Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 401 Cave Heaven Paradise
The rice was cooked quickly, and the steam made the lid hiss loudly. Kong Youxin lifted the lid, and a strange smell wafted out. The three of them almost simultaneously sighed inwardly.

Kong Youxin and Zhou Xiang sighed inwardly because the food tasted really bad. The lard and dried meat were brought with them when they came. They had actually considered everything very carefully when they were discussing what food to bring—the outside world had been hit by disaster for a long time, and even if the lard was rendered the day before the disaster, it should have gone slightly rancid due to poor storage after the late summer and early autumn.

In fact, even the word "rancid smell" was only found after gathering many people and asking them before leaving. For Kong Youxin and Zhou Xiang, this smell was something they had never smelled before in their lives—while on the ship, they had put the jar in the sun to cool it down, and after doing this for more than ten days, they found that it was a bit too rancid.

So now when I cook it in rice, it tastes terrible.

The same goes for jerky. It can't be too fresh, and it should have a slightly peculiar flavor, so it was made a little too much.

Now that these three things are mixed together, the taste is really unbearable. It reminded Kong Youxin of the shrimp she was tired of eating, and it also reminded Zhou Xiang of the Jade Blood Pill.

And the two of them had to eat, and they had to eat with relish and finish everything.

Li Wuxiang sighed for a similar reason to them. When he was still human skin, he wasn't very sensitive to taste, but now that he's no longer human skin, but has become a double layer of skin covering bones, he can taste the food.

So now he has to eat, and he has to eat with relish and finish everything.

He took a wooden bowl from his bundle, while Kong Youxin took two porcelain bowls. The three of them happily shared their meal, each eating with gusto, and after finishing, they all let out a long sigh, as if relieved and completely satisfied.

"Thanks to you, senior, I haven't had such a full meal in a long time. Junior Sister Kong's cooking is also really good, it has a real flavor in its simplicity! Oh, let me take it, Junior Sister, don't bother, I'll take it to the beach to wash it." Li Wuxiang snatched two porcelain bowls from Kong Youxin's hands.

Kong Youxin wanted to argue a little more, but Zhou Xiang said, "We'll be walking together in the future, so don't be polite. Just give it to Fellow Daoist Li."

Kong Youxin stood on the boat all morning and then walked on the beach all afternoon. She was exhausted and didn't want to argue anymore. She just smiled and said, "Thank you very much, senior brother."

So Li Wuxiang took three bowls, walked out of the forest, crossed the beach, and went to the sea.

Kong Youxin and Zhou Xiang immediately squinted to watch—they saw him first use fine sand to scrub the grease off the three bowls on the beach, and then walk to the sea to rinse them with seawater. As he rinsed them, he seemed to find shellfish or snails, so he bent down to pick them up in the sea, walking away as he did so.

Zhou Xiang immediately looked away, glanced at the package Li Wuxiang had left on the ground, and then winked at Kong Youxin.

Kong Youxin quickly crouched down and went to the package, first noting how it was tied, then gently untied it. Inside was indeed a wooden box, crudely made of planks nailed together crookedly, with large gaps. Besides the box, there were a few changes of clothes, five bottles of pills of various sizes, several pieces of ore for mixing pigments and drawing talismans, wooden branches, a copper handle, a dented gold wine pot, donkey hooves, crumpled talisman paper soaked in blood and dried, and a dagger with a chipped blade.

Kong Youxin sighed as she watched, thinking that these savages were living such a miserable life. Why didn't they come to the parish before?

At this moment, Zhou Xiang also crouched down and walked over. He rubbed his fingers together, and a glimmer of light appeared at his fingertips. He wanted to use this light to look through the gaps in the wooden box.

The gap was large enough to fit a finger. But it was strangely dark inside. Even after Zhou Xiang had inserted his finger, he could only see a dark mass, as if it contained nothing but darkness, an endless, boundless darkness.

He wanted to reach in and touch it again, but Kong Youxin whispered, "Master, he's coming back."

Zhou Xiang quickly returned to the tree and sat down. Kong Youxin tied up the package and saw Li Wuxiang carrying three bowls, walking back from the beach.

"Master, do you think he has..."

"Don't you think something's off about us?"

"Ah."

Zhou Xiang leaned against the tree and smiled: "Do you think something was off about us just now?"

"Not really..."

"Then nothing's wrong. Don't worry."

Li Wuxiang returned carrying three bowls, all filled with seawater and some clams. He happily put the bowls down: "I just picked these. Let's keep them in the bowls overnight to let them purge the sand, and then we can eat them before we set off tomorrow. These are delicious roasted."

Zhou Xiang smiled and said, "Fellow Daoist, you are very kind."

Li Wuxiang returned to the fire and sat down. The three chatted for a few more minutes—Li Wuxiang did the talking, while Zhou Xiang and Kong Youxin took notes. When the conversation had calmed down, Zhou Xiang said, "It's getting late. We have to travel tomorrow, so let's get some rest."

Kong Youxin had been waiting for these words, and immediately put to use what she had learned in the past ten days—she had dug a shallow pit in the ground when she made the hearth. Now, she first extinguished the fire with soil, moved the stones around the fire, and then put another layer of soil on top. In this way, the ground underneath would still be warm, and it would take two or three hours before it got cold.

Then she took out two rolls of mats from her bundle. The mats were made of cotton with leather covers. She spread the two mats on the warm ground in the dark, and then took out two thin blankets and placed them on top. Zhou Xiang listened to her doing all this in the darkness, and when she found an opportunity, she asked Li Wuxiang, "Fellow Daoist, aren't you going to rest?"

Li Wuxiang said, "I'll just sleep against the tree. Alas, I lost all my bedding before."

Which respectable rogue cultivator would carry a blanket and mattress in their baggage when going out?

Zhou Xiang smiled and said, "I thought you had some in your package."

Oh, they're waiting here. Li Wuxiang's spirit was watching from not far away when they were looking. But the talismanic power on the two of them was too strong, so he didn't dare to go closer. He only saw the two of them peeking into the Myriad Transformations Cube like thieves, and they must have only seen darkness. They must have found it very strange.

The Myriad Transformations Realm has now been expanded into a vast world, and with his current cultivation level, this size is already the limit for him, hence the disguise as a box. It's unusual for a rogue cultivator to carry a box when traveling, but that depends on who it is.

He obtained the skin and bones of the Xie Zhi, whose original form had lost its cultivation and was still inside the Wan Hua Fang. So while inside, he could use Xu Zhen as the core of the formation and borrow all of his supernatural powers.

Once outside, the array's core was gone, and he could only borrow a little, which was enough for himself. He said he was Li Xiao, so he really was Li Xiao, and not someone else. Even if Zhao Qi were standing right in front of him, he would still stare at him and ask, "Hey, have you seen Li Wuxiang?"

He sighed in the darkness, “Alas, the box contains the remains of my relatives. I knew I would never return when I left Deyang, so I took it with me, along with some soil from their graves. This world is too chaotic. If my ancestors’ graves are gone, I will have no face to face them in the underworld.”

He thought Zhou Xiang would ask a few more questions. After all, they were members of the True Form Sect and shouldn't have much affection for their relatives—he quite enjoyed teasing the two of them, not only for amusement but also to see if he could find anything useful from their flaws.

But Zhou Xiang fell silent in the darkness. Li Wuxiang was thinking that he had done a good job in this respect when he heard him say softly, "You are a filial person. Alas, the remains of our ancestors should be laid to rest. If they are left exposed in the wilderness, no matter what our ancestors think, we descendants will not be at peace."

Li Wuxiang was taken aback. What was wrong with this person? His words didn't sound like he was just giving a perfunctory reply; they seemed more like he was expressing his true feelings...

Are these two heretics? Like Lou He back then?
As the night passed and dawn broke, the three continued their journey.

Zhou Xiang and Kong Youxin were like torn bags, revealing themselves as they walked. Both of them licked their teeth with their tongues as they went, which seemed very uncomfortable. Kong Youxin took the initiative to stop three times in two hours, either saying that she saw what looked like wild fruit somewhere, or that she had spotted someone and wanted to ask for directions.

But each time, neither the fruit nor the person was found. Li Wuxiang knew where she had gone—Zhou Xiang's cultivation level was hard to say, but judging from the way this woman exerted force while walking, she should still be in the Foundation Establishment stage. Before Foundation Establishment, the difference between her and ordinary people wasn't particularly significant, so last night she ate a meal made with spoiled oil and meat, and her stomach got upset, so she went to the wilderness to have diarrhea.

By noon, Kong Youxin was almost in tears. She found an opportunity to whisper a few words to Zhou Xiang and begged for a pill to eat.

Besides, these two, especially Zhou Xiang, were indeed quite capable. Li Wuxiang neither told them where to go nor led the way; he simply followed them. But Zhou Xiang seemed very familiar with the area, choosing routes that were all easy to follow, and they didn't get lost at all throughout the entire day.

Li Wuxiang gradually realized that he was walking while observing the landscape and the atmosphere of the land—in this wilderness, it was as if he were walking in his own backyard, with smooth roads and lush vegetation everywhere he went, and he had perfectly avoided any possible villages or towns.

As the sun began to set, the three of them spotted a valley surrounded by mountains in the distance. Mist rose in the forest, but the valley remained clear and cool. From afar, several rock faces and trees were visible on the hillside, while the grass below the slope was still a deep green, as if autumn had arrived later in the valley than usual.

Zhou Xiang stood on a mountain ridge and looked into the valley. He then turned to Li Wuxiang and said, "Fellow Daoist, this is a place with excellent feng shui."

Li Wuxiang nodded: "Senior is truly blessed to have encountered such a place."

That place was indeed a geomantically auspicious location. Li Wuxiang could feel that the spiritual energy there was much denser than the surrounding area, making one feel refreshed at first glance, as if they were in a paradise.

Zhou Xiang smiled and said, "I didn't find it by chance, I found it. We'll spend the night there. After tonight, my disciple and I plan to rest here for a couple of days and see if it's suitable for a longer stay. Fellow Daoist, would you like to come with us, or do you want to set off tomorrow?"

Take a couple of days off? Stay for an extended period? You guys just got ashore yesterday, and you can't even handle walking for one day? As soon as this thought crossed Li Wuxiang's mind, he caught a glimpse of Kong Youxin.

She had been feeling unwell since morning, but after taking the medicine, she seemed to have recovered. She didn't mention seeing any wild fruit or people all afternoon, and even seemed interested in asking him questions. However, she looked unwell again recently. Although she could still keep up, her expression was not good, as if her stomach had upset again.

Li Wuxiang knew her problem with just a few glances—if she took off her shoes now, the soles would be bright red, and her feet would be covered in blisters.

These two are very strange. They're protected by layers of magic; they must have lacked nothing back in the parish, thriving and highly valued. For Zhou Xiang to come outside the parish, he must have something extremely important to do. Judging from their reaction last night when I mentioned Yiling, they're very likely involved with the Blood God Cult.

Even if someone like that needs help, they should at least bring a capable one. Kong Youxin endured the pain and walked all afternoon today, which is commendable, but her cultivation level is truly unacceptable. Why did Zhou Xiang choose her?

Zhou Xiang himself was also quite eccentric.

Last night, when he mentioned "ancestors," he seemed deeply moved. Today, he said he wanted to stay for a few more days, clearly for Kong Youxin's sake. How could there be such a person in the diocese? Even within the Taiyi Sect, he would be hard to find—if he were replaced by Mei Qiulu, she might at most give Kong Youxin some medicine to heal her injuries, but she would definitely not stop to rest for her sake.

As Zhou Xiang thought about these things, he began to walk down the slope, with Kong Youxin following behind, gritting her teeth.

Li Wuxiang followed closely behind, glancing at Zhou Xiang as they walked. This man seemed to be carrying something. Kong Youxin had carried the package when they left that morning, but after she asked Zhou Xiang for the medicine, Zhou Xiang took the package and carried it on his back.

Throughout the journey, Zhou Xiang would frequently tug at the ribbon in front of him, as if his chest was being constricted uncomfortably. Given his level of cultivation, he shouldn't be experiencing such a sensation. Li Wuxiang assumed it was because he was carrying something extremely important in his chest, so important that he was afraid the ribbon would damage him.

Li Wuxiang was eager to know what it was, but Zhou Xiang had protective magic around her, and he didn't know the extent of her strength, so he couldn't make a move.

So, under normal circumstances, he would never follow these two into that valley. In fact, he would deliberately avoid it to avoid getting his hands dirty.

But now that the master and disciple feel that place is a blessed land, that's just right. After this or a few more times, these two might really become independent cultivators and wandering knights outside the sect, and he will be able to easily control them.

So he took a few steps and said, "Senior, I'll stay here too. This is the middle of nowhere, and as I said before, the more people there are, the better."

(End of this chapter)