Free Web NovelChapter 167: Chapter 166: Ants Moving a Coffin (Part 2)
"Hmph, that little beast from the Xiyan Ancient Sect won’t be able to run amok for much longer! He’s courting death. How dare a mere declining Xiyan Ancient Sect oppose my Holy Heaven Sect and the Qingxuan Ancient Country! Sooner or later, the Xiyan Ancient Sect will become dust in the annals of history!" At a small gathering of young geniuses in Celestial Ancient City, when someone mentioned that Li Qiye of the Xiyan Ancient Sect had also arrived, Sheng Tian Heaven Daoist sneered and spoke with casual disdain.
Hearing Sheng Tian Heaven Daoist’s words, a chill went through the hearts of many, and they looked at each other in dismay!
At this moment, everyone understood the implication behind his words. It meant that the Holy Heaven Sect had formed a connection with the Qingxuan Ancient Country! The Qingxuan Ancient Country! The mere mention of such a behemoth sent a shiver through any sect or expert.
"If you don’t court death, you won’t die. Why must the already-declining Xiyan Ancient Sect provoke a behemoth like the Qingxuan Ancient Country?" Hearing Sheng Tian Heaven Daoist’s words, a young genius couldn’t help but sigh.
Sheng Tian Heaven Daoist’s arrival in Celestial Ancient City was the envy of countless members of the younger generation. Even so, there was nothing they could do about it. In the current era, there were truly few in the Middle Grand Realm’s younger generation who could compare to Sheng Tian Heaven Daoist.
However, the arrival of another young genius caused the halo above Sheng Tian Heaven Daoist’s head to dim slightly.
"Saint Child Bao Zhu is here." The news spread through Celestial Ancient City. Although very few people had seen this Saint Child Bao Zhu, the news still got out.
"Saint Child Bao Zhu is here?" Those in the know felt their hearts stir at this news. They murmured, "Saint Child Bao Zhu has achieved Great Success with his Divine Mountain Body. For him to come in person... could it be that the Treasure Pillar Saint Sect has an ancestor with a Saint Body Great Success who has yet to be buried? Are they planning to bury him in the Ancient Sky Corpse Land?"
"What? Great Success with the Divine Mountain Body? The Divine Mountain Body is one of the Twenty-four Emperor’s Bodies!" Upon hearing this, some cultivators were greatly shaken, and many gasped in shock.
An Innate Emperor Body and an Emperor Body Great Success are two completely different things. Having an Innate Emperor Body means you have a greater chance to cultivate your Emperor Body to Perfection! However, without a suitable Body Technique, even if you have an Innate Emperor Body, you might not necessarily be able to achieve Emperor Body Great Success!
An Emperor Body Great Success was a terrifying achievement. For a cultivator, once their physique reached great success, their Dao Practice became a secondary concern in the eyes of others. No one would bother to ask if a cultivator with an Emperor Body Great Success was a Prince or a True Master. The mere presence of a Great Success Emperor Body was enough to intimidate anyone!
"The Treasure Pillar Saint Sect is truly incredible. They truly deserve their reputation as the inheritance with the most Body Techniques in the Middle Grand Realm." An older-generation cultivator couldn’t help but remark with a mixture of admiration and envy.
Life Techniques, Longevity Methods, and Ritual Techniques could all be created. True Masters, Ancient Saints, or even more powerful Saint Venerables and Saint Emperors could all create their own Life Techniques, Longevity Methods, and Ritual Techniques.
However, Body Techniques were not something just anyone could create. Without the foundation laid by predecessors, if you didn’t possess an Innate Emperor Body, then even after millions of years of exploration, you would still be unable to create an Emperor’s Body Technique. Without such a physique, you simply could not understand such a Body Technique.
There had been incredible geniuses who started with a Mortal Body and attempted to grasp Innate Body Techniques and Emperor’s Body Techniques, but successes were few and far between! That was why for any sect or inheritance, the value of Body Techniques surpassed even Life Techniques and Longevity Methods.
"Saint Child Bao Zhu is the successor of the Treasure Pillar Saint Sect. He’s always kept a low profile. He was born with an Innate Emperor Body, and now he has already achieved Emperor Body Great Success!" a cultivator from the Jade Xi Territory who knew the inside story whispered.
"An Innate Emperor Body, and now Emperor Body Great Success... he’s laying a solid foundation, step by step. This is a prelude to him vying for a Great Perfection Holy Body!" A cultivator who heard this couldn’t help but gasp.
A Great Perfection Holy Body was too terrifying, practically invincible! For any other sect or inheritance, achieving Saint Body Great Success was by no means easy. In fact, it was harder than ascending to the heavens! But the Treasure Pillar Saint Sect was different.
The Treasure Pillar Saint Sect was known as the inheritance with the most Body Techniques in the Middle Grand Realm. Moreover, the Treasure Pillar Saint Sect had produced several cultivators with Great Perfection Holy Bodies in the past, who were invincible throughout the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands and possessed immense deterrent power!
If one were to say which inheritance in the Middle Grand Realm had the easiest time producing a Great Perfection Holy Body, it would be neither the Emperor Immortal Gates nor the Ancient Country inheritances. It would have to be the Treasure Pillar Saint Sect!
This news sent a shiver through the hearts of countless Great Ancient Sects in the Middle Grand Realm. If the Treasure Pillar Saint Sect were to produce another cultivator with a Great Perfection Holy Body in this generation, they might have a chance to vie for the Invincible Immortal Body, or even carry the Celestial Mandate and become an invincible Immortal Emperor of their generation!
The Nether River rises, the Netherworld Ship emerges. Such a monumental event not only stirred the hearts of the great inheritance sects in the Middle Grand Realm, but after hearing the news, many Great Teaching Territories from the East Hundred Cities, Southern Red Land, Western Wilderness, and Northern Ocean also set off for the Middle Grand Realm!
For the many Great Teaching Territories from the East Hundred Cities and Southern Red Land, crossing realms was an incredibly difficult matter. It required a vast amount of Essence Jade to open the Daoist Doors. Such an expenditure was not something an ordinary sect could afford. Precisely because of this, the Great Teaching Territories that could come to Celestial Ancient City were all extraordinary existences with absolutely profound strength!
Within these few days, experts from the Great Teaching Territories of the East Hundred Cities and Southern Red Land began to appear in Celestial Ancient City. Even cultivators from the Ghost Immortal Race and the Blood Race, who were rarely seen anywhere in the Human Emperor Realm, appeared in the city.
Although many Great Teaching Territories from the East Hundred Cities and Southern Red Land had traveled from afar, the cultivators of the Middle Grand Realm ultimately had the home-field advantage. For the time being, it was still the Great Teaching Territories of the Middle Grand Realm that controlled the overall situation in Celestial Ancient City.
At this time, an unknown number of Great Teaching Territories, and even the Human Emperor-level Sect Leaders from the Emperor Immortal Gates, were calculating the date of the Netherworld Ship’s departure. This was especially true for the Great Teaching Territories that wished to bury their ancestors on the Netherworld Ship; they were exceptionally cautious and solemn.
Meanwhile, within the Ancient Sky Corpse Land, Li Qiye’s group traveled over mountains and across ridges. Finally, under Li Qiye’s unerringly accurate guidance, they walked out of the Ancient Sky Corpse Land.
After walking out of the Ancient Sky Corpse Land, Li Qiye took off the tattered robe and, along with the Corpse-Rousing Gong, placed it inside the Celestial Ancient Treasure Box. Finally, with all his might, he threw the Treasure Box back into the Ancient Sky Corpse Land. The box streaked across the sky like a shooting star and vanished without a trace.
Li Qiye’s actions stunned everyone for a moment, including Li Shuangyan and the others.
"Senior Brother, that... that... that’s a treasure! With that thing, couldn’t we freely enter and exit the Ancient Sky Corpse Land? Why did you throw it away?" Nan Huairun was utterly dumbfounded and couldn’t help but shout. If it weren’t for the Earth Corpses that roamed the area, he would have already rushed back in to pick it up.
"The Celestial Ancient Earth Envoy Robe, the Ancient Sky Corpse Treasure, and the Celestial Ancient Corpse-Rousing Gong are only useful when you are an Earth Envoy." Li Qiye glanced at him and said calmly, "This set of treasures comes from the Ancient Sky Corpse Land. If you possess this set, as long as the Treasure Box hasn’t been unsealed, and as long as you understand the rules and rituals of the trade, you can become a Celestial Ancient Earth Envoy even if you are not an Earth Corpse!"
"The Celestial Ancient Earth Envoys are Earth Corpses? Not cultivators?" Hearing this made Qu Daoli’s and the others’ skin crawl. Xu Pei, in particular, shuddered.
"Of course not." Li Qiye said, "For an Earth Corpse, it’s a chance to escape the Ancient Sky Corpse Land and regain their freedom. Then, they can either become a Treasure Lord, become an Earth Immortal, or be truly laid to rest here and no longer be an Earth Corpse! In every era, a few sets for Celestial Ancient Earth Envoys will find their way out of the Ancient Sky Corpse Land! A fated Earth Corpse who obtains one will have the opportunity to trade for its freedom! As for whether they can ultimately succeed, that depends on their transactions!"
"The trading rules for a Celestial Ancient Earth Envoy are simple: you either find a Treasure Lord or an Earth Immortal. However, no matter who you find, once trading starts, you are only allowed to approach three ’sellers,’ and you get a maximum of three transaction attempts with each. If a single transaction fails, all trading with that partner must stop immediately, even if it was your first attempt! So, choosing which Corpse Treasure to retrieve and what to trade it for requires wisdom!" At this point, Li Qiye pointed to his head.
Li Qiye said with a smile, "If you’re a gambler and truly capable, you’d go find an Earth Immortal. A single successful transaction could be earth-shattering! But many Earth Immortals look down on ordinary Corpse Treasures. This means there’s a high probability that you won’t even succeed in a single transaction, and you will have wasted the Celestial Ancient Earth Envoy set for nothing!"
"So an Earth Corpse can trade for its freedom with the treasures it obtains?" Li Shuangyan couldn’t help but ask, visibly moved.
Li Qiye shook his head and said, "Not necessarily. It depends on what you trade for. As long as it’s sufficiently heaven-shaking, then it’s truly possible to trade for your freedom."
"First Brother, throughout the eons, has any Earth Corpse ever succeeded in the trade?" Qu Daoli couldn’t help but ask.
This question made Li Qiye’s gaze turn deep and distant. In the end, he did not answer the question.
"Heh, Senior Brother, even though we’re done with the trade, the Celestial Ancient Earth Envoy set is still a set of treasures, after all. How could you just throw it away?" Nan Huairun, ever the greedy one, said with a sly laugh.
Li Qiye gave him a sidelong glance and said flatly, "This thing does not belong to the outside world. If the Celestial Ancient Earth Envoy set hadn’t been unsealed, it would have been fine. Heh, but once it has been opened, regardless of whether you finished trading or whether there are any Ancient Sky Corpse Treasures left, if you take it out of the Ancient Sky Corpse Land, be careful of ominous things happening."
"What kind of ominous things?" Even the usually quiet Zhang Yu couldn’t help but ask.
"Ghost possession! If things go wrong, you might go crazy and rush back into the Ancient Sky Corpse Land on your own. This thing does not belong to the outside world. Once it’s unsealed, it’s equivalent to acknowledging the rules of the Ancient Sky Corpse Land! If you try to take it away, you will invite misfortune." Li Qiye said with a smile.
"Ghost possession—" Hearing this, the faces of all the juniors changed. Even Niu Fen and the others looked at each other in dismay. Li Qiye’s words didn’t sound like a joke.
"Let’s say a cultivator once found a Celestial Ancient Earth Envoy set from the Ancient Sky Corpse Land. If they didn’t know how to use it, they might have taken it out to sell. But... how do *you* know the rules and rituals of the trade?" Looking at Li Qiye, who was younger than herself, Chen Baojiao couldn’t help but ask.
"A simple divination," Li Qiye replied with a smile.
Of course, Chen Baojiao was not satisfied with such an answer, but she could only glare at Li Qiye with puffed cheeks.
