Xu Ying was thoroughly excited, calculating in his mind, "As a Qi Refiner, controlling my own magic power should be second nature. The gods' magic power takes the form of flying swords, so their control over magic power is essentially the control of flying swords. I can control my vital qi just the same. When my vital qi surges outward, it can manifest as the Elephant King Divine Body—so of course it can also manifest as a flying sword!"
Brimming with enthusiasm, he tried to shape his vital qi into a flying sword, but several attempts ended in failure.
Not the least bit discouraged, Xu Ying continued his trials. A sword's form differed from the Elephant King Divine Body, however. The divine body followed the circulation pathways of a cultivation technique, possessing natural structure and constraints. A sword shape had no such constraints; it required Xu Ying to control his vital qi with absolute precision to weave it into a blade, making it exceedingly difficult.
"Perhaps I can try controlling a willow branch first."
A thought stirred in Xu Ying's mind. He immediately channeled his vital qi into the branch, guiding it with his divine sense before slowly opening his palm.
Wobbling unsteadily, the willow branch actually hovered in midair.
Xu Ying was overjoyed. With a shift of his will, the branch began to trace awkward, crooked paths through the air.
Yuan Qi was dumbstruck. "He actually pulled it off... Which of my words gave him the insight? If I can enlighten him, I can definitely enlighten myself!"
Confidence suddenly rushed through the snake.
What was Xu Ying, anyway? Just a junior enlightened by Lord Snake! If Xu could do it, Lord Snake certainly could as well!
Xu Ying directed the willow branch, attempting to execute the sword techniques he had comprehended earlier. Yet the twig was far too light, making it difficult to wield; if he exerted even a bit too much mental force, the forms fell apart.
Clumsily steering the branch, he executed the sword techniques again and again, learning how to harmonize thought, divine sense, and vital qi.
Though he pondered it entirely on his own, his progress was astonishingly rapid. In no time, he worked out a sword control technique, maneuvering the willow branch through all the fundamental sword forms!
Yuan Qi still could not figure out which sentence had done the trick. Seeing Xu Ying executing the sword arts with fluid grace, grief and indignation welled within him. "What use is this brain of mine?"
The willow branch flew back, hovering half a foot above Xu Ying's shoulder. It moved in perfect tandem with him, following wherever he walked.
Xu Ying frowned slightly in thought. "My control of the sword is as natural as an extension of my arm, but I wonder if I can unleash sword qi and sword light the same way I do with a sword in hand?"
Seeing him deep in thought, clearly stumped by the dilemma, Yuan Qi smiled. "Ah Ying, I've heard that clever people can often draw parallels..."
Xu Ying's eyes lit up, and he clapped his hands hard. "You couldn't be more right! Thank you for the pointer—I finally understand!"
"I haven't even finished speaking... Ah, forget it, as long as you're happy."
Beside himself with excitement, Xu Ying rapidly explained as he commanded the willow branch through sword katas: "You're completely right—drawing parallels! I use my divine sense to control the vital qi within the branch, which makes my divine sense like an arm. When I grip the branch, vital qi passes through my arm into the wood, allowing me to unleash sword qi. In other words, I can channel my own vital qi along my divine sense, feeding it continuously into the flying branch to unleash sword qi and sword light!"
The willow branch whipped around Xu Ying and Yuan Qi in swift arcs. Suddenly, with a sharp hiss, an invisible ray of sword qi shot from the tip of the branch, piercing the air with an ear-splitting shriek.
Yuan Qi hastily yanked back his tail. The sword qi grazed the tip of it and struck a boulder, slicing the rock clean in two amidst a plume of rising dust!
Xu Ying directed the branch to weave back and forth. At its tip, sword qi crisscrossed with peerless sharpness; with a single flash, the entire canopy of a massive tree was sliced off cleanly!
The massive crown went flying with a whoosh, tumbling more than a dozen paces before crashing to the ground!
Yuan Qi's heart pounded in terror. That treetop had to weigh over ten thousand jin! To be hurled more than a dozen paces by the force behind Xu Ying's strike—the power contained in that sword was unimaginable!
Such sword qi was fully comparable to the incense flying swords of the gods!
Xu Ying recalled the willow branch, elated, and laughed heartily. "Xiao Qi, without your guidance, there's no way I could have mastered the sword control technique so quickly!"
Summoning his courage, Yuan Qi said, "See, studying really does pay off. Ah Ying, uh... since I guided you into mastering it, could you teach this sword control technique to me?"
Xu Ying nodded repeatedly. "Of course. It's very simple."
Yuan Qi strove to learn for a good while, his suspicion deepening. "Very simple? Are you pulling my leg?"
He practiced over and over, yet failed to make the willow branch rise into the air even once.
Xu Ying had no choice but to leave him to his devices and continue refining his own technique. A sudden thought struck him: "Using divine sense and vital qi, I can make the willow branch fly. My divine sense doesn't bear the branch's weight. In that case, can I step onto the branch and fly myself?"
No sooner had the thought occurred than he put it into action. With a stir of his divine sense, the willow branch rose.
Xu Ying leaped, planting his feet on the branch, only for it to smack straight into the ground.
He tried again, but the branch still could not support his weight and plunged down once more. After several more attempts, the willow branch simply failed to carry him aloft.
"Ah Ying, we've reached Mount Wuwang!"
Yuan Qi suddenly picked up speed, shouting with excitement, "Hurry! This is my old home—three generations of the Niu family have lived on Mount Wuwang! To our north lie Shuikou Temple and Emperor Shun Temple; to the west is Yilin Temple; to the south is Mount Xiao; and to the east is Niaotangpu. Wild fruit grows everywhere across our mountain. Whenever the autumn leaves turn yellow, the transformed demons in the mountains carry baskets of ripe wild fruit to the markets outside to trade for rice and flour."
He rushed up Mount Wuwang and pointed westward with a laugh. "Look, over there is Yilin Temple. The temple's abbot is the demon god Bai Junzi... Huh? Where's Yilin Temple?"
Yuan Qi froze dumbly on the mountain, suddenly seized by panic. "No! This isn't right! Where did such a massive temple go? And Shuikou Temple! Where is Shuikou Temple? Where is Niaotangpu? A whole town of that size..."
Craning his neck, he stared around in utter confusion, mumbling, "Is this still Mount Wuwang...?"
He was intimately familiar with everything surrounding Mount Wuwang, yet now, towering peaks rose on all sides like cliffs hewn by axes and cleavers. Broad rivers wound between the valleys, and far in the distance, a vast lake rolled with waves like a sprawling sea.
The only thing familiar left was Mount Wuwang itself.
Suddenly, the earth shook and the mountains trembled. Mount Wuwang rumbled as it began thrusting upward, a colossal mountain mass continuously bursting out from beneath the ground, rising higher and higher!
A sheer cliff appeared right before Yuan Qi, sprouting outward from the mountainside right in front of his eyes!
Moments later, the precipice had grown to nearly a thousand zhang in height. Giant boulders continuously sheared off the cliff face, crashing down with thunderous booms.
Yuan Qi tilted his head up, his eyelids twitching violently. Carved into that precipice were two towering characters:
*Wu Wang.*
Even the Mount Wuwang of his memories was gone; now only Mount Wuwang of No Folly remained.
"Qinyan Cave! Right! My Qinyan Cave must still be here!" Yuan Qi slithered hurriedly down the slope toward Qinyan Cave.
Xu Ying rushed after him. Before long, Yuan Qi finally located his ancestral home. Surges of glowing mist burst from the cave's mouth, vibrant and resplendent, teeming with boundless vitality.
As Xu Ying reached the cave entrance, the waves of radiant mist washed over him. The healed wounds on his chest suddenly began to itch again, prompting him to scratch unconsciously.
The more he scratched, the itchier it became. Hastily pulling open his collar to look, he froze.
Several scars ran across his chest, including three claw marks so deep the bone had once shown—injuries left by the Stone Mountain God that had nearly disemboweled him.
After bathing in the dragon's blood on Wangxiang Platform, all of Xu Ying's wounds had closed, but they had left hideous, shocking scars behind. The marks on his chest had resembled little red dragons crawling across his flesh, rough and unsightly to the touch.
Yet now, those scars were rapidly fading away!
Where the scars vanished, the skin became completely indistinguishable from the rest of his flesh!
It was as if his body had never been injured at all!
"This Qinyan Cave holds such vibrant vitality—it's truly extraordinary!" Xu Ying thought, filled with shock and suspicion. Was this really just the place where three generations of the Niu family had lived?
The scars on Yuan Qi's body faded as well, leaving no trace of his past injuries. Caught completely off guard by the transformation in Qinyan Cave, the snake threw caution to the wind and bolted straight inside.
Fearing something might happen to him, Xu Ying hurried after.
Qinyan Cave ran over a dozen li into the heart of the mountain. With this tectonic upheaval transforming the mountain into Mount Wuwang of No Folly, the cave had expanded many times over, plunging far deeper than before!
Xu Ying followed Yuan Qi onward, noting spirit herbs growing all along the cave walls, wafting strange fragrances.
Some sections of the stone walls looked freshly formed, rough and devoid of age-old patina, yet giant spirit pearls hung embedded upon them, shedding faint, eerie light that illuminated their path.
"Xiao Qi, your home is huge," Xu Ying marveled, glancing left and right.
Yuan Qi led the way through winding twists and turns crowded with precipices, stalactites, and bizarre rock formations.
Within Qinyan Cave lay caverns inside caverns, interconnected like a labyrinth. Some sections were completely submerged, requiring them to dive underwater.
Carrying the bronze bell, Xu Ying dove and swam alongside Yuan Qi. Strange, kaleidoscopic rocks surrounded them, along with massive stone tablets inscribed with peculiar scripts. However, the light was too dim to read them clearly, leaving their contents a mystery.
Xu Ying was filled with astonishment. Without Yuan Qi leading the way, he would never have imagined that such an otherworldly expanse lay beneath the water!
"With Qinyan Cave this convoluted, our pursuers will never find this place!"
At that thought, Xu Ying chuckled wryly to himself. Mount Wuwang had transformed so drastically that even Yuan Qi could barely recognize his surroundings, let alone the government authorities or the City God.
"They probably don't even know where Mount Wuwang is now," Xu Ying thought.
Yuan Qi swam toward a stone wall, only to find it webbed with cracks, a section having collapsed entirely. They swam through the rubble and surfaced, coming face-to-face with a flight of white jade stairs leading out of the water.
Xu Ying followed Yuan Qi up from the water to find a white jade bridge spanning the water's surface, stretching forward.
Only upon reaching this point did Yuan Qi breathe a sigh of relief, muttering, "My home is still here... my home is still here..."
He continued leading the way. Xu Ying walked along the white jade bridge, unsure of how far they had traveled, until the water ahead suddenly opened into a vast, luminous expanse. A covered corridor bridge rested upon the rippling waters, and a palace carved entirely from white jade came into view.
Yuan Qi laughed. "This is where I cultivate! Without me to lead the way, not a single soul could ever dream of finding this place!"
Xu Ying looked around, rendered speechless by amazement. Who could have imagined that such a magnificent palace lay tucked away within a mountain cavern?
Furthermore, the vital energy here was even richer, boosting his cultivation with every breath he took. It was nothing short of an immortal paradise!
Suddenly, Xu Ying froze, his eyes locked straight ahead, his heart pounding erratically.
In the center of the white jade palace ahead rested a pitch-black coffin.
Not far from the coffin, a young maiden stood with her back turned to them, gazing up at a towering jade tablet.
"Xiao Qi, didn't you say nobody could enter without you to lead the way?" Xu Ying lowered his voice, stealthily taking a step backward.
The snake demon Yuan Qi spotted the black coffin as well and shrank back, groaning under his breath, "For more than three hundred years, our Niu family has lived here without a single outsider ever setting foot inside! How on earth did that female ghost find this place?"
The upheaval of Mount Wuwang had already pushed him to the brink, and now his ancestral home had been overrun by a ghost!
The "female ghost" they spoke of was none other than the maiden from the coffin inside the ancient well of the derelict mountain temple.
The coffin resting inside the white jade palace was the very same black coffin from the well!
Xu Ying would never forget the events of the night the Nai River changed its course. He could never mistake her: the maiden standing beneath the jade tablet was the very "female ghost" who had broken free from that coffin!
Xu Ying still vividly recalled being controlled by the eerie eyes within the well, his limbs forced to haul the chains as bloody water bubbled furiously from the depths!
He still remembered her sitting by the rim of the well, combing her hair!
*The bronze bell was injured by her, too!*
Xu Ying suddenly remembered: the bronze bell had been damaged by the maiden in the coffin, while she had been suppressed inside the well by the bronze bell for who knew how many years. Their hatred for each other was irreconcilable!
And right now, the bronze bell was resting right in his hands...
The moment the thought crossed his mind, he tossed the bronze bell straight over the bridge railing.
*Plop.*
The bronze bell plunged into the water.
Inside the white jade palace, the maiden was alerted by the sound. She turned her head, her breathtaking appearance catching Xu Ying off guard, making his breath hitch.
The maiden seemed to recognize him, showing a hint of surprise as if wondering how he had managed to find this place. But she promptly lost interest in Xu Ying, turning back to gaze at the jade tablet once more.
Xu Ying kept backing away, but the bronze bell floated on the water's surface as if made of wood, drifting along to follow wherever he walked.
Xu Ying's scalp prickled with dread. In his heart, he pleaded frantically, *Sink to the bottom! Master Bell, would you just sink to the bottom already?!*
As if throwing a tantrum, the bronze bell bobbed steadily upon the water, refusing to go under, practically looking to drag him down with it.
Just then, a faint sigh drifted from the white jade palace. A soft, melodious voice rang out, echoing through the mountain sanctuary like an orchid blooming in an empty valley—calm and mysterious.
"South of Xiaoxiang, the abyss of Cangwu. Beneath Mount Jiuyi, the ageless immortal. This place of ascension has ultimately fallen to desolation."
The maiden murmured softly, "Could even one as mighty as you not escape birth, aging, sickness, and death? Could even a sanctuary belonging to someone as mighty as you be reduced to a dwelling for fiends and monsters?"
Hearing that voice, the bronze bell shivered once and slowly sank to the bottom of the water.
Chapter 20