The Path to Immortality Begins with the Life-Extending Lamp

Chapter 243 The Ghostly Man Enters My Dream

"Is it another one of the strange creatures from the Lingnan Hundred Ghosts Record?"

"The One-Horned Demon, shaped like a giant beast, possesses the strength to uproot mountains; it is truly ferocious!"

Li Qing slowly stepped down from the palanquin, his five fingers twirling a chain of lightning. The ends of the lightning bolts pierced the limbs of the one-horned demon, binding it tightly.

When Li Qing first attended the grand gathering of "Fengdu Heaven", other lords of the underworld wanted to exchange one unicorn ghost and one mighty ghost for a high-grade talisman.

Who would have thought that we would encounter the same one-horned ghost here again today?
"Unfortunately, I do not practice the art of taming ghosts, so obtaining it would be of no use to me."

Li Qing lowered her eyes and glanced at the one-horned demon. With a flick of her fingers, the lightning chains retracted, capturing the monstrous creature in her palm and lifting it up.

The Ghost Hand, with its unparalleled power, lifted the evil spirit's head with a single hand, yet it couldn't help but shake its head and sigh softly.

"Let's just sacrifice him!"

The Taoist priest here, with his cold and aloof demeanor, made the evil spirits there tremble with fear and remain silent. The mortal, no more than nine feet tall, was aloof and thin, yet he held the ferocious corpse-like demon in his palm like a dead dog. In this otherworldly realm of the netherworld, this scene was visually striking.

Just as they were about to decide the fate of this ghost with a single word, the eight-cornered Ruyi talisman in Li Qing's sleeve lit up at an inopportune moment!
Hmm? At this time?
Just as Li Qing was about to unleash the Fire and Lightning, he raised an eyebrow and stopped his next action of performing the lightning and fire exorcism. He threw the one-horned ghost from the Extreme Realm of Day Travel to the ground, where it crashed onto the invisible Xuan Yin Qi.

The octagonal purple-gold talisman has shown some unusual activity, which means that the Taixu Daoist of the Qingxu Great Dao Sect is not far away.
Li Qing lifted her sleeve and turned the purple-gold talisman into her palm, watching the dim light that kept flickering.

In the past few days, countless malevolent spirits and ghosts have swept past, and the number of wandering ghosts that have died under Li Qing's palm is too many to count on two hands. Now, after scouring the west, south, and southeast, this purple-gold talisman has finally reacted.

According to the Jade Void Taoist, this jade talisman has a strange connection with the Great Void, and the two will sense each other when they are within 600 miles of each other.

"Very well, since Master Taixu is still alive, I, Li, will not fail the trust placed in me by Master Yuxu."

As for the one-horned ghost general in front of him, as soon as Li Qing cast his impatient gaze, the ghostly figure, which resembled a mountain demon, trembled. After escaping death, it saw Li Qing looking at it again and immediately began to kowtow wildly to the ground.

"My lord, spare me! My lord, spare me! I am willing to become a servant under the command of the Supreme Lord!"

The hoarse, ghostly language was so urgent that it sounded like the cawing of a crow or the tearing of a piece of moldy cloth, quite jarring, yet it contained an urgent instinct for survival.

It didn't know either. It had just come out of the underworld where it had been living and wanted to catch some lonely souls in the dark to have a feast. When it saw a ghostly procession of paper figures and horses, it thought that it was a paper figure and horse that some great clan in the capital had burned for the clan's grave.

After all, with the six days shattered, the paper figures and horses burned for ancestral worship in this world, as well as the yellow paper tombs, can no longer point to the netherworld of each clan. They drift in the vast and dark realm, and whoever can intercept them will get them.
But who knew that this was not a grand ancestral feast? It was a deadly procession of ghostly soldiers!

"what……"

"Master, why don't we just take this big guy in? We really should keep some guard dogs in the underworld!"

Linglong Changzhu untied the beaded curtain, climbed onto the carriage shaft of the Rebirth Chariot, and poked her head out.

"Simply take half of its soul and transform it into a Soul-Suppressing Lamp to suppress it in the Underworld, and it will obediently submit and no longer be able to cause trouble."

While Jiazi Qunchang may have a promising future, he is Li Qing's fundamental protector and an entity intimately connected to him. It is impossible for him to merely serve in the underworld.

If such unruly and wicked spirits can be subdued one by one, they should be like guard dogs guarding the house!

“Hmm…okay!” Li Qing looked the one-horned demon up and down. The terrifying soul pressure almost crushed the evil spirit to the point of suffocation. Finally, she nodded in agreement.

"Then it's up to you to handle it."

No sooner had he finished speaking than Li Qing flicked his sleeve and used the "Painting Wall" technique, which used candlelight to reflect shadows, to seal the one-horned ghost general inside a ghost-skin scroll.

Li Qing casually tossed the paper embroidered with the lifelike one-horned ghost to Linglong Changzhu, but instead used his Xuan Yin Qi to sweep up the entire paper-figure and paper-horse carriage of Yin soldiers, turning it into a dark cloud that blotted out the sky and then fleeing southeast.

This place is a corner of Youtian, which is countless miles away from Qishan Domain. At least when Li Qing communicated with the Qishan Netherworld Contract in Niwan Palace, he felt that the two were as far apart as if they were from different worlds.

If they can find that Daoist Taixu, even if it was the Yin God Realm cultivator who caused their calamity, Li Qing can still leverage the power of Qishan to bring them all back.

But this is the only chance you'll get!

At this moment, hundreds of miles southeast of the dark clouds, a massive Netherworld is floating in the shadows.

On this land of the underworld, the dark blue soul grass grows vigorously, some resembling daffodils and reaching several meters in height, while the indigo crystal fungus is as large as a tower, even larger than many trees in the mortal world.

A faint blue light arose from these spirits, and countless plants covered the area, illuminating the entire underworld as if it were dawn. There was a unique internal circulation here, which could be called a small blessed land!
Looking further into the depths of the Netherworld, beneath the lush and dense Soul Grass and Crystal Fungus, malevolent gazes are cast in a brutal manner, greedily coveting the collapsed layers of earthen walls from the shadows.

Most of the nearly one hundred black rock walls built with earth magic have been damaged. Between the remaining wall sections, ice crystals and flames are still burning, and under the stench of thick smoke, many charred remains of ghouls are burning fiercely.

The last few surviving Taoists in the Qingxu Yinhuang Altar, which was so badly damaged that it was almost completely dismantled, were now hiding behind the layers of walls, barely clinging to life.

The altar master who led the team has long since perished, the Dharma boat has collapsed, and less than half of the nineteen altar protectors remain, all of whom have reached the point of collapse.

The True Transmission of Qingxu Xuandu – Taixu – was the last pillar of support at this moment. This Taoist stood imposingly atop the central wall, his azure robes torn to shreds by some unknown claw, the inner brocade lining stained with unknown black blood. Most striking was the sword on the black-haired Taoist's back. The blade was no more than three feet long, unassuming and ancient, yet countless souls had been slain by its blade, the murderous aura emanating from its hilt almost tangible.

Master Taixu leaned against the wall, coldly surveying the greedy eyes beneath the heavy shadows. He could not retreat; if he hesitated, the terrifying predators around him would rush up and tear them to pieces.

But Taixu had reached a critical point. The twenty-six days of escape from the Netherworld had drained his magic power. He could no longer use the magic power in his Purple Mansion Palace. His primordial spirit was weak and listless. He himself did not know whether he could stand up after casting the sword again.

His fellow students, who were working behind the walls, fared no better.

Brother Chen, who wielded the Earth River Flag, had both legs broken and was slumped against the inner wall. He supported the Earth River Flag with his hands and leaned against the earthen wall, panting. The blood beneath him stained the large area of ​​soil red. It was this Brother Chen who used the Earth River Flag to activate the earth vein formation and build the thirty-mile Black Rock Maze, which gave many Taoists a brief chance to maneuver.

The junior brother Zhong, the master of the Xiuqing Emperor's Mansion... had been attacked by some unknown ghost, and half of his body had been cut off. Dense purple vines grew from the missing wound to fill it, barely keeping him a semblance of human form, but it seemed there was no hope left.

Six layers of earthen walls lay beneath, where Senior Brother Guan, who specialized in fire magic, had just exchanged blows with the mastermind behind the scenes who had revealed himself. His earthen lung fire scorched back the sky-covering ghost claws, but in doing so, he also set himself ablaze. At this moment, half of Senior Brother Guan's body was buried under the wall, and his charred body was barely breathing.

As for the last one, Xuanbing Daoist, this quiet and aloof junior sister, was now lying lifelessly in front of Taixu, her hand weakly covering the hideous and terrifying gash on her neck, but the gushing blood could not be stopped no matter what she did...

On the day they entered the Netherworld, the elders and nineteen Taoists were filled with great enthusiasm, eager to serve their sect and create a new era.

In just a few weeks, this once formidable team of herbalists has been reduced to a mere handful, lingering at the crossroads of the underworld. Even the seasoned Taoist Taixu felt a sense of despair.

He wanted to say something, but his throat felt like it was blocked by something, making a series of "click" sounds, but he couldn't utter a single syllable.

Perhaps, this is our destiny.

'Nine Qi are born of Heaven, the highest being Pure Emptiness, expounding the Way of Heaven, guarding one's heart, not disobeying what Heaven has bestowed, with seventeen precepts…'

The Taoist Master Taixu struggled to sit up, silently reciting his own Seven Gates Codex Precepts, as if trying to see his own end from within them.

He foresaw the final deaths of his fellow disciples, but he could not see his own fate!

"Cough cough cough, it doesn't really matter, it's just a matter of dying and being destroyed anyway."

Taixu mobilized his last bit of magical power and summoned the Void Heaven Sword behind him. At this moment, he was nearing his limit, his five senses were dulled, his thoughts were hesitant, and he no longer felt any sorrow.

The only thing that still made him regretful was that despite paying such a high price, he still hadn't been able to cause much harm to the Ghost God Lord hidden deep in the Underworld.

This made him look like a clown, making him seem... ridiculous.

Just as he raised his finger to wield the Void Heaven Sword, preparing for his final, decisive dance, a strange greeting suddenly rang out from the peace talisman in Taixu's sleeve.

"Taixu, are you alright?"

The question, which arose from an unknown source, transcended cause and effect and medium, and abruptly resounded from the depths of Taixu's heart like a dream murmur, which was truly strange.

At this moment, the Taoist Taixu, who had almost reached his limit, had no more energy left to question or be wary. He simply stopped the final dance of the Void Heaven Sword, raised his head, and remained silent.

"Yu Xu summoned me to the Netherworld to rescue you. What is your current situation?" The unfamiliar voice looked down at him, but Tai Xu felt no displeasure. His nerves, which had been stretched to the limit, suddenly relaxed, and even his pupils almost dilated.

However, the faint struggles and sounds beneath him startled him awake.

"Senior...brother, kill me."

"It hurts... send me on my way..."

Xuanbing Daoist's ice magic could not freeze the torn neck and wound. The loss of essence and life force was becoming more and more rapid. The intense pain made her use her last bit of strength to beg her senior brother to send her on her way.

She has always been afraid of blood, she has always loved beauty, and she has always been most afraid of pain...

"I...click..."

After the taut nerves of the Taoist Master Taixu snapped, a flood of emotions rushed to his head. Looking around at the tragic state of his fellow disciples, a chilling aura from the Taoist abode suddenly swept over him, and for a moment, even his vocal cords froze into stone, unable to utter a sound.

"..."

Meanwhile, Li Qing, on the other side of the Ruyi Fu, keenly caught the faint voice and clearly heard Xuanbing Daoist's weak plea for death. Her brows furrowed into a plum-shaped arc as she continued to plead.

"It seems... you're not having an easy time right now!"

“My name is Li Qing. I was originally a scholar from Jiangnan. I mistakenly entered the path of immortals and will be called the Lord of the Underworld, or the Lord of Qishan... Please form the Dream Flower Seal with your ten fingers and call me by my name, Li.”

"This humble Taoist priest will personally appear in your dream to assist you..."

(End of this chapter)