According to the Dao De Jing, “The god of the valley is enduring, known as Xuanpin, the mysterious fertile mother of us all. The Gate of Xuanpin is the source of heaven and earth. Intangible yet ever present, she works tirelessly and inexhaustibly.”
Li Qingshan stopped and stared at the fleshy gate. It contained a certain, strange law, not only separating Taotie’s dominion, but the line between life and death as well, forming a world of its own, yet also as if it was the source of all life.
He recalled everything he had seen and heard along the way, and a strange feeling welled up inside him. He cleared his throat and directly asked, “What do we do?”
The Gate of Xuanpin was anything but ordinary. Even his Origin Soul of great liberty was unable to penetrate it. If he destroyed it by force, he would definitely alarm Jiuying.
At a time like this, he obviously had to ask his “guide”, Qian Rongzhi. She was both mad and wretched, but she had always been able to come up with some ideas.
This time, she did not disappoint him. She smiled. “Don’t rush. It always opens for a few days every month. Hehe, isn’t it a little familiar…”
“Alright, I understand. You can stop there!’
Li Qingshan immediately interrupted her. The strange feeling inside became even more intense, but he could not be bothered with her nonsense. He just began waiting patiently.
Perhaps because he had destroyed the Black Sun Demon Heart, which made him drastically lose the favours of the demonic heavens, his luck was horrible this time. He waited for almost a month before the Gate of Xuanpin slowly opened.
ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ ꜰʀᴇᴇᴡᴇʙ(ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ).ᴄoᴍ ᴏɴʟʏ.
At that instant, dark-red blood gushed out.
Qian Rongzhi reminded him. “Don’t let it touch you!”
Li Qingshan immediately dodged to one side, but he could already tell that the blood was anything but ordinary. It could wash away auras and powers. If regular arcane artifacts even just came in contact with a single droplet, they would probably be immediately reduced to scrap metal. Any techniques he used would disintegrate too.
Even with his body of the demonic and divine, coupled with the Origin Soul of great liberty, he would probably be reduced to just the body of a mortal, constrained to it without any liberty at all.
By now, he could no longer afford to let his thoughts wander anymore. He furrowed his brows and murmured, “This definitely is not a power that a Heretic God should possess. It’s the manifestation of some kind of law.”
As a result, he became even more careful, following his instincts to the limit.
However, as the gate completely opened, the surging blood immediately filled the entire cavern. There was no more room to hide in. In this river of blood, all techniques were useless. It was even impossible to hide into space.
Without any hesitation, Li Qingshan immediately raised several layers of the Spirit Turtle’s Profound Shell and moved against the current!
Blood also had an element of water to it, and Ruin’s End was the source of all water. As the ruler of Ruin’s End, spirit turtles possessed a natural level of control and resistance towards all laws and techniques that contained an element of water.
But even despite that, the impervious Spirit Turtle’s Profound Shell was being rapidly eroded away. The layers were washed away.
The small world operated at full speed, immediately producing thousands of layers of the Spirit Turtle’s Profound Shell. Each layer was only separated by a millimetre. It was as dense as it could be.
However, under the washing of the foul blood, it still rapidly shrank in size, becoming thinner and thinner.
Li Qingshan was unfazed, continuing along obstinately. He passed straight through a corridor that was even thinner and suddenly rushed out of the river of blood. His field of vision abruptly opened up.
But at the same time, the last layer of the Spirit Turtle’s Profound Shell dissipated. Blood sprayed towards his back.
“The Ape Demon Extends its Arm!”
Without even looking back, Li Qingshan’s left arm rapidly expanded, turning into a black ape arm. He opened his huge hand and blocked the blood like he was trying to snatch the moon from the sky.
However, as soon as the blood touched his palm, all of his auras dissipated. The ape demon’s hand turned back into a regular human hand, even feeling a little powerless and numb. Let alone picking up mountains, he probably could not even lift something that weighed more than a few dozen kilograms anymore.
And that was only the beginning. The sensation of numbness rapidly spread along his arm, swallowing the entire black ape arm and still showing no signs of stopping.
This was nothing like potent poison or acid, but some kind of law at work. It was almost like a curse.
Without any hesitation, Li Qingshan drew his sword and cut off his arm. He even cut off a major part of his shoulder.
The numbness immediately became tremendous pain, even more than the tortures of hell. It even made him gasp uncontrollably before exhaling deeply.
“I sure am quite unlucky right now!”
If he did not have the Sword of Xuanyuan, probably even cutting off his arm would not have been helpful. The wound did not close up so quickly either, forcing him to contract his blood vessels to stop the bleeding.
For the time being, he could forget about regrowing the arm. It was not some fatal wound, but it would definitely affect his prowess in battle.
Li Qingshan observed his surroundings. It was a rather spacious place, enough to fit several soccer pitches, entirely composed of flesh that constantly wriggled and changed in shape. It gradually opened up and seemed round, but it was not.
The depths of the flesh shone with a pink lustre. If he shut his eyes and ignored the strange flesh, then the climate and temperature was actually quite delightful.
However, this place was empty. There was nothing at all. There were neither demonfolk nor demonic beasts. There was not even a single plant.
“Is this the Blood maze?”
“This is only one of the chambers. The entire Blood maze is composed of countless chambers like this. This place has just been washed, which is why there’s nothing here,” Qian Rongzhi raised her head and flickered her forked tongue, looking around.
Li Qingshan discovered several new doorways as well. They were all firmly shut, but they were not as difficult to pass through as the Gate of Xuanpin.
“How do I enter Qiongqi’s dominion?”
“I don’t know.”
“What? Say that again!”
“I don’t know.”
Li Qingshan squinted his eyes, giving off dangerous killing intent.
Qian Rongzhi explained, “The locations of the chambers constantly change with the wriggling. These paths aren’t all straight lines either. At the same time, all of the chambers have a fixed longevity. Old chambers will gradually be compressed until they vanish, while new chambers will be created. There has never been any markers that never change, nor is there an absolutely correct path. This is why it’s called a maze.”
“You want to trap me in here?”
“Of course not. Who would lock themselves up in the same cage as a tiger? Originally, you were chosen by the Demon domain, deeply blessed by the will of the heavens, so even if you wandered around aimlessly in the maze, you’ll definitely get to where you want to be. But now… it’s difficult to say.”
“You never said that in the beginning.”
“Who would have thought you would shatter the Black Sun Demon Heart on a whim? And if you couldn’t pass through the customs, this is the only path. There’s nothing else I can do either. You’re welcome to return to Taotie’s dominion too. Perhaps once that senior of yours calms down, he’ll be willing to help you pass through.”
“After I just smashed a mountain into his face?”
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“Heh, let’s hope you have another mountain then.”
Li Qingshan was very tempted to choke her to death, but he also understood that she was right. Even if she mentioned this all beforehand, he would have still set foot in this Blood maze. He did not regret destroying the Black Sun Demon Heart either, as this was the path he had chosen.
After shattering the Black Sun Demon Heart, his mind became clear again. The various transformations of the demonic and divine all progressed. In particular, the newly-awakened Divine Dragon Transformation showed signs of breaking though. That was his true foundations.
“Hmph, when it comes to mazes, I’ve never lost to anyone!” Li Qingshan said proudly.
His Spirit Turtle Transformation had reached completion. Spirit turtles were most skilled in calculating patterns and noticing secrets. How could a measly maze stump him?
With a swish, he produced several mirror clones that set off on different paths. Now, he could maintain many mirror clones at the same time, and he had the thousands of demonic thought clones from the Origin Soul of great liberty.
Even if it was through brute force, he would find a path!
