Chapter 259: Just You Wait

"I think I can give it a try!"

The next moment, Shen Yu had transformed into the sharpest of swords; the sword light was brilliant with an unusual radiance, and the Sword Qi crisscrossed as if to tear apart space and time.

Even though this sword light seemed to be constantly twisted under the vortex, it still stood firm and unyielding.

"A fine sword. A genius like you is indeed terrifying, which is why you should be destroyed all the more!"

Upon seeing Shen Yu's sword, a trace of wariness flashed through Mo Cheng's eyes. Although the expression on his face remained unchanged, he had already raised the danger level of the young man before him by several notches in his heart.

Such a genius capable of breaking through limits truly cannot be judged by conventional logic.

"You are so outstanding, I imagine you must have a beloved woman by your side. Tell me, what if I were to cripple you, throw you onto the street, and let those bottom-dwelling beggars bully you?"

"If your beloved woman were to happen upon you in such a wretched, miserable state, what kind of scene would that be?"

"No, that's not stimulating enough!" Shaking his head, Mo Cheng suddenly smiled, his smile tinged with a hint of smugness.

"I just thought of a good idea. Tell me, what if I were to cripple your beloved woman as well, throw you both into a pile of beggars and refugees, and let them bully, humiliate, and trample upon you at will?"

"Letting you only watch helplessly as the other is violated and wantonly humiliated. She wants to die but cannot, and you, wanting to die, find it to be nothing more than a pipe dream."

"The two of you, separated by only a thin line, unable to save each other, can only watch each other's suffering every day with hearts torn to shreds."

"Tsk tsk, that scene should be quite something!"

He chattered on, his words making one's hair stand on end, yet his smile remained as gentle and refined as when they first met. His scholarly air was not in the slightest bit diminished.

Such a temperament, paired with such words, seemed to make people shudder.

His words were laced with strands of Mental Power, attempting to shake Shen Yu's sword, even if only to pry open a tiny crack.

From the very moment they met, the illusion appearing before him seemed to be influencing Shen Yu. The other party wasn't chatting with him; by making him watch those repetitive, cyclical images, he was clearly trying to leave a mark in the depths of his heart.

So that when he later turned hostile and attacked with Mental Power, he could instantly disrupt his mind without any effort. Unfortunately, he was destined to return empty-handed.

With the Heaven and Earth Lock sealing his body, Shen Yu was airtight; as long as the Heaven and Earth Lock remained unbroken, he could not be invaded.

"You really are a lunatic!"

"Compliment accepted. To be precise, we are all lunatics. If you can live until that day, you will discover that everyone before you is a lunatic. Perhaps, one day, you will become a lunatic like us."

"But then again, among those who can survive, where are there any good people?"

With a sudden wave of his hand, the black-hole-like vortex in the air merged; that terrifying black hole replaced the sun and moon, as if it had always been meant to hang in the sky.

Only, while sunlight brings warmth and vitality, what it brought was an aura that devoured everything and destroyed everything.

Only then did Shen Yu understand what the people of that organization were afraid of. As long as this lunatic took action, nothing would be left in the surroundings.

This wasn't just acting crazy; it was purely aimed at destruction.

Shen Yu could see that the other party would never stop until everything around them was completely destroyed. The calmer a person is, the more terrifying they truly are when they go mad.

Just at this moment, a painting flew up to meet it and rapidly unfurled. The Painting Scroll extended into the distance, as if it had no visible boundaries to the naked eye.

The ten thousand miles of mountains and rivers contained everything, entangling with the vortex in the air that seemed ready to swallow all. The vortex overhead only shrouded one area, while the Painting Scroll of ten thousand miles of mountains and rivers was boundless, encompassing everything.

Not to mention the Mountain and River Map itself, even the Hanshan Seal, Sun Moon Pearl, Great Sun True Fire, and the like that Shen Yu had stuffed inside—which one of them, if taken out, was not a rare treasure?

With so many treasures gathered together, they jointly constructed this infinite world of mountains and rivers.

Once this object appeared, it was a situation of crushing everything.

Shen Yu suddenly realized he might have overthought things. In dealing with these old monsters, he had been thinking about making full preparations and using every means at his disposal.

He had stacked the Arrays he knew one upon another, bringing the power of the Mountain and River Map to its absolute peak, all to prevent any possibility of a comeback.

After all, these old monsters had lived for so many years; their methods were bound to be impossible to guard against.

Yet, upon clashing, he discovered that while the other was indeed very strong and his methods were extraordinarily terrifying, he had not surpassed the limit.

The other party was not yet a genius to the point of breaking the limit. People like Mu Zishan were rare, appearing perhaps once every few thousand years over many generations. The one before him clearly had not reached that level.

This world had not yet experienced a Spiritual Qi Surge, so the limit still remained, and his limit naturally remained as well. He was terrifying, but not invincible.

Until the moment of confrontation, Shen Yu had been carefully preparing and unwilling to strike easily, only to find that once he did, it was a crushing victory.

If he were dealing with an ordinary opponent, even if the other's realm far exceeded that of an old monster, I fear that as soon as this all-consuming vortex appeared, they would be swallowed whole.

Yet, facing the ten thousand miles of mountains and rivers, the other's vortex seemed to lose its luster, being instantly drawn into the vast mountains and rivers.

Even within the Mountain and River Map, the black-hole-like vortex continued to wreak havoc. But it seemed as if it could never swallow enough, never destroy enough.

Gradually, the vortex spun slower and slower, eventually revealing the wretched figure inside.

At this moment, Mo Cheng no longer possessed his previous calm demeanor; instead, his face was a terrifying, ashen blue. He had never imagined that he would lose so miserably and so inexplicably to a junior.

He didn't even know how he had lost; he had simply lost. It was as if the entire world was rejecting him and crushing him.

The next moment, the vast power submerged him. Once inside the map, he could only be manipulated by Shen Yu.

A final illusion appeared, wrapping around him; it seemed to be his last barrier, and also his last reliance.

Within the illusion, Shen Yu saw the helpless side of this old monster. Although there wasn't much difference in his facial features, he appeared much more weathered in the illusion, like a poor scholar in his thirties who had achieved nothing.

Opposite him stood a delicate-looking woman, the two facing each other.

Only, while his eyes were filled with deep affection, the woman opposite him was full of frost, her eyes revealing distance and indifference.

"Mo Cheng, leave. Don't come looking for me again."

"Why? Didn't we promise to travel to the ends of the earth together? Why have you become like this? Why are you abandoning me!"

"Travel to the ends of the earth? With you? What can you give me?" Her ruthless eyes showed not the slightest ripple, as if she were unmoved by Mo Cheng's pleading.

Shen Yu could even see a hint of a condescending attitude in the woman's eyes, a pervasive sense of contempt.

"They say that with love, drinking water is enough, and without it, a golden house is cold. We once had love, but so what? Look and see if drinking water alone will fill you up. A poor couple faces sorrow in all things; that is reality."

"You are just a poor scholar, a poor scholar who has studied for decades and understood nothing."

"You say you want to marry me? On what grounds? On the grounds that you are penniless, or that you are destitute?"

"In this world, things cannot just be taken for granted. We are not children anymore; let's all be clear-headed. Go, go as far as you can."

He did not leave, but looked at her with firm eyes. "Why?"

"There are no 'whys.' To tell you the truth, my father has already accepted the betrothal gifts from the Lu family. In a few days, I will marry the young master of the Lu family, and from then on, I will be the daughter-in-law of the Lu family."

"If you are unwilling to leave, then come and have a cup of wedding wine."

"So, you are also this kind of person who looks down on the poor and fawns over the rich."

"Looks down on the poor and fawns over the rich? Yes, I have always been this kind of person, just this vulgar. The reason I was with you before was because you had the potential to pass the imperial examinations, but now it seems that is impossible. Since that is the case, why should I continue to waste my youth on you?"

"How could these slender, delicate hands of mine ever do rough work, and how could I ever live a life of hardship? I should be high above, and I should be served by others."

"Forget it, a person like you, who is like filth, will never understand!"