Sacrifice to Heaven

Three Chen later.

Li Qi rode out of Guangyang City with a gloomy expression.

Without a doubt, he was kicked out of the Zhang family.

All signs indicate that what Wang Baiyan said is true.

The Sima of Guangyang was a good-for-nothing who did nothing but occupy a position without fulfilling his duties.

Guangyang Situ was a heartless piece of trash who could actually do something like Blood Sacrifice to guard the pass, and the only reason he gave was to "guard against possible demons".

Guangyang Prefecture is completely rotten.

The Zhang family naturally wouldn't sell him any grain; he was kicked out.

Thirteen Chen have passed since I set off.

It's been a day.

There wasn't much time to waste, so Wang Baiyan's suggestion was his only option at that moment.

Li Qi didn't think Wang Baiyan really wanted to help him; he was sure Wang Baiyan had his own agenda. But it didn't matter; you can't expect everyone to be completely selfless.

If the other side can indeed obtain 300,000 shi of grain, then it is acceptable.

Li Qi rode his horse across the desolate wilderness, pondering the next steps and what precautions to take.

But as he was running, he suddenly reined in his horse and stopped in the middle of the road.

The surrounding area was a quiet forest.

Li Qi sighed, "Who is it? Someone sent by the Guangyang Situ?"

As Li Qi spoke, the atmosphere around them changed, and a middle-aged man in gray clothes floated in.

"To have reached the Innate Realm at such a young age, truly a hero among the young. But how does your newly entered Innate Realm compare to mine?" The middle-aged man in gray stood on the treetop, a blade of grass between his teeth, a sword in his arms, looking down at Li Qi.

"And who are you?" Li Qi raised his head and looked at the man in gray.

His face was weathered, his beard was unkempt, and he wrapped the sword in some tattered burlap. He stood on the leaves, but the leaves did not fall.

"You haven't heard of me? Well, it's normal for a young man to be unfamiliar with the martial world." The man in gray shook his head. "I am Liu Sanlong, the Drifting Willow Sword."

"I started learning swordsmanship at the age of three, began refining my bones at the age of five, killed five bandits from the desolate mountain with five swords at the age of seven, became famous for five thousand miles around at the age of twelve, entered the Innate Realm at the age of twenty, and it has been twenty-three years since then."

"Twenty-three years. I have been a dominant force in the martial arts world for far too long. You are also in your twenties and have achieved the Xiantian realm. You must be a genius, just like I was once. However, I have accumulated twenty-three more years of experience than you."

"Originally, I should have protected and nurtured a junior like you as you grew up. Unfortunately, you offended the wrong people and did the wrong things. Today, I have been entrusted to come and take your life. Is there anything else you want to ask?" The gray-clad man spoke a series of words in a deep voice.

Li Qi, on the other hand, was looking around.

Is this the only person?

"Looking around in the face of a formidable enemy, it seems I overestimated you." The man in gray shook his head.

Since that's the case, then we'll have no choice but to take his life.

The longsword in the gray-clad man's arms was drawn from its sheath.

A flash of sword light, followed by a crisp "pop" sound.

A golden thread swept past, and the sword and the man, who were only half-drawn, were both severed in two.

"I thought there were other people hiding... but it turned out there was only one." Li Qi muttered, urging Old Ma to keep running.

He didn't listen to the other party's account at all.

He's just a martial arts cultivator who's just entered the ninth rank; what threat could he pose?

I thought it was an attack by a group of people, but it turned out to be just one person.

They really looked down on them.

The rest of the journey was peaceful and uneventful.

It wasn't exactly peaceful and uneventful.

There were still some small flies.

However, two golden threads wrapped around Li Qi, following him like a shadow. All the attackers were Decapitation Strike. He killed about ten people along the way, including about two or three ninth-rank officials, and the rest were basically small fry.

But it could be considered peaceful, as even Old Ma's footsteps were not hindered.

After that, no one came.

Soon, he returned to the manor of the Golden Wave Sect.

He dismounted and shouted, "Brother Wang, I'm back! When shall we set off?"

Wang Baiyan came out. "Everything is ready! We're leaving right away!"

The two responded immediately and set off together without any delay.

Shortly after the two left.

Inside Guangyang City, at the Situ Mansion.

The scenery here is beautiful, surrounded by yellow stone walls that are over ten feet high. There are dozens of rooms in the middle, with the river breeze blowing and the moonlight shimmering on the stream. The layout consists of three rooms in the front and three rooms in the back, with a small alley connecting them. The corridors are built through the trees, with long and short lines.

At this moment, in the very center of the room.

Guangyang Situ clenched his fists after listening to the report from his subordinates.

"Piaoxu Sword, the Shannan Brothers, Lü Tieji, He Yuxiu... are they all dead?" Guangyang Situ asked.

"Yes..." the scout below reported tremblingly, "The bodies have all been collected..."

"How is that possible? Isn't this person also a ninth-rank cultivator? I see that his cultivation level is only at the entry-level. As Shaman, he doesn't even have a single Inner Gods. How is that possible?" Guangyang Situ was completely baffled. He even used the phrase "how is that possible" twice in his sentence, which shows how surprised he was.

An ordinary ninth-rank Shaman, without any Inner Gods or any special Law Treasure, was able to kill several ninth-rank shamans in succession!

You should know that those ninth-rank individuals are all renowned figures in the Jianghu (martial arts world) of Guangyang Prefecture. They are not ordinary people; at the very least, they are the leaders of a sect. Among the ninth-rank individuals, they are considered to be of the upper rank, and their strength is extraordinary.

"This person still has Trump Card, so let's not let others die. By the way, let the patriarch of the Zhang family make a move. He is only a little short of condensing Martial Way Divine Intent and has already reached the peak of the ninth rank. He should be able to easily defeat this person."

"By the way, where did he go now?" Guangyang Situ asked.

"I don't know, our other men haven't returned yet," the scout below replied.

"Hasn't he returned?" Guangyang Situ frowned.

Because he knew that if he hadn't returned by now...

Most likely they won't be coming back.

"Hmph, good, good! So that's what happened. Turns out he has someone behind him. He went towards the granary outside the Golden Wave Sect. And the one standing behind him is that 'boss'?"

"I thought this person was genuinely trying to save people out of kindness. Although he was unreasonable, he was still a good person, so I didn't plan to kill him. I didn't expect him to be just an outsider dog who wanted to hinder the formation of the great formation. Wishful thinking! Give the order! Never mind, don't give the order, I'll go myself!" Guangyang Situ was furious at the thought of his master. He immediately stood up and walked out the door.

The scout was left standing there, wiping away cold sweat, fearing he would be blamed.

The scout breathed a sigh of relief after seeing Lord Situ walk away, and couldn't help but exclaim, "This grand formation must have been incredibly difficult to construct..."

After saying that, he chanted a spell, his body turned into an illusion, and he secretly left the place.

A good spy will not reveal himself easily.

Putting those matters aside, Li Qi rode his Dragon Steed at breakneck speed, and in less than a quarter of an hour, he had already entered the cave abode.

As expected of the cave abode of a seventh-rank expert, it contains a hidden paradise. Entering it, one finds a vast and open world, like a secluded paradise.

The place was completely empty; everything had been moved out long ago, not a single thing was left, not even the potted plants, lawn, fish, birds, and the like.

They really dug three feet into the ground...

"In a place like this, Brother Wang actually managed to discover the hidden little world. You're really... perceptive." Li Qi looked up at the scene in the cave abode that looked like the ground had been scraped clean, and his eyes twitched slightly.

"Haha, without this scavenging, how could we have found that little world? Brother Li, come with me, it's right here." Wang Baiyan walked forward with a smile and stopped in front of a painting on the wall.

Li Qi went over to take a look and found that the mural depicted a hundred scenes.

There are oceans, deserts, cities, mountains, rivers, military formations, and celestial phenomena.

The vastness of heaven and earth, the prosperity of the human world, the wonders of nature, the grandeur and beauty, all kinds of scenery are contained within.

Before he could finish reading, Wang Baiyan flicked her hand, and the painting broke open, revealing a vortex with a tearing force that seemed to pull Li Qi in.

However, the strength was not great, and Li Qi easily stabilized his body.

But Wang Baiyan took two steps forward and went inside, disappearing into the vortex.

Upon seeing this, Li Qi sensed it for a moment.

His sixth sense told him there was no danger.

He believed it.

After all, Shaman's sixth sense is no joke; it is a genuine, the Unseen feeling.

So Li Qi stepped out and went inside, and Old Ma followed.

After walking outside, Li Qi felt a wave of dizziness.

Then, he appeared in a vast desert.

In the desert, the scorching sun shines on the sand, creating wave after wave of heat that makes it hard to open one's eyes.

If you stay here any longer, even your skin will probably crack from the wind.

The scorching sun in the sky, the sweltering wind that could blow your skin off, and the hot sand under your feet that could be used for barbecues all made you feel like you were walking in hell.

It was noon, and the scorching sun overhead had caused all the creatures in the desert except for cacti or sea buckthorn to hide, even the insects were hiding under the thick sand dunes to escape the heat.

"Here..." Li Qi had just arrived here when he felt a repulsive force.

"So this is what it feels like," Li Qi recalled, comparing the differences between this place and the Earth Oil Realm.

The Earth Oil Realm did not reject them; the Heavenly Dao of that world had been refined, so it was well restrained.

But the Heavenly Dao of this world is different. It is filled with a wild Savage Wilderness atmosphere, and the Heavenly Dao here is frantically trying to expel them.

However, this was just a small, unranked world, so it couldn't be pushed out; it only suppressed a portion of Li Qi's power.

According to the classification of the outer worlds, the worlds are classified according to the highest level of cultivators they can support. The Heavenly Dao cannot support the existence of another thing of the same level as itself.

Therefore, the Heavenly Dao of a world is generally one grade higher than the world's grade. In other words, in an eighth-grade world like the Earth Oil Realm, the Heavenly Dao's power can reach the seventh grade.

In such a world that is not ranked, the Heavenly Dao is divided into nine ranks.

The Heavenly Dao here is on the same level as Li Qi and others.

However, Li Qi also knew one thing: the Heavenly Dao was the absolute pinnacle of all levels.

It truly is the most elite. As the book says, in this world's Heavenly Dao, apart from a few exceptionally gifted individuals, they generally crush opponents of the same rank.

What does "crushing" mean?

This was probably how Li Qi looked when he killed the other ninth-rank officials around noon today.

Of course, Heavenly Dao has a spirit but no wisdom, so it generally will not take the initiative to act.

After assessing the surrounding situation, Li Qi stopped thinking about anything else and turned to look at Wang Baiyan:

"Brother Wang, how much of your fighting strength do you have left?" Li Qi asked.

Wang Baiyan clenched her fist, tested her strength, and then replied, "Fifty percent remaining."

"I'm a bit better off than you; I still have about 80% left," Li Qi said.

Upon hearing this, Wang Baiyan nodded. "That's good. It was indeed the right decision to invite you. Shaman have a natural affinity with heaven and earth. Although the Heavenly Dao here dislikes outsiders, it has been more tolerant of you."

Then he continued:

"Then please, Brother Li, set up a sacrificial ceremony to help me communicate with the Heavenly Dao of this place. Previously, I was rejected and could not do anything here. The crops I planted here would wither and die. If I were to plunder this country, Child of Destiny would come out to oppose me, and I would always lose. Even if I were to mine minerals or hunt animals, accidents would happen. There was really no way to deal with this world."

"I'll give it a try first," Li Qi nodded.

I suppose all of this was within the other party's considerations, including the fact that I am Shaman.

So, it seems that Wang Baiyan has been watching him for a long time?

Li Qi pondered what Wang Baiyan was secretly plotting, but his hands didn't stop working.

The ceremony of offering sacrifices to Heaven requires wine as a libation, adherence to the rites of reporting to Heaven, sweeping the ground before offering sacrifices, presenting the finest delicacies of fermented grains and the finest salt, burning firewood on the altar, and then reporting to Upper Heaven.

Li Qi had also performed a ritual to appease the heavens in the Earth Oil Realm, but he hadn't prepared anything that time; he was just there to mock them, so there was no need to prepare any extra offerings.

But things are different now. This time, we are really going to have a good talk with the Heavenly Dao of this world, so we still need to prepare Sacrificial Ritual and offerings.

Fortunately, Wang Baiyan seemed to have been prepared.

Whatever Li Qi wanted, he could produce it.

"Brother Wang, aren't you a little too prepared..." Li Qi was getting a little uneasy, glancing at him.

Wang Baiyan explained it this way, "After all, I sell grain... It's normal to carry these things in Mustard Seed Bag, aren't they just food?"

"What about the firewood for the burnt offering? Can that be prepared in advance?" Li Qi asked while preparing the altar.

Wang Baiyan opened the folding fan and laughed, "Haha, what a coincidence, what a coincidence. I found this before, and I never thought it would come in handy at this time."

Li Qi remained noncommittal.

He continued setting up the altar.

But then, a sudden gust of wind arose.

"A sandstorm is coming... Sigh, you see, I told you, being rejected by the Heavenly Dao means you'll always encounter things like this." Wang Baiyan sighed.

The sandstorm posed little threat to them, but it could disrupt the sacrificial ceremony. Clearly, Wang Baiyan was powerless against this natural phenomenon.

But Li Qi was different.

"It's alright," Li Qi said.

Then, he gently pressed down on the ground, creating a sand pit.