Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 323 The Man Beyond the Mortal Realm
"Well..." Xie Qi gripped his spear, "It wasn't me, sigh, it's a long story—"

Tong Xu sneered: "It's a long story? Then I'll make it short for you—where is this corpse demon you mentioned? What evidence do you have for it?"

Xie Qi seemed to catch his breath: "The Corpse Demon, the Corpse Demon is in my alchemy room."

"Oh, no wonder I heard from Li Yin that you've been hiding in the alchemy room these days, not allowing outsiders to enter—Elder Xie, you were the one who mentioned the Corpse Demon, and you were the one who said it in your alchemy room, yet now you're saying that Sect Leader Li wants to use the Corpse Demon to harm people? Listen to whether you're speaking human language!?"

"Huh? How could you..." Xie Qi seemed angry, but even when he was angry, he sounded aggrieved, as if he was too angry to speak.

With his master's arrival, Li Jianbai felt emboldened and pointed at Tong Xu: "Tong Xu! How dare you insult my master! That corpse demon came to Dapan Mountain a few days ago. My master tricked it into staying in the alchemy room because he knew Li Yin was going to join the Blood God Sect! Do you know what that corpse demon looks like or what's going on?"

As he spoke, he slightly turned to look at the Shangchi Sect disciples behind him and outside the courtyard gate: "It's cultivators from the thirty-six sects who have been refined together by evil magic! They look terrifying, they've gone mad, and they claim to have become immortals! They're in the alchemy room right now! Maybe my master could trap them here, and you guys could—"

When he got to this point, he realized that everyone had moved away from him and were staring at him blankly.

Tong Xu sighed and chuckled, "What can I say to you two idiots? The corpse demon came to the mountain and you hid it for days, and you still claim that Sect Leader Li was unaware of it? Then you told your fellow disciples that Sect Leader Li wanted to use his disciples to refine the corpse demon? Do you think everyone else is stupid?!"

Li Yin shouted: "That's right!"

Many things can be described as being blinded by those involved. This kind of thing doesn't even need to be complicated—a person goes out wanting to take their keys, so they hold the keys in their hand and search for them at home for a while before realizing that they were already in their own hand.

Now Li Jianbai suddenly realized that he and his master had done the same stupid thing—Tong Xu was right, he was almost convinced of it himself!
He was speechless for a moment, his mind racing with thoughts, but he didn't know what to say.

Tong Xu glanced at him contemptuously, walked back into the hall, and whispered to Zheng Jingxi, "Go to the alchemy room and see if that corpse demon can speak properly like the one on my mountain. If it can, teach it how to speak; if not, kill it."

Zheng Jingxi glanced at her but didn't move. Tong Xu sighed inwardly, thinking to herself, "These good-for-nothings are all a handful. How did I end up hanging out with this bunch?"

She said in a kind voice, "Senior Brother Zheng, please go and do me the trouble."

Zheng Jingxi smiled slightly and stood up: "Since Junior Sister has spoken, I will naturally go."

He stepped outside the hall. As soon as Li Jianbai saw him move, he immediately reacted: "Master, he's going to the alchemy room! Stop him!"

Zheng Jingxi didn't look at him directly, nor did he stop walking. Instead, he smiled at Xie Qi and said, "Oh, Elder Xie, are you going to stop me? Are you afraid that if I bring that thing over, your secret will be exposed during the confrontation?"

Xie Qi remained silent, simply holding his large spear horizontally and standing firmly on the wall.

Zheng Jingxi laughed again: "Sect Leader Li, is it you who will do it, or should I do it for you, since it's your own martial uncle?"

Li Yin immediately said, "It's my sect's business, so naturally I'll handle it. Don't interfere!"

He stood still, pressed his hands to his dantian, gathered his qi, and shouted. A golden light immediately appeared on his body. After it dissipated, he was now wearing full armor, just like Xie Qi. Xie Qi's armor was blackish-gold, while his armor, formed using the sect's treasure, was golden yellow, dazzling and making him look like a golden-armored god. Even his figure seemed to grow taller, becoming a robust little giant over seven feet tall.

He stood in the center of the courtyard, Zheng Jingxi walked to the west side of the courtyard, and Tong Xu slowly walked to the east side of the courtyard. The three of them subtly surrounded Xie Qi.

The Shangchi Sect members behind Jianbai retreated further away and began to whisper among themselves. The few dozen people who had initially followed him quietly slipped into the crowd, circled around a few times, and then pretended to be newcomers, asking others, "What happened here?"

This reassured Tong Xu, and she smiled again: "Thank you, Elder—"

But after saying only those three words, he suddenly noticed that Xie Qi looked up at the top of Taiyi Hall, and Li Jianbai was also looking at it. Then, the two of them showed expressions of surprise and delight.

The disciples of the Shangchi Sect outside the door were also watching, but their gazes were not filled with surprise, but with astonishment.

Tong Xu suddenly leaped forward two steps, turned around and looked up at the top of the palace, where she saw a young couple—she was slightly taken aback.

It's because she has lived all these years and seen countless men and women, but she has never seen two like these before.

There's no other reason, it's just too beautiful.

The young man had a head of white hair, including white eyebrows, but this did not make his face appear dark.

He wore a gray Taoist robe, the hem of which was short and made of plain cotton, neither silk nor satin, with some wrinkles. A yellowish-brown cowhide belt was tied around his waist, the edges worn and showing frayed edges. The cuffs were tied tightly, and his hands hung at his sides. His attire and posture were unremarkable, but what was remarkable was his face.

There are many kinds of good looks when it comes to a man. Some may be more feminine, while others may be more masculine. The average person's good looks may have some minor flaws in their face shape or features, but these flaws are insignificant compared to the overall good appearance.

However, this person's good looks are purely good; his eyebrows, eyes, and face shape are impeccable. When you see him, you can't think of any more accurate description than "good-looking."

It would be one thing if one person did this, but the girl next to her did the same.

The girl was also wearing a Taoist robe, exactly the same style as the man's, with the same belt around her waist, and even the same standing posture. The only difference was that she was wearing a long, sheathed sword hanging on her belt.

There are actually more ways to describe a woman's good looks than a man's. It could be described as aloof, alluring, gentle, or charming. But this girl's beauty is also purely natural; any one of her features, taken individually and placed on an ordinary person's face, would immediately earn the compliment of "quite beautiful."

And yet, these two people just happened to come together and stand side by side. At this moment, the sun on the top of Dapan Mountain was slightly setting in the west, and the sunlight shone obliquely on the two of them, making the man's white hair appear slightly red and the woman's black hair slightly yellow. For a moment, everyone present felt a sense of shame, as if they were not two living people, but two celestial beings who had descended to earth together.

Just now, Li Yin, Tong Xu, and Zheng Jingxi subtly surrounded Xie Qi. Although they looked extremely relaxed and at ease, they were actually very vigilant.

Xie Qi might not be the brightest, but his Nascent Soul cultivation was undeniable. The old man had cultivated on Mount Dapan for so many years, and none of the three knew if he possessed any extraordinary treasures. Therefore, none of them wanted to be caught off guard and fall victim to his schemes.

However, even with their divine senses released, the three Nascent Soul cultivators couldn't detect when the man and woman had gotten to the top of the Taiyi Palace... They might have been there all along, only standing up now!
Li Yin was stunned for a moment. Seeing that Tong Xu and Zheng Jingxi remained silent, he looked up and shouted, "Who are you two?!"

The man on the rooftop smiled slightly: "Guess."

Li Yin pointed and cursed, "I bet it's your grandmother—"

“…Little God Lord.” Tong Xu spoke solemnly, “You are Little God Lord Li Wuxiang.”

Li Wuxiang didn't look at him, but only at Li Yin, a faint smile on his face, and a tiny golden light suddenly appeared between his fingers hanging at his side.

He was enveloped in the light of the setting sun, but as soon as this ray of light appeared, everyone felt their vision dim slightly, and their minds were captivated by the divine light. If the aura emanating from the three Nascent Soul Sect Masters before was like a mountain collapsing in front of them, then the aura emanating from this divine light was like the sky collapsing, making it hard for people to breathe!
"Sect Leader Li, what did you just say?"

"—I am so happy to have such a good grandson as you..." Li Yin said guiltily, "I am just a straightforward person, um... Lord, please don't take offense."

The golden light between Li Wuxiang's fingers faded. Everyone felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from their chests, and they almost all gasped in surprise.

Only Tong Xu stepped forward half a step: "Li Yin, you don't need to feel guilty. Little Divine Lord Li Wuxiang is a Taiyi Swordsman. You are here to deal with your sect's affairs and clean house. Taiyi Swordsmen are reasonable in their actions. In the past few hundred years, when have we ever heard of a swordsman bullying the weak? Even if this Divine Lord wiped out an entire family at Jade Wheel Mountain, wasn't it because the Heavenly Heart Sect colluded with the Five Mountains True Form Sect? You haven't done anything wrong, so what are you afraid of? Are you afraid that he will incite your Shangchi Sect to rebel? If that gets out, who knows what the sects of the world will think!"

He looked up at Li Wuxiang again: "Little God, what do you say?"

Li Wuxiang nodded to her and smiled, "Sect Leader Tong is right. These are turbulent times. The Taiyi Sect hopes the Thirty-Six Sects will return to their sect, and the Swordsmen are naturally not as domineering as before, pushing others towards the Blood God Sect. But we were sunbathing on the rooftop just now and overheard some of your conversation—now we don't know if we misheard." Li Yin glanced around anxiously and whispered, "He heard everything?!"

Tong Xu's expression remained unchanged, and he smiled just like Li Wuxiang: "Oh. What did we just talk about? We were just worried about the state of the world and what would become of the thirty-six sects."

"Although swordsmen are domineering, they are also the most disciplined. Little Divine Lord, you can certainly say that you heard us say something that doesn't suit your taste, but who knows if you actually heard anything or if you're just spouting nonsense? Leader Mei has important things to do, Divine Lord, why don't you come down from the roof and talk to us?"

Li Wuxiang stopped laughing: "Sect Leader Tong, do you think that swordsmen can be easily bullied?"

Tong Xu still smiled: "It's not that. It's just that some things you hear don't count for you, and the fairy next to you is on your side, so of course they don't count for you either. So, little deity, the three of us were just enjoying tea."

Li Wuxiang crossed his arms: "That's true of a swordsman, but I'm a sword immortal. Since I'm a terrestrial immortal, I'm a person beyond the mundane world."

Tong Xu's expression changed slightly: "What, you want to kill the three of us for no reason to establish your authority? Do you really think the Thirty-Six Sects are easy to bully!?"

"Of course, even a sword immortal wouldn't be so despicable." But this sentence didn't come from the roof of the hall, but from the southwest corner of the courtyard wall!

Everyone in the room hurriedly turned around and saw that the second Li Wuxiang was standing on the courtyard wall, holding someone in his hand!

...He is not the second Li Wuxiang.

The three sect leaders exchanged a glance and simultaneously exhaled a chill in their hearts—the one on the roof of the hall was the Yin God, while the one on the courtyard wall was the real one!

He and Mei Qiulu killed the Descending God of Fate at Dajie Mountain—although he had some credit for it, everyone knew that it was Mei Qiulu, the Yang God, who did it.

Although they knew that the Nascent Soul cultivation of the Sword Sect far surpassed that of the Thirty-Six Sects, the three sect leaders present had never seen it before.

The Yin spirits of the Thirty-Six Sects are hazy, illusory figures, and they are afraid of light. But the Yin spirit of the Sword Sect stands in the afterglow of the setting sun, showing no difference from its original form whatsoever!

Many disciples in the arena had never even seen the Yin Spirits of the Sword Sect, let alone the Yin Spirits of Li Yin and Xie Qi. Seeing two identical Li Wuxiangs, they were terrified, and some couldn't help but cry out—

"His spirit has manifested!!"

Having learned his lesson from pretending to be a Nascent Soul cultivator, Li Wuxiang was too lazy to engage in such trickery again. He raised his left hand—holding a person by the neck—and lifted them up.

At first, everyone thought it was a disciple of the Shangchi Sect, but after a few glances, they realized that no one had seen this person before, and his clothes were not from the Shangchi Sect. Upon closer inspection, they realized that this person was inexplicably strange—his neck was being choked by Li Wuxiang, presumably restrained by the Nascent Soul True Energy within his body, and he was making faces as if he were in great pain.

Ordinary people only distort their faces slightly when they wink or make faces, but this person did it for a short while, and the features on his face actually started to move—his nose slowly protruded outwards, and his eyes and mouth slid to the sides, as if something was about to squeeze out of his face...

The next moment, a chilling "rip" sound was heard, and his nose was split open by the thing below, squeezing out a second deformed face... and another face grew on this face!
Many people exclaimed in surprise. Li Wuxiang lifted the thing up a little higher: "The corpse demon that Li Jianbai mentioned is this thing. This corpse demon has already become powerful. It has already refined more than thirty disciples from your thirty-six sects inside its body. They are all at the Golden Core stage, so it looks like a human and even calls itself a Pill Immortal."

"Once it absorbs another disciple and magical artifact from your Shangchi Sect, and completes the remaining sects, it will look even more human. At that time, its cultivation as a Danxian will be comparable to the peak of the Golden Core stage of the Sword Sect, which is much stronger than the cultivation techniques you practice."

"However—" Li Wuxiang joined two fingers of his right hand, and a ray of sword light shot into the second face, blasting it apart. Blood gushed from the face, almost staining his face and white hair crimson. He grinned slightly, revealing fine white teeth, "It's not very bright. It can lose its mind—tell me, who are you?"

He said this to the ghoul, and at the same time loosened his grip on it slightly.

As soon as the ghoul regained its voice, it cried out, "Let me go! I am—"

"Li Moqing!"

"Zhang Hesheng!"

"Zhou Yungui!"

"Zheng Ming!"

"Sun Sangwan!"

"Zhu Ye!"

"..."

As soon as it opened its mouth, about thirty names came out at once. Its throat was being choked, and its voice was hoarse and sharp, sounding like many vengeful ghosts howling in unison.

The sound had already terrified many disciples of the Shangchi Sect, but when they saw that as the thing spoke, one deformed face after another squeezed out from its surface, vying to speak.

With limited space for faces, other faces squeezed out from the torso, limbs, hands, and feet. It was restrained by Li Wuxiang, its body originally limp and hanging down. Now, these faces scrambled out, causing its soft body to twitch uncontrollably, looking as if many worms were trying to crawl out of a corpse—

The next moment, this body was truly burst!

With a loud crash, the corpse demon could no longer maintain its human form and exploded, spreading out on the ground into a large area—flesh, bone fragments, internal organs, and pus were connected by bright red veins, and within it, about thirty sect artifacts and about thirty twisted heads could be seen.

As soon as it broke free from Li Wuxiang's grasp, it immediately raised more than a dozen long necks, lifted its head, and looked around, seemingly trying to find a place to escape.

Li Wuxiang stood motionless on the wall, raised his hand and pointed slightly, and the dozen or so heads immediately exploded into a pool of blood, followed by a dozen more necks emerging.

By this time, the corpse demons were even less human-like, their minds damaged by the previous attack. They no longer tried to escape, and instead screamed in unison at Xie Qi above the doorway: "Old man! You dare to lie to this immortal! Take me to see your sect leader! I'm going to give him a chance at immortality! Hehe, I'll make you all immortals!"

"Bah! I'm the one who's going to give him a chance at immortality! I'm going to give him a chance at immortality!"

"Bullshit! Listen to me! First, make these people immortals!"

The heads cursed at each other for a while, ignoring each other, and then they simply twisted their necks together and began to bite each other.

The disciples of the Shangchi Sect were horrified. Only now did they finally understand what the "corpse demon" they had mentioned earlier was!
Li Wuxiang let the heads tear at each other for a while, then raised his hand—a sword light pierced into his body, circling the blood nerve connection. The corpse demon immediately fell silent, collapsing to the ground with a thud, leaving only wisps of red branches spreading on the stone slab, as if searching for new living things.

He then looked at the three sect leaders: "I originally didn't want to get involved in the affairs of your Shangchi Sect. However, since the Corpse Demon has infiltrated your sect, I have no choice but to take action. Sect Leader Li—"

Li Yin was also seeing the appearance of a corpse demon for the first time, and he was stunned by the sight. When he heard Li Wuxiang call his name, he immediately shuddered: "Ah...ah?"

"You've done a poor job as sect leader. I suggest you step down and let someone else take over." Li Wuxiang spoke without looking at him, instead conjuring a flying sword in his palm—corpse demons are very difficult to kill; their blood nerves will survive for a long time after they die. Just like that day in the Great Calamity Mountain, some heads will also sprout bright red tentacles from under their necks, displaying faces and wandering around aimlessly.

Li Wuxiang casually used his flying sword to blast the heads off one by one, then lifted his eyelids, revealing only a pair of black pupils and a set of white teeth on his blood-stained face: "What do you think?"

(End of this chapter)