You Should Have Lived Long Enough

At the same time, Lang Ya finally brought his figure to a halt beneath a sheer cliff. He knelt directly on the ground, simultaneously forcing the blood flowing from his severed arms to stop. Even so, he could still feel a surge of copper-tasting sweetness rising in his throat.

Long Xiaoyao had severed his hands, but that meant little to him; he did not need them to unleash his spirit skills. But those black energies... even now, a significant amount remained within his body, constantly carving tiny wounds into his flesh.

"Cough... ha, in the end... in the end, I survived." Lang Ya looked toward the spot on his waist that had previously emitted a green light. He gave a slight shake, and several shattered pieces of cyan jade fell to the ground.

"As expected of a fragment of the Sect Master's Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone... even a Limit Douluo couldn't keep me here... cough, cough..."

Those shattered cyan jade pieces were the Hundred Thousand Year Spine Bone passed down through generations of the Body Sect. Its function was to use the absorber as an anchor point to split into countless fragments; no matter the distance, the user could sense the carrier of a fragment and, at the cost of permanently destroying the fragment, bring the carrier back to the anchor's location.

This was a life-saving treasure for every disciple of the Body Sect stationed abroad, but it only offered a single chance for use.

Lang Ya limped toward the cliff face before him. Just as he was about to collide with it, the hard mountain rock began to ripple like the surface of water at the point of contact, absorbing Lang Ya directly inside.

On the other side of these ripples, a completely different scene unfolded:

Looking up, countless buildings stood leaning against the mountain rock, constructed primarily from grey-blue stone and dark brown giant timber. They lacked any gilded or ornate decorations, possessing only rugged lines and distinct edges, as if they had grown naturally from the mountain itself, exuding a power unique to the wild.

Before Lang Ya stood a mountain gate carved from Millennium Profound Iron Stone. Beside the gate stood a massive stone tablet, upon which the three bright red characters for "Body Sect" were carved with vigorous, powerful strokes.

Lang Ya's vision was gradually blurring, but at that moment, he saw a tall man standing at the entrance, watching him with cold eyes.

He wore a simple dark green robe draped over his shoulders, but even through the wide garment, one could still sense his rugged, well-developed muscles.

Most peculiar was that the man's face seemed entirely disconnected from his physique; despite his tall, muscular frame, his face showed no trace of the years, with skin as smooth as that of a newborn infant.

At this moment, the man was staring at Lang Ya in silence with those ink-green eyes, devoid of any emotion, as if waiting for him to speak first.

"Lang Ya... greets the Vice Sect Master..." Lang Ya forced his body to kneel once more. With these words, the man's identity became self-evident:

The current Vice Sect Master of the Body Sect, and the brother of the current Sect Master Du Bisi—Du Busi!

"I want to know who gave you the courage to show your face in the Body Sect again." Du Busi walked slowly to Lang Ya, squatted down, and stared fixedly at him.

Ever since he heard from his elder brother Du Bisi that Lang Ya had gone to cause trouble at the Spirit Soul Academy, Du Busi had been waiting at the gates of the Body Sect.

If Lang Ya had possessed the self-awareness to choose to leave, he might have spared him for the sake of their past fellowship. But since he chose to step foot on the land of the Body Sect again, he would have to be dealt with according to the rules of the Body Sect.

"Using other students of the Spirit Soul Academy as threats... when has my Body Sect ever needed such despicable and vicious methods to recruit people?" Du Busi kicked Lang Ya in the chest, sending him flying backward to smash a hole into the mountain rock.

Du Busi had held back his strength; although Lang Ya was embedded in the stone with his sternum shattered, his internal organs remained unharmed, leaving him with the strength to speak.

"Vice Sect Master... why, why can even you not understand me..." Lang Ya raised his head and said, word by word:

"I did all this for the sake of the sect... have you not seen... what the Body Sect has become today..."

"What it has become... ha, what it has become, is that any of your concern?"

Du Busi walked up to Lang Ya, grabbed him by the collar, and pulled his face up to his own:

"Even if the Body Sect were to be completely destroyed, it would never need to recruit disciples in your manner. That would only bring shame upon the spirits of the generations of Sect Masters!"

"And... what did you say when you first faced that child? That it was a method given to you by the Sect Master?" At this point, Du Busi's gaze grew increasingly fierce.

"At the very beginning, you even tried to pin this blame on my elder brother. Is this how you care for the Body Sect?"

"Elder brother... hahahaha, that old thing Du Bisi is no Sect Master! If it weren't for his indecisiveness, the Body Sect wouldn't have ended up like this!" Lang Ya's tone turned vicious, and he raised a severed hand to point toward the direction of the main hall:

"The former Sect Master was killed by the joint efforts of that old black dragon and old white dragon. You two brothers not only stood by and watched, but even bowed down to the power of the Martial Soul Hall... preferring to remain holed up here rather than fight back... Yes, the Body Sect values the strong, but that is no excuse for your weakness!"

"I should have succeeded... a super genius with a Body Spirit, plus the future of dozens of Martial Soul Hall members... what wrong did I commit by using them to settle the debt they owed the Body Sect!"

Lang Ya roared in frustration, failing to notice the strange flicker in Du Busi's eyes at the mention of the 'former Sect Master'.

"The events of that year... were never as simple as you think."

"Not as simple as I think? Ha... good... if it wasn't because you value the strong... could it be that you two brothers colluded with the Martial Soul Hall to seize power and conspired to kill the Sect Master?" Lang Ya laughed even more manically, to the point of losing his sanity.

"That person was right after all. You, Du Busi, and Du Bisi... you are just a pair of cowardly and treacherous villains. What right do you have to judge me!"

In an instant, Lang Ya suddenly began to chant an incredibly bizarre incantation. All his soul power concentrated on his forehead, and the markings above his brow suddenly lit up with a strange, red-black glow.

However, the very next moment, Lang Ya spat out a mouthful of blood as his tongue was ripped out by Du Busi, alive and raw.

"Ha... cough, cough..."

"Lang Ya, my brother and I thought you were merely acting on impulse... but it seems you have lived long enough."

Du Busi looked at Lang Ya coldly and spoke, then placed a hand on his head. A moment later, all that remained in the hole was a headless corpse.

Du Busi used his soul power to block the spraying blood. He had assumed this was just a case of a follower of the former Sect Master being deluded and led astray... he had not expected that others were involved in this matter.

"The incantation he was chanting... it is clearly the one the former Sect Master used to recite."

"Those fellows... they still have remnants in this world."

"I must inform my elder brother at once..."