HBWnovel Chapter 13 Stealing Heaven's Merit Leads to Destruction of Body and Soul
Chapter 13 Stealing Heaven's Merit Leads to Destruction of Body and Soul
"Hurry, hurry, as the law commands! Break—!"
The roar echoed through the mountains. Chen Daoling's eyes widened in fury. He bit his tongue, spitting out a mouthful of scalding blood that landed squarely on the Bagua bronze mirror in his palm. The mirror, already radiating a faint spiritual light, instantly erupted with a blinding red light upon being soaked in the blood. Like a runaway fire serpent, it carried his life's cultivation as it slammed into the invisible barrier surrounding the villa!
"Buzz—!"
A dull tremor exploded on the mountaintop, and the ground tingled slightly. But the seemingly unstoppable red light, upon touching the barrier, was like sand thrown into the deep sea, not even causing a ripple. It was instantly swallowed up by the barrier and disappeared without a trace.
"puff--"
The force of the formation's backlash instantly swept over his entire body. Chen Daoling's face turned deathly pale, his blood surging violently. He staggered back three steps, his legs giving way. If he hadn't managed to brace himself with his whisk in time, he would have collapsed onto his buttocks in the mud. Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth down his chin, staining his bright yellow Taoist robe red.
"Master!" The slick-haired man was terrified and rushed forward to support him, his voice filled with panic. "This formation is too evil... Even your ancestral Bagua Mirror can't break it? This is impossible!"
Chen Daoling shoved his disciple's hand away, panting heavily, his chest heaving. His cloudy eyes were fixed on the villa's courtyard, churning with disbelief, rage, and resentment. His voice was hoarse as a broken gong: "Impossible... I've studied feng shui and metaphysics for sixty years, and I can even adjust the dragon veins of China. How could a mere protective formation possibly stop me?!"
His roar still echoed through the mountains when, in his line of sight, a figure in blue slowly emerged from the depths of the villa.
Lu Yuan, dressed in a long blue robe, the hem of which lightly brushed the bluestone slabs in the courtyard, walked with unhurried steps and a calm expression. Each step he took felt as if he were stepping on the hearts of everyone present. He stopped inside the barrier, and through that invisible wall, his gaze swept indifferently over the group of clowns jumping around outside the door. His eyes were devoid of any emotion, as if he were looking at a group of insignificant ants.
The moment Lin Wan'er saw Lu Yuan's face clearly, her blood seemed to freeze instantly. A piercing, distorted scream escaped her throat, as if she had seen a vengeful ghost: "Lu Yuan?! You...you weren't arrested by the military?!"
She trembled with fear, instinctively shrinking behind the man with the slicked-back hair. The feigned smugness on her face was instantly shattered by extreme terror, her face turning ashen, and her hands and feet shaking uncontrollably. She never imagined that this wild boy she considered to have no background could escape unscathed from the military's encirclement!
Lu Yuan didn't even glance at her, his eyes filled with undisguised contempt. This kind of scum, so easily betrayed and opportunistic for wealth and status, was an eyesore to even look at.
His gaze slowly fell on Chen Daoling, his thin lips parted slightly, and his voice was cold, carrying a hint of nonchalant mockery: "Old man, you're spitting blood at my doorstep, are you tired of living and trying to scam me?"
Chen Daoling was choked by the mockery, his blood rushing to his head, but he forced it down. He pushed away his disciple who was supporting him, straightening his hunched back and adopting the air of a great master of the Xuanmen sect. He narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing Lu Yuan, unable to discern the young man's cultivation level. Yet, subconsciously, he felt that a mere lad in his early twenties, even if he had been cultivating since birth, could at most be a mere internal energy martial artist.
The spiritual energy filling this mountain and the strange formation must be the remains left by some reclusive master, and this kid just happened to stumble upon them by sheer luck!
Thinking of this, Chen Daoling regained his confidence. He raised his hand and pointed at Lu Yuan with his whisk, his tone full of condescending pity, as if he were showing mercy to an ignorant ant: "Young man, don't be so arrogant! Your villa is filled with demonic energy, which has seriously disrupted the feng shui of Jiangzhou and brought chaos to the area!"
"I am a grand master of the Xuanmen sect in China. Today, I have come in accordance with the will of Heaven to suppress the evil spirits here and restore peace to Jiangzhou. If you know what's good for you, obediently remove the formation and hand over this house to me. Considering your ignorance, I can guarantee you a life of wealth and prosperity, free from worries about food and clothing. Otherwise..."
"Otherwise what?"
Lu Yuan interrupted him calmly, his tone showing no fear but rather a hint of amusement, as if he were watching a clown entertaining himself.
Enraged by his attitude, Chen Daoling snorted coldly, his tone becoming increasingly arrogant and blatantly threatening: "Otherwise, with a single order from me, all the powerful and influential figures within China will instantly ruin your reputation and leave you without a burial place! Do you think you can escape the military, but you can escape my methods?"
Lu Yuan smiled.
It was a faint smile, a cold curve at the corners of his lips, devoid of any warmth, yet his eyes churned with a chilling intensity. Those who knew him well knew that he rarely smiled, but each time he did, it meant someone was about to vanish from this world, body and soul.
"You spout empty words of feigned compassion, but your hearts are filled with filthy thoughts of seizing treasures and prolonging your lives." Lu Yuan's voice suddenly turned cold, carrying an undeniable domineering aura. "Today, I will use the karma of this mortal world to crush your self-deceiving dreams of immortality, and show you what true power and authority really mean!"
Before he finished speaking, Lu Yuan slowly raised his right hand, his fingertips slightly bent, and gently flicked the invisible barrier in front of him.
"Snap—!"
A crisp cracking sound rang out, but what shattered was not the invisible barrier, but the Seven Stars Shattering Array that Chen Daoling had painstakingly set up!
A terrifying, suffocating shockwave, mixed with the backlash from the collapsing formation, crashed into Chen Daoling and his disciples like an out-of-control heavy truck with earth-shattering force!
"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"
Several muffled thuds rang out in succession. Before Chen Daoling's disciples could even scream, they were gushing blood and flying backward like bowling balls, flying more than ten meters away. They crashed heavily into the tire tracks left by the military, twitched a few times, and then fell still, their fate unknown.
Lin Wan'er was so frightened that her body went limp, and she collapsed into the muddy water. A warm liquid flowed down her trouser leg; she had wet herself. She trembled like a leaf, her teeth chattering, and she didn't even have the courage to look up at Lu Yuan; only a deep-seated fear remained.
The Bagua bronze mirror in Chen Daoling's hand shattered into powder with a "crack" under the impact of the shockwave, shards splattering all over his face. He was pressed firmly to the ground by the shockwave, his chest heaving violently, as if his internal organs had been displaced, and mouthful after mouthful of blood gushed from his mouth, staining the soil beneath him red.
"You... what kind of sorcery did you use?!" Chen Daoling lay on the ground, roaring with his last ounce of strength, his voice filled with despair and resentment. "My mystical arts, my magical artifacts, how could they... how could they be less than a single finger of yours?!"
His proudest achievement, the esoteric arts he had studied for sixty years, were utterly worthless in front of this young man! This enormous disparity was driving him almost insane.
Lu Yuan walked slowly to him, looking down at him without a trace of pity in his eyes. He reached into his storage ring and pulled out a yellowed parchment scroll, tossing it aside. The scroll landed lightly on Chen Daoling's blood-stained old face.
"Didn't you want to seize the creation of heaven and earth and achieve immortality?" Lu Yuan's voice was cold and tinged with a hint of mockery. "This contains an ancient spirit-gathering technique that can directly absorb the spiritual energy of this entire mountain into your body. How much you can absorb depends on your own fate."
Chen Daoling froze, then, as if grasping at a last straw, he shakily raised his blood-stained hand and grabbed the parchment scroll. He only glanced at it briefly before his cloudy eyes flashed with an intense, crazed light, forgetting even to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth.
"Immortal technique...this is a true immortal technique!!" He roared wildly, his voice filled with ecstatic joy. His desire for longevity completely overwhelmed all reason and vigilance. He didn't care that the technique was given to him by Lu Yuan, nor whether there was any trickery involved. At this moment, only the word "immortality" was in his eyes.
Ignoring his injuries, Chen Daoling suddenly sat cross-legged on the ground, quickly forming hand seals and frantically circulating the remaining true energy in his body according to the route recorded on the parchment scroll.
"call--!"
The abundant spiritual energy on Panlong Mountain seemed to have found an outlet, instantly transforming into visible white columns of energy that poured frantically into Chen Daoling's head. The age spots on his face faded at a visible speed, his gray hair gradually turned black and shiny, and his hunched body slowly straightened, making him look decades younger.
"Hahaha!! I've broken through! I've really broken through!!" Chen Daoling laughed wildly, his voice filled with madness. "I'm going to live forever! I'm going to become a true Immortal Master!!"
Watching this scene unfold, Lin Wan'er's previously lifeless eyes instantly ignited with hope. Thinking Chen Daoling was about to turn the tables, she scrambled over, tears and snot streaming down her face, her voice both obsequious and vicious: "Master is mighty! Master is awesome! Quickly kill that little beast surnamed Lu and avenge us!"
Lu Yuan stood three meters away, arms crossed, expression indifferent, watching the two disgraceful masters and disciples as if watching a monkey show, his eyes showing no emotion whatsoever.
What he threw to Chen Daoling wasn't some ancient spirit-gathering technique at all; it was merely a fragment of the lowest-grade demonic spirit-absorbing technique in the cultivation world, a garbage cultivation method specifically used to fatten up low-level demonic beasts and feed them to them. A mortal's physical body is too fragile to withstand such an unrestrained, violent, and chaotic influx of spiritual energy. In the end, it would only be burst apart by the spiritual energy, resulting in the destruction of both body and soul.
Sure enough, Chen Daoling's maniacal laughter suddenly caught in his throat and stopped abruptly.
The flesh on his face began to swell wildly like an inflating balloon, and countless fine, bloody cuts quickly burst open on the surface of his skin. A blinding white light shone through the wounds, making him look eerie and terrifying.
"No...stop...stop now!!" Chen Daoling finally realized something was wrong. The madness on his face was instantly replaced by extreme fear. He desperately tried to cut off the flow of his cultivation technique, but the massive spiritual energy had completely taken over his body, like countless venomous snakes writhing wildly in his meridians.
His meridians were being stretched to the limit, his dantian felt like a gas cylinder about to explode, sending waves of excruciating pain through him, and every bone in his body seemed to be screaming for it to break.
"Save me... Immortal Master Lu! Please save me!!" Chen Daoling stretched out his bloodied and mangled hand towards Lu Yuan, his voice shrill and desperate, his eyes filled with utter despair for death. Where was the semblance of a revered master of the Xuanmen sect? "I was wrong... I'll never dare to do it again, please spare my life!"
Lu Yuan looked at him coldly, without the slightest emotion.
"Bang--!!!"
A deep, muffled roar shook the entire mountaintop. Chen Daoling's physical body finally succumbed to the violent spiritual energy and exploded on the spot!
There was no blood and gore flying everywhere, because at the moment of the explosion, the violent spiritual energy within him ignited his flesh and blood, transforming him into a giant humanoid torch, with flames shooting into the sky and scorching air waves sweeping around.
Before he could even let out a complete scream, in just three seconds, Chen Daoling, the once invincible master of Chinese Taoism, was burned to a pool of blackish-gray ashes by the "immortal cultivation method" he had always dreamed of, leaving not even a trace of his soul behind, truly annihilated in both body and spirit.
Lin Wan'er was closest to the fire. The intense heat from Chen Daoling's spontaneous combustion instantly burned her meticulously styled wavy hair into charred, dry straw. Large blisters appeared on her face, sizzling and causing her excruciating pain, yet she couldn't even cry.
She stared blankly at the pool of black ash on the ground, and the string of reason in her mind snapped completely.
"Ah—! A ghost! There's a ghost!!"
Lin Wan'er went completely mad. She crawled through the mud on her hands and feet, tearing at her clothes as she went, screaming inhumanly. Her eyes were unfocused, and she ran madly down the mountain road like a stray dog. She quickly disappeared into the depths of the forest and was never seen again.
Lu Yuan didn't even glance at the pile of ashes on the ground, as if he had merely crushed a few insignificant ants. He turned around, calmly walked back to the courtyard, and with a flick of his fingertips, a gust of wind slammed the villa's door shut, shutting out the mess outside.
He raised his hand and gently brushed away a speck of dust from his long robe, muttering to himself with a chilling tone: "The clown has finally been cleaned up."
Immediately, his gaze sharpened like a knife as he looked towards the capital, a century-old malice surging within him: "Next, it's time to go to the capital and collect that blood debt owed for a hundred years."