Chapter 138: The Mantis Stalks the Cicada (Two-in-One)

To figure out what the "Sutra of Reincarnation" is all about, I need to find Wu Xuanwei!

With this in mind, Tang Mubai could not be bothered to waste any more words on the bald youth and killed him with a single palm strike.

[Vitality +65]

Bang!

Another strike of his palm created a large pit in the ground. He kicked the bald youth’s corpse into it, condensed his internal energy (Gang Qi), and swept the surrounding soil over the body with a gust of palm force, concealing the corpse and clearing the scene.

Once he was certain no traces remained, Tang Mubai utilized his light-foot kung fu, soared into the sky, and returned to Red Leaf City.

Tang Mubai had been to Wu Xuanwei’s Xuanwei Martial Arts Hall before. The location was very close to the Miraculous Mercenary Group’s base, separated by only two streets. Just last year, the hall had been challenged by an outsider, creating quite a stir. Tang Mubai had gone over at that time just to watch the excitement.

Last time, he had arrived at the front door, but this time, he took the aerial route. Arriving in the air above the Xuanwei Martial Arts Hall, he surveyed the area from above and landed in the dense canopy of a large tree in the backyard. He then sharpened his hearing, listening intently to the movements in every corner of the hall.

It was already past eleven o'clock at night, and other areas of the hall were quiet. Only in the living quarters were there sounds coming from a few rooms. Tang Mubai listened for a while and discovered that the people speaking in the rooms were not Wu Xuanwei, but his apprentices.

Wu Xuanwei himself seemed to be practicing, located in a separate room, his breathing rhythm extremely frequent. Just as Tang Mubai was contemplating whether to break in directly, a series of sounds of wind being torn apart suddenly came from behind him.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Four black shadows, like ghosts, flipped over the wall and landed in the backyard. A moment later, the four figures touched the ground with their toes and silently crept into the living quarters.

Soon, screams, the sounds of fighting, and Wu Xuanwei’s angry roars erupted from the living area.

Tang Mubai watched the whole process, his mouth twitching. It turned out there were others who had set their sights on Wu Xuanwei!

In just a short while, several of Wu Xuanwei’s apprentices had been killed. Only Wu Xuanwei remained, roaring in rage. Fighting one against four, he battled from the living area to the practice area, then to the parking area, and finally, back to the backyard. Surrounded by the four figures, he suffered several stab wounds, his left leg slashed to the bone, and he collapsed to the ground, unable to move any further.

Tang Mubai observed closely; Wu Xuanwei’s condensed Gang Qi was not very stable when released externally. It was likely he had only just broken through to the Master level and had not yet fully mastered the control of his energy. Even so, he had managed to hold off the siege of three Grade Nine professionals and one Master-level fighter. Although he lost in the end, his combat prowess earned Tang Mubai’s admiration. This Hall Master Wu was quite impressive. Had there been only one black-clad figure, given Wu Xuanwei’s strength, he might have already killed that Master-level guy!

The four figures who had infiltrated the Xuanwei Martial Arts Hall were all dressed in black with hoods, obscuring their faces, and they held strange, star-shaped weapons.

Severely wounded and collapsed on the ground, Wu Xuanwei knew he could not escape. He simply lay there, grinning bitterly, "So what if you kill me? The 'Sutra of Reincarnation' is not in my hands at all."

"Sutra of Reincarnation"?

Tang Mubai’s heart stirred, and he subconsciously gripped the tree branch he was holding.

Crack!

The branch made a splintering sound.

In the backyard, the four men in black surrounding Wu Xuanwei stopped. The leader, who was capable of releasing Gang Qi, twitched his ears and shouted in a low voice, "Who’s there?"

As he spoke, he flicked his hand, and a star-shaped throwing dart flew like lightning toward the place where Tang Mubai was hiding.

Tang Mubai dodged sideways, stopped hiding, and dropped lightly from the tree.

"Hahaha, cough, cough... I didn't expect anyone else to get involved." Seeing this, Wu Xuanwei coughed up blood and said excitedly, "Good, good, wonderful! You people wiped out an entire family just to get the 'Sutra of Reincarnation,' and now another one has appeared here. What are you standing around for? Go kill him!"

"He must have heard the commotion and what I just said. If you don't want the secret of the 'Sutra of Reincarnation' to spread, kill him! Quick, kill him!" By the end of his shouting, Wu Xuanwei’s face was flushed, the veins on his neck were bulging, and his eyes were bloodshot. His murderous look suggested he harbored a grudge against Tang Mubai as deep as a blood feud.

"Shut up."

The lead black-clad man cast a cold glance at Wu Xuanwei, then swept his gaze toward Tang Mubai and said indifferently, "Kill him."

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The other three black-clad men immediately launched an attack, charging toward Tang Mubai with their strange weapons. They had killed far too many people who looked like teenagers with mediocre auras!

"Tsk."

Tang Mubai shook his head. These people were too unscrupulous, killing at the slightest disagreement.

Hum~

The air suddenly trembled.

A terrifying pressure descended from the sky, enveloping everyone, including Wu Xuanwei, and forcefully pinning them to the ground.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The three black-clad men rushing toward Tang Mubai were the first to be pressed to the ground by the terrifying force, unable to move a muscle. Next was Wu Xuanwei; his body stiffened abruptly, his breathing became labored, and terror flashed across his face. He lay on the ground, as if bound, unable to move at all.

Finally, the lead black-clad man, shocked, desperately resisted the pressure exerted upon him, trying to hold on. Unfortunately, he had not practiced specialized body-tempering arts, carried no treasures capable of resisting pressure, nor possessed a powerful will. Thus, after holding on for five seconds, he crashed to the ground with a "thud," prostrate in a full-body bow, face-down, feeling both shocked and humiliated.

A Grandmaster!

Grandmaster-level pressure!

How could Tang Mubai, a young man under twenty, be a Grandmaster!?

Whether it was Wu Xuanwei or the four black-clad men, everyone was stunned.

The five immobile people could only watch helplessly as Tang Mubai walked slowly toward them.

"Hall Master Wu, you really have a ruthless heart. Even when you're about to die, you want to drag others down with you," Tang Mubai said, looking down at Wu Xuanwei and shaking his head.

The old fellow was not just ordinary ruthless; realizing he couldn't escape, he wanted Tang Mubai killed as well!

"So... so what?" Wu Xuanwei stiffened his neck and growled, "Even if you are a Grandmaster, what can you do to me? Kill me? Come on then! Compared to dying at the hands of these animals, I'd rather be killed by you. Come on, go ahead and kill me!"

Having abandoned all hope, Wu Xuanwei shouted recklessly. Since he was going to die anyway, he might as well vent his frustrations in his final moments.

"Want to die?" Tang Mubai grinned and smiled. "Fine, if you want to die, I’ll grant your wish. But before that, can you tell me about the 'Sutra of Reincarnation'? I’m very interested in it. Since you don't want to live anyway, why not share the secret of the 'Sutra of Reincarnation' as your last words? It’ll make your departure easier, won't it?"

"Don't you dare say it!" the lead black-clad man, face-down on the ground, suddenly shouted.

"Hahaha..." Wu Xuanwei laughed heartily. "You're right. Since I'm dying, why keep the secret? You want to know about the 'Sutra of Reincarnation,' right? Fine, I can tell you everything, but you have to agree to one condition!"

Hearing this, Tang Mubai raised an eyebrow and said calmly, "Go ahead, what condition?"

"It's simple." Wu Xuanwei grinned. "From now on, whenever you meet someone from 'Tian Shu,' kill them all for me!"

"'Tian Shu'?" Tang Mubai turned his head to look at the four black-clad men and said calmly, "The same kind of people as them?"

"Yes, them! They are from 'Tian Shu,' an evil organization that pretends to be righteous!" Wu Xuanwei panted and said quickly, "Back then, the last member of the 'Reincarnation Sect' was killed by them. Their goal was to seize the key to opening the 'Reincarnation Cave Heaven.' Unfortunately, that member was prepared; he recorded the key within seven volumes of the 'Sutra of Reincarnation' and scattered them, mixing them in with those Buddhist scriptures, making it impossible for anyone to distinguish the real from the fake."

"However, the truth is the truth. Martial artists with a strong will can still find the secret hidden within the 'Sutra of Reincarnation,' while the fakes are just ordinary Buddhist scriptures."

"Because of this, over the past thirty years, the seven volumes of the 'Sutra of Reincarnation' have been discovered one by one from tens of thousands of ordinary Buddhist scriptures, each being secretly hidden away."

"Fifteen years ago, a friend and I found one, but at that time, we didn't know the 'Sutra of Reincarnation' was related to the 'Reincarnation Cave Heaven.'"

"The 'Reincarnation Cave Heaven' is the location of the sect's main headquarters. The 'Reincarnation Sect' declined a hundred years ago, and the 'Cave Heaven' was closed. But over two hundred years ago, the 'Reincarnation Sect' was one of the nine great sects of the world. The secret manuals and treasures left inside, even if few in number and of varying grades, are not something that the third or fourth-turn martial arts circulating outside can compare to."

"The 'Tian Shu' organization is just one of many coveting it. In fact, I wanted it too; if it were you, you wouldn't be able to escape it either. Not to mention anything else, if you find the 'Reincarnation Treasure Canon,' breaking through to the Innate level is a ninety-nine percent certainty."

"It's just that I found out too late. By the time I knew the 'Sutra of Reincarnation' was related to the 'Reincarnation Cave Heaven,' the sutra was no longer in my hands. These 'Tian Shu' guys found out from somewhere else that I once obtained a volume, so they came to my door to rob me by force. I didn't expect to run into an 'oriole' [a spoiler], and now I'm going to die too! Hahaha..."

Wu Xuanwei laughed with satisfaction. The four black-clad men were so angry they wished they could strangle him.

The key recorded in the "Sutra of Reincarnation" not only opens the "Reincarnation Cave Heaven" but also contains the specific coordinates of its location. The key is not a physical object; it is a string of text, symbols, and patterns. The content includes spells, maps, and scriptures. Only by obtaining it and viewing it with spiritual power can one see it. With the naked eye, even if the key were placed right under one's nose, one would not see it. Tang Mubai knew this, though he had never seen it before.

Now that he knew the "Sutra of Reincarnation" contained it, he couldn't help but feel a bit excited. Tang Mubai didn't know exactly how powerful the "Reincarnation Sect" was at its peak—after all, it was an ancient sect that had declined over a hundred years ago, and its last member was dead. But from the "Reincarnation Treasure Canon" Wu Xuanwei mentioned, which could give one a 99% chance to break through to the Innate level, he could sense the strength of the "Reincarnation Sect."

The "Reincarnation Treasure Canon" might be left inside the "Reincarnation Cave Heaven," and the key to opening it was recorded in the seven volumes of the "Sutra of Reincarnation."

If he could collect all seven volumes... tsk, tsk!

Wu Xuanwei was right; Tang Mubai was tempted. It was worth it for him to stand up for the Mi siblings and learn this great secret. Hu Zonghan likely knew this secret too, and he hadn't told Yue Shengke. He had secretly hidden the "Sutra of Reincarnation," and in the end, it benefited him, Tang Mubai. In this regard, Hu Zonghan was a truly good man. He hadn't just given him the "Cloud-Rolling Hand," but also the Dao-rhyme martial art "Tai Chi Fist," helped him derive the "Tai Chi Heart Sutra," and granted him the secret technique "Yin-Yang Sword Qi," giving Tang Mubai the ability to protect himself.

Now it was even better. The "Sutra of Reincarnation," which Tang Mubai had thought was just an ordinary Buddhist scripture, actually involved a treasure vault like the "Reincarnation Cave Heaven."

Yes, in Tang Mubai's view, the "Reincarnation Cave Heaven" was a treasure vault, and the seven volumes of the "Sutra of Reincarnation" were the treasure maps! As long as he found the treasure maps, he would make a huge profit.

Tang Mubai already had one volume of the "Sutra of Reincarnation" in his hands. The Mi siblings didn't have one, so it was likely hidden by their father. If he found a chance to go to their home in the slums and sense it carefully, he should be able to find it too. That would be two volumes!

"One last question: do these four people from 'Tian Shu' have a copy of the 'Sutra of Reincarnation'?" Tang Mubai glanced at the four black-clad men and asked Wu Xuanwei.

Regarding the requirement Wu Xuanwei had set and the murderous intent hidden behind it, Tang Mubai sneered inwardly. Wu Xuanwei wanted him to kill anyone from "Tian Shu" so that he would stand in opposition to the organization and be hunted down. But Tang Mubai didn't care at all. If he could kill them, he would. But if there was danger, did he look like an idiot? "Tian Shu" was clearly a major power; Tang Mubai would have to be bored out of his mind to stand in open opposition to them.

Wu Xuanwei knew this, but he didn't mind. As long as Tang Mubai killed enough people from "Tian Shu," sooner or later, he would be hunted down by them! And then, it would be a death feud!

"I don't know, hahaha. How would I know if 'Tian Shu' has a 'Sutra of Reincarnation'?" Wu Xuanwei laughed. "But I guess they probably do. With 'Tian Shu's' resources, it wouldn't be strange if they collected one or two volumes. You're a Grandmaster; you could break into the 'Tian Shu' headquarters—who knows, you might get a few more volumes! Hahaha..."

"True, what you say makes perfect sense." Tang Mubai nodded. He looked at the four black-clad men and suddenly flashed past them.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

Amidst strange sounds, the three black-clad men had their throats slit, and the last leader had his legs crippled.

Then, Tang Mubai withdrew the pressure, walked to the side, and said with a calm smile, "Hall Master Wu, to thank you for answering my questions, I’ll give you one chance to avenge your apprentices. If you..."

Whoosh!

Before Tang Mubai could finish his sentence, Wu Xuanwei, who had been prostrate on the ground, lunged forward with all his might...