Chapter 81: One Move

No one in this world could survive wounds like these.

Not even one remade by gu worms. Not even a Vajra. Not even someone who knew the art of fleshly regeneration. Death was certain.

Li Miao’s single slash had shattered Yun Zelin’s collarbone and shoulder blade, cleaving through his entire right lung.

Half his chest caved inward at an angle, blood gushing out, with his heart and writhing organs laid bare to the air.

Had Yun Zelin gone mad?

He had only his left hand locked around Li Miao’s right, which was the same as exposing his entire body to Li Miao’s right hand.

Yun Zelin was gifted beyond measure. Unlike Li Miao, his Sumeru power had been earned honestly, step by step, by his own cultivation. In terms of understanding technique, he was stronger than Li Miao.

So how could he have made such a crude mistake?

With injuries this severe, even with the toughness granted by gu worm refinement, he had no more than a minute left to live.

Then, in that instant, the heart exposed to the air, swollen with proliferating flesh, suddenly bulged outward. Li Miao even heard it give off a faint, shrill cry.

It was the heart Yun Zelin had taken from Zuo Lishan, the one that had given him Vajra power.

After swelling, it looked like a water skin stretched to its limit.

Bang!

It exploded.

Countless red-thread gu worms poured into Yun Zelin’s body.

As they fell into his flesh, a faint metallic sheen surfaced across his skin and blood.

Then Yun Zelin drew strength from his waist and abdomen, and the flesh of his already-severed body clenched violently.

He actually trapped Li Miao’s right hand inside his own body. Li Miao tried to wrench his arm free, but for a moment he could not break loose.

On Yun Zelin’s face, half flesh and half skull, a mad smile spread.

He had won his gamble. Li Miao had indeed used the One Slash.

Even after reaching Sumeru, Li Miao was still a man, and he would still instinctively rely on the martial art he knew best, the one most natural to him.

Before cultivating Sumeru, Li Miao had already served for many years in the Brocade Guards. The technique he used most comfortably was, of course, the Brocade Guards’ Iron Punishment Battle Decree.

With Yun Zelin’s insight, he had clearly seen through this. This opening had been deliberately left for Li Miao.

No sooner had Yun Zelin laughed than he opened his stinking, blood-filled mouth and bit hard into Li Miao’s shoulder.

Li Miao had already dispersed his Vajra state, and although Yun Zelin had detonated the gu worms within himself and was now at death’s door, in the brief moment before death his body was still stronger than Li Miao’s.

That bite went in deep, straight into the flesh.

Blood sprayed.

Li Miao suddenly yanked out his right hand and struck with a Great Nine Heavens Palm, blasting Yun Zelin away.

In midair, Yun Zelin could no longer suppress the Five Declines of the Celestials.

His hair fell out, his teeth dropped away, and his flesh withered.

The half of his torso split open by Li Miao could no longer hold together; it tore free from his body and splattered across the ground.

Hair and blood flew everywhere as Yun Zelin’s ruined body crashed down.

Li Miao wiped at the wound on his shoulder and held his hand before his eyes. The blood on it was pitch black.

Gu poison. Yun Zelin’s bite had injected the venom of the gu worms into him.

Li Miao looked down at Yun Zelin, who lay on the ground, barely alive.

"Heh... heh heh..."

"Lord Li... this time... I won..."

Yun Zelin’s teeth were all gone by now, so his words came out faint and slurred.

Li Miao walked slowly over to him.

"You wanted to trade lives?"

Yun Zelin gave a low laugh.

"I had to... try..."

Suddenly, Li Miao’s whole body turned bright red. White smoke rose from the wound on his shoulder, and a line of black blood slowly seeped out before the flesh gradually healed.

"I have a foster daughter who works with gu. When I gathered Miao lands sorcery methods for her, I read them myself from time to time."

"Ji Tianrui can make sense of them, and so can I."

"You’re still too green if you think gu poison can kill me."

Yun Zelin let out a long breath.

"Hah... as expected..."

"But in the end... I still beat you once..."

"I am not a mediocrity..."

"Lord Li, remember this: on this day, this year, atop Mount Tai, Yun Zelin beat you once..."

When he finished speaking, Yun Zelin could no longer hold on. Blood surged into his windpipe.

"Be careful... Ji Tianrui..."

At last, he mouthed one final sentence.

Then all sound ceased.

He was dead.

From the moment Li Miao had freely retreated from that state, Yun Zelin had understood that victory was impossible.

This venture of his had been a desperate, do-or-die gamble. He had bet that before the Five Declines of the Celestials erupted, he could kill Li Miao, complete his foundations, and force a breakthrough beyond the barrier formed by the fusion of the three paths.

His preparations had been nothing if not thorough. First he had forced Li Miao into a life-and-death struggle with the Bright Cult, while he himself had staked his life and stood at the summit of the three paths. There was no one else in the world who could have lived through so many calculations.

Too bad for him.

His opponent was Li Miao.

Li Miao was not complete, and Yun Zelin was not upright; the two had originally been evenly matched. But after Li Miao perfected one of the paths, he had in fact begun to press him hard.

All Yun Zelin could do was place his hopes on Li Miao’s accumulating injuries and the flaw he had accidentally revealed.

But Li Miao’s martial arts exceeded his understanding.

If his true energy was gone, Li Miao could switch to cultivating Sumeru. If his body was wounded, Li Miao could switch to Vajra. If he fell behind in technique, then presumably he could switch to cultivating Mustard Seed.

Even the Five Declines of the Celestials could be avoided by retreating in cultivation.

He knew he could not kill Li Miao before the Five Declines erupted.

So he made a choice: before dying, he would prove something.

Yun Zelin had used his life to win this exchange.

He was not a mediocrity.

Li Miao swept his eyes over the corpse and said, "Not bad."

Then he struck with a Great Nine Heavens Palm, smashing the body below the neck into a pulp.

The Bright Cult had probably been studying gu worms all these years and had already made them into a terrible art. Li Miao would not leave the corpse intact, in case there were still gu worms hidden in the organs.

Though he admitted Yun Zelin was a worthy opponent, Li Miao would not grant such a filthy man an intact body or a peaceful burial.

Yun Zelin’s head was brushed by the force of the palm, rolled a short distance across the ground, and came to rest.

Li Miao ignored it, turned, and after walking a few steps, dragged a chair out from the ruins of the Mount Tai Sect’s main hall. He sat down in the center of the square.

Yun Zelin’s head was now a ghastly sight, half flesh and half skull, with only one remaining eye fixed on Li Miao.

Li Miao looked at it and smiled.

"If you were so determined to walk the right road, then look closely now."

With that, Li Miao closed his eyes.

The matter at Mount Tai Sect was, for the moment, at an end.

Now it was time for Li Miao to collect his wages.

Ssshh... ssshh...

Across the surrounding ruins, dust rose of its own accord, without wind.

The pebbles on the ground trembled continuously.

Li Miao’s white hair gradually returned to normal, and his perfected Sumeru power slowly dissipated.

With both hands resting on the chair’s arms, he leaned back as though he had already fallen asleep.