The Path to Immortality Begins with the Life-Extending Lamp

Chapter 233 Ghost Lang's Actions
"I have always heard that the people of the South seek out scholars and pursue immortality through the path of immortality, and that some of the clans of the Six Heavens Ghosts have been preserved... Today, I have finally seen them."

"Unfortunately, this demon princess is quite fierce!"

As if filing a complaint, the goddess of clear water revealed the indelible bruises on her palms, making them visible to almost everyone on the battlefield.

With such a pitiful appearance, anyone who didn't know better would really think that Li Qing and the Ghost Mother had ganged up on her.

However, no matter how eloquently he spoke, the ghostly man held a lantern, blood light blazing, and boundless darkness spread out. The ghostly mother leaned to the side behind Li Qing's shoulder, her chilling gaze sweeping around.

Behind them, in the darkness, the shadowy silhouette of a desolate, haunted house loomed faintly. No one recognized the strange phenomenon, but within that enormous haunted house, paper figures and bells flickered, and blood-red ghost lanterns hung everywhere, resembling a scene from the underworld…

The malevolent forces in this realm were overwhelming. The God of Lishan, who was maintaining the Yellow Sand Divine Realm, looked grim. He slammed his staff down on the top of the Xuanwu Mountain and used a quicksand cage to sink the giant object to the bottom of the divine realm, temporarily banishing it from this battlefield. In the next instant, this giant, hundreds of feet tall, leaped dozens of miles in one step and, with the power of the divine realm, surrounded Li Qing from behind.

A staff suddenly appeared from the depths of the divine realm, striking the ghostly underworld with immense power, causing the crimson light to tremble.

"You little brat, I'm not going to bother with you, but you're getting too big for your britches?"

The mountain god was furious, his roar like thunder, shaking the entire divine realm.

In the blink of an eye, Li Qing cursed and killed more than two palms' worth of divine assistants. The word "assistant" means minister or subject. They are the secondary deities in the ancestral temple and are also the henchmen and assistants of the two gods.

For these two deities, Li Qing's actions were undoubtedly undermining their very foundation.

The god of Lishan was furious. He wielded a peachwood staff as thick as a pillar and immediately gave chase, determined to kill the evil Li Qing and the ghost mother right there.

The divine power that pierced through the air produced a deafening roar, and even the void seemed unable to withstand such immense force. As the air surged, heaven and earth trembled.

Even with such a fierce strike, it did not cause the slightest ripple in this dark and ghostly realm. As the peach staff fell, the boundless darkness seemed to transform into an abyss. The original strange phenomenon and Li Qing and the other person completely disappeared. The blood light was gone, leaving only the darkness that had completely devoured the power of the divine staff.

No matter how great your strength, you cannot make a ripple in this ghostly realm!

"If I'm not mistaken, the altars and gods of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the spirit worship of the Ba Kingdom, and the ancestral temples and spirits of the Six Heavens Ancient Clan are actually inextricably linked, aren't they?"

Ghosts and spirits, being both vengeful spirits from the netherworld, naturally possess divine authority in the underworld; only in this way can they be called ghosts and spirits.

Just like the ghostly realm of ghosts and gods, it seems to have some similarities with the divine realm of gods!
The Ghost Mother, empowered by the authority of Qishan, is even more powerful than the God of Lishan in the realm of ghosts.

As he looked at the boundless, dark power, the strange and twisted force suddenly shot out. First, a tattered straw rope fell down and hung around the mountain god's neck. Before he could exert any force to resist, the seemingly ordinary straw rope suddenly tightened, actually suspending the majestic god's body in the air.

As soon as the god of the mountain left the ground, a deadly attack spread from all directions. The cracking sounds came from the mountain god's body, and the majestic divine body was shattered inch by inch.

At this moment, the scarlet light rose again from a dark corner. It was Li Qing holding the lamp, accompanied by the Ghost Mother. The two slowly reappeared from the darkness. One made a hand seal to disperse the Soul-Stealing Dream Curse and gather all thoughts, while the other held her jade hand and stirred up the violent and twisted ghost realm, intending to crush the mountain god's body.

The overlapping of the Qishan Netherworld and the Xuan Yin Twisted Ghost Realm has proven its power; even the legendary Golden Star Tai Bai could not break through it!
"I have seen many Yin Spirit Realm experts, but none of them are as arrogant as you."

Li Qing gazed at the colossal object that was drawing upon the power of the Supreme Being to resist the approaching two layers of legal domains, and smiled silently.

At that very moment, the sound of arrows whistling through the sky arose, as several meteors tore through the void and pierced through the mountain god's body one after another.

With a thunderous roar, the enormous object that had been suspended in mid-air was instantly sent flying like a cannonball, hurtling back for miles before crashing heavily into the river.

"Of course, its only redeeming quality is its thick skin and tough flesh!"

The general of the Northern Army leaped down from the sky and landed on the river not far from Li Qing. He looked at the mountain god's body, its head pierced by the Gengjin spear, and sneered.

As a cultivator who is most skilled in warfare and a champion of humanity, finding weaknesses and taking lives is second nature to him.

And so, Li Qing's sudden appearance was one of the opportunities.

At this moment, the Yellow Sand Divine Realm slowly receded, and the divine attendants and fierce warriors within it all landed on the river surface. Among the five schools of the Northern Army, the left and right armies began to change formations and switch responsibilities with the front army, while the soldiers of the rear army also performed military salutes and war poems, casting down numerous restrictions to temporarily imprison the entire river surface.

The Union Army's succession and advance seemed to have already sealed the fate of this battle!

The general landed to the side, forming a pincer movement with Li Qing, and at the same time, he carefully examined Li Qing.

The spirits and deities of the South have never participated in the battles against the North. This is partly due to the strong sense of clan and kinship among the tribes, who are often inseparable from their ancestral temples; and partly because few of the current spirits and deities are truly capable of understanding the battlefield. Their obsessions, rather than contributing much to the conflict, are a highly destabilizing factor.

Seeing Li Qing's abilities now, how could they not be amazed?

However, Li Qing was not paying attention to his surroundings at this moment; his divine sense was focused entirely on the mountain god.

Like the earth, steadfast and unmoving; like the mountains, majestic and imposing.

This god of the mountain was not so fragile. Even though he was initially struck by the Ghost Mother's attack and his divine body was damaged by the Northern Army general, his main body was not injured and he was still able to fight.

Beneath the great river, a powerful aura suddenly rose, and a robust human figure broke through the waves. His upper body was naked, with golden mountain totems engraved on his chest, and his lower body was covered with a skirt armor made of unknown animal hides.

This fiend emerged and with a single palm strike, swung the general's long spear back. He then manipulated the size of his divine staff, raising it to strike at Li Qing and the other two.

"No!"

Seeing the mountain god acting so arrogantly again, Uncle Qingshui, who was behind him, couldn't help but speak up in a slightly hurried manner to remind him.

"The Ghost and God Temple is no different from the Divine Prayer. Don't underestimate him just because he's a Purple Mansion Daoist. Do you know how many Yin Gods and how much power he has behind him?"

"Do not act rashly..."

Qingshui and Lishan are not far apart, and the two have been friends for hundreds of years. At this moment, Uncle Qingshui urged repeatedly, trying to stop the mountain god who had lost face.

The path of immortals is judged by the level of their cultivation, while the path of gods is judged by the extent of their power.

As for the Six Ancient Ghosts, one must first find out which clan they belong to. Those sitting in front of the stage are merely the facade of the ghosts of the underworld, just the tip of the iceberg of that deadly shadow. The more terrifying behemoths are usually hidden behind the scenes.

Of course, while calling upon the mountain god, the Goddess of Clear Water did not stand idly by. With a wave of her hand, the waves in the great river surged back, and three thousand-foot-long water dragons immediately surged forth, carrying the immense power of the entire area. In an instant, they overturned the hundreds of warships and then, as if the Milky Way had reversed, attacked Li Qing and the others.

The long, narrow, sword-like warship was not afraid of water. It was like a fish that was completely enclosed from top to bottom. The yellow sand temporarily buried it, and the flood could not break through the hull. However, it still made things difficult for the elite soldiers hidden inside.

As the Yin spirits clashed, the outer guards and armored warriors decisively began to evade them. Only a few subordinate gods and generals, comparable to those at the peak of the Purple Mansion realm, dared to linger near the aftershocks, fighting and dancing on the edge of their blades...

Li Qing, who was in the middle of the turbulent current, held a lamp in his left hand and pointed with his right. The water vapor, cloud vapor, fog vapor, yin energy and other energies in the river instantly surged back and merged with a wisp of primordial ancestral energy in his ancestral aperture between his eyebrows, instantly transforming into heavy Chongqing clouds.

The layers of clouds, like cotton wool or waves, blocked the towering waves, but they all shattered!
But when the auspicious clouds broke apart, the water dragon divine technique that had attacked Li Qing had already turned into a torrential downpour of raindrops, and the scarlet light behind the clouds disappeared once again.

"Hiding, hiding, hiding, just like a rat in the gutter."

"I will send you down here, so you can be a proper ghost or god in the temple."

Seeing that Lord Qingshui was engaged in a fierce battle with the general of the Northern Army, and that the giant black tortoise that had been thrown hundreds of miles away was still some distance away, the God of Lishan grinned and attacked Li Qing.

The attack from the Ghost Mother just now truly enraged him. Although the Ghost Realm was strong, it was only at the level of an ordinary divine realm. It was just that the twisted curse within it was somewhat strange, which caused him to be momentarily caught off guard.

He didn't want to become a stepping stone for such a little thing to become famous.

People like Li Qing, a contemporary Daoist, are nothing more than those who have accumulated some foundation, fought against many Yin God True Realm cultivators, and retreated unscathed. Afterwards, they are praised by sects and aristocratic families to gain political benefits!

Such a person was truly beneath His contempt. Having confirmed that Li Qing's confidence rested entirely on the Ghost Mother, the God of Li Mountain no longer held back. With a swift strike of his staff, the Yellow Sand Divine Realm materialized into a ten-thousand-foot-long beam of yellow light, which instantly pierced through most of the river's surface, narrowly missing Li Qing's body.

"No, is he going to attack Sister Cui?"

Li Qing, who had just dodged the cold light, was startled. He was surprised that the mountain god should not have done that. The attack, which almost caught him off guard, had missed so easily. How ridiculous!

But when the Ghost Mother clashed with the divine realm that had transformed into light, and was knocked back several miles by the peachwood staff within it, Li Qing realized that she was actually alone.

The God of Lishan instantly appeared in front of Li Qing, delivering a simple and unadorned punch that collided with the Soul-Summoning Ghost Hand that was raised in front of him. The immense power of the ancient divine mountain and the ghostly lightning collided, producing a crackling sound like popping candy. Immediately, a mountain-shaking force descended, causing Li Qing's arms to go numb and his entire body to be sent flying.

The Yin Spirit Realm is a completely different realm, where essence, energy, spirit, life, and soul have all transcended the mortal world.

From this point on, as soon as Li Qing was caught off guard and isolated, the mountain god immediately pounced on him, unleashing a barrage of attacks—whip kicks, hook punches, knee strikes, elbow strikes—like a storm of blows hitting a sandbag, instantly pouring the mountain's immense power onto Li Qing's entire body.

Even as the final blow sent Li Qing tumbling down the chasm of the great river, the mountain god still stared in astonishment at the young Taoist whose body was covered in bright cracks, as if made of jade.

"How could it withstand this round of brutal beatings from me?"

Bones as white as jade, skin as smooth as ice? It seems this young man has achieved some mastery in cultivating his life force.

If it were an ordinary Taoist, apart from the Cangshan Golden Elixir Daoist who refined the human body into something as hard and smelly as a rock, very few people could survive here.

But the mountain god showed no mercy. Looking at Li Qing, who had fallen into the great river, he raised his hand and summoned a giant stone sword a hundred feet tall to suppress him.

This terrified Elder Shi, who was still watching the battle. The magic weapon, the Golden Ruyi, was suspended in the air, and the giant stone sword was shaken and immediately deviated from its direction. The Water and Fire Generals appeared out of nowhere, controlling the red and blue energies, and blocked Li Qing's way.

Even the old Taoist priest didn't expect the situation to change so quickly.

Repelled by the peachwood staff imbued with the power to ward off evil, the Ghost Mother's blank expression suddenly turned back to look, but Li Qing had already fallen into the bottom of the great river covered by endless darkness, leaving no trace.

The Demon Mother, seemingly unleashed, unleashed a torrent of malevolent energy. The twisted, dark demonic aura surged, covering an area of ​​over eighty miles. Above, ropes adorned with the spirits of hanged ghosts hung low, while below, deep vortexes intertwined, from which countless phantom ghosts were born. Any divine generals caught in its grip were instantly hoisted by these ghostly ropes with a whoosh, followed by the cracking sounds of bones breaking. All the divine weapons affected by the twisted curse were twisted into bloody, twisted knots, dangling and swaying in the air…

This is the Demon Mother, a calamity from the underworld that can bring ruin to the country!

The Black Tortoise has returned, and ghosts and gods comparable to Yin spirits have descended upon the world in a violent uprising. Another top Taoist master has appeared in the Southern Kingdom. It seems that this time, the challenge he was waiting for has truly come at a bad time.

Uncle Qingshui shook his head and sighed, no longer bothering with the general. With a flick of his sleeve, he collected the few attendants and divine assistants present.

"The southern front has likely received reinforcements. Consider this a minor defeat for both of us. Let's retreat!"

With a call to the mountain god, the Goddess of Clear Water gazed at the curtain that stretched to the sky and began to slowly retreat.

That little thing is probably gone, and even the vengeful ghost behind it has become enraged and rampaged.

Indeed, the Yin God Realm is the Yin God Realm. How could his "combat power," protected by ghosts and gods and enhanced by external forces, withstand the Yin God True Realm for long?
"Hmph, let's go!" The God of Lishan glanced at the battlefield and saw that the fallen Divine Advisors were all from his own Daoist academy, and his expression was not very good.

He wasn't as attentive to his subordinates as Shimizu, and in the blink of an eye, he was almost left with no one to command, which was a real headache.

However, after glancing at the place where the river had sunk and remained motionless, the mountain god's lips curled up slightly.

Killing a descendant of a Southern Kingdom clan's ghost god might be the beginning of shaking that clan, and that's quite a merit!
The two deities exchanged a glance with Elder Shi, whose face was grim, and the general of the Northern Army, and then openly began to leave. Although the latter's expression was uncertain for a long time, he really had no intention of stopping them.

The Grand Elder of the Three Emperors Sect was bitter inside, thinking to himself that he had messed up and was likely to face a terrible fate when he returned. He wondered if the Grand Master from Tiannan, who was nearing his death, would personally come to twist his head off in revenge!
But right now.

Behind them, Fairy Mo Ling, with her brows furrowed, sensed that something was amiss.

That's impossible! Li Qing had the confidence to fight the Ghost Lord Huailian back then; he already had experience fighting against Yin spirits...

No, it's that substitute witch puppet given by the Ghost King!

Just as they were thinking about this, they saw the bodies of many armored soldiers being dragged back into the river begin to crumble one after another, their still-warm blood splattering onto the warriors beside them, turning the river into a hellish scene in an instant.

"This this……"

Many of the still-living soldiers stared at their comrades, who had been turned into mincemeat, and stood there dumbfounded for a long time. Then, their eyes widened in fury as they glared fiercely at the two deities who had retreated.

Damn it, they challenge us every day, and then they kill us and leave unscathed, not even leaving us with their bones.

Are gods and immortals really so high and mighty, looking down on the mortal world, that they can retreat in style even after defeat?

Amidst their anger, the soldiers heard a loud call.

Is the Mountain God present?

Ok?
This contemptuous call to name caused the god of the mountain to immediately stop in his tracks and turn around sharply.

But Li Qing stood unharmed in the clouds, looking down at them. The little doll on his shoulder, however, looked even more gloomy after its second substitution.

This brat?
Just as he was about to unleash a torrent of profanities, a cold, ghostly hand quietly pressed down on the mountain god's shoulder. It was because Li Qing had been bombarded by the mountain god in turn that it had been tainted by Li Qing's profound Yin Qi and also by Li Qing's karma.

The Ghost Mother arrived following the cause and effect, and directly placed a palm on the back of the Mountain God. The cold and gloomy Xuan Yin Mother Qi and the violent and twisted Dharma intent wantonly invaded the original divine body, making him freeze in place for a moment.

"not good!"

Upon seeing this, the Goddess of Clear Water realized that something was amiss, fearing that these three or four Yin Gods were about to join forces to capture them.

Just as she was about to leap forward to repel the Ghost Mother, the goddess who was supposed to be there to support the mountain god behind her suddenly felt a sharp pain in her right shoulder. She stared in disbelief at the arm that had fallen to the ground. However, what horrified her even more was the head and body of the mountain god who had been severed and collapsed with a thud.

"I'll lend you my life to help me advance further!"
The soft, ethereal laughter, though faint, sounded like the low murmur of a demon from the underworld to those present.

But at this moment, what difference is there between Li Qing and the evil spirits of the underworld?
Boundless crimson blood covered the river surface. This ghostly blood seemed to come from a more bizarre place, completely out of place with the clouds and water. Li Qing, who was in the middle of the blood pool, was entangled in dense, blood-stained black hair. The crimson blood on the hair was sticky and kept dripping onto the water. The strong smell of blood was overwhelming. How terrifying!
Li Qing resided in the Blood Pool in the clouds, raising an ancient, dark red pair of scissors in his left hand, silently watching the two gods in the distance, and also intimidating all living beings on the entire river.

The substitute spirit puppet on its shoulder suddenly turned its head, baring its teeth at the terrifying ghost about to crawl out from the bottom of the blood pool, seemingly trying to scare away the blood ghost and blood demon remains sealed deep within the ghost blood...

“In the past, my cultivation was too weak and my vision too limited, so I suffered a lot from the Yin Spirit True Realm.”

"Whether you call me insidious or vicious... well, I'll accept this excellent offering."

Looking down at the fallen body of the God of Lishan, Li Qing laughed heartily, his words carrying a hidden meaning. Long troubled by numerous Yin Gods, today he had finally killed a true Yin God at the True Realm.

These Yin spirits aren't so scary after all!

Overjoyed, Li Qing's right hand was wrapped in five chains of lightning, and with his eyes slightly lowered, he forcefully used his immense spiritual pressure and the five-way lightning to forcefully push the hidden blood demon in the Blood Demon Realm back into the blood pool.

Only now was Li Qing finally able to make slight use of the greatest opportunity he had ever had since entering the Dao – the Eternal Regret Ghost Scissors – without the Ghost Mother suppressing him.

When he achieved his current level of cultivation, he turned around and realized that the terrifying ghost hair was actually wrapped around his fingers, an aid that bound the killing edge of the ghost scissors. The boundless blood-red ghost realm was the prison of the ghost scissors, trapping every soul that died under the long-hating ghost scissors within, turning them into blood accomplices...

This feels really good!

(End of this chapter)