Li Mu was a little stupefied at that time.
“What the hell?”
“This old man turns out to be a monkey spirit?”
“A monkey wearing a golden hoop… well…” Li Mu immediately thought of a very famous monkey on Earth— Sun Wukong. But that monkey was supposed to be the king of golden monkeys, whereas, the big monkey crunching before Li Mu was wrapped in flame-colored fur. Plus, the little girl just called him Grandpa Ma, so he was surnamed Ma instead of Sun.
Even so, the strength of the monkey surnamed Ma was a bit scary.
For the first time in his life, Li Mu felt humbled when facing another creature. Before, he did not feel that way even when confronting strong practitioners such as Emperor’s Broadsword and Emperor Qin Ming. He could not help wondering what realm the monkey surnamed Ma was in.
He surmised that the monkey was definitely beyond the Void-breaking Realm and the Life and Death Bridge Realm.
Holding the golden hoop in his hand, Li Mu was at a loss of what to do.
“Shall I put this back on that monkey surnamed Ma?”
“No. Perhaps the monkey would punch me to death before I go near enough.”
Li Mu looked at Brother Guo Yuqing, who had already restored the ability to move around, then glanced at the four disciples of the Hunyuan Sect lying on the ground pretending to be dead. Without hesitation, he turned to prop Guo Yuqing up and crept toward the outside of the hall…
Of all the stratagems, to retreat was the best.
“Where are you going?” The monkey surnamed Ma demanded. His eyes fell on Li Mu at once.
His flame-colored hair had retracted into his body. His face had regained the human form. And the tail between his buttocks had shrunk back, too. Now, he was that burly old man with matted frost-like hair again.
The only difference was that there was no golden hoop on his head.
The terrifying aura had also dissipated, which became even more ordinary than he was wearing the golden hoop. There was no trace of energy fluctuation in him, but everyone knew that the old man had become even more terrifying.
“He got me!”
Li Mu’s heart gave a shudder. He came to a halt, turned around, and looked at the monkey with a little stiff face. Then, he forced a smile and said, “Well, sir, if I say I suddenly want to urinate, you sure won’t believe me, but it is indeed so…”
The old man gazed at Li Mu with a complex look.
In truth, he was pretty shocked as well.
Nobody knew more about the story of that golden hoop than him. It was forged by a master-level founder of a faction according to the principles of the Great Way. In the vast universe, those who had the power to take off the golden hoop could be no more than the number of one’s fingers.
Moments ago, the old man simply said that provoking remark in a fit of rage as he saw the boy darted furtive looks to his golden hoop. But to his amazement… this slick-tongued country bumpkin lifted the golden hoop off his head as easily as uprooting withered grass.
“Why has he managed that?”
The old man could not figure it out.
“Is there something strange inside that boy?”
“Or is he the incarnation of a certain master-level founder?”
“Or this is because the karma that the king has told me?”
“He said when the time came, even a beggar on the side of the road could take off the golden hoop.”
“I’ve promised you that if you can remove this golden hoop, you will no longer blame you for bullying Nannan, and will repay you as my benefactor. Now that you did it, I won’t eat my words.” Suddenly, a smile appeared on the old man’s face, and he continued, “One day, you’ll walk out of this planet. If you encounter any trouble then, you can go to the Flower and Fruit Planet to find me.”
After that, he hoisted the little Nannan wrapped in oversized clothes onto his shoulders, wheeled around and strode away before disappearing outside the Fairy Hall in the blink of an eye.
“Big brother, Nannan won’t forget you! You even took a little girl’s stuff! You are a bad person, so bad that your head should have a sore and your feet should be pussy. Big jerk, I will come back to you!” Sitting on the shoulders of the old man, Nannan waved a reluctant farewell at Li Mu.
“Phew…” Li Mu patted his chest and breathed a sigh of relief.
“I will not take off any hoop on a man’s head anymore! Almost got it out of control!”
Guo Yuqing was also relieved.
He could tell that if the old monkey did intend to start a fight, he and Li Mu would not be his match even if they teamed up. The old man transformed by that big monkey was absolutely the strongest opponent he had ever encountered. The monkey’s cultivation was frightening, and there was no clue about where the upper limit of his power was.
“Let’s go. Retreat first.” Li Mu was a little scared. He decided to get out of there at once.
As for the group of people in the hall, as he had already robbed them, he could not really bring himself to kill them all. Li Mu doubted he had been that cruel and merciless.
“Missy, I’ll hit the road. Don’t miss me too much.” Li Mu taunted as he waved his hand sloppily towards Bu Feiyan, and then turned to leave.
But at that precise moment, an unexpected change occurred.
Swoosh!
A stream of black smoke instantly reached Li Mu at the speed of light and materialized into a wretched-looking dwarf holding a sharp poisonous sting in his hand. Next second, he stabbed that sting at between Li Mu’s eyebrows.
No one expected such an abrupt assassination.
Guo Yuqing was too shocked to move. Although he was standing near Li Mu, it was too late to help.
The sting hit Li Mu’s skin almost instantly.
The killing intent was squirting. Death was on his way.
When Li Mu came to himself and made to dodge or block the attack, no matter what choice he made, there was no time for him to do it.
The sting came too fast!
However, just at that moment, Li Mu opened his mouth and a jet of white light shot out. It rapidly turned into a large pestle, slammed into the face of the wretched-looking dwarf, and threw him to the air…
“Puff…” In midair, blood sprayed profusely. The dwarf’s face had almost been squashed into a rotten watermelon. He was exactly the dwarf from the Flowing Shadow Sect who had contended for the Heart-striking Pestle in the Cloud Palace.
“I’ve been waiting for you.” Li Mu jeered.
The dwarf staggered back and collapsed to the ground. The injury in his face was shocking. As his mouth opened and closed repeatedly, he uttered, “How do you know? The assassination art of our Flowing Shadow Sect can never be seen through… You…”
Li Mu spat, “You, a vermin who isn’t qualified to show up in public, are not only born ugly but also extremely vindictive. When you backed away before, I saw from the cruelness in your eyes that you must be lurking in the dark, ready to seek revenge on me at any moment. Thus, how can I not get my guards up.”
The dwarf ran his Cultivation Method forcibly, trying to atomize his body. He protested, “But that bitch in black also threatened you at that time…”
Li Mu sneered. “But she is prettier than you.”
“You… I will come to you again!” Said the wretched-looking dwarf maliciously. His body had evaporated like a wisp of smoke as his aura faded away.
Li Mu laughed coldly. He quickly urged the Heart-striking Pestle forward. The pestle made of white jade rushed out and hit the dwarf hard in the void. Blood gushed out of the air. And like the fish being scooped up from the river, the wretched-looking dwarf fell heavily to the ground…
“How did you spot me?” He asked, his face filled with horror.
“Of course I won’t tell you that the Heart-striking Pestle has a function that can undo your invisibility.” Li Mu grinned. “Thank you for escaping without putting up a fight before. That helped me get this baby… Well, let waste no time and send you to hell.”
The Heart-striking Pestle pelted over, releasing heavy Taoist Power. It directly crushed the heart of that wretched-looking dwarf. At the same time, an annihilating force destroyed his spirit and soul.
“How regretful I am…” The wretched-looking dwarf could not let it go even when he was dying. “Our Flowing Shadow Sect… will not let you off the hook!”
Li Mu laughed.
“As if you think the Flowing Shadow Sect will let me off the hook if I didn’t kill you.”
That scene made the hearts of others in the Fairy Hall turn over.
Li Mu’s previous behavior was perhaps just a little flighty as he wanted to play dumb. But when he relentlessly counterattacked and killed the assassin from the Flowing Shadow Sect, he fully displayed his circumspectness and brutality. That made everyone in the hall to look at him in a different light.
Even the old woman with the black cane who had been cursing Li Mu quite judiciously shut her mouth for fear that Li Mu would go mad and kill them all.
Yet, Li Mu took Guo Yuqing and the four disciples of the Hunyuan Sect out of the hall without further ado.
After about a quarter of an hour, the elder sister, Bu Feiyan, first recovered her strength, jumped to her feet. She straightened her clothes, and then switched on the Cultivation Method to help her younger sister to stand up.
“Sister, go catch him. I will hack him to death!” The younger sister gnawed her teeth in fury.
Bu Feiyan shook her head and said, “That guy is indeed a scourge. But he is very powerful. In this world, you are not his equal. Plus, he also has the Fallen-soul Bell and the Heart-striking Pestle in his hands. That guy is both cunning and fierce, very hard to deal with…”
Simply thinking of him gave Bu Feiyan a headache. “How come there is such a wretched, cruel and cunning country bumpkin in the Tomb of the God of Sin?”
“What shall we do then? Sister, the Fallen-soul Bell is still in his hands. We’ve got to get it back.” The younger sister sheathed the broadsword that was even longer than her height, frowned, and added, “How about you make use of your sex appeal this time? I noted that the jerk looked at you with extra desire. He must be very interested in you…”
Clap!
Bu Feiyan raised her hand and gave a slap on her younger sister’s forehead. She then snarled, “If you talk any more nonsense, I will use the Shutup Curse to zip your mouth!”
The little girl said grudgingly, “Sister, what are you not satisfied with? Though that jerk is cunning and cruel, I carefully observed him and found that he is quite handsome, with thick brows and large eyes. Anyway, since he is able to take off the monkey’s golden hoop, he is definitely not an ordinary person… Um, em, eh—”
Bu Feiyan held up her hand and cast a spell. In a trice, the younger sister’s lips stuck together and her mouth seemed to have disappeared, so she could only make noises with her nose.
With her lips zipped, the pair of sisters marched out of the Fairy Hall and chased down the road which Li Mu had taken.
After a while, the old woman with the black cane and the kid of the witch tribe began to move at the same time. The two looked at each other and saw the killing intent in each other’s eyes, but neither launched a strike.
The old woman with the black cane had been severely injured by Li Mu’s punch, and her strength was greatly damaged, while the kid of the witch tribe had lost his Creator’s Jade Plate, so his strength was slashed, too. Therefore, neither of them was sure that they could get the better of the other.
At last, the two parties left the hall and went on in opposite directions.
This time, Li Mu had chosen to escape because he had not fully refined the Fallen-soul Bell. If it was completely refined and he mastered the power of that bell, he could shatter the spirits and souls of the enemies right on the spot and kill them once for all.
…
…
“Hahaha, I got this baby! Great! With this, who else in this Tomb of the God of Sin could be my match?” Yue Guoxiang from the Tianyi Palace roared with laughter in one of the halls in the tomb.
In his hands lay a cover in a peculiar shape. The cover was opaque. Nine golden dragons were attached to the surface of the cover, climbing toward the top from several directions. They looked like alive and were issuing the aura of the Great Way.
“Hey! The Nine Dragons Divine Fire Cover! Haha, this is mine.”
Yue Guoxiang’s mouth was crooked by the broad smile.
“Haha, Li Mu must have come to the Tomb of the God of Sin as well. When I find him, I’ll burn him into ashes with this Nine Dragons Divine Fire Cover. Only that could dissolve the hatred I feel.” He vowed to himself through gritted teeth.
