Great Li Martial God

Hearing this, Wu Shang nodded repeatedly, and Hu Rui’an likewise looked at the old woman with a skeptical gaze, saying, ”I know Falling God Peak well enough, yet I have never heard of its disciples or followers being required to kill anyone described as those of divine nature.”

The old woman’s expression shifted slightly, and she said, ”This matter concerns the very survival of Falling God Peak as a sect. Only those at the core of the order know of it and act on it in secret. It could never be allowed to leak outward, so it is perfectly normal that you would not know of it.”

But Hu Rui’an shook his head and said, ”If this matter cannot be allowed to leak outward, then how did you come to know of it?”

”There is no wall through which no wind passes...”

The old woman was about to continue her explanation when Hu Rui’an cut her off, saying, ”Setting aside whether what you say is true or not, I still have no idea what you actually mean by those of divine nature.”

Hearing this, the old woman paused. She sat on the damp floor, licked her cracked and withered lips, and fixed her clouded gaze on Hu Rui’an, ”Believe it or not, this old one has said what she has to say. As for those of divine nature...”

”Such people are one in ten thousand, far rarer by countless times than even the so-called peerless martial geniuses of the martial world...”

”Those of divine nature are born with divine gifts, possessing from birth extraordinary abilities that ordinary people cannot possess. They are profoundly different from common people, and their path has nothing in common with the martial path.”

At those words, Wu Shang and the others all exchanged strange looks. The divine gifts and innate abilities the old woman was describing were things none of them had ever heard of before.

After listening to everything she had just said, they all felt increasingly that the ugly old woman before them was talking nonsense, simply amusing herself at their expense.Li Musheng, however, wore a thoughtful expression. Whether or not this old woman was reliable was another matter, but his capacity to take things in was clearly far greater than Wu Shang’s and the others’.

What she was calling innate divine gifts, by his understanding, would be something like people such as Magneto or the Phoenix, beings who possessed some form of extraordinary power.

The only question was, he had clearly crossed into a martial arts world. Why were people with special abilities suddenly appearing?

Li Musheng turned a suspicious gaze on the old woman, and at that moment Hu Rui’an looked her over for a moment, then said suddenly, ”By your account, the villages and towns wiped out on this death list were the work of the Tianjin Guards acting to help Falling God Peak eliminate those of divine nature.”

”But what I am more curious about now is whether the haunting at the Tianjin Guards branch office is connected to this. Why are you being held here? Do those of divine nature truly exist? And are those behind the ghostly appearances actually what you call those of divine nature?”

Faced with Hu Rui’an’s questions, the old woman suddenly went silent. Yet her clouded gaze kept moving, covertly studying Li Musheng.

Li Musheng naturally noticed. He immediately furrowed his brow and waved a hand, saying, ”At your age, I would advise you not to entertain certain kinds of thoughts.”

At those words, the old woman in the cell blinked.

The large black cat, which had been lying at Li Musheng’s feet, suddenly widened its eyes and tilted its head up to look at him, as though its expression had become one of disbelief.

The old woman, once she had taken in what he had said, could not help but let her aged face twitch sharply, and she broke into a fit of violent coughing.

After quite a while, she looked at Li Musheng deeply, then withdrew her gaze and said, ”Those of divine nature are truly the chosen of heaven, and extremely rare. To speak of just Sheng Province alone, the number of those of divine nature likely to have been born within a span of five years would without question not exceed the fingers of one hand.”

”And those of divine nature share one distinguishing mark, which is that at the moment of their birth, an extraordinary phenomenon descends from the heavens, as though a divine being has come into the world.”

As she spoke, the old woman glanced at the booklet in Hu Rui’an’s hand, saying, ”The locations on that list are places in Sheng Province where such heavenly phenomena once appeared. The Tianjin Guards used this characteristic to identify those of divine nature, and then eliminated every one of them.”

Hearing this, Hu Rui’an gave a slight nod, saying, ”When you put it that way, everything you have said does hold together. However...”

As he said this, the air around him shifted sharply, and he said in a low voice, ”Every question I asked you just now, you have yet to answer a single one.”

The old woman shook her head, then suddenly rose from the floor. Her aged face, covered in festering sores, turned with a serious expression toward Li Musheng, saying, ”In truth, this old one knows that your martial cultivation is extraordinary beyond measure.”

Hearing this, Li Musheng rubbed his chin and nodded, saying, ”I will grant you good taste. But any thoughts you should not be having, I would advise you to let go of.”

The old woman’s clouded eyes narrowed, and a flash of irritation seemed to cross them. But then she waved a hand and said, ”Very well. This old one will be forthright with you about everything.”

She then glanced at the large black cat outside the cell and said, ”The haunting at the Sheng Province Tianjin Guards branch office is indeed connected to this list. They aided those doing evil and slaughtered the innocent. Over the past five years, nearly every one of those of divine nature who had not yet grown into their strength was killed at their hands.”

”Naturally then, those of the same kind came to take revenge. Those among the Tianjin Guards who were killed deserved every bit of what they received.”

Hearing this, Hu Rui’an fixed his gaze on the old woman and said, ”You know this matter so thoroughly. Could it be that you yourself are one of those of divine nature?”

”That is correct.”

The old woman did not deny it, and continued, ”But those ghostly shadows and the laughter were not this old one’s doing. So I was not lying to you before. As for why I came here, that was a deliberate choice.”

”Seeking revenge against the Tianjin Guards was only one of our purposes in coming to Sheng Province. We had another important purpose, which was to find a hidden person of divine nature born somewhere in Sheng Province.”

”Unfortunately, we have been here for no short time, but have found no leads whatsoever.”

At that point, Wu Shang spoke up from behind, ”By your account, you had cause for killing members of the Sheng Province Tianjin Guards. But I have heard that a group of martial world wanderers entered the Tianjin Guards branch office and were strangled to death by your people as well.”

Hearing this, the old woman glanced at Wu Shang and narrowed her eyes, saying, ”Those so-called martial world wanderers were nothing more than assassins sent by Mei Yan to deal with us. They deserved what they got as well.”

”The Mei family has done no small amount of dirty work for Falling God Peak in secret, all in order to climb closer to them. If not for the sake of that Mei Yan’s father-in-law, the Martial Saint, we would have killed him long ago.”

Hu Rui’an fell into silent thought, seeming to weigh whether the connection between the Mei family and Falling God Peak truly was as the old woman described.

At that moment Cheng Zhong spoke up suddenly, ”You did not act today during the daytime. Could that be because we have no connection to the killing of those of divine nature?”

Hearing this, the old woman glanced at Li Musheng and said, ”That was part of it. But more importantly, we did not have the ability to take you.”

At that point, Li Musheng’s attention was not on any of this. He looked at the old woman with curiosity, saying, ”Since you claim to be those of divine nature, show us one of these innate divine gifts. After all, only then can we confirm whether you are telling the truth.”