Xu Ying traversed ridges and peaks until he arrived at a cluster of cottages nestled in the mountains. The lush green hills and clear waters formed a pleasant scene beneath faint clouds and high peaks, bringing an open, refreshing ease to the mind.
Outside the cottages lay a few mu of open ground, already planted with crops.
The cluster of cottages was actually a small town cradled by the mountains, built with white walls and dark tiles. Xu Ying felt a prick of disappointment; the buildings looked somewhat similar to the Xujiaping he had seen at the Wangxiang Platform, but the layout was different.
Evidently, this was not Xujiaping.
"People have settled here in the Kunlun Ruins? Perhaps the townsfolk know where Xujiaping is!"
Hope welled up within him. He instructed, "Seventh Master, you look rather ferocious. Be careful not to frighten the people in town."
Yuan Qi felt terribly wronged. Though he was a giant snake, his looks certainly had nothing to do with ferocity. If anything, black and white horns had sprouted on his head with mists drifting between them, and he possessed a Dao image, which gave him an imposing yet approachable air instead.
Xu Ying turned to the bronze bell. "Lord Bell, you're covered in blood and various scars. You'd better hide too, lest we look like villains."
The bronze bell felt just as wronged, grumbling inwardly, *Wasn't all this blood splashed on me because you had me kill people? And now you're complaining that I look ferocious and sinister!*
"Master Grass, keep your head down too," Xu Ying said. "You grew on a grave mound; watch out that you don't bring bad luck to other people's homes."
The purple immortal plant flew into a rage, ready to brawl with him then and there.
The bronze bell hastily intervened, counseling, "Master Grass, don't fuss with him. He's suffering from homesickness and fear—there is a sacred place in his heart, and he's terrified he isn't pure enough and might taint his ancestral home. Let's just humor him."
Yuan Qi shrank his body, and the bronze bell and purple immortal plant retreated into his Realm of Xiyi.
Seeing this, Xu Ying could find no more fault with them, but he began to worry that he himself looked too fierce and might disturb the townsfolk. He stopped, had Yuan Qi spit out a bright bronze mirror, and spent quite a while tidying himself before it, making an effort to practice a smile.
A moment later, wearing a rather stiff smile, Xu Ying stepped into this mountain town.
At the town's entrance stood an archway carved with the name "Xiadu."
There were not many people in the town, both young and old. They dressed simply and lived quietly. Upon seeing Xu Ying, they turned toward him one after another, breaking into smiles.
Scorched by the blazing sun, their faces bore a dark bronze hue tinged with a deep red flush, and their smiles seemed simple and honest.
The architecture here was ancient, having weathered the wind and frost of ages untold. Several peculiar sculptures stood within the town, presumably the gods they worshipped.
That god had a tiger's head, a human face, and nine tails, crouching within the town's shrine. Behind the shrine lay the ridgeline of nine great mountains.
Seeing this, Xu Ying felt a faint tremor in his heart and immediately realized the god's origin.
This deity was in fact the nine mountains and the hill beneath the town. Viewed from afar, the hill and the nine mountains behind it formed the shape of a tiger's head with nine tails. The people here worshipped gods according to the contours of the landscape—a custom of sacrificial worship so ancient that it predated the veneration of Yin Gods by far, stemming from primordial times!
Yet to Xu Ying's surprise, before this statue with a tiger's head, human face, and nine tails, there was no incense, nor was there an incense burner. Clearly, offerings had ceased for who knew how long.
"Seventh Master, something isn't right."
Xu Ying grew wary, his divine sense rippling as he said, "If the people of Xiadu were the original inhabitants here, how could they not worship their own god? The decay of incense offerings here shows the people in this town are not locals!"
Yuan Qi felt a chill and peered around surreptitiously. Every person in the town had stopped whatever they were doing, their gazes locking onto them.
These people had been smiling for a long time, and the smiles on their faces had begun to stiffen.
Although Yuan Qi was a demon Qi Refiner, he had not taken human form and possessed a Dao image. If ordinary mortals saw him, even if they did not scatter in terror, they would at least be chattering in shock. Yet in the eyes of the people of Xiadu, there was no curiosity and no fear. Nor did anyone step forward to ask where Xu Ying had come from; they merely stared at him with an eerie, bizarre gaze.
"Something is wrong."
Xu Ying turned, intending to leave Xiadu Town. At that moment, the residents of Xiadu stood up one after another, blocking his path. Their expressions remained as before, sporting stiff smiles and uncanny gazes.
Suddenly, a mountain gale swept down the street with fierce violence, blowing open the doors on both sides.
Xu Ying's pupils constricted sharply. Behind the doors lay withered skeletons completely stripped of flesh and blood, yet the clothing on them had not rotted away!
The garments on these bones were entirely different from what the townsfolk wore. The skeletons were dressed mostly in linen, woven with care, and adorned with bronze coins and gold ornaments at the hems.
The attire of the Xiadu townsfolk was nothing like that. Their clothing was embroidered with patterns resembling Heavenly Dao runes, and both the style and the fabrics were ancient.
Behind those skeletons were mountains of skulls, filling the rooms to the brim!
Gnaw marks marked the bones, as if the flesh and blood had been devoured mouthful by mouthful, and even the threads of meat between the joints had been licked clean!
"Ah Ying, there are treasures inside the houses," Yuan Qi whispered.
Xu Ying slowly retreated. He, too, had spotted those treasures; some even displayed the textures of the Heavenly Dao. Although these artifacts were not Heavenly Dao divine artifacts, their power was extraordinary, surpassing many heavy treasures refined by Qi Refiners at the Ascension stage!
What was more terrifying was that every household had such treasures, as though they were meant to suppress those withered bones and skulls, guarding against them rising from the dead!
The bronze bell shuddered. If so many treasures swarmed them at once, it would be blasted into a sieve!
Xu Ying had never encountered artifacts branded in such a fashion. The treasures he had seen previously—such as those of Qi Refiners—were usually branded with their cultivated Dao images, while Nuo masters branded them with the Hidden Sceneries they visualized. Cultivating the Heavenly Dao specifically and branding it into magic artifacts was a refining method he had never witnessed before. Among the common masses of the lower realm, dedicated inheritances of the Heavenly Dao were exceedingly rare!
"Into the shrine!"
Xu Ying made a snap decision, wheeling around and darting into the shrine. The townsfolk outside halted their steps, standing motionless beyond the threshold.
A low voice drifted from the crowd: "To think that outside the legal net, an unrecorded stray still remains. Our years of waiting here were not in vain."
"He is of the Undying People of Kunlun..." another voice murmured in the crowd.
An old crone let out a sinister chuckle. "The exact same bloodline as the Undying People we slaughtered. I can smell the fresh, sweet scent in his veins—it makes my fingers itch with appetite. It has been so long since I tasted Undying People so fresh..."
She pushed back her sleeve to reveal shriveled, wrinkled skin, devoid of any flesh beneath. "Look, even my skin has dried up!" she cried.
The townsfolk's Adam's apples bobbed as they stared hungrily at Xu Ying.
Within the doorways blown open by the mountain wind, the treasures branded with Heavenly Dao patterns gradually stirred awake, weaving together an uncanny Heavenly Dao domain.
From within the domain came the heavy cadence of sacrificial chants. This Heavenly Dao domain enveloped Xiadu Town, leaving Xu Ying and his companions no path to heaven and no door into the earth!
Xu Ying steadied his mind and moved to the back of the shrine, only to find several townsfolk stationed outside the rear exit, cutting off his retreat. Even if he could carve a bloody path through them, he would hardly be able to withstand the Heavenly Dao domain.
*They seem to hold some fear of this shrine; they don't dare enter.*
Xu Ying immediately scanned the shrine. It was clean and spotless, yet entirely devoid of writing.
The statue worshipped at the center stood towering and majestic, radiating pulses of divine might. The nine tails behind it traced the ridges of the mountain range. Aside from that, there was nothing else in the hall.
"This god must be the mountain god worshipped by the residents of Xiadu Town," Xu Ying whispered. "Earlier, someone in the crowd said the residents of Xiadu were the Undying People. What did they mean? Could they, like me, be ageless immortals?"
He was utterly perplexed. His own experiences were already extraordinary; could there truly be others like him who remained immortal and deathless in mortal flesh?
Yuan Qi said, "Ah Ying, they also said your blood tastes the same as the Undying People's. The people outside definitely aren't the original residents of Xiadu. From the sound of it, they ate the Undying People who originally lived here. And they called you a fish that slipped through the net..."
Xu Ying said nothing, continuing his search through the shrine in hopes of uncovering the secret behind why these strange figures dared not enter.
Yet the hall was bare, leaving only the nine-tailed statue with a tiger's head.
Yuan Qi shouted, "Ah Ying, look outside!"
Xu Ying looked out and saw the townsfolk retrieving treasures gleaming with the might of the Heavenly Dao—sabers, spears, swords, halberds, bells, cauldrons, towers, and pavilions—encircling the shrine and forming a grand array.
The might of the Heavenly Dao overflowed from those treasures, growing ever stronger, pressing upon the shrine's walls and roof until they loosened and cracked, bricks and stones peeling away constantly!
Xu Ying frowned, staring at the central statue with the tiger head and nine tails. A sudden spark struck him, and he said rapidly, "Seventh Master, bring out incense!"
Yuan Qi hurriedly opened his mouth. From the heap of odds and ends in his belly, bundles of incense and candles flew out. Xu Ying instantly set up an altar, planted the incense sticks and candles upon it, and lit them all.
Wisps of incense smoke curled upward, drifting straight into the nostrils of the tiger-headed, nine-tailed statue.
The statue suddenly gave a violent shudder and came to life on the altar! Shaking its body and swishing its nine tails, it crouched down, thrusting its massive head right before Xu Ying to inspect him from side to side.
Xu Ying caught the rich scent of incense smoke qi coupled with a bloody stench in its breath.
"Chant my true name!" the giant head bellowed, its roar so deafening that the skin on Xu Ying's face rippled back in folds, blowing his hair completely straight.
Yuan Qi shouted, "Ah Ying, the Heavenly Dao array outside has activated!"
The Heavenly Dao domain grew increasingly oppressive and terrifying. The outer walls of the shrine shattered with crackling snaps, and stone pillars floated into the air, steadily disintegrating!
The vaulted ceiling of the shrine was also breaking apart, and the ground beneath their feet loosened and collapsed, shrinking the space they could stand on by the second!
Seeing the dire situation, the statue bellowed fiercely, "Chant my true name!"
Cold sweat poured down Xu Ying's forehead as his mind raced wildly, yet he had no idea what its true name was. The statue's voice was immense and profound, as if descending from the highest heavens, carrying rolling Dao sound that deafened the ears as it commanded sharply, "Chant my true name!"
Countless images flashed through Xu Ying's mind like a revolving lantern. All at once, a name surged to the surface. Without a second thought, he shouted at the top of his lungs, "High God Lu Wu—!"
The statue with the tiger's head, human face, and nine tails broke into a broad smile. Rampant divine power erupted from within its body, and a thunderous roar echoed through the mountains.
"Lu Wu is here! Awaiting your command!"
Thunderous crashes reverberated endlessly through the nine mountain ranges. On the periphery of the Kunlun Divine Mountain, an ancient, boundless divine power awakened, carrying Xu Ying and his companions smashing through the Heavenly Dao domain and soaring away into the sky!
Chapter 229