Chapter 726: A Thousand Palms Return from Beyond the Heavens
The gods in the Jade Capital City were greatly shaken, their hearts pounding as they all looked toward Qin Mu. "Is he the Overlord Body that the Grand Master spoke of? Isn't the Overlord Body the Yan Kang National Teacher?"
In that brief instant, Qin Mu's thousand arms converged into six, all his divine abilities merging in a flash into six palm forces, meeting Hu Bugui's Wind Shakes the Pines, Quakes the Mountain Valley.
A Thousand Palms Return from Beyond the Heavens.
This was his martial arts divine ability.
Hu Bugui's Wind Shakes the Pines, Quakes the Mountain Valley had a fist intent like wind, while his figure was like a pine. A thousand pines formed a forest; when he threw a punch, the divine ability erupted, his body like wind shaking the pines, and the power's explosion shattered the mountain valley.
Qin Mu's great martial arts divine ability, on the other hand, fused all the physical divine abilities of the combat technique schools he had learned in the past. His earlier thousand arms and thousand palms were precisely for merging these techniques and abilities.
The combat techniques of Master Ma, the Butcher, the Blind, and the successive Human Sovereigns became, in his hands, a series of strange peaks. Each fist intent was different, and when integrated and mastered, they became A Thousand Palms Return from Beyond the Heavens.
This divine ability of his was meant to display different strange peaks and magnificent scenery.
Behind him emerged his Spirit Embryo, Five Radiances, Six Harmonies, and Heavenly Being divine repositories. Strangely, not only was he missing the Seven Stars divine repository, but below these repositories, another set of Spirit Embryo, Five Radiances, Six Harmonies, and Heavenly Being divine repositories should have been reflected!
Above was the divine path; below was the demonic path.
God and demon, reflecting each other, gathered in one body.
The thirty-six war gods in the Jade Capital City finally understood why Qin Mu, at the Heavenly Being realm, could resist Hu Bugui's great martial arts divine ability.
Hu Bugui was at the Life and Death realm, and he had refined that realm to perfection. Because everyone in the Bullfight Realm was trapped at the Life and Death realm, unable to advance further, the martial artists of the Bullfight Realm had developed each realm to an extreme level of perfection.
Hu Bugui was one of the best among them.
It could be said that in the Life and Death realm, no one had deeper cultivation than he did.
Yet when Qin Mu fought Hu Bugui, he managed to match him blow for blow. This showed that Qin Mu's cultivation at the Heavenly Being realm was not far behind Hu Bugui's.
Only when the thirty-six war gods saw Qin Mu's divine repositories did they understand why his cultivation was so extraordinarily deep.
Cultivating both god and demon, possessing two corresponding sets of divine repositories—such an existence was likely unique throughout history.
"He really is the Overlord Body. The Grand Master didn't lie!" The thirty-six war gods felt a chill in their hearts.
When the Woodcutter Sage came to their small mountain village to find the Old Farmer, urging him to leave the mountains, he had mentioned the Overlord Body and the sage who appeared once every five hundred years.
At the time, the villagers were all present and heard it. They were curious about the reforms in Yan Kang and also about the Overlord Body and the five-hundred-year sage.
But the next moment, the Woodcutter Sage was beaten into a ditch by the Old Farmer, his bones broken. Fortunately, the Old Farmer had been gentle and spared his life, so they didn't know who was the Overlord Body and who was the sage.
—The Old Farmer bore a deep grudge against the Woodcutter. Their relationship wasn't simply a matter of ranking among the Heavenly Masters; there were other grievances between them.
From what Old Ox had just said, it seemed the Overlord Body was this descendant of the Kai Emperor who had come looking for the Woodcutter. They were still somewhat skeptical, but now, seeing Qin Mu suddenly break through to cultivate a martial arts primordial spirit in an instant, and almost simultaneously step into the ranks of those who entered the Dao through martial arts, coupled with these corresponding divine and demonic divine repositories, they had no choice but to believe.
In just ten short days, going from a divine ability user who didn't even possess a martial soul to continuously comprehending the martial soul and the martial arts primordial spirit, and now even about to comprehend a great martial arts divine ability and enter the Dao through martial arts—how could such a person not be the Overlord Body?
What they hadn't considered was that the reason Qin Mu could comprehend the martial soul so quickly was precisely because of his excellent foundation.
His foundation was too good.
When Qin Mu failed to awaken his Spirit Embryo as a child, the elders of the Cripples' Village discovered he was an ordinary person, too ordinary to cultivate. But the Village Chief's claim that he was the Overlord Body invigorated the elders. They piled various spiritual medicines and spiritual beast blood onto Qin Mu, and their training for him was exceptionally fierce.
And because Qin Mu firmly believed he was the Overlord Body, he was full of confidence and trained diligently.
At that time, he was only one step away from awakening his martial soul.
More crucially, he practiced the "Overlord Body Three Elixir Technique," which the Village Chief had personally taught him. This technique, which anyone would dismiss as a common guiding exercise, was cultivated by Qin Mu to a height that no one else could reach.
Moreover, this was no ordinary guiding exercise. It was a technique passed down from the Kai Emperor, originally a secret art of the Qin family. Even the Great Sage Cult's Great Nurturing Demon Sutra was a branch of this technique.
With such a solid foundation, combined with the techniques and divine abilities of various combat schools that Qin Mu had learned, and the accumulated wisdom of successive Human Sovereigns passed down to him, along with his fusion of three Emperor Throne techniques, his foundation already far surpassed Hu Bugui's pure martial arts cultivation.
The spirit of the times during the Yan Kang reforms was integrated into his martial arts spirit, giving his intent a higher standing than mere martial arts. Accumulated thickness led to explosive release, which was why he could comprehend the true essence of martial arts in such a short time.
This wasn't because he was the Overlord Body, as the war gods and Old Ox speculated. But the reasons were something Qin Mu didn't understand, and others understood even less, so they could only attribute it to him being the Overlord Body.
Qin Mu's six palm forces met the Wind Shakes the Pines, Quakes the Mountain Valley. The power of the two different martial arts divine abilities erupted instantly. However, because he was pressed for time, Qin Mu hadn't had the chance to perfect his great martial arts divine ability, putting him at a disadvantage in terms of power.
But with his six arms, he compensated for the lack of power by overlapping the force of three great divine abilities.
As their martial arts divine abilities clashed, the ground beneath them turned to powder and exploded. Although this was the Bullfight Palace, extremely stable, these two martial artists who were advancing caused a startling upheaval.
A ball of light burst from the singular point of their collision, growing brighter and brighter, expanding rapidly, swallowing everything around it. Then, a violent current of air swept across the ground in all directions, a hurricane surging and stirring the robes of the distant war gods.
At the center of the light, two surging tides of blood energy shot into the sky. Within the blood light, the vision of two majestic martial gods clashing appeared, their muscular bodies fierce and terrifying.
Finally, the hurricane receded, the light faded, and the blood energy visions subsided.
Qin Mu and Hu Bugui each spat blood, their auras wilting.
They both plopped down on the ground, panting heavily, the air they exhaled carrying traces of blood foam.
Hu Bugui looked at Qin Mu, and Qin Mu looked back at Hu Bugui. The smiles on their faces grew wider. Suddenly, their large hands met in a firm grip, and laughter rang out!
Old Ox and the thirty-six war gods all breathed a sigh of relief. They had worried the two would refuse to concede and fight again, but unexpectedly, both were open-minded individuals. There was only mutual admiration between fellow practitioners, no trace of jealousy.
"Brother Hu, staying in the Bullfight Realm has little future."
Qin Mu was excited, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, dispersing his three heads and six arms, and pressing the willow leaf back to his forehead to seal his third eye. He laughed, "Outside, there are many geniuses no less than you or me. The Yan Kang reforms are in full swing and need talents like you. Don't you want to leap across the Divine Bridge and ascend to the Heavenly Palace? I think you should meet my good friend, Xu Shenghua!"
His face lit up with joy. "Xu Shenghua is incredibly talented, even smarter than me... well, he's a genius second only to me! He figured out that all divine repositories are actually one divine repository and plans to merge them all into one. He's already succeeded in combining the Six Harmonies and Seven Stars realms, eliminating one realm for divine ability users. Now, he intends to fuse the Heavenly Being divine repository as well."
Hu Bugui exclaimed, "Do you mean that we martial artists of the Bullfight Realm, who lack the Divine Bridge divine repository, should fuse the other repositories instead?"
Qin Mu nodded, smiling, "Don't you think Xu Shenghua is worth meeting?"
Hu Bugui was thrilled and stood up abruptly, "I must meet him! I can't wait to see him! When do we leave? How about now? Let's go see him!"
Qin Mu said happily, "When you meet him, you'll definitely like him too. He's a very charismatic person!"
Old Ox stared wide-eyed at these two excited youths, thinking to himself, "Aren't they going to continue the challenge? If they can get past me, they can enter the Lingxiao Hall and challenge the master on the Emperor Throne..."
The thirty-six war gods of the Jade Capital City also looked at each other, somewhat at a loss.
The purpose of this martial arts examination in the Bullfight Realm was to find a way for the descendants of the divine race, who lacked the Divine Bridge, to ascend directly to the Heavenly Palace and become gods.
But these two youngsters were getting more and more excited, looking like they were about to wash their hands of the matter.
However, from what they said, it seemed that in the outside world, in the country of Yan Kang, there was a remarkable person who could solve this problem. Their desire to run out and find this Xu Shenghua was understandable.
But wasn't the path to success right before their eyes? Didn't they want to try?
If they could defeat Old Ox, break into the Lingxiao Hall, challenge the Martial Heavenly Master, and defeat him at the same realm, they might even now be able to leap across the Divine Bridge and ascend directly to the Heavenly Palace!
Old Ox coughed and said, "Hu Bugui, Qin Mu, aren't you coming up?"
Hu Bugui hesitated, a bit uncertain whether to continue the challenge.
Qin Mu whispered, "How strong is the Martial Heavenly Master's ox?"
Hu Bugui replied quietly, "I've never seen him fight, but I've heard the Martial Heavenly Master is an Emperor Throne powerhouse. In the past, he would carry the Martial Heavenly Master into battle. Being able to carry an Emperor Throne powerhouse into battle suggests his own skill has reached the Lingxiao realm. I've also heard that if this Senior Ox weren't so indifferent to power, he could almost command a Heavenly Palace from the Kai Emperor's era."
Qin Mu calculated and shook his head, "I'm probably no match for Senior Niu Sanduo. I've seen a Lingxiao realm expert, Emperor Shakya Heavenly King Buddha. At the same realm, I couldn't defeat him."
Hu Bugui's eyes flickered, "How about we go see Xu Shenghua first, study how to unify the divine repositories, and once we achieve that, we'll come back and complete the Bullfight Palace challenge?"
Qin Mu laughed, "If you unify the divine repositories, you can directly cross the Heavenly Palace, and challenging the Bullfight Palace would lose its meaning."
Hu Bugui scratched his head, embarrassed, "That's true. We lack the foundation now and can't beat Senior Ox. Let's leave the Bullfight Realm and find this Brother Xu!"
"Alright!"
Old Ox stared wide-eyed, glaring at the two, and bellowed, "Are you fighting or not? Come up and fight! I'll go easy on you and let you pass! Come on over!"
Hu Bugui said apologetically, "Senior Ox..."
"Call me Niu Sanduo!"
Old Ox huffed, "I said I'd go easy on you! What more do you want? Come up and fight to your heart's content! Qin Mu, don't you want to save your teacher? Your teacher is still floating in the ditch. If you don't fish him out soon, he'll rot!"
—Lalala, the lecture is over. I'll be heading home to write in the afternoon!