Cultivation: When you take things to the extreme

Chapter 123 - 89: Curse Killing_1

Chapter 123: Chapter 89: Curse Killing_1

Translator: 549690339

The voice was extremely hoarse and pierced with a night owl’s sharpness, stabbing into Xu Yang’s mind like steel needles.

Xu Yang only felt a sudden throb in his temples on both sides, as if a great terror of life and death descended upon him, followed by a severe pain in his head.

“Ah!!!!”

Even he, caught off guard and subjected to such intense pain, couldn’t help but let out a piercing scream.

“Bang!!”

His body then involuntarily staggered back, disrupting tables and chairs, and he toppled heavily to the ground, limbs convulsing, his facial features twisted, as if enduring immense agony.

Pain, pain, pain!

Indescribable, intense pain!

It felt as though his soul was being pierced by steel needles, creating excruciating pain that penetrated his skull and mind.

Amidst the agony, the sound of cursing resonated repeatedly. Although it carried a heavy local accent, Xu Yang heard every word clearly, as if they were being carved into his very soul and flesh with a chisel.

“Strike your little head, let it split open and your soul be collected!”

“Strike your villainous body, let it be torn apart and your life filled with worry!”

During the curse, it seemed as if he saw a white-haired old woman with claw-like withered hands, holding a red-soled white shoe, forcefully slapping it against a straw figurine.

Three silver needles were stuck in the figurine’s head, and a small piece of red paper was affixed to its chest, with the words “Jinhua North City Ma Wencai” written on it.

The old woman, holding the embroidered shoe, chanted incessantly, cursing without pause. Each time she cursed, she slapped the shoe down hard on the straw man’s body.

“Ah!!”

With each smack of the shoe, Xu Yang’s pain intensified, and he writhed violently on the ground, eventually crashing into the bed and clutching his head fiercely.

A Martial Path Grandmaster, who had gone through three lifetimes and a thousand years of trials, now appeared so helpless?

So helpless indeed!

Because this pain was acting directly upon his soul.

It was not the pain of the body, but the torment of the mind, of the soul; it didn’t go numb, nor could it be suppressed by force of will. Each wave was so vivid, so intense, that it was impossible to combat by mere determination.

“Bang!”

The embroidered shoe struck again, making Xu Yang feel as if his head was exploding, with blood and brain matter boiling and spewing forth.

“Ah!!!”

Another scream, and Xu Yang clutched his head, hastily circulating the Martial Arts Mental skills.

Faced with such an attack on the soul, a spiritual curse, physical resistance was useless. Only by running the Martial Arts Scripture and relying on Divine Soul Cultivation Method was there hope to resist.

However…

“Bang!”

The embroidered shoe struck down again, hitting the straw figure’s head, causing Xu Yang to feel as though his own limbs were spasming and twisting. His neck, shoulders, and the bases of his legs felt as though they were being pulled apart by immense force, about to tear open.

Under such torment, even the strong Xu Yang was in agony, his face turning pale, his body sweating profusely, as if struck by a deadly illness, almost biting off his own tongue.

At this moment…

“Strike your little feet, let them be pierced by nails with nowhere to go!”

“Strike your little back, let you be used like an ox or a horse with no rest!”

The old woman’s curses grew even more severe, after beating the figure’s head, she turned it over, and there was another piece of red paper on its back, bearing the birthdate and other details of the original “Ma Wencai.”

Then, the embroidered shoe struck heavily down on the straw figure’s backbone.

“Bang!!!”

Xu Yang felt as if he had been struck a heavy blow, collapsing onto the bed, his back as if pierced by iron chains through the shoulder blades, dragging him mercilessly, with both feet in such pain as if thousands of steel needles and iron nails were piercing through.

“Evil Skills!”

“Curse Skill!”

“Ah!!!”

Xu Yang bit the tip of his tongue fiercely, exerting force and biting it off, bursting into a spray of blood in midair.

“Puh!”

With the tip of his tongue bitten off and the blood spattered, his spirit was momentarily roused, dispelling some of the agony.

The Demon Sect’s Blood Burst Skill brutalized the body to unlock a burst of Qi Blood potential for a moment.

This was a secret of the Martial Path, not a Cultivation Wonderful Skill nor did it have the power to break curses.

But such an eruption of bodily Qi Blood did provide some stimulation to the soul, barely allowing Xu Yang to claw back control of his body.

Regaining control, Xu Yang didn’t dare delay. Bracing himself, he rolled out from under the bed with a cleaver, and then stumbled through the door.

The perpetrator who had harmed the original owner had finally come to finish the job.

Who was the enemy?

Xu Yang did not know.

But one thing was for certain: this person was undoubtedly an Evil Cultivator!

In this world, they practice cultivating skills under the guise of real Cultivation, using the Power of the Souls of All Beings as nourishment for their cultivation.

Given that, one could imagine the extensive use and development of the power of the soul.

Xu Yang was sure that in this world of cultivators, Curse Skills were the mainstream in magical duels!

This Evil Cultivator was no exception, casting Evil Skills and Curse Skills from afar, hoping to kill Xu Yang through the air.

What to do?

Xu Yang didn’t have many options. In the realms of Great Zhou and Great Tang, he had no experience with such skills. While the Black Water World was teeming with gods and buddhas, he had only acquired the Earth Deity Cultivation Method and no other heritage. As for the cultivation methods of the real world…

The real-world Cultivators, who relied on various divine and spiritual skills for combat, didn’t lack Curse Skills, but Xu Yang had not encountered them so far.

Therefore, he had no method to dispel or break the curse, and could only resort to the most simplistic approach.

Kill!

If he could kill the person who cast the curse, then he might have a sliver of hope for survival.

Grasping the firewood knife, he stumbled out of the thatched cottage, his hair bun had long since come undone, his face contorted in extreme pain, pallid as death, with fresh red blood lingering around his lips. His clothes, torn and disheveled, soaked through with sweat, made for a ghastly sight.

“Wencai, you… this…”

“Quick, go call the family head!”

“Someone help, come quick, he’s turning into a corpse again!”

The Ma family members living nearby, upon seeing his condition, were scared witless, panicking and fleeing.

He, however, could not afford to attend to that, clutching the firewood knife as he stumbled towards the outskirts of the village.

He did not know where the caster of the curse was hiding, but after being cursed, it seemed there was a sensation guiding him, faintly pointing him in a direction.

Xu Yang, in this moment, could not afford to think too much. He could only act like a dead horse being used as a living one, heading towards that direction as his only option.

And so, he stumbled out of the Ma Family Village, exerting the last of his strength to hurry along.

Finally…

“Peach! Blossom! Mountain!”

Xu Yang’s body shuddered, he stopped in his tracks, staring ahead at the mountain that was neither tall nor short, blanketed in peach blossoms, and clenched his teeth tightly.

“Smash, smash your petty human head, scatter your soul to the winds, forever at peace!”

“Ahh!!!”

Xu Yang screamed in agony, blood spurting from his mouth, as he fell back onto the ground. After a few convulsions, he drew his last breath.

In this manner, a short while later.

Within Peach Blossom Mountain, a pink miasma drifted in, and amidst it, several ethereal figures could vaguely be seen giggling as they came to Xu Yang’s side and lifted up his corpse.

“Whoosh!”

A light breeze blew, dispersing the miasma, leaving behind no trace of the frolicking figures or the corpse, not even the bloodstains were left, just a desolate and eerie empty mountain path.

In the real world, Xu Yang sat up, his eyes as still as an ancient well, as he silently raised his hand to massage his temples.

He was dead!

Just as he reached Peach Blossom Mountain, the excruciating pain of his soul, which he had briefly suppressed through the secret Demon Sect method by stimulating his Qi Blood, erupted once again. It was even more violent and terrifying than before, shattering his consciousness.

Thus, he died, under the Curse Killing Skill.

Regarding this, Xu Yang harbored no resentment or rage. After all, for him, it was merely a journey of Zhuang Zhou dreaming he was a butterfly; just the beginning, with no attachments. Death meant little; it was no big deal.

The death of “Ma Wencai” was insignificant.

What was important was… that world!

Divine Soul Cultivation Method, cultivating the real through the illusion?

Curse Killing Skill, claiming lives from afar?

Xu Yang found these very intriguing.

After three lifetimes and a millennium of accumulation, his Cultivation Technique was quite complete. He cultivated both externally and internally according to Martial Arts Scriptures, perfectly flawless. Even the Divine Soul cultivation of the prior four realms had been supplemented by Cultivation Skills.

But he was still very interested in the cultivation system of that world.

Firstly, the foundation: the Divine Soul Cultivation Method.

Methods to cultivate the Divine Soul do exist in the current world of cultivators, but their principle mostly relies on using highly purified nature’s spiritual energy to nurture the soul, or some Evil Skills that directly devour living souls to strengthen oneself.

Although useful, these methods are not particularly ingenious, at least the Cultivation Skills that Xu Yang currently knew of were like this.

In that world, the cultivation method that harnessed the power of the souls of all beings, and cultivates a real Divine Soul through the strength of their collective intentions, reminded Xu Yang of the Human God Skill in the Black Water World.

Perhaps there was some common ground between the two?

If he could obtain this Cultivation Method and then breed a host of Spirit Beasts to worship him, continually supplying the power of their Divine Souls, wouldn’t he gain another “cultivation accessory,” one meant for Divine Soul cultivation?

If, in the future, the Earth Deity Law and the Human God Skill could be combined, he might even aspire to The Way of Heavenly Immortal and become a supreme deity like the Heavenly Emperor “Qiong Gao,” turning an entire world and countless beings into the foundation of his own cultivation.

A grand prospect!

So…

“Engage Divine Travel, re-enter this realm.”

“Peach Blossom Mountain?”

“Heh!”

Xu Yang chuckled coldly, closed his eyes, and lay back down to sleep.

Divine Travel Through Worlds, location-based teleportation; as long as he had entered a world once, he could set his location for Divine Travel. There was no need to dream like Zhuang Zhou again, nor to inherit someone else’s life. He could directly expend the power of his own Divine Soul to form an avatar.

The strength and physical condition of the avatar were determined by the amount of Divine Soul power invested by the original body. If there was enough Divine Soul power, he could even create an avatar indistinguishable from his original self.

Of course, that was just a hypothetical; it was not feasible because Xu Yang did not possess enough Divine Soul power to create an avatar equal in cultivation to himself.

With his current Divine Soul strength, after using Divine Travel Through Worlds, he could at most create a mortal avatar without any cultivation, and the original would need to recuperate for some time to recover the expended Divine Soul power.

The cost was tremendous.

But Xu Yang was willing to pay it.

This world was highly significant. Aside from the unique Divine Soul Cultivation Method, he was also very interested in its Curse Killing Skill.

The Curse Killing Skill, targeting the Divine Soul, was difficult to guard against.

This was one of the current shortcomings of the Martial Arts Scripture; it had not incorporated any Curse Skill, neither for attack nor for defense.

This experience of dying had made Xu Yang realize the power of the Curse Skill. Even if he didn’t use it for combat, it was still necessary to cultivate it for self-protection.

Only in this way, when he encountered another expert in this field in the future, would he not be as helpless and passive as he was today.