Chapter 372
Chapter 372
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Translator: Ace
Chapter:
Chapter Title: Targeted by the Heavens
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“Illumination!”
The clear light of the spell landed on Lu Yang’s body, instantly clearing his nearly comatose mind.
“Preserve stillness, attain utmost purity and void.”
【Sword Heart Illumination】!
The second realm of the sword path corresponded to a Foundation Establishment True Person. Compared to other cultivators, it was akin to possessing an extra innate divine ability—and in this moment, it proved crucial.
Of course, that alone wasn’t enough.
What mattered more was—
“Purple Talent: Got Some Moves!”
【Got Some Moves: No matter how terrifying the attack, as long as it’s within the limits of your ability, you can handle two moves with effortless flair.】
This talent, bestowed by the Book of a Hundred Lives, didn’t even require active triggering. It activated automatically whenever Lu Yang faced an assault he couldn’t normally block yet had the theoretical capacity to withstand, allowing him to counter with casual mastery.
Right now, it kicked in.
Lu Yang had only just refined 【Sword Heart Illumination】. The odds of him sensing the peril in that dire situation were perhaps one in ten thousand, one in a hundred thousand.
But 【Got Some Moves】 turned it into a certainty!
Seizing that fleeting breather, Lu Yang reacted with lightning speed. As the wonders of 【Illumination】 enveloped him, he swiftly invoked another divine ability.
“【Trapping Intent】!”
His consciousness linked to his sword path avatar. The 【Minghe Eternal World Upholding Righteousness Grasping Gold Sword】 in its grasp erupted in brilliant light, followed by a crisp crack.
In his earlier clash with Long Yue, Lu Yang had deployed 【Trapping Intent】 from the outset! The entire sacred mountain of the Ten Thousand Poison Cult lay within its domain, and he hadn’t yet recalled it. Now, urged into action, it immediately turned the tide, dissolving all不利 circumstances into nothingness.
Crack!
The next instant, the world before Lu Yang’s eyes shattered.
But to his faint dismay, the reality of his true body stepping into the pool remained unchanged.
He was still in the Moon-Worshipping Sacred Pool.
He had merely reverted to the moment of entry—mind clear, the eerie drowsiness yet to descend.
Yet the crisis persisted!
If anything, it struck even faster!
The drowsiness hit harder and quicker than before. Melodious murmurs echoed in his ears, as if expounding the profound truths of the heavenly dao.
This time, though, Lu Yang was ready.
With a thought, he sealed his six senses. Under the boost of 【Sword Heart Illumination】, time nearly froze in his perception, allowing him to sit serenely within his inner self.
This was another marvel of 【Sword Heart Illumination】: entry into a realm existing solely for his consciousness. Eons could pass there while mere instants elapsed outside. In moments of peril, he could retreat here to ponder solutions, then emerge to face the world with composure.
“What in the world is happening?”
Lu Yang’s eyes blazed with sharp light. Though ensnared in crisis, his mind grew ever calmer. His divine intent, sword-like, severed all negative emotions.
“Who’s scheming against me—【Soaring Empyrean】?”
He began replaying every event since his rebirth, hunting for inconsistencies.
“Have things been... too smooth for me lately?”
When fortune aligned, all heaven and earth conspired in his favor. Every peril turned to triumph. After his reincarnation into the Sword Pavilion, success followed success without a single hitch.
The result? His old caution felt like a joke.
Faced with an enigmatic 【Moon-Worshipping Sacred Pool】 of unknown depths, he hadn’t scouted it thoroughly. Instead, he’d plunged his true body in without a second thought!
Was that really him? No—it wasn’t!
“This place is a heaven-nurtured treasure, and I bear the body of an immortal spirit.”
A realization dawned naturally: “...The heavens want me dead?”
Why? Weren’t immortal spirits the heavens’ beloved children?
“Wait... I remember now.”
In that instant, suspecting “the heavens” was like finding the key to a long-sealed gate.
Had he suspected them before?
He had!
Back in the Ten Thousand Men Pit, searching for 【Shen Jin】—when it coincidentally fell into his hands, suspicion had stirred!
And then?
‘Nothing. Everything after the Ten Thousand Men Pit—the Xuan Ling Realm and beyond—naturally pushed it from my mind!’
Anything else?
‘There was... Hong Yun!’
Ten years prior, he’d defied a Golden Core True Lord, refining Hong Yun’s golden essence with the Book of a Hundred Lives and claiming the fruits of his endless years of cultivation.
An immense fortune!
Yet in practice?
‘I barely touched it. I treated Hong Yun’s golden essence as mere casing. The Book’s settlements? I scarcely glanced at them.’
The thought sent Lu Yang plunging into an icy abyss, sweat beading coldly:
‘Of course. Hong Yun was like me—blessed by the heavens, even closer to them than I. But he abandoned this world in the end. Some of his memories... the heavens don’t want me to see!’
A 【Knowledge Barrier】!
‘【Soaring Empyrean】 acting against me in secret? No—not him. If it were, I couldn’t have slain Hong Yun or claimed his golden essence.’
Then why?
Both incidents unfolded while he dealt with 【Soaring Empyrean】. It felt more like the influence of 【Great Forest Wood】 itself.
‘So the heavens can invoke the power of positions too?’
‘True Lords aren’t the true masters of heavenly positions!?’
This realization eased Lu Yang’s tension somewhat: ‘No... the heavens must have limits. They can’t strike at me freely.’
Perhaps the Dao Lord’s presence restrained them—tigers and wolves circling. Whatever the case, even if the heavens sought his demise, they needed elaborate traps.
The bad news: he was already ensnared.
‘Wait... still off. Even if targeting me, why so soon? My immortal spirit body isn’t perfected yet.’
He still lacked the final 【You Jin】.
Lu Yang could force-evolve a 【You Jin】 divine ability via 【Upholding the Dharma】, but a facsimile was just that—fake. He hadn’t truly obtained 【You Jin】.
His immortal spirit form remained incomplete.
‘Even if the heavens plot against me, they should wait. Let me claim 【You Jin】, achieve perfection—then strike.’
By now, Lu Yang grasped their scheme.
In plain terms, he’d farmed steadily through the game. Full level, full gear, ready to dominate—only for the heavens to say, “Hand over the mouse.”
‘Vicious bastards!’
They were stealing his hard-won victory!
But again—too soon. He hadn’t secured 【You Jin】. Or was there some reason forcing their hand early?
Just then—
Boom!
A thunderous roar shattered his thoughts, forcibly ejecting him from 【Sword Heart Illumination】. Time resumed its flow.
The crushing drowsiness surged once more.
Yet Lu Yang handled the heavens’ mental assault with ease via 【Calamity Wave】 and 【Sword Heart Illumination】.
【Got Some Moves】!
One earlier—now the second.
The next instant, he reactivated 【Trapping Intent】’s marvels. Reality warped, unfavorable elements erased, restoring him to clarity.
This time, the murmurs in his ears shifted.
No longer mere whispers—they wove in visions. Amid boundless Buddha light gleamed a compassionate golden-bodied Buddha.
He rode a six-tusked white elephant, its mouth cradling a white lotus. Coiled in serene meditation, he formed the demon-quelling mudra. Prajna radiance banished all worldly greed and defilement, like a flawless sun blazing in endless clear skies—ten thousand zhang of light, nearly blinding Lu Yang on the spot.
But in the next breath, the visions dissolved.
No golden body. No Buddha statue.
Only a young monk, hands pressed in prayer, beaming with boundless compassion. The familiar face sparked sudden clarity in Lu Yang’s eyes.
‘Guang Ming.’
Why the heavens’ haste?
Because Guang Ming had arrived!
More precisely—the 【Buddha’s Heir】. And what was a Pure Land Buddha’s Heir? The World Honored One’s mouthpiece, plain and simple!