Transmigrated into a Grandpa, Embracing the Laid-Back Life

Chapter 442: The Hidden Clues of the Underworld

At this moment, Elder Qingquan was still wearing his faded blue Daoist robe, washed white from years of use, but now it appeared somewhat travel-worn. A few strands of disheveled white hair hung at his temples, and an unmistakable weariness seeped through his brows. Yet his eyes, sharp as an eagle's, glittered with a chilling gleam in the darkness.

He held a cinnabar-red gourd of wine in his hand, tilting his head back to chug a large mouthful of strong liquor.

"Disciple Su Ming pays respects to Master."

Su Ming stopped three zhang from the greenstone terrace, respectfully performing a Daoist salute.

Elder Qingquan set down the gourd and casually wiped the liquor stains from the corner of his mouth, his gaze sweeping over Su Ming. Feeling the deep, restrained spiritual energy within Su Ming's body, a glimmer of satisfied approval flashed in his eyes.

"After rolling around in the mortal world these past few days, your aura hasn't been disturbed in the slightest—not bad." Elder Qingquan's voice carried a hint of hoarseness as he patted the greenstone beside him. "Sit down and tell me."

Su Ming complied, stepping forward to sit cross-legged on the other side of the greenstone.

Elder Qingquan took another drink of wine. After a moment, he exhaled a long, turbid breath and began recounting his trip to the Northern Barbarian over the past half-month.

"After I arrived in the Northern Barbarian, I didn't alert anyone. I followed the lingering corpse aura straight to the Northern Barbarian State Preceptor's lair." A flicker of disdain passed through Elder Qingquan's eyes. "It was an underground demonic palace. That man had forcibly crammed his cultivation all the way to Foundation Establishment late stage. Unfortunately, his foundation was so flimsy it was pitiful—clearly a freak force-fed with all sorts of random living souls and elixirs."

Elder Qingquan let out a cold laugh."I only used three moves. The first broke his protective yin wind. The second severed that scrap-iron staff of his. And the third move—my sword qi was at his throat. That man usually threw his weight around in the Northern Barbarian, worshipped as a deity by the Khan, but when facing a true cultivator, his backbone was softer than a loach. One sword strike, and he showed his cowardice, kneeling on the ground, weeping bitterly."

"After searching his soul and interrogating him harshly, I discovered a huge joke."

a note of

at all. He was originally just an ordinary mortal herb gatherer deep in the Northern Frontier mountains. Decades ago, during one of his herb-gathering trips, he accidentally fell into a hidden cave. There, he picked up a token

relying on his own blind experimentation. For the past ten-plus years, using those half-baked demonic arts, he played the sorcerer in the Northern Barbarian, summoning wind and rain, and somehow wangled his way into becoming the State Preceptor, second only to the ruler himself. Those so-called 'corpse-puppet iron cavalry' were nothing but shoddy imitations he created by forcibly controlling corpses with a remnant formation,

spoke, he flicked

he casually tossed

focused his

a jet-black token, radiating a faint chill, with eerie ghost-face patterns carved into it. This token was identical to the one Su Ming had

the token lay a black jade slip, its edges severely

subtle aura of yin-tainted energy seemed to wander over

fine thread of divine sense, wrapped

slip contained the refining method for the "Ten Thousand Soul Banner." However, most of the content was missing, leaving only

at the very end of the jade slip, written

"Dark Abyss Cave."

Dark Abyss Cave was a secret stronghold set up by the Ming Abyss Sect in the Northern Frontier back in the day. That set of harmful arts and this half-rolled jade slip were the death relics of

his head, giving Su Ming a

only learned a scrap of skin-deep knowledge before he was sent to Great Xing to contact the Yongchang Marquis. If you'd run into the State Preceptor himself back then, even with his

Elder Qingquan about his trump cards like the Xuantian ring

gourd onto his waist. "Back in that great war between righteousness and evil, the Ming Abyss Sect was wiped out, but a centipede doesn't die even when it's trampled. Now that we've discovered one

making it snap. He looked down at the vast darkness

The Northern Barbarian Khan saw that the tide had turned, and the entire army's morale completely shattered. The Northern Barbarian's national strength was never a match for Great Xing's anyway; it was all propped up by those fearless iron cavalry. Now that the cavalry is finished, it won't be long before the Northern Barbarian's peace delegation

to face