"If Yuan Wuji isn't Yuan Wuji, then who could he be?" Xu Ying and the bronze bell both shivered.
Xu Ying chuckled. "This is just wild speculation on our part; it can't be taken seriously. Perhaps Yuan Wuji is simply a peerless genius who had an epiphany after obtaining the Yellow Court Dao Attainment Art, cultivating straight to the level of an immortal..."
Yet as he spoke, his confidence dwindled.
To cultivate to Xu Fu's caliber in just six months was nothing short of underestimating Xu Fu!
Once the terrifying shockwave passed, another ten violent collisions echoed out. It was none other than the ten Imperial Mausoleum Golden Men besieging Mount Fangzhang, exchanging a blow each with Xu Fu!
In those mere ten clashes, ten supernatural tempests were unleashed, forcing Xu Ying, Yuan Weiyang, Zhu Chanchan, and the others to keep their heads down, unable even to watch the battle.
Suddenly, Zulong's voice drifted into the distance, sneering coldly, "Xu Fu, don't dream of escaping! And that ageless immortal—hand him over!"
Xu Fu had evidently fled, with Zulong leading the ten Imperial Mausoleum Golden Men in pursuit.
Xu Ying's heart pounded erratically. *Zulong is far too domineering! Wait, what does Zulong want with me?*
He suddenly felt a prickle of intuition. Turning his head, he saw Yuan Wuji watching him with a faint, knowing smile, sending a chill through his heart.
Once Zulong and Xu Fu were far away, Yuan Wuji stood up and smiled. "Now is the time for us to properly explore the Mount Li Mausoleum. Come, back to Mount Li."
The dragon sparrow flapped its wings with great effort, struggling into the air as it dragged the ornate carriage and the plump, strange snake inside, wheeling around to fly toward Mount Li.
Yuan Wuji smiled. "Now, no one is left to fight us for treasures. According to certain records, besides the Heirloom Seal of the Realm and the Twelve Golden Men, there should be another treasure inside the Mount Li Mausoleum."
His eyes flickered, but he did not say what this treasure was.
Upon flying back to Mount Li, everyone stepped down from the carriage and followed Yuan Wuji into the cave-heaven within the mountain.
The Mount Li Mausoleum was vastly different from before. It had endured a catastrophic battle. In the sky, many of the peaks forged from the Five Sacred Peaks immortal mountains within the Realms of Xiyi of Pre-Qin Qi Refiners had fractured, and countless seals and restrictions throughout the firmament had been demolished!
The river of mercury boiled, giving off toxic fumes. The mountain woods burned, and supernatural arts detonated at irregular intervals, sending out shockwaves that obliterated everything around them.
Between the forests and the sky, brilliant lights streaked past from time to time, whether stray supernatural arts or wondrous treasures.
Xu Ying looked up and saw corpses drifting in the air, likely the dead Nuo masters, held motionless by some unknown power suspended in midair.
Yuan Wuji cleared the path ahead while the others followed safely behind.
Having recovered some of her cultivation, Zhu Chanchan hammered and tapped at the bronze bell, smoothing out its surface.
The bell had clashed head-on with an Imperial Mausoleum Golden Man earlier, leaving it battered and severely drained of power. Later, Xu Ying had swung it like a mallet against the Realm of Xiyi behind the Golden Man, beating it until air leaked through it on all sides.
Only now was it beginning to recover.
Xu Ying chatted with Yuan Weiyang about Dao arts, turning to the topic of heavens induction. Yet as he explained how he sensed the heavens, his mind grew muddled, and vivid scenes flashed uncontrollably before his eyes.
Those scenes were his experiences in Diqiu—the desolate city that had suddenly appeared, where every meal was preserved in the state it had been in right before the disappearance, devoid of any living soul.
He remembered his conversation with Beichenzi, remembered Heaven-Human Induction, remembered Weixu, and remembered a girl named Feng Xue'er from that era of Heaven-Human Induction.
They had promised to spend their lives together, and to follow one another even in the next life.
The memories of that time surged through Xu Ying's mind like a tidal wave. The youth's eyes widened in a daze as tears brimmed and spilled down his cheeks.
His vision blurred. In his eyes, Yuan Weiyang's figure gradually overlapped with Feng Xue'er's. Her voice, her expression, and her smile seemed right before him.
Yuan Weiyang had been discussing the subtleties of heavens induction when she suddenly saw tears streaming down Xu Ying's face.
Caught off guard, she waved her hand in front of him in a flurry.
Xu Ying reached out, catching her wrist, his voice trembling with choked sobs. "Is it you...? When you left, I searched so hard for you."
Startled, Yuan Weiyang gently pulled her hand free and whispered, "Demon King Xu, your memory hasn't fully returned. You're mistaking me for my younger sister, Yuan Rushi."
Xu Ying snapped back to his senses. Closing his eyes, he squeezed away the hot tears, steadied his emotions, and smiled. "Forgive my lack of composure. Just now, I suddenly remembered certain things and lost myself. Brother Yuan, I remember now—you are not a woman."
Yuan Weiyang's image before him sharpened again, no longer resembling Feng Xue'er.
Yuan Weiyang could not shake the feeling that something about Xu Ying had changed, as though he had grown a little older.
The bronze bell also sensed the shift in Xu Ying and asked, "Ah Ying, have you recalled everything from your time as a snake catcher?"
Xu Ying nodded. "Most of those experiences have come back to me."
The bell took flight and slipped into Yuan Qi's mouth with a crisp *clang*.
Sitting inside Yuan Qi's mouth, the young maiden Zhu Chanchan caught its drift and followed it toward the serpent's belly. "Speak your mind, Lord Bell."
Dodging a massive artifact fragment—likely a single tier of the Twelve-Storyed Mansions—Zhu Chanchan caught up with the bell and said, "Yuan Qi's belly has been reforged by me to be impregnable. Not even divine sense can penetrate it."
Ahead of them was an actual waterside pavilion. Person and bell stepped inside and peered through the window, looking out over half of a Jade Pool.
The bronze bell spoke in a grave tone. "Ah Ying said his memories as a snake catcher have returned. I don't know how much of it he's recovered. Do you remember what he was like before he was sealed?"
Zhu Chanchan shuddered, recalling the scene of Xu Ying slaughtering heavenly fiends and battling Beichenzi and his two companions. "Are you saying Ah Ying has turned into Lord Ying?"
The bell bobbed up and down. "I think he's in that Lord Ying state right now! Half a year ago, when Ah Ying was in that state, he fought the heavens into chaos while only at the Third Heaven of Knocking on the Pass! Now he's at the Fourth Heaven—what will happen this time?"
Zhu Chanchan considered it, then shook her head. "You've forgotten one thing. Back then, Lord Ying could slaughter in every direction because the paper talisman incense had been halted! Even though he's regained those memories, the paper talisman incense is still with Beichenzi and the others! Besides, he now has an extra paper talisman seal compared to before!"
Realization dawned upon the bronze bell, and it chuckled. "I was overthinking things."
Zhu Chanchan was somewhat surprised. "Lord Bell, if Ah Ying becomes Lord Ying, shouldn't you be happy? Why are you worried instead?"
The bell hesitated, then said, "I'm a little worried that Ah Ying in his Lord Ying state won't be the Ah Ying of today."
Zhu Chanchan paused, momentarily stunned.
When the bell and Zhu Chanchan emerged, they saw Xu Ying and Yuan Weiyang engaged in an animated discussion without anything amiss, finally putting their worries to rest.
Yuan Weiyang shared her modified Yuan Dao Heavens Induction with Xu Ying, which incorporated methods for refining the divine sense immortal medicine. As Xu Ying cultivated it, he sought even better refinement methods, adding numerous refinements of his own on top of her framework.
Ahead, Yuan Wuji cleared the path, flanked by Old Mistress Yuan and Madame Yuan, while Xu Ying and Yuan Weiyang followed behind. Before long, their conversation turned to the Heaven-Human Induction and Weixu from three thousand years ago.
Xu Ying pondered aloud, "I suspect the sparse lineage of your Yuan clan is tied to Weixu. Do you remember Zhou Qiyun mentioning that comprehending the Dao carries immense peril?"
Yuan Weiyang replied, "I once experienced enlightenment as well, and nearly plummeted into an abyss."
Xu Ying said, "Your Yuan clan's arts require one to be utterly rational and cast aside all stray thoughts. I believe that is meant to resist Weixu, preventing one from falling into it. The people of the Yuan clan are exceptionally intelligent, and paired with the Yuan Dao Heavens Induction, they face a far higher chance of being swallowed by Weixu during enlightenment than anyone else!"
He ventured a guess: "I suspect the reason Yuan Dao Heavens Induction possesses such potent inductive power is largely connected to the Heaven-Human Induction of Emperor Wu's era. This art likely originated during that time."
Yuan Weiyang's heart stirred, and she said, "Using the Eight Sounds of Primordial Nurturing you practiced, I comprehended the acupoints of the human body, visualizing the gods of the heavens within them to devise my own system—half Qi Refiner, half Nuo master."
She smiled faintly, her tone serene. "Now, when I induce the heavens, divine spirits stand guard across all realms, anchoring my physical body and soul. There is no longer any danger of tumbling into Weixu."
Xu Ying felt a surge of deep respect.
Yuan Weiyang had never formally learned the Eight Sounds of Primordial Nurturing from him. Merely by watching him practice, she had memorized the phenomena reflected from the acupoints of his body and attained her own profound realizations, founding a new path and inventing an entirely new art distinct from both Nuo arts and Qi refinement. She was truly a grandmaster!
Hearing her explanation, Xu Ying immediately grasped the ingenuity of her refined method. Pondering briefly, he circulated the Eight Sounds of Primordial Nurturing, marshaling his divine sense to inwardly observe his acupoints.
With every vibration of the Dao sounds, his acupoints became increasingly distinct. Some resembled ceremonial halls, others lotuses or sacrificial altars, while some naturally formed palaces, immortal mountains, and lakes. A few acupoints even naturally bore the likenesses of divine spirits!
Xu Ying froze for a moment, then praised, "Brother Yuan, your talent is truly extraordinary! I never thought deeply about it before, but now I have an epiphany: if we use the Eight Sounds of Primordial Nurturing for inward observation and visualize the body's acupoints, we can commune with the heavens!"
He laughed heartily. "Each acupoint corresponds to a heaven. By drawing upon the power of heavens induction, we can achieve Heaven-Human Induction and explore Weixu!"
Yuan Weiyang's eyes lit up, a smile gracing her face. "That is precisely what I had in mind."
His interest thoroughly piqued, Xu Ying acted without hesitation. He immediately circulated the Eight Sounds of Primordial Nurturing, executing a sequence of peculiar movements atop Yuan Qi's head to visualize his body's acupoints while sensing the heavens within the void, linking his acupoints to them.
He was not copying Yuan Weiyang's art. Yuan Weiyang had forged her own path and was already a master of her generation; her method could not be replicated by others.
To learn her art, one would need to comb through countless manuals to locate the Dao images of the sacred spirits across the heavens. Visualizing just one of those Dao images and cultivating it to the pinnacle would take an eternity; filling every acupoint in the body was as difficult as ascending the heavens.
Xu Ying merely connected the heavens to his acupoints, deepening his induction to tie his physical body to the heavens.
He could not link his divine soul to the heavens the way Yuan Weiyang could; only she possessed that capability.
Having anchored his acupoints to the heavens and reinforced the connection with his divine sense, he looked toward Yuan Weiyang and nodded.
Yuan Weiyang hesitated. "Are we really going to sense Weixu inside the Mount Li Mausoleum? This is a grand tomb, after all. Zulong has revived, but there's no telling what else might be buried here. We might induce something ominous."
Xu Ying agreed, "I also feel this might be a bit rash."
The two exchanged a glance, their minds suddenly aligning in complete unison. Both circulated their techniques at once, instantly entering the state of Heaven-Human Induction!
Ahead, Yuan Wuji was tensely scouring the surroundings, unraveling the lingering seals and restrictions, with Old Mistress Yuan and Madame Yuan assisting from the flanks. The great serpent, Yuan Qi, was dazed and groggy; the bronze bell was focused on siphoning Yuan Qi's blood and qi to nurse its wounds; and Zhu Chanchan looked around restlessly, hoping to scavenge a few more treasures.
Moreover, her Feilai Peak had landed nearby, making the ancient maiden rather anxious.
None of them noticed that, slowly but surely, the sky above the Mount Li Mausoleum was tilting, as though about to plunge into the unknown!
Chapter 129