Chapter 38: Immortal Art and Stars

"Another magical artifact."

Yan Qingqing was stunned, finding it hard to believe; she had never encountered such a strange person.

Li Ling was almost speechless. She thought Li Weiyi was manipulative; he clearly had the strength to contend with the two people behind them, yet he pushed her, an injured person hit by a flying needle, to the front. Moreover, he even impersonated a Three-Spring Martial-Magic Cultivator in front of her brother.

"Don't let him escape; his cultivation isn't high," Xing Wanxing said. Far from being angry, he was quite excited. The mysterious stranger's cultivation wasn't high, likely only at the Five-Spring level. Capturing him would yield many magical artifacts.

The roar of water ahead indicated they were about to exit Burial Immortal Town and reach Dragon's Maw Waterfall. However, Li Weiyi suddenly stopped. To the east, in the direction leading out of town, a tall, slender figure in monastic robes stood beneath a thousand-year-old apricot tree.

Fang Tong, the seventh disciple of Shi Jiuzhai, stood with his back to Li Weiyi and Li Ling, who had just arrived. His gaze was fixed on the giant silver skeleton within the silver coffin. Under the silver light, his shadow stretched across the street, reaching Li Weiyi and Li Ling's feet. The disciples of Shi Jiuzhai were ranked not by age, but by the level of their cultivation. Fang Tong's combat prowess was naturally superior to Yan Qingqing's.

"A heart of stars, a skeleton of silver – the remains of the Silver-Boned Celestial Clan. One such coffin from another realm appeared in history, causing a chaotic war that lasted twenty years, and countless cultivators who sought to claim it for themselves perished. If this coffin remains unopened, it's worth three hundred million. Once opened, its value would be more than a billion." Fang Tong continued, "Logically, with the silver skeleton here, the Immortal Magic Star that serves as its heart should also be inside the coffin. Who among you opened this coffin?"

His voice was low and deep, yet everyone in the town could hear it clearly, a testament to his profound mastery of magic.

Xing Wanxing, who had caught up, was startled by Fang Tong's words and quickly explained, "This has nothing to do with us! It was already opened by the Cangli tribe. The Immortal Magic Star you mentioned must have been taken by them beforehand."

Fang Tong turned around, revealing a long, donkey-like face. "It better have nothing to do with you! A treasure like the Immortal Magic Star is something not just our master, but even the Heavenly King would seize at any cost. The entire Southern Region would be shaken. I will report this matter truthfully."

Yan Qingqing said, "The coffin was already open when I arrived, in any case."

Xing Wanxing cursed her inwardly, calling her a vixen. She could have testified for him but chose to distance herself completely. He looked at Li Weiyi and Li Ling, and with a flash of insight born of desperation, said, "These two arrived in Burial Immortal Town before me, and they possess multiple magical artifacts, which they very likely obtained from the coffin."

Fang Tong's gaze finally settled on Li Weiyi and Li Ling.

Li Ling was in terrible condition, all traces of light having retracted to her brow. She whispered, "What other trump cards do you have? Use them quickly. This donkey-faced man is probably even harder to deal with than those canine-humanoid monstrosities." She didn't hold much hope. If Xie Jin was truly strong enough to contend with a Seven-Spring Martial-Magic Cultivator, why had he been fleeing so miserably? But if they could break through and rush to Dragon's Maw Waterfall, there would be a glimmer of hope. The river below the waterfall led directly to the Mist Realm of Departed Spirits and the Sea of Blood Coffin Dock, places where these people surely wouldn't dare to pursue them.

"Then there's only one last move left," Li Weiyi said. "I have to summon... a helper!" He cut his wrist with his sword, spilling blood onto the ground. He was truly at his wit's end! Li Ling was also at the end of her rope. If it were just Xing Wanxing and Yan Qingqing, they might still have a chance to fight, but now an even more formidable donkey-faced man had appeared. Perhaps only his bizarrely powerful Dao Protector wife could help him overcome this ordeal.

"No matter who you summon, it won't change the fact that you will surely die today," Yan Qingqing declared, holding her three-foot soft sword as she darted forward.

Li Ling scoffed. A bright light appeared at the tip of her right index finger, which she swiped through the air. Instantly, a several-meter-long arc of light shot out, forcing Yan Qingqing back.

On the other side, Xing Wanxing's palms glowed with magical power as he closed in on Li Weiyi. Li Weiyi swung his sword, a brilliant yellow light flashing out. Xing Wanxing dared not meet a magical artifact with his bare hands and quickly dodged. With the movement speed bonus from the scripture belt, the two were surprisingly evenly matched in a short skirmish.

Li Weiyi frowned deeply, doubting his own strength for the first time. "Can I really cross three cultivation realms and contend with a Six-Spring Martial-Magic Cultivator? Even a Pure Immortal Body can only suppress an opponent one realm above them." Li Weiyi quickly dismissed that thought. As a mere mortal who had been cultivating for less than a month, how could he be so conceited? Those who become arrogant rarely come to a good end.

Seeing that Yan Qingqing and Xing Wanxing were taking too long to subdue the two, Fang Tong was about to intervene himself. But then his pupils contracted. He saw that the blood Li Weiyi had spilled earlier was rapidly spreading across the ground.

"Crack!"

A hand wrapped in ghostly fire burst from the earth, followed by a head, torso, and legs... A long-haired middle-aged man climbed out from underground, his entire body enveloped in ghostly fire, and a bleeding, strange character on his forehead.

Fang Tong's expression drastically changed. He felt a power fluctuation from the middle-aged man that was no less than his own. "He actually summoned powerful specters!"

"Crack!""Crack!"

On the street, by the ancient well, inside a deserted house... hand after hand burst from the earth, and one ghostly figure after another, each with a strange character on their brow, crawled out. Old men, children, men, women – every single one was powerful, as if the entire Burial Immortal Town was reanimating.

All the soldiers of the Direwolf King's Army were utterly terrified, and Yan Qingqing and Xing Wanxing also turned pale. The sight before them was too magnificent and too terrifying. They had never heard of such a formidable blood sacrifice summoning technique!

"You summoned all of these? Didn't you say just one..." Li Ling looked at Li Weiyi.

"Let's run!" Li Weiyi was already completely bewildered; this had absolutely nothing to do with him. He suspected that Burial Immortal Town itself was abnormal—the town's name, its location, the giant stone statues within it... who knew if some undead or half-dead things were buried beneath the ground?

The two rushed out of town, one after the other. Instead of jumping into the waterfall, they charged down the steep slope of Dragon's Maw Forest. Just as they reached the bottom of the waterfall, they heard a whistling rush of air, and an overwhelming grey cloud of magical power swept towards them.

"It's Shi Jiuzhai." Recognizing the familiar aura, Li Weiyi was so horrified he felt his scalp tingle. Without thinking, he pulled Li Ling into the swift Sui River, held his breath at the riverbed, and let the current carry them downstream.

Moments later, Shi Jiuzhai's distinguished and proud figure appeared by the pool beneath the waterfall. His grey cloud of magical power enveloped Fang Tong, Yan Qingqing, and Xing Wanxing. The rest of the Direwolf King's Army soldiers trapped in Burial Immortal Town were simply too late to save.

Shi Jiuzhai rubbed his head, clearly pained, and reprimanded them, "Truly, none of you can handle things independently. You can't even retrieve a single coffin without complications. If I hadn't arrived in time, would your entire army have been wiped out?" Shi Jiuzhai had originally gone to capture Cangli, but was ambushed by three tribal leaders of the Nine Li tribe, forcing him to flee in disarray. Of course, he would never mention such a disgraceful matter to his disciples.

Yan Qingqing said with a tremor in her voice, "That mysterious man traveling with Li Ling is quite formidable..."

Before she could finish, Shi Jiuzhai interrupted, "How formidable could he be? If he were truly that formidable, would you still be alive?"

Fang Tong said, "His true cultivation is only around the Five-Spring level, but he possesses many magical artifacts and trump cards."

"Five-Spring!" Shi Jiuzhai let out an exasperated laugh, then roared, "Why aren't you going to search along the river immediately? If you don't find them, don't bother coming back; just stay here for the rest of your lives."

"Yes, Master!""Yes, Master!"

Yan Qingqing and Xing Wanxing had never seen their Master so furious. They immediately hurried downstream along the Sui River, hoping to intercept the two before they could escape into the Mist Realm of Departed Spirits. Otherwise, no matter how dangerous the Mist Realm of Departed Spirits was, they would have no choice but to brace themselves and pursue them inside.

Fang Tong said, "Master, it's not all bad news. Within that silver coffin, an Immortal Magic Star might have emerged. It's either with those two or with the Cangli tribe. Your disciple leans towards the latter!"

"An Immortal Magic Star!" Shi Jiuzhai was moved. If it truly was this legendary item, even he wouldn't be qualified to touch it; he would have to immediately notify the Heavenly King. He said, "It seems the great upheaval in Lizhou is now inevitable. Though the Cangli tribe gained a treasure, it will also be the cause of their annihilation. I must return for a while. I'll leave things here to you all!" Shi Jiuzhai tossed a necklace, from which hung a four-inch-long wolf's fang, to Fang Tong. "Take the Snow Wolf King with you. I want both of them alive. If you can't capture them, I won't be able to intercede for you with the Heavenly King." This was a death order!

Fang Tong's expression changed, and he softly replied, "Understood."

The Mist Realm of Departed Spirits was only two hundred li wide, but it was infamous. Not only were various departed spirits and malevolent demons active within it, but it was also perpetually shrouded in dense fog. Even cultivators of high cultivation might get lost upon entering. The Sui River flowed along the high mountain gorge to this point, where its channel widened, its current slowed, and it gradually disappeared into the mist.

Li Weiyi dragged Li Ling onto the riverbank. Looking up, all he saw was a dense, dark, ominous fog. Only scattered specks of light from strange insects in the bushes and grass faintly illuminated the misty realm. She had fallen unconscious.

Li Weiyi lay prone on the ground, channeling his Three-Spring magical power to his right ear. Within a li radius, he heard no footsteps of pursuers. The grey cloud of magical power from earlier was undoubtedly Shi Jiuzhai himself; if they had jumped into the river even a moment later, the consequences would have been unimaginable. He let out a long breath, releasing the built-up tension.

After resting for a moment, Li Weiyi looked at Li Ling, who was lying on her back beside him. He first checked for her breath, then examined the wound on her waist, where Yan Qingqing's soft sword had pierced her. After confirming she wasn't in mortal danger, he left her by the shore and headed straight towards the Sea of Blood by himself. Anyway, the Direwolf King's Army would likely not dare to enter the Mist Realm of Departed Spirits, and he had already done all he could.

Behind him, Li Ling suddenly sat up. "Hey, you're just leaving like that? Are you really not going to care if I live or die?"

"Are all women so fond of acting?" Li Weiyi instantly realized she had been feigning unconsciousness. He replied, "If I didn't care whether you lived or died, I wouldn't have dragged you to shore. Another person might even have killed you in the water."

Li Ling, of course, knew the reason for Li Weiyi's indifference. "You weren't acting? You weren't deceiving anyone? Why do you think I've been following you all this time? The fundamental reason is that you lied in front of my brother, and you couldn't fool my discerning eyes, you actor, you liar! And you call *me* out? Aren't you the same?" At this moment, she finally looked somewhat like a young girl. But the contrast was too great. It felt to Li Weiyi as if two different people resided within her.

For the sake of Gao Huan, who had gone to the Nine Li Dao Academy, and for the survey team members to have a place to settle, he said, "I have no ill intentions. I merely wish to find a place for my displaced companions to live safely."

Li Ling stood up, her clothes clinging to her wet body. She walked over triumphantly, smiling, "You're not good at deceiving people, are you? But I am, which means I'm also good at spotting a liar. The perceptions of a Spirit Diviner are incredibly subtle. You barely spoke a word of truth in Yaoguan Jujube Plum Manor."

"I have no ill intentions," Li Weiyi emphasized again.

Li Ling nodded, smiling faintly. "I can believe you have no ill intentions now, because your character... is decent. But back in Yaoguan, how was this young lady supposed to trust a stranger like you?"

"So you were pretending to be unconscious just now to test me?" Li Weiyi asked.