Chapter 1503: Stepping into the River Styx

Stepping into the River Styx

"Do you really have to go against me??"

A figure in a Tang suit floated lightly onto the roof ridge. He looked at Xiaoji, the Ghost Path special envoy who was in hot pursuit, his face written with exhaustion and helplessness. "Neither of us can use Divine Paths, and you can't beat me in a pure magic battle... How about you go take a break?"

"Who says I can't beat you?!"

Xiaoji was somewhat annoyed. He took a step forward, his figure turning into a ghost shadow that flashed across several hundred meters in an instant, delivering a heavy and powerful kick straight at Sun Bumian's face!

When it came to secret methods and divine abilities, Xiaoji was indeed no match for Sun Bumian, the patriarch of the Theater Dao Secret Method who had accumulated and honed his skills over thousands of years. After all, in a sense, the Theater Dao Secret Methods of the Fifth-Generation Red King were all taught remotely by Sun Bumian... Since that was the case, he would just rely on physical combat to determine the victor!

Sun Bumian seemingly guessed long ago that he would appear here. He blocked Xiaoji's kick with a single vertical hand, and then every joint in his entire body seemed to turn into a weapon for killing the enemy. Using the stances of ancient martial arts, he slashed toward Xiaoji's face as smoothly as flowing water!

Sun Bumian's fists were too fast, and they weren't ordinary martial arts. His every move and stance looked exactly like a male lion circling and biting its enemy!

Bang, bang, bang, bang—

Xiaoji's eyes went wide. "You..."

Bang—!

Sun Bumian leapt lightly, twisting violently in midair, and delivered another heavy kick to Xiaoji's chest!

Xiaoji's figure instantly became like a kite with a broken string, kicked nearly a hundred meters off the roof ridge by Sun Bumian, crashing heavily into the ruins to the side...

"Having the ability of the [Cessation of Arms] in vain, but lacking the physical combat power of the [Cessation of Arms] owner... How can you beat me like this?"

"Just be good and temper yourself for another few hundred years before coming back!"

Sun Bumian pushed up the small round sunglasses on the bridge of his nose. He didn't continue to hunt down Xiaoji. Instead, seizing the gap when Xiaoji was injured, he turned around and used the Cloud Steps to sprint toward the River Styx.

His top priority wasn't tangling with this Ghost Path special envoy. He had to cross the River Styx as quickly as possible and regroup with Chen Ling and the others.

Stepping on the clouds, Sun Bumian's speed was incredibly fast. By the time Xiaoji clutched his crotch and struggled to get up from the ground, Sun Bumian had already flown so far away that he became a small black dot...

"Despicable! Shameless! Sinister!! With how you act, you actually have the nerve to call yourself the Auspicious Omen!!"

Xiaoji cursed a few times. Enduring the pain, he stumbled forward in pursuit.

The River Styx grew closer and closer in Sun Bumian's eyes.

He used his peripheral vision to size up that river of ghosts emitting a faint glow, his expression somewhat emotional. He was too familiar with this route... Over this past millennium, he didn't even know how many times he had entered the River Styx. Coming here was just like going home.

"Master..."

"Your disciple has come to see you again!"

Sun Bumian plunged headfirst into the River Styx.

...

"Is this... the River Styx?"

Standing at the edge of the gloomy Ghost City in his woolen overcoat, Chu Muyun muttered to himself as he looked at the vast River Styx before him.

Only when he truly reached the edge of the River Styx did Chu Muyun see clearly just how wide this river actually was. Even with Chu Muyun's vision enhanced by the [Secret Pupil], he couldn't see the shore on the other side at all... Countless ghosts bobbed up and down in the River Styx, like a quagmire of destiny that the masses could never break free from.

Chu Muyun took a deep breath, repeatedly warning himself in his heart not to easily open his eyes and look at the River Styx itself. Then, he closed his eyes and stepped into it.

Illusory ghosts shuttled through Chu Muyun's body like flowing water.

The moment he stepped into the River Styx, Chu Muyun felt surges of emotions that didn't belong to him. It was as if while those ghosts passed through him, the joys, pains, achievements, and regrets of their entire lives lingered in Chu Muyun's heart like water stains.

In a single step, Chu Muyun felt the lives of at least a dozen people. Such a dense and explosive influx of information made Chu Muyun subconsciously furrow his brow.

No wonder Sun Bumian repeatedly emphasized before that crossing the River Styx was a very dangerous matter, and that the living walking upon it would lose their way...

If one continuously endured such high-density washings from ghosts, those with weak willpower would probably quickly lose themselves. Their very being would be completely occupied by the endless flow of other people's lives. They would walk slower and slower, ultimately becoming completely trapped in the River Styx.

Chu Muyun could only repeatedly recall his own past, using it as an anchor to ground himself so he wouldn't be affected by the lives of these other people. Then he continued stepping forward, slowly inching toward the other side of the River Styx.

Chu Muyun felt his willpower was relatively firm, but the problem was that he had absolutely no idea just how wide this section of the River Styx he was in actually was...

Perhaps he could hold on for five minutes, or ten minutes. But if this section of the River Styx took half an hour to reach the end, then his situation would be quite dangerous.

"Is it purely based on luck...?"

Chu Muyun smiled bitterly, gritted his teeth, and continued forward.

Chu Muyun was crossing the River Styx, but at the same time, he was also sensing the lives of those ghosts shuttling through him... It was as if he was searching for a certain figure within this vast sea of humanity.

Chu Muyun knew that the probability of this was extremely slim. Even if the basin he was in belonged to the era of the person he wanted to find, just as Sun Bumian had said, there were simply too many deceased in a single era. Finding a specific person among them was like searching for a needle in a haystack.

But even so, Chu Muyun still didn't want to give up.

He silently tightened his grip on the translucent scalpel in his pocket...

"Chu Wenbin... I'm already here."

"If you have the guts..."

"Then come out and see me one more time!"

Faint killing intent drifted within the River Styx. Chu Muyun needed to rely on repeatedly recalling his past to anchor his consciousness from getting lost. But the more he uncovered those heavily scarred memories, the denser his killing intent became!

That person's appearance was little by little crowding out Chu Muyun's other memories, occupying his entire mind!

Chu Muyun frantically searched for that person's ghost within the River Styx. At the same time, the flow of ghosts in his area became increasingly turbulent. Every step Chu Muyun took, the number of lives he felt exceeded thirty. And the more carefully he sensed and searched, the stronger the impact these people's lives had on his consciousness.

Chu Muyun himself didn't realize that as he went deeper into the River Styx, his complexion grew worse and worse. Hate and pain dominated his thoughts. His willpower didn't become a walking stick supporting him through the River Styx; instead, it became a deadly double-edged sword, pushing him little by little into the abyss of losing himself...

An unknown amount of time passed before Chu Muyun stumbled, and scarlet blood flowed down from the corner of his mouth!

"Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough..."

Weak and pained coughing sounds echoed continuously in the middle section of the River Styx.