Shushan Earthly Immortal

Chapter 369 Mighty Array and Ghostly Net, Fairy of the Green Bag

Cheng Xinzhan transformed into a wisp of wind, traveling underground at an extremely fast speed.

The name Diyin Mountain is truly fitting, as the underground is filled with extremely heavy Yin energy. He had never been here before and did not know whether this spiritual island in the sea was originally like this or had become like this after being occupied by demonic corpses.

After descending two hundred feet, Cheng Xinzhan still hadn't sensed any being spied on or any signs of being swept away by restrictions. Instead, he unexpectedly discovered many stone chambers and earthen caves hidden in the mountains. These were the dwellings of Yin Corpses; many zombies, after attaining enlightenment, still preferred to live underground. Cheng Xinzhan even saw one Yin Corpse, also at the mid-third tribulation cultivation level, who was actually sleeping in a cramped coffin, lying there absorbing the earth's Yin energy.

He continued downwards, weaving through a group of undead, but none of them noticed him.

Furthermore, the compassionate Earth Goddess not only nurtures spirits, but also teems with countless other creatures living in this island's soil, including mole crickets, groundworms, earthworms, root cutters, centipedes, ground bees, ants, and of course, cicadas. And of course, not only these small insects, but occasionally one can also spot enormous creatures like pangolins, black-banded snakes, and giant centipedes, burrowing through the soil and disappearing in a flash.

These insects are busy underground, creating a vast and complex network of underground tunnels, forming a colorful and magnificent underground world.

This made things much easier for Cheng Xinzhan. He transformed into the wind and moved stealthily and swiftly through the underground gaps where the insects had crawled out.

After diving to 300 zhang, Cheng Xinzhan descended from the mountainside of Yungai Mountain. He estimated that by now, he should have reached the foot of Bijia Mountain, which is the ground level of Diyin Island. Going any further would lead to the bottom of Diyin Island.

At this moment, the surging blood river in his heart guided him to continue downwards, and there was still a long way to go. So he continued to descend, heading north towards the deepest and most central part of the Yin Island.

The deeper they went, the fewer stone chambers and earthen caves there were, and the fewer spirits they encountered. Cheng Xinzhan knew that this was probably nearing the forbidden area underground; these corpses knew the prohibitions and therefore dared not go any further. However, there were still many small insects and other living creatures, which couldn't understand any prohibitions.

When they reached a depth of two hundred feet underground, the dampness and cold penetrated to the bone. Not a single spirit could be seen, and the number of living insects dwindled, with only a few centipedes, blind crickets, and midges remaining.

At the same time, Cheng Xinzhan also saw that in the dark, pitch-black depths of the underground, streams of light were gradually appearing, flowing slowly. These streams of light were composed of countless tiny points of light, like fireflies migrating in swarms on a summer night, or like bright stars twinkling on a clear night, converging into a Milky Way.

Brilliant and magnificent.

This is the earth vein, the earth vein of the Yin Island.

And the source of these rivers of light and the direction of the surging tides in Cheng Xinzhan's heart are exactly the same.

So he disappeared into the earth's veins, where the yin wind and earth energy merged into one, and he continued to descend, even faster than before.

When they reached a depth of 250 feet underground, the hidden spirit within Cheng Xinzhan's Purple Palace suddenly issued a warning, letting out a cry.

He immediately stopped, transformed into a cicada, and remained motionless in place.

Immediately afterwards, a wave-like arc of emerald light swept upwards from the ground, brushing over Cheng Xinzhan.

At this moment, he cleared away all distracting thoughts, locked away all life force, and returned to the state he had been in underground for seventeen years during his dream of cicadas. He was neither alive nor dead, his body silent but his spirit present, an empty body and an empty mind.

A green light swept over his body, but nothing seemed amiss. He waited quietly for a while longer, but still nothing unusual happened.

Cheng Xinzhan breathed a sigh of relief, then transformed into a gust of yin wind once more and continued downwards. He had already discerned from that moment that the place emitting the emerald light barrier, the source of his surging blood, and the direction of the earth's veins all originated from the same place.

They descended another 150 zhang, reaching a depth of 400 zhang. Here, the sweeping azure light appeared almost every few breaths, and Cheng Xinzhan's switching between the cicada and wind forms became increasingly rapid. Simultaneously, his descent slowed, almost requiring him to transform into a cicada to evade the azure light every few feet.

When they reached a depth of over 480 feet underground, the azure light almost merged into one continuous expanse, without any gaps. At this point, Cheng Xinzhan dared not transform into wind anymore, but truly regarded himself as a cicada, following the flow of the earth's energy, digging deeper and deeper.

Fortunately, we've reached the most heavily guarded area, which means we're almost there.

When Cheng Xinzhan pushed away the last few specks of dust blocking his view, revealing his two black bean-like eyes, he saw a huge, hollow cavern hidden nearly five hundred feet underground on the Yin Island.

His eyes moved, revealing that the cave was over eighty feet high and two hundred feet wide, shaped like a chicken egg. At this moment, the cicada that Cheng Xinzhan had transformed into was on the side wall of this chicken egg.

At the bottom center of the chicken, Cheng Xinzhan immediately saw the source of his excitement:
There was stagnant water, forming a lake. In the center of the lake, an altar was built with five-colored earth. The altar had five sides and nine steps, and the top of the altar was covered with bright yellow brocade. The brocade was embroidered with dragon patterns, and a person lay on it.

This person wore a bright yellow brocade dragon robe, with dragons playing with pearls embroidered on the chest and shoulders, and the hem depicting waves and cliffs, complete with all twelve imperial symbols, shimmering with gold. On his head was a black gauze winged crown, with a gold wire core and covered with black gauze, lower in the front and higher in the back, with a pair of golden phoenix wings on each side, each phoenix holding a pearl in its beak. At the back of the crown was a gold headband with two dragons playing with a pearl, their eyes dotted with kingfisher feathers, and their scales clearly defined.

This is the attire of the Ming Dynasty emperor!
Looking at his appearance, he was only in his early thirties, with a short, neatly trimmed beard on his chin, and his eyebrows slanted upwards into his temples, giving him a noble and dignified look.

However, at this moment, this person's face was completely bloodless, as pale as frost, his long, narrow, and noble phoenix eyes were closed, he was not breathing, and his chest was not rising or falling at all.

This is a dead person.

However, the dead man's features were strikingly similar to his own—the same sword-like eyebrows, the same phoenix eyes. The emperor's corpse was so close, and the blood in his heart surged like a dragon.

There's no mistake, those are the remains of our ancestors!
At this very moment, three striking, enormous rivers of light still connect to the altar within the cavern's opening:

A pale yellow river of light came from the west, exuding the weight of the earth; a deep indigo river of light came from the east, exuding the gentleness of flowing water.

Cheng Xinzhan immediately recognized that these two veins were the earth veins from the Divine Continent and the sea veins from the East China Sea.

Here, the earth's veins and the sea's veins converge, bursting forth with vitality, like two giant roots intertwined underground. From these roots, branches sprout and countless veins grow upwards, forming a colossal tree of light. But viewed from the side, it resembles two mighty rivers converging, briefly meeting before splitting into countless branches that continue flowing downstream.

Whether they are branches of the Tree of Light or tributaries of the River of Light, these differentiated tiny veins of earth continue to spread, growing into caves and then embedding themselves in the earth and rocks, merging with the land. At their end, they evolve into geological formations such as mountain ridges, ravines, underground rivers, stone mines, and crystal caves.

That's how the entire Yin Island grew.

The Emperor's Corpse Altar is located at the very foundation of the entire earth vein network, at the confluence of two earth dragons, connecting the entire Yin Island. Furthermore, within the cavern lies a third river of light, distinct from the earth and sea veins, a jet-black river.

This dark river of light originates from the corpse of the emperor at the top of the altar, and then flows vertically upward, like a black plume of smoke rising into the sky, or a black vine parasitizing the earth vein light tree.

Looking at this river of light, Cheng Xinzhan sensed yin energy, corpse energy, ghost energy, resentment energy, fishy smell, and—the primordial yin energy of the earth!

Cheng Xinzhan was very familiar with and had a deep impression of the magical aura generated by these intertwined auras—back when Gu Chen escaped his predicament, he used the "Mysterious Yin Gathering Beast Banner" to transform into a black smoke that blotted out the sky, and the color and aura of that black smoke were exactly the same as the dark river of light in front of him.

Besides, Cheng Xinzhan could clearly see that the shimmering dark spots in this black river of light were tiny ghost script spells—exactly the same as the runes on the "Mysterious Yin Gathering Beast Banner," and also exactly the same as the ghost script hidden deep within the spells of the Fire Dragon Island's command flag!
Cheng Xinzhan looked towards the direction in which the dark river of light flowed upwards, which was the location of the highest peak in the center of Bijia Mountain on the central part of Diyin Island—Motian Peak. At the summit of this peak, there was a palace called the Valley God Palace, which was the sleeping quarters of the demon corpse Gu Chen.

Presumably, the other end of this dark river of light is the magical treasure "Mysterious Yin Gathering Beast Banner".

Therefore, the function of the altar and the black river of light is not hard to guess. These two things connect the energy of the Earth Yin Island's veins, the corpse of the Ji Earth Emperor, and the "Mysterious Yin Gathering Beast Banner," integrating them into a whole.

This formation is even more remarkable than the one envisioned by the Crimson Corpse, which connects the Fire Dragon Island's earth veins and the Brocade Dragon Corpse with the Fire Vein of the Abyss Fire Cave. Moreover, the Fire Dragon Island formation has not yet completed its first step, while the three-element intertwined formation of the Earth Yin Island's two dragon veins—the Earth Corpse of Ji and the Profound Yin Banner—is truly right before Cheng Xinzhan's eyes.

It was truly shocking.

No wonder, with such a formation, it's no wonder that Diyin Island has remained unconquered despite the Haoran Alliance's prolonged siege.

The idea was brilliant, and the scale of the operation was grand. But for Cheng Xinzhan, it was intolerable. The idea was good, but it used his own ancestors as puppets; the scale of the operation was grand, but it was used to deal with the righteous alliance.

How could I let him have his way?

But seeing this scene, Cheng Xinzhan made no move at this moment. Because, within this underground cave, a massive magical net enveloped the entire altar.

The demonic net, a deep turquoise, stretched out in the shape of a bowl, enclosing the entire altar. It was called the demonic net because its mesh resembled human eyes, with a single turquoise orb of light suspended within each mesh, identical to the pupil of an eye. This made the demonic net appear as if it were woven from millions of ghostly eyes, creating an extremely eerie and sinister effect.

Moreover, these ghostly eyes are as if they are alive, opening and closing, but they seem to have no emotion, giving people a chilling and eerie feeling.

The demonic eye flashed and shone as it opened and closed, and layers of emerald light detached from the net and spread in all directions.

It turns out that the restriction I encountered when I was diving was released by this thing.

What kind of magical treasure is this?
Cheng Xinzhan carefully examined the scene inside the cave again, and after confirming that nothing was missed, he slowly retreated.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Langshan Mountain in Hunan Province.

Ever since the Tongxuan Sect Master established his sect here and spread it throughout the world, this place has become bustling with activity. On the day of the sect's founding, after the Tongxuan Sect Master announced the sect's name and doctrines, people from all directions offered their congratulations.

In Hunan province, Hengshan and Suxianling offered their congratulations. In neighboring areas, except for the southern wilderness, all offered their congratulations: Luofu Mountain in Yuyang, Jiugong Mountain and Wudang Mountain in Jingchu, Bamian Mountain in Wuling, Fuxia Lake in Miao territory, and in Yuzhang, except for the Longhu lineage, all the other major sects of the Shizong clan offered their congratulations.

That day, the land south of the Yangtze River was shaken.

The branching of the Immortal Sect and the support of other sects naturally had an undeniable effect. On that very day, more than thirty virtuous corpse cultivators of the Third Realm scattered throughout the Divine Continent and more than fifty righteous corpse cultivators of the Third Realm who had crossed the sea from the Three Corpse Sect were admitted to the sect. In addition, there were the Third Realm elders who had followed the Tongxuan Sect Master out of the mountains to establish the sect. This allowed the Ximing Sect to attract more than a hundred Golden Core cultivators on the very day of its founding, instantly becoming one of the top sects in the world.

As for the Yin Corpses of the first and second realms, they were countless, rushing from all directions and gathering at the foot of Langshan like a tide, shouting the teachings of the Ximing Sect.

This scene exceeded everyone's expectations, and for the first time, many righteous people, especially those who looked down on the Yin Clan, witnessed the Yin Clan's formidable power in the mortal realm. This scene was even more awe-inspiring than the grand celebrations from various sects, and it directly frightened away the Southern Faction demons who had come to cause trouble.

Thus, on the day the Ximing Sect was established, a new idiom was born in the cultivation world through word of mouth, called "Yuju Chaohu". This idiom, like "Yunji Jingcong", is often used to praise how attractive something is.

This was just the beginning. Since the sect was founded, corpses had been coming to serve them almost every day. At this time, the disciples of the four great families of southern Jiangxi came in very handy, helping Shi Tongxuan and the core disciples brought from Sanqing Mountain to quickly settle the corpses and barely maintain the situation.

Faced with the unexpected grand occasion, Cheng Xinzhan, as the vice leader, was extremely busy. After nearly emptying the pockets of the capable members of the four major families in southern Jiangxi, he went to the Jinshui Chamber of Commerce in Wuling, met with the leader of the Lu Gang, and transferred another group of people into the mountains to settle the bodies of the good people from Lu who had joined him.

In addition, he also selected some people from the East Sea corpse cultivators who came to serve him as core leaders to temporarily manage other low-level corpse cultivators from the East Sea who were at the first or second realm. These were either his subordinates from his time in the Hu Cong Hall or people he had heard about from Shu Bao who had indeed kept themselves pure after joining the Demonic Sect.

Only through such a multi-pronged approach was the newly established Ming Dynasty faction gradually stabilized.

At the same time, Cheng Xinzhan was also responsible for receiving high-ranking cultivators who came to serve him, refining and fine-tuning the sect's structure and rules according to the actual situation, and dealing with the disputes and conflicts that would occasionally erupt between land corpses and sea corpses.

For months, there wasn't a single moment of rest.

He felt that doing these things was much more tiring than cultivating himself, but at the same time, his actions were secretly praised by some people with ulterior motives.

On this day, he was meditating in his study, with a painting on his desk, which was a geomantic map of Langshan.

In the painting, Langshan Mountain runs from northeast to southwest, with steep and precipitous terrain. Amidst the mountains, a stream meanders through them, graceful and beautiful, its course mirroring the mountain's shape, creating a harmonious blend of mountain and water.

Cheng Xinzhan picked up his brush and began to mark the scroll, carefully considering the characteristics of Langshan Mountain and Fuyi River, as well as the flow of spiritual energy and earth energy. He pondered how to better connect the mountain and river's power with the protective array. At that moment, he suddenly received a telepathic message from Shi Tongxuan:
"Come to Yingzhen Hall. Fairy Qingnang Hua Yaosong has arrived. She is a Corpse Immortal of the Fourth Realm."

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(End of this chapter)