"Hah."
Jiang Li chuckled and halted his steps.
The twisted head also ca to a stop, its soulless eyes staring blankly at Jiang Li.
He should be dead with eyes wide open, the corpse’s eyes remained unclosed, yet there was not a trace of resentnt on his face, only calm.
A calm so penetrating.
"Master, do you think he’s truly dead?" Jiang Li couldn’t help but ask.
He had just thought to quickly move out of the man’s line of sight, but before he could take the first step, he burst out laughing. The Jade Ruyi, a Dao Artifact of Divine Blessing, was warning him, making him aware of the danger.
One of the conditions for a perfect match with the Divine Blessing Dao Fruit was to be pure and selfless, and Jiang Li’s compatibility with this Dao Artifact was quite lacking. If he dared to use this Dao Fruit to advance, he would have surely faced failure and backlash.
This also led to the Jade Ruyi’s warnings generally appearing only when disaster was imminent.
Which is to say—
’If I dare to take another step, will the world turn upside down?’
Jiang Li pondered.
He didn’t know how serious the danger was, but if he was on guard, would he be able to withstand it?
"The Divine Soul has perished, life has ceased, he’s indeed dead," Tianxuan replied softly, "But after his death, having been constantly purified by life essence, activity has appeared in his body again."
"Reanimated?"
Such cases existed. After the Divine Soul was shattered and the physical body remained, with fortuitous circumstances, it was not impossible for a new Divine Soul to nucleate, or for a Zombie Dao Fruit to be inserted after death, granting another lifeti.
"It’s not that the flesh has been revived, but that it has simply acquired so activity."
Tianxuan’s voice carried a weightiness, "His physical body has been thoroughly deprived of vitality, and even if it were constantly nourished by the cleansing of life essence day and night, it could not co back to life. Now, this body is not so much a person, but rather an object that appears to be alive."
A living object...
If that was the case, one should not expect to communicate with words, but rather, find out the activity patterns of this object.
Furthermore, how is it locking onto ?
Through sight? Or so kind of perception?
Inside Jiang Li’s sleeve, Dream Butterfly was gently flapping its wings. He cald his heart and spirit, rging with Dream Butterfly, and suddenly—
Jiang Li’s presence disappeared as if into thin air, and even his body seed to have vanished into the void, leaving no trace.
He rged with the Dream Butterfly, one of the escapees, and disappeared abruptly for a short ti. Real yet appearing unreal, no perception could detect his existence.
Originally, Jiang Li had used this move to approach Gongsun Qingyue, who stood in for Tianxuan. Now he used the sa move in response to being locked on, to test the body’s reaction.
’The Jade Ruyi isn’t giving an alarm, looks like I can...’
Jiang Li’s disappearance seed to have affected that figure, as its facial features shifted as if puzzled.
But in the next instant, Jiang Li dismissed that thought.
The figure’s eyes, nose, and ears were fading, the features vanishing gradually like erasing parts of a painting, leaving only the eyes at last.
Those eyes beca profound and distant, like an abyss or the starry sky, swallowing everything and creating everything in turn. The movents of the stars, the seasons changing, the functions of Yin and Yang...
Jiang Li’s eyes t his, and in his pupils, the Star Battle, the stellar stems and branches, and the Eight Trigrams were all throbbing, an indescribable shiver sweeping over him, then soothed by his Pure Yang Dao Heart, and the vanished presence was pulled back once more.
What is this?
"This is heaven," Tianxuan said.
"Blind n are good listeners, deaf n have sharp eyesight. Cut off one sense, and the others grow tenfold; cut off all, they grow ten thousandfold. Life originates from things and dies with things, with fate lying in sight. The heavens’ lack of favor begets favor."
She slowly recited a familiar scripture, stirring Jiang Li’s heart.
No help for it; Jiang had once copied it three hundred tis. With the Karma Collection solidifying cause and effect, that scripture was almost imprinted in his mind.
What Tianxuan referred to was from the Yin Talisman Scripture. In simple terms, blind people excel at listening, and deaf people excel at seeing. If one could sever one sense like sight or hearing, the other would be enhanced tenfold.
If one could sever the senses of sight, hearing, and consciousness, then the ability could increase ten thousandfold.
The scripture says that this is why the silent and wordless heavens have great virtue.
"The Yin Talisman Scripture holds profound truths, deeply profound principles. Later generations often thought to create Cultivation Techniques from it, but all attempts fizzled out in the end. It’s not because the principles aren’t true, but because it’s exceedingly difficult to evolve them into techniques. However, I didn’t expect that this person would actually manage to create it."
"He is most likely my clan uncle," Tianxuan stated.
This ant that the figure was indeed Ji Jiji.
There was no ti for further shock, as his gaze forced Jiang Li’s eyes to show blood, and in the contest of sight, Jiang Li found himself utterly disadvantaged.
He closed his eyes, using the sound of the wind to replace perception, with the Karma Collection aiding his survey of the surroundings, his eyelids already marked with a faint red.
As long as Jiang Li wished, he could see the words of the Karma Collection even with his eyes closed, which saved him from competing with his vision.
And Ji Jiji’s corpse... or rather, his body, began to twitch minutely, his hands slowly lifting.
[At this mont, faint ripples appeared behind them, as a figure began to erge.]
Jiang Li "saw" this line of text and knew that other people who entered the formation were coming.
Originally, he had the upper hand; he hadn’t expected that there would still be an old trickster playing dead under this ginseng fruit tree, allowing the latecors to catch up.
Jiang Li’s thoughts imdiately moved, and a strong wind began to stir around him.
At the sa ti, the Fourth Prince, Bu Yusheng, and six other Taoists appeared, their gaze initially captured by the stunning scene before them, they then imdiately noticed Jiang Li, who stood with his back towards them.
"How could it be you?"
The Fourth Prince was initially shocked, then revealed a chill smile, "Truly, to seek sothing far and wide only to find it easily, I didn’t expect you to deliver yourself to my doorstep."
The Fourth Prince and his group, just like Jiang Li before them, did not notice that body.
Ji Jiji’s body was wrapped by the tree roots, while the roots spread out over a radius of about seven or eight zhang; unless one ca close, it was difficult to spot that figure.
Moreover, its existence was completely devoid of any aura—even soone as sensitive as Jiang Li had not noticed it beforehand, let alone them.
Hearing the Fourth Prince’s words, Jiang Li remained silent, standing like a stone statue, still with his back to everyone.
This actually made the Fourth Prince suspicious.
There’s an old saying: "The son of a thousand gold does not sit down in the hall." From so perspectives, the Fourth Prince was as cautious as Jiang Li; even though he was fifth-rank and Jiang Li was sixth-rank, he was not willing to act rashly.
It must be known that Jiang Li still had an ace up his sleeve.
Although it hadn’t been more than a day since he last used his trump card, the Fourth Prince was still not one to underestimate him.
As for Bu Yusheng, upon seeing Jiang Li, a phantom pain appeared on her face, but she was not fifth-rank like the Fourth Prince, nor dared to act recklessly, lest she be t with Jiang Li’s Strong Hand Splitting Skull again.
But to stop advancing was also not a wise move.
Who knew whether Jiang Li was simply buying ti?
The Fourth Prince glanced sideways at the two Taoists to his right, his eyes revealing a sinister light.
Imdiately, the two Taoists felt a surge of killing intent in their hearts and attacked together.
No matter if there was a trap or not, sending cannon fodder was the way to go; after all, cannon fodder’s death would not be a pity.
The two n wielded long swords, one circling left and the other moving right, attacking Jiang Li like two birds in a pincer movent, their Sword Qi fierce, clearly showing not weak cultivation.
Although they were seventh-rank, years of dedicated practice had still endowed them with substantial power.
However—
The Sword Qi, like dragons and snakes, intertwined as it passed through, severing Jiang Li’s figure at the waist, which then gradually faded away.
The real Jiang Li, however, was about a zhang and a half away from where the figure had been.
"Illusion?" The Fourth Prince furrowed his brow.
’The attention has been diverted.’ Jiang Li thought to himself.
He calculated precisely, bending the light with the wind, making his figure appear like a mirage one and a half zhang away.
Because Jiang Li’s aura was always elusive, becoming one of the escapees, others could only rely on their vision to track Jiang Li’s presence, not through spiritual perception.
This led to the current situation.
The Fourth Prince was indeed cautious and did not take action himself, but it wasn’t necessary for Jiang Li to have him personally make a move.
What Jiang Li needed was only to add more variables.
As the Sword Qi cut through the illusion, that gaze which had been fixed on Jiang Li finally shifted, and both hands were right on ti to rise up, changing the Seal Technique in hand, forming a Fist Seal like that of a grasping baby.
Boom!
Jiang Li felt only a violent shaking in his mind. His heart pounded fiercely, as if a large drum were resonating; his Qi Sea surged, like the rising and falling of tides; his Divine Thought fluctuated, like muffled thunder exploding.
His Essence, Qi, and Spirit vibrated with this Seal Technique, even the surrounding heaven and earth seed to contract and expand in this mont, restlessly shaking.
The two sword-wielding Taoists suddenly stopped in their tracks, their expressions revealing disbelief, then—
"Boom!"
Their Essence, Qi, and Spirit vibrated simultaneously, instantly turning them into boneless corpses, exploding into two clouds of blood mist.
Bizarre! Shocking!
Jiang Li opened his eyes, catching this scene, feeling shock in his heart, yet also a sigh of relief.
It was still within his tolerance range, not yet ti to flee in complete disarray.
Jiang Li’s figure moved to the side, like a fleeting light and passing shadow, taking advantage of the mont the gaze shifted, he quickly moved to another spot that was difficult to be seen. Then, he leaped up, using the neighboring tree roots to spring upward.
The Fourth Prince and the others were equally stunned by this spectacle, their Divine Senses scattered in search of who made the move.
They detected the suddenly appearing Jiang Li, and as they attempted to intercept, they noticed the distant tree roots gently parting, with soone slowly erging from within.
A Daoist with only his eyes left among his facial features walked out slowly yet steadily, the Handprint on his chest revealing its full form.
The Handprint appeared as if embedded into the Daoist’s chest, clear and distinct, even showing the lines of the palm.
The fine lines were like mountains undulating and rivers crisscrossing; within that one palm lay the vast expanse of Jiangshan Mountain and the breadth of heaven and earth, truly astonishing.
He raised his right hand, his thumb pinching the transverse creases of the other three fingers, clasping them together, the previous Fist Seal appeared again, but this ti, it caused a tumult within himself, with a wild surge centering on him, roaring in all directions.
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