Mortal: Refining Weapons for Immortality

Chapter 48 Subjugation

On the wasteland.

"Zhijing, are you sure this is the place? Is this a tomb raider's tunnel?" Lin Changqing looked at Li Zhijing with a puzzled expression, confirming again whether he had made a mistake.

"Brother Lin, this is the location. If we go down and go in, we'll find the ancient cultivator's formation." Li Zhijing held a wooden compass, aligned it with the information summarized on the jade slip, and said solemnly.

"We're not far from that spirit mine! We'd better keep a low profile to avoid being discovered." Lin Changqing looked back at the spirit stone mine in the distance. The piles of stones were stacked layer upon layer, and in the center of the piles of stones was a huge pit, below which were densely packed crowds.

"Don't worry, Brother Lin, I've been here for many days and have already figured out the situation. Look, I've even prepared my magical artifacts."

Li Zhijing took out a spirit pickaxe and began digging a hole, planning to use magic only after reaching a certain depth, so as not to make too much noise and disturb others.

Several hours later, Li Zhijing, whose magical power was not much, took a pill to stop eating and a pill to recover his magical power. Lin Changqing used earth magic to speed up the process of breaking through the stone wall.

......

With a "crash!" sound, the stone wall broke open, and two young men emerged from inside; it was Lin Changqing and his companion.

As they broke through the stone wall, Lin Changqing peered out and surveyed the surroundings. His eyes flashed, and he used his divine sense to probe the four directions. Finding no danger, he jumped down, with Li Zhijing following closely behind.

This was a stalactite cave, and the directions were confusing and the vision was blurry. Lin Changqing didn't know where to go either, so he had to take out the moonstone to illuminate the area so that the surrounding environment wouldn't be too dark.

"Zhijing, which way are we going?"

Li Zhijing pinched his fingers together, and the wooden compass moved slightly, pointing him to a hole where the wind was blowing.

"That!"

The underground cave entrances were complex. Following Li Zhijing's direction, Lin Changqing walked for a long time, passing through three or four large caves in a row.

Just before they were about to enter the next cave, Lin Changqing stopped Li Zhijing.

"Zhijing, step back and protect yourself."

Lin Changqing reached out and blocked Li Zhijing behind him, reminding her.

Upon hearing this, Li Zhijing quickly took out a basic-level high-grade talisman, infused it with his magic power, and stuck it to his body. A thick water shield immediately protected him.

Seeing that Li Zhijing was ready, Lin Changqing slowly walked in. If they suddenly encountered danger, as long as it wasn't a level 5 demon beast or a Core Formation stage cultivator, he could take Li Zhijing with him and leave.

Even when facing a Core Formation stage cultivator, he has the pseudo-instantaneous hundred-mile talisman, and by using three or four of them in a row, he can still successfully escape.

As you enter this larger cave, a chilling wind blows, creating an atmosphere reminiscent of ghostly wails and howls.

Deep within the cave, there are not only spirit stone ore deposits, but also an extremely ancient hexagonal teleportation array. On one side of the array, a five-colored skeleton sits cross-legged, holding a blue token in its hands, which emits a faint glow and must be made of extraordinary material.

"An ancient cultivator's grand formation?" Lin Changqing's expression froze. He hadn't expected that what Li Zhijing said was true, and that he had even found it.

He was about to turn around when he saw Li Zhijing still hiding outside the cave, staring straight at him, and pointing to the sky with a trembling finger.

Although he was puzzled, he still looked up.

A crystal-clear white spider, several meters long, was hovering on the stone cone above its head, its small, dark green eyes flashing as it looked at Lin Changqing, its prey.

In Lin Changqing's divine sense, this white spider was extremely dangerous, and its strength might be no less than that of a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.

However, we are now being targeted, and having finally found the great formation, we cannot give up halfway.

Immediately, Lin Changqing unleashed a fireball, which instantly split into several parts and flew towards the white spider.

"Bang!"

An explosion rang out, and the fireball struck the spider's head and the dense web in the air. However, the web was not burned as he had hoped; instead, it remained completely undamaged and did not leave a single scorch mark on the spider.

The white spider, unperturbed by the fireball attack, slowly crawled toward him, treating Lin Changqing like meat on a chopping board, ready to be slaughtered at its mercy.

Seeing the spider approach, Lin Changqing immediately summoned the Ironwood Sword, a top-tier magical artifact that he had reforged two years ago.

Ironwood swords are made of hard material. Although they are not considered the best among top-tier magical artifacts, they are at least much stronger than high-grade magical artifacts.

Instantly, the white spider was entangled by a streak of green light.

boom!boom!

The flying swords kept attacking the white spider's dark green eyes, but they were all blocked by the spider's legs, producing a clanging sound of metal clashing and a series of cracking noises.

Lin Changqing then retracted the green light and suspended it in the air.

Just as Lin Changqing was about to take out a talisman to look for an opportunity, the white spider opened its mouth and spat out a stream of white liquid, which shot towards him. It also accelerated its movements, following behind the liquid, ready to attack Lin Changqing at any moment.

Lin Changqing immediately abandoned his offensive plans, summoned the Green Wood Shield, which suddenly grew larger and was covered in flowing green light, protecting him.

The result was unexpected; the liquid transformed into a giant white net midway through, completely engulfing Lin Changqing.

"Oh no!" Lin Changqing exclaimed in a flash of inspiration.

He initially thought it was venom, but it turned out to be a large net.

Caught in the giant net, Lin Changqing increased the amount of magic power he poured into the Green Wood Shield, trying to pry the net open from the inside, but found that the white giant net was difficult to break free from.

Even though the blue light of the Aoki Shield kept flowing and the shield kept getting bigger, it still couldn't break free.

Lin Changqing's expression darkened. Just as he subconsciously summoned his talisman to cleave the large net, the white spider pounced along with it, its claws attacking the wooden shield and relentlessly assaulting it.

Clang! Clang! Clang clang!

The wooden shield's blue light dimmed, and it showed signs of damage, rendering it useless.

Fortunately, Lin Changqing grabbed the spider's legs with both hands and forcibly stopped the attack with his physical strength. At the same time, the giant sword talisman instantly ignited, and a giant sword descended from the sky and pierced the white spider's body.

The greatsword's powerful attacks continued to pierce the white spider's body, interrupting its further offensive.

Lin Changqing, trapped in the giant net, was able to catch his breath. He immediately took out a gray sword talisman from his storage bag, which transformed into a gray sliver of light that broke through the white net, allowing him to escape the encirclement.

At the same time, the ice-blue talisman in his hand ignited, and countless ice spikes shot towards the white spider like small throwing knives, which, together with the flying sword on top, restricted its movement.

In that instant, Lin Changqing summoned back the talisman treasure, unleashing its full power, transforming it into a gray longsword that slashed towards the white spider.

The ironwood sword, which had been suspended in the air for a long time, combined with the gray longsword, also transformed into a cyan sword beam, piercing towards the white spider.

Two sword lights, one illusory and one real, one strong and one weak, meant that the White Spider, trapped in its predicament, would pay a price no matter which sword light it chose.

The white spider, still parrying the greatsword and ice blade, had a fierce green glint in its eyes as it looked at the two powerful sword beams flying towards it, somewhat at a loss.

In the end, he could only endure the countless ice blades, haphazardly catch the cyan sword light, and swing his spider legs to knock away the ironwood sword, temporarily stopping the attack aimed at his eyes.

"Good!" Lin Changqing saw that the spider had blocked the green light, and naturally relaxed a lot, praising it repeatedly.

If the spider had chosen to block the gray sword light, it might have had to put in some effort later. But now that it has chosen to block the cyan sword light, the outcome is already decided.

Both sword beams could injure the spider, but only the stronger gray sword beam could inflict the greatest damage and bring him better results.

Although the spider blocked the blue light that was piercing its eyes, it was too late to block the gray sword light.

In the end, they could only watch helplessly as the sword's edge cleaved down, completely splitting open the body that had been constantly being pierced by the giant sword.

"Pfft!" Green ink splattered, the gray longsword vanished, and the talisman in Lin Changqing's hand also completely disappeared from the world, turning into specks of light that scattered all around.

With the help of the talisman, the giant sword pierced through the white spider's body and pinned it in place.

The white spider was severely injured, with green ink constantly flowing out, but its legs continued to twitch as it tried to break free. Moreover, its body and originally dark green eyes began to slowly turn blood red, as it tried to forcefully break free from the giant sword.

Upon seeing this, Lin Changqing frowned. He hadn't expected this demon beast to be so resilient. Even after the talisman had dissipated, it hadn't died. It truly lived up to its reputation as a level four demon beast.

Finally, to be on the safe side, Lin Changqing used the top-tier magic weapon, the Black Cleansing Net, to temporarily trap the spider. He also communicated with the Azure Leaf within his body, attempting to use a method he had no choice but to try, just like the White Spider's berserk state.

Although Lin Changqing didn't know what these azure leaves were, he figured they must be something extraordinary, and they were emitting azure flames all over their bodies.

He planned to pierce the white spider's eyes with a leaf, burn its insides, and completely kill the monster.

"call out!"

A deep blue leaf emerged from his body, swirling like a flying sword, surrounded by azure flames—a treasure far surpassing any magical artifact.

Just as Lin Changqing controlled the azure leaf to fly towards the white spider, the white spider's crimson color began to fade, returning to its previous jade-white color. It also looked at the azure leaf flying in the air and began to make strange sounds, as if begging for mercy.

As for the red color fading, it could be because the injury was too severe and the attempt failed, or it could be because the victim was truly begging for mercy.

However, Lin Changqing didn't care which situation it was. When he heard the white spider beg for mercy, he stopped attacking. After all, a living level four demon beast was stronger than a dead one.

As a Foundation Establishment cultivator, his divine sense is stronger than that of other cultivators of the same level. It is not impossible for him to use the Beast Taming Contract to forcibly control a level four demonic beast.

Moreover, this level-four demon beast seemed quite afraid of the azure leaves, which meant it truly sensed impending death.

Lin Changqing flew to the side of the white spider. Seeing that the white spider had given up resisting, he decisively used the Beast Taming Blood Pact. If the white spider did not agree, he would immediately deal with it.

Establishing a blood pact is necessary. If the White Spider dares to resist in the future, I won't need to go to such great lengths; I can simply destroy its demonic consciousness.

A crimson pattern appeared, beginning to cover the white spider and continuously flowing. Then, with the white spider's soft murmur, the crimson pattern was absorbed into the white spider's body, like an invisible imprint, settling on the demon's consciousness.

"alright!"

Lin Changqing breathed a sigh of relief, removed the black web that had been binding the white spider, and with a flick of his sleeve, dispersed the giant sword, completely releasing it.

In addition, Lin Changqing infused cyan magic power to stop the continuous flow of green blood from the white spider and began to repair its wounds.

However, the injury was too severe, and Lin Changqing was unable to fully recover it, but its life was no longer in danger.