Chapter 245 – The Power of 'Stabilize': My Eternal Self

“Mu Lin, come back!”

“If you return, I won’t even use my divine power…”

“You’re at the Spirit Pool realm—I’m willing to suppress my own cultivation to Spirit Pool to fight you.”

“Human, answer me! Do you have no heroic spirit at all?”

“Ahhhh!!!!! Vile bastard!”

The frenzied Black Mountain Devotee kept shouting, trying every means to make Mu Lin stop. To this end, he shamelessly raged, pleaded, and even promised Mu Lin he wouldn’t use power beyond limits, only wanting to face Mu Lin in direct combat.

However, Mu Lin wasn’t foolish—he would never do such a thing.

At the same time, Mu Lin felt no shame whatsoever about his escape.

The Yin Eight Gates Paper Artisan Lineage was never a faction meant for direct confrontation.

Substitutes, curses, paper figures… all the various methods of a Paper Artisan were Mystical Arts for ambushing from the shadows or fleeing.

No matter what enemy they faced, they would send paper figures forward while staying in the rear, always ready to ambush or escape—this was the standard practice of the Paper Artisan Lineage.

Mu Lin was merely following the wisdom of his predecessors.

…

“Whoosh!”

And so, steering the Yin-Spirit Carriage and riding the wind and clouds, Mu Lin soon vanished from the Black Mountain Devotee’s sight.

This plunged it into utter despair.

“No!!”

“Bastard, worthless…”

The Black Mountain Devotee was displeased, and the Pleasure Maiden Shu Rong was also filled with rage.

She hadn’t expected that even after activating divinity, the Black Mountain Devotee would still lose—and lose in such a humiliating manner—which kept her cursing incessantly.

However, as the saying goes, smiles in this world don’t disappear; they merely transfer.

While they were furious and ashamed, the wealthy and powerful spectators outside were laughing heartily.

They greatly praised Mu Lin’s actions.

“Clever—not confronting the enemy at their strongest moment. Mu Lin understands when to advance and retreat.”

“Knowing how to assess the situation—such a Prodigy can truly grow.”

“From the moment he publicly shared the Clone Cultivation Method in exchange for resources instead of hoarding it, I knew this young man had a sharp mind.”

Now, the assembled elites viewed Mu Lin’s future even more favorably and were even less willing to offend him.

No one wanted to face a Curse Master whose true body couldn’t be found and who would curse from the shadows.

…

Mu Lin didn’t care about others’ opinions. Once he made the decision to avoid battle, he carried it through completely.

For a full three to four hours, he left not a single trace before the Black Mountain Devotee and the Pleasure Maiden.

Of course, though he wasn’t present, Mu Lin never stopped monitoring them.

Lifelike paper cranes and paper crows were continuously released by Mu Lin, keeping the Black Mountain Devotee under tight surveillance and watch.

In fact, it wasn’t even Mu Lin’s Main Body releasing the paper cranes—it was his Substitute Paper Figure.

This way, even if the Black Mountain Devotee tracked the traces to Mu Lin, it would only find a substitute.

While this might not have been entirely necessary, it raised Mu Lin’s safety to another level.

…

Through continuous surveillance, Mu Lin discovered that in the first hour, the Black Mountain Devotee, relying on its divinity, furiously destroyed everything in rage.

By the second hour, its divinity seemed to have dissipated from its body.

Regarding this, Mu Lin did not believe it. While using a paper crane to monitor the Black Mountain Devotee, he continuously cursed Black Mountain with the Paper Figure Curse Art.

During the third and fourth hours, the weakened Black Mountain had all seven of his Po nailed shut, and his physical body was completely dead. Only then did Mu Lin appear before the Black Mountain Devotee.

Incidentally, throughout this process, Mu Lin never stopped cursing the Pleasure Maiden Shu Rong.

And after realizing her counterattacks were useless, she… directly begged for mercy.

“Lord Mu Lin, I am willing to offer everything to you, as long as you spare my life.”

“Even if it means becoming my slave?”

“… This servant is willing.”

After hesitating for a moment, the Pleasure Maiden still chose to surrender.

Mu Lin did not immediately accept her offer.

He chose to first completely nail shut the seven Po of the Black Mountain Devotee before approaching him, intending to claim his Silent Divinity first.

At the same time, upon reaching the Black Mountain Devotee, Mu Lin witnessed for the first time the miserable state of a person whose seven Po had all been nailed shut.

At this point, the Black Mountain Devotee’s body was completely dead.

His flesh was rotting, and his internal organs showed no signs of life. His muscles and bones, having lost vitality and the protection of mana, had become fragile and brittle.

The physical body is the treasure ship that carries everything. With its collapse, his mana was also affected, filled with a sense of decay and weakness, and it was continuously dissipating.

Similarly, his divine soul flickered like a candle flame, on the verge of extinguishing at any moment.

However, this scene did not satisfy Mu Lin.

“If the seven Po are nailed shut, mortals would die on the spot… No, for mortals, having even one Po nailed would cause them to be plagued by illness.”

“If three or four Po are nailed, they would undoubtedly die.”

“But Qi Refiners are not mortals. Their life essence has been elevated, and mere physical death would not cause them to perish immediately.”

In fact, if only the physical body died, some cultivators could even transform into ghost cultivators or Divine Path cultivators through special methods.

The more powerful the cultivator, the more successful transformations and backup plans they would have prepared.

“Therefore, my Nailing Seven Po is not invincible. Beyond the seven Po, humans also have the three Hun souls. To completely kill a Qi Refiner with Curse Art, in addition to the seven Po, I must also nail shut their Heaven Soul, Earth Soul, and Human Soul!”

At this moment, Mu Lin understood why his Nailing Seven Po, despite being so powerful, could only be called Master level.

Grandmaster level is hailed as perfection, and such Curse Art must completely nail shut the three Hun and seven Po.

Moreover, Mu Lin had an inexplicable intuition that nailing all three Hun and seven Po was still not the limit of Curse Art.

“True Deities, True Lords—they have already merged with the laws of heaven and earth. Such beings are almost impossible to truly kill. Ordinary death merely puts them into slumber.”

“Once someone recites their name, they will return from death.”

“For such beings, having their three Hun and seven Po nailed shut still cannot completely kill them. To make them truly perish, my Curse Art must involve fate, karma, and the laws of the Dao…”

From Nailing Seven Po, Mu Lin’s inspiration burst forth, and he pondered many things.

Of course, his distant musings were not mere idle thoughts; he was also probing, testing whether the Black Mountain Devotee had truly perished.

“Boom!” “Boom!” “Boom!”

To test this, Mu Lin transformed into his ink-dragon form and unleashed a thunderous barrage upon the Black Mountain Devotee’s remains.

This was both desecration and a form of respect from Mu Lin toward the Black Mountain Devotee.

“You are too dangerous. I must ensure you are utterly destroyed.”

…

After a minute of relentless bombardment, something unexpected yet entirely plausible occurred.

The Black Mountain Devotee stirred back to life.

No, it wasn’t exactly reanimation—its physical body had indeed been reduced to charred ashes by Mu Lin’s onslaught.

However, what Mu Lin had failed to notice was that after its physical demise, the Black Mountain Devotee’s Divine Soul had long since taken refuge within a tombstone-shaped Mystic Treasure.

This treasure had been concealed underground.

Then, as Mu Lin relentlessly bombarded its remains, the tombstone, shrouded by a Domain of Silence, masked all traces of its presence and slowly crept closer to Mu Lin from beneath the earth.

Once it had drawn near enough, the Black Mountain Tombstone erupted from the ground.

Simultaneously, the Divinity·Silent Dharma Domain enveloped the entire area.

“Hum!”

Having accomplished this and certain that Mu Lin could not escape, the Black Mountain Devotee’s pent-up frustration and fury erupted from the depths of its being.

“Bastard! I’ve finally caught you! I’ll tear you to shreds!”

“No, you won’t die so easily. I’ll imprison your Divine Soul, subject it to endless torment by ten thousand demons, and ensure you never find peace in eternity…”

Emerging from underground, the aggrieved Black Mountain Attendant hurled curses and invectives at Mu Lin with frenzied rage.

At the same time, convinced of its victory, it unleashed its aura, intending to force Mu Lin to his knees.

“Mortal, kneel before me!”

Its roar was filled with overwhelming force.

Yet, the scene remained eerily calm.

“???”

Staring at Mu Lin, who seemed almost entirely unaffected, the Black Mountain Devotee was stunned.

“How is this possible? I sealed a portion of my Divinity within the tombstone! You should have lost all your Mana!”

It couldn’t comprehend how Mu Lin, supposedly stripped of Mana, could withstand its aura, which carried a faint trace of Divinity.

In contrast, Mu Lin remained utterly indifferent.

“You didn’t actually believe that a mere Silent Domain could completely neutralize me, did you?”

“I did avoid confrontation earlier, but that was only to conserve energy—not because I lacked a way to counter it.”

Mu Lin wasn’t boasting.

While the opponent possessed a Silent Domain, Mu Lin had the Source Rune ‘Stabilize.’

By fully activating it, Mu Lin could use this rune to Fixate his own state completely.

The silence nullifies all external forces? Too bad. My body is eternally solidified. You cannot affect my physical form, nor the Mana within me, nor even my Divine Soul.

In essence, with ‘Stabilize,’ Mu Lin was the natural counter to the Silent Dharma Domain.

Of course, this didn’t render the Silent Dharma Domain useless.

Limited by his strength and cultivation realm, Mu Lin’s ‘Stabilize’ could only affect himself. Any Mystical Art he released would be completely ‘silenced’ by the Silent Dharma Domain.

However, Mu Lin’s physical body was far from weak. With this ability, he possessed the means to contend with the Black Mountain Devotee.

Naturally, such an arduous endeavor was something he had preferred to avoid earlier.

But now, having been ambushed by the Black Mountain Devotee, Mu Lin had no choice but to confront it head-on.

“Boom!”

In the blink of a thought, endless thunder erupted within Mu Lin’s body, and soon, he entered an overlimit state.

“Whoosh!”

With a single movement, Mu Lin’s fierce and imposing figure arrived before the Black Mountain Devotee (in front of the tombstone). The Dragonkin’s ferocious claws directly grasped the only remaining tombstone of the Black Mountain Devotee.

The next moment, “Boom!” Endless thunder suddenly burst forth from Mu Lin’s body, surging ceaselessly into the tombstone, aiming to completely obliterate the Divine Soul hidden within.

This scene drove the Black Mountain Devotee into utter desperation.

With the Silent Dharma Domain, Mu Lin couldn’t harm it, but it couldn’t harm Mu Lin either.

Under normal circumstances, the two would be locked in a battle of attrition.

But now, Mu Lin was in perfect condition, while its physical body was completely dead, its Mana withered and decayed, leaving it utterly unqualified to contend with Mu Lin.

“Bastard!”

However, even ants cling to life, and it had no desire to die.

And indeed, it still had one last trick up its sleeve.

“Mortal, release me! Otherwise, I’ll self-destruct this Mystic Treasure, and you won’t come out unscathed either!”

It must be said that the Divine Servants dispatched by the Evil God to spy on this world possessed some capabilities.

And the Evil God was generous with its investments.

Divinity granted them eternal spirits, and their own strength endowed them with powerful Dharma Domains.

Beyond that, each of them typically held a few trump cards—such as peculiar yet formidable Mystic Treasures or some anomalous Spells.

As for this Black Mountain Devotee before him, the self-destruction of its demonic artifact truly had a certain chance of blowing Mu Lin to pieces.

However, just as the Black Mountain Devotee sought to threaten Mu Lin with self-destruction and believed it had a chance of success…

A leisurely, calm voice sounded from Mu Lin’s lips.

“Go ahead and blow it up.”

Such words were met with complete disdain by the Black Mountain Devotee, who believed Mu Lin was merely bluffing.

“Hah, mortal, don’t think you can intimidate me. You destroyed my physical body, leaving only a wisp of my Divine Soul clinging to life. In this state, if I die, so be it—I have nothing left to lose!”

“But are you willing to perish with me?”

“You are a Prodigy, with a bright future ahead and beauties by your side.”

“If you die, everything you could have had will be gone. Your women will leave you. Do you truly have the heart to die?”

The Black Mountain Devotee refused to believe Mu Lin was fearless of death.

And soon, a scene that filled it with delight appeared.

Faced with its threat, Mu Lin actually nodded.

“You’re right. Perishing together with you would indeed be a great loss for me.”

These words steadied the Black Mountain Devotee’s heart and even made it feel its demands were too modest.

‘This bastard destroyed my physical body, ruined my plans, and shattered all my schemes. Now that I can threaten him, I must not let him off so easily!’

‘Hehehe, I’ll make him betrayed and abandoned by all. I’ll make him kill his own women with his own hands…’

Filled with malice and resentment, the Black Mountain Devotee viciously pondered how to use the threat of mutual destruction to corrupt Mu Lin step by step.

It even contemplated seizing Mu Lin’s body.

‘Since you destroyed my body, don’t expect to fare any better.’

However, just as it was indulging in these delightful fantasies, Mu Lin’s leisurely, calm voice rang out once more.

“Perishing together with you would indeed be a great loss for me. But what made you think you have the qualifications to perish with me?”

“Bastard, don’t underestimate me. This Mystic Treasure was bestowed upon me by the great master…”

Upon hearing Mu Lin’s indifferent words, the Black Mountain Devotee’s first instinct was to proudly boast about the power of his tombstone Mystic Treasure.

But before he could finish speaking, he froze, his heart filled with utter despair.

The reason for this was the chilling realization that the leisurely voice he had just heard did not belong to the Dragon-Human Herdsman he was locked in a stalemate with, but to a newcomer.

—Unbeknownst to him, another Mu Lin had appeared a thousand meters away.

(End of Chapter)