093 The Hand of Endless Tribulations

Pang Yue placed a hand on the man’s body, and thick black demonic aura surged into him in a torrent.

Before the time it took a stick of incense to burn down, the man opened his eyes and slowly rose.

He was tall and powerfully built, broad of shoulder and heavy of back, his face sharply chiseled, with straight brows and bright, star-like eyes that gave him an air of resolute strength. He wore a dark robe patterned with cloud motifs, and about him lingered the noble bearing of a disciple of a great sect.

As Pang Yue took in everything belonging to this body, a chain of information surfaced in his mind.

Chen Mo, disciple of Cloudsky Peak of the Heavenly Sword Sect.

He possessed an exceptional spiritual root. Adopted by his master in childhood, he had grown up on Cloudsky Peak.

He cultivated the Cloudsky Peak White Metal Gourd Sword Art and the Cloudsky Nine Views Chart. His swordsmanship had already reached the realms of mental clarity in the sword and unity of man and sword.

He was currently comprehending the supreme art of sword qi and thunderous sound.

The Heavenly Sword Sect had three palaces, six pavilions, and seventy-two peaks.

Within the sect were five grand spirit-paths and five foundational inheritances that anchored the sect’s legacy. Each one surpassed the Chaos Abyssal Demon Talisman Scripture of the Demon Talisman Sect, and stood on par with the Heavenly Demon Ten Thousand Transformations and Profound Metamorphosis Scripture.

This Chen Mo, from Cloudsky Peak, was a natural prodigy of the Dao, with every chance of forming a golden core within a hundred years.

Pang Yue “flipped through” this man’s memories and silently organized them.

The vast majority of those memories were of life inside the Heavenly Sword Sect, which showed that this inner sect disciple rarely ventured out.

What was rather interesting, however, was that Chen Mo was blessed with rather abundant romantic luck.

Within the Heavenly Sword Sect alone, he already had two close sisters from among his fellow disciples.

During the time he had been away from the sect, he had also entangled himself with female cultivators from the Hundred Flowers Isle, the Thousand Mechanisms Sect, and the Langya Zhou Clan, forming with them a simple yet not at all simple relationship that went beyond friendship, though certainly not love.

In all, there were five enchanting female cultivators, each with her own strengths, and all with temperaments quite unlike those of the demonic path.

Women of the orthodox sects were generally restrained and chaste, often too proud to share a husband with other women.

So Chen Mo had always acted with caution, hiding here and there, sneaking about in secret.

Unlike Pang Yue, who in the Demon Talisman Sect sat embraced on both sides and often slept beneath the same quilt with more than one companion.

The demon-talisman clone studied this body and said, “From now on, you shall be called the Ten Thousand Transformations Clone.”

The Ten Thousand Transformations Clone smiled and nodded. “Then I shall go to the Heavenly Sword Sect at once.”

With that, his figure blurred, becoming a brilliant sword light that shot into the sky and vanished in an instant.

Pang Yue also gathered his mind, left the desolate island, and flew toward the teleportation island of the Demon Talisman Sect.

...

Mount Zhuoguang.

Inside Xu Wentian’s cave dwelling.

A great formation of seizing heaven bloomed with brilliant, purifying radiance.

Xu Wentian sat cross-legged at the center of the array, hands forming seals as he chanted incantations.

Pang Yue’s true body stood at the edge of the formation, silently guarding the passage for him.

He had always been curious why, with Xu Wentian’s talent and strength, he had so early been judged to have no hope of reaching the golden core.

Only not long ago did he finally understand.

In his youth, Xu Wentian had used the Heaven-Demon Seizing the Dao method, damaging his soul. No matter how monstrous his combat prowess, he would in this lifetime never perfect body, technique, and soul together.

The reason Heaven-Demon Seizing the Dao was called a method that could defy heaven and alter fate was that it seized the power of heavenly demons and refined it into one’s own being.

By using the essence, demonic aura, and soul fragments of heavenly demons to nourish oneself, one could attain the Dao.

Though the Heaven-Demon Seizing the Dao method was fraught with endless peril, its advantages were equally boundless.

Xu Wentian’s lifespan was nearing its end. After arranging everything, he was prepared to use the Heaven-Demon Seizing the Dao method to forcefully break through to the golden core stage.

At that moment, Xu Wentian stopped chanting and looked calmly upward.

Above the Heaven-Demon Seizing the Dao formation, a mass of black mist spun without end, its demonic aura bleak and sinister.

Not long after, a giant hand of dark gold, formed from countless interwoven bands, slowly reached out from the mist.

The Hand of Ten Thousand Tribulations.

A boundless, cyclic intent of endless calamity rose naturally from it.

Rolling demonic intent, tangible as matter, filled every corner of the cave dwelling.

This was a heavenly demon at the golden core realm.

For decades, Xu Wentian had plotted and accumulated in secret, until he had finally reached the point where he could summon a golden core heavenly demon into the mortal world, yet he had still never dared to act.

Because of the ties of his clan, he had never been able to bear the price of failure.

Now, even with Pang Yue absent from the Xu family, the reputation of the Invisible Sword was enough to protect the Xu family for many years to come.

Xu Wentian rose, nodded at Pang Yue in greeting, then let out a long cry and transformed into a blinding beam of light, charging straight into the golden core Hand of Ten Thousand Tribulations.

The next instant, the Hand of Ten Thousand Tribulations clenched violently into a fist. The dark-gold bands scattered apart, and demonic aura burst forth in all directions.

Within the formation, the Hand of Ten Thousand Tribulations turned into a mass of demonic energy concentrated to the extreme, rolling and seething, countless dark-gold bands flying and darting within it in an eerie, unfathomable display.

Xu Wentian’s aura flickered in and out within that mass of demonic energy, from time to time transmitting profound and shifting currents of qi.

It was unmistakably a secret art recorded in the Demon Talisman Scripture.

Pang Yue quietly urged the Primordial Unbounded Stele, recording and deducing Xu Wentian’s process of seizing the Dao.

In the future, he too would walk this road without the slightest room for retreat.

A long time passed.

The demonic aura ceased boiling.

A figure walked out from within it.

His beard and eyebrows were white, and he wore a black robe. Strange dark-gold patterns flickered upon his shaved head.

A round, radiant golden core hovered above him, exuding a boundless spiritual pressure like the sea.

Xu Wentian opened his mouth and swallowed the golden core. In an instant, his aura surged dramatically, breaking through some unseen barrier and entering an entirely new realm.

A smile appeared on Pang Yue’s face, and he was just about to offer congratulations when...

A sudden change struck.

Cracks appeared all at once all over Xu Wentian’s body.

From each crack burst countless tiny dark-gold ribbons.

These ribbons gathered together into innumerable minuscule hands, fine as strands of hair, waving incessantly.

From a distance, Xu Wentian looked as though he were formed entirely of innumerable dark-gold little hands, dense beyond measure, writhing and flailing.

Xu Wentian looked indifferently at Pang Yue, then suddenly revealed a strange smile.

Demonic spawn!

Pang Yue frowned, and a golden Buddha appeared out of thin air before him.

Xu Wentian’s body suddenly collapsed apart, turning into countless grain-sized Hands of Ten Thousand Tribulations, which surged forward like drifting smoke toward Pang Yue.

Alas...

Pang Yue let out a long sigh. In the end, Xu Wentian had still failed.

He stood behind the Buddha of Boundless Light, his whole body shrouded in the Buddha light of the Great Sun Glazed Treasure Flame. Whenever the Hands of Ten Thousand Tribulations touched that light, they immediately gave off black smoke and dissipated.

Pang Yue did not counterattack. Only a faint gloom settled deeper within his heart.

If the demon-talisman clone out in the outer sea had not raised the Buddha of Boundless Light to the golden core realm, then at this moment he would have had only one path left: to run.

The Hands of Ten Thousand Tribulations were innumerable, slamming madly against the Buddha light.

Then, suddenly, a solemn voice came from outside the cave.

Suppress!

At once, a pitch-black talisman was born in the void, like metal, iron, and jade all at once, branded into space itself.

Including Pang Yue, whether it was the Buddha of Boundless Light or the demonic spawn formed from Xu Wentian, all were frozen in place as if sealed in ice.

A blurred figure, cloaked in hazy light, stepped into the cave and waved a hand to gather up the countless tiny Hands of Ten Thousand Tribulations.

Golden Buddha light ignited into glazed flame.

Pang Yue strained slightly and recovered a little of his freedom.

He looked at the hazy figure and asked in a low voice, “May I ask who senior is?”

The figure gave him a slight, surprised glance, then chuckled softly. “So you are the Luo family’s son-in-law? I heard you almost became Hall Master Luo’s disciple...”

“This old man serves under Hall Master Luo in the Enforcement Hall.”

Pang Yue understood at once.

No wonder this person could command Mount Zhuoguang’s protective formation to suppress the demonic spawn so easily. He was actually a golden core expert from the Enforcement Hall.

The figure nodded to Pang Yue, then departed with serene ease.

After a while, the pitch-black talisman branded in midair slowly turned once and abruptly vanished.

The invisible force of confinement disappeared along with it.

Pang Yue dismissed the Buddha of Boundless Light, then walked out of the cave in a desolate mood and returned to Luo Qingyuan’s side.