499: Chapter 516 I, Lu Ming, want them all!

Lu Ming looked up, watching the bone hand descending from the sky.

The bone hand blotted out the sun, its five finger bones like five massive pillars supporting the heavens, each one densely engraved with Gui Xu Curse seals.

The seals flickered with a cold, eerie light—the manifestation of the Law of the end of all things and the return of everything to nothingness.

Wherever the bone hand passed, even the Void Realm could not withstand this Gui Xu power; it was torn apart and began to collapse.

One could well imagine the outcome if this technique were to strike a body of flesh and blood.

But Lu Ming could no longer think about such things, for he felt as though he could not move.

It wasn't that he was immobilized, but rather a lock-on from the level of Karma.

The bone hand had firmly locked onto him; no matter where he fled or what escape art he used, the bone hand would pursue him until he was completely obliterated.

This was the terror of the Gui Xu Curse; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a causality-based Divine Ability.

There was no escape, no way to avoid it.

Once hit, not even a corpse would remain; even the Divine Soul would be wiped clean.

But...

"Are you sure you want to play with Karma against me?"

The corners of Lu Ming's mouth curled up slightly, revealing an almost arrogant, Dragon King-like smile.

What was this called?

Wielding a broadsword before Guan Yu, or brandishing an axe before Lu Ban.

Simply courting death!

However, his appearance in Yuan Tu's eyes was interpreted in a different way.

Seeing Lu Ming motionless with a strange expression on his face, Yuan Tu thought for a moment that he was scared witless.

He even began to curse himself for being intimidated by such a person just moments ago.

All that talk about concentrating three Laws into one body, or using the Dao of Karma to deceive the heavens—when it finally came down to a Life and Death struggle, he was actually too scared to move.

He had seen too many frauds like this; they acted all high and mighty normally, but when it came to a Life and Death crisis, they couldn't even move their legs.

So, subconsciously, Yuan Tu held back a bit and withdrew some of his magical power.

This wasn't because he was overflowing with mercy or couldn't bear to see Lu Ming's life and cultivation come to an end.

It was simply that he wanted the secrets this man possessed!

To be able to fuse three Laws into one body without conflict was simply a supreme method for tempering the Primordial Spirit.

If he obtained this method and supplemented it with a Grade 4 spiritual item, not only would he surely become a Nascent Soul True Monarch, but his path to immortality would be smooth, and he might even aspire to the position of a Dao Venerable of Spirit Transformation!!

Therefore, it would be a waste to just kill him like this; it would be better to beat him half to death first and then interrogate him slowly.

With a thought, the descent of the bone hand slowed down a few more degrees.

Lu Ming wasn't aware of Yuan Tu's thoughts; he cracked his neck, producing a crisp clicking sound.

Then he glanced at the sun-blotting bone hand, then at Yuan Tu, revealing a look of pity.

"Taste the flavor of reaping what you sow!"

With those words, Lu Ming looked into the Void Realm at the shimmering golden light that only he could see.

golden book, activate!

Using his Divine Thought as a pen, Lu Ming quickly circled the name [Yuan Tu] and then looked away. He stood with his hands in his pockets, projecting an air of "I'm invincible, do as you please."

Yuan Tu didn't know what Lu Ming was muttering, but seeing the other's fearless attitude, he already felt that something was wrong.

But before he could take precautions, Yuan Tu's expression suddenly changed, revealing a look of pure disbelief.

Then, his expression turned to terror, and from terror to ferocity.

Soon, the veins on his temples began to bulge one by one; Yuan Tu's teeth were clenched tight, and his lips had turned slightly purple.

In fact, if one looked closely, they would notice that the hand he had extended was now trembling uncontrollably.

Yuan Tu seemed to be trying his best to restrain something, but as time passed, that hand still rose slowly but firmly, then turned its palm to aim at his own head.

Clearly, Yuan Tu wasn't afraid of Lu Ming; rather, for some unknown reason, this hand was no longer under his control.

In the outside world, that sun-blotting bone hand was slowly flipping over in tandem with Yuan Tu's movements.

The bone hand changed from pressing downward to lifting upward, shifting from its stance of suppressing Lu Ming to supporting Yuan Tu.

Then, the five finger bones of the bone hand began to slowly close, like a death flower in the process of shutting.

Although the speed of the finger bones closing didn't seem fast, it was unstoppable; with every inch they closed, Yuan Tu's face grew a shade paler.

Yuan Tu's face was now somewhat distorted; he was desperately activating the Gui Xu Curse, trying to regain control of the bone hand.

However, the bone hand remained indifferent; his Gui Xu Curse hitting the bone hand was like a pebble thrown into a deep pool, unable to stir even a ripple.

He knew that the connection between him and the bone hand had been tampered with, making it completely beyond his control.

Although he was working hard to use his own will to resist that power, the gap between the two was simply too large; it was not something he could resist at his level.

Even though he was desperately circulating his cultivation and even burning his Essence Blood, it was all useless.

The bone hand continued to close slowly and firmly!

"No!!!!"

Amidst Yuan Tu's shrill roar, the bone hand finally closed.

The five finger bones locked tightly together, like a massive cage of white bone.

Inside the cage, Yuan Tu's body was squeezed, crushed, and twisted by the finger bones.

The sound of bones shattering, flesh being squeezed, and Yuan Tu's screams squeezed out through the gaps between the fingers.

The scream was hoarse and short, lasting only a moment before turning into an indistinct whimper.

Blood seeped from the gaps in the bone hand, dripping onto the ground and staining the grayish-white floor red.

Lu Ming watched the closing death flower, his expression unchanged.

He knew that Yuan Tu wouldn't die so easily!

Sure enough, as the caster's magical power input ceased, the giant bone hand gradually lost its spirituality, and the spiritual light upon it began to dim.

Finally, like petals withering, the pale finger bones loosened one by one, then collapsed and dissipated into nothingness.

As soon as the giant bone hand vanished, a mass of crushed, flattened, and twisted blood, bone, and viscera inside was revealed.

Its original appearance was unrecognizable, and one couldn't tell where the limbs were.

The only thing that remained intact was an eyeball protruding from the mass of flesh, which still held a look of extreme terror.

However, this unspeakable mass now lost its support and fell rapidly from the air, crashing onto the ground with a thud and kicking up a cloud of dust.

Blood seeped from the mass of flesh, staining the surrounding soil a dark red.

Then, the mangled flesh began to squirm, as if being reshaped by an invisible hand—bones reconnected, blood vessels stitched together, muscles regenerated, and skin covered it all.

A moment later, the mass of rotten flesh re-solidified into a human form, eventually taking the shape of Yuan Tu.

Yuan Tu stood there, his face now pale to the point of being nearly transparent, his aura withered to the extreme.

But in his eyes, there was still the lingering relief of having survived a disaster.

He took an object from his waist; it was a palm-sized straw man.

Only now, a hideous gash had opened in the straw man's chest, and what was revealed from the crack was not dry grass, but charred, foul-smelling flesh!

This was the Life-Substituting Straw Man, a life-saving secret technique of the Hunyuan Demon Cave.

Nourished with one's own Essence Blood for a hundred years, it could withstand a single attack's damage that did not exceed one's own limits at a critical moment.

As they say, a hundred years of nourishment can buy a life!

Yuan Tu looked down at the shattered straw man, a trace of heartache flashing in his eyes.

But this emotion quickly faded, replaced by the lingering shock of his narrow escape.

He looked up at Lu Ming, his eyes filled with horror.

He didn't understand why the Gui Xu Curse had suddenly backfired, nor why the bone hand had uncontrollably turned to attack him.

But Yuan Tu knew that this must be related to the man before him.

Thinking of this, his gaze toward Lu Ming carried fear; the contempt he had felt earlier had long since vanished with that strike.

If not for the Life-Substituting Straw Man, he would have been dead or at least critically injured from that strike just now.

He was even somewhat relieved—relieved that he had wanted to capture this man alive and hadn't gone for the kill.

Otherwise, the current backlash would have turned into a suicidal dead end that no life-saving measure could have rescued him from.

He had almost become the first Golden Core Perfection in the Profound Spirit Domain to beat himself to death in all these years.

If word got out, the embarrassment would be unbearable.

After this ordeal, Yuan Tu completely abandoned any thought of facing Lu Ming head-on.

It wasn't that he didn't want to, but that he didn't dare.

Damn it, does anyone understand this? The Divine Ability he cast turned back to hit him—how the hell is he supposed to play this!

He couldn't fight, yet he couldn't not fight.

If he attacked, the Divine Ability would turn around to hit him; if he didn't, the opponent would hit him.

This kind of fight where he could only be beaten and couldn't strike back was simply impossible!

However, what Yuan Tu didn't know was that as long as he didn't use such causality-based Divine Abilities, Lu Ming wouldn't be able to do anything to him either.

But he didn't know, and more importantly, he was scared.

Yuan Tu no longer had the courage to risk further trial and error.

Taking a deep breath, a look of determination flashed in Yuan Tu's eyes.

He couldn't act now, but he also didn't want to die.

There was only one plan left for now!

Run!!!

Without the slightest hesitation, Yuan Tu suddenly bit the tip of his tongue and spat a mouthful of Essence Blood into his palm.

The Essence Blood transformed into a blood-red rune in his palm; the rune exploded, turning into countless tiny blood-red light spots that merged into his limbs and bones.

He was about to use a life-risking secret technique!

This was the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Great Method, which traded the burning of one's Golden Core Origin and Law Foundation for power far beyond one's limits for a short time.

The price was a massive drop in cultivation and damage to the dao foundation, which would take decades of hard cultivation to recover from.

But it was better than dying here.

Then, as the secret technique was activated, Yuan Tu's aura began to surge, erupting with terrifying power like a volcano.

His eyes turned blood-red, the whites swallowed by crimson, and blood seemed to flow deep within his pupils.

His skin began to crack, split open by the surging power within; golden blood seeped from the fissures—the life essence of a Golden Core Cultivator after burning their Origin.

Consequently, his hair began to turn white from the roots, strand by strand, like withered grass in autumn.

"Bang!!!"

Having seemingly reached a certain critical point, Yuan Tu's body shattered like a broken mirror into countless fragments, each fragment transforming into a complete Yuan Tu.

Dozens, even hundreds of Yuan Tu appeared simultaneously in the Void Realm, each with an identical aura and each carrying a portion of his own Karma.

Without a moment's pause, the dozens and hundreds of Yuan Tu simultaneously tore through the Void Realm and plunged into the chaotic nothingness.

Then they scattered, fleeing for their lives, subsequently falling into different spatial coordinates at random.

Some fell into the deep sea, some into deserts, some into volcanoes, and some were stuck in Void Realm fissures.

Meanwhile, the original consciousness jumped randomly between the Clones, switching every so often.

This was the power and strangeness of the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Great Method.

You could treat these hundreds of Clones as the original body, or as independent existences.

It depended on the caster's will, as they could switch between these two states at will.

Thus, if Yuan Tu wished, even if you caught a hundred Clones, you wouldn't find where his original body was.

Even if you killed the Clones, it didn't matter; as long as one remained, his Divine Soul couldn't be extinguished.

This was Heavenly Demon Disintegration—formless, signless, and traceless!

At this moment, within the Void Turbulence, Yuan Tu's consciousness was attached to one of the Clones.

In truth, he himself didn't know which Clone he was currently on.

After all, every thought and desire would have an echo, thus creating a karmic connection.

And with the other party's attainment in Karma, he likely wouldn't be able to hide it.

So, since even he himself couldn't figure it out, he figured that man shouldn't know either, let alone be able to catch up.

Now that his Clones were scattered everywhere, each carrying his Karma, it was impossible for that man to capture all the Clones back.

Even if he could, was he capable of it?

Thinking of this, Yuan Tu felt much more at ease, but this was immediately followed by a towering rage toward that man, his heart filled with incomparable malice.

"Damn him, damn him, damn him!!!"

This time he had truly suffered a double loss, not only because using the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Great Method had cut his cultivation in half.

Even if he recovered in the future, his Realm would drop directly to the Mid-stage Golden Core, or even the Early Stage!

It could be said that he had returned to square one overnight!

More importantly, dao injuries were difficult to heal; wanting to return to his Peak would not only be far from easy but would be even more difficult.

If it were just this, Yuan Tu could still comfort himself—at worst, he would just re-cultivate.

Anyway, his Lifespan was sufficient; he could grind his way back up with time.

But, his half-lifetime of savings and that Grade 4 spiritual item were also lost!

That was his hope for becoming a Nascent Soul True Monarch.

Setting aside the accumulated resources, that spiritual item was something he had painstakingly snatched from the jaws of danger, offending a large number of people to obtain it.

Crucially, this item condensed only once every thousand years, and this one was even formed from the Dao Abomination of a Quasi-Nascent Soul who failed their tribulation—it was truly something that could be sought but not easily found.

And yet, it was lost just like that!

That's right; he barely had time to escape, so how could he possibly bring that Grade 4 spiritual item with him?

However, Yuan Tu had no intention of aiding his enemy; he would rather not have it himself than leave it for his foe.

So, during the Heavenly Demon Disintegration, he threw it into the Void Turbulence.

This actually served as another layer of calculation.

The opponent would have to choose one of two: either chase him or chase the spiritual item.

As for Yuan Tu's calculation, Lu Ming was well aware of it.

Standing where Yuan Tu had vanished, he watched the dozens of cracks slowly close, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly.

Transforming into thousands, fleeing in separate directions, and even throwing down a Grade 4 spiritual item as bait.

Trying to use this method to confuse Karma, obscure the secrets of heaven, and even disrupt his judgment.

A good idea, but unfortunately, he had chosen the wrong opponent.

When it comes to playing with Karma, he was invincible!

As for the spiritual item, he wouldn't let it go either.

He, Lu Ming, wanted it all!