Twilight Boundary-Chapter 741 - 732: Demon Heaven Ghost Earth

"Are... are you okay?"

As Nu'er Hong and the old man from the Haishou Sect walked into the distance, Fourth Miss Zhou and Little Hongtang, who remained at the scene, were on high alert. Flames flickered and rose all around, painting a desolate picture.

She stood there in a daze for a while, then clenched her fists, glanced in the direction Nu'er Hong had gone, and quickly approached Hu Ma, supporting him. "Those people, why did they try to assassinate you?"

Hu Ma was experiencing excruciating pain in the center of his forehead, as if a nail were being driven into his head. He reached up to touch it, but there wasn't even a scratch.

Looking at the wildfire spreading across the ground, a sense of loss crept over him.

He was unwilling to elaborate, so he just sighed softly, waved his hand, and said, "It's nothing."

Fourth Miss Zhou was visibly anxious, her gaze filled with worry as she looked at Hu Ma. She hesitated, "I just heard what they were saying. It sounded like... an evil spirit?"

"You noticed?"

Hu Ma glanced at Fourth Miss Zhou. He knew that although this girl acted with considerable bravado, she wasn't genuinely foolish.

Nu'er Hong had made no attempt to hide her identity. Given her status within the Yangming Zhou Family, it would have been stranger if Fourth Miss Zhou hadn't figured it out.

However, it was uncertain how much of their conversation she had overheard or understood.

"I didn't notice it," Fourth Miss Zhou replied candidly. "I felt it."

"I... I'm quite capable myself. Otherwise, my family wouldn't have let me come out. Logically speaking, there aren't many in the jianghu stronger than me. Even if I encounter them, I can usually guess their identity. But, but that person just now..."

"Her magic was cultivated so unrestrainedly; I fear even people from the Impermanence Li Family are merely at this level."

"Plus, that evil aura about her, and her demeanor, seemed so different from others, so I... I felt something was off about her."

When a Reincarnator doesn't deliberately hide themselves, even without uttering a word, their mere demeanor sets them apart from ordinary people.

Hu Ma sighed, not in the mood to speak. Fourth Miss Zhou suddenly realized that attending to the injured was paramount and hastily supported Hu Ma towards the gathering point of the coffin-carts.

From afar, Calculation and Immortal Miaoshan, along with a group of attendants and cart drivers who were clueless about the situation, rushed over to greet their employer. They helped Hu Ma into a cart to rest with fumbling hands. Noticing his pale complexion, they also boiled hot water for him.

Letting the others busy themselves, Hu Ma sat quietly for a long time, waiting for the excruciating pain in his brow to subside.

When he opened his eyes, he saw Calculation by the cart, brushing his donkey. Calculation kept glancing back, clearly paying attention to Hu Ma. So, Hu Ma called him over. After pondering for a moment, he whispered, "That Taoist Skill you spoke of—I've already taken the first step."

"Ah?"

Calculation was startled. "I only just told you about it, and you've already succeeded?"

His eyes flickered; Hu Ma's actions had indeed far surpassed his imagination.

"I had already cultivated four columns; now, I merely severed the crooked one to refine a righteous one in its place," Hu Ma said. "What's so difficult about that?"

Calculation was abashed, somewhat at a loss for words. If you say it's not hard, then it's not hard. Does reaching a life-or-death threshold really feel like climbing stairs to you?

Hu Ma paused briefly, thinking of the wondrous sensation when he had just cultivated that fourth incense, and of that bizarre figure whose reality was uncertain. He slowly began to speak, "It's just that, while cultivating this technique, I did glimpse something interesting..."

"Does 'God' truly exist? Or things like a Book of Life and Death, or a Judge who records people's karma?"

"Ah, this..."

Listening to him, Calculation's eyes looked vacant; he was clearly struggling with the idea. After a long while, he hesitantly said, "I've never seen it with my own eyes, but I do know that humans possess three souls: the Reincarnated Soul, the Corpse Guardian Soul, and the Karma Soul."

"Among the three souls, the Karma Soul is the most mysterious. It is said to record all the karmic debts and affinities of a person's life. Even people within the Path say that one's karma must be weighed after death..."

"But how it's actually weighed, I've truly never seen. It's said that only in the underworld can one encounter these matters."

"That indeed seems to be the case."

Hu Ma remained silent, nodding slowly. He recalled the State Preceptor once saying that, in fact, identifying Reincarnators is very simple: just weigh their karma.

But if it were so straightforward, why hadn't it been used?

Ultimately, even if such a method existed, it couldn't be easily applied.

But if it wasn't so easily seen, then what was it that he saw in the Intermediate State?

Calculation recounted the cultivation methods of their Daluo Dharma Sect, saying that at the threshold of life and death, one might attract 'the Obscure.' This 'Obscure' was inherently formless and featureless, yet he had clearly seen something emanating a palpable evil aura. What could it be?

As they were talking, Immortal Miaoshan, who had been dozing at the back of the cart, overheard their conversation and interjected, "I've heard people speak of the 'Evil Sky and Ghost Land.'"

"Between Heaven and Earth, there was originally a sovereign force, but it was without consciousness or intent, merely the natural cycle of yin and yang."

"However, Tai Sui descended upon the world, corrupting the heavens. Heaven gained intent, becoming the Evil Sky. The earth lost its impartiality, becoming the Ghost Land."

"The significance of the human realm diminished, and people became debased."

"The Disaster Stealing Sect was originally the Imperial Observatory. Therefore, they see these matters with the greatest clarity. But because they see too clearly, most members of the Disaster Stealing Sect go mad. They worship calamity, yet also fear it, spouting crazed words day in and day out."

"Evil Sky and Ghost Land?"

Hu Ma felt a stir in his heart; he had indeed heard members of the Disaster Stealing Sect mention this name.

But thinking further, he grew curious and asked Immortal Miaoshan, "How do you know so much about these things?"

He remembered Immortal Miaoshan had always seemed unscholarly.

Immortal Miaoshan widened her rather attractive eyes upon hearing this and retorted, "What kind of talk is that? I'm from the Disaster Stealing Sect; how could I not understand?"

"Back in Shima Town, Sect Hierarch, you saw those ten jars of Blessed Corpses I refined, didn't you?"

"This..."

Hu Ma listened, finding himself somewhat dumbfounded. After a long pause, he asked, "Then why aren't you mad?"

"I have good fortune!" Immortal Miaoshan declared. "Good fortune can ward off disasters and make life comfortable. Plus, I have so many senior martial brothers looking after me, so I don't trouble myself with unnecessary worries. Of course, I won't go mad."

Listening to her, Hu Ma found her reasoning surprisingly sound. Indeed, Miaoshan always had a good mindset.

"Here, here, be careful, it's hot..."

Just then, as the three of them were chatting, the little ghost Bean Official had already arranged everything. Camp was set up where it needed to be, stoves were lit where they should be, and he had even organized shifts for the night watch.

Considering that Advisor Hu Ma had just endured a great battle and seemed unwell, he even had someone brew a pot of calming herbal medicine. It was scalding hot, and others couldn't handle it, so Fourth Miss Zhou took the bowl and carefully brought it to Hu Ma.

"These are of little use to me," Hu Ma waved his hand and said. "How much Blood Food did you bring? Or, Purple Pattern Pills?"

"Ah, this..."

Fourth Miss Zhou and Immortal Miaoshan were suddenly taken aback. Fourth Miss Zhou put down the bowl and patted herself down.

She ventured out relying solely on her abilities, without even a travel pack, carrying only ten taels of gold in her purse.

Immortal Miaoshan, on the other hand, had brought numerous bags, large and small, filled mostly with cosmetics, trinkets, pots, pans, and clothes. She had never possessed any sense of crisis. Ever since leaving Shima Town, she had simply considered herself a wealthy lady, focused only on enjoyment.

Calculation buried his head even lower, terrified that Hu Ma might bring up the matter of that Blood Food debt again at this moment.

Amidst the stunned silence, nearby Little Hongtang looked from one to another, then finally lowered her head, took out a large piece of Blood Food from her basket, and held it out to Hu Ma.

"Here!"

"Sigh, Little Hongtang is still the reliable one..."

Hu Ma sighed, accepted the Blood Food, and ate it piece by piece, slowly circulating his energy to practice. Suddenly, an intense pain shot through his forehead, and his face contorted.

"Are you alright?"

The few people present noticed and hurriedly came forward to ask.

"I'm fine."

Hu Ma slowly waved his hand. Waiting for the intense pain to pass, he then said quietly, "I can't bring out my Dharma Form."

Just now, in his haste to Refine the Blood Food and recover his cultivation, he had circulated his energy too rapidly. Inadvertently, he had brushed against the threshold where his Divine Soul fluctuated, and in that instant, the sharp pain had pierced his brow.

He understood in his heart that it was Nu'er Hong who had left a nail embedded in his Divine Soul.

This thing was like a maggot boring into bone, firmly nailed into his Divine Soul. Though the Great Mighty Sky General Dharma Form had returned, it couldn't be stirred in the slightest.

The others present, hearing this, assumed his Divine Soul had been injured and began to panic.

But at this moment, Hu Ma had a vaguely complex feeling. He could sense that his body was currently empty, with only the single, newly refined column of cultivation sustaining his vital energy.

Yet, this single column of cultivation alone kept the Great Mighty Sky General Dharma Image steadily within his body, as if it had always belonged there.

This led him to a dim understanding of something.

Furthermore, he recalled the words Nu'er Hong left before departing: Lao Junmei's Road would never serve as a stepping stone for others.

So, the path Lao Junmei blazed, was it solely to cultivate this Great Mighty Sky General?

No!

He had realized as early as when he killed Old Master Yan of the Yan Family that this Great Mighty Sky General Dharma Form was for 'supporting the seal.'

The entire Dharma Form existed to enable him to lift that wordless seal.

And now, he could already sense that the Great Mighty Sky General Dharma Form was not yet sufficiently fused with him. Yet, precisely at this moment, along with this fourth column of cultivation, he vaguely felt the Dharma Form seem to draw a bit closer to him.

Now, with the nail in his Divine Soul, this Dharma Form was temporarily unusable. But in his perception, this conversely seemed to grant him an even greater sense of control over it?

Her original intention might have been to extract his Great Mighty Sky General Dharma Form, but this action had instead given him a push?

Following this subtle thought, a notion suddenly stirred in his mind, prompting a deeper layer of reflection. The first time he had felt such confusion regarding this Great Mighty Sky General Seal was during the incident with the Yan Family in Guazhou. Later, it was when dealing with that Negative Spirit Great Sword Catcher.

The questions gradually converged into one:

"Received the Mandate from Heaven, may one enjoy longevity and eternal prosperity."

The character 'Shou' means longevity, which is life itself. And for those in the Path, this life is inextricably linked to their entire cultivation.

One column of cultivation meant twenty years of life. Could it be...

As this thought arose, it was as if a line of reasoning suddenly cleared in his mind, revealing a path that had been within him all along...