Chapter 1656 — You Have Been Collected by Me

I ask Master Xing to act. " She raised her hand, and a sheet of golden paper flew out, falling into the palace.

After a moment, a handsome youth emerged from the palace, pinching the golden paper between his fingers, a chest running with a pitter-patter at his heels.

The chest came to Ling Yuxiu's side, nuzzled affectionately against her leg, then followed the youth and hurried off. Ling Yuxiu descended the mountain with her attendants.

One of the women, curious, asked: "Your Majesty, who is this Master Xing? " "Once every five hundred years a sage emerges — though it is a rousing rumor, perhaps spread by Jingping's Imperial Preceptor, every five hundred years there truly does appear among the human race a person of peerless talent.

" Ling Yuxiu smiled and said: "The last five-hundred-year cycle produced the former Jingping Imperial Preceptor Jiang Baigui, who inaugurated Jingping's reforms. And five hundred years before that, it was this man.

His name is Xing'an, an extremist by nature. In those years, when Jingping's Divine Bridge shattered and none could live past eight hundred years, he was the only one who did.

Later, Jingping's Imperial Preceptor subdued him, but his temper was truly eccentric — he could not abide the Wendao Academy, kept no company with others, and wished only to dwell here on Zhaixing Peak. " None of the attendants had ever heard the name Xing'an. Each fell to pondering, yet still had no impression of the man. Ling Yuxiu said: "It is only natural that you have not heard of him. Since the Calamity of Jingping, he has lived in seclusion, avoiding the world, and rarely appears. Yet in that battle at the Tiansheng Academy, he alone fought the several most powerful beings of present-day Jingping, and Jingping's experts were all but wiped out.

" The attendants were aghast, exchanging looks of dismay. "Huotian Zun was, after all, one of the Nine Heavenly Venerables of Longhan.

The Nine Heavenly Venerables of Longhan each possessed their own unique mastery, peerless in skill. Huotian Zun's reincarnated body is likewise exceedingly mighty; at the same cultivation realm, it is only stronger than Huotian Zun's original body! " Ling Yuxiu said: "To kill his reincarnated body, one needs a Heavenly Venerable of equal caliber to act. But Xushenghua, Lan Yutian, and the others are all in the Ancestral Court, so I had no choice but to ask Xing'an to act.

It is only that his temper is too eccentric; I had no choice but to use the kindness owed from these years to bring him out of the mountain.

" Xing'an strode through the air, the chest following at his heels. This chest had been awakened by Shen Mu, and was very clever, but its temper was as eccentric as Xing'an's own. Now it would take two eyes from within itself and stick them onto its walls, peering furtively this way and that; now it would quicken its pace to keep up with Xing'an.

Xing'an looked at the golden paper Ling Yuxiu had given him. On the golden paper there were only two red dots — one was himself, the other was Huotian Zun's reincarnated body, Gudu Yi. Tap the red dot, and one could see Gudu Yi's every expression and gesture, rendered to the life. "This paper was refined using the Dao of the Youdu; it locks onto the soul.

You have only a spirit, no soul — this paper will not reveal your traces," Xing'an said to the chest. After a day or two, Xing'an drew ever closer to Gudu Yi. Suddenly, waves of terrifying divine-ability fluctuations came from ahead. He could not help but frown slightly, and raised his hand.

The chest leaped up, and its handle automatically fell into his palm. Xing'an carried the chest toward the source of the fluctuations.

The divine-ability fluctuations ahead grew ever more violent.

Though the two combatants were not high in cultivation in the conventional sense, their Dao-realm was exceedingly deep — they actually displayed the Dao-realm cultivation of the thirty-layered heaven! Such strength already placed them among Jingping's very top experts!

So long as one's aptitude and comprehension were high enough, the simplest path to rapid advancement in strength was not the traditional Divine Treasury Heavenly Palace system, but the Dao-realm system!

A being of exceedingly high comprehension could, in a mere hundred years, comprehend the Dao-realm of twenty-odd heavens, elevating the power of a single Great Dao to a level comparable to the Yujing Realm! Yet such people, across the entire cosmos, through ancient and modern times, a hundred thousand years and more, were exceedingly rare!

Xing'an frowned. By the time he arrived there, he saw two youths, their forms crossing and parting, and the terrifying Dao-realm divine-ability fluctuations made the mountains tremble without cease, like a painting floating upon water! Xing'an landed, and the trembling mountains instantly stilled, motionless as a stone.

Thud.

One of the youths fell, his soul and spirit both extinguished, dead on the spot. Xing'an stepped forward and turned the corpse over.

It was Gudu Yi. As Gudu Yi's soul dispersed, the red dot representing Gudu Yi on the golden paper vanished as well.

"You are Lan Yutian?

" The other youth looked at him, surprise on his face, then shook his head and laughed: "You are not Lan Yutian. This body of yours resembles Lan Yutian's, but it must have been manufactured by a Creation Divine Artifact.

No need to look further — Huotian Zun has already been disposed of by Us.

You may return and report to Jingping's Emperor.

" Xing'an rose to his feet and tilted his head, studying him.

His eyes lit up: "Your body — I like it very much.

" The youth laughed despite himself: "Do you know who I am?

" Xing'an shook his head, set down the chest, and said: "I do not need to know.

But you — I have collected you. "