Chapter 584: Xiongba's Destiny

On the long street, people came and went, and the cries of peddlers hawking their wares were endless.

On the street were all sorts of people: merchants, children, able-bodied men, women, martial artists... and, of course, there was no avoiding beggars.

Beggars were often thin and weak, dressed in rags, and disheveled; no matter whom they saw, they would subconsciously hunch their bodies, knowing they were meant to be inferior.

The beggar on this long street was the same as most others, only he was very tall; even while hunching his back, his stature was similar to an ordinary person's, and his frame was large, with broad shoulders and arms.

One could imagine that if he were to straighten his body, he would certainly be a burly, powerful man.

The beggar looked up at the sky; that sky was just like his heart—gray and murky, with no sun to be seen.

Yet, the moment he looked up, that pair of eyes suddenly revealed a peerless dominance, a dominance only a supreme hegemon could possess.

He was, by nature, a hegemon.

A hegemon who, from the moment of birth, was meant to trample all living things underfoot.

He was... Xiongba!

Yes, he was the former Gang Leader of the Tianxia Hui, Xiongba.

"Cough, cough..."

Xiongba suddenly suffered a fit of violent coughing.

He coughed until it was heart-wrenching, coughed until he spat out blood, coughed until his entire body was trembling.

Perhaps this was the reason he was willing to be a beggar.

In the battle against Bu Jingyun, although Xiongba did not die, he was severely wounded, and his cultivation was less than one-tenth of its peak.

And because he had countless enemies in the pugilistic world, once his foes learned of his current state, he feared he would have no path to survival.

Therefore, he became a beggar.

Even Wen Chou Chou, who understood Xiongba best, would never guess that the former Gang Leader who once dominated the pugilistic world would cast aside all pride and self-respect, willing to fall into the state of the most destitute, most humble beggar that anyone could treat with contempt.

Xiongba cast his gaze toward the south.

In that direction, there was a mountain villa.

In the villa, there was a Peerless Divine Weapon about to be brought into the world.

And these days, Xiongba had been having a dream.

In the dream, he obtained a divine weapon, a divine weapon that could change into different forms.

That divine weapon was unimaginably powerful, possessing all sorts of incredible abilities. Holding the divine weapon, there was not a single person in heaven or on earth who was his match. He rebuilt the Tianxia Hui, and the common masses crawled at his feet.

Xiongba had a strong premonition.

He was a man of destiny, and that Peerless Divine Weapon would eventually fall into his hands.

Even though his injuries had not yet healed, Xiongba still possessed intense self-confidence.

This confidence stemmed, on one hand, from the fact that during his fierce battle with Bu Jingyun, he had finally brought the "Three Parts Returning to Origin Qi" to completion. On the other hand, it came from the "Returning Origin Blood Hand" manual he had found in the Tianxia Diyi Lou. This Returning Origin Blood Hand was an ancestral secret art capable of absorbing others' cultivation for one's own use, allowing one's own cultivation to grow like a snowball.

As long as he absorbed enough cultivation, he could return to his peak in a short time, or even reach a higher level.

After wandering the city for a day, while recovering from his injuries, he picked off a few isolated martial artists to test the power of the Returning Origin Blood Hand. It was not until the sun set that Xiongba left the city, heading toward the ruined temple where he was temporarily staying.

When he was still several dozen feet away from the ruined temple, Xiongba suddenly stopped, a grave expression appearing on his face. Because he had suddenly heard heavy breathing.

And that sound of breathing was clearly coming from inside the ruined temple.

With Xiongba's experience and insight, he could naturally tell that the person breathing had profound cultivation, far surpassing even his own in his prime.

A peerless master!

A true peerless master.

And besides the sound of breathing.

Xiongba also heard a series of complex sutra recitations.

Only, these sutras were extremely strange, with an inexplicable meaning. After listening for a while, Xiongba was shocked to discover that this was actually reciting the Banruo Xinjing in reverse.

Outside the temple, all the trees had withered, and the ground was littered with the corpses of countless birds, beasts, snakes, insects, and rodents.

A demonic aura and killing intent were slowly being released from the ruined temple, and a powerful energy field hovered within, constantly intensifying. Even from several dozen feet away, Xiongba felt a sense of oppression.

"There is a peerless master in the ruined temple."

"More importantly, this master seems to be at a critical moment of breaking through their realm."

For a moment, Xiongba's breathing grew heavy, and his eyes flickered.

If he could use the Returning Origin Blood Hand to absorb the cultivation of such a peerless master, his own cultivation would surely rise with the tide. But in his current crippled state, one careless move could cost him his life.

After hesitating for a long while, sensing the energy in the ruined temple growing stronger, Xiongba finally made up his mind. Holding his breath, he utilized the Fengshen Leg and headed toward the ruined temple.

Braving the powerful and vast pressure, Xiongba soon arrived inside the ruined temple, where he saw a person—a strange man wearing a blood-colored cassock. He sat cross-legged with his eyes tightly shut.

From this man's body, there actually emanated a sense of solemnity and dignity.

It was as if, as if he were a Buddha, a Buddha who delivered all living beings.

However, how could a Buddha recite sutras in reverse?

And how could he carry such undisguised, tyrannical killing intent?

Xiongba did not know that the person before him was, by nature, without sutras or Dao, without God or Buddha.

But his name, coincidentally, was—Jing Wang.

Xiongba's expression was extremely grave; at the same time, he gathered all his cultivation to resist the tyrannical killing intent emitted by Jing Wang, otherwise, he might die just like the birds and beasts.

He marveled in his heart, never expecting that in this mortal world, there would be so many masters.

"Perhaps, perhaps I really can transform his entire cultivation into my own!"

Xiongba had already seen that Jing Wang was at a critical moment of cultivation. He slowed his pace, walking step by step toward this peerless master. In this tense moment, even this supreme hegemon felt his heart pounding wildly, his palms sweating.

Men die for wealth, as birds die for food.

Xiongba believed that perhaps this person was his great stroke of fortune.

A moment later, Xiongba had approached within a zhang of Jing Wang.

However, when he wanted to take another step forward, he suddenly discovered that it was simply impossible to do so.

It was as if an invisible wall was blocking his path!?

"This... is this an invisible Qi wall?"

A bad premonition arose in Xiongba's heart. That invisible wall suddenly erupted with a tyrannical force, and with a "bang," it knocked him over. And the sound of this counter-shock was already enough to wake Jing Wang, who was guarded by the invisible Qi wall.

Swish!

Jing Wang's eyes snapped open, and a blood-red light instantly radiated from them, as if they were two dazzling red suns. His energy also erupted like a volcano, extremely violent. Then, he looked up to the sky and laughed wildly: "Haha, my No Scripture No Dao has finally been cultivated to the unprecedented fifteenth level."

His laughter was continuous, like surging waves, and also like peals of wild thunder and lightning. The entire dilapidated temple shook and was shattered to pieces with a boom. Everything within a radius of ten zhang—trees, mountain rocks—was instantly turned into powder by his laughter.

The ground also cracked with countless fissures amidst the wild laughter. The surrounding air seemed to be whipped up by his laughter into an invisible, violent gale, which instantly swept the shattered trees and rocks into it, forming a tornado that engulfed the heavens and the earth.

Xiongba was in even more miserable straits. The peerless power contained in Jing Wang's laughter shook his entire body. Even though he summoned his remaining internal energy, he was still shaken to the point of bleeding from his seven orifices.

"Yu Liancheng, Mo Baisuzhen, Black Child... I will make you die without a burial place."

Jing Wang's wild laughter finally ceased, but his tone was filled with intense hatred and killing intent.

It turned out that this Jing Wang was one of Mo Baisuzhen's subordinates, having inherited the Scripture Crossing of the Six Great Demon Crossings, which was why he could release an invisible Qi wall. Moreover, this person was exceptionally talented and had changed the Scripture Crossing into "No Scripture No Dao."

It was just that this person was by nature violent, paranoid, crazy, and arrogant... At first, he had a conflict with Black Child, and later, boasting that his No Scripture No Dao was complete, he actually challenged Yu Liancheng and was heavily injured by a single strike. Not long ago, he had even wanted to steal the Peerless Divine Weapon that had not yet been forged, finally angering Mo Baisuzhen, who launched a pursuit, leaving him in a sorry state.

But this Jing Wang was truly extraordinary.

He actually broke through the original limit of the thirteenth level of "No Scripture No Dao" during the pursuit, breaking through consecutively to the fifteenth level, and his power had increased several times over.

He was confident that even Yu Liancheng was definitely not his match.

"Heh, you actually have the destiny of a peerless overlord; it would be a pity if you died." Jing Wang looked at Xiongba with blood-red eyes, his five fingers splayed, and a peculiar suction force emerged. Like picking up a chick, he grabbed the neck of this peerless overlord: "But since you dared to hinder my cultivation, you shall—die!"

Killing was Jing Wang's specialty, and it was even a very interesting thing. He liked to torture people and liked to watch them slowly die. Streams of force immediately poured into Xiongba's body. Wherever the energy passed, it felt as if Xiongba was being sliced by a thousand knives. Xiongba, who no longer had the strength to fight back, closed his eyes, his forehead covered in cold sweat like rain, yet he did not utter a single sound of begging for mercy.

He thought to himself: "I, Xiongba, have roamed the world for most of my life, having killed countless people; wiping out families and clans was just a common occurrence. Now that I am being killed by someone, it is only fitting..."

Who would have thought that Jing Wang would suddenly stop.

This Jing Wang, who viewed human life as mere grass, actually stopped.

Xiongba curiously opened his eyes and was shocked to see Jing Wang's face twisted in pain. That violent True Qi was uncontrollably venting from under his feet, causing the already shattered ground to crack inch by inch once more.

"What is going on? Could it be... he has suffered a Qi deviation?"

Xiongba's eyes lit up; he could have escaped.

But he did not run; he knew this was a once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity.

He first broke free from the hand on his throat, then struck Jing Wang's chest with a palm, and finally, his hands locked onto the opponent's pulse points, suddenly activating the Returning Origin Blood Hand.

Xiongba had been facing a huge crisis.

But the so-called "crisis" meant that there was both danger and opportunity.

And now, he was transforming the danger into an opportunity.

The Returning Origin Blood Hand was terrifying to the extreme. In the original timeline, even Mo Baisuzhen had a large amount of Earth-Level Maha absorbed from her in a short time.

For a moment, Jing Wang's vast and peerless power poured into Xiongba's body like a bursting dam. And Xiongba's withered dantian was rapidly filled with the vast power, even overflowing.

"No! I am not reconciled!"

With the loss of his True Qi, Jing Wang let out a roar of unwillingness.

He was not reconciled that his fifteenth level of "No Scripture No Dao" had just been completed, and before he could realize his hegemony and revenge, he was acting as a stepping stone for a mere beggar-like fellow. He was not reconciled; this "No Scripture No Dao" was originally a supreme divine art, how could such a loophole appear? No... no... earlier there seemed to be a strange True Qi injected into his body, disrupting his energy, and only then did he suffer a Qi deviation.

Could that True Qi... thinking back carefully, it seemed somewhat familiar.

That was a force of extreme Yin, an endless power, that was... Earth-Level Maha...

It was her!

It was she who had been watching everything all along.

It was she who was manipulating everything.

Amidst a shrill scream.

Jing Wang died with his eyes wide open.

"Hahaha, I knew it, I, Xiongba, am a born overlord, favored by destiny." After adjusting his breath so that the tyrannical power would not devour him, Xiongba looked up to the sky and laughed, feeling his whole body filled with power.

His hunched body straightened up unconsciously.

His entire being radiated a peerless, domineering aura.

He, Xiongba, had returned.

And next, he would go to Baijian Villa to seize that Peerless Divine Weapon and dominate the world once again.

"Hahaha!"

Xiongba strode toward Baijian Villa amidst his wild laughter.

After Xiongba left, a black mist appeared out of thin air in the ruins of the dilapidated temple.

"Sigh."

From the black mist came a faint, lingering sigh.