Chapter 142: Moving Mountains

Rumble!

Rumble!

Just a few breaths later, the headless corpse was completely subdued and destroyed by Li Yanchu. Its entire body was consumed by the pure yang flames of the Jiaoslayer and burned into nothingness.

Li Yanchu stood with one hand resting on the saber, his gaze calm and steady. This suddenly-appearing evil corpse, though it had spoken boldly, was no match for him, not after he used the triple-enhanced Spirit Officer Summoning Talisman. From the moment they exchanged blows, he had already assessed its strength.

What truly surprised him was the fact that Southern Guardian Marquis had appeared in this tomb

three times

. Once as the murderous noble in ornate robes, once as the giant face in the terracotta chamber, and now as the headless corpse he had just destroyed.

I didn’t expect a Great Xia Qi Cultivator to also know the Three Corpses Severing Art

, Li Yanchu thought to himself.

The Three Corpses Severing Art was a Daoist cultivation method. In Buddhist terms, it was called “breaking attachments.”

The “three corpses” represented three base desires or evils residing in every person. There were many schools and variations of this practice, and most of them were highly secret and rarely passed down even to close disciples.

At first, Li Yanchu hadn’t thought in this direction; he had assumed the first apparition was simply an evil spirit or some other malevolent force. But once he encountered the face in the terracotta chamber and this headless corpse, and saw that both were closely tied to Southern Guardian Marquis, he realized the truth.

That first noble youth in fine robes wasn’t the real Li Xun, but one of his severed three corpses.

“That Southern Guardian Marquis was a capable man indeed. He separated the Three Corpses from his body, revealed them in full form, and left them behind in his own tomb.”

𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Li Yanchu didn’t feel much hatred toward Southern Guardian Marquis, the tomb’s owner. After all, leaving behind traps and dangers in one's own tomb was to be expected.

It wasn’t reasonable to expect a tomb owner to politely clean up and leave behind treasures for tomb raiders. The real culprits were the remnants of the Bare Body Sect, who had set this deadly trap during the tomb raid.

Just then, Li Yanchu sheathed his Jiaoslayer with a thoughtful look in his eyes. This tomb’s discovery was very likely orchestrated by the Bare Body Sect; they might have deliberately leaked the information and attracted nearby cultivators under the pretense of “exorcising evil,” so they could stir up chaos and benefit from the confusion.

As for their exact goal, he couldn’t be certain. Perhaps they wanted to release the evil spirits sealed in the tomb, spreading havoc across the world. Or perhaps they hoped to use the exorcists to clear obstacles, so they could steal the treasures buried inside. Maybe they simply laid a deadly trap, aiming to massacre righteous cultivators in one fell swoop.

As these thoughts swirled through his mind, Li Yanchu suddenly recalled the bronze coffin and the talismanic armor sealed inside. Its aura had been unmistakably pure, so it was a true, orthodox Daoist artifact.

“

What a pity

...” Li Yanchu sighed with regret.

Then, as if suddenly struck by a thought, he lightly tapped his forehead, and his eyes lit up.

Without hesitation, he circulated his internal spirit power and activated a Daoist technique, Telekinetic Retrieval.

“Come!” Li Yanchu gave a soft shout, stretching his hand out and lightly grasping at the air.

In that instant, a set of ancient-style armor, inscribed with Daoist scriptures in red cinnabar, materialized before him. When he saw that it radiated an aura of divine sanctity, Li Yanchu’s face lit up with joy. This was unmistakably the Daoist talismanic armor!

During the earlier chaos, when everyone was battling furiously, this armor had vanished from the altar, leaving everyone puzzled as to how such a heavy object could disappear. And now, it had finally returned to Li Yanchu’s hands.

Ordinarily, with his current cultivation, such a heavy and sacred artifact would have been beyond his ability to retrieve remotely. But thanks to the divine power of a legitimate god from the Celestial Court currently infused into his body, Li Yanchu had used the Daoist spell

Telekinetic Retrieval

to summon the armor straight to him.

He hugged the armor close, and an invisible, domineering barrier surged up around his body. He was preparing to forcefully break through the layered seal of rock and mountain above him.

The talismanic armor began to hum loudly, radiating intense light.

Scripture after scripture of Lightning-Fire Pure Yang incantations appeared across its surface, and they shone so brightly they were blinding to the eye. Even just the aura it gave off would be enough to make many evil spirits and malicious ghosts instantly perish. It was as if, drawn by the Divine Dao aura still lingering on Li Yanchu’s body, the armor’s radiance began to resonate and merge with his own.

Whoosh

!

The armor turned into a streak of flowing light, shooting toward Li Yanchu. He instinctively raised his hand to block and instantly felt a warmth bloom in his palm.

Then, the light in the entire cavern vanished.

“Hmm?” Li Yanchu paused in surprise.

Looking down at his palm, he saw a talismanic imprint appear faintly on his skin. It flickered briefly, then faded away. Immediately, Li Yanchu could feel that his qi and blood had strengthened, and a surge of pure yang qi was now tempering his physical body.

In that moment, his body was growing stronger with every passing second. Not only that, the spirit energy in his dantian and sea of qi was also expanding. Compared to the speed at which he had absorbed spirit energy before, this was on a whole other level.

The process didn’t last long, and the enhancement gradually weakened and then faded completely. This meant the “buff” was over, but the effects it left behind were remarkable.

When Li Yanchu opened his eyes again, a flash of golden light burst from his gaze. With just a casual motion of his fists and feet, he could feel that his body now contained immense, overwhelming strength, which were at least three to four times stronger than before.

That was the improvement to his raw martial power alone. At the same time, his Qi cultivation had taken a major leap as well, and the spirit energy in his body had grown significantly.

He had directly broken through the Qi Cultivation Realm, stepping into the second realm. At this new level, he could now leave his physical body and experience brief astral projection without relying on the Spirit Officer Summoning Talisman.

Previously, the moment he left his body by more than three chi, his spirit would be immediately attacked by the innate killing forces of heaven and earth. Now, Li Yanchu’s eyes were filled with joy.

“What a lucky stroke!”

He quietly focused his senses and felt a warm current in the center of his palm. With a slight thought, a set of ancient armor with its surface inscribed with Daoist talismans written in red cinnabar suddenly appeared over his body.

His chest, shoulders, arms, and legs were now fully clad in the armor! In an instant, he transformed from a refined, elegant Daoist youth into a formidable battlefield warrior. The talismanic armor was far more extraordinary than he had imagined!

The moment he donned it, he felt his internal power surge again, boosted to another level. Of course, the armor’s greatest strength was its defensive power, though for now, he had no way to test it.

At this moment, Li Yanchu bent his knees slightly, then launched upward in a sudden leap.

Boom!

The massive rocks above him shattered and collapsed, tumbling down in all directions. Then, Li Yanchu curled his fingers like hooks, easily embedding them into the mountain wall. With a single sweep of his saber, a brilliant arc of saber qi exploded forth, cleaving through the rock and tearing open a massive fissure.

Then, a figure suddenly appeared. The very next moment, it stood right before Li Yanchu. It was the old ape that had disappeared earlier!

The old ape bared its teeth in a grin at Li Yanchu, but there was no malice in its expression. “Young lad, I’ll send you out.”

Hearing this, Li Yanchu paused for a moment, then gave the old ape a respectful nod. At this moment, the old ape’s aura was calm and tranquil, completely lacking the violent hostility it had shown earlier.

Then, Li Yanchu watched as a massive spectral image of a giant ape emerged behind it, and with a single motion, it lifted the countless layers of heavy mountain rock above them. To Li Yanchu’s surprise, it was moving mountains!