Chapter 285: Life and Death

Hei Luo let out a long whistle to the heavens.

Tens of thousands of fainted rat people, dwarves, and gray dwarves grimaced in pain; even in their faint, their bodies twitched and spasmed wildly, then eerily stood up.

"You can shake their souls?" Hei Luo looked at Wu Tie with a savage grin: "And I, directly control their bodies."

"As long as the body can still fight, the soul and such are unimportant." Hei Luo's smile was like a vicious ghost: "These crude, lowly living beings, we Dark Guild originally valued only their flesh."

Tens of thousands of rat people raised flying knives and darts.

Over ten thousand dwarves began to spin their stone throwers.

The gray dwarves breathed heavily, eyes tightly shut, yet they formed neat ranks and began to charge at Wu Tie.

Wu Tie watched these poor worms whose souls had been shaken into faint by the Seven Slaughter White Bone Banner, yet whose bodies continued to attack under Hei Luo's control, and slowly raised his right hand: "Then, no matter what evil art you use to control their bodies—sleep."

A patch of pure light, carrying a faint scent of bodhi leaves, covered the entire stone cavern within a radius of several hundred li.

The bodies of tens of thousands of warriors twitched suddenly; strands of black smoke seeped from within them, gradually forming thumb-sized vicious demon heads above their heads. Ugly and ferocious, the tiny demon heads opened their mouths and screamed skyward, emitting a piercing noise.

In the next instant, under the illumination of the Bodhi Pure Heart Light, tens of thousands of tiny demon heads burned simultaneously, turning into green smoke and dissipating.

Hei Luo grunted hoarsely, his body violently twitching, thick black blood continually oozing from his seven orifices. The black pearl in his hand silently cracked open over a dozen fissures, then exploded into specks of black light that scattered from between his fingers.

Hei Luo raised his head and hummed in a muffled voice: "Bodhi Pure Heart Light… ha, the supreme divine ability of Triple Link City, long lost."

"You know the Bodhi Pure Heart Light?" Wu Tie stared at Hei Luo in astonishment.

"Of course." Hei Luo grinned grimly, black blood continually flowing from his mouth: "Many years ago, the heart-transmitted divine ability of Triple Link City dealt great damage to my Dark Guild… the Dark Guild repeatedly organized forces to assault Triple Link City, only to suffer heavy losses."

"It was my 'Hei' ancestors who took a different path, using water-mill techniques to let the great families of Triple Link City rot and degenerate, trapped in the vortex of the seven emotions and six desires, unable to free themselves, their minds dulled, henceforth no one would inherit the various heart-transmitted divine abilities."

"Thus the great divine abilities of Triple Link City were lost, and my Dark Guild lost a major rival." Hei Luo spat a mouthful of blood: "Not only that, Triple Link City became a major stronghold and source of wealth for my Dark Guild…"

Wu Tie coldly regarded Hei Luo: "So that's how it is. Your methods are impressive. However, it seems the Dark Guild's methods nowadays are no more than this."

Wu Tie pointed at the tens of thousands of warriors who had collapsed again, faces bearing tranquil smiles as they slept, then pointed at Hei Luo and the cultivators behind him, shaking his head slightly: "You hide in the darkness, no one can touch you… but when you reveal yourselves before people, Dark Guild, you are nothing more than this."

Hei Luo fell silent for a moment.

Thick black qi continually spewed from within him; as the black qi surged, the surrounding heavenly and earthly elemental energy continually merged into Hei Luo's body, and the injuries he suffered from the backlash of the divine ability quickly healed.

He took out two black-red pills shaped like date pits, the size of thumbs, stuffed them into his mouth, tilted his head back and swallowed them; Hei Luo gave a faint smile.

"Yes, the Dark Guild should not openly show itself; what I have done today already defies the ancestral precepts and also violates the Dark Guild's laws." He narrowed his eyes, a flash of ferocity crossing his pupils: "But my son Hei Jiao was slain; this grudge must be avenged."

He chuckled a few times, Hei Luo flipped his hands, and two curved blades almost as long as his body, with tremendous curvature, suddenly appeared in his hands.

The blades were not only long but also swift; the widest part of the blade was nearly a foot, the thickest part of the blade's back nearly three inches, yet the edge was as thin as a cicada's wing, pitch-black and nearly translucent.

On the bodies of the two blades were densely carved countless ferocious, ugly, and distinct demonic faces; countless sesame‑sized twisted faces pieced together, the two blades seemed to constantly writhe, looking extremely nauseous, carrying an indescribable ferocity.

"Besides the grudge for Hei Jiao… Xuan Zhu is mine." Hei Luo lowered his voice, smiling at Wu Tie: "In my heart, the matter of Xuan Zhu is a hundred times more important than the grudge for Hei Jiao. Therefore, she wants you dead, she wants to slaughter Triple Link City, and I will certainly help her achieve it."

"That woman… must not be touched." Wu Tie said, pointing obliquely at Hei Luo.

"That woman… I want to taste her." Hei Luo, like any man holding high position and possessing boundless self‑confidence, laughed brightly: "Even if she is a poison‑spiked demon flower, I will flatten her thorns and swallow her petal by petal."

His smile suddenly retracted; Hei Luo took a step forward and stood beside Wu Tie.

The two curved blades emitted sharp wailing cries, accompanied by piercing sounds of tearing air, one blade chopping vertically, the other slashing horizontally, directly aiming at Wu Tie.

Wu Tie's pupils flickered with strange light; the mana in his life pool rippled, a few Dao traces flashed in his faintly transparent soul. He suddenly closed his eyes, then took a left step, a right step, appearing to walk aimlessly and haphazardly through the air.

One step, one step, one step.

Wu Tie shut down his five senses and six consciousnesses, hands behind his back, even the metallic feather wings of his Eagle God Armor retracted, and he simply 'strolled' slowly through the air.

The two curved blades, accompanied by sharp tearing sounds, repeatedly brushed past Wu Tie's body as they slashed.

No matter how hard Hei Luo struck, how dense the blade light, no matter how powerful the soul‑stirring strange cries emitted from the blades, the blade light could never touch a single hair on Wu Tie.

It was as if he had foreseen the trajectory of Hei Luo's blade light; at the instant Hei Luo drew his blade, Wu Tie had already moved to a position where the blade light could absolutely not reach.

At the instant Hei Luo drew his blade, that blade was already 'destined' unable to harm Wu Tie.

Hei Luo let out a low roar, the two blades turned into countless cold lights enveloping Wu Tie, but the more he swung the blades, the colder his heart felt.

He realized it was not that Wu Tie's dodging speed was fast.

But that Wu Tie was 'pre‑emptively dodging'.

Just like 'foreknowing fortune and misfortune', Wu Tie had long avoided the 'calamity', stood on the ground of 'pure blessing', and thus remained forever in an invincible position.

This was already beyond what ordinary divine abilities or secret techniques could achieve.

This was great power.

Only by touching some profound and mysterious heavenly secrets, by penetrating certain cosmic mysteries, could one possibly achieve such foreknowledge of fortune and misfortune, avoiding disaster and seeking blessing. So‑called sudden inspiration, finger‑counting, foreknowledge of fortune and misfortune, wise self‑preservation—this is it.

The great Dao, great cultivation, great divine ability, great mana… a single 'great' character can fully describe Wu Tie's state.

In comparison, Hei Luo's demonic evil arts, no matter how vicious and poisonous, no matter how great the power of his two curved blades, are merely 'minor tricks'.

"Impossible… how old are you? You are merely at the Life Pool Realm; how could you possess such great power?" Hei Luo stared at Wu Tie as if seeing a ghost, his body hairs involuntarily standing on end: "Such foreknowledge of fortune and misfortune, meddling with heavenly secrets—legend says only those above the Fetal Storage Realm, the great powers…"

"You are mistaken." Wu Tie still kept his eyes closed, slowly speaking: "You are all mistaken."

"All divine abilities, all secret arts, all so‑called great powers, great cultivation, great divine ability, great Dao… after Chonglou Realm, all can be mastered." Wu Tie smiled faintly.

All heavenly mechanisms and transformations are entirely within the Heaven‑lock Chonglou.

Breaking through the thirty‑three Heaven‑lock Chonglou, all mysteries of heaven and earth are within grasp; even if one's grasp is shallow, having it is enough.

Even the great power of foreknowing fortune and misfortune, meddling with heavenly secrets, Wu Tie now has some involvement, merely his cultivation is weaker, the power he can exert is a little less.

"You all merely lack perfection." Wu Tie borrowed Lao Tie's words.

"Therefore, you must after the Fetal Storage Realm wait for the Divine Fetus to finish forming, then return to re‑practice the water‑mill work of Chonglou Realm." Wu Tie sneered: "Only then will your Divine Fetus already be formed, the path already set; wanting to branch out, to cultivate another great Dao… difficult, difficult, difficult… without a thousand‑fold, ten‑thousand‑fold effort, heh."

Cultivation is like building a tower.

Wu Tie has already dug out a perfect foundation, prepared perfect blueprints, everything round and flawless; as long as he slowly gathers materials, bit by bit filling the foundation according to the blueprint, the future tower he builds will surely be perfect.

Other cultivators have already built a high tower, looking down from a height, yet they find beside the foundation an endless wilderness; wanting to lay another foundation beside the already built tower, to patch and add rooms, the newly added rooms must perfectly match the already built tower… the difficulty can be imagined.

"Not perfect enough?" Hei Luo snorted at Wu Tie's words; in his heart, the inheritance of the Dark Guild is immensely strong, how could it not be perfect?

"Devious brat, who knows where you got some ancient inheritance, luckily grasped a great divine ability, and here you spout nonsense." Hei Luo shouted angrily: "Today, I will let you witness the supreme… of my Dark Guild."

As soon as the two characters "Supreme" were spoken, Wu Tie swung both hands.

Two sharp cracking sounds rang out.

Wu Tie's fingers trembled hundreds of millions of times in an instant; the two oddly shaped sabers burst apart, and two thick streams of light roared into his hands.

"I'm really strong now." Wu Tie opened his eyes, laughing at the dumbfounded He Luo: "Although my cultivation is a bit weaker, I... I'm really damn strong."

Wu Tie smiled, raised his palms, and with the speed of thunder before one could cover his ears, he slammed them hard onto He Luo's chest.

Wu Tie didn't use much physical strength, unlike his previous fights against Da She Yi, Tao Tie Jia, and Tao Tie Tu, where each blow landed flesh-to-flesh and he exerted all his strength.

This punch, he didn't use much strength, but rather employed a divine ability.

Five-colored light flashed on his five fingers; as his palm struck He Luo's chest, He Luo felt his vision go dark, his five viscera and six bowels wracked with pain; the five qi in his chest, essence of his five viscera and six bowels, and the foundation of his Grand Dao were almost shattered by Wu Tie's palm.

After the Life Pond realm, the higher Embryo Storage realm cultivates by refining the flesh with the divine embryo, fully unleashing the body's potential, tracing back to the primordial origin, from which supreme divine techniques are derived, possessing boundless power. The so-called unity of spirit and flesh corresponds to heaven and earth; even a single hair can rival a divine weapon.

Thus, in the Embryo Storage realm, the divine embryo already faintly harmonizes with the body's breath.

The five qi in the chest are intimately linked to the divine embryo, like an umbilical cord connecting flesh and soul.

If the five qi in the chest are damaged, even if Wu Tie didn't use much force, this strike is to He Luo like heavenly thunder and earthly fire striking his divine embryo, shaking it violently and knocking off a small portion of his cultivation with a splash.

The Dao foundation is damaged.

This is tens of millions of times more terrifying than bodily harm.

He Luo's divine embryo suffered excruciating pain, every cell in his body feeling as if torn apart.

Even if Wu Tie exerted all his physical strength, pure brute force blasting He Luo would at most break two large holes in his chest; such injury, to an Embryo Storage cultivator, is no great harm, merely a superficial wound.

But Wu Tie, using the Five Elements Grand Technique from the Heavenly Gang transformations, mobilized yin-yang five-element energies, harmonizing pre- and post-heaven kan and li, directly shaking He Luo's Dao foundation; the lethal power of this strike exceeded both He Luo's and Wu Tie's expectations.

Seeing He Luo's pores bleed like springs, yet his skin turned a bluish-gray.

A sharp, ghostly wail echoed from within He Luo's body; his skin instantly shriveled, looking as ugly as a dried, moldy orange.

He Luo turned and left without a word, spraying blood as he went, turning into a faint black shadow that flickered and vanished.

He Luo fled so quickly that he seemed to have burned part of his divine embryo's origin power to escape, so he ran too fast for Wu Tie to stop him in time.

Wu Tie stared blankly at his own hands.

He was also using such a great divine ability to attack an enemy for the first time.

He also didn't expect the attack to be so effective, far surpassing the destructive power of his full-strength physical blows.

Pure physical brute force can at most injure an enemy's flesh.

But this ability, which perceives the mysteries of heaven and earth and directly strikes the foundation of the Grand Dao, has a destructive power far greater than mere brute force.

Wu Tie closed his eyes and murmured: "If I used brute force, I could now... with one person's strength, overturn the Five Mountains and overturn the vast sea."

"But by using the art of moving stars and shifting battles, and the method of overturning heaven and earth... I can achieve what pure physical brute force could never do."

"But a strong flesh can protect the Life Pond and shelter the soul."

"So, spirit and flesh as one, aiding and merging, advancing together, cultivating life and destiny in tandem—this is the true meaning of cultivation."

"You all, you don't need to leave."

Wu Tie figured out this problem, and his eyes suddenly shone with bright light.

He Luo fled, and the hundreds of high-ranking cultivators of his dark guild under him each looked at Wu Tie as if seeing a ghost, then suddenly shouted and tried to flee.

Wu Tie clapped his hands.

A blazing red lotus burst from his palm, and then a vast expanse of scarlet lotus purifying fire silently surged from beneath the feet of those dark guild adepts.

Piercing cries rang out; in an instant, the hundreds of weakest cultivators, who were only half a step into the Life Pond realm, were burned to ashes.