Cube-like Supernatural Powers: Longevity Begins with Qi Refining

Chapter 29 Underground Hollow

In the dark tunnels leading deep underground.

Xiong Zhou walked at the front, his heavy armor emitting soft, bright yellow light that illuminated the surrounding area.

"Pat...pat..."

He kept swinging the heavy sword in his hand, knocking it against the protruding road, causing pixel blocks to fall one after another. Then he picked up the blocks and piled them up in the recessed areas, shaping a square road.

Xiong Zhou didn't turn around, but asked, "Senior Sister Zixuan, where are we now?"

"The death energy and corpse energy are becoming increasingly concentrated, which has seriously affected my perception of the laws and principles of heaven and earth. I can no longer determine my relative coordinates within the Azure Sky Realm."

Zi Xuan gently waved the Earth Array Flag in her hand, stirring up the nearby Earth Vein Qi to construct a very three-dimensional map of the Earth Vein's movement, which was then projected onto Xiong Zhou's front.

Green dots lit up in the 3D image, connecting to form a tunnel with an incline of nearly 10°, pointing directly to a hazy, unknowable darkness.

Strands of distinctive blue markings rose up, gradually completing the entire map of the earth's veins, highlighting the special terrain features that had been explored, and listing dozens of different important data points.

Zixuan said softly, "We are already more than 3 miles below the horizon, and we have traveled more than half of the way to the 'Yin Land' mentioned in the third quest."

Xiong Zhou frowned slightly as he looked at the cold rock that required four hits to completely shatter, transformed into a block by the [Innate Divine Power: █ (Pixel Block)].

One li is equal to five hundred meters, so ten thousand li is five million meters.

He asked with a puzzled look, "We've already gone more than 10,000 miles underground. Logically speaking, in such an environment, even if we haven't encountered subterranean fire and magma, it should still be incredibly hot, and you should be able to sense the vitality of the earth's veins in the silence."

"Why is the current underground environment not only devoid of any heat, but the minerals beneath the surface have also not melted into a liquid state. On the contrary, it is becoming increasingly frigid, frozen into a crystalline state, with a bottomless abyss of death shrouded in silence?"

The Five Elements are one of the cornerstones of the existence of matter, and the mutual generation and restraint among the Five Elements are part of the orderly cycle of the laws of heaven and earth.

However, the earth and metal elements deep within the Azure Sky Realm are intertwined, but their connection with the fire element is almost severed, and not a trace of the wood and water elements can be found.

Xiong Zhou remembered very clearly that, from the perspective of the relative position of the Void Sea, the "Azure Sky Realm" was extremely close to the "Qi Refining World," basically a small bubble stuck to a large bubble.

According to his understanding, the laws and principles of the world in the outer realms near the "Qi Refining World" should be extremely similar.

The fact that the depths of the Azure Sky Realm are so frigid is not simply due to differences in the laws governing other worlds, leading to variations in the underground environment.

Zi Xuan remained silent for a long while before replying, "Clearly, something more fundamental than the laws of heaven and earth has gone wrong in the Azure Sky Realm."

"Moreover, this problem is bigger than we previously realized."

Zi Xuan paused for a moment, then said decisively, "No matter how powerful a near-immortal being is, their essence is only at the peak of the sixth level of Qi Refining, and they are definitely not a true immortal at the seventh level of Qi Refining."

"Impossible, and no one has the ability to turn the five elements of heaven and earth into this state."

At this moment, Li Tianqing tapped the back of her hand with a paper fan, seemingly lost in thought.

He said, "Theoretically speaking, it is indeed impossible for someone at the sixth level of Qi Refining to distort the Five Elements of Heaven and Earth into this form. I have never heard of any terrestrial immortal who could shape the Five Elements of Heaven and Earth into the form of the Azure Sky Realm."

"But there are always exceptions; there are too many people and things that don't follow the rules."

Li Tianqing narrowed her eyes and chuckled, "Perhaps we're just that lucky to have met here in this Azure Sky Realm?"

"Furthermore, the immortal holy body that fell into the Azure Sky Realm could not have done such a thing, so the enemy who caused his demise is another matter."

Duanmu Ning seemed to have thought of something, and reached out to lightly cover her red lips, her eyes revealing surprise.

She murmured, "This is the only possibility I can think of."

"That opponent of the Undying Holy Body has elevated his own path and his own understanding to the level of an immortal."

"The law has a primordial spirit."

Wu Kang frowned, unsure if he had misunderstood.

He asked, "Junior Sister Duanmu, do you mean that the injuries on the body of that fallen, indestructible holy being spontaneously affected something within the Azure Sky Realm that is even more fundamental than the laws of heaven and earth, perhaps even the very origin of heaven and earth?"

Duanmu Ning nodded.

She explained softly, "I was born into a family of doctors, which has existed for a long time and has accumulated a lot of good karma. We also have a considerable collection of ancient artifacts."

"When I was young, I once found an ancient book of unknown age in the library at home. One of the books described the cultivation realm of immortals with this line: 'When the law contains spirituality and the principle gives birth to the primordial soul, the Dao is then realized.'"

"Perhaps, the unknown laws that remained within the wounds of that immortal saint who perished in the Azure Sky Realm have come back to life..."

Upon hearing this, Xiong Zhou immediately broke out in a cold sweat.

The law has a primordial spirit; how strange and inexplicable does that sound?

It's completely different in style from the ethereal immortals.

Xiong Zhou complained, "Wait, we're only at the first level of Qi Refining, how come we're already dealing with things for the seventh level?"

"This question is definitely beyond the scope of the curriculum!"

"Um?"

Xiong Zhou, who was leading the way in the Shanhe Squad, stopped in his tracks.

He stared in astonishment at the cold, icy rocks ahead, covered in unknown crystals, and exclaimed, "Why is there no path ahead?"

"Haven't we been heading in the right direction all along?"

Li Tianqing raised an eyebrow, slid open the ink painting landscape fan in her hand, and mobilized her understanding of the Dao of Void to fan out a wisp of wind so weak as to be almost imperceptible onto the cold rocks in front of her.

"Splash..."

This gentle breeze, accompanied by Li Tianqing's consciousness, pierced through the obstacles ahead using spatial warp and without affecting reality.

A few breaths later, the ink painting of mountains and rivers fan closed, and Li Tianqing's expression became solemn.

He said, "It's not that there's no road ahead, but that we're about to reach the border of what the senior brothers in charge call the 'Yin Land'."

Li Tianqing stepped over Xiong Zhou and, on the rocks ahead, used a watercolor painting style to cut four fine dotted lines, marking a direction.

"Junior Brother Xiong Zhou, start digging in the area I marked, and clear away all the rocks in this direction."

Xiong Zhou nodded, picked up the earthen heavy sword, and smashed it at the rocks in front of him.

"Bang...bang...bang...bang..."

"Clatter..."

One by one, blocks with sides of 1 meter fell, and the Mountain and River Team, guided by Li Tianqing, continued their journey.

About three hours later, after another neat block fell, a corner of an endless, sunken underground cavern was vaguely revealed in the bright yellow light of the earthen and wooden armor.

At the same time, the vast death energy and corpse energy were gushing wildly from the leaky hole, causing Xiong Zhou to feel a sense of instinctive disgust.

"Pat...pat...pat..."

Xiong Zhou quickly cleared the passage ahead, creating a neat opening. He walked to the edge of the tunnel entrance and looked ahead.

He was suddenly startled. Below him lay a bottomless abyss of darkness, a place that swallowed up even the light.

"This place... is it the burial site of that fallen, immortal saint?"

Xiong Zhou's voice was extremely soft, as if he was afraid of startling some slumbering, unknown terror.

Li Tianqing was silent for a moment, then said, "Perhaps not."

"The burial place of that fallen immortal holy body may be even deeper in the earth."

"The death energy and corpse energy emanating from this area have not yet reached a level sufficient to cause a qualitative change."

Xiong Zhou opened his mouth, his face filled with shock.

"This... the death energy and corpse energy have already made it difficult for me to perceive the laws of heaven and earth, isn't that enough?!"

Wu Kang picked up the Tenglong Bow and went into a state of alert.

He said softly, "Junior Brother Xiong Zhou, you're suffering because you missed class."

"Under normal circumstances, inner disciples cannot access the content of the seventh level of Qi Refining before they have advanced to the second level of Qi Refining or before their cultivation techniques have reached a certain level of subtlety."

"However, the true disciples at the first level of Qi Refining are different. We are the promising talents of the Immortal Sect who have the potential to become immortals. These are the kinds of knowledge related to attaining immortality that we need to learn in advance."

"After this ranking competition for true disciples is over, Junior Brother Xiong Zhou, you really need to catch up on the courses for true disciples at the first level of Qi Refining."

Wu Kang paused for a moment, then continued, "If we were to truly approach the burial ground of the peak sixth level of Qi Refining, the terrifying death Qi and corpse Qi would have already transformed us mortal beings into those hateful and repulsive corpse-transformed bodies."

Zixuan nodded slightly and reached out to wipe the fine sweat that had appeared on her forehead.

She sighed softly and said, "That's true, but the pervasive death energy and corpse energy here is already quite oppressive."

"Fortunately, the deeper we go underground, the easier it becomes to mobilize the earth's energy."

Zi Xuan gently waved the Earth Array Flag in her hand, and the Qi of the meridians rose from within the rock, displacing the surrounding death Qi and corpse Qi, creating a very large special bubble to provide shelter for all members of the Mountain and River Squad.

The Earth Array Flag waved again, and streams of Earth Vein Qi began to take shape, forming massive staircases along the hollow rock walls of the underground cave, extending into this bottomless abyss.

"let's go."

Zi Xuan walked at the front of the group, followed closely by Wu Kang, with Duanmu Ning and Li Tianqing in the middle, and Xiong Zhou at the back.

Time slowly passed once again.

It seemed like we had been walking for most of the day, but it also felt like we had been walking for several days.

As the bright yellow light rising from the earth's energy veins illuminated the bottom of the underground cavity, Xiong Zhou's perception of time seemed to malfunction.

He began to lose the ability to accurately pinpoint the time that had already passed.

Only by connecting through the [Gate of Another World] and constantly synchronizing memories with the clone in the Mountain and Sea Realm can the original body's sense of time be effectively calibrated.

The death energy and corpse energy, so dense they were almost dripping with water, had a tremendous impact on his perception of the laws of heaven and earth.

"tread."

"Ping..."

The sounds of footsteps falling into the underground cave and the slight collision of heavy armor rang out one after another.

Looking around, all I could see was darkness, with no light.

Suddenly, Zi Xuan's expression froze, and Li Tianqing's expression changed drastically.

"The earth's ley lines in the distance are showing subtle but highly regular fluctuations. Be careful!"

"In the distant void, the vague outline of an unknown entity is rising, and it is enormous!"

The two voices were completely synchronized, both issuing a warning.

"boom!"

"boom!"

"boom!"

As soon as they finished speaking, a series of tremors began to emanate from the ground, and powerful shockwaves exploded from afar.

At this moment, even the thick defenses of Xiong Zhou felt waves of blood and qi surging within his body, causing him great discomfort.

"I can't see anything that's happening up ahead!"

"I'm going to make my move!"

Xiong Zhou growled at Zi Xuan.

Zi Xuan bowed her head, and array patterns began to fall from the earth array flag, arranging and engraving on the ground, instantly condensing into an array.

Seeing this, Xiong Zhou immediately mobilized the fire element energy within the inner landscape, creating magma sources and throwing these pixel blocks in all directions.

"Clatter..."

As magma sources landed, streams of magma flowed out from them, and the heat and fire spread through the hollow ground depressions, illuminating area after area.

One after another, enormous outlines began to emerge from the darkness, revealing their forms.

These are one after another, towering divine corpses awakening from their slumber!

More importantly, the corpses rushing towards Xiong Zhou's location began to surge, barely reaching the level of the fourth level of Qi Refining!

Duanmu Ning took out a wooden staff from the wooden box behind him and sprinkled out pills, which turned into medicinal mist.

Her face was solemn as she murmured softly, "A tough battle is coming."

Wu Kang remained silent, and an arrow roaring like a dragon's cry shot out from the bow in his hand, piercing the eye of a nearly ten-thousand-foot-tall divine corpse, penetrating its decaying spirit, and splashing out streams of dark black blood.

As Xiong Zhou charged forward wielding his sword with both hands, he grumbled, "So many corpses that have reached the fourth level of Qi Refining and have undergone zombie transformation... Those senior brothers in the heavens really think highly of us!"

Li Tianqing shook her head and smiled, "Those senior brothers in heaven don't think highly of us, but they think highly of Junior Brother Xiong Zhou."

With a flick of his paper fan, a massive scroll, about ten miles in diameter, slowly unfurled in the void, revealing an ink dragon swimming within the ink pool.

As the paper fan waved again, a dragon's roar, seemingly reaching the heavens, emanated from within the scroll.

The ink dragon leaped out, and the ink-black wind and rain fell silently, splashing ink droplets that transformed into hundreds of thousands of ink ropes, which rolled towards the towering divine corpses.

"Splash..."

"roar!"

Xiong Zhou's eyes lit up when he saw the ten-thousand-foot-tall divine corpse that was bound by ink. He leaped to the front of the ten-thousand-foot-tall corpse's forehead.

The Qi of Heaven and Earth in the Inner Realm surged forth, and the heavy earth and wood swords held in both hands emitted a bright sword light, which was then swung in the air.

"Click...click..."

One by one, huge foreheads fell from the sky.

The corpses of the towering gods, one after another, collapsed and turned into dust.

"good!"

Zixuan gave a soft thumbs-up.

The earth formation flag in her hand was pressed directly to the ground, and the earth within a radius of a hundred miles began to shake.

As array patterns lit up, the majestic city gate rose from the deep earth, and killing arrays, trapping arrays, and illusion arrays were inscribed, landing in mid-air and spreading in all directions.

In an instant, black blood filled the sky.