Chapter 406: Great Nurturing
Li Tianxing's expression shifted slightly. The power of her Great Luo Heavenly Star Palm instantly transformed. Her mastery of spells and divine abilities could be said to be unrivaled in the current era. Each node within the Great Luo Heavenly Star Palm was a star; as the stars revolved, the palm's attributes changed, and its power became different.
Her palm technique appeared to be a physical divine ability, but at its root, it was a spell-based divine ability, collapsing space internally, with so many variations that they were nearly infinite. In fact, after cultivating the Great Luo Heavenly Star Palm, Li Tianxing had lost the motivation to advance further.
Because this divine ability was too perfect—so perfect that none of the divine abilities she later created could ever surpass it.
The Great Nurturing Heavenly Demon Sutra contained a unified cultivation method, and she called the Great Luo Heavenly Star Palm a unified divine ability, capable of coordinating and controlling all the divine abilities of the Great Nurturing Heavenly Demon Sutra!
Yet, no matter how her palm power changed, Xing Han paid no attention. He didn't bother to guess at her palm power's transformations or her divine ability's shifts. No matter how varied her divine abilities were, Xing Han simply broke through them with brute force—one fist, one palm!
The god's fist, the god's strength, the god's mana—the god ignored all her changes, directly crushing her, sweeping away everything in its path!
Li Tianxing's lips bled as she felt the terrifying might emanating from Xing Han's palm power. This force was striking her primordial spirit, striking her demon seed!
The Village Chief, Blind, and others had failed to subdue her or rescue Si Youyou. Old Tathagata had also failed to convert her. Yet Xing Han was directly targeting her origin, seeking to destroy her!
Emperor Yanfeng and Blind attacked, and Yu Zhaoqing also regrouped, fighting fiercely toward Xing Han. Xing Han's other four hands dealt with the attacks from Emperor Yanfeng and Blind. Above his head, his primal energy steamed and condensed into a divine bridge. His primordial spirit stood on the bridge, engaging Yu Zhaoqing in battle, blocking all three of their attacks and inflicting severe wounds on them!
Too terrifying.
With three heads and six arms, even Emperor Yanfeng couldn't break through. Although Blind had the ability to penetrate his defenses and strike, Xing Han's strength was too great, his mana far surpassing Blind's, rendering Blind's attacks ineffective.
And Yu Zhaoqing's confrontation with Xing Han's primordial spirit on the divine bridge repeatedly placed him in danger. Xing Han's primordial spirit was extremely strange and terrifying, constantly shifting—sometimes manifesting as the Azure Dragon deity, sometimes as the White Tiger deity, then suddenly transforming into the Black Tortoise or the Vermilion Bird.
He had not only seized the primordial spirit of an expert who had cultivated it to the divine realm!
"Flawless, flawless…"
Blood continued to flow from Li Tianxing's mouth, and the demon seed gradually wavered. However, before the demon seed could be destroyed by Xing Han, this physical body would likely fail first.
Because this was the body of her disciple, Si Youyou. Using the Dao Heart to Plant Demon technique, she had turned her primordial spirit into a heart demon and planted it within Si Youyou's body. Through Si Youyou's body, she had continuously nurtured and strengthened it. Recently, she had begun to merge, usurping the nest and occupying the magpie's place. Si Youyou's body had thus greatly increased in cultivation—breaking through life and death a year ago and recently breaking through the Divine Bridge realm.
But Si Youyou's primordial spirit couldn't withstand Xing Han's attacks. Before Li Tianxing's demon seed could be killed by Xing Han, Si Youyou would die at Xing Han's hands first.
"If Youyou dies, this body will belong to me. I can escape—Xing Han won't be able to keep me…"
A wave of joy surged in Li Tianxing's heart. Over the years, she had been competing with Si Youyou for this flawless body. But previously, Blind, the Village Chief, and others had constantly interfered, and Old Tathagata had tried to annihilate her. Now, she was finally about to get what she wanted.
It wasn't Si Youyou the person she loved; it was her body. How wonderful it was to be a woman—possessing a beauty that even gods would envy, perfect as if she shouldn't exist in this world.
With this body, wherever she went, she would draw the gaze of countless people. Countless would fall for her, be infatuated with her, and everyone would love her.
She could have everything!
As the former Heavenly Demon Sect Leader, her abilities weren't limited to sheer combat power. If she wanted to escape, there were few in this world who could stop her.
The Heavenly Demon Sect's disciples were skilled in all kinds of escape techniques, and she was a grandmaster in this field!
Now, all she had to do was wait for Xing Han to eliminate Si Youyou's primordial spirit, and then she could slip away, starting her happy and fulfilling life from then on!
But suddenly, an inexplicable panic gripped Li Tianxing's heart. She recalled a bright morning a hundred years ago, when the Young Patriarch brought a little girl from the Si family to her.
"Si Youyou, the Holy Maiden of this generation of the Heavenly Saint Sect. I can't teach her. Compared to me, you're still young and strong, able to withstand the trouble."
The Young Patriarch handed the little girl to him and turned to leave. The Young Patriarch fled as if this little girl were a flood or a fierce beast.
At that time, when he saw Si Youyou's face, he was still a man.
Si Youyou was only thirteen then. He still remembered the feeling of seeing thirteen-year-old Si Youyou for the first time. He felt his heart struck, as if hit by immense happiness, as if a gentle hand had grasped his heart, as if the entire world had narrowed down to the girl before him.
But he knew he was her master and shouldn't harbor improper thoughts toward his disciple.
All along, he had adhered to his responsibility as a master, teaching Si Youyou with all his heart, imparting everything he had learned in his life. Yet, improper thoughts still crept up from time to time, disturbing his mind and his Dao heart.
Si Youyou was very mischievous. Almost everyone in the Heavenly Saint Sect had been troubled by her, and she had caused many disasters. At that time, Li Tianxing's busiest task was cleaning up after his young disciple, resolving all the messes Si Youyou had made.
But that was also the happiest time of his life. Even though he had to deal with all kinds of messes, there was a feeling of indulgence in his heart.
In front of him, Si Youyou was very well-behaved and sensible. She progressed quickly and pleased him greatly. There were no foolish women in the Si family.
At that time, there was a deep bond between master and disciple, and he kept his improper thoughts deeply hidden.
When did it start to change?
Si Youyou grew up. The mischief and naivety of her childhood gradually faded, replaced by an astonishing charm. Every move, every word, radiated allure, making his eyes see only her.
Back then, he still knew he was her master and shouldn't have improper thoughts about his disciple, but he couldn't help himself.
He spied on Si Youyou bathing, collected the clothes she had worn, and was obsessed to the extreme.
But Si Youyou noticed, and she began to gradually distance herself from him.
It must have been from that point that this infatuation and love twisted into greed.
The more he couldn't have her, the more he wanted her. The more he wanted her, the more twisted his heart became. He thought he didn't love his disciple but rather that most beautiful body.
Feeling his heart twist, he was horrified.
The collapse, disintegration, and deformation of his Dao heart frightened him. To save his Dao heart, he finally devised a plan.
Since the rule of the master-disciple boundary restricted him from having feelings for his disciple, he could become Si Youyou and live on in that beautiful body.
He decided to use his power and authority to get things done. Those in the sect who opposed him were driven away, exiled, killed, or imprisoned. Finally, he got what he wanted: he divorced his wife and married his disciple.
That night, Si Youyou rose up and killed him. But this was within his expectations. He turned himself into a heart demon, lurking in his disciple's Dao heart, waiting for the moment he could become that woman.
Recalling all this, Li Tianxing was stunned.
"I lost. My Dao heart was defeated from that bright morning, from the first moment I saw her…"
Under Xing Han's heavy blows, Li Tianxing spat blood and retreated.
That morning, when the Young Patriarch brought Si Youyou to him, from the first glance, he had fallen in love with his disciple. What caused his Dao heart to collapse wasn't Si Youyou, but himself.
It was his own Dao heart, twisted by love and the master-disciple boundary, that had turned into what it was now—a laughingstock in others' eyes.
He didn't truly want to possess this body. All along, he had loved this person, not her body. It was his twisted Dao heart that made him think he wanted to become Si Youyou.
"From the first moment I saw her, I was already defeated. Patriarch, you've ruined me…"
Li Tianxing rallied his spirits, recalling another sentence the Young Patriarch had said that morning when he brought Si Youyou: "The Great Nurturing Heavenly Demon Sutra—the two words 'Great Nurturing' mean education and inheritance. As the Holy Sect Leader, don't fail those two words."
At that time, his eyes were only on this girl, and those words had drifted vaguely past his ears. Now, they became exceptionally clear.
"I have never lived up to the words 'Great Nurturing'!"
Li Tianxing let out a fierce cry. Suddenly, terrifying demonic light erupted from Si Youyou's body, shooting from her heart straight into Xing Han's heart.
This black light was like a bridge. Li Tianxing's primordial spirit stepped onto the bridge and charged toward Xing Han.
"Good disciple, go!"
He drilled into Xing Han's Dao heart, and at this moment, he was unprecedentedly calm.
Granny Si woke up, somewhat dazed. Yu Zhaoqing fell from the air, spitting blood. Blind's Dragon Tuo Divine Spear was twisted, his arm broken. Emperor Yanfeng was lifted high by Xing Han and thrust headfirst into the ground.
The Empress Dowager and the others were staggering to their feet. In the hall, Cripple was trying to get up with both hands on the ground. Deaf wiped blood from the corner of his mouth, tremblingly lifting his brush to paint, but couldn't control the ink.
Qin Mu was frantically refining spirit pills to heal the injured flood dragons.
Everyone had been defeated, utterly routed.
Xing Han's palm was about to strike her, to destroy her primordial spirit.
Suddenly, the palm stopped in front of her. It became somewhat gentle, softly smoothing the disheveled hair at her temple.
One of Xing Han's heads lowered to look at her, as if returning to that morning a hundred years ago, with tenderness: "Youyou, live happily as a beautiful woman. Go now—quickly!"
From that head came Li Tianxing's voice, shouting sharply: "Xing Han, come with me on this journey! Heavenly Demon Dissolution!"
"Sect Leader Li, you're too presumptuous! A mere demon seed, and you think you can seize my body?"
Roars came from Xing Han's other two heads. Boom! A violent explosion erupted inside Xing Han's body. His frame trembled wildly, his limbs and movements thrown into chaos.
Cripple slammed both hands down, flying out of the hall, and thrust them toward Xing Han's eyes.
Yu Zhaoqing unleashed his last strength, a stream of multicolored light fixing Xing Han's body in place. Blind, wielding his spear with one arm, poured all his remaining power into stabbing it into Xing Han's heart. Emperor Yanfeng roared, shooting up from the ground headfirst, summoning bolts of lightning as thick as dragons, madly striking Xing Han's body!
"A bunch of trash!"
Xing Han's body suddenly disintegrated. From the box, heads, arms, chests, hearts, legs flew toward him. The heads were furious: "All of you are useless! Even if you use Heavenly Demon Dissolution, what can you do to me?"
Everyone was sent flying in all directions, spitting blood.
Qin Mu leaped up, charging forward. One flood dragon after another frantically caught up to him, wrapping around his body, causing his aura to surge. He controlled his flying sword, stabbing toward Xing Han's reassembling body.
"Get lost!"
Xing Han's arms detached from his body, and in an instant, he struck out more than a dozen times, severely wounding the flood dragons again. Over a dozen flood dragons collapsed to the ground.
Xing Han withdrew his arms, reattaching them to his body. He flicked his finger, sending Qin Mu flying. Coldly, he said: "If you weren't still useful, with your abilities, I could blow you to death with a single breath… Hmm?"
The arm he had just reattached suddenly fell off from his armpit, landing on the ground.
Xing Han was stunned. He lowered his head to look at the fallen arm. Suddenly, one of his eyes dropped from its socket, rolling twice on the ground.
"What's happening?" He was bewildered, then saw an ear fall off one of his heads. He raised a hand to catch it, but that arm also fell off his body.
He quickly looked up at Qin Mu, but his head rolled off, shouting from the ground: "Did you poison me?"
Qin Mu climbed to his feet, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth, and said viciously: "Just brewed some tonic medicine, to nourish you! It's very targeted!"