Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 298 Opening the Dragon's Spine
Mei Qiulu's expression froze for a moment; Li Wuxiang saw shock on her face for the first time. She glanced at the swordsman in the cave: "Ninth Young Master? Is it that Ninth Young Master?"

"Yes."

"Is Zhao Qi the one you mentioned before?"

“Yes, he now… seems to be the Blood God that those things worship!” Li Wuxiang recounted what he had seen in Mount Ling. Before Mei Qiulu could speak, Lou He spoke first: “Yes, yes, yes, Li Wuxiang, you saw it with your own eyes too, haha, I’m telling the truth, we are all with the Blood God! And with the True Lord of Fate! It’s really done! Don’t you believe me now?”

No one paid him any attention. Mei Qiulu frowned and thought for a moment: "Generally speaking, external evil spirits cannot do this... nor can the spirits in Ling Mountain. When my Yang spirit was following that corpse demon, I saw him acting mysteriously, just like you. Sometimes it seemed like he was not in the mortal world, but when I looked into Ling Mountain, I could not find him—it turned out he was with that Blood God."

Li Wuxiang was taken aback: "Senior Sister, you're calling yourself the Blood God too?"

“Don’t panic. This time it’s different from the Heavenly Fate Master. It’s not that I’m bewitched, but according to what you said, he can indeed be called a Blood God in his current state. Li Wuxiang, gods and immortals are different. Immortals need to have a position and wield power. Anyone who can bewitch people’s hearts and display supernatural powers in the world can be called a god—isn’t that what the wild gods in Mount Ling are like? This Blood God is just a wild god.”

"But this wild god... his supernatural powers are too great!"

Mei Qiulu nodded: "I guess it was the True Lord of Fate who borrowed the remains of the Ninth Prince's dragon body that you mentioned, and used incense and the power of vows to bring him back to life... The True Lord of Fate has the greatest authority among the Thirty-Six True Immortals, and he is also the disciple and successor of the Ninth Prince. His authority is actually the opposite of your authority as the True Lord of Great Calamity. Yours is about destruction and ruin, while his is about desire."

"The incense and food offerings that the Kitchen God wants are just a manifestation of desire. Desire arises from life, and life can give rise to all desires... When the Ninth Prince was defeated and died, his dragon body and remains in the Spirit Mountain also had desires. There may be some secrets between him and the True Lord of Fate that we do not know. It is plausible that he used his remains to manifest this supernatural power."

"Alas, it was truly wrong of the Thirty-Six True Immortals to use his remains to refine magical artifacts. Speaking of which, sometimes I wonder, was it because Donghuang Taiyi couldn't or was unwilling to revive the Ninth Prince? I wonder if he harbored resentment because of this."

Resentment? Li Wuxiang thought for a moment... perhaps. Having seen the Ninth Young Master twice, he did indeed seem quite resentful towards the man surnamed Li. However—

“Senior sister, I don’t think it was Ninth Prince who did it. I think he ran away when he saw things were going badly. I saw his remnant spirit twice in Mount Ling. I think his divine power should be very weak. He just kept using his power and the corpse to intimidate people... as if he was trapped in Mount Ling.”

“I hope so. You’re quite good at judging people, I hope you’re right.” Mei Qiulu’s gaze shifted. “My Yang Spirit is still following that corpse demon, let’s not think about anything else for now.”

"The wild gods of Mount Ling need a magical body to unleash their supernatural powers in the mortal world. Books, writing, swords, weapons, and ordinary objects can all serve as magical bodies. I suspect that the Blood God's magical body is the Yi Jin Jing from the Heavenly Crafts School—"

"Blood nerves!" Lou He quickly corrected.

Mei Qiulu looked at him and sighed, "Li Wuxiang, do you think he still has any calamity on him?"

“I can’t tell that the two of them are together right now. I’m not sure if it’s because I can’t tell, or because they’re in such a state that it’s impossible to tell. But I can’t tell that Lou He didn’t have a human form before.”

Mei Qiulu nodded: "Okay. Now let's try to save them—I'll peel off this blood nerve."

As soon as she finished speaking, she raised her hand and made a hand seal. Lou He was about to shout when a golden light emanated from his body, immediately trapping him inside, as if he were frozen.

"Senior Sister, wait!" Li Wuxiang stared at the golden light. "Are you really going to peel it off alive like this? This blood nerve thing—"

The name "blood nerve" reminded him of "nerve," although they weren't likely to be exactly the same thing. But when he was tying them up, Zhao Yu kept yelling in pain, and he knew that pain could kill a person.

He took a breath and said, "If anyone has any anesthetics or sedatives on them, use them on them first."

Everyone shook their heads. Li Ke said, "Senior brother, we've run out of pills."

Li Wuxiang looked at Mei Qiulu and saw that she didn't speak, so he knew that Senior Sister Mei used to be a Nascent Soul cultivator and wouldn't have that kind of thing on her body.

He stared at the golden light beneath Lou He for a while longer, then said, "Senior Sister, please wait a moment."

He walked outside the cave, entered the Ranshan Illusionary Realm, and retrieved two talismans. He had learned some talisman techniques from the scriptures of the Heavenly Heart Illusionary Realm, but this was the only type of talisman he possessed. Even if he had others, the Ranshan Talisman was the most appropriate to use—Zhao Kui had used it at the stove to collect Zhao Xi's soul after his death, and perhaps this was the only way to prevent Zhao Yu's soul from going to the Spirit Mountain or the Netherworld.

He drew two small figures on each of the two pieces of paper with wet mud, walked back into the cave and handed the paper to Mei Qiulu, then glanced at the frozen golden light: "Senior sister, if those two can't take it and die in a while, try to capture their souls onto this paper."

Mei Qiulu took it and looked at it, then nodded. But she slightly raised her hand and asked Li Wuxiang, "You've been staring at my Golden Light Mantra the whole time, is there something wrong with that?"

If Senior Sister Mei, who was at the Yang Shen realm, asked him if there was anything wrong with her methods, Li Wuxiang would normally be pleased. But now, he could only tell the truth: "No, there's nothing wrong with it. I just... Senior Sister, what realm is required to learn this Golden Light Mantra?"

Mei Qiulu was stunned for a moment, and the swordsmen in the cave seemed to be stunned as well. Li Wuxiang was stunned along with her: "...Is something wrong?"

"Neither Zeng Jianqiu nor Lou He taught you?"

"Ah... Senior Brother Zeng taught me the True Immortal Body Dao Chapter and the Flying Immortal Sword Transformation Chapter. That's all."

Mei Qiulu sighed: "This method can only be learned when you reach the stage of refining spirit and transforming emptiness during Qi cultivation, but you..."

She reached into her bosom and pulled out a small booklet, handing it to Li Wuxiang: "Some of our sect's spells and incantations are in this booklet. Take a look when you have time."

"Okay, okay." Li Wuxiang quickly accepted it.

Mei Qiulu then said, "If Lou He survives this time, you won't need to plant that calamity seed in him."

Before she finished speaking, her sword energy was released. Her control over sword energy at the Yang God realm had reached its peak. As soon as the sword energy left her fingertips, it transformed into streams of light and rushed into the bodies of the two people.

Lou He and Zhao Yu were both immobilized by the golden light, but as soon as the sword energy entered their bodies, Lou He's eyes widened, his mouth opened wide, his face contorted, and he let out a silent roar of agony. Mei Qiulu's expression remained unchanged, and she simply commanded the sword energy to travel through their bodies like fine golden threads, peeling away the blood-red meridians bit by bit.

A thick stench of blood rose from the cave, and bright red blood seeped into the ground. The swordsmen in the cave had initially shown reluctance, but gradually, some of them began to look dazed—several of them slightly opened their mouths, twitched their noses, and leaned forward slightly, like wild beasts that had caught a whiff of something.

Mei Qiulu glanced at Li Wuxiang, who immediately released his spirit and toured the cave. His spirit saw a pale red wind, as if it came from the sacred mountain, and was now spreading throughout the cave.

This was perhaps the effect of the Blood God. He concealed his presence, and just as Mei Qiulu had taught him outside the coffin city how to sever the connection between the Xuan Sect cultivators and the Great Emperor's true spirit, a sword aura shot from his mouth, circling around the dozen or so swordsmen and completely dispelling the thin blood mist. The men who had just lost their composure snapped back to reality—the blood nerve, forcibly ripped away by Mei Qiulu's sword aura, was trying to wriggle its tentacles like worms and burrow back into their bodies. But for every one Mei Qiulu ripped away, she would emit a tiny sword light to pin it down. In the span of a dozen breaths, the ground was covered with countless tiny sword lights, as if stars from the heavens had descended upon the ground within the cave.

But as the blood nerves were removed, Lou He and Zhao Yu's bodies slowly collapsed—their organs and flesh gradually slumped to the ground like mud, and Lou He stopped struggling and wailing. His eyelids and head slowly drooped down.

Li Wuxiang's spirit could see the souls—the souls of the two were still within their bodies. However, just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief, he saw Zhao Yu's soul emerge from the rotting flesh like a wisp of green smoke.

Mei Qiulu raised her hand and immediately captured her soul, slamming it onto the paper. Li Wuxiang took the talisman from in front of the statue of Donghuang Taiyi in the Natural Mountain Illusion and it immediately ignited without wind. A line of fire passed by but did not turn into ashes. Instead, it was like an inflated balloon that burst into a wrinkled human shape and fell to the ground.

Mei Qiulu's body trembled slightly, and the tattered Taoist robe she was wearing immediately fell onto Zhao Yu, covering him.

Zhao Yu's soul left his body, and Lou He, whose head had been hanging down, suddenly raised it, looking dazed, as if he had just had a long dream.

The next moment, he glared at the pain, but everyone could see that the obsessive, mesmerizing look in his eyes was gone.

Mei Qiulu paused briefly, then released the golden light spell that had been binding him, and shouted, "Lou He, you were mesmerized earlier, do you remember?"

Lou He was in so much pain that he couldn't speak, so he could only nod.

Mei Qiulu asked again, "Since you originally had no flesh and blood, how could you circulate true qi?"

Lou He was in so much pain that he was almost delirious, and he paused, stunned. Li Wuxiang immediately said, "Use the Guangchanzi to refine those things on the ground!"

Lou He then opened his mouth and nodded.

"You held back, I'm going to peel out the main tendon now!"

After Mei Qiulu uttered those words, she paused for a moment, and then saw the rotten flesh on the ground begin to gather together. But within that pool of rotten flesh, a vein as thick as a thumb suddenly began to twist violently, like a snake trying to crawl into Lou He's mouth. Mei Qiulu gave a soft shout, a flash of sword light pinned it down, and then she bent down and grabbed it.

The thing immediately curled up violently, snapping around Mei Qiulu's wrist, and sprouted countless tiny tentacles that tried to burrow into her skin.

But Mei Qiulu's Yang God body was as hard as iron, allowing the thing to drill through her for a while. Then, with a low shout, the sword light on the ground instantly subsided, and she lifted the Blood Nerve up.

Everyone then saw what this thing looked like—once it left the body, it immediately lost its vitality, rapidly shrank and stiffened, eventually transforming into the Yi Jin Jing that the Tian Gong Sect had given to Li Wuxiang.

"It really is the Yi Jin Jing," Li Wuxiang said in a low voice.

Mei Qiulu nodded, looking at the thing: "You said that the corpse demon was covered with the magic treasures of the Thirty-Six Sects, but this thing looks a bit familiar to me."

She raised her left hand and made several hand seals, releasing several beams of light that struck the thing. She didn't know which one worked, but the thing started moving again—its branches contracted, the blood color faded, and it finally turned into a pale white whip, dangling limply in her hand.

Mei Qiulu sighed: "The God-Slaying Whip of the Red Serpent Sect."

Li Wuxiang looked at her questioningly, and Mei Qiulu added, "It is said to be spinal cord. No wonder the Red Serpent Sect was breached so quickly by the Sun Path. This God-Slaying Whip must have been made from the original weapon. It seems that the Red Serpent Sect's original weapon was already in the hands of the Heavenly Craftsmen Sect, who used it to refine the Yi Jin Jing."

Previously, none of the dozen or so swordsmen had pleaded for Lou He, but now most of them surrounded him, asking, "Senior Brother Lou, how are you now?"

The other half wanted to see Zhao Yu. But she was only covered by Mei Qiulu's outer robe and lying on the ground, so they couldn't get close. They only glanced at her a few times before gathering around Lou He again.

Li Wuxiang knelt down beside Zhao Yu, intending to reach out and check her breath, but then realized something and placed his fingers on her neck.

The paper figure was empty inside, and its face was wrinkled and looked quite terrifying. However, Li Wuxiang sensed a very faint flow of spiritual energy within it. He didn't know if this spiritual energy was left behind by Mei Qiulu or generated by itself, so he transferred another stream into her body.

As soon as it entered, Zhao Yu's skin trembled slightly and finally took on a complete human form.

Li Wuxiang called out softly, "Zhao Yu?"

She called out three times, her eyelids trembled slightly, and she suddenly opened her mouth as if she wanted to take a deep breath, but she froze the next moment, hurriedly grabbed her neck and stared at Li Wuxiang with wide eyes.

Li Wuxiang said softly, "Don't breathe. You don't need to breathe now—be gentle, don't scratch it."

His methods were still inferior to Zhao Kui's. Zhao Yu's hand was gripping his throat, his fingers wrinkling along with his neck, as if his skin was just a slightly thicker piece of parchment.

Then they asked, "Can you speak? Think about it, did you escape on your own, or did they deliberately let you come back?"

Zhao Yu sensed something was wrong. She raised her hand to look at it, paused for a moment, then pinched her fingers, stared wide-eyed at Li Wuxiang, and shook her head.

“Don’t worry. I’ve reforged your skin with talisman paper. I’ll teach you how to train on your own later.” He looked up at Mei Qiulu. “She can’t speak.”

"Where are the words?"

Li Wuxiang shook his head: "She doesn't know many characters, so she can't write them clearly. But I can teach her how to refine the Guangchanzi, and I can help her refine it, it's just—"

“Flesh and blood, isn’t it, Senior Brother Li?” Li Ke immediately poked his head out from Lou He’s side. “Use mine! As long as Junior Sister Zhao gets better, I… I mean, the sooner Junior Sister Zhao can speak, the sooner we can get the answers we need.”

Several others chimed in, "Yeah, use mine, mine's fine too! Senior Brother Li, you brought back a lot of food, have some and drink before you come back!"

(End of this chapter)