Cling!
The clear ring of a bell echoed out, rendering all silent as if it had drained away all sounds. That was the silence and speechlessness of death.
Clang!
The bell shook again, and the clear ring was immediately shattered, becoming extremely disorderly and raucous.
The demonfolk army began to move restlessly. The sounds of the bell constantly entered their ears, but it rang out in their hearts.
The restless feelings of desire, the unforgettable feelings of regret, anger, loss, loneliness, fear… They all began whispering away, and as the sound of the bell rippled, they grew greater and greater, louder and louder, roaring away and clashing endlessly.
This was the confusion and noisiness of life.
Between life and death, there were great horrors and great confusion, just to confuse and stir the soul!
Xiao An wielded the Soul Stirring Bell frantically as she chanted away, possessing both the obscure cries of dragons and the stern decrees of vinaya. It merged with the ringing, making it even messier.
Her silence earlier was not just to control the Skull Prayer Beads in a long-range battle, but also to balance the buddhist and the demonic so that she could push the power of the Soul Stirring Bell to the limit.
Most of the demon army were still regular demonfolk, so they immediately fell into disorder, beginning to tear one another apart. Even the Demon Generals felt restless, tempted to start a massacre. The Demon Commanders could still maintain their rationality, but they were not enough to maintain the formation.
The Demon Kings were unaffected, but they did not possess the authority to command the army at all. This was an army that only belonged to Battle Demon Hun.
With the military formation in shambles, they immediately lost their unity, and the colossal battle demon began to blur. Battle Demon Hun’s face changed, and he immediately became overwhelmed with killing intent.
Li Qingshan was overjoyed inside. This was basically a weapon of mass destruction. Sure enough, Xiao An was still the reliable one!
The huge sword that had sliced through the Scarlet Dragon King swept through the air, churning up the demon qi and slashing towards Xiao An.
Xiao An completely ignored it. She did not even budge. She focused on the Soul Stirring Bell as her blueish-white robes drifted in the wind.
A bloody moon rose up into the sky, and Li Qingshan cut through the sword in a single stroke, guarding Xiao An’s side. He swung his blade towards Battle Demon Hun. “Your enemy is me!”
Battle Demon Hun suddenly let out a furious roar. The colossal battle demon behind him spread its arms and let out a terrifying war cry, immediately weakening the sounds of the bell. The demonfolk all recovered from the chaos.
……
The Clear River prefecture.
The sunlight illuminated the devastated ground, giving it a layer of warmth. The Golden Cicada Spirit King gazed at the sky blankly as the cicada wings on his back rippled magnificently in the light.
Li Qingshan was rather stunned too. Had he failed the tribulation? After all, if he succeeded with the tribulation, then he could no longer reside in this world. Since he had not ascended successfully, then it meant failure.
However, something like this rarely ever happened. Facing the heavenly tribulation was often a battle between life and death. Success was climbing to a greater height, while failure was absolute devastation. Normally, only with the first heavenly tribulation was there a chance to fail and still survive, and the chances of that were already extremely slim. The injuries resulting from that would often be enough to sever their path of cultivation.
Never had he heard of an example of failing a heavenly tribulation of ascension and still surviving. On top of that, the Golden Cicada Spirit King’s cultivation had clearly increased, only a step away from ascension. Not only was he unharmed, but he had even benefited from it, which was unbelievable.
Gu Yanying could vaguely guess the reason for this. The heavenly tribulation was already approaching its end in the first place. The Soaring Locust King had sent countless clones that bore his aura into the lightning at first, while his main body had died in the lightning in the very end. Coupled with the fact that his own strength was extremely close to undergoing the tribulation, he misled the heavenly tribulation into believing the person facing the tribulation was already dead.
There were far too many obscure strokes of fortunes and coincidences involved that led to this end result, which made her sigh. The Soaring Locust King devoted himself to stopping the Golden Cicada Spirit King from undergoing the heavenly tribulation, even going to such great lengths, only to endure the horrific price of failing the tribulation in place of the Golden Cicada Spirit King in the end.
Jin Fugui and Yue Wuyang both eased up. Regardless of the result, at least they had dealt with a great problem of the Green province. This fell under their responsibilities as the Gold Hawk commander and the Great General King.
Suddenly, they remembered the scene that the Soaring Locust King had shown in the beginning and asked Li Qingshan in a hurry, “How’s the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga?”
“The Demon Suppression hall has been destroyed, and the demon cavern has been opened up. The Demon domain has launched a large-scale invasion, and a million-strong army is already making their way over. I’m going back right now to provide support. If you’re interested, you can take a look with me.”
Li Qingshan glanced at the Golden Cicada Spirit King. Even this piece of news could not get a response out of him; instead, he continued to stare at the sky blankly. Li Qingshan felt some pity inside. If he could help out, he would definitely be an extremely powerful ally. After all, it was very likely for him to possess the highest cultivation across the nine provinces right now, wedged between Daemon King and Daemon Emperor.
However, it was best if he did not disturb him right now!
As a result, he extended his hand and allowed the string of Skull Prayer Beads to wrap around his wrist. He unfurled his wings and sailed off.
“First father’s clone, wait for me!” The little phoenix chased after him.
“Why do you call me first father’s clone?” Li Qingshan shot a glance at him.
“Is there something wrong with that?”
“Don’t follow me. You haven’t even undergone the third heavenly tribulation, so what’re you getting involved for? Go play with your younger sister!” Li Qingshan ordered.
The little phoenix was reluctant, but he refused to talk back to Li Qingshan, even if it was just his “first father’s clone”. All he could do was turn around and fly off.
The sound of wind reached his ears, and Li Qingshan glanced back. Gu Yanying had caught up with him, travelling beside him. She smiled. “How can I not get involved with something like this?”
“Yeah, but be careful. This battle is extremely dangerous!” Li Qingshan warned sternly. Even great cultivators could not necessarily protect themselves in a war like this.
“Thank you for your concern,” Gu Yanying said.
“I think I’m over-worrying. Given your ability to make decisions on a whim and to conserve strength, it’ll only be strange if you face any danger.” Li Qingshan smiled.
“Please don’t describe me in such a horrible way. After all, I’ve helped you several times in the past!” Gu Yanying said.
“Yes, yes, yes, I will never forget commander Gu’s great kindness!” Li Qingshan joked. He suddenly felt the Skull Prayer Beads around his wrist tighten. Yeah, the situation with the battle was critical. It really was not time to joke around.
Gu Yanying let out a laugh and accelerated, speeding off into the distance.
Hearing what Li Qingshan said, Jin Fugui and Yue Wuyang were both grim as well, exchanging glances and feeling slightly pained inside. Dealing with a Soaring Locust King alone had been so difficult. They had just put out the locust plague, and now, a demon plague had come, and it was even more dangerous than the locust plague. The Green province sure faced a lot of disasters.
It was a mystery how they would respond if they learnt about the Myriad Ghosts abyss’ current situation and the army from the Kingdom of Yue that was gradually pressing closer.
“Are we going?” Jin Fugui let out a sigh and asked Yue Wuyang.
“We are!” Yue Wuyang said firmly. As someone from the school of the Military, how could he shirk away from a battle?
“The Hell realm is nowhere near as fun as the Asura realm,” said Jin Fugui. The position of Gold Hawk commander that Great Xia had granted him was not worth taking a risk like that.
“I’m not telling you to go.”
“Even you’re going, so how can I not go?”
“Travel a little more slowly and catch your breath!” A smile also appeared on Yue Wuyang’s solemn face.
In the blink of an eye, only Lolth remained there. She gazed at the Golden Cicada Spirit King and faltered before returning underground without saying a single word.
Suddenly, everyone heard the cries of cicadas, making them look back. The cicada cries bore some similarity to the Chant of Deva-Nāga, except it was also vastly different at the same time. It was much more wondrous, tremendous like singing at the top of his lungs, completely filling the world.
There were no ingenious, profound buddhist truths, only unspeakable sorrow.
It was a sombre song of grief!
The cries grew greater and greater, louder and louder, virtually surpassing what could be heard.
A streak of golden light rose up into the horizon, shooting over everyone’s heads at an extremely great speed, heading right towards Great Buddha mountain.
