Chapter 543

Several hundred tortoise-shell boats, several ten thousand outlaws, were cautiously retreating, carefully keeping their distance from the man with flying long hair.

Within the dark-gold light pillar, flowing light surged; a flood dragon formed from Dao patterns coiled around the man, variegated light and shadow intertwining on his face; only those with sufficient cultivation, exerting their vision to the utmost, could barely make out his features.

His face was gaunt, with three wisps of long beard, his whole body exuding Dao rhythm, his stature thin and tall, bearing the air of an ancient pine.

The giant hand formed from the Five Finger Mountain, its palm a hundred zhang across, trembled slightly; within the golden pill, the size of a zhang, formed from the essence of some twenty thousand outlaws, strands of black qi continually rose and then swiftly dissipated in the dark-gold light.

Some twenty thousand outlaws practiced arts of varying levels, with most cultivating various demonic arts; their essence and mana contained immense mixed evil qi. The dark-gold light was clearly refining the power within that golden pill, dispelling impurities and dross, leaving only pure, pristine essence.

The golden light pillar spewing from the pit slowly faded; the man, about nine chi tall and gaunt-faced, slowly opened his eyes.

Heaven and earth seemed to suddenly brighten; including Wu Tie and Linghu Qingqing, everyone felt as if the man, face-to-face and close at hand, had glanced at them. That glance was like a nail, giving the illusion that a nail had been driven straight into one's heart.

Just that glance made everyone feel their state of mind broken, no longer pure, as if a trace of imprint had been left in their spirit and a slit torn open.

Linghu Qingqing grunted; a vast sheet of silver light flowed behind him, and an extremely wide, extremely heavy silver longsword slowly extended from the light, pressing close to his body from above, slowly descending from his head downward.

Linghu Qingqing's body trembled slightly as he let out a low growl; finally, a sharp, crisp sound rang from within him.

In that instant, the gaunt man had forcibly driven that nail into Linghu Qingqing's spirit; relying on his treasure's power, Linghu Qingqing forcibly severed it, mending the tiny fissure in his spirit, that little loophole.

Wu Tie, meanwhile, had black-and-white and five-colored divine light, seven colors in total, swirling in his soul; the primordial and acquired yin-yang five-element powers all activated, and with a single turn around that faint spirit imprint, he erased it utterly.

Other Patriarch Hu, Hu Tu, and the like also had trembling faces; then, with six 'ding' sounds, Patriarch Hu spat a mouthful of blood, and his five sons, Hu Tu among them, felt their flesh quiver, each breaking the spirit imprint the gaunt man had planted in them with that glance.

"Good… strong… almost, I fell for his move." Patriarch Hu wiped the blood from his mouth while muttering to himself.

His five sons, protected by the treasures they had just acquired, used the power of those innate treasures to obliterate that spirit imprint, suffering little backlash; but Patriarch Hu, lacking Linghu Qingqing's cultivation and lacking his sons' treasure protection, forcibly broke the imprint with a secret method, damaging his spirit and injuring his divine fetus.

Excluding those few who either possessed astonishing means or were guarded by secret treasures, among the countless officers and soldiers on the tens of thousands of warships in the fleet, each gaze took on a hint of dullness.

Moreover, the deeper the cultivation of those commanders, the more their gazes toward the gaunt man filled with affectionate reverence.

Perhaps for the gaunt man, that glance was merely unintentional, just an instinct, yet he indeed implanted a wisp of his aura into the spirits of so many.

Ordinary people cannot perceive the subtlety of that wisp of aura; the stronger one's cultivation, the deeper one's comprehension of the Dao, the more one can resonate with that wisp of qi and be affected by it.

It is like an infant unable to read a profound Daoist treatise, while those cultivated adults can understand it; not only can they understand, they can also resonate spiritually, acknowledge its truth, and thus walk that path.

In the fleet, the stronger one's cultivation, if unable to dispel that spirit imprint, will acknowledge the gaunt man's Dao, be directly influenced by him, regard him as the greatest, most sacred existence in heaven and earth, and then their hearts, souls, and Dao will continually draw near him, eventually becoming his most devout followers.

He merely opened his eyes slightly, merely glanced at this corner of heaven and earth.

Wu Tie stepped back, his eyelids drooping, refusing to glance again at the gaunt man.

Such a fearsome figure, Wu Tie possessed in his mind the vast knowledge inherited from Old Iron, and he had also received transmission from the Great Peng Ming King and the Peacock Ming King, two primordial mighty beings, allowing him to roughly guess the gaunt man's origin.

Such a troublesome person, let Linghu Qingqing and them handle him.

Obviously, Linghu Qingqing had taken a liking to the two treasures the man held in his hands; heh… if you want treasures, you can't just stand by and watch.

The enormous hundred-zhang hand shrank bit by bit; within the patterns on its palm, the dark-gold light grew ever stronger. The golden pill, over a zhang in size, also slowly diminished, as large quantities of mixed evil qi were forged out of it, making the pill ever more radiant and dazzling.

Just think: this golden pill was formed from the essence and divine fetuses of over twenty thousand Fetal Storage Realm outlaws, revealing how immense its power is.

The gaunt man slightly opened his eyes, glanced at the crowd, then moved his right hand slightly; the Seven Treasures Ruyi emitted a beam of light that enveloped a retreating outlaw chieftain.

The chieftain gave a strange cry; his body exploded with a 'boom', his divine fetus utterly annihilated by the blow, leaving only his set of pitch-black robes, with faint starlight glimmering between the threads, lying in place.

Patriarch Hu's pupils contracted.

He recognized that set of black robes; it was an innate spiritual treasure granted by Patriarch Hu a millennium ago to that chieftain for great merit. Among the many outlaws present, this black robe was undoubtedly the foremost among all garments.

The gaunt man was also quite sharp-eyed.

The divine light from the Seven Treasures Ruyi merely circled the black robe once; a muffled thunder sounded, and the robe turned into an extremely splendid, sacred dark-gold, with the threads emitting deep violet starlight, its aura rising a notch, upgrading it directly from lower-grade innate treasure to middle-grade.

The gaunt man nodded; the robe transformed into strands of dark-gold flowing light that flew to him, circled him once, and then neatly clad him.

With a 'hualala', all the outlaws flew toward the hundreds of tortoise-shell boats; controlling the boats, they swiftly formed a battle array in the air, emitting deep light that enveloped the formation, assuming a full-defense posture.

Linghu Qingqing also barked in a low voice: "Full defense, quick!"

Tens of thousands of warships lit up simultaneously; strands of flowing light condensed into chains shot from their hulls, quickly linking nearby ships; in a few breaths, the tens of thousands of warships were bound together by massive light chains, concentrating all their power, a layer of light bulwark several li thick enveloping the entire fleet.

"Attack!" Once the fleet formation was set, Linghu Qingqing hesitated not at all and pointed at the gaunt man.

The bow cannons of the tens of thousands of warships blazed in unison, together with Patriarch Hu's three great vessels; countless beams of flowing light screamed through the void, fiercely bombarding the gaunt man.

On the gaunt man's left hand, the silver lamp's bean-sized flame suddenly burst into countless fist-sized silver sparks, firefly-like silver flames scattering across the sky, seemingly slow yet uncannily precise in meeting the incoming light pillars.

Each silver flame struck a light pillar head-on, producing no sound, not even stirring a breeze, and each mighty main-cannon light pillar was annihilated on the spot by the silver fire.

The dense bombardment continued for a long time, a long time.

In the end, all the warships' main cannons overheated, the runes on their barrels violently trembling, unable to sustain continuous fire; at that moment, before the gaunt man, hundreds of thousands of silver flames coalesced into a silver wall of fire, steadily shielding him from behind.

Even with tens of thousands of warships firing in unison, they could not harm a single hair of the man.

"Good, good treasure!" Linghu Qingqing's body trembled slightly as he stared unblinking at the silver lamp.

If the Seven Treasures Ruyi was merely a strike that instantly killed a peak Fetal Storage Realm outlaw chieftain, showing his terrifying lethality; this silver lamp, facing the volley of tens of thousands of warships, suffered not a scratch, its defense making mouths water.

The tens of thousands of standard warships of the Great Jin Ministry of War, plus the hundreds of privately forged Hu family vessels whose performance far exceeds standard Jin warships; such a massive fleet firing once could destroy a prefecture city, and such prolonged volley would reduce even a fiefdom's capital to smoke.

Yet the gaunt man, with his own strength and a single lamp, forcibly blocked such a fierce assault.

This lamp's defense even surpassed the great defensive formation of Anyang, the capital of Great Jin; such a supreme treasure artifact is truly rare under heaven, an absolutely peerless treasure.

"Boss, let the five grandsons go out." Linghu Qingqing drew a deep breath: "This person, ordinary tricks are useless; to deal with a top-tier supreme treasure, only a top-tier supreme treasure will do."

Linghu Qingqing said solemnly: "Five grandsons, be careful, be very careful… your futures are limitless, each of you noble in destiny; do not die here."

Linghu Qingqing's words made the five Hu Tu brothers' eyes light up, each excited to the point of their hair standing on end.

The five each sacrificed the secret treasures they had obtained days ago, which floated up slowly as they gradually approached the gaunt man.

As they flew forward, Hu Tu, the eldest, loudly asked: "May I ask your esteemed name, senior? Where do you come from?"

That was mere small talk, pure small talk; the gaunt man was enigmatic, and Hu Tu did not expect him to answer.

The gaunt man hovered silently in midair, beyond the silver fire wall, his cold eyes watching Hu Tu and the others gradually approach.

That giant hand was rapidly shrinking bit by bit, the golden pill in its palm also slowly diminishing; as the Hu Tu brothers drew near, the severed hand kept trembling, the vibrations growing stronger, eventually emitting a fierce roar.

When the Hu Tu brothers closed to within less than a hundred li, the gaunt man suddenly spoke: "This seat… this seat… this seat…"

Light scattered in his pupils, and the gaunt man's voice was hoarse as well.

He tilted his head, furrowed his brows, obviously lost in thought.

He thought seriously for a moment, then slightly shook his head: "This seat, I suppose… this seat… is called… this seat… Great… Great… Great Master?"

Suddenly breaking into a smile, the gaunt man nodded seriously: "That's right, I am the Great Master. But why… why? I recall… it seems… my body… uh…"

Divine light flickered in the gaunt man's eyes as he suddenly looked at that severed hand, which had shrunk to several zhang in size but was violently trembling, causing ripples in the nearby void, and even faint signs of the void tearing.

"Come back, come back… we were originally one… we come from the same body… come, come, come…" The Great Master chuckled 'hehe', released his grip on the Seven Treasures Ruyi in his right hand, and then beckoned strongly toward the severed hand.

The severed hand let out a piercing cry, then its whole body burst forth with blinding dark-gold light.

With a clang, the severed hand shot up thousands of zhang into the sky, seemingly trying to flee. However, the Seven Treasures Ruyi hovering beside the Great Master sprayed a gleam of divine light, sweeping heavily over the severed hand.

The severed hand suddenly halted in midair, then divine light flickered, and it instantaneously teleported to before the Great Master.

The Great Master's right hand reached toward the severed hand, lightly touching it, as if his true body and its shadow overlapped; the severed hand vanished, while strands of dark-gold divine light entwined his right hand, and his aura suddenly surged.

With a roar, five dark-gold dragon-like qi pillars shot up from above the Great Master's head to tens of thousands of zhang high, and above those five golden qi streams, three enormous lotuses slowly bloomed.

"Who am I?"

The Great Master closed his eyes and asked himself.

Then, a bright, joyous aura welled up from within him, and he laughed loudly: "I am the Great Master."

"Who is the Great Master?"

"The Great Master is the lord of the Kunwu Cave Heaven and the Sect Master of the Infinite Teaching."

"This seat… I didn't die… this seat… I have come back to life."

The Great Master smiled, opened his eyes, and with his right hand wrapped in flowing dark-gold light, he firmly grasped the Seven Treasures Ruyi and then pointed forward lightly.

Divine light surged from the Seven Treasures Ruyi, enveloping the golden pill that had shrunk to the size of a foot square.

A large amount of mixed impure qi spewed from the golden pill, reducing it to the size of a soybean, its whole body lustrous and translucent, transparent as if carved from glass.

"Indeed, it's a great medicine." The Great Master smiled, opened his mouth, and a wisp of breath extended from his lips, enveloping the soybean-sized pill and lifting it toward his mouth.

"We must not let him take this pill…" Wu Tie stood on the deck of the huge ship and suddenly shouted: "His aura is strong on the surface but weak within; clearly he has not regained his peak… we must not let him take this pill."

The pill formed from the combined essence and cultivation of over twenty thousand Fetal Storage Realm outlaws… even after refining away most of the mixed impure qi, the remaining essence is enough to turn a wild boar into a fearsome master.

The Great Master's origins are unfathomable; if he were to take this pill…

To refine twenty thousand people into a single pill and still call it a 'great medicine'… the Great Master's disposition is clearly not that of a benevolent sort!

Hu Tu and the others realized the danger; Hu Tu let out a great shout, and a black surge from the jellyfish bottle turned into a towering wave, rolling mightily toward the Great Master.