A leisurely life in the world of cultivation

Chapter 220 May I have a look at the power left behind by the Five Sacred Mountains True Lord?
Qi Zhenkun naturally didn't dare to leak the secret. He only briefly mentioned that there were only a few people there, and he didn't even dare to stay overnight. He returned to the Xuanlei Sword Sect overnight.

Tsk, what about trust between people?
However, Li Weizhou did not insist on keeping them. After sowing again that night, he set off with Zhou Yueniang early the next morning.

Instead of rushing on their journey, they enjoyed the beautiful scenery along the way.

"Kacha!"

"This one is good. My wife's peace sign is so cute and playful."

Passing by an unnamed valley, where flowers were in full bloom and butterflies were fluttering, Li Weizhou took Zhou Yueniang there to take photos and admire the beautiful scenery.

Although there isn't much spiritual energy, the flowers here are exceptionally beautiful.

Zhou Yueniang now loves taking selfies and hopes that Li Weizhou will show them to her father next time he descends to the mortal realm, so that the old man won't worry...

After playing for a while, they came out of Hundred Flowers Valley and flew slowly on their swords towards Xuanlei Sword Sect for about two hours. The road under their feet gradually changed.

The once lush and fertile soil is gone, replaced by red soil slopes embedded with fine gravel, which rustle underfoot, and there is a faint smell of sulfur in the wind.

"This is the foothills of the Black Rock Mountains. After passing the Fire Hidden Gorge ahead, and traveling another three thousand miles, we will reach the territory of the Xuanlei Sword Sect."

Li Weizhou looked around and then spoke.

Zhou Yueniang praised, "You're getting faster and faster."

"?!"

Li Weizhou looked puzzled.

Although the young lady's golden body remained indestructible and became increasingly sharp, when the two were aroused, sparks sometimes flew.

But Li was the ultimate winner in the end!
How did I end up with such a humiliating evaluation?

After being married for a long time, the couple can understand each other's meaning with just a look.

Zhou Yueniang looked at her husband speechlessly, nudged him, and said, "Let's go!"

If it weren't for the funeral, she wouldn't mind finding a secluded spot with her mischievous husband, using an array plate to conceal their wild antics, but today was definitely not the right time.

As they spoke, the two had already reached the entrance of Fire Hidden Gorge.

The cliffs on both sides of the canyon are towering and covered with a thin layer of fire mist. In the mist, you can vaguely see hanging vines with fist-sized purplish-red fruits on them. When the wind blows, the fruits collide and make a crisp "ding-dong" sound, which is just like music.

Are these fruits poisonous?

Zhou Yueniang glanced at it and then asked.

Li Weizhou nodded and said, "If it weren't poisonous, it would have been picked long ago. However, this fruit is only moderately toxic, so it's not very valuable."

The two lingered there for another half an hour, and after taking dozens of photos, they continued on their way.

Emerging from Fire Hidden Gorge, the view suddenly opened up, revealing a vast black soil plain ahead. Scattered across the plain were several furnaces emitting wisps of smoke, and in the distance, the outline of a city stood out prominently in the setting sun.

The city walls were not made of the usual spirit rocks, but were cast from a single piece of black iron, covered with dense forging runes. Above the city gate, a wooden plaque bore the three large characters "Black Iron City," the characters exuding a rugged and unyielding air.

"Black Iron City is famous for its weapon forging and is an industry of the Xuan Tian Pavilion. Tsk tsk, the formation of this city is far superior to that of Clear Water City. Not to mention the Earth-grade metal vein, it is also connected to the earth fire below. The interaction of metal and fire can produce thunderous sounds. The entire city is a great formation. Su Wan said that every time someone forges a magic weapon here, a portion of the metal spirit energy is intercepted and put into the formation. No wonder the Sin Clan dares not provoke this place."

As Li Weizhou's understanding of space deepened and his research on formations became more sophisticated with the assistance of countless elites on Earth, he could discern the origins of ordinary large formations with just a few glances.

However, the two did not enter the city and continued to fly on their swords.

After flying for about 800 miles, a sect built against the mountain appeared ahead.

The mountain gate is made of white jade and has the three characters "Baiyin Gate" engraved on it. Two strings of jade bells hang on both sides of the gate. When the wind blows, the bells ring out crisply, which can instantly calm people down.

Li Weizhou chuckled, descended on his sword, and told Zhou Yueniang about the love-hate relationship between the disciples of Baiyin Sect and Hehuan Valley that he had witnessed in Qingshui City.

Hearing the faint sound of a zither coming from inside the mountain gate, Zhou Yueniang smiled and said, "I've only seen it in ancient books before, I never thought I'd pass by here. The Spirit Realm is truly full of wonders. In the mortal world, Leiyin Temple had the Buddhist Lion's Roar, but that was just a martial art. I never imagined there was a technique based on music."

The two were standing outside the mountain gate listening to the zither when, after a short while, they sensed the music turning somber and menacing as the Hundred Sounds Sect's formation activated...

Without waiting for anyone inside to ask, Li Weizhou and Zhou Yueniang smiled and flew away on their swords.

Continuing eastward on their swords, they passed through several places where spiritual veins were clearly present, with numerous cultivation families and small to medium-sized sects scattered about.

As the two flew by, they could even see some factions engaged in war.

Zhou Yueniang sighed, "In the mortal realm, the Eight Kings and Eight Sects are high above, dominating the martial world. And we, the escort agencies and those small sects, have to fight to the death for survival and growth. I never thought that the spirit world would be the same."

Li Weizhou smiled and said, "Because people's hearts and human nature are interconnected."

Zhou Yueniang looked at him, her amber eyes sparkling with captivating light, and said, "But such things are not allowed to happen within a radius of three thousand miles of the Five Elements Sect's territory. Therefore, more and more people are starting to move there. You are a kind person, a good person."

Li Weizhou chuckled and said, "I still want our family to live in a peaceful and beautiful environment, and I want our children to live carefree lives, at least in their early years."

Zhou Yueniang hesitated for a moment, glanced at the fighting below, and asked, "Is this difficult?"

Li Weizhou shook his head and said, "It's difficult for them, but not for us. We won't wade into the muddy waters of Zhongzhou. With our strength, protecting the area within three thousand miles of the Five Elements Sect's territory is a piece of cake. Once you reach a certain level, no one is willing to make a move casually, because making a move not only means consuming immortal spiritual power, but also means karma. Gradually, they will discover our intentions and our rules. I believe they will abide by them."

Zhou Yueniang looked at Li Weizhou and smiled, "I really hope we can reach the Immortal Spirit Realm soon, so you won't have to work so hard."

Li Weizhou laughed and said, "These are by no means a burden to me. Of course, it would be better if you arrived as soon as possible. That way, we can enjoy ourselves."

Zhou Yueniang smiled and said, "Aren't you in a hurry to ascend to the Immortal Realm?"

Li Weizhou shook his head and said, "As long as the spirit world can allow us to live for tens of thousands of years, why should we rush to climb up? The purpose of our cultivation has never been just to pursue the ultimate power, but to live a life that is unrestrained and undisturbed."

Zhou Yueniang was satisfied. After pecking Li Weizhou on the cheek, she smiled and said, "Let's go!"

……

The speed of flying on the sword gradually slowed down. The closer they got to the Xuanlei Sword Sect, the more stagnant the spiritual energy in the air became. The originally abundant lightning spiritual power was now reduced to a thin lingering trace, mixed with an inescapable desolation.

Li Weizhou had experienced this feeling near the ruins of Qingshui City; it was an effect of the great battle in the Immortal Realm.

However, the situation is particularly serious at the Xuanlei Sword Sect, possibly because powerful members of the Sin Clan intentionally polluted the spiritual veins of this area...

That's a foolproof plan.

Zhou Yueniang stood beside Li Weizhou, watching this cruel scene unfold.

In the afterglow of the setting sun, the outline of the Xuanlei Sword Sect finally became clear, but the mountain gate that once inspired awe among the cultivators of the Northern Spirit Domain had lost all its majesty.

A deep crack ran across the dark blue-green Lingyan plaque, and the four characters "Xuanlei Sword Sect" were blackened by smoke, with remnants of unburned black miasma still clinging to the edges. One of the thunder-patterned pillars on either side of the mountain gate was broken, half of the pillar stuck obliquely in the red soil. The forging runes on the pillar had long since faded, with only a few scattered points of spiritual light remaining, proving that it had once been the core of the mountain-protecting array.

Looking further into the sect, almost everything in sight was filled with white.

The eaves of the main hall were covered with spirit banners, each bearing the words "Soul Returns to the Ninth Heaven" and "Heroic Souls Never Die" in black characters. When the wind blew, the banners fluttered, as if countless spirits were whimpering softly.

In the square in front of the hall, temporary mourning tents stretched out in a row. The candlelight inside the tents flickered, illuminating the pale faces of the disciples keeping vigil. They were dressed in coarse hemp mourning clothes. Some leaned against the pillars of the mourning tents in a daze, while others squatted on the ground, clutching broken pieces of ritual implements in their hands, their tears falling silently to the ground.

"This……"

Zhou Yueniang's hands clenched slightly, her eyes filled with shock.

Although she knew that the Xuanlei Sword Sect had suffered heavy losses, she did not expect it to be in such a state of devastation.

Li Weizhou squeezed his wife's hand, but also sighed softly.

The martial arts arena, which should have been bustling with activity, was now filled with ravines of varying depths. The deepest one was over ten feet deep, and the bottom of the ravine still bore traces of the black miasma of the Sin Clan. Even the bluestone slabs on the ground had turned dark black.

Half of the forging workshop in the distance had collapsed, and the fire in the furnace had long since gone out, leaving only wisps of smoke mixed with the ashes of the spirit banners and paper money, which drifted in the air as a hazy mist.

Li Weizhou landed slowly, his feet touching the red soil of the square. He could clearly feel the faint tremors of the underground spiritual veins. The core of the Xuanlei Sword Sect's earth veins had been polluted, causing the spiritual energy of the entire sect to become stagnant.

He bent down and picked up a fragment of a magical artifact. The fragment was imprinted with the lightning patterns of the Xuanlei Sword Sect, and the edges were still stained with dried black blood. With a touch of his fingertip, he could feel the residual corrosive power of the Sin Clan, which was even more domineering than the black miasma of Qingshui City.

"Sect Leader Li... Deacon Zhou..."

A hoarse voice came from behind. Li Weizhou and the other looked over and saw Lei Yuntian, the sect leader of Xuanlei Sword Sect, slowly walking over. The once upright sect leader now looked like he had aged a hundred years, with most of his hair turned white and his eyes sunken.

The few elders following behind him all looked haggard, some of them visibly weak, clearly having suffered serious injuries in the previous battle.

But at this time, they also have to come out and handle affairs.

"Sect Leader Lei."

Li Weizhou stepped forward, his gaze sweeping over the numerous wounds of the Xuanlei Sword Sect, and said, "Please accept my condolences."

Not only did the disciples, elders, and supreme elders of the Xuanlei Sword Sect die, but also Lei Yuntian's father.

Lei Yuntian waved his hand and said in a low voice, "Thank you. Let's go inside and talk... The sect leaders of Xuanyuan Dao Sect are all in the main hall."

He led the two toward the main hall. The road was bumpy and uneven. When they reached the entrance of the main hall, an even stronger sense of sorrow washed over them.

The dragon pillars on both sides of the palace gate were eroded by black miasma, leaving countless small holes and the once majestic dragon patterns mottled.

Before the memorial tablet of Elder Lei Yuanwen, the flames of two white candles were kept extremely low, illuminating the figures of several people in the hall, all dressed in plain robes, their breathing slow and gentle.

The other five sect leaders had already arrived. Without any further pleasantries, they stood quietly on either side of the memorial tablet, some lowering their eyes and fiddling with prayer beads, others gazing at the tablet. The solemnity between their brows was partly out of mourning for the deceased and partly out of melancholy for the calamity caused by the sinful clan.

When Li Weizhou and Zhou Yueniang stepped into the palace, they were first greeted by the various gazes of the people around them.

Li Weizhou couldn't quite discern what was hidden in the eyes of these scoundrels, but he felt a mixture of regret and apprehension.

The first to speak was Abbot Huineng of Tianji Temple. The old monk, dressed in an ochre robe, clasped his hands together, and the prayer beads paused for a moment at his fingertips, revealing a swastika. He said, "In the battle of Qingshui City, Sect Leader Li killed three True Person level sin cultivators with a single sword and fought back a True Monarch level great cultivator. His fame has shaken the world. Congratulations!"

Under the gaze of many, Li Weizhou shook his head slightly and said, "Master, you must know that I am merely borrowing the power of the Ancestral Master. And this power is used once and then diminishes. If it weren't for the fact that Su Wan, the City Lord of Qingshui City, is a close friend of my master's wife, and that my master's wife softened after my earnest pleas, I would not have wasted this power to protect the sect and defend myself. As for prestige... it should be the prestige of my Ancestral Master, the Five Sacred Mountains True Lord."

Upon hearing this, the sect leaders were at a loss for words.

While I breathed a sigh of relief, I still couldn't relax.

Because no matter what, Li Weizhou's ability to repel a Celestial Spirit True Monarch-level expert, even if it was by borrowing strength, still puts him a level above them.

Li Weizhou took the three incense sticks handed to him by Lei Yuntian. As soon as his fingertips touched the incense, he felt a coolness spreading through his fingers.

This is the Xuanlei Sword Sect's unique "Soul-Gathering Incense," which is extremely beneficial to the cultivation of ordinary disciples. However, due to the sorrowful atmosphere in the hall, even the incense seems somewhat somber.

He walked to Lei Yuanwen's memorial tablet, gently inserted the incense into the incense burner, and watched the smoke from the burning incense rise along the gaps in the memorial banner. Just as it reached the beam of the hall, it was pressed down by the stagnant air and swirled into a small cloud of mist in front of the memorial tablet.

"Boom!"

Suddenly, the bronze bell outside the hall rang out, its dull sound striking the hall wall and causing the candlelight to flicker violently, making the three characters "Lei Yuanwen" on the memorial tablet appear and disappear.

A figure appeared out of thin air in the hall. Everyone was startled at first, but then they recognized him as Lei Tianyi, the True Monarch Ancestor of the Xuanlei Sword Sect.

Li Weizhou had never met this person before, but Liu Xuanzhou and the others had visited him before, and they were all greatly surprised to see him now.

This was because the True Monarch, who should have had an immortal appearance, was now much older than they remembered.

Her once jet-black hair was now mostly mixed with white hair.

His aura fluctuated dramatically.

This is clearly an aura that cannot be suppressed, and he is about to undergo another tribulation of lightning.

Given their knowledge, they naturally wouldn't think that the faster the tribulation of lightning arrives, the better.

Every tribulation in the Immortal Realm is a life-or-death ordeal!
Unless they are extremely confident, most True Lords will not rush to undergo tribulation, but will compress their aura as much as possible and postpone the tribulation as much as possible.

Lei Tianyi's current situation was clearly beyond control.

But everyone knows that this is probably not because they were ready...

"You are the new leader of the Five Elements Sect?"

Lei Tianyi's eyes, which seemed to pulsate with thunderous swords, swept over Li Weizhou and his wife, and he asked in a low voice.

Li Weizhou greeted him with the respect due to a junior, saying, "Indeed, I am Li Weizhou, the current sect leader of the Five Elements Sect. I came to offer my condolences upon hearing the tragic news of your sect."

Lei Tianyi nodded slightly, then suddenly asked, "Have you fought against a Celestial Spirit Realm cultivator from the Sin Clan?"

Li Weizhou nodded and said, "Relying on the power of the patriarch, we can barely protect ourselves."

Lei Tianyi stared at Li Weizhou for a moment and then said, "Could I borrow the power left behind by the Five Mountains True Monarchs?"

……

P.S.: The trivialities of life are leaving me feeling mentally and physically exhausted. I go to bed at two or three in the morning, wake up at four, and then spend the rest of the day in a daze. The most painful thing is having to write something that feels like a happy family story; it feels like being slowly tortured. I've been married for seven years now, perhaps this is what they call the seven-year itch. The old saying is truly accurate. I hope that unmarried readers will spend more time together and communicate more before getting married. To put it bluntly, looks are secondary, even ugliness doesn't matter; what I fear most is encountering someone I can't communicate with, which would be truly agonizing. Finally, I sincerely hope that every reader can live a happy life and have everything go smoothly. These eight words used to seem so easy, but now I realize how difficult they are to say. Happy Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day.

(End of this chapter)