Chapter 35#

The Peerless Great Demon Ba Snake#

“That Bai Li is just fine—she took advantage of the chaos to flee from Fanyin Temple’s territory, and who knows where she’s hiding. Half of Fanyin Temple was destroyed, and the entire human cultivation world is gathering its forces, preparing to come to our demon race to demand an explanation.” The more Xi spoke, the angrier she became; it looked as though if Bai Li were before her eyes, she would tear her limb from limb.

“What is going on with that Shikong?” Just uttering these two words, Lu Heng felt endless strange emotions surge up from the bottom of his heart. He forced them down, not letting the Fox King notice anything unusual.

“The news from the rat clan says Fanyin Temple searched for him for hundreds of years without any trace. But for some reason, some time ago Master Shikong suddenly appeared at Fanyin Temple, and then was trapped inside.” Xi was outspoken, but she was not tactless. Though she found it very strange that the King seemed completely unaware of the Queen’s whereabouts for the past few centuries, she also knew that His Majesty’s emotional affairs were not something she could gossip about.

While the two were talking, a paper sparrow red as blazing fire darted in. Both Lu Heng and Xi tensed. This was a messenger paper sparrow used only in times of crisis for the entire clan.

As soon as the paper sparrow landed, it opened its mouth and said, “King, human cultivators are issuing challenges before the Zhishi.”

The Zhishi.

Since ancient times, the demon race and the human race had an agreement: using the Zhishi as the boundary, they divided the land and ruled separately. They could privately travel between each other’s territories, but would never openly cross the Zhishi. The fact that these cultivator sects had gathered before the Zhishi was already a provocation to the demon race.

“I think the demon race are all cowardly turtles. Who cares about any agreement? Attack and kill all those foreign races—it’ll even earn us a batch of artifact-refining materials.” It was unknown which disciple from some low-class sect was spouting off before the Zhishi. Yet no one from the higher-ups stopped him, so it seemed they were letting him test the waters.

Provocative words like these rose one after another.

Then the mist before the Zhishi gradually parted, and a group of imposing great demons appeared. Though their number was not large, their momentum was in no way inferior.

The one at the front wore a magnificent black robe. His countenance was extraordinarily beautiful, yet his aura made people not dare to look too long at his face. He lay on his side atop a sky-covering golden-winged roc, his expression rather indifferent, making the insulting disciple feel as though he were merely an ant.

“Let the one in charge come speak with me.” Lu Heng’s eyes were half-lidded as he spoke.

Among the humans, those with insufficient cultivation all lowered their heads and eyes, not daring to breathe loudly. After a moment, Abbot Yuanzhen of Fanyin Temple stepped forward, pressed his palms together in salute, and said, “This old monk is Yuanzhen of Fanyin Temple.”

Lu Heng nodded. “You humans have gathered at the border of our demon race’s territory. Do you mean to declare war?”

“Benefactor jests. You must already know of the recent matter. We are here only to demand justice for the innocent disciples of our temple who lost their lives.”

Under the intimidation of Lu Heng’s strength, the human cultivators no longer showed their earlier arrogance. The two sides set a time limit: the demon race would find Bai Li, and after clarifying the cause of the matter, they would negotiate again. But since Bai Li had committed such a monstrous mistake, no matter the reason, the demon race would likely have a chunk bitten off by the human race.

Lu Heng decided to go to Fanyin Temple himself to look for clues. It was not only for Bai Li’s sake; Lu Heng also wanted to meet Master Shikong. He had a premonition that if he did not meet Master Shikong, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

Traveling at full speed, Lu Heng reached the area around Fanyin Temple that same day. But with Fanyin Temple right before his eyes, Lu Heng felt a kind of trepidation akin to returning home. He steadied himself, concealed his aura, and quietly slipped into the temple.

Fanyin Temple’s grand formation had been destroyed, and now they could only rely on their disciples to patrol the mountain, which made Lu Heng’s infiltration extremely smooth. As soon as he entered Fanyin Temple, Lu Heng felt a thread in his heart guiding him in a certain direction.

The end of this feeling was in the main hall on Fanyin Temple’s main peak, beneath the enormous statue of a wrathful Vajra Buddha. Lu Heng carefully probed with his spiritual sense, and indeed found a hidden entrance beneath the statue’s base. The restriction at the entrance was nothing to Lu Heng; he walked in as if no one was there.

The scene deep inside was within Lu Heng’s expectations, yet also somewhat unexpected. With the Demon King’s ten-thousand-year foundation, Lu Heng recognized at a glance that the enlarged magic artifact in the center was Fanyin Temple’s sect-guarding supreme treasure—the Karma Disk.

In the Karma Disk sat a person cross-legged, surrounded by thick karmic power. The karmic power wrapped around the person in the center like clouds and mist, even trying to bore into his body, but in vain.

The Hundred-Life Reincarnation Formation. Lu Heng secretly shook his head. Just what kind of grave mistake had the person in the formation committed, to make Fanyin Temple use this Hundred-Life Reincarnation Formation to affect his mind? This Hundred-Life Reincarnation Formation was the most heaven-defying divine ability of karmic formations; it could sever a person’s karma and control their mind. One trapped in this formation could only break out by severing all karma and restoring their memories and nature to that of a newborn.

Seeing the spiritual energy from the spiritual vein beneath the main peak pour continuously into the Karma Disk, Lu Heng understood. So the reason Bai Li had so easily destroyed half of Fanyin Temple was that the Karma Disk had absorbed most of the spiritual energy, leaving the mountain-protecting formation with insufficient spiritual energy.

Lu Heng stepped closer and examined it carefully. Seeing that the surging karmic power was all red, he knew in his heart that this was the Hundred-Life Ill-Fated Love Formation within the Hundred-Life Reincarnation Formation, severing the karma of love. This formation could truly slay the heart: in every life, the person in the formation would be betrayed by their beloved and die miserably, until they saw through the word “love,” severed the threads of affection, and broke out of the formation.

Just as Lu Heng drew near, the karmic power hovering around the person’s face thinned, revealing a handsome face. The moment Lu Heng saw that face, his mind was violently shaken, as if struck by lightning.

Shikong.

There was clearly no such face in his memories, yet Lu Heng somehow knew this person’s name. As he savored it, a sharp pain came from his heart. Now, looking again at the karmic power surrounding the person, Lu Heng found it unbearably offensive. Who knew how much suffering this karmic power had caused the person in the formation?

To break out of this Hundred-Life Karma Formation from within was nearly impossible unless all karma was severed. But breaking it from the outside was not difficult for Lu Heng.

Lu Heng waved his sleeve, temporarily isolating this small space so that Fanyin Temple’s people would not sense anything unusual there with their spiritual sense. Then he cut off the Karma Disk’s source of spiritual energy. The karmic power gradually dispersed, and the person in the formation opened his eyes, looking straight into Lu Heng’s gaze.

“Could you give me one of your personal items? I can transform it into your avatar and place it in the formation to deceive it for a while.” Lu Heng cupped his hands toward Shikong as he spoke.

Shikong did not say a word, only stared fixedly at Lu Heng. His gaze made Lu Heng feel somewhat uneasy. Lu Heng thought for a moment and said, “My name is Zheng. I mean you no harm; I just feel there is a connection between us. I had an accident recently and cannot remember some things.”

The person opposite remained expressionless and silent. Lu Heng had no choice but to approach him, intending to first take a personal item to make an avatar, lest Fanyin Temple’s people discover the anomaly.

This person was not quite right. Because of their spiritual sense, cultivators could sense each other’s spiritual sense when they drew close. But after Lu Heng approached Shikong, he could not detect the slightest presence of his spiritual sense.

A possibility occurred to him, and Lu Heng was startled. Could this person have sealed off his own spiritual sense to resist the Hundred-Life Reincarnation Formation? Just how important was the person in his heart, and the memories of that person, that he was willing to pay such a price, only so the formation could not sever his karma and wash away his memories?

One had to know that once spiritual sense was sealed, without tremendous fortune, it was extremely difficult to recover. Being unable to recover one’s spiritual sense meant living from then on like a walking corpse, relying only on instinct.

Lu Heng saw Shikong tightly clutching something in his hand and thought it must be an important personal item, very suitable for turning into an avatar.

“May I take a look at what you are holding?” Lu Heng asked softly.

As expected, there was no answer. Lu Heng reached out, but Shikong’s tightly clenched fist loosened just as Lu Heng’s fingers were about to touch it. Lu Heng was quite surprised; he had thought it would take some effort to get it.

In Shikong’s open palm lay a broken ebony hairpin. This was clearly not the possession of a monk. Lu Heng stared blankly at the hairpin, dazed for a long while, before picking it up. On the hairpin lingered his own aura.

Before Lu Heng could sort out this tangled mess, a violent tremor came from beneath their feet. Cracks appeared across the ground, and a powerful aura of destruction emanated from them.

It was the Zhulong’s soul. Lu Heng’s heart tightened. He could no longer bother about the hairpin and hurriedly stuffed it into his robes. Then, pressing his fingers together, he cut a strip from Shikong’s hem, transformed it into an avatar, and placed it into the Karma Disk. Though it was a bit crude, it would be no problem to deceive it for a while.

After doing all this, Lu Heng grabbed Shikong’s hand and brought him out of the Hundred-Life Reincarnation Formation. Throughout the process, no matter what Lu Heng did, Shikong gave no reaction; only his gaze remained fixed on Lu Heng, never leaving for a moment.

Following the Zhulong’s aura, Lu Heng and Shikong made their way deep into the heart of the earth. Lu Heng had originally wanted to take Shikong to a safe place before coming down to investigate, but unexpectedly Shikong followed him closely, never leaving his side. Helpless, Lu Heng could only bring him along. With his strength, even if he encountered the Zhulong’s soul, protecting one person would be no problem.

Deep in the heart of the earth was actually a stone tree hundreds of zhang tall. At first sight, Lu Heng knew what it was.

The Origin of the Continent.

He had not expected the Origin of the Continent to be beneath Fanyin Temple’s main peak. But this Origin of the Continent was protected by the power of laws and had always remained hidden. How could it have revealed its true form now?