Chapter 47: Senior

  Lin Xiao brought Qing Luo and Yao Jing, who had just swallowed a large amount of spiritual medicine to recover her body with the help of the spiritual energy in the medicine. The three stood on a small hill on the east side of the valley, gazing far into the distance at the commotion in the center of the valley. Xuan Yuan, Xuan Tong, and Xuan Luo, along with fifteen other elder members of the Xuan generation, were walking solemnly towards the center of the valley, where a small mountain shaped like a large bell stood over three hundred feet tall. The entire surface of this small mountain was covered in a beautiful, emerald-green rock layer that resembled jade, and it was completely devoid of any grass or plants.

  "Xuanyuan Qingzhong? Could it be this mountain?" Lin Xiao recalled the words of a Taoist priest yesterday in Huoyun Cave, and couldn't help but feel a wave of curiosity. If this small mountain was a bell, then how could its huge body be struck to produce a sound? And what kind of mysterious effect would it have after being struck? With anticipation, Lin Xiao carried his hoe and jade pendant, quickly walking down a distance into the valley.

  Standing at the edge of the valley, Yixin saw Lin Xiao's movements and hastily transmitted a message: "Lin Xiao, little friend, don't go any further, retreat, retreat 100 meters! When the Xuan Yuan Qing Zhong sounds, the sound waves condense but do not disperse. However, within a radius of 1,000 meters, it is still shaken by its sound waves. If you don't have the cultivation of the Yuanshen stage, you absolutely cannot withstand its sound waves! Quickly retreat!"

  Is it necessary to have the cultivation of Yuanshen period just to withstand the sound that was emitted? Lin Xiao looked at Yixin in shock, and Yixin hastily nodded at him. Only then did Lin Xiao pull Qingkuang and Yaojing back, quickly retreating backwards. Qingkuang followed Lin Xiao obediently without asking any questions. Yaojing, on the other hand, struggled like a mouse being held by its tail, dancing about frantically: "Why are we retreating? We just came down, why are we going back up now? Eh, let's get closer and watch the excitement!"

  However, Lin Xiao's cultivation was far deeper than Yao Jing's. A strand of Lin Xiao's true yuan entered Yao Jing's body, sealing off several of her meridians, rendering her unable to move and forcing her to retreat with him obediently. Yao Jing glared at Lin Xiao with a mixture of anger and frustration, muttering to herself incoherently.

  Xuan Yuan and eighteen other senior members of the Xuan family, all with the surname Xuan, stood around the giant blue bell, their eyes fixed on it. At the same time, they let out a long whistle and clapped their right hands behind their heads. The Yuanshen they had cultivated condensed a large amount of spiritual energy from heaven and earth. It transformed into eighteen golden light-filled giant palms that burst out of their bodies, reaching towards the enormous blue bell. They used their Yuanshen to transform into giant palms, revealing the difference between the three Void Realm experts and the other eighteen Yuanshen period experts. The giant palms transformed by Xuan Yuan and the other two were over fifty feet in diameter, with a golden light that shone like real objects made of gold. A faint purple aura could be seen emanating from within the golden light. In contrast, the giant palms transformed by the fifteen other Yuanshen period elders were only about ten feet in diameter. Although they also shone with golden light, their palms were blurry and indistinct, like hair-like glass products.

  Eighteen strong hands grasped the mysterious Qingyuan bell. With a fierce heave, it was lifted up. A loud humming sound was heard as the Qingyuan bell, over 300 meters tall and with a base diameter of over 300 meters, was raised by the combined efforts of the eighteen men. Lin Xian's true yuan converged in his eyes, instantly increasing his visual acuity by more than tenfold. He clearly saw the facial muscles of the eighteen old Daoists bulging with effort. Their entire bodies were trembling, and it was evident that the Qingyuan bell was extremely heavy, putting a great strain on these eighteen Virtual Realm and Yuan Shen stage old Daoists.

  A lazy and unkempt old Taoist, wrapped in a white cloth with a large patch of chest hair exposed, suddenly appeared beside Lin Xian. The old Taoist gazed at the slowly rising Qingyuan bell and sighed: "This is probably the last remaining sacred artifact that can be found in the cultivation world now? Ah, the top-grade sacred artifact Qingyuan bell, even in ancient times, it was a famous treasure! Unfortunately, nowadays there's no one who can activate it."

  Xuanyuan Qingzhong. A top-grade immortal artifact passed down from ancient times?

  Lin Xiao's eyes widened as he stared at the slowly rising, thousand-meter-high, dark green cloud. He exclaimed in surprise: "A top-grade immortal artifact! What kind of divine power and how many years of cultivation would it take to drive it?"

  A true Taoist person looked at the giant bell with a mixture of admiration and envy, and let out a slightly melancholic sigh: "This giant bell weighs 3.6 billion catties, and it's impossible for human strength to move it freely. Only those who have transcended the boundaries of the Harmony Path and ascended to become immortals can refine it into a personal treasure to use as they please. Or, perhaps scattered immortals who have survived more than four rounds of the 69 calamities might barely have the power to do so. As for us cultivators, we can only use the most basic spiritual techniques to barely make it ring out to announce news."

  "Three billion six hundred million jin!" Lin Xiao, Qing Yun, and Yao Jing simultaneously took a deep breath of cold air. Lin Xiao looked at Xuan Yuan and the others who were all trembling with fear, and sincerely admired: "Although it was eighteen people working together, although they used the driving treasure's spiritual technique to make it fly up, three billion six hundred million is still an astonishing number! Being able to lift such a massive bell with divine power is also a remarkable feat!"

  Lin Xiao couldn't help but recall the scene where Miao Xianren effortlessly uprooted a small mountain with a flick of his wrist. Cultivating the Tao, if one could reach that legendary realm, wouldn't it be easy to grasp the sun and moon, or move stars and constellations? Lin Xiao lightly flexed his arm, hmm, he could barely lift several thousand catties now, but still found it difficult to carry heavy loads while moving. Compared to Xuanyuan and those old Taoists, the gap in their strength was like the difference between a blazing sun and a firefly!

  Xuan Yuan and other Xuanzi generation elders exerted their strength to lift the Qingyuan bell into the high sky of 36,000 feet. In the high sky, the whirlwind blew against the Qingyuan bell, shattering into powder the steel-like whirlwinds that hit it, producing a deafening roar. The Qingyuan bell itself did not make a single sound. Piece after piece of blue cloud and mist continuously spread out from within the Qingyuan bell, gradually covering the entire sky. The sky was like an overturned lotus leaf, with faint rays of spiritual light flickering on the clouds, just like the veins on a lotus leaf.

  "Rise!" Xuan Yuan shouted, and the eighteen old Daoists of the Xuan school simultaneously swung out their spiritual seals, silently reciting the true yuan. A powerful wave of law surged out in all directions, stirring up a violent storm in the mountain valley. The storm swept up the grass and dust on the ground, and dozens of thick dragon columns rose into the air, shooting straight up into the sky with a deafening roar. The massive wind sound even covered up the loud crash of the gale in the high altitude smashing against the Qing Zhong.

  As the eighteen old Daoists continued to strike out their spiritual seals, layer upon layer of spiritual light enveloped the Xuan Yuan Qing Zhong. Ancient and simple characters flickered faintly on the surface of the bell. A very faint blue light shot down from the mouth of the bell, covering the mountain valley where Lin Xiao and the others were located.

  A Taoist priest unknowingly had a giant hammer appear in his hand, nearly ten zhang long and three chi thick. The Taoist priest awkwardly hugged the massive hammer, stepped on a white cloud, and shot up into the sky. He mobilized all of his true yuan, swung the hammer in a staff flower pattern, and heavily struck the Qingzhong bell. As the Taoist priest's true yuan poured in, dense cyan light patterns flashed on the surface of the hammer. Gradually, the light patterns condensed into the image of a giant dragon's head, let out a clear and crisp dragon roar, and swiftly collided with the Qingzhong bell like lightning.

  Zhong Hu and Qing Zhong collided, a Taoist priest let out a muffled hum, and was shaken by the massive counter-shock force emitted by the Qing Zhong, causing his hands and feet to go soft. He fell from mid-air with a thud. Yi Xin hastily flew up to catch him. Yi Xin's body trembled as if electrocuted, quickly summoning a cloud to tread on. Without making a sound, he floated away from Yi Xin's side, several meters away. Yi Xin's hand shook lightly, still smiling all over his face as he landed back on the ground.

  The bronze hammer and the green bell touched, and a stream of piercing light flashed up and down on the green bell. The volume of the green bell slowly expanded, gradually swelling to over a thousand feet high. Lin Xiao looked at the green bell that was swelling but not making any sound, and instinctively felt his scalp tingling. He grabbed the bronze hammer with one hand and reached out to grab the jade pendant with the other, shouting: "Retreat another thousand feet!" Lin Xiao thought that retreating a hundred feet would be enough to ensure safety, but it would only be safe, if he was shaken by the bell's sound and became dizzy, Lin Xiao would not be happy.

  The small hand of Qingyun cleverly and proactively stretched into Lin Xiao's palm, but Lin Xiao's grasp at Yuanyu's hand was empty. With a smile all over her face, Yuanyu had already run away without anyone noticing when she started to jump and run towards the mountain valley. As she ran wildly with her legs, she laughed gleefully: "Brother Lin is too timid and doesn't dare enter the mountain valley, I'm not afraid, I'll go in and see what strange things are inside."

  Lin Xiao suddenly shouted: "Yao Jing! Come back!"

  "Qing Ge stuttered and stammered, saying: "Little Qing, Little Qing, come back quickly! Patriarch won't deceive you. Come back!"

  The Qingzhong that had suddenly expanded in the air began to shake violently, rapidly compressing from a height of over a thousand feet to a size smaller than a fist. A thunderous bell sound came from within the Qingzhong, and a massive sonic wave condensed into a green whirlwind that shot out of the bell's mouth towards the ground. The green whirlwind struck the mountain valley with incredible force, causing the ground to shake violently, and the valley to sink slightly downwards. Then, countless seven-colored lights flashed beneath the surface, as an unknown number of seals automatically activated, fully absorbing the impact.

  Yao Jing let out a scream as her small body was swept into the massive green tornado, which was nearly a thousand feet in diameter. With a loud "Ah", Yao Jing's body disintegrated in mid-air, scattering green body parts and blood everywhere. A tiny finger managed to escape the tornado's coverage and rolled out of it, tumbling and flipping until it landed on the ground with a thud.

  The little green finger wiggled and jumped on the ground a few times, suddenly shrinking into a small ball of moss the size of a soybean. Yao Jing cried stutteringly: "Waaah, I'm not alive anymore! I've been smashed again this time it's even more severe than before... all smashed to bits!"

  Yuán Zōng's eyes twitched simultaneously as he witnessed this scene. With Yáo Jǐng's power, which was only at the Condensation Period, she was actually hit by Xuán Yuán Qīng Zhōng's sonic wave and didn't have her soul dispersed - this was simply too unbelievable! This little demon who had transformed from a green tendril, did she really have such a strong life force? Yī Xīn's eyes blinked rapidly as he stared blankly at Yáo Jǐng, who was crawling on the ground, climbing up Lín Xiāo's pants and clinging to his leg while wailing incessantly. Her lips moved rapidly, but it was unclear what she was thinking about.

  The blue tornado slammed into the ground, and the bodies of Xuan Yuan and other elders simultaneously sank downwards. Xuan Yuan, Xuan Tong, and Xuan Luo let out a loud shout at the same time, their hands rapidly waving as they cast out one mysterious seal after another, releasing streams of spiritual light to protect the other fifteen fellow disciples. The blue tornado brought with it a deafening roar that could cause mountains to crumble, the earth to split open, and oceans to evaporate, causing Xuan Yuan and the others to be shaken until their brains buzzed, their divine sense momentarily dazed, and their bodies violently trembling. Even with the seals protecting them, they were still shaken so badly that their internal organs suffered minor injuries, almost simultaneously spitting out a mouthful of blood.

  The blue storm raged in the mountain valley, being absorbed by the ancient forbidden array that had been hidden underground for who knows how many years, and directly penetrated into the earth's core. The massive shockwave stirred up a commotion in the earth's core, and after passing through several layers of rock crust on Xī Yuán Star, it expanded and resonated, following the invisible magnetic pole line between the north and south poles of Xī Yuán Star, and then burst out with a loud roar.

  Invisible sound waves shook out of the planet Xiyuan at that time. It had become silent, colorless, formless and traceless. The sound wave was spreading in a terrifying high speed in the void, and it swept over countless stars in an instant. Until finally, two strands of sound waves simultaneously collided with a strange existence in the void, and the two strands of sound waves simultaneously produced refraction, rapidly rushing towards a distant node in the galaxy.

  Two strands of sound waves are getting closer and closer to that node. The two strands of sound waves began to gradually approach, merge, and emit a strong blue light in the void.

  Finally, a cyan light column about the thickness of a ruler collided with that point. In that dark and empty space, a fierce and intense light suddenly burst out. Waves of bright light surged out, and the cyan light column was swallowed by the void. After another brief moment, a loud bell rang through the void. The shock seemed to shake the entire universe, as if all the stars in the sky were about to fall, and all the spiritual veins in the blessed lands of the cultivation world began to throb wildly.

  After a meal's time, a flash of light flickered in the void, and five cultivators with unusual attire suddenly appeared from that void.

  "How many years have we been in this ancient ruin?" one of the black-haired, bearded men with a golden armor asked in a deep voice.

  "This time, we've already entered for one hundred and seventy-five years." A mature beauty wearing a white palace dress with petals wrapped around her body said gently: "It's just the same as before. There is no progress at all. This relic is really too mysterious, our cultivation is not enough to gain benefits from it."

  "It's only us who can come now." A middle-aged Taoist with a pair of pupils in his eyes, wearing a light blue crane cloak and disheveled hair, sighed: "We are fortunate to have the cultivation base of the void realm today, and we can work together to open the entrance of this ancient relic. In a few hundred years, if the spiritual energy of the cultivation world is still rapidly disappearing like it is today, then the secrets of this relic will be unknown to anyone again."

  Another face, extremely long, with a white crane cloak draped over his body, also disheveled and middle-aged, smiled bitterly: "Elder brother is absolutely right, but... Jin Zun, Hua Shen, Gu Weng, the Xuan Yuan Qing Zhong has been struck in our Yuansu Sect, it seems that something big has happened again in the cultivation world. We still need to go back and investigate."

  Among the five, the last one wore a bamboo hat, a raincoat, and had a fish basket tied around his waist. He held a fishing rod in his hand and looked like an old farmer with a rough appearance. The unremarkable old man nodded slightly: "Yes. Since the Qing Bell has been rung, something extraordinary must have happened."

  He paused for a moment, and Gu Weng said calmly: "Let's go back to Qiyuan Star first. We should also tell the younger generation about what happened at this ancient site. Just in case we meet with an accident like Luo Shangren and his two companions, no one will know about this place anymore. I always feel that this ancient site is closely related to the continuous decline of spiritual energy in the cultivation world today. If we can't uncover its secrets, I won't be able to die in peace!"

  The five of them looked at each other and applauded in unison.

  Five people turned into five streams of light over a hundred feet long, rapidly crossing the void and rushing towards the direction of Qiyuan Star.

  Five long rainbows tore through the void, and when they were still one day's journey away from Qiyuan Star, a massive lightning bolt suddenly flashed across the sky in front of them, blocking their path.

  The golden armor-clad Jin Zun let out a cold snort, raised his right palm and was about to chop down at the lightning with a slap. Huashen and Guweng just sneered coldly and didn't make a sound.

  Two middle-aged Taoists hastily intercepted Jin Zun. The Taoist wearing a light blue crane cloak said urgently, "Jin Zun, the comer is a friend, it's none other than Jiang Ziyou, the renowned Loose Immortal Fumo of the current cultivation world!" Jin Zun's eyebrows twitched, and he slowly withdrew his right hand, the dazzling golden light in his palm had just flashed out, but quickly dissipated.

  Another Taoist wearing a white crane cloak shouted loudly: "Jiang Daoyou, how come you have time to visit me at Qiyuan Star today?"