Chapter 441 Five Villages Temple
In the next long hours, Li Mu and his companies seemed to have run out of luck.
There were hundreds of halls in the core area of the tomb, but most of them were closed. According to the four disciples of the Hunyuan Sect, even a deity could not break into those closed halls, so Li Mu did not bother to try those halls but just keep searching for an open hall one by one.
Guo Yuqing was, however, quite lucky.
He found two treasures in one go in a hall named Seven Birds Hall.
One of them was a fan of five colors. Guo Yuqing injected his natural qi into it, then, with a slight fanning, flames sprayed out of it. The power of the fire was surprisingly comparable to Li Mu’s Emperors’ Fire, which was extremely scary. Moreover, the flames were the mere production of Guo Yuqing’s unskillful use, for he had not fully understood the power of that precious fan. If he had completely refined it, the power of the flames might be even more impressive.
The other one was a long spear. The spear looked ancient. It was lavender-colored, as though thunder and lightning were lurking in it. The spear was about seven feet and a half long. The metal tip of the spear was extraordinarily sharp, which shone chillingly. The long handle of the spear had a spiral texture, which felt cool. From top to bottom, the spear was engraved with three characters— Flying Lightning Spear.
Guo Yuqing liked collecting spears. To his pleasant surprise, he had come across a Flying Lightning Spear in the large tomb.
By the sound of the name of the spear alone, he knew it was not an ordinary product. After refining it, Guo Yuqing could hide it in his body. Then, with a stir of his mind, the spear appeared in his hands. As the spear could produce endless thunder and lightning, when Guo Yuqing stored it inside him, it also helped nourish and purify his body, which was truly magical.
And what was more enviable was that the internal tactical deployment engraved in the Flying Lightning Spear also contained a spear-using method called Thirty-six styles of the Flying Lightning, which Guo Yuqing mastered when he studied it for the first time. When he performed that spear art, the spear moved so fast that it became shadowless like thunder and lightning. Stirring the wind and thunder, it directly outstripped the sound. When Guo Yuqing held the spear in his hand, the swiftness of his movements enhanced two-fold as well. He successfully outran the sound and his figure blurred into a phantom. That was incredibly fast.
Watching him perform the art, the four disciples of the Hunyuan Sect, especially the man with the hawk-nose and the man with knitted eyebrows, turned green-eyed.
Any treasure found in the core area of the tomb was the weapon left by the divine fighters who had died in the war in the heavens ages ago. Those weapons were at least a Taoist Treasure. Even in the Brilliance Immortal Galaxy, numerous giants would turn green-eyed at the sight of any of the treasures.
Although the four of them had managed to enter the core area, they did not haul any gains but were all enslaved… They all felt they would be driven crazy by the fact that they were likely to get out of the treasure mountain empty-handed.
“When we get back, we must find that elder who checked the calendar for our landing date. Didn’t he say it was a lucky date and the right time to land? But how come we turned out to be so miserable?”
“That old guy can’t have been bribed and picked us a particularly bad time, can he?”
“He might have.”
“If this is a lucky day for us, how could Junior Fellow Apprentice Xu have been hammered to death…”
The four disciples started cursing inwardly.
Even so, they dared not show any sign of their complaints in front of Li Mu.
After all, they had witnessed Li Mu’s brutality. Even the future leader of the Flowing Shadow Sect, an outrageously crooked man, was killed by Li Mu’s tricks. So, how could they dare affront him?
Another two hours pa.s.sed and there was no other gain.
“Something is wrong.” Li Mu came to a halt and started to consider the whole thing.
After a moment, he suddenly whipped around. Without a word, he seized the four disciples and began to punch them with his full strength.
The storm of the thuds of punches and slaps fell on the four disciples of the Hunyuan Sect, all of whom were howling in misery.
The four disciples were all thrown into a daze by Li Mu’s fists.
“What’s the matter? Why is he beating us again?”
When Li Mu finished, the four sprawled on the ground with swollen noses and unfocused blue eyes. “Who am I? Where am I? Who hit me? Where am I going?”
“Spit it out! Aren’t you four still hiding something from me?” Li Mu demanded fiercely. “If you still want to fool me, believe it or not, I’ll break your bones, and suck the bone marrows of yours clean!”
“No, we don’t…” The hawk-nose answered, fl.u.s.tered.
Li Mu flexed his fingers which produced a series of cracks and said, “As I understand it, you guys really don’t know how to spell death. I’ll give you a chance. If you don’t tell the truth, I will punch you to death and organize your bodies to form the word ‘death’!”
The hawk-nose panicked at once.
The other three were also appalled.
“He’s found out?”
“How did he get it?”
“Now… what to do?”
The four people looked at each other, and their will to resist almost disintegrated in an instant. After all, they had seen Li Mu’s brutality with their own eyes. The scene of Junior Fellow Apprentice Xu bursting into pieces after taking Li Mu’s one punch was still fresh in their heads.
“I’ll come clean with you, come clean…” The hawk-nose first threw in the towel.
“This is the Tomb of the G.o.d of Sin where the treasures lie?”
Ming Yue was holding a wrought copper cudgel in her hand, looking quite vigorous.
“This is unlikely to be the core area. We are on the periphery. Yet, if we take the things of this ruin outside, they are enough to put all the martial art pract.i.tioners on the land in a desperate fight.” Qing Feng, sitting in the wheelchair, was controlling a flying broadsword with his spiritual force, which was hovering in front of his eyes. He had drawn that conclusion based on careful observation.
w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu pouted defiantly.
No wonder she was rather depressed.
After she entered the tomb, she found that everything there contained the Taoist Sense and so were too heavy for her to carry. She even failed to pick up a piece of tile in the ruins, let alone those weapons, armors, s.h.i.+elds, and other treasures.
Ming Yue and Qing Feng, as well as Yuan Hou, had each collected a number of weapons. But w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu had no way to collect the treasures by herself even when she spotted one.
“Sister, sister, don’t be sullen. I heard that there is a kind of elixir from ancient times that can let mortals soar into the immortal realm. If you take one, it will cleanse your body and soul and change your physique. Since this is the Tomb of the G.o.d of Sin, maybe it has such an elixir. Let’s go deeper into the tomb. And if we find the elixir, your problem will be solved.”
Ming Yue consoled w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu.
w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu’s eyes glinted as she said, “Really? That’s great!”
After taking that journey to the 10 cities and nine counties on the border last time, w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu had been seized by a kind of obsession or the devil inside her. In particular, every time she saw that she could not bring any help to Li Mu or had to rely on Li from the beginning to the end, the depression continued to weigh on her. By far, she had no idea how to lift that load off her mind.
w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu was, after all, different from Hua Xiangrong.
She and Li Mu had received a good education on Earth, so she also pursued equality and freedom. She did like Li Mu, but she refused to be blindly obedient to Li Mu and sacrificed her whole self for him as Hua Xiangrong did. What she desired was an equal relations.h.i.+p.
Therefore, she could not stand it that she had to be like a vine wrapping around Li Mu. And if without Li Mu being the big tree, the vine could not even support itself.
Soon, the group of four walked past the city, crossed the bridge, got through the city walls, and came to the core area.
“Go this way.” Qing Feng, sitting in the wheelchair, did some calculations with his fingers and finally pointed to the southwest.
Yuan Hou pushed the wheelchair and went ahead, while Ming Yue took w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu by the arm and followed behind them.
As soon as they entered the core area, Yuan Hou, Qing Feng, and Ming Yue all sensed the suppression of the Grand Devil-subduing Formation and found that they could no longer act as freely as they did at the outside.
w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu, the ordinary girl who had no cultivation at all, was instead quite relaxed and unaffected.
The four of them were very lucky because along the way they did not b.u.mp into any other members of the extraterrestrial factions.
They took turns after turns and walked for countless miles. All of a sudden, they walked into an area filled with fog.
Before the four could register what happened, and the mysterious fog already shrouded them.
“Watch out!” Yuan Hou cautioned the others at the top of his lungs. At the same time, he conjured a ball of fire over his head, the light of which covering all the four of them. He was worried that he would have no way to answer to Li Mu if anything happened to the other three.
With the help of that small ball of flame, the four trudged carefully ahead in the fog.
In the fog around came shrilling screams now and then, as if thousands of wronged ghosts from h.e.l.l were about to break through the fog and tear the four of them into pieces. Nothing could be more terrifying than that.
The party of four stumbled on. After a long time, the fog abruptly disappeared.
When the four looked around intently, they found they did not seem to be inside the Tomb of the G.o.d of Sin.
Around them were dark green rolling mountains, which looked rather towering and spectacular. At first glance, it seemed a place covered by lavish plants. But when they took a close look, they realized that those trees and gra.s.s had been petrified. There was no gust of wind. Everything around them was motionless, as though they were in a static world. Unlike the spooky and mysterious feeling they had experienced in the core area, what they sensed in that place was only the creepy quietness.
Under their feet, stone steps slowly extended towards the depths of the mountains.
The four hesitated for a few moments and then walked along the stone path.
About 20 minutes later, they saw a large-scale manor comprised of row upon row of ancient buildings appear at the end of the path. The manor was built against a hill and surrounded by petrified trees and weeds. The location of the manor was sure wisely picked.
“What a patch of blessed land!”
Qing Feng could not help but voice his admiration.
He had indeed obtained Li Mu’s mantle of miscellaneous studies. He had some accomplishments in the field of geomancy. And perhaps he was already a more outstanding geomancer than Li Mu. Therefore, with just a glance at it, Qing Feng learned that the manor was built at the most blessed spot in the world. It was likely that the good fate and Wondrous Earthvein within a thousand miles were all occupied by that manor.
But shortly, he furrowed his brows.
He could not understand why the surrounding plants had all been petrified and died. In that way, it was more like a fierce spot that would annihilate all vitality on it.
The four arrived at the gate of the manor.
The gate was closed shut.
The plaque over the gate was clean and dust-free. Against the blue background, it bore three conspicuous golden words— “Five Villages Temple”.
“Brother Qing Feng, do you also feel that this manor looks very familiar. It feels quite strange, as if… as if…” Ming Yue, the adorkable girl, scratched her head when she tried to find a suitable word to describe the feeling.
Qing Feng said, “As if we’re back home.”
“Yes, that’s it! Like we are back home. Brother Qing Feng, you also feel the same way?” Ming Yue exclaimed, a little impressed that Qing Feng had voiced what she was thinking about at first try.
Qing Feng nodded his confirmation.
Next to them, w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu was totally shocked and seemed a little thrilled.
“Five Villages Temple?”
“That Five Villages Temple in the Journey to the West? It belongs to Zhen Yuanzi, the first geomancer who wors.h.i.+pped nothing but heaven and earth?”
If it was in the past, w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu would think it was just a coincidence. Anyway, the Five Villages Temple was const.i.tuted by simple words, and that combination was quite common. Yet, ever since she heard about Li Mu’s adventures in the Everlasting Heaven and learned that the Somersault Cloud and the Ultimate Yin and Yang Cultivation Method were in real existence, w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu could not help but a.s.sociate that Five Villages Temple in front of her with the Immortal Zhenyuan’s Five Villages Temple described in the Journey to the West.
“If it is really the Five Villages Temple, could there be any ginseng fruit tree?”
“If I eat a ginseng fruit, then, could the persistent problem that I can’t practice martial arts be fixed once for all?”