The Forbidden Path to Immortality
Chapter 85

Perched even higher than where Yin Wanderer stood, Li Xun had the perfect vantage point; not only witnessing everything but quietly pulling the strings behind it all. At this moment, he was laughing so hard he nearly doubled over. Of course, all he could actually do now was make Heaven's Nether Yin Pearl spin wildly a few times to express his excitement.

He had poured so much effort into this. Wasn’t this exact outcome what he’d been working toward all along? Watching everything unfold exactly as he had planned, that satisfaction ran so deep it was hard to put into words.

But he wasn’t done. Not even close.

Under the control of his now many-times-stronger divine sense, the 108 Netherfire Beads he’d buried around the pool, each one condensed from Nether Yin Qi, were already connecting to him through the thick, rich earth qi in the area.

Nether Yin Qi was built upon the Nine Netherworld Earth Qi, and shares a branch of origin with earth veins qi that flowed through the mountains and earth. By nature, the two shared a profound connection. And now, with Li Xun deliberately concealing it, even the two Wanderer, for all their prowess, failed to detect it while their attention was diverted elsewhere.

When the Earth Origin Refining Technique had been disrupted, the surrounding earth qi had begun to go out of control. Fortunately, the restrictions laid by the two Wanderers had still suppressed most of it. But some of that qi began to leak. And that was exactly what Li Xun had been waiting for.

Five days earlier, he’d already laid down a formation deep underground. Now, with the flicker of a single Netherfire Bead, it began to activate, silently and invisibly.

The earth qi that had just started to disperse was quickly drawn into a new flow. Bit by bit, it gathered, and one by one, the other beads began to respond.

This formation, this grand restriction, was perhaps the most brilliant thing Li Xun had ever created on his own.

It went far beyond anything in the Mingxin Sword Sect’s system. In fact, it incorporated techniques and philosophies from multiple sects. Mingxin Sword, Shadow-Devouring Soul, and even elements from Yin Wanderer and Blood Wanderer’s teachings. While he might not have fully mastered the core of each school, the sheer breadth of its inclusiveness, and the audacity behind such ambition, was enough to earn the admiration of even the most accomplished grandmaster of this path.

Right now, Li Xun had no way of grasping the true significance of what he had created. He was simply filled with joy as he gave this newly born formation of the Tongxuan Realm a resounding name: The Heaven-Linking Ninefold Transformation. The name brimmed with aspiration: to align with the Heavens and master endless change. It was both a declaration of ambition and a quiet act of self-encouragement.

As power surged through the formation, all 108 Netherfire Beads lit up in quick succession. Each bead activated a part of the formation, and they resonated with one another, creating a self-reinforcing web of energy.

What followed was a dazzling, intricate transformation. The formation evolved in ways so complex that even its creator, Li Xun, had only grasped maybe twenty or thirty percent of it. But that was already more than enough.

As the restriction fully activated, the rate at which the Netherfire Beads absorbed earth qi spiked sharply. The amplification grew exponentially. And even Li Xun felt a jolt of alarm.

I can’t afford to wait any longer!

Hovering in the air, he formed a series of hand seals. The 108 Netherfire Beads began to hum with a low, resonant vibration. Guided by the formation, the dense earth qi quietly flowed toward the place where Qing Luan lay unconscious; slowly, it began to pour into her.

Li Xun’s idea was simple: add another player to the chaos.

His plan was even simpler: Unseal Qing Luan.

And his method? The simplest and crudest of all.

Ten full-body sweeps of raging earth qi, blasting through from head to toe and back again! Pure, unrelenting force smashed through Yin Wanderer’s restriction like a battering ram.

To the eyes of any true expert, such a crude method of breaking the seal would’ve been laughable. But in this situation, there was simply no faster or more effective way.

Qing Luan’s body trembled violently. The surge probably worsened her injuries, but most importantly, she was free.

Li Xun was ready to enjoy a grand comeback show, but Qing Luan’s next move left him bitterly disappointed. After a faint tremble, all she managed was a small twitch of her fingers. And then nothing.

Had her injuries really gone that deep? Was she too broken to even stand?

Before Li Xun could dwell on the thought, the two Wanderers finally began their true battle.

A few miles meant nothing to cultivators like them. Within a ten-mile radius, their true energies completely filled the space. Every shift in their spiritual breaths stirred the vital energy of heaven and earth throughout the area, turning every corner into a deadly battlefield. No less dangerous than a point-blank exchange of blows.

One lift of the arm, one flick of the wrist, and the air screamed in protest. Hundreds of thin, flickering bolts of lightning danced across the sky, appearing and vanishing in a flash. More brilliant and far more lethal than any natural thunderstorm.

The first to strike hard was Blood Wanderer. With all his might, he fully unleashed the Blood Demon Heart Transformation technique. A seemingly casual palm strike in midair opened the gates of hell!

Hundreds of millions tormented souls he had imprisoned screamed in pain and hatred. That anguish and fury were then extracted by him, transformed into the world's filthiest and most bloodthirsty blood nightmare demon shadow, tearing open a blood-red curtain.

Li Xun knew this creature well. The Blood Nightmare had once trapped him between life and death.

In the outside world, it was like a shadow. Unreal and intangible existence.

It was essentially a doppelganger of Blood Wanderer, with qualities between physical and illusory. It was immune to all weapons, water, and fire, yet it has the ability to activate “Scarlet Blood.” When it touches an enemy, their blood can ignite in an instant!

The vital energy released in this fiery burst was then absorbed by the Blood Nightmare to strengthen itself further, making it incredibly sinister and poisonous.

Yin Sanren, momentarily distracted by the Blood Nightmare, had only just begun to react when Blood Wanderer released the Crimson Ghost Chain.

Now condensed to a mere ten-zhang length, the chain looked even more unpredictable and eerie. It shot from Blood Wanderer’s hand like a winged serpent, flickering through the air with lightning-fast feints before whipping around behind Yin Wanderer for a savage bite.

With a sharp snap, Yin Wanderer calmly flicked a finger, striking the chain’s head. It paused, barely, but in the next instant, it burst apart with a piercing hum. Hundreds of blood-red threads exploded outward, swallowing Yin Wanderer’s upper body in a net of vicious fangs, now moving ten times faster than before.

But they struck nothing.

Yin Wanderer had already vanished. She reappeared behind the chain’s tail in a blink and flicked a finger once more.

That single finger carried tremendous force. This notorious demonic weapon, which had rampaged unchecked since the day it was forged, had likely never suffered such a blow. Its entire body shuddered violently, letting out a piercing cry. It was eerie, like a baby wailing in the dead of night. The blood-red glow that once cloaked it dimmed noticeably, its menace fading by a shade.

Over a mile away, Blood Wanderer’s face flushed deep crimson, like it had been splashed with fresh blood.

Yin Wanderer’s face paled slightly, and before she could steady her breath, the Blood Nightmare doppelganger drifted ghost-like toward her. It hadn’t even touched her, but her blood and qi were already starting to stir.

Elsewhere, Blood Wanderer stepped forward another twenty zhang.

All of this change flickered through Yin Wanderer’s mind, but her hands moved even faster. She brought them together, then pulled them apart. Just that one motion twisted and bound over ten thousand qi mechanisms into a tight web, drawing upon the primordial energy of heaven and earth itself. A ball of blue-green light, only a few inches across, bloomed into existence, and the air around it plummeted in temperature.

Her fingers began to dance. Ten pale, slender fingers like bamboo shoots shifted through countless hand seals in a blink, at least a hundred variations flashing by, each movement trailing faint afterimages that shimmered like illusions.

And yet, every single shift was clean and distinct, no confusion, no mess. Just a serene mastery, hard to put into words.

With each change in the hand seals, the blue-green orb swelled slightly larger, its internal qi mechanism structure transforming with explosive complexity. By the time the final seal was cast, it had grown to the size of an infant’s head. The color had deepened as well.

From blue-green to deep blue, then from blue to violet; its glow intensified. The air temperature began to rise again, slowly at first, then with startling speed. By the end, the space around Yin Wanderer had warped from the sheer heat pouring off her.

All of this had happened in an instant.

From bone-chilling cold to searing heat, from ultimate yin to blazing yang. This extreme shift between yin and yang involved no fewer than a million transformations in qi mechanisms, and the amount of force it stirred up couldn’t even be estimated.

Even the formless and shadowy Blood Nightmare was deeply wary of the anomalies surrounding Yin Wanderer. It circled once, then actually retreated.

"Extreme Yin-Yang Reversal! Impressive!"

In the blink of an eye, Blood Wanderer took another few dozen steps forward; yet his footsteps fell with an almost maddening slowness. The contradiction defied the laws of heaven and earth, and to any ordinary onlooker, the sheer impossibility of it might have been enough to make them faint on the spot.

With a loud hum, the violet orb rose from Yin Wanderer’s control and drifted into the sky. Like a strange new moon, it radiated soft purple light, casting a silken glow across the entire ruined battlefield.

Blood Wanderer’s steps grew even slower, yet his forward momentum never faltered. The Crimson Ghost Chain, though damaged and low on energy, began to stir again with his movement, twitching lightly in the air, its eerie liveliness slowly returning.

Yin Wanderer hovered high in the sky, calmly waiting for him to come.

Meanwhile, the Blood Nightmare doppelganger tried countless times to harass her, but every time it crossed within ten feet of her, the violet orb overhead would lash out with a scorching purple beam. Like a divine sword slicing the sky, blazing with sword-qi.

The doppelganger feared that beam so much it dare not come any closer.

Now only a hundred or so steps separated them. Blood Wanderer lifted his foot into thin air, walking skyward one step at a time. The wild turbulence of heaven and earth's primordial energy suddenly went quiet, as if held back. But beneath that calm, a more devastating power was slowly gathering, like an unseen tide.

While the Crimson Ghost Chain and Blood Nightmare took the path of subtle cruelty and ruthless cunning, Blood Wanderer’s personal style was bold and vast, a raw, unrestrained force. And though his killing intent was fierce and brutal, his aura was awe-inspiring; an overwhelming momentum that pressed down like a mountain.

Ten zhang. Only ten zhang between them.

Blood Wanderer slowly raised his hand and threw a straight, orthodox punch from the center line of his body. Nothing fancy, just a clean forward strike. Space rippled once, then settled, but his bowl-sized fist had already slammed toward Yin Wanderer’s chest.

Of course she wasn’t going to just take that hit.

Even though Blood Wanderer’s punch had pushed the limits of her reaction time, she still managed to respond. Instinctively, she raised her hand in a defensive gesture, her thumb flicking outward to meet the punch head-on.

Crack! A sharp, bone-snapping sound rang out. Her thumb broke in three places. Yet Yin Wanderer didn’t move an inch. Her cold eyes followed the punch as it grazed her chest, slid across her shoulder, and tore through her clothes.

Her expression didn’t change at all.

A near-mad killing intent flared in Blood Wanderer’s eyes. His fist had missed its mark, but his body moved without any obstruction. Like flowing clouds and water. He transformed the blocked arm into a brutal elbow jab. Using his height to his advantage, he drove it toward Yin Wanderer’s neck.

Yin Wanderer tilted her head and narrowly dodged. Her uninjured hand moved with the flow, aiming a soft palm at his ribs. But he countered with a punch slipping right beneath his own ribs, blocking her cleanly.

Only now did the real collision of their inner breaths explode.

A deafening blast followed, and the shockwave tore out between them, flattening everything within ten li. Wind howled, stones flew. Like the end of the world had come.

“So rude,” Yin Wanderer murmured coldly, her body suddenly blurring and fading.

Without a second thought, Blood Wanderer swung his hand sharply upward. The blood-red scar glowed fiercely against the night sky, blazing bright and lingering long before fading. Yet this strike, powerful enough to split a mountain, hit nothing but air.

Yin Wanderer reappeared almost flush with his back, her slender hand already pressing against the center of it.

In that instant, Blood Wanderer’s towering frame performed a movement that defied human anatomy, like he had no bones at all. Every muscle and joint twisted in ways no body should be capable of.

In response, the powerful tide of true breath within him surged and pulsed, contracting just in time to absorb most of the force, diffusing what could have easily been a fatal blow.

Even so, one of his ribs still snapped under the strike. His entire body spun through the air, flying more than ten zhang before finally crashing to a stop.

“Damn it!” he spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, his face twisted into a fierce scowl. “Which bastard said you suck at close combat?!”

That last exchange, he’d actually come out on the losing end. A small loss, maybe, but not something he’d anticipated at all. It put him on high alert. Maybe... picking a fight with Yin Wanderer hadn’t been such a great idea after all.

Yin Wanderer responded only with a half smile. And in that smile, the final ripples of the qi clash faded into stillness. But the battle between the two Wanderers had only just begun.

Li Xun was completely dumbstruck.

He had a decent grasp of both Wanderers’ cultivation techniques, and that allowed him to observe their clash in far more depth than most. Even though only a few scattered moves had been exchanged, the core rhythm of the fight was clear. And some of the subtler details had already taught him a great deal.

It wasn’t until the two of them returned to their stand-off that Li Xun snapped out of it only to realize that a tenth of his precious half-hour had already slipped away. That wouldn’t do!

Anxiously, he turned his eyes toward the pool’s edge. Qing Luan was still lying there, motionless. She looked like a corpse. Li Xun paced back and forth in worry, circling more than a dozen times, considering whether he needed to use another burst of earth qi to “rinse her off” again.

And then something clicked.

He took a closer look at the area around Qing Luan. Then back at her. Then again. After a few rounds of this, he couldn’t hold back a laugh; internally, at least. On the surface, the only sign was a few excited bounces from Heaven's Nether Yin Pearl.

Good heavens! The fight between the two Wanderers had kicked up a storm of flying sand and stones. Not just around the pool’s edge, even inside the water, tiny grains of sand and small stones were scattered everywhere. Yet around the Qing Luan, not a single speck of dust or grit could be seen. Not even the slightest wisp of smoke. A perfectly clean circle, stark and out of place no matter how you looked at it.

That damned obsession with cleanliness!

On a normal day, Li Xun would’ve rolled his eyes and mocked her thoroughly in his heart. But now? Now he had something else in mind.

With a thought, the Heaven's Nether Yin Pearl shifted into a faint gray gleam, blending into the swirling dust flying all over the sky, and suddenly sped away.

Soon, Qin Lake came into view.

The titanic clash between the three top cultivators had clearly reached here as well. The once-tranquil waters were now littered with the corpses of fish and shrimp, shocked to death by the rippling spiritual force. Cracks and warped terrain marked the lakeshore, and water was spilling out through several fresh breaches in the ground.

Li Xun couldn’t care less about any of that.

With his now-unique observational method, he quickly locked onto his target. The tiny pearl dove into the lake without so much as a ripple.

Beneath the water, the world was deathly still. But ahead, just as he’d hoped, something was waiting.

The entire view was hazy, gray and pale, but compared to a few days ago, nothing had changed. That strange little creature, constantly darting about, was still trapped at the entrance of the underwater cavern. It was still thrashing and colliding with the barrier, but no matter how it struggled, it couldn’t break free.

This time, though, Li Xun’s vision was much sharper than it had been days ago. With a solid idea already in mind, he took one look and saw everything he needed to see.

As I thought, it is a Bloodkiss! That speed… it really lives up to the name ‘Thunderbolt Flyer.’

The Heaven's Nether Yin Pearl trembled again, clearly echoing the excitement in Li Xun’s heart.