Chapter 490: The Mist of Time, Primeval Aberrations! Something’s Wrong with the Twin-Tail Girl!?

Boom! Boom! Boom!

With every step he took, the ground trembled and the mountains quaked.

Then, a shrill, metal-rending cry tore through the air, and the sky abruptly dimmed. A vicious giant bird burst out from the surrounding mountains, its wings blotting out the sun. From a deep pool within the mountains, a flood dragon crawled forth as well, soaring straight toward the small town.

This town existed as a mysterious, independent space, but now it felt as though countless other spaces had been dragged into alignment with it. Terrifying primeval remnants from the desolate ages were slowly stepping out of the mountains, and the woman in the red dress turned pale.

“Damn it, it’s gotten this chaotic? Even these primeval relic beasts have been forced out!” She shot an angry glare at the black-armored general behind her.

He hounded her relentlessly, hunting her while devouring the power within the blood moon.

The woman in red suddenly let out a cold laugh. “Whatever. In this world, myths have already been severed. Let whatever wants to happen, happen.”

This woman was by no means a good person.

Her complicated feelings toward Li Yanchu stemmed only from the fact that he’d saved her life. And the women of her clan had a particular fondness etched into their very bones for handsome, fine-featured men. That instinct was something they were born with.

This was the first time she had seen a man with looks and bearing quite like his. So, to some extent, her reaction to Li Yanchu moments ago hadn’t been driven solely by her emotions; her instincts had played their part as well.

Her gaze shifted to the great mountain, her expression icy. It was as though she could pierce through layer upon layer of darkness, straight to the hidden things lurking beyond it.

And those things, even she feared them. Even the king of her clan had perished at their hands.

Boom!

Behind her, the black-armored general cleaved down with another strike, immense and crushing. The blow split open a ravine over ten zhang long.

“You again!?” the woman in red spat the words coldly.

As expected of the mongrel born from Taotie’s residual soul!

She swept her gaze over the primeval horrors swarming toward her. Merging herself with the Asura Demon Sword, she sped up, darting into the sky.

This time, she didn’t attempt to flee like she had in the town. Instead, she flew straight toward the blood moon overhead.

In her mind, her awakening and escape from the monstrous state must be the heavens granting her clan a chance at revival. She had decided that she would gamble everything.

The giant towering like a mountain, the sky-shrouding monstrous bird, the grim and merciless flood dragon all sped up the moment they felt her aura, lunging for the woman in red. The black-armored general followed as well.

In an instant, it felt as if heaven and earth were collapsing, yet this was all taking place in an ordinary, unremarkable little town.

The shadow within the Eight Trigrams Tower hadn’t been wrong. But as a strange existence born from the tower itself, his limitations were many. He understood far less about this town than the woman in red did.

However, he had not misjudged one thing: the number of taboos in this town beyond his control was far too great. And the Six Souls Banner’s might was far beyond anything he could imagine.

***

Li Yanchu had already found Zuo Qian, who was standing guard nearby, and told him everything.

After hearing the story, Zuo Qian was completely stunned.

Daoist Master Li had nearly gotten trapped inside!

The level of danger in that place shocked him deeply.

After all, in his eyes, Li Yanchu was the kind of peerless expert who could slaughter ghosts in a terrifying place like Duanlong Cave until they wailed in despair. For someone that powerful and basically a young immortal, to almost fall in an ordinary haunted ancestral hall was unbelievable.

“Daoist Master Li, rest assured, I’ll send men to seal off the area immediately. Absolutely no outsiders will be allowed in again!” Zuo Qian said.

Li Yanchu nodded slightly; he felt mentally drained. At the same time, he felt a far stronger urgency to increase his strength.

At present, his cultivation stood at the peak of the Yin Spirit realm, though his blood and qi were exceptionally vigorous. Thanks to his deep foundation and the Blood-Qi Pill he refined from that giant serpent spirit, he had successfully broken through to a level comparable to the third realm.

With his powerful magical treasures, he had once believed that there was nowhere in this world he couldn’t go. Even knowing that mythical immortals existed gave him a goal to strive toward, but he had never truly felt fear.

Yet this ordinary little town had made him feel powerless.

“Fortunately, I can recover a small realm by slaying malevolent spirits within the town... otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to uncover even half of its secrets.”

In Li Yanchu’s view, he’d barely scratched the surface of the mysteries of that town. He even faintly sensed that if he could unravel the town’s secrets, he might catch a glimpse of the true reason why the age of myths had been severed.

It was likely tightly connected to the destruction of theGrotto-Heavens and Blissful Lands.

I must work hard and break through to the third realm soon... then the fourth, and the fifth.

Li Yanchu set himself a modest goal.

Of course, at the moment, he was just a teensy bit short of that goal... by maybe a billion steps.

Everyone soon returned to Wei City. The three bald-headed monks stayed at the Taiping Inn, and the two cousins, having just survived such an ordeal, instinctively wanted to get closer to Li Yanchu.

Master Zhiqing felt that an immortal-like figure with Li Yanchu’s cultivation was worth learning from, and he wanted to observe him up close.

Li Yanchu didn’t mind. Soon he would be heading to Lingxi Temple for Master Huizhen’s abbot installation ceremony, so it was convenient to travel there with the two cousins, who had survived a great calamity, and the monk. He also brought back Liu Jun, the twin-tail girl.

Liu Jun herself was quite happy; after all, this handsome young Daoist with immortal techniques was someone she admired.

Li Yanchu didn’t think much of it, though. It wasn’t because he was interested in her twin ponytails. Well... granted, most men

do

like twin ponytails, as they were easier to... handle.

But he brought her back for only one reason: earlier, a beam of divine light from the Eight Trigrams Mirror had shone upon her. That meant something was wrong with her. But what exactly? The mirror hadn’t provided any clear feedback.

That alone made Li Yanchu wary.

The Eight Trigrams Mirror had undergone a complete upgrade and was now a ten-thousand-merit-points treasure. Back in that mysterious town, if he had forcefully activated it, he could have returned to the real world instantly. It was insanely powerful.

Zhang Wei wasn’t an ordinary person, and he came from a cultivation family, yet he had been completely unaware of the mark on him, and even his clan hadn’t noticed it.

But the Eight Trigrams Mirror had exposed it immediately, proving just how sharp its detection abilities were. And even so, it still couldn’t identify what was wrong with Liu Jun. That was... unsettling.

Keeping her close was his way of finding out what exactly was going on.