Mu Ran was standing in front of the giant earthen statue of a man with all four of his limbs missing, gazing upon its impeccable design with wonder. How could a lifeless thing exude such noble air with re appearance?
"So this was him, the colluder who betrayed the Holy Land for one mortal’s corpse," he whispered to himself.
"She was not just one mortal to him," ca another voice from Mu Ran’s own mouth. "He definitely went mad after the Holy Land let it happen. They should have foreseen the possibility. Humans like him are the easiest ones to bedevil, after all, being born that way."
Seated on the massive iron throne, the statue would have looked like a swaddled doll, had it not given off that fiery violent aura of a powerful being, only enhanced by the delicately carved heroic expression on its face.
There were two spheres whirling around its head, their orbit forming the shape of a colorful crown. Mu Ran’s gaze narrowed at the bright orbs.
The giant automaton suddenly moved a little, its entire limbless torso rising from the seat a few ters in the air and blank eyes falling directly on him.
"Little one, since you have chosen to follow the path of the most overbearing law technique. I comnd your boldness. But you need to back up your ambitious choice with your performance in this test."
The two orbs spinning around his head suddenly charged at Mu Ran faster than normal human eyes could even track. But Mu Ran managed to catch them before they hit him square in the face.
The expression of the statue seed to faintly morph into a look of ridicule.
"Weak, weak, too weak! You actually have to use your body to defend yourself from these lifeless toys? My Force Faction wouldn’t even take you in as a servant back in its heyday! But what choice do we have left now?"
Shifting from mockery to self-deprecation, the statue sighed.
"One of those orbs contains qi for you to replenish your reserves. Use the power sources you’ve collected from the second stage as fuel and try to decipher the letters in the second orb. Then create a law fragnt that you think is suitable for our path—the path of the cosmic forces!"
Mu Ran nodded obediently and sat down to absorb the qi inside the first orb. The whole process was completed very smoothly. Then he looked at the letter designs floating inside the second orb.
A strange smile appeared on his face as soon as his eyes fell on the letters. Nodding imperceptibly as if he had expected this from the beginning, he took out a shining erald power source from his pocket as well as his broken spearhead.
On the stone-laid floor of the hall, he carved long lines with the sharp tip of the spearhead. One letter, two letters, three, four, and five...
Sothing changed in the automaton’s gaze as it took in Mu Ran’s performance.
"A full circle of laws at an initiate level? Not bad! I like where this is going!"
Slowly, a massive circular formation of complex strokes took shape inside the hall. The statue of the dismbered man looked at this interesting new disciple attentively. It could perceive the confidence brimming out of Mu Ran.
"It’s done," Mu Ran announced after a few minutes.
The statue nodded in acknowledgnt and said, "Proceed with the second step. Activate the law fragnt."
But just as Mu Ran was about to establish the connection between the circle of laws and the power source in his hand, the statue suddenly interrupted him.
"Hey, wait a minute... You didn’t use the letters provided in the orb! STOP RIGHT THERE!"
Mu Ran completely ignored the statue and continued to strengthen the ntal connection between him and the power source.
It was ti to accomplish his goals for coming here.
The statue of the dismbered man let out a furious roar, and the noise itself seed to carry an explosive force far beyond what a Physique Transformation realm cultivator could even hope to stand against.
Mu Ran was not an exception to this. He was flung backward like a tossed ragdoll, bones cracking, blood trickling out of his seven orifices. If the wall at the far end of the hall had been made of anything less stalwart than stones, his body might have broken through it.
But, even as he slid down from the wall, leaving behind ghastly red streaks, the weird smile on his face didn’t recede in the slightest. If anything, the malicious intent in that smile had gotten even stronger.
The circle of laws had been activated already. And the statue had not even realized what it was going to do.
"What the hell are these letters?" The statue muttered as it floated over from its high seat at an incredible speed for sothing so massive.
"Upon activation of this law fragnt... any remnant soul outside a living body will be struck with a Soul Obliteration Lightning Tribulation—"
The automaton barely managed to decipher one of the few law fragnts that it had the ability to read, when a streak of red lightning appeared out of nowhere and silently struck it right on top of its head.
Unable to even see the attack, the automaton fell down on the ground as if its arrays had malfunctioned, appearance charred. All of its majestic aura and signs of life disappeared imdiately.
A vague ripple in the air, almost like a shadow, slowly crawled out of the statue after a long ti. It began to inch towards the unconscious body of Mu Ran.
However, the mont it ca into contact with his body, it froze and bolted in the opposite direction.
Mu Ran’s eyes, which had been closed until now, opened wide, the pupils turning into two vertical slits. With a sowhat twisted expression, he laughed out loud and spoke in a hoarse voice.
"No use. Regardless of how fast you run, little soul shard... Hehehehe."
The red glow of the law fragnt on the floor of the hall got even stronger. Just as silent as the previous one, a second streak of lightning struck the gliding shadow down.
Wiping off the blood from his face, Mu Ran stood up, but his broken bones made him crumble to the ground again. However, his crazed laughter did not fade.
"You said I needed to use my body to defend myself, didn’t you, Little Weiqing? Look, I’m not going to use my body to attack you now. Let’s see how you defend yourself!"
Sitting against the wall, Mu Ran crossed his forearms together, watching the shadowy silhouette trying to crawl away from him. A low chant ca from his mouth.
The air around him blurred as surges of wind materialized in the empty surroundings. It was a Mystic Art spell that he had practiced countless tis in the recent days, just for this mont.
"Astral Heatwave!"
Like the taut string of a bow, the surges erging from the spell blasted outward, knocking the shadow down repeatedly and weakening it further with each passing blow.
Waves upon waves, the surges from Mu Ran’s spell and the red bolts produced by the circle of laws continuously rained down on the shadowy figure. Within a few seconds, it stopped struggling.
Mu Ran managed to crawl over there, dipping himself into the dark mass of shadows. The silhouette overlapped with his own body, and the darkness seed to be sucked into his skin like visible qi.
A golden color flashed in Mu Ran’s contented eyes as he spoke in a low voice.
"Finally, I am a little more complete. No matter how many soul shards you divide yourself into, you can’t escape , Xiao Weiqing. I’ll take back what’s mine. A dragon doesn’t share."
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