Chapter 130: Chapter 124: Copper Corpse, Sword Light, Vortex

The wisp of Divine Sense controlling the Iron Corpses spiraled out of control.

All nineteen Iron Corpses crashed to the ground and began to burn silently, ceasing all movement.

"What a Divine Technique!"

The deathly pale young man raised an eyebrow, a hint of surprise flashing across his features. His gaze, now fixed on Fang Cheng, had grown solemn.

A dark, cyanotic tinge flashed across his face before vanishing. He glanced at the Poison Gu in the corner and said with a faint smile, "I am half-human, half-corpse. I have no fear of poison."

Fang Cheng frowned to himself.

Just then, a tremendous clap of thunder echoed from outside. The Yin Qi in the Yin Pool began to boil, then suddenly surged toward the sky!

The wide sleeves of Fang Cheng’s robes billowed and snapped as if caught in a violent gale.

The Li Family Cultivator’s expression dimmed, a look of sorrow crossing his face. With a soft sigh, he reached out and made a grasping motion toward the center of the Yin Pool.

A massive, thirty-foot-tall Copper Corpse slowly rose from the Yin Pool. A heart-stopping Evil Qi billowed out, filling every inch of the third floor of the Treasure Vault.

Warning bells screamed in Fang Cheng’s mind. The urgent feeling of imminent death seized him, straining his nerves to their limit.

’I can’t fight this thing head-on!’

This Tier Two Copper Corpse was far beyond what his Vajra Gu and Poison Gu could handle.

With a wave of his sleeve, he recalled the Poison Gu. He then pointed toward the glowing barrier at the entrance, and a peerlessly sharp beam of sword light suddenly lashed out.

A rolling peal of thunder followed in its wake.

Within that beam of light was a dazzling Flying Sword. It was about two feet long, shuttle-shaped and handleless, with a long, slender blade so sharp it seemed to shimmer like a pool of clear autumn water.

It was none other than the Tier Two Lower Grade Flying Sword he had purchased at the Yinluo Sect Marketplace—Dragon Abyss!

The beam of sword light easily tore through the glowing barrier. Fang Cheng’s figure flickered, transforming into an agile streak of light as he executed a Sword Escape and vanished in an instant.

The next moment.

A shadowy, black phantom materialized where he had just been standing. A trail of afterimages lingered before slowly dissipating.

It was the Tier Two Copper Corpse!

The Li Family Cultivator frowned, muttering in astonishment, "A Tier Two Flying Sword, and Sword Qi Thunder Sound... Which Immortal Sect does a core Disciple like that belong to?"

In that brief moment of thought, he abandoned any plans to pursue Fang Cheng.

Clearly, there were more important matters to attend to.

The Tier Two Copper Corpse’s body dissolved into a shadowy black phantom, shot out of the Treasure Vault, and soared straight into the sky.

The Thunder Light flickered unstably in the sky, the very same that had just trapped Wang Huayuan and the mysterious cultivator.

The shadowy black phantom instantly plunged into the Thunder Light.

In the next instant, the Tier Two Copper Corpse silently appeared behind Wang Huayuan.

The Wang Family Patriarch was busy fending off the Yin Thunder surging at him from all directions. He faintly detected an abnormal presence behind him, but before he could react, a monstrous, black hand pierced straight through his body!

Five foot-long, jet-black fingernails burst from his chest before being violently yanked back out.

Wang Huayuan spun around in astonishment, only to see the towering, burly Copper Corpse standing behind him, a scarlet heart clutched in its hand.

It was his heart...

The Copper Corpse swallowed Wang Huayuan’s heart in one gulp. Then, grabbing the Wang Family Patriarch by his head and feet, it gave a vicious pull and ripped him in two!

And with that, the Patriarch of the Wang Family breathed his last.

The Copper Corpse casually tossed aside Wang Huayuan’s remains, transformed back into a shadowy black phantom, and lunged at the mysterious cultivator.

Seeing Wang Huayuan killed in a single blow, the man’s eye twitched. Without a word, he produced a dazzlingly brilliant golden talisman.

The next moment.

His body was enveloped in a blinding golden light. With a single flicker, he broke through the seal of thunder, transformed into an impossibly long streak of golden light, and vanished over the horizon.

A Tier Two Talisman: the Vertical Earth Golden Light Talisman!

The Copper Corpse let out a furious roar, and the Yin Thunder in the sky began to collapse, converging upon its body.

In the blink of an eye, all the Yin Thunder dissipated.

The Copper Corpse’s incredibly dense Evil Qi slammed back down to the ground, and it began a one-sided slaughter.

Only a handful of the Wang Family Cultivators and Netherworld Valley Loose Cultivators managed to escape in the chaos. All the others were slain by the Copper Corpse.

For the Li Family Cultivators, the ground that night was littered with prime materials for refining Yin Corpses.

...

...

...

’The Wang Family is probably finished.’

Fang Cheng left the Li Family estate and flew south without a backward glance, soon arriving back at Brocade Cloud Stream.

’The Wang Family must have suffered a devastating defeat tonight.’

He returned to his Cave Mansion and cultivated for several days, telling no one—not even Ye Yan or Die’Er—about the incident at the Li Family Treasure Vault.

One day, Die’Er returned from running errands, bringing with her all the latest rumors from the outside world.

The first piece of news was about the rise of the Li Family. The new Patriarch, Li Lie, had successfully refined his Life Talisman at the mere age of fifty and had decisively slain the Wang Family Patriarch on the night of the assault.

All but a handful of the cultivators who attacked the Li Family that night had lost their lives on the Li Family’s grounds.

The Li Family had used the opportunity to refine a large batch of Yin Corpses, which they distributed among their members, greatly enhancing their strength.

The Wang Family was left reeling from this blow, unable to recover.

The elders and disciples who had remained at the Wang Family estate that night saw Patriarch Wang Huayuan’s Soul Lamp go out. Knowing this meant disaster, they followed a pre-arranged contingency plan: they broke the clan into smaller groups and initiated a mass relocation.

By the time the Li Family arrived, the Wang Family had already scattered to the winds, leaving behind nothing but an empty shell.

All of the family’s Spirit Stones, treasures, and ancestral legacies had been taken away.

The Wang Family had preserved its core strength, but no one knew when they would be able to rise again.

It was also possible they would never rise again, and the surviving Wang Family cultivators would gradually decline, eventually becoming just another face among the countless Loose Cultivators of the Cultivation Realm.

Rumor had it,

that before the Wang Family left, they had sold their Spirit Veins, mines, and Spirit Fields as a package deal to the Zheng Family of the Flame God Palace.

When the Li Family arrived in force, they were met by cultivators from the Zheng Family.

Li Lie fought a duel with one of the Zheng Family’s Life Talisman Elders, but they were evenly matched, and both eventually withdrew.

Next,

the Li Family began to settle accounts with Netherworld Valley.

Reportedly, Li Family cultivators had moved into Netherworld Valley and intended to imitate the old ways of the Ten Thousand Poison Gang by collecting rent from the Loose Cultivators for use of the Spirit Veins.

The cultivators in the valley were furious but dared not speak out.

Just then, He Yujing, president of the Cultivation Association, broke through to the Life Talisman Realm. He became another Loose Cultivator to have refined a Life Talisman within Netherworld Valley, the first to do so in a hundred years.

His fame skyrocketed overnight.

On the day of He Yujing’s Life Talisman Ceremony, both the Cao Family and the Zheng Family came to offer congratulations, jointly backing the Cultivation Association to oversee Netherworld Valley.

Seeing this, the Li Family had no choice but to rein in their ambitions for the time being and abandon their plan of extorting wealth from Netherworld Valley.

Perhaps only Fang Cheng knew why the Li Family was in such a hurry to gather Spirit Stones...

Soon after, the situation in Netherworld Valley calmed down again. The only difference was that with fewer cultivators around, it seemed a bit deserted.

However, with the Cultivation Association now governing with a light hand and the Life Talisman Cultivator He Yujing at its helm, its reputation began to spread, gradually attracting many Loose Cultivators to the area.

He Yujing had not invited Fang Cheng to his Life Talisman Ceremony.

Fang Cheng was more than happy to avoid such external affairs, and he continued to live a reclusive, low-key life.

...

「Several months passed in the blink of an eye.」

「On this day.」

Fang Cheng entered the secret chamber of his Cave Mansion as usual, passed through a long, gloomy tunnel, and arrived in the Dragon Head Cave.

He passed through the Dragon Head to enter the Secret Realm of the Myriad Phenomena Immortal Sect, ascended the mountain from its waist, and soon reached the summit.

The ancient Bluestone Ruined Pagoda stood on the mountaintop, surrounded by a profound silence that made the area feel like a land of the dead.

Only five stories of the ruined pagoda remained. The glowing barrier on it was slowly receding upward from the base.

At the stone gate, only an inch or so of the light remained, and it was receding upward at a rate visible to the naked eye.

Seeing this, Fang Cheng returned to Purple Cliff Cave to make arrangements for Ye Yan and the other two women. Afterward, he came back to the front of the ruined pagoda and waited quietly.

There was no sun or changing of seasons in the Secret Realm. Fang Cheng sat cross-legged, entered a meditative trance, and cultivated as he waited.

After about three or four days, the glowing barrier on the stone gate silently cleared the doorframe.

Fang Cheng let out a long sigh of relief. ’After waiting for nearly two years, I can finally enter this ruined pagoda!’

He got up, went to the entrance, and gave the door a push. It felt heavy. He pushed harder, and the stone gate slowly swung open.

Behind the door was a swirling, ten-foot-wide vortex of white light. Countless milky-white runes floated within the halo, and waves of spatial fluctuations emanated from it, creating a truly fantastical sight.

Clearly, this ruined pagoda was a spatial treasure!

Fang Cheng steadied his mind and stepped through the entrance. The vortex of white light suddenly began to spin faster, and an irresistible suction force erupted, pulling him inside in an instant!

All Fang Cheng could see was a vast expanse of white, as if he were walking through a dense fog.

He didn’t know how much time had passed before his vision suddenly cleared, and a new scene opened up before him.

...