Martial King's Retired Life

Book 14: Chapter 128

Word of the World

Tianhu heard being called, “Hideous… How hideous…” as he did in the distant past. It had been a long time since he had been at the scene of the inferno that nobody, including himself, could extinguish. It was an enormous fire, yet it was tiny, so tiny that it couldn’t harm him whatsoever, yet it took from him something important that he could never get back. Seeing it once was more than enough for him to be fed up with it, yet some numbskulls had forced him into watching it again. Perhaps it was something he said mindlessly to test the waters.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen these light golden flames.

Tianhu didn’t debate his defeat. He was entertained. Shitou’s participation was a surprise, and Silver Crow’s setup was smarter than he gave it credit for. Most importantly, Liaoliao was strong. A loss was a loss. He had no plans of contesting the details; the only thing that’d prove was where his limits lied. There was nothing to complain about. He was satisfied, and he was happy to abide by the unwritten rules and let them go, but he was presented with the scene of a fire disaster.

The fire was burning right before his eyes, but he didn’t know what to do. The child at the scene of the disaster that fateful day froze the same way.

Monk, you shouldn’t have said that. You shouldn’t have tried to be smart. If you want to kill His Majesty after clearing the Tianhu gate, so be it. Whatever you wanted to do, you should’ve just gone and done it. Why did you have to say that? I was going to let you off the hook.

The dormant black energy rose intensely as if it was breaking out of its seal. Tianhu cracked a derisive smile since his prey would’ve have seen it anyway.

Lotus Every Step, being a discipline that focused on illusionary attacks, kept the battle hidden from the inner sanctum of the imperial palace. Failing to discern the illusionary world from reality would result in the viewer getting stuck in the illusion. From the exterior of the illusion boundary, nobody could see anything outside of the norm within the boundaries. If something did happen, an occasional mishap was within the acceptable boundaries.

***

Instead of bringing down Sacrificial Sage after lifting it up, Shitou, in a distrustful tone, asked, “Who… are you people?”

Anyone placed under the illusion seal should’ve remained under control for twenty-four subsequent hours of their release – no exceptions. It was the first time a Divine Realm warrior had done the unexpected.

“Shitou, finish him,” ordered Liaoliao.

Gongsun Chu should’ve been glad Shitou was free of Liaoliao’s shackles; however, breaking the alliance with Liaoliao now would’ve been a terrible idea for them.

“Brother Liaoliao, it’s pointless to force him in his current state,” expressed Gongsun Chu.

“This one is not forcing him,” replied Liaoliao.

Gongsun Chu had never seen Liaoliao hesitant to speak. He looked around and confirmed there was something odd about the surroundings, but it was Liaoliao’s credit. It hadn’t occurred to him until then that Liaoliao had already taken his sixth step, yet the lotus remained in its seed form; however, it looked ready to overwhelm the moment it sprouted. That indicated Liaoliao had had a vision of imminent danger and thus prepared the lotus for when the time came.

Knowledge Path – or better known as Karma Path – didn’t grant a clairvoyance superpower. If it did, Daxia’s fall would’ve been foreseen and could’ve been prevented. Buddhism’s elites who unlocked Karma Path didn’t actually see into the future; they simply increased the accuracy of their predictions through increasing their intellect drastically.

To speak precisely, Karma Path boosted memory, thinking capacity and observational abilities. Though there could be an enormous discrepancy between physical capacity and mental capacity as a result of the boost, some people could clearly see the trajectory of their life; they’d be able to awaken forgotten events or things they only ever caught a glimpse of and never thought much of. Some people were able to combine personal experience and information from the external world to deduce reasonable developments of events – also known as the future. The more knowledge and data one had, the more accurate their prediction of the future was bound to be. Buddhism and Daoism practitioners also practiced divination which, when combined with Karma Path, empowered them to get small peeks into the future.

While Gongsun Chu, who didn’t heed unsubstantiated predictions, didn’t have faith in Liaoliao’s predictions, as long as there was a prediction, there was a chance of failure. Having said that, it was because Liaoliao could see information on himself, was extremely sensitive to threats directed at himself, and the hostility on his face, that alarmed Gongsun Chu. As soon as Ming Feizhen’s face came to Gongsun Chu’s mind, he firmly commanded, “Shitou, kill him!”

“We have more attendees now, I see,” Tianhu was heard commenting after Sacrificial Sage smashed loudly into the ground.

While Shitou stared blankly at his cudgel that missed its target, Liaoliao shut his eyes to track down Tianhu, but it was Gongsun Chu, who had spent the longest time amongst them training his observation skills, who found Tianhu first. Unfortunately, he was unable to determine how Tianhu reached his location, when or how.

“Divine Realm consists of Five Apotheosis. In the linguistics of Buddhism, that’d be Skyeye Path, Foot Path, Interlinked Minds, Karma Path, Godrealm Path…”

Although they were slower, Liaoliao and Shitou finally saw the man who started talking as if he was in a chat with friends.

“Skyeye path.”

Tianhu managed to grab the assassin who even Liaoliao could barely sense and then hoisted him into the air. Not only did Silver Crow get caught without having time to react, but he couldn’t even work out how he was spotted. Silver Crow blended into the environment, effectively becoming the equivalent of a plant, as he had spent ages practicing to perfection, not to mention he was hiding within Liaoliao’s illusion, as well. He didn’t expose himself when Tianhu went down since he had served his purpose, yet Tianhu…

Silver Crow: Was it… Skyeye Path?

Finding Silver Crow wasn’t enough to win, though. After all, none of Six Blades’ members were pushovers. He drew his blade at his sash to start casting Enlightenment.

“Foot Path.” Tianhu squeezed his clamps around Silver Crow’s neck, bursting the latter’s neck and ending it all without receiving any resistance or hearing any audible groan.

Silver Crow’s head and body dropped to the ground one after the other. Meanwhile, Tianhu remained standing in the same posture.

“Interlinked Minds.”

Tianhu stepped on Shitou’s right foot before the latter could jump up. Neither Gongsun Chu nor Liaoliao were aware that Shitou planned to stealthily leave the ground, yet Tianhu picked up on it. Once Tianhu had his foot on top, Shitou couldn’t budge his foot an inch. Nevertheless, Shitou wasn’t Silver Crow.

Shitou swung his cudgel at Tianhu’s skull. At the same time, Gongsun Chu thrusted his purple-glowing sword at Tianhu, cutting off Tianhu’s retreat route.

“Godrealm Path.”

Gongsun Chu and Shitou suddenly lost track of Tianhu.

“And Karma Path.”

Tianhu’s expression suggested he was thinking, “Bloody Karma Path.” He shimmied the blood and flesh off his hands with a straight face.