Chapter 619: Illusory Battlefield

In front of the Chariot and Horse Bureau, a huge bronze ghost gate was tightly closed, with the nine dragon sons embedded on it. However, the nine dragon sons had completely lost their flesh and blood on the bronze ghost gate, leaving only a huge skeleton guarding the gate.

The thief monk Sun Bojin couldn’t help but ask softly, “Isn’t this Fourth Yama Palace rumored to be the underworld of the dragon clan? How dare a carriage and horse bureau embed the bones of the dragon’s son and grandson here?”

Li Jianhu had studied with Zhou Tieyi for a while, and now he was much more mature than his age. “There should be two reasons. Since this is the underworld of the dragon clan, there must be a lot of dragon corpses.”

Hearing this, everyone’s eyes lit up and they nodded slightly.

Li Jianhu continued, “As for the second reason… When the Emperor of Life and Death divided the ten Yama Palaces, he must have had something against Canglong. So even though this Yama Palace belongs to the Dragon Clan, the ghosts and gods who manage this place may not respect the Dragon Clan that much. If you have any magical powers from the Dragon Clan, you must use them carefully in the future and don’t rely on them.”

After he reminded them, a middle-aged man in the team looked serious. He then took the initiative to interrupt and said, “Instead of guessing here, why don’t we go in and see what’s going on first? Rogue, can you open this door?”

The thief is Sun Bojin’s pseudonym in the illusory world of Taixu. Although Qin Jiangxue wanted to bring in a group of scapegoats, those who could enter here naturally had special skills. The role of the thief family in opening the door in this kind of exploration activity was insignificant, second only to the Mohist school and the Gongshu school.

Sun Bojin carefully looked at the door, then asked cautiously, “If it was an ordinary door, I would definitely dare to open it directly, but this carriage and horse bureau is after all a legitimate department of Yama Palace. Is there anyone among you who knows the Taiyin secret technique? If you have the Taiyin secret technique, I will have a better chance of success.”

He said this not only out of caution but also to leave himself a way out. After all, it would be dangerous if one person got involved, and if two people worked together, there might be a solution.

Taiyin secret technique!

A group of people looked at each other. Although they were the best among the independent cultivators, the secret method of Taiyin, which was related to the fundamental way, would not be passed down except by the core disciples of the big forces.

Li Jianhu thought for a moment and said, “I will.”

Under the astonished gazes of the crowd, he took out a piece of paper-cut from the small pocket on his waist, then blew a breath on the paper-cut. The hot and pure righteous energy fell on the paper-cut, transformed into the gentle power of Taiyin, lifted the paper-cut into the air, and turned into a moon shadow that illuminated the surrounding area of ​​several feet.

When Cui Yu escorted Li Jianhu to the capital, he demonstrated this paper-cutting magic moon technique. Li Jianhu was young, so he was naturally curious about these novel spells, so he tried to learn this technique when he was at the Lakeside Academy.

At that time, Li Jianhu had “accidentally” condensed a righteous spirit. Cui Yu, a modest gentleman, was also very curious about Li Jianhu’s future, so he taught Li Jianhu the paper-cutting method.

And now Li Jianhu has entered the fifth level of swordsmanship, ‘Tongming’, and his strength is even better than Cui Yu’s back then. Naturally, he can also perform this paper-cut fantasy moon technique in a simple way.

Under the shining of the bright moon, not only did the power of the moon become stronger, but another kind of power also increased exponentially.

Sun Bojin’s shadow was gradually lengthened in the moonlight. The two doors outside the carriage and horse bureau were tightly closed, and Sun Bojin’s shadow could not find the entrance for a while. Just when Sun Bojin was thinking about whether to go directly over the door, and whether this would violate the rule of ‘there is a god above your head’, Li Jianhu narrowed his eyes slightly, and under his gaze, the tightly closed bronze door turned into lines of rules that were interwoven horizontally and vertically.

The rules of the underworld are strict, not only weaving defense, but also nine kinds of spells such as curses and alerts, corresponding to the nine magical powers of the nine sons of the dragon. However, the Fourth Yama Palace has been dormant for ten thousand years. No matter how strict the rules are, they cannot withstand the erosion of time. As a result, the gaps between these rules are as empty as an old sieve, and the huge pores are like patterns in the palm of Li Jianhu’s hand!
This is not just the fifth level of swordsmanship, ‘Tongming’. Zhou Tieyi helped Li Jianhu break through the fifth level that day by using the holy fire he had comprehended.

This holy fire gathers the great ways of Yan Renshi, Chidi, and Ju Zidan, integrating the power of rules, the power of inheritance and sublimation, and the power of returning to the origin.

With the blessing of the Holy Fire, Li Jianhu’s “transparency” was able to look directly at the line of rules, because the process from convergence to restoration of rules could be achieved through the Holy Fire.

Having found the loophole in the rules, Li Jianhu immediately drove his own lunar moonlight through the gap and shone into the Chariot and Horse Bureau.

The moonlight entered in, and the shadow could naturally enter as well. The moment the shadow entered the Dragon Skeleton Ghost Gate, the figures of Sun Bojin and Li Jianhu disappeared.

Sun Bojin used the thief’s ‘shadow world’ to send Li Jianhu and himself in in an instant.

Behind the door, Sun Bojin first bowed to Li Jianhu and said, “Brother Champion, your Taiyin secret technique is really amazing.”

He said this sincerely. After all, even with the blessing of Taiyin, he, a fourth-rank thief, could not find the entrance to the Ghost Gate for a while, so the Ghost Gate formed by these two dragon sons and grandsons was at least a secret treasure of the third-rank level.

The biggest difference between the top three grades and the middle grades is that the top three grades are already “shortcuts”, but Li Jianhu’s Taiyin Moonlight can instantly penetrate the Taoist system of the Ghost Gate, which shows the terrifying nature of this magical power!

Sun Bojin and Qin Jiangxue have known each other for a long time, so he naturally didn’t believe the nonsense that Li Jianhu was Qin Jiangxue’s junior. Considering that Qin Jiangxue might have come here on the orders of a big shot, Sun Bojin quickly came to a conclusion that Li Jianhu was the junior and spy of this big shot!
Although Sun Bojin’s inferences had many deviations, he accidentally reached a conclusion that was not far from the truth.

After flattering Li Jianhu, Sun Bojin asked tentatively, “Which hall are you going to explore first, brother Champion?”

He pointed to the solemn and majestic halls of the underworld.

What he meant was to ignore the outsiders and look for benefits first. With the younger generation of the big man Li Jianhu around, Sun Bojin didn’t want to share the benefits with others.

Li Jianhu looked at the hall in front of him, and after a moment’s hesitation, he said, “We should bring everyone in to discuss this matter. This Yama Hall is extremely dangerous, and it is beyond the ability of the two of us to handle it.”

Sun Bojin slapped his head and said, “Look at my greed for money.”

After saying that, he did not insist on his own idea, but followed suit and used his own shadow as a medium to bring the people outside in one by one.

The moment they entered, there was silence for a moment on the second floor of the teahouse outside, and then an exclamation was heard.

“I didn’t expect that he could pass through the Nine Ghost Gates!”

The Nine-Child Ghost Gate itself is an extremely powerful treasure among all the third-grade secret treasures. It takes a lot of effort for these third-grade masters to make a move, but that is not the point. The point is that the Nine-Child Ghost Gate and the Chariot and Horse Bureau are connected as a whole. Forcibly breaking through the Nine-Child Ghost Gate will trigger other mechanisms, which is completely contrary to their idea of ​​getting the bus and entering the inner city safely.

“There’s something strange about his Taiyin secret technique, God of Evil, have you figured it out?”

One of the gods asked the elephant-trunk god, “The lineage of the Great Illusionary Lord controls dreams, and its control over the power of the moon is also amazing. However, this is difficult to resist the Dream-Eating Tapir. Zhou Tieyi’s holy fire condenses three different Taoist traditions, connecting the past and present, and even Zhou Tieyi himself has not fully deduced the holy fire magic.

Li Jianhu was able to master it entirely because his own ‘transparency’ was a manifestation of the Holy Fire. As long as one could not see through Li Jianhu’s effect on Zhou Tieyi, one would not be able to see through the essence of the Holy Fire.

The Evil God thought for a while and shook his head regretfully. “This is a Confucian method of ‘replacing the will of Heaven with one’s own heart’. It is the manifestation of the righteous energy with the help of the form of the moon. Apart from this, I have not discovered any other secrets for the time being, but…”

As he spoke, he stretched out a light blue finger, and mirage gas like white mist continuously emerged and merged with the surrounding ghost fog. Combined with the previous preparations, in just a few breaths of time, a thick fog was formed with the help of the ghost fog, completely covering the carriage and horse bureau.

And this continuously emerging mirage also entered the Chariot and Horse Bureau with the help of the rule loophole and the Taixu illusory surface that Li Jianhu had just penetrated.

At the moment when the fog around them grew thicker, in another secret place, the top three of the hundred families of Daxia gathered together. They were also observing Li Jianhu and his group through their own methods.

When they saw Li Jianhu and others coming in, before they could be happy, white mist suddenly filled the surroundings. Under the cover of the mist, they even lost the perception of Li Jianhu and others.

“It’s the lineage of Grand Master Taixuhuan who has taken action!”

“Stop him quickly!”

The three-rank officials were eager to take action, but suddenly one of them said, “Everyone, instead of trying to stop him, I think we should just go with the flow.”

Many third-rank officials looked at each other sideways. The one who spoke was a third-rank official who was a novelist.

There was almost no need for communication, as everyone present was smart and quickly understood what he meant.

The god of Taixuhuanzhu, with the help of the Taixuhuan mask on Li Jianhu and others and the ghost fog of the Fourth Yama Palace, has the advantage of geographical location and human support. If there is no second-grade intervention, it will be difficult for them to reverse the current situation as they have lost the initiative at the same level. Instead, they will be easily calculated by the opponent and hit hard by the rules of the Fourth Yama City.

The novelist’s intention is obviously to continue to strengthen the rules of ‘reality and fantasy’ here and fight with the opponent under the rules of reality and fantasy.

This is undoubtedly an extremely risky decision, but it is an advantage for novelists, after all, novelists are good at confusing the fake with the real.

“Go with the flow? Which of our sects can surpass the Great Void Divine Dao in terms of dream magic? I’m afraid we will end up losing more than we gain!”

A Confucian said in a muffled voice that Li Jianhu was the seed of Confucianism, so of course he cared more about him.

However, the novelist’s third rank said confidently, “Just because we can’t beat them doesn’t mean others can’t beat them. Li’s paper-cutting magic moon technique just now reminded me of another technique.”

“What method?”

“Eight Phases of Taiyin.”

The official name of Zhou Tieyi’s Mingyue system in the world’s Taoist tradition is Taiyin Eight Phases.

After the novelist said this, many people looked at the Confucian scholar with eyes that could only be understood but not expressed in words, and then quickly made a decision, “I agree.”

“agree.”

“agree.”

Anyway, it’s just a battle of chariots and horses. If we can figure out the divine power of [Eight Phases of Taiyin] through this battle, it will be worth the trip.

Naturally, they did not dare to test or speculate about this magical power in Zhou Tieyi’s hands, but in the hands of Li Jianhu, a fifth-grade master, they, the third-grade masters, might be able to figure out some knowledge of the holy way from it. Even if they could only figure out a few words, it would be enough for them to benefit from it for a lifetime.

The third-rank officials all agreed, and in the end the third-rank Confucian official did not speak. He also wanted to see how much Li Jianhu had been influenced by Zhou Tieyi.

Buddhist monks chant the name of Tongyou Yuanjun.

With the development of the world to this point, Zhou Tieyi openly merged with immortals and gods, which naturally did not prevent others from taking advantage of this favorable situation. The Queen of Heaven herself was a great bodhisattva, and with the help of Yujing Mountain and the holy way of the Great Xia Saint, she was comparable to the sub-saints, and her own Taoist tradition also completely covered the underworld, the moon, and the dreamland.

At this time, amid the blessings of the Buddhist monks, a faint moon shadow slowly rose into the sky and blessed the paper moon cut out by Li Jianhu. With the power of the sub-sage amplified, the moonlight that could only illuminate a few feet suddenly surged and became high, mysterious, and clear, as if it was located in another time and space, and only appeared with the help of the paper moon, covering the entire carriage and horse bureau in an instant.

Under such a strong interference, the netherworld rules of the Chariot and Horse Bureau instinctively wanted to resist, but before the resistance appeared, the legalist monk pointed at the moonlight and said, “There are two sides of truth and illusion, and two sides of shadow and reality. Wherever there is a thing, there is a shadow. This is the rule of heaven and earth.”

The moonlight is clear, and the quiet palaces seem to stand on the lake shrouded in mist, reflecting another layer of outlines on the ground. Within this layer of outlines, the halls are still majestic, reflecting everything in the real world, but what happens in this layer of reflection will not directly affect the rules of the real underworld.

The moment the reflection was formed, not only Li Jianhu and his party, but also various schools of thought, the sacred road, and the surrounding streets all entered the carriage and horse scene in the reflection.

When it comes to the control over rules and the underworld, the Legalists are not much behind. After all, the sixth rank of the Legalists is “Tongyou”.

Previously, the various schools of thought and the Shinto did not rush into the Chariot and Horse Bureau because they had not found the safest method. Now, Li Jianhu and the thief Sun Bojin have entered the Chariot and Horse Bureau like a virus, so naturally, the third-grade masters who are related to their Taoism will have plenty of ways to use.

The evil god used the illusory surface of Taixu to allow the mirage to infiltrate into the Chariot and Horse Bureau through Li Jianhu and others, and the various schools of thought not only did not stop this trend, but instead used the power of the Queen of Heaven and the Legalists to strengthen the concept of the mirage itself as real and illusory. Without changing the state of the Chariot and Horse Bureau itself, they directly created another Chariot and Horse Bureau that existed in illusion, dreams and shadows.

The advantages gained from exploring this chariot and horse bureau can determine the outcome of the real chariot and horse bureau battlefield. This is an illusory battlefield!

(End of this chapter)