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Novel: [The Primordial Law]
Volume 3: [Qiu Prefecture Lantern Festival]
Chapter 15 (159): [The Young Venerable]
(15th of Volume 3)
Translator: Shadow Knight AK
Editor: Shadow Knight AK
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The three Exotic Beast Carriages followed a winding, circuitous route for nearly an hour, leaving the city and entering Yunzhe (Cloud-Veiled) Mountain, which stood on the edge of the Bingzu.
Qiu Prefecture had long been home to a large number of Daoists and cultivators, resulting in the construction of numerous ancient Taoist temples and vegetarian halls.
The Mirror Moon Pavilion on Yunzhe (Cloud-Veiled) Mountain had stood for thousands of years. Built into the mountainside, its upturned eaves and corners were concealed among dense forests. Several blue lamps floated in the night, casting the entire pavilion in an air of mysterious, wabi-sabi gloom.
The three Exotic Beast Carriages stopped one after another outside the temple.
Two blue-skinned Aberrant Humanoid Martial-Mystic Cultivators carried down a black metal box.
Li Weiyi, sensing the immense power emanating from the man and woman who emerged from the third carriage, kept his distance, wary of being detected by their senses.
"Creak!"
The wooden door of the Taoist temple opened, and two identical young Taoists emerged side by side.
Both wore blue Taoist robes, their faces long and thin, their skin slightly dark, with thick eyebrows and large eyes. Each held a silver-wire whisk. Their gazes were sharp and filled with a heavy aura of hostility, lacking the serene composure one might expect from cultivators in the mountains.
As Li Weiyi watched them from afar, the thought immediately struck him: 'They must be Ren Dao (Cultivated Humans).'
Twins, of course, weren't always Ren Dao, but the association was inevitable.
Chen Xun treated the two young Taoists with utmost respect. After bowing, he meticulously reported the events that had transpired within the Heavenly Pavilion.
One of the arrogant twin Taoist youths sneered, "Such a trivial matter, and the San Chen Palace can't even handle it? You had to bother the Young Venerable Lord (Lord Youzun)?"
Chen Xun suppressed his anger, daring not to voice his objections: "We of the San Chen Palace wanted to kill the person in the iron box outright, but Lord Qi insisted on keeping him alive, claiming he still had a use. Now that a large number of Jiu Li Clan experts have appeared in Giant Marsh (Juze) City, we can't just dump this hot potato on the San Chen Palace, can we?"
Chen Xun had no idea how many members of the Jiu Li Clan had actually arrived. He had to exaggerate the situation to make them take it seriously.
The Taoist scoffed: "Only you fools of the San Chen Palace would make such a fuss over the Jiu Li Clan. What Cang Li? What young Jiu Li Clan experts? The Young Venerable Lord could crush them all with a single finger. Our mission here is..."
The other twin Taoist youth interrupted him: "Since it's Lord Qi's goods, just bring it in!"
Li Weiyi could tell that the two twin Taoists were incredibly powerful. Their breaths were long and steady, and their gazes were like sharp swords, radiating outward with deadly intent.
The Taoist Temple behind them was undoubtedly a dragon's den, filled with formations, runes, and other dangers.
Once the metal iron box was brought inside, Li Weiyi would never have another chance to find out what it contained.
The more dangerous something seems, the more necessary it is to seize it.
'I've come this far!'
'And I have my Guardian Wife!'
Li Weiyi kept convincing himself to take the risk, secretly calculating the distance to the metal iron box, the time needed to reach it, and which item to use to collect it...
By the time he had everything sorted out in his mind, the two Aberrant Humanoid Martial-Mystic Cultivators had already carried the metal iron box up the thirty-plus stone steps, leaving only a few steps between them and the Taoist Temple gate.
'Rustle!'
A gentle breeze drifted up from below, causing the fallen leaves on the stone steps to swirl.
Chen Xun, who was closest to the two Aberrant Humanoid Martial-Mystic Cultivators, immediately stopped, sensing something amiss. With a sharp clang, he drew his Crescent Moon Fish Scale Longblade.
"Boom! Boom!"
Before the two Aberrant Humanoid experts, both at the Third Stage of the Five Seas Realm, could even release their spiritual Qi, they were struck by two palms, their burly bodies sent flying.
The black metal box crashed to the ground with a resounding thud, its iron chains clattering.
Lacking a suitable Cosmic Pouch, Li Weiyi prepared to use the Evil Camel Bell to collect the box.
As Li Weiyi landed beside the black metal box and had just taken out the bell, Chen Xun's horizontal slash, like a curtain of light, swept across his vision.
"Fast reaction," Li Weiyi muttered.
Li Weiyi didn't meet the attack head-on. He enveloped the iron box in spiritual Qi, kicked off the stone steps, and shot out from beneath the dazzling blade curtain like an arrow.
But before he could land, Sheng Qingyan, moving with lightning speed, was already waiting on the ground.
Her waist was slender, her hips full, and a smile played on her red lips. All the leaves on the ground around her rose into the air, shimmering with a metallic sheen like tens of thousands of flying knives, and shot toward Li Weiyi.
"Fifth Stage of the Five Seas Realm!"
Li Weiyi never imagined this seemingly gentle beauty could possess such terrifying cultivation.
Another young prodigy from a single province.
Damn it.
He, who had been cultivating for less than a year, had stumbled into a nest of top-tier experts.
"Boom! Boom!"
Li Weiyi activated his Corpse Garment Soft Armor. Blood Mist and crimson scriptures erupted from his body, colliding with the incoming leaves.
These leaves, seemingly fragile, were each like a heavy punch under Sheng Qingyan's spiritual Qi, constantly dispersing the Blood Mist.
"Hehe!"
Sheng Qingyan's laughter contained a soul-shattering, mind-numbing melody.
With a graceful wave of her slender jade hand, she unleashed a soft sword that transformed into ten thousand blades.
Countless bright sword shadows formed a net, slashing toward Li Weiyi, still suspended in mid-air.
Li Weiyi formed a hand seal in the air, and the Battle Technique Intent manifested on his back, as if he were fighting with an ancient Immortal on his back.
"Boom!"
The golden Heaven-Turning Divine Seal struck out with the palm technique, shattering the sword net and annihilating the sword qi.
The palm technique and divine seal pressed down toward Sheng Qingyan below the stone steps.
Sheng Qingyan let out a soft gasp, having never seen such a wondrous palm technique - so fierce and overwhelming, it seemed otherworldly.
She knew that her soft sword would be no match for it; there was no such thing as always overcoming rigidity with flexibility.
"Whoosh!"
With an incredibly subtle movement technique, she retreated a step, instantly soaring to the top of a distant tree. This allowed her to evade the palm strike, survey the entire situation, and intercept Li Weiyi's escape route if he tried to flee.
Li Weiyi didn't land.
He knew that once his feet touched the ground, he wouldn't escape today!
A hurricane erupted beneath his Windriding Boots, propelling him forward as he rode the wind and qi toward the forest on Sheng Qingyan's right.
This direction was closest to the Bingfeng Juze, making it the easiest escape route.
But none of the top figures among the younger generation were fools. The third person, besides Chen Xun and Sheng Qingyan, had already secretly shifted to that position earlier.
A silver spear erupted from the ground, its shaft and silver light shooting dozens of meters into the air, forcing Li Weiyi back onto the empty stone steps outside the Taoist Temple.
"Clack! Clack!"
A young figure emerged from the forest, wielding a silver spear: "Tianyi Sect, Huo Qiankun."
The entire exchange had lasted less than a breath. Each strike from the three experts had been perfectly timed and angled.
Huo Qiankun believed that any Martial-Mystic Cultivator who could survive those three attacks deserved to know his name.
Li Weiyi dispelled his invisibility.
Invisibility held no meaning against opponents of this caliber.
Ignoring them, he casually stowed the black iron box into the Evil Camel Bell.
"I know you. The number one of Tianyi Sect's younger generation, Little Cangli - Huo Qiankun! Among the young spear masters of Li Province, you're second only to Cang Li himself!"
The twin Taoist priests, who had already entered the Taoist Temple, turned back but showed no intention of intervening.
One of the Taoists said coldly, "You're truly useless. You didn't even realize you were being followed. Finish him off quickly. We can't let Mirror Moon Pavilion be exposed."
"Do you really think I came alone?"
Li Weiyi had no intention of taking on multiple opponents alone.
He immediately contacted Zen Hai Guanwu, preparing to have her resolve the situation. If she refused to come out, as the master of the Shaoyang Star, he could forcibly pull her out.
The faces of everyone present tightened as they released their spiritual senses.
Sheng Qingyan stood atop a tree, her body weightless, her skirt billowing empty, and smiled: "This feels like a bluff!"
"May I ask which faction you represent? Do you know what's inside that iron box? Some muddy waters are best left untrodden."
Chen Xun drew his Crescent Moon Fish Scale Longblade and descended the stone steps, step by step, closing in on Li Weiyi.
"There's no muddy water in this world I wouldn't wade through. To be honest, I'm more curious about which faction the people behind this Taoist Temple belong to."
As Li Weiyi finished speaking, a blinding silver light erupted from Chen Xun. He shattered the stone steps beneath his feet, and a towering Battle Technique Intent manifested, as he unleashed a domineering slash toward Li Weiyi.
The blade's surface was covered in fish-scale patterns.
Though it was only one strike, the blade's wind seemed to come from all directions.
Li Weiyi felt the ground beneath him sinking, the sky collapsing, and the world around him crumbling.
With no escape and no way to avoid it, Li Weiyi had prepared for this moment. He waved his Ghost Banner, striking its surface with a palm strike from behind.
Nether Mist billowed, and from the Ghost Banner emerged a Ghost Shadow clad in armor and wielding a war spear.
After reaching the Second Stage of the Five Seas Realm, the Ghost Shadow within the banner had grown immensely, standing three meters tall. Its form was no longer a mere shadow but seemed as real as flesh and blood, its armor and war spear appearing to be forged from metal.
"Boom!"
The Ghost Shadow swung its war spear, clashing head-on with Chen Xun's all-out strike.
Cracks immediately spiderwebbed across dozens of stone steps, and nearby trees were stripped bare by the energy ripples, their branches reduced to stark, skeletal frames.
The ground beneath Li Weiyi's feet cracked, and the Ghost Banner's surface trembled violently.
Chen Xun stumbled back two steps as dozens of stone steps collapsed entirely, exploding into fragments.
"Now that's interesting!"
Li Weiyi gained a new appreciation for the Ghost Banner's power. It seemed to contain a Fifth Stage of the Five Seas Realm Dead Spirit expert - far more reliable than the Blood Refined Artifact he had sold to Yin Ershi Si.
The twin Taoists laughed in unison, then said in unison, "Indeed, it's quite interesting. This banner of yours is no simple thing. We, the Left and Right Attendants, shall take it!"
Without taking a step, the two attendants moved left and right at a speed beyond Li Weiyi's naked eye could discern.
Their agility and speed far surpassed even Sheng Qingyan, who was renowned for her swiftness.
"Whoosh!"
Before Li Weiyi could even draw Zen Hai Guanwu, a folding fan spun through the darkness and flew toward him.
The fan resembled a miniature cosmos, with a hundred characters floating across its surface.
As it spun, the heavens and earth seemed to rotate with it, unleashing a gust of wind that sent Chen Xun, Sheng Qingyan, and Huo Qiankun flying like straw dolls in three different directions.
Finally, the fan's edge struck horizontally, sending the two attendants crashing through the Taoist Temple walls and back inside.
Their skin was torn, revealing faint sparks of fire that glowed brightly in the darkness.
"So there really is backup... Who is this?" the Left Attendant roared, stomping his foot to transform the ground beneath him into a sea of scorching flames.
Li Weiyi was stunned.
The two attendants were already terrifyingly powerful, yet Zuoqiu Sect's pretentious leader was even stronger, capable of sending them flying with just a folding fan before even arriving.
He recognized the folding fan - he had seen it in the Immortal Realm Space of Burial Immortal Town.
Now that Zuoqiu Ting had arrived, Li Weiyi decided not to summon Zen Sea Mistwatcher for the time being.
"Whoosh!"
The characters and light on the folding fan vanished, and it spun back into the darkness.
A moment later, Zuoqiu Ting stopped fanning himself, his elegant demeanor on full display as he strolled over to Li Weiyi.
He glanced at him and said, "You go ahead and wait for me in Giant Marsh (Juze) City. I'll stay here and meet the master of this place."
It was late at night, in the dead of winter, yet he was still fanning himself - what a show-off!
Li Weiyi didn't hesitate.
He immediately activated the invisibility power of his Nightwalker's Garment and swiftly vanished into the darkness.
Behind him, Zuoqiu Ting's voice, infused with spiritual Qi, rang out: "Young Venerable, you've come to the Zuoqiu Sect's territory - why are you hiding in the shadows? If you had given us a heads-up, I could have come out earlier to pay my respects!"
With a flash, Zuoqiu Ting landed in front of the Taoist Temple's gate.
Inside the Taoist Temple, a cold voice echoed: "A mere Inheritor dares to test my strength? My true opponents are the elders of your Human Race. No one from the younger generation is worthy of facing me."
After fleeing several miles away, Li Weiyi turned back.
Two massive hand seals, each radiating distinct power fluctuations, collided above the Taoist Temple. The residual spiritual Qi from the impact extended for miles, reaching his position.
The trees on the mountain swayed violently in the howling hurricane.
The Taoist Temple, built into the mountainside, collapsed entirely with a thunderous roar.
Then all light vanished, plunging the world into silence.
"Is this really a clash between the younger generation?" Li Weiyi cursed under his breath before hurrying back to Giant Marsh (Juze) City as quickly as possible, desperate to put as much distance as possible between himself and the Mirror Moon Pavilion.
As for Zuoqiu Ting's safety, he wasn't worried in the slightest.
After all, this was Zuoqiu Sect territory. It would be a colossal joke if an Inheritor of the Zuoqiu Sect were to die on their own turf.
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END OF CHAPTER
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