txolops Chapter 211, Part 3: The Yin Slaughtering Divine Sword
Chapter 211, Part 3: The Yin Slaughtering Divine Sword
Beneath the solid ice, tens of feet high.
Looking through the solid ice at the vast, endless expanse of ice and snow outside, Li Ping was dumbfounded.
In fact, he has lived in this world for more than seventy years, but he has never seen such a scene before.
Although the Western Wilderness has four seasons, winter at most means snow covering the earth, but it is not like now, with thousands of miles of ice and no trace of life.
Moreover, he remembered that when he was teleported into the secret realm, it should have been during the summer or autumn season.
"I'm probably no longer in the Western Wilderness," Li Ping quickly concluded.
Despite these guesses, he still had no clue where he was.
Instead of rushing to break through the ice, Li Ping took a look at the surrounding environment.
He had previously thought the teleportation array was underground, but now, through observation, he discovered that this was not the case.
His current position was clearly near the summit of a high peak, hence his expansive view. This inheritance array must be located inside the mountain; he had just flown out of it using the steps.
As Li Ping pondered, he turned and flew toward the stone hall inside the mountain.
He chose to return for two main reasons.
Firstly, although the stone hall had a slightly strong earthy smell, there was no danger, so he was in no hurry to leave.
As far as he was concerned, he could cultivate anywhere as long as he had the Jade of the Spirit Eye; the key was that there could be no danger.
Now that it's highly likely he's left the Western Wilderness, and he's in an unfamiliar place, there shouldn't be anyone bothering him. He can relax.
Secondly, Xiao Yunzhi was still recovering her magical power in the stone hall. She was not a delicate and weak woman, but a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. Moreover, with the assistance of the Blazing Sun Bird, she could unleash combat power that could overwhelm a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Even if we want to explore this unfamiliar territory, we can do so after Xiao Yunzhi has recovered her full strength.
Not only will they have a capable assistant, but if they encounter a truly insurmountable danger, the chances of them overcoming the crisis together will also greatly increase.
……
Soon, Li Ping returned to the stone hall by walking up the steps.
Seeing that Xiao Yunzhi was still recovering her magical power, Li Ping did not disturb her. Instead, he took out a futon, sat down cross-legged, and began to take stock of his gains from this trip to the secret realm.
During this trip, he killed two late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators and four mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators.
He obtained two storage bags. He checked the items inside the two storage bags in the secret realm, but because he was in a hurry at the time, he only looked at them briefly.
Looking back now, the results have been pretty good.
The most precious item was undoubtedly the Blood Spirit Ruler Talisman used by the late Foundation Establishment cultivator he fought. However, after the talisman was used, its power was almost gone, and Li Ping estimated that it could only be used one or two more times before turning to ashes.
Besides the talisman treasures, the rest consisted of magic tools, spiritual materials, miscellaneous items, and a considerable amount of spirit stones.
The magical artifacts were all ordinary items, which Li Ping didn't think much of, but there were some fine spiritual materials, which he planned to keep for his own use.
As for miscellaneous items, they mainly consist of insect eggs, animal eggs, and the like.
Li Ping already had the Wildfire Sparrow as his spirit beast, and he was too lazy to cultivate those ordinary spirit insects and spirit beasts. So he planned to use all these random things as snacks for the Wildfire Sparrow.
Actually, what Li Ping cared about most during this trip to the secret realm was the 'evil artifact' he obtained from Xiao Yunzhi, but seeing how carefully Xiao Yunzhi treated it, he dared not open it rashly at this moment.
Instead, they planned to wait until Xiao Yunzhi woke up and learned the specific origin of the evil object from her before deciding on a solution.
After sorting through his spoils, he sat cross-legged, holding two spirit stones in his hands, and began to recover his depleted magical power.
For a moment, the stone hall fell silent, with only two long breaths occasionally stirring the air.
……
Several hours later, Li Ping opened his eyes, put the two spirit stones in his hand into his storage bag, and his gaze fell on Xiao Yunzhi not far away.
Just then, Xiao Yunzhi opened her eyes as if she had sensed something. The two looked at each other, and Xiao Yunzhi smiled and said, "Doctor Yan, it took me a lot of time to recover my magic power. Thank you for protecting me."
Li Ping stood up and shook his head slightly: "Fairy Xiao, you flatter me. This place is quite safe and there is no danger. There is no question of protecting the Dharma here."
Xiao Yunzhi did not refute, but stood up as well and said with a smile, "Brother Yan, you saved my life. No amount of thanks can express my gratitude. By the way, I hope you won't mind if I call you Brother Yan."
"Fairy Xiao..."
Before Li Ping could finish speaking, Xiao Yunzhi interrupted him, saying boldly, "Xiao Fairy sounds a bit too formal. Brother Yan, please just call me 'Yunzhi,' that's what everyone I know calls me."
After saying that, she just stared at Li Ping with a quiet gaze.
This was the second time Li Ping had saved her.
If Li Ping hadn't treated her back then, she might have died from poisoning more than forty years ago.
If Li Ping hadn't suddenly appeared this time,
She will probably not escape death either; at most, she might manage to kill two or three people before she dies.
Li Ping glanced at her before nodding slightly, "Alright, then please forgive my presumption. Yunzhi... let's go out first. By the way, could you please tell me the origin of that so-called 'evil object'?"
He didn't correct Xiao Yunzhi's way of addressing him. A name is just a label. Anyway, they were in unfamiliar territory, so it didn't matter whether Xiao Yunzhi called him "Brother Li" or "Brother Yan".
"Okay, Brother Yan!" Upon hearing Li Ping's address, a hint of joy flashed in Xiao Yunzhi's eyes, and she immediately smiled as she introduced the origin of the evil object in the jade box to Li Ping.
As Li Ping flew, he listened to Xiao Yunzhi's description.
"I also learned about this evil artifact from an ancient book. This evil artifact is called the Three Yin God-Slaying Sword. It was a magical artifact made by an alien race during the ancient war by taking the souls of billions of humans and using a special method. To other alien races, this magical artifact is at most just a slightly more powerful weapon."
However, if the target of the attack is a human cultivator, it can directly affect the human's soul and cause incredible damage.
Later, that alien race was wiped out by the ancestors of the human race, and this evil artifact fell into the hands of the human race. As for why it appeared in this secret realm, I have no idea.
After hearing Xiao Yunzhi's words, Li Ping was slightly surprised. He did not expect that the treasure in his hand was a special magic weapon that could inflict special damage on humans.
"There are such strange magical treasures in the world... No, wait." Li Ping quickly realized.
The internal strife within the human race is equally outrageous. The number of cultivators who have died in mutual slaughter is probably more than that of the alien races. How could such a powerful magic weapon be abandoned?
Thinking of this, he voiced his doubts.
Xiao Yunzhi shook her head: "According to the ancient book, human cultivators are completely unable to use this evil object. Even if they manage to use it once, all their life force will be drained, and their souls will be absorbed into the sword, losing even the chance of reincarnation. As for spirit beasts and puppets, because they are bound by restrictions and their souls contain human energy, they are also unable to use this evil object."
Hearing Xiao Yunzhi's words, Li Ping was also startled.
This magical artifact, known as the "Three Yin God-Slaying Sword," requires human cultivators to pay the price of not entering the cycle of reincarnation if they wield it. No wonder the ancient cultivators sealed it away.
Which cultivator would dare to use such an extremely evil magical artifact?
If it cannot be destroyed, sealing it away becomes the safest approach.
"What a pity. I'll see if there's a way to reforge it after I reach the Core Formation stage," Li Ping thought to himself, temporarily putting aside the magic weapon.
However, he believes that the chances are slim.
If the drawbacks could be eliminated by refining, the ancient cultivators would have already done so; there was no need for such a troublesome sealing.
……
Flying upwards along the passage, Li Ping and Xiao Yunzhi soon arrived at the cave exit.
Looking at the thick ice, more than ten feet thick, and the vast expanse of snow and ice beyond, Xiao Yunzhi's eyes showed surprise and uncertainty: "Brother Yan, where are we now?"
Li Ping shook his head: "I don't know either, but we've most likely already left the Western Wilderness. Let's get out there first and then we'll talk about it."
As he spoke, he patted his storage bag, and a purple-gold flying fork flew out from it, shrouded in a hazy golden light, and blasted straight toward the ice in front of him.
At extremely low temperatures, this ice is also very hard, probably comparable to steel.
No matter how hard it is, it is still just an ordinary object, so how can it withstand the power of a Foundation Establishment cultivator's magic weapon?
Before long, Li Ping carved a hole several meters in diameter in the ice mountain and flew out with Xiao Yunzhi.
The mountain-belly teleportation array has been abandoned after being used only once.
After a moment's thought, Li Ping manipulated the purple-gold fork to slash wildly, completely severing the staircase passage and burying the teleportation array.
After doing all this, the two flew into the sky together. After identifying the direction, Li Ping took out a flying boat and carried the two of them southward.
They flew rapidly day and night for several days, but the scenery in front of them remained unchanged; the vast expanse of ice and snow seemed to have no end.
Gradually, Li Ping began to feel a little restless.
If he weren't with Xiao Yunzhi, he wouldn't have wanted to reveal the Spirit Eye Jade on his body.
At this moment, he was even planning to find an iceberg, dig a hole, crawl inside, and cultivate asceticism.
"If we still haven't found anything in a few days, we'll fly east and take a look," Li Ping decided.
In fact, the two of them had plenty of spirit stones in their storage bags, enough to last another year or two without worrying about running out of mana. It was just that the monotonous and tedious scenery was getting really boring.
"Logically speaking, since the teleportation array was built here, there should be cultivators nearby." Xiao Yunzhi couldn't help but mutter, clearly she was also a little annoyed.
Just as the two were feeling a bit down, Li Ping suddenly noticed a line of black dots slowly moving forward on the ground.
Upon closer inspection, he realized that what was on the ground was actually a huge, sled-like object, and pulling this huge sled were dozens of enormous, strange dogs.
Li Ping's expression brightened: "Let's go down and take a look!"