Chapter 394: Heaven-Deceiving Bagua

"Are dual paths really this strong?" King Chi found it hard to believe. She had always assumed Su Mu was roughly on par with her avatar, Su Qing—both at the peak of the Silver tier, capable of holding their own even against Gold experts.

With that level of strength and Bubai's help, defeating a single Gold Nightmare made sense. But slaying three Gold Nightmares back-to-back in just a few days, along with countless low-tier nightmares, was simply absurd.

Gongsun Quan shook his head. "It isn't the dual path that's strong, but Su Mu himself. A few veteran Gold experts in the Empire also have what it takes to kill opponents of the same tier. Yet having the strength is one thing; being able to flawlessly draw it out is another.

"Intelligence from the front lines shows that Su Mu possesses incredible combat talent and vast battle experience. More importantly, he never panics in a crisis. No matter how many Nightmare Creatures surround him, he always maintains a cool head and makes the optimal decision in the blink of an eye.

"An ordinary transcendent who can perfectly utilize all their strength is already considered a genius, but Su Mu can unleash two hundred percent!"

King Chi's beautiful eyes shone brightly; she seemed quite fond of hearing others praise Su Mu.

"Is there more? Keep going."

Gongsun Quan fell silent.

He casually strung together a few more words of praise, and when he finally ran out of things to make up, he was forced to change the subject.

"By the way, Your Majesty, how is your injury?"

At the mention of her injury, a look of joy surfaced on King Chi's face. "My wounds are healing very quickly—faster than expected. I'm not sure if it's just my imagination, but ever since the Nightmare Invasion, the originally blurred Law seems to have become much clearer. I estimate that once I fully recover this time, my strength will also take a significant leap forward!"

Gongsun Quan nodded. "It seems Your Majesty has indeed been working hard lately. I heard from the palace maids that you've been eating fewer potato chips. However, I still must ask Your Majesty to burn away those unhealthy impurities as soon as possible. This is the dawn of a chaotic era, and the Chiyan Empire needs a powerful King."

Having her habits laid bare, King Chi looked slightly embarrassed and brushed him off. "I know, I don't need your nagging!"

As if he hadn't heard the reprimand, Gongsun Quan continued calmly. "Your Majesty, it isn't just you who has noticed the shift in the Law. Recently, several Chosen Ones have emerged within the country, and none of them are nightmare apostles.

"In the past, Chosen Ones could only be born in the Nightmare World. But with the Nightmare Invasion, Chosen Ones have started to appear in the Real World as well. I suspect that as the invasion deepens, more and more Chosen Ones will continue to emerge."

King Chi was overjoyed. "That's a good thing!"

Gongsun Quan shook his head. "It isn't necessarily a good thing. The more Chosen Ones there are, the more nightmares have invaded. And the number of Chosen Ones emerging is nowhere near enough to match the sheer volume of nightmares."

King Chi waved a hand dismissively. "Once I'm fully recovered, mere nightmares won't amount to anything."

Gongsun Quan, however, wasn't nearly as optimistic. He said in a heavy tone, "Your Majesty, perhaps the nightmares are nothing, but what about Pride?"

The word 'Pride' seemed to possess some strange, magical power, instantly plunging the great hall into a deathly silence.

...

...

At that very moment, the Leader of Pride was at the Coastal Border, staring out at the sea and sighing.

"Alas." Su Mu let out a long sigh. "Why is this Law Silver 3 instead of Silver 1? If it were Silver 1, it would have hit perfect mastery a long time ago."

During his days fighting on the front lines, he had successfully nurtured a baleful soul, marking the absolute perfection of Demonic Heart Baleful Soul. After that, he directly swallowed the Silver 3 Law potion, Bloodshed Berserk, officially advancing to Silver 3.

Meanwhile, through his continuous slaughter of enemies and his cultivation within the dreamscape, his Dream Law, Severed Thoughts in Sealed Dust, had reached perfection even earlier. Upon hitting that milestone, he automatically acquired his next Dream Law.

After all, his mental power had met the requirements long ago, vastly exceeding the limits of the Silver Grade.

His newly obtained Dream Law was called Heaven-Deceiving Bagua!

This Law was absurdly powerful—powerful enough to surpass every single Law he had acquired thus far.

The ability of Heaven-Deceiving Bagua could be summed up in a single word... deceive!

Except it wasn't just about deceiving people. It meant deceiving the heavens, deceiving the earth, deceiving absolutely everything.

The Bagua represented natural phenomena: heaven, earth, thunder, wind, water, fire, mountain, and marsh. They symbolized the primal driving forces of the universe itself.

The Bagua also corresponded to the eight cardinal and ordinal directions, representing the boundless expanse of space. They mapped to the eight innate meridians, representing physical vitality and health.

Not only that, but the Bagua were divided into Yin and Yang. The constant transformation and interplay of these two forces represented the cycle of evolution, birthing the myriad things of creation through their endless shifts.

In short, the Bagua could represent all things in the heavens and the earth.

And the true power of Heaven-Deceiving Bagua was to deceive it all.

The reason Su Mu had just sighed was because Heaven-Deceiving Bagua had come at the wrong time. If it had manifested just a little earlier, he would have likely brought it to perfection by now.

The crux of Heaven-Deceiving Bagua lay in deception. To fully digest and master it, one had to deceive. The more he deceived, the closer Heaven-Deceiving Bagua would push toward perfection.

And when it came to deception, Su Mu couldn't possibly be more familiar. He lied to people on a daily basis. The Seven Deadly Sins was an astronomical lie he had spun for the entire world.

In truth, the Seven Deadly Sins had started out as an empty shell—one he had slowly and meticulously conned into existence.

In the beginning, the world had merely viewed the Leader, Pride, as a Gold expert. But through endless deception, Pride's perceived strength had skyrocketed: Gold—Gold King—God!

The Seven Deadly Sins had also evolved. It went from being a mere reactionary group within the Chiyan Empire, to a global terrorist organization, and finally to the most abhorrent and terrifying world-ending organization in human history!

That lie was monumental. It was no exaggeration to say he had deceived the entire world. If he had possessed Heaven-Deceiving Bagua back then, it would undoubtedly be at absolute perfection right now.

"It seems I'll have to find a way to pull the wool over the world's eyes once again."

Su Mu pushed up his Tinted Glasses. "But before that, I need to get properly acquainted with Heaven-Deceiving Bagua."

He extended a palm and silently chanted, "Bronze Law: Five-Finger Flame Bullet!"

In the next moment, a miraculous scene unfolded. At the tips of his five fingers, five balls of blazing, brilliant fire ignited in sequence!

Swoosh!

The five scorching Flame Bullets tore through the air, trailing tails of fire as they rocketed straight toward a group of Nightmare Creatures in the sea.

Five zombies were struck by the Flame Bullets. The fire instantly engulfed their bodies, mercilessly incinerating them.

"Silver Law: Wind-Dancing Spirit Blade!"

Flattening his hand into a knife edge, Su Mu ruthlessly slashed at the sea. An invisible blade of wind instantly took shape and blasted outward. However, the wind blade only flew about ten meters before it suddenly disintegrated, scattering into the air.

He frowned slightly. "Can I only draw out power at the Bronze Tier?"

He hadn't just unleashed two different Laws because he had consumed other Law potions; this was the effect of Heaven-Deceiving Bagua.

Normally, a transcendent could only wield the abilities of the specific Law they had connected with. But just now, Su Mu had outright deceived the Bronze Law itself, disguising himself as someone connected to the Five-Finger Flame Bullet, thereby allowing him to cast it.

However, the results of deceiving the Silver Law weren't nearly as good. While he could successfully cast the ability, its power was extremely weak. If he tried it on the Gold Law, he guessed it would amount to nothing more than an empty shell.

"Perhaps I'll only be able to perfectly deceive the Silver Law—and even the Gold Law—once Heaven-Deceiving Bagua reaches perfection."