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Novel: [The Primordial Law]
Volume 5: [Seeking Immortality in the Eastern Sea]
Volume 5 (Pinyin): [Dong Hai xun xian]
Chapter 43 (480): [The Buddhist Mark]
(43rd of Volume 5)
Translator: Shadow Knight AK
Editor: Shadow Knight AK
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"Boom!"
Li Weiyi plummeted down the waterfall, crashing into the riverbed hundreds of meters below.
Despite his formidable physical body, his vision blurred, and his injuries worsened.
In his desperate attempt to eliminate Qiongji Daozi, he had failed to evade the Red Silk.
He immediately mobilized the Liquid Qi within his Divine Pivot, circulating it through his Twelve Meridian Veins to stabilize his injuries.
Dragging his exhausted, aching, and heavy body, he crawled out of the seawater riverbed, using his Peachwood Staff for support.
He looked up at the towering rock ceiling hundreds of meters above, now completely sealed, with no more seawater cascading down.
The deafening roar of the waterfall had vanished, plunging the world into a dim, silent stillness.
Only the lava river flowing beneath the nearby cliff emitted a golden glow, radiating heat.
A suffocating sense of confinement, as if he would never see the light of day again, washed over him.
Li Weiyi felt a deep sense of dread, fearing he might be trapped here forever, like his fall into the Arctic Abyss.
Yu'er, Yaoyin, Zuoqiu Hongting, the Hidden Lord, and the others might be anxiously awaiting his return.
In the Lingxiao Realm, he had forged too many ties to abandon.
The Seven Phoenix-Winged Moth Emperors flapped their feathered and membranous wings, radiating iridescent light and spewing Golden Crow Flame.
Their eyes burned with vitality, unlike Li Weiyi, who was wounded and severely depleted of Spiritual Qi.
"Boom! Boom!"
The Heavenly Scripture Sword and Qiongji Daozi's Dao Fruit were casually tossed at Li Weiyi's feet.
The creatures surrounded Qiongji Daozi's Boundary Pouch. The Big Phoenix used her claws to pry it open, dumping its contents onto the ground with a clatter.
Yongquan Coins, Blood Crystals, Spiritual Artifacts, the Dead Spirit Carriage... countless treasures piled into a small mountain.
Jade Boxes and Jade Cases were pried open by the Big Phoenix's sharp claws, releasing wisps of rich medicinal fragrance.
Several Millennial Essence Herbs, brimming with spiritual energy and lacking seals, transformed their leaves into wings, attempting to escape.
But the Seven Phoenix-Winged Moth Emperors swooped down, pinning them beneath their feet and devouring them.
Li Weiyi, forcing himself to ignore his exhaustion, climbed to the highest point nearby to survey the surroundings, searching for the source of the dragon's roar, his mind constantly on edge.
A single sound had already wounded him.
Such a terrifying creature, lurking nearby yet now completely silent, left him deeply unsettled, seeing danger in every shadow.
Li Weiyi's ultimate escape route lay in using the Dao Ancestor's Tai Chi Fish to flee to Tanggu Sea, but this was a last resort.
The strangeness of this place made it uncertain whether he could even activate the Tai Chi Fish to enter the Blood Mud Space.
He didn't immediately activate it, sensing the Rice Palace woman's presence.
He looked across the great river.
There, the Rice Palace woman emerged from the water, her body wrapped in red silk that clung to her hips and breasts. Her long, wet hair framed skin as luminous as white jade, her slender arms and legs bare and exquisitely sculpted.
Though separated by seven or eight miles, her silhouette was clearly visible - a vision of sensual perfection, as if she had just risen from a bath.
As the seawater above vanished, the riverbed between them began to dry up, the water draining into some unknown depths shrouded in darkness.
Wu Hongling sensed Li Weiyi's distant gaze and the killing intent in his eyes.
She turned, her ashen, skeletal face meeting his: "Northern Young Lord, Southern Divine Hidden One. That's the phrase I've heard most often since coming to the East Sea."
"I never paid it much heed before, but after today's battle, my perspective has completely changed. You, Jiu Li Divine Hidden One, possess true strength. Even in the Hundred Realms of Life Domain, you could carve out a name for yourself."
"And Tang Wanzhou is no less formidable than the True Disciples of the Ancient Sects or the Heavenly Emperor's Disciples from the Imperial Court Kingdoms."
"Let's call a temporary truce. If we awaken that terrifying creature, we'll all perish."
It was clear that Wu Hongling believed Li Weiyi's cultivation had already reached the peak of the Nine-Star Spiritual Master realm, and his Martial-Mystic Path had reached the pinnacle of the Dao Seed Realm.
In her eyes, Li Weiyi was merely at Huoxin's level, while Tang Wanzhou was the true master who had reached the pinnacle.
Her misunderstanding was understandable, given her limited knowledge of the Jiu Li Divine Hidden One, which extended only to hearsay.
Moreover, Huoxin's level was far from low; in fact, it was exceptionally high. She wasn't underestimating Li Weiyi.
Wu Hongling waved her hand, summoning ten ash-gray Bone Spirits to arrange themselves before her in a protective formation.
She then sat cross-legged atop a massive, iron-hard boulder, inhaling and exhaling the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi.
Her hands, resting on her smooth jade-like thighs, lay open, each palm holding a supreme-grade Blood Crystal.
The ten Bone Spirits included both humanoid figures and skeletal beasts. Ghost Fire burned in their eye sockets, scriptures flickered across their bodies, and they remained vigilant against Li Weiyi across the river.
"This Demoness must hold a high position in the Rice Palace, far surpassing even Huoxin in power. With ten Fallen Spirit Commanders guarding her, the Little Seven might struggle to break through quickly. I need to heal my injuries and replenish my Spiritual Qi first."
Li Weiyi's greatest concern was the dragon's roar he had heard earlier.
He retrieved the Thousand-Character Artifact cloak Tang Wanzhou had given him, fastened it around his shoulders, and began practicing the Jade Void Breathing Technique.
Spiritual Qi converged around him, swirling into a vortex.
The Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi here was completely different from the outside world, dense and pure, even surpassing the Cloud Heaven Immortal Plain. It was the polar opposite of the Spiritual Qi-scarce Nether Realm of the Dead.
Strangely, this sacred cultivation ground was barren, devoid of Precious Medicine, Essence Herbs, or any sign of life.
The dragon's roar did not sound again, nor did any dragon-shaped creatures appear.
During the past few months of war in the Southeastern Nether Realm, Qiongji Daozi had reaped immense gains, amassing dozens of Millennial Essence Herbs within his Boundary Pouch.
The Seven Phoenix-Winged Moth Emperors gorged themselves, their bellies swollen and round, their very breath exuding the medicinal fragrance of Essence Herbs, shimmering with ethereal light.
Two hours later, Li Weiyi had recovered sixty to seventy percent from the injuries inflicted by Huoxin, Qiongji Daozi, and Wu Hongling.
The Divine Pivot, Ancestral Field, Wind Mansion, and Five Seas within his body were now brimming with Spiritual Qi, and his entire being pulsed with renewed strength.
He abruptly opened his eyes.
The river channel that had been before him had vanished without a trace.
After being battered by seawater stretching dozens of miles wide, the ground had sunk several meters, exposing massive bones.
Though the visual impact was striking, these could not be the remains of an Ancient Immortal or the Heavenly Emperor's Bone, lacking the soul-piercing residual power of the deceased.
A crimson figure, her Ling Sha robes fluttering, walked across the bones, closing the distance to Li Weiyi to just two or three miles. Ten gray-green Bone Spirit Commanders, arrayed in a line behind her, exuded an imposing aura.
The red silk draped around the Rice Palace Demoness was no ordinary Spiritual Artifact.
Li Weiyi had already entered its attack range.
Li Weiyi abruptly stood up, Peachwood Staff in one hand and Purple Heaven Thunder Seal in the other, secretly activating them.
Electric arcs crackled across his body.
Simultaneously, Formation Scriptures etched themselves into his brow center Spirit Realm, preparing him for maximum combat readiness.
He telepathically transmitted to the Seven Phoenix-Winged Moth Emperors: "Rise! Prepare for battle."
Li Weiyi had no desire for a decisive battle with Wu Hongling at this moment.
He needed to stall for time to cultivate the third layer of the Sixfold Sansara Burning Karma Technique.
"If Red Silk Fairy insists on battle," he said, "Liu Mou will gladly accompany you to the end. However, the commotion from such a clash might awaken the creature that emitted the dragon's roar. I believe it would be wiser to exercise restraint."
The title "Red Silk Fairy" had been learned from Qiongji Daozi.
"Liu Mou? Even at this point, you still refuse to admit you're a Jiu Li Divine Hidden One?" Wu Hongling's voice carried a hint of amusement, "Rest assured, the death of Qiongji Daozi means no more to me than the death of a stray dog by the roadside. As for Huoxin, we were never allies, only rivals. I have no reason to risk everything to kill you for their sake."
"This place is no ordinary realm. It's likely a lost Ancient Immortal Holy Realm, where the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi has been nourished by a strand of immortal energy, which we can call Holy Spiritual Qi. We could be trapped here for life. If I killed you, how lonely would I be? Loneliness is more terrifying than death."
Li Weiyi didn't believe a word she said.
How could she have chased him over two thousand miles without a burning desire to kill him?
"A lost Ancient Immortal Holy Realm!" Li Weiyi exclaimed, "If you reported this to the Rice Palace, you'd receive an extraordinary reward, wouldn't you?"
In southern Yingzhou, there were fewer than ten Ancient Immortal Holy Realms, almost all of them controlled by Ancient Sects or Imperial Court Kingdoms.
Wu Hongling stopped a hundred feet away when she saw Li Weiyi activate Formation Scriptures.
"Whether we can escape is still uncertain," she said.
"With your cultivation, you could tunnel through ten thousand miles of earth if you wanted to," Li Weiyi countered.
"You're too optimistic!" she replied, "The fact that such a precious realm remains undiscovered - do you realize what that means? It means it's completely isolated from the world. Escaping will be as difficult as ascending to heaven."
Neither of them resigned themselves to fate.
Both were determined to find a way out.
Li Weiyi dispatched Big Phoenix, while Wu Hongling sent her strongest Bone Spirit Commander.
The creatures scaled the stone walls, heading toward the hundreds-of-feet-high dome to dig through the rock and earth.
Unable to find any weaknesses in Li Weiyi's defenses and wary of the unknown dragon's roar, Wu Hongling withdrew and flew toward the stone walls above the magma river to investigate.
She had previously noticed something peculiar there and wanted to confirm her suspicions.
Li Weiyi, intrigued by the massive skeleton at the bottom of the riverbed, flew over for a closer look.
"The exposed portion alone stretches over a hundred meters. What creature could have left behind such remains?"
He tapped the bones with his fingers and then drew the Heavenly Scripture Sword to hack at them.
These were not Golden Bones, and no Golden Essence Bone Marrow could be found within.
Losing interest, he glanced at the red silhouette on the distant stone wall.
Secretly, he traced Puppet Technique scriptures onto the giant skeleton, using Spiritual Light to inscribe the ancient character "(Lin)".
He then buried Qiongji Daozi's Dao Fruit within the bones.
Wu Hongling stood beneath a stone wall carved with ancient symbols.
The wall depicted a humanoid creature with two heads, one young and one old, positioned where its hands should be.
A Buddhist symbol floated at the base of its neck.
Over countless ages, the carvings had become blurred and indistinct.
She stared at the Buddhist symbol for a moment, and suddenly the world spun violently.
Her consciousness felt as if it were being torn apart, and she nearly plunged into the magma river below.
She forced herself to look away, her heart pounding with terror.
How could such a faint mark possess such immense power?
Wu Hongling's eyes narrowed, and a plan formed in her mind.
"Whoosh!"
Trailing her long red silk, she flew back to the riverbank opposite the stone wall.
"Stop setting up the Puppet Technique! Controlling such a massive skeleton will drain your Psychic Power. Besides, with my speed, it can't possibly catch me."
Li Weiyi showed no embarrassment at having his scheme exposed.
"I'm preparing for unknown dangers! We must put aside our grudges and focus on escaping first. Everything else can wait. I hope the Red Silk Fairy will be as sincere as Liu Mou. Constantly suspecting each other is exhausting."
Wu Hongling nodded slightly: "Your strength is formidable, and with that Strange Insect assisting you, killing you would come at a considerable cost. Fine, fine, let's end this here."
She sat cross-legged on the ground, extending her left leg straight out while propping up her right knee.
From the jade bracelet on her wrist, she retrieved a bronze treasure flask and poured out Golden Essence Bone Marrow, savoring it like fine wine.
"Want a taste?"
Li Weiyi shook his head gently, probing indirectly: "It's strange that Huoxin is so undervalued in your Rice Palace! I only wanted to spar with him, assuming he had protective treasures to ensure his safety. I never imagined... sigh, I didn't mean for this to happen."
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END OF CHAPTER
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