A faint crimson spiritual glow with hints of burning fire gradually faded from Li Ye's body. He set down yet another jade slip in his hand and couldn't help but marvel aloud:
"A Golden Core cultivator is something else. He's been down there for so long, and yet there's been no real disturbance. Not even the Golden Core fire beasts were provoked… Seems like he's already made it into the main palace."
He rubbed his chin, a little uneasy.
It had been over a month now, and he hadn't once recalled his puppets to report on the underground situation.
However, by using the secret techniques of the Heavenly Craft Scripture, he could sense the status of various nodes he had set up throughout his personal lava tunnel. These nodes were connected remotely to the many rock puppets he had scattered across the periphery of the Lava Palace over the years. By gauging their state, he could get a general sense of what was happening below.
The current readings showed that ever since the Golden Core cultivator had entered the Lava Palace, there had been no further activity.
If there had been a big battle or if the formations had been triggered, things would never have stayed this quiet.
But a Golden Core cultivator surely he wouldn't just die silently, right?
Could it be that the situation inside the Lava Palace was completely different from the outside… and that once someone entered, it was smooth sailing?
Li Ye had never actually approached the Lava Palace himself, so he could only make wild guesses.
If that Golden Core cultivator likely Bihu Sanren came back with treasures in hand, there'd be nothing he could do.
And the power dynamics of the Four Nations would surely be shaken!
Thousand Island Water City still had a Tier-3 black flood dragon as its guardian. If not for the fact that Bihu Sanren had only managed to raise it to Tier-3 late in life by which time his strength had waned he probably would have already launched a war to invade the other three nations!
But if he now gained longevity or even advanced in cultivation, uniting the Four Nations under his rule would no longer be impossible.
Li Ye shook his head, pushing the thought aside.
"It's still too early to say. The Lava Palace can't possibly be some easy treasure trove something's bound to go wrong later…"
Without lingering on the matter, he resealed the fiery vent before him and made his way beneath the Voidrealm Tree.
As he approached, both the tree and the Qingluo Silver Grass at its base gently swayed.
A faint, more solidified projection of the wood spirit residing in the Qingluo Silver Grass emerged and sent Li Ye a wave of joyful emotion.
Over the past year, the plant had fully matured. Its rich spiritual aura had also led to the successful cultivation of several other Tier-3 Qingluo Grasses.
Now, with the help of the wood spirit and its natural dominion over its kind, Li Ye had organized and positioned them throughout the grand formation as spiritual energy control nodes.
With this step complete, his Green Vine Verdant Wood Formation, even though rooted in a mere Tier-2 spiritual vein, could now unleash true Tier-3 power and maintain it for much longer.
That was precisely why, despite knowing that Tier-3 fire beasts from the Lava Palace could potentially surface, Li Ye had remained calm and did not flee.
Though the wood spirit's physical body had matured, its reservoir of spiritual vitality continued to grow. The mutual influence between the spirit and its host plant had now given it a faint trace of real strength, almost like a true plant spirit beginning to gain sentience!
Li Ye was quite supportive of this. With the contract system provided by his "panel" ensuring loyalty, the wood spirit would remain devoted to him alone.
If it could truly evolve into a plant-based spiritual creature, it could assist him in tending fields and managing resources an absolute boon.
With practiced ease, he released a strand of Wood God Arts spiritual power to nourish the wood spirit, then retrieved a formation flag and began expertly guiding the mountain's spiritual energy to nurture the spiritual grasses and the many plants in his fields.
No matter how great the fortune within the Lava Palace might be, without adequate strength, one couldn't hope to claim it.
Compared to those vague and illusory opportunities, his solid, step-by-step cultivation foundation was what truly mattered and thus demanded his careful attention.
Even with a Golden Core cultivator moving within the Lava Palace and the situation still uncertain, Li Ye's daily rhythm remained as steady as ever.
.......
Lava Palace
Within the grand, seemingly stable palace where many formation wards were still functioning amidst the ruins of shattered buildings a dramatic chase was unfolding.
Three ten-headed fire beasts thundered after an indistinct humanoid figure, tethered to it by semi-real, semi-illusory chains. The pursuit was relentless, and all of it was happening right behind Bihu Sanren.
Waves of searing purple-red flames surged like a tidal wave in their wake. Though the flames had only limited impact on the palace itself scorching but quickly dissipating their destructive power was anything but diminished. Any ordinary Golden Core cultivator caught in them would find their protective energy barrier melted away in moments, their physical body reduced to ash.
Yet Bihu Sanren was still sprinting ahead, his pace undeterred. Outside his shield of true essence, a misty jade glow flowed around him, warding off most of the flames.
It even seemed to empower him, boosting his cultivation and making the surrounding palace formations less responsive to his presence allowing him to weave swiftly through this unfamiliar structure.
"Senior, this was an unintentional intrusion! Why pursue me so relentlessly?"
"I'm willing to leave immediately, never to disturb your rest again. I beg you to grant me a path to survive!"
He shouted, yet he didn't loosen his grip on the small piece of reddish, soft jade in his hand.
As he infused it with spiritual energy, the decaying aura that clung to him began to faintly improve.
But the humanoid shadow sneered coldly.
"A mere low-tier Golden Core like you is unworthy of possessing something as precious as the Revival Jade Marrow... And do you think, having seen me, you still have a chance to leave this place alive?"
The voice carried more than a hint of irritation.
That cautious young man who had spent years exploring this place had never dared come close always using puppets, and even when he'd finally gathered enough resources to approach the palace, he'd still refused to go further.
It had forced the shadow to begin triggering formations, exposing the palace to the world in hopes of luring someone inside.
But those who came were all useless, and the fire beasts had been difficult to control losing control and slaughtering everyone the shadow had hoped to choose from.
That was until Bihu Sanren arrived.
At first, the shadow had felt hope finally, someone had entered the palace! After millennia of slumber, this could be the long-awaited turning point.
He had suppressed the fire beasts to create an opening for Bihu Sanren, only to discover that this cultivator's lifespan was nearly at its end!
Even after secretly channeling a portion of the palace's Revival Jade Marrow to him, the effect was minimal his state only improved slightly.
Using an entire chunk of such a rare treasure for a paltry extension of life? Unacceptable.
He couldn't allow it to go to waste nor could he allow Bihu Sanren to leave!
Suddenly, the shadow released his grip, letting the three fire beasts lunge forward. Meanwhile, mist around his form twisted, and with a quick hand seal, a sharp surge of divine sense shot forth.
"Ah!"
Instantly, the jade glow surrounding Bihu Sanren shattered. The elder screamed in agony, blood gushing from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. His sea of consciousness nearly collapsed.
At that moment, the three ten-headed fire beasts pounced, flames surging high, ready to consume him.
Faced with imminent death, a talisman on Bihu Sanren's body flared to life. A blinding golden light burst forth, and in the blink of an eye, he shot forward like a bolt of lightning moving with a speed that seemed to leap across thousands of miles in an instant.
In a single breath, he broke through multiple layers of formation and fled from the palace's core.
The humanoid shadow, seeing this, didn't pursue. Instead, he raised a hand and made a grasping motion.
A piece of crimson jade marrow flowed through the air and landed neatly in his palm. With that, he turned and left, no longer paying any attention to the fleeing Bihu Sanren.
But outside the palace core...
The golden light around Bihu Sanren quickly faded, and at some point, the purple-red flames had latched onto him, breaking through all his defenses and rapidly devouring his body.
His mind was in chaos, he screamed as he tried to summon his signature Blackwater Current to extinguish the fire.
But his divine sense was in shambles he couldn't muster any effective resistance.
The rate at which the fire consumed him far outpaced his body's ability to suppress it.
Worse yet, upon exiting the palace, he found himself once again within a chaotic field of overlapping formations.
With his consciousness teetering on the brink and his body still ablaze, he was completely helpless against the renewed assault of these traps. Bihu Sanren had no way out.
The injuries to his sea of consciousness blurred his thoughts. As the damage deepened and his already fading life force hit its limit, clarity returned to him for just a moment at the brink of death.
Wracked with pain as both body and mind reached their end, he could scarcely believe that even after obtaining the long-dreamed-of-life-extending treasure, he would still meet such a bitter fate.
The Lava Palace truly held hidden dangers… and he had walked straight into the trap.
"Heavens… why do you mock me so…"
Hatred and regret filled his eyes as flashes of his life played before him until everything froze on the image of the city he'd built, and the black-scaled water dragon leaping joyfully in the lake nearby.
Then, everything ended.
The final thread of vitality in his withered body dissipated.
Thus, Bihu Sanren, once a mighty Golden Core cultivator, met his end dead and Dao vanished.
-support me on Patreon for more chapters, 415+ chapters in there
patreon.com/LordoftheReader