Eternal Life: I Can Control My Essence Qi-Chapter 198 - 165: Wan He’s Legacy (Part 2)

"Hmm... not bad, the information is genuine."

Zhang Yao quickly verified the authenticity of the intelligence, revealing a satisfied smile.

In Li Changlin's memory, there were more details about the Wanhe Cave Mansion, including detailed records of past arrays breaches, which greatly facilitated Zhang Yao's subsequent plan.

It must be said that the two Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Li Family had quite a scheme.

Through use of substitute, disguise, and taking turns on watch, they managed to deceive the Tiandun Sect and their own family for over a decade without arousing any suspicion.

Given time, as long as no accident occurred, once they broke the array of Wanhe Cave Mansion, they might indeed soar to prominence and defeat their opponent Tiandun Sect, truly achieving dominance over a kingdom.

Unfortunately, all of this turned to just a dream once Zhang Yao arrived.

"Go!"

Zhang Yao flicked his sleeve, casually casting a spell.

From his sleeve, a five-colored mist surged out, instantly forming a Five-Colored Rope, and swiftly bound Li Changlin tightly.

This was the Life and Death Rope mimicked from "Thousand Change Glaze Qi," with stronger binding power, and the life-suppressing effect could reach about ninety percent of the original version's efficacy, naturally more than enough to control an early stage Foundation Establishment Li Changlin.

"Let's go."

Zhang Yao stored Li Changlin into his Storage Bag and quietly left the depths of the mansion's Cultivation Quiet Chamber.

Ignoring the numerous arrays, he infiltrated the Li Clan's Treasure Vault, selected a dozen of the most valuable treasures, stored them, and then directly fled far away.

More than an hour later, Zhang Yao crossed over two thousand miles and arrived at the Cangmang Mountains in the south of Li Kingdom.

Using Li Changlin's memory, he quickly crossed the towering mountains and arrived above a Nameless Gorge deep within the mountains.

Inside the gorge:

Three small huts stood by the stream, leaning against each other.

In the tallest hut at the center, a slightly dark-faced, tall middle-aged cultivator was sitting cross-legged, practicing Breathing and Qi Refining.

The huts on either side belonged to Li Yuanying from the Mang Mountain Li Clan, and Daoist Zhuo, who once served the Wanhe Alliance.

Over the years, Li Yuanying had not changed much, but Daoist Zhuo appeared increasingly aged, as if the twilight years were nearing, evidently not far from the limit of his lifespan.

"Alas..."

Daoist Zhuo sat cross-legged on the clouded platform, but instead of meditating and refining Qi, his mind was tumultuous:

"Had I known, I should have stayed far away and not gotten involved in this chaos."

At this moment, his mood was sullen, regretting to the point of deep remorse:

"Maybe I should have followed Zhang Qing's lead, left Li Kingdom earlier, wouldn't that be the freedom of birds flying high?"

"Now, I've gambled away the second half of my life!"

More than a decade ago, after receiving the Imperial Decree from the Foundation Establishment master of the Li Clan, he dared not defy it, thus obediently came by.

But who could have expected:

Zhang Qing's sudden departure infuriated the Li Family and alerted them as well, prompting them to control him, then secretly avoid Tiandun Sect and place him here directly.

Once here, he finally learned that the Li Family's target was Daoist Wanhe's heritage cave mansion, but by then, it was definitely too late to regret.

For the past decade, he had no freedom, trapped here, effectively becoming a slave to break arrays.

"Hmm?"

At this moment, Daoist Zhuo's expression suddenly changed, feeling an intense sense of dread.

"What's happening..."

Before he could react, a pale white glow descended from the sky, instantly striking him, causing his Divine Soul to tremble and his vision to go dark, completely unconscious.

"Creak."

The wooden door of the hut was pushed open, Zhang Yao gracefully strode inside, placing one hand on his head, and performed the Soul Searching Secret Technique.

"Hmm, not bad."

Moments later, Zhang Yao satisfactorily withdrew the secret technique, retrieving his hand.

After over ten years of diligent research, Daoist Zhuo's array skills had actually broken through the bottleneck to second grade, comparable to what Zhang Yao was like over a decade ago.

In this case, his previous estimation was wrong; once Daoist Zhuo's array Dao level had advanced, the speed of breaking arrays would greatly increase, perhaps only taking a few years.

"Timing is everything."

Zhang Yao exclaimed, then turned and left, heading to another hut for soul searching.

After two quarters of an hour:

Li Changqi, Li Changlin, Daoist Zhuo, and Li Yuanying lay neatly on the ground, all with their eyes closed, unconscious.

"Swish!"

Zhang Yao cast a spell, and the five-colored rope suspended in midair transformed again, stretching extremely long to bind the four together.

This is the strength of the Thousand Change Glaze Qi, capable of changing at will to adapt to various situations.

The original Life and Death Rope could only bind one person at a time. Though its effect was more targeted, it lacked the flexibility of the imitation created by the Thousand Change Glaze Qi.

After handling the four people, Zhang Yao flew up and rode the Escape Light to the depths of the Nameless Gorge.

"Rumble..."

On the cliff over ten feet high, a small waterfall poured down, causing the lake's surface to churn constantly, rippling waves, with plenty of white foam and misty spray.

On the other side of the small lake, there was a natural jade pendant roughly three people tall and two people wide, looking flawless and naturally crafted, an awe-inspiring sight.

"To find such a treasure land, lord Wanhe is indeed fortunate."

"Although lacking a Spirit Vein, there should be a small Spiritual Spring here, coupled with its beautiful scenery, it's indeed a great place for retirement and seclusion."

Zhang Yao remarked as he approached the jade pendant, gently extending his palm.

"Boom!"

Sudden thunder arose, layers of blue-white radiance spread across the jade pendant like angry thunder striking forth.

Zhang Yao's expression remained unmoved, casually pushing out a palm, as his vigorous magical power swept out, diminishing most of the blue-white thunder light in an instant.

The remaining thunder light struck Zhang Yao's palm, only sparking specks of brilliant golden light before dissipating weakly.

"Hmm, not bad, the Array Vein's operation here is indeed..."

Taking advantage of the probe, Zhang Yao inserted his Divine Thought into the array, observing and verifying the Spirit Pattern Array Vein's operation.

With his strength, if he were to wield the Thousand Change Glaze Qi at full power, he could confidently break through the array, unlike the two from the Li Family who cautiously made slow progress akin to a snail's pace.

However, recklessly breaking the array might trigger self-destruct mechanisms, resulting in failure, thus one should not use it lightly unless absolutely confident or in urgent situations.

Therefore, he adopted the same method as the Li Family for breaking the array, but with a vastly different speed of advancement.

"Rumble..."

A series of thunder flashes exploded, echoing through the gorge, endlessly.

Zhang Yao, combining his probes with the Li Family's decade-long findings, quickly grasped the workings of the Wanhe Cave Mansion's array.

After merely half a month, Zhang Yao obtained the complete Array Map that the Li Family couldn't achieve even after ten years.

With the complete Array Map acquired, he had overcome the most crucial hurdle. Zhang Yao then devoted himself to deducing for another ten days, finally devising a feasible strategy for breaking the array.

On that evening:

"Boom!"

Amidst an earth-shaking roar, the natural jade pendant shattered and exposed a deep cave entrance.

Zhang Yao gave a faint smile, relinquished the spell, and with a sweep of his sleeve, strode into the mansion.

Inside the mansion:

After passing through the entrance corridor, there were elegantly exquisite stone caves, visibly divided into different functional areas like the Treasure Room, Scripture Room, Quiet Chamber, Alchemy Room, etc.

Zhang Yao's Divine Thought meticulously scanned every inch within the mansion, striving not to miss any hidden treasures.

"Hmm? Found it!"

His expression quickly changed as his Divine Thought feedback detected what seemed to be the corpse of lord Wanhe.

Zhang Yao swiftly crossed the stone cave corridor, entering what should be the cultivation Quiet Chamber, where he saw an elderly Daoist with a youthful appearance and ruddy complexion.

The Daoist sat cross-legged with his eyes shut, resembling someone asleep.

But in Zhang Yao's Divine Thought perception, the Daoist's body was empty, magical power dissipated, vitality depleted, long devoid of life.

"To think a late-stage Foundation Establishment master would die in such a remote corner..."

Zhang Yao shook his head, stepping forward to examine closely when he suddenly discovered something.

"Hmm? What's this..."

Looking down, he found something had escaped his Divine Thought.

It was an ancient book clutched tightly in Daoist Wanhe's hand, not released even in death.

The material of the book appeared to be ordinary mortal paper, yet it had endured a century without decay, with five large characters carved on the cover —

"Spiritual Root Origin Flow Theory".