Chapter 486: Whose Phantom Was That?

“Eighteen years ago, the Arhat fruition this poor monk cultivated manifested into form, only to be stolen by thieves… Amitābha. As I said before, you were originally this poor monk’s.”

The voice echoed from all directions into Luo Wusheng’s ears.

Luo Wusheng silently pressed Little Yuli—who had just put down her cotton candy with a disgruntled look and was about to reassert her ownership—back down again. ℴ𝗆

He, too, fell into contemplation.

By the other party’s account, it seemed that in this life he had not been a normally born human at all, but rather the manifested form of some Arhat fruition painstakingly cultivated by them…

On the surface, those words did seem to explain quite a lot.

For instance, he did not know his own origins and, from the moment he could remember, had already been in the Demon Sect, with no memories of blood relatives.

For instance, before awakening memories of his previous life, this body’s temperament had been so cold it was almost inhuman—completely indifferent to women, with only the faintest sense of personal identity… which was precisely why, after awakening, his personality had immediately become dominated by his former-life self.

If he truly were some Buddhist fruition given form, then all of that seemed to make sense.

If one was born of transformation, there naturally would be no bloodline roots. And as a symbol of Buddhist attainment, desire would be hard to arise—perhaps the shaping of human nature itself had been minimal to begin with.

It sounded plausible, but Luo Wusheng still felt something was off.

Would a fruition-made entity even have a previous life?

And while his former self truly lacked much human feeling, that abnormal obsession with collecting rare stones was very real to the point where it had tangibly influenced his present personality. Even after being somewhat weakened, what existed still existed.

Could Buddhist fruitions have anything to do with worldly curiosities like rare stones? That was ridiculous, what monk would be obsessed with such things?

From years of reading novels in his past life, Luo Wusheng’s intuition told him there was probably more hidden behind this.

His gaze first shifted to the phantom of the plain-robed woman at his side.

Seeming to understand, the Sword Ancestor’s phantom gently shook her head and spoke flatly:

“I do not comprehend this Dao.”

Luo Wusheng suddenly felt that he and the Sword Ancestor were surprisingly alike.

The Sword Ancestor had cultivated the sword her entire life. No matter what blocked her path, she cut through it with a single strike—hence the title of one who could slash anything.

A top-tier reckless brute… uh, ferocious woman?

Anyway, just like him—never bothering with flowery tricks.

Little Yuli would probably grow up in that same style.

His thoughts drifted off again, imagining in his mind a Little Yuli who’s capable of uprooting mountains, and he nearly burst out laughing.

But his reaction left the hidden mastermind thoroughly confused.

This… was not what he had expected.

Had this poor monk not expressed himself clearly enough? Normally, upon learning they were not human at all but the manifested product of another’s cultivation, people should not react like this, right?

“Benefactor… do you still have doubts unresolved?”

“Huh?” Luo Wusheng snapped back from his wandering thoughts. Hearing the voice, his expression turned odd. “Uh… are you expecting me to give an opinion or something?”

“Does the benefactor have nothing to say?”

“Not really.”

Luo Wusheng grinned.

“In the end, whether what you said is true or false, what does it have to do with me now? Just because you claim I was originally something you cultivated, am I supposed to think I should return to my rightful owner and let you do whatever you want? I’m the Demon Sect’s Holy Saint, not an idiot—and certainly not from your Buddhist sect.”

“So what’s the point in caring about all that? You’re on my opposing side anyway. I just need to think about how to smash you, right?”

“For example… since Senior Sword Ancestor cannot swing because of her Heavenly Dao oath, how about I swing this sword instead?”

He gently extended a hand toward his side.

Little Yuli’s eyes lit up. In three quick motions she stuffed the remaining cloud-cotton-candy into her mouth, wiped her lips clean, and with a radiant smile placed her now-sticky-free little hand into Luo Wusheng’s.

Luo Wusheng: “…”

I meant borrowing the Sword Ancestor’s wooden sword!

Letting the girl be too adorably dense really wasn’t a good thing. He’d been trying to put on a smooth, impressive act, and the whole tone had instantly derailed…

Little Yuli blinked a couple of times, seeming to understand something. She withdrew her hand and produced the Sword Ancestor’s wooden sword.

Then—under Luo Wusheng’s hopeful gaze—she carefully poked the wooden sword toward the “valley” formed between the massive twin peaks on her chest…

“Damn it! I never should’ve told you that Raiden Shogun story!”

Luo Wusheng finally cracked and grabbed the hand with which Little Yuli was about to commit her mischief.

The Sword Ancestor’s phantom stared blankly at the scene. After glancing at her own sword, her gaze lingered faintly on the cleavage at the girl’s chest, then she lowered her head slightly toward her flat illusionary chest.

For some reason, she really wanted to cut someone.

But a gentler feeling also welled up.

Right now, she was not truly the Sword Ancestor’s full consciousness, she’s only a fragment brought forth through numerous connections and reversed by temporal arts, giving her a small portion of the real Sword Ancestor’s memories and thought.

If it were the real Sword Ancestor, even constrained by the “oath to abandon the sword,” there would still be countless ways to break the situation.

She had only one method that she did not know would be effective—to convert the power of this single sword strike into pure force, rather than wielding it herself.

This would certainly be far inferior to her personally swinging a sword. Her strength came from the sword Dao: with a single unit of spiritual energy she could unleash a strike worth ten thousand, but once converted into raw power, one unit was just one unit. Even her successor could never reproduce the effect of her own blade.

She knew that her successor and that successor’s Dao companion understood this, yet she had not expected the young man to abandon the deterrence of her own strike so decisively.

He had not even asked what backlash forcibly drawing the sword might bring, or whether it was something he could accept.

“…Mm. Acceptable.”

The phantom of the plain-robed woman suddenly murmured to herself.

And at that moment, Luo Wusheng happened to seize Little Yuli’s sword hand.

The Sword Ancestor’s phantom rippled and began to dissipate.

But on the wooden sword, a terrifying power gathered and surged.

The tangled man and woman froze, staring at the scene before them.

Luo Wusheng let out a breath and tugged Little Yuli along, bowing slightly toward the fading female figure.

To be honest, when he had heard that Buddhist head talk about the fruition earlier, his heart had not been entirely calm.

Only after hearing the Sword Ancestor’s phantom’s flat response did he suddenly feel that he had been overthinking it.

Better to just be a brute. 𝐟𝑟ⅇ

If someone messes with me, I mess with them—why bother thinking so much?

Watching the dissolving phantom, Luo Wusheng seemed to vaguely glimpse the breathtaking face hidden beneath the blur—beautiful eyes looking their way, lips curling into a faint smile, her mouth moving as though she were saying something.

Maybe something important?

With that thought, Luo Wusheng listened closely.

“—Once things here are settled, hurry up and rebuild your physical body and complete the consummation ritual from the secret manual with my successor. Otherwise, the next time you manage to summon me, I still won’t be able to swing my sword—understand?”

The corner of Luo Wusheng’s mouth twitched. Even the hand with which he and Little Yuli were gripping the sword stiffened.

Little Yuli tilted her head. “Brother Luo?”

“It’s nothing…”

Luo Wusheng closed his eyes and steadied his breathing, forcing the stray thoughts out of his mind bit by bit.

Then he opened them.

His aura erupted violently.

Spiritual energy laced with a demonic aura surged outward—already many times more immense than when the fox tail had first appeared.

Because Luo Wusheng had never truly and completely refined the ancient phoenix essence, the Heart Fox Technique–descent spell that Yao Ji had cast on him was likewise imperfect. It could not influence his body’s movements the way Yue Xuanji’s had before, but more importantly, the transfer of power had begun to require a process.

Earlier, the time he had deliberately dragged out was not only to let Little Yuli summon the Sword Ancestor’s phantom, but also to buy time for himself.

And the gazes on the opposite side had clearly been drawn to the threat posed by the Sword Ancestor’s phantom, they had failed to notice the subtle changes quietly accumulating on Luo Wusheng’s side.

Since that was the case…

“Bald donkey, now it’s my turn!”

A surge of sword intent burst forth from Luo Wusheng’s body.

This was his sword intent, yet it was not the aged, weathered sword intent he had once copied from the Sword Emperor’s realm.

During the Soulblade Specter incident, he had relied on his wife’s Sword Enlightenment Incense to enter a sword-comprehension illusion. He had remained there for ten years of sword contemplation and when he emerged, he had obtained two kinds of sword intent.

Aside from that desolate, ancient sword intent, however, the other one had previously appeared to him only as a blurred mosaic, something he simply could not use. On top of that, the memories of those ten years of sword contemplation had, for some unknown reason, become completely blank, leaving him with no way to even investigate what that sword intent truly was.

Yet not long ago, with the help of his little pink fox, his spiritual awareness had advanced to the Divine Transformation realm, transforming into divine awareness. At that moment, a large portion of the seal suppressing those ten years of sword contemplation memories was finally undone.

Only then did Luo Wusheng realize that back in that illusionary realm, he had actually needed only a few short days to successfully imitate the Sword Emperor’s weathered sword intent.

After that, he had spent nearly an entire month pondering a single question.

What kind of sword intent did he truly need for himself?

After thinking day and night, he began to comprehend the sword once more.

Ten years as one—focused on only a single sword.

‘This sword… slays the self…’

…

Sensing clearly the turbulent spiritual energy surging through the Colorless Realm he had unfolded, the Buddha head lurking behind the scenes suddenly felt a jolt of alarm.

It truly had not paid much attention to the changes happening on Luo Wusheng’s body earlier.

Once it sensed the Sword Ancestor’s aura, its primary focus of high-level vigilance had immediately shifted to that phantom.

It knew all too well how terrifying that woman was.

its golden body had even managed to block immortal tribulation lightning while leaving behind only a few pale marks on its body, yet, the Sword Ancestor had somehow managed to behead it in a single strike.

From that point on, its golden body had been completely lost to it, and even the flesh it had painstakingly rebuilt since then had never again been reforged into a golden form.

Thus, even after successfully awakening a fragment of the Sword Ancestor’s consciousness—and knowing she was bound by the “oath to abandon the sword” and would not act lightly—the Buddha head still had not dared to lower its guard.

Yet in the midst of all that… Luo Wusheng had actually been silently accumulating power.

“This benefactor is truly stubborn to the extreme…” The calm voice echoed through the void.

“In this Colorless Realm, this poor monk is without form or appearance. Benefactor, your present struggle is nothing more than a fish striking at water—wasting effort in vain.”

The Buddha head did not deploy any techniques. As it had said, so long as it did not reveal its form here, it stood in an invincible position.

Yet Luo Wusheng let out a mocking laugh.

“Is that so?”

“Then tell me, the phantom that is ten zhang away from me… whose phantom was that?”

Cultivation Realm:

1, Qi Refining

2, Foundation Establishment

3, Golden Core

4, Nascent Soul

5, Divine Transformation (Formerly Known as Tribulation Crossing)

6, Tribulation Transcendence

7, Land Immortal

Note: Link to the character Illustration:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lkIcPnCxeyuyZA4Kkb621dPC05UvWjhD

Latest Chapter: Chapter 571: To See or Not to See?