A ghost cave chase
In September, the sun sets between mountains and rivers.
The Heavenly Gate burned down, and the mighty Qi from the upper realm poured out.
The rivers turned into chaos, the mountains and rivers turned into vast oceans, all lives were destroyed, and the nine continents changed drastically.
It is recorded in history as the first year of Tianmu.
If you came out of seclusion and found that your cultivation had plummeted and your internal injuries were so severe that you could be considered the greatest miracle of life in this world, what would be your first reaction?
Lu Yinche’s choice was to close his eyes and wake up again.
What kind of seclusion is this? You must be having a nightmare.
But it didn't work.
Because he was bankrupt.
The priceless immortal cave disappeared, the jade spirit bed, all the treasures turned into a dark and pitch-black forest around him, and he was sitting on the branch of a tree.
Who am I, where am I, what happened?
He could only answer the first of so many questions.
He is the 28th generation descendant of the Qichuan Lu family, the renowned Mingye Sword Master who is at the Quasi-Return to Ruin Realm - he just dropped a major realm to the early stage of the Palm Realm - wait a minute, where is his sword?
Lu Yinche wiped his face and thought, forget it, he didn’t want to answer any questions.
The forest was so dense that the moon was invisible. He wanted to find someone to ask for directions, but there were no mosquitoes. Lu Yinche looked a little confused.
At this moment, a young man who was being chased ran into his sight and bumped into the tree where Lu Yinche was. It seemed as if he stepped on a stone and his feet slipped.
Whose kid is waiting here?
Lu Yinche's chassis was very stable. He used the shade of the tree canopy to hide his body and looked down from above, with no intention of making any rash moves.
Neither the young man nor his pursuers noticed the existence of the people in the tree, including three ghostly creatures on ropes that looked like "hounds". Lu Yinche just thought they looked like a bunch of things.
The cultivator chasing him is at the Jindan stage, probably in the middle stage. It's a waste to use his cultivation to chase a newbie who has obviously just established his foundation. Could it be that this kid is lucky and got some extraordinary opportunity or secret treasure?
In the world of cultivation, killing and robbing are not uncommon, and bullying the weak is also normal. The Immortal Alliance is righteous, but it has no one to support it, and even if it is bullied to death, it will be difficult to seek justice.
The Jindan cultivator was getting closer. "The meat of pheasants raised free range is extraordinarily firm and has a unique sweetness. I imagine humans are the same way. Capture this brat. Madam Jin needs a bowl of heart and liver soup for her health."
The young man being chased couldn't get up and had sprained his ankle, so he could only use all four limbs to roll over and over on the wet ground. This wasn't a cliff; there was no slope for him to just fall down. His only hope was to be trapped in a jar, a dead end.
If Lu Yinche didn't take action.
He did not move, but just stared at the magic weapon in the hands of the Jindan cultivator, which was shining with golden light.
The Jindan cultivator was very proud: "Why don't you run away?"
This sounds like a villain.
The young man thought so too.
His name was Lu Denghe. He had just taken out the only life-saving thunder talisman he had from the group called "Ghost Cave" and had used it up.
Lu Denghe was a familiar reader of Xianxia novels, reciting every plot by heart, from "Don't bully the poor young man" to "Pretend to be a pig and eat the tiger." However, at this moment, he didn't even dream of becoming the protagonist, only of being a small background figure who passed by and performed a good deed.
He shouted at the top of his lungs, "You can't kill me! My family is Qichuanlu. You can pay me, but if you kill me, you'll be in trouble!"
Lu Yinche's gaze finally shifted from the magic weapon to the young man.
The Jindan cultivator sneered, "I thought you were going to reveal your origins. So you're the Qichuan Lu family, a famous family from three hundred years ago. I know you've fallen so far that you can only afford half a page in the family tree."
Before he could finish, the Jindan cultivator kicked him. "Or perhaps you have a good appearance and could 'sell' yourself for a good price like your ancestor did. If you have the ability to climb up the ranks of the Sword Saint like him, and serve me well enough to please me, I might even let you live a few more hours."
As he spoke, he held up the magic weapon hanging in the darkness and was about to reach out to grab Lu Denghe's collar, but the latter closed his eyes resignedly.
Lu Yinche took in their expressions and felt a little bored, so he casually took off a leaf, gathered his energy and shot it out with a snap of his fingers - it suddenly pierced through the monk's bun with just the right force, full of teasing.
The latter staggered backwards after being hit, and fell to the ground in a miserable state, with even the magic weapon falling out of his hand.
“Who is it?”
His answer was a soft chuckle from above his head.
A young man in white clothes looked relaxed, with one hand resting on his bent knee to support his chin, and the other hand twisting leaves, looking leisurely.
"Why are you in such a hurry to leave? Tell me, how are you selling this shabby house? What's the price?"
This person was dressed in plain clothes without any accessories. His age was unknown, he was in his twenties, but he had a beautiful face and a smiling face.
The monk didn't recognize him, so he put his hands behind his back and made hand gestures, saying, "I wonder who is visiting you, senior? I'm sorry for not welcoming you."
The pagoda-shaped magic weapon spiraled up in response to the call, emitting golden light in all directions, forming a barrier visible to the naked eye. It looked like a good item for protection.
"Why are you being polite?" The young man in white, Lu Yinche, looked at the pagoda. "As for me, I'm very hospitable. This one is pretty good."
After saying that, he flicked his wrist and several leaves flew out. The magic weapon shone with golden light.
It seemed as if it wanted to block all his attacks.
——Right now, the Jindan cultivator saw the opportunity and stepped forward with a ferocious face, throwing out several poisoned hidden weapons from his sleeves.
No, that's not right.
The monk suddenly realized that his magic weapon was not obeying his orders as before. The arc of light it threw out did not stop the opponent's attack, but intercepted all of his hidden weapons and melted them into spots of black smoke.
In a few breaths, the situation became clear. The monk was hit several times, screamed, and fell to the ground. The hunting dogs didn't even whimper, and none of them survived.
What's going on?
Could it be that the spell his master taught him was wrong?
The Jindan cultivator was utterly shocked and collapsed to the ground, watching helplessly as the magic weapon spun in the air, then lost its golden light and fell into the hands of a mysterious visitor whose identity was unknown.
The latter casually fiddled with the tower with his fingertips, and the tower spun in a circle, making a subtle and pleasant humming sound, as if it were the joy of a long-awaited reunion.
This, this, this, is this thing so well-behaved?
The young man in white was still sitting on the tree, his voice carrying a hint of arrogance from a playboy: "Where did you get this thing?"
The situation is stronger than people.
The Jindan cultivator was very flexible and immediately showed his utmost flattery.
"Senior, please calm down! This, this is my master's magic weapon! Senior, please understand that my master is the ancestor of Xizhou, Master Zhengyu. For your sake, I don't know how I have offended you. I hope you will show mercy..."
Lu Yinche said "Oh" slowly and tilted his head as if he was thinking.
The Jindan cultivator thought that this person would finally give up when faced with difficulties, or at least think twice and give his master some face.
But Lu Yinche really just thought about it for a moment, then said nonchalantly: "I don't know him, are you kidding me?"
The monk looked at the magic weapon in his hand that had changed hands, and he felt like vomiting blood. He cursed this ignorant boy a thousand times, but he still had to put on a smile that was uglier than crying: "You are joking. How could this junior have the guts to deceive you!"
"Tsk," Lu Yinche snorted, his gaze returning to the Jindan cultivator with a hint of scrutiny and undisguised contempt. "I don't like zither music, and I have no interest in Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zheng, or Yu. However, your master was able to obtain 'Qi Shu'... What is his relationship with the Gong family?"
"Master, please speak slower? What, what Gong family?"
"Longshan Gong family, don't tell me you don't know." Lu Yinche was a little impatient.
The Jindan cultivator nodded hurriedly, "I know, I know. I know the renowned Gong family of Nanjun. They are the family of the Master of Shenhua Valley. Senior, whatever you have to ask, I will answer your questions without hesitation."
The white-robed monk wasn't fooled by his submissive demeanor, his tone unchanged. "Let me ask you, what is the relationship between your master and the Gong family? Qishu, I originally… I personally delivered it to the Gong family. I just can't understand how it became your master's magic weapon."
How could a Jindan cultivator know the origins of this? He had only heard the name of this magic weapon by chance from its owner, and didn't even know what strokes it had!
He immediately broke out in a cold sweat, feeling that if he couldn't give some useful answers, this young-looking monk would skin him alive. Even if his master avenged him later, he would still be dead, wouldn't he?
But before the Jindan cultivator could think of something to make up to fool the crowd, he was spotted with a blank mind: "It seems you are of no use."
"No—I—"
Lu Yinche didn't even bother to look at him again. He casually waved his sleeves and asked abruptly at the magic weapon in his hand: "Qishu, should he die?"
The Seven Special Pagodas made no sound, nor any earth-shattering movement. It just shook slightly, and a thin golden light shot out silently from the bottom layer.
The fear on the Jindan cultivator's face froze instantly. His eyes widened and his mouth opened, but no sound came out. An invisible force drained his vitality. His skin became visibly gray and shriveled. In the blink of an eye, a living man turned into a withered skin bag.
Lu Yinche changed from holding the tower to carrying the top of the tower, shaking it like a bottle, and I don’t know if he was talking to himself: "Eat less, what if I get diarrhea?"
There were only two people left in the forest.
Lu Yinche finally looked at the trembling young man who was trying hard to suppress his breathing. A smile appeared on his lips, and the murderous aura in his expression was a little less than before. "You said you were Qichuan Lu, what's your name?"
The young man struggled to his feet and gave an awkward thank you bow, his voice trembling: "Junior... Lu Denghe, the 37th generation direct descendant of the Qichuan Lu family! Thank you so much for saving my life, senior!"
The thirty-seventh generation?
Lu Yinche's eyebrows twitched. No way, is the Lu family giving birth to puppies one after another like rabbits?
How long has he been in seclusion?
The answer is five hundred years.
According to Lu Denghe's honest account, it is now the twelfth year of Tiancheng. This place is Xizhou. There is a group of evil cultivators who buy and sell the hearts and livers of cultivators. They call themselves the "Ghost Cave". The Immortal Alliance has tried to encircle and suppress them several times but failed.
Lu Yinche didn't know what year the Tiancheng era was, nor did he care much about what the demon cultivators were doing. He was not one of those people in the Immortal Alliance who just sat there to do nothing. He was just an unlucky cultivator who had failed in his retreat, had a huge drop in cultivation, suffered serious internal injuries, and was penniless.
So he cut straight to the point: "Tell me, what happened in Xizhou? Why is the spiritual energy here so strong?"
It was actually more than ten times what he remembered. His mortal body was too weak to be replenished. If it weren't for the fact that his sea of consciousness was severely injured and he couldn't absorb spiritual energy, he would have been knocked to the ground by this brutal force.
Lu Denghe was completely confused and said blankly, "Huh?"
"You don't know?" Lu Yinche looked at this chick-like descendant of the Lu family, trying his best to put on a gentle expression and sighed, "Forget it, my last name is Lu too, and I'm from your family. How did you become like this?"
Lu Denghe explained that he was traveling and was ambushed by a ghost cave in a secret place in Xizhou. Because his cultivation was too low, he was captured.
Lu Yinche listened carefully and nodded slightly: "It's quite low."
Lu Denghe took the criticism honestly, secretly glancing at this senior with the same surname. He was a little scared at first, but after calming down, he felt okay.
This guy has a really nice complexion, and his eyes are naturally smiling. If you don't see his ruthless and decisive appearance, it's easy to be fond of him. But maybe it's just because they share the same surname, Lu, and are from the same family.
Don’t many storybooks say that when the beloved protagonist is bullied, all the family ancestors will come out in full force?
Lu Yinche took a look at the man's physique. It wasn't great, but it was okay. He then calculated his bone age and saw that he was a child with only just grown hair. He didn't criticize him too much and just said, "Forget it. He should be more careful and cautious. What are your plans? Going back to Qichuan? It would be better if he could train in the clan school for ten years before going out."
Lu Denghe paused after hearing this and said cautiously, "Senior, you may not know this, but the clan school has been closed for decades. I was born late, and my family can no longer afford to run a school..."
The despicable Jindan cultivator just now seemed to have said something like this: the family is impoverished, and the ancestor of the family still has to serve the Sword Saint... to be a sword-holding boy?
Lu Yinche had a toothache, which was embarrassing.
"Before I went into seclusion, my clan had thousands of miles of spiritual fields and tens of thousands of precious trees, and our granaries were abundant. Just my private treasury alone—let's just take the Qichuan spiritual vein for example. Do you think you could dig day and night for generations, chewing and consuming it day and night, and still not be able to dig out a single spiritual stone?"
Lu Denghe was confused: "It seems like, sold it?"
Lu Yinche hesitated for a moment, then continued, "Which prodigal son did this...? Where's the money? He can't just ignore the family's inheritance. What's your father's cultivation level? It should be okay for him to teach a few of your disciples, right?"
"Father and I are the same," Lu Denghe said tentatively. Seeing the unhappy expression on the other person's face, he quickly explained, "Grandfather is better. He is a man who has embarked on the immortal path."
Lu Yinche originally thought that he was going to say something about at least the Nascent Soul stage.
But he said, "My grandfather was in the Jindan stage and once trained under the Qingtian sect in Xizhou! But he died early, and there was no great master in the clan. The connections dwindled, and there was no one to teach or learn. By my generation, there were only five or six disciples in the main family, and none of them were very talented. Only my brother was a good one, and he was training in Dongzhou."
Transcend the ordinary and establish the foundation, form the golden elixir and primordial infant, control the realm and become a god, and then return to the abyss and ascend to heaven.
A total of eight realms.
You said you have embarked on the path to immortality, but you have really only taken two steps?
Lu Yinche was so angry at him being in the "Golden Core Stage" that he almost vomited blood.
Lu Denghe continued to stab him and bleed him: "Everyone loves to put down the weak and praise the strong. Ever since that ancestor's accident three hundred years ago, the Qichuan Lu family has been much weaker than before. I heard that the Immortal Alliance is going to revise the family tree, and the first to be removed will be our Lu family."
"How can the rise and fall of a family be supported by one person? You guys are really..." Lu Yinche shook his head.
It's impossible to support a wall with mud - Lu Denghe knew what he wanted to say.
This is indeed true. Back in the day, among the aristocratic families, the Qichuan Lu family, even if not number one, would definitely be among the top ten.
Lu Yinche sighed and then asked, "Who was in the accident? How did they die?"
"Don't you know? That person that the person who was chasing me just now mentioned hasn't passed away yet, and the soul lamp in the clan is still lit."
Lu Denghe said, "When I was little, I admired him the most. They said he helped the poor and the needy, was a chivalrous man, his swordsmanship was fluid and smooth, and he was proficient in all kinds of skills. He was truly a brilliant man, and he was ranked third in the world!"
Hearing this, Lu Yinche's mouth twitched. "Wait a minute, what's there to brag about being number three? There are two number one players, and they're fighting it out. He's fighting with over a dozen people for number three, right? What happened to him?"
Lu Denghe looked dejected. "Alas, there are those who love him, but there are also those who hate him. Ever since his evil deeds of killing his master, stealing treasures, and destroying the Heavenly Gate were exposed three hundred years ago, the Immortal Alliance has called on all cultivators to punish him. Even his fellow Daoist, the Sword Saint, severed ties with him. Anyone who says their last name is Lu will be spat on."
Lu Yinche: "What a big scene!"
He caught an unfamiliar word: "What is Tianmen?"
"You, don't know?" Lu Denghe was shocked.
That was all many years ago. When did this old ancestor start his retreat?
"It should be a gate connecting this world to the upper realm." He found that he couldn't explain it clearly, so he recited what he had read from the book: "In the ninth month of the year of Tianmu, the Heavenly Gate collapsed, and the upper realm's qi poured back through it, causing the Nine Provinces to collapse."
He slapped his head. "You said the spiritual energy was rich, right? The upper realm's spiritual energy is naturally rich, and it was leaked because of this incident... Well, there's also a saying that at that time, the family suffered heavy casualties and was severely damaged. There was no other cultivator above the Nascent Soul stage in the family. The younger generation was not up to par, so the Wei and Zhou families took the opportunity to divide up the family property."
After digesting all this information, Lu Yinche held his forehead with a helpless look. "That guy... is indeed a bit rude. What's his name? Is his Sword Saint Taoist companion his Taoist companion or his boy companion? Why didn't they stop him?"
"Are you talking about Sword Saint Feng Ling?"
"Who? Feng Ling is looking for a Taoist partner? What should I do then?"
Lu Yinche was shocked.
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