Outer Heavens! Come and see!"

Something reached out from within Mount Ling, like an invisible and intangible tentacle, a connection. Li Wuxiang tried to touch it, and felt a pleasure and urgency in that connection, almost exactly the same as what he felt on the Corpse Demon!
You shouldn't go!

But he couldn't help it!
He steeled his resolve and used his divine sense to grasp that connection—his spirit left his body and fled to the sacred mountain!
Then he saw Zhao Qi... or rather, something that resembled Zhao Qi.

He found himself in a bright red space, boundless and vast, like an entire universe, except that the background color of this universe was red, an endless void.

He also saw the enormous dragon skeleton left behind by the Ninth Prince in Mount Ling; however, now, it seemed to be alive—

The bones seemed to have been scattered and loosely separated. But something else filled them—the appearance of the ghouls he saw. It was as if countless ghouls filled the dragon skeleton with their own organs, flesh, bones, veins, blood, and pus.

Numerous heads were hidden within these things, within the body of this enormous corpse dragon, appearing as countless densely packed eyes floating and disappearing.

The dragon corpse's skull was still there, and it was still a head. In the eye socket... in the right eye socket, there was an unfamiliar face, but the eyes were tightly closed, as if it had lost its mind.

And in the left eye socket is Zhao Qi's face!

The dragon corpse's skull was enormous, as was its left eye socket, which resembled a small cave. Consequently, Zhao Qi's face also became extremely large, almost large enough to swallow Li Wuxiang's Yin spirit with a single open mouth.

His eyes were open, and his expression was extremely lively and joyful. Upon seeing Li Wuxiang, he immediately shouted, "Li Wuxiang! Look at me! Hahahaha, I've succeeded! I've become the Blood God! Come here, I'll teach you how to become an immortal!"

Li Wuxiang's heart sank to the bottom. He stood in the void and asked, "Zhao Qi..."

"Zhao Qi? Who is Zhao Qi? Who else did you bring? This won't do, I can only take you to become an immortal! It's because you helped me before. But you also harmed me, so you have to listen to me!"

"Alright... Blood God, where is the Ninth Prince?"

"Ninth Young Master? What Ninth Young Master? Who is the Ninth Young Master? Li Wuxiang, how many people did you bring?!" Zhao Qi grew impatient, his eyebrows furrowing. In that instant, all the heads and eyes within the dragon corpse opened, staring directly at him—

Li Wuxiang felt an immense pressure so powerful it almost blew away his Yin spirit!

"Alright, alright, I was just talking nonsense! How did you become an immortal? What kind of immortal did you become?"

"My attainment is called Celestial Immortal! Li Wuxiang, so becoming an immortal is this simple! Humans are the essence of heaven and earth! As long as you gather all the essence of heaven and earth together, you can shatter the void and ascend to the true immortal realm! How could I not have thought of that before? How stupid of me! I'm so grateful for the wonderful method my ancestor taught me!"

"...Grandmaster? Who? The one on the right?"

Zhao Qi's expression softened, and at the same moment, the heads in the dragon corpse closed their eyes: "Yes, oh dear, you're the sect master of Ranshan now, how come you don't even recognize the founder? Isn't that Li Jiaotu? Isn't that the True Lord Siming!"

The True Lord of Fate!?
"Then why is he keeping his eyes closed?"

“Oh, that’s because, well… ah…” Zhao Qi frowned again, as if deep in thought. Then his brows slowly relaxed, his eyes narrowed, and he stared intently at Li Wuxiang. “The Grandmaster said he hadn’t recovered his strength yet, and that someone was causing trouble, preventing him from completing his task. His name was… his name was… Li Wuxiang? Li Wuxiang, how come that person’s name is the same as yours? Huh? How come it’s the same as yours?”

The eyes within the dragon's corpse reopened, and Li Wuxiang felt himself being stared at. This stare felt like a real knife, scraping against his Yin spirit, even causing him a slight pain...

Zhao Qi is finished. He doesn't remember himself anymore; he has truly become the "Blood God"... Are those corpses outside worshipping him? Has the True Lord of Fate possessed his body?

Perhaps it's also related to myself... I used to think Li Guichen was real, and he became real when Li Ye reshaped the world; I used to say I would make Zhao Qi the "Blood God" to repent, and he truly became the Blood God!? [Note 1]

Was it the power of Taiyi, which reshaped the world, that sealed him away? Just like sealing his own position as the Great Calamity True Lord?
But no matter what, he's incredibly strong now! So strong that he's practically a god!

His friendly attitude just now seemed to stem entirely from past memories and obsessions, but now Li Wuxiang could sense that he was no longer himself—"Zhao Qi" had been swallowed up by the "Blood God," and because he remembered the name "Li Wuxiang," the emotions brought about by those memories and obsessions were gradually swallowed up and invaded by hatred and greedy desires.

A sense of foreboding washed over Li Wuxiang, and the thought immediately arose in his mind that he must escape from this crimson sky.

Seemingly sensing his thought, Zhao Qi immediately screamed, "It's you! It was you all along! You bad thing! You're still trying to hurt me! Don't go!"

The enormous dragon corpse suddenly began to thrash about, and countless human heads fell from the gaps between the bones, but were still connected by those long necks, as if countless hairs had grown out of the dragon corpse.

With this movement, an unparalleled pressure, accompanied by a sky full of blood-red light, violently rushed down, scattering Li Wuxiang's Yin spirit. The thought of "escaping" in his mind was almost blown away at the same moment!

Li Wuxiang immediately unleashed his sword light, slashing towards the overwhelming pressure: "Zhao Qi! Zhao Qi!! Wake up!!"

The sword light crashed into the oppressive aura, as if someone were striking a raging wind with a sword. But the Nascent Soul sword energy still managed to tear a gap in the oppressive aura. The terrifying power grazed past him, almost shattering the boundless void behind him. In that instant, Li Wuxiang felt as if he could see those vengeful ghosts in the Blood Sea of ​​Mount Ling again... He wasn't in some "Outer Heaven" or "Crimson Heaven," but should still be in the Blood Sea of ​​Mount Ling!

"You really are trying to harm me! You're going to kill me!" Zhao Qi screamed, his dragon body thrashing even more violently, as if about to pounce. But at that moment, his body suddenly stopped—Li Wuxiang felt he saw something… Intricate connections emanating from the dragon's body, like the strings controlling a puppet, leading to some unknown place in the void. It was these very threads that made Zhao Qi pause, stop in place, as if a puppet was not allowed to leave the stage.

Without thinking twice, he seized the opportunity and pulled himself back into the cave.

"Senior Sister Mei, Ninth Young Master has disappeared, and Zhao Qi has become an immortal... no, he has fallen into evil!"

……

Note 1: See Chapter 113 for details.

(End of this chapter)