Chapter 813: Chapter 537: Cursed Killing of Causality
The Toad Monster revealed a smile.
"The Way of Cause and Effect is vast and profound. If you want to kill a genius with such tight protection, you still need to rely on us."
Lord Toad’s lips curled up slightly.
"I heard the Old Mother say that she also sent her ghostly minions to assassinate Lu Chenzhou with curses, straw dolls, and blood curses, but all failed. These low-level curse techniques haven’t grasped the essence of causality—at best, they kill ordinary people. Heaven’s favored scions are protected by the world’s blessing, able to isolate misfortune and resist curses; unless a miracle happens, there’s no way she’d succeed. The Old Mother is stronger than me, but each has their expertise. As for curses, even the Witch would have to acknowledge me as master. Back in the Gods’ War, without my Great Curse Technique, those idiots couldn’t even kill a single great power from Heavenly Dragon Sect."
The Toad Monster flattered:
"Indeed, my lord, you are a primordial being born at the dawn of Chaos, wielding the Law of Causality itself. If not for that Great Upheaval—when the gods fell and order collapsed, letting the Witch and Old Mother, those late-borns, seize luck and surpass the rest—by your strength, you should have been the leader of the stars."
Lord Toad eyes glimmered with memories of ages past.
"No need to mention old matters. You focus on consolidating your realm for a while. When you’re ready, cast the curse on Lu Chenzhou. To seek a causal line, start with those close to him. Strive to eradicate him within a year."
The Toad Monster’s tongue darted out to lick his eyes.
"Rest assured, my lord! Back when I was in the Sixth Realm, I already succeeded in curse-killing a gifted Heavenly King. Now that I am in the Seventh Realm, with my mastery of the Causality Dao, even if I fail once, after a few tries I’ll definitely curse Lu Chenzhou to death!"
...
Eye of Truth.
Lord Toad opened his eyes.
His gaze was indifferent as he looked at Old Mother.
"Wait for my word. I can’t guarantee absolute success, but giving Lu Chenzhou some trouble is no big deal."
Old Mother’s eyes curved in a smile:
"If you succeed, Lord Toad, you’ll be the great hero of our Xia Realm campaign. Witch Master will treat you handsomely."
At this, Lord Toad closed his eyes and said nothing.
...
The Great Wilderness.
Tower Forbidden Zone. Earth Fire and Winds raged violently.
The kindly white-robed elder’s face appeared.
"Lord Toad has made his move."
The Fire Saint King, clad in crimson scales, opened his eyes.
"My lord, I feel we shouldn’t have awakened Lord Toad. He and the Holy Lord are both primordial beings—on the surface, they seem of average strength, but mastering the Causality Dao, they’re profoundly scheming. Seemingly loyal, but secretly, who knows what ambitions they hide."
The Witch Master laughed: "So what if they’re primordial beings? Weren’t the four kings of earth, fire, wind, and water born from the primordial as well? Yet now, you serve me with unwavering loyalty. All thirty-six Forbidden Zones outside the tower hide their own schemes—I know it all. At this turning point, I won’t nitpick. As long as someone can help restore my power, that’s all I care about."
The Earth Saint King laughed: "Since meeting the Witch Master, we brothers saw which way the wind blows. Without you, my lord, how could small fry like us survive the upheaval?"
"Yes, that Great Upheaval was terrifying. Compared to that, the Divine War here is child’s play."
"Even if I, Wind Saint King Ignis, die in this universe, I’ll never return to the Land of the Stars!"
...
In a flash, three months passed.
Nameless Planet.
The Toad Monster opened his eyes.
"My realm is stable enough. I can’t wait any longer; Lu Chenzhou is progressing too quickly. If I delay, he’ll ascend from Early to Middle Stage, and my success rate plummets."
The Toad Monster put his hand to the crystal ball.
"I haven’t had direct contact with Lu Chenzhou, so I can’t reach his causal line, but I’ve encountered his subordinate Bai Miaomiao. Using Bai Miaomiao as the medium will do."
The monster began chanting a spell.
On the crystal ball, thousands of threads danced and wavered.
His powerful spiritual force seeped in, quickly finding a relatively thick thread upon which he latched.
...
Su City.
Lamp Master Department.
The grandmasters were meeting.
During Lu Chenzhou’s seclusion, Bai Miaomiao, that peak grandmaster, was acting as secretary and presiding over the Lamp Master Department’s affairs.
Day-to-day work was the usual few things.
Resisting the Eye of Truth, hunting out moles, disciplining rampant martial arts clans lording over the city.
As Elder, Lu Chenzhou wouldn’t trouble himself with such trivial matters—he only needed to make sure Su City was safe overall.
After the meeting ended,
Zhou Ruoxue approached Bai Miaomiao.
"I’ll be entering seclusion to advance to Great Grandmaster in a few days."
"Congratulations."
"When I first came to Su City to develop, my family objected. They were afraid resources were scarce here. Never thought I’d be the first in my cohort to become Great Grandmaster."
Zhou Ruoxue was full of emotion.
Her Zhou Family was a top clan in the Shushan District, with two Heavenly Kings holding Elder Council seats.
Bai Miaomiao smiled:
"Hanging around the old guys only breeds complacency. Here, with Brother Lu as a spur, there’s no room for laziness."
Zhou Ruoxue said:
"By the way, is the injury you got on that last mission better? That demon was odd."
Bai Miaomiao revealed her lower abdomen.
Smooth and pale—no sign of injury.
"A grandmaster’s body, such minor wounds are nothing. The parliamentary healing arts team examined me too—no problem at all."
"That’s good."
Zhou Ruoxue felt at ease to go enter seclusion.
Of that group of early geniuses, Hong Tianxiang, Zhang Lingmiao, Xuankong, and Li Xuanjian had long reached Great Grandmaster. The chief disciples of major sects, like Ye Zhiqiu and Yue Xiping, though a touch inferior, also recently succeeded in Breakthrough Fifth.
She couldn’t lag far behind.
As for Brother Lu, no one even compared to him.
He—stands alone.
...
That night.
Bai Miaomiao was practicing stances.
She didn’t realize it.
Beneath her training clothes, a barely perceptible, multi-dimensional slug’s shadow slithered along her lower abdomen, radiating out countless threads.
These were her lines of causality.
One of them pointed toward the Myriad Phenomena Dao.
...
"Found it. Good—Bai Miaomiao’s connection to Lu Chenzhou is deep enough. They’ve been together so long. That clone I wasted back then wasn’t in vain."
The Toad Monster gave an ominous smile.
"If this curse succeeds, I can trade for a Demon Saint level treasure, and my ascendance to the Eight Realms is just a matter of time."
Eight Realms—how far is demigod then?
Once a demigod, if Lord Toad is in a good mood, with the gods fallen in this universe, needing new gods, maybe I could become a minor god, serving at Lord Toad’s side.
Gods, whether strong or weak, are all undying!
The Toad Monster chanted the spell, and a surging wave of spiritual force surged along the fiber-like causal thread through endless space, descending on the "relay station" Bai Miaomiao.
...
"My head feels dizzy. What’s going on?"
Bai Miaomiao frowned slightly, checking her body with Inner Vision.
No problems at all.
She peered into her spiritual world.
Her eyes changed suddenly.
Her spiritual ocean parted, and an immense slug, of indescribable length, appeared, countless threads reaching skyward around it.
The slug’s eyes were cold and merciless.
It transformed into a terrifying stream of information, burrowing into one of those threads. Its huge form instantly faded into nothingness.
Thud—
Bai Miaomiao collapsed to the ground, losing consciousness.
...
[Eye of Calamity: Fifth Layer (98%)]
[...]
Lu Chenzhou’s eyes left the Martial Arts Tree.
The Martial Arts Tree now reached 910,000 zhang tall.
Unknowingly, he had been back in the human world for two years.
"’Eye of Calamity’ is almost at the Sixth Layer. Wonder what realm Emperor Hanu is at now? At the Sixth Layer, I’ll have a chance to curse a Demon Emperor, though the odds are abysmally low—the more proficiency, the higher the chance."
"Dragon Turtle Two Forms is also at Great Success. After reaching Fifth Rank in Dao, I should be able to develop a Supreme Divine Skill level Four Symbols Fist."
"Mountain Moving Scripture and Chasing Light·Heavenly Escape progress step by step, but to advance further, I still need more fire control."
"A total of 660 apertures opened—60 more to be full. Nine Apertures Exquisite Grass is the apex of Opening Treasures. To speed up further, the key is the Tiger Form Fist."
"One hundred ninety thousand Qi-blood, one hundred ninety thousand Prajnaparamita Spiritual Power—among Middle Realm Heavenly Kings, I’m already a seasoned veteran."
Lu Chenzhou stood up.
Compared to two years ago, he had grown much stronger.
A vertical eye split open on his brow; opening his Heart Eye, he scanned Su City, then burned considerable spiritual power to use the Eye of Calamity to examine the causal threads around him.
These two years, his greatest harvest was using this curse technique as a medium to comprehend the Way of Causality.
What had once been a tangled web of fate was slowly clarifying before his eyes; he had learned the patterns.
However, his mastery of the Causality Dao was still only Third Rank. With this bit of skill, it’d be a stretch to trace the Blood Vine Demon Venerable’s causality and curse it to death—he was far from capable yet.
The Lighting Order sounded.
The Northern Guardian King’s projection appeared.
"Chenzhou, how’s your curse cultivation coming?"
"Almost at the sixth layer."
"I just asked Emperor Hanu—he’s just barely at the fifth. We may have to count on you."
"Alright, but with my level, the success rate of cursing Blood Vine Demon Emperor is very low. Don’t get your hopes up too high, Chairman."
"I know. As long as you succeed, we’ll try. If the cost is too great, just forget it. After all, Blood Vine Demon Emperor is just one—it won’t change the overall situation. But if you reach Breakthrough Seven, you could shift the whole tide."
The Northern Guardian King had high hopes for Lu Chenzhou.
Lu Chenzhou asked,
"Has Blood Vine been making trouble lately?"
"A Sixth Realm clone showed up in Mountain City Base City and killed one of our human clan’s genius grandmasters. The Mountain City Guardian King stepped in, but she still got away."
"If there’s any trace of Blood Vine, let me know. And that Mo Yun Demon Emperor—I should be able to handle him too."
"No problem. Mo Yun hasn’t appeared in years, probably plotting something big. Our analysis says he’ll likely strike next in Yun Meng District. You’d better not go into full seclusion for a while—we may need you."
"No problem."
He cut off the projection.
Lu Chenzhou surveyed Su City once over.
Then returned again to his place of seclusion.
He entered cultivation mode.
At the same time,
a slug’s phantom flickered into existence and burrowed into Lu Chenzhou’s body. He snapped his eyes open—a vague premonition of dread jolted him awake.
He opened the Eye of Calamity and scanned his surroundings.
In the void, a thread of causality thrummed like a plucked zither string, with faint traces of slime adhering.
This slime radiated Causality Dao Essence.
But—it wasn’t his own.
The Dao Essence’s level was far higher than his.
"Something just attacked me."
"A curse?"
Lu Chenzhou’s eyes grew contemplative.
He rose and flew along the causal thread.
...
At the same time,
Nameless Planet.
"Well? Did it succeed?"
Lord Toad’s projection appeared. His eyes narrowed.
In a ring-shaped pit, the Toad Monster was convulsing on the ground.