Chapter 352

Chapter 352: The Power of the Ledger of Life and Death

"Just writing can make it real? Is Mu Lin truly this strong?"

"No, the real question is—can someone at the combining Essence and Evil realm actually do this?"

"Forget combining Essence and Evil realm practitioners—even those at High Mastery of Transformation couldn’t achieve this…"

When Mu Lin’s power to decide Life and Death through writing manifested, not only his fellow young prodigies but even clan elders stood stunned, utterly bewildered.

Fortunately, these elders from powerful clans had decades of Cultivation experience. Though initially confused, their sharp eyes soon discerned the truth.

"Relax. This isn’t reality-shaping through speech—it’s curse technique!"

"Curse technique makes sense. The Yin Eight Sect and the paper folders always specialized in curses. With Mu Lin’s talent, reshaping their paper figure methods into book-and-brush rituals fits perfectly."

Understanding brought relief—the world’s laws remained intact. Yet some still trembled with fear.

"Curse technique’s terrifying precisely because it’s subtle! Cross Mu Lin and he’ll scribble your fate in that notebook!"

Laughter erupted at this remark.

An elder scoffed, "Yongyan, you overestimate curses."

"Curses work through shadows and distance, yes—but remain inferior tricks. True Mystical Gate disciples needn’t fear them."

"Exactly! Proper Cultivation blocks ninety-nine percent of curses. Only demon sects and Northern Wasteland geniuses with flawed foundations get affected."

As elders lectured, southern prodigies realized: Mu Lin’s curse worked because northern rivals already carried forbidden power within their bodies. The curses simply triggered existing flaws.

Against true Mystical Gate disciples with unbroken foundations? Same-tier curses would fail. Even higher-tier curses might wound but rarely kill, giving victims time to seek healing. Two tiers above? Then cultivation gap itself decides fights, curse or not.

Hearing this, southern youths relaxed. Demon sects take shortcuts, but Mystical Gate rules the world—this made sense now.

"Mu Lin’s curses… really can’t touch us?"

Their lingering doubt proved justified.

Before obtaining the ledger, Mu Lin’s Paper Figure Curse already affected peers through his master-level Nail the Seven Spirits ability—essentially a dimensional strike from superior skill.

Now that it had transformed into the Ledger of Life and Death, Mu Lin’s curse technique did not weaken – instead, it became even more terrifying.

Firstly, through the authority of the City God and the Underworld’s legitimate deities, his curse technique could now exploit enemies’ hidden flaws to amplify its power. More crucially, he could detonate their accumulated sins to inflict divine punishments. The weightier their crimes, the deadlier his curses became. Against villains with monstrous sins, the ledger unleashed unimaginable destructive force.

Secondly, the Underworld’s connection to mortality combined with Mu Lin’s grasp of time laws allowed his curses to accelerate aging. While ineffective against young prodigies, this power devastated elderly cultivators and lifespan-extenders – Mu Lin could strip away their remaining years with underworld authority.

Thirdly, though rooted in the Paper Figure Curse, the ledger integrated multiple abilities: master-level techniques, the Root Word "Fixing", Great Luo Merging Heaven, and Calamity Qi. These enabled Mu Lin to torment even Mystical Gate disciples into near-death states.

"Excluding High Mastery of Transformation experts and Earth Immortals," Mu Lin mused, "if I fully commit, I could eliminate combining Essence and Evil realm mages and weaker foes. As they say – when the King of Hell demands your death at third watch, none dare keep you till fifth."

He suddenly froze. "Wait. Judging sins, cutting lifespans, that third-watch proverb… I’ve practically become the King of Hell." A rueful smile followed. "Pity my hellish authority works best on ordinary people. It deters combining Essence and Evil mages and sin-ridden experts, but Earth Immortals ignore it completely…"

Nearby, Zhuang Yuan lay collapsed. Though spared death by Mu Lin’s mercy, the forbidden power’s backlash had drained his combat strength.

Northern aristocrat elders soon deciphered Mu Lin’s methods. Unlike southern cultivators, their desperate pursuit of calamity-surviving power meant all northern prodigies harbored forbidden energy within – energy Mu Lin could detonate via the ledger. Worse, substitution counter-damage prevented them from interrupting his curses.

"Mu Lin… our natural nemesis," they groaned. Their sole comfort: "At least he’s human. He understands righteousness and won’t slaughter us needlessly before the calamity…"

Bitterly smiling, leader Qing urged others: "Keep fighting. Don’t provoke him – if defeated, you’ll likely survive. He spares human talents knowing we need every prodigy to endure the coming calamity. Even his substitution for Blood Cherry shows confidence in crushing us non-lethally."

The group fell into shamed silence. Finally, someone murmured: "A true hero."

“A hero like him can’t be tricked through righteousness, so I’ll…”

Before the man could finish his ashamed words, Qing declared coldly, “You must go!”

“Mu Lin stands alone, but millions of northern young men await our resources. We must not fail.”

“…”

“You’re right – we can’t lose… but his curse technique makes our challenge useless, no?”

Qing responded, “It matters… At least you’ll drain his strength.”

“…Understood. Let me try – my unique ability might trouble him.”

The northern prodigies never fought for themselves alone. Though respecting Mu Lin, they still entered the arena determined to defeat him.

The cultivator following Zhuang Yuan indeed possessed strange powers as claimed.

“Hmm…”

As he chanted, Mu Lin’s own shadow rose behind him – bearing partial traits and spells of its caster.

“Fascinating.”

Mu Lin murmured. Noticing his restraint, the opponent warned respectfully: “Beware – this forbidden power-summoned shadow holds half your…”

His warning ended abruptly as Mu Lin casually wrote in the Ledger of Life and Death with his brush.

“The shadow summoned by Hu Guan isn’t fully controllable. Today’s misfortune makes it hate its master fiercely, now attacking him…”

“?!!”

“Stop! Halt…”

The false ledger couldn’t command instant betrayal through mere writing. But Mu Lin’s cultivation methods fused via True Spirit Domain Chart allowed multiple approaches.

While inscribing judgment, Mu Lin channeled both Calamity Qi and Manjusaka’s power – the former draining Hu Guan’s luck into misfortune manifesting as shadow rebellion, the latter flooding the shadow with Illusion and Reality’s false memories of burning hatred toward its summoner.

Thus Mu Lin’s shadow pummeled Hu Guan relentlessly.

“Cough…”

Returning battered to his group, Hu Guan’s humiliation outweighed his injuries. He’d boasted his power would challenge Mu Lin, only to be beaten by his own shadow.

“My… my apologies, I…”

“Enough.” Qing sighed. “This shame isn’t yours – Mu Lin simply overpowers us.” Turning to others, he ordered: “Keep challenging him. Drain his strength, expose his tricks – then let the Son of the Wandering Star, Luo Chen, finish this.”

“Though dishonorable, we’ve no choice – the North’s millions depend on us!”

“Yes.”

Thus the remaining northern aristocrats kept challenging Mu Lin, only to fall before his judgment brush. Qing finally turned to Luo Chen – strongest among northern youths, respected even by Transformation-stage cultivators.

“Can you win?” Qing asked quietly.

Luo Chen withdrew his gaze from Mu Lin. With solemn certainty, he answered:

“I’ll win.”