Chapter 415: The Ominous Land of the Duanlong Cave, Taisui Roulingzhi! The Elder in Hemp Robes!

The vast cavern, once filled with layers of corpse miasma and deathly yin qi accumulated over countless years, was now completely purified, with every trace of it absorbed and gone.

Within the mysterious Daoist temple, only a few remained: the Daoist youth from before and several paper effigies in the form of female Daoists.

The middle-aged Daoist, who had earlier invoked the spirits and begged his ancestral master for aid, now stood frozen in shock. Everything he had just witnessed seemed utterly beyond his comprehension.

“This young man... is he a Yang Spirit cultivator of the third realm?” He took a deep breath.

Only someone who had reached the realm of the Yang Spirit could wield such heaven-defying, creation-altering power.

However, his gaze fell upon the bronze gate lying nearby, and his lips twitched involuntarily. He had long cultivated arts of raising, refining, and summoning ghosts, and to him, Fengdu, the Ghost City, was the sacred land of the Ghost Dao.

Yet today, not a single ghost had emerged from Fengdu... and even worse, the gate itself had been taken apart! He stood there in a daze, as though trapped in a dream, everything before him feeling utterly absurd.

Who am I?

Where am I?

What am I even doing!?

Unfortunately for him, Li Yanchu had no interest in pondering a heretic’s inner turmoil. With a casual flick of his golden mace, the middle-aged Daoist collapsed like a deflated balloon, instantly shriveling up. Then, a vague black shadow burst out of his body and was shattered on the spot!

The heretic who had relied on Immortal Summoning Art was struck down brutally, his three souls and seven spirits grievously wounded, his consciousness scattered.

Li Yanchu stepped forward, and in an instant shattered the man’s meridians and bones. A surge of fierce, domineering spiritual power surged into his body, sealing the heretic completely.

Then, with a faint motion of his heart, Li Yanchu turned and smiled slightly at Zuo Qian and the others.

“Wait here for a moment, I’ll be right back.”

As soon as his voice fell, the ten-zhang-tall Dharma body vanished instantly. His primordial spirit returned to his body.

Gripping the Jiaoslayer, Li Yanchu strode forward with bold steps, his eyes gleaming with spiritual light as he activated the Qi Sight. Following the lingering traces of evil spirits and corpses within the Duanlong Cave, he charged straight toward them and began his slaughter.

The divine abilities recorded in the

Yellow Court Classic

now displayed their full power. Godspeed, Wallbreak, and the Water-Dividing Pearl he carried on him all combined to make Li Yanchu unstoppable within the cavern.

Since this place was a land of extreme malice, piled high with corpses and teeming with wicked creatures, then there was no need for mercy. He would level it all! There was no reason to let such a cursed place continue plaguing the world.

Boom! Boom!

Zuo Qian, the ferryman, and the rescued woman all stood frozen in shock. What exactly was this Daoist trying to do!?

Soon, they realized that the mysterious Daoist temple had been completely reduced to rubble by Li Yanchu. Roaring flames surged from his Heaven-Illuminating Seal, spreading like a world-burning tide.

All the paper effigy female Daoists remaining in the temple were incinerated into ash, and several newly refined corpses were also obliterated!

Flames filled the air, annihilating everything. From within the sea of fire, a fist-sized pill suddenly rose, gleaming with brilliance, transforming into a streak of light and darting away.

Seeing this, Li Yanchu’s gaze darkened as he swung his blade down.

Clang!

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

The golden blade energy struck the escaping pill with a dull thud, yet it remained completely unharmed, and immediately tried to flee again.

Li Yanchu drew forth the Radiant Gem Ruler, and unleashed a burst of five-colored divine light. The pill dropped from the air, revealing itself to be a Golden Pill. It was engraved with three cloud patterns, and still radiating a faint, sacred glow even now.

Li Yanchu performed the Telekinetic Retrieval, pulling the pill directly into his hand. He found the object unusually dense and firm, its surface faintly warm to the touch. He stored the Golden Pill away, then vanished from sight, returning to where he had come from.

That item had withstood both the Heaven-Illuminating Seal’s divine flames and the Jiaoslayer’s edge, proof enough that it was no ordinary object. Thus, he decided to take it back and study it properly later.

Once he departed, however, the corpses and evil entities within the Duanlong Cave were doomed.

Five-Dragon Wheel! Ten Thousand Crows Urn! Cloudpiercer! Flying Smoke Sword!

Divine fire surged and raged, burning everything. The wicked spirits and the corpses on land and water alike were reduced to ashes.

As his feet touched the ground, Li Yanchu used his Qi Sight and sensed a wave of pure, condensed malice. Yet the area around him was utterly empty, there was nothing there.

“Strange. The evil aura clearly originates from this spot...”

He frowned slightly, and divine light flickered within his eyes as he cast the Spirit Eyes. Compared to the Qi Sight, Spirit Eyes was far more precise when it came to unveiling illusions and deceit. What had once appeared to be barren ground now turned, in Li Yanchu’s eyes, into a pulsating mass of living flesh.

At its center rested an irregular sphere, about half the height of a man, rising and falling with each pulse, like the beating of a living human heart.

“This is... a

Taisui

?” His expression darkened.

This

Taisui

was not the same as the astrological

Offending Taisui

[1] among the common folk, it was also called Roulingzhi[2]. Legends claimed that consuming it could extend one’s life, even grant immortality. But such things were mere folklore; few had ever seen one with their own eyes.

Yet his master, Daoist Xuancheng, had once mentioned that in the heretical arts, there existed a forbidden method to

cultivate

a Taisui, by offering up living blood and flesh as sacrifice, nurturing the abomination into growth. It was among the most sinister and perverse of practices.

“What kind of cursed place is this...?” Li Yanchu’s expression turned grim.

From the Heaven-Illuminating Seal, torrents of divine fire erupted, instantly engulfing the ground. The half-man-sized

Taisui

let out a shrill, agonized wail; it had actually developed sentience!

Murderous intent flashed across Li Yanchu’s eyes, and his disgust for the creature deepened. How much blood and flesh had been consumed to spawn such a monstrosity!?

Boom

!

The divine flames consumed the Roulingzhi entirely, reducing even the surrounding earth to nothingness.

As he continued to sense the lingering malice within the Duanlong Cave, his divine fire spread ever onward, purging everything in its path. Until finally, he reached the deepest chamber of the cavern. There, before him, sat an elderly man with horns on his head and dressed in coarse hemp robes.

Li Yanchu’s brows rose in surprise. His eyes gleamed with divine light, and in an instant, he perceived the truth: This old man’s true form... was a golden carp, its head already sprouting horns, on the verge of transforming into a dragon.

A golden carp... could this be the legendary golden carp of Wei City?

The thought stirred in his heart.

The creature carried no aura of bloodshed or malice, and yet someone had sealed it here with immense divine power. Even now, the Buddhist scriptures etched into the chains glowed faintly, still brimming with formidable might.

Most likely a wicked thing,

he muttered inwardly.

Unconsciously, his grip tightened around the Jiaoslayer. He wondered whether he ought to strike the old man down on the spot.

The hemp-robed elder looked at Li Yanchu once, and his heart immediately sank.

That lingering divine aura... yes, it was unmistakable. It belonged to the man who had wreaked havoc in the Duanlong Cave moments ago.

“Greetings, honored immortal,” the elder said, bowing deeply. His expression was calm and gentle, his tone filled with sincerity.

“Hm?” Li Yanchu was momentarily taken aback.

The man was bound by Buddhist iron chains, hardly the image of a virtuous being, yet his attitude was unexpectedly courteous.

“The evils within this cavern are nearly all destroyed,” Li Yanchu said, his voice low and cold. “Dressed as you are, give me one reason not to kill you.”

The old man’s lips twitched slightly before he spoke, choosing his words with care.

“Honored immortal, please discern the truth. I’m but a golden carp who once cultivated within the waters of Wei City. I was on the verge of transforming into a dragon, but was betrayed. My Dharma body shattered, and I barely survived the heavenly tribulation. Then a monk in white discovered me, and sealed me here beneath these chains. Yet I swear, I have committed no evil, nor taken a single innocent life.”

Li Yanchu’s eyes narrowed. “If you have committed no evil,” he asked coldly, “then why did that monk in white see fit to seal you?”

1. “Offending Taisui” is a traditional Chinese folk belief referring to a situation where a person’s Chinese zodiac sign conflicts with the Taisui (the Grand Duke Jupiter) of that particular year. This is thought to bring misfortune or obstacles in one’s life.

More specifically, there are several forms of conflict with Taisui: “in conflict with Taisui” (冲太岁), “punished by Taisui” (刑太岁), “harmed by Taisui” (害太岁), “broken by Taisui” (破太岁), and “directly facing Taisui” (值太岁), which is the person’s own zodiac year (本命年). These are believed to bring challenges or instability in areas such as career, wealth, health, and relationships.

To counteract this, people often perform rituals known as “appeasing Taisui” (安太岁) or offer prayers to the Taisui deity to seek safety and smooth fortune throughout the year. ☜

2. In Chinese mythology and folklore, Feng (Chinese: 封; pinyin: Fēng; lit. 'mound', 'hump') is an edible monster that resembles a two-eyed lump of meat and magically grows back as fast as it is eaten. Early Chinese texts also referred to this legendary food with the names Shìròu (視肉; 'look like meat'), Ròuzhī (肉芝; 'meat excrescence'), and Tàisuì (太歲; "great year; Jupiter"). Ròulíngzhī (肉靈芝; "meaty Lingzhi mushroom") is a modern name popularized by Chinese news media reporting on purported discoveries of Feng throughout China.

Tàisuì (太歲; 'great year', 'Jupiter'), combining tai (太; 'great', 'very', 'too') and sui (歲; 'year (of age)') in reference to Jupiter's orbit of 11.86 years (12 years in Chinese tradition), is an old name for the planet Jupiter. Jupiter is the God of the Year in the Chinese zodiac and Fengshui, and worshiped in religious Daoism. Feng is considered to be the earthly manifestation of Jupiter's shen (神; 'spirit', 'god', 'deity') and sometimes syncretized with the deity Taisui Xingjun (who in the novel 三教源流搜神大全 is born from a lump of flesh). ☜