Prize

(Yesterday's chapter numbers were so out of place, what was I thinking when I typed them?)

In the past, when Mount Luofu was destroyed, the Human Emperor Sword appeared and cleaved the Sun Moon True Lead Cauldron in two with a single strike. All the grotto-heavens around Mount Luofu collapsed, and all eight million worlds under the command of the Sun Moon True Lead Cauldron were destroyed.

However, Li Qi did not expect that the Sword Qi of the Human Emperor Sword would still remain in Zhu Ming Cave.

"Is this the ominous metallic aura I saw with my Qi Gazing Technique?" Li Qi murmured to himself.

Sure enough, this thing is really ominous.

"It's not Sword Qi... it's a sword mark." Shen Shuibi clutched her side, her hand already stained with blood.

She already had injuries, which were from fighting with Tianhong Jun.

After all, Tianhong Jun was a Flood Dragon about to escape the water. Even though Shen Shuibi, as True Disciple of Mount Luofu, was much stronger than him, she could not defeat him in a short time. Therefore, in the ensuing entanglement, she suffered 'Heavenly Punishment'.

If five-rank officials fight each other across the land, there will inevitably be Heavenly Punishment, and after a while, even Heavenly Patrol Officer may arrive.

Shen Shuibi was lucky, or perhaps someone stopped the Heavenly Patrol Officer, so she only suffered Heavenly Punishment. However, this still injured her quite badly. She had been able to stabilize herself, but now, due to the aftershocks of the Human Emperor Sword, her injuries relapsed, and she became completely weak. She could only lean on Li Qi, breathing slightly, trying to Qi regulation and suppress her injuries.

However, it's impossible to truly calm down and regulate one's Qi regulation, as there might be countless aftershocks like this here.

That's the Human Emperor Sword!

However, at this moment, Li Qi suddenly said, "The Sword Qi comes out of Guanchong, passes through Yanggu of the small intestine, enters Sanli of the stomach, enters Shaohai of the small intestine, the blood comes out of Shangyang, and the qi comes out of Zhiyin. When the yang time, the yang meridians and acupoints are open, the Blood Qi Evil Qi cannot descend, so it floats in Qiaoyin."

Shen Shuibi understood immediately. Without even confirming, she pulled out a row of silver needles and quickly inserted them into the five acupoints: Jing, Ying, Yu, and Jing. She controlled the five elements, using wood, fire, earth, metal, and water to generate each other. After five cycles and one Chen, the kidneys drew blood from Yongquan and into Tianjing, dispelling evil and preventing the generation of disordered qi.

Then, dozens more silver needles were inserted into different meridians and blood vessels to suppress the injury.

What we just did, though it sounded complicated, was actually just the tacit understanding between the two of them.

Shen Shuibi had to be wary of the potential aftershocks of Sword Qi around her, so she couldn't sit cross-legged and use her inner vision to assess her injuries; she could only forcefully suppress them.

At this moment, Li Qi naturally didn't care about public order, morality, or shame. He directly used his True Knowledge Dao Charm to scan her from head to toe, seeing every inch of her skin and even her meridians clearly.

In this way, he had a pretty good grasp of Shen Shuibi's injuries and told Shen Shuibi directly.

The rabbit also felt herself being swept, but given the urgency of the situation, there was no time to be shy or coy. So she simply chose to trust Li Qi and directly followed his instructions to suppress her injuries.

Fortunately, the enhanced True Knowledge Dao Charm did not make any mistakes.

Having suppressed his injuries, Li Qi simultaneously unleashed his senses to survey his surroundings.

The surrounding area... can only be described as a mess.

The Xun Gate cracked open, Yin Qi soared into the sky, mountains collapsed, seas dried up, countless Earth Fire spewed from the earth, and the whole world was in ruins. Zhu Ming Cave... was completely a dead land.

In this deadly place, there is a sword mark.

It was as if a divine sword had descended from the sky, piercing through the Xun Gate, cleaving the heavens, and leaving an unhealable, enormous wound on the earth, almost splitting the entire Zhu Ming Cave in two.

Countless Sword Intent surged forth from the sword marks, transforming into indescribable 'qi' that roamed within the Zhu Ming Cave, continuing to wreak havoc on this place.

The remaining sword marks from the Human Emperor Sword still unleash terrifying residual power every moment, enough to kill an ordinary fifth-rank cultivator. It's as if thousands of divine swords are wandering around, as if they want to annihilate all the remaining life in this cave.

But Li Qi knew that this was not a deliberate intention.

This is really just the 'residual effect'. There is a Daoist charm on the sword mark. This Daoist charm is just like the fingerprint left by the Great Shaman on Baiyue White Snake Mountain.

The fingerprints left on the ground will continue to exert their lingering power for millions of years to come.

This is... the mark left by the Human Emperor Sword. The aura emanating from the mark alone is enough to kill an ordinary fifth-rank cultivator.

How did Zhu Ming Cave manage to block the Human Emperor Sword in its original form?

What kind of power must that sword strike from the main body possess?

Li Qi was shocked, but he had to force himself to calm down.

The Human Emperor Sword has already left, leaving only a sword mark. Li Qi made an irresponsible guess that the Human Emperor Sword could probably make two hundred cuts per second, so it wasn't anything particularly significant.

Compared to when it cleaved the Sun Moon True Lead Cauldron, this is just a casual move by the Human Emperor Sword. Don't be too nervous...

Besides, what I'm facing is just a mark left by a casual sword strike, and a tiny bit of aura emanating from that mark. That's all. There's nothing to worry about... A fifth-rank and a sixth-rank cultivator can't possibly be killed by that aura.

If it were a seventh-rank... it would probably have been shocked to death.

They were really careless. The outside world was vast, so all traces and aftereffects were cleaned up by the Heavenly Patrol Officer. Little did they know that those Heavenly Patrol Officer didn't care about the situation inside Zhu Ming Cave at all.

All the grotto-heavens on Mount Luofu are probably in this state now; many of them may have been completely destroyed and perished.

Li Qi fully unleashed his true knowledge, reading all the surrounding conditions. At the same time, he looked into the distance, enduring the stinging pain in his eyes, looking at the sword mark and the Zhu Ming Cave that had almost been split in two.

It's hard to imagine that a second-rank cave heaven that's close to first-rank could be beaten like this... Just how long is this sword mark? As a top-tier second-rank cave heaven, Zhu Ming Cave's area should be measured in light-years, right?

In other words, this sword mark must also be measured in light-years.

Fortunately, Shen Shuibi knew the way, and when she was teleported in, she went straight to the center. Otherwise, if the teleportation had gone wrong, it would have taken her more than a day or two to get here.

As he read, Li Qi shared the information and intelligence he had gleaned with Shen Shuibi.

"The next Sword Qi will pass by here in about three Chen. The Sword Qi here is unpredictable and wanders around randomly. It is all leftover from that sword mark, but there are not many of them, only a little over ten thousand. Although it is still being generated, some of it is weakening over time."

Shen Shuibi nodded. She looked much better. The silver needles had temporarily suppressed her injuries, so her condition had improved considerably.

Then she said, "That's alright. More than 10,000 paths shouldn't be considered dense in Zhu Ming Cave. I can also feel it here. About 30,000 miles to the south, that's where the fluctuations that resonate with the outside world are located."

"Alright, let's head that way first." Li Qi helped her up, summoned the Ghost Chariot, and the two of them rode on it.

Shen Shuibi wanted to drive the Ghost Chariot, but Li Qi stopped her. "Teach me the method. Although I'm not familiar with it, you should still take some time to Qi regulation while we're traveling."

Shen Shuibi thought for a moment and nodded, "Alright, there should be no one in Zhu Ming Cave now, so even if you make a mistake, you won't bump into anyone. It's perfect for you to practice."

As she spoke, she made several Method Formulas, which then produced Literary Qi, containing the method of controlling Law Treasure.

Li Qi took the Literary Qi, True Knowledge Dao Charm scanned it, read the information inside, and then began to learn how to drive.

It is common knowledge throughout the world that Shaman are not skilled in using Law Treasure.

More Law Treasure are not necessarily better, nor are stronger ones necessarily better. The stronger the Law Treasure, the more concentration and energy are required to control it, and the more attention you need to devote to it during battle.

Moreover, Law Treasure themselves may not be compatible with cultivators, and may even be counterproductive. Therefore, the Dao Lineage that use Law Treasure will try to increase the compatibility of the Law Treasure, and at the same time, they will specifically train their ability to control the Law Treasure with their divided mind.

However, Shaman do not have this need. They basically have no requirements for Law Treasure. Even if they do occasionally have them, they are 'living magical Law Treasure's used exclusively by Shaman Path. These artifacts have the property of being alive and can cooperate with the Shaman on their own without requiring any attention.

However, now that Li Qi has learned about the Reason Way, he has gained some experience in controlling Law Treasure. He even fought the Demon Prince using the Law Treasure exoskeleton before, so he is no longer completely clueless.

After receiving accelerated learning from True Knowledge Dao Charm, Li Qi learned to drive in just one Chen.

However... since I'm a novice driver, I ended up having to call insurance.

As a novice driver, Li Qi controlled the Ghost Chariot and drove forward. Fortunately, the Ghost Chariot had the ability to sneak into the underworld, which was like phase travel, allowing it to avoid the sight of many people and certain dangers. So Li Qi wanted to try out this function.

However, after trying it, he discovered that there was no underworld inside Zhu Ming Cave.

He had no choice but to give up and obediently continue on his way.

Fortunately, he had an exceptional learning ability and quickly mastered the driving skills.

However, even though I've mastered it, driving... is still quite troublesome. There are too many things to control and too many things to pay attention to.

Controlling a sixth-grade Law Treasure to fly was far more complicated than he had imagined. No wonder some powerful figures preferred to travel on foot or tame mounts rather than acquire a flying Law Treasure.

It turns out she didn't want to drive; driving is too much trouble.

This is still a key feature for passenger Law Treasure, with many convenient control settings similar to an instrument panel.

If one were to travel by sword, the sword, a combat Law Treasure completely unsuitable for travel, would likely consume even more mental energy.

Those people who fly on swords... they're probably a little bit... off-the-cuff.

However, it could also be because he is indeed handsome, and it's worth putting in more effort to be handsome.

These inexplicable thoughts swirled in Li Qi's mind as he drove more and more skillfully. Finally, in less than half a day, he drove cautiously and without causing any accidents to the place Shen Shuibi had mentioned.

This... should be the core area of Zhu Ming Cave?

Li Qi could see that the Human Emperor Sword had been particularly ruthless in this place, but surprisingly, there were no sword marks left nearby.

In other words, the core area withstood the greatest attack but left no trace, which may be why Zhu Ming Cave still exists.

"It's safe around here, we've arrived." Li Qi patted Shen Shuibi on the shoulder.

The rabbit then opened its eyes, and its complexion looked much better.

After nearly half a day, she had managed to temporarily suppress her injuries. They weren't fully healed, but if she didn't make any major movements, they were essentially fine.

Of course, if the suppressed injuries relapse, it will be even more serious.

"I found it nearby... it's in there." Shen Shuibi looked around and found an Immortal Mountain floating in the air.

Li Qi was surprised to find that he hadn't noticed anything there if she hadn't pointed it out!

There must be some special methods involved, right?

After all, it's Zhu Ming Cave, so it's normal for there to be something inside.

With that in mind, Li Qi immediately drove the Ghost Chariot all the way to the floating mountain.

There was a faint layer of protective Technique Method here, but it wasn't a permanent Technique Method; it was something that had been cast by someone, and... the fluctuations on it were so intense that even Li Qi could sense them.

"Whose aura is this? It's so strong... Even the residual aura is at this level. Is the person still alive?" Li Qi frowned. He sensed that the Technique Method was still in operation, which meant that there was a high possibility that there was a living person here.

Shen Shuibi, however, showed a look of surprise and delight. She quickly said, "It's one of us! This aura... this fluctuation... it's Granny Lan!"

"Granny Lan?" Li Qi had never heard of this name before, but he knew Granny Mei.

The only remaining fourth-rank official in Mount Luofu was the former master of many grotto-heavens in Mount Luofu.

Is this person also the former master of the Mount Luofu- Heaven? Where did Mr. Qingjing go?

Mr. Qingjing is the master of Zhu Ming Cave.

Moreover, judging from the name, Mr. Qingjing is a spirit of plants and trees, and Granny Mei and Granny Lan should also be spirits of plants and trees. In other words, are most of the masters of the caves in Mount Luofu spirits?

Indeed, the Daoist sect is not bound by these rules, and Mount Luofu happens to be such a treasure land, full of spiritual herbs, so it is quite normal that many plants and trees have become spirits.

However, now that we've confirmed they're on our side, we should hurry up and check them out.

The two drove the Ghost Chariot swiftly through the concealment Technique Method. Shen Shuibi led the way while Li Qi drove, and the two quickly reached the mountains.

Then the two jumped off the Ghost Chariot, and Li Qi took it away.

Shen Shuibi didn't even wait for Li Qi to stand still before rushing straight toward the source of the fluctuations in the distance.

Li Qi shook his head, put away the Ghost Chariot, and hurriedly followed. He was also in a hurry.

There is another fourth-rank official alive on Mount Luofu!

This is an incredibly joyous occasion. Putting aside the support and stabilizing effect of a fourth-rank expert on Mount Luofu, the mere fact that 'someone is still alive' is enough to bring us great joy.

Returning to a destroyed hometown and encountering old friends brings an indescribable joy.

The two quickly arrived at the top of this hidden Immortal Mountain.

However, as soon as Li Qi arrived at the top, he discovered that there was a small maze there, with various challenges set up, but these challenges were all miniature versions.

Li Qi had seen the original version.

The blueprints for the "miraculous encounter" of the Daoist priests who broke in, the mechanisms and traps they set up, are right here.

Beside the design drawing, an orchid was swaying.

"This is... a prize?" Li Qi frowned.

The orchid is still alive, but we can't say it's 'alive'.