Chapter 243: The Intangible Manifests Great Might

“Actually... it really is you? Why!”

Sun Lang’s voice trembled violently, his tone filled with bewilderment at the sheer absurdity of it all.

Then, in an instant, that bewilderment transformed into overwhelming fury.

“What you are doing now, slaughtering indiscriminately and venting your personal grudges, is completely contrary to [Great Jun]!”

With Sun Lang’s furious roar, the phantom of the millstone manifested by his transformed form erupted with an even more dazzling radiance.

However, the terrifying aura that had originally suppressed the heavens and earth in all directions suddenly contracted like an enraged sea.

All of it was now directed toward Shentu Xin alone.

Yet faced with Sun Lang’s condemnation delivered through the might of Great Jun, Shentu Xin merely raised his head slowly and sneered disdainfully.

“When I broke through to Grotto Mystic and comprehended the Great Dao, you were nothing more than a wet-behind-the-ears child who had only just entered the path. Do you really think you are qualified to question my understanding of [Great Jun]?”

Shentu Xin’s words were casual, even carrying a hint of the arrogance of an elder relying on his seniority.

The anger in Sun Lang’s heart instantly reached its peak.

“Ridiculous! When disciples of the Jun School debate the Dao, we have always cared only about the depth of one’s comprehension of the laws. Since when have we, like those other schools, begun judging people according to seniority?”

His furious rebuke echoed throughout the nine heavens.

Yet moments later, his voice abruptly stopped.

The enormous millstone phantom that had blotted out the heavens suddenly vanished.

The principle qi contracted inward, once again revealing Sun Lang’s true form.

His face was deathly pale, and his aura flickered like a flame in the wind, unstable and frail.

Hovering in midair, he stared fixedly at Shentu Xin below and spoke one word at a time.

“I understand now. No wonder you were able to rise from the dead amid the tribulation flames of the Imperial Mausoleum.”

“Shentu Xin, were you already persuaded to defect by another school? Or perhaps... you have completely abandoned your faith in [Great Jun]?”

Although Sun Lang was weak, his questioning voice rang out like the tolling of a great bell, reverberating through heaven and earth for a long time.

Everyone watching nearby was stunned by his words, all of them turning toward Shentu Xin in unison.

After all, the Jun School had always been arrogant and unruly, acting without restraint and treating life and death as nothing.

There had long been a saying throughout the imperial court and the common world: it was easy to kill a member of the Jun School, but extremely difficult to subdue one.

Since the founding of Great Qian, the madmen of the Jun School had committed countless earth-shaking crimes that defied the natural order. Yet no one had ever heard of a Jun School disciple willingly lowering himself, begging for mercy, or submitting to the imperial court or another school!

Now, faced with Sun Lang’s soul-piercing accusation, the usually arrogant Shentu Xin finally changed expression dramatically.

“You wet-behind-the-ears child, stop spouting nonsense! What I, Shentu Xin, do is none of your concern. Why should I explain myself to you?”

Before his voice had even faded, Shentu Xin transformed into a pitch-black afterimage and charged straight toward Sun Lang with enough force to destroy heaven and earth.

Within that black shadow, deep-red calamity flames could vaguely be seen churning and roaring furiously.

Shentu Xin had launched his attack without warning, moving with an almost inconceivable speed.

Sun Lang seemed completely unable to react.

In the blink of an eye, his entire body was swallowed by the overwhelming black-and-red flames, reduced to countless wisps of flying ash!

“Brother Sun!”

Li Shun cried out in shock.

Yet Shentu Xin, who had struck his target in midair, showed not the slightest hint of satisfaction at having finally avenged his great hatred.

He abruptly halted and became extremely solemn, surveying his surroundings as though facing a formidable enemy.

“You truly have betrayed Great Jun.”

Sun Lang’s faint voice suddenly echoed from all directions, overlapping strangely.

“Stop playing tricks in front of me!”

“That skulking technique of yours is certainly not a legitimate divine ability of our Jun School either. It seems that in the short time since we last met, Junior Brother Sun... you have grown remarkably quickly as well.”

Shentu Xin sneered repeatedly, his words dripping with ridicule.

As though his words had struck a painful nerve, the surrounding void trembled.

Sun Lang’s figure suddenly manifested and condensed once more.

However, the Sun Lang who appeared this time had an utterly eerie expression that sent chills down the spine.

The whites and pupils of his eyes had completely melted away.

In their place were two pools of pure darkness, so deep that they seemed capable of forcibly sucking a person’s soul into their depths.

“Today, I shall act on behalf of the sect and purge the traitor from our ranks!”

With this violent growl, all the remaining Life Qi within Sun Lang’s body was ignited in an instant.

His entire body seemed to transform into a bizarre flame constructed purely from Life Qi.

From afar, he suddenly clenched his five fingers toward Shentu Xin.

Shentu Xin was completely unable to evade.

He was instantly seized in midair by an invisible, overwhelming force.

In the past, even while the fierce flames burned the Imperial Mausoleum, Shentu Xin had still been able to sing boldly and freely.

But now, his entire body trembled violently as he let out a muffled groan.

Li Shun saw that within three feet of Shentu Xin, an invisible and bizarre flame was burning, a flame that could not be perceived by the naked eye.

At that moment, Shentu Xin seemed to have fallen into the depths of the Nine Nether Purgatory, enduring an unimaginable dual torment of body and soul.

The natal qi of principle within Shentu Xin’s body also seemed to have been ignited by those invisible, bizarre flames from the outside.

It began to burn itself with terrifying intensity.

Yet the Life Qi that had been forcibly ignited did not, as one might expect, transform into battle power that could help him break free and unleash an explosive counterattack.

Instead, it became a death warrant.

It intertwined into an airtight cage of flames, a graveyard sealing away both his soul and physical body.

“What kind of demonic technique is this?”

Shentu Xin spoke in shock and fury.

Sun Lang seemed to vaguely sense the disturbing abnormality in his own eyes.

He abruptly forced his pitch-black eyes shut.

Yet the frenzied coldness on his face remained unchanged as he proudly proclaimed, “I am the orthodox successor of the Jun School. Naturally, what I wield is the supreme divine ability of the Jun School. The principles of Great Jun are vast and boundless. All these years, you have clung to remnants and guarded outdated traditions. What you have touched is nothing more than the most superficial scrap of its true essence.”

“Today, I shall let you frogs at the bottom of a well properly witness what true [Might of Great Jun] is!”

Within Sun Lang’s cold voice, the invisible flames surrounding Shentu Xin seemed to burn even more fiercely.

Shentu Xin’s aura was rapidly weakening.

Seeing that he was about to lose his life completely within that bizarre cage, an unexpected change suddenly occurred at this critical moment between life and death.

Shentu Xin’s battered body, already on the verge of collapse from the scorching flames, suddenly rippled violently like a reflection in water.

Then, it vanished into thin air without leaving the slightest trace.

In the next instant, hundreds of zhang away, the void rippled.

A Shentu Xin whose clothes were completely intact and whose condition had returned to the absolute peak suddenly manifested once more!

He had merely forcibly exchanged his position.

Sun Lang suddenly opened his eyes again, his fury blazing.

“Shentu Xin, you truly have betrayed Great Jun!”

Shentu Xin remained silent.

He no longer chose to entangle himself with Sun Lang.

Transforming into a streak of light, he fled rapidly toward the north.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

Furious, Sun Lang immediately pursued.

Li Shun exchanged a glance with Zhao Cheng.

Neither said a word, yet the two followed after them with remarkable understanding.

Shentu Xin’s destination was clearly Bing Province, as planned.

Li Shun, meanwhile, was recalling the scene just now when Shentu Xin had escaped.

He had sensed a faintly familiar fluctuation within it.

“Historical School divine ability, [Heavenly Being Authored the Codex]?”