Great Li Martial God

"This is..."

The Black Moon Yin Elder's expression went blank. The Life and Death Talisman showed no signs of activity when dormant, so he had no idea what Li Musheng had done.

At that, Li Musheng offered no explanation, only saying slowly, "You do not need to know what this is. You only need to know that while it will not kill you immediately, once it activates it will absolutely make you beg me to kill you."

At those words, the Black Moon Yin Elder stared hard at Li Musheng, as though trying to determine whether the man was bluffing.

Li Musheng paid no attention to the elder's reaction, and simply mused aloud, "Still, you old fellow did remind me of something just now. Even though you said that everyone brought into the Mystic Mechanism Palace over the past six months was taken down to the underground levels, you might have gotten confused in your old age, so I should go and check the eight levels above as well."

The Black Moon Yin Elder furrowed his white brows, clearly not quite understanding what Li Musheng meant.

Li Musheng's expression remained as it was, "I will personally go through the nine underground levels. The levels above can be left to you. Go through them for me and find anyone being held there. If you come across an imprisoned Daoist woman, bring her here."

At those words, the Black Moon Yin Elder's brow creased even deeper, and a look of considerable difficulty spread across his aged face, "The young hero thinks too highly of this old man. With my level of cultivation, all I can manage is guarding a single level of this tower. The higher up the Mystic Mechanism Palace, the stronger the guardians become."

"Even if this old man had the heart to help the young hero, I am lacking the ability. Going to the floors above to find someone in those experts' own domain is simply beyond me. Trying would only be inviting humiliation."

At those words, the Black Moon Yin Elder felt the aura Li Musheng had sent into his body while his clouded gaze flickered with uncertainty.

Though he could sense Li Musheng's aura lying dormant within him, it appeared unremarkable and gave no outward impression of power.

But when he quietly tried to shake it or disperse it, he found he could not move it in the slightest. And so he understood inwardly that this thread of martial aura was something he was completely unable to handle.

Even so, this young man's cultivation was formidable to be sure, but the idea that a single thread of his martial aura could carry the elder through all nine upper levels unimpeded seemed somewhat overly confident.

The Black Moon Yin Elder's dried-wood face went through a series of shifts, but he did not dare refuse Li Musheng.

Setting aside whether the technique Li Musheng had planted in him could truly make him wish for death, if he refused, Li Musheng could end his life on a whim, and that was undeniably easy.

"Since the young hero has made this request, this old man will naturally do his utmost to find the person."

The Black Moon Yin Elder agreed stiffly, then hesitated for a moment and ventured to ask, "Only... when the young hero said there may be a way to deal with the poison in this old man's body, did you mean that truly?"

At those words, Li Musheng nodded with a blank expression, "There is certainly a way. But what matters most is your performance. This is the only chance you will ever have to leave this Mystic Mechanism Palace, and whether you can take it is entirely in your own hands."

With that, Li Musheng turned away and said nothing further to the Black Moon Yin Elder, taking Zhao Muning beside him and continuing on toward the entrance to the underground passages.

As for whether he could actually undo the poison in the Black Moon Yin Elder's body, he genuinely had no idea.

Though Li Musheng's martial cultivation was at an absolute peak beyond which there was no further advancement, he was hardly a physician or a poison specialist. He knew nothing about curing poisons.

That said, there were always ways to address a situation like the Black Moon Yin Elder's. Approaching the Great Xuan imperial palace, for instance, or attempting to use his own power to drive out the toxin.

Whether Li Musheng would try, and whether he would succeed if he did, were entirely separate questions.

...

At the same time, the Black Moon Yin Elder watched the two of them disappear into the passage, and found himself gripped by a good deal of hesitation.

Though he had agreed readily enough when facing Li Musheng, actually sending his old bones upstairs to confront the martial world experts guarding those levels was something he had second thoughts about now that it came to it.

After all, the guardians on each level had almost no interaction with one another, and most of these martial world figures were eccentric in character and difficult to get along with.

What was more, as a guardian of the lowest level, the Black Moon Yin Elder was a weakling in their eyes. Those experts naturally looked down on him.

If he barged into their territory unannounced and started searching for someone, they would not tolerate it.

"Well, no help for it. Go up to the second level first and see what happens. Even if the person there is stronger than me, the gap should not be too enormous. Worst comes to worst, I will just retreat if I cannot win."

The Black Moon Yin Elder's expression was dark and unsteady, deeply irked at being given orders by someone so much his junior.

If the person upstairs was reasonable, that was fine. Otherwise he would simply have to come to blows and vent some of the frustration pent up in his chest.

And besides, Li Musheng had left a thread of martial aura inside him. It was not going to be completely useless in a critical moment.

With that thought, the Black Moon Yin Elder vanished from where he stood, came to the entrance leading to the second level, opened the mechanism, and entered in an instant.

Before long, the Black Moon Yin Elder arrived at the second level.

The main hall of the second level was arranged similarly to his own, with one difference: seven enormous bronze bells were set on the floor.

The guardian of this level was a martial world expert from Great Xuan who was fanatically devoted to the physical refinement path, practicing a protective body art called the Mountain-Rock Golden Dragon Mantle.

These bronze bells were the man's training equipment, used to lift weights and pass the time when there was nothing else to do.

Because of this, the man regularly made the floor above boom and clang, which made it impossible for the Black Moon Yin Elder to cultivate in peace.

He had in fact reported the matter to the Great Xuan imperial palace eunuchs, but they had refused to get involved and simply told him to sort it out himself.

And so the Black Moon Yin Elder had gone up to the second level a few times, swallowing his pride and asking the man to keep the noise down.

But the man had not given the Black Moon Yin Elder the slightest consideration, and had driven him away without a word.

The Black Moon Yin Elder had been helpless about it, and at his age had not wanted to come to blows, so he could only endure in silence and seal his ears with true qi.

But the humiliation had never left him.

And not long after the Black Moon Yin Elder arrived at the second level, a bare-chested figure with corded muscles came crashing through the air with a sound like splitting space, appearing before the Black Moon Yin Elder in the blink of an eye.

"You old thing. What are you doing in my territory again?"

The bronze-skinned giant had a rough and heavily built face, and his expression as he looked at the Black Moon Yin Elder was one of considerable displeasure.

At those words, the Black Moon Yin Elder did not attack right away, but instead squeezed out a smile on his aged face and said, "This old man has been asked by someone to come here and find a person. If the big fellow would be so kind as to let that pass."

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