The Forbidden Path to Immortality-Chapter 238

Naturally, Shui Die Lan didn’t miss the chance to tease him. The whole way, she kept mocking how slow his flying speed was.

Still, whenever she was in a good mood, she’d occasionally give Li Xun a few tips on how to improve his flying technique.

Though humans and demons have different constitutions, Shui Die Lan' experience was on another level. After more than twenty days of travel, Li Xun couldn’t claim to have made any miraculous progress, but he was definitely getting better.

As the two of them continued south, the tension stirred up by the Rogue Cultivators’ Alliance gradually began to ease.

At the same time, though, news of the alliance between the Succubus Sect, Heavenly Demon Sword Sect, Bliss Sect, Venom Veil Sect, and Underworld Monarch Sect started to quietly spread.

In the south, the influence of the Rogue Cultivators’ Alliance was indeed fading. But the shockwave caused by the so-called “Western Alliance” was only growing stronger.

Especially after the chaos they stirred up in the southeastern forest sea, rumors about the five-sect coalition were flying everywhere. Even though Li Xun and Shui Die Lan kept their heads down and focused on traveling, they still caught bits and pieces of gossip. Mostly stuff about old family treasures and sect rivalries, nothing worth paying attention to.

“But with those five sects joining forces,” Shui Die Lan said with a teasing smile, “your Shadow-Devouring Soul Sect must be feeling the pressure, huh?”

“Mm, maybe,” Li Xun replied, though her words did make him think.

It’s true... from the northwest all the way down to the southwest, aside from Grand Radiant City that rarely leave the central and eastern regions and the Western Zen Sect, the Shadow-Devouring Soul Sect is the only one that hasn’t joined this alliance...

Besides, this two sects sit right on the edge of the borderlands. Behind them it’s either endless desert or mountain ranges, plenty of space to maneuver. But the Shadow-Devouring Soul Sect? To the north we’ve got the Venom Veil Sect, to the south the Underworld Monarch Sect, and even farther west there’s the Bliss Sect breathing down our necks...

The east is a little better, the Dharma Lotus Sect is full of monks who only care about meditation, but even they have some ties to the Three Sovereigns Sword Sect...

Li Xun carefully went over the situation around his sect, and he couldn’t help but sigh. The Shadow-Devouring Soul Sect of today was nothing like its glorious self from thousands of years ago. The difference was like heaven and earth.

It wasn’t just that their strength had declined; even their very space to exist was being squeezed from all sides.

Internal strife… it really destroys you.

Li Xun knew all too well how tense things were for the sect right now, so there wasn’t much more to say. With another quiet sigh, he went back to focusing on mastering the the secrets of Qi-Riding Flight.

They were less than half a day’s journey from the territory of the Shadow-Devouring Soul Sect. Where they stood now was little more than a buffer zone between Shadow-Devouring Soul and the Venom Veil Sect.

Just then, Shui Die Lan tapped him lightly on the waist. Li Xun blinked and turned. “What is it?”

Even as he spoke, he felt it too. Faint ripples of qi rising from the mountains below. The qi had a shadowy, ghostly quality to it.

“Let’s go check it out,” he said.

And both of them slipped into stealth and headed downhill. They were still mid-air when they spotted seven or eight figures brawling on a mountaintop below.

To Shui Die Lan, their cultivation levels were laughably low; even Li Xun wouldn’t normally bother glancing twice. But… what was going on?

Everyone fighting wore the robes of the Shadow-Devouring Soul Sect. Yet this clearly wasn’t friendly sparring between fellow disciples. Flying swords and magical tools were flying everywhere, and their attacks weren’t pulling punches. They were trying to kill each other.

In the brief moment as the two descended, one cultivator took a palm strike square in the chest, spat blood, and slammed into the ground, writhing in pain.

Li Xun’s gaze swept across the faces of the combatants, and his question answered itself almost instantly.

“Ye Ru?”

Seeing that familiar, graceful face, Li Xun knew he couldn’t just stay out of it anymore.

Ever since he’d orchestrated Gui Wuzang’s death and “rescued” this little woman from his grasp, everyone in the sect assumed Ye Ru belonged to him alone.

The situation between them was… complicated, to say the least. But watching “his” woman fight for her life right in front of him, he really had no choice but to get involved.

He gave Shui Die Lan a small nod, then dropped straight down.

The disciples on the peak were already seeing red. The moment someone descended from the sky, the pair who had just been trying to kill each other suddenly turned and attacked Li Xun at the same time.

Li Xun’s eyes flashed. He reached out a palm, and with a casual swipe through air, he snuffed out the yin fire burning along the arm of the man on the left. His fingers closed around the man’s wrist, and he slapped him across the face.

“You idiots. Open your eyes and see who you’re attacking!”

He kicked the other attacker in the stomach, sending him flying several yards. The guy clutched his gut, unable to get back up.

The disciple who’d just been slapped was fuming, but the moment he recognized Li Xun, his face lit up. “Senior Brother Hundred Ghosts! Help me—”

Another slap cut him off. Stars exploded in his vision; whatever he was going to say got swallowed right back down.

“Enough!” Li Xun’s voice cracked like thunder; he’d used his Soul-Severing Sound. With his overwhelming cultivation backing it, the shout boomed in every ear and rattled straight into their skulls. For a moment, the disciples’ flying swords and talismans wobbled like they were about to fall from the sky. One by one, startled, they froze and turned to look at him.

A few faces lit up with relief; a few went pale with dread.

Those happy to see him were clearly Madam Yan’s disciples. The others were glancing at their companion still groaning on the ground. And they kept their mouths shut.

Li Xun already had them all figured out.

Aside from Ye Ru, who served under Madam Yan, the only one here with any real ability was the sharp-featured guy she’d been fighting. Li Xun remembered him vaguely. Zhu Hong, disciple of Elder Cang Mingzi. His Shadow-Devouring Great Method wasn’t bad at all. Looked like he was the ringleader on the other side.

So it’s true. Cang Mingzi and Lord Bishui really did decide to team up.

Li Xun thought to himself, face perfectly calm. Only his eyes sharpened, cold and dangerous. “Well, well. I leave for a little while and everyone suddenly thinks they’ve grown a backbone.”

He finally let go of the disciple he’d been gripping. The disciple’s face twisted in pain, but he didn’t dare make a sound and immediately backed up behind Li Xun.

And it wasn’t just him. Once everyone separated, the other two on Ye Ru’s side also moved behind Li Xun, treating him as their leader.

There was no seniority here. Only strength mattered.

Zhu Hong was just an ordinary disciple under Cang Mingzi. Compared to someone like Li Xun, who came from a powerful family, he didn’t even register. Even though their masters were sworn enemies, he still had to stand there and take it whenever Li Xun talked down to him. If Li Xun decided to cut him down, no one would step in.

So he kept his head lowered, hiding the resentment in his eyes, and forced out a stiff reply: “Senior Brother Hundred Ghosts, we may have our issues, but we should still show some restraint.”

“Restraint?” Li Xun echoed, voice cold.

His gaze swept over the man Zhu Hong had just blasted back with a palm strike. The guy’s face was ashen; not dead, but judging by those injuries, he’d be lucky to recover in a year or two.

And that counts as holding back? Li Xun snorted. But when he saw that Ye Ru and the others didn’t seem bothered at all, he understood immediately just how brutal things in the sect had gotten.

He was unhappy, but he knew he couldn’t change the tide of things.

Li Xun gave a chilly smile and was about to speak when something caught his attention. He lifted his head. Two figures were shooting toward them from the sky.

Zhu Hong snapped his head around too. Under Li Xun’s icy stare, he quickly forced himself back into a respectful posture, but the excitement on his face was impossible to hide.

“Haha! Junior Brother Hundred Ghosts, this isn’t like you at all!”

A cheerful voice rang out before they even arrived. Li Xun smiled as well. “Senior Brother Ming Li... been well?”

The man flying toward them was none other than Ming Li, who had once explored Longhuan Mountain with Li Xun years ago. As the third disciple under the Hellfire Yama, his status in the sect was extremely high. Thanks to that Dragonring trip, he and Li Xun had a bit of camaraderie between them.

Ming Li landed lightly, beaming, and clasped forearms with Hundred Ghosts in warm greeting. He was all smiles, but the person who’d come with him didn’t look nearly as happy.

That one wore robes the color of clear lakewater, his face fair and handsome, long black hair falling loose over his shoulders. At first glance, he could almost be mistaken for Lord Bishui, copying his style perfectly... if only he had the Lord’s cultivation to match.

Li Xun gave him a brief glance. He knew this one was a favorite of Lord Bishui. Exceptionally talented. Completely different from Gui Wuzang back in the day, who had been neither loved nor valued. In just a little over fifty years since joining the sect, he’d already become one of the major disciples. Not as fast as Hundred Ghosts, sure, but still impressive.

While Ming Li and Hundred Ghosts were chatting, Zhu Hong hurried to bow to him. “Senior Brother Yin Tuo, over here...”

Yin Tuo only let out a cold snort. Zhu Hong rubbed his nose awkwardly and shut his mouth. Yin Tuo didn’t speak either; he just stood there, quietly watching Ming Li and Li Xun talk, his composure actually quite decent.

Ming Li chuckled. “Junior Brother Hundred Ghosts, you've been returning pretty often these days. I remember there was a time you disappeared for seven or eight years straight without showing your face here. What’s wrong, suddenly free now?”

His hand on Li Xun’s arm tightened slightly, giving it a small squeeze.

Li Xun’s heart skipped. He instantly understood the hint. Ming Li already knew about the decree from the Underworld Flame Yama, while… some others didn’t. Since when did the Underworld Flame Yama have to act so cautiously?

He kept all of that behind a calm face and simply smiled. “No, I’m not here to loaf around; I’ve got business. A fellow cultivator wants to take shelter under our sect, become a guest elder, and focus on her cultivation. I brought her to see if the Sect Master would agree.”

Ming Li and Yin Tuo froze. Only then did they notice that there was someone floating above their heads.

Shui Die Lan was disguised as a gentle, pretty female cultivator. She looked calm and pleasant enough, but her attitude toward Ming Li and the others was cool at best, barely acknowledging them. She didn’t even bother coming down to greet them. She was hovering with a mildly amused look, quietly watching them from above.

Ming Li did have a brain, after all. He snapped out of it quickly and covered up with a laugh. “Well, that is unusual. But since Junior Brother Hundred Ghosts brought her, I’m sure the Sect Master will consider it... Anyway, I heard something happened over here. Junior Brother Yin Tuo and I rushed over to take a look. What’s going on?”

Li Xun smiled. “What a coincidence; I just got here too. I saw this bunch of little brats throwing punches like they’ve got no sense, so I was about to ask what happened when you arrived.”

He never bothered to sugarcoat his words, but the disciples didn’t even dare breathe, let alone talk back.

A sharp chill flashed through Ming Li’s eyes. He swept his gaze over the disciples, and they instantly went stiff as statues, heads bowed as low as they could go. Only the girl behind Li Xun, Ye Ru, stepped forward gracefully.

All eyes went to her.

The young woman whom Li Xun had once dismissed as “weak-willed” stood before the crowd without the slightest trace of fear. “Senior brothers, here’s what happened…”

The whole thing had started in the most ridiculous way. Zhu Hong and a few others had discovered a yin qi spring nearby. They were cultivating there when Ye Ru and her companions happened to pass by. Seeing that Zhu Hong’s group was drawing on the energy too heavily, Ye Ru kindly reminded them to be careful.

But Zhu Hong and the others thought she was trying to seize the spot for herself. Words were exchanged, tempers flared. And before anyone knew it, it had turned into a fight that no one could stop once it began.

Yin Tuo glanced at Zhu Hong for confirmation. When Zhu Hong gave a small nod, Yin Tuo said evenly, “So what you’re saying is, it was Junior Sister Ye Ru who provoked this first?”

Though his words were harsh, his tone was calm. Coupled with his handsome looks and sharp eyes, he carried himself with impressive poise.

Ye Ru had been ready to argue back, but the moment her eyes met his, her head spun. For a second, she couldn’t get a word out.

Li Xun took in the whole exchange without letting any emotion show. “Junior Sister Ye,” he said, “what exactly did you say at the time? Was there anything that could be taken as provocation?”

His voice had a quiet steadiness to it, something that soothed the heart. Ye Ru glanced at him, a faint flush rising to her cheeks before she replied, “Of course not. I only meant that Senior Brother Zhu Hong and the others were drawing on the yin qi too quickly. At that rate, the spring would soon be depleted, and it could even disrupt the flow of the local earth veins, so I just...”

Li Xun waved her off, then swept his foot across the long grass, pressing it down to reveal the rocks and soil underneath.

His expression changed.

He lifted his head slightly, signaling Ming Li to take a look. Ming Li glanced over, then gave a wry smile and shook his head.

Everyone else looked puzzled, not understanding what was going on. Only Yin Tuo seemed to have some idea.

Then Li Xun said, “If I remember right, a few years back our sect found another Yin Qi node not far from here. That one was even larger than the Hundred-Yin Convergence Site. We even fought a battle with the Venom Veil Sect over it just to claim the spot. So why didn’t you go train there instead?”

He was talking to Zhu Hong.

Zhu Hong froze for a moment, then glanced at Yin Tuo’s dark expression and felt a chill in his chest. But he couldn’t stay silent. Choosing his words carefully, he said, “A few of our senior brothers are in the middle of an important stage of cultivation there. We didn’t want to disturb them, so… we had to find another place.”

Ming Li and Li Xun both sighed at the same time, and even Yin Tuo, standing off to the side, pressed his lips together. He was clearly thinking the same thing they were.

Their strange expressions made Shui Die Lan, hovering in midair, too curious to resist. She fluttered down and gave Li Xun a light pat on the shoulder.

“What are you sighing about now?” she said.

From that, everyone could tell her relationship with Hundred Ghosts was far from ordinary.

Li Xun didn’t bother to explain, and just gestured toward the ground. “See those cracks in the earth? They’re signs of the local Earth Qi converging. Normally it wouldn’t show up this clearly. But the Hundred-Yin Convergence Site that used to regulate the flow of this Earth Qi has almost been drained dry. The earth veins around here have become unstable, and the surface soil’s starting to give way. If they keep drawing energy like this, these mountains might just collapse.”