In the span of a short tea break, the Monkey King and Yang Jian were already covered in blood within the Zhū Mó Mì Zhèn (Demon Quelling Secret Formation).
To pit the strength of two against the combined psychic power of the billions of Buddhist children of the Great Snow Mountain was, to some extent, an impossible task. If not for the faintly glowing golden light protecting the group emanating from the relic atop Yazi’s head, they would likely have already been pulverized.
But even the Monkey King’s relic was dimming, spiderweb cracks now marring its surface.
The ageless nun, Wuxing, grew even more delighted. Holding her prayer beads, she stood atop a crag, her robes billowing with the bearing of a grandmaster, and challenged Gu Xichen across the distance: “Is this the Venerable Heretic Dragon, Gu Xichen? Do you have the courage to enter my great formation?”
Gu Xichen rose from his bone dragon chariot, slowly stepped onto the carriage shaft, and looked down coldly at the nun Wuxing.
He let out a few cold laughs, then gave a faint, soft cry: “Old nun, I enter your great formation, you enter mine. How about we trade?”
The countless dark creatures under the command of the Nine Nethers roared in unison. A dark aura shot toward the heavens, and the boundless killing intent within the Wàn Xiān Zhèn (Myriad Immortals Formation) surged, causing a tremor in the void of Bolonimibujiaole Tian, nearly shattering it with the sheer force of the killing aura. The nun Wuxing promptly shut her mouth, no longer daring to provoke Gu Xichen. While Gu Xichen dared to venture into the Zhū Mó Mì Zhèn, the old nun lacked that courage. The older a cultivator becomes, the more they fear death; who would willingly risk an infinite lifespan?
Gazing at the silenced nun, Gu Xichen gave a few cold laughs. A gray shadow flashed above his head, swiftly vanishing as he (dùn, retreated/fled) into the Zhū Mó Mì Zhèn.
The high monks and venerable ones of the Great Snow Mountain lineage cried out in unison: “Sān Shī Yuán Shén (Three Corpses Primordial Spirit)? You have executed a corpse?”
Gu Xichen’s face remained grim, offering no reply. The one corpse he split off rushed into the Zhū Mó Mì Zhèn wreathed in rolling frigid air. It deftly evaded the two Guardian Vajras blocking the way. The colossal, hundred-mile-tall Guardian Vajra’s great demon-subduing pestle swept past Gu Xichen’s body with a deafening whoosh, yet failed to nick a single hair, instead becoming adhered to the pestle by a wisp of gray-white icy flame.
That gray shadow cried out sharply: “True Lord Erlang, Great Sage, do not panic! The Grand Yin is here!”
With two sharp sounds, the two blocking Guardian Vajras let out piercing screams as patches of Tàiyīn Xuànyán (Grand Yin Dazzling Flames) suddenly erupted on their bodies, burning their forms to pieces, quickly scattering as countless specks of gray-white cold energy in all directions. Dozens of Buddhist cultivators nearby spat blood simultaneously and collapsed; their psychic power had condensed to form these two Vajras. Now that the Vajras were incinerated by the Tàiyīn Xuànyán, it was akin to their primordial spirits being severely struck, causing them grievous injury.
Gu Xichen’s one-corpse primordial spirit, proclaiming himself the True Lord of the Grand Yin, happily carried the Tàiyīn Xuán Zhū (Grand Yin Profound Pearl) to the sides of Yang Jian and the Monkey King. From the pearl, a sprig of osmanthus suddenly extended, pouring down a sheet of cool dew that continuously healed the injuries of Yang Jian, the Monkey King, and the Eight-Headed White Ape.
The nun Wuxing snorted in anger, and the countless Buddhist children of the Great Snow Mountain roared in fury. Powerful psychic energies danced through the air, channeled by the formation into countless subsidiary guardians charging haphazardly toward Gu Xichen. The Vajras scowled, the Heavenly Kings glared, the Yakshas spun, the Rākṣasas shrieked; furthermore, the Gandharvas soared in the highest heavens, and the Nāgas coiled behind the army. All manner of exotic phenomena appeared, truly showcasing the unparalleled splendor of Buddhist divine abilities.
The Monkey King stared at these charging subsidiary guardians and suddenly burst into a sharp laugh: “These divine abilities are like hitting someone with a piece of thrice-refined divine iron! It completely disgraces Buddhist powers! Are all Buddhist techniques this crude?”
He pointed a finger, and a golden, brilliant light poured forth, instantly obliterating thousands of gracefully slender celestial maidens in front of him.
A dozen fire-wheels, fire-lances, fire-swords, and fire-blades shot down from the air, striking precisely against the Buddhist light shot out by the Monkey King. The Monkey King’s figure shook, and the light he projected was shattered into dust. Large amounts of blood spewed once more from his seven orifices.
Yang Jian rolled his eyes and sneered: “Great Sage, they aren’t using iron keys to hit people; this iron chain is just too big and too heavy. We can’t afford it!”
The Monkey King was speechless. Wasn’t that the case? The so-called Mántuōluó Bābù Zhòng Zhū Mó Mì Zhèn (Mandala Eight Divisions Demon Quelling Secret Formation) concentrated the psychic power of all the monks to fight head-on with the most brutal methods. But this formation was indeed too much for them to handle! The vast power condensed from the psychic energies of billions of Buddhist children—just thinking about it made one’s teeth ache!
The Monkey King nodded toward Yang Jian and sighed deeply: “Fine. I owe you a favor today. Since you dared to enter the formation to help this old Sun, I will remember it!”
While the True Lord of the Grand Yin had Mao E within the Tàiyīn Xuán Zhū exert magic to heal everyone, he wildly cast his hands toward the surrounding void. In the blink of an eye, countless Tàiyīn Shén Fú (Grand Yin Divine Talismans) were shot out in all directions. A hazy, gray-white cold mist enveloped everything, instantly forming an ice shell of profound ice tens of miles thick, securely enveloping the group.
Countless Vajras, Heavenly Kings, and other subsidiary guardians swarmed down, battering and bombarding the smooth, gray-white sphere of profound ice. Every strike could shatter miles of profound ice around it, showing just how strong these Vajras and guardians were. The ice relic Gu Xichen summoned was formed from the primordial ice of the Grand Yin, countless times more durable than Vajra stone, ice that took eons to form. Even ordinary Tàiyǐ Jīn Xiān (Grand Unity Golden Immortals) couldn't leave even a trace on it.
Under the hands of these eight divisions conjured by the Mántuōluó Bābù Zhòng Zhū Mó Mì Zhèn, even the ice marrow formed from the eon-old profound ice seemed like tofu being broken apart. However, the Tàiyīn Zhū held an inexhaustible supply of Grand Yin energy. For every bit of profound ice these eight divisions destroyed, an equal amount of profound ice was instantly replenished. No matter how fierce the storm of attacks, they could not touch the True Lord of the Grand Yin and his party.
Suddenly, a white light shot out from the True Lord of the Grand Yin’s hand. The Xuán Bīng Suǒ (Profound Ice Rope), transformed into a long rainbow, burst forth from the ice sphere. With a chī liū sound, it lassoed nearly a thousand Buddhist cultivators sitting cross-legged on a high mountain hundreds of miles away, binding them at the waist. The Xuán Bīng Suǒ tightened, and Tàiyīn Xuànyán sprang into existence out of thin air, instantly transforming these Buddhist cultivators into countless ice crystals that scattered away.
The Vajras and Heavenly Kings surrounding the ice sphere instantly vanished, nearly a hundred figures disappearing. The Xuán Bīng Suǒ, like a greedy giant python, swept everywhere. Within a radius of ten thousand miles, mountains and cliffs were under its threat. Several Buddhist cultivators were swept up by the Xuán Bīng Suǒ and disintegrated. The cultivators nearby and far off immediately lost their composure, shouting in alarm and fleeing toward the distance.
A small section of the Zhū Mó Mì Zhèn fell into chaos. The nun Wuxing and others were enraged. They quickly mobilized the formation. High above the formation, the Sun Palace Heavenly Emperor, one of the Twenty Guardian Heavens housed in the colossal pagoda, issued a low reprimand. Wreathed in the fierce flames of the Wine Heaven, he leaped forth from the great formation.
The Sun Palace Heavenly Emperor was entirely enveloped in crimson flames. While still in mid-air, he drew his golden bow and shot three pillars of fire like thunder toward the Xuán Bīng Suǒ. The Xuán Bīng Suǒ moved agilely like a spiritual snake; how could it be struck by the Sun Palace Heavenly Emperor’s attack? The astonishing white rainbow merely flickered in the void, evading the three pillars of fire radiating intense heat.
Three loud bangs echoed. The Ice Rope evaded the Sun Palace Heavenly Emperor’s attack, but the sphere of profound ice summoned by the True Lord of the Grand Yin was struck dead center.
The profound ice sphere, tens of miles thick, shattered with a roar. Countless shards of profound ice vaporized into rolling white mist amidst the flames. Three silver arrows, wrapped in fire pillars, shot forth with mournful whistles, aiming directly for the mouths of the True Lord of the Grand Yin, Yang Jian, and the Monkey King.
The True Lord of the Grand Yin let out a long cry, gazing at the Sun Palace Heavenly Emperor and coldly sneering: “If the true Sun Deity were here, this lord might fear you by three parts. But an effigy condensed purely from psychic power…”
Five-colored rosy clouds burst forth beside the True Lord of the Grand Yin. The Five Direction Flags emitted five-colored lotus flowers, surrounding and protecting the group.
The three silver arrows sped toward them, and countless lotus flowers fell, but against the foremost defensive treasure in the Three Realms, the Sun Palace Heavenly Emperor’s attack proved futile. After piercing several layers of auspicious light and radiant energy, they dissolved into specks of silver light rain.
The Tàiyīn Xuán Zhū in Gu Xichen’s hand suddenly shot into the sky. Innumerable streams of four-colored sword energy sprayed out like rain from the pearl.
In the Grand Yin space, the Corpse Emperor, standing ten thousand feet tall, sat cross-legged upon the Zhū Xiān Zhèn Tú (Immortal Slaying Formation Diagram). The Four Immortal Slaying Swords circled him rapidly. Vast amounts of Grand Yin energy poured into his body, continuously transforming into streams of Yin lightning that bombarded the Four Swords. With every tremor of the Four Swords, great swathes of sword energy erupted, passing through the Grand Yin space to become four-colored sword light sweeping toward the surrounding subsidiary guardians of the Eight Divisions.
The sword energy swept across heaven and earth, covering a million square miles. Countless subsidiary guardians condensed from psychic power exploded mid-air, unable to withstand the might of the Immortal Slaying sword energy.
With the Five Direction Flags, whose defense was renowned as the strongest in the Three Realms, and the Immortal Slaying Sword Formation, equally renowned as the strongest in offense, the True Lord of the Grand Yin and his party laughed as they flew out of the Zhū Mó Mì Zhèn. All subsidiary guardians condensed from psychic power along the route were utterly annihilated. Millions of Buddhist cultivators of the Great Snow Mountain lineage spat blood and collapsed onto the ground as their psychic power was broken.
The nun Wuxing’s face darkened enough to scrape frost from it. She stomped her foot heavily, and a flash of golden light suddenly flickered in her eyes.
The Sun Palace Heavenly Emperor, holding his golden bow aloft, suddenly transformed into a streak of red light and pursued the True Lord of the Grand Yin. The speed of Buddhist psychic power was renowned as the fastest in the Three Realms; wherever a thought reached, the psychic power instantly arrived. The Sun Palace Heavenly Emperor appeared almost instantaneously behind the True Lord of the Grand Yin. The Emperor, normally of regular human stature, rapidly swelled to ten thousand miles tall, then compressed swiftly back to normal human size before exploding. The Sun Palace Heavenly Emperor, having concentrated the psychic power of no small number of Great Snow Mountain disciples, self-detonated right behind them. Even with the protection of the Five Direction Flags, the True Lord of the Grand Yin, Yang Jian, and the Monkey King were all shaken into spitting blood. The five-colored lotuses fell like leaves in autumn wind, dissolving into countless strands of light rain that plummeted to the ground. Layers of five-colored radiance rose up only to be shattered layer by layer, blown to pieces by the red light generated by the Sun Palace Heavenly Emperor’s self-detonation.
The self-detonation of the Sun Palace Heavenly Emperor sent a crimson shockwave sweeping across an area of hundreds of millions of square miles. The Great Snow Mountain, protected by the Zhū Mó Mì Zhèn, remained unharmed. The armies of the Nine Nethers, forming their own Wàn Xiān Zhèn and the Tiān Luó Dì Wǎng Dà Zhèn (Heavenly Net Great Formation), although tens of millions of outer disciples suffered severe shock and spat blood, suffered few fatalities.
But in other directions, the red shockwave raged, slicing through mountains and cleaving peaks. Countless famous mountains and rivers were torn to shreds. Within the forests, innumerable birds, insects, fish, and fowl were instantly pulverized. For a time, boundless resentment ascended between heaven and earth. The number of innocent lives killed by this self-detonation was surely in the billions?
The nun Wuxing’s gaze suddenly glazed over. The killing of so many innocent lives was caused by her willful command for the Sun Palace Heavenly Emperor to self-destruct. Karmic retribution descended from the Heavenly Dao, ninety percent of which concentrated upon the old nun.
Karma was an invisible thing in peacetime, but once entangled by it, inner demons would gradually invade. Even those with unparalleled intelligence could not avoid engaging in acts of mad arrogance and rebellion, their actions barely distinguishable from those of a lunatic.
The nun Wuxing was in this very state. Billions of innocent lives had perished, and ninety percent of the karma focused on her alone. Even though she was a high monk of the Buddhist sect, her heart had long been cultivated to be harder than steel; this time, the fiend induced by the karma invaded her mind, causing subtle shifts in her thoughts.
Her body trembled violently. The nun Wuxing pointed at Gu Xichen and roared in anger: “Demon! You have slain so many innocent beings, do you not fear heavenly punishment?”
Turning her face, she shifted all the blame onto Gu Xichen, and the nun Wuxing cried out to the heavens: “Fellow Buddhist friends! Today we subdue demons and eliminate evil; our merit is immeasurable!”
Chants of “Námó Āmítuófó” echoed across heaven and earth. Countless Buddhist cultivators of the Recurrent Swan Great Snow Mountain chanted the Buddha’s name in unison. Above the head of every Buddhist cultivator hung a relic, and they unleashed all their psychic power without reservation, condensing it entirely onto the Zhū Mó Mì Zhèn.
On the colossal pagoda, the Sun Palace Heavenly Emperor, previously destroyed, reformed, and his form was even larger than before, his surrounding flames fiercer.
Starting with the Great Brahmā, all twenty guardian heavens condensed from psychic power leaped down from the pagoda together, treading on golden clouds as they slowly advanced upon the Nine Nethers army. Behind them, immeasurable hosts of Yakshas, Rākṣasas, and other deities materialized their true forms in the void, also slowly pressing forward.
The nun Wuxing and a dozen other old monks and nuns simultaneously chanted the Buddha’s name. A fissure suddenly split open above their heads, and varying numbers of relics emerged from their crowns, transforming into Jiàng Mó Mǐ Chuáng (Demon Subduing Rice Banners) and relic treasures that covered the entire area…
All the Buddhist cultivators of the Recurrent Swan Great Snow Mountain tightly closed their eyes. Their minds were immersed deep within their inherent nature; they had no thoughts, no awareness, no fear. They only provided vast, unparalleled psychic power, handing control of that power over to the dozen Buddhist leaders, including the nun Wuxing.
The Buddhist cultivators on both sides of the Great Snow Mountain merged into a single entity. All the spirit veins beneath the mountain ranges of the Great Snow Mountain solidified into one. All the mountain stones transformed into a swirling mass of golden light. The Buddhist cultivators holding the Jiāng Mó Chán Dìng Fǎyìn (Demon Subduing Meditation Mudra) merged their forms with the rock. The entire Recurrent Swan Great Snow Mountain had transformed into an indestructible Vajra relic of Buddhism; those subsidiary guardians of the Eight Divisions were merely the outward guise of this Buddhist relic.
Although all the Buddhist cultivators kept their lips tightly sealed, a resonant Sanskrit chant still rose in the void. Gradually, the bodies of all the Buddhist cultivators simultaneously emitted golden light, merging with the mountain snow that also radiated boundless golden radiance.
The nun Wuxing formed a lotus mudra with both hands and lightly waved them forward.
The Great Brahmā, possessing four arms and six faces, let out a low laugh. All six arms waved simultaneously, stirring up a massive influx of worldly spiritual energy—earth, water, fire, and wind—and smashed it down upon the Nine Nethers array led by Gu Xichen. The Great Brahmā, who stood a million miles high, gathered the psychic power of billions of Buddhist children; when these six arms moved, it was as if six celestial pillars were collapsing, shattering the void in all directions.
Even the three old monks atop the small island on the back of the Great Turtle in the Abyss of No Return could not help but nod in appreciation, acknowledging that this divine ability held some merit!
Such terrifying, world-destroying divine ability was merely considered "having some merit" in the mouths of these three old monks!
The old monk Langyue mocked: “The profound mysteries of our Buddhist methods are subtle and refined, yet now they resort to brute force to win, just like a village brute beating iron. Such younger generations truly disgrace our Buddhist path!”
The terrifying torrent raised by the Great Brahmā crashed down violently upon the Nine Nethers army. In the Wàn Xiān Zhèn formed by countless dark creatures, a mass of black energy, viscous as ink and carrying bone-chillingly cold winds, shot up to meet it.
The cultivation of the Buddhist cultivators of the Recurrent Swan Great Snow Mountain was far stronger than that of the dark creatures. However, the Nine Nethers possessed the advantage of sheer numbers; the Great Brahmā was but one of the Twenty Guardian Heavens, while all the dark creatures in the Wàn Xiān Zhèn were focusing their full strength to meet the enemy.
Heaven and earth suddenly darkened, and the surroundings fell silent, without a single sound.
The anomaly lasted for the span of a meal. When light returned to the world and people could hear sounds again, more than half of the Great Brahmā’s body had been blown apart. He staggered, attempting to pull himself up from the ground. The dark creatures forming the Wàn Xiān Zhèn were mangled and decimated. As far as the eye could see, the formation was filled with shattered dark creatures, their thick, dark blood pooling on the ground to form several small lakes.
Gu Xichen’s gaze sharpened. He glanced at the tens of millions of casualties among the dark creatures, then merely nodded coldly: “The tribes that suffered the heaviest losses will receive priority in receiving star power upon returning to the Spiral Star Domain to illuminate their territories.”
Staring coldly at the advancing Twenty Heavens, Gu Xichen, no longer moved by the casualties among his subordinates, merely gave a cold laugh.
“Old nun, do not blame me for being too ruthless!”
With a wave of his hand, countless figures shot out from the Wàn Xiān Zhèn on swords. Identical faces, identical heights, identical cultivation levels. These were the first batch of Immortals cloned by the secret laboratory of the Earth Federation!
As soon as they appeared, these clone Immortals began to burn everything they possessed—essence blood, primordial spirit, anything that could burn—with wild abandon. Once they left the Wàn Xiān Zhèn, these clone Immortals uniformly swallowed a secret Demonic Path elixir that could temporarily enhance their cultivation tenfold but cause severe damage to their Dao foundation.
The clone Immortals, their cultivation suddenly increased tenfold, rushed into the Recurrent Swan Great Snow Mountain, moving at maximum speed toward the peaks of nearby high mountains.
The nun Wuxing cried out, sensing something was wrong, and prepared to recall the subsidiary guardians of the Eight Divisions currently charging the Nine Nethers army to provide reinforcement.
But was it too late? These crazed clone Immortals were still tens of miles away from those high mountain peaks when they smiled and self-detonated.
Self-detonating completely, from flesh to primordial spirit, leaving absolutely no room for retreat, exploding every single speck of immortal power within their bodies—a full one million Heavenly Immortals and one hundred thousand Golden Immortals self-detonated before the stunned and disbelieving eyes of the nun Wuxing and the other Buddhist leaders.
The Buddhist cultivators closest to the Nine Nethers army, seated atop those thousands of high mountains, immediately suffered heavy blows. The close-range self-detonation of over a million Immortals, who even burned their primordial spirits simply to kill the enemy, possessed terrifying power, blowing the mountains apart and shattering all the Buddhist cultivators on them.
Gu Xichen lost over a million Immortals, and the Buddhist cultivators lost over one hundred thousand.
The loss of one hundred thousand was less than what the Monkey King had wiped out in a single charge earlier, but this was the critical juncture when the entire Zhū Mó Mì Zhèn was operating at full capacity, a moment when all the psychic power of every Buddhist cultivator was merged into one—a true situation where pulling one thread moves the whole garment.
Ten thousand gaps suddenly appeared in a perfectly integrated whole, like missing teeth on a meticulously operating gear assembly. The system immediately triggered a chain reaction, leading to an uncontrollable change. The golden bodies of the guardian heavens condensed in the void simultaneously shattered. The nun Wuxing and her party spat blood in unison. All Buddhist cultivators of the Recurrent Swan Great Snow Mountain lineage spat blood simultaneously. The Mántuōluó Bābù Zhòng Zhū Mó Mì Zhèn was broken without a fight, completely shattered into dust.
Gu Xichen glanced once more at the heavily damaged dark creatures, then casually pointed a finger toward the Great Snow Mountain.
“Charge in! Kill anyone who dares to resist!”
Taking a deep breath, Gu Xichen looked upon the Great Snow Mountain, its true form revealed beneath the golden haze. A wave of emotion suddenly surged in his heart.
“I have arrived, Fuya.” (To be continued)