Chapter 546: Chang Sheng Bu Si Shen, God General

A covered boat drifted downstream with the current.

The hull did not look large, but the interior was extremely spacious.

Three-tiered shelves hung on both sides of the cabin, each layer meticulously arranged and holding various items, such as tea sets, tea leaves, snacks, fine wine...

Inside, there was also a low table, and in front of the low table were a man and a woman.

It seemed there had been a storm earlier; the man's clothes were slightly disheveled, and the woman had even kicked off her silk socks, her light gauze half-draped, revealing snow-white arms, exquisite collarbones, and a hint of profound allure. Her beautiful face was slightly flushed, and her expression was languid.

Yan Ying snuggled in Yu Liancheng's arms for a moment before taking a teapot from the shelf on the cabin wall; it was thin-bodied white porcelain, as translucent as jade.

Before long, tea as green as emerald flowed into the cup, the white foam like snow, the green vibrant, making one feel a third of the heat dissipate just by looking at it. This woman's skill in serving others was indeed remarkable; she even had great attainments in tea art, flower arrangement, and Go.

Yu Liancheng took the tea, sipped it slowly, and laughed: "I remember you saying this tea is the tender bud top-grade from Dongting Biluofeng. It is a pity I am not very skilled in the way of tea; if it were drinking wine, I could say a thing or two."

Yan Ying smiled slightly: "Good tea and good wine are things for leisure after all; as long as the master likes them, that is best."

Yu Liancheng chuckled.

Yan Ying poured two more cups of tea and then snuggled into Yu Liancheng's arms like an obedient kitten: "Master, what are we going to West Lake for this time?"

Yu Liancheng pinched her smooth cheek: "If I don't say it, you shouldn't ask. But I am in a good mood today, so telling you is no harm. This trip to West Lake is mainly to retrieve the Divine Stone, and incidentally, to cross hands with a fellow who calls himself God."

Yan Ying showed a thoughtful expression: "The Divine Stone? Is it one of the Four Great Strange Stones?"

"Exactly."

"Then the person the master says calls himself God must be the Chang Sheng Bu Si Shen listed on the Fear Ranking."

"You guessed right again."

Yan Ying frowned slightly, showing a trace of worry: "Is the Chang Sheng Bu Si Shen truly as formidable as the Fear Ranking says?"

"In terms of strength, he is not bad."

Yu Liancheng held Yan Ying's plump and soft body with one hand and picked up the wine pot with the other: "It is just a pity that his vision is too small. In my view, he is nothing more than a 'narrow-minded, cowardly and timid' person."

Yan Ying looked incredulous: "He... since he is the Chang Sheng Bu Si Shen, how could he be so pathetic?"

Yu Liancheng drank a mouthful of wine but kept it in his mouth, lowered his head, sealed Yan Ying's lips, and passed the liquid over. As her cheeks flushed, he laughed: "You should have heard a story. A long time ago, there was a white snake that had cultivated for a thousand years. She had deep cultivation and had taken human form. After listening to the words of Guanyin Bodhisattva, she went to find a man named Xu Xian. Humans and demons are of different paths, and in the end, she was dealt with by Fahai and suppressed under the Leifeng Pagoda."

Yan Ying's breathing became slightly rapid: "The Legend of the White Snake? I have naturally heard of this; I fear there are few who do not know this story."

"I will tell you a story too, one related to God, and also related to a white snake." Yu Liancheng's palm brushed over Yan Ying's fair skin, making her pant even more, her eyes like silk.

"More than one hundred and seventy years ago, a supremely intelligent mysterious man appeared in the human world. Anyone who matched wits with him would surely lose. He was not only peerlessly intelligent, having read all the books in the world, and proficient in Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism, but even astronomy, geography, and the strange arts of mystical divination were all known to him. Moreover, his talent for martial arts was extremely high; he was one of the world's top experts."

"This person is the 'God' of that time?"

"Correct. When he was thirty, he felt he was the most special person in the world, the most qualified to control destiny, so he simply abandoned his own name and called himself 'God'."

Since there is a God in the world, there is naturally a 'Demon', just as there is Yang in Yin and Yin in Yang. The world not only has a Demon, but the God and Demon were husband and wife. That Demon was just like God, a talented all-rounder, and her comprehension of martial arts was even above God's. But the Demon died. Because God was jealous of the Demon's talent and worried that one day the Demon would surpass him. So God gave the Demon poison and pushed her off a ten-thousand-foot cliff."

"And the Demon's name was—Bai Suzhen."

Yan Ying covered her mouth in surprise.

She had not expected the matter to take such a turn.

Yu Liancheng's palm wandered over Yan Ying's curves, but the story he told did not stop: "The Chang Sheng Bu Si Shen's surname is Bu, so Bai Suzhen was also called Bu Baisuzhen. God and the Demon had a daughter, and God gave his daughter the same name as his wife, Bai Suzhen. This Bai Suzhen is the true Bai Suzhen of the myth. God founded an organization called the 'Search God Palace', intending to rule the world. However, due to various reasons, he failed. Bai Suzhen grew up in the Search God Palace from a young age, but she did not like the atmosphere of the Search God Palace, so she went to the side of West Lake, met Xu Xian, and fell in love with him."

"This act angered God, so God dispatched the Law Enforcement Elder Fahai to eliminate her. Bai Suzhen possessed two great divine arts, the World-Destroying Demon Body and the Heaven-Shifting Divine Art, and her cultivation was nearly that of a god; even Fahai was helpless. Thus, God gave Fahai a weapon, and that weapon was the Divine Stone, one of the Four Great Strange Stones. The power of the Divine Stone is extremely immense; even an ordinary person can use it to kill a peerless expert."

"Although Fahai served God, he had compassion in his heart and did not want to take Bai Suzhen's life. He gave the Divine Stone to Xu Xian, letting Xu Xian kill Bai Suzhen. Fahai originally thought the two were truly in love and had sworn eternal vows, and would perform a life-and-death parting like in a novel. Then he would intervene secretly to turn the life-and-death parting into a fake death to escape, the best of both worlds."

"But he did not expect Xu Xian to be a coward; in his fear, he actually chose to sneak-attack Bai Suzhen. And although Bai Suzhen was a supreme expert and could perceive Xu Xian's actions, faced with this act by her lover, she was heartbroken and did not dodge, ultimately accepting death calmly, dying without a whole corpse."

"You tell me, a person like this, who cannot even tolerate his own wife and daughter, does he not deserve the eight words 'cowardly and timid, narrow-minded'?"

In reality, Yu Liancheng still had many secrets he did not tell regarding this Chang Sheng Bu Si Shen.

For example, the Chang Sheng Bu Si Shen came from the Bu Clan God Race, of the same lineage as Bu Jingyun.

This Bu Clan God Race was a clan favored by the heavens; all the men in the clan were either martial arts geniuses or learned scholars. Even Bu Jingyun's unremarkable biological father, the relatively mediocre Bu Yuanting, was a top sword-casting master of the time.

What was even more terrifying was that every once in a while, an extraordinarily talented figure would appear in this Bu Clan God Race. Once they grew up, they were all mythical figures, such as the Sword God of five hundred years ago, the Dao Shen of four hundred years ago, the Quan Shen of three hundred years ago, and the Chang Sheng Bu Si Shen of two hundred years ago...

And such a stunning clan, while being favored, was also cursed.

The men in the clan were subject to the Sida Daxian; they would die once they reached forty. Peerless figures like the Sword God, Dao Shen, and Quan Shen were no exception.

To date, only the Chang Sheng Bu Si Shen, who realized the "Heaven-Shifting Divine Art", had broken the limit, and was even able to live forever and exist as long as the world...

And there were other things, such as the Chang Sheng Bu Si Shen having established the Search God Palace to gather the world's talents. However, a hundred years had passed, talents had withered, and now his subordinates were only a few people like the Great Divine Official, the Second Divine Official, Xiaoqing, Xueyuan, the God General, and Fazhi.

And...

They were all turncoats.

Either they wanted to run away, or they wanted to usurp the throne, or they even wanted to kill God.

God had even once wanted to unify the Central Plains Martial Arts World and fought head-on with the ten great sects, suffering heavy losses...

Of course, there was no need to say these things; they were all minor details.

Yu Liancheng believed that when the Fear Ranking was released, God would once again set his sights on the Divine Stone in the Leifeng Pagoda, and might even set a trap for him.

Of course, given God's temperament, he might not necessarily appear in this game of chess himself.

"Alright, let's not talk about these disappointing things." Yu Liancheng wrapped his arms around Yan Ying's warm and soft body, drank a mouthful of wine, caught her petal-like lips, and passed it over again.

A desolate mountain, an ancient temple.

The ancient temple was built in deep mountains and wild forests where human traces were rare, and the path was winding and remote.

Because it had been abandoned for a very long time, the interior and exterior of the temple were all dilapidated.

Inside the dilapidated ancient temple, it was dark and narrow, as if it could not hold anything else besides an ancient statue and an offering table.

The statue was polished from granite, standing straight, over eight feet tall from foot to head.

The statue had a head of disheveled long hair, its expression appeared sinister and gloomy, and the clothing it wore was of an unknown dynasty or era; one only knew it was layers of things like armor.

Moonlight shone in through the hole in the roof of the ancient temple, making this statue even more evil and eerie, and strangely unusual.

At the same time, it also reflected the statue to be even more lifelike. The expression, movements, wrinkles, and hair were all clearly visible.

It was as if the statue might leap from the altar at any moment, transforming into a demon that kills without leaving a trace of blood.

No wonder the ancient temple was so desolate; not only because of its remote location, but also because it housed such a bizarre statue.

But tonight, the tranquility belonging to the ancient temple would be shattered.

In the moonlight, a figure drifted into the temple.

This person was draped in a floor-length robe, his face covered in eerie greasepaint like a face-changing opera performer, making it difficult to discern his true appearance.

With a gust of wind, the figure drifted to the altar.

He looked at the statue and picked up a bundle of fire-red incense sticks placed on the altar, their color as wickedly vivid as blood.

The incense was lit and inserted into the burner on the altar.

Thick smoke instantly swirled throughout the temple.

Then, a bizarre scene unfolded: the thick smoke coiled and spiraled like two long serpents, as if alive, drilling into the nostrils of the statue.

Or rather...

Was the statue absorbing the incense smoke?

After the statue had inhaled the very last wisp of smoke, it let out a "crack" and countless tiny fissures appeared, spreading rapidly across its entire body until it looked like a shattered porcelain doll.

Then, with a "boom," the statue exploded and instantly crumbled into fragments.

Amidst the flying dust and debris, the original statue had vanished, replaced by a man who looked exactly like it.

He was burly, standing as firm as a mountain, with long hair that was half-black and half-red—the black as dark as night, the red as bright as fire. He wore a fire-red battle robe and a suit of armor that appeared dull yet shimmered with a flowing luster.

He was like a ball of fire.

A fire burning in the darkness.

Yet, his eyes were not filled with raging flames; instead, they revealed a coldness that was inhuman and extremely dangerous.

"Great High Priest, why have you come?"

The man who emerged from the statue spoke, his voice equally cold, evil, and overbearing.

"Divine General, you committed a grave error in the past and angered the God. He sealed all your meridians. Only if someone could reach this remote temple and light this 'Soul-Summoning Incense,' which can unblock all meridians, would you have a chance to see the light of day and awaken from your slumber."

The robed man known as the Great High Priest said coldly: "But the supreme God now needs you to do something, which is why He sent me to awaken you. If you can complete this task, the God will not only waive your punishment but also bestow upon you the supreme 'Heaven-Shifting Divine Art'."

"The Heaven-Shifting Divine Art?!"

The Divine General's eyes lit up. He had already mastered the World-Destroying Demon Body; if he were to also learn the God's "Heaven-Shifting Divine Art," would he not be able to stand on equal footing with the God in time?

Of course, he understood.

The fact that the God even promised the "Heaven-Shifting Divine Art" proved that this matter was by no means simple; otherwise, the Great High Priest, the Second High Priest, and others could have handled it. However, the four words "Heaven-Shifting Divine Art" still ignited a fire in his heart.

Yet, the Divine General did not rush to ask questions. He merely looked at the Great High Priest with his evil gaze and said slowly: "I have slept for a long time, and I have been hungry for a long time. So... Great High Priest, is my breakfast ready?"

"It has long been prepared for you."

The Great High Priest smiled and clapped his hands. Amidst the sound of light footsteps, a beautiful young girl walked into the ruined temple. Her eyes were vacant and her expression dull, like a marionette on strings.

The Divine General sat on the altar, scanned the girl from head to toe, and showed a look of satisfaction: "Not bad, she looks like top-quality goods at a glance. I am very satisfied. After all these years, you, Great High Priest, still understand me best."

He waved his sleeve, and a suction force appeared out of thin air. The girl, like grass in the wind, was pulled helplessly into the Divine General's arms.

The Divine General embraced the girl, his fingers sliding gently over her fair cheeks like a lover's caress, his expression incomparably tender.

Finally, he moved his fingertip to the center of the girl's forehead and poked it in with a "squelch."

A moment later, a hair-raising sound echoed through the silent ancient temple; no matter how bold a person was, they would tremble upon hearing it.

A cold breeze blew, and the girl lay dead on the ground.

At the center of her forehead was a deep, finger-sized hole. Looking closely, the hole was completely hollow, as if everything inside had been sucked dry.

The Divine General stood proudly, a drop of thick, blood-like fluid sliding from the corner of his mouth. He extended his scarlet tongue to lick it clean, savored the aftertaste for a long while, and then said languidly.

"Truly delicious. The only flaw is that this woman was too ignorant. I prefer to eat the wise and the brave... only those two types of people leave a lingering aftertaste."

With that, he kicked the girl's corpse away as if it were trash.

After satisfying his appetite, the Divine General looked at the Great High Priest: "What does the God want me to do?"

The Great High Priest said: "The God wants you to kill someone."

"Who?"

"The Panic of the Panic-Stricken!"

……