Chapter 116: Take a Shit

Chenlong fled.

The instant the armor shattered and the sun rose, his figure vanished, dodging the cascade of power unleashed by the eruption of incandescent white light.

The blazing white light then rose slowly, striking the airborne Kongzhi with pinpoint precision before fracturing into a torrential rain of light that plummeted over a thousand li.

Wherever the rain of light passed, raging fires ignited. At a glance, they looked like mere blooms of flame without much power. Yet whether they touched vegetation or metal, everything was instantly reduced to nothingness, a clear testament to the profound mystery and devastating destructive force they contained.

In the center of the rain of light, Kongzhi slumped to the ground.

All four of his eyes were squeezed shut. His entire body was engulfed in flames that surged through his nose and mouth, burning his lungs and organs as countless fiery snakes roamed wildly through his meridians.

This was a true, grievous wound.

Chenlong's trump card—the sacrificial strike of the Sun-Perching Heart-Guard Armor—was not a physical attack, but a profound manifestation born from the divine weapon's Art of War.

The impact of the two on a cultivator was entirely different.

Physical strikes, whether from the hack of a knife or the chop of an axe, decapitation or bisection at the waist, meant nothing to a cultivator. There were many ways to deal with them.

But profound mysteries were a different story.

A divine weapon's Art of War and a magical treasure's profound mysteries possessed mighty power equal to that of Immortal Dao spells. The damage they inflicted on a cultivator far exceeded mundane injuries, making them much harder to treat.

Therefore, all Kongzhi could do was sit cross-legged and desperately gather his mana to suppress the rampaging flames inside his body, leaving him no leeway to care about anything else. His only comfort was that Chenlong had already sacrificed himself in the explosion, and with no other enemies around, he had enough time to slowly recover...

"Boom!"

A thunderous crash interrupted Kongzhi's thoughts. A piercing pain shot from the center of his brow, accompanied by an overwhelming, massive force.

Kongzhi's head violently snapped back, caught between shock and fury.

'Who is it!'

Projecting his spiritual sense, he rapidly swept his surroundings. Kongzhi's heart sank—he couldn't find Chenlong's corpse. Could he still be alive?

'No... it's fine. Even if he survived, in his current state, he has no ability to threaten me anymore. Besides, his final sacrificial strike completely blew up an entire set of armor-type magical treasures. Shrapnel is still scattered everywhere. He can't unleash another attack like that.'

'In short, the advantage is mine!'

Kongzhi quickly assessed the situation.

Immediately after, his spiritual sense returned feedback, locking onto the source of the sudden sneak attack... and Kongzhi's face revealed a look of utter astonishment.

Because the ones who had rushed to the battlefield immediately, without spending even a moment grieving Chenlong's exit, were—

"You!?"

He forcefully pried open two of his eyes, the eyeballs still wreathed in flames. Reflected in his blurry field of vision were the figures of Wang Ping and Ji Wuhen.

"You actually dared to come back?"

For a moment, Kongzhi felt both a sense of absurdity and sheer rage. Chenlong was one thing; he admitted the man was truly extraordinary and capable of causing him trouble.

But two Mortals? Seeing that he had already won and that their backer had blown himself to death, they actually dared to charge over so aggressively. What was the meaning of this? Did they think a tiger descending to the flatlands is bullied by dogs? That his injuries were severe enough for them to entertain ideas of victory?

Preposterous!

Originally, Kongzhi had thought to retreat, feeling that his condition was simply too poor. If another opponent on Chenlong's level showed up, he really might capsize in a mere ditch.

But seeing that the arrivals were Wang Ping and Ji Wuhen—these two lowly punks—he instantly changed his mind. He stood firmly in place instead, looking at them with a cold, indifferent expression.

"Book Mountain truly has good schemes."

Staring at Wang Ping, Kongzhi sneered. "Where is Xuanhe? Since he meticulously set up this trap to kill me, tell him to come out himself. Stop hiding."

"..."

The wind howled past, but no one answered.

Seeing this, Kongzhi grew even more furious. Daoist Xuanhe didn't come? His absence only made him more suspicious! After all, he and Chenlong had fought so fiercely in Shuzhong that the heavens and earth had nearly changed color.

How could Book Mountain not know?

If so, why were they just watching?

"Good, good, good. Are you treating me as nourishment for this Child of Destiny, hoping to devour my destiny in return? Xuanhe, do you even have the teeth for it!"

As his voice fell, Kongzhi decisively pounded his chest. A massive boom resounded like a heavenly drum as the two-faced, four-armed Buddha statue standing behind him violently sank down, merging with his physical body. It completely suppressed the incandescent white light left behind by Chenlong, revealing a solemn, golden-bodied form.

Desire Realm Heavenly King Phase!

Unlike the precious shrines and temples from before, this Buddha statue was his foundation for sensing the Great Brahma Heaven. It could not be easily damaged, which was why he had never brought it out during the battle.

Having it slashed once by Chenlong earlier had already made his heart ache to the extreme.

But his current condition was truly too poor. To temporarily suppress the flames inside his body, he could only drink poison to quench his thirst and summon this precious avatar to face the enemy.

'A good opportunity...!'

Seeing this scene, Ji Wuhen attacked first. Gripping the Hegemon Spear, he aimed it at Kongzhi's brow from afar, and the aura around his body instantly underwent a drastic transformation.

As the third-ranked expert on the Armament Manual, how could he not have some real skill?

The Hegemon Spear in his hands was a divine weapon, and he had long since completed the qualitative transformation of his Divine Intent and physical body. Reaching Seeing Divinity was not a difficult task for him!

In an instant, blood-red flames ignited over Ji Wuhen's body. That was the phenomenon of a martial artist's vitality burning under the influence of intent upon reaching Seeing Divinity, blending with their Internal Force, and ultimately refining and ascending. The resulting flaming aura was none other than Astral Force, an energy capable of clashing with a cultivator's mana.

"Roar—!"

The Hegemon Spear vibrated violently. It was as if Ji Wuhen was not holding a spear, but an enraged, man-eating dragon raising its majestic, horned head!

The next second, Ji Wuhen forcefully swung his arm.

He threw the spear directly!

Almost simultaneously, he fell out of the Seeing Divinity state, but all the Astral Force refined during that brief moment had been fully channeled into the spear.

Immediately, a point of cold light arrived first, followed by the spear striking like a dragon!

"Boom!"

Kongzhi's pupils violently contracted, but his physical eyes and spiritual sense—both heavily impaired by the interfering flames—were drastically weakened. For a moment, he actually couldn't see the long spear's trajectory.

By the time he recovered, the spear tip had already landed on his chest. It shoved his body backward, shattering layers of his golden body, and smashed him into a moderately sized crater within the already massive meteorite pit. It practically pinned him to the ground, leaving him unable to move.

'What is going on!?'

Kongzhi was finally starting to lose his composure. He couldn't understand why Ji Wuhen, whom he had so easily subdued earlier, could suddenly erupt with such a ferocious and unyielding strike.

Only then did he realize in hindsight.

It seemed he had made a miscalculation.

He shouldn't have let anger go to his head and stayed exactly where he was to wait for Wang Ping and Ji Wuhen. If he had flown away on a cloud right then, he would already be safe.

'Is it destiny!'

Kongzhi's mind chilled slightly, but he quickly shook off the ominous premonition. 'No, destiny isn't absolute either, not to mention there is such a massive gap in strength!'

The Child of Destiny hadn't even refined any mana, while he was an Awakened of the Brahma Nation, favored by a true Buddha. Even if some flow of destiny really had been set, he could easily break free with his strength. At the very least, it wouldn't be a hopeless, ten-deaths-no-life situation... That's right, there had to be a glimmer of hope for survival!

While convincing himself, Kongzhi exhausted his efforts to circulate his spiritual sense.

The flames raging inside his body? Forget about them!

He needed to focus on the threat in front of him first!

In the span of a lightning flash, he saw Wang Ping's figure. Carrying a large saber, Wang Ping was walking toward him at a very slow pace, looking for all the world like a traveler out for a leisurely spring stroll.

'I can't let my guard down... keep my eyes pinned on him.'

'Since this is a trap set by Book Mountain, the true killing blow must lie with this Child of Destiny. As long as I watch him dead on, I have a chance to reverse the situation.'

Kongzhi readied himself.

No matter what method Wang Ping used—be it a magical treasure or a spell—he would be able to find a countermeasure at the very first moment. At worst, he could dodge it.

However, in the very next instant—

"Slash!"

Blood sprayed wildly, illuminating the terrified yet bewildered expression on Kongzhi's face. It seemed that even at this moment, he still didn't know what had just happened.

Extreme speed?

'Impossible! He was completely locked onto by my spiritual sense. Even if his speed spiked to match Chenlong's, there is absolutely no way I wouldn't see his movements clearly.'

Kongzhi couldn't understand it. Earlier, he hadn't blocked Ji Wuhen's thrown Hegemon Spear because he had been distracted suppressing his internal injuries. But just now, he had abandoned suppressing his wounds entirely just to capture Wang Ping's movements. Yet despite doing so, he actually hadn't been able to react at all.

This didn't make sense!

A magical treasure's profound mystery? A spell's effect? Or some kind of special martial art? For a moment, guesses continuously surfaced in Kongzhi's mind, only for him to reject them one by one.

What on earth was it?

"Shing—!"

Another flash of blade light swept past, and a mist of blood sprayed once more. Kongzhi still didn't see anything clearly. He staggered to his knees, another gash appearing on his body.

Yet he completely ignored it. Instead, he stared fixedly at Wang Ping, who was standing not far away, and forced a voice through his gritted teeth. "Time-Stealing Thief... You aren't the Child of Destiny!"

"You're a bandit cultivator?"

"To be able to steal the identity of Book Mountain's Child of Destiny, and even keep that guy Xuanhe completely in the dark about it... Could it be that you concurrently cultivate the methods of the Merit-Stealing Thief?"

Hearing this, Wang Ping raised an eyebrow.

'I've been exposed.'

That was right. The truth behind those two saber strikes was the Time-Stealing Thief. Since mastering this immortal art obtained from the Heaven-Stealing Thief, he had barely ever used it.

For one, he didn't want to sink too deeply into this path.

For another, it was simply too useless. Lacking mana, he couldn't use the Time-Stealing Thief to intercept seven days of time like the Heaven-Stealing Thief could.

He could only intercept seven instants.

It was less than a second from start to finish, and he couldn't even hold onto it long-term. Once the effect ended, the stolen time had to be returned, making it very difficult to apply in actual combat.

It wasn't until the Dragon Head Guillotine ascended to become a divine weapon that Wang Ping finally found the correct way to use it.

'By relying on my ultra-high-speed drawing of the blade, I condense the time it takes to slash at the opponent into a single instant, and then I use the Time-Stealing Thief to steal that exact window of time.'

The result was exactly like just now.

He directly skipped the process of drawing the blade and arrived straight at the result of a successful hit. During that period, no matter how Kongzhi used his spiritual sense to lock on, it was impossible to catch his figure.

Of course, this move also had a flaw.

Namely, the amount of time his Time-Stealing Thief could currently steal was limited. Once the power of his strike exceeded a certain threshold, there was no way to steal that time.

Therefore, he could only inflict wounds, but it was very hard to strike a lethal blow.

However, the newly promoted divine weapon, the Dragon Head Guillotine, successfully compensated for this weakness.

"Thud!"

Wang Ping stood firmly in place, planting the Dragon Head Guillotine heavily into the ground. He then circulated his Divine Intent and, without the slightest hesitation, activated this divine weapon's Art of War.

Dharma Covenant!

Almost simultaneously, Kongzhi sensed it too.

'A cursing art?'

He immediately looked down at the two saber wounds on his body and made a judgment: 'It forcibly manipulates my actions, but the restrictions are immense. It can be resisted and dispelled.'

'Curses follow the principle of equivalent exchange—you only get what you pay for. Two measly, non-fatal saber wounds can't possibly force me to commit suicide outright. Moreover, the more demanding the command is, the easier it is to neutralize. As long as I use my mana to stabilize myself, he can, at most, make me halt my movements for a few seconds...'

The next second, he heard Wang Ping's command.

He said:

"Take a shit."

Kongzhi: "...???"

Pfft!