The Path to Immortality Begins with the Life-Extending Lamp

Chapter 216 The Silent Underworld

Manors and fortified villages have always been places for storing valuables and for the temporary residence of guards and servants in the estate.

Pushing open the gates of the fortified village, one finds it dimly lit inside, perhaps because even the lamp oil in the village has long since run out.

Suddenly, the light from Li Qing's spiritual lamp shone brightly, creating a cloud-like protective barrier that blocked the aura from entering the fortified village.

puff...

After taking only three or four steps, Li Qing flicked his finger, and streaks of dark blue fire rose around him, illuminating the entire alley.

This is a high and wide passageway built of white rock with reliefs. It may have had a majestic appearance in its day, but hundreds of years later, it has become a stubborn rock that has fallen silent in the shadows.

As he entered the palace, Li Qing became increasingly puzzled. Looking south towards Qishan through the window, he was astonished to discover that the Qishan region was nearing its end!
Unlike Young Master Qu's Netherworld Water Palace, the entire Qishan Domain has lost all vitality. Beyond the eight hundred acres of Netherworld Palace, there is only mottled and withered wasteland. There is no sign of life along the way. More importantly, the "Netherworld Moon" that sustains the creatures of the Netherworld has disappeared.

Previously, in the Youbo Water Palace, a bright blue moon, like the sun, hung high above the palace, illuminating the entire Youbo Water Palace, which is why there were thousands of acres of shimmering waves and rippling fish.

At this moment, the Qishan region was dark and silent. Except for the ruins of the underworld at the summit, where life still lingered, the entire land was filled with despair and death.

As Li Qing thought of this, she froze, suddenly realizing something!
“A realm of the underworld needs a ‘sun and moon’ to illuminate the netherworld. Is the Heavenly Palace that wants to reopen the Netherworld Palace going to use the nine-headed phoenix to light up a realm of the netherworld?”

If that's the case, how should the Qishan region be restarted?

As his thoughts froze, the phantom of the ghostly fire at the forefront flickered, and several shadows surged toward Li Qing.

Is there something sinister here?

Caught in a dilemma in the center of this fortified village, Li Qing decided to take action directly. He raised his right hand, and the dragon symbol on the ghost seal suddenly disappeared, transforming into five sharp lightning patterns in the blink of an eye.

Boom...

Blinding lightning covered the entire fortress, and violent lightning snakes rolled. Suddenly, several mournful cries could be heard. The ghosts that originally wanted to attack Li Qing were brutally killed by the Five Thunderbolts before they even saw Li Qing's face.

The lightning serpent still danced within the fortified village, but each bolt of lightning was still controlled by Li Qing's five fingers. The controllable lightning illuminated the entire fortified village, and its master, using the lightning serpent as a guide, slowly approached this dusty fortress, step by step.

In the latter half of the corridor, all kinds of wooden crates were neatly stacked in the four corners, and it was probably the same in the lobby behind.

Li Qing silently surveyed the surroundings, making sure there were no more wandering spirits, before walking towards the row of wooden boxes. With a flick of her sleeve, she knocked off the locks on the boxes.

Upon opening the box, they found it contained potato-like tubers. The top layer was also shriveled and withered, but from the second layer onwards, the tubers looked better and better. By the time they reached the bottom half of the box, many of the tubers were still intact.

"Is it Yin Huang Yu?"

The medium-grade medicinal herb, Yinhuangyu, is a perennial herb that spreads from its roots to its vines. Its leaves and seeds are highly poisonous and can incapacitate tigers and leopards. However, its rhizomes nourish essence and replenish qi. When boiled in water, it can be used as medicine to treat five types of consumption and seven types of injuries.

Since it is called a precious medicine, it must have extraordinary uses. Take its flowers and leaves, refine its essence, and combine it with cinnabar and mercury to make a dose of "Zhenling Powder". It uses poison to fight poison and actually enhances magical power.

If there is such a large quantity of wild herbs here, then I'm afraid...

Li Qing raised an eyebrow and immediately remembered the Secret Manual of Miscellaneous Talks of the Netherworld given to him by the True Man of the Hunyuan Immortal Sect. He stepped forward with a lantern, waved his sleeve to collect the wooden boxes into his mustard seed bag, and then quickly headed into the fortified village.

Sure enough, upon entering the hall, in the very center were six or seven alchemy furnaces linked together by rusty iron chains, with overturned pestles and cauldrons on the sides, clearly a place where various kinds of elixirs had been refined.

The art of alchemy and alchemy has been passed down in Tiandu for a long time. In the past, the method of consuming alchemy and cultivating qi to become an immortal was extremely popular and was in no way inferior to that of the present world.

Li Qing seemed to see here the scene from six years ago when the ghosts and spirits in this fortified village hurriedly retreated, overturning the medicine cauldron and dropping the elixir pestle, fleeing in panic...

"really!"

In the inner chamber of the alchemy room, there was a mulberry robe hanging on the wall, and on the table were jade bottles of various sizes. Unfortunately, many of the elixirs were covered in dust. Even the jade bottles containing the elixirs could not withstand the ravages of time.

Unless there is an even better way to preserve it!

After glancing at the messy jade bottle, Li Qing then turned her gaze to the several pieces of mulberry clothing.

"There seems to be something bulging in my pocket. Could it be something inside?"

With a lamp in his left hand and a summoning gesture in his right, Li Qing flicked the lightning snake with his fingertip, and in the blink of an eye, a chain-like dragon lightning bolt appeared among the five thunderbolts, from which a string of objects was pulled out from the pocket of the man in the mulberry robe.

It was none other than a nine-linked bronze ring.

"Oh? A sealed magic artifact..." As he poured another stream of profound energy into it, the crimson nine-ringed artifact seemed to be blessed with rain after a long drought, and it began to greedily absorb the energy from Li Qing's body. Smoke and dust scattered on the nine red copper rings, and the dark and sealed magic talisman was indeed lit up one by one.

It was originally a nine-linked fire-elemental magic weapon with seven hundred forbidden attributes. Perhaps it was originally a fire weapon used for refining pills in this alchemy room, but for some reason, its owner did not have time to take it with him when he left.

Or perhaps its master is one of the Yin spirits that was just killed by Li Qing's thunder magic?

Li Qing no longer cared about the cause and effect. As soon as he entered the manor, he immediately obtained a natural essence and a high-grade magic weapon. Such results can be described as extremely fruitful!

Within this vast Qishan region, buried by time, what great secrets might still lie hidden beneath the ruins?
"The alchemy furnace is perfectly round and unobstructed; it can still be used after being washed!"

"These alchemy pestles and medicine cauldrons are actually magical artifacts..."

The harvest from this fortified village was quite substantial.

Li Qing opened the mustard seed pouch in his sleeve, used his vital energy to wipe away the dust on the various artifacts, poured out the waste pill that had already been formed in the alchemy furnace but whose essence had been mostly lost, took all the artifacts into the pouch, collected all the magical tools, and then looked up to examine this fortified village.

Within the Qishan Domain, there are countless estates like this. If all of them possess such a foundation, why would he bother exploring the Netherworld? Perhaps simply excavating the Netherworld and living off his past achievements would be enough for him to reach the realm of a high-grade Yin God – a Great True Person!
But it was at this very moment, just as Li Qing was about to explore the depths of the fortified village more deeply.

A violent explosion came from outside the manor, a loud rumble like the collapse of walls that shook the entire fortified village.

Judging from the sound, they don't seem to be far away!
Upon hearing of this turn of events, Li Qing's expression shifted slightly, but his movements did not falter. With his left hand, he flicked the Southern Dipper Life-Extending Lamp behind his shoulder. In the next instant, auspicious clouds suddenly appeared above, drawing in five thunderbolts from the fortified village and transforming them into a bolt of lightning that pierced through the entire village in an instant, striking the farm with thunder and lightning...

On the dark land of Qishan, a three-headed, bone-faced owl was searching for supplies in the farmhouses and granaries, which attracted the evil spirits that roamed the land.

Look outside the wall, the gluttonous ghost climbs over the high fence, its deep-set eyes are dark and empty, its vicious teeth exposed. It bites the wooden fence to pieces and pushes itself through the gap.

Then, out of nowhere, a hanged ghost appeared, its eyes bulging, its face as white as gold. With a flick of its long silk sleeve, it bound the sharp claws of an old owl and dragged it hundreds of feet away. The ghostly figures that were wandering around were about to devour it and the other owls alive!
This is the underworld, a place devoid of order, where vengeful ghosts, spirits, and yin birds devour one another...

But the three-headed owl is the most valiant bird of prey in the nest, so why would it be afraid?

A mournful cry, even more hoarse than a ghostly whisper, arose as the three owls flapped their wings, stirring up rolling black clouds. These clouds were even more violent than when Li Qing rode the clouds, filled with murky, stagnant air and fiery energy; they were practically a dark red cloud of fiery energy.

And so, the scene just now unfolded: the owl and the ghost fought, shattering the tall fence and breaking through the granary, scattering the dusty millet and fodder all over the ground...

The battle lasted only a dozen breaths. The three old owls, inheriting the legacy of the Bone Phoenix, unleashed their fiery power with incredible speed. A horde of ghosts, each more ferocious than the last, emerged, followed by a succession of gloomy ghosts and starving slaves.

The hungry ghosts are insatiably greedy, their ferocious mouths only seeking to devour blood and flesh; the vengeful ghosts are nowhere to be found, clinging to the shadows, just about to seize the owl's soul; the hanged ghosts arrive, their white ribbons fluttering, gently igniting the battle.

The battle had not lasted long when suddenly the sky exploded with a deafening roar, and blinding lightning struck down, knocking back four or five large demons with a single blow!

All that could be seen was Li Qing holding the handle in his left hand, casually hanging the lantern upside down behind his shoulder. He landed with the help of the thunder, kicking the hanged ghost hundreds of feet away, causing it to fall into the ruins. His right hand summoned the soul, controlling the five thunders, with chain-like lightning branches thousands of feet long.

As Li Qing clenched his fists, the lightning snakes danced wildly, and bolts of lightning indiscriminately bounced across every inch of land within several miles around him, instantly dispersing the ferocious Yin energy that was attacking from all sides, causing it to flee in panic!
"Where did it come from?"

Li Qing held five thunderbolts in his hand and raised a thousand-foot-long lightning chain. He walked step by step out of the smoke and dust. His gaze was both a question to the wandering evil spirit and an inquiry to the leader of the three-headed bone owl.

But the three owls were also frightened by the extremely powerful lightning magic and stood there stunned for a moment.

Since that was the case, Li Qing ignored them and summoned a myriad of lightning bolts with his five fingers, causing the lightning chains to transform into spears and blades, or into binding whips, all of which fell towards the group of ferocious beasts.

The thunder magic is fierce, especially in this Netherworld, where the strange phenomenon can be seen from half the sky!
Before long, the group of ghosts were all subdued by the thunder magic. Li Qing took off the "Zhong Kui Catching Ghosts Picture" from his waist and threw it to summon the image of the Great Venerable Zhong Kui, which then captured all the evil spirits into the picture.

All ghosts retreat from Lord Li! The name of this Ghost Lord Li Qing is no mere fabrication. His profound Yin Qi, prophetic curses, soul-summoning techniques, Five Thunder Techniques... each of his supernatural powers and spells is an unbearable, deadly art for such ghosts.

"This is a bit too much noise."

Li Qing unleashed several divine powers, binding the group of ferocious beasts, but also sensed a change in the atmosphere here, with more and more sinister energy gathering in all directions.

After looking around the estate, Li Qing raised an eyebrow at the broken-down warehouse, and with a wave of her hand, filled several mustard seed bags with the full load of grain.

"Leave this place first. Our sect can restore the restrictions here, and we can come back to explore it again in the future."

“But not now. We must not be trapped in this farm.”

There are many good things buried in this Qishan underworld, but there are also too many wandering ghosts.

Li Qing still has important matters to attend to at the moment, so he shall leave for now and return another day to empty this place...

(End of this chapter)