Chapter 162: Pagoda-Bearer, you should be kneeling before this deity

"Hehe~"

Tang An looked at Li Jing, who had fled into the golden body. "Stop hiding; where do you think you can hide?"

Why did she know that Li Jing still had a remnant soul here?

That brings up the several confrontations Tang An had with Lingshan along the journey west. With enemies coming and going, not only did Rulai understand her methods, but she also understood Rulai's methods.

What kind of existence was Li Jing?

Alive, he was the Heavenly Court's Heavenly King Li, the Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Armies.

Dead, as a remnant soul, he could still be a thorn in the hearts of Nezha, his brothers, and Lady Yin.

He was the type who might not be able to beat his opponent, but could disgust them to death.

Of course, Tang An wasn't sure if Li Jing's remnant soul really still existed, or if it had been hidden away by Rulai to be used later to disgust them.

Therefore, if she wanted to know the result, she had to do something.

And the opportunity Nezha once had to be resurrected via a golden body became Tang An's inspiration.

She had Tang Emperor Li Shimin build only one temple for Heavenly King Li within the Great Tang.

She then borrowed the fact that mortals didn't know the inside story and only knew that Li Jing was killed by Lingshan, encouraging everyone to go to the temple to offer incense to Li Jing.

Once there was enough incense, no matter where Li Jing was, he would definitely sense it.

As long as he wanted to live, as long as he was selfish and greedy enough, he would definitely sneak over to absorb the incense and restore himself. Even Rulai couldn't stop him.

After all, Rulai was currently overwhelmed himself; he had no time to worry about him.

And this was the cause of the trap Tang An had secretly laid in the mortal world.

On the day of the great victory at Lingshan, the favor Tang An asked the Jade Emperor for was to help confirm whether Li Jing's remnant soul was in the temple.

Once confirmed, the Jade Emperor would personally take action to trap him in the temple, so he couldn't go anywhere.

Tang An had even asked Rulai to his face at the time if he wanted to intervene.

Otherwise, why would Rulai have been so angry that he spat out another mouthful of blood?

At that time, Rulai already knew that he was unable to protect himself, so he had no choice but to discard the pawn that was Li Jing.

"Destined One, you and I have no deep-seated grievances; why do you always press so hard, unwilling to even let go of my remnant soul?"

Tang An shrugged. "Can't help it, you're just too good at attracting hatred. And I'm carrying the hopes and wishes of everyone for the future, so I have no choice but to drag you, already dead, out to whip your corpse one more time."

"Don't blame me; the power of the masses is great, and I didn't want to treat you like that either."

"As for me personally, I just want you to suffer, to have your golden body destroyed, and to have no path to life left."

"Heavenly King Li, you shouldn't have any objections, right?"

Li Jing was furious, but he also knew that today he was just fish on the chopping block, waiting to be slaughtered. Whether he had a path to life or not was entirely up to them.

His remnant soul emerged from the golden body and walked toward Nezha.

"Li Jing." Tang An called out to him. "Times have changed; at this very moment, do you recall that year at Chentang Pass, when you insisted on smashing Nezha's golden body?"

"And does it feel like it was just yesterday?"

"Now that the positions are reversed, what are your thoughts?"

Li Jing didn't look back, but Tang An's words undoubtedly tore his old face off and ground it into the dirt.

"Nezha. For..."

Before Li Jing could finish the fourth word, the Fire-Tipped Spear was only half an inch from his Primordial Spirit.

"Kneel."

Li Jing frowned deeply. "Nezha, how can you be so..."

"Kneel!" Nezha's Fire-Tipped Spear moved a few inches closer to Li Jing; it could be said that with just a single thought from him, Li Jing's remnant soul would be completely refined and dissipated by the Samadhi True Fire.

Tang An and Yang Jian did not intervene, nor did they say anything more.

Li Jing stood before Nezha, hesitating for nearly a quarter of an hour, not knowing how much mental preparation he had gone through.

It was clear he wanted to live, but was unwilling to kneel to his own son, feeling it was a complete reversal of the natural order.

"Three."

"Two."

"One..."

Just as Nezha's Samadhi True Fire was about to ignite, Li Jing finally made his decision.

As if suffering immense humiliation, he lowered his head and knelt before Nezha.

"Son..."

Nezha's Fire-Tipped Spear pressed against Li Jing's neck.

"This deity doesn't know why you are so pedantic and stubborn, that even when this deity carved bones to return to father and cut flesh to return to mother at Chentang Pass, you still insisted that this deity was your son."

"No matter how this deity resisted, even when you were already dead and only a remnant soul remained, you still thought this deity was your son."

"And you still felt that kneeling to this deity was a violation of the world's laws, a humiliation!"

Nezha sneered and looked at the golden statue.

"Li Jing, listen well; this is your last chance in this life to speak with this deity."

"The grievances and causality between us are settled; it no longer matters who you think this deity is."

"What matters is that you are no longer worthy of appearing before this deity, not worthy of this deity sparing you another glance."

"Of course, since you didn't die thoroughly, let's consider this settling the causality one more time."

"Three years. This deity gives you three years to linger on." Nezha looked down at Li Jing, as if coldly watching an ant, a piece of trash that couldn't resist and wasn't worth any more of his time or effort.

"After three years, this deity will settle the final causality with you."

"Do you understand?"

Li Jing just opened his mouth, but Nezha's Samadhi True Fire appeared, burning his remnant soul with such agony that he couldn't speak at all.

"Hmph." Nezha's eyes were full of disgust and contempt; Li Jing was already so weak that he didn't even have the desire to take action against him.

Because he simply wasn't worthy.

Nezha pushed out a wave of Samadhi True Fire, and Li Jing's remnant soul was knocked back into the golden body.

The Samadhi True Fire remained there, trapping Li Jing, letting his remnant soul suffer the agony of being burned by the fire day and night. It also ensured that he wouldn't have the chance to restore himself by absorbing incense.

For these three years, Li Jing would not only be burned by the Samadhi True Fire at all times, but would also have to watch the incense he received go to waste.

Not only that, he would have to watch his own vitality slowly fade away. Every day would be a torment of fear; he wouldn't want to live in such pain, yet he wouldn't want the day after three years to arrive.

In short, for the next three years, he wouldn't have a single good day.

The people at Lingshan had no time to worry about him; no one would come to save him again.

His dead end was unsolvable by anyone.

Outside the temple.

Tang An handed Nezha a lollipop. "How about it? Satisfying?"

Nezha took the lollipop, unwrapped it, put it in his mouth, and smiled even sweeter than the lollipop.

Of course, he walked a few steps ahead, not letting Tang An see his priceless smile.

"Master." Yang Jian asked, "Is that thing of yours really that delicious?"

"Of course, it's the best thing for coaxing kids." Tang An just realized she hadn't let Yang Jian and Sun Wukong taste lollipops yet.

Mainly, in Tang An's mind, they were both adults and probably wouldn't like lollipops.

Thinking of this, Tang An hurriedly grabbed a handful for Yang Jian. "You try it first, see if it's good."

"Also, don't worry, I have plenty of these candies; Chenxiang won't be short of candy in the future."

"Chenxiang?"

"Ah? Just that... uh..." Tang An's mouth was too fast; she forgot they hadn't named the Third Mother's child yet.

"Chenxiang, good name."

"Hmm???" Tang An's eyes widened. So, so now Chenxiang's name had become one she had given? ===== CHAPTER 163 =====