Chapter 496 - The Great Asura
There was nothing there but with Ming Luo"s shocking intuition, he felt that there was something there.
The reason why he only diverted his attention towards the banyan tree after Xin Lie had entered the tomb was that he was ordered by the emperor to imprison Xin Lie into the Xia tomb.
No matter how great the heaven and earth were, the greatness would not be any greater than Emperor Xia"s. To Ming Luo, his life was not as important as completing the tasks given by the emperor.
People had always said that he was Emperor Xia"s most loyal dog. Ming Luo had never reb.u.t.ted because even he himself thought so.
It was extremely difficult for a true powerhouse to submit to anyone. They only believed in themselves and thought that they could not be defeated by anything. Nonetheless, when it came to Ming Luo, it seemed that it was unsuitable.
He was a true powerhouse and he also was a loyal dog that completely surrendered himself to Emperor Xia.
Ming Luo was a straightforward person. He would not be unnecessarily suspicious unless he felt that there was a problem. Thus, he pulled out his sword, the sword which was tainted by demonic characteristics.
These demonic characteristics were born from the blood-red Asura Sea, and it was developed after it went crusading in this world. This sword could destroy anything.
When a sword develops demonic characteristics, it would influence its master or have its master to transform into a sword slave.
The Blood Dissipating Sword of the former years was as so. As for this demonic blade that had gotten the true meaning of the Blood Dissipating Sword, it should have been so too but Ming Luo was not enslaved by the demonic characteristics of the sword. This was because he only had one master and that was Emperor Xia. Even the sword was Emperor Xia"s slave.
Shen Lian was under the banyan tree. He could clearly sense the demonic characteristics of Ming Luo"s sword. In the morning, he only had a brief glimpse and did not have an impressionable experience with Ming Luo"s sword.
He could feel the true meaning of the Blood Dissipating Sword from Ming Luo"s sword. That was a demonic sword that had absorbed the essence of many living beings for its own use.
Not only was Ming Luo"s sword more powerful than the Blood Dissipating Sword that Shen Lian had encountered by a thousand times, its true demonic characteristics had already been adopted.
However, Shen Lian was also far from being the Shen Lian back then. Even if the demonic sword had its own demonic characteristics, it was still only at the level of the land immortals and Arhat in which Shen Lian had already surpa.s.sed this level.
Even since the beginning of time till now, there had been countless cultivators. Those who could truly cultivate till the current state where Shen Lian was were countable, which was why Shen Lian could thoroughly see-through Ming Luo"s demonic sword but Ming Luo could only have a subtle feeling. He could not see Shen Lian at all.
Forgot about the banyan tree that was blocking him, if Shen Lian was willing to imitate Yanxu"s Sky Demon Method, Ming Luo would also not be able to see him even if he were to walk to the front of Ming Luo.
This was the state of non-being. All reality was a phantom, and all phantoms were real 1 . Shen Lian had entered the path of phantom and reality. It was the domain of the state of heavenly immortal. It was the state of Bodhisattva.
Ming Luo pulled out his sword. It was not the same tempered sword method from this morning where its destructive power was shocking. This sword was like the spring breeze blowing, rippling through a pond of clear water.
The s.p.a.ce of the Netherworld was very stable. If it was the world where the Qing Xuan Daoist Sect was, the s.p.a.ce would be like window paper and if that was so, the Netherworld would be like an impregnable fortress. It was extremely hard to be shaken.
Contrary to what was expected, this light flick of his sword by Ming Luo caused the s.p.a.ce to ripple like a pond of clear water.
This sword movement was very elegant and it was as natural as the blowing wind.
The wind started small. Once it took its shape, it could turn into a hurricane that could destroy everything.
When the demonic sword reached the bottom of the banyan tree, it then underwent an intriguing transformation. From a small wind, it transformed into a devastating storm in an instant. This banyan tree that was probably more than a few thousand years old was about to come face to face with the calamity of being annihilated.
However, when Ming Luo"s sword produced the storm, a mysterious force came in like the tides and covered the s.p.a.ce within a few miles radially. The sword that went ahead boldly suddenly began to revert, as though time was ticking backward. Ming Luo sheathed the demonic sword just as how he always pulled out his sword.
Only his thought had experienced everything that had happened before this. He was positive that he had indeed pulled out his sword but there was a force, which could juggle with the true and false senses of the heart and soul, had reset everything.
A young man in white, whose face was unclear, walked from the bridge. Not only did he walked over, the entire world behind him came pressing towards him. A blurred haze multiplied in the s.p.a.ce and very quickly, it drowned Ming Luo.
He was definitely someone who would not be bewitched by illusions. However, this illusionary world that was built by the power of the heart and soul not only consisted of the incoming person"s world, it also consisted of his.
This was like that idiom, "It was not the wine that intoxicates but the drinker who had gotten himself drunk" 2 .
"Celestial." Ming Luo squinted, as though he was working hard to see through the light mist and to see the person who was hiding behind the mist clearly.
The sound of rus.h.i.+ng water beneath the bridge did not stop but the image now was as though nothing had changed. The sergeants behind Ming Luo were like people who were drawn out. They had lost signs of living and intelligence.
Only Shen Lian and Ming Luo could surpa.s.s this world.
Which was why Ming Luo was still able to talk, but he could only talk.
However, Ming Luo was still very calm when he came face to face with this kind of matter. The demonic sword that he was holding also seemed very calm.
This was a powerhouse that had experience life and death and was not afraid of the terrors of it.
When a person was not afraid of life and death, it was hard to have matters in this world that could cause fear in him.
"Your sword is very unique. I once encountered a similar sword but its mightiness was nowhere close to yours." Shen Lian said leisurely. To him, the Blood Dissipating Sword was already something that happened ten years ago, but he had a profound impression of it.
The reasons behind that were because of Yanxu and also due to the malignant nature in the cultivation of the Blood Dissipating Sword.
"I understand. You have seen someone cultivating the Blood Dissipating Sword before," Ming Luo said quietly.
"Yes, I wish to know where you have trained your sword," Shen Lian asked lightly as he clasped his hands behind his back.
Ming Luo uttered one word at a time, "Blood-red Asura Sea."
Sword gleams came from both his eyes. They moved forward as though wanted to grind open the mist that caged around Shen Lian"s body. However, it was a futile movement.
The mist around Shen Lian was plainer than a spring"s dream yet it was very stable. This immobility gave Ming Luo the feeling that it was as though he could not stop the sun from rising from the east and setting at the west.
Shen Lian nodded. Suddenly, the white robes he was clad in turned to blood red, as though he was in the mountains filled with corpses and sea filled with blood. A monstrous killing aura permeated, not only did it minced Ming Luo"s sword gleams, it even caused him to stagger a few steps backward before he could stand properly."
"Avici, Yuantu. You are one of the Asura Clan." Ming Luo was exceptionally surprised. He had finally unmistakably confirmed Shen Lian"s background. He wanted to return to Xia Palace immediately and report everything that he had encountered to Emperor Xia.
The blood-red Asura Sea was the most mysterious place in the Netherworld. The birth of it could even be on par with Xia Clan"s ancestors and could be traced back to when the cosmos was opened.
During that time, there was still no Netherworld and there were not even the Six Realms of Samsara.
The Asura Clan was born from the Asura Blood Sea and had lived through countless years. Ultimately, they were not annihilated.
However, before Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva left the Netherworld, he once entered the deep corners of the blood-red Asura Sea and vanquished all of the Great Asuras. That had caused the Asura Clan to almost not be able to recover from the setback. Until now, there had only been one Great Asura that had appeared before. Shen Lian was definitely not that Great Asura. That was why this matter would mean that the apex power of the Asura Clan could rival the Xia Kingdom.
This was not a good matter. After all, the Asura Clan was the same as the Xia Clan. They had powerful bloodline powers and they were many of them. 色即是空,空即是色 - Means everything in this world in non-being, be it something that is visible or invisible. If one can truly understand the meaning of this, even the non-being can be anything and everything in this world. 酒不醉人人自醉 - Means that what happened to a person was not due to the object or matter that he is dealing with but it was because of the lack of self-control.