Chapter 352 – The Power of the Book of Life and Death

“Writing to achieve reality, Mu Lin… is he really that powerful?”

“No, you should ask, is this something that can truly be accomplished at the Gang Sha Sorcerer realm?”

“Not to mention Gang Sha Sorcerers, even Mortal Shedding Adepts cannot achieve this level…”

Once Mu Lin’s ability to determine life and death with a brush emerged, not only were the young prodigies of his same rank shocked, but even some Clan Elders were astounded and found it incomprehensible.

Fortunately, the Clan Elders of the Aristocratic Families had cultivated for many years and witnessed a variety of abilities, so their discernment was still quite sharp.

Initially, these individuals indeed did not understand, but after careful observation, they gradually grasped the essence of Mu Lin’s ability.

“Phew… thank goodness, Mu Lin’s power to determine life and death with a brush is not Words Become Law—it is Curse Art!”

“It is indeed a curse. I recall that the Yin Eight Gates Paper Artisan lineage has always excelled in curses. With Mu Lin’s talent, it is not impossible for him to transform this Curse Art, displaying it not with Paper Figures but with a Talisman Brush and writing.”

After understanding the essence of Mu Lin’s ability, many breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that the world had not completely collapsed.

Of course, while some calmed their emotions, others remained fearful and wary of Mu Lin.

“But even Curse Art is terrifying, isn’t it… No, precisely because it is a curse, it is even more frightening. In the future, whoever offends Mu Lin will surely have their life or death judged in his little notebook.”

“Hahaha…”

This remark made many laugh.

Someone else chimed in, “Yongyan, you overestimate Curse Art.”

“Despite Curse Art being mysterious and unpredictable, capable of killing others beyond sight, it remains a Heterodox Path, unworthy of the grand stage.”

“Exactly. Leaving aside how Curse Art harms nature and hinders the path to enlightenment, there is one point that makes us unafraid of curses—as long as we ourselves are strong and our foundations are flawless, we can ignore ninety-nine percent of the curses in the world.”

“Elder Ge, your statement has a premise: it is the orthodox sects of the Mystic Path that are unafraid of curses. The Demonic Sect brats and the so-called Northern Wastelands prodigies have low resistance to curses.”

As some Clan Elders from the families explained, the Southern prodigies gradually understood that most Curse Arts cannot breach the flawless defenses of the orthodox Mystic Path.

Currently, Mu Lin’s curse succeeded easily because the Northern prodigies already harbored hidden flaws within their bodies.

Under such circumstances, Mu Lin’s Curse Art could easily penetrate their bodies and stir up the Forbidden Power within them, allowing Mu Lin to subdue them effortlessly.

Without those Forbidden Powers causing chaos, orthodox Mystic Path disciples would almost never be harmed by curses of the same rank.

Even if the curse is one rank higher, it is difficult to kill an orthodox Mystic Path disciple—it would only cause severe injury or lingering curses, giving the Cultivator time to seek treatment from elders.

As for two ranks higher—with such strength, a high-level Cultivator could easily crush a lower-level one, making whether it is a curse irrelevant.

In this world, Cultivation Level ultimately matters most.

After listening to their elders’ explanations, the Southern prodigies all breathed a sigh of relief and understood—while Demonic Sect disciples often have shortcuts to rapidly increase their strength, it is no coincidence that the orthodox Mystic Path dominates the world.

“Mu Lin’s Curse Art cannot harm me… but can it really not?”

Having understood everything, they realized that it was Mu Lin who had cast the curse art, which renewed their worries.

And their worries… were justified.

Even before it transformed into the Book of Life and Death, Mu Lin’s Paper Figure Curse Technique could be used against opponents of the same rank.

Of course, back then, he relied on the Master Grade characteristic—Nailing Seven Po.

In a way, this was also leveraging a higher-level power to overwhelm his foes.

Now, after becoming the Book of Life and Death, Mu Lin’s curse art had not weakened; instead, it had become even more terrifying.

First, and most importantly—by wielding the authority of the City God and the Netherworld’s true deities, Mu Lin’s curse art could now not only exploit his enemies’ hidden flaws to amplify its power.

He could also ignite their sins, subjecting them to various punishments.

The heavier the sin, the more potent Mu Lin’s curse art became.

For those with heinous crimes, Mu Lin could even unleash unimaginable power through the Book of Life and Death.

Second, the Netherworld was connected to death and lifespan, and Mu Lin had some grasp of time laws. This allowed his curse art to accelerate the aging of his enemies.

This had little effect on prodigies in their youth, prime, or even middle age. However, if elderly cultivators or those who had extended their lives through certain means faced Mu Lin, he could easily strip away their remaining years with the Netherworld’s Authority, pushing them toward death.

Third, although Mu Lin’s Book of Life and Death was centered around the Paper Figure Curse, it had integrated numerous other abilities.

Such as Master Grade mystical arts, the Source Rune·Stabilize, Da Luo Vast Heaven Qi, Calamity Qi… With these powers, even righteous cultivators from orthodox sects could be tormented to the brink of agony once targeted by Mu Lin.

“Setting aside Mortal Shedding Adepts and Earth Immortals, if I go all out, I can achieve the effect of ‘If King Yama wants you dead by the third watch, who dares keep you until the fifth?’ against Gang Sha Sorcerers and those below, provided I’m willing to pay the price.”

At this thought, Mu Lin paused:

“Wait, judging enemies by their sins, reducing their lifespan, and this ability of ‘If King Yama wants you dead by the third watch’… I’ve truly become King Yama now.”

“It’s just a pity that my authority as King Yama works best on ordinary people, can intimidate Gang Sha Sorcerers and Mortal Shedding Adepts with heavy sins, but Earth Immortals can completely ignore me…”

Here, Mu Lin lamented the limitations of his abilities.

But Zhuang Yuan had completely collapsed to the ground.

Thanks to Mu Lin’s mercy, he wasn’t dead, but the eruption of Forbidden Power was still terrifying. This internal conflict had completely drained him of any fighting strength.

Meanwhile, the Northern Aristocracy had their elders. After some analysis, they realized that Mu Lin could not actually make words become law; he had merely used curse art to ignite the Forbidden Power within them.

However, knowing this didn’t help them solve the problem.

Unlike the southern cultivators, the Northern Aristocracy urgently needed power to cope with numerous calamities.

As a result, nearly all Northern prodigies harbored Forbidden Power within their bodies.

This also meant that Mu Lin could easily stir the Forbidden Power inside them using the Book of Life and Death, causing them to go completely berserk.

What made these people even more desperate was that, due to the Substitute Death Counterattack, even knowing this, they couldn’t interrupt Mu Lin’s spellcasting. They could only watch helplessly as Mu Lin cast his spells and ignited the Forbidden Power within them.

“Mu Lin… he’s our natural counter.”

The only thing that brought them solace was:

“Whew, thankfully, Mu Lin is ultimately of the Human Race and understands righteousness. He won’t resort to killing us…”

“Alas, it was indeed our mistake to provoke conflict with him.”

With a bitter smile, Qing, one of the leaders of the Northern Aristocracy, turned his gaze to the others and encouraged them:

“Continue to the Arena. Don’t foolishly provoke him with angry words. That way, even if you lose, you likely won’t lose your lives… Mu Lin still holds goodwill toward our Northern Aristocracy, and he understands that with the Doomsday Calamity approaching, every additional Prodigy among humanity means another hope of survival. Therefore, he won’t casually kill Prodigies on the human side.”

“Moreover, his decision to take Xue Ying’s place on the stage is likely because he is confident in his own strength, capable of easily overpowering us, achieving victory while sparing our lives.”

“…”

This analysis deepened the silence among the others, accompanied by a sense of shame.

“He truly is a hero.”

“Such a hero should not be deceived by our schemes. I…”

Before that person could finish their remorseful words, Qing said solemnly, “You must go!”

“Mu Lin is but one person, but the North has countless sons and daughters waiting for us to bring back resources. We cannot afford to lose.”

“…”

“You’re right, we cannot afford to lose… But with that Curse Art of his, what use is it for us to step onto the stage?”

Qing: “It is useful… At the very least, you can deplete his strength.”

“…I understand. Let me go. My ability is unique and should pose a challenge for him.”

The Northern Prodigies never represented only themselves. Thus, even though they held respect for Mu Lin, they still stepped onto the Arena, giving their all in an attempt to defeat him.

And the Cultivator who took the stage after Zhuang Yuan, just as he had said, indeed possessed a rather peculiar ability.

“Hum…”

As he cast his Spell, Mu Lin’s shadow behind him actually stood up.

Moreover, this shadow possessed some of Mu Lin’s traits and Spells.

“Interesting.”

Mu Lin marveled, and the Cultivator opposite him, knowing that Mu Lin was going easy on them, respectfully reminded him:

“Be careful. The shadow servant I summoned using Forbidden Power possesses half of your…”

He was warning Mu Lin, but before he could finish, Mu Lin, holding the Book of Life and Death in one hand and a brush in the other, casually wrote, altering everything.

“The shadow summoned by Cultivator Hu Guan is not fully under control. Today, his luck is poor, and the shadow he summoned harbors intense hatred toward him, directly attacking him…”

“?!?”

“Stop, halt…”

Mu Lin’s Book of Life and Death was not the true Book of Life and Death. Through mere writing, he could not make the shadow rebel instantly.

But Mu Lin possessed many abilities, and his various Cultivation Methods were integrated as one through the True Spirit Karma Diagram, enabling him to accomplish many things.

Just as now, while writing the judgment in the Book of Life and Death, Mu Lin also infused a massive amount of calamity energy and the power of Manjusaka.

The former, as Mu Lin had described, brought about the Dissolution of Hu Guan’s luck, causing misfortune to cling to him.

The rebellion of the shadow servant was one manifestation of this misfortune.

The latter, Manjusaka, relied on the power of illusion to inject a large amount of false memories into the summoned shadow.

These memories plunged the shadow into utter chaos, turning Hu Guan into an enemy to be fought to the death.

And then… Mu Lin’s shadow proceeded to give Hu Guan a thorough beating.

“Cough, cough…”

After the battle ended, Hu Guan returned to the ranks in a sorry state.

But compared to his physical condition, his expression was even more awkward.

Before stepping onto the stage, he had been brimming with confidence, believing his abilities would pose some trouble for Mu Lin.

Yet once he was on stage, his own shadow immediately rebelled and beat him up, making his actions seem utterly foolish.

“Cough, cough, I’m sorry, I…”

“Alright, don’t take it too hard. It’s not your fault—it’s just that Mu Lin is too strong.”

It was Qing who sighed and spoke these words. As he sighed, he turned to the others and said:

“Keep going. Wear down Mu Lin’s strength a bit more, force him to reveal some of his techniques, and then leave everything to the Child of Mars, Luo Chen.”

“I know this approach is somewhat underhanded, but for the sake of the hundreds of millions of people in the North, we have no other choice!”

“Yes.”

And so, the remaining members of the Northern Aristocracy continuously challenged Mu Lin, only to be judged by his brushstrokes and struck down with a single word.

As for Qing, his gaze turned to Luo Chen, the strongest among the Northern Aristocracy’s youths.

Even some young cultivators who had reached the Mortal Shedding stage held a degree of respect for Luo Chen.

Such an attitude already spoke volumes about his strength.

Looking at him, Qing calmly asked:

“Can you win?”

Hearing the question, Luo Chen withdrew his gaze from Mu Lin. Then, with a solemn yet unwavering expression, he replied firmly:

“I will win.”

(End of Chapter)