Chapter 503 — The Cult Master Who Slays the Heart and Seizes Life

Shen Mu halted and asked, "Xing An, how many years of yang life have you?"

Xing An was slightly taken aback, then sneered, "I am a true god; my span of life is endless! What yang life have I?"

Shen Mu shook his head. "I asked how much yang life remains to your original body. Here in Fengdu, all you have is the lifespan of your original body. If your original body's allotted span runs out, you die as well."

Xing An was deeply shaken.

The god-man Chixiu flapped his wings and said lazily, "When yang life is gone, there is still yin life. Yang life is the flesh; yin life is the soul. Rest easy—when your yang life ends, you may remain here forever."

Xing An was seized with terror. He strove with all his might to leave Fengdu, but how could those he had killed ever let him go?

Xing An could not move a single step; instead, those vengeful dead dragged him back toward the city.

"King Yama, you have broken your word!"

Xing An cried out fiercely, "You mean to trap me here until I die, and reap my soul!"

"He has already let you go—it is simply that you cannot leave."

Shen Mu shook his head. "Senior Brother Xing An, have you still not understood King Yama's meaning? If you wish to walk out of Fengdu, you must abandon the bodies of others and use your own body—only then can you leave. Otherwise, you will die of old age here!"

Xing An was deeply shaken.

To make him cast away the divine bodies of others was nothing less than to overturn outright the pursuit and creed of his entire life, to discard the flesh and primordial spirit as mighty as a true god's!

"Would you rather die of old age here, or take one gamble?"

Shen Mu said, "Ever since you realized there was no hope of becoming a god, you lost the will to strive—is that not so? From that moment on, you were no longer a sage such as appears once in five hundred years; you were only a pitiful wretch, hoping to possess what belongs to others to elevate yourself, never knowing that after death all is emptiness! All your labors, when they come to this place, are flowers in the mist and moons in the water, worth not the least shred—and they have become your hindrance instead. What is not yours was never yours, from first to last!"

Xing An's dao-heart thundered. Even when Fan Xuanshu Li, the cult master, had hurled his dao-heart against his own, his dao-heart had not been damaged; yet now, a few words from Shen Mu had opened a breach in it!

That he had believed it his, and in the end it was not his—this was the heaviest blow of all!

"The road to godhood—I have already paved it for you."

Shen Mu, a skeleton, stood before him, seeming very small, yet possessed of a bearing that made a man look up to him. Calmly he said, "Abandon now these limbs that are not yours and take back your own limbs, and you may still become a god, may still walk your own road. Chest, is there still a limb in your belly that has not turned into a man?"

Behind him the Taotie clamped its jaws shut for dear life, while the Dragon Qilin struggled to pry its mouth open, thrust its head in to peer at the Taotie's belly, and said, "Cult Master, there are indeed several limbs in here!"

"The limbs of others will turn into men here in Fengdu, but you are not dead, so yours will not."

Shen Mu said, "Chest, spit them out and give them back to him, and let him carry his own limbs back."

How could the Taotie bear to part with them?

From its belly came the Dragon Qilin's voice, muffled and booming: "Cult Master, I have been eaten by it again!"

Shen Mu was furious. He pounded and kicked. "Spit it out! Spit it out at once!"

The Taotie stood unmoved. After a long while it reluctantly spat out the Dragon Qilin along with those limbs.

The Dragon Qilin hurriedly hid behind Shen Mu; this great chest filled it with dread.

Shen Mu tossed the limbs before Xing An and said coolly, "Release the others and take back your own body, and you live. Otherwise, you die. Fat Dragon, Chest, let us go and leave him to think it over."

Xing An was silent. The dozens of limbs upon his body were again madly beating him, wanting to tear him apart, wanting to drag him down into death with them; yet still he found it hard to make the decision.

To make him deny the striving of his whole life and admit that he had been wrong—that he still found hard to do.

Yet he knew: to kill a man, kill his heart. Though Shen Mu was far beneath him in cultivation and strength, he had already defeated him in the dao-heart, smashed his dao-heart utterly, smashed it beyond even sweeping up!

"Cult Master, will Xing An cut away those divine bodies?" the Dragon Qilin asked, looking back.

Shen Mu shook his head. "That depends on his own resolve. Even if he takes back his former fleshly body, he can live only a few more years, and whether he can become a god within those years, I do not know. But if he does not take it back, he will die of old age here. I cannot say either..."

Just then, a sonorous voice suddenly laughed: "Chixiu, I hear my grand-disciple has been arrested and brought in by you?"