bookandnovel Chapter 52 The Old Taoist
Chapter 52 The Old Taoist
Only a few days remain until the end of this year and the forced return to the main world, Earth.
In the depths of the dark, sunless death row in Chaoge City.
A chilling wind blew, and the stench of blood mixed with the putrid smell of rotting flesh made it almost impossible to open one's eyes.
"Let me out... I am a general of the Great Shang Dynasty, a meritorious official!"
The thick, black iron chains pierced through Chu Tianhe's collarbones on both sides.
His hair was disheveled, and his once-proud golden chainmail had long been stripped off, leaving him with only a few tattered strips of cloth and his body covered in whip marks.
Looking back on the past six months, it feels like an absurd nightmare.
A few days ago, he frantically begged for help in the server-wide channel, promising ten million in cash and even offering the fragment of the "Nine Revolutions of the Mysterious Bird" from the Shang Dynasty royal family as a reward.
With such a generous reward, a few fearless, or perhaps blinded by the allure of a chance to cultivate immortality, low-level explorers attempted to infiltrate Chaoge City and break into prison.
The results of it?
Although the Shang Dynasty was plotted against by all the gods and Buddhas, its foundation remained intact!
The iron guards stationed in the death row of Chaoge are all seasoned warriors at the Nascent Soul stage.
Those few cannon fodder who hadn't even mastered the basics of mortal internal energy were chopped into mincemeat by the guards as soon as they reached the edge of the death row, leaving no trace of their bodies.
After that, no one in the server-wide chat channel dared to mention rescuing him again.
Everyone is busy trying to survive these last few days; who would risk their life for a disgraced prisoner?
Even more tragically...
The Dragon King of the East Sea, Ao Guang, who had vowed to tear him to pieces to vent his hatred, seemed to have completely forgotten about him, this minor figure, after retreating from the battlefield.
Meanwhile, King Zhou, who sat high in his nine-room palace, was indulging in pleasure with Su Daji, who had been possessed by the nine-tailed fox, in the Longevity Palace. He was completely oblivious to the fact that there was a scapegoat imprisoned in the death row.
Two powerful figures were fighting, and a casually thrown black pot crushed this self-proclaimed "B-level prodigy" into a pile of mud in the dark.
"I don't want to die... I have a bright future ahead of me, I want to go back to Earth..."
Chu Tianhe gnawed at the rotten grass on the ground, enduring each day as if it were an eternity in his endless fear.
……
It was completely different from the despair of the death row in Chaoge City.
Not far from the officially designated "absolutely safe zone" outside Chaoge City, there is a desolate and lonely nameless immortal mountain.
Deep within the mountain, shrouded in spiritual energy, lies a hidden grotto.
Lin Yuan, dressed in a long black robe, sat cross-legged on a warm, white jade bed, his aura as deep and boundless as the ocean.
The middle stage of Hedao realm!
The supreme Dao body, where water and fire coexist harmoniously, circulated endlessly within him, faintly exuding an aura of immortality.
"It'll be quick, just a few more days."
Lin Yuan slowly opened his eyes.
The left eye shimmered with a crimson-gold sun, while the right eye surged with a deep blue icy sea—a manifestation of the complete fusion of the Golden Crow True Fire and the essence of the East Sea Dragon Pearl.
He looked down at his palm.
In the blink of an eye.
A dark golden halberd, exuding a murderous aura that seemed to tear through the void, appeared in mid-air.
A natal flying sword, "Black Feather," as thin as a cicada's wing and dazzlingly golden, coiled around his fingertips like a swimming dragon.
And deep within his sea of consciousness, there was a fragment of the Eastern Emperor Bell, radiating an ancient and boundless aura, that suppressed his undying soul!
As for Nezha's immortal spirit, it had long been returned to Taiyi Zhenren in exchange for the peerless "Golden Light Across the Earth" escape technique.
"This trip to the Sealed Mystery Realm has truly been incredibly profitable."
A satisfied smile appeared on Lin Yuan's lips.
His only concern now is how much of the secret realm's settlement rules will allow him to bring back to the main world.
"I should be able to bring my cultivation back; it's etched into my bones, blood, and soul."
"If I can't take the magic weapon directly, I can simply fuse it into my Dharma form and smuggle it back!"
Just as Lin Yuan was secretly calculating, and even beginning to imagine how he would face those high and mighty nobles of the main world with an invincible attitude upon returning to Blue Star.
"Buzz—"
A subtle yet chilling aura appeared outside the desolate mountain.
The smile on Lin Yuan's face froze instantly.
"Who?!"
The terrifying divine sense of a Dao Integration Realm cultivator spread out like a vast net in an instant, covering an area of hundreds of miles.
No!
There's nothing there!
In his divine perception, the desolate mountain outside was still the same desolate mountain, without even a single extra bird.
But the unease, like a thorn in his back, grew stronger and stronger.
Lin Yuan suddenly stood up, his eyes flashing with golden light.
"Open the 'Qi Observation Techniques' for me!"
The viewpoint shifts instantly.
Piercing through the thick layers of rock, Lin Yuan's gaze fell upon a weed-covered path at the foot of the barren mountain.
There, a ragged, white-haired, old Taoist priest appeared, carrying a worn-out wine gourd.
The old Taoist priest walked unsteadily, seemingly drunk, and was humming some unknown Taoist chant.
If this were observed by ordinary human eyes or common divine sense, the old man would simply appear to be a lost, mad Taoist priest.
However, from the perspective of the "Qi Luck Observation Techniques"...
Boom!
Lin Yuan felt as if a divine thunderbolt from the heavens had exploded in his mind, his eyes stinging with pain, and he almost shed tears of blood.
What did he see?
That old Taoist priest's head was not some ordinary fortune!
It was a vast, boundless expanse of purple-gold ocean!
Fortune is like an abyss, unfathomable!
Within that purple-gold sea of fortune, countless stars rise and fall. Faintly, four ancient sword phantoms, reaching to the heavens and the earth, seem to float in the river of fortune, exuding an unparalleled killing intent to annihilate the heavens and sever eternity!
"hiss--"
Lin Yuan gasped, abruptly severing the secret technique. He staggered back half a step, his back instantly soaked with cold sweat.
"What kind of monster is this?!"
"Such fortune, such a murderous aura... Dao-Merging? Loose Immortal? Earth Immortal?"
"No, definitely not only!"
Lin Yuan's heart pounded like a drum.
During this great calamity of the Investiture of the Gods, he had seen quite a few Golden Immortals.
Yun Zhongzi, Taiyi Zhenren, and Yuding Zhenren.
Even the core Golden Immortals of the Chan Sect, their fortune was absolutely not one ten-thousandth as terrifying as that of this old Taoist.
"This old man is at least a top-tier second or third-generation master of the Jie Sect who has been living in seclusion!"
"Could it be Zhao Gongming, or perhaps an incarnation of the incredibly powerful Wuyun Immortal?"
Lin Yuan's mind was racing.
The immortal light flowing through his body was the purest version of the "Shangqing Yinqi Pian," a technique he had "borrowed" for free from the Blue Star think tank in the main world.
Not only that, he also used the name of the Jie Sect to bully others and deceive Taiyi Zhenren and Yuding Zhenren.
Now, a super-powerful figure from the Jie Sect has come knocking on our door, carrying a wine jug!
Is this a house-cleaning operation?!
Just as Lin Yuan was filled with doubt and uncertainty.
At the foot of the mountain, the swaying old Taoist priest suddenly stopped.
He raised his gourd, tilted his head back, and took a gulp of the turbid wine, letting out a burp.
Then, his seemingly cloudy old eyes glanced almost imperceptibly toward the cave where Lin Yuan was hiding.
"The Great Dao is fifty, the Heavenly Evolution is forty-nine..."
"People lament the fickleness of fate, but they don't know that my Shangqing lineage seeks precisely to seize that sliver of hope amidst this fickleness..."
The old Taoist priest's voice wasn't loud, but it reached Lin Yuan's ears clearly.
This is clearly the core formula from the "Shangqing Yinqi Pian"!
Lin Yuan felt a chill run down his spine.
Test!
This is absolutely a blatant provocation!
The old man was telling him: Stop hiding, I know you're inside, and I know you're practicing the methods of my Jie Sect!
"escape?"
The thought had barely crossed his mind when Lin Yuan nipped it in the bud.
To flee before such a colossal being of unfathomable destiny is tantamount to showing off one's skills in front of Guan Yu, as if one is not dying fast enough.
Even if he possesses the "Golden Light Across the Earth" escape technique, he absolutely cannot escape from someone else's grasp.