Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 369 Big Brother! Big Brother!
As Li Wuxiang spoke, he tossed two items over, which Xue Baoping and Li Guichen quickly caught.

Upon closer inspection, they weren't any kind of sign at all, just two dark stones. But the moment the thought "this isn't a sign" crossed their minds, the pebbles in their hands instantly transformed, truly becoming signs—Xue Baoping held a square token engraved with four characters, "Founding Brothers." Li Guichen's sign also had these four characters engraved, but the font and shape were different.

They understood immediately. What the sign was or what it looked like didn't matter. In Xu Zhen's delusional world of supernatural powers, Li Wuxiang was in charge, so as long as he said so, it was—in a way—a form of borrowing supernatural powers.

Li Wuxiang then returned to his throne and sat down. He wasn't sitting cross-legged, but rather resting his chin on his hand, as if deep in thought. Xue Baoping wanted to speak, but Li Guichen tugged at her sleeve and gave her a meaningful look.

She now knew that Li Guichen was Li Wuxiang. The older, more mature, and more composed Li Wuxiang. Feeling at ease and no longer worried, she followed him.

The two walked in the opposite direction from the throne and soon entered complete darkness. It was a hall, and while it was high, it shouldn't be ridiculously large—yet it was indeed ridiculously large. They walked in the darkness for a full quarter of an hour before they saw a glimmer of light ahead; that must be the exit.

Only then did Li Guichen exhale: "You're right, Li Wuxiang is deeply obsessed. But he's not as bad as I thought—actually, what he said wasn't wrong either. Apart from thinking he's a demon king, he doesn't seem to have changed much, at most his temperament has changed slightly. But listening to what he just said, I understand... Although I don't particularly like it, I wouldn't call it indiscriminate killing."

It's incredibly rare to hear normal people talking in a place like this. Xue Baoping secretly breathed a sigh of relief and glanced into the darkness behind her: "That's right, we can talk about other things later. But Mr. Li, can't Xiao E be released yet? Did you leave them with Li Wuxiang?"

Li Guichen smiled gently: "I'm not entirely comfortable leaving them with him. I'll take them out and find them a place to stay, then we'll come back."

As he spoke, he turned and called out into the darkness behind him, "Liu Niang, Xiao E, hurry up, don't fall behind."

Upon hearing the words "mother and daughter," Xue Baoping felt her blood run cold. When she turned to look, she felt even more suffocated—

She felt that the first step emerging from the darkness was the hoof of the white horse. But as soon as it touched the ground, it transformed into a pair of moon-white embroidered shoes. Then the hem of a white cotton skirt fell onto the shoes, and then a woman—who looked to be about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, with a slightly long face and high cheekbones, her hair styled in a bun. She lowered her head slightly, her expression seemingly somewhat uneasy.

She held a little girl's hand. That was the crocodile demon in her human form, but her clothes had changed, becoming a gray cotton dress woven with fine scales. She held the woman's hand, her expression quite natural... but she no longer had the crocodile demon's former innocent and ignorant look, but rather the clever curiosity of a human child.

Xue Baoping let out a difficult breath: "Mr. Li... are these two your family members?"

Li Guichen smiled and said, "It's inconvenient for me to move around with two women, so I transformed them into white horses before. Now that we're in Li Wuxiang's territory, there's no need for them to suffer anymore. This is Liu Niang, my grand-niece-in-law, and the younger one is my grand-niece. Alas, I searched everywhere before and only found the two of them—now the three of us are the last survivors of my branch of the family, which is a stroke of luck amidst misfortune."

He paused for a moment, then said, "What? Didn't I tell you about this a few days ago?"

Xue Baoping walked a few steps in silence: "I did say that, Mr. Li. I forgot, but it doesn't matter. As long as you're happy."

Really, as long as you're happy, as long as you're happy. She couldn't blame Li Wuxiang either—if it weren't for him fighting Xu Zhen that day, she and Xie Qi might have been dead. She couldn't blame Li Guichen either—he had said that this would allow him to have a clear sword mind and stay sober, but he could heal others but not himself.

She turned to look at "Liu Niang" and "Xiao E" walking behind her, thinking that it was alright—the crocodile demon was muddle-headed and not very smart, so they could avoid trouble for the time being.

But now she couldn't trust anyone but herself. She felt she had to prepare herself—if Li Wuxiang and Li Guichen were both doomed, she might be able to help them, or she might be able to escape!

……

The moment "Liu Niang" and "Xiao E" appeared, Li Wuxiang sensed them.

However, he felt neither worried nor disappointed, but rather relieved. Even if Li Guichen hadn't done it that way, he would have considered doing it after dealing with Xu Zhen—knowing something in one's heart is one thing, thinking about it is another; people are bound to go crazy sooner or later. He had even thought that if Li Guichen really wanted to, he would arrange for him to have some relatives involved; now that he had done it himself, it was for the best.

This simply shows that Li Guichen has lost control of himself and is completely absorbed. The self he imagines is ultimately inferior to the real him.

He sat in the hall for a while before speaking in the darkness: "You two, don't interrupt me when I'm speaking from now on. How many times have I told you? Can't you hold back? Xu Zhen saw through me back on Dapan Mountain. If I hadn't been lucky, guess what would have happened?"

"After listening to that, they must think I'm still engrossed. What good does that do you?"

"Xu Pianpian, forget about it. Aren't the two of us enough to talk to you? Besides, look at Xu Chen's cultivation level these days, and what is yours? What's the difference between you and Xu Chen? How come he's already close to reaching the Golden Core stage?"

"It's always been like this? Just because it's always been like this doesn't mean it's right. Take Mei Qiulu, for example. In just over a hundred years, even disregarding how she achieved Yang Shen, she was already at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage. How old are you? If you cultivated like a human, you would have achieved Yang Shen long ago!"

"Me? I'm just lazy. I haven't even taught you guys to practice like a real swordsman. Xu Chen, shut up. I'll talk to you later. I just know you used to be demons, so I'm not used to working so hard."

"If you don't study hard, Xu Zhen will kill me in a few days. Will he still treat you like a sister? You should ask Xu Chen if he agrees first. And you, Xu Chen, have I been too lenient with you? Have I been praising you too much these past few days? If you do it again—did you see Li Guichen just now? Did you hear me tell you how he got here?"

"If I can create one Li Guichen, I can create another Li Chen. Don't always think I can't do anything to you two. I only gave you a chance because I think you're both pitiful and useful. Did you hear what I just said? That guy called Lao Guo died once before I brought him into the Taiyi Sect. Xu Pianpian, how many people have you killed since you came to the Central Continent?"

"...You don't need to feel aggrieved. What did you have to do with me or the people of Zhonglu before? Children in Zhonglu are ignorant and break things at home, and they get a beating. What you did before is something that everyone in Zhonglu would want to kill—if you want to get out, I've said it before, first, you have to do me a favor, and second, you have to atone for your sins—"

"Xu Chen? Has Xu Chen killed anyone in the Central Plains? Xu Chen, have you killed anyone in the Central Plains?"

"Oh, the Eastern Continent?" Li Wuxiang sneered, continuing to mutter to himself, "He only killed demons in the Eastern Continent, what does that have to do with me? So he doesn't need to atone for his sins with me, but you do, do you understand?"

"Don't ask me how long, ask you, ask the two of you, ask you and Xu Chen! How long have you two thought you've reached the Nascent Soul stage? That's how long I'll start making my move—I'm the one waiting for you now, not the other way around!"

Li Wuxiang grew angrier as he spoke, raising his hand and slapping himself twice across the face. "This is just a small punishment for me today. It won't be like this next time. Don't think I'm easy to talk to!" He shut his mouth after saying this and sighed deeply. But he stopped abruptly halfway through his sigh.

Because a sound suddenly came from the darkness of the palace dome—like a bird trapped high up, flapping its wings and flying around wildly.

Then the sound rushed down and landed on the ground. Li Wulian hurriedly stood up from his throne—before him stood Xu Zhen, who had transformed into human form in the darkness.

Xu Zhen looked extremely happy and waved to him, "You can sit down, you don't need to stand up. Did you see that just now? I've learned the art of transformation again."

Li Wuxiang didn't stay seated any longer. He walked over to Xu Zhen, looked up at the ceiling, then at him: "Was that sound you made, brother? Did you fly down from up there? Did you turn into a bird?"

Xu Zhen spread his arms wide, his sleeves resembling two wings: "Hahahaha, yes! I really didn't expect that the True Lord of the Wei River could change like this. I'm remembering new supernatural powers every day now. You're right, brother... When you said I was the True Lord of the Wei River before, I thought I might have gone mad! But now, with these abilities of mine, it really doesn't make sense if I'm not! Hahahaha! But there's one strange thing—how did I come to be the True Lord of the Wei River, how did I attain enlightenment? Why can't I remember?"

Li Wuxiang frowned, pondered with him for a while, and said sincerely, "Brother, if I tell you, you'll accuse me of blaspheming Emperor Gouchen. But now you're gaining the supernatural powers of the Lord of Weishui every day, yet you've lost your former memories. Do you think it's possible that we haven't actually traced it back to its roots? What if you really are Emperor Gouchen?"

Xu Zhen frowned: "You're talking nonsense again!"

Li Wuxiang snorted defiantly, "Brother, if you keep saying I'm talking nonsense, then I'll have to show you something."

Xu Zhen raised an eyebrow: "Oh? What is it? What other treasures do you have that I don't know about?"

"Of course you know about my treasures in the Eastern Continent, but this thing was obtained from the Central Continent. It's called the Myriad Transformations Formula—Brother, do you know what the people of the Central Continent say about the Ninth Prince's origins?"

"Hmph, what do they know?"

"Alas, after all, the True Lord of Wei River first manifested his divine power in the Central Continent. That's what the people of the Central Continent say, more than three thousand years ago, the True Lord of Wei River descended to earth on a star raft. When I first heard this, I just thought it was made up by the people of the Central Continent, but guess what? I really found the star raft, or rather, a part of the star raft, called the Myriad Transformations Formula—after I came to the Central Continent, I was trapped in a furnace by a stinky Taoist priest, and it was actually him who used the Myriad Transformations Formula to trap me."

"I was thinking, if you, brother, were to think about this carefully inside the Myriad Transformations Cube, would you be able to sense something? Perhaps you really could sense the Great Emperor Gouchen?"

Xu Zhen narrowed her eyes: "That treasure that person used to trap you, you want me to crawl inside it?"

Li Wuxiang laughed: "Brother, you've actually been in here many times already. You're in here right now."

Xu Zhen was taken aback: "Huh?"

Li Wuxiang stepped back, raised his hands, and pressed down sharply—

This incredibly vast and towering dark hall was suddenly illuminated.

The darkness faded, and the blackness of the basalt disappeared, replaced by six rough, uneven stone walls, as if they had been cut and hewn by a knife and axe. Huge torches burned on the walls. There were no doors or windows, just like the stone chamber in Li Wuxiang's hearth, only many times larger.

“This is it, brother. This is what I created using the Myriad Transformations Formula. You and I are both inside this treasure now. You said you've been remembering new supernatural powers here lately—I guess this thing was originally your magic weapon, and now it's resonating with you.”

“I asked Mei Qiulu of the Taiyi Sect and showed her this thing. She said that the Wanhua Fang might not be a star raft, but rather the Ninth Prince’s blessed land. There is a kind of blessed land in the world that can be taken around. The Ranshan Illusionary Realm of the Ranshan Sect of the Thirty-Six Sects is such a thing.”

"I didn't tell you before because I thought that if I did, you might forget your original supernatural abilities—"

Xu Zhen frowned: "What does it have to do with my supernatural powers... Huh? Oh, what you said makes sense. That's right. If you had told me before, I probably wouldn't have remembered my original supernatural powers."

"Yes. That's why I'm saying it now. Because if I say it now, you might be able to gradually sense something, or even sense the Great Emperor Gouchen."

At this point, Xu Zhen frowned again. He immediately said, "But there's no rush, brother. I think you have another idea—since this place is a blessed land, it should be similar to the former Youjiu Abyss of the Taiyi Sect, with a real world inside. This place should be infinitely vast—"

Xu Zhen glanced around and nodded: "Yes, that's exactly how I feel. It wasn't so bad when it was dark here, but now that there are stone walls on all sides, it makes me very uncomfortable. Humph, this place should be vast, a world of its own!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the five stone walls vanished, and the four cardinal directions and the sky were all enveloped in a thin, white mist. Only a huge suit of black armor remained standing on the ground.

"Brother, let there be light!"

"Yes, let there be light!"

Suddenly, sunlight streamed down. The sky turned a deep blue, the sun shone brightly, and only a few wisps of thin clouds drifted by.

"Brother, doesn't this place look just like the Youjiuyuan of the Taiyi Sect that I told you about? Maybe the Youjiuyuan was created by Li Ye after he saw your blessed land! Do you remember what the Youjiuyuan looked like?!"

(End of this chapter)