“Shut up, you bald bastard! You’re asking too many questions!”
The avatar soul of Tianzun Wuji had already transformed back into the middle-aged scholar.
He had just spoken a lot, intending to show Huineng his power, expecting to see terror on Huineng’s face. But instead of showing fear, Huineng looked innocently persistent, asking even more questions, which made the middle-aged scholar lose his patience again.
“Wait, wait before you strike! Even if you’re going to kill me, let me die with my eyes closed! You haven’t even told me about that Bru yet.”
Huineng had just asked.
Shui Miao had also questioned.
But when Shui Miao mentioned Bru, the middle-aged scholar clearly showed signs of frustration.
Therefore, Huineng was convinced that whatever about Bru must be a sore spot for the middle-aged scholar, so he kept pressing the issue relentlessly.
“Die!”
Finally, the middle-aged scholar was enraged. With a thought, the black-robed Huineng suddenly transformed into a black tiger, pouncing on Huineng. But immediately, a golden tiger emerged from Huineng, and the two tigers began to fight fiercely, roaring and stirring fierce winds.
“Hmph! So it’s actually the mount of the Tiger-Subduing Arhat. Ridiculous! Do you really think a mere tiger soul can defeat me? Do you think I’m made of tofu?” Seeing the fierce battle of the tigers, the middle-aged scholar suddenly willed, and many spikes erupted from the ground, impaling the golden tiger’s soul. The black tiger pounced and tore the golden tiger apart until it was barely alive.
“Stop!”
Suddenly, Shui Miao shouted, pointing at the middle-aged scholar, “Don’t forget, you are only the avatar soul of Tianzun Wuji. As a revered Tianzun, he wouldn’t want to see a deranged soul damaging his reputation. You’d better stop now, or your original master… Wait, I remember you said Tianzun Wuji is your master. If he is your master, then you’re not his soul at all. Then what are you?”
“Damn it! I should have killed you long ago! I forgot about you, and now you dare to come out and seek death yourself?”
Provoked by Shui Miao, the middle-aged scholar clenched his fist, causing Shui Miao to fall to the ground, writhing in pain.
“You brat, now you know my power, right? Did you think those five stone tablets were your great fortune or some incredible luck? Hahahahaha… Fool! Don’t you realize you’ve been my plaything all along? Did you think you were a gambling legend, always winning, never losing? Did you think you were a heartthrob, adored by all women? Die! All of that was just my manipulation. I treated you like a monkey!”
With another gesture, one of the stone tablets pierced Shui Miao’s head, flew to the ground before him, instantly transforming into a stream of yellow energy that flowed into the middle-aged scholar’s mouth. “See? This stone tablet of defensive Dao was merely my yellow energy. I wanted you to feel powerful, invincible, immortal, but you hesitated and restrained yourself. Well then, since you’re so pathetic, I’ll just take back my yellow energy.”
With another gesture, Shui Miao screamed again, another egg-sized hole appearing in his forehead as the stone tablet of martial Dao flew out and landed before him, turning into a golden light that returned to the middle-aged scholar’s mouth. “This is the deadly golden energy, capable of destroying anything. Unfortunately, you won’t be needing it anymore. Blame yourself for pondering aimlessly, not following my instructions, not cultivating as I intended. This is all your own doing!”
“Yes, yes, there’s also the essence of natural Dao, which I should reclaim. You might not even know, this is the life essence—the vital source from the Green Field Sect. Come to think of it, I can’t even remember which of your past lives destroyed the Green Field Sect, only to be defeated by me. Lucky me, hahahaha…”
Laughing maniacally, the middle-aged scholar reclaimed all the natural Dao essence from Shui Miao.
Shui Miao felt as if his very bones were being pulled out, enduring unbearable pain.
Seeing Shui Miao’s agony, the middle-aged scholar became even more delighted. He gleefully watched Shui Miao. “Kid, you must be feeling quite blissful, right? Don’t worry, I won’t let you die so quickly. I’ll make you suffer slowly. I’ll heal you, then torment you again, make you suffer, then heal you again… Hahaha…”
The middle-aged scholar was extremely twisted, treating others’ pain as his own pleasure.
The middle-aged scholar spat out a wisp of immortal energy, healing Shui Miao’s wounds.
Shui Miao stood up and sneered coldly, “Now I understand what you really are!”
“What? What nonsense have you figured out now?” The middle-aged scholar was taken aback.
Shui Miao sneered, “In fact, you and I are the same—a mere humble soul fragment. You must have reincarnated as a human too. But the family you were born into must have been very special. You must have suffered some inhuman treatment, so you hate, so your heart twisted, so you became a devil even more evil than any demon!”
“Kid, you’re indeed clever, but I’ve done nothing wrong. Even if you call me a devil, I don’t care. But you must know, your past life was my past life’s nourishment, my food. So in this life, you’re destined to be my nourishment again! After I finish torturing you slowly, I’ll imitate my master and devour you, gaining your memories and thoughts, making myself stronger and stronger. Eventually, I will become more and more powerful. You will always be the sheep, and I will always be the wolf that eats the sheep!” The middle-aged scholar roared loudly, nearly mad.
Shui Miao shook his head, “You’re just deceiving yourself.”
“What, do you have anything else to say?” The middle-aged scholar was startled again.
Shui Miao scoffed, “Haven’t you realized your own situation yet? Do you really think it’s a blessing to be someone else’s soul? You’re wrong. You are you, and he is he. You two are unrelated. The stronger you become, the faster you’ll die! Do you really think after you become stronger, Tianzun Wuji won’t devour you? Do you really think after he devours you, your thoughts and memories will still exist? No! You’re wrong. In fact, you’re just a pawn being manipulated by someone else!”
“No! It’s not like that!”
The middle-aged scholar suddenly became frightened and tense. He roared and pulled out the essence of wind Dao from Shui Miao. The wind poured out through Shui Miao’s skin, causing him immense pain.
Shui Miao gritted his teeth and persisted, “Take the soul-devouring power too.”
“Soul-devouring power?”
Still shaken by fear, the middle-aged scholar shook his head stiffly, “You’re wrong. The soul-devouring power is yours, it has nothing to do with me. Also, I will never be devoured. I will live forever. I can’t be a pawn. I am him, and he is me!”
“Foolish! You’re really too naive. Saying ‘I am him’ might be acceptable, but saying ‘he is I’ is just self-deception!” Shui Miao weakly laughed mockingly.
“You damn bastard! You’re really trying to manipulate me, to confuse me!”
In a flash, the middle-aged scholar appeared beside Shui Miao, tightly gripping his throat.
Shui Miao struggled a bit, then was choked to death.
But immediately, the middle-aged scholar used his immortal energy to revive Shui Miao. Pointing at Shui Miao’s nose, he viciously said, “Tell me you’re lying, that you’re just bluffing me…”
“Enough…”
Shui Miao waved his hand, “Stop deceiving yourself. You’re smart. You know your situation better than anyone. You can fool others, but you can’t fool yourself. To be honest, I pity you. You can’t even face yourself, yet you foolishly serve others so arrogantly. You remind me of three words: Big Stupid Asshole!”
“Fine, fine, you dare to speak to me like this. If I kill you quickly, that would be too easy for you. Then I’ll grant your wish, making you lose everything and become a useless mortal!” The middle-aged scholar was furious. As he extracted Shui Miao’s soul-devouring power, he screamed, “Without the soul-devouring power, you’ll be worthless. You’ll never rise again. You’ll lose all your usefulness. I’ll find another way to torment you. I’ll erase the mark of being his soul within you, making you ordinary, making you suffer endless reincarnations, never having a chance to rise again.”
“Take it all! Take everything! I don’t care about being a pawn, but I know you do! Hahahaha…”
Shui Miao intentionally provoked the middle-aged scholar, hoping to lose all his special abilities and return to being an ordinary person.
“…”
However, after hearing Shui Miao’s words, the middle-aged scholar suddenly stopped. His eyes darting, he suddenly grinned, “I know how to make you suffer. Do you think I should go after your loved ones and friends? For example, I can pretend to be your father and stay with your mother, tormenting her! Or I can transform into a handsome guy and marry your sister, Chen Meiling! For example…”
“Go to hell!”
Shui Miao knew he shouldn’t get angry, shouldn’t let the middle-aged scholar find his weakness, but he couldn’t help grabbing at the scholar’s throat, ready to fight him to the death.
But the middle-aged scholar’s body was intangible. Now that all his special abilities were gone, Shui Miao couldn’t even touch him, as if he were just air.
“Hahahaha!”
The middle-aged scholar laughed maniacally, “Kid, I finally found your weakness! You’re so clever, aren’t you? Now that you’re just an ordinary person, how can you fight me? What can you use to fight me? From now on, you can only watch helplessly as I torment your loved ones and friends. Oh, right, they’re all beautiful women!”
“Beast! You must have been a beast in your past life!”
Unable to bear it any longer, Shui Miao screamed hysterically, wildly swinging his fists, but the middle-aged scholar was intangible, and he couldn’t land a single hit.
At that moment, Huineng suddenly began chanting a Buddhist mantra, a compassionate and calming sutra.
“Shut up, you bald bastard!”
The chanting made the middle-aged scholar agitated and extremely furious.
Huineng ignored him and chanted even louder.
Suddenly, the middle-aged scholar opened his mouth and spat out a wisp of black energy, enveloping Huineng. When the black energy vanished, Huineng had turned into a pile of bones!
“You bald bastard, you dare oppose me! I’ll destroy your soul completely!”
The middle-aged scholar turned around, flicked his folding fan, and a streak of green light flew out, directly obliterating the black tiger. The black tiger was also part of the tiger soul.
Just as the middle-aged scholar was about to destroy the golden tiger, the Qiankun Realm space suddenly trembled and collapsed in an instant!
Shui Miao felt a flash of white light before his eyes, and suddenly found himself still in the shop.
“Amitabha Buddha!”
A Buddhist chant rang out as Master Liaochen walked into the shop from outside.
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