Chapter 1091: 'No Gods, No Buddhas, Lawless and Heavenless Equals Going Mad from Cultivation'

Illusion techniques, array eyes...

At this moment, the two top-tier Hunter Order assassins, Xie Lao and Gui Po, realized they were trapped in an illusion array and were overcome with terror.

Below the Half-Saint level, who could make these two experienced assassins unwittingly step into an opponent's setup without a trace?

This was utterly impossible!

Even a Grand Master of Spirit Arrays couldn't do it!

"But why didn't my 'Yu Zhen Sensor' react? This absolutely can't be an illusion array... or at least, not an ordinary one!"

Xie Lao's heart sank as he searched frantically in all directions, trying to locate the array eye, but his thoughts and intentions were completely out of sync.

His "Yu Zhen Sensor" had been acquired at great cost in the past.

It could detect any illusion array below the Saint level, except for those involving Heavenly Secrets techniques. There was no way it wouldn't react.

So... this must be a Saint-level illusion array.

But Gui Po had already said that those two hadn't reached the Saint realm!

They absolutely couldn't be Half-Saints! Otherwise, just a glance from the Soul Banner would have killed them both on the spot, just like what happened to that previous Saint!

There was no time to think it through...

Since they were trapped, their only choice was to find a way out. Xie Lao and Gui Po pushed aside their distractions, expanded their spiritual senses to the fullest, and desperately searched for the array eye.

To their horror, as they probed with their spiritual senses, they discovered that despite crossing sixteen streets, they were still in the exact same position where they had started!

This meant that their opponent had set up the illusion array at their original location and might have even overheard their entire battle plan!

The timing didn't add up, though...

The two assassins' thoughts ground to a halt as they considered this.

From the moment that angry shout of "Who is seeking death?" rang out, they had acted immediately. How could their opponent have had time to lay an illusion array beneath them?

Setting up an array required time!

Xie Lao's mind was in utter chaos.

He was afraid.

All he wanted now was to grab Gui Po by the head and yell: I told you we shouldn't act! I said there might be dangers—we should have refined the Blood Tree Yin Branch first before moving!

"Stop your nonsense, you fool—find the array eye!"

Gui Po noticed Xie Lao's furious glare and shrieked at the top of her lungs, her voice laced with fear.

Xie Lao steadied his thoughts, realizing the illusion array was disrupting his mind. He dared not let his thoughts wander further and unleashed a surge of sinister energy that rampaged across hundreds of li around him.

But...

Hundreds of li away, across dozens of streets, everything looked identical—it was all the same long street where they currently stood!

"Endless cycle..."

A cold wind pierced from his soles straight to the crown of his head, and Xie Lao's heart nearly stopped.

The scope of this illusion array was ridiculously vast!

What kind of feat was this?

"Clang, clang."

Just then, as their search yielded nothing, a crisp sound of weapons clashing came from above.

"Up there!"

Gui Po let out a piercing cry, as if suddenly enlightened, and looked up. In an instant, she was struck as if by lightning.

Xie Lao's pupils contracted sharply. He assumed a defensive stance and followed her gaze upward, freezing in place like a statue, unable to move.

High in the nine heavens, a massive silver moon hung in the sky, nearly covering the entire Giant Kingdom, its cold moonlight pouring down mercilessly. Everything was bathed in silver scales—but Void Island had no moon!

Even more terrifying was...

Beneath that full moon, a silhouette stood alone against the light, clad in a sword cultivator's robe that rustled in the evening breeze.

Straining to make out the figure, they could vaguely see the sword cultivator shouldering a sack of snakeskin, from which the clanging of iron seemed to originate.

His face was handsome, his demeanor refined, like a scholar well-versed in poetry and literature. His gentle expression hid a pair of narrowed eyes full of warmth, as soft as moonlight in the night.

"Sword cultivator..."

"Illusion technique..."

Xie Lao and Gui Po's hearts trembled violently, and the word "Gu Jian Xiu" sprang to mind simultaneously.

Gu Jian Xiu—the very embodiment of terror!

In this era of survival of the fittest, those Gu Jian Xiu who couldn't cultivate properly were all worthless; but those who succeeded were demons capable of fighting above their level, taking on hundreds single-handedly!

"Gulp."

At that moment, the two top-tier Hunter Order assassins felt their hearts turn to ice.

One against two... Gui Po thought of her earlier naive idea and wished she could slap herself silly. What the hell was I thinking?

Straight to the point, take down Xu Xiaoshou... Xie Lao's mind was filled with the word "absurd." It's all Gui Po's fault! I said we shouldn't act now!

"Sixteen breaths..."

The middle-aged man, with the silver moon at his back, tightened his grip on the sack in his left hand. He tilted his head slightly, pressed his right hand's two fingers to his temple, and said thoughtfully:

"You took a full sixteen breaths to find me."

"So, let's calculate—how long will it take you to defeat me and break this array eye?"

The array eye of the Illusion Sword Technique was the Gu Jian Xiu himself!

Beneath the silver moon, his casual words carried an immense pressure descending from the nine heavens. The man's aura, as if bearing an entire realm on his back, inspired a terrifying urge to kneel in submission.

Upon hearing this, Xie Lao and Gui Po knew that if this man had acted earlier, he could have sent them to the afterlife sixteen times over in those sixteen breaths. How could they dare to fight a Gu Jian Xiu?

In their hearts, only one thought remained:

"Run!"

"Run with all their might, using every trick they had!"

But such desperation was plain to see. In the night, the sword-robed man under the silver moon had seen this reaction from countless opponents before.

"Why so quiet now?" he chuckled.

"You two are really rude. Since you've found me, why not introduce yourselves? I don't recognize you... Oh, and I'm even more interested in the people behind you!"

After a pause, this refined man with narrowed eyes seemed to remember something. He let out an "Oh" and smiled again:

"Sorry, I was rude first—I forgot to introduce myself."

"Of course, you should know me, or at least have heard of my name... From Can Yue Immortal City, Xiao Kong Dong!"

In a haze of chaos,

A surge of demonic energy erupted from within, and at the same time, the spiritual world—as a direct manifestation of one's will—was dyed pure black.

The "Mu Xia Shen Fo" and "Jian Xiang" vanished from sight, all transforming into terrifying monsters wreathed in demonic energy.

The ancient giant striding from afar seemed to become an indescribable evil god, delivering the most direct mental shock and dreadful pressure.

The surging demonic energy roamed the skies, and Xu Xiaoshou realized things had gone terribly wrong.

"Damn it, I've been affected by the information panel!"

This was something he had never anticipated.

Before entering meditation, Xu Xiaoshou had been certain that his cultivation session would be free of accidents.

Who was Xiao Kong Dong? Who was Mei Si Ren?

With these two as protectors, how could anything go wrong with his Heart Sword Technique practice?

But things turned out unpredictably... Perhaps the person "watching" him on Void Island hadn't acted yet, but Xu Xiaoshou himself had become a frightened bird, influenced by being "watched," and fallen into qi deviation!

"Watched..."

It could be said that his current reaction was purely due to the terrifying pressure from every previous instance of being "watched."

Whether it was the first encounter at E Lake with Sang Lao's ghostly face, or being force-fed the fire seed, evoking immense horror.

Or in the White Cavern, where Yu Ling Di was clearly watching him, yet he was forced to forget.

Or all the various "watchings" he still couldn't fathom, from unknown sources...

In short, Xu Xiaoshou had developed a sensitive reaction to the word "watched," like overusing breathing techniques with pills, where even seeing small, round objects triggered a response.

"This is bad, this is bad!"

"How do I break this qi deviation?"

Xu Xiaoshou's greatest fear of qi deviation stemmed from the scene in the Eight Palaces when Sang Lao was struck by the Ai Cang Sheng Evil Sin Bow's arrow.

That usually all-powerful old man became utterly helpless after that arrow!

So, the moment Xu Xiaoshou realized something was wrong, he nearly lost his sanity along with the rampant demonic energy in his spiritual world.

At that moment, he felt the frenzied evil intent in his spiritual world take on substantial demonic forms, baring fangs and claws, rampaging chaotically and muddling his thoughts.

Each of these demons had its own name:

Sang Lao, Ba Zun An, Yu Ling Di, Shou Ye, the Evil Sin Bow's arrow, Half-Saint Zang Ren, Half-Saint Jiang Bu Yi... an endless list, too many to count!

All the fears he had ever encountered, seen or unseen, even those not fully witnessed...

Anything that had left a trace of fear in his soul was now amplified, turning into vicious demons.

"Screech!"

The demons howled, as if the gates of Jiu You Hell had opened, dissolving all order into chaos, leaving only turmoil in the world.

Xu Xiaoshou clutched his head, in unbearable agony.

The tiny bit of clarity he could still hold onto seemed about to give way, on the verge of being assimilated into an evil will!

"No."

"Don't."

"Don't struggle anymore!!!"

Water droplets fell from the heavens, their crisp sound piercing through the endless chaos. Xu Xiaoshou's pupils shrank sharply, unable to suppress the amplification of his inner fears any longer.

"Roar!"

With a beastly roar, his previously restrained "true self" will—barely surpassing the "Mu Xia Shen Fo" and "Jian Xiang"—suddenly took on a substantial form.

It transformed into the most ferocious two-winged giant he had once become when facing Shuang Dai, standing on a prosperous ice lotus with white flames flowing around him, like the god of contradictory ice and fire.

But in the next second, this being with faint holy auras was invaded by demonic energy, morphing into a two-winged black demonic giant.

This was the strongest form he had shown in battle, with four swords in his left hand and a Yan Python in his right, but now devoid of reason, like a madman slashing wildly, directly obliterating the "Mu Xia Shen Fo" and "Jian Xiang" before him.

"Argh!"

In the spiritual world, cries of pain echoed everywhere.

Xu Xiaoshou felt himself splitting apart, dividing into two wills.

One will panicked, trying to stop the madness: "No! I can't do this! I'm in the middle of cultivating Heart Sword Technique!"

But the other will sneered in response: "This is Heart Sword Technique in my spiritual world—how can it tolerate others' intent images? What's the big deal about surpassing them? If I don't slaughter them all, how can I call it 'no gods, no Buddhas, no laws, no heavens'!"

"You make a good point... No gods, no Buddhas, no laws, no heavens—it's basically the state of qi deviation..."

Xu Xiaoshou felt his kinder will being convinced in an instant. He murmured to himself and willingly placed his head into the mouth of the evil will.

"Eat me, turn me into nourishment—we are one and the same!"

Crunch!

Darkness enveloped him, and Xu Xiaoshou sank into oblivion.

"Xu Xiaoshou, hold on—you can pull through!"

On the long street, Mei Si Ren gripped his stone sword tightly, staring intently at Xu Xiaoshou, who was bound by demonic energy and floating in the air, his heart in his throat.

From the pained expression on the young man's face, he could glimpse what was happening in his spiritual world.

But Mei Si Ren couldn't intervene!

He could use Heart Sword Technique to directly invade Xu Xiaoshou's spiritual world and help him slay the inner demons.

Yet now, it wasn't at the limit—he couldn't use that method!

"He hasn't opened his eyes yet..."

Although Xu Xiaoshou appeared to have ended his meditation and fully succumbed to qi deviation, Mei Si Ren still held a sliver of hope—Xu Xiaoshou's eyes remained tightly shut!

As he had said, Heart Sword Technique cultivated intent.

"The heart is the dwelling of intent, the eyes are the windows of the body." As long as Xu Xiaoshou hadn't opened his eyes, even if his state was completely off, the inner demons hadn't been released.

That meant there was still a chance!

"Maybe Xu Xiaoshou can suppress the qi deviation and use it to cultivate an even stronger Heart Sword Technique. This isn't unheard of in the past..."

Mei Si Ren's thoughts paused here.

"Well, there have never been cases of someone practicing Heart Sword Technique, falling into qi deviation, and still succeeding... or even surviving. But maybe, Xu Xiaoshou, you could be the first."

If it were anyone else, Mei Si Ren would have stepped in to help slay the inner demons.

But "geniuses" and "monsters" were different!

To Mei Si Ren, Xu Xiaoshou was like Ba Zun An to You Tu—he treated Xu Xiaoshou as that kind of "monstrous genius" for training.

So, even though none of his students, or even himself, had ever experienced something like this, Mei Si Ren still believed Xu Xiaoshou could resolve it on his own.

As long as he hadn't opened his eyes and released the inner demons, there was still room for reversal!

Worst case...

Mei Si Ren dared to wait this long without acting because he could sense that every time Xu Xiaoshou neared the edge of losing control, his own spirit would awaken.

It was as if he had some passive "purification" ability.

This was what preserved Xu Xiaoshou's shred of sanity and gave Mei Si Ren hope that he could suppress the qi deviation by himself!

"Hold on..."

If he could suppress the qi deviation, and even incorporate that power into the "Mu Xia Shen Fo," Mei Si Ren could hardly imagine how terrifying Xu Xiaoshou's Heart Sword Technique would become. His "Mu Xia Shen Fo" would be unimaginably wild and indescribable!

Wasn't that exactly what his school's Heart Sword Technique sought?

The unknown, the transcendent!

"Hundred refinements into steel..."

"Xu Xiaoshou, will you be that 'one and only'?"