The myth begins with the Lotus Lantern

Chapter 299 Qing He
Just as Ding Lin's figure disappeared, Tian Nu also moved, but instead of facing Beidou Xingjun's attack head-on as he had said, he dodged to the side with a flash. His body was surrounded by spiritual light, and it was unknown what treasure he was using. His aura suddenly became weak and unsteady, and it seemed as if he was about to escape in a dreamlike state.

If Ding Lin truly believed Tian Nu's words, this attack would inevitably land on Ding Lin first, buying time for Tian Nu to escape.

But, if is just a hypothetical.

Faced with the crisis, Ding Lin and Tian Nu made the same choice without prior agreement.

A dead Taoist friend is not a poor Taoist.

Ding Lin transformed into clouds and mist using his own supernatural powers, moving at will. Although Tiannu's treasures were wonderful, they were ultimately just external objects, and controlling them required time. He was a step slower than Ding Lin.

Just as Tiannu's figure was about to disappear, the long whip formed by the laws of the Big Dipper Star Lord fell down.

Tiannu's body solidified again, and he fell heavily from mid-air, spitting out blood. At the moment he was hit, a flash of light appeared in front of him, revealing yet another substitute spirit object.

Ding Lin transformed into clouds and mist, and as expected, the attack pierced through the clouds and mist and missed him. He breathed a sigh of relief and immediately tried to summon wind and rain to disperse the clouds and mist so that he could escape from Yaochi. The clouds dispersed and spread all the way to the edge of Yaochi, but suddenly he felt an obstacle.

An invisible barrier separated the area inside and outside the Jade Pool into two distinct worlds.

"Trying to leave?" Beidou Xingjun sneered. Needless to say, this field was one of the star lord's methods. The next moment, the field suddenly retracted, and the cloud that Ding Lin had transformed into was trapped within it, involuntarily shrinking back as well. In an instant, it was bound within a hundred feet.

The air was thick with mist and vapor, and it suddenly became extremely viscous.

"Soaring through the clouds," the Big Dipper Star Lord sneered, "The Heavenly Gang Transformation is indeed extraordinary, but it cannot escape my Taiyi Realm!"

After speaking, the Big Dipper Star Lord waved his hand, and the ten laws were bound together into an iron chain, which swept away the clouds and stood horizontally in the air. The superior law in the center was pitch black and exuded a heavy aura of death.

The Southern Dipper governs life, the Northern Dipper governs death!
Ding Lin's spiritual senses tightened frantically. Within his inner realm, the spatial law trembled violently, as if trying to escape. However, Ding Lin had not yet reached the Taiyi realm, and the other six laws could only assist him. It was impossible for them to work together. The vast difference in their cultivation levels made traversing space a pipe dream.

The Big Dipper Star Lord descended the laws.

Amidst the clouds and mist, Ding Lin pushed his cloud-riding supernatural power to its limit, merging his body into the fog. Yet, he discovered that every wisp of cloud and every drop of mist was locked in place, leaving him nowhere to hide. His life-saving supernatural power, which had been invincible since he mastered it, finally failed for the first time.

"Snapped!"

The chains of the Big Dipper Star Lord's laws lashed through the clouds, leaving Ding Lin nowhere to hide. He could only unleash his seven laws, holding them horizontally in front of him, but they were shattered as easily as a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

The next moment, I smelled the scent of death.

brush!
A flash of white light appeared in front of me.

Ding Lin felt as if he had been struck and injured. He opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of blood, but then something was drawn out of his body—the wounds. In the dim light, he seemed to see a doll flash before his eyes.

The doll was extremely lively and adorable, but it had three deep cracks on its body. Its little mouth was pouting, as if it wanted to cry, but the next moment, when Ding Lin looked at the doll again, its face returned to a serene smile, as if what he had just perceived was just an illusion.

Substitute doll!

Ding Lin looked at Tian Nu, who had actually taken the blow for him.

"Take me with you!" Tiannu said.

Ding Lin's body became ethereal again, merging into the clouds. He instantly understood Tian Nu's meaning and once again activated his wind and rain summoning power. At the same time, a white cloud drifted past Tian Nu, covering his body as well. It seemed that the Big Dipper Star Lord's act of shrinking the field could not last long. After this attack, the field expanded back to its original size, and the clouds dispersed, filling the entire Yaochi.

“Beidou has only recently entered Taiyi, and the small grotto-heaven has just expanded into a large grotto-heaven. It can interfere with the outside world, but it will also pay a great price to manipulate it at will. You and I will fight it like this. As long as we can hold out for a while, when the star lords and heavenly kings in the starry sky find out, this calamity will be resolved on its own,” Tiannu said softly.

Ding Lin breathed a slight sigh of relief. The almost devastating attack from the Big Dipper Star Lord had truly terrified him.

"I must thank Lord Tiannu for his help just now," Ding Lin said.

"It's just mutual help. I help you live, and you help me survive," Tiannu's voice was bitter. "I thought the situation was settled and I wanted to go to the stars and show off to His Majesty and the Empress, but I never expected to be so unlucky and run into this killer!"

"As for Lord Jin, he has kept a low profile and has actually mastered the Heavenly Gang Transformation. His future is limitless. At first, I was unaware of Brother Jin's background and offended him. I hope Brother Jin will not take offense." In the blink of an eye, Tiannu had changed his form of address.

"The situation is difficult, and I am willing to stand with Lord Tiannu through thick and thin!"

Ding Lin said that in the face of the invincible enemy Beidou, the previous petty squabbles became insignificant. They needed to look to the future. Ding Lin had the supernatural ability to conceal his whereabouts, and Tiannu had the treasure to save his life. Naturally, they could forget past grievances with a smile and work together.

"Snapped!"

"Snapped!"

Beidou manipulated the chains of law, striking through the clouds and mist. It seemed aimless, but in reality, it was all aimed at something. Each strike was aimed at Ding Lin and Tiannu's hiding places. However, now that the area covered by the clouds and mist had expanded, Ding Lin had room to maneuver and maneuver, and each of his strikes missed its mark.

Suddenly, a streak of light swept over from the lower realm.

"It's Li Jing, the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King!" Tiannu's voice rang with joy. "We're saved!"

Ding Lin was stunned. Li Jing, the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King, was a name that was naturally well-known, but the aura emanating from that streak of light was clearly only at the level of a newly entered Golden Immortal. He didn't understand why Tiannu was so happy.

“Although King Li is only a Golden Immortal, the exquisite pagoda in his hand is a treasure bestowed by the Taiyi True Man. It contains dozens of laws and is truly of the Taiyi level,” Tiannu said.

"Beidou, cease your arrogance!" Li Jing's voice rang in his ears, majestic and profound. Before he even arrived, a seven-story golden pagoda flew over, radiating a heavy aura.

"Two mudskippers!" Beidou Xingjun sneered, glancing at the place where Ding Lin and Tiannu were hiding in the clouds, and then looking at the Seven Treasures Exquisite Pagoda flying towards him, his face showed solemnity.

"It's alright." Tiannu seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, but through the omnipresent senses of the clouds, Ding Lin could still feel that his body was tense and he was on high alert. He was obviously not as relaxed as he said. Not only Tiannu, but Ding Lin himself was also like that.

To relax one's guard before the crisis is completely over is a path to certain death.

Sure enough, the field suddenly shrank again in the next moment. In an instant, the clouds and mist that had filled the Yaochi area were confined to a hundred feet around the Big Dipper Star Lord. The Big Dipper Star Lord unleashed his laws, sweeping across the sky. "Not good!" Tiannu shouted. He summoned the substitute doll to block in front of him. Ding Lin and Tiannu were extremely close, and he used all his strength to get closer.

However, sometimes precautions alone cannot prevent it.

Tiannu's defense naturally prioritized his own. Although Ding Lin moved closer, he couldn't completely conceal his body. Half of the attack was blocked by the substitute doll. He felt a numbness in his chest, followed by excruciating pain all over his body. He couldn't help but open his mouth, spit out a mouthful of blood, and flew backward.

"How dare you commit violence in front of me!" Li Jing, the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King, roared. He made a hand seal, and the exquisite pagoda flew to the sky above the Jade Pool, growing longer in the wind and covering the Big Dipper Star Lord.

"You mere rat, relying solely on the power of your magic weapon, do you really think you can be ranked among us?"

Despite his disdainful words, Beidou Xingjun did not dare to be negligent in his actions. He fused the laws into a ball and held it above his head, facing Li Jing across the Linglong Pagoda. But he sighed inwardly, knowing that the opportunity was fleeting and had already passed.

Without uttering a word, the moment the Big Dipper Star Lord was frozen in place by the pagoda, Tiannu swiftly retreated, forcefully crushing a beam of white light with his fingers. In an instant, he vanished, escaping without a trace.

"Oh!"

Ding Lin was knocked away, and in his dazed state, he lost count of how many pavilions he smashed and how many artificial hills he crashed into, until at some point, his momentum finally came to an end.

"thump!"

The sound of water seemed to reach his ears, and it took a moment for the icy chill to reach his mind. Ding Lin regained his composure slightly. Within his body, a pitch-black law of destruction was intertwined with three mid-level laws, wreaking havoc. With the Beidou Star Lord Taiyi realm, he did not need to manipulate it remotely like the Nine Luminaries Star Lord. As long as it hit, even a slight remnant would be enough to leave a Dao injury, leaving those below Taiyi with no way to resist.

Fortunately, the blow only hit halfway.

Ding Lin gritted his teeth, and the spatial law in his inner world leaped into his body to entangle with the half-move of the Big Dipper Star Lord. The spatial law is one of the four most powerful laws. Although Ding Lin has not yet reached the Taiyi level, he still managed to stabilize the situation by virtue of the higher status of the law itself compared to the other laws.

These wounds may not kill Ding Lin, but driving him away will not be a simple matter. It may take a hundred years to see any results, and that's only because he has the advantage of playing on home ground.

Ding Lin opened his mouth, and a mouthful of spring water fell into his mouth, which surprisingly contained a hint of life.

The water of this Jade Pool is a heavenly spring.

Ding Lin let the spatial laws and the half-move left by the Big Dipper Star Lord entangle him, using his will to drive the lower law representing life to restore his decaying body. It took him a while to barely regain his mobility. He swam in the water without surfacing, hiding in the sweet spring.

Given his current state, if he were to encounter another opponent, he could barely manage to cope with a Celestial, but if he were to face a Golden Immortal, he would only face certain death. It would be better for him to wait quietly in the water until the dust settles.

Suddenly, a patch of emerald green appeared ahead.

Ding Lin swam over.

A green lotus stands tall in the water.

Ding Lin looked around and saw that there was only this one green lotus in the sweet spring.

Looking up, a green leaf floats on the water, accompanied by a half-open flower, which is an ethereal, snow-white blossom with only three petals.

Inside the inner grotto, the green lotus transformed from the remnant leaves of the Lotus Lantern suddenly trembled slightly. Ever since Ding Lin planted it in the inner grotto, it had acted as if it were indifferent to the world and didn't care about anything. In the past, if Ding Lin was seriously injured, it would take some action to heal his injuries, but since Ding Lin comprehended the law of life and could heal his injuries on his own, it had never moved again.

The inner grotto seems to echo this sentiment, conveying a subtle emotion.

Ding Lin felt it clearly—a longing.

It yearns for the green lotus in front of it, longing to merge with it, as if some new change will occur after the merger.

Ding Lin hesitated. This was the Jade Pool, where the Jade Emperor and the Queen Mother resided in heaven. Should he tear down this green lotus in front of them...?

Moreover, unlike the peaches of immortality, which, though seemingly precious, are often exaggerated in rumors because they are grown outside, this lotus is different. It is planted in the Jade Pool, nourished daily by sweet spring water, and presented to the Queen Mother of the West. This is its true value.

In the interior scene, the withered leaves of the Lotus Lantern trembled again, as if urging something on.

Ding Lin was still undecided, but at that moment, his right hand involuntarily rose up, completely out of his control. To Ding Lin's horror, his right hand transformed into a dragon claw. The remnant of the Lotus Lantern transmitted a power to the dragon claw, and the restrictions around the green lotus plant were released without warning, allowing the dragon claw to penetrate deep and grab the roots of the green lotus.

Uproot it completely!

Inside the scene, the withered leaves of the Lotus Lantern sway even more rapidly.

Ding Lin had no choice but to watch helplessly as a hazy mist rose before him, and the entire green lotus was swallowed into his body.

In the inner grotto, a flash of inspiration struck. Beside the withered leaves of the Lotus Lantern, this green lotus took root—no, not took root, but rather the withered leaves of the Lotus Lantern extended tiny roots into the green lotus.

The next moment, a hazy blue light rippled out.

Inside the inner grotto, no one knew how much time had passed. When the blue light dissipated, the withered leaves of the Lotus Lantern had grown strong and healthy. Its roots had penetrated deeper into the water, spreading lushly over a small area. It even resembled the Lotus Lantern when it appeared in the lotus pond. A white lotus flower bloomed among the green leaves, with three petals, fully open. However, the original green lotus had disappeared without a trace.

Ding Lin remained silent. He didn't know whether to call this scene a fusion or a devouring. If it was a fusion, that would be fine, but this kind of cunning and forceful seizure clearly looked more like a devouring. The remnant leaf of the Lotus Lantern had always appeared calm and unassuming, and even helped him heal his injuries only when there was no other choice. But now it showed a completely different kind of greed.

Although everything is about competition, but...

Ding Lin channeled his magical power, and after the remnants of the Lotus Lantern devoured the green lotus, his consciousness regained control of his body.

He clenched his fist and made a loud popping sound in the water.

Ding Lin gradually calmed down, the surprise and doubt in his eyes receding, turning into a deep, unfathomable darkness.

Just then, a wisp of ripple emanated from the withered leaf of the Lotus Lantern. It seemed to sense Ding Lin's emotional fluctuations, and the leaf twitched as if to comfort him.

(End of this chapter)