Chapter Thirty-Six: This Is Not Stealing, It's Borrowing

The little bug tested it with his teeth and found, indeed, that these buildings were unimaginably hard, even tougher than the metal he had bored through earlier using Buddha’s light. And after each bite, there arose a strange, indescribable taste.

“Kun Immortal is here! Who dares cause trouble in my mortal world?”
The Supreme Elder of the Rat Immortal Sect, Chasing Fruit, appeared, his face contorted until he looked like a sly, mouse-eyed old man. With a furious roar, he switched the duster in his hand to a five-colored treasure, and as he swept it, five beams of colored light flashed forth. The first, a green beam, trapped the Battle King about to break through the base of the Kirin beast. The second, red, bound the formidable Long Yi. The third, white, froze Liu Ruyan and the flood eagle as if encased in ice. The fourth, orange, severed all the silken treasures around Old Bear Three and pierced straight into his body. The fifth, gold, enveloped the little bug, suppressing his Buddha’s light and forcing him back to his true form, revealing his sevenfold beastly body.

Only Wuyun remained untouched, not a single color landed on him. He grumbled in dissatisfaction, “Hey, you Kun Rat, I’m the most powerful—why leave me out? Are you looking down on me?”

“You scholar, Heaven loves all life. You must have been bewitched or threatened by them. Rest assured, once these monsters are eradicated, you’ll be free to leave safely,” said the Demon-Suppressing Sect Master gently. Several beast tamers at his side released their lion-eagle mounts, ready to escort Wuyun away.

Strangely, in this forbidden airspace, Wuyun stood lightly atop the lion-eagle, weightless as a feather. The yellow-robed Taoist praised, “Only good men can fly to the heavens!”

The possessed Chasing Fruit, the Kun Rat, brandished the duster again. Including Long Yi, those captured were strung up by their shoulder blades and dropped onto the cloud platform. Then, a dragon-headed guillotine appeared, towering over twenty meters tall, stained with old blood from countless executions of monsters.

When Old Bear Three was the first to be pinned to the execution platform, he glanced at the unmoved Wuyun and finally panicked, shouting, “Senior, save me! Master Wuyun, help me!”

The demon-slayers burst into laughter. Some even tossed out a huge cauldron artifact, ready to collect bear’s blood.

The possessed Chasing Fruit sneered coldly. The Battle King was next behind Old Bear Three, followed by Liu Ruyan, the flood eagle, the little bug, and finally the struggling Long Yi.

Just as the duster was about to be swept a second time, lowering the guillotine to behead Old Bear Three, who now squealed like a pig, his peak divine power ignited but to no avail—

“Wait!”

Wuyun shouted. The possessed Chasing Fruit ignored him and flicked the duster. Then Wuyun said, “Believe it or not, I’ll burn all of this to ashes, turning your puppet treasures into scrap!”

“Noisy fool!”

Suddenly, Old Bear Three’s head was replaced by Wuyun’s atop the block. Wuyun smiled foolishly, “With a senior leading the way, even the underworld will do.”

Facing Chasing Fruit’s sneer and the looming guillotine, Wuyun grew furious. As the duster swung down, he cursed, “What a thieving old rat—you were cast out by the Spirit of Space, serves you right!”

Long Yun felt a chill at his neck as the guillotine fell, slashing through the air with a bang. Old Bear Three and the others were scared out of their wits, but the sharp-eyed flood eagle noticed—the blade had missed, only slicing off a lock of Wuyun’s hair.

Without waiting for the possessed Chasing Fruit to speak, Wuyun pointed at an old man hiding in a house below, watching him intently. “You little rat, did you really think I wouldn’t recognize you?”

This left Long Yi and the others baffled. The old man was the one who had first advised Wuyun—an ordinary citizen. Once identified, time seemed to freeze. The old man appeared by Wuyun’s side, bent over at the guillotine, studying him in confusion before saying, “In the Qianluo Space, across thousands of stars, I have no old friends. Who are you, really?”

“Nonsense!” Wuyun spat at him, rose, and gestured to everything around. “You built your rat’s den from heavy rock and secret silver, yet you’re not satisfied. You use spirit trees over a hundred thousand years old to make paper for your paper dolls. Why did the Spirit of Space choose you for a pet? Not to steal treasures, but to do his bidding, right, Kun Rat?”

Kun Rat was startled. A divine sense swept over Wuyun, then panic faded, replaced by anger. “I act on behalf of Heaven! You’re his slave too!”

Wuyun snorted, not arguing, and signaled for everyone to be untied. He then took the Buddha beads the Battle King had seized, shaking them before Kun Rat. “Shameless! Not even your master’s treasures are safe from you!”

Kun Rat hung his head in shame, his old face flushing crimson. He muttered defensively, “It’s not stealing—it’s borrowing. Borrowing! I’ll return it in a few days!”

“You’ve broken free from his control and hid here for tens of thousands of years, and you call it borrowing? If he hadn’t sent me to fetch it, I wouldn’t even know this Buddhist treasure existed!”

The little bug crawled over, returning to his insect form, and circled the Buddha beads, but found nothing unusual.

Wuyun didn’t reveal the truth. Holding the beads in his left hand, he squeezed each one, intending to touch all one hundred and eight. After a long while, he said, “A loan must be repaid. You won’t leave me empty-handed, will you?”

Kun Rat shook his head. Wuyun smiled. “Then my mission is done. Next time, I’ll put in a good word for you with the boss. Farewell!”

Just as Wuyun was about to lead the group away, Kun Rat blocked the way, pointing at Old Bear Three. “You know what I love to eat most!”

“Bear’s heart and leopard’s gall!” Wuyun blurted out. Old Bear Three shivered with dread.

Kun Rat was pleased and nodded. “Just a thunder bear—surely you’re not reluctant?”

“Of course not,” Wuyun replied as lightly as brushing away a fly, calm and unconcerned.

As the old man placed a hand over Old Bear Three’s heart and Wuyun led the group onward, Old Bear Three could no longer suppress his despair, sensing a dreadful energy about to burst forth from Kun Rat’s claws.

“Wuyun…”

He had only uttered two words when he saw Wuyun, hands behind his back, twirling the Buddha beads. Starlight shimmered on them, radiant and endless. He heard Wuyun cough, “Cough, cough. The little mouse loves the tip of a fresh heart best. Haven’t you heard the story of sacrificing flesh to become a Buddha?”

Wuyun spun the beads faster. Old Bear Three, his face ashen, quickly addressed Kun Rat, who was still touching his chest. “Elder! Elder! Allow me!”

Kun Rat withdrew his claws. Old Bear Three produced a set of jade cutlery, which floated in the air. Then he took out a sharp spirit blade, a small three-foot knife. Swallowing hard, he steeled himself, located his heart, and slowly opened his chest, revealing his huge bear heart. Fixing his gaze on Kun Rat, he sliced off a tiny piece from the very tip.

In an instant, blood spurted from his abdomen, but in the next moment, the thunder bear’s immense healing power absorbed the demon blood.

While Kun Rat delightedly tasted the morsel, Wuyun waved his hand, and Old Bear Three, clutching his wound in pain, followed as they drifted away atop a cloud.

Returning to the small complex of passageways, the little eagle and the others realized they had just been inside. Now, in the empty streets and rooms, paper dolls and wooden puppets bustled about, lively as could be. Even the demon-slayers moved their wooden heads, oblivious to the reality of their world.

Wuyun led the group around them. In the next moment, the Tiger-faced Immortal appeared in the passage. He brightened, rushed forward, but as he soared above the buildings, he vanished.

“Hurry!” Wuyun summoned the Nirvana Fang, left behind by the Absolute Wolf—a powerful weapon, ten meters long and seven or eight wide, just enough to carry everyone away with ease.

After breaking the Tiger-faced Immortal’s formation, Wuyun asked Long Yi, “We need just one more treasure to destroy the cat demon. Any thoughts?”

Long Yi hesitated. At this moment, it would be easy to leave the Magnet Star and rescue the three hundred thousand soldiers from Qi who had been captured. But facing the Tiger-faced Immortal meant another fierce battle, with little hope of victory. Only by breaking through the void could they both ascend and escape.

Yet he was reluctant, for within this place lay what he most wished to confront.

Torn between choices, he still opted to seek the next spatial rift. After providing the coordinates sensed, Wuyun nodded and directed the wolf fang to depart swiftly.

From their difficult crawl upon entry to their current comfortable passage, much had changed. First, the wolf fang’s unique material, nurtured by the Demon Emperor and assimilated to the strong gravity here, made travel possible. Second, the group’s continuous cultivation and adaptation had honed their power—now the Battle King no longer feared close combat, his golden aura offering strong protection.

Emerging from the underground fissure, they reached the surface again. With clear purpose, they followed Long Yi’s directions to a small, deep pit. As they prepared to enter, a familiar cry for help rose from below.

Long Yi frowned. “The other two snow-feathered eagles that escaped—hmph, daring to enter this pit, they refuse the road to life and rush toward death instead!”

Following the cries, the group descended slowly. As before, the path was not as rugged and treacherous as before. A few hundred meters down, coppery-iron brambles lined the sides of the pit.