Chapter 129 — The Underworld God and the God of Wealth
Sea of Primordial Tribulation · Page 1 of 8
Hearing the Ox-Head underworld deity demand a treasure, Zhou Xuan instinctively tightened his grip on the God-Binding Rope inside his sleeve, terrified the Ox-Head might notice it.
Zhou Xuan had witnessed the God-Binding Rope's power for himself: the Four Great Kings, who ranked among the very strongest, had been bound fast with no chance to resist. He had only just obtained it, and it was not even warm in his hands yet—to hand it over now would be worse than carving off a piece of his own flesh. This God-Binding Rope, above all, was the finest instrument for dealing with Kunlun; unlike the Blood-Transforming Saber, which turned on its wielder at every turn, trading a thousand of the enemy for eight hundred of one's own, and unlike the God-Beating Whip, which could unleash only a fraction of its power and was utterly useless against the Kunlun rabble, numerous as ants.
Zhou Xuan's mind raced. The God-Beating Whip was hidden even more carefully in the upper reaches of his space. If this Ox-Head demanded the God-Binding Rope, then he would stake everything on the God-Beating Whip—a thing named for beating gods, and surely not named so at random. Every treasure of the Investiture of the Gods had lived up to its name. This Ox-Head was, after all, an underworld deity; mighty as he was, Zhou Xuan feared even his Dharma Body would not be a match for him, and he could only pin his hopes on the God-Beating Whip.
Within his Sumeru mustard-seed space, Zhou Xuan held absolute mastery. Though he had to divide his attention to keep the space stable, he had also masked the God-Beating Whip's magical fluctuations so thoroughly that even the Ox-Head underworld deity had detected nothing amiss.
"By all means, by all means—but first, Your Divinity, might you restrain your aura? This humble Daoist's magic is shallow, and holding this space open is a strain as it is! With Your Divinity carrying on like that, this humble Daoist is hard pressed indeed." Seeing the Ox-Head turn reasonable, Zhou Xuan immediately began to haggle. This was no great matter for the Ox-Head in any case; if the Ox-Head wanted a bribe from him, surely he would grant so small a request. And more than that, with the Ox-Head's oppressive aura withdrawn, Zhou Xuan need not fear that the God-Beating Whip, poised to strike at any moment, would be discovered.
Sure enough, just as Zhou Xuan expected, the Ox-Head underworld deity laughed heartily, his whole body giving a shake, and the oppressive force within the space vanished entirely. Yet his towering frame still gave Zhou Xuan a sense of unfathomable depth; two blood-red eyes, each the size of a bronze bell, swept up and down Zhou Xuan's body, and Zhou Xuan felt himself seen through completely.
Zhou Xuan had felt that sensation only once before, in the presence of Bai Qi within the Map of Mountains and Rivers—but Bai Qi had borne him no ill will then. This Ox-Head clearly meant him harm, as though the moment he failed to produce a treasure to the creature's satisfaction, he would strike at once, seize him in his grasp. Looking at that vast pitch-black steel fork, Zhou Xuan did not doubt for an instant that the Ox-Head underworld deity had the strength to do it.
"The boy knows the rules well enough. Who would have thought the cultivators of this age had grown so clever? Out with it, then—and don't try to fob me off with some low-grade trinket. I am a connoisseur of treasures, I'll have you know. You carry two mighty sources of magic power, one righteous and one wicked—well now, they're even fiercer than my own Seven Slaughter Underworld God Fork! I'm not a greedy one; just hand over that wicked, reeking treasure of yours, and I won't make things hard for you. You may take the woman's karmic memory and be on your way. What's one less soul, after all? When I forged this god fork, I pulled no fewer than a hundred thousand underworld souls out of the Six Paths of Reincarnation—"