Bang!
Right as those thoughts flowed through Li Qingshan’s head, a golden foot landed before him, shattering the sea of blood. Even Great Buddha mountain shook as a result.
The golden foot had an ankle that was even thicker than the pillars of the hall. Li Qingshan raised his head and was met with a golden, benevolent face, which made him shiver inside. This was the great buddha that had sat in the grand hall for thousands of years.
Time seemed to freeze. The great buddha seemed to stand beyond the river of time. It was clearly just a statue, devoid of any expressions, but it seemed even more alive than the eight legions that assumed various different forms. It was more alive than all the creatures he had seen in his life.
Countless emotions seemed to be surging and flowing under the golden buddha’s face, but it did not seem arrogant at all. It even seemed gentler than mortals, except it stood at an unattainable height, overlooking all creatures across the six realms and the trichiliocosm.
The great buddha had gathered the power of belief from millions of followers, so it contained a hint of a true buddha nature. Every single movement it made possessed tremendous force, even greater than the Great Palm of the Guardian King unleashed by the four Monk Kings together, even stronger than the fire god Zhurong Li Qingshan had once fought on Fire Melt mountain.
So this is the strongest existence of the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga. It’s not some reclusive sweeper monk, but it’s the great buddha that sits at the top of Great Buddha mountain. Even the attacks from Qiongqi back then in the south were probably equal to this at most!
The so-called saying of “even killing gods and buddhas that stood in the way” was merely nonsense by mortals. Only when they personally witnessed the existence of a god or buddha—even if it was only a will, a hint of self-awareness—could they understand the terrors of gods and buddhas.
Standing before him was not a low level god like fire god Zhurong or Demon God Qiongqi, but the forefather of all buddhas, Tathāgata himself!
Li Qingshan could no longer spare the strength to deal with everything else going on around him. He had to muster all the willpower within him, and only then could he stave off the great buddha’s “buddha nature”.
The great buddha raised its thick, wide palm high into the air. It seemed extremely heavy and sluggish as it pressed down on Li Qingshan slowly.
The buddha’s palm was only around a dozen meters across at most, but it felt boundless to him. It was unavoidable. With each inch it pressed down, the pressure on him multiplied.
A slight, cold smile appeared on the Fierce King of Chu’s face. Even a great cultivator would be pulverised by a palm strike like that, let alone the fact that there were the eight legions and two Monk Kings assaulting him too. Even if it had been him on the receiving end instead, he would have been in tremendous danger.
The grandmasters from the hundred schools all eased up inside. After witnessing the Dauntless monk being blown away, they no longer had the lofty ambition to go daemon slaying anymore. If the battle could end just like this, that would be for the best.
Before the buddha’s palm had even arrived, the golden peak of the garu?a had almost struck the back of Li Qingshan’s head. The flawless hand of a woman extended over out of thin air and grabbed the golden beak gently. Xiao An had rushed over.
With a wave of her hand, the string of golden prayer beads scattered and turned into thirty-three revolving skulls, letting out a strange crackle. Then they turned into thirty-three Skeleton Demons whose eye sockets burned with the pale-white Samādhi Flames of White Bone. Their bodies became gilded with a layer of gold, assuming a strange form where the buddhist and the demonic coexisted.
Bang! Clang!
The Fist Seal of Intelligence and the Bodhidharma Sword of Wisdom struck two Skeleton Demons at almost the same time. They were launched away, but with a flip, they climbed to their feet again, cackling away just like before. There was the deep imprint of a fist and a sword slash in their bones, but it was not enough to kill them.
Skeleton Demons had never exactly been alive in the first place, and the buddhist techniques that were particularly effective against demons and evil did not seem particularly effective on the Skeleton Demons.
Instead, two other Skeleton Demons used this opportunity to swing their claws and gnash their jaws, forcing the two Monk Kings into retreating.
The other Skeleton Demons split up and lunged at the eight legions. The Chant of Deva-Nāga immediately halted. No matter how vicious the attacks of the asura was, it could not simply kill a Skeleton Demon whose body was even tougher than arcane treasures. The mysterious fragrance of the gandharva was rendered useless too.
No matter how unpredictable the dance of the ki?nara was, no matter how nimble and silent the yak?a was, they could not avoid the encirclement and interception of over a dozen Skeleton Demons. The mahoraga did manage to swallow three Skeleton Demons in a single gulp, but it immediately began to toss and turn in pain.
In particular, the garu?a whose beak had been grabbed by Xiao An had its colourful wings caught by two Skeleton Demons. They bit away at it viciously, and its golden feathers drifted through the air messily. Its cry became even more anguished.
In a single instant, the difference in numbers had been turned around, and it had been turned around so dramatically that it left all the cultivators present dumbfounded.
In particular, the thing that the grandmaster from the school of Mohism took the greatest pride in was his Puppet Kings. Every single Puppet King possessed strength on par with a great cultivator, and they did not fear death. However, when compared to these Skeleton Demons, they were lower in quality, and they were nowhere close in terms of quantity. It immediately delivered a mental blow to him.
Jin Fugui and Yue Wuyang exchanged glances. They possessed the same shock and doubt. Was this still the nine provinces!? A battle, no, war, on such a scale was something they had never witnessed in their entire lives.
“Yue’er!” The Dark Queen was both surprised and overjoyed, but she also felt a hint of melancholy within her pride. She no longer needed her protection. No one could harm her again either. She sneered at the Fierce King of Chu. “Do you feel regret?”
“This…”
The Fierce King of Chu was unable to believe that this was his daughter, which made him feel a hint of regret. The Ji clan had many roots and branches with countless descendants, but none of them could compare to her, not even Ji Xuanri.
If she became the King of Chu, perhaps she would be the strongest King of Chu in history. Coupled with the assistance from Li Qingshan, they could even settle their grievances for good with the Kingdom of Southern Yue. Perhaps he should not have spoken in such a resolute manner.
However, he immediately dismissed this thought the moment it occurred to him. He was not the kind to be overcautious and indecisive. He was in no position to feel any regret today.
So the little ghost from back then has become so terrifying as well! Gu Yanying sighed inside and said to the master of the Sword Collection palace nearby, “You could have done anything, so why did you have to provoke them in particular? It’s not going to wind down easily now.”
The palace master was powering the Heaven Leaning sword and attacking the Hot Wind hell when she said that. His face sank, and he also felt slightly annoyed inside. What exactly were the two monsters he had provoked!?
Dealing with Li Qingshan was originally just an unimportant move he had made casually. If he could not reach his objective, then he was prepared to simply eliminate him with ease, but he never expected this chess piece to flip the entire chess board in the blink of an eye, almost costing the chess player’s life instead.
Everyone all thought the same thing. If the two of them did not die today on Great Buddha mountain, just who across the nine provinces could still restrain them?
Suddenly, Li Qingshan felt his body lighten, but it was not because the attacks from the eight legions and two Monk Kings had been blocked. Instead, it was because the golden palm over his head had suddenly switched targets, swinging towards Xiao An. The eyes of the buddha opened a little more too, staring at her.
Xiao An refused to take it on forcefully. With a gentle wave of the Blood Sea Banner, she sucked the great golden buddha inside.
The Blood Sea Banner had always possessed a space of its own, and unlike the Asura Field, it was specially made for capturing the enemy. The river of blood did not actually demonstrate its true might.
A Monk King roared furiously, “One Will, you buddha nemesis!”
ps: 我猜又该有人说小安比青山厉害了^_^
