Great Li Martial God

On the ninth level of the Mystic Mechanism Palace, a figure with hair hanging loose over its face sat cross-legged in the center of the main hall.

Behind the figure stretched a row of cells constructed of refined iron and wound with layer upon layer of heavy chains. There were five such cells, and each of them held someone inside.

At the sight, Li Musheng's expression shifted, and he swept a look over all five cells in search of the blue-robed Daoist's Elder Sister.

His gaze finally settled on the cell in the center.

Inside sat the figure of a young woman, appearing to be in her twenties or thirties, clearly at odds with the age one would expect of the blue-robed Daoist's Elder Sister.

But Li Musheng knew that the blue-robed Daoist's Elder Sister had cultivated the Longevity Scripture and had very likely returned to a younger state.

"May I ask if you are Daoist Qingyu?"

Li Musheng looked toward the young woman in the cell and asked directly.

His voice echoed through the somewhat empty ninth-level hall, drawing the gazes of all five people imprisoned in the cells, as well as the loose-haired figure seated in the center.

At that moment, the rotund-faced elder imprisoned in the rightmost cell strained his eyes to look at Li Musheng and the others who had arrived, then said with obvious difficulty in broken bursts, "They... feed us... a drug... we gradually... lose consciousness..."

At those words, Li Musheng and all the martial world experts from the underground levels looked toward the rotund elder. The plump old man who had been speaking with Li Musheng before furrowed his brow and asked, "Who are you? Is the woman in the middle the Daoist Qingyu the young hero mentioned?"

At those words, the imprisoned rotund elder seemed to drift into a moment of deep struggle, his expression becoming extremely pained, and then his hands clamped around his own head, "I am... the Grand Manager... of the Treasure Assembly Trading House..."

At those words, the plump old man and the other martial world experts following Li Musheng all showed expressions of shock.

"You are the Grand Manager of Great Xuan's foremost trading house, reputed to be the wealthiest individual in all of Great Xuan?"

The plump old man asked in startled disbelief, clearly not having expected that even a figure of such immeasurable wealth within Great Xuan could end up imprisoned in the Mystic Mechanism Palace.

After all, the Grand Manager of the Treasure Assembly Trading House had only ordinary martial talent, but the man's limitless resources meant he had access to precious martial arts manuals and pills in abundance, which had drawn a large number of powerfully strong martial world experts to serve as his retainers. He also had deep ties to every variety of noble and powerful figure.

Yet someone this well-connected and influential within Great Xuan, a man who seemed to have a hand in everything, had somehow ended up imprisoned in the Mystic Mechanism Palace.

Li Musheng had no particular interest in the rotund elder's identity, and simply pointed at the woman in the middle cell, "Do you know who she is?"

At the gesture, the rotund elder turned to look at the white-robed woman in the center cell, then with a look of agony shook his head hard, "I do not know... who she is... I only vaguely... heard them interrogating her... about the whereabouts... of a certain technique..."

At those words, Li Musheng's eyes gave a slight shift, and he asked, "Was that technique called the Longevity Scripture?"

But before the rotund elder could answer, the loose-haired figure seated in the center of the hall had its hair begin to stir as though moved by an unfelt breeze, and revealed an extraordinarily ugly face.

Then those darkened, sunken eyes fixed on Li Musheng, and a slow, unhurried voice came, "It has been a very long time since anyone managed to get this far..."

And as those words fell, the true qi of heaven and earth in the entire hall vanished at once, the surrounding space seeming to freeze solid, thick and viscous as a swamp.

In an instant, every one of the martial world experts who had followed Li Musheng down to the ninth underground level, as well as Zhao Muning, felt their minds go blank.

An indescribable fear rose suddenly in every heart, and in that moment all of them could feel, in sheer horror, that an enormous invisible hand had seized their bodies in an unyielding grip.

At the same time, the vast martial true qi within their meridians and cores was locked in place simultaneously, utterly impossible to circulate.

For Heaven-Human level experts, losing access to the surrounding true qi of heaven and earth while simultaneously being unable to draw on the true qi within their own bodies left them no better than lambs waiting to be slaughtered.

The martial world experts guarding the eight underground levels below all changed expression sharply. They had known only that the ninth underground level was guarded by the infamous Crimson Cloud Evil Spirit.

But not one of them had previously come to the ninth level, and none had had any contact with the man.

They had simply not imagined the Crimson Cloud Evil Spirit's cultivation would be this terrifyingly powerful, so far above their own.

He had not even visibly moved, and yet the lives of all of them who guarded the eight lower levels were already completely in the man's hands.

"Senior Crimson Cloud Evil Spirit, we are guardians of the Mystic Mechanism Palace just like you. We came to your level this evening with absolutely no ill intent."

Someone immediately called out, hoping to avoid being harmed by the Crimson Cloud Evil Spirit by mistake.

But the ugly-faced Crimson Cloud Evil Spirit showed no expression at all, and his darkened sunken gaze skipped directly past Zhao Muning, falling only on Li Musheng among the assembled group. He said in a leisurely tone, "Young man. I can see that all of them appear to be rather afraid of you. You must be the expert who forced your way through the levels tonight."

At those words, Zhao Muning, shaken by the Crimson Cloud Evil Spirit's suppressive presence, fixed her gaze hard on Li Musheng as well.

Throughout this journey, the shock Li Musheng had brought her had been beyond expression.

At first she had only thought his movement technique was unparalleled and his martial cultivation far superior to her own.

But she had not expected him to be capable of clearing the entire Mystic Mechanism Palace.

Yet as he brought her through one underground level after another, subduing the guardian of each of the eight lower levels in a single move without exception, her understanding of Li Musheng's martial cultivation had grown more and more unfathomable.

Where she had initially thought his martial talent was comparable to the Great Li Eighth Prince's terrifying level, she now found herself wondering whether his cultivation was perhaps not inferior to that Eighth Prince at all.

"You..." Zhao Muning was just about to speak. She did not know whether Li Musheng or the Crimson Cloud Evil Spirit was stronger.

But at this moment her desire to recruit Li Musheng had reached an unprecedented height. She genuinely, desperately wanted to draw a genius of this caliber into Great Xuan's service.

Someone like this, if he did not join the Great Xuan court, would be an unimaginable loss for the entire dynasty.

And so Zhao Muning had no wish to see Li Musheng come to any harm through a clash with the Crimson Cloud Evil Spirit, or suffer even the slightest injury.

After all, Li Musheng was still so young. Even if he was not currently the Crimson Cloud Evil Spirit's equal, given time, surpassing an opponent of the Evil Spirit's notorious fame would be no problem whatsoever.

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