The grey haze passed through the sea of trees, making all the leaves wilt. With a gust of wind, they danced through the air like snow, displaying their final resplendence.
The gaping mouth of the hungry ghost devoured the nine provinces impatiently. The mushroom cloud that filled the sky had not dispersed yet. The religious preceptor of the left’s orders continued to echo through the surroundings, “We have to find her… find her…”
Beneath the thick earth, she trudged through the criss-crossing underground maze with difficulty. One of her eyes was deep and clear, while the other eye socket burned with flames. Half of her flesh and blood was present, like a palace column that had been stripped of its crimson red paint, exposing the jarring white bones covered in cracks.
A strange voice rang out, “Give up. You won’t be able to survive this, my dear master.”
The voice tempted patiently, but it was filled with a twisted malice. The Immortal Relinquished sword was not loyal to any of its masters.
She ignored it, continuing onwards and trying her best to avoid leaving behind any traces.
“Even if you possess no aura, hiding beneath the ground, you have over twenty bald asses going after you. That’s enough to flip every stone in this region. With the shape you are in right now, how are you going to escape?”
Rumble!
The shockwaves from the explosion reached underground, producing countless earthquakes of different sizes. Perhaps it would take several years before the activity completely died down.
The caves shook as rocks fell like rain, ready to collapse at any moment. Magma oozed out from the cracks. The entire world seemed to be shaking.
“Even if you can escape, Li Qingshan won’t return!”
“Shut up!” Flames flashed through her eye sockets, and the Skull Prayer Beads wrapped around the Immortal Relinquished sword firmly, slamming into it loudly.
“If you do that, you’ll definitely draw over those bald asses.”
The Immortal Relinquished sword thrummed gently, but it was unable to break free from the claws and teeth of the Skeleton Demon. After all, she served as his reservoir of power, and he had also sustained damage from the intense battle earlier.
She drew the tattered Blood Sea Banner and wrapped it around the Immortal Relinquished sword. She said calmly, “If you come out, you die.”
Afterwards, the flames in her eye sockets faded away. She fell forwards, falling unconscious.
The Skeleton Demons clustered around her and let out strange cackling calls, but they were unable to awaken her. Her wounds were far too severe.
The Immortal Relinquished sword fell into the sea of blood. It erupted with light and trembled violently. It knew she had never been in a state more feeble than right now. It was the perfect opportunity for it to devour her.
The Monk Kings all ventured underground, establishing a great formation that spanned several hundred kilometres around the religious preceptor of the left like a great net.
Every single Monk King stood at a juncture point, glowing with waves of buddhist light without sparing even a single inch of earth. They rapidly swept towards her.
The Corpse Kings and Ghost Kings drew closer too. Every single one of them was filled with greed, wanting to use her life to exchange for the blessings of the Hungry Ghost realm. Sovereign Li had committed a great mistake, so he dared not stop them anymore either.
This was a hunt. There was quite a bit of risk involved, but the greed allowed them to forget about everything.
For a moment, she faced problems both near her and around her, yet she had lost all power to resist. All that remained was a firm will.
The Skeleton Demons stopped cackling about, lifting up her damaged body and rushing off towards the west. They had to leave the mouth of the hungry ghost before the Monk Kings had tightened the net around them.
Within the sea of blood, the thrumming stopped. The Sword Spirit of Immortal Relinquished chose to give up.
“If I go out and devour her right now, I’ll just become easy pickings and end up in the hands of the bald asses. That’ll just be foolish.”
He refused to admit that he deeply feared her.
She had always been a “monster” that could bring fear to the living and the dead, as well as all existences that possessed self-consciousness. That was why they were in such a hurry to destroy her.
A while later, the Monk Kings returned above ground, gathering by the religious preceptor of the left’s side.
“Religious preceptor, the buddha nemesis has probably left the region already. The buddha nemesis is skilled at masking her aura, so she’s almost impossible to find. Should we ask the Bureau of Astronomy for help?”
The Bureau of Astronomy was skilled at peering into the heavenly secrets and observing fate. Their supervisor happened to be the leading figure of the school of Yin-yang.
“The buddha nemesis is a monster that’s neither living nor dead. Trying to capture her through the heavenly secrets might not be that easy!”
“Why don’t we try? It’s better than letting her escape.”
The Monk Kings discussed while the religious preceptor of the left listened quietly. He suddenly asked, “Dauntless, do you have any clues?”
The Dauntless monk was stern, having remained silent the entire time. He brought his palms together in response and bowed. “Religious preceptor, I do not.”
She was the buddha nemesis, but her ties and debts with the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga could not be explained so easily. He was currently thinking about how to save the Unraging monk, and he truly did not have any ideas. However, if he did know something, he definitely would not hide it either.
The religious preceptor of the left frowned. The Bureau of Astronomy was currently dealing with something big. They could not divert the manpower to help him find someone. That matter was so significant that even the invasion from the Hungry Ghost realm came after it in terms of importance, let alone a measly buddha nemesis.
As a result, he led the Monk Kings to expand their search area, moving off in all directions and expanding their search radius to fifty kilometres across, but they still found nothing.
The religious preceptor of the left said, “The buddha nemesis is heavily injured, so she must be in search of a place to recover. Who does she trust most?”
The Dauntless monk said, “It’s Li Qingshan. It’s probably only Li Qingshan as well.”
“So that wretched daemon who dueled against crown prince Si Qing, Unraging’s fantastic disciple. Where is this wretched daemon right now?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“Ever since his battle with the Featherfolk King Bai Chen, he has vanished. Perhaps he’s no longer in this world anymore.”
“I recall that the wretched daemon and the buddha nemesis have a dwelling in the Chain mountains of the Ruyi commandery in the Green province,” the religious preceptor of the left said in thought. In order to capture and kill the buddha nemesis, he had made ample preparations.
“But that’s just a small mountain. The spiritual qi there is sparse, and it was abandoned a long time ago. It doesn’t offer any defences at all.”
The Dauntless monk understood the Green province’s geography. Let alone a small mountain, even the entire Chain mountains were not some good place for cultivation. In the past, the renowned mountains had all been occupied by sects of various sizes, which was why cultivators would establish dwellings there. Now, the Green province had faced numerous disasters, and many locations had been freed up. Cultivators had stopped going there a long time ago.
And she was not a fool. Instead, she was the cultivator with the greatest talent for comprehension he had seen in his life. Why would she hide in such an obvious place?
It was exactly because the religious preceptor was aware of this that he did not rush off to the Chain mountains immediately. The other Monk Kings also found this to be unlikely.
“Perhaps the Great Banyan Tree King is sheltering her.” “Clouded city is possible too.” “She might still be deep underground, hiding in the magma. The interference from the underground magnetic field is too strong, so we can’t find her.”
The religious preceptor of the left said, “No one can permit the existence of the buddha nemesis. She won’t trust these people, and it’s even more impossible for her to hide deep underground in her current state.” He made up his mind. “We’re going to the Chain mountains!”
Home—now that was definitely the place where a person felt the safest. After enduring all the pain from the outside world, it was the only place where they could find comfort.
Within the rising and falling Chain mountains, the small, lonely mountain seemed so ordinary.
However, the three words engraved in rock, “Qing Xiao’s Home”, contained unforgettable memories. This was their home.
