“Puppies from the Kunlun Palace, is this all the strength you’ve got?!”
At the center of the battlefield, the ground had already been pressed down several meters by the aftermath of the battle between the Porcelain Bodhisattva and Wang Shouyi.
Bang!
Wang Shouyi was hit again and flew off, his body rolling on the ground, plowing out a trench dozens of meters long. The protective spiritual light around his body flickered twice before finally extinguishing; his heart-protecting mirror shattered into porcelain pieces, leaving his once pristine white robe in tatters.
The Porcelain Bodhisattva pointed a finger at him, and the卍-shaped primordial point between her fingers, just three inches away from Wang Shouyi, madly extracted the spiritual energy from his dan tian and purple mansion.
Wang Shouyi struggled to pinch seals and activate talismans.
Bang bang! Two talismans exploded on the surface of the porcelain armor, but the fiery energy from the talismans was guided back by the crack on the glaze at the Bodhisattva’s fingertips, causing his already scorched fingertips to suffer further. Worse still, the Seven-Star Consecutive Pearl Sword technique he had just unleashed — seven streaks of sword qi condensed in the air forming a Big Dipper-like sword formation — was now being slowly consumed by the blood marrow golden wheel behind the Bodhisattva’s head.
“Child of the Daoist Sect!” The enormous head of the Porcelain Bodhisattva drew near, its bloody mouth extending a long tongue to grab Wang Shouyi’s right hand that was attempting to form seals. “Hasn’t your master taught you? The kiln fires of Jinde Town…” A sharp laugh, mixed with the sound of broken porcelain rubbing against each other, came from all directions, “are most adept at smelting the righteous energy of the Daoist Sect! Hahaha!”
Wang Shouyi realized that his spiritual energy was decreasing.
Even the Broken Punishment Sword that was blocking the ghost porcelain Bodhisattva was gradually losing its luster.
“Damn it, is this my limit?”
He gritted his teeth as he stared at the overbearing Porcelain Bodhisattva.
After ten years of arduous cultivation, he had originally intended to leave the mountain, slay demons, and achieve greatness. He thought the first mission would be a small test, but unexpectedly, he encountered such a powerful ghost practitioner.
The Porcelain Bodhisattva’s ghost fire-laden fingers pressed down inch by inch, becoming increasingly difficult to resist. It seemed she was about to crush him together with his sword.
“Ultimately… I can’t do it, can I?!”
Wang Shouyi’s face turned pale, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.
At this moment,
Boom! A thunderclap sounded in the sky.
For an instant, the entire world turned white, and a bolt of lightning struck the Porcelain Bodhisattva.
“Aaaaah—!”
The Porcelain Bodhisattva screamed in pain, and the pressure on the sword lessened for a moment.
But Wang Shouyi was already too weak to fight. The Broken Punishment Sword lay askew, and his vision spun.
His body fell backward, suddenly feeling someone lifting him up from behind. In his peripheral vision, he saw the demon-slaying masters who had ‘fled’ earlier.
“Cough cough… weren’t you guys gone?”
Unexpectedly, he was saved at the last moment of his life, which made Wang Shouyi burst into tears.
No abandonment, no giving up.
This is humanity!
Magnificent, our great human race!
“It was actually prepared to leave, but he didn’t want to.” Lin Chen nodded toward the figure ahead holding the thunder talisman.
Wang Shouyi turned his head and saw the man who had previously stayed behind everyone else but was now at the very front.
His shoulders were not so broad,
but the shadow cast under the moonlight covered everyone.
“This… this man…” Wang Shouyi’s voice trembled slightly, and his trembling finger pointed at Chen Huaian: “He… his pants are going to fall…”
After saying that, he fainted.
Xiang Xiaoyuan: “…”
Zhao Ying / Lin Chen: “…”
“Hmm.” Chen Huaian paused momentarily while holding the thunder talisman, quickly reaching out to pull up his pants.
The belt had broken earlier, and when his surrounding spiritual energy erupted, it inevitably caused his pants to puff up, indeed giving the impression they might fall.
“Wasn’t that thunder just activated by you?” The Porcelain Bodhisattva, whose head was scorched black from the thunderfire, glared viciously at Chen Huaian and sneered: “Youngster, there’s plenty of righteous energy in your thunderfire, but it’s still lacking in some aspects… This old woman’s kiln fire specializes in swallowing righteous energy, which is perfect for me to restore some strength!”
On her white porcelain arm, ghost flames swirled, and within them could be faintly seen the scenes of young girls throwing themselves into the kiln during the Mingde Period.
It was precisely these blood sacrifices that created the Porcelain Bodhisattva’s bizarre dharma body, cultivating a monstrous entity that was neither demonic nor Buddhist, using a ghostly body to cultivate Buddhist energy.
“The old one has some skills, able to cultivate Buddhist energy with a ghostly body?” Chen Huaian found it absurd.
Doesn’t this mean that when the Porcelain Mother conducted blood sacrifices, she actually thought she was saving lives?
What a twisted mindset…
He didn’t know that the birth of the Porcelain Bodhisattva coincided with a great drought, during which people lived in dire straits, even resorting to cannibalism. Rather than watching these people kill each other in suffering, it was better to perform the blood sacrifice.
She truly believed she was doing good.
Especially for those girls who were sacrificed.
Not only were they used as bargaining chips to “revive” the official’s son, but their families also received food from her hands, allowing them to survive, albeit with some hardship, ensuring the continuation of their family lineage through their sons.
In a sense, these sacrifices were ‘voluntary’.
A mutually agreed-upon transaction!
The Porcelain Bodhisattva remained silent, then suddenly slapped a palm towards Chen Huaian.
Her joined palms abruptly parted.
When the fingers of her right palm spread, they were still normal size, but in the blink of an eye, they transformed into the momentum of a collapsing mountain. Her palm was filled with blood-colored scriptures, and wherever it passed, the air became stagnant, accompanied by the sounds of ghostly wails and devilish howls.
Earlier, she wasn’t a match for Chen Huaian.
But now it was different. She had recovered some of her strength and was already above Chen Huaian. Even more so, if she could ‘consume’ Chen Huaian and Wang Shouyi, her damaged foundation would soon be restored.
This was all due to fate!
Wang Shouyi was indeed a disciple of West Kunlun.
But he only joined West Kunlun at the beginning of the spiritual energy resurgence period, and was merely an ‘outer sect’ member, far from being part of the core. Killing him wouldn’t result in any blame falling on her. He was just a pawn after all.
“Tsk~”
Chen Huaian looked up at the towering giant palm and sighed.
“It’s too much to expect these Sword Pavilion disciples to make talismans properly.” He shook the crumpled thunderfire talisman in his fingertips, where the handwriting was messy and the talisman symbols crooked, clearly indicating that these disciples were trembling while drawing the talismans.
How could high-quality talismans be refined like this?
Among dozens of talismans, there wasn’t a single medium-grade one.
All were ordinary.
Seeing Chen Huaian put away the talismans, the Porcelain Bodhisattva thought he had exhausted all his tricks.
“What? Out of moves? Then die!”
Boom!
The giant palm descended forcefully, causing the heavens to split apart.
“No moves left? Nonono~”
Chen Huaian shook his head, turning around and tossing Zhen He, the personal disciple of the Hidden Sword Peak’s heirloom, the Concealed Sword Pill, into the air.
This was hailed as the first existence of cunning in the Sword Pavilion, even marked in games as a classic manipulative character. What kind of power does his Concealed Sword Pill possess?
“Buddy, it’s up to you.”
Real men never look back at explosions.
Chen Huaian slowly turned around, hands in his pockets, calmly walking step by step towards Zhao Ying and others with his back to the giant palm.
“Let’s see… just how cunning you really are!”
Clang!
The sword pill exploded.
A streak of sword qi flew out diagonally, piercing through both the giant palm and the Porcelain Bodhisattva.
The cloud sea rolled back.
A white gap tore open the sky, revealing the moon.
Chen Huaian walked under the moonlight, a slight smile curling at the corner of his lips as he listened to the rumble of the stone statue disintegrating behind him.
“Great sword! So cunning!!!”
…
…
Li Qingran
