"My Mud Pill Palace..."
Xu Ying's voice trembled slightly. From the moment he caught Nuo Peng off guard, severing the transplanted Mud Pill Palace cave-heaven from her body, to the moment he refined it, only an instant had passed.
The Mud Pill Palace cave-heaven was bound to his bloodline, breathing in unison with him. Inside his body, wheel after wheel of Mud Pill cave-heavens emerged of their own accord, merging into this ancient cave-heaven one after another, fusing into a single whole in the blink of an eye.
With a whoosh, the woodcutter leaped into the air, swinging his golden axe down toward the Mud Pill Palace cave-heaven behind Xu Ying.
Startled, Xu Ying moved to dodge, only to see the axe sweep through without leaving a trace—the woodcutter's strike failed to sever his Mud Pill Palace cave-heaven.
Yet the gale whipped up by the golden axe rattled the cave-heaven violently, throwing Xu Ying off balance and sending him stumbling beneath the blade.
The woodcutter froze in surprise. Having watched Xu Ying effortlessly sever Nuo Peng's cave-heaven, he had assumed he could do the same by following suit, never expecting the strike to be entirely useless.
Before Xu Ying could steady himself, the vegetable farmer's carrying pole whipped in from the other side, striking him squarely across the body!
The woodcutter and vegetable farmer had pursued Nuo Peng neither for vengeance nor for treasures, but solely to seize the Nuo Ancestor cave-heaven in her possession.
Now that the cave-heaven had changed hands, they immediately shifted targets and attacked Xu Ying!
Xu Ying channeled Tianshu's divine ability to endure the blow head-on. The golden carrying pole sent him hurtling through the air, and wherever his trajectory passed, countless corpses of Xu Ying tumbled from the sky, each meeting a gruesome death.
Nuo Peng took to the air, her voice shrill and agonized: "Give me back my cave-heaven!"
Unlike Tao Danyang, who had been unable to refine immortal herbs once separated from his cave-heaven and had needed to maintain its operation at every moment to replenish his lifespan, Nuo Peng had used the Nuo Ancestor cave-heaven to completely refine her immortal herbs.
Over tens of thousands of years, she had harvested countless anglers, refining immortal pills from their flesh and blood, and every drop of those pills' medicinal power had long since been fully absorbed. With ample lifespan remaining, she would not perish simply because Xu Ying had stripped her of the Mud Pill Palace cave-heaven.
Yet without it, her cultivation was far beneath what it once was.
Even after activating Tianshu's divine ability, Xu Ying failed to dissipate all the force behind the vegetable farmer's golden carrying pole; a portion of that terrifying power still tore into his body!
*Crack!*
His flesh and blood blasted apart. A cataclysmic tempest erupted within his Realm of Xiyi: the Five Peaks immortal mountains upended, the Heavenly Mountain snapped in two, and the Heavenly River ran dry.
Yet in the next breath, boundless vitality surged forth from the Mud Pill Palace cave-heaven, cleansing and scouring his mortal vessel in an instant. The Heavenly River roared anew, the Heavenly Mountain reconnected, and the Five Peaks immortal mountains were fully restored to their pristine splendor.
The moment Xu Ying hit the ground, his body was whole again, marred only by lingering Dao wounds he had not yet had time to purge.
The vegetable farmer's magical arts and divine abilities belonged to the methods of the Great Shang era. Unraveling the remnants of those abilities within the wounds was not difficult for Xu Ying, but before he could refine them away, Nuo Peng had already lunged at him.
The old crone was in a frenzy. The black and white serpents soared up and down, immortal qi crisscrossing the air. Coiling around Xu Ying, they exerted a sudden burst of violent force, turning into two twin streams of black and white immortal qi. Caught at their center, Xu Ying's physical body instantly shattered into pieces!
The twin streams of black and white qi ground together, crushing his bones and scattering his ashes!
Both rushing forward, the woodcutter and the vegetable farmer froze in their tracks. "The ageless immortal is dead?"
For countless ages, the ageless immortal Xu Ying had been a living legend of the Yuanshou world. Having lived through vast stretches of time, ageless, immortal, and indestructible, no matter what methods anyone had used to wound or kill him, none had ever truly ended his life.
Yet now, the ageless immortal was dead!
Xu Ying's physical frame was pulverized, his flesh and blood reduced to dust.
As the black and white qi ground thoroughly through the wreckage, within the shredded flesh and blood, only Xu Ying's imperishable true spirit remained unscathed and intact. No matter how the black and white qi gnawed and wore away at it, they could not extinguish it!
The imperishable true spirit took the shape of Xu Ying, radiant and gleaming, as if his physical body had merely been a free trinket thrown in by a shopkeeper, while this imperishable true spirit was his true self.
Xu Ying's Mud Pill Palace cave-heaven and Crimson Palace cave-heaven still hovered behind this imperishable true spirit, remaining unsevered despite the death of his flesh.
His imperishable true spirit had weathered the grinding onslaught of the twin streams of immortal qi!
*The true purpose of the Mud Pill Palace cave-heaven isn't an undying body, but using chaotic immortal herbs to forge an immortal physique!*
Amidst the black and white qi, Xu Ying's imperishable true spirit spurred the Mud Pill Palace cave-heaven. The ancient cave-heaven whirred into motion, fishing out immortal herbs from the Sea of Chaos, and boundless medicinal power surged rapidly into Xu Ying's imperishable true spirit.
Flesh and blood sprouted from the true spirit; a new physical body was taking shape!
Delight showed on Nuo Peng's face. Reaching toward both the Mud Pill Palace cave-heaven and the Crimson Palace cave-heaven, she shrieked, "Not only will I reclaim Mud Pill, I'll even gain a Crimson Palace as a bonus!"
Before her fingers could close around the two cave-heavens, an axe blade sheared down, severing one of her arms. At the same moment, the vegetable farmer's golden carrying pole slammed into her other arm, snapping the bone with a crack!
Flanking her on either side, the woodcutter lunged to seize the Mud Pill Palace cave-heaven while the vegetable farmer moved to snatch the Crimson Palace cave-heaven.
Though both were anglers from the Great Shang era, neither possessed the means to sever these two cave-heavens, let alone transplant them into their own bodies!
"Capture the ageless immortal first!" Exchanging a glance, their minds aligned, and both lunged straight toward Xu Ying amidst the black and white qi!
To their shock, the moment their hands entered the twin streams, the flesh melted from their fingers, leaving behind only bare white bone. Alarmed, both thought, *What terrifying power!*
Seeing Xu Ying ground to pieces only for a new body to regenerate, they had underestimated the black and white qi, never expecting it to be so formidable!
By then, Nuo Peng was grievously wounded, and the black and white qi had waned. Flesh rapidly grew across Xu Ying's imperishable true spirit, fully forming a body in an instant, and he broke through the dispersing qi to strike his way out!
The two cave-heavens broke free of the woodcutter and the vegetable farmer, continuing to float behind Xu Ying.
From within the vast, bottomless Mud Pill Palace cave-heaven, chaotic immortal herbs continued to gush forth, pouring into his body and wildly fortifying his physical frame.
*Whoosh!*
The Wuji Immortal Chart swept in, projecting a ray of immortal light that drew Xu Ying inside. Xu Ying instantly flattened, becoming a figure in a painting, and even his two cave-heavens flattened into two-dimensional rings behind him.
Having successfully seized Xu Ying amidst the chaos, Immortal Elder Wuji let malicious resolve flare within him. He activated the Wuji Chart, causing the world within the painting to collapse and annihilate, the Heavenly Dao shattering into oblivion, wiping away everything in existence!
"You slaughtered my successor and severed my lineage—did you truly think I would spare you?"
Immortal Elder Wuji unfurled the Wuji Chart with immense satisfaction, only to see Xu Ying standing perfectly unharmed within the painting, having survived the shaking completely intact.
Immortal Elder Wuji's heart trembled. *I am in the Immortal Realm, after all; working from across the divide is clumsy, and I cannot refine him to death.*
Suddenly, the woodcutter and the vegetable farmer turned into two streaks of flowing light and plunged into the scroll, flattening into paper figures as they lunged toward Xu Ying!
Immortal Elder Wuji's murderous intent blazed furiously. "Entering my immortal artifact of your own accord—do you truly believe this old man cannot kill you?"
He spurred the Wuji Immortal Chart. The scroll expanded ever larger, its landscape resembling ink-wash scenery where immortal peaks sprouted continuously, jagged and intertwined, piercing into the firmament.
Xu Ying, the vegetable farmer, and the woodcutter leaped between the mountains, battling one another while simultaneously dodging the rapidly ascending peaks!
Behind Xu Ying's head, the two great cave-heavens spun rapidly. The Mud Pill Palace cave-heaven in particular continually channeled immortal herbs into his flesh, strengthening his physique.
Suddenly, the Wuji Immortal Chart folded in on itself. Countless mountain peaks hung upside down in the sky, top and bottom colliding, grinding against each other with crushing force.
Immortal Elder Wuji pressed his attack mercilessly, sneering, "Still not dead?"
He unfurled the chart once more, only to find all three figures battered and disheveled, yet none of them dead.
Both shocked and furious, Immortal Elder Wuji altered the scene within the painting again. Portraits of heavenly gods manifested across the ink landscape, coming to life simultaneously and charging toward the three inside!
His magical arts and divine abilities were exquisite beyond compare, a spectacle magnificent enough to make any onlooker gasp in marvel.
Yet in the next moment, the woodcutter and the vegetable farmer each unfolded their Hidden Scenery latent transformation grounds, manifesting their realms of the five immortals to suppress the Wuji Immortal Chart. Cave-heavens hung across the sky of the chart, locking the immortal artifact's power in place!
Axe light flashed and the golden carrying pole danced, striking down one heavenly god after another, reducing them to splashes of scattered ink.
Immortal Elder Wuji's eyelids twitched. *Unless I descend to the mortal realm in person, I cannot defeat them.*
Right then, Xu Ying suddenly charged into the woodcutter's realm of the five immortals. Sword light flashed from his hands, severing the woodcutter's Crimson Palace cave-heaven!
With his cultivation severely diminished, the woodcutter brought his axe sweeping down, splitting Xu Ying in half.
Within the scroll, the severed halves of Xu Ying grew into two flat Xu Yings, both charging into the vegetable farmer's realm of the five immortals and cleanly lopping off the vegetable farmer's Crimson Palace cave-heaven as well.
The vegetable farmer hurled his golden carrying pole, turning it into a golden rainbow bridge that flattened both Xu Yings, making them spew blood across the painted ground.
Yet the Xu Yings in the painting still refused to die. Leaping outward toward the edge of the scroll, the two figures merged, popping from flat silhouettes into three dimensions as they vaulted out of the Wuji Chart.
The vegetable farmer and the woodcutter leaped out after him, clearing the Wuji Chart. Glancing at each other's backs, both were taken aback.
Earlier, Nuo Peng had severed their Mud Pill cave-heavens, and now Xu Ying had taken their Crimson Palace cave-heavens. Of their six great cave-heavens, only four remained, costing each of them a considerable portion of their cultivation.
"Nuo Peng is a Nuo Ancestor, so she can sever others' cave-heavens. But why can the ageless immortal do it too? He even severed Nuo Peng's Nuo Ancestor cave-heaven..."
Having survived to this day, both were exceptionally sharp, and they arrived at the crux of the matter in an instant.
"Could the ageless immortal be the true Nuo Ancestor?"
The moment their feet touched the ground, they saw that Xu Ying and Nuo Peng were already gone. Xu Ying had clearly fled far into the distance the moment he broke out of the Wuji Immortal Chart, with Nuo Peng giving chase behind him.
Behind the pair, the Wuji Immortal Chart moved to slip away. Suddenly, a carrying pole pressed down onto the scroll, and Immortal Elder Wuji's voice drifted from within: "Sirs, grievances are better resolved than compounded..."
Without a word, the vegetable farmer reached into the chart, retrieving his severed Crimson Palace cave-heaven and transplanting it back onto his body.
The woodcutter retrieved his own Crimson Palace cave-heaven as well. Stepping forward in unison, they recovered the Mud Pill cave-heavens that Nuo Peng had cut down earlier, restoring themselves to peak condition before setting off in pursuit.
Gradually, the avatar of Immortal Elder Wuji coalesced within the Wuji Immortal Chart—white-haired with a youthful complexion, bearing the ethereal grace of an immortal.
As the chart hovered in midair, the immortal elder looked in the direction of Xu Ying's escape, lost in thought. "Just what did this brat do to have the Immortal Realm go to such great lengths to put a bounty on him, to the point that even Fairy Pengyan descended to the mortal world? Fairy Pengyan was dazzlingly beautiful in those days; who would have thought that in the mortal world, she would turn into an old crone..."
Suddenly noticing something, he turned the scroll around. A large snake, a big bell, and an immortal plant were stealthily slipping out from the Wuji Golden Hall!
The immortal elder laughed in sheer fury. "My Wuji Sect was wiped out, and yet you dare come scavenge off the ruins! Today, I shall refine and kill you all first!"
Just as he raised the Wuji Immortal Chart to strike ruthlessly, the large snake opened its maw and spat something out, hurling it into the chart!
The object was a square seal bearing the character for "cage." As it landed within the chart, the snake chanted beneath its breath, and the cage seal popped open.
A black insect with curved scissor-like mandibles poked its head out, crept from the opened cage, and with a buzz, unfurled its wings and beat them vigorously.
Immortal Elder Wuji's face twisted in horror. "Immortal insect!"
*Buzz!*
The immortal insect abruptly split, multiplying into countless microscopic bugs invisible to the naked eye, scattering in every direction!
Immortal Elder Wuji immediately activated the chart, shifting the Heavenly Dao within the scroll in an attempt to obliterate them. Yet this insect was formed from an exceptionally terrifying immortal Dao, completely beyond the ability of an immortal like him to contend with.
"Bastards!"
Immortal Elder Wuji's avatar was both terrified and furious. Seeing the sky-blotting swarm lunge toward him, he roared, "You will die a wretched death! I am an immortal, and I will hack you into ten thousand pieces—"
In no time at all, the insects devoured the world within the painting along with Immortal Elder Wuji's avatar, leaving not a scrap behind. Even the Wuji Immortal Chart itself was gnawed down to nothing!
Gathering into a dark cloud, the immortal insects prepared to take flight, only for the big bell to invert and slam downward. With a deafening *gong*, it trapped the swarm beneath its rim!
"Master Qi, hurry!"
Seeing that the bell's walls were about to be gnawed through, Yuan Qi darted forward and activated the "cage" rune inscribed upon the bronze exterior without hesitation. Beneath the bell, the countless immortal insects merged two by two, ultimately consolidating back into a single thumb-sized immortal insect pinned within the cage rune.
Frantic and enraged, the immortal insect scurried back and forth inside the cage, gnawing violently on the bars with an ear-grating screech.
The purple immortal plant poked its head out. The insect immediately fixed its gaze on it, glinting with malice as it raised two saw-toothed legs and rubbed its mandibles together, showering sparks into the air.
Terrified out of its wits, the purple immortal plant fled back into Yuan Qi's Realm of Xiyi.
Shi Yuqing walked over, looking at Yuan Qi and the big bell with a mixture of shock and bewilderment.
The scene just now—Yuan Qi releasing the insect to devour both Immortal Elder Wuji's avatar and the immortal artifact, the bell suppressing the swarm, and Yuan Qi sealing the insect away, all executed in one seamless flow—filled Shi Yuqing with awe and reverence.
She had originally planned to burn incense and plead for the aid of the immortal sword Siwuxie, never imagining that Yuan Qi and the bell could clean up the aftermath on their own.
And clean it up so crisply.
What she did not know was that unleashing the insect to gnaw on Immortal Elder Wuji's avatar was something Xu Ying had already done once before, and Yuan Qi was merely following his example.
Having stayed at Xu Ying's side the longest, ever since Xu Ying kicked him out of the tree to learn sword control, Yuan Qi had grown diligent and studious, unwilling to remain just a dried snake.
*Among them, I'm the one who seems most useless,* Shi Yuqing thought to herself.
The big bell inspected its body, noticing that its walls had been gnawed noticeably thinner. "Ah Ying is moving too fast for us to catch up. For now, we should head to Haojing to see the Son of Heaven of Zhou. He has plenty of hands; finding news of Ah Ying will be much easier through him."
Yuan Qi nodded. "Ah Ying made a pact with him to explore the Heavenly Dao. If Ah Ying breaks free, he will certainly go there."
Shi Yuqing hesitated briefly, then said, "I still have to return to the Sword Sect to instruct the disciples, so I won't accompany you. Ah, right!"
Blinking, she reached out as if possessed and produced several Grand Supreme Elder medallions, smiling. "My Sword Sect is being rebuilt from the ground up, and we are in dire need of people, demons, treasures, plants, and insects. Would you care to become Grand Supreme Elders of my Sword Sect?"
A moment later, Yuan Qi, the big bell, and the purple plant each wore a Grand Supreme Elder medallion tied to them.
Shi Yuqing then refined a golden cord for the immortal insect, telling Yuan Qi to find a way to tie it around the insect's neck—if the crease between its head and thorax counted as a neck.
The insect glared at her with murderous eyes, but refrained from eating the Grand Supreme Elder medallion.
Relieved, Shi Yuqing waved farewell and departed.
"Master Qi, how many Grand Supreme Elder medallions do you think Sect Master Shi prepared?" the big bell asked.
"Plenty, for sure. When she opened her Realm of Xiyi earlier, I saw a whole pile inside—at least several hundred."
"Is that how the Mount Shu Sword Sect became a renowned great sect?"
Chapter 270