“Shouldn’t you have tested me first?”
Li Ling’s aura had none of that frigid chill or mercilessness of a soldier from the Earth Wolf King Army that we killed in Burial Immortal Town. She continued, “To join the Cang Li Tribe, your identity must be spotless and your character upright. Don’t be mad, alright?
You carry so many magical artifacts on you—and I haven’t even laid a finger on them, have I? When I pretended to faint earlier, if I had actually made a move against you, you probably wouldn’t have had much in the way of defenses, would you?”
“So, when it comes to friends who have shared life and death, my character is pretty solid as well.”
“By the way, why did you save me and drag me ashore just now? Do you like me?”
Li Weiyi stayed silent, then quickly moved away. He always felt there was something off about Li Ling—a strange, inexplicable familiarity—but her cultivation was too high to figure out, so he decided it was best to keep his distance.
“Wait, don’t go! You haven’t answered me yet! In the Departing Spirit Fog Domain, only those with the Li bloodline can lead safely. Going deeper on your own would be extremely dangerous,” Li Ling said.
Li Weiyi had heard from Zhao Zhizhuo about this, but he had reasons—ones involving mending his blood sea—that forced him to venture, no matter how dangerous. If he didn’t go back, everyone aboard the Bronze Ship would be waiting for death. Li Ling trotted after him.
“I have to be honest with you. After the Stone Monkey Flying Needle incident, when I rushed into that deserted house where you were hiding, I certainly intended to pull you onto the bandwagon. But my analysis back in Burial Immortal Town wasn’t wrong, was it? Considering the situation at that time, if we teamed up, we would either live together or die together.”
“That doesn’t matter anymore!”
Li Weiyi deliberately turned his back on her, testing if she really had no interest in those magical artifacts. She made no move to counterattack, leaving Li Weiyi deep in confusion, unable to guess the true purpose of her catching up.
Barefoot, with her jade-like feet, Li Ling trod on crushed stones and thorns, keeping close at Li Weiyi’s right side.
“You have to understand that, in Burial Immortal Town, anyone who finds themselves in the kind of peril I did would end up making the same choice. Moreover, at that time I only thought of you as a petty thief trying to deceive and con my brother.”
“Now it’s different. You’re actually a decent fellow.”
“Why don’t we become friends? Later, in the Cang Li Tribe, I’ll watch out for you. And should a similar situation arise, I’ll let you go ahead while I cover the rear.”
Li Weiyi stopped in his tracks and stared at her. Li Ling blinked her lively eyes, her eyelashes fluttering as she said, “You pulled me ashore and even saved the Cang Li Tribe—your character is beyond reproach.
With your current state in the Spring Surge Realm—I can help you secure a respectable post in Nine Li City, and even get you a fine wife. I have a cousin who’ll turn 16 in eight days. When her coming-of-age ceremony comes around, you two can meet and see if there’s a match.
You could even study in the Cang Li Tribe, though getting into the Nine Li Academy might be a bit tougher!”
“Miss Li, please stop following me. I already appreciate your good intentions. I like your cool, distant style—why not just go back to that?”
Li Weiyi really couldn’t figure out how much of her words were genuine and how much were deceitful. In his heart, he decided that once he encountered his senior brothers, he would never join the Cang Li Tribe.
Thinking back to the look Li Ling had given him from the roof eave, and recalling her ruthless, cold way of dispatching enemies—right now, she gave him an unreal feeling. As for Gao Huan… He was of a Pure Immortal Body, and the Cang Li Tribe would most likely treat him well.
Li Ling continued, “So, you’re planning to head for the Blood Sea Coffin Dock? Your companions are there? And those artifacts on you—they aren’t all obtained by opening blind coffins, are they?”
“Swish!”
Li Weiyi channeled his magical power and dashed out.
“Getting impatient now?”
Li Ling’s feet glowed with Blue Mist Light Traces as she sped up to catch him. They dashed side by side, covering dozens of miles in a rush. Li Weiyi gradually slowed down, realizing that something was off with the surroundings.
In the forest, many unmoving human-shaped figures had appeared, standing there in the fog, slowly turning their heads to stare at him. They emitted no life force at all, some were by the riverbank, others stood amid the shrubs. It was utterly bone-chilling; Li Weiyi felt his back grow cold.
“Stop wandering so aimlessly. If you go any further, I may not even be able to bring you back.”
Li Ling reached out and grabbed him. Li Weiyi, confused, asked, “Weren’t you planning to go out along the Sui River to the Blood Sea Coffin Dock?” Seeing that Li Weiyi had finally calmed down and was talking to her sincerely after hitting a dead end, Li Ling couldn’t help but smile.
“It’s not that simple. Though the Departing Spirit Fog Domain spans only two hundred li in width, it’s among the most forbidden zones in the Ling Xiao Sheng Realm. The inner space is chaotic and constantly changing.”
“Going along the Sui River won’t get you to the Blood Sea. It only leads to the even more dangerous Realm of the Departed.”
“In the Nine Li Tribe, only the disciples of the nine priest-elders—fewer than a hundred in all, the Mourning Lantern Guides—can find a safe path through the Departing Spirit Fog Domain.”
“You?”
Li Weiyi asked.
“Mm!”
Li Ling nodded proudly.
“Every year, many people get lost in the Departing Spirit Fog Domain and the Realm of the Departed. Just yesterday, we encountered two lost women, one of whom was a Pure Immortal Body.”
“What did they look like?”
Li Weiyi quickly asked. Li Ling answered, “A Pure Immortal Body, of course, is beautiful as if descended from heaven. But like Gao Huan, she shows no trace of cultivation.
The other, she was clad in red with a white bone wind chime around her waist.”
“Where are they?”
Li Weiyi pressed on. Keeping her eyes fixed on Li Weiyi’s expression, Li Ling smiled.
“I guessed it right—the two enchanting seductresses who left my brother completely mesmerized, they’re of your kind. One test, and it all became clear! You must have acquired some kind of extraordinary treasure, or why else would two people consecutively experience a Pure Immortal Body breakthrough?”
Li Weiyi suddenly understood a bit of her purpose in catching up, and cautiously asked, “You must not be a Pure Immortal Body yourself, right? I can feel that even though your flawless skin is shrouded in a celestial protective shell, you are fundamentally different from the Young Clan Leaders and Gao Huan.
I can’t quite put my finger on it though.” Stung by his words, Li Ling hesitated for a moment before bitterly admitting, “I can only be called a half-immortal body. I didn’t manage to complete the full transformation.
The fundamental difference between a half-immortal body and a pure immortal body is in the bones. There is only flesh, and no immortal bone.” Li Weiyi thought that if she ingested Golden Crow Blood, she’d most likely be able to transform into a Pure Immortal Body.
But did she really consider him a friend, one who had gone through life and death together? Until he truly saw through her, Li Weiyi had no way of treating her as a friend. With genuine sincerity, Li Ling said, “I’ll take you to the edge of the Blood Sea.
Without my help, you won’t manage to get there! Look at those Departed Spirits—they’re the weakest, almost non-aggressive. But if you meet vicious bloody souls or evils like the Thousand-Headed Dragon Vine demons, your chances of survival are nearly nil.”
“What do you require?”
Li Weiyi asked. Li Ling replied, “No conditions at all. Just ask that you let go of your grudges…
Consider it as me repaying a favor from Burial Immortal Town.” Skeptical yet curious, Li Weiyi said, “Alright! If you lead me safely to the Blood Sea, we’ll wipe clean any past grudges—I’ll trust what Xie Jin says.
Which direction should we go?” Suddenly, Li Ling sat down on a moss-covered stone, clutching her injured abdomen.
“I’ve been hurt so badly, I’m afraid I won’t be able to keep up.” …
Li Weiyi carried Li Ling on his back and moved forward through the fog-ridden domain. Though her figure was slender, she felt unusually heavy—and…
“You weren’t hit with that Stone Monkey Flying Needle at all!”
Li Weiyi noted. He could not feel any stiffness in her body; instead, it felt soft and resilient. He could sense it clearly in both the touch of her hands and the pressure on his back.
Li Ling, holding a Mourning Lantern in one hand and wrapping her other arm around Li Weiyi’s neck, spoke in a clear, sweet tone that carried a hint of a lazy comfort: “I was hit—but I carry a secret medicine. Once I take it, the Stone Poison will be nullified.”
“What you say—is it the honest truth?”
Li Weiyi asked. Li Ling replied, “My master said that a girl out alone must learn to protect herself. One talks only seven-tenths of the truth to everyone and gives only three-tenths of her heart in matters of passion.”
A true master of the Mourning Lantern Guide arts, she had indeed taken a very circuitous path; sometimes they had to take long detours. Yet, from the beginning to the end, they had encountered no real danger. Just as Li Weiyi was about to completely lose his sense of direction, he faintly heard the sound of crashing waves nearby.
Quickening their pace, they soon stepped out of the foggy forest, and the view opened up in an instant. Arriving at the seashore, the smell of blood and decay overwhelmed them. On top of the bloody ocean, countless coffins drifted, piled up in heaps of all sizes.
Everywhere along the shore lay paper money, empty coffins, and scattered bones, while in the distance a dense, gloomy fog concealed the meeting point of sea and sky—and naturally, the Bronze Ship was nowhere in sight. About several dozen zhang to the right, an old and dilapidated ferry terminal stood. The carved stone archway, decorated with dragons, still reached high.
A long, straight stone plank path extended from the dock deep into the sea until it vanished into the fog. Li Weiyi gently set Li Ling down, and his heart filled with a surge of joy at the thought of soon reuniting with his senior brothers.
To him, those senior brothers were the only remaining family he had left in this world. At the same time, a burning desire to grow stronger welled up within him. How else could he ensure the survival of everyone after the scientific expedition team gets off the ship?
If he joined the Cang Li Tribe, he had a feeling that Li Ling would hold him under her thumb—a feeling akin to being dependent on someone else, which was utterly stifling.
If he could harness the power of Seven Springs right now—even break through the Wind Mansion or Ancestral Fields—then not only could Li Ling do nothing to him, but even the elders of the Cang Li Tribe might be inclined to recruit him, treating him as favorably as they did Gao Huan.
“Whoosh!”
Li Weiyi rushed toward the dock, climbing the plank path and racing rapidly out into the deep sea.
“Xie Jin, are you... trying to die?”
Li Ling quickly lowered her voice, not daring to speak too loudly. As she reached the edge of the dock, she stopped immediately. Every time a clan’s members traveled to the Blood Sea Coffin Dock, they had to sprinkle paper money, light incense and candles, and offer tributes.
Not a single ritual could be skipped. Moreover, they were forbidden from speaking too loudly or climbing onto the plank path or venturing deep into the Blood Sea. The clan elders had warned: any otherworldly coffin that drifted to the Blood Sea Coffin Dock was either ominous or extraordinary.
Most were abnormal. A slight misstep could provoke things they dared not provoke. Li Ling had heard too many stories about the Blood Sea Coffin Dock.
Watching Li Weiyi vanish into the fog, she was reluctant to follow and asked, “Senior, should I follow you?”
“Whoosh!”
A burning warmth burst from Li Ling’s back as blood mist enveloped her. A nearly jade-like white bone then emerged from her body. The long hair of Chan Hai Guan Wu fluttered in the wind; new bits of flesh were growing on the bones as she peered into the gloomy, gray coffin sea and sighed, “Forget it!”
Li Ling’s blood had drained away severely; her face turned white and looked rather weak.
“I don’t understand,” she said, “Earlier, when you had such a great opportunity on his back, why didn’t you do anything, Senior?”
“Because I hesitated!”
Chan Hai Guan Wu couldn’t explain too much. Forcefully seizing Li Weiyi’s blood and soul essence to complete the Jia Yang ritual would give her a chance to eventually hold a dominant position in their relationship—as if Li Weiyi were merely a son-in-law to her. That was exactly the situation she most wanted to see!
Yet if Li Weiyi ever surpassed her in cultivation and then rebelled, the backlash would be terrifying. Lowering herself to beg Li Weiyi for a large portion of his blood and soul essence to complete the Jia Yang ritual—no matter how much she wanted it—her inner pride simply couldn’t bear the thought.
The so-called “Jia Yang” belonged solely to that Ancient Clan’s bloodline energy, which allowed the deceased, by “marrying” back into the Yang Realm, to live out a second life and resume their cultivation path. The price was to become the wife or husband of a descendant of that Ancient Clan.
Before the ritual was completed, the wishes of the deceased held sway. So, Chan Hai Guan Wu could choose to forcibly complete the Jia Yang ritual, but Li Weiyi could not.
On that tomb aboard the Bronze Ship, when she forced herself upon him, she had already injected her soul intent into Li Weiyi’s forehead, but the ritual was only half-completed before he broke free and ran off.
Similarly, for the Ancient Clan disciples who searched for a protective spouse during their infancy, the decision could only be determined by the protective spouse’s own wish. Yet once the ritual was complete, the Ancient Clan disciples would have a much stronger say. For instance, if an Ancient Clan disciple died, the Jia Yang partner would perish as well.
But if the Jia Yang partner fell, the Ancient Clan disciple’s fate would be affected only slightly. Moreover, the Jia Yang partner had to remain within a certain distance of the Ancient Clan descendant; the distance one could leave would only increase as both their cultivation levels improved. To reverse life and death, the price would naturally be steep.
Chan Hai Guan Wu harbored ambitions to reverse life and death and once again climb the peak of cultivation. But to do so, she had to be tethered to Li Weiyi—and that was contrary to her own pride and ambition.
“Perhaps I could try a middle path—first befriend him and see if he is really trustworthy. When the time is right, I can then open up and talk to him honestly. To be nominally married but in reality the closest of friends or allies—wouldn’t that be a far better way to help each other?”
Chan Hai Guan Wu thought of a compromise. Up to now, Li Weiyi had left a pretty good impression on her. With Li Weiyi, she was already labeled as a Bone Demon.
Once that impression was set, it would be hard to interact amicably. She had to forge a new identity—that was one reason she chose Li Ling as her carrier. As for Qi Shanshan, Chan Hai Guan Wu left behind a strand of soul intent to link with her language wisdom, ensuring she wouldn’t reveal any faults.
“Tap! Tap! Tap!”
Suddenly, fast footsteps echoed through the woods. Moments later, three figures appeared at the edge of the Blood Sea. At the forefront was Yan Qingqing.
By her incomparable sense of smell, she had tracked the path Li Weiyi and Li Ling had taken and found this place. With the Stone Nine Chamber having given them the death order, they had no other choice. No matter how dangerous the Departing Spirit Fog Domain was, they had to venture through.
(The End of This Chapter)