Chapter 242 – Mu Lin: Brother, You Can't Handle This Divinity

The fusion of Death Divinity transformed Mu Lin into a Divine Being of the death attribute.

With the enhancement of his rank and divinity, Mu Lin’s efficiency in casting death-related spells, as well as learning such spells, became exceptionally high.

This was of great importance to Mu Lin.

Life and death are two sides of the same coin. The Paper Crafting Scripture he primarily cultivated was a Cultivation Method centered on life and death.

In other words, after becoming a Divine Being of the death lineage, Mu Lin’s already rapid cultivation progress would increase once again.

Apart from the Taiyin Life-Nurturing Scripture, the Twilight Illusion Life-Death Array and Manjusaka were also Mystical Arts closely connected to death.

The Substitute Paper Figure and Cursed Paper Figure could also be loosely associated with it.

It could be said that this wave of enhancement brought Mu Lin immense gains.

……

Thinking of his numerous gains, Mu Lin could not help but feel boundless greed toward the other Servants of the Gods.

“Originally, I wanted to eliminate you all simply because, as a human, my values and stance made it impossible for me to stand by and watch you, these aberrations, enslaving humanity.”

“There was also some arrogance mixed in.”

“But now, it’s different. For the sake of my divinity, you must die!”

Yes, Mu Lin regarded that divinity as his own.

Having personally experienced the benefits of divinity, Mu Lin had no intention of letting go of the remaining divinity.

What made him even more restless was that the current Servants of the Gods holding divinity were not particularly strong.

At the very least, their strength was far from matching the value of the divinity within them.

Such behavior—like a child carrying gold through a bustling market—was something Mu Lin could not tolerate.

“Since ancient times, treasures should belong to the virtuous. Tie Xun, Shu Rong, you cannot handle this divinity. It should be entrusted to me.”

After making this decision, Mu Lin immediately dismissed the people near the Sky Burial Domain, sending them away.

—These people were too weak to be of any help to Mu Lin. Keeping them would only cause unnecessary trouble, so he naturally did not bring them along.

As for whether these people might encounter danger while fleeing or be taken hostage by Tie Xun and the others, Mu Lin… did not care in the slightest.

He was no saint. If he could save someone effortlessly, he would not mind doing so.

But if his own interests conflicted with saving others, Mu Lin’s first priority was always himself.

Even though he had once made a grand vow, what he sought to protect was humanity as a whole, not any single individual.

While pondering, Mu Lin took Yan Yunyu and Chu Lingluo and hid within the Sky Burial Domain.

At the same time, after a prolonged period of worship, Mu Lin’s Cursed Paper Figure reestablished its connection with Tie Xun, the Pleasure Maiden Shu Rong, and the Black Mountain Cultists.

Without hesitation, nails were immediately taken up by Mu Lin’s Substitute Paper Figure and driven fiercely into the Cursed Paper Figure.

“Thud!”

As the nails pierced the Paper Figure, linked by their aura, far away, Tie Xun, Shu Rong, and the followers of Black Mountain, who were gathered together, felt their hearts sink.

They sensed once again that another invisible Coffin Nail had been driven fiercely into their bodies.

The second Coffin Nail greatly heightened the sense of crisis within them.

What was even harder for them to bear was that, aside from the increasing danger, the Coffin Nails themselves were also beginning to affect them.

The first Coffin Nail was driven in, and everyone felt their hearts sink, as if something had pressed down heavily upon their very souls, causing their heads to throb with excruciating pain.

This irritation and oppression also greatly reduced their vigilance.

This was the effect of the first soul, Corpse Dog, being nailed down.

The second Coffin Nail was even more vicious. With this nail embedded, the Servants of the Gods’ headaches intensified, and they found their thinking speed had slowed considerably.

The Ambush Arrow soul governs a person’s thinking ability. With this soul position nailed down, whether it was Tie Xun or the Pleasure Maiden Shu Rong, they both felt their thoughts slowing and their rationality diminishing.

If they were righteous Cultivators, the effect of having their Ambush Arrow soul nailed would be limited to this.

But they were not. They were Servants of the Gods, and Servants of an Evil God at that.

Thus, a special situation arose.

Already tainted by the aura of the Evil God, with their rationality lowered, each of them became extreme.

For instance, Tie Xun, the Servant of the God of Wild Hunt, now had bloodshot eyes, his heart filled with murderous intent towards Mu Lin.

“Hiss… I must kill Mu Lin. He must die!”

Seeing Tie Xun enter his hunting form, the Pleasure Maiden Shu Rong was also feeling unwell. However, compared to Tie Xun, she was more focused on the cultivation of the Divine Soul.

Therefore, the effect on her was not as severe, and she barely managed to retain some rationality.

“Calm down. Acting like this is exactly what Mu Lin wants. We’ll fall right into his trap.”

Tie Xun: “I am very calm. Right now, we are already ‘poisoned,’ becoming the prey. Doing nothing is the true path to death. Only by killing Mu Lin at the fastest possible speed do we have a sliver of a chance to survive.”

This point… the Pleasure Maiden Shu Rong also agreed, but: “Are you confident you can kill Mu Lin? Although it was a sneak attack, that monster swallowed the Raven Servant in one bite.”

“…”

Such words also silenced Tie Xun. He considered himself stronger than the Raven Servant, yet even so, he was not confident he could kill the Raven Servant with a single strike.

Their strengths were on par, which also meant that Zhong Kui, who could swallow the Raven Servant, could also swallow him.

That kind of power jolted him awake from his furious rage for a moment.

But soon, his gaze turned fierce again, and he said viciously, “Damn it, if not for the world’s suppression, with the power granted by our Master, I could kill that Mu Lin with a flick of my hand.”

After speaking, his eyes flickered as he looked at the Pleasure Maiden and the Black Mountain Devotee.

“We need to cooperate, to jointly unseal the power of our Master. At least one must be unsealed.”

With the three of them joining forces, plus sacrificing numerous Cultists, they indeed had the possibility to unseal one person’s Divinity.

However, upon hearing this proposal, the Pleasure Maiden Shu Rong was not pleased but instead sneered, “Unseal whose?”

Tie Xun: “Naturally mine. I am most adept at pursuit and will definitely be able to kill Mu Lin…”

Before he could finish, the Pleasure Maiden Shu Rong sneered and said, “And then kill us afterwards, right?”

“I wouldn’t do that…”

“You would. Followers of the Wild Hunt, you gain power from the hunt.”

This time, it was the taciturn Black Mountain Devotee who spoke.

With both of them refusing, Tie Xun knew his scheme had failed.

After that, it never brought up the matter of unsealing divinity again—just as Shu Rong did not trust it, it did not trust Pleasure Maiden Shu Rong or the Black Mountain Devotee either.

No, it couldn’t be called distrust. Tie Xun was certain of one thing: given the chance, whether it was Pleasure Maiden Shu Rong or the Black Mountain Devotee, they would both try to turn him into a puppet.

And handing over his power for someone else to unseal it was precisely that chance.

…

Their mutual distrust left the three of them at an impasse.

Realizing that none could persuade the others, they had no choice but to set aside their disagreements for the time being and head toward Mu Lin’s location.

They planned to find Mu Lin first and then adapt to the situation as it unfolded.

The search for Mu Lin turned out to be surprisingly easy. Tie Xun lived up to his reputation as the Mad Hunt Servant. Though it was unclear what spell he used, even with Mu Lin’s main body hidden within the Sky Burial Domain and most of his aura blocked by the domain’s power, Tie Xun still found him effortlessly.

Then, gazing at the Sky Burial Domain, filled with anomalies and fraught with danger, the three Servants of the Gods fell silent.

After exchanging glances, they simultaneously turned their attention to the cultists who had followed them.

“You, you, and you—all of you, go and eliminate Mu Lin for me.”

“Huh??”

“Me?!”

Pointing at himself, the cultist wore an expression of utter disbelief.

Clearly, he hadn’t expected his superiors to issue such an order.

“G-great one, I’m no match for Mu Lin… Ah!!”

Before he could finish speaking, a piercing scream erupted from the cultist’s mouth.

He had been punished.

At the same time, the irritable Tie Xun snapped impatiently, “Stop wasting words! Go when you’re told, or you’ll all die!”

Shu Rong and Tie Xun were well aware that the cultists who had surrendered to them were no match for Mu Lin, but they never expected these worthless turncoats to kill him anyway.

Sending them to charge ahead now was merely to use them as cannon fodder, testing and dismantling the traps Mu Lin had laid.

Soon enough, the cultists grasped the situation.

Or rather, they had always understood—they just hadn’t wanted to believe it.

Now, with Tie Xun’s explicit command, they had no choice but to accept it, whether they wanted to or not.

At the same time, waves of regret washed over them once more.

“Damn it, why did I abandon being a decent person to serve an Evil God? These bastards don’t care about our lives at all!”

“No, I can’t go. If I go, I’ll surely die…”

“I have to find a way to escape this place…”

Fear and regret filled their hearts as they desperately sought any chance of survival—this was the state of mind shared by the cultists.

Outside, the members of the Aristocratic Families observing the scene through the Tower of Illusory Heavens were equally taken aback by how the situation within the Secret Realm had unfolded.

“Is this the Evil God and its devotees? Our great enemy? Just this?”

Some were baffled, but others remained clear-headed.

“Don’t underestimate them. Those Servants of the Gods aren’t weak—it’s just that Mu Lin is too strong.”

(End of Chapter)