Chapter 1657 — By Nature, a Wild and Unbridled Guest

"A collection?"

Haotian Zun's reincarnated body frowned. The man's tone sat ill with him. Mutian Zun was arrogant enough, but in ordinary dealings he was courteous and never failed in propriety—he would not go so far as to be utterly unrestrained.

But this youth, who had sprung up from who knew where, spoke in a manner that could choke a man to death; his words were light as wind and drifting cloud, yet they gave one the sense that he looked down upon all things.

His features were the same as those of the Yutian Zun of old; one glance told that he was a youthful Yutian Zun made by a Creation Artifact. In the year the divine artifact Yutian Zun had first been successfully developed, some among the Ten Tianzun had tried their hands at making youthful Yutian Zuns and sending them down into the world, but most of them had died at Jingping.

Presumably the youthful Yutian Zun this man had obtained came from that batch.

"I am Haotian Zun," Haotian Zun said with a faint smile.

Xing An nodded. "You're quite a challenge."

Haotian Zun drew a long breath and thought to himself, "This man can send a person into a fury with a single sentence—how has he lived until now?"

He did not know how many people wished to kill Xing An. Even Shen Mu, in his day, had wanted to kill Xing An, yet had never been able to rid himself of him.

"From the traces left by your battle with Huotian Zun's reincarnated body, I see that what you have mastered is another link in the Way of Taichu—the Innate One Qi."

Xing An surveyed his surroundings, then lightly raised a hand. The corpse of Huotian Zun's reincarnated body floated up, and with a swish it split into pieces—heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys; sinew and bone, skin and flesh and membrane—all separated neatly and in perfect order, until Haotian Zun felt a bizarre and dazzling bewilderment steal over him.

With that single move, Xing An laid bare the fleshly structure of a god-devil to its utmost extent, so that one could see with perfect clarity the most minute structures of a god-devil's body; even the subtle architecture of the marrow was displayed, leaving almost no secret at all.

The various divine storehouses and heavenly palaces within Huotian Zun's body were spread open, every wound and injury laid out at a single glance.

This move set Haotian Zun's hair on end all the more. "This man is far too familiar with the bodily structure of gods and devils. Was he a butcher by trade?"

Xing An said, "Judging by the look of death on Huotian Zun's reincarnated body, his soul was distorted; his heavenly palaces and divine storehouses were all twisted into vortices by some dreadful force. The other art you have mastered must take the Way of Guixu as its body."

A look of approval came over him. "You fused two great Ways, and you have comprehended the Dao realm of the Innate One Qi to the thirtyfold heaven. To have cultivated to such a level is most remarkable."

Haotian Zun's reincarnated body was astonished all the more, and could not help but feel a pang of fondness for talent. Curious, he said, "You can tell?"

"Mutian Zun likewise mastered the Innate One Qi and the Way of Guixu. Naturally I can tell."

Xing An continued to examine the traces of divine powers all around and the flesh of Huotian Zun, and analyzed: "Your heavenly palaces are exceedingly numerous; one of your Great Heavenly Court arts must already be perfect, having reached thirty-six heavenly palaces. What Huotian Zun guarded against was this art of yours, but your other art, which takes the Way of Guixu as its body, he could not guard against. His Dao-fire happened to be countered precisely by this art of yours, so that your divine power invaded his body, twisted his divine storehouses and heavenly palaces, and crushed his soul outright."

He surveyed the marks of battle around them and went on: "But as for this art of the Way of Guixu, its number of heavenly palaces is not yet perfect—it should be only thirty-five."

He touched the traces of the heavenly palaces in Huotian Zun's reincarnated body and examined the kinds of palaces they were. "Of these thirty-five heavenly palaces of yours, most duplicate your other thirty-six, but their order and their primary and secondary ranks differ, and so they yield different effects in cultivation. I take it this is because your wisdom is insufficient."

Haotian Zun laughed heartily, as though he had heard the most absurd thing in the world. "My wisdom insufficient?"

"You are a little short of it."

Xing An nodded. "The ordering of the heavenly palaces in your two Great Heavenly Court arts is not the optimal solution; hence both arts contain flaws. This must be because your attainments in the arts of number do not come up to the mark."

He raised his palm, and the chest opened.

Haotian Zun's pupils shrank sharply, and a chill ran down his back. From the chest flew out, one after another, the brains of gods and devils. The thought and consciousness within those brains still remained; the brains were still operating of themselves, and one could see countless divine lights flowing across their surfaces.

"These brains are ones I collected. You needn't worry—they are all dead men."

Xing An glanced at him and explained, "Cult Master Shen is forever wanting to dispose of me, but he is a man who insists upon principles. If I killed people at random, he would stop at nothing to do away with me. So I chose only those gods and devils who had already fallen in battle; they were dead, and keeping their brains served no purpose, so I took them out. In life they were plagued by all manner of distracting thoughts, but after death the distractions were gone, and they became my finest computing soldiers. To use the brains of living beings as computing soldiers is faster than the most advanced computing soldiers in Jingping."

He sighed with regret. "In truth, what I want most is Cult Master Shen's brain. Unfortunately, he will certainly never give it to me. Once I have studied you thoroughly, your brain will appear among them too."

His spirits lifted, and he flicked his sleeve. In the air, countless god-devil brains arranged and combined into a vast array of biological cerebral nerve clusters, performing calculations of inconceivable complexity, divine light flowing through those nerve-cluster arrays with incomparable swiftness.

Haotian Zun stared, spellbound, and murmured, "Some of them were very stupid men when alive. You say that joining their brains together can surpass me? Impossible."

Xing An said, "In life they may have been stupid, but it was not their brains that were stupid—it was their various notions. Those had to do with their upbringing and their living environment, not with their brains."

He explained patiently, "After they died, those notions were gone. So long as a person's brain keeps its activity, it can be called the fastest of computing soldiers. I merely put waste to use, employing these brains to make myself cleverer. I can easily find different sequences of heavenly palaces and arrive at the optimal solution of a Heavenly Court art. But someone like you, who is not clever enough, cannot find the optimal solution."

Haotian Zun gazed up at the brain matrix in the sky and sighed in admiration. "You remind me of someone: Shi Qiluo, Palace Lord of the Zaofu Heavenly Palace of the Heavenly Court. And also my mother, Lady Yuanmu—she too has a chest, and in it she keeps all manner of strange and curious things."

"Shi Qiluo?"

Xing An thought for a moment, then lightly raised his hand, and out of the chest flew a tousled head. "Is it this man? I found this head on the battlefield at Xuandu. His Dao is too lowly; he merely makes use of the Way of Creation and the Way of Guixu. Compared with me, he falls short by..."

He considered a moment and drew a line in the air with his hand. "Short by a hair. A hair of Cult Master Shen's."