Chapter 22: Another Courtyard in the Depths
Within the Xuanyin Puppet Refining Formation.
Luo Xue struggled to stand up. She could sense that even the panel had its limits.
Although her poison resistance had reached 100, with this concentration of Yin Breath Poison… without any cultivation base, she was still inevitably affected.
Luo Xue scratched her head, unintentionally pulling out several strands of hair.
Looking closely, they had a grayish-white tinge.
If she didn’t have poison resistance… Luo Xue would probably have turned into a dried corpse the moment she was thrown into the formation. How terrifying.
Luo Xue was startled and quickly left the formation.
Fortunately, the Xuanyin Puppet Refining Formation didn’t have any trapping effects, because Daoist Ziyang hadn’t anticipated that anyone could move freely in such a high concentration of Yin Breath Poison.
Even he wouldn’t dare to touch it casually; ordinary cultivators would need at least Core Formation cultivation to stay inside the formation for a short time.
The level of Yin Breath Poison Luo Xue had encountered before could be easily neutralized even by Daoist Ziyang, so he didn’t think Luo Xue could escape the formation.
But now, even if Luo Xue escaped the formation, she couldn’t escape this place.
Although Daoist Ziyang was unlikely to come and check before the Yin Puppet was refined, Luo Xue couldn’t leave this area either.
If she was discovered to be able to leave… the next concentration of Yin Breath Poison would likely be beyond even the system panel’s ability to save her.
And now…
Luo Xue roughly sensed the surrounding environment. The concentration of Yin Breath Poison was about one-tenth of that within the formation, completely within acceptable limits.
“Since I can’t leave, I can only go deeper… Otherwise, I’m just waiting to die.”
Luo Xue took a deep breath and moved towards the direction where the concentration of Yin Breath Poison was higher.
The dim surroundings were devoid of any light, a sky of dark clouds hanging oppressively low, and sinister, withered trees stretching out in all directions. The eerie environment was chilling.
But Luo Xue felt strangely accustomed to it, not because she had been here before, but because she had experienced similar environments.
The calamities in the apocalyptic world… were mostly like this, and many people died each time they occurred.
After going deeper, when the concentration of Yin Breath Poison reached about one-third of that within the formation, she could no longer see anything resembling a living creature.
Not just the withered trees, even the rocks had been eroded by this concentration of Yin Breath Poison, completely turning into Yin Ash and scattering. The bare surroundings were desolate.
“Could there be nothing inside?”
Luo Xue felt her scalp tingle, but she didn’t dare to scratch her head, afraid of pulling out all her hair, as her current physical condition was uncertain.
But now, whether there was anything in the depths of Mount Ziyang or not, Luo Xue could only continue deeper.
Going back was a dead end.
Just as Luo Xue was starting to feel hungry, a bright light suddenly appeared in the increasingly dark environment, looking like a dazzling firefly from afar.
“What?”
Luo Xue immediately perked up, holding her breath and walking towards the light.
The concentration of Yin Breath Poison here was almost the same as within the formation. Every breath Luo Xue took was like pouring ice water into her lungs, chilling her to the bone.
However, it wasn’t unbearable yet.
It was just her hair…
Thinking of this, Luo Xue’s face fell.
When Luo Xue finally approached the light, shock filled her face.
“How… another identical courtyard?”
Indeed, the light came from a courtyard. This courtyard, in both style and size, was exactly the same as the other two outside.
“Is this the only courtyard Daoist Ziyang knows how to build?”
Luo Xue twitched her lips, then walked over.
Strangely, in this place with such a high concentration of Yin Breath Poison, green grass grew around the courtyard, with a few cherry blossoms dotted among them.
How… how was this possible?
Even the sinister withered trees, born from the Yin Breath Poison, couldn’t withstand such intensity. How could these ordinary-looking flowers and grass exist?
Luo Xue swallowed, resisting the urge to pull up the grass and examine it.
“So, the situation inside the courtyard…”
Luo Xue looked towards the courtyard, her expression darkening.
If the outer courtyard was for them, the “seeds,” and the inner courtyard was for Daoist Ziyang, then… what about this one in the depths of Mount Ziyang?
Could it be the residence of Daoist Ziyang’s master, “True Person Phoenix Yin,” whom he had mentioned many times?
…It wasn’t impossible.
Having come this far, Luo Xue had to enter this courtyard.
She mustered her courage and gently pushed open the courtyard gate.
Everything in this courtyard was very familiar to Luo Xue.
The places they usually lived in were side rooms. The main house in that courtyard was covered in thick dust, seemingly unoccupied for a long time.
But in this courtyard deep within Mount Ziyang, the situation was reversed.
Luo Xue’s gaze swept over the several side rooms, all dark and gloomy, while the main house was clean and tidy, even the faintly lit lanterns looked newer.
But there was no light inside, and she didn’t know if anyone was there.
“If there is, it should be a dead person… Didn’t he say True Person Phoenix Yin’s remains had been refined into a Gu Seed?”
Being able to refine his master into a Gu Seed, Daoist Ziyang was truly a unique individual.
Luo Xue walked over and reached out to push open the door of the main house, a place she had never entered even in the outside world.
—It was an ordinary bedroom.
That was Luo Xue’s first impression.
The room was divided into two parts. At the entrance was a tea table and two small stools.
Luo Xue stepped into the main house and looked towards the inner room. She could see a neatly made bed and a dressing table with a bronze mirror on the other side.
It was more spacious than the side rooms, but that was all. The room lacked decorations, a simplicity unlike the worldly image of an immortal.
However, the moment Luo Xue stepped into the inner room, she gasped, her breath catching in her throat.
She immediately wanted to flee the room, but for some reason, she couldn’t move her legs.
Because… right between the bed and the dressing table, a coffin sat on the ground.
The coffin itself wasn’t unusual; Luo Xue had seen plenty of coffins. The problem was… a woman was sitting on top of it!
The woman was incredibly beautiful, her simple white clothes unable to conceal her stunning appearance.
But her eyes were closed, as if in deep sleep, or perhaps eternal rest.
In this place, in this atmosphere… If Luo Xue couldn’t guess who this woman was, she would be a fool.
“Greetings… True Person Phoenix Yin.”
Luo Xue wasn’t sure about the proper etiquette for meeting an immortal in this world, so she simply bowed her head.
But a long time passed, and no sound came.
Luo Xue secretly raised her head, trying to assess the situation.
But at that moment, a pair of eerie vertical pupils filled her vision.
***
Zhenren (Chinese: 真人; ‘true/ upright/ genuine person’ or ‘person of truth’).
In Daoism, a god or deified mortal
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