Chapter 577: No Shore on Turning Back, Life and Death Irrelevant

Shaolin's Seventy-Two Ultimate Techniques—Great Vajra Palm.

It should have been a fierce palm technique capable of splitting mountains and rocks, but this palm printed on Susanoo's back was devoid of any killing intent, light and airy like the Buddha plucking a flower, and as calm as morning dew dripping onto petals.

Susanoo's movements stopped right there.

*Bang, bang! *

Li Miao backhanded a punch, swung his arms away, staggered back a few steps after landing, and spat out a mouthful of stagnant blood.

*Bang! *

Susanoo's giant body fell down.

Revealing the figure standing behind him.

The figure was gaunt and tall, with sunken cheeks, long and drooping eyes, and corners of the mouth turned downward, a face full of sorrow. The skin on his body was loose and covered in scars.

"Benefactor."

"Master."

Li Miao coughed a few times and gave a thumbs up.

"Satisfying!"

Jianzhen's drooping corners of the mouth suddenly curved up.

"I feel the same way."

After laughing, he let out another sigh.

"But Benefactor, you shouldn't have put yourself in danger."

He opened his arms and scanned himself.

He was naked, and the bloodstains were not yet dry.

Behind him, the pool of blood Susanoo had shed had mostly dried up. A trail of bloody footprints extended all the way to Jianzhen's feet.

That half-heart.

The half-heart Susanoo vomited after being pierced by Li Miao's sword was Jianzhen himself.

Jianzhen slowly shook his head.

"Benefactor, when you stabbed the sword into the heart, you should have killed me and the demon together. But you deliberately delayed for a few breaths, probing the boundary between me and him—and then deliberately separated me out."

"Do you know, Benefactor, if I had condensed my body a breath later, or if I had been delayed by his nature for an instant, you would have—"

Li Miao waved his hand to interrupt him.

"Isn't that something to blame you for, Master?"

He coughed a few times, reached out with his left hand to grasp his broken right arm, tore off the rotten flesh, and activated his healing technique to begin knitting the flesh together. Then he looked around and found an empty space to sit down.

"We agreed to join forces against the enemy, but I waited for you for a long time without seeing any movement. I had no choice but to gamble on whether I could separate you out."

Jianzhen slowly shook his head, guided the blood on his body with one hand, and it condensed into a monk's robe. He walked forward a few steps and sat down cross-legged opposite Li Miao.

"It is my fault."

"From the moment I gave up control, it was like being pressed into the seawater, muddled and unable to react, only able to slightly delay Susanoo's moves, but it seems it didn't have any effect."

"Even after being split open by your sword and vomited out by Susanoo, I was muddled and unable to make any moves."

"The moment you were captured by Susanoo just now, Benefactor, it almost made me break the vow of anger."

Jianzhen sighed first, then smiled.

"But if I hadn't seen you in danger, I probably wouldn't have been able to condense my body in a hurry. Could it be that you were doing that on purpose, Benefactor?"

Li Miao squinted at him.

He reached out and guided his hand over the wounds all over his body.

"Do you think I'm a half-immortal, Master?"

"Or do you think the injuries your Patriarch left on me are fake? I've lost my middle dantian out of the three, so it's not bad that I can fight like this."

Jianzhen smiled and nodded.

"I was reckless."

The two were silent for a moment.

A few breaths later, Jianzhen suddenly said seriously.

"Could I trouble you, Benefactor, to help me find a wooden fish?"

Li Miao sighed and stood up, supporting himself on the ground.

"You stinky monks are always ordering people around."

"Xingchi, Bodhidharma, and now you too, one after another, poking your last wishes into people's faces, putting them on a moral grill to roast—wait."

He got up and left.

After a while, Li Miao returned carrying a bundle, sat down opposite Jianzhen, and unfolded the bundle, revealing several items.

"It's a good thing Enryaku-ji is full of wine-and-meat monks; if I had fought this battle in a temple in the Central Plains, it would have been hard to find this stuff—hm, it's aged, not bad."

Jianzhen looked down and was stunned.

"Benefactor... I am a monk."

"A proper monk." ===== CHAPTER 578 =====