A City Full of Empty Shells

The reason is that the story of "catching a blade barehanded" mostly happens when a master teaches a novice a lesson, or when the novice is simply a complete novice. A swordsman who has one foot in the door will never let his opponent catch his blade, even if the opponent is a step above him.

This is different from the exciting battles in movies and TV dramas. If two people are evenly matched, the one who tries to catch a blade with his bare hands will definitely be killed by the opponent with one strike. He won't succeed even if he tries ten times. Catching the opponent's blade with his bare hands is not on the same level of difficulty as the other two.

But Si Ming managed to do it. The instant he gripped the blade, he suddenly exerted force with both palms, perpendicular to the direction in which the Silver Wolf King was exerting force. As a result, their forces overlapped, twisted, and with a clang, the longsword snapped in two.

The Silver Wolf King stared blankly at the broken blade. Even the Barbarian King Chidahu wouldn't dare to use his bare hands to catch a blade, especially against this strike that had been built up to its fullest potential. This was the Silver Wolf King's strongest strike in his life, and he couldn't find any excuse to deny it.

"Sit down properly!"

Si Ming slammed his palm down, and the ground roared loudly. A large mound rose from the sand, which moved continuously underground before finally exploding and transforming into an indistinct tornado that rolled and tumbled away into the distance.

After the smoke cleared, the Silver Wolf King was seen kneeling on one knee, his head pinned down by Si Ming's hand, making it difficult for him to get up.

"You actually... A scholar can be killed but not humiliated!"

The Silver Wolf King gritted his teeth, revealing a ferocious expression. He strained his muscles, veins bulging, as he desperately tried to stand up.

However, the hand pressing down on his head was like the Five Fingers Mountain pressing down on Monkey Sun; no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't budge it an inch.

"I told you, sit down!" Si Ming tightened his grip again.

Thump!

The Silver Wolf King immediately knelt down, the powerful force causing a network of cracks to appear in the ground. It took him a while to realize what had happened, and his face showed an expression of grief and despair.

"Explain yourself, what exactly is this 'Barbarian King's Blessing' that made you faster and stronger than before?" Si Ming asked. "I used to think you were a pretty composed person, but now you're actually saying things like 'weak! trash! laughable!' Did you perhaps lower your IQ in exchange for power?"

The Silver Wolf King did not answer. He only wanted to escape the humiliation by committing suicide, but Si Ming's divine power pressed down on him so that he could not even move a finger.

He must have been infected with a Gu worm.

Murong Wu quickly noticed the unusual condition on the Silver Wolf King, stepped forward to examine him closely and take his pulse, then said, "Who will lend me a divine weapon first?"

Xia Guanxue offered his Listening to the Rain Sword, but Ying Zhou, who had already suppressed his injuries with his internal energy, pushed him away and offered his Conquest Demon Saber instead. "Use mine."

"Childish."

Xia Guanxue snorted and pressed the Listening to the Rain Sword down on the Demon Blade. Ying Zhou raised an eyebrow, twisted his fingers, and flipped the Demon Blade back up to press down on the Listening to the Rain Sword.

Xia Guanxue refused to admit defeat, and once again flipped her sword, pressing it down on the demonic blade. Ying Zhou followed suit, flipping his sword again...

Murong Wu hesitated for a moment, then turned and said, "I'll use my sister's sword instead."

Murong Qing naturally wouldn't refuse, and after borrowing the Moon God's Tear, Murong Wu didn't rush to draw his sword. He observed it carefully for a while, then his palms danced like butterflies, striking various acupoints on the Silver Wolf King's body, forcibly sealing and blocking its meridians, as if he were intercepting and blocking something.

A moment later, Murong Wu stopped striking with his palm, his eyes flashed with a sharp light, and he thrust out his sword with One Sword speed. The sharp divine weapon easily tore through the enhanced flesh and One Sword through the Silver Wolf King's neck. At the tip of the sword after the penetration, there was a wriggling golden silkworm.

The golden silkworm suddenly sprouted wings and tried to escape, but the chill generated by the Moon God's Tear quickly froze it, and Si Ming seized the opportunity to catch it.

Murong Wu withdrew his sword and returned, simultaneously freezing the wound with his freezing air to stop the bleeding.

While such a wound that pierces the neck would be fatal to an ordinary person, it is at most a minor injury that Spirit Transformation Grandmaster can recover from in two or three hours of rest. After all, there is no residual Sword Qi or Sword Intent. And after losing the Golden Silkworm, the Silver Wolf King stopped struggling and resisting, and its aura was rapidly declining.

"This is the Undying Brain Divine Gu," Murong Wu carefully examined the golden silkworm in Si Ming's palm. "It's a legendary divine Gu that, besides enhancing the host's body and cultivation, can also manipulate thoughts. However, it's not the kind of forced brainwashing, but rather a subtle and gradual guidance that makes the host believe that these are their own genuine thoughts, without giving rise to any doubts."

Saihan quickly replied, "The Barbarian King summoned his men and gave each of them one of these insects. Everyone who ate the insects became very strange, irritable, and easily angered. I had to send my Spirit Transformation puppet to the meeting because of some urgent matter, and I managed to escape this calamity, but I was soon hunted down."

Chapter 899 The whole city is just a shell

"If what you say is true, then the problem lies not with the Witch Gu Sect, but with the Barbarian King."

After hearing Si Ming 'Saihan words, Si Ming frowned. "That doesn't make sense. Even if the Barbarian King wants to cause trouble, he should at least wait until I leave the Southern Continent."

Even if meeting Saihan was a coincidence, it was impossible for him not to see the massive phenomenon of evil god statues appearing in various places. As Mohist, he couldn't possibly meddle in other people's business—unless the Barbarian King was confident that he didn't care about his interference.

Ying Zhou snorted twice and said, "Perhaps your influence in his eyes isn't as great as you imagine." He was still hard-pressed to get over being defeated by the Silver Wolf King in one move; he had lost face big time.

Si Ming out, "That proves that the Barbarian King, like the Silver Wolf King, has had his intelligence lowered, and has even lost the most basic ability to assess the strength of his opponents."

Murong Qing, "Verifying this is very simple. We'll go back and see the Barbarian King immediately to find out the truth."

Saihan hesitated, wanting to warn everyone to be careful of the Barbarian King, as Shengjing might be a trap. However, after witnessing Si Ming's battle, she felt that even if it was a trap, they should be able to escape unscathed. Besides, everyone wasn't stupid; they couldn't possibly be unprepared.

"What should we do with this worm? Can we boil it and make soup?" Ying Zhou shook the golden silkworm, which had been frozen into an ice block.

Murong Wu said, "In Master's 'Record of Rare Treasures of the Nine Continents,' the Undying Brain Divine Gu ranks twelfth among Gu insects. While using this Gu directly is certainly evil, if it is refined into a pill and consumed, it can not only cleanse the marrow and strengthen the bones, but also allow the user to master a protective Gang Qi called 'Heavenly Silkworm Force.'"

Si Ming recalled, "It must be the True Qi on the surface of the Silver Wolf King's body. It's as resilient as silk, winding and continuous, and it is indeed Higher Vehicle soft-attribute Gang Qi. However, its foundation is too weak. As long as the qi is concentrated in one place, it can break through."

Murong Wu said, "The Heavenly Silkworm Force has nine levels. Each time you consume an Undying Brain Divine Gu, you can stack one level. When you reach the third level, you can overcome hardness with softness and are fearless of divine weapons. When you reach the sixth level, you can exhale as silk to create a cocoon and bind yourself, hold your breath to merge with the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, break through the barrier between life and death, and rejuvenate. If you reach the perfection of all nine levels, you will be reborn, cleansed of all impurities, and achieve a flawless, inexhaustible, ageless, and immortal True Person body. At that time, no matter how severe the internal or external injuries, you can use the Secret Method to create a cocoon to bind yourself and heal yourself. It will take a few hours to a few days to fully recover, and your cultivation will be even better than before."

Ying Zhou clicked his tongue in amazement. "To increase one's cultivation level simply by being beaten? Such a powerful martial art can be mastered by eating just a few insects? Is there really such a shortcut to martial arts in the world?"

Murong Wu shook his head and said, "This is not a shortcut, but Evil Dao. Not to mention that the Undying Brain Divine Gu is extremely rare in the world, collecting nine of them is by no means easy. When one takes the Undying Brain Divine Gu, one must endure the excruciating pain of having one's skin peeled and one's spinal cord ripped out, and the pain only intensifies as time goes on. The reason it is called 'Heavenly Silkworm Force' is because it is the metaphor of a silkworm breaking out of its cocoon to become a butterfly, a path of destruction before creation. There is also a saying of 'nine deaths and one life.' If one cannot endure it, one will die from the reverse flow of energy within the cocoon, causing one's body to explode."

Ying Zhou scoffed, "As martial artists, how many haven't been beaten? Enduring pain is merely the most basic ability." Murong Wu asked, "Do you know what the process of a silkworm transforming into a butterfly is like?"

"Uh, growing tentacles, growing wings... isn't that all there is to it?" Ying Zhou's eyes darted around; biology wasn't his strong suit.

Murong Wu patiently explained, "That's not the case. Many people think that the metamorphosis of larvae into adults is the same as the process of an infant growing into a person. In fact, this is a misunderstanding. The metamorphosis of insects is closer to the transformation of the placenta into an infant. The larva is essentially a placenta that can move and eat on its own. The adult placenta inside its body is the real body."

On the other hand, the adult disc is not a single unit, but rather scattered throughout the larvae. When the larvae mature, the entire larva melts away, becoming nutrients for these adult discs, which then develop into different organs and recombine.

To use a common misconception as an analogy, it's like an adult's internal organs are stuffed into an infant's head, and limbs are inside the infant's belly. Ultimately, the infant is absorbed as nutrition by these organs and transforms into an adult.

Cultivating the Heavenly Silkworm Force involves undergoing the same metamorphosis process. The so-called "rebirth" is literally what it sounds like; it truly involves dismantling and reassembling your bones one by one. The pain is far beyond what ordinary people can imagine, and one must experience "nine deaths" to gain "one life."

Ying Zhou said, "Uh, you don't need to explain so clearly. Anyway, I won't cultivate."