Chapter 591 — The Grudge-Bound Enemy

Butcher, the Blind Elder, and the Silent Artisan rushed forward in a clatter, their eyes blazing as they fixed on his eyes, staring without blinking at his third eye.

Suddenly a thunderous boom rang out. The Lame Elder had already fled a hundred li away, but when he looked back and saw Butcher and the others gathered around Shen Mu, even his famously thick hide could not keep his old face from flushing red. He turned and ran back.

Everyone knew he was timid, yet no one mocked him. Instead, they examined Shen Mu's eyes with great care.

Shen Mu's eyeballs darted back and forth. He stammered, "Grandmother, Grandfathers, what are you all looking at?"

Grandmother Zhu examined him most carefully of all. She found nothing abnormal in his third eye. She could only see that the pupil of this eye was like the pattern of a butterfly's wing—the veins within it clearly different from those of an ordinary human eye, structured like a butterfly's wing, and these patterns were ceaselessly drifting and shifting.

"Shen'er, can you truly not remember what just happened?" Grandmother Zhu asked.

Shen Mu pondered bitterly. Suddenly his eyes lit up. "I remember!"

The others could not help growing anxious. Shen Mu laughed. "I was channeling the Three Cores of the Mystic Body, and when I ran the Sacred Pupil technique that Blind Grandfather perfected into my third eye, I felt an incomparably vast power surge in—as though I were omnipotent. And then…"

His brow furrowed tightly. He sank back into deep thought. The memory after that was a complete blank. It was as though he had lost a segment of his memory.

And this was not the first time. In Fengdu, when King Yan sealed his jade pendant, it had happened once. Later, when Varahi also sealed the jade pendant, it happened again.

This time it had nothing to do with the jade pendant—yet unexpectedly, he had still lost a segment of memory.

"The jade pendant… where is my jade pendant?"

Shen Mu's scalp suddenly went numb. He scrambled to his feet in panic, searching high and low, his hands and feet ice-cold. His voice trembled. "My ancestral jade pendant is gone… Bah, not ancestral—it's the jade pendant that Earthlord forged for me to suppress my demonic nature! It's gone! Grandmother, Blind Grandfather, did any of you see my jade pendant… Lame Grandfather, you must have taken it, right? Don't joke around—the curse will erupt! Give it back, quickly!"

The Lame Elder shook his head. "I didn't steal your jade pendant. But the curse did indeed erupt."

Shen Mu's body convulsed. He stood there dazed, staring at the enormous pit before him.

Before him, the original Wuyou City had vanished, replaced by a massive abyss—unfathomably vast, filled with churning magma and a sea of fire.

A true sea of magma, terrifyingly vast.

"The power of this curse is somewhat terrifyingly great—a hundred times more terrifying than the time I fell into Varahi's hands…" Shen Mu murmured.

"Shen'er, Earthlord appeared just now. He placed your jade pendant into your third eye."

Grandmother Zhu walked over and instructed, "Clear your head first. We few will go over there and discuss matters."

Shen Mu nodded blankly.

Grandmother Zhu glanced at the Blind Elder. The Blind Elder instantly became alert and was about to slip away when Butcher and the Silent Artisan flanked him from left and right, one seizing his left arm, the other his right.

"What are you doing?"

The Blind Elder was hoisted up by them, both feet dangling in the air. He cried out, "We're all from the same village! What are you doing? Have some decency at least! Shen'er, Shen'er…"

Butcher and the Silent Artisan, faces wreathed in smiles, carried him off into the distance. Shen Mu turned back, about to ask what was happening, when Grandmother Zhu smiled gently. "Shen'er, we're going to discuss matters. You needn't come along. Clear your head properly. Lame Elder, Deaf Elder, let's go. Bashan, you come too."

The group departed.

"Don't go too far now! No rough stuff! We all see each other every day! The Sacred Pupil technique—you all have a share in it too! When I taught it to Shen'er, you were all right there watching, and you all approved… You're really hitting me—Lame Elder, you have the nerve to hit me too? Bashan, I'm your martial uncle… Butcher, we've always been the closest… You're all taking sides! Shen'er is the one who caused the trouble—why don't you go beat him up? Shen'er, Shen'er, save me!"

Shen Mu wore a look of suspicion. He took out a mirror and examined the eye at the center of his brow. The eye at his brow seemed perfectly normal. He could see nothing particularly unique about this vertical eye.

"What exactly is the purpose of this eye?" he wondered inwardly.

After a while, the group returned to the abyss, thoroughly satisfied. The Blind Elder's nose was swollen and his face bruised, his clothes in disarray.

Shen Mu turned back, both shocked and delighted. "Grandmother, I just channeled the Three Cores of the Mystic Body again, and I finally discovered the secret of this vertical eye!"

Grandmother Zhu and the others felt their blood run cold. They were about to flee when Shen Mu had already begun channeling the Three Cores of the Mystic Body—but the vertical eye at his brow showed no terrifying anomaly. Only then did everyone breathe a sigh of relief, inwardly ashamed.

Shen Mu was full of enthusiasm. Channeling the Three Cores of the Mystic Body, he said, "When I channel this vertical eye, I can see the endless Netherworld, and I can see the Netherworld beneath each person's Shrine of Life and Death. I think I can even use this eye to tear apart the Netherworld of their Shrine of Life and Death and directly take their lives!"

Butcher coughed. "Shen'er, killing someone with a single glare isn't quite appropriate, is it? It harms the natural order and damages your karma. Better to just cut them down with a blade. This vertical eye of yours—if you can avoid using it, then don't."

Grandmother Zhu, the Blind Elder, and the others nodded repeatedly. The Lame Elder said, "You can stab someone in the back—that's still better than glaring them to death with your third eye."

Shen Mu was astonished. He probed, "Isn't it the same thing?"

Bashan said in a loud voice, "Of course it's not the same! If you use this eye of yours, I'm afraid—"

Butcher's blade pressed against his neck. Butcher's expression was grim. Bashan the Libationer hastily shut his mouth.

Shen Mu was perplexed.

"Varahi, did you sense it?"

Lu Li sensed the terrifying energy released by the opening of Shen Mu's third eye, the distortion of space it caused. He said in a low voice, "This is the great might of the Divine Child of the Netherworld! I can lend you a hand and help you rule Taihuang Heaven—but you must also help me obtain him! If I can obtain him, what kind of power would I possess?"

Varahi gazed toward the direction of Wuwang City, his expression grave. He too had sensed the frightful tremor released when Shen Mu lost control. "Fire Tuoluo is dead—could it also be related to him? And Tian Fenggou, you must not disappoint me…"

And up ahead, the demon gods from the Netherworld, each leading countless legions of Netherworld monsters, were marching mightily toward Li City. When Shen Mu lost control, these ancestors of the demon race instantly froze, looking in panic toward the direction from which Shen Mu's aura emanated.

The army of Netherworld monsters also fell into turmoil, panic-stricken. They no longer advanced but turned one after another, surging backward like a tide, trampling each other, not daring to continue forward.

In an instant, countless Netherworld monsters were trampled to death. Some monsters, impatient with their companions' slow flight, even turned on them with deadly force. The demon army was in complete chaos!