The Path to Immortality Begins with the Life-Extending Lamp

Chapter 199 Yinshan
"The Yellow Springs give rise to dark and mysterious creatures. The many Yin scales born in this Netherworld are completely different from the monsters and beasts of the Heavenly Capital. Although they still have flesh and blood, they are Yin blood and cotton flesh, and can be called Netherworld Beasts."

Li Qing placed the two water vessels side by side in front of the waterside pavilion and expressed his feelings.

The young master of the Netherworld was so generous, giving Li Qing so many scaled fish on top of the original amount. This is quite a favor to owe him!
Looking at the underworld now, with the East Fence Courtyard as the center, five mansions have joined together to form a manor covering dozens of acres, and even the four-way street archways have been included within it.

Li Qing guided the rules with ghost script in the Ghost Book and Ghost Contract, and the five gardens were united as one. With the East Fence Garden as the center, changes immediately began. The walls shifted, the foundation of the Hundred Ghost Pagoda was arranged, and the mansion walls rose up, transforming into a real, continuous ghost mansion on Qishan Mountain.

The Three Plaques and Five Gardens sit atop the mountain, with gilded gates facing north and south. In the center are three lotus ponds and a hundred residences. At every corner are stone-carved lanterns, and under the eaves, blood-red lanterns hang high, illuminating the entire underworld.

At this moment, the Netherworld Book and Ghost Contract changed again. As soon as the original golden pages of the Netherworld Book entered Li Qing's Niwan Palace, a phantom of the Netherworld appeared again above the Netherworld Book.

But the square underworld was situated in an endless dark place, with deep and dangerous wilderness all around. Only this mansion was like a sleeping tiger lying on the ground, living alone in the dark world. The two lanterns in front of the mansion, which looked like blood-red suns, were too conspicuous in the deep darkness.

"The Cleansing Vessel is not a place to stay for long. What should we do with such a large number of scaled fish and ghostly beasts?"

Li Qing flipped his palm and put away the Book of the Underworld. At this moment, he had no time to ponder the changes of the ghost contract, but was troubled by the huge number of scaled fish.

Bringing it back to Tiannan Temple and digesting it internally in Linyuan Mountain? That's one option, but Tiannan Temple has always been austere, and I'm afraid the Taoists there won't be able to digest much of it.

We still need to make good use of it.

"Toad Fairy, come here!"

After pondering for a long time, Li Qing caught sight of the immortals lingering outside the courtyard gate. These spirits from the Heavenly Capital had been working in the Underworld for two years and were quite obedient.

Unfortunately, the Netherworld was not a suitable place for the beings of the Heavenly Capital to linger. The mortals were shrouded in misfortune, like a black coffin lid, and were facing a heavy calamity.

"Put aside what you are doing and take two thousand scaled fish. Either dry them in the sun with real fire, or raise the Yin scaled fish in the lotus pond for your daily meals."

"As the saying goes, one thing subdues another. The blood and flesh of this scaled fish are filled with extremely strong ghostly energy, which can dispel the dark and ghostly energy that has tainted your bodies, sparing you from the suffering of being corroded by the evil energy for six days!"

This toad immortal from Yun Gui Mountain has now been promoted to the position of chief steward of Li Qing's underworld, in charge of the medicinal garden, repairs, kitchen, and other matters within the mansion.

But this is no easy task. Leaving aside the area outside the underworld, there are many taboos even within the underworld itself.

The first taboo is that one must not approach the East Garden!
The second taboo is that there is only the ghost/spirit Cui Ying in the mansion, and no one else. If you are called by anyone else, you must not respond, for fear that you have been tainted by the evil spirit of the past six days and have become ill-intentioned. You must put on paper clothes and quickly return to the West Garden and stay inside the house.

The third taboo is that if you encounter someone who bears a resemblance to the ghost Cui Ying, you must not make a sound, approach her, or stay away from her.

The ominous aura of the Netherworld taints these immortals, causing them to frequently experience incomprehensible auditory hallucinations and visions of violent death. But the one in the Eastern Garden is different.

Since the Underworld began its ascension, the Ghost Mother seemed to finally be less restricted and began to frequently roam the Underworld Manor. This made all the immortals and even the ghost god Cui Ying fearful, and they would immediately hide far away whenever they saw the Ghost Mother appear.

Otherwise, if one is not careful and is even slightly affected by the twisted and corrupting power of the Ghost Mother, the death would be anything but pleasant...

Seeing that the Toad Immortal's expression turned serious and he bowed in response, Li Qing waved his hand and placed the two thousand scaled fish into the lotus pond. He then ordered all the immortals to begin their work. Since there was no sun in You Tian, ​​they could only use demonic fire to roast and smoke the fish, which were then stored in the storeroom. But this was enough to excite all the immortals.

They haven't had meat in ages...

Looking around the manor, apart from being a bit deserted and the eerie blood-red ghost lanterns hanging everywhere, everything else was no different from any other manor in the capital. At least that's what Li Qing thought. After inspecting his own manor, he led Cui Ying and Linglong out of the underworld.

Outside the underworld, there were also many interconnected mansion ruins, where many evil spirits and ghosts were buried. As soon as the prying eyes saw the aura of Li Qing and his companions, they immediately withdrew.

Beyond the layers of ruins, further north, you can see two nine-story broken buildings, half collapsed and half abandoned. The two owl nests have now been moved here.

Those few owl leaders with skeletal faces interacted with Li Qing several times, and eventually accepted his invitation to move their entire nest to the side of the Underworld, willingly becoming swallows under the eaves. They and the Underworld had a symbiotic relationship from the beginning.

Despite the large size of this human-faced ghost owl colony, which feeds on ghosts and spirits, many of them have become food for old ghosts while hunting. The living environment of this group of owls is not very good!

As soon as Li Qing arrived, the crows in the dilapidated building immediately began to cackle. Owls with ugly human faces flapped their wings and circled around, soon covering the entire sky.

"These two nests of owls cry every day, it's so noisy! Why do you want them to live under the door?"

"Why not just summon them when we need them?"

Cui Ying heard the noisy cawing of crows again as soon as he got closer, and flicked his ears in annoyance.

"With your current level of cultivation... without their protection, you might be summoned by the ghosts as soon as you leave the underworld, or you might be devoured alive by wandering hungry ghosts!"

"The You Tian of today is not what it used to be."

Li Qing raised an eyebrow and couldn't help but glance at Cui Ying with disdain. This guy really didn't know his place. Compared to the ghosts in the Netherworld who had been devouring life like gu for hundreds of years, she, a broken ghost who had only recently reunited with her life soul, dared to go out?
As soon as the two arrived at the foot of the ruined building, three skeletal owls with wingspans that blotted out the clouds immediately landed. Upon seeing Li Qing, a hint of doubt flashed across the fierce skeletal face of the owl, and it asked the manor lord if he needed any help.

Li Qing didn't answer, but simply flicked his sleeve, throwing hundreds of scaled fish, each two or three feet long, onto the ground. The fish immediately began to thrash about as soon as they left the water. The owls in the sky, upon seeing this, immediately started croaking in unison. The abundance of fat fish on the ground was like a dream to the owls.

"From now on, I will have to rely on you all under the eaves of this underworld!"

"We present you with scaled fish as an annual tribute; please enjoy."

Previously, these bone owls only knew that Li Qing had just released the Thousand-Tailed Scale Seeds, so how did they manage to reap such a bountiful harvest all at once?
But obviously the owl didn't consider all that. With its claws sharp enough to shatter metal, it hooked the Yin Scale onto its body, lowered its head, and swallowed the big fish whole in two gulps.

Such plump yin scales are extremely rare.

The old owl opened its belly and ate like a whirlwind sweeping away fallen leaves, swallowing half of the scaled fish. After the three leaders finished eating, the flock of owls that had been anxiously waiting on the surrounding ruins began to act, landing on the ground in front of Li Qing to compete for the scaled fish.

"Quack quack..."

The skeletal owl at the head of the group made a fuss and complained to Li Qing about the injustices under Qishan Mountain.

"What? There are scaled fish in the river below Qishan? But they've been taken over by an even more terrifying ferocious creature?"

Li Qing raised an eyebrow. He knew there was a great river beyond the mountains, which he could see when he opened his Yin Eyes.

But what puzzled him even more was whether this Yinshan Mountain was originally called Qishan Mountain.

Now, Li Qing finally knows the name of this Yinshan Mountain: Qishan-Cui Mansion... Qishan-Cui Clan?

"The Cui clan of Qishan, one of the Six Heavenly Crown Clans? Yes, if it weren't for the Yinshan Mountains, how could there be such a large-scale mansion spanning the mountains, and how could there be Ox-Head and Horse-Face patrolling the mountains?"

He gradually began to have guesses, but with the Ghost Mother losing her mind and Cui Ying losing his memory, he couldn't be sure what the Yin Mountain corresponded to in the Six Heavens era.

Li Qing didn't know how big this underworld was, but he knew that Qishan was definitely no smaller than the Youbo Water Palace. Such a vast blessed land of Yinshan should naturally have some output, but he hadn't found it yet! "It's a pity that there's no time to explore the changes in the underworld and everything in Qishan right now. In Banan Prefecture, that divine priest is still waiting. There's still a tough battle to fight."

"Once I've finished dealing with everything, I should have these three great owls lead the way to the far north of Qishan to see that ancestral owl!"

That ancestral owl was extremely terrifying, already possessing the appearance of a bone phoenix, and its seniority was also extremely ancient. Perhaps we could bring some scaled fish and blood as a gift, and learn more about what the Qishan Underworld was like in the past.

Gazing at the dark horizon, Li Qing sighed inwardly, thinking to himself that the vastness of Youdu Qishan made him feel somewhat at a loss.

After informing those old owls again, and seizing the opportunity, officially designating it as the mountain-guarding ghost owl, and having finished all the preparations, Li Qing slowly left You Tian.

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Two days have passed since I returned to the present world.

The sage who crows at dawn has already arranged matters within the Sun God Cult of Banan Prefecture and prepared various protective totem artifacts.

And the fairy Mo Ling, who had entered the Southern Frontier, was finally called back.

Li Qing had just been invited to the Cloud Pavilion on the rooftop by the divine blessing, and Fairy Mo Ling was also leading her disciples into the pavilion. The two met at the entrance and were both surprised.

The two had briefly met on the banks of the Nayuan River that day, and now they had unexpectedly met again here. It was quite a coincidence.

Li Qing thought to himself, "Could it be that this priest summoned me in such a hurry because of this person? Is he a descendant of the Northern Xuanmen sect?"

Upon seeing Li Qing, the girl behind Fairy Mo Ling immediately shrank behind her master and whispered, "It's that one from the Ghost River that day!"

On that day, Li Qing walked along the Yuan River and captured hundreds of ghosts; his methods were truly astonishing.

The girl hid behind her master, looking left and right, as if she wanted to see if the Taoist's red dragon was following behind her. At this age, the girl was not at a time when she could calm her mind. How could she not be interested in seeing the legendary divine beast, the dragon?

But clearly, the "candle" was not following behind.

"It seems that I met you not long ago?" Li Qing gestured with his right hand, making way for the female Taoist priest to go first.

This was the official language of the Northern Dynasty. Li Qing had studied at the academy, and when she spoke it, even the Northerners like her couldn't recognize it.

The latter, slightly taken aback by this courtesy, immediately returned the greeting, and gracefully entered the pavilion while softly explaining:

“There is a ghost in the southern border region that has taken over the source of life for the mountain people. That day, Japan was also entrusted to go and help.”

The two exchanged a few words and then headed towards the Cloud Pavilion.

At this moment, on the Cloud Pavilion, the Divine Blessing of the Dawn had changed into a red sacrificial robe engraved with the Nine Suns Patrol Sky Totem. The blessings and priests on both sides stood side by side. Upon seeing Li Qing and the other two arrive, the Divine Blessing of the Dawn quickly got up and led the priests to welcome them to the outside of the pavilion.

"My two fellow immortals have finally arrived! Sichen has been waiting for you for a long time!"

"Please take a seat, please take a seat."

The sage of dawn, beaming with joy, welcomed the two into his seat and immediately explained the detailed plans for the journey to Huai Lian Yin Tu to them. With the two ghost lords vying for power, Yin Mountain was without a master, and the ghosts were fleeing in terror…

However, his plan was only halfway through when the female Taoist priest suddenly stood up and refused to participate in the trip!
"Two Yin Gods and Ghost Lords? Then I cannot accompany you into this murky water."

The emergence of the Yin Spirit is a watershed moment for cultivators in the Heavenly Capital. Below the Yin Spirit level, one may be extremely powerful for a time or run rampant in prefectures and counties, but ultimately one is still within the realm of mortal cultivators.

But once one achieves the Yin Spirit, one is called a True Person!
In the cultivation world, there has always been the title of the weakest Yin Spirit True Person - Wuxi Longjun, the Yin Spirit True Person with the worst cultivation - Tai Xuan Men Jiu Xuan Zhenren, and the most extreme Yin Spirit True Person - Baqiu Jianzi...

There are always these Yin spirits and Taoists who behave differently due to their different levels of cultivation, but who has ever heard of any Yin spirit being killed?
A severed head does not lead to death, a split spine can regenerate, the seven spirits can be reunited even when scattered, and the three souls can be reforged even when destroyed. This is the Yin Shen Zhenren (True Man of the Yin Spirit).

Entering the fray amidst the conflict between two powerful Yin spirits is not a wise choice.

"Oh? Fairy Mo Ling, please don't be hasty, and listen to what I have to say!"

When the female Taoist priest saw that she was declining, the celestial priest quickly got up to persuade her to stay and began to explain earnestly.

First, he explained the origins of the fisherman Liu Lang, the fisherman Gui Jun, and the Ba Kingdom, then Si Chen continued:
"So what if he's a Yin deity? Fairy Mo Ling should know that the revered deity of our religion is a mortal being who is almost a Yang deity!"

"When the Ghost Ancestor Huai Lian was still alive, he made a promise to Lord Yin of the Southern Kingdom and to the Sun God of our sect. Now that the Ghost Ancestor's descendant has taken over, it won't be any more difficult to deal with."

"In an era of humane governance, if he dares to act recklessly, he will inevitably face the consequences of the three hundred-mile stretch of locust trees along the Yinshan Mountains. I don't think he'll be so clueless."

Ba Kingdom is, after all, a powerful nation, and it is located just north of Huailian Yinshan Mountain. It is highly unlikely that two Ghost Kings who are locked in fierce battle would risk their entire fortune to scheme against three Purple Mansion cultivators.

Besides, this Brother Li is a ruthless person in disguise!
In the past two days, Si Chenfei sent letters to various parts of Ba Kingdom. Just today at Chenshi (7-9 AM), the information from Daoist Youhuang of Tiannan Temple - Guilang Liqing - was delivered to his desk.

As a child, he was betrothed by a ghost mother. After three years of cultivating his Qi, he was suddenly coveted by a ghost Taoist from the Purple Mansion. Although he was injured, he killed the Taoist. He then traveled overseas for two years and returned, where he banished two Yin Gods in Jiangnan...

Such a resume sounds so unbelievable that it makes one wonder if it's true or not.

But if it relies on the Ghost Path, then it is not surprising. The Six Heavens Ghost Path, which has ruled the world for tens of thousands of years, is just that terrifying.

Since Li Qing already had experience fighting against Yin Gods and had not been at a disadvantage, Si Chen was completely at ease and confidently advised Fairy Mo.

"If all else fails, I'll add another million or two million Dao Zhu, and also prepare a ten-fold superior-grade spirit jade plate for you, fellow immortal. What do you say?"

Si Chen increased the reward from the agreed one million Dao Zhu to two million, and also prepared a spirit jade plate for Fairy Mo.

The Jade Spirit School cultivates a method somewhat similar to the "Three Sovereigns Scripture." After all, they claim to be the successors of Nuwa, with the Five-Colored Heaven-Mending Holy Spirit Law as their core. They are most skilled at inscribing runes and using rune arrays to move through the void and escape thousands of miles away.

The Heaven-Mending Technique also possesses the power of creation; it is said that when mastered to its extreme, it can truly recreate a world!
The Sun God Cult prepared top-grade spiritual jade for her precisely because of this; her spiritual restriction was a truly powerful restriction involving the mysteries of the void.

If something unexpected happens along the way, the three of them will have a way out.

"Fairy Mo Ling, you've already braved the dragon's den and tiger's lair of the Imperial Dynasty, so what's a little Yinshan Mountain to you?"

"Moreover, this trip is aided by Fellow Daoist Li from the Southern Kingdom. This Fellow Daoist Li is a true Daoist of the Southern Kingdom!"

(End of this chapter)