Chapter 246: The Immortal’s Cave Dwelling! Those Who Gain Immortal Fate Shall Ascend in Broad Daylight! A massive shockwave rippled outward. The entire ground was scraped down a layer by the force! That massive, savage grey wolf from the wilds was cut down in a single slash! It vanished into nothingness between heaven and earth. The wolf fang in Grand Magus Bantu’s hand shattered instantly. The malice on his face grew even darker, and the chanting from his mouth came faster and faster. The sound alone could set one’s heart pounding. All around, a yin wind roared to life. Within the rolling thick fog, it was as though some great terror was about to be born! Judging from the sheer menace of that wind, it was far more powerful than the flayed woman. Hatred flashed in Bantu’s eyes as he bit his finger and began tracing strange symbols in the air. From within the howling wind came a single furious bellow. Just one roar, and it was enough to make the heart quail and the soul shudder! Something monstrously evil was about to emerge! Li Yanchu’s eyes narrowed as he felt the howling wind surround him, his brows rising slightly. Did all demons need such extravagant theatrics just to make an entrance!? Was this pure posturing, or some fixed ceremonial requirement? To test his theory, Li Yanchu immediately activated the Wind Tamer. The eerie wind vanished abruptly and unnaturally from the heavens and earth in an instant! The Wind Tamer was a divine artifact. Against such winds, it was utterly unstoppable! The angry roar came to an abrupt halt, and Grand Magus Bantu’s expression changed dramatically. That “great shaman” he was summoning was one of the Shaman Sect’s most revered, possessing terrifying power. But with the ritual interrupted, that dreadful presence had failed to fully descend. Pff! Bantu spat a mouthful of black, clotted blood. Li Yanchu had genuinely infuriated him! “You ignorant kid! Today I’ll show you what it means when the heavens themselves have greater heights beyond your reach!” Bantu spoke in the official tongue of the Kingdom of Qian, and he was perfectly intelligible. But the shrill, venomous edge to his voice was enough to make Li Yanchu glance at him sideways. Still, the Grand Magus kept chanting, desperate to call forth that fearsome being. “Danzhu Mouth God, spit out filth and dispel miasma; Luoqian Teeth God, repel evil and guard the truth; swiftly, in accordance with the command[1]!” Li Yanchu’s voice rang out, majestic and filled with righteous qi. It was the Mouth-Cleansing Divine Mantra, one of Daoism’s Eight Great Divine Mantras, which was a mantra to purge sins from the mouth and open the way to the Dao. The moment Li Yanchu’s Daoist mantra resounded, Grand Magus Bantu’s voice was suppressed. He found himself unable to cast any shamanic magic at all. So, even the most basic Daoist divine chants could be wielded to such a degree of dominance. Li Yanchu was no mere Daoist who only painted talismans and chanted mantras, he was also a martial grandmaster of the highest order. He charged forward with a saber in hand. For a man of martial might, close-quarters combat was the surest way to suppress monks, Daoists, or shamans alike! But, before he could even close the distance, Grand Magus Bantu suddenly opened his mouth and inhaled, swallowing some invisible spirit into himself. His body swelled and loomed larger in an instant. It was as if an ancient feral spirit now guarded Bantu’s body; his eyes blazed with a savage, ruthless light. The aura about him grew dense and oppressive, twisting with a strange, baleful energy. Li Yanchu’s gaze sharpened on the Grand Magus. Many shamanic arts bore striking similarities to Daoist methods. This, for instance, was not unlike the Daoist’s divine-summoning technique. Bantu lunged and clawed with one massive hand. A surge of terrible force shot straight for Li Yanchu’s heart, an attack meant to tear it from his chest alive! But the lightning-and-fire scriptures inscribed upon Li Yanchu’s talismanic armor flared brilliantly, blunting that eerie power head-on. Bantu’s brows furrowed. Just who is this young man?! And then came the greater shock, Li Yanchu slashed. Clang! The air itself shrieked at the strike. Possessed by the feral spirit, Bantu lunged in pure instinct to meet the attack head-on. The strange, malevolent qi before him split apart, and Li Yanchu’s radiant saber-qi struck his body. Curiously, Bantu emerged without an outward wound, yet from within his body came a muffled, pained roar! His skin cracked open bit by bit like shattered porcelain, and even his face was scored with those fissures. Searing blood welled from every split, making for a ghastly sight. He pounced again, this time flickering past as a blur of black shadow, appearing right before Li Yanchu! The two clashed dozens of times in mere instants, their blows lighting up the deep, silent night with awe-inspiring ferocity. Waves of visible shock force rippled outward, streaked with interweaving crimson and black light. The bear claws, dog claws, and cat claws that Bantu wielded were all shattered to pieces, utterly restrained by Li Yanchu’s Jiaoslayer. Blood now covered the shaman’s body, fresh wounds marking his flesh. A moment ago, his words had dripped with arrogance, but now, the blows to his pride were as sharp as those to his body. Never had he imagined that in this frozen, desolate land of the far north, a youth of such overwhelming skill would appear. The two figures crossed paths. Li Yanchu stood as steady as bedrock, expression cold and stern. But at Bantu the Grand Magus’s waist, a ghastly wound gaped wide, nearly cleaving him clean in half. Blood gushed forth like a spring, soaking his robes in an instant. A chill of horror gripped his heart. This Spirit-Channeling Art was one of Shaman Sect’s deadliest methods, and it summoned a great spirit or fierce ghost to aid in battle. Normally, such injuries would be borne by the spirit first. That was the power of Shaman Sect: command your spirit to fight, and let it take the damage for you. But, in all the countless years of this tradition, never had a spirit been struck in a way that rebounded onto the shaman himself. A peerless divine weapon?! Bantu’s eyes widened. In his youth, he had roamed the Central Plains, so he was no stranger to the cultivation world of the Kingdom of Qian and to the names of certain spells and weapons. For a saber to cut through his mortal body and directly sever the Spirit-Channeling Art , this was no ordinary weapon! Worse still, despite his enhanced physical resilience after casting the spell, the wound refused to heal, and there was not so much as a sign of recovery. Who in the hell are you?! Which old bastard is playing a joke on me?! In his mind, a young man barely in his twenties, proficient in both martial arts and Daoist magic to such a degree, was an impossibility without decades of cultivation. Li Yanchu frowned and said slowly, “The past is in the past. I’ve come here now for an opportunity beyond the Pass.” Googlᴇ search 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹⟡𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮⟡𝙣𝙚𝙩 Bantu froze for a moment, and his estimation of his opponent rose. “A land of immortality.” Bantu’s eyes lit up. “A land of immortality?!” Li Yanchu gave a slight nod and fabricated smoothly, “I’m not speaking of the Heavenly Palace of Myriad Phenomena, but of a cave dwelling and Blissful Land beyond the Pass, one that holds an Immortal’s dwelling. The one who gains its fate may ascend to the heavens in broad daylight.” His words immediately hooked Bantu’s interest. As expected, anything tied to longevity could be used to bait a man. Li Yanchu’s voice sank. “Tell me where the young man you took from the Kingdom of Qian is, and I’ll give you the clue to this Immortal’s dwelling that hides a path to eternal life.” Bantu’s eyes gleamed with a feral light, and there was a flicker of hesitation, even temptation. 1. The phrase “丹朱口神吐秽除氛，罗千齿神却邪卫真，急急如律令” comes from a Daoist mantra. “丹朱口神” (Danzhu Mouth God) and “罗千齿神” (Luoqian Tooth God) are Daoist gods who respectively govern the mouth and teeth. The entire mantra calls upon the Danzhu Mouth God to expel filth and evil aura, and the Luoqian Tooth God to drive away evil and protect truth, praying that their divine power will act as swiftly as an official decree. This phrase is commonly used in Daoist rituals to seek the protection of the gods, to purify the environment, and to ward off evil spirits. The ending phrase “急急如律令” (“swiftly, as if by decree”) is a common concluding phrase in Daoist spells, expressing the wish that the divine power takes effect immediately and decisively. ☜