"..."
A pungent stench permeated the air, and Xu Qing saw the fox tail and hindquarters exposed under the other's skirt!
The filthy old fox actually urinated at him!
Xu Qing was thoroughly disgusted.
The Dream Creation Skill was cast once more, and Xu Qing conjured a chamber pot out of thin air.
The old fox couldn't leave without exposing the Celestial Scripture, so she had to stand in front of the stone wall passage, allowing the foul liquid from the chamber pot to splash onto her.
"How rude, boy!" The old lady raised her wide sleeves, trying to fend awkwardly.
Now it was the old fox's dream realm that began to destabilize.
The dream realm of Baiyun Cave was constructed by the old fox's magic, and if Xu Qing were driven away by her, it would be fine, but if she, the owner of the dream, were chased away by Xu Qing, the Divine Techniques would surely backfire.
The old lady was so angry her body shook, her hunched back straightened a bit from rage.
Having cultivated for so many years, she'd never encountered someone else who constantly restrained her other than Yuan Gong's master.
Seeing how difficult the boy was, the old fox finally summoned her magical blade.
Xu Qing glanced at it, his heart sinking immediately.
Indeed, the blade had issues!
Baiyun Daoist had used Infant Spirit resentment to consecrate the blade, yet the evil qi on the blade didn't even match half of what the old woman wielded before him.
It was evident how many innocent lives the old fox had taken while alive.
The old woman threw away her bamboo staff, slapped the scabbard three times, causing a great howling on the entire stone cliff, as if hundreds of infants were crying out at her ears, and like malicious gods revealed their claws, wailing fiercely from underground.
As the divine blade roared, a blood-red arc of light cut from south to north, aiming straight for Xu Qing's neck!
The blade was unbearable, impossible to receive!
Even in the Hidden Corpse Three Transformations stage, Xu Qing couldn't confidently take it wholly.
This old fox was at least a millennia-old fox demon!
In the dream, wherever the arc passed, flowers and grass withered, and the thousand-year-old ancient trees towering to the sky all fell.
The old woman holding the scabbard smiled.
However, in the next moment.
As the dust settled, she noticed the white-robed youth before the cliff had vanished, replaced by a deity-like figure exuding holy brilliance throughout.
The old woman believed her demeanor and manners could deceive all other common folk on earth, and even if she hadn't been imprisoned in front of Baiyun Cave, people seeing her would call her Saint Aunt or Living Bodhisattva.
There was even once someone who mistook her for the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra descended to earth.
Yet now in front of Xu Qing, all her poise and guise disappeared.
The old woman fell into silence.
She understood what this entailed, only a cultivator who had truly practiced great kindness and made significant vows would possess such a presence.
No matter how well she pretended, she was merely imitating beauty, in front of the genuine article, her false guise was just a beast stripped of human trappings, lacking any dignity.
The Saint Aunt had practiced for nearly a thousand years, possessing over a thousand years of cultivation, but before the deity, she felt inferior.
She couldn't even lift her head.
At this time, the jade ruyi in Xu Qing's hand shone more brilliantly, while the ghost-headed divine blade retreated, bumping and knocking, fleeing back to the sheath.
"..."
With one strike, the incense in the Blood Lake Dharma Realm decreased by tens of thousands once more.
Xu Qing's expression didn't change, he estimated the remaining incense reserves in the blood lake could only withstand three more attacks at most.
To prevent the old fox from discovering his facade, Xu Qing decided to strike first strategically.
He put away the maternal qi bottle and jade ruyi, switching to his own mountain-opening axe.
Seeing the axe, Saint Aunt Liang was once again dumbfounded.
A deity dressed luxurious and graceful, her demeanor elegant and dignified, suddenly changed style, pulling out a 'Xuanhua Great Axe,' the contrast left the nearly thousand-year-old Saint Aunt feeling bizarre.
Xu Qing was unconcerned, channeling all his strength into the axe handle; when the heavenly law layers stacked to the seventeenth tier, he clenched his teeth and roared, the surrounding air currents shattered instantly, the deity's cloud collar, sleeves, and skirt billowed violently.
Saint Aunt was horrified, hurriedly summoning the divine blade, but as the blood-red arc transformed into a celestial hound leaping at Xu Qing, a jade ruyi of dragon and phoenix design flew out autonomously, once again repelling the divine blade.
The offerings in Xu Qing's blood lake Dharma Realm had once again dwindled.
However, at this moment, his axe force had accumulated to the unprecedented eighteenth layer.
Xu Qing's divine face contained evil qi, and the blade of the ancient mountain-opening axe suddenly burst forth with dazzling light!
In the Baiyun cave sky, atop the stone cliff, it seemed as if the morning sun was rising gloriously.
The Holy Aunt was extremely fearful, and when attempting to summon the divine knife for the third time, the Compassionate Maiden had already slashed down with the giant axe in her hand!
The brilliance expanded to eight or nine zhang, and the mountain-opening axe wrapped in light transformed into a white rainbow piercing the sun, instantly tearing through the cliffs and clouds.
Where the axe blade passed, all dream creations were easily cut through like cloth, and the Holy Aunt of Baiyun Cave stood at the narrow cave entrance and swayed like a candle flickering in the wind.
Immediately, she was like a sand sculpture in the desert, swept away by the storm along with the cave.
...
At the altar of Ruyi Temple.
Awakening abruptly from the dream, Xu Qing opened his eyes, while Xuan Yu, still embracing his sword, diligently protected the altar, and the Sutra of Salvation, which had paused, began to flip its pages again.
After Baiyun Daoist sought out 'immortal fate,' he immediately realized that the path this immortal practiced perfectly matched his own intentions.
Before entering cultivation, he enjoyed seizing others' houses, women, and wealth.
Now having entered cultivation, he could seize others' lives to fill his own, a cultivation technique seemingly tailor-made for him. Baiyun Daoist seemed to see immortals beckoning him, and the stairway to heaven lay at his feet.
In the thirty years that followed, Baiyun Daoist pretended to help Cizhao Temple monks who assisted pregnant women and infants, not only gathering sufficient donations for Cizhao Temple but also finding channels to hide the medicinal ingredients he needed.
One day, Baiyun Daoist held a ritual feast at the temple, explaining the art of alchemy to his disciples, when suddenly an old woman walked into the center of the hall.
This old woman was not a disciple of the temple, nor was anyone outside invited to today's ritual feast. If this old woman hadn't suddenly walked to the front of the hall, Baiyun Daoist would not have even noticed her presence.
"Who are you? How did you enter the hall?"
Baiyun Daoist was shocked.
He was explaining the method of refining longevity elixirs with humans as medicinal herbs, and if the old woman before him was a righteous cultivator with divine techniques, he would undoubtedly face great trouble!
However, the old woman did not reprimand him; instead, she began explaining to him how to refine the highest longevity elixirs.
"The elixir you refine, once completed, merely allows one to transform and repair oneself like a newborn. But I have a formula here that can truly grant eternal life..."
"In this world, there are mythical creatures and rare birds, like the Nine-Life Profound Cat, Nine-Tailed Fox Demon, the Immortal Phoenix, Ten Thousand Year Dragon Pill. The Nine-Life Profound Cat, possessing nine lives, can have its fate seized and refined into Nine Revolutions Mysterious Pill, granting anyone who consumes it nine additional lifetimes.
In ordinary people, every century brings a great calamity. After a hundred years, if one lacks the protection of yin virtue, there will be a minor calamity every month and a great calamity every year. Minor calamities are hard to escape, and great calamities inevitably lead to death."
The old woman neither smiled nor spoke, her expression unchanging.
"If one consumes the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Pill, they can live nine hundred years. Along with the cultivator's own lifespan, wouldn't that grant a millennium of longevity?"
A millennium, already a life of immortality.
No! If he lived for a millennium, he could already be considered a god, an ancestor!
Baiyun Daoist's mind swayed, and he eagerly asked, "Where can these mythical creatures and rare birds be found?"
The old woman pondered for a moment, shook her head, and said, "The latter cannot be sought, while the former is hard to find."
"Though difficult to find, it is still better than being unattainable."
The always expressionless old woman suddenly pulled up the corners of her mouth, revealing a strange smile: "I once encountered a Profound Cat, one of the few Nine-Life Spirit Cats in this world."
Further on, Xu Qing witnessed the scene where the Daoists of Ruyi Temple were capturing Xuan Yu; although Xuan Yu's cultivation was not high at the time, he could still perfectly morph into nine clones.
If it wanted to escape, the Daoists of Ruyi Temple, regardless of their capabilities, would find it difficult to capture.
But just as Xuan Yu was about to step out of Ruyi Temple's mountain gate and flee into the forest, the old woman, who once lived with it, appeared before the temple.
Behind the old woman was Baiyun Daoist, with a sword held across her neck.
Xu Qing remained silent.
He never considered that Xuan Yu was willing to be captured; from the moment the old woman appeared, Xuan Yu no longer fled.
Xu Qing continued to watch, and when Xuan Yu was captured by Baiyun Daoist, the old woman calmly walked to the specially crafted iron cage.
The person and the cat stared at each other for a long time.
The old woman never spoke, and ultimately, she shook her head, then left Ruyi Temple without looking back.
At the temple gate, Baiyun Daoist tried to give rewards to the old woman, but she did not accept them.
Xu Qing finished watching the Baiyun Daoist's fleeting visions, and his doubts were not resolved; instead, they grew deeper.