Free Web NovelChapter 1656: Chapter 840: Astonishing Secrets
Although it was a dreamscape, the silhouette of the Ghost Master Cave was clearly visible. Shadows flitted, lanterns flickered, exuding an indescribable eeriness.
Li Yan’s heart sounded the alarm.
The Dragon Lady was also a Mortal God. Every time she enters a dream, the scene is illusory, never have the human world’s essence been so palpable?
What’s more, the aura of the Five Dao General directed him precisely here.
This Ghost Master Cave’s forbidden ground is by no means ordinary.
He steadied his mind, his form like electricity, swiftly dashing toward the Ghost Master Cave.
As soon as he stepped into the cave, a bustling scene unfolded before him.
Bonfires blazed fiercely, the leaping flames illuminating a group of ancestors.
They wore simple garments of hemp, their hair tied with hemp ropes, their faces etched with the harshness of the elements.
Some of them were dressed especially uniquely, adorned with jade and bone artifacts of various shapes, with brows and eyes imbued with mystery, evidently priests or elders of the cave.
They sat around the fire, with clay pots hanging above, boiling large chunks of bone mixed with unknown root incense, a pungent fragrance permeating the air.
It appeared to be an ancient and mysterious ritual.
Strangely, everyone in the village seemed oblivious to Li Yan’s presence.
He was like a transparent ghost, walking in another parallel dimension. The ancestors’ gazes passed through his body, resting on the bonfire, sacrificial offerings, or on each other, focused on the ceremony, completely unresponsive to his appearance.
Li Yan brushed through the crowd, his gaze as sharp as an eagle.
Soon, he saw the Five Dao General.
At this moment, the Five Dao General had transformed into an old man with white hair and beard, dressed similarly to the surrounding ancestors in coarse hemp clothing, sitting cross-legged on a flat stone.
Though his appearance changed, his aura remained unchanged.
Before him was a simple clay bowl filled with murky tea, his demeanor leisurely, he picked it up and drank in small sips, as if enjoying a relaxed afternoon.
Li Yan was filled with doubts, swiftly approaching the old man.
Just as he was about to speak, the Five Dao General raised his hand.
"No rush."
A deep voice resonated in Li Yan’s mind, "Just watch."
Li Yan nodded, continuing to attentively observe. freewebnσvel.cøm
In the flickering shadows of the bonfire, several tribal witches sat in a circle, their rough hands slapping the ground, releasing deep, prolonged chants from their throats.
The tune was ancient and mysterious, not a song, more like some kind of earth-rending curse sound, with the texture of rocks grinding.
The lead elder threw a handful of a mixture of dark green leaves and ochre mineral powder into the fire.
"Sss——!"
The flames surged, becoming strangely pale blue.
The cold dampness accumulated beneath the earth for thousands of years awakened like a sleeping snake, seeping thread by thread from the cracks in the rocks, visibly to the naked eye.
These earthly evil Qi did not dissipate, but with the increasingly urgent ground slapping and chanting by the elders, were pulled and gathered by an invisible force.
Spiraling upward, as the firelight and smoke steamed, it slowly condensed in the mid-air of the cave.
A heavy and oppressive aura spread out. frёeωebɳovel.com
The gray Qi grew denser, its outline gradually clear—it was a great bird shadow, wings unfolded, long tail dragging on the ground!
Silently it hovered, wingspan nearly touching the cave ceiling, its form ancient and majestic, exactly as described in some ancient ancestor tribe’s totem—the Simurgh Bird.
The feathers formed of gray Qi vibrated slightly, each wing beat brought a faint pulse from deep within the earth, as if the air in the entire cave paused for a moment.
Li Yan’s pupils shrank, his eyes revealed shock.
This was by no means an illusion technique, nor current Mystic Sect Techniques, but using the most primitive witch methods, invoking Earth Vein Evil Qi to manifest the totem spirit.
This kind of technique had touched upon the subtle nodes of the operation of heaven and earth.
"Did you see?"
The Five Dao General put down the clay bowl, "This is the foundation skill of the Xuanwu Li Tribe. Observing earth veins, guiding evil Qi, condensing spirit manifestations."
He looked at the swirling Simurgh shadow, his voice became prolonged, "In the ancient age of Fuxi drawing trigrams and Suiren lighting fire, their bloodline ancestors had already taken root here in the wilds of Cangwu. Back then in the Southern Wilderness, miasma was rampant, fierce beasts were numerous, humans and gods lived mixed together in chaos."
"Different tribal witches were each exploring ways to communicate with the heaven and earth, with those intangible ’spirits.’ The direct ancestors of Xuanwu Li were among those who specialized in sensing earth veins and communicating with them. They did not worship the ethereal Heavenly God, but revered the earth, which bears all things and nurtures all spirits, as the primordial source. Mountain landscapes, earth energy flow, Sha Qi cycle, were seen as Heavenly Dao Runes in their eyes."
While speaking, the Five Dao General’s gaze seemed to penetrate time and space, falling on those elders chanting around the fire: "Thousands of years of reproduction and fusion, drawing from diverse traditions, this branch of witch lineage’s power became increasingly pure, their understanding of earth veins more profound. Until Emperor Zhuanxu’s Gao Yang Clan’s southern expedition."
Mentioning this ancient sage king, his tone grew solemn: "At that time, rituals and music in the Central Plains began to flourish, while many places were in a different scene. There were greedy and dominant individuals who relied on a few shallow techniques of controlling ghosts and communicating with spirits, either occupying treacherous peaks and deep pools, claiming to be Mountain Gods or Water Lords, deceiving the people for blood sacrifices; or forcefully extracting Earth Vein Evil Qi, refining evil techniques, causing chaos in regions. Humans and gods mingled, order collapsed, the people were destitute."
"This is what the ’Classic of Mountains and Seas’ records as ’Dengbao Mountain,’ ’Spiritual Mountain,’ and other so-called ’Heavenly Ladder’ secret realm surroundings chaotic truth, not Immortal Blessed Land, but places where evil spirits ran rampant."
"Emperor Zhuanxu had grand talents, how could he allow such chaos to threaten the foundation? He penetrated Cangwu, summoned the witches of all directions, ostensibly to patrol, actually to discern and rectify. It was in this intricate web that the ancestor tribe residing in the south of Cangwu, not fond of speaking but silently guarding earth vein balance, gained the emperor’s recognition due to their precise sensing of mountain ranges and earth energies beyond their peers, and their adherence to the old and simple principle of ’communication between heaven and humans, giving and taking moderately.’"
