Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Eight: The Twin-Born Yin Spirits of the Black-and-White Yin-Yang Energies

The surroundings were dominated by towering ferns, the shortest of which stood taller than a man. Further ahead lay a forest of colorful, seven-hued mushrooms. The mushroom forest was thick with miasma, and amidst the weeds below, blue-skinned centipedes two to three meters in length crawled past from time to time. These were not demonic beasts, merely creatures of unusual size.

A three-meter-long dragonfly hovered above a massive pink mushroom.

*Whoosh!*

Suddenly, the top of the mushroom split open, revealing a vibrant red, gaping maw filled with jagged, ghastly white fangs. It gulped the dragonfly down in one bite, the sound of crunching echoing through the air.

*Boom!*

A thunderous noise erupted from the sky. A six-legged avian with a wingspan of ten yards streaked across the low altitude. It had no feathers; instead, its body was covered in pitch-black scales. With a sharp shriek, it snatched a giant elephant and hauled it into the heavens.

Everything here felt like a glimpse into the primordial past. Most species that had long vanished from the surface still thrived within this "Water Eye" world.

*Is this the Water Eye where the Secret Mansion of the Underworld River lies?* Lu Qian thought to himself.

He spat out his sword pouch, and an iron tablet flew out. It looked unremarkable, engraved with a jumble of miscellaneous patterns. He had acquired this treasure from a deacon of the Lingbo Tower. At that moment, one of the lines on the tablet began to glow. A light point flickered, moving in sync with Lu Qian’s own movements.

*This point must mark my current location,* he surmised. Among the patterns, the one closest to him was the shape of a tree.

Beyond his Yin Spirit, a five-yard-wide azure cloud trailed behind him. Every time he flew, it was as if he were riding the clouds, making him highly conspicuous. With a flick of his mind, Lu Qian compressed the azure cloud, forming it into emerald-like armor upon his body; this rendered him far less noticeable.

The path was filled with exotic flowers and rare grasses. Though he did not encounter the legendary treasures listed on the Heaven and Earth Rankings, most of what he saw were still beneficial for cultivation—man-eating flowers as large as washbasins, infant-shaped snow lotuses, and even the giant mushrooms he had seen earlier, which could be refined into potent toxins. It was no wonder cultivators swarmed here; this was effectively an ownerless spirit garden, and it would be a waste not to take what he could.

He flew for an unknown duration. This Water Eye space was far larger than he had imagined. Eventually, he neared his destination. From afar, he spotted a towering tree. It stood fifty yards tall with fire-red bark, long, straight branches, and leaves shaped like small boats. In the center of the lush green leaves hung fire-red fruits the size of human heads, their exteriors covered in menacing barbs. They were scarce; Lu Qian counted them roughly, and across the expanse of the tree’s shade, there were only a dozen or so fruits.

Even from ten miles away, Lu Qian could smell their immense vital essence. Consuming just one would be of great benefit to both his physical body and his Yin Spirit. Moreover, the area around the tree was saturated with dense Wood-type vital energy. If his physical body were here, his cultivation speed would be ten times faster than in the outside world.

*Treasures are usually guarded by exotic beasts. I must be careful,* Lu Qian mused. He descended and stealthily slipped into the weeds.

*Boom!*

A massive roar erupted ahead, sending countless shards of rock flying. Lu Qian froze and looked toward the source of the sound. Beneath the towering tree, several figures were locked in battle. A pitch-black, demonic-flamed Pegasus, five yards tall, was fighting two Yin Spirits—one black and one white. The Pegasus was bathed in demonic fire, with a spiraling golden horn protruding from its head. The surrounding area was a ruin, suggesting the battle had been raging for some time. Aside from the combatants, several blue-skinned corpses lay on the ground. These corpses looked similar to ordinary humans.

*Whoosh!*

The golden horn detached from the Pegasus, pierced through the shuttle-shaped magical artifacts of the black and white Yin Spirits, and flew toward the two similar-looking Yin Spirits behind them.

*Puff!*

The golden horn passed through the Yin Spirits, causing them to flicker and nearly dissipate into nothingness.

"Heh heh, how do you like the power of my Piercing Dragon Horn?" the demonic Pegasus asked in a deep, masculine voice.

At that moment, two streams of Yin energy, one black and one white, burst from the ground beneath the Pegasus. They formed a lotus flower, half black and half white. It suddenly detonated, and countless lotus petals split off, crazily shredding the Pegasus, breaking through its protective demonic flames, and stripping away its flesh bit by bit.

"The Yin-Yang Twin Lotus? The Black and White Taoists of the Nine Heavens Dao Alliance? Why are there two of you?" the Pegasus asked, sounding desperate. Its pitch-black, impenetrable scales had been mostly stripped away by the lotus petals, revealing raw, crimson flesh in a miserable display.

"Who told you we were one person?" the white-clad middle-aged man on the right laughed.

The two were twin brothers. In their youth, they had accidentally come across a cultivation technique, but because their talent was insufficient to master it alone, they simply split the practice between them. To their surprise, they actually succeeded in forging the Black and White Yin-Yang Yin Spirit. Although they were only at the early stage of the Nourishing Spirit realm, their combined strength surpassed that of an average mid-stage Nourishing Spirit cultivator.

Seeing he could not win, the Pegasus flapped its wings and fled. The Black and White Taoists did not pursue. They had already killed the blue-skinned guardians of the divine tree and repelled the Pegasus; their internal energy was nearly exhausted, and they dared not court further trouble.

"Brother, let’s harvest all these fruits, find a vein of earth to condense our Yin-煞 (Yin-Sha), and then we can head out, right?"

"Naturally. There are many experts here; we must not be greedy," the white Yin Spirit replied. Both were content; their purpose in coming here was to condense their Yin-Sha. Obtaining this treasure was an unexpected windfall, and they dared not harbor further greed, lest they die without knowing how.

With this in mind, the black Yin Spirit flew up, condensing a blade of true essence at its fingertips.

"Wait!" the white Yin Spirit hurriedly stopped him. "Use a blade. This is a 'How-So Tree'; it cannot be harvested by hand or with true essence."

The How-So Tree was a giant, fifty-yard-tall tree. It took a hundred years to become a tree, two hundred to grow leaves, three hundred to bear copper-red fruit, and nine hundred to bear golden fruit. If harvested with a metal blade, the fruit would taste sour and astringent; if harvested with a reed blade, it would become spicy. Different materials would result in different fruit properties. Consuming the copper fruit could prolong life and bring great cultivation success, while the golden fruit was said to allow one to ascend from the earth as a Golden Immortal. The prerequisite was that it could not be touched by anything other than the designated tools; otherwise, the fruit would lose all its effects.

The two used a wooden blade to cut the fruit. The black Yin Spirit asked, "It's a pity there are no golden fruits. Can one really become a Golden Immortal by eating them? And what even is a Golden Immortal?"

"There is no such thing as a Golden Immortal. If you eat a golden fruit, your entire body will slowly turn into gold. During this process, your lifespan will be greatly extended—said to be eight hundred years. After eight hundred years, you will turn into a lump of gold. That is what 'immortality' really is," the white Yin Spirit said, pointing to a human-shaped golden statue beneath the tree.

*Clang!*

At that moment, the sound of metal clashing rang out from all four directions.

"Hm?"

Both of them instinctively looked up to see a hundred-yard black chain in the void, which had surrounded their space at some point and was now slowly tightening.

"It's an ambush!" the Black and White Taoists shouted in unison.

Their Yin Spirits released their black and white Yin-Yang energies, which once again transformed into a millstone-sized black lotus. As the energies churned, the black chain creaked and groaned.

*Swish!*

Before the black prison chains could break, the five-yard Yin cloud transformed into a piercingly cold emerald giant sword and struck. The Mysterious Frost Yin-Sha was so frigid that snowflakes condensed in the air. Within the sealed space, everything froze into ghostly green ice sculptures. Even the scattered lotus petals hung silently in the air, as if time itself had come to a standstill. The scene was spectacular. Even the black and white Yin Spirits of the two brothers were momentarily frozen.

A ten-yard Yin wind followed, and ten thousand chilling rays pierced through their Yin Spirits.

"Ah! Retreat!" Under the agony, the Black and White Taoists finally reacted. Their magical artifacts had been damaged in the previous battle, and they were left with less than sixty percent of their cultivation. The brothers were quick to react; they employed their Yin-Yang escape technique, turning into black and white vapors, intending to slip through a gap in the blockade.

"Trying to run?"

Lu Qian’s voice suddenly echoed in the air. The Yin-Gui True Water in his Dantian surged wildly, every drop saturated with Mysterious Frost Yin-Sha. The sky changed abruptly, turning dark and overcast. The Yin-Gui True Water fell like ten thousand arrows.

The Yin-Gui True Water possessed a powerful scouring force, and combined with the frigid frost, its power was ten times greater than before. Everything within a radius of several hundred yards was frozen into ice sculptures.

"Ah! We are members of the Nine Heavens Dao Alliance! If you kill us, the Autumn Official and the Great Sovereign will not spare you!"

The black and white brothers reverted to their true forms. Their Yin Spirits were on the verge of shattering, and the cold air relentlessly invaded their souls.

"Find me first, then we'll talk."

Lu Qian spat out his sword pouch. Gold energy swirled, and the Yin Spirits were scattered into nothingness. Lu Qian had heard of this faction. The Nine Heavens Dao Alliance was a coalition in the south, composed of numerous rogue cultivators and small sects. There was no such thing as a Sect Leader or Temple Master. Their leader was titled the Heavenly Official Great Sovereign, and beneath him were the Five Officials of Earth, Spring, Autumn, and Winter. It was said they used a system passed down from the ancient human emperors.

Lu Qian did not care about their threats. Who in the Water Eye would know he had killed these two? Lu Qian took their pouches and the wooden box filled with fruits. After scavenging through their belongings, he turned to look at the How-So Tree, which now lacked a single fruit. The tree was as hard as steel, seemingly imbued with the essence of the Five Metals.

"Forget it, I won't waste such a treasure. Ordinary metals have a higher gold content than this tree anyway."

Lu Qian silently noted the location to return for harvesting when they matured again. With that thought, he flew off in the direction the demonic-flamed Pegasus had fled.