NCCnovel Chapter 464 The Time Has Arrived (Page 12)
Chapter 464 The Time Has Arrived (Page 12)
Last time, we talked about how You Tu was sealed by the Gu God, and how Hei Yuan, bewitched by Bai Ruoyi, sought revenge on Kong Qinglin again. Can Lan Ze stop these two before they are torn apart? Let's find out together.
The melee between the two peacocks altered the landscape around Jinglan City, even forcing the Canglan River to change course and no longer flow into Lanze Lake. Lidanshan and a group of powerful demons watched the battle from their demon stronghold; this was a challenge from the Peacock Throne, and they were not qualified to interfere.
Just as the two demons were getting anxious, a sudden gust of wind swept through the valley, swirling up countless green leaves that coalesced into an old face in front of them.
"Aren't you going to stop?"
Kong Qinglin and Hei Yuan immediately transformed into their demonic forms, bowed, and said, "Greetings, Old Man of the Moon!"
"You two each have your own destiny, and what has happened? Instead of fulfilling your missions, you choose to fight to the death here. I am truly disappointed in you. Since you are unwilling to fulfill your missions, then I..."
"I am willing to fulfill my mission!" Kong Qinglin suddenly interrupted the Old Man of the Moon. He said, "You created my Peacock Clan. How could I dare disobey your words? I have always been following your instructions, guarding this place and waiting for the heavenly secrets!"
The Matchmaker looked at Hei Yuan, who said, "You asked me to help deal with the new elder of the Witchcraft Cult, and I have completed that mission. Now I only want to avenge the Black Peacock Clan!"
"It was I who decided to abandon your Black Peacock clan. Since you want revenge, why don't you come to me?"
“I watched with my own eyes as he slaughtered my tribe, sparing not even the children.”
"He was just doing what I told you. If you really want revenge, come to the Ailao Secret Realm to find me."
"I will!" As Hei Yuan uttered these three words, his fists were already clenched so tightly they cracked. "But before I can avenge myself on you, I must kill him first!" With that, he swung his palm, shattering the avatar of the Old Man of the Moon, and then gripped his longsword, attacking Kong Qinglin!
At the same time, Lanze, who was flying at high speed, suddenly sensed something amiss. Immediately afterward, her tie-dye bag began to swell, and the osmanthus flower given to her by the Old Man of the Moon flew out on its own, shimmering with golden light. With a whoosh, Lanze vanished.
The scene shifts to Kong Qinglin and Hei Yuan, who are currently battling in their demon forms. Kong Qinglin, wielding the Demon Emperor Sword, is locked in a fierce struggle with Hei Yuan, who holds a long-handled black blade.
Suddenly, a golden bud sprouted on a tree not far away. The bud quickly bloomed, and Lanze, holding an osmanthus flower, jumped out of the bud.
"stop!"
"The Fairy Chan'e!"
"Do you even have time to flirt now?!"
As Hei Yuan swung his sword, Kong Qinglin dodged to the side, then stepped on the hilt of the sword, using the momentum to kick Hei Yuan away. Suddenly, the osmanthus flower in Lan Ze's hand flew towards Hei Yuan, and by the time he regained his footing, the flower had landed right above his head.
The osmanthus blossoms glowed with golden light, enveloping the Black Abyss. The abyss's body, like ink, was gradually absorbed into the flower, turning it black. The black petals slowly closed, transforming into a black bud, which flew into Lan Ze's hand.
Kong Qinglin couldn't believe that Lan Ze had sealed away the Black Abyss, which even he hadn't been able to defeat, so he immediately went to her side and asked, "Fairy Chan'e, what happened?"
"I'm not quite sure either, whether these osmanthus flowers were given by the Old Man Under the Moon."
"So it's the Old Man of the Moon's magic weapon, no wonder..." Kong Qinglin was halfway through his sentence when he suddenly felt a call from the heavens. He looked up at the sky and said, "The time has come! Fairy Chan'e, I'll take my leave now." After saying that, he turned and left.
"Timing? What timing? Could it be..." Lanze suddenly realized something and rushed back to Sangchuan at full speed.
Upon returning to the demon stronghold, Kong Qinglin immediately summoned all his subordinates back to camp to prepare, and half an hour later they marched towards the Abyss.
Meanwhile, Granny Lan Die was still searching for the Heavenly Sect Taoist priest and was worrying about it when she suddenly felt a call from the heavens. She looked towards the direction of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. "What are they doing over there?" she asked, and then increased her altitude, attempting to climb over the towering mountain range.
The Heavenly Silkworm Sect's cultivation method is a special technique that uses mental and spiritual power to induce mutations that transform parts of the human body into insects. This allows the cultivator to simultaneously possess the mind and mental power of a human, the physique and spiritual power of a demon beast, and the diverse attack methods and vitality of an insect race.
However, every advantage has its disadvantage. The Heavenly Silkworm Sect's cultivation method has a fatal flaw: it is not resistant to cold. In low-temperature environments, the insectoids' methods are completely ineffective. Therefore, crossing Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is a considerable challenge for Granny Lan Die.
After crossing several mountain peaks, Granny Lan Die's wings on her back were frozen solid, and she could only continue on foot. The biting mountain wind penetrated her silkworm clothes, and her only way to keep warm was with the fire silkworm in her arms.
After outliving seven fire silkworms, Granny Lan Die finally crossed the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and saw greenery. She exhaled a breath of cold air and used her newly recovered spiritual power to sense this land that the Miao people had never set foot on before. This was the Shan Kingdom, one of the kingdoms of Southern Yue.
The result of her perception surprised her greatly. At this moment, the Taoists of the Heavenly Sect were engaged in a fierce battle with more than twenty human-bodied, beast-faced cultivators at the foot of the mountain. Granny Lan Die immediately spread her wings, shook off the frost, and flew towards the battlefield at full speed.
"Senior Brother Jingyuan, someone is coming from the other side of the mountain! I don't know if they are friend or foe."
Jingyuan glanced at it and replied, "It's Granny Lan Die from Qinglong Mountain. It seems something has happened in Sangchuan City."
"Isn't Li Yi in Sangchuan City? With him there, how could anything happen?"
“After all, our opponent is the God of Gu, and there will always be things we can’t predict. Junior Brother Zhang, go and meet up with Granny Lan Die.”
Granny Lan Die then joined the battle and, with the help of Master Zhang, arrived at Jing Yuan's side.
After learning of her purpose, Jingyuan said, "Junior Brother Zhang, among our fellow disciples, you are the most skilled in the Five Elements, Eight Trigrams, and sealing techniques. Why don't you return to Sangchuan with Granny Lan Die to rescue You Tu?"
"Senior brothers, what will happen to you if I leave? I'm not leaving!"
"Junior brother, have you forgotten the Daoist Master's instructions before you left?"
"But the Asura clan is so powerful, I'm afraid..."
Jingyuan laughed and said, "Junior brother, why don't you cast a divination yourself and see if any of the other fellow disciples are unable to return?"
Master Zhang immediately interpreted the divination, then stared blankly at Jingyuan.
"How about it? Your senior brother didn't lie to you, did he? Everyone will be able to get back safely, so don't hesitate, let's go."
Granny Landie glanced at Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and said, "If I were to cross the snow mountain again, I fear I would die on the way. So I should stay here and fight alongside you Taoist priests. Taoist Priest Zhang, you should go back by yourself."
"Alright then, Junior Brother Zhang, you should leave now!"
Master Zhang looked at Jingyuan, solemnly performed a Taoist salute, and then charged out. Granny Lan Die helped him fend off the pursuing Asura clan. He glanced back at Jingyuan, then rushed towards Jade Dragon Snow Mountain at full speed.
The divination just now indeed predicted that all the other fellow disciples would return to the Heavenly Sect safely, but Jingyuan, the outstanding junior, would never see his own sect's gate again in his lifetime.
On the other hand, Little Corpse Girl and the Gu Masters finally discovered the method by which the Gu God created the crisis in Sangchuan. It turned out that the four iron pillars Li Yi saw were not used to support the underground rock layers, but to destroy them. Once the talismans on the iron pillars were activated, a resonance would be triggered, shattering the underground rock layers of Sangchuan and causing a large-scale collapse.
Inside the room, Little Corpse Girl proudly told Li Yi about her discovery, but he shook his head and sighed, "What's the use of just making a discovery? It still can't resolve the crisis in Sangchuan."
"Hmph, I'm already pretty good at finding it! Your deduction was wrong! You made us dig that pit for nothing on the first day!"
"By the way, how did you find out?"
Little Corpse Girl took out a centipede with an iron-black body, red feet and whiskers, and a hundred legs but no eyes from the tie-dye bag. She laughed and said, "See this guy? We call him Iron-Seeking Marquis. Feel its carapace."
Li Yi raised his hand and touched the centipede's carapace; it felt like cast iron.
"This creature lives underground year-round and feeds on iron ore to strengthen its carapace. We Miao people use it to find underground iron ore veins."
"Now that you've found the iron pillar, why didn't you find the cave?"
"Because there's no cave at all! We found all four iron pillars, but there's rock underneath them. If there were a cave that big, it would have collapsed long ago!"
"Could it be a problem with the barrier? No, my spirit feather arrow should have broken through the barrier. Didn't you guys go back to the place where I was found and search again?"
"We searched, but found nothing. Do you think the Gu God might have moved Brother You away?"
"The Gu worms can't lift the measuring rod, and the Gu God is reshaping his physical body and can't do it himself, so the barrier must still be there."
"That's strange."
"Forget about the barrier, let's find a way to resolve the crisis in Sangchuan City first, otherwise we won't be able to save our senior brother."
"The only way to move those four iron pillars at the same time is with insects, but the ground is so deep that only the Iron-Seeking Lord can reach them, so we can't move them. It would probably take hundreds of years for the Iron-Seeking Lord to eat all the iron pillars away!"
"How deep can it be? Only about ten zhang?"
"Ten zhang? What are you thinking! That iron pillar is hidden under the rock strata, it must be at least a hundred zhang long!"
"A hundred zhang? Impossible! When I used my Insightful Eye to observe, I clearly felt it was only ten zhang away. Wait, could it be that my perception is faulty? No, since the Insightful Eye can see through it, then this distance must be correct! Little Corpse Sister, take me to the place where I fainted and take another look."
"Are you able to get out of bed now?"
Just then, Li Yi suddenly looked towards Jinglan City. He sensed that Kong Qinglin was fighting with Hei Yuan, and Lan Ze was rushing to stop him.
"We have to go down, even if we can't!"
Little Corpse Girl said helplessly, "Alright, I'll just have my walking corpses carry you over!" After saying that, she snapped her fingers, and four walking corpses emerged from outside the courtyard, carrying a coffin.
"What are you doing! You want me to lie down in there?! Are you trying to curse me to death?! I'm not going to lie down in there!"
"It's very comfortable in the coffin. You'll know once you lie down there!"
Little Corpse Girl couldn't persuade Li Yi to lie down in the coffin. In the end, he sat on the coffin and was carried by the zombies to the tree where he was found.
“This is it. Look, your arrow was stuck right here.” Little Corpse Girl pointed to the arrow hole in the tree and said, “There’s no iron pillar or cave down here. We’ve already searched it with the Iron-Seeking Tool.”
Li Yi looked at the arrow holes in the tree, then at the ground, calculating the trajectory of the spirit feather arrows, finally locking onto a small area. But there wasn't a single arrow hole there, not even a mouse hole! Li Yi took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and activated his Bat Sound Technique to investigate. He only found an abandoned anthill underground, but neither its depth nor its size matched.
Opening his eyes, Li Yi had already activated his Divine Eye. After carefully observing the ant nest, he shook his head and said, "There really aren't any here."
"See, I told you so. So what do we do now?"
"Take me back, let's figure out how to deal with those four iron pillars first."
Back at the Sangchuan headquarters, Li Yi began meditating to regulate his breathing. On one hand, he wanted to quickly recover his fighting strength, as he sensed the opportune moment was approaching; on the other hand, he wanted to consult the Buddha on some matters. During his meditation, golden Buddhist light illuminated the entire room…
Before dawn the next day, Master Zhang flew over the snow-capped mountains and returned to Sangchuan City, where Li Yi was already waiting for him at the edge of the cliff.
“Junior Brother Li, I have come here on the orders of Senior Brother Jingyuan to help you rescue the High Priest.”
"Thank you for your help, senior brother. May I ask how you should be addressed?"
"Zhang Xuanqi."
"Besides helping to rescue the High Priest, Junior Brother has another matter that requires Senior Brother Zhang's help."