The Path to Immortality Begins with the Life-Extending Lamp

Chapter 201: Passing into the secluded house
"Ok?"

The lingering resentment of the ghosts surged forth like a tide, instantly transforming into a phantom of an ancient ghost mountain a thousand feet high. All the ghosts who had returned to silence and were buried in this Huailian Yin Mountain wanted to pour out their grievances and feed back to the mortal world of Tiandu through Li Qing.

He and his remaining thoughts were like illusory illusions. Thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of them gathered together, and it was as if the sky had been overturned.

Even the God of Dawn and Fairy Mo Ling, who could neither see nor hear the ghosts, finally realized that something was wrong.

In an instant, the shadow beneath Li Qing's feet lengthened and transformed, eventually becoming the shadow of a woman, a graceful figure, slender enough to be grasped in one hand. As soon as this shadow appeared, the ghost that had been climbing on Li Qing vanished as naturally as snow melting in spring.

The moment that immense spiritual pressure descended, the Ghost Mother's shadow seemed to be greatly provoked. Her waist-length hair immediately began to dance wildly, and her fierce aura, like a giant ghost that devours the sky, was about to forcefully invade the mortal world from the shadows and crush those ignorant scum to pieces!

Just as the demon mother was enraged and about to burst out from the deep, dark shadow beneath Li Qing, Li Qing lightly flicked her sleeve, her fingertips touching the shadow, and used her divine sense to stop her.

“Sister Cui, there’s no need to do anything. These are just pitiful ghosts.”

"They're already dead, what's there to complain about?"

These words seemed to express both helplessness and感慨 (a sense of deep emotion).

Li Qing gently stroked the shadow beneath him with one hand, connecting the Xuan Yin Qi with the Xuan Yin Mother Qi on the Ghost Mother Cui Qu'er's body, while he shielded his forehead with the other hand and looked up at the dense sea of ​​ghosts above his head.

Did you take me as a medium between Yin and Yang?
Originally, Li Qing had been swept away by the Xuan Yin Mother Qi for several years. After entering the Dao, he was in a near-death situation. Fortunately, the Ghost Mother extracted the ghost spine of a day-roaming corpse ghost and coexisted with Li Qing, which allowed him to survive. Now, he has cultivated a body of Xuan Yin Qi, and can be called a half-immortal and half-ghost.

After further refining the ghostly script that resembled talismans, Li Qing now possessed a body that seemed to have been created to communicate with the spirits.

Countless ghosts swarmed in, about to rush into Li Qing's body, but he was not afraid. He first blocked the Ghost Mother's movements. In the Huailian Underworld, with the Ghost King watching, he absolutely could not allow the Ghost Mother to show herself.

As long as she resides in the Netherworld and only reveals a trace of her aura, with the blessing of the Underworld, who can tell whether she is a Yin God or not?

If we reveal our true intentions, we'll be in a very passive position.

Moreover, Li Qing is not without means to deal with this.

Through a slight connection with the ghost mother's shadow, Li Qing borrowed the power of her profound yin energy and raised her right hand. In an instant, half of Li Qing's right arm transformed into a ghost hand. The ghostly inscriptions for summoning souls and the ghostly talismans for suppressing evil were rearranged and then rearranged until finally, the ghostly inscriptions formed a dark and desperate ghostly chain that wrapped around her forearm.

As soon as the ghostly hand that summoned the soul was raised, the remnant spirit immediately went berserk, swirling the dark clouds in the sky into a vast vortex of dark clouds, all rushing towards Li Qing's raised ghostly hand.

At this moment, countless remnant spirits, shrouded in ghostly clouds and mist, finally appeared before the many great ghosts and Si Chen Mo Ling in an unusual way.

"What on earth is this...?"

"Unseen and intangible, yet it exerts such immense pressure!"

The two looked at the sky, which had turned into a dark vortex, with surprise and uncertainty. However, what surprised Fairy Mo Ling even more was the shadow beneath Li Qing.

It seems like a ghost or a guardian spirit? Could this aura be from the Yin Spirit Realm?
At this moment, it wasn't just the two of them who were surprised; even the day-roaming demon in Huailian Yinshan and the two ghost kings were increasingly puzzled.

"Logically speaking, if that Taoist priest was merely naturally gifted with supernatural abilities, he shouldn't have caused such a commotion, right?"

"Or perhaps he hasn't fully mastered that supernatural power of communicating with the netherworld?"

Beneath Yinshan Mountain, numerous remnants of spirits and remnants of souls gather. This is known to both the two Ghost Lords and their subordinate Great Ghosts. In the past, every sixty years, Ghost Ancestor Huailian would perform rituals to refine the inhuman, wandering ghosts that gathered from all over the capital. These ghosts were born from this practice.

When a person dies, they become a ghost; when a ghost dies, it becomes a spirit. These kinds of spirits are invisible and intangible even to many wandering ghosts; one can only vaguely sense their existence.

How could this person have caused such a drastic change, triggering a rebellion of ghosts in Yinshan?

"He's also backed by demons and spirits! Who is he?"

Upon seeing the shadow of the Ghost Mother beneath Li Qing, the two Ghost Kings and their attendant Ghost Generals all turned their heads, wondering where this person came from and what he was doing here. Was he a ghost or god from the outside world?

Are you trying to test something at this moment?

As ghostly clouds gathered and Yinshan Mountain boiled, Li Qing was seen summoning souls with his ghostly hand, gathering the dense, lingering ghostly spirits into his hand and instantly beginning to devour and refine them.

You should know that this ghost hand was created when Li Qing advanced to the Day Traveler realm. The Ghost Mother had been gone for several weeks and killed the old ghost who summoned souls in the You Tian Qi Mountain region. She took the ghost hand and integrated it into the ghost seal between Li Qing's five fingers. In a sense, his ghost hand and ghost spine are both alive!
Li Qing has at least two "activated fragments" of large ghosts on him.

The Ghost Hand, greedy and cruel, devoured all the spirits that the Ghost Ancestor of the Northern Locust Tree had refined with water and fire and nurtured by the locust tree. If the Ghost Ancestor were still alive, he would definitely curse this brat.

When they first entered the Dao, which immortal cultivator wasn't full of vigor and ambition, taking it upon themselves to slay demons and ghosts and save all living beings?

When he reached the age of a young Taoist, he killed even more people, and his supernatural powers became increasingly formidable, leaving no room for arrogance and creating a new era for the Xuanmen sect.

But after decades of trials in the mortal world, witnessing the cruelty of fate and the tragedies that befell humanity, the Taoist realized that what you perceive as a malevolent spirit might not be a pitiful being, and what you see as a vengeful ghost might not be more malevolent than the human heart. At this point, the Taoist had seen through the illusions of the mortal world, and thus began to understand the meaning of 'the immortal path values ​​life,' and his actions became imbued with more compassion and mercy…

But clearly, Li Qing doesn't have that mindset yet, or rather, he only managed to enter the Dao by facing death and then being reborn.

For him, the original nature, survival of the fittest, is simply the way of heaven.

These lingering spirits are pitiful, but they are destined to return to dust. Big fish eat little fish, and little fish eat shrimp. This has been the way of things throughout history.
As for Li Qing himself, he couldn't blame anyone for being chosen by the Qishan Underworld Book Ghost Contract. Who told him to have read half a poem left by Miss Cui back then, and his admiration became a prophecy? If he survived, he would have been born into the Netherworld; if he hadn't, he would have been a dead ghost.

The Soul-Summoning Ghost Hand, having devoured 100,000 remnant spirits, was still not satisfied. This supernatural power had an extremely high foundation, capable of summoning souls when alive and ghosts when dead. If it hadn't been for the Ghost Mother, protected by the authority of Qishan, who paid a great price to kill it, that Soul-Summoning Ghost would definitely have been able to cultivate to the Yin God Realm.

Having determined the outcome, Li Qing shook his right hand, dispelling the weakened dark clouds. He then wrapped the ghostly chain around his wrist and his five fingers, immediately locking the remnant ghost face that was still struggling to escape from his ghost hand. After a few breaths of stalemate, Li Qing's ghost hand immediately produced a dragon talisman and wind script, overlapping with the ghostly chain, and he used his ghost hand to control five thousand-foot bolts of lightning.

With a flick of his ghostly hand, Li Qing unleashed five thousand-foot bolts of lightning that shot into the sky, transforming into arcs of electricity that bounced across the dark, cloud-shrouded landscape.

Rumble…

The thunder roared for a while, like the nemesis of the remnant spirits. However, what Li Qing drew was not heavenly thunder, divine thunder, or social thunder, but a spring water dragon thunder that shattered the soul clouds above his head, so as not to completely annihilate the many ghosts!

For Li Qing in the past, this was already a form of restraint. At this moment, Li Qing has mastered two supernatural powers: the Soul Path supernatural power - Summoning Souls, and the Thunder Path supernatural power - Commanding the Five Thunders, which is truly astonishing.

Even the God of Dawn and Fairy Mo Ling couldn't help but exchange a glance and take a few steps back in shock.

"Is that Ghost Lord trying to intimidate us? Brother Li... could this be considered breaking the deadlock?"

The two looked surprised and warily guarded behind Li Qing, observing the surroundings. Suddenly, Li Qing spoke.

With a flick of his right hand, the strange phenomena such as the ghostly chains, purple lightning, and thunderbolts on his hand vanished, instantly restoring his simple jade fingers. He then gave a slight bow towards the mountaintop and apologized profusely.
"I am Youhuangzi, a humble Taoist from the Five Directions of the Immortal Sect - the One Primordial Qi Path, paying my respects to the two Ghost Lords."

"My skills are lacking, which has led to my rudeness upon entering the mountain. I hope you two will forgive me!"

Li Qing's apology caused whispers to rise in the still thunderous Huailian Mountain. All the big and small ghosts whispered among themselves, all greatly wary of this person.

Unfortunately, after waiting for several breaths, the two ghost lords still did not respond to Li Qing, as if they had not heard her at all...

Seeing this, the Divine Blessing of the Dawn and Fairy Mo Ling rushed over, asking repeatedly, "Brother Li, what happened? Did someone make things difficult for you somewhere?"

"That swirling cloud of dark clouds... seems to be... a ghost?"

Fairy Mo Ling picked up a string of magic needles from her sleeve and surveyed her surroundings with a rather unpleasant expression. Had she already begun testing everyone without even seeing the Ghost Lord's crown?

As the three gathered and were on guard against the surrounding Yinshan wilderness, a sinister, hoarse voice suddenly rang out from behind them!
"No need to guess wildly. This Qi cultivator from Tiannan is a person with a natural ability to see the unseen. He is like this whenever he enters any of the Yin Mountains. He can see ghostly remnants that ordinary people cannot see."

"It's not that we're making things difficult for you."

The newcomer was a blue-faced ghost judge dressed in an indigo official robe. His face was ashen, like that of a dead ghost, and a mourning staff hung from his waist. He strode out from in front of a memorial archway not far away and spoke in a strange northern official language.

It wasn't that the ghosts of Yinshan were intolerant of people and wanted to give him a hard time; it was clearly the Taoist's own problem.

Those who are naturally gifted with spiritual abilities are easily tainted by the accumulated misfortune over thousands of years if they do not cultivate the art of controlling ghosts and communicating with the spirits. Such people should not enter the underworld.

Fortunately, Li Qing was strong enough to extinguish the rampaging soul cloud and even gained considerable benefits from it.

"Hmph, come with me to the main mountain."

After the blue-faced demon judge, another wandering demon pushed open the archway, glanced at the three people below, and snorted coldly.

This is a burly ghost general clad in black armor with fish scales. His entire body is covered in black armor, with a tiger helmet and a vicious mask. His gloomy aura is so thick that it is like a black cloth binding his body dancing wildly, making him extremely fierce.

The former was the chief steward under the Sixth Ghost Lord - Yu Liulang, while the latter ghost general was the masked general commanded by the Huailian Ghost Lord - Yulingshen. However, the two were not of the same ilk.

Two powerful day-roaming ghosts pushed open the archway to welcome Li Qing and his companions into Yin Mountain. The group didn't stand on ceremony and ignored the old ghost's attitude at the gate; meeting the Ghost King was the important matter.

The three-tiered archway, painted red with green tiles and adorned with white lanterns, evokes a sense of impending doom.

The three of them passed through a dark blue barrier behind the archway and immediately entered the interior of Yinshan Mountain.

From the outside, there was nothing noticeable, but once you passed through the barrier, you could smell the chilling atmosphere in the air. This Huailian Yinshan Mountain was somewhat similar to Li Qing's You Tian Qishan region, with a spiritual mountain vein supporting a series of mansions and cities, the layout of which seemed to be designed specifically for ghosts and gods to live in.

However, at this moment, two extremely terrifying rift valleys appeared in the Yinshan Mountains, and large areas of ghost houses and mansions were reduced to ruins. In the middle, the clearly scorched area still had embers. The ghost soldiers of both sides waved their soul banners and ghost flags and made a truce!

As expected, the internal strife in Huailian Yin Mountain was extraordinary. It seemed that the two ghost lords had only stopped fighting a few hours ago, and the embers in the battlefield ruins had not yet been extinguished...

Just then, the two powerful demons under the command of the two demon kings presented the three of them with a difficult problem.

"To the east of here is the East Mansion, where Lord Jade God resides; to the west of here is the West Mansion, which is Lord Sixth Master's territory."

"Gentlemen, which deity are you worshipping?"

The Divine Prayer of the Morning Star froze for a moment, then carefully said, "Naturally, I must pay my respects to both Ghost Lords."

"Then which master will you all pay your respects to first?"

The conflict between the two Ghost Lords is between the Ghost Lord Huailian, appointed by the Ghost Ancestor, and the Ghost Lord Liulang, who was born in the State of Ba and has a considerable following. If we really get to the point, all of them came to ask the two Ghost Lords for favors, so how could they dare to take sides?

"I have urgent business to attend to and need to see you both. I cannot delay and do not know the way to either of your residences. If possible, I would be grateful if you could introduce me to whichever residence is closer. Would you please allow me to visit that one first?"

The Sun God Cult's priest, skilled in manipulation, completely ignored the two ghosts' questions. He lowered himself and secretly slipped a mustard seed pouch into the hands of the two ghost generals and judges, changing the subject.

The saying goes, "It's easier to deal with the King of Hell than with his underlings." These small fry in front of the King of Hell are the ones most likely to cause trouble!

The sage of dawn handled the situation well. The two ghost generals opened the mustard seed bag a crack, and upon seeing that it was full of provisions, their attitude immediately changed, and their expressions became much gentler.

After all, even ghost generals need firewood, paper money, and incense oil throughout the four seasons, and they need to wear winter clothes when it gets cold. No matter what, this gift is definitely a good choice...

"Oh? Since time is of the essence, let's go to the West Mansion first, it's the closest!"

The Blue-Faced Demon Judge and the Evil-Faced Demon General exchanged a glance, then stopped making things difficult for the group and pointed to the west side of Yin Mountain.

Yu Lingshen of the East Prefecture is easy to talk to and has inherited some of the compassionate nature of the Ghost Ancestor. Yu Liulang of the West Prefecture is ambitious and more stern. If the West Prefecture can be persuaded, the East Prefecture will likely not face too many difficulties.

This was the limit of what the ghost generals could possibly allow.

After all, two years ago, Huailian Yinshan was the only remaining Yinshan ghost city. In the past few hundred years, one Yinshan ghost city after another has disappeared, and Huailian Yinshan has grown bigger and bigger. But who would have thought that as soon as the Ghost Ancestor left, the two Ghost Lords would fight each other?
Many ghost generals were also aggrieved. The once-reigning forbidden city of Tiandu, guarding the Ghost City of Ten Thousand Spirits' Rest in the southwest, had now become like this.

Is it really just because of the forbidden artifact left behind by the Ghost Ancestor that brothers turned against each other? Can a mere Yellow Spring Umbrella be more important than our entire Yinshan Ghost City?

(End of this chapter)