Chapter 1400: Removing the Fuel from the Cauldron, Severing the Divine Soul; One Word Shocks the Emperor and the Eight Venerables Understand

“Ignoring me?”

Shengdi Qilin’s deep blue eyes flickered intensely.

The divine soul of Bei Huai, residing within it, was momentarily plunged into shock and doubt.

He had only intended to mock, but that didn't mean he would underestimate Shen Yi.

After all, as fellow members of the Ten Venerables, Bei Huai knew the extent of Shen Yi’s abilities.

But…

“Setting aside Shen Yi, even if he died under the power of the Five Elements and Five Symbols, it was just an avatar.”

“Why is Xu Xiao Shou so confident?”

From their conversation, it was clear that Xu Xiao Shou had never encountered the complete Ancient Martial Six Paths before.

And even for Shen Yi, one of the Ten Venerables, mastering the Six Paths required immense time and effort—he was still considered the foremost expert in ancient martial arts in the current world.

Based on his trust in the Ten Venerables, Bei Huai simply couldn’t believe that Xu Xiao Shou could comprehend the Human Path just by glancing at it.

The prerequisites for ancient martial arts were unimaginably high for ordinary people!

Let alone something as profound as the Six Paths?

Shen Yi didn’t pause for long, giving Bei Huai little time to ponder.

After understanding Xu Xiao Shou’s learning and digestion progress, he didn’t even question whether it was real or fake—he trusted it unconditionally.

“Gui Men Guan!”

With a turn and a shout, sinister energies gathered in the nine heavens, distorting space and time.

A massive, gray-black, eerie, and ancient gate descended from the sky, slamming down heavily between Shengdi Qilin and Shen Yi.

“It’s here…”

Seeing the main event arrive, Xu Xiao Shou’s foot disk transformed from the Body Path Disk into the Spirit Path Disk.

He examined the enormous Gui Men Guan closely, feeling a new sense of awe.

This thing was like a barrier between yin and yang, a gateway to hell—humans entered through it, and ghosts exited from it.

Shen Yi’s speech quickened, knowing he didn’t have much time, so he quickly laid out the prerequisites for opening the Hungry Ghost Path, one of the Six Paths:

“To open the Hungry Ghost Path, you must first summon Gui Men Guan.”

“To summon Gui Men Guan, you need to sign a soul contract, linking your own soul to the underworld, thereby opening the gate for the interchange of spirit and flesh.”

Xu Xiao Shou was slightly taken aback. “How do you sign a soul contract?”

“Ancient records say: Find the gate to hell, encounter underworld messengers, fight your way into the Yin Cao Underworld… Anything goes, as long as you find the ‘key’ in the human world that leads to the underworld, follow the trail, and use the small to grasp the large—signing a soul contract is straightforward.”

Xu Xiao Shou still felt a bit confused.

The problem was, he was in the yang world and never dealt with such things. And the underworld—did it even exist?

“What about you? How did you sign it?” he asked hurriedly.

“Sudden enlightenment.” Shen Yi didn’t even turn his head. “One day, I had a sudden realization that the soul could leave the body, and I naturally understood the ghost techniques of the Six Paths.”

Xu Xiao Shou silently cursed the sneaky bastard.

This was practically leaving no way out for ordinary people.

Something that required sudden enlightenment, plus the soul leaving the body—what were the odds of that happening? It might take until the Year of the Monkey and the Month of the Horse!

“Isn’t there a more practical method? Your sudden enlightenment approach is way too vague…”

“I already mentioned three methods.”

“But none of those three are any less vague, or I wouldn’t be asking how you enlightened!” Xu Xiao Shou was so anxious he felt like punching someone.

Shen Yi seemed momentarily stunned.

But soon, he nodded slightly.

“There is one!”

“What method?”

“Master the Hell Path, and you can open the gate to hell, summon Gui Men Guan—it’s as easy as reaching into a bag.”

Xu Xiao Shou had a bad premonition. “Then, how do you master the Hell Path?”

“By mastering the Hungry Ghost Path.”

Xu Xiao Shou was completely stunned.

He couldn’t tell if Shen Yi was joking in this serious moment or answering seriously.

Wasn’t this just a vicious cycle?

But this time, Shen Yi turned his head, his expression completely matter-of-fact, as if saying, “Why are we even debating such a simple entry issue?”

Without any warning…

Shen Yi snatched the soul sacred medicine from his hand, swallowed it, and leaped into Gui Men Guan.

At the same time, a thunderous voice echoed in Xu Xiao Shou’s mind:

“The spirit and flesh are illusory and real.”

“A single human thought arises from the soul and can control the flesh…”

“A single human thought, if residing in the flesh, then controls the soul…”

“This is the path of illusory and real transformation!”

Xu Xiao Shou stood on the Spirit Path Disk, not daring to delay, entering a state of unity with heaven and humanity.

This talk of spirit and flesh being illusory and real seemed quite promising, a bit like what Si Ren Mister had taught him about the Hongmei Three Streams Falling Petals Realm.

But that sword technique converted the world of intent and the real world between illusory and real.

The Hungry Ghost Path, however, dealt with flesh and soul?

How exactly did that conversion work?

As his thoughts reached this point, behind the massive gate, the human Shen Yi disappeared, and hungry ghosts surged out, their size rivaling that of Shengdi Qilin.

In his mind, the rolling thunderous voice continued without pause:

“Ancient martial arts cultivate the body, yet not just the body.”

“What is cultivated as real is called flesh; what echoes the void is called spirit.”

“Spirit and flesh, illusory and real, transform with a single thought; when the void is full, the real becomes hidden.”

What was this?

It was way too complicated!

Xu Xiao Shou didn’t understand a word, but the voice in his mind didn’t stop, so he forced himself to absorb and memorize it:

“The Hungry Ghost Path devours all spirits and swallows all laws.”

“All spiritual laws are empty; digest the three thousand, gain substantial reality, leaving only reversal.”

“Beneath Gui Men Guan, illusory and real are inverted, allowing passage between yin and yang, reversing spirit and flesh.”

One line after another.

These obscure and difficult mantras were even more headache-inducing than nested Tianji Spirit Arrays, all crammed into Xu Xiao Shou’s mind at once.

Standing on the Spirit Path Disk, Xu Xiao Shou quickly tried to absorb and digest them, but to no avail.

Until he saw Shen Yi, transformed into a hungry ghost, emerging from Gui Men Guan, with waves of light rippling over his body and Dao rhythms forming naturally.

This profound sight matched perfectly with the mantras of the Hungry Ghost Path from the Ancient Martial Six Paths in his mind.

At that moment, Xu Xiao Shou had a flash of insight:

“In the Six Paths, the Hungry Ghost Path doesn’t define ancient martial arts as cultivating the body, but cultivating the ‘illusory’ and the ‘real’…”

“The soul is ‘illusory,’ the flesh is ‘real’…”

“And the Hungry Ghost Path can devour not just souls, but anything considered ‘illusory’—spirit, Dao, energy, intent, laws…”

“‘Illusory’ things don’t truly exist; they’re born in opposition to ‘real,’ so they naturally have no limits or supreme concepts.”

“When ‘illusory’ becomes full or nearly full, if you can harness that power, it would be incredibly terrifying…”

Xu Xiao Shou’s pupils trembled as his thoughts exploded, moved by this ancient martial philosophy, and he continued to deduce:

“Ancient martial artists use the Hungry Ghost Path to temporarily store thoughts originally in the soul within the body; then, through Gui Men Guan, reverse the ‘illusory’ soul into ‘real’—thus switching to a soul form, becoming a hungry ghost.”

“Not only that, correspondingly, the originally ‘real’ flesh becomes ‘illusory’—allowing the ancient martial true body to receive that vast, limitless, craziest and most hunger-inducing energy!”

“This power is something no one can borrow or bear, so using it will cause massive vital energy loss for ancient martial artists, requiring sacred medicine to replenish.”

“But precisely because of this power, in the ‘illusory’ state, it strengthens the ancient martial artist’s flesh, which in turn stimulates the ‘real’ state of the hungry ghost, providing the most primal and insane amplification.”

“It’s still amplifying the divine soul, enhancing every aspect of the divine soul path…”

“No wonder! No wonder Shen Yi’s Hungry Ghost Path can fight Bei Huai!”

Xu Xiao Shou slapped his forehead, feeling that all the previously incomprehensible points were now merging seamlessly.

“I’ve got it!”

“I’ve enlightened again!”

This ancient martial philosophy was outrageously unconventional.

If Xu Xiao Shou had to figure it out alone, who knows how long it would take, or even where to start.

But now…

With Shen Yi’s obscure mantras, plus the Spirit Path Disk and unity with heaven and humanity boosting his comprehension almost limitlessly…

And having the experience of illusory-real conversion from the Hongmei Three Streams before…

It was like a sudden awakening, achieving enlightenment in an instant!

He clenched his fist tightly, his face flushed with uncontainable excitement.

“The Six Paths—I’ve mastered two of them!”

His thoughts suddenly halted as Xu Xiao Shou realized a very serious problem.

“Wait, how do I summon Gui Men Guan again?”

This was unbearable!

Xu Xiao Shou suddenly felt suffocated.

It was like discovering a great treasure in his body—if he just opened that door, he could become the… uh, Hungry Ghost King.

But the key…

Damn it, there was none!

“Sign a soul contract?”

“This damn thing is just sudden enlightenment, soul leaving the body—you might as well tell me how to sign it!”

“The Hungry Ghost Path…”

On Gong Yang Mountain, Shengdi Qilin watched as the power of the White Tiger Metal Element pierced through the hungry ghost form of Shen Yi’s avatar.

That sense of powerlessness was just like when Shen Yi’s Human Path punch couldn’t hit Bei Huai’s divine soul body earlier.

Yin and yang were separated!

But…

Bei Huai had seen a similar trick once before.

Shen Yi’s punch had worked once, tearing apart one of his divine soul bodies and leaving only a trace of remnant soul…

Could it really succeed a second time?

“Foolish brute.”

“Always throwing punches without thinking… Don’t you know your divine soul is overheating!”

Shengdi Qilin’s eyes held a mocking glint as it chuckled softly, its four shackled limbs clanking.

Before the hungry ghost that leaped from Gui Men Guan could get close, a surge of Five Elements power exploded from Bei Huai.

This power cycled and generated, finally converging into pure Shengdi divine soul energy.

It precisely locked onto the divine soul fluctuations of Shen Yi’s avatar at that moment, instantly expanding and probing across the five domains.

In an instant, Shengdi Qilin’s eyes changed.

“Not in Si Fu Tu City?”

“Actually in…”

Bei Huai was somewhat surprised.

He discovered that Shen Yi’s divine soul fluctuations were linked to his true body—not far away, right in front of him, in the Ran Ming ruins of the Si Xiang Secret Realm!

“Heaven is helping me.”

Si Fu Tu City still had law restrictions.

But the Ran Ming ruins only had the lingering will of the Zhan Shen Officer.

In search of an inheritor, the Ran Ming will embraced all things and even proclaimed to the world for someone, so it wouldn’t mind the intervention of Shengdi power much.

“Just a trace of power, and he’ll crumble!”

Shengdi Qilin moved.

It ignored the oncoming hungry ghost.

It manifested a divine soul hand, trying to sever the connection between Shen Yi’s true body and this avatar.

Once that bond was cut…

This hungry ghost, not even a half-sacred intent avatar, would turn into rootless duckweed and dissipate on its own, right?

Bei Huai smiled silently.

Earlier, as just a Shengdi intent avatar, he hadn’t dared to use this method to track Shen Yi’s true body.

He believed that if the other side sensed it slightly and counterattacked, he would be done for.

But now, with the Ran Ming ruins’ restrictions in place and Shengdi Qilin’s power supporting him, even if only a trace of regret remained, and Shen Yi’s true body could trace back to him, he could still hold his ground.

Moreover, Bei Huai never intended to engage in a direct, exhausting confrontation.

There were many ways to eliminate Shen Yi.

Severing the connection was the easiest—why not?

“Buzz!”

The void shook namelessly.

When the hungry ghost reached Shengdi Qilin, the deep blue eyes didn’t even flicker, let alone dodge.

Gui Men Guan vanished abruptly.

The ferocious hungry ghost’s movements stalled, its eyes losing their luster.

“Ah…”

Xu Xiao Shou was concentrating on the Spirit Path Disk, sensing the Hungry Ghost Path, when he suddenly froze.

He was still pondering how to sign the soul contract and summon Gui Men Guan…

And now, Gui Men Guan was gone?

“Shua.”

The hungry ghost’s figure flickered in mid-air.

Suddenly, the divine soul power around it dispersed, the hungry ghost form vanished, and the illusory light-headed Shen Yi appeared.

“An illusion?”

Shengdi Qilin spoke in human tongue, with a hint of surprise.

Bei Huai had seen an illusion once before, but he still couldn’t quite believe that what had pressured him so much was just an illusion—Shen Yi couldn’t disguise it this time.

The illusion from the Refining Spirit Path could actually combine with the Ancient Martial Six Paths like this—it was truly ingenious!

“This guy…”

On the Spirit Path Disk, Xu Xiao Shou glanced back and suddenly realized what Bei Huai had done to make Shen Yi’s Hungry Ghost Path fail.

Bei Huai had been waiting for this Hungry Ghost Path all along!

The moment Shen Yi’s illusion divine soul fluctuations appeared, he chose to pull the rug out from under it!

With the obstacle finally gone, Shengdi Qilin lowered its gaze to the empty space in front of it, looking at Xu Xiao Shou like a lamb without its fence.

As for the little white cat that the lamb was protecting…

It was within easy reach!

“Your divine soul is boiling.”

As this mocking voice drifted down from the sky, Xu Xiao Shou jolted, reining in all his emotions.

The divine soul path was impossible to guard against!

“Meow…”

The Greedy God lay on its master’s head, letting out a weak mew.

With its intelligence, it had long seen that this massive one-horned monster’s target was itself.

And its master was its last line of defense!

“Meow?”

The Greedy God hadn’t thought much when it felt itself lifted into the air, grabbed by its master.

“You want it?”

Xu Xiao Shou held the little white cat, grinning.

“Meow!”

The Greedy God’s fur stood on end.

What about the promised protection?

How was it being sold out now?

Shengdi Qilin’s eyes remained calm, saying nothing, just watching the weak ant below with indifference.

Human nature was always like this.

After futile resistance, when one realized they were powerless, they would naturally submit.

But this time…

“Xu Xiao Shou, you won’t get another chance.” The Qilin spoke in human tongue, its killing intent sharp.

“What chance or no chance? Did I ever say I’d hand over the Greedy God to you? Even Shengdi has dreams and farts?” Xu Xiao Shou burst into laughter, stuffing the Greedy God into his chest.

The Qilin was stunned.

Then, it saw the weak ant below suddenly reach back and pull out something…

A communication bead?

Facing death, a communication bead?

At this critical moment, was he hoping to call someone to turn the tide?

“Give me a chance?”

Xu Xiao Shou held the communication bead, surprised that Shengdi Qilin was waiting.

He had thought he might need to use the Shi Zu Shadow Staff to smash this one-horned Qilin hard.

Shengdi Qilin shifted its four claws but quickly stopped, parting its lips:

“Say your piece.”

Say his last words…

Now you’re being generous…

Xu Xiao Shou chuckled involuntarily, but he met the deep blue eyes of Shengdi Qilin without fear:

“Remember this moment.”

“If we meet again, I’ll make sure your true body, Bei Huai, has the same ‘time to say your piece.’”

But right now, it wasn’t about last words.

Xu Xiao Shou activated the connection.

After all, it was Shengdi Bei Huai, and there was no one left to guard him.

He just wanted to know, before this final counterattack, if there were still people standing behind him.

If so, why hadn’t they shown up!

“Du…”

The communication bead connected.

It connected quickly, as if the other side had been waiting, and a raspy voice, half-laughing, half-mocking, came through:

“Oh? Is that Lord Shou?”

High in the sky, Shengdi Qilin’s eyes narrowed sharply upon hearing the voice, and the energy of heaven and earth froze.

It instinctively wanted to pounce down and eliminate all threats.

But it stopped in time, returning to a state of calm control.

Even after decades, Bei Huai remembered whose voice that was…

“Ba Zun An?”