Chapter 5096: The Truth

“Don’t worry, I’ll let you die a knowing death,” the Ox-nosed Old Daoist said before continuing on.

“Anyone can cultivate the Godsoul Formula and become stronger through it, but it takes a perfect soul in order to bring out its true potential. Since reincarnation is insufficient to attain a perfect soul, I had no choice but to resort to other means to perfect my soul. That’s the only way I can obtain a true Godsoul.

“I found that the way to perfect my soul is to find another person whose soul is close to perfection. Through nourishing that person’s soul and assimilating his soul into mine, my soul will be able to achieve true perfection. With that, I would be able to start cultivating the real Godsoul Formula,” the Ox-nosed Old Daoist said.

The gaze he directed toward Sima Xiangtu was predatory, reminiscent of a person looking at food on a chopping board.

“You laid this trap for me right from the start. The cultivation skill I have been practicing all this while was to nourish my soul and make me into the perfect cultivation resource for you to perfect your soul?” Sima Xiangtu asked with a quivering voice.

The truth was unbearable to him.

He thought that he had been playing the Ox-nosed Old Daoist like a fiddle all this while, but it turned out that he was the one who had been toyed with. From the very start, he had been nothing more than a fool.

“As expected of Xiangtu. You do have a good brain. Cultivation resource, you said? It looks like you know your place well,” the Ox-nosed Old Daoist said with a smile.

“Ox-nosed Old Daoist, you bastard! How could you be this despicable? To think that I thought of you as a brother! How can you treat me like that?!” Sima Xiangtu bellowed furiously.

He felt indignant and angry. The thought that everything he had been doing over the past few centuries had been futile left him so frustrated that he thought that he was going to lose his mind.

“Brother?”

The Ox-nosed Old Daoist chuckled softly.

“I did have an ulterior motive for approaching you, but if you did care for me as a brother, I doubt that I would have been able to bring myself to lay my hands on you. But you were so despicable that it doesn’t prick my conscience in the least to do this. I admit I did feel uneasy when I first set up my mind to do this, but the more you betrayed my goodwill and backstabbed me, the more relieved I felt.

“What can I say, Xiangtu? Your vileness didn’t hurt me in the least. Instead, it assuaged my conscience. Your ‘torture’ felt great to me too. My body never felt so refreshed before. I was able to eat and sleep whenever I liked. It has been a long while since I took such a nice break.

“Come, Xiangtu. Stand there and don’t move. Let me offer you my sincere thanks.”

The Ox-nosed Old Daoist actually lowered his back and bowed to Sima Xiangtu.

Sima Xiangtu was infuriated by the mockery, and murderous intent flared in his eyes.

“Zhuge Yuankong, you beast! I’ll kill you!” Sima Xiangtu roared.

Despite knowing that he wasn’t a match for the Ox-nosed Old Daoist, he still charged at the latter furiously. He threw a fist packed with his full strength at the Ox-nosed Old Daoist.

The Ox-nosed Old Daoist didn’t even bother to dodge.

Bam!

The strike landed squarely on the Ox-nosed Old Daoist, but it didn’t deal the slightest damage at all. The Ox-nosed Old Daoist continued smiling unfazed.

Gah!

Instead, it was Sima Xiangtu who hissed in pain. His bones were fractured, and his entire right arm was crippled under the rebound force.

“Don’t get so angry. I did compensate you for it. Didn’t I let you have your moment of triumph when you colluded with the Dao Enlightenment Sage Exalted against me? You must have felt exultant. I also allowed you to defeat and torture me as you pleased. Have you forgotten the bright smile on your face as you inflicted harm on me?

“Look, you didn’t live your life in vain. At least you had your own moments too,” the Ox-nosed Old Daoist said with a chuckle.

Sima Xiangtu burst into tears.

The Ox-nosed Old Daoist’s words stabbed into his heart like sharp venomous thorns. He thought that he had successfully schemed against the Ox-nosed Old Daoist, and he had felt gleeful about it. Yet, it turned out that he had been played like a fool all this while.

“Aiyo, why are you crying? Aren’t you ashamed to be crying at your age? Come, let me dry your tears.”

The Ox-nosed Old Daoist walked up to Sima Xiangtu, took out a handkerchief, and passed it over. Needless to say, Sima Xiangtu didn’t take the handkerchief. Instead, he cried even harder than before.

Sima Xiangtu thought of himself as an ambitious man, but the Ox-nosed Old Daoist’s words made him realize that he was just a puppet on strings. All of his pride and self-esteem crumbled altogether.

𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

“You’re already losing yourself after hearing the truth. Xiangtu, you’ve changed. You didn’t use to be this weak. I remember that you were still rather thick-skinned in the past,” the Ox-nosed Old Daoist said.

That only made Sima Xiangtu cry even harder.

The Ox-nosed Old Daoist decided to stop and watch Sima Xiangtu sob. It was almost as if this was a scene he had been anticipating all this while.

It took a while before Sima Xiangtu finally calmed down. He thought of something and raised his head to look at the Ox-nosed Old Daoist.

“Zhuge Yuankong, tell me the truth. Would I have been unable to make a breakthrough even if I assimilated those cultivators with the Immortal Cauldron?” Sima Xiangtu asked.

“That’s right. What you have been cultivating all this while wasn’t the Godsoul Formula; it’s just a way to refine your soul,” the Ox-nosed Old Daoist replied.

“Why are you only making a move on me now? If I’m nothing more than a cultivation resource to you, you could have already assimilated me a long time ago,” Sima Xiangtu said.

“I could, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to train my disciple too,” the Ox-nosed Old Daoist said.

“Train your disciple? Hahaha!”

Sima Xiangtu suddenly burst into laughter out of sheer despair. Despite all of the scheming he had done, it turned out that Zhuge Yuankong thought of him as nothing more than a tool to train his disciple.

“You wanted to squeeze out the last bit of value in me before I die? Zhuge Yuankong, you’re truly a despicable man. I admit that I have thoroughly lost to you. Kill me.”

Sima Xiangtu closed his eyes. He was ready to face death.

“You’re already giving in? Why the rush? I haven’t told you the biggest truth yet,” the Ox-nosed Old Daoist said.

“The biggest truth? What else is there to say?”

Sima Xiangtu opened his eyes and looked at the Ox-nosed Old Daoist in confusion. He thought that he had already heard everything that he had to, and he couldn’t imagine that there was anything else.

“Xiangtu, the truth is that you possess excellent talent that’s on par with me. It was the fake Godsoul Formula I gave you that limited your talent. If you have cultivated normally, you should have at least reached True God by now,” the Ox-nosed Old Daoist said.

Sima Xiangtu’s face paled at those words. His eyes glowered with a frightening gleam.

“Zhuge Yuankong, you bastard! I’ll kill you! I’ll f*cking kill you!!!”

He thought all this while that he possessed mediocre talent, and it was the Godsoul Formula that helped him rise through the ranks. Yet, the truth turned out to be the opposite of that; it was the fake Godsoul Formula that had been limiting him all this while!

He struggled so much just so that he could reach Half-God level, but the truth was that he could have been at True God level by now! How could he possibly not feel frustrated at the revelation?

And this was all because of the Ox-nosed Old Daoist’s scheming!

But this time, the Ox-nosed Old Daoist froze him in mid-air, not allowing him to get close at all.

“I wouldn’t have chosen you if you weren’t talented enough,” the Ox-nosed Old Daoist said.

Then, he walked up to Sima Xiangtu.

Pu!

Uwaaa!

Sima Xiangtu’s face contorted in pain. The Ox-nosed Old Daoist had pierced his hand through his body and was siphoning his soul. He looked at the Ox-nosed Old Daoist in indignation.

The Ox-nosed Old Daoist looked back at him with the composed and confident smile he was familiar with.

“Xiangtu, you did well. Rest in peace,” he said.

Pu!

Fresh blood splattered all around, and Sima Xiangtu’s body swiftly dried up. Then, the Ox-nosed Old Daoist pulled out his hand, revealing a bundle of light in his grasp. The bundle of light looked impeccably pure and brilliant.

It was the soul Sima Xiangtu had nourished over many years.