Qunyi Strait.
Qunyi was densely strewn with reefs amidst surging waves. Beyond the scattered, broken shoals lay larger islands stretching in an unbroken chain, where cultivators could occasionally be seen rising, descending, and alighting.
Li Ximing had met with Li Zhouwei on the northern shore and seen to a few matters before swiftly stepping through the Great Void to depart. Feigning a search for traces of spiritual flame, he had wandered the East Sea for quite some time to ensure that no one noticed him, and only then followed the clues all the way here.
The pair of islands before him consisted of one small and one large. The smaller resembled a deer's head, while the larger resembled its body, protruding slightly longer with jagged, craggy rocks, looking as though it wore a helmet.
This pair of islands—the smaller named Lulai and the larger Changzhou—were not small in area by the standards of Qunyi. Yet owing to their remote location and unremarkable spiritual aura, they had no fame whatsoever. To the Li family, however, they were not unfamiliar; the clan annals mentioned the names of these islands, for Li Xuanfeng and Li Qinghong had once visited this place.
Yet gazing across the Great Void, Li Ximing felt a touch of surprise in his heart:
'There are actually quite a few traces of human life here.'
Turning his gaze, he saw numerous temples on the islands and monks walking about. Though their cultivation was poor, the place appeared quite bustling and lively. They called themselves the "Dishe Palace," but unfortunately, the spiritual aura was meager, and only a single Embryonic Breathing cultivator presided over it.
These people were clearly isolated from the world. Having assumed the grand title of a "palace," they possessed only an Embryonic Breathing cultivator. Li Ximing swept his gaze over them and stepped down through the void. He discovered that the Dishe Palace possessed only three cultivation manuals in total; stacked together, they were not even as thick as a quilt, and as for their quality, using them to prop up a table leg would leave it unsteady.
Stranger still, the Dishe Palace worshipped an incongruous monk who clearly cultivated a method of the Purple Gold lineage yet claimed it was the Buddhist Dharma, referring to the Embryonic Breathing stage as a "Dharma Protector."
Not wishing to reveal his tracks, Li Ximing took a general glance, picked up a chronicle, and casually browsed two pages, instantly understanding the reason.
'Back then, Aunt and Granduncle visited this place, and Granduncle even shot and killed a Master named Ewu. The common folk of that era worshipped the monk, and the practice was passed down until it became like this.'
'Originally, earthborns were in the majority, domesticating mortals alongside them to cultivate. But after several uprisings, they were nearly all wiped out. As spiritual items grew scarcer, mortal cultivators gradually took over.'
It did not seem as though Buddhist cultivators had placed a chess piece here; it was merely a coincidence. He let out a quiet sigh of relief, stepped into the Great Void, traversed the earth veins, and traveled deeper.
After delving underground for a short while, where water veins and earth veins intertwined, Li Ximing felt a sudden fluctuation within the Great Void. Probing forward and backward, he found something amiss in both directions and came to a realization:
"The spiritual aura here must be anomalous—one cannot set foot here within the Great Void!"
Calculating his position slightly, he broke through the Great Void and emerged, manifesting within the earth vein. As sky light flickered around him, the black stone dissolved immediately, melting out a small cavity just large enough for him to stand alone.
This spot faced directly into the earth vein, where fiendish qi billowed for a moment. Li Ximing looked closely and saw black stone above, below, left, and right. Forming an incantation gesture, he turned into a streak of bright light and descended along the earth vein. Soon, the space opened up into a wide, lightless karst cavern.
The cavern was vast and cavernous. Countless pitch-black stalactites hung from the ceiling like jagged canine teeth. On the ground lay a vast expanse of dark water, with slender tips of rock piercing the surface and an untold number of stalagmites hidden within the lake.
The place was permeated with fiendish qi of extraordinary density, without a shred of spiritual aura in the air. The earthly fiend within the entire cave mansion formed a complete cycle, and from time to time, the sound of dripping water echoed.
'No wonder this place could not be seen from the Great Void.'
This lake of fiendish qi encircled a stone platform enveloped in a deep-blue halo. The doors of the cave mansion were tightly shut, appearing exceptionally secluded amidst the gloomy fiendish qi.
Li Ximing reined in his divine ability and lowered his gaze to inspect it closely. A look of delight immediately surfaced in his eyes:
'This entire lake is Youqian Fiend Liquid… a secondary spiritual material formed when Earth Fiend Cold Spring meets the qi of Kanshui and becomes diluted and transformed… In that case, there must be a springhead of Earth Fiend Cold Spring at the bottom of this lake…'
Earth Fiend Cold Spring was already a spiritual water of the Foundation Establishment grade. But a springhead was unlike ordinary items—so long as the springhead here remained undamaged, it was bound to yield a steady flow of Earth Fiend Cold Spring. Even if it took a considerable amount of time to produce a single portion, that was still a marvelous thing!
Instead of rushing to plunge into the lake, he stepped through the air, reached out a hand, and lightly rested it upon the deep-blue radiance within the lake. A hazy dark mist surged forth, clearly the fluctuation of a formation.
'A Violet Palace spiritual formation!'
This spiritual formation was unlike the Zhaoguang Xuanzi Great Formation on the Li family's lake; it had not been built as a mountain-protecting grand formation, appearing compact, exquisite, and rich with ancient flavor.
"It is indeed still here…"
Delighted, he extended a finger and gently hooked out a wisp of deep-blue radiance. Contemplating it in his hand, he nodded inwardly:
"A spiritual formation of the Fushui lineage. Quite peculiar. Common knowledge holds that Fushui is a water of black and white, yet it also carries a deep-blue glow. There must be something unusual behind this."
Opening this formation was by no means an easy task, but Li Ximing was not panicked in the least. Closing his eyes, he held one hand before Shengyang. His body vanished into thin air, and a moment later he reappeared, a jade box now in his grasp.
From this jade box, he withdrew a small bead the size of a fingernail and held it quietly before him.
The bead suddenly melted, and streaks of pale, eerie white light leaped out, echoing the radiance within the grand formation. Astonishingly, the colors of the formation began to fade as it trembled faintly.
This small bead possessed its own wondrous effect: it had been condensed from a wisp of aura. Long before, Lu Jiangxian's spiritual sense had traversed the grand formation, relying on the domineering might of his divine sense to engrave a strand of the same aura upon the formation plate!
Now brought out, the formation's radiance lost its luster as if greeting its master, allowing Li Ximing to drift into the formation with unhurried ease. Seeing this, he was all the more certain:
'This cave mansion was indeed left behind by the figure from the heavens!'
As he set foot before the gate, he saw a horizontal plaque above inscribed with three characters:
Zhentao Mansion.
The tightly sealed stone doors swung open with a boom. Inside lay a dense white mist, teeming with spiritual aura of consummate purity, held back from rushing out only by a translucent screen of light before the portal.
With the formation unraveled, the cave mansion was virtually undefended. Li Ximing stepped inside. What met his eyes was a spacious circular hall. On an elevated dais sat an altar desk, behind which stretched an immense mural painted with extraordinarily eerie patterns.
This circular mural seemed to project across the entire cave mansion, extending all the way to the ceiling, depicting a magnificent scene of great softshell turtles embracing in an intertwining of black and white.
Rich, vibrant colors gathered into a circle, focusing the hall's hues upon the central seat, while the remaining strands of black and white converged overhead, casting spots of light large and small across the floor.
To the left and right stood three tables on each side, stepping downward in order. Everywhere, the tables and wine vessels were painted with gold patterns over a deep-blue ground, possessing an immense sense of depth and emitting a faint, cold sheen of consummate luxury.
Li Ximing reined in his faint shock. A single glance told him that these tables were crafted from Zhanfu Blue Gold. Nowadays, such a spiritual material was used exclusively to forge daggers and blades, yet the master of this cave mansion had used it to furnish tables—a testament to boundless wealth.
The center of the hall had been excavated into a circle and paved with exquisite jade. Surges of white-glowing spiritual liquid roiled within the pool, constantly sending up wisps of white vapor that replenished the spiritual energy of the cave mansion.
Li Ximing stepped forward and glanced at it:
'The liquid in the pool is Bichen Water, another spiritual material of the Fushui lineage, usually used by high-level cultivators for quenching during artifact refinement… The master of this cave mansion was likely extraordinary. Could they have been an artifact refiner…'
'And yet… one has only heard of the Fushui alchemy methods of the Mi Fan lineage, by which Li Encheng earned great fame in his day, but I never imagined Fushui could be used to refine artifacts…'
The central altar desk stood somewhat higher. Li Ximing could not afford to dwell on too many thoughts; stepping down through the air, his gaze swept across the desk.
Neatly arranged on the desk was a jade box. With just a glance and a touch of his finger, Li Ximing knew what lay inside.
Violet Palace spiritual water—a Violet Palace spiritual water of the Fushui lineage!
Only a cave mansion of this caliber could yield such a treasure so effortlessly!
Li Ximing exhaled an excited breath and gently picked up the jade box. Enveloping the box with his divine ability first, he slowly lifted the lid, only to see a field of deep navy blue containing a miniature lake.
The hues of this lake shifted in varying depths, complete with blooming lotus blossoms, swaying reeds, and rice-grain-sized white egrets soaring back and forth across the water's surface, pure white with every feather distinctly delineated, appearing just like living creatures.
As his gaze fell upon it, the reflection of a morning sun instantly rose over the lake. Immediately, all the wondrous visions dissolved away, turning into a clear and azure rippling wave that revealed the true form of the spiritual water.
With just that single look, Li Ximing recognized it at once:
Donglu Origin Water!
The Li family had been raised upon a lake. Though they lacked a Fushui heritage, Lake Wangyue had once been one of the world's renowned great marshes, rich in records and legends. Consequently, items of Fushui were actually easier to identify!
The most detailed account of Donglu Origin Water appeared in Two Hundred Years of Linghai Commandery's Scenery and Customs, gifted by the Xiao family. Donglu Origin Water was also called Xuanhu Yiqi Dongyuan. Xueji Gate had once suffered turmoil on account of this item, so the text, besides giving physical descriptions, recorded:
'Kin of the Xuan Yuan, commanders of lake demons; born white, reddening in ten years, turning azure in a hundred, and calving once in three hundred years. From their mouths they spit Xuanhu Yiqi Dongyuan, which can steady lakes and marshes and perceive transformations. Consumed on the night of the new moon, it greatly benefits the Shaoyin fiendish qi, granting an eye upon the cheek.'
Though Two Hundred Years of Linghai Commandery's Scenery and Customs was an inheritance of the Xiao family, it was not dedicated to recording spiritual items after all. It had merely mentioned these few sentences, yet that was enough for the Li family to remember the item vividly.
'Donglu Origin Water… There are few profound Fushui lineages left in the world, making this item all the more precious, not to mention… it is likely something certain lineages desperately covet.'
Thrilled beyond measure, he quietly tucked the item into his sleeve, sighing with immense emotion:
"Only an opportunity like this could yield an item of such grade! In ordinary times, which traveling cultivator wouldn't keep their cultivation methods and spiritual treasures hidden away behind formations? One can barely kill them, let alone obtain something like this!"
One had to realize that this cave mansion was veiled tight and fast by a Violet Palace formation. While it was not vast and sprawling like a mountain-protecting grand formation, its quality was extraordinarily high—compact yet formidable. Relying on him alone, he might not have been able to break it!
Even if the formation had been breached, this precious land and the items within the cave mansion could not have been preserved intact. Without the bead bestowed by the heavens, he would likely have been left staring blankly at the formation right now.
Reining in his excitement, he dispersed into light. Sweeping his spiritual sense across the hall, he quickly checked the various entrances flanking the hall, only to find every one of them firmly shut. He immediately scanned the surroundings.
'Where is the formation plate?!'
This cave mansion was so tidy, devoid of any sign of disarray, indicating it was highly probable that the master had not perished abruptly outside, but had departed in an orderly, planned fashion. Bluntly put, in such cave mansions, nine times out of ten the most valuable item was the formation plate itself.
Having already obtained the extraordinarily rare Donglu Origin Water, though a Violet Palace grand formation was less rare than origin water, it was only a notch lower in value. Even if he intended to explore further, he first had to refine the formation plate and brand it with his own mark so he would not run into walls at every turn!
Yet looking around, white mist drifted across the vast, empty hall, with no trace of a formation altar. Li Ximing had no choice but to close his eyes slightly and invite the aid of the celestial artifact.
Closing his eyes for merely an instant, realization dawned upon him. Stepping forward briskly, he returned to the altar desk without lingering, bypassed it, and immediately looked toward the immense mural behind it, gently reaching out his hand.
The back of that great Xuan Yuan turtle was snowy white, etched with immensely intricate patterns. As his divine ability gradually made contact with the turtle's shell, the misty white glow lit up bit by bit, revealing a deep-blue disk densely inscribed with mysterious runes.
It was none other than the formation plate of the grand formation within this cave mansion, embedded directly into the wall!
'How cautious… what remarkable methods! It seems the original master did not even trust those who managed to enter the formation, going so far as to nest it within, embedding the formation plate beneath the protection and concealment of the formation itself…'
Thoughtful, Li Ximing placed a hand over the formation plate and circulated his divine ability. Sheets of sky light flooded into it, staining it with a faint gold. After half a quarter of an hour, the radiance within the cave flickered faintly—the Violet Palace grand formation had changed masters!
'It is mine!'
Now, as he took command of the formation plate, the name and wondrous powers of this grand formation gradually surfaced:
Xuan Yuan Manor-Guarding Spiritual Formation!
This was likewise a Violet Palace spiritual formation, yet its wondrous effects and might differed entirely from his family's Zhaoguang Xuanzi Spiritual Formation. It possessed three distinct wonders: Shi Kan, Cun Ling, and Xuan Fu.
The wonder of "Shi Kan" was exceedingly peculiar: the formation had a Kanshui aperture deep underground that continuously produced a certain kind of Kanshui qi. From what Li Ximing could tell, nine times out of ten, this was the source behind the transformation of the Earth Fiend Cold Spring outside.
The wonder of "Cun Ling" was the purpose of the central pool. Over time, it continuously condensed Bichen Water within; once the pool was filled after a hundred years, it would condense into a portion of White Feather spiritual material.
As for the final power of "Xuan Fu," in ordinary times it gathered the surrounding earth veins, water veins, and spiritual veins, twisting them into a single strand to become the foundation of the mystic mansion and augment spiritual aura. Should anyone invade, it could transfer all attacks sustained by the formation entirely onto the foundation of the mystic mansion.
In other words, among all three wondrous powers, there was not a single one for active offense. Even the final defensive power seemed quite perfunctory, as if merely an afterthought, causing Li Ximing to be secretly astonished:
'The wonders of this cave mansion are too deliberate. Every single one was shaped according to the master's wishes, created for a specific purpose. If the master could truly point to whatever wonder they desired and have it realized, the one who forged this formation was certainly no ordinary formation master!'
"Condensing Violet Palace spiritual materials… Just seeing such a thing fills one with yearning… and it is far beyond what people today can comprehend!"
It was precisely because these wonders were so exacting that even someone like him who did not understand formations could see that Shi Kan and Cun Ling were both built upon the foundation of the final power, Xuan Fu. Every transformation was derived from the interaction between the earth veins, water veins, and spiritual veins; should the location change, the first two wonders would likely fail.
Comparing it further with his family's Zhaoguang Xuanzi Spiritual Formation, Li Ximing gained an even deeper realization. Gazing quietly at the formation plate before him, countless emotions surged within him:
'The family's Zhaoguang Xuanzi Spiritual Formation is a Violet Palace spiritual formation for the Li clan, while this is a Violet Palace spiritual formation for the Violet Palace individual. Serving different masters, how could they be the same?'
Characters Appearing in This Chapter
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Li Ximing [Early Violet Palace] [Violet Palace Alchemist]
Chapter 921