Family Cultivation: Rise of the Wilderness

Chapter 542 Gong Tanzi

Su Qing ultimately did not choose to leave Ziyin Cave, but instead accepted the request to be buried with Liu Xiong Yu.

It's clear that this is her wish.

However, she herself could never get over that hurdle in her heart.

Li Xiangming essentially gave her a push.

The little fox was very unwilling to do this, but had no choice.

By the time it woke up, everything had already settled down.

A human and a fox stared at each other at the bottom of the Cliff of No Return.

"Ouch?"

The spotted little fox howled at Li Xiangming, its tone full of reproach.

Li Xiangming explained helplessly, "This is Su Qing's wish. If I hadn't come, she would have come on her own, and she would have ended up being left to rot in the wilderness."

The little fox pretended not to understand, growled twice at Li Xiangming, and then lay down in front of Su Qing's grave, refusing to leave.

Seeing this, Li Xiangming sighed slightly.

Su Qing could have ended her own life. Of the three last wishes she left behind, the first one was vague and uncertain—the Su family might indeed have descendants, but whether they could be found was another matter, and the matter of inheriting the Wind Escape technique was even more difficult.

Su Qing could do the latter herself—although she couldn't move, Xiao Cai was still there, wasn't she?
However, Su Qing did not want Xiao Cai to see her remains, and she was also worried that Xiao Cai would give up on herself in the Purple Shade Cave in the future, so she entrusted the young fox demon to him.

In Su Qing's view, the Purple Yin Cave, lacking spiritual energy, was ultimately a cage.

The reason she was willing to hand over such a precious secret technique as the Great Dream Jade Planting Scripture in a trade with Li Xiangming was actually so that Xiao Cai could have a wider world and a brighter future.

Li Xiangming naturally couldn't let Su Qing's painstaking efforts go to waste.

Seeing that the spotted little fox was determined not to leave, Li Xiangming no longer held back and knocked it unconscious, then tucked it under his arm.

According to Su Qing, there is only one way to leave the Purple Shade Cave: through the teleportation array at the top of the Divine Tree.

The teleportation array already existed in the Purple Shade Cave ten thousand years ago.

True Lord Ziyin did not want too many people to know about the secret realm he had obtained, and he went to great lengths to transform Ziyin Cave into a self-sufficient paradise.

Therefore, this ancestor of the Su family personally destroyed the original teleportation array.

But he also left himself a backup plan. Just as he ordered the Thousand-Faced Sorrowful Flame to kill all those who broke into his cave without regard to their origins or morality, he also "unnecessarily" left behind a stone tablet key that could open the cave.

Contradiction?
Actually, they are not contradictory.

In the heart of True Lord Ziyin, his awakening was a foregone conclusion. The supplies in the cave were the accumulation of his thousand years of cultivation, and naturally he could not entrust them to others.

But he's not a stubborn person.

If the Bloodline Array of Heaven-Seizing fails, he hopes that several years later, a descendant surnamed Su will be able to enter the cave and successfully subdue the Thousand-Faced Sorrowful Flame.

If that's the case, the Su family can still flourish and prosper even without him.

This is the real reason he left the stone tablet key.

Similarly, although True Lord Ziyin was determined to seal off the Ziyin Cave Secret Realm, he still created a smaller, one-way teleportation array and mounted it on the Pine Soul Banyan Tree.

The stone tablet key only allows entry but not exit, while the teleportation array only allows exit but not entry.

The combination of these two measures not only provided the Su family with a way out, but also protected the Ziyin Cave secret realm from being coveted by outsiders to the greatest extent possible.

Ziyin Zhenjun was still uneasy. He knew that the teleportation array would be discovered sooner or later, but he hoped that the secret would be revealed after he woke up. Therefore, he kept the matter of the teleportation array a secret.

No one in the Su family knew, and Hei Yunmo Daoya knew even less.

This crow spirit destroyed the Bloodthirst Array near the Divine Tree, thinking it had ruined Ziyin Zhenjun's entire plan, but the teleportation array turned out to be a blind spot.

It wasn't until the rise of Su Manzhu that teleportation arrays reappeared.

In order to keep the secret of the teleportation array, Su Manzhu did not hesitate to fight against the Black Lucky Dao Crow at its peak, but ultimately she perished.

But before that, she and her followers secretly escaped.

According to Su Qing, Hei Yunmo Daoya still doesn't know how they left.

However, upon reaching the top of the divine tree, Li Xiangming immediately refuted this claim.

Because he saw a crow's nest nearby!
There were more than a dozen crows in the nest. Upon seeing Li Xiangming, they all cried out in a mournful voice. Some of the stronger ones even tried to attack.

With a wave of his hand, Li Xiangming unleashed a surging black wind. Several crows that approached him instantly turned into a bloody mist, while the rest dared not run wild any longer and vanished without a trace.

"As expected, no secret can stay hidden forever."

Looking at their retreating figures, Li Xiangming's gaze was very solemn.

Perhaps Su Manzhu did manage to deceive everyone back then, but the Black Lucky Dao Crow wasn't stupid either. It had even found the Purple Yin True Lord's cave and the Heaven-Seizing Bloodline Array, so how could it not find the teleportation array that had already given itself away?

But if that's the case...
Li Xiangming dared not think about it and silently searched the vicinity.

After breaking through two illusion arrays in succession, he finally found the location of the array base, which was a twisted and gnarled old tree branch, with a dark metallic luster all over its body, and hundreds of azure gems densely embedded on its surface.

Each gemstone was no bigger than a fingernail, yet it contained a star-like brilliance. The runes carved on it were as fine as hair. When Li Xiangming looked at them, he felt a slight dizziness.

It looks fairly intact!
Li Xiangming held his breath and continued to search along the tree branches.

After a thorough inspection, he finally breathed a sigh of relief—perhaps out of a desire to leave himself an escape route, the Black Lucky Raven did not choose to destroy the place.

Of course, it can't leave directly either.

Don't be fooled by the fact that the teleportation array left by True Lord Ziyin is small, only allowing three to five people to pass through.

However, the amount of spirit stones consumed was not small at all.

Li Xiangming estimated that at least a thousand spirit stones would be needed to activate the dense array of Void Stones in front of him.

Is it still possible to find this number of spirit stones in the Purple Shade Cave today?

Almost impossible.

Fortunately, he had quite a few spirit stones on him.

Li Xiangming impatiently pressed the spirit stones one by one into a raised groove in the array eye. In no time, the patterns on the old tree branch emitted a silvery-white light.

Immediately afterwards, hundreds of Void Stones glowed with a deep blue light, projecting a circular beam of light.

With a heart full of trepidation, Li Xiangming stepped into the pillar of light.

no response!

After waiting for a full quarter of an hour, Li Xiangming was still in the same spot.

He stared in astonishment at the blue light around him.

Suddenly, a feeling of weightlessness came over me without warning.

Li Xiangming immediately became dizzy.

When I opened my eyes again, all I saw was a thick, white fog.

"This is."

Li Xiangming first murmured something, then was instantly overjoyed.

This is the cliff he and Liu Xiong Yu first arrived at before entering Ziyin Cave. The stone gate on the cliff and the three large characters "Ziyin Cave" are still clearly visible.

Out!
He's finally out!

Li Xiangming was overjoyed.

Just then, his sea of ​​consciousness suddenly felt as if it had been pricked by a needle, and his outward-extended divine sense was stimulated and immediately retracted.

At the same time, a thin, bony arm emerged from the mist beneath his feet, gripping his calf tightly, accompanied by a sharp, piercing laugh: "Over twenty years, this old man has finally awaited the Nascent Soul inheritance! Hehehehe!"

Is there an ambush?
Li Xiangming reacted instantly, his eyes flashed with malice, and the evil green robe immediately emitted a large amount of black mist, which engulfed the withered arm.

The laughter stopped abruptly.

Instead, a gasp of astonishment rang out: "You!"

Before he could finish speaking, Li Xiangming suddenly stretched out his arm, heading straight for the source of the sound in the fog.

The other party reacted quickly, and with a "whoosh," sank to the bottom of the cliff.

Li Xiangming dared not pursue rashly, but instead kept urging the evil green-robed man, making the black mist on his body grow thicker and thicker.

In just a moment, the cliff beneath his feet had turned a dark, black and white color, appearing extremely eerie.

"Wait a minute!" Seeing the Yin spirits surging out of Li Xiangming's body like they were free, the person at the bottom of the cliff finally couldn't hold back and exclaimed in panic, "Let's talk this out! Let's talk this out!"

Li Xiangming sneered, "If you don't come out, you'll stay down there forever."

"I'll come out!"

The man immediately compromised, but did not come out right away.

Li Xiangming wasn't in a hurry.

Although the ordinary wraiths of the Evil Green Robe were not particularly powerful, their sheer number made them a formidable force. He was eager to expend as many of them as possible to mitigate any potential future threat posed by the Evil Green Robe.

Another period of time has passed!
Black mist permeated almost the entire area, especially at the bottom of the cliff, where it was almost inky black.

From the depths of the abyss, the "whoosh" sound came again.

Immediately afterwards, a gaunt old man covered in vines leaped out of the black mist and landed steadily on the opposite cliff, standing opposite Li Xiangming.

"Hehehe"

The old man with the vines looked at Li Xiangming, grinned, revealing a mouthful of black and yellow teeth, and chuckled in a hoarse voice, "I thought I was the one with the evil ways, but I never expected to meet a real demon this time!"

Li Xiangming's gaze darkened slightly. There was actually a living person hidden in front of the Purple Yin Cave secret realm.

Moreover, judging from their attire, they had clearly been hiding for a long time.

In other words, this guy not only deceived him and Liu Xiong Yu, but also the Zhenhun Sect and Shengyi Sect's investigations over the years.

Recalling the terrifying scene just now, Li Xiangming's expression turned grim. He gently raised his palm, and the black mist at the bottom of the cliff immediately became active, slowly turning towards the old man with vines.

"Wait a moment!"

The old man with the vines grew anxious: "I have already revealed myself, why do you still want to kill me all?"

Li Xiangming ignored him and focused on directing the Yin spirits' attack.

This old fellow is hiding at the bottom of the cliff because he's eyeing the inheritance of the Purple Yin Cave. He just came out of the Purple Yin Cave, and their positions are very different.

If he lets the other person go here, who knows how many people will come looking for trouble for him in the future.

"Forgive me."

The old man with the vines seemed to sense Li Xiangming's murderous intent and called out to him repeatedly, appearing extremely flustered.

However, his movements were by no means slow.

Not only did it repeatedly evade the encirclement of the evil spirits, but it also used the vines on its body to swing and quickly moved from its original spot to the rocky cliff where Li Xiangming was.

"Good means."

Li Xiangming offered a compliment, but there was no appreciation in his eyes. Instead, he extended a finger, and with lightning speed, the cold light pierced into the old man's belly.

"This is."

The old man with the vines clutched his stomach and fell to the ground from mid-air, looking at Li Xiangming with utter shock.

Li Xiangming just sneered; this acting was far too exaggerated.

If he were to face Hei Yunmo Daoya with this kind of performance, he would die countless times over.

Seeing that Li Xiangming didn't come any closer, he instead took out several talismans.

The old man with the vines jolted awake, leaping to his feet. A piece of black wood with rotten edges fell from his abdomen, with a shallow dent in the center—clearly, the Six Yin Divine Finger technique had not worked.

"Kid, don't go too far!"

The old man with the vines failed to deceive Li Xiangming, and his old face turned red: "I have already accepted the verdict. If you continue to force me, I will have no choice but to fight you to the death, which would only benefit those scum of the Soul Suppressing Sect outside."

Soul Suppressing Sect?
Li Xiangming frowned slightly. Calculating the time, he had been in the Purple Yin Cave for almost a month.

The Foundation Establishment cultivators guarding Miaoyin Peak from the Zhenhun Sect should indeed return.

However, we can't worry about them right now!

Li Xiangming stared at the old man with vines and asked in a deep voice, "Who exactly are you?"

The old man with the vines chuckled, but did not reply.

Seeing this, Li Xiangming also lost interest in asking questions. His magical power surged, causing the evil green robe to swell.

His condition wasn't good; he had developed a tolerance to the Qi-restoring pills after taking them for the past two days, and his magical power was still less than half restored.

However, the old man with the vines was not highly skilled, only at the early stage of Foundation Establishment.

With his Wind Release ability, he was naturally invincible. Not to mention, the countless vengeful spirits would continue to harass the old man with vines, so he didn't believe he would be at a disadvantage.

"Wait a moment!"

Just as Li Xiangming was about to make his move, the old man with the vines suddenly noticed something and called for a halt again. His gaze was no longer cunning as before, but rather serious and cold: "Boy, where did you get that green robe you're wearing?"

Li Xiangming narrowed his eyes: "You recognize it?"

The old man with the vines nodded, then shook his head: "I'm not sure, but it looks a lot like something from my religion."

Manchu religion?

Li Xiangming's heart stirred.

The evil green robe was something he obtained from the followers of the Mang Cult.

According to Liu Xiongyu, this thing was a sacred object of the Mang religion a hundred years ago!
The old man with the vines recognized the evil green robe and figured he was undoubtedly a disciple of the Mang Cult.

How could the Mang Cult appear at Miaoyin Peak?

No, Miaoyin Peak was originally discovered by the Mang Cult!

Thinking of this, Li Xiangming immediately looked at the old man with vines: "What is your relationship with Mu Ya Zi?"

"You actually know Mu Ya Zi?"

The old man with the vines was even more surprised and asked in return, "Could it be that you are a member of my Mang Cult?"

"I let you down."

Li Xiangming gave a soft snort.

Not only were the Mang Sect's actions perverse and their methods cruel, but their abduction of children with spiritual roots alone was something he found utterly despicable.

A significant portion of these children with spiritual roots fell into the hands of the Qin family in Red Stone Valley, becoming a force hostile to the Li family.

It can be said that the Mang Cult was an accomplice of the Qin family, and he would never claim to be a disciple of the Mang Cult.

However, the old man with vines stared at the evil green robe with increasing fervor, a glint of light flashing in his turbid eyes: "You didn't answer me directly, so I suppose you're wearing the Demon Heart. With this, you can't kill me."

As he spoke, he suddenly knelt down on the ground with a thud, kowtowing and shouting, "Your subordinate Gong Tanzi greets the Master!"

"Master?"

Li Xiangming stood there stunned for a while before he came to his senses and said somewhat angrily, "Are you making fun of me?"

"My subordinates dare not."

The old man with the vines became unusually serious and explained loudly, "The demonic heart on the leader's body is the token of our sect. According to our sect's last testament, anyone who obtains the demonic heart, regardless of their background or cultivation level, can become the leader, and all the disciples of the sect have no choice but to obey."

Upon hearing this, Li Xiangming found it utterly absurd. He had had numerous interactions with the Mang Cult, but almost all of them had been with the opposing side. Was it appropriate for him to suddenly transform into the leader of the Mang Cult?

How does Hou Xianbo, the current leader of the Mangjiao sect, view him?

He'd probably be slapped to death.

Furthermore, Liu Xiong Yu stated that the demonic heart, besides belonging to the cult leader, can also appear in the protectors. The claim that "the demonic heart is the cult leader" is simply untenable.

This was undoubtedly a story that the old man with the vines made up on the spot to save his life.

Li Xiangming, too lazy to waste words with the other party, struck out with a palm. Unexpectedly, the old man with vines was caught off guard and was knocked off the cliff, his blood gushing out everywhere.

Li Xiangming frowned, took a few steps forward, and looked down into the abyss.

It took a full half incense stick's time before the shadows of the two vines could be seen.

The old man from the Mang Sect, who called himself Gong Tanzi, staggered up and knelt before Li Xiangming again, his voice barely a whisper: "Your subordinate thanks the sect leader for bestowing this trial upon you."

"You think you can fool me with a staged act of suffering?"

Li Xiangming stared at Gong Tanzi and sneered, "However, you have indeed achieved your goal, and I no longer wish to kill you. Since you acknowledge me as your 'leader,' why don't you weigh the strength of those Foundation Establishment cultivators from the Soul Suppressing Sect outside?"

Gong Tanzi paused for a moment, and his expression finally turned ugly.

(End of this chapter)