Chapter 547: Quite Weak

Hangzhou.

West Lake.

"Fahai is truly wicked, Xu Xian is also wicked... *sob*, Bai Niangzi is so pitiful."

In a very simple tea stall, a group of village children, about eight or nine years old, were surrounding a young man dressed in black, listening intently to the story he was telling.

The young man had only arrived at West Lake in the last two days; he was approachable and very well-liked by the local children.

Today, on a whim, the young man told the children the story of the Legend of the White Snake.

The Legend of the White Snake is a household name, and the children had all heard it to some extent. Most endings involve Fahai receiving punishment, Bai Suzhen remaining with Xu Xian, and even having a son who becomes a top scholar, with the whole family living happily ever after.

But in this young man's story, it was a tragic ending. Beneath the Leifeng Pagoda, a snake demon was buried alive and crushed to pieces; betrayed by her beloved, she died in body and spirit, never to be reincarnated.

The so-called vows of eternal love were not worth a damn.

As for the so-called retribution of good and evil, there was not a trace of it to be seen.

The eyes of several children turned red after listening, and one little girl even rubbed her eyes, sobbing softly.

"It's all just a story, no need to take it seriously; only tragedy is moving." The young man in black chuckled, stood up, patted the heads of a few children, and smiled: "However, although this story is false, the Purple Gold Bowl in Fahai's hand is indeed a treasure. Alright, this brother is going to retrieve that bowl, you all should scatter."

After paying for the tea and giving each of the children a few copper coins to buy jujube cakes, Yu Liancheng stepped out of the tea stall, looked toward the Leifeng Pagoda, and muttered to himself: "Divine Stone."

Leifeng Pagoda, legend has it, was first built in Wuyue.

It is said that back then, "King of Wuyue" Qian Chu, because his favorite concubine "Huang" had given birth to a son, planned to build a thirteen-story brick pagoda, using eighty-four thousand volumes of Buddhist scriptures to pray for the safety of "Huang". Thus, Leifeng Pagoda is also known as the "Imperial Concubine Pagoda".

The setting sun was like blood.

When the twilight sun shone upon the Leifeng Pagoda, the tourists had already dispersed.

And Yu Liancheng had already stepped into the Leifeng Pagoda, arriving at a cavern beneath it.

The cavern was large, and on its four walls, seventy-two large holes had been opened, filled with murderous intent.

Boom—!

And as Yu Liancheng's footsteps landed firmly, a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering roar erupted from the seventy-two holes, echoing and rolling continuously. The massive cavern then trembled, as if it were about to collapse.

As the "boom" grew louder and more deafening, one could see a giant stone rolling out from each hole, each over a zhang in diameter, rolling from all directions toward Yu Liancheng, who was trapped in the center; it looked certain he would be crushed into meat paste. At the same time, countless cold, short swords shot down from the massive cavern ceiling, as dense as jade.

This mechanism was indeed a rare killing move in the world.

Even if an intruder could use supreme lightness skills to leap up and dodge the giant stones, it would be difficult to avoid the countless short swords stabbing down from above.

No path to heaven, no door to enter the earth.

The only two endings were either being crushed into meat paste by the giant stones or being shot into a hedgehog by the countless short swords.

However, the person who designed this mechanism was quite clever, but it seemed they had not considered that there would be an expert like Yu Liancheng in this world.

His method of breaking the formation not only displayed formidable strength but was also extremely ingenious.

One saw Yu Liancheng's sleeve like a wisp of cloud hanging from the sky, sweeping horizontally across the nearest giant stone.

This sweep was light and breezy, but the giant stone struck flew away instantly, colliding with a nearby giant stone; the first stone was immediately smashed to pieces, while the latter was knocked off course, crashing into another nearby one... just like that, it triggered a chain reaction, and muffled collision sounds rang out continuously in mid-air.

In an instant, dozens of boulders had turned into a sky full of debris, flying in all directions.

And the rain of arrows that had originally been pouring toward the ground was broken by the sky full of debris, their force completely spent, all falling down.

As for Yu Liancheng, he had already drifted lightly into one of the holes.

Among the previous seventy-two holes, except for this one, all had giant stones rolling out.

As Yu Liancheng stepped into the depths of the hole, he soon saw a coffin, a stone coffin.

On the stone coffin were written the five characters: "Tomb of Bai Suzhen".

Beside the stone coffin sat a withered skeleton in a slumped posture; the skeleton was draped in a faint monk's Buddhist robe, and hanging on the robe was a piece of moist, white jade pendant, with two characters carved upon it—Fahai.

Besides this, a long wall text was carved into the stone wall, recording everything in Fahai's own voice.

Originally, Fahai cultivated at Jinshan Temple in Zhenjiang and was won over by God with peerless martial power and the slogan "abolish the imperial system, let the people stand on their own," becoming a member of the Search God Palace and serving it with all his heart.

But later, Fahai discovered that the reason God wanted to abolish the imperial system was that he wanted to become the God who ruled over the five lakes and four seas, the heavens and the human world.

Moreover, God practiced the Demon Body of World Destruction and the Heaven-Shifting Divine Art, allowing him to live forever.

If he were to unify the Central Plains, he would forever be the God who dominated all living things.

Fahai had intended to leave the Search God Palace, but God held the lives of the monks at Jinshan Temple hostage, forcing him to continue working for him.

Later, the Chang Sheng Bu Si Shen and Fahai discovered one of the four strange stones, the "Divine Stone," beneath the Leifeng Pagoda.

This Divine Stone could be crafted into an invincible divine weapon, but once the divine artifact was removed, it would trigger a disaster, causing countless common people in Shenzhou to suffer.

But in the end, without Fahai's knowledge, God still removed the Divine Stone, refined it into a bowl, and handed it to Fahai to deal with Bai Suzhen, who was in love with Xu Xian, thus triggering the Legend of the White Snake.

Later, after three days and three nights of chanting by Fahai and all the monks of Jinshan Temple without eating, drinking, or sleeping, God was moved and agreed to return the Divine Stone beneath the Leifeng Pagoda.

But God also had a condition.

That was to set up mechanisms and traps within the Leifeng Pagoda to prevent anyone from obtaining the Divine Stone.

And on the day the mechanism was completed, Fahai was to be buried with it as a sacrifice, to vent the hatred of defying God's will.

Yu Liancheng scanned the text on the stone wall roughly, his eyes flickering, as if thinking about something.

A moment later, he pushed the stone coffin open, revealing a three-foot-square entrance inside.

Yu Liancheng's figure swept like green smoke, passing through a passage of about a hundred zhang before his feet touched the ground, arriving at the deepest part of the cavern.

Looking out, he saw that in the depths of this cavern, there was a hazy, fiery red light; it was countless rolling earth-fire lava, crimson as blood, appearing as if it could burn everything.

But Yu Liancheng did not pay attention to the lava, because there was an object more brilliant and dazzling than the lava, suspended in the air, emitting a radiant white light that illuminated the entire depths of the cavern as if it were broad daylight. It was as if someone had used great divine power to pluck the sun down and hang it here.

And above the lava and the light orb, there was a similarly unbelievable, strange sight.

*Splash! *

It was actually a water column five zhang long and over half a zhang thick, rushing down from the cavern ceiling, appearing as if it wanted to merge with the lava, yet it was forcibly blocked and frozen in mid-air by the Divine Stone.

It was like tears that had reached halfway and could no longer flow...

"Surprised, aren't you? This lava and water column are the 'Hell Fire' and 'Yellow Spring Tears' passed down among the people. In reality, one is the Earth Core Fire Pulse, and the other is the West Lake Water Pulse. If water and fire meet, the lava will cool, the earth will expand and contract, the fire pulse will erupt, and at that time, Shenzhou will shake, and it will be a massive catastrophe."

At this very moment, a voice full of cold, evil, and overbearing power rang out.

Immediately following, another person stepped out from the depths of the cavern.

One could see this person had a towering build, with a head of extremely eerie long hair draped loose, half red and half black, parted down the middle. A cruel smirk curled at the corners of his mouth: "Remember me, I am called Shen Jiang. This is a name that will make a thousand generations remember it, and it is also the name of the person who is about to take your life."

"I wondered who it was; so it is a lackey sent by 'God'."

Yu Liancheng clapped his hands and laughed, seemingly indifferent to the arrival of the person before him: "But a dog that only knows how to bark should be careful of being slaughtered for its meat."

Hearing Yu Liancheng's words, Shen Jiang was slightly stunned at first, then his smile became increasingly ferocious: "Very good, I will let you see who is the dog that only knows how to bark."

As the words fell, Shen Jiang leaped forward and arrived beneath that faint light.

He reached out a hand to probe, lifting that cluster of faint light high.

That divine weapon, forged by God and capable of killing martial arts experts even in the hands of an ordinary person, had just like that fallen into Shen Jiang's grasp.

Meanwhile, because the Divine Stone had been moved away by Shen Jiang, the water column above was no longer obstructed; with a "Boom," it rushed into the magma below like a giant dragon.

Water and fire, two great natural disasters capable of destroying all living things, finally collided together.

The West Lake Water Pulse poured entirely into the magma, the sound of "Splash" incessant. In an instant, it stirred up countless thick vapors, which immediately filled the entire cavern, causing the two people in the cavern to be simultaneously plunged into a sea of billowing mist.

"Hahaha, with the Divine Stone in hand, let alone a small fry like you, even the Chang Sheng Bu Si Shen would only end up as a defeated opponent." Although Shen Jiang had arrived in the cavern before Yu Liancheng and had already personally experienced this divine weapon capable of being invincible under heaven, he was still excited to the point of madness when holding the divine weapon again.

As for the so-called collision of the water and fire pulses, the overturning of Shenzhou, and the suffering of the common people, these were simply not within Shen Jiang's considerations.

After all, to the high and mighty God, so-called humans are no different from ants.

"You fellow, is there something wrong with your head?"

Yu Liancheng looked at Shen Jiang in bewilderment.

This time, Shen Jiang was not enraged.

Because for a dead man, there was no need to be too concerned; he merely raised that cluster of faint light.

The faint light flashed.

For some reason, in the blink of an eye, the faint light transformed into a glowing "great bow."

"You will be the second person after Bai Suzhen to die under the Divine Stone, and you will also be the first stepping stone for me, Shen Jiang, to dominate the world. I might as well be merciful and tell you: the Divine Stone has two major functions. The first is that it can change into any form. The second is..."

With the "great bow" in hand, Shen Jiang drew the bow and stretched the string, the bow like a full moon.

In an instant, an aura of grim slaughter permeated the air.

But there was no arrow on the bow; would this not be a futile effort?

No, there was an arrow on the bow; it was an "arrow" formed by the condensation of True Qi.

"The Divine Stone can increase power by more than twenty times!"

Only hearing a "Twang," the "arrow" suddenly broke through the surrounding mist and shot toward Yu Liancheng.

"Die!"

"

If an ordinary person's power were increased twenty times, I fear even top-tier martial arts experts might not be able to compare.

And if it were shot by Shen Jiang, who practices the World-Extinguishing Demon Body, it could truly be called earth-shattering.

Where the arrow passed, it pushed aside the billowing mist, pulling out a deafening air wave.

It was just that this sound arrived a bit too slowly.

By the time the arrow had reached before Yu Liancheng, only then did the sound of breaking through the air ring out.

The arrow was faster than the sound.

The arrow had already shot into Yu Liancheng's chest.

Boom!

Following that was a loud noise.

The entire cavern shook, and the place where Yu Liancheng had previously stood was blasted into smithereens, with dust flying and covering the sky and earth.

"This is the power of the Divine Stone. As long as I have this power, who else in the world is my opponent?"

Shen Jiang looked up, his spirit soaring, one hand gripping the Divine Stone, the other hand grasping at thin air, as if he had already held this world in his palm: "From now on, I am God!"

"Shen Jiang, is your hysteria always this severe?"

Just as Shen Jiang was feeling smug and satisfied, an ethereal voice rang out.

Shen Jiang's expression changed abruptly; he turned his head sharply to look, only to see a black figure standing with hands behind his back, looking at him with a concerned gaze, as if worried his hysteria might flare up at any moment.

"You, you, how is this possible?"

Shen Jiang was incredulous.

"What is impossible?" Yu Liancheng asked curiously.

Shen Jiang's face was as dark as water, saying nothing; he immediately drew his bow and nocked an arrow again, firing several arrows in succession like a string of pearls.

The power of each arrow was astonishingly immense, making the entire cavern rumble and shake incessantly, as if it might collapse at any moment.

Drawing the bow and firing arrows, each shot poured out his full strength; even Shen Jiang, who possessed the World-Extinguishing Demon Body, was somewhat panting.

Shen Jiang could be certain that the structure of this cavern was exceptionally firm. If it were in the outside world, each of his arrows could have collapsed a small hill.

An ordinary flesh-and-blood body receiving this arrow would only end up exploding into a mist of blood.

However, when the dust settled, that black-clad figure remained, unstained by dust, elegant and peerless.

"What on earth is going on!?"

Shen Jiang wore an expression of disbelief, exceptionally horrified.

"The power of the Divine Stone is indeed astonishing, but no matter how astonishing the power is, I fear that if it cannot hit a person, it is nothing but a futile effort." The black figure suddenly shattered, like a reflection in a mirror or the moon in the water.

It turned out that the previous arrow from Shen Jiang, which seemed to have hit Yu Liancheng, was merely an afterimage he had left behind.

"What's more..."

The next moment, Yu Liancheng suddenly appeared before Shen Jiang.

The God General was first startled into taking a step back, then his expression turned fierce.

As his long red and black hair flew, he pushed his World-Extinguishing Demon Body to its peak, and a tyrannical aura surged into the sky, radiating a domineering and destructive demonic intent.

The glowing longbow in his hand flashed, suddenly transforming into a glowing gauntlet.

Boom!

The next moment.

He threw a punch.

For this punch, the God General had pushed his cultivation to the absolute limit regardless of self-damage, and with the added support of the Divine Stone, it could be said that he would kill any Buddha or God that stood in his way.

As the punch was thrown, the wind and clouds stirred; one could see the fist faintly wrapped in a ball of blazing fire, burning fiercely. Furthermore, streaks of lightning exploded, like dragons and snakes. In an instant, fire and lightning merged, transforming into a terrifying primordial energy capable of destroying everything, as it slammed toward Yu Liancheng.

"Even if your power increased twentyfold, it would still be pitifully weak."

Facing this punch that had reached the pinnacle of terror, Yu Liancheng lightly extended a single finger.

Boom!