Twilight Boundary-Chapter 746 - 737: The Fifth Incense Stick

In the realm, each Path leads to peculiar people, but none have ever acted in this manner. Disasters are natural phenomena, beyond human reach. One can block or evade them, but they cannot be killed or attacked. Yet, it is the pond god alone who can block such a calamity; even the Lord himself avoids it. But ironically, Hu Ma used himself to shield the villagers from this calamity, welcoming the Toothless Lord head-on.

Little Douguan said that calamities keep a ledger in their hearts. The lives of the distinguished are naturally more valuable than ordinary people. Wouldn't one's precious life be worth more than the hundreds of villagers who were destined to die?

Apparently, Hu Ma had guessed correctly.

When the Disaster Rat saw Hu Ma take on the calamity, its eyes glowed red with excitement.

With its cold aura quickly enveloping him, he felt the netherworld as solid as the earth, like a giant beast slowly devouring him.

All that belonged to him in the human world was taken in an instant, from existence to nothingness, without the slightest process; dying was tranquilly inevitable...

Earlier, when faced with the assassination of Nu'er Hong, he chose to abandon the Life Incense, entering the Intermediate Yin Realm.

But this time, it happened without any hesitation, and in an instant, he was here.

"Here it comes again, here it comes again..." a strange voice shouted in Hu Ma's ear, filled with anger, unwillingness, and madness.

Having experienced this before, Hu Ma opened his eyes instantly.

Sure enough, he saw that bizarre, eye-covered creature again. It held an ancient scroll in one hand and a bald pen in the other, its countless eyes staring intently at Hu Ma.

"You died again, you died again!"

Hu Ma could even see it angrily accusing him, "You shouldn't have died, why do you die again?"

Facing those countless eyes, an absurdity and humor suddenly arose in Hu Ma's heart, his eyebrows stern. "You all want to control how I live," he thought, "can you also control how I die?"

"Give it to me!"

With a fierce shout, a large hand suddenly reached out towards him.

In this Intermediate Yin Realm, the physical body doesn't exist, only a faint spiritual light that must be recorded and weighed here.

This reaching gesture was merely an illusion, not reality.

But Hu Ma was now employing the Meng family's Magic. The Meng family's Magic, though the most steady and heavy during cultivation, bore the characteristics of the Meng Family: seeking and greed.

At this moment, Hu Ma's loud shout embodied rightful self-confidence, as if no matter whose it belonged to, he was justified to bring it before himself, his actions so rude and brutish that it startled the monster.

It clutched the scroll to its chest, preparing to flee into the endless darkness of Intermediate Yin.

But Hu Ma's grasp was too quick, and he barely managed to catch the corner of the scroll.

Just from touching that tiny bit, suddenly, an endless stream of information was transmitted from the scroll to Hu Ma. The information was so overwhelming that Hu Ma, though light as a feather, involuntarily began to fall rapidly.

In the Intermediate Yin, caught between yin and yang, if the body became lighter, it would fall into the underworld.

If the body grew heavier, it would fall back into the mortal realm.

On the windy mountaintop, with the Toothless Lord in hand, Hu Ma suddenly opened his eyes.

Just now, at the moment Hu Ma reached out to grasp the calamity, his entire being became silent. He was still visible to the naked eye amidst the ominous dark wind, but to those attuned to the Path, it seemed as if he had vanished.

This sudden change startled both the Immortal Miaoshan and Fourth Miss Zhou, their expressions filled with incredulous terror.

"This is bad, bad!" It was Little Douguan who first cried out, pounding the ground with his hands. "The master is gone..."

"A good man like the master, just gone like that..."

"Can a disaster be blocked with one's body? He used his life to exchange for the lives of the villagers!"

"..."

"What?"

Fourth Miss Zhou turned pale upon hearing this.

She had learned skills in the Zhou Family from a young age and had naturally heard about disasters. However, within the Shousui Sect, there was no method to combat them, only various skills to preserve one's life when encountered.

What she was witnessing was something she could never have imagined before. Seeing Hu Ma use his own life to save the villagers left her in utter disbelief.

"He...he is such a person, yet he, yet he..."

Her emotions were so complex and overwhelming that they were indescribable. "He is of the Great sword catching sect, possesses such skills, holds such a high status, and even the Ten Families Sect values him greatly! How could he sacrifice himself for these villagers?"

It wasn't that Fourth Miss Zhou lacked kindness, but such an act of self-sacrifice to block a disaster had never entered her thoughts before.

Her family had never taught her that things could be done this way, so this scene impacted her like never before.

Outside the forest, Calculation was jumping and cursing in anger, "What are you demon people trying to do? If you have the guts, come after our Daluo Dharma Sect..."

"...But not after me, I'm not very capable!"

"This little shopkeeper did nothing wrong! He was just taking his father back to Shangjing for burial. Why do you haunt him endlessly?"

"He hasn't done anything to harm anyone, so why do you torment him so?"

"..."

In the forest, the wild doctor remained silent, hidden from sight, but his gaze remained fixed on Hu Ma.

HUFF! At this panic-stricken moment, Hu Ma suddenly took a deep breath and opened his eyes amid the dense black wind.

Sensing the changes within himself and the information that had imprinted in his mind after touching the ancient scroll, his emotions surged. However, he swiftly suppressed all stray thoughts and instinctively assessed his own body.

His body had been emptied of everything in an instant and should have been thoroughly dead, yet miraculously, a One Incense had ignited.

The Fifth Column of Incense!

Leveraging the extra life granted by this Fifth Column of Incense, he saw that the Disaster Rat in his left hand now wore a look of complete satisfaction.

Its body seemed to have grown rounder. It no longer looked at him with its previous hostility but was squeezing out of his palm, appearing eager to leap away to some invisible, ethereal destination.

The calamity had collected its due—a life—and could now return.

Even if Hu Ma opened his eyes again at this moment, it was no longer its concern.

Indeed, Hu Ma's single life was more valuable than all the villagers' lives combined. With the account settled, the calamity lost its mysterious Divine Skills.

And at this moment, Hu Ma didn't hinder it anymore. After all, he wasn't part of the theft disaster sect and lacked a deep understanding of such celestial computations. With this Fifth Column of Incense, he had successfully taken another step forward and saved the villagers. It was all worthwhile.

Yet he hadn't expected that from the black bag in his right hand, a dark snakehead would suddenly peek out. Perhaps it was because he had been too hasty when collecting the bizarre snake earlier and hadn't tightened the bag's opening properly, or for some other reason.

This Disaster Bag was designed to suppress calamities, but after crawling around inside for a bit, the bizarre snake seemed to treat it like a nest and curiously poked its head out to investigate.

And what it saw was the Toothless Lord.

Seeing its satisfied appearance, a clear emotion flickered for the first time in the snake's previously muddled eyes.

It was jealousy!

Thus, just as the jubilant Toothless Lord was rapidly escaping, the snakehead darted out.

WHOOSH! It bit the Toothless Lord and then jerked back into the bag. Instantly, the bag showed signs of struggle, and SQUEAK! SQUEAK! sounds came from within, but it soon fell silent, with only occasional slight undulations visible.

"Eh?" Hu Ma was stunned for a moment, completely caught off guard by this change.

Yet, at the same time, the ominous wind ceased. The world grew silent, the night air as chilling as frost, and in the forest, the tree shadows stood stark and still.

"What is that...?"

The sudden change startled everyone nearby, some with pleasant surprise, others with sheer astonishment.

Calculation, who was mid-curse, froze, staring in disbelief at Hu Ma in the distance.

His voice trembled, "It...it can't be!"

The once-wailing Little Douguan was also stunned. "Huh? The master isn't dead?"

"No, the master died, and then lived again..."

"..."

In this astounding silence, even the wind seemed to hold its breath, observing the bizarre scene.

Out of this deathly stillness, Little Hongtang's call suddenly echoed from the depths of the forest, "Brother Huma, hurry..."

"I've caught his leg..."

"..."

"Hmm?"

Hu Ma instantly reacted. His figure blurred, and in an instant, he rushed into the forest. From afar, he saw the wild doctor behind a large tree, his expression one of surprise and suspicion.

Meanwhile, Little Hongtang was sitting on the ground, tightly clutching one of the wild doctor's calves, preventing him from moving while shouting for Hu Ma.

"Punishment Officer's Great Saber, come!"

Sprinting, Hu Ma gritted his teeth, his eyes cold. With a fierce shout, the Punishment Officer's Great Saber, which was on the carriage outside the forest, instantly flew into the woods.

Hu Ma reached out, and as he grasped the Punishment Officer's Great Saber, he drew it. A menacing aura instantly rolled from the blade towards the doctor.

At that moment, the doctor's face turned fearful. In a flash, his figure began to quickly fade and disappear, but Little Hongtang was holding his leg too firmly.

SHINK!

In an instant, the saber arrived. Hu Ma, who had also rushed to the spot, reached out and caught the Punishment Officer's Great Saber.

Looking closely, there was blood on the blade, but the doctor had vanished completely. On the ground, Little Hongtang was still hugging a leg, sent tumbling by the sudden movement.

Even at such a critical moment, the doctor had managed to escape. Only his intermittent voice echoed from all directions, "You want everything, but can you truly bear it all in the end?"

"Turn back! Or next time, the old seniors themselves will come for you!"