Chapter 128: Reencountering the Deceased Spirits of Zangxian Town

"They really wouldn't listen to reason."

Li Weiyi didn't even turn around. Blood mist and crimson scriptures erupted from his body. The moment the three enormous demon beasts closed in, his body spun upwards, and a vortex of blood mist manifested around him. The demons' attacks instantly lost their direction. Unsteady on their feet and completely helpless, they were flung out by the blood mist vortex, scattering in disarray.

Li Weiyi didn't bother wasting time killing them. After landing, he rushed towards the valley entrance at top speed. His only worry was that the three top-tier Five Seas Realm (Second Stage) experts from Tianya Ridge, Huaizong, and Guanshan might finish off Zuoqiu Baiming and come after him.

Those three were all first-class individuals in their realm. Each wielded powerful artifacts, making any one of them a formidable opponent.

The valley entrance was in sight, drawing closer.

Suddenly, someone shouted, "Someone escaped! Loose the arrows!"

A whistling, dense sound of arrows cutting through the air followed. "Swish! Swish!" Arrows rained down, countless dark specks filling the sky. Even more dangerous were the hidden bolts fired from heavy crossbows. This formation was like a battlefield.

Outside the valley, six Five Seas Realm martial artists from Song and San Chen Palace stood in the forest. They watched Li Weiyi, who had burst out of the valley entrance, continuously swing his blade, deflecting arrows aimed at his face. He completely ignored the arrows striking his body. Strangely, these arrows couldn't actually harm him.

"What a powerful defensive artifact battle-suit! I want it!"

"Haha, let's see who's capable. Whoever kills him gets the artifact battle-suit."

"I want that cyan yin banner."

Immediately, three of the most aggressive Five Seas Realm martial artists charged forward. All were hand-picked top-tier experts of the First Stage. The weakest among them was a mutant type who had broken through the Eight Springs to the Five Seas.

The other three followed slowly, not underestimating their opponent. Today's battle required eliminating everyone to ensure no mistakes.

"Much stronger than those three demon cultivators." Li Weiyi looked at the three approaching with coordinated attack strategies. Without slowing down, he activated the cyan yin banner in his hand, using it like a great spear, and thrust it violently towards the Five Seas Realm martial artist at the front, who was wielding a shield artifact.

The yin banner erupted with brilliant cyan light, and the spirits within roared.

The San Chen Palace Five Seas Realm martial artist, who was charging head-on, felt Li Weiyi's terrifying pressure. His face changed in alarm. He took a bow stance, expelling a large amount of spiritual energy from his mouth to activate his shield. A circular light seal, ten feet in diameter, appeared on the shield's surface.

"Boom!" The light seal and the artifact shield shattered on impact. The San Chen Palace Five Seas Realm martial artist was pierced through by the yin banner, his body exploding into pieces.

It was too overpowering. A martial artist of the same realm died instantly in one exchange.

The mutant type martial artist, who had broken through Eight Springs to Five Seas, swung a heavy copper-forged artifact mace. The mace, weighing six thousand jin, cleaved straight towards Li Weiyi's head.

Another stronger Five Seas Realm female martial artist, slender and graceful, transformed into a phantom. She circled to Li Weiyi's lower right side, striking with a sword as fast as a beam of light, aiming for his abdomen.

Li Weiyi swung his left-hand blade, clashing with the heavy mace. Sparks flew, and spiritual energy rippled outwards. The mutant type martial artist, who had broken through Eight Springs to Five Seas, spat out blood and was sent flying by the immense force from the blade.

"Such powerful strength." Li Weiyi looked at the damaged artifact battle blade in his hand, praised it, and then threw it away.

His lower abdomen ached slightly. He looked down at the sword-wielding Five Seas Realm female martial artist who had attacked him: "Your speed is decent, but your strength is too weak; you can't break my defense."

The Five Seas Realm female martial artist turned pale with fright. She had never encountered such a bizarre situation. Her sword strike was not weak; even if he wore a defensive artifact battle-suit, the penetrating power from her sword tip should have at least fractured his ribs and injured his internal organs.

"Boom!" Li Weiyi swung the yin banner, sending her spinning away like a scarecrow. Over a dozen of her bones were fractured, and she landed on the ground, bloody and limp, unable to get up.

The three Five Seas Realm martial artists who were following behind didn't even have time to help. The three in front had already been defeated. Some were dead, some injured. They were inexplicably horrified, caught between advancing and retreating.

"This is truly a Five Seas Realm First Stage martial artist? Even Five Seas Realm Second Stage martial artists aren't this terrifying!"

"Boom!" Chen Song, riding on a cloud of spiritual energy, burst out of the dense forest and descended from mid-air. Currents of wind energy dispersed in all directions from beneath his feet. Wrapped in a spirit-skin cloak, he looked like a slightly overweight old man with messy long hair. His gaze was incredibly sharp, locking onto Li Weiyi with battle intent.

With just a brief eye contact, Li Weiyi instantly formed a rough judgment of Chen Song's strength: far superior to Yuan Sheng, and even significantly stronger than Chen Ying.

Without hesitation, Li Weiyi immediately activated his Nightwalker Cloak, boosting his speed to the extreme. He fled into the dense forest to his right.

"Trying to escape?" Chen Song's Wind-Riding Boots, a pure speed-type mid-tier artifact, made his figure blur as he lifted off the ground and pursued. At the same time, a jade bracelet on his wrist spun and flew out. The spiritual light energy erupting from the jade bracelet tore through the air, chasing after Li Weiyi.

Li Weiyi dared not face it head-on. He turned and struck out with the cyan yin banner.

"Boom!" The spinning jade bracelet, after colliding with the yin banner, instantly changed direction and hurtled towards Li Weiyi's head.

Li Weiyi broke out in a cold sweat. He performed "Spiritual Treasure Seize" with his bare hands, as if transforming into a thousand-armed Buddha, and managed to grab the jade bracelet. But he couldn't hold it steady; it was spinning too rapidly, so he immediately threw it away again.

"Rumble!" The jade bracelet smashed into the ground several yards away, splashing dirt and forming a large, concave pit.

Chen Song, who had caught up, was secretly astonished. To be able to negate a mid-tier artifact's attack like that... He instantly paid extreme attention to the person before him. Battle intent and a cloud of spiritual energy surged behind him as he unleashed a punch mid-air. The fist's glowing silhouette was as large as a millstone, and the spiritual energy surged like tidal waves, one upon another.

"Boom!" Li Weiyi used the yin banner to meet Chen Song's blow head-on. His body was sent flying backward, and then he activated his speed to the maximum, escaping. When he encountered obstructing Springing Fountain Realm martial artists in the forest, he never lingered in battle, directly using his body to knock them away.

Chen Song landed back on the ground, his expression grave. He had never seen such a strong Five Seas Realm First Stage martial artist.

Four Five Seas Realm First Stage martial artists quickly rushed over.

The heavily injured mutant type martial artist cautiously asked, "What exactly is he? Is he really a Five Seas Realm First Stage cultivator?"

"He's not wearing a spirit-skin cloak, so he's definitely Five Seas Realm First Stage, no doubt. But his strength... to be this powerful, he must be a Legacy Seed of the Zuoqiu Sect." Chen Song released a wisp of spiritual energy, retrieving the jade bracelet and putting it back on his wrist.

The four Five Seas Realm First Stage martial artists all paled simultaneously.

"A Legacy Seed holds a higher status in the Zuoqiu Sect than even Zuoqiu Baiming. If he escapes down the mountain, that's it!" Chen Song urged, "Go, let's chase him together! We must eradicate the roots; we have to go all out."

"What a powerful Chen Song. He truly lives up to his reputation as a Nine Springs Paragon who opened his ancestral field through his own strength." Li Weiyi looked at his bloody left hand, secretly pondering what means to use to counter him.

After all, the yin banner was merely a high-tier defensive artifact; its offensive power wasn't strong. But the Black Iron Seal and the Evil Camel Bell were different; they would definitely give Chen Song a hard time.

In this mysterious and unknown haunted place of Thirty-Three Li Mountain, Li Weiyi didn't want to go on a killing spree. Otherwise, he would have long since released his seven Phoenix Wing Moth Queens. Who knew if the commotion of a major battle would alert some spirit monsters? Getting away from that valley was his top priority.

After fleeing for half an hour, Li Weiyi suddenly stopped, sensing that something was wrong.

The terrain within the Immortal Haze clouds had drastically changed. The trees became sparse, revealing a flat, rocky area. Weeds grew thickly among the stones, and clumps of glowing plants were unexpectedly growing there. Cloud-Dyed Elixir! There were many of them; he could see over ten just within his field of vision.

Li Weiyi wasn't entirely joyful. He felt something was off about this place. The fact that strange elixirs gathered here but hadn't been harvested indicated many potential problems.

He released his seven Phoenix Wing Moth Queens, sending them to gather the Cloud-Dyed Elixirs. Meanwhile, he vigilantly scanned his surroundings, wary of Chen Song, who could catch up at any moment.

To Li Weiyi's exasperation, each of them simply picked a plant and started eating it, showing no intention of helping him gather the herbs.

"Relying on you guys is truly hopeless. Don't just focus on eating; enemies could catch up at any moment."

In the end, Li Weiyi had no choice but to gather the Cloud-Dyed Elixirs himself, while remaining vigilant.

He continuously harvested twenty-four plants, and without realizing it, had entered deep into the rocky area. After collecting the twenty-fifth plant, he sensed something. He slowly raised his head and looked into the depths of the hazy mist, his scalp suddenly tingling.

There, in the mist several dozens of yards away, stood densely packed human figures with enormous heads, all motionless, as if watching him.

Li Weiyi activated his yin banner to steel his nerves. Wrapped in wisps of cyan light, he slowly walked closer, only to realize upon getting nearer that it was a cluster of giant stone statues.

"Phew!" He let out a long sigh of relief and continued gathering the remaining Cloud-Dyed Elixirs.

But every time he turned his back to the stone statues, he felt a chill down his spine, as if pairs of eyes were spying on him. It even seemed that some of the stone statues had moved, walking forward.

"Illusions, just scaring myself."

Just as Li Weiyi uttered this, from the stone forest of giant statues, over a dozen black, giant-headed human figures suddenly rushed out.

Some were only 1.2 to 1.3 meters tall, lurking on top of the giant stone statues. They opened their bowl-sized mouths, revealing jagged teeth, and emitted piercing, high-pitched laughter. Others were two to three meters tall, with heads as large as water jars, mouths occupying a third of their faces, and eyes that were pure inky black with no whites, constantly emitting black smoke.

Li Weiyi had never seen such terrifying unknown beings. He immediately turned and fled. But he had only run a few dozen yards when he saw his seven Phoenix Wing Moth Queens flying towards him in panic.

Li Weiyi looked ahead. From the direction he had come, over a dozen figures also appeared in the mist. These figures had normal human proportions, but they were burning with ghostly flames. They were clearly not Chen Song and his group; they had no aura of living beings whatsoever.

Caught between two attacks, Li Weiyi was close to tears. This was the consequence of his greed; if he had known, he shouldn't have lingered in this rocky area just to harvest the Cloud-Dyed Elixirs.

How he wished it were the people from Song and San Chen Palace, or even them plus those from Tianya Ridge and Guanshan.

Li Weiyi's glabella lit up. He activated the Spiritual Bright Flame, ready to activate the Buddha's Relic and escape into the blood mud space to temporarily avoid danger.

As the group of spirits with normal human proportions gradually approached, Li Weiyi saw their attire and appearances clearly. They had pale faces, ranging from men and women to old and young, and each had a bloody, bizarre character on their forehead.

"These are... the people from Burial Immortal Town..." Li Weiyi recognized them.

Back in Burial Immortal Town, he had cut his wrist and sprinkled blood on the street, attempting to summon his Guardian Wife. Instead, he awakened countless spirits beneath Burial Immortal Town, who then burst out of the ground. The spirits resembling town residents were exactly like these, covered in ghostly flames and bearing blood characters on their foreheads.

How did they get to Thirty-Three Li Mountain? And they... seemed to bear no ill will!

As Li Weiyi was filled with doubt, over a dozen spirit townspeople, with ghostly flames beneath their feet, already passed by him and engaged in battle with the giant-headed humanoid monsters that had been pursuing him.

They could absorb immortal haze. Their eyes had no pupils, only dazzling white light, and they could conjure ghostly flames with a wave of their hands. Regardless of age or gender, they were all powerful.