500: Chapter 517 The Pursuit!

Previously, with the Secret Realm's heavenly secrets in Chaos, Lu Ming wouldn't have been confident in divining the exact location of a Tier 4 spiritual item unless there was a Karma connection.

Because the Xuanling Secret Realm was an independent space, its internal heavenly secrets formed their own system, isolated from the outside world.

Divining here was like looking for a needle in a haystack, relying entirely on blind luck.

But things were different now. To Undergoing Tribulation, the Soul-Devouring Demon Lord had used his descent body to forcibly tear open the Secret Realm's barrier, drawing the gaze of the eye of the heavenly dao.

That invisible barrier that had isolated the realm for ten thousand years had been forcibly torn open by him, allowing heavenly secrets to pour in through the gap, no longer Chaos and disordered.

Furthermore, the aftershocks of the Undergoing Tribulation hadn't settled yet, and the Heaven And Earth Spiritual Essence was still filled with the dao rhyme and spiritual aura of the Soul-Devouring Demon Lord's descent body.

Although he had already turned into a Dao Abomination, his residual aura remained, like a faint candle flame in the dark night.

Dim, yet conspicuous!

Therefore, divining the spatial landing point of the spiritual item within the Void Realm was not as difficult as expected.

After all, the spiritual item was born from the descent body, and its aura shared the same source. As long as he found the residual dao rhyme, he could follow the trail.

With that thought, Lu Ming slowly closed his eyes.

As the Destiny Luck-Usurping Records began to operate with a roar, Lu Ming's hands started forming seals.

Between his flipping fingers, he pinched out a divination hand seal that was complex to the extreme.

He muttered incantations, each syllable carrying a certain mysterious rhythm.

“Qian-Yuan sets the position, Kun-Yu divides the territory. Kan and Li intersect, Zhen and Dui take their places. The Dao evolves into forty-nine, leaving one to escape. Follow the tracks to find the trace, revealing the true essence. Xuan-Ling returns to its place, Open!”

As the final word fell, the power of Karma suddenly spread out like an invisible giant net, covering the entire Void Realm.

Then, Lu Ming abruptly opened his eyes, a sharp light flashing within them.

“Found you.”

He had already calculated the extremely hidden spatial coordinates of that Tier 4 spiritual item within the Void Realm.

“Still not being honest, I see!”

A look of mockery flashed in Lu Ming's eyes.

Clearly, Yuan Tu was not resigned to losing this Tier 4 Advanced spiritual item. Even if he had to discard it, he had tampered with it.

Thus, the landing spot had clearly been obscured by Yuan Tu; ordinary Cultivators wouldn't find it even if they passed by.

But Yuan Tu had acted in haste, and given his current terrible state and inability to even look after himself, how could he have any strength left to maintain the Restriction on the spiritual item?

With this divination, Lu Ming understood the cause and effect.

Although the location of the spiritual item was found, Yuan Tu also had to die.

This man knew too much, whether it was the fact that Lu Ming possessed three Laws, Yin Leici's backlash, or the Cultivator riots...

Every single one was a secret that must never be leaked.

Although he could try to Breakthrough to the Nascent Soul stage after obtaining the Tier 4 spiritual item—and if successful, these things wouldn't be a threat and could be wiped out with a wave of his hand...

But how could reaching the Nascent Soul stage be so easy!

What if the Breakthrough failed?

Lu Ming hadn't forgotten the scene when the Soul-Devouring Demon Lord used his descent body to Undergoing Tribulation.

The “Three-Yuan Dao-Breaking Tribulation,” even an existence like that couldn't withstand it... cough, although Lu Ming himself had contributed to that.

But it also proved that the Heavenly Tribulation was not so easy to survive.

Therefore, it was better to have Yuan Tu go to his death.

However, he didn't need to go personally.

A silver light flashed from the Storage Ring on Lu Ming's hand, and dozens of Puppets appeared before him.

Looking at them, they were all familiar faces.

Leading them was Murong Jingyang, and standing behind him were the left and right Protectors of the Tianli Cult.

Further back were Chu Guhong, Ling Canghai, and Feng Qingyang of the Luo Huang Immortal Sect, and so on...

There were also various other faces, all Golden Core Cultivators who had formed a Karma with Lu Ming after he arrived in the Profound Spirit Domain and were ultimately “converted.”

These were all people who, after dying at his hands, had their Divine Souls drawn into the human emperor banner for refinement, while their Physical Bodies were kept to be used as Puppets.

These people were relatively lucky; their Physical Bodies hadn't been blasted into ashes on the spot, so they retained complete shells.

Lu Ming had only wiped out their Divine Souls and refined their entire Physical Bodies into Puppets, preserving their previous cultivation and some physical instincts.

However, as his strength grew, these people had long since become useless and had been left to gather dust in a corner of his Storage Ring.

Now, they finally had a use.

Lu Ming actually had some understanding of the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Great Method.

Such Demonic Path life-risking secret techniques were quite famous, and the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Great Method was a representative among them.

It involved burning one's Golden Core Origin and Law Foundation as a price to gain power far beyond one's limits for a short time.

The price was naturally extremely heavy: a massive drop in cultivation, a damaged dao foundation, and a loss of Lifespan. It would take decades or even a century of bitter Cultivate to recover.

Don't be fooled by how impressive Yuan Tu seemed when he split into thousands after using the secret method; the consumption was definitely not small.

Burning his Golden Core Origin, Laws, and Lifespan—at this moment, his state was likely less than a tenth of what it used to be.

In his prime, these Puppets would naturally be going to their deaths for nothing.

Dozens of Golden Cores at the Early Stage, Middle Stage, and even Late Stage—as long as they hadn't reached Golden Core Perfection, Yuan Tu in his prime could slap them to death with one hand.

But now it was different. Yuan Tu's condition was at its absolute worst; his magical power was exhausted, his blood Qi was depleted, and his Divine Soul was withered.

To him, these Puppets were a real threat.

This time, the goal wasn't just to defeat him, but to wear him down to death.

Lu Ming planned to send all these Puppets out. Once they found a Clone of Yuan Tu, they would strike without hesitation.

Even if they were no match, they would self-destruct and take him down with them!!

Therefore, he took out dozens of Magic Treasures of various spiritual lights from his Storage Ring, all trophies collected over the years.

Although their grades weren't very high, they were numerous.

He distributed the Magic Treasures to the Puppets and took out a thick stack of Talismans—Tier 3, Tier 2, of all attributes—and stuffed them into the Puppets' arms.

He was preparing a pay-to-win tactic; if Magic Treasures weren't enough, Talismans would make up for it.

If one wasn't enough, then ten; if ten weren't enough, then a hundred. Combined with the power of a Puppet's self-destruction, it would be enough to blast an already weakened Clone into dust.

Find a Clone and blow it up; after blowing it up, find another and blow it up again.

In his prime, Yuan Tu could split into dozens of Clones, each carrying a portion of Karma, and each capable of becoming the main body.

Only by taking out all these Clones could he completely cut off the possibility of Yuan Tu's Rebirth through another body.

Lu Ming didn't have the time to slowly search for Yuan Tu's true body. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but he truly couldn't.

The most disgusting part of the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Great Method was that the main body could switch to any Clone at any time.

As long as one Clone survived outside, the self-consciousness could revive within it at any moment.

So he would use these Puppets to settle these difficulties for him.

However, the primary goal was to ensure no one slipped through the net.

Lu Ming calmed his mind and sank his Divine Sense into his Sea of Consciousness.

The karma golden book floated quietly, its pages turning until it stopped on the page with Yuan Tu's name.

He reached out his finger and made a light hooking motion in the air.

Invisible lines extended from his hand, passing through the Void Realm cracks and landing on every spatial coordinate.

They passed through deep seas, deserts, and volcanoes, landing on every single Clone.

Each line represented a portion of Karma, and each Clone carried a part of Yuan Tu.

And the Puppets only needed to do one thing: follow the network cables... the Karma lines, to hunt them down in person.

In the Void Realm, dozens of Puppets stood before Lu Ming.

They were motionless, their eyes hollow, like a row of statues waiting for orders.

Lu Ming raised his right hand and made a grasping motion in the air.

A huge gap tore open in the Void Realm, revealing endless Chaos and nothingness within.

The coordinate he had calculated using the karma golden book was hidden somewhere in the Void Turbulence. Although separated by many barriers, the coordinate was confirmed; the Puppets only needed to walk along the Karma lines to find it.

Then he stepped back, formed a hand seal, and a Void Realm rift slowly opened before him.

Within the rift was endless Chaos and nothingness, millions of miles of vastness with no direction and no end, where Void Turbulence surged.

But his Karma lines had already marked the direction for the Puppets.

“Go, find him, and... kill him!”

The Puppets obeyed the command, lining up in an orderly fashion like a group of soldiers heading to their deaths, and stepped into the Void Realm rift together.

Lu Ming watched the figure of the last Puppet disappear into the Void Realm before withdrawing his gaze.

He turned and also stepped into the Void Realm, heading toward that spatial coordinate.

The Puppets had gone to fight; he was also going to reclaim his things.

On the other side, at a deep green pond hidden at the bottom of a deep valley, surrounded by steep cliffs on all sides.

The pond water was emerald green and bottomless, having been silent for untold years.

But today, this peace was broken.

Suddenly, a gap tore open in the Void Realm above the pond.

A figure tumbled out of the rift, and before he could steady himself, he crashed heavily onto the rocks by the pond.

He coughed a few times, spitting out some bloody foam, and struggled to straighten up by leaning against a rock.

His gray-white hair was scattered over his shoulders, his Daoist robe was torn in several places, revealing skin covered in cracks.

His face was ashen white, his lips lacked any color, and his eyes were cloudy.

This was Yuan Tu—more accurately, one of the countless Clones after Yuan Tu's disintegration.

The main body had split him off using the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Great Method, giving him self-consciousness, but he had to obey the main body's commands.

His task was to find a hidden place to hide and wait for news from the main body.

If the main body survived, he would reintegrate into it.

If the main body died, he would take over everything.

The Yuan Tu Clone stood up and looked around.

Cliffs on four sides, ancient vines hanging down, a deep green pond—it was indeed a good place to hide.

He stood by the pond for a moment, and just as he was about to form a seal to use a Breath-Concealing Art, he suddenly looked up sharply at the Void Realm rift he had fallen from.

That rift hadn't completely healed yet, with fine cracks at its edges, like an eye slowly closing.

The depths of the rift were pitch black, with Chaos churning within.

It was as if an eye from the abyss was staring at him, making him feel an inexplicable unease.

“Found me so quickly?”

The Clone frowned, but he wasn't overly nervous.

Ultimately, he was just a Clone; even if he died, there were thousands of others like him on the main body's side. Losing one wouldn't matter.

However, if possible, he didn't want to perish just like that.

Once a Clone had self-consciousness, it gained a desire for life.

While the main body was alive, he could only obey.

But if the main body died, he would be the new main body—there was no difference!

So the Clone didn't hesitate, quickly forming seals and chanting incantations to cast a Breath-Concealing Art.

His body began to change; first, his skin turned blue-gray, then his bones and flesh contracted and twisted, and his Daoist robe merged into his skin, turning into a stubborn rock covered in moss.

Then, the rock sank to the bottom of the water, landing in the silt of the pond without splashing a single drop.

Soon, the deep green pond returned to its calm state.

Right at that moment, a foot stepped out of the rift.

Murong Jingyang, now a Puppet, looked around with hollow eyes, finding nothing unusual.

Then, he lowered his gaze to his hand.

In his loosely gripped palm, an invisible line extended from between his fingers.

It passed through the deep green pond and straight to the bottom.

The corner of his mouth twitched, a smile appearing on his dead face, possessing an indescribable eeriness.

Then, he raised his foot and stepped down heavily.

Boom!!

As his foot landed, the pond water exploded.

It was split apart from the center by an invisible force.

The water surface split into a straight gap from the center, all the way to the bottom, as if an invisible giant hand had torn the entire pond apart from the middle.

The silt at the bottom of the pond was exposed to the air, smelling foul.

The fish, shrimp, and crabs that had lived at the bottom for untold years had never seen the light of day and were now in a panic.

Some unlucky Essence Spirits were directly shaken to death by the force that split the pond, turning belly up.

A faint, cold smile hung on Murong Jingyang's dead face as he looked at the silt at the bottom of the pond.

To be precise, he was looking at that stubborn rock in the silt.

At this moment, the rock that the Yuan Tu Clone had turned into lay at the bottom of the water, motionless.

He didn't look at the newcomer, for fear that his gaze would draw the other's attention.

But he could feel that the person was standing directly above him.

And that aura was cold and dead, without any life—clearly not a living being, it should just be a Puppet.

It made sense; that person couldn't possibly hunt down the Clones one by one, so sending Puppets was reasonable.

At this, the Yuan Tu Clone felt a bit more at ease.

It was just a Puppet; even if he was discovered, with his current strength, he should be able to escape without issue.

But he soon frowned again.

Because this Puppet's goal was too clear; it hadn't lingered elsewhere or searched for potential hiding spots, but had come straight for the pond and landed right above his head.

It didn't seem like a coincidence; it was as if the other side had known he was here from the very beginning.

The Yuan Tu Clone couldn't understand how he could have been discovered.

His Breath-Concealing Art was driven by a secret Earthly Fiend Divine Ability, which could transform into anything and conceal his aura.

If practiced to the Mahayana stage, even the heartbeat and life force would stop.

When the Divine Sense of a Cultivator of the same stage swept over this stubborn rock, they would only treat it as an ordinary stone.

Even if the opponent was skilled in heavenly secret deduction, they could at most calculate a rough direction and couldn't precisely lock onto his position.

Thus, the Yuan Tu Clone still held a glimmer of hope.

Perhaps the opponent just happened to land here—it was all a coincidence!

But he didn't dare move, or even think; he could only suppress his aura to the extreme, and finally, he even closed off all his five senses and six consciousnesses, letting his own consciousness fall into a deep sleep.

Truly becoming a stubborn rock that couldn't move, see, or hear!