The shout was like a thunder! Gopaka!
Thousands of golden light beams suddenly erupted from the crystal ore cave. A glossy golden giant arhat statue dropped down from the sky and abruptly landed on Tian Yin’s head! At the same time, a zen chant sounded from the jade knife with a flowing rhythm. The buddhaghosa of ‘prajna paramit’ drowned the entire ore cave like crashing waves from a raging sea!
Tian Yin had always been keeping his guard up against Guo Huan’s self-destructing Demon Body Breaking Spell, but nobody would have thought that the one who activated his magical powers was the other primordial soul who was out cold within the jade knife. What surprised the others even more was that the primordial soul was Taoist priest San Wei, but the magical power he activated was the prized Buddhist magic art.
Gopaka (a name) was one of the nine hundred arhats who resided on Mount Kailash. He was one of the Sixteen Arhats who kept the peace. The Sixteen Arhats had been ordered by Buddha to not enter nirvana but stay in the mortal world for eternity!
The arhat’s golden body arrived with a boom. It had already slammed Tian Yin under itself since its appearance. Tian Yin did not even have the chance to crush the jade knife. In his haste, he threw the jade knife away and pushed upwards with all his might. He wanted to push this arhat as heavy as Mount Tai away. Unexpectedly, when he had just activated his life vitality God’s power, suddenly, a soft ‘pop’ was heard and the base of the arhat shattered. The entire arhat statue was like a jacket, envelopingTian Yin within itself.
Currently, the jade knife had not even touched the ground yet nor did Guo Huan had the time to laugh out loud. The golden-bodied arhat shook violently and cracks upon cracks appeared on its body in an instant. It cracked and healed. Then, the face of Gopaka’s golden body strangely transformed into Tian Yin!
The zen chant of ‘prajna paramit’ did not stop but there was a touch of anxiety in the tone. Tian Yin’s laughed villainously with a ferocious and furious face. His body which was still enveloped in the golden arhat shook clumsily. Then, he extended one arm and strenuously reached for the jade knife which was still flipping in mid-air.
The golden-bodied arhat seemed to be destroyed by Tian Yin. Lines of mottled cracks erupted and expanded. The speed of its recovery obviously could not keep up with the power of Tian Yin’s struggle!
At this moment, Wen Leyang finally gave in to the firecrackers’ invasion. He quickly opened his mouth and spat out You’ve Got Me fiercely. He saw ‘You’ve Got Me’ making a beautiful return arc in mid-air because it was unwilling to leave its master and he scolded, “Scram! Save yourself…” His voice barely faded when his mouth suddenly felt cold. A ‘firecracker’, which was the equivalent of at least shoe size fifty-four, curled itself and crawled into his mouth!
‘You’ve Got Me’ wailed and its little body leaped up. It did a somersault in mid-air, the bristles on its body stood up. Amidst the shrill howl that almost made itself cough blood, it mercilessly pounced on Tian Yin’s face! ‘You’ve Got Me’ was mentally connected with Wen Leyang. It understood that its master would not die after being controlled by the bugs, but if Tian Yin did not die, Wen Leyang could never live.
A pure silver giant tide rose suddenly among the bug tide and chased after ‘You’ve Got Me’! Water and fire inter-restricted each other, their nature was irreconcilable. The ‘firecrackers’ had chased after Wen Leyang relentlessly partly because ‘You’ve Got Me’ was hiding inside Wen Leyang’s mouth.
Cone Nail also seized this opportunity to attack. Amidst the flapping of her sleeves, her thin frame was wrapped in an unprecedented air as she pounced towards Tian Yin almost in unison with ‘You’ve Got Me’…
San Wei’s primordial soul had suddenly attacked and Gopaka had appeared. Tian Yin was sealed by the arhat’s golden body but managed to transformed its face as he broke out of the cocoon. ‘You’ve Got Me’ was spat out. Cone Nail suddenly attacked. The bug tide rolled. Everything happened in the blink of an eye. The jade knife only fell to the ground with a pleasing clank after the wave caused by the bug tide covered Tian Yin, who was inside the arhat’s golden body, Cone Nail, ‘You’ve Got Me’ and the eight living dead. Almost at the same time, a muffled loud explosion shot towards the sky from Wen Leyang’s mouth!
The size fifty-four firecracker had flattened its head and crawled into Wen Leyang’s mouth. Wen Leyang did not have time to think about how gross it was as he reflexively shut his mouth with all his might. The scattered Poison of Life and Death managed to turn, although its power of poison was not much, it unexpectedly imploded the bug within his mouth.
The Poison of Life and Death was the Chaos within the five elements poison. It was the great ancestor of all toxins. Although the water element poison of the firecracker was thick, it did not have any grounds for retaliation under the Poison of Life and Death.
However, Wen Leyang had understood then, why these bugs were called ‘firecrackers’ and not bangers…
The explosion led to a series of explosions. In the bug tide where everyone was in harmony, the explosion of one bug affected the other bugs like firecrackers. In no time, the entire bug tide erupted!
Once the firecrackers exploded, not only was the sound terrifying, what made it worse was that they would release the utmost water element poison, which they had accumulated throughout their lives.
In the blink of an eye, all hell broke loose in the ore cave.
Other than the jade knife, the bug tide had enveloped everybody else. With the loud explosions, the bug tide had turned into a real poison tide. It was an utmost cold and pure poison tide of the water element.
Amidst the explosions, a clear and pleasant but wild and gallant laugh and a hysterical scream intertwined with each other. Suddenly, a monster, which was rotten beyond recognition, struggled to escape the poison tide. It squalled with a voice that was uncertain if it was a wail or a furious howl and stumbled as it escaped towards the exit of the ore cave!
A brief moment later, a weak young lady, who made one’s heart shudder, stood up from the poison tide with a genuine happiness. She staggered as she walked before Wen Leyang and smiled with bright eyes.
Cone Nail was originally the embodiment of heavenly water. Even if the ‘firecrackers’ released more Poison of Water, they could not harm her.
However, this was not the case for Tian Yin. Before the firecrackers grew up, they did not need much effort to kill a cultivator with poison. Now, not only had they grown bigger, their toxicity had also increased greatly. In addition to that, several thousands of them had gathered together. Whether it was Tian Yin’s body or peerless demon immortals like Hanba and Chang Li would not have been able to withstand a poison as pure and strong such as this!
Tian Yin’s dharmakaya was heavily wounded. If it died, the true soul could exit the body and possess another one but there were only two others before him. One of them had poor cultivation base by Xiang Liu’s standards, the other was gravely injured and on the brink of death. The jade knife could accommodate a soul but even a fool would not consider that abode. The true soul had pondered and felt that even the heavily wounded Tian Yin’s dharmakaya was much better than these few people. That was why Tian Yin activated his life vitality to nullify the poison and escaped.
If one were to look upon the world, those who had a quality that contested Tian Yin’s body, other than the near-dead Cone Nail and badly injured Guo Huan, there was only the cat demon Chang Li. It was only natural that the true soul would hate to part with such a rare body.
As for the eight living dead who bore the ‘ingredients’, they did not even have the chance to struggle before their bodies were destroyed by the utmost water element poison.
Weakness was written all over Cone Nail’s face but her gaze was bright and joyful. She stood before Wen Leyang and carefully opened her fist…
‘You’ve Got Me’ was stunned. It coiled up within Cone Nail’s fair and delicate palm and shivered…’You’ve Got Me’ could not summon the erratic Molten Metal Fire Bell but it unintentionally led the bug tide towards Tian Yin, who struggled to break free of the arhat’s golden body shackles. Then, Wen Leyang ‘pulled the string’ and the bug tide exploded.
The bug tide had turned into a crashing wave of Poison of Water in the blink of an eye. It sent Tian Yin running and killed eight living dead with poison. The initially scattered Poison of Life and Death within Wen Leyang’s body was suddenly active. It was like a group of earthworms that was almost dehydrated to death but was finally blessed with pouring rain, it swam out as it waged its head and tail and started to greedily gobble up the Poison of Water which invaded his body.
The Poison of Water had substance but had no form. It flowed lightly and noiselessly after it erupted. It treated Wen Leyang like the toilet’s funnel as it surged towards him with great momentum.
The extremely familiar heavy feeling which left a deep impression on Wen Leyang became clearer and clearer. An immense pressure flowed from the Poison of Water’s envelope, making him hard to move. However, the Poison of Life and Death cheered and leaped as it flowed rapidly among his tendons and bones. It rushed out of every corner of his body and formed a great torrent in the blink of an eye. It absorbed and assimilated the Poison of Life and Death wildly.
A great calamity had turned into an unexpected happiness. The few thousand ‘firecrackers’ had expanded and ate the crystal. The Poison of Water in the bugs did not increase in purity and strength but the volume of the poison increased tremendously. This strange poison was more majestic than the Poison of Earth and Poison of Metal, which he had absorbed before. If his body was not remolded by the Poison of Life and Death and the force of Yin and Yang, his body would not have been able to withstand this monstrous Poison of Water.
The Poison of Life and Death howled and swirled. Wen Leyang’s stamina was restored in the blink of an eye following the assimilation of the Poison of Water.
Only a fraction of the Poison of Water outside Wen Leyang’s body had been assimilated. The other poison still surged and flowed in great force, firmly shackling him. He could hardly move his body but his mind was clear. His eyes lit up when he saw that ‘You’ve Got Me’ was also miraculously alive, curling into a ball out of fear within that fair and delicate palm. The red and white contrasted finely with each other.
Cone Nail’s satisfaction was full of naivete. She was not afraid of the Poison of Water by nature. She stood beside Wen Leyang and smiled clearly, “I’ve saved your bug, how will you thank me…” She had not finished when the word ‘me’ turned into a muffled ‘wah’. A mouthful of bright red fresh blood spurted out of her mouth without warning and sprayed onto Wen Leyang’s face!
Cone Nail’s body went askance and she fell limp beside Wen Leyang but her palm was still held high. She propped ‘You’ve Got Me’ up in mid-air and did not let it drop into the Poison of Water.
Even under the immense pressure of Poison of Water invading his body, Wen Leyang could not restrain himself but growled hoarsely, his gaze was anxious and helpless.
“Young lad, she’s dying!” Guo Huan’s voice was still so rigid, but it had a slightly anxious tone to it right now. “She’s already an arrow at the end of its flight and she had taken a blow when she attacked Tian Yin just now! If you want to save her life, you must find the heavenly water spirit and return here!” His voice barely faded when a stifling long howl suddenly sounded from the thirty-six thousand pores on Wen Leyang’s body.
Wen Leyang’s eyes were bloodshot and his whole body shivered. He was like a hatchling that was desperately trying to break free of the shackles of the eggshell, he used all his energy and stood up but still looked powerless. Under the terrifying pressure of the Poison of Water, he slowly walked towards the depths of the ore cave.
He walked very slowly. He looked as if he would fall down at any moment. The angle at which his body slanted put his eyes a few feet from the ground! When he moved, the Poison of Water that had just calmed down a little would surge and roll again. The raging poison waves roared and beat on the surrounding crystal rock walls. One particularly huge wave surged and wiped the four big words ‘Thirteen Shall Not Pass’ from the wall with a loud muffled bang!
Every step he took seemed like the end of the world. Wen Leyang could not even say a word. He could only make muffled moans from his throat. He vanished at a turn in the ore cave from Cone Nail’s tear-filled eyes.
The roar of the surging Poison of Water was further and further away. Finally, it vanished with Wen Leyang’s departure. The ore cave was once again enveloped in silence. Cone Nail sighed as she shuddered. Her arm went limp, she could no longer prop ‘You’ve Got Me’ up as it fell softly beside her.
The Poison of Water had left. ‘You’ve Got Me’ tried to calm its frightened self, but it missed its master and took pity on but was afraid of Cone Nail who saved it. He went around in circles in frustration. Occasionally, it spiked up its barbs and poked the living dead’s bodies to vent its anger.
At this moment, Guo Huan’s voice sounded again, “Hey ugly, you won’t die yet, right?”
San Wei’s primordial soul’s voice was tired and aged, his voice was so dry it made people suffocate, “Living or dead, it’s all the same…” He had not finished when his voice went hoarse. It was obvious that it took a lot from him when he activated his magical powers.
If the primordial souls of San Wei and Guo Huan, which resided within the jade knife, had bodies of their own, their abilities should be on par with the peerless demon immortals such as Cone Nail, Chang Li and Hanba. Tian Yin had obtained Tian Shu’s and Tian Hua’s life vitality force by trickery, his cultivation base must have been a tad higher than Chang Li and the others. However, among these peerless people, if they did not have a proper fight, it would be hard to say which one of them was stronger.
San Wei did not have a body, he activated his magical powers using his primordial spirit. The power was slightly inferior, but even so, it had caused Tian Yin a great loss as he was caught off guard.
San Wei was continuously tortured by the body which the Wicked Soul had left behind for more than a thousand years. His life’s biggest wish was to kill the Wicked Soul in order to cleanse his dharmakaya of the Foulness and evil energy. He was extremely familiar with Xiang Liu’s aura. That was why he had woken up the moment Tian Yin showed up. He had been in a deep slumber all this while and his primordial soul had the chance to recover. Hence, he could directly activate his magical power without having to use ‘Demon Body Breaking Spell’. Guo Huan and San Wei lived in the same dorm. Guo Huan knew that San Wei had already woken up. Hence, Guo Huan distracted Tian Yin to create an opportunity for San Wei to attack.
San Wei’s primordial soul had just activated his magical powers. He was now exhausted and was adjusting his breath to cultivate himself. Guo Huan initially had a question, but he had to let it go for now.
Wen Leyang took step after step towards the depths of the ore cave. His feelings could only be described with one word. Mountain!
There was a huge mountain before him. He could not dig through it nor could he pass it. He could only push the mountain with his hands if he wanted to advance forward! There was a huge mountain on top of his head which made him unable to straighten his back and lift his head, he could only use the entire strength of his abdomen to not let himself fall down! There was also a huge mountain behind him. He could not shake it off nor could he escape. He could only tow the mountain along as he advanced with his feet!
The Poison of Life and Death absorbed the poison of the utmost five elements, then assimilated them to turn it into Wen Leyang’s own strength. However, this process was not completed in one stroke, he had to take it slow if the power of poison was vast. When he first absorbed the Ground-Breaking Toad Xiu Er’s Poison of Earth at the Miao stockade village, Wen Leyang could not move for almost a whole year. A few years went by with the flick of a finger, he also absorbed Poison of Metal, the force of Yin and Yang of the Yin Army and the Buddhist prayer bead and the Wen family’s hundreds of poisons. Besides, his body was remolded after the poison veins, the force of Life and Death within his body could not be equated with what he had then.
When the water rose, the boat rose with it. The force of his Poison of Life and Death was great but the Poison of Water of the few thousand ‘firecrackers’ was stronger than Xiu Er’s Poison of Earth by leaps and bounds.
The water element poison was absorbed by the Poison of Life and Death but it could not enter into his body all at once. Hence, they accumulated a scary force and pressed tightly on Wen Leyang from all sides. Judging by the situation, the current Wen Leyang was in a similar predicament as the time when he was inside the toad’s stomach. However, the only difference was that he had a strong body and tough bones now, he could manage to walk as he gritted his teeth. His tendons and bones could still hold together but they were on the verge of breaking apart.
There was only the sound of raging waters in the ore cave. As expected, the thirteen powerful Prohibition Spells were not activated. Wen Leyang also could not tell the difference between this part of the cave and the outside, other than it was narrower in here. It truly was as what Guo Huan had said, the Prohibition Spell, which Guo Huan’s true soul dared not challenge, had no effect whatsoever on normal people.
After he walked for a while, the living dead Tibetans, who had entered the cave beforehand, started appearing and wanted to kill him. The living dead were like maddened rhinoceroses and were rushing towards him fiercely. When every living dead appeared, they were wet. Countless drops of water trickled down their hair and clothes. If Wen Buzuo was here, he would certainly ask with a smile, “They must be Thais. Did they just go to Songkran (the water-sprinkling festival)?
The living dead all wailed and crashed onto the ground the moment they set foot on the silvery Poison of Water. They struggled briefly but stopped moving in a while.
Wen Leyang had not expected this to occur. It was a little amusement to this arduous journey. The Tibetans were not afraid of death. However, without Tian Yin’s direction, every one of them had a one-track mind, they could not reach Wen Leyang.
Every step he took was like a thousand years, the next step was as endless as eternity. Wen Leyang walked along the path of corpses for an unknown length of time. When his gaze scanned the corpses, he faintly sensed that something was wrong somewhere, as if he had overlooked something but he could not put a finger on it. He was pondering when suddenly a loud thunder, which could have shattered the heavens, erupted beside his ear. Then, thousands of lightning bolts erupted and fiercely pierced his eyes!
In comparison, the boom released by the Thunder’s Heart Sand was like a mosquito’s buzz, and it was a soft mosquito… Wen Leyang felt as if two huge waterfalls crashed into his ears from the left and right. He was caught off guard and fell to the ground. He only calmed down after a brief moment. The huge sound just now was not a thunder, but… the sound of water! The strong light which had tried to blind him was not lightning, but it was the shining sharp glare of water.
It was only now when Wen Leyang gritted his teeth and sat up again did he notice that he had reached the end of the ore cave.
Before he took his final step, he could not sense even a bit of the light of water, nor had he heard the sound of water. With just one step, everything had turned into this situation. There was only an emptiness in front of his eyes, an extremely colorful emptiness. It even made Wen Leyang felt as if he had already vanished, there was only endless water!
Wen Leyang was suddenly unsure whether to laugh or cry. The end of the ore cave was not what he expected. A small table was placed at the end of the ore cave. There was a golden box on top of the small table. The golden box contained a water bead which color was still unknown. He wanted to take the water droplet out of the box to let Cone Nail drink…
The ore cave was truly an ore cave. It was excavated from the exterior of the Jianggendiru Glacier all the way into the empty mountainside. If it was not for Wen Leyang’s slow pace, he might have just fallen over into the mountainside from the edge of the ore cave.
If he looked up from the depths of the mountainside, the ore cave was starkly a cliff that stuck up abruptly. Wen Leyang now stood on the edge of the cliff.
There was a huge waterfall that hung below the cliff. The waterfall was so majestic that it made one wanted to cry, laugh, and scream wildly. It roared and crashed fiercely onto the mountainside. The sound of water roared like the howl of a giant dragon.
Wen Leyang took a deep breath. He tried hard to calm his thoughts. The ore cave was connected to the empty mountainside. Along the way, there were only clean, flawless and pure crystals. There was also a waterfall which hung close to the end of the cave, but… where did the water come from?
Of course, the water came from above. At the end of the ore cave, a giant stalactite, which source could not be seen, was like a divine awl that pierced the sky. It hung silently. It was so transparent that it was easily missed by the casual observer.
The visible parts of the stalactite were rounded and smooth as if they were polished by countless master crafters. Their surface was smooth and level, it was suffocating in its perfection. Only the tip of the stalactite was slightly flawed as if a finger pad-sized chunk was chipped off, it was slightly strange.
The roof of the ice stalactite could not be seen but its tip hung just a few meters from where Wen Leyang stood. A drop of clear water hung on the tip of the ice stalactite, shiny and showed signs of dripping. The moment Wen Leyang noticed it, it broke free of the ice stalactite with a light laugh like a playful elf. It twinkled as it fell…
That drop of water crashed onto the edge of the ore cave…
Wen Leyang squalled and fell on his buttocks again!
This small drop of water fell and crashed onto the edge of the ore cave. It erupted into a thousand-meter dark-colored torrent!
A drop of water had been shattered, most of it scattered in all directions as if cast with some magic of the gods. They quickly turned into a thousand of surging and roused water dragons in mid-air. They flowed along the mountain’s peak and converged into a waterfall as they flew straight down with a cold resolution. The remaining parts stayed on the crystals of the ore cave silently.
This water droplet that flowed down from the ice stalactite was impressively the legendary heavenly water spirit. After all, there would not have been another droplet in this world that could form a waterfall.
Wen Leyang was delighted but worried. He was definitely delighted to find the heavenly water spirit but god knows how many years this stalactite was needed to form this single drop of water, what were the odds that one drop of that water just dripped when he arrived…
Luckily, the heavenly water spirit did not seem too precious for this ice stalactite. After some time, another drop of water condensed slowly. Wen Leyang raised his eyebrows and stared in anger as he stretched out his shaking hand, at the same time he tried to lean back as much as he could. A drop of water was a waterfall, the heavenly water spirit must have some weight. It was highly probable that he would be smashed down the mountainside by this force as heavy as a mountain when he received the water in his palm…
After a while, another drop of heavenly water spirit appeared. Finally, within Wen Leyang’s longing and anxious gaze, it shook ever so slightly and dripped lightly!
There was no terrifying weight as he had imagined. Wen Leyang only felt an indescribable coolness which penetrated his marrows spread quickly from his palm and emanated to his whole body in the blink of an eye. In an instant, even his hairs shivered in cold. Wen Leyang did not have the time to cheer when a huge wave rose amidst a loud boom. It crashed on him heavily and he fell to the ground. The heavenly water spirit immediately erupted into a monstrous wave of water once it was disturbed. It scattered with vigor in all directions and eventually flowed out of the ore cave’s edge and formed the thousand-meter waterfall again!
The most extreme nature of water could not be affected by external forces! If there was even the slightest disturbance, it would erupt with a bang and turn into normal water.
