A Scroll of Infinite Glory

Chapter 117 King Qin's Courage, Divine Martial Bloodline

After running through the passage and turning two corners, Lang Shiqi slowed down, adopting a gentler pace and landing silently. As he moved forward, he carefully sensed any possible anomalies in his surroundings.

The underground palace is full of traps and mechanisms. Even a three-star fighter might get stuck if he encounters a troublesome trap, causing quite a commotion. If that attracts other people, things will get complicated.

Even though he needed to be careful, he still spared no effort to raise the sword in his right hand and gently stroke the spine of the blade with his left, listening to the friction between his skin and the texture of the sword, feeling its cool texture.

The sword was forged during the reign of Duke Xiao of Qin, Ying Quliang. After several generations, it was passed down to King Zhaoxiang of Qin. At that time, the Qin state had already reformed and strengthened itself, and its national power was growing rapidly. The sword was also refined several times.

There are several records about this sword in Lang Shiqi's family. It is said that when King Zhaoxiang of Qin held this sword, the sword light was as green as jade. When people were illuminated by this sword light, their bones and bones were clearly revealed, and their liver, gallbladder and lungs were completely exposed.

Therefore, this sword is also known as the Qin King's Sword of Courage.

Later, King Zhaoxiang of Qin proclaimed himself emperor, calling himself the Western Emperor and recognizing the ruler of Qi as the Eastern Emperor. However, he encountered setbacks and his military was at a disadvantage. He then bestowed this sword upon Bai Qi, a famous general who refused to go to war. Bai Qi used it to commit suicide. King Zhaoxiang of Qin did not take the sword back, and its whereabouts became unknown. It has been passed down through generations to this day.

The sword intent of Na Luo's Heavenly Flying Immortal move was actually quite compatible with the Qin King's Bright Sword. Unfortunately, he didn't understand the sword's mysteries at all and only used it as a sharp weapon that could cut through iron like mud.

After Lang Shiqi brushed the sword's spine, he waved the sword forward in a half-hearted motion, and a green light, like spring water, shone from the blade.

Under this unique light, the dim passageway seemed to give the surrounding stone walls a translucent quality, creating a hazy, mysterious, and subtle atmosphere.

"It really is the Qin King's Sword of Courage. Just bringing this sword back is enough to add more weight to my reputation among the older generation. But more important is the Ascension Solitary Void Longevity Fruit."

As soon as these thoughts crossed Lang Shiqi's mind, he dared not be distracted any longer.

The gleaming sword was held diagonally in his hand, its light seemingly able to illuminate the hidden mechanisms behind the stone wall.

Whenever those mechanisms were about to be activated, his sword would pierce through the stone wall as easily as cutting through soft tofu, destroying one link in the mechanism.

Although, considering that those seeking revenge against Luo Bense might still possess the white jade token capable of emitting spiritual sword light, Lang Shiqi left hastily after seizing the sword, without even bothering with his own treasure-hunting rat.

But now that he has this sword in hand, his efficiency in advancing is actually higher than when he had the treasure-hunting rat.

He could vaguely sense that he was venturing deeper into a more dangerous area of ​​the underground palace, and since the Feathered Void Longevity Fruit was not in the most auspicious place, it must be in a dangerous place.

It's worth taking this risk.

After winding through several hundred meters, the passage ahead gradually became slightly different from the places we had passed before.

Previously, those square passageways only had a little dust. Although they were well-ventilated, there was no sign of dampness. Under the light, they even appeared somewhat clean and spacious.

In the passageways in front of us, we can gradually see mottled moss on the corners of the walls and the floor tiles, and the humidity in the air has also increased significantly.

The light of the Qin King's Sword in Lang Shiqi's hand was a little brighter, and all his sensitive nerves were on edge.

But after walking a short distance using the emerald light, he vaguely sensed something was wrong; it seemed as if someone was following him.

Lang Shiqi's eyes darted left and right. Under the light of his sword, there were no other suspicious shadows on either side of the passage, except for his own.

There were no footsteps behind, only the faint sound of a gentle breeze.

As he stopped, the slight breeze dissipated, and everything returned to calm.

He took a few more steps forward, and the gentle breeze followed him from behind.

The tight-fitting suit, rough like snakeskin, covered all the skin of his body except for his head, face, and hands. This suit even possessed a more acute sense of perception than his own skin, allowing him to have premonitions.

The emerald green sword light in the passage suddenly flickered.

Lang Shiqi completed a spinning slash at an extremely fast speed.

Sure enough, there was nothing behind them.

Even the breeze was disturbed by the sword energy and shattered.

A faint, arc-shaped sword light shot towards the bend behind and disappeared into the stone wall.

Lang Shiqi wrinkled his nose, even using his sense of smell, but still couldn't detect anything unusual.

He was convinced that this feeling of unease was not just his own delusions and suspicions, but rather a deliberate arrangement within the underground palace.

Moreover, there will certainly be a truly dangerous offensive, complementing this disturbing and unsettling effect.

After a moment of thought, Lang Shiqi's sword light vanished, and darkness enveloped the surroundings.

A three-star fighter's eyesight allows them to see without obstruction even in complete darkness.

After the sword light disappeared, he indeed noticed the source of the anomaly—the light itself.

Although it appears to be complete darkness to the average person in this environment, Lang Shiqi is actually able to perceive it without the interference of the sword light.

Inside this passage, the darkness varies in intensity in different areas, as if "darkness" has become something that can be measured concretely, occupying all the space, yet it is divided into blocks and flocculents, which squeeze and float against each other, forming countless different outlines.

When someone walks by, the surrounding darkness, both thick and thin, is slightly disturbed, and the countless bizarre outlines are stretched and deformed accordingly.

That feeling wasn't just about having one person following you; it was about having a whole group of people... You could even derive countless associations from those outlines with a large group of things that were neither human nor human, tightly surrounding and spying on you.

Every step we take, every movement we make, is in sync with these things.

Lang Shiqi stood quietly in the distorted darkness, his face twitching slightly.

He seemed to have figured out the source of the strange feeling; it was just the effect of some kind of array that affected the light and darkness.

Now that the truth has been seen through, not only a martial artist with a three-star rating, but even an ordinary person with a strong will should be able to suppress their fear and walk through it calmly.

But the truth is, after Lang Shiqi saw these things clearly, the strange feeling in his heart became even stronger. Every nerve was being stimulated, as if many absurd and bizarre shadows were growing out of his mind and heart.

"This is a formation specifically designed to target the seven souls!"

Lang Shiqi found his answer and started moving forward again.

Ancient theories of battle formations also fall into three main categories. The first is to use mechanisms and material changes to cause various forms of damage.

Secondly, it mobilizes the natural energy to create special effects such as water, fire, metal, and wind, and restricts breathing, thereby harming life and killing people.

The third category is illusion magic.

The most common illusions deceive the senses of sight and hearing. A more advanced level involves deceiving the senses of touch and taste. But there is an even more sophisticated level that targets the seven souls.

The concept of "three souls and seven spirits" might be familiar even to children in the Asia-Pacific region who enjoy reading online novels, but if you break it down further, it's actually a very complex system.

Simply put, the seven souls correspond to various functions of the human body. They are the manifestations of various physiological phenomena such as detoxification, hunger instinct, sleep regulation, body temperature adjustment, excretion control, fainting due to excessive pain, and the senses of time and space.

Illusions that can affect the seven souls will directly disrupt bodily functions and induce various changes in instincts.

If it's a fighter, such as a superhuman with a much stronger mind than body, someone with special genes, or a successor of a few Taoist schools, then it's fine; they can directly suppress their instincts with their minds.

A martial artist like Lang Shiqi, who emphasizes both internal and external cultivation, possesses a strong physical body and his seven souls are relatively less susceptible to influence. However, once influenced, his instincts are triggered, and they are not so easily suppressed.

He knew he could be fearless of these things and should focus his attention on the hidden crises behind them, yet he couldn't shake off those anxious and distracting thoughts.

I can only force myself forward, trying to get through this area.

"The Bearded Stranger, the most learned master in the Central Plains of the East China Sea during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, was known for his imposing and powerful aura, possessing a grand and majestic presence. This kind of formation is really unlike his style..."

Wave Seventeen moved forward with a mixture of anxiety and apprehension, and before he knew it, he had accelerated.

The changing silhouettes in the darkness became even more complex and exaggerated as he accelerated.

An almost enormous skull-shaped ghost face, close to the tip of his nose, suddenly took shape, then distanced itself from him, elongating its face in a snarling laugh, and was finally tossed away like a noodle.

Even more terrifying outlines overwhelmed Lang Shiqi's senses.

He repeatedly overtook, crashed into, and even swung his sword to clear away these irritating outlines, gradually eroding his original caution and prudence.

So much so that when the real danger lurking within arrived, he barely had time to react.

It was also an extremely comical and frightening silhouette, with hands and feet that looked like they had just been pulled out of wet dough, swaying in a wave-like motion. The outline of its head seemed to have been sculpted into a square, with wrinkles covering its face, while its nose was sharp and long.

As Lang Shiqi rushed to this spot, mechanically swinging his sword, intending to shatter the outline, the lines within the waves suddenly twirled, avoiding the sword's edge, and slapped him on the waist.

In the dim, dark gray light, Lang Shiqi was sent flying sideways, crashing into the wall. The cold, cunning force penetrated his tight-fitting combat suit, causing excruciating pain in his waist, almost fracturing his bones.

"drink!!"

The King of Qin's sword, gleaming with a vibrant green light, swept across the area with a single strike.

In the passageway, which is painted a deep green, countless strange outlines appear and disappear, maintaining the sense of dread.

The silhouette that had just struck Wave Seventeen clearly dodged the attack.

A spirit hidden within that terrifying silhouette, seemingly dressed in the wide robes of an ancient person, with a few faint whiskers under its chin, frantically dodged the Qin King's Sword, capable of slaying ghosts and tearing apart souls.

Lang Shiqi chased after him, when a force struck his wrist from the side and behind.

It was yet another spirit in the attire of a Song Dynasty scholar, hidden among those bizarre outlines, making its move with an incredibly eerie aura.

Lang Shiqi was filled with chaotic thoughts and distractions, but his strength was insufficient. Once he entered the battle, his fighting instincts and habits temporarily took over.

When his wrist was struck by the spiritual power, it felt as if it had truly broken. It twisted and shriveled, and a ten-centimeter section above and below his wrist was as dry and shriveled as a crumpled piece of paper. With a single fold, the dark spiritual power that had been invading him dissipated.

With his wrist in this state, there was no longer any restriction on the normal wrist joint rotation. Lang Shiqi gripped the sword tightly, twisted the joint, and slashed backward.

The spirit, which looked like a person from the Song Dynasty, was originally somewhat transparent, but suddenly its right index and middle fingers popped out, solidifying like jade.

Two fingers, forked like ram's horns, were simultaneously thrust onto the spine of the sword. One finger was cold while the other was hot, and the two completely opposite spiritual energies both carried a dark aura, instantly weakening the sword light.

"This is... the decisive finger technique from the Nine Healing Techniques?!"

As Lang Shiqi was surprised, several more eerie spirits attacked from among the seemingly real yet illusory silhouettes beside him.

He held his sword across his chest, then shrank his body, becoming flat like a compressed cardboard box, to block the attacks from the spirits and floated against the wall.

The Song Dynasty spirit suddenly slowed its movements.

"One of the nine...nine parts, the Body Longevity Technique?"

It attacked again, changing the hand seals, and struck Lang Shiqi. Lang Shiqi, who was like a flat cardboard shell, suddenly swelled up and was knocked back to his original shape.

But after reverting to his original form, Lang Shiqi, unable to dodge, had spiritual patterns that spread upwards from between his brows, resembling vertical branches that intertwined and merged into one.

A flash of brilliant golden light.

The surrounding spirits all screamed and retreated, and even those bizarre and indescribable outlines seemed to slow down.

Lang Shiqi's mind was immediately calmed down, and he felt as if he had just crawled out of a swamp, feeling much more relaxed.

The spiritual lines between his brows faded quickly.

The spirit in Song Dynasty attire seemed unharmed like the other spirits; in fact, it became more lucid under the golden light of the spirit runes.

"As expected, you are of the Divine Martial Clan bloodline. Who are you?"

"Divine Martial Seventeen".

"Did you also find out where the seeds were and enter this underground palace?"

The spirit, resembling an elderly scholar, sighed bitterly, "Our ancestor, following the orders of the First Emperor, went to sea to search for elixirs of immortality. He found a tree with seeds of ascension and a solitary longevity fruit, but unfortunately, cultivation was difficult, so he had to make arrangements for future generations."

"It is hateful that our Shenwu family has been hiding in an island nation. From the Qin and Han dynasties to the Tang and Song dynasties, we have been searching diligently, but we have only found a little bit of it."

"This bearded stranger ruined our ancestor's plans in the East Sea and stole our Shenwu family's things. Hundreds of years later, he actually turned around and plotted against us."

Lang Shiqi opened his mouth slightly upon hearing this, thinking to himself: It's not a few hundred years later, it's a thousand years later.

He composed himself and said, "This... Ancestor, although the family has undergone several changes, the Ascension Seed has been re-emphasized. I wonder how much you know about this place? If we can retrieve the Ascension Seed, the family might be able to reshape your body and allow you to live another life!"

The spirit, however, wasn't particularly pleased: "Again, those half-finished immortality bloodlines, or those defective, superfluous monsters? Spirits belong to the yin and darkness; even if I have a divine martial bloodline, how many days could I survive if thrown in there?"

"No, after the family absorbed cloning technology, they have made great strides in this area. Although they cannot replicate the complete Divine Martial Bloodline, it is not difficult to create a body suitable for the ancient spirit to parasitize."

Lang Shiqi's mind raced as he sorted out the situation. Confident yet eager, he advised, "In fact, there are several such examples in the family right now. Even if you don't believe me for now, if I take you back and support you, it's at least better than hiding here underground."

The spirit pondered for a moment, and the outline of the light and shadow in the distance changed again. A large amount of yin energy was approaching. His expression changed, and he said, "Alright, I'll try joining forces with you."

"The source of this area is the Soul-Binding Lamp Array of the Red-Robed Maiden. We died within the array and were all imprisoned, unable to suffer any backlash. But perhaps you can. I'll take you there..."

(End of this chapter)