Chapter Six: The Uses of Carrying and Moving

As the black bear spirit’s palm came crashing down, Shen Chang'an knew he could not evade it. Yet in a flash of inspiration, he suddenly released the alloy staff from his hand and took a sudden step forward, wrapping both arms around the bear’s waist.

Then, with a nimble twist, he darted beneath the beast and slipped around behind it, narrowly avoiding the fatal blow.

At the same time, Shen Chang'an surged two steps upward, planted his feet on the bear’s spine, clambered onto its back, and lashed his legs tightly around its neck.

“Ahhh!”

The bear spirit let out a thunderous roar and immediately reached back, trying to seize Shen Chang'an.

But in that split second, Shen Chang'an’s mind stirred, and an invisible force seized the bear’s eyes with violent abruptness!

Bang!

The huge eyeballs were torn free at once. The searing agony left the bear spirit unable to strike accurately. A massive hand came swinging toward him, only for Shen Chang'an to dodge with deft precision.

Then his psychokinesis erupted as well, suddenly latching onto the bear’s fingernails. With a savage wrench, a series of cracking sounds rang out as Shen Chang'an ripped every nail from all five of the beast’s fingers in one breath.

Blood streamed down in rivers. The bear spirit howled in torment, but the pain had struck so deep that it could scarcely respond. Its mind was already collapsing beneath the agony.

Shen Chang'an drew a deep breath. His psychokinesis shot out like a storm of wind and rain, and only then did he realize the most terrifying aspect of the Transporting Divine Art.

Power created from nothing.

His supernatural skill was the Transporting Art among the Seventy-Two Earthly Demonic Arts, not some minor trick like the Five Ghosts Transporting Spell. In truth, the Five Ghosts Transporting Spell merely used the five nurtured ghosts to move and shift objects.

Though the ghosts were already exceedingly covert, they still left traces to follow.

And as ghostly entities, there were far too many methods to break that spell; among the many divine arts and techniques, it could only be counted as one of the lesser ones.

The Transporting Art was different. The reason it ranked among the Seventy-Two Earthly Arts, and existed as a true demonic divine art, was because its real effect was to impose a force upon an object out of thin air!

Such a method already defied the laws of physics.

And the most terrifying part of this art was that it could act upon any object Shen Chang'an wished. If he wanted to tear out an eyeball, then a force would arise from nowhere within that eyeball, and it would leap free at once!

If he wanted to carve away a piece of flesh, then he need only apply a force to that specific piece of flesh, and it would split away of its own accord.

That was the greatest difference between the Transporting Art and the Five Ghosts Transporting Spell. The latter was an external force; if one wanted to take another man’s flesh, one first had to break through his defenses. But the Transporting Art made that portion of matter itself generate a force that worked outward.

This almost entirely ignored the defenses of most flesh-and-blood bodies. If Shen Chang'an wanted to tear away someone’s flesh, then even if it were a dragon, he could simply tear it away.

Once he understood this, his thoughts burst outward like a storm, and in an instant several strands of psychic force erupted at once, seizing the bear spirit’s flesh and madly ripping it apart.

In just a moment, the bear spirit’s body had been torn nearly to pieces by his divine art, great swaths of flesh falling away.

At last, after who knew how many uses of the art, the bear spirit lay ruined and mangled on the ground, dead beyond all doubt.

Sweat had also beaded on Shen Chang'an’s brow, and his face had gone slightly pale.

The bear spirit was stronger than he was. He had relied on the divine art to tear the beast apart, but the cost had been enormous. With only a few uses, his magical power had already been drained dry.

The Transporting Art could indeed, as before, savagely shred a person’s body, but it was not without cost. Whenever Shen Chang'an focused his attention on a single piece of flesh, his magical power would be consumed at an alarming rate.

And in the process, he also forfeited his ability to defend himself; he could no longer fight as he had before, with mind and body divided.

Had the bear spirit not been in such agony that it could not struggle, it would not have been easy for Shen Chang'an to tear it apart like this.

He took a deep breath and activated the Nine Breaths Subduing Qi technique. Within nine breaths, the magical power inside him recovered by thirty percent, and he finally let out a breath of relief.

The effect of the Nine Breaths Subduing Qi divine art was astonishing indeed. In the space of only nine breaths, it could absorb a vast amount of vital energy and replenish and strengthen oneself. Used properly, it was practically another life.

After killing the black bear spirit, Shen Chang'an hurried to check the bodies of the people who had died. When he reached the last one, however, he suddenly discovered that there was no trace of deathly qi on the man’s body.

“Not dead yet?”

Shen Chang'an’s heart moved. He immediately sent in a surge of magical power, carefully nourishing the man’s body.

After a short while, the man barely managed to open his eyes. When he saw the person before him was Ye Xu, he was so startled that he nearly jumped.

“You, you are that one from before...”

Shen Chang'an gave a slight nod. “It’s me. What happened here just now?”

“Just now, just now...” The man’s face twisted with misery. After a long moment, he said, “When you left earlier, we were still holding off those ghost soldiers.

“At first, we thought we were going to die at their hands, but then a black bear spirit suddenly appeared, drove off the ghost soldiers, and afterward wanted to eat us.”

As he spoke, his words came faster and faster, and his face seemed faintly lit with a golden radiance.

Shen Chang'an’s expression darkened. The man was experiencing a final burst of vitality before death. In such a condition, there was nothing he could do. Keeping the man alive with his magical power was already an extraordinary feat.

The man seemed to sense that his time was nearly up, and suddenly seized Shen Chang'an’s wrist.

“Daoist, Daoist! I beg you, I beg you to help me...”

Shen Chang'an frowned slightly, but still said, “Tell me.”

“Help me gather my body and send it back to the village. I am from that village. Even in death, I must return to it.”

Shen Chang'an raised an eyebrow. “Where is your village?”

“Over there, not too far away. I had meant to go back and take a look, but now...”

He looked down at his ruined body and gave a bitter, desolate smile.

“Daoist Shen, you are a kind man. I beg you, please make sure my body is sent back to the village.”

Shen Chang'an nodded. “I promise you.”

At those words, a look of satisfaction appeared on the man’s face. Then his head tilted to one side, and he breathed no more.