Chapter 1810: South City Five Dao Temple (Part 2)

Everything seemed unchanged.

But Li Yan knew that some things had already changed.

As the carriage drove into Chongwen Gate Alley, the sky was approaching dusk.

In front of the residence, Kong Shangzhao was pacing anxiously. Seeing the carriage return, he quickly approached, “Sir, Grandmaster Chen has arrived and has been waiting in the hall for an hour.”

Li Yan raised his eyebrows slightly.

With someone like Chen Yuanlu, coming in person and waiting for an hour could not simply be to congratulate him.

He hurried into the residence and through the front courtyard to the main hall.

Indeed, Chen Yuanlu sat at the main seat, the tea cup beside him long cold, yet untouched.

Seeing Li Yan enter, he got straight to the point, “The Grandmaster Battle went well. But both you and I know, that was merely surface-level theatrics.”

Li Yan sat opposite him, “Grandmaster Chen, speak your mind.”

“The matter of the Nine Gates Yin Ruins cannot be delayed any longer. It must be expedited!”

Chen Yuanlu took out a roll of sheepskin map from his sleeve and spread it on the table, “All preparations are complete. Tomorrow midnight, the entrance to the Yin Ruins will open to its maximum. It’s the only opportunity this season. Miss it, and you’ll have to wait again.”

The map depicted the underground network of the Capital, with each of the Nine Gates marked by a red dot, connected by winding black lines, ultimately converging at the central vortex symbol.

Next to the symbol, a line of small script noted: Resentful Evil Gathering, Yin and Yang Reversed, No Living Beings Allowed.

Li Yan stared at that vortex, silent for a moment, “The Crown Prince’s condition…”

“It won’t hold for long.”

Chen Yuanlu’s voice was somber, “The prescriptions from the Imperial Hospital, the Golden Core from Dragon and Tiger Mountain, the Life-extending Incense from Wudang, everything that can be used has been used. Now he is sustained solely by a breath of Innate True Qi. Without finding the Flat Peach to restore his essence, at most three months.”

Three months.

Li Yan thought of that emaciated young man in the Warm Pavilion, his heart inexplicably heavy. He had no personal relationship with the Crown Prince, but if Xiao Jingheng were to pass away at this critical moment, one can only imagine how chaotic the court would become.

“Why must you find me?”

Li Yan raised his head, “The Mystical Sect in the Central Plains is full of experts, with three of the Ten Grandmasters in the Capital now. Any one of them could handle this better than I, a half-baked practitioner.”

Chen Yuanlu smiled, but there was no warmth in his smile, “Because you have been there. The Nine Gates Yin Ruins is not an ordinary Secret Realm. It recognizes ‘fate.’ You survived last time and brought back news of the Flat Peach, proving you have the fate.”

He paused, his voice heavier, “I went in and got lost.”

“Entering together with several people makes it even harder to approach the core, so I am of no help either.”

Li Yan didn’t respond directly but asked instead, “Once inside, what exactly needs to be done?”

“Find the real Peach Tree, pick a ripe peach and bring it out.”

Chen Yuanlu took out a jade box from his chest, opened it, revealing seven dull gray nails, each three inches long, their shafts densely inscribed with runes, “These are the Wudang’s secret Evil Suppressing Nails. After entering the core area of the Yin Ruins, hammer one every hundred steps to secure the Resentful Evil within a radius of three feet, keeping the mind clear. But remember, there are only seven nails, providing a maximum of seven hundred steps. If the peach tree isn’t found within seven hundred steps, you must retreat the same way.”

Li Yan took the jade box, its touch icy.

“Moreover, time in the core area of the Yin Ruins differs from the outside.”

Chen Yuanlu continued, “Inside, a day could mean an hour outside, or it could mean three days. I will set up a ‘Meridian Star Plate’ at the entrance. With this object, you can perceive the passage of time outside, but if you go beyond a thousand steps, it will lose signal. So, by no later than 3 a.m. tomorrow, whether or not you find it, you must come out. Otherwise…”

“Otherwise, what will happen?”

“You’ll be trapped in the Yin Yang Gap, your flesh decaying, your soul unable to transcend for eternity.” Chen Yuanlu spoke with utmost gravity, “Last month, State Preceptor, Master Wang succumbed just like this.”

The hall fell into silence.

Outside, the sky had completely darkened. Servants silently came in to light the oil lamps. Under the dim lamp light, the twisted lines on the sheepskin map seemed alive.

Li Yan looked at it for a long time, finally nodding, “Tomorrow midnight, I’ll go.”

Chen Yuanlu sighed in relief, stood up, and nodded slightly, “The Crown Prince Mansion will remember this favor of yours. If successful, you’ll have priority access to thirty percent of Qiankun Academy’s resources, and the Royal Secret Cave.”

With that, he bid farewell, his figure quickly vanishing into the night.

After seeing off Chen Yuanlu, Li Yan returned to his room.

He did not light a lamp, just stood by the window gazing at the heavy night outside.

The fatigue from the Grandmaster Battle finally surged through him, the stinging pain in his arms, the soreness in his meridians, and the emptiness left by the forced use of Yin Yang Thunder all reminded him of the extensive depletion from that battle.

The Daluo Dharma Body was increasingly important; such minor injuries he could heal himself.

But more than the physical fatigue, the unease in his heart weighed heavier.

The Nine Gates Yin Ruins…

He had indeed been there a few times.

Last year, while tracking down Zhao Changsheng’s remnants, he accidentally stumbled into the underground entrance at Chongwen Gate. At the time, he only wandered around the outer Ghost Market, but ran into that sinister peach tree rooted in the bones of a child and the disaster-causing stone statue of the Queen Mother of the West next to it.

But that thing was Zhao Qingxu’s trickery, removing the key nodes would destroy it.

Yet still, Chen Yuanlu described that as merely the ‘outer area.’

What lay at the true core?

He didn’t know.

But one thing Chen Yuanlu said wasn’t wrong.

The Nine Gates Yin Ruins of the Capital is completely different from those naturally formed Cave Heaven Blessed Lands.

It’s a man-made “monster.”

From the treacherous formations deliberately laid when retreating from the Golden Tent Wolf Country, to the countless talismans stacked by the Central Plains Mystical Sect to seal it; from the mountains of corpses and seas of blood left by generations of war, to the overwhelming resentful souls gathered therein… All these mixed together, fermenting over centuries, already became an eerie existence defying common logic.

Zhao Changsheng’s group had operated in the Capital for years yet never dared to penetrate the core of the Yin Ruins.

It wasn’t about unwillingness, but inability.

A place even that group of madmen feared…

Li Yan took a deep breath, suppressing the distracting thoughts.

Fear or not, he had to go.

Not just for the Crown Prince, nor solely for the resources promised by the Mystical Sect.

He had a gut feeling — the secret hidden in the depths of the Nine Gates Yin Ruins might be more important than the Flat Peach!

If that’s the case, merely relying on the seven Evil Suppressing Nails from Chen Yuanlu isn’t enough.

He needed more cards up his sleeve.

With this thought, Li Yan pushed open his door, silently crossed the courtyard, and exited the residence through a side entrance.

The night was deep, the alleyways silent, with only the faint beats of the Night Watchman’s drum echoing from afar.

He headed all the way south.

After half an hour, he arrived at the Five Dao General Temple in South City.

The temple was originally just a rundown shrine, with scant incense offerings. The temple priest was a blind old man, subsisting on leftover food donated by neighbors.

Ever since Li Yan helped the Five Dao General increase its incense offerings, the situation changed.

In this new era, steam engines ran everywhere, goods and people moved ceaselessly day and night, and the authority over roads and passage granted the Five Dao General immense power, its incense offerings flourishing.

Now the temple had been expanded three times, with flying eaves and architraves, vermillion painted doors, and even two ever-burning lamps flanking either side at night, illuminating the stone lions at the entrance with lifelike clarity.

The temple priest had long since gone to bed, the temple doors ajar.

Li Yan pushed open the door, closing it behind him.

In the main hall, the lamps burned eternally, the Divine Statue of the Five Dao General seated high on the Divine Platform, its golden form restored, its demeanor awe-inspiring.

The murals on either side depicted the General patrolling the realms of Yin and Yang, suppressing road-related Evil Spirits.

The brushwork was exquisite, clearly commissioned from a master artist.

He sat cross-legged on the prayer mat, taking out the Hook Paper from his bosom.

The Black Jade-bodied hook now glowed with a warm luster, its previously dim patterns, after absorbing a large amount of Astra Bane Qi from the breach in the Dharma Realm after the battle in Japan, looked even more extraordinary.

It was originally wooden, but now it resembled Moyu.

Now, Li Yan could communicate with the Divine without needing to enter dreams as before.

As the mist rose around him, upon reopening his eyes, the scene entirely changed.

The whole hall had widened considerably, its walls pitch black.

Numerous blue stone roads led into the darkness in all directions.

Li Yan knew, this was the Five Dao General’s most formidable Divine Skill, capable of manipulating space.

Yet on the Divine throne, it was completely empty.

Thud, thud, thud!

Just then, heavy footsteps sounded.

Only to see a towering armored giant silhouette, slowly approaching from the southwest road.

Covered in blood, still clutching a string of heads…