Chapter 66: Nine Li Deity

Individuals whose combat power ranks among the top ten in the Seven Springs Hall are not only blessed with extraordinary talent and formidable strength, but they also invariably possess magic artifacts.

Magic artifacts are an integral part of one's strength.

Xue Zheng was no exception. The four-foot ring-hilted saber in his hand was a low-tier magic artifact bestowed upon him by the Yang clan when they recruited him.

It was precisely due to this artifact's defense that even after being struck by the lightning released from the black iron seal, he did not completely lose his combat ability. Lying on the ground, he held his saber defensively, his eyes fixed on Li Weiyi, who approached with his sword drawn, displaying a desperate resolve to fight to the death.

Li Weiyi intended to advance and deliver a fatal blow.

But an arrow, shot by Murong Xiao, flew in from a distance.

"Junior, you owe the Changlin Gang a debt, and I've come personally to collect."

The drawn-out voice of Tang Yan, Deputy Leader of the Changlin Gang, echoed from deep within the dense forest.

The terrifying aura of a Five Seas Realm expert caused fallen leaves in the forest to flutter up, surging forward like waves, following his movement. Imbued with mystical power, the leaves were like flying daggers, striking and embedding themselves in tree bark.

"Your strength is not bad. Once I break through another realm, I'll use you to test my sword."

After uttering these words to Xue Zheng, Li Weiyi immediately sheathed his sword and fled south.

A moment later, he transformed into a mass of dark nether mist and swiftly vanished into the distance, accompanied by the sound of bells.

Xue Zheng felt a release in his heart and let out a long breath. The situation had been too perilous just now; he had already mentally prepared himself to unleash his ultimate skill and perish alongside his opponent.

Among all the opponents he had faced in the Gushing Spring Realm, Li Weiyi was not the strongest, but he was the one who pushed Xue Zheng into the most dangerous predicament.

Break through another realm?

"Is he trying to reach the Nine Springs Supreme?"

Xue Zheng naturally assumed Li Weiyi was currently at the Eight Springs opening level.

After all, Li Weiyi was neither a special deviant human species nor a pure immortal body; he was merely a mortal. To possess such combat power in the Eight Springs realm was already quite remarkable.

Tang Yan, Deputy Leader of the Changlin Gang, arrived.

Murong Xiao also converged there.

Tang Yan glanced at Xue Zheng, whose arms were charred black, and coldly questioned, "What happened? With the two of your combined strength, you couldn't handle him?"

Murong Xiao replied, "It's highly likely that he not only practices martial arts but is also a Mind Master."

Xue Zheng moved his aching and numb arms, unafraid of Tang Yan, and calmly stated, "He is very likely a legacy seed of the Thundercloud Sect, wielding a powerful lightning artifact, and also an unknown escape artifact that emits a bell sound."

He did not mention the spatial treasure.

"The Thundercloud Sect?"

Tang Yan's expression changed slightly.

The Thundercloud Sect is located in the Eastern Domain, one of the thousands of sects in the Lingxiao Living Realm, and possibly even the foremost among them.

Xue Zheng nodded and said, "Besides the legacy seeds cultivated by the countless noble families and sects, who else in the Gushing Spring Realm could possess so many magic artifacts? Back then, Cang Li, in the Gushing Spring Realm, also had multiple artifacts for protection."

The more Murong Xiao thought about it, the more she found Xue Zheng's analysis reasonable. She said, "No wonder the Cang Li tribe values him so much; no wonder he's so young yet possesses such formidable combat power. The Cang Li tribe must have known his identity all along!"

After pondering for a moment, Tang Yan's gaze turned chilling. "So what if he's a legacy seed of the Thundercloud Sect? Those countless noble families and sects cultivate multiple seeds, like raising Gu worms; only the ones who survive in the end become true inheritors. Besides, if he dies in the Mang Mountain Range, who would know if he was killed by a strange beast or a malevolent demon?"

Xue Zheng, fearing Tang Yan might not dare to provoke the Thundercloud Sect, immediately chimed in, "He hasn't revealed his identity anyway, so who's to say he's a legacy seed of the Thundercloud Sect? The most important thing right now is to carry out Young Mistress's orders. As for the artifacts on him..."

Tang Yan instantly understood and chuckled, "The few artifacts on him that only we know about will naturally be secretly divided among us, and no one is to breathe a word about it. Bringing back a corpse will be enough to account for it to the Young Mistress."

The giant camel released by the Sinister Camel Bell was indeed fast, but it consumed too much spiritual power.

After Li Weiyi opened his Six Springs, he could only ride it for about fifteen minutes; ultimately, he still had to rely on his own two legs.

Perhaps only after entering the Five Seas Realm and opening the Qi Sea, or breaking through the Eight Springs "Wind Mansion" and Nine Springs "Ancestor Field," and gaining the ability to store spiritual power, could he sustain it.

Over the next five days, Li Weiyi healed his injuries while fleeing through the mountains and ridges.

Every two hours, the Ancestral Tablet Senior would point him in the right direction.

Tang Yan, Xue Zheng, and Murong Xiao occasionally caught up, but Li Weiyi never directly confronted them. Each escape was extremely perilous, and his injuries never fully healed. On one occasion, he was almost severely wounded by Tang Yan; he only managed to escape by relying on the Sinister Camel Bell and the Black Iron Seal.

From beginning to end, his Guardian Wife never appeared. He wondered if it was because she felt he had been too close to Li Ling and Cai Yutong recently. In any case, Li Weiyi felt that placing his hope of survival on her was very unreliable.

Five days later.

Li Weiyi, dragging his wounded and exhausted body, traveled day and night, sleeping no more than four hours a day, and finally, after covering hundreds of miles, he reached the fringes of the Nine Li Tribe's Ancestral Realm.

Standing above a waterfall halfway up a mountain, he gazed into the distance.

An incredibly majestic snow-capped mountain was situated in the distance, surrounded by countless steep and treacherous peaks and rolling hills. Only its lower slopes were visible; everything above the mid-slope was shrouded in clouds.

The dozens of surrounding peaks, though already very magnificent, were completely overshadowed by the central snow mountain.

Behind Li Weiyi, the stone coffin, which had been lying flat on the ground, suddenly stood upright.

A voice from within the coffin emerged: "Do you see that most magnificent and grand snow mountain? It resembles a crown, and its snow remains unmelted all year round."

Li Weiyi asked, "Is that perhaps the Tomb of King Cang?"

"No!"

The Stone Coffin Senior said, "That is Mount Jiuli, where, according to ancestral legend, the God of Jiuli, Chi You, is buried beneath the snow. It's hard to say if he's truly buried there, but Mount Jiuli can certainly be counted among the top three most dangerous and mysterious places in the entire Southern Domain. Even when I explored it at the peak of my cultivation in my lifetime, I almost perished within."

Li Weiyi had long heard the name of the God of Jiuli. He was genuinely startled at first, as the name was too similar to a figure in ancient Chinese mythology, making it hard not to let his imagination run wild.

Hearing the Stone Coffin Senior's words, Li Weiyi's heart naturally stirred once more.

He had long since guessed the identity of the one within the coffin with near certainty. His strength during his lifetime was such that the current clan leaders, sect masters, and ancestors of Lizhou would surely not even see his shadow. He explored his own ancestor's tomb and almost didn't make it back?

The Stone Coffin Senior continued, "According to ancestral tradition, the God of Jiuli had eighty-one children in total. All of them are buried around Mount Jiuli, transforming into the peaks and hills you see before you. Nine of these eighty-one children became the ancestors of the current nine great tribes of the Nine Li people."

"What about the other seventy-two?" Li Weiyi asked.

This question evidently touched upon a blind spot in the Stone Coffin Senior's knowledge!

After a long pause, the Stone Coffin Senior continued, "King Cang was the eldest son of the God of Jiuli, and also the ancestor of the Cang Li tribe. He is buried in the place closest to Mount Jiuli. That's the first peak to the right of the snow mountain!"

Li Weiyi saw that peak; it was very imposing, with its summit nearly reaching the clouds.

The Stone Coffin Senior said, "However, this vast forested area occupied by the Ancestral Realm is extremely perilous. It contains many protective powers left by ancient sages, and even the power of the God of Jiuli. If one does not follow the few safe paths, even a Longevity Realm expert who ventures in would likely barely escape with their life."

"So, once we enter this Ancestral Realm, we'll be much safer. Those people chasing us, even if they had ten times the courage, they wouldn't dare to enter."

"Next, I will accompany you forward."

"Hold up the Nine Sovereign Banner; it can silently open the luminous veil barrier protecting the Ancestral Realm."

Two hours later, Li Weiyi arrived below the waterfall. Carrying the stone coffin on his shoulder and holding the white Nine Sovereign Banner, more than three meters long, like a pallbearer, he opened the barrier veil and formally stepped into the Nine Li Tribe's Ancestral Realm.

How bizarre!

Upon entering the Ancestral Realm, the sky immediately darkened, as if night had fallen.

Silence enveloped the surroundings; not even a bird's chirp could be heard.

In the firmament, dense stars appeared... They actually resembled the Milky Way...

Li Weiyi stared blankly for a moment, then immediately asked the Stone Coffin Senior. He was told that for the Ancestral Realm to be called such, it must be different from the outside world, a small world arranged by the God of Jiuli.

As for the stars in the firmament, they had always been that way; the Stone Coffin Senior admitted he couldn't understand it either.

"From here, it's not possible to walk back to Earth, is it?"

As Li Weiyi muttered this to himself, a hundred-meter-tall hill in front of him suddenly began to writhe, raising a bull's head the size of a palace, its eyes radiating a terrifying aura.

Countless rocks clattered and rolled off its back.

The night was thick, making it hard to see clearly. But Li Weiyi's scalp tingled, and he only wanted to turn around and leave. This place was too dangerous, not somewhere he should be with his current cultivation level.

The Stone Coffin Senior said, "Don't panic, it's the guardian beast, the Mud Ox. Use the Nine Sovereign Banner to clear the path, and it won't harm you."

How could he not panic?

Li Weiyi held his breath, forced a stiff smile at the hill-like Mud Ox, and carefully walked past below it, constantly feeling as if the bull's head was watching him. Fortunately, after he passed it, the enormous head lowered itself back down, and there was no further movement.

"Gurgle!"

He continued along a bioluminescent stream, its water resembling a glowing ribbon.

After walking for about an hour, green luminous orbs suddenly emerged from underground, each encapsulating a basin-sized shelled creature. They possessed sharp, mantis-like claw arms, and humanoid heads, appearing extremely eerie and terrifying.

Li Weiyi swallowed hard, his hand gripping the Nine Sovereign Banner continuously sweating.

"Don't panic," the Stone Coffin Senior said calmly. "It's the Yan Ke insect clan guarding the tomb. Just sweep the Nine Sovereign Banner, and they will make way."

"This big... and you say they're insects?"

Li Weiyi could sense that these Yan Ke were not simple; each one presented a stronger sense of danger than Xue Zheng had. So, following the instructions, he gently waved the Nine Sovereign Banner.

The Yan Ke on the ground indeed became docile, automatically clearing a path.

After passing through the area occupied by the Yan Ke, Li Weiyi couldn't help but ask, "Master Coffin, what exactly are we going to retrieve from King Cang's Tomb? Given how dangerous this place is, I feel like I could train for another two years before coming back."

The Stone Coffin Senior chuckled, "Don't worry, I wouldn't have you risk this without over ninety percent certainty. Besides, you are no longer at Five Springs but Six Springs, and you've cultivated out the last of your insufficient mind power. I believe the danger is now negligible..."

"Someone's here!"

Li Weiyi heard something; he immediately placed the Nine Sovereign Banner upside down on the ground, squatted down, and looked in the direction of the sound.