Almost at the same time Wenren Sheng turned his head, a silver gleam brushed past his ear, kicking up a sharp gust of wind.
Color Kill spun through the air, not hesitating for a moment as it shot straight toward Wenren Sheng.
“Wait!”
“Tch.”
He Mu’s expression didn’t change. He slightly shifted his two fingers.
At the last moment, Color Kill abruptly halted.
The sharp blade had already sliced open the man’s neck. Blood seeped down along the cold, hard edge of the light, slowly dripping to the ground.
“What do you want to say?”
He Mu half-lowered his gaze and said coldly.
Only then did Wenren Sheng clearly see the appearance of the person behind him. His clothes were tattered and torn, half his face a bloody mess of flesh. Black blood kept seeping down his neck into his collar.
This person was none other than Chen Lian, who had been out cold just moments ago.
With Color Kill pressing in close, Chen Lian had no choice but to painfully tilt his neck. He was so tense he nearly passed out. He took two heavy breaths and stared wide-eyed at He Mu.
Whether it was because Color Kill was too close or because He Mu had silently released his divine graven again, Chen Lian’s lips trembled violently. He tried several times but couldn’t force a complete syllable from his throat.
“This… cough cough… this is…”
Wenren Sheng no longer needed to hold the sword. It was as if it magnetically pulled him back as he hugged He Mu’s leg again, warily eyeing Chen Lian.
“I can’t understand what you’re saying.”
Wenren Sheng made a fierce face at Chen Lian.
Chen Lian gritted his teeth and glared angrily at Wenren Sheng.
He hated this ignorant little monster, especially hated seeing anyone other than himself standing by his side.
Over these three years, he had always found ways to bully Wenren Sheng. Whenever he saw someone or some demon getting close to Wenren Sheng, Chen Lian would do everything he could to drive them away.
He couldn’t stand seeing Wenren Sheng get along with anyone.
But the one right now…
Chen Lian glanced at He Mu beside Wenren Sheng.
He was no match for him.
Chen Lian clenched his teeth. He lightly pushed at Color Kill with two fingers. Only after the blade permitted it could he finally take a full breath.
He Mu had no interest in Chen Lian’s petty thoughts. He cut straight to the point. “Why are you hiding another person in your room?”
“This is my father,” Chen Lian breathed heavily, not hiding it. “Wu Di.”
Wenren Sheng said, “Your father is called Invincible too? Same name as that old guy from Sword Sect.”
“You…!”
Chen Lian had just opened his mouth to curse when He Mu’s brows furrowed slightly. Color Kill closed in on Chen Lian’s neck again like a threat.
Chen Lian naturally read the silent warning. His words cut off abruptly. Then he took a deep breath and explained weakly, “It’s not that my father is also called Invincible. Wu Di, the elder of Return to One Sword Sect—he is my father.”
Hearing this, He Mu understood.
When he had forcefully broken into Return to One Sword Sect during the day, he had already noticed something off. This was Xiang City’s top sect, after all, yet from disciples to elders, they were all the same bunch of rotten mud that couldn’t be helped up onto the wall. It was truly bizarre.
He figured the “Wu Di” he had stabbed back then was just a fake.
And the not-quite-human, not-quite-ghost skeleton on that rattan chair right now—this was the real Sword Sect elder, Wu Di.
Wenren Sheng muttered softly on the side, “No wonder.”
One had deceived him out of his spirit root, the other had hogged it all. As for them being “family,” Wenren Sheng had no doubts at all.
If family meant someone like Chen Lian, Wenren Sheng would rather stay alone forever.
Chen Lian heard this and let out two snorts from between his teeth. He raised his eyes to look at Wenren Sheng and said slowly, “You sure are…”
“No need for more nonsense.”
He Mu quickly lost his patience. He drew Color Kill back into his palm, flipped his wrist, and flung out a strand of sword qi.
This sword qi shot straight toward Wu Di behind him.
Its speed had already surpassed what the naked eye could follow. Almost in the next blink, the sword qi had sliced Wu Di’s body—and even the back of the rattan chair—in half.
Wenren Sheng was both timid and curious. He covered his face with one hand but peeked at Wu Di through his fingers.
He had expected some bloody scene. Who would have thought that after being cut in half at the waist, not a single drop of blood spilled out!
Even more shocking, Wenren Sheng clearly saw that at the break in the man’s waist and abdomen, several strands of eerie green light connected the halves—like the roots of some plant, swiftly weaving the two parts of the body back together.
“!”
Wenren Sheng let out a cry of alarm and immediately buried his head in He Mu’s chest like a little bird.
What kind of thing was that?!
He Mu seemed to have anticipated it. He casually stroked the back of Wenren Sheng’s neck twice and explained in a soothing voice, “When I said ‘he’ earlier—neither living nor dead, neither human nor ghost—it was because this thing no longer counted as a living being.”
That was why the Three Pure Ones Bell hadn’t made a sound the first time Wenren Sheng shook it.
The Heavenly Court was only responsible for living creatures and dead objects. Something like Wu Di, which was neither alive nor dead, wasn’t under their jurisdiction.
The second time it rang was probably because Chen Lian had stepped into this space. The Three Pure Ones Bell’s death warrant allowed He Mu to kill Chen Lian.
Wenren Sheng hugged He Mu tightly, not daring to lift his head. “Not human, not ghost—what is he exactly?”
He Mu smiled and turned his gaze back to Chen Lian opposite them.
“That would be a question for his dear son.”
Chen Lian still felt some lingering fear toward He Mu. The pain of his sea of consciousness nearly shattering was still fresh in his memory.
Faced with the divine graven, even though he was unwilling, he still gritted his teeth, lowered his gaze, and avoided meeting He Mu’s eyes.
He answered softly, “My dad has already become the spirit root itself.”
Hearing this answer, Wenren Sheng’s body stiffened. He finally slowly lifted his head from He Mu’s embrace and looked at He Mu with a puzzled expression.
Could a person become a spirit root?
Did that mean he still had a chance to get his own spirit root back?
He Mu knew what he wanted to say. He patted Wenren Sheng’s head and lifted his chin toward Chen Lian. “Keep talking.”
Chen Lian pursed his lips, shuffled past the two of them, and arrived in front of the half-dead Wu Di. He trembled as he knelt down.
“My dad was a mixed spirit root too,” he said. “After luckily entering the Dao, he cultivated diligently and always stayed far ahead of his peers. He was Sword Sect’s admired senior brother.”
“But when he reached the Mahayana Realm, because his talent wasn’t enough, he could never break through. He could only watch as his fellow disciples’ geniuses progressed bit by bit, one by one surpassing this ‘senior brother’ of theirs.”
“By chance, he received guidance from an expert who said Fragrant Ze Mountain was rich in spiritual power. The demons there were nourished year-round, and perhaps he could take their spirit root to cleanse his foundation and break through… cough cough… break through the realm…”
Hearing this, Wenren Sheng slowly released his embrace.
He grabbed one of He Mu’s fingers instead and looked at Chen Lian with a complicated expression.
Chen Lian wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and continued, “He held a high position, so he could only send me, his son, to scout the way ahead. At first I didn’t want to, but after he gave me a vicious beating, I had no choice but to grit my teeth and head up the mountain.”
“The first demon I encountered,”
At this point, Chen Lian turned his head to glance at Wenren Sheng and said,
“was you, Wenren Sheng.”
Wenren Sheng already knew most of the story after that. He had been tricked out of Fragrant Ze Mountain’s barrier by Chen Lian using the guise of “family,” and in Return to One Sword Sect—in this rundown house—he had nearly lost his life.
Even so, too many questions still left Wenren Sheng baffled.
He couldn’t help asking, “But you already gave him half of my spirit root. Why did he still turn into this?”
Hearing the question, Chen Lian let out a mocking laugh and countered, “You… really don’t know?”
“I don’t.”
Wenren Sheng shook his head honestly.
“Because your spirit root,” He Mu answered for him, “among single spirit roots, only one kind has the ability to devour other natural energies like this.”
Wenren Sheng hadn’t been down the mountain in a long time and knew very little about the cultivation world. He didn’t understand what it meant for a spirit root to devour natural energies.
But He Mu was different. The first time he probed Wenren Sheng’s spirit root, he had already noticed something.
And it was only after seeing Wu Di’s abnormality just now that he confirmed the guess in his heart.
The spirit root that had been cut out of Wenren Sheng’s body was a heavenly spiritual root.
Though Wenren Sheng’s spiritual power was so weak it was like a sheet of thin paper, how could an ordinary cultivator lose half their spirit root and still circulate energy normally or mobilize spiritual power?
Most would be crippled and wasted, lingering a few more years before passing from the world.
But not only was Wenren Sheng alive and well, he could even use exquisite Transformation Technique without revealing his original form for an entire day.
No other spirit root attribute could achieve that except heavenly spiritual root.
“All spirit roots are formed postnatally inside the body after the stages of ‘drawing qi into the body’ and ‘Qi Condensation,'” He Mu said. “Spirit roots are condensations of natural ‘qi.'”
“But among them, heavenly spiritual root is different.”
Rather than a condensation of “natural qi,” heavenly spiritual root was more like “nature” itself.
No need for postnatal refinement, no need for arduous cultivation—heavenly spiritual root holders could elevate their realm effortlessly just by lying there snoring away.
Not only that, divine weapons, divine arms, heavenly treasures, all things related to “qi” in nature would instinctively gravitate toward heavenly spiritual root.
This also explained why Color Kill was so drawn to Wenren Sheng.
Wenren Sheng listened in a daze. After a long pause, he slowly asked, “In short, I’m super, super awesome?”
He Mu smiled and said, “I thought you already knew how awesome you were.”
Wenren Sheng instantly felt his whole body lighten up, like he was standing on a cloud of cotton candy.
He had thought the Mountain God was just coaxing him before. Turns out he really was super awesome?
Then as long as he got his spirit root back, the Mountain God would definitely be willing to become family with him!
But before he could be happy for long, Chen Lian over there let out a few muffled grunts and vomited up another huge puddle of blood onto the ground.
He propped himself up and stared at the pool of crimson. He squeezed out a hoarse sentence from his throat.
“Your talent is top-notch… your spirit root is so powerful it elevates your realm just by breathing,” Chen Lian said. “You have no idea… how jealous my dad was…”
His words made it sound like he was trying to pin all the blame on Wenren Sheng.
Wenren Sheng didn’t buy it. He shook his head and said seriously, “This isn’t my fault. You’re the ones who are bad.”
“Well said,” He Mu chimed in sarcastically. “Greedily coveting a heavenly spiritual root but lacking the ability to withstand its power—this is reaping what you sowed. Calling you trash isn’t going too far.”
“Trash, huh…”
Chen Lian repeated it mockingly with a snort.
“By now, it’s all too late. My dad’s body has been completely devoured by the heavenly spiritual root. His Violet Palace Sea of Consciousness has been utterly destroyed. He passed away to the west yesterday.”
After hearing this confession, He Mu crooked a finger. A wisp of spiritual power drifted into the “World’s Number One Divine Sword” at his waist—the wooden sword Wenren Sheng had carved himself.
The wooden sword trembled twice, then floated up and drifted over to He Mu. Its tip spun, pointing straight at Chen Lian’s neck.
“He forced you to be his accomplice, and now he’s gone to the afterlife. Are you relieved?”
Wenren Sheng also straightened up. He gripped the now-shrunken Color Kill with both hands and looked at Chen Lian with an unusually serious expression.
Over there, Chen Lian was silent for a long time. He shook his head and muttered to himself,
“How to put it?”
Chen Lian strained to lift his head and look at Wu Di’s ugly, twisted, pale face.
“This feeling is probably like…”
Like what?
For three years, every day and night, he had chewed over this emotion repeatedly.
Every time he climbed Fragrant Ze Mountain to find that skinny little figure, he had to dissect this mindset, almost masochistically savoring its flavor.
And now, seeing Wenren Sheng standing here with He Mu, he finally understood the root of all that pain.
“Like resentment.”
Chen Lian let out two low chuckles.
Resentment at never getting anyone’s attention.
With that, he suddenly clenched his teeth so hard they ground together. The corners of his eyes twisted in rage, nearly deforming.
His gaze distorted as he looked at Wenren Sheng.
“Yours, his…”
“I can never have them!”
“In my dad’s eyes, I wasn’t even as important as your heavenly spiritual root! I’m trash! Satisfied now?!”
He roared out those words, then crawled to his feet and lunged at Wu Di with astonishing speed. The two of them, along with the rattan chair, tumbled backward.
Chen Lian paid no mind to his own wretched state. His eyes bloodshot, he raised a hand and snapped Wu Di’s neck to the side.
This sudden scene left Wenren Sheng dumbfounded. He retreated half a step and exclaimed in shock,
“He suddenly—what’s wrong with him!”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than Chen Lian bared his teeth and lunged straight at Wu Di’s neck, biting down!
He Mu’s expression turned stern. He immediately raised his hand, and the wooden sword at his side shot out in an instant, piercing into Chen Lian’s nape at extreme speed.
With a squelch, the wooden sword struck with the force of a roofing nail, piercing straight through two bodies and ruthlessly nailing the father and son duo to the ground.
Having done this, he grabbed Wenren Sheng by the back of the collar with one hand, tapped the ground, and retreated several steps. In the blink of an eye, he leaped out of Chen Lian’s room.
Once they reached open ground, He Mu flipped onto a rooftop and carefully set down Wenren Sheng from his arms.
“He ate the heavenly spiritual root,” He Mu said calmly, one hand pressed to the ground. “He’ll be berserk for a while. To preserve the heavenly spiritual root intact, I need to keep him occupied for some time. You…”
Before he could finish speaking, a weak groan sounded from nearby.
He Mu’s expression changed. He turned toward the sound and looked at Wenren Sheng, his golden pupils contracting sharply.
The Transformation Technique had been dispelled at some unknown point. The previously lively Wenren Sheng suddenly seemed drained of all strength. He collapsed at the edge of the eaves, curling up and clutching his fluffy tail tightly.
His lips parted slightly as he panted in short gasps. Fine beads of sweat dotted his pale face, and even his lips had turned ashen gray.
His frail body curled into a ball, like a delicate flower in the snow that would scatter into pieces with the slightest breeze.
It had been a long time since He Mu had seen such a fragile life.
He Mu frowned slightly. His outstretched hand froze in mid-air, not daring to make contact.
