pdf-ebookys Chapter 304: Empress Tai'an (Part )
Chapter 304: Empress Tai'an (Part )
Last time, we talked about Li Yi repelling Sadik, and riding the three-headed wolf soul summoner with Xiao Ziyi to the cave of Tai'an Niangniang. So how will the next story develop? Let's read on.
The soul summoned Li Yi and Xiao Ziyi and ran across the yellow sand.
Li Yi asked: "Senior Soul Zhao, have you ever met other human beings in Huangquan, such as two men, one woman, and two children?"
The head on the far right of Soul Summoning shook his head and replied, "I didn't see it. Why, is it your friend?"
Li Yi used the Vajra Divine Art to pick up Xiao Ziyi and stepped on the head of Hun Zhao who was answering him, and directly embedded it into the yellow sand. Hun Zhao turned over and rolled several times before stopping.
Xiao Ziyi asked in surprise: "Li Yi, what are you doing!"
"It's lying. It's clearly seen Aunt Yun and the others!"
When Xiao Ziyi heard this, she immediately glared at Hun Zhao and shouted, "How dare you lie to us!"
Hun Zhao climbed up, shook his head and asked, "How did you figure that out?"
"You betrayed yourself! Your right head was talking, but your left head glared at it! If I'm not mistaken, each of your three heads has its own ideas!"
The three heads of Soul Zhao shook, and then the head in the middle spoke: "I can grow a maximum of five heads. In addition to my own, they represent the four personalities of loyalty, treachery, good and evil. These two are loyalty and treachery."
Xiao Ziyi said unhappily: "I don't care about your good or evil, loyalty or treachery, just tell me what happened to Aunt Yun and the others!"
The head on the far right of Soul Zhao, which represented treachery, was about to open its mouth when it was shot through by the Spirit Feather Arrow. A blue light lit up around Soul Zhao, and its entire body shrank, turning into a two-headed wolf. Its front half pressed down, and its two heads bared their teeth and made a whining sound.
Li Yi summoned a ten-armed golden wheel, nine spirit feather arrows hanging around his body, and pulled the crescent bow with both arms. He said coldly: "Hun Zhao, I'm giving you one last chance. If you don't tell the truth, you will become my midnight snack like your brother Hun Yin!"
At the moment of stalemate, there was a sudden wolf howl. Hun Zhao immediately pricked up his ears. Then Li Yi and Xiao Ziyi heard Tao Xuan Zhenren's call: "The two of you, follow Hun Zhao to Hou Tuyan!"
"Uncle Master, what about my friend?"
"They are all fine. Empress Tai'an will soon wake up completely! We don't have time to take care of them now. Come quickly!"
Li Yi sighed and looked at Hun Zhao, who obediently lay down and let the two of them ride on him, and then began to run wildly. After passing through the endless yellow sand, they saw a winding river, which was the Wangchuan River. Hun Zhao led the two of them along the river for an unknown period of time until a sea of flowers appeared on the other side, and red flowers covered the river bank.
Xiao Ziyi looked at the sea of flowers and said excitedly: "Look, what a beautiful sea of flowers! Empress Tai'an must live over there. I think she is also very romantic."
Li Yi looked at the bright red and sighed, "The only flower in full bloom in the netherworld is the red spider lily."
Hun Zhao said, "That is the sea of flowers that Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva planted himself to please Tai'an Niangniang. This Lycoris radiata is the only flower that can grow in hell. However, due to the lack of sunlight and rain, it takes three hundred years to bloom. And once the flower blooms, all the leaves will fall off, just like Yin and Yang, the flowers and leaves will never meet."
Li Yi looked at the sea of red spider lilies and said, "It turns out that the Eternal Night Flower is a variant of the red spider lily. It should be a mutant red spider lily that has been corroded by the evil spirit! I was wondering why it looked so familiar, but I couldn't remember it for a moment!"
Xiao Ziyi then discovered that each of the flowers of the other shore was indeed the same as the flowers of the Eternal Night, except that the petals of the flowers of the Eternal Night were black. Soul Summoning stopped at the other side of the sea of flowers, stepped back a few steps, and suddenly accelerated and leaped across the Forgotten River.
Hun Zhao transmitted the message: "I can only take you here. After passing through the sea of flowers, you will reach Houtu Rock. Take care of yourselves!" When Li Yi and the other two landed, he hurriedly jumped back to Huangquan and disappeared in the yellow sand.
Xiao Ziyi was in a good mood looking at the vast sea of flowers. She reached out to pick a few flowers but was stopped by Li Yi, who said sternly, "These are the spiritual flowers planted by Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva with great effort. How can you pick them at will? Every flower and grass has life, and every branch and leaf has feelings. If you take the tears from the flowers, the road along the Forgetful River will be uneven."
Xiao Ziyi stared at Li Yi blankly and asked, "Everything you say makes sense, and you have a lot of arguments. I really admire you! How could Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva get angry over a few flowers!"
Li Yi stretched out his hand and pulled Xiao Ziyi behind him and said seriously: "Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva will naturally not be angry, but this person may be!"
Only then did Xiao Ziyi see that a huge black magic wolf was baring its fangs and staring at her and Li Yi fiercely. One of its eyes was dark blue, and the other was orange-yellow. Its posture, ready to attack, made the two of them unable to relax.
Li Yi saluted and said, "Senior Tiangou, I, Li Yi, have come to pay a special visit to Queen Tai'an. Please forgive me for any impoliteness." After saying that, he lightly stepped on Xiao Ziyi's foot.
Xiao Ziyi reacted and quickly bowed, saying, "Junior Yuan Ziyi, I was so shocked by the beauty of the sea of red spider lilies that I couldn't control myself for a moment. I'm sorry for the offense. I beg Senior Tengu to forgive me."
Tiangou spoke in human language: "I heard from Tao Xuan that you are a third-level cultivator. I don't know what level you are at. I will test you first!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Tengu pressed down his front paws and lowered his head. With a shake of his head and a bark, a faint airflow formed a high-speed rotating shock wave and flew towards Li Yi and Xiao Ziyi.
Li Yi stood in front of Xiao Ziyi and put his hands together to summon a five-meter-high ten-armed golden wheel. He chanted a Buddhist name: "Namo Amitabha!" The rotating shock wave dissipated with a bang in front of Li Yi, and a breeze blew around directly through the sea of flowers, and millions of bloody hands swayed with it.
Xiao Ziyi was surprised and asked, "You can now withstand the attacks of a first-grade god or demon?"
Li Yi shook his head repeatedly and said, "No, no, no, Senior Tengu was afraid of hurting Higanbana, so he didn't even use half of his strength."
Tengu snorted, turned around and walked towards Houtuyan, saying casually: "You are quite self-aware. Come with me. Jizang and Taoxuan are waiting."
Arriving at Houtu Rock, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva and Tao Xuan were both standing respectfully at the entrance of the cave. Tiangou glanced at Tao Xuan and said coldly, "Tao Xuan, this little girl has your spirit, are you planning to take her in as your disciple?"
Tao Xuan bowed and said, "I can't hide it from Senior Tengu, I do have this intention."
"Then you have to teach her some good manners. She almost plucked the queen's flowers just now."
Dizang smiled and said, "If you like, Mr. Yuan, I can give you some flower seeds, but these red spider lilies that grow in hell must not be touched. If the Queen finds out, even death will be a luxury." After saying that, he raised his hand and waved, and golden light condensed into a bag of flower seeds, which then fell into Xiao Ziyi's hands, and the latter hurriedly bowed and thanked him.
At this moment, a stream of cold air suddenly gushed out from the Houtu Cave, and it felt like the temperature of the entire Netherworld dropped a lot in an instant, and even everyone's breathing was accompanied by a breath. Then a soft female voice came: "Er Gouzi! How long have I slept this time?"
Upon hearing this voice, the Tengu immediately turned into a Husky, and responded with a "Hey!". Its body immediately shrank to the height of a man, and then it ran towards the cave entrance, wagging its tail and saying, "My queen, you slept for a long time this time, for a full four hundred and twenty-seven years!"
Everyone stood upright and stared at the entrance of Houtu Cave, but then a black shadow flashed by, and a huge snake body with black and gold stripes, nearly two meters thick, twisted and turned, and surrounded Li Yi and Xiao Ziyi. All they heard was the sound of the giant python spitting out its tongue, and the two felt a chill on their backs.
Li Yi and Xiao Ziyi turned around at the same time. Their golden eyes were black vertical lines, and their eyeballs were much larger than human heads. The huge snake head spit out its tongue and stared at Li Xiao. The pores of the two people were tightly closed, and their hair stood on end. Xiao Ziyi held Li Yi's hand tightly, holding his arm and not daring to move.
Li Yi leaned over to protect Xiao Ziyi. He could clearly feel her trembling. Li Yi gently rubbed her hands and whispered to comfort her: "It's okay, don't be afraid..."
At the moment Li Yi opened his mouth, the huge black-gold python opened its bloody mouth and revealed two sharp fangs to bite the two. Xiao Ziyi screamed subconsciously, and Li Yi covered her mouth with his hand and protected her behind him. When he opened his eyes again, Li Yi was in front of a dark place, with only a pair of sharp snake pupils staring at him.
After a while, the darkness dissipated and the surrounding scene slowly recovered. Li Yi muttered in his heart: Was that an illusion just now? It shouldn't be. My mental power was not affected at all. What could it be?
The giant python shrank the encirclement to three meters, straightened its body, looked down at Li Yi and said, "You kid are not afraid of me!" She turned her head to look at Dizang and asked, "Dizang, what's wrong with Dayi's soul in him? Did the Heavenly Dao tell you to do this?"
Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva immediately replied, "My Lady, I don't know about the matter of cultivating karma. I think it must be the plan of Heaven and Buddha."
"Er Gouzi, when was the last time that Heaven released Dayi's soul?"
"It was Hou Yi from more than 1,200 years ago. Didn't the Queen specially go to the Taiyin Palace that time?"
"Yes, I remember it." Empress Tai'an turned her gaze to Li Yi again.
Xiao Ziyi clenched her hands even tighter, her nails almost digging into Li Yi's flesh, but Li Yi bowed calmly and smiled, "Your Majesty, why? Are you greedy for my body?"
Xiao Ziyi was stunned when she heard this, thinking that Li Yi was really so bold that he even dared to tease Empress Tai'an.
The giant python lowered its head and spit out its tongue at Li Yi. Li Yi could smell the breath of death with every bite. It was a smell of decay, like the smell of decay that only emanates from a dying or terminally ill person. It was thousands of times stronger than the smell in the tent of the Gaoche Kingdom's shaman.
Empress Tai'an said, "Human flesh is too smelly and not tasty. I only eat souls. But your flesh is different. You have both the power of Vajra and the majesty of Zixiao. I guess it tastes better than the Mulian I ate last time." As she spoke, she turned to look at Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, who saluted and smiled.
Empress Tai'an shook the huge snake head, and the snake's body quickly shrank. Its scales flashed black and gold light and finally turned into a human-headed snake body.
This change was not a big deal. It made Li Yi dumbfounded. What a goddess who lived as long as heaven and earth, what a Tai'an lady with a human head and a snake body. There is a saying:
The black hair is tied up with an embroidered belt like a waterfall, and the cloud-like bun is lightly supported by a golden hairpin.
The dragon eyebrows and phoenix eyes shine coldly, and the snake pupils are not tainted by the filth of the world.
The nose is as white as jade and as gentle as jade, and the lips are as colorful as red clouds and more vermilion.
The frost is as white as snow, and the chest of the black gauze robe is soft.
Her arms are clasped together without covering her sleeves, and her fingers are as white and slender as green bamboos.
It is hard to describe the enchantment of her gracefulness, with a slender waist and delicate feet.
Even if one looks for flaws in a cloud mirror, one cannot find any trace of frivolity.
I only wish to die under the flowers today and never come out of the underworld.
Just the fact that Empress Tai'an was so stunningly beautiful, not to mention Li Yi, even Xiao Ziyi who was standing beside her was shocked. She loosened her hands that had been tightly holding Li Yi, and covered her mouth for fear that an exclamation would ruin the beauty of the place.
Next to the gorgeous sea of red Lycoris radiata, the goddess with a human head and a snake body slowly approached Li Xiao and the others. For Xiao Ziyi, time seemed to stop at this moment. She forgot to breathe, forgot to blink, and forgot that she was also a woman. She was completely and completely attracted by the beauty of Empress Tai'an.
When she came to, Empress Tai'an had come to the two of them, and with her came a faint fragrance, similar to the breath of death emitted by the giant python before, but it was addictive and made people want to smell it a few more times. Xiao Ziyi was still staring blankly, and Li Yi next to her was already bowing.
Li Yi sighed, "The beauty of the queen cannot be described in words. Even if I am eaten by the queen, it is worth it. Compared with the queen, my dream lover is like a star competing with the sun and the moon, and seems so self-deprecating."