Chapter 486 — Jet-Black Heart

"No, that cannot be!

I clearly worshipped your soul to death—how can you possibly still be alive? " Kui Wushen eyed the Xing Han who had sat up, and said suspiciously: "Could it be you are not called Xing Han? No, that is not right either. With that one bow just now, I clearly saw your soul shatter and disperse. Once a soul has shattered and dispersed, it cannot possibly live!

What method did you use to gather your dissipated soul back together? You do have some real magic about you. . . " He circled around Xing Han once, and mused: "Just now I sensed your soul collapse, and then a strange soul crept out of that box and went back into your corpse, bringing you back to life.

Yet I have one doubt—once the soul is dead, even if another soul returns to your body, you are no longer yourself. How did you manage to preserve your own consciousness?

" Xing Han rose to his feet, looking up at Kui Wushen's primordial spirit with a strange glint in his eyes, and his steps began to move as well. Kui Wushen circled him, and he circled Kui Wushen, the two tracing orbits one large and one small, like two stars revolving around each other.

Xu Shenghua looked at Shen Mu, recalling the scene when he had been defeated by Shen Mu. Back then, Shen Mu had drawn him in with qi, suppressed him with momentum, and worn him down with the changing stances and footwork of his maneuvers. That time, Xu Shenghua had been routed—before a single blow was traded, he vomited blood and collapsed, wilted, to the ground.

In the end it was Shen Mu who treated him, leaving Xu Shenghua owing Shen Mu a mountain of debt and forcing him to earn money by hammering iron. What Kui Wushen and Xing Han were doing now was somewhat like Shen Mu's tactics back then, but far more profound. Xing Han stared at Kui Wushen and praised him endlessly: "What a treasure!

Kui Wushen, you are a truly wondrous treasure! In all my years of collecting primordial spirits, none has been as formidable as you.

Kui Wushen, you will be the crown jewel of my collection! " "Collect me? " The two had already risen from the ground into the air. Kui Wushen sneered: "Do you take me for a clay idol?

My dharma power is magnificent and boundless, my battle prowess fierce beyond measure.

I am no counterfeit god of the counterfeit Heavenly Court—I am a deity of the true Heavenly Court! I have toppled the old dynasties of the counterfeit Heavenly Court and destroyed countless mighty beings. Wherever I have passed, corpses litter the fields, seas of blood stretch without end! You are nothing but a little wretch practicing strange arts and exotic techniques, a fraud who swaggers and bluffs, like a street charlatan showing petty tricks. I know your trick. What flew out of that box just now was only the seven corporeal souls—not the three spiritual souls. Your spirit is still your own, but you seized another's seven corporeal souls. " Shen Mu's expression shifted slightly: "Xing Han's origin is the three spiritual souls? He cultivated the three spiritual souls into godhood? In that case, his three spiritual souls may not be hidden in the box.

" Xing Han's face shifted slightly, and he praised: "A fine treasure indeed. Kui Wushen, you make me admire you more and more.

Just now you worshipped me dead, and yet your soul-worship shamanic art has already yielded its mystery to me. The so-called soul-worship shamanic art does not worship the victim's souls into dissolution—it worships the three spiritual souls and seven corporeal souls asunder, forcing the seven corporeal souls to separate from the three spiritual souls. The people you have worshipped dead still have their souls intact; they are simply under your forcible control. Otherwise, how could so many wronged spirits be clinging to your body? Your shamanic art is merely an exceedingly ferocious soul technique! " Little Tathagata's body convulsed, and he murmured: "So that is how it is. " The many demon-clan eminent monks around him, who were shielding him and suppressing the soul that could shatter at any moment, suddenly understood as well, feeling as if the clouds had parted and the sun had emerged. The Buddhist path's arts and divine powers were different from all others; with their Buddha eyes they could see wronged spirits.

They had long noticed the countless resentful souls around Kui Wushen, and had thought that delivering Kui Wushen would be a monumental deed of merit, perhaps enough to break through the twenty heavens of the Buddha realm and win them Buddhahood.

Kui Wushen could worship anyone to death merely by knowing his name, scattering his soul—a truly extraordinary art—but they had never connected the wronged spirits coiled about Kui Wushen with his soul-worship shamanic art. Shen Mu's heart quivered too. Xing Han was truly remarkable!

Kui Wushen had worshipped him twice in all. The first time, Ban Gongcuo had driven the soul-worship shamanic art but failed to worship him dead. The second was that bow just now, which had directly "worshipped Xing Han dead. " After only two occasions, he had seen through the subtlety of Kui Wushen's soul-worship divine power!

Such talent, such insight—truly extraordinary! "His talent and insight are in no way inferior to Imperial Tutor Jingping's! What a pity this man spends all his energy searching for other near-god powerhouses and collecting their fleshly bodies.

Had he devoted all his energy to cultivation.

. . well, by now he would probably have died of old age anyway, since the Spirit Bridge is broken.

.

.

wait a moment! " Shen Mu's body jolted, an incredulous look in his eyes. Imperial Tutor Jingping was the most gifted being Shen Mu had ever encountered. In reform and revolution, his boldness was unmatched; and before he ever launched his reforms, his name had already thundered across the world, earning him the tribute of the Old Tathagata and the Old Daoist Master as a sage who appeared once in five hundred years! The Imperial Tutor was now in his prime.

Then who had been the once-in-five-hundred-years sage before him?

"It couldn't be. . . " Shen Mu's expression turned odd.

Xing Han's talent and insight were so towering that only Imperial Tutor Jingping could rival him. Did that not mean the once-in-five-hundred-years sage of the Village Head's era was none other than Xing Han?

"Highly possible!

The Imperial Tutor also has a taste for collecting other people's body parts! " Shen Mu clenched his fists—Imperial Tutor Jingping had collected the Lame Elder's leg! Up in midair, Kui Wushen and Xing Han suddenly came to blows.

The darkness over Little Sumeru Mountain was torn open by their divine powers.

Kui Wushen could not worship him dead, but he was, after all, the primordial spirit of a deity—his cultivation and divine powers were fiercely formidable.

Most of his techniques were soul arts, and among them were all manner of other spells and arts. The might of his spells and arts was staggering; they ripped the darkness apart to reveal the sinister faces hidden within. With his spells at such an extreme, even without a fleshly body, his battle strength far surpassed Little Tathagata's. But none of his arts could touch Xing Han. Xing Han's speed was simply too fast—a fleeting shadow, a passing light—the very speed of the Lame Elder!

Faced with such speed, even Kui Wushen's arts could not chase him down, could not strike him! The Lame Elder's speed was the foremost under heaven; if he fled at full tilt, no one could catch him.

In his life, he had known only two defeats. The first was when he stole the Celestial Emperor's Jade Register—Imperial Tutor Jingping had spotted him, and before the Lame Elder's speed could even flare, cut off one of his legs with a single sword stroke!

The second was when he met Xing Han.

The Lame Elder's speed might be inconceivably fast, but his cultivation was not as deep as Xing Han's.