Chapter 152: Chapter 150: Paradise Celestial Palace

Bu Yunyan hesitated, then said, "Young Master, I wish to ask a favor of you..."

Qin Li looked at Bu Yunyan, sighed softly, and nodded. "Rest assured. Unless I have absolutely no other choice, I won’t kill him."

Bu Yunyan nodded, biting her lower lip. "No matter what, he is my brother..."

Leng Yao and Hu exchanged a glance, both seeing a trace of helplessness in the other’s eyes. There was nothing to be done; at her core, Bu Yunyan was a kind person.

...

Bu Jingfeng refused the guards his father Bu Tong had assigned him, as they were utterly useless. He didn’t wait for his injuries to heal, either. Instead, he planned to worsen his condition just before reaching his sect, thinking it might lessen his punishment.

Qin Li followed Bu Jingfeng the entire way. With Bu Jingfeng’s current strength, he had no hope of discovering he was being followed. Besides, it would never even occur to him that someone would be so audacious as to dare venture into a Mysterious Land alone.

Qin Li’s previous guess had been correct. Bu Jingfeng’s sect was indeed located within the Cyan Dragon Kingdom, only a dozen or so days’ journey from the Imperial Capital.

One day, the carriages Bu Jingfeng had hired finally arrived at the mouth of a mountain valley. Bu Jingfeng disembarked, a vicious glint in his eyes, and struck, killing all of the carriage drivers.

With his Earth Level strength, killing a few ordinary people was as easy as lifting a finger. The men died unjustly, not even knowing what had happened. Watching from a distance, Qin Li was slightly stunned. He hadn’t expected Bu Jingfeng to be so sinister. The mouth of this valley was clearly not the entrance to his sect, so killing these commoners had been completely unnecessary.

This act revealed the viciousness in Bu Jingfeng’s very bones. It seemed he was no different from his old man—a heartless and disloyal coward who bullied the weak and feared the strong.

After killing those men, Bu Jingfeng gritted his teeth and struck himself hard several times. His body flared with blue light, and he immediately spat out several mouthfuls of blood, his spirit visibly wilting.

Qin Li instantly understood the young man’s intention and couldn’t help but feel a grudging admiration for him. ’This bastard isn’t just ruthless to others; he’s just as ruthless to himself!’

After doing all this, Bu Jingfeng tied the carriages together, then staggered onto the first one. He glanced back in the direction of the Imperial Capital, his eyes filled with venomous hatred.

CRACK!

With a flick of the whip, the carriage entered the valley. When it reached the center, it suddenly, strangely, vanished.

Qin Li froze for a second, then realized what was happening. ’There must be some kind of illusion technique in this valley! It’s just like those Illusion Arrays Prince Wu left behind, all meant to deceive people!’

Moreover, if the array master was powerful enough, illusions could be made real. Arrays had once seen a glorious golden age during the Ancient Era, but much of that knowledge was lost with its decline.

In the books Prince Wu had left behind, Qin Li had read many detailed descriptions of arrays. He knew they were powered by Spirit Stones. If the creator was skilled enough, they could even set up a Spirit Gathering Array within the main array to absorb the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi and replenish its energy consumption.

These Mysterious Lands probably all operated this way.

Qin Li thought to himself, deciding not to rush in. Who knew if there was an ambush or something waiting on the other side.

After waiting for a full four hours with no sign of movement, Qin Li finally took a deep breath and flew to the center of the valley. The moment he set foot there, the Innate Purple Qi within his body reacted, beginning to fluctuate faintly.

At the same time, Qin Li felt the space before him constantly ripple. He closed his eyes and released his vast Spiritual Power, following the spatial fluctuations, searching for a pattern within them.

A moment later, a faint smile touched Qin Li’s lips. He had found the way to break the array. It was one of the most common types of Illusion Arrays from the Ancient Era.

Although there were no theoretical problems, it was still his first time breaking this kind of array. Qin Li felt a slight twinge of nervousness, which he immediately followed with a self-deprecating smile.

The Innate Purple Qi in his body slowly seeped out. Gradually, it attuned to the same frequency as the array. Qin Li took a step forward, and his body... vanished abruptly!

The cleverness of this Illusion Array was that if you couldn’t decipher it, you couldn’t even enter. The valley would remain just a valley, and an ordinary person passing through would notice nothing unusual.

Qin Li felt the scenery before him change. His feet were now on a path paved with bluestone, a mountain road winding its way upward.

This was a verdant, sprawling mountain!

The clear chirping of birds occasionally echoed through the fresh mountain air. The Spiritual Qi here was several times more abundant than outside.

Qin Li thought to himself, ’No wonder the legendary Mysterious Lands are all so powerful. With Spiritual Qi several times more abundant than in the outside world, even a talentless person could probably reach the Celestial Level in just a few years of cultivation here! Not to mention, when they go out into the world, they only select the most brilliant geniuses!’

Then, after generations—even dozens of generations—of living and multiplying, they would gradually become a world unto themselves. The descendants of geniuses were unlikely to be mediocre. To Qin Li, the explanation for this was even simpler.

Superior genes!

The Innate Purple Qi within Qin Li’s body produced no fluctuations, so he walked briskly along the mountain path, unafraid of being discovered.

Besides, this seemed to be just the entrance. As far as the eye could see, there were only rolling mountain ranges, with no sign of human habitation.

After walking for over an hour, Qin Li suddenly saw the carriages Bu Jingfeng had brought. They were all stopped on a platform, but the coffins that had been on them were all gone.

There was no one nearby.

Qin Li thought for a moment, then quietly approached the platform. He rounded a bend, and the view suddenly opened up before him.

A colossal palace sat halfway up the mountainside, imposing and majestic! It was several times larger than the Potala Palace Qin Li had seen in his previous life.

From where Qin Li stood, it was about a mile to the palace. It looked as though a massive platform had been forcibly carved out of the mountainside to build this sprawling complex.

’Such power is truly extraordinary!’

Qin Li marveled inwardly. He then saw people walking back and forth on a huge plaza over there. His eyes then fell to the area in front of where the carriages were parked. A stone stele over ten meters tall stood there, carved with several ancient characters.

The calligraphy was powerful and vigorous, filled with a murderous aura. It was clear that the person who had carved these words was also someone of immense strength.

Paradise Celestial Palace!

Qin Li couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath. ’What an arrogant name!’

Just then, two people started walking from that direction toward Qin Li. He ducked behind a large tree in the nearby woods and listened to the two disciples’ hushed conversation.

"Senior Brother, this is really something. All eight of the sect’s Grand Elders and the Sect Leader have come out!" The speaker was a woman with a soft and seductive voice.

A somewhat cold, sinister male voice replied, "Of course they came out. It’s been hundreds of years since our Paradise Celestial Palace suffered such a huge loss! Hmph. A group of disciples from a Mysterious Land, killed by a single Mortal Martial Artist. It’s utterly humiliating!"

"I heard that Mortal Martial Artist is incredibly strong. They were killed while attacking him together. Doesn’t that mean the Mortal Martial Artist’s strength must surpass the Celestial Level? You’d have to be in the Celestial Shattering Realm to have that kind of power, right?" The woman’s voice was cloying and syrupy, with an enchanting quality.

"Not necessarily. I actually think he’s probably from another Mysterious Land. How could a mere Mortal Martial Artist possess that kind of power? Hmph. Regardless, the Paradise Celestial Palace has lost a great deal of face this time. We’ll see how the Sect Leader and the others handle it." As he spoke, the man placed his hand on the woman’s waist and chuckled lewdly. "Talking about them is boring. We have time, so why don’t we do some dual cultivation?"

The woman chided him coquettishly, "You’re impossible! The entire sect is in mourning right now, and you can still think about that!"

"Come on, stop pretending. Weren’t you thinking about me, too?" the man sneered, pulling the woman toward where Qin Li was hiding.

Qin Li cursed his bad luck. ’This damned couple,’ he thought. ’So many of their sect brothers are dead, and they have the nerve to come out here for a tryst in the woods.’

This was clearly not the first time for this pair. The man’s hands were experienced, and in just a few moments, the woman was panting delicately. Just as they were reaching the height of their passion, about to get down to business, a flash of cold light streaked past. Two heads rolled to the ground.

The young man and woman, both of whom had just reached the Celestial Level, had been killed by Qin Li in a single strike. If they hadn’t been so lost in their lust, it wouldn’t have been so easy for Qin Li to kill them.

In a way, their deaths were rather unjust. Who could have imagined that a stranger could infiltrate a sect protected by a Mountain Protection Array?

The very instant Qin Li lopped off their heads, a heaven-shaking aura erupted from the palace on the mountainside! It was accompanied by a thunderous roar. Several figures shot toward Qin Li’s position like bolts of lightning.

’Not good,’ Qin Li thought. He had no idea how they had detected the disciples’ deaths so quickly. He immediately executed his Lightweight Skill, and like a ghost, vanished into the forest without a trace.

Just as Qin Li’s figure disappeared, a handsome, middle-aged man who looked to be in his forties appeared on the scene. Seeing the two disheveled, headless sect disciples, he let out a grief-stricken roar of fury. "What cowardly rat dares to slaughter the disciples of my sect? If I catch you, I will tear out your tendons, scrape your bones, and kill you by a thousand cuts! You have the guts to do it, but not the guts to show yourself? Come out! Come out, you rat!"

A heaven-shaking aura spread out with the middle-aged man’s words, rolling outwards like ocean waves, one after another!