Chapter 278

This person is a young man who looks about thirty, his hair slightly dry and yellowish, tied loosely with a red elastic band, wearing a loose purple robe, both hands leaning on a large knife nearly as tall as a person.

He appeared extremely lax overall, but his eyes exuded a strong killing intent, his spiritual sense locked tightly onto Heng Xian.

Good! That faint killing intent comes from this person.

"May I ask your esteemed surname?" Heng Xian asked with a smile.

The person said: "Easy to say, East Emperor Palace, Jiang Wuya!"

Heng Xian clapped his hands: "Proving the Dao with the sword, boundless in life and boundless in death, East Emperor Palace's ground ranking first—truly, hearing the name is no match for meeting you!"

Jiang Wuya's expression grew even more lax: "Oh? Being pursued by the fourteen sects across Dongyu, yet never captured, and this time even more audaciously trespassing the Jianhai Guji, Heng Xian, you're actually a flatterer!"

Heng Xian shook his head: "I only praise those who are more ruthless than I am; I never stint on praise."

"Ruthless?" Jiang Wuya sniffed, "Will I be more ruthless than you?"

Heng Xian said: "You outwardly present yourself as a senior brother and a Primordial Dan Realm expert of East Emperor Palace, but secretly you send disciples of various sects to feed the mushrooms—this move is 666, you can't help but admire!"

Jiang Wuya continued sniffing: "I don't understand what you're saying."

Heng Xian said: "When I killed a group of blue-clad and white-clad disciples preparing to pick that Spiritual Mushroom, your killing intent suddenly locked onto me; I gave up the picking, and your killing intent vanished again—such behavior, I cannot believe you just arrived and coincidentally wanted to compete with me for the mushroom!"

"You must value that Spiritual Mushroom greatly and have long known it was there, right?"

Jiang Wuya's expression unchanged: "Hard to say!"

Heng Xian continued: "Yuantong's group saw they were about to be killed; you couldn't possibly not know, yet you didn't show yourself!"

A few days ago, they were ordered by the senior brothers and sisters above to scatter and search for Spiritual Mushrooms; these nine people just happened to come near here, and just happened to be caught here to be killed and fed to the mushrooms.

"If I'm not mistaken, you must also know this!"

Jiang Wuya sniffed hard, his eyes narrowing.

Heng Xian said: "For just a measly mushroom, you don't hesitate to pit and kill nine inner disciples and true heirs of other sects; you are even more treacherous than I, this villain—admirable! Admirable!"

Jiang Wuya suddenly cursed: "You son of a bitch, your brain is quite sharp, but I exhausted tremendous effort to find this biggest mushroom of Ku Cheng, just about to mature; all that's needed is to feed it the blood and souls of a few fools to harvest, yet out pops you this thing!"

"I originally had no interest in whatever villain Heng Xian, but today I have no choice but to skin you and pull out your tendons!"

Heng Xian laughed: "If trash talk could decide victory, I'd make love to your mother three hundred times in a minute!"

"Swish—"

Jiang Wuya's figure suddenly vanished; the next moment, wrapped in the force of thunder, he appeared above Heng Xian and swung down a blade.

"Boom—"

One blow split Heng Xian in half; the blade tip touched the ground, the powerful shockwave carved a spiderweb pattern into the stone slab floor, surrounding buildings clamored and instantly collapsed.

However, the bisected Heng Xian left no trace of blood; only a paper figure cut in half remained on the spot.

Jiang Wuya frowned, reached out to pick it up, examined it carefully: "The Substitute Spirit Talisman Technique of Tianyuan Sect?"

He then glanced at the empty surroundings; his spiritual sense instantly radiated in all directions.

However, within a radius of over ten li, aside from a few Yuantong people and piles of "gray-clad" and "blue-clad" individuals, there was no trace of Heng Xian.

Jiang Wuya's expression finally changed: "No wonder he could evade so many experts' pursuit—what escape secret does this guy have on him? My mushroom!"

His form flashed, wrapped in a gust of wind, he sped straight toward the distance in pursuit.

Just after he left a few breaths, a figure emerged from a broken water vat in a nearby corner—it was Heng Xian. He glanced at the direction Jiang Wuya had gone, patted off the dust on his clothes, shook his head and said: "If you were to look around with just your eyes, stop pretending and being overconfident; I might not be able to escape—could the spiritual sense of the Yuan Dan Initial Realm possibly penetrate my Heavenly Hexagram?"

Saying that, he tapped his foot and flew off in the opposite direction.

Being unfamiliar with this place, he randomly picked a spot and ran all the way, covering fifty or sixty li, making sure no one was following, before stopping at a place resembling a Shan Shen Miao.

The Shan Shen Miao was very dilapidated, with side rooms collapsed in disarray, weeds overgrown—a good hiding place.

Heng Xian found a concealed corner room, closed the door, sat cross-legged, and took out the Five-colored Spiritual Mushroom.

It felt icy cool, looked brimming with spiritual energy; he sniffed—no fragrance, just a fishy odor.

This thing is huge; stewed meat would likely feed twenty people for a day.

Of course, he couldn't possibly hold it up and gnaw at it directly.

Originally he hadn't planned to consume it directly; there were still three days, time was tight, but Jiang Wuya's great concern made him curious.

Not eating would be a waste, and there was no rush to do it right away.

He immediately tried to circulate his cultivation method, using spiritual power to stimulate the mushroom.

It didn't work.

He also tried burning it, kneading it, and melting it with substances that antagonize fungi—none worked.

Finally, he simply cut his finger and tried using his own Ancient Sword Saint Blood.

As soon as the finger wound touched the mushroom, he found the Spiritual Mushroom rapidly melting along the finger and seeping in; soon his whole body felt icy cold, and a vast amount of spiritual energy burst forth instantly.

He immediately steadied his mind, drew the spiritual energy into his Qi Sea, and performed the seventh refinement of his Qi Sea.

However, at that moment, his body went numb, and suddenly a series of illusions appeared in his mind.

He immediately thought: "Holy shit! Mushroom poisoning, producing hallucinations?"

The illusion fragments increased, eventually forming a complete but somewhat blurry image——

White clouds swirled, deep mountain ancient temple, beneath green pines, an old Daoist, lightly flicking his sleeves, took a step left, a step right, murmured incantations, and finally shouted: "Urgent!"

"Swish—"

The body split into two, then three, then seventy-two; the seventy-two shadows were identical in appearance and aura.

Heng Xian startled: "Holy shit! The ancient technique in the mushroom—could this mean the legendary Body Duplication Technique?"

I go???

Didn't see clearly!

At that moment, the old man's seventy-two shadows merged into one, then he took a step left, a step right, shouted "Urgent", and his body split again into two, three, six… up to seventy-two!

However, Heng Xian only managed to see the method of the ninth duplicate before the image cut off abruptly!

"Again!"

He suddenly woke up, reaching out to grasp emptily.

Before him was empty and vacant; where was there any illusion left?

He suddenly understood why Jiang Wuya had waited for this mushroom to mature; only after it matured could one fully see this Defying Heaven Foot-walking Body Technique!

He had wasted such a great Fate Opportunity for nothing!

However, having Nine Duplicates?

That's fine too!

He closed his eyes again, first circulating his cultivation method, he carefully examined the meridians, acupoints, and oral formulas of the old Daoist's nine duplicates in the illusion, then tried to slowly open a dried-up, unfamiliar meridian in his own body.

After an unknown amount of time, all the meridians of the first Body Duplication Technique were opened, nearly costing him half his life; he opened his eyes, fell flat on his back, and gasped desperately.

However, his eyes bright, he immediately sprang up, imitating the old Daoist's manner and began the foot-walking, taking a few steps left, a few steps right, going faster and faster, shouting urgently: "Open!"

"Hum—"

A gust of wind blew up beside him; he turned his head and stared in shock: "What a melon rind!"

(End of chapter)