Chapter 684: This Isn't Krypton

The horn's blast echoed across the basin, evoking the desolate grandeur of a lone swordsman facing a hundred horse bandits amid the vast desert smoke.

The current situation, naturally, was Tang Luo and the three of them facing a pile of mine guards.

Those slaves merely gathered to take a glance, then shrank back again.

These slaves were almost all male, bare-chested, looking rather emaciated, but not the kind of emaciation from starving to the extreme — the kind that still has meat on it.

This was normal; without meat and strength, they couldn't dig ore.

No matter how you put it, the Wen family and the managers of the various mines and mining sites had to ensure the slaves had the strength to work.

They absolutely would not deliberately starve them.

If injured or sick, then it was sink or swim, unless other slaves were willing to care for them.

But the slaves' food was allocated per person at a fixed ration; no work meant no food, little work meant little food; giving one's own food to others meant going hungry.

Hunger meant no strength to mine, food became even less, forming a vicious cycle.

On the slaves' numb faces, there was no expression whatsoever; they would not participate.

Even the "Spiritual Slave Master's" slave squad leaders, lackeys, and such characters kept their distance.

The guards, on the other hand, were different; they were well-equipped, every single one fully armed.

Over a hundred people quickly surrounded them, their reaction could be described as swift.

The Wen family attached extreme importance to the mines; even if someone came to the mine to cause trouble, the possibility of a slave revolt was extremely low, yet they had never slackened.

The guards' training had never been perfunctory.

Speaking truly of combat power, this group of guards even surpassed the Imperial Palace guards in the capital.

It was just that they ran into Tang Luo and his disciple, the ones who specialized in beating up little kids.

Ao Yulie had tested and found that his skills were unaffected here.

Tang Luo's mockery, immobilization, various talismans — Invisibility, Flight, Healing, Iron Armor — were not attack skills.

Zhu Bajie, however, had one: the attack-boosting status skill of the Magma Vambraces.

Seeing Tang Luo not taking much active action, looking like he was using a standing-stake fighting style.

Zhu Bajie simply used the Magma Vambraces.

No special movement was seen; from his elbows, a thick layer of rock appeared out of thin air, covering his hands.

They did not fully form the shape of hands; if forced to describe it, the shape looked somewhat like Doraemon's hands.

Magma flowed on top, not dripping; faint wisps of smoke rose from them.

After casting the Magma Armor, Zhu Bajie did not actively charge into the enemy formation, but punched the ground with one fist.

Earth Fist Strike!

This skill had already been thoroughly mastered and integrated by Zhu Bajie.

He wanted to try: this kind of thorough integration, already transformed into his own divine ability spell "skill," under these weakened conditions, what would it be like?

The earth swelled into a massive fist of soil and rock, directly hammering a group of guards into the air.

"Stronger than a normal skill, weaker than a divine ability." Zhu Bajie immediately made a judgment.

In the God-Demon Game, many attack skills are "fixed damage," affected only by skill level, not by the God-Demon Walker's own strength.

For example, Tang Luo and Ao Yulie casting "Heavenly Gang Fire" — the killing power is actually the same.

Earth Fist Strike is the same.

A Level 3 Earth Fist Strike can form a fist a full two meters high, capable of knocking a four-door sedan flying over ten meters high.

And Zhu Bajie's thoroughly integrated strike — the fist formed of soil and rock was the size of a four-story small building.

The current Earth Fist Strike falls between the two, and even a bit weaker, leaning toward Level 3 power.

Of course, this also has to do with Zhu Bajie not going all-out.

To summarize: divine ability spells derived from thorough integration of God-Demon Game skills suffer much less weakening than the divine ability spells Zhu Bajie and the others originally cultivated themselves.

Pure skills have absolutely no weakening at all.

Experiment complete, Zhu Bajie actively charged into the guard crowd and began beating up little kids.

Tang Luo, meanwhile, fulfilled his support role, throwing Iron Armor Talismans, Flight Talismans, Healing Talismans, and Invisibility Talismans onto Zhu Bajie.

Then one could see those guards letting out miserable "ah ah ah" screams one by one.

They couldn't even see where their opponent was.

Only the white smoke rising from the Magma Vambraces was not completely concealed, barely giving the guards a bit of "vision."

But it was useless; Zhu Bajie's speed — the white smoke dissipated here, and he was already on the other side.

Before long, over a thousand guards lay on the ground.

Zhu Bajie simply dispelled the Magma Vambraces, feeling that fanning with his palm-leaf-fan-like large hands was more efficient.

He didn't even take out the Nine-Tooth Spike Rake.

"Who are you!"

A sharp cry rang out; Tang Luo and the others saw a middle-aged man in brocade robes, surrounded by a group of guards, rushing over.

"The main target has arrived." Ao Yulie's eyes lit up.

Unknown which Wen family member, but definitely an intelligence provider.

Swish—

In an instant, a gust of strong wind blew past; the guards around the brocade-robed man all flew up, and while they were still in mid-air.

Tang Luo reached out and grabbed the man's head.

Due to the height difference, the man instantly knelt before Tang Luo.

A moment later, Tang Luo, having finished the Soul Reading, released his hand; the man's kneeling body instantly turned into a prostrate collapse, weeping bitterly.

And he casually picked up a stone and smashed it against his own head.

This kind of pain seemed to alleviate the residual phantom pain left by the soul's passage.

While striking the man, he did not forget to roar and command: "Stop! All of you, stop!"

"Tsk."

Ao Yulie looked sympathetically at the man, then performed another "I take refuge in the Buddha."

To be honest, I feel my master's soul-passing is far more effective than the Demon-Subduing Pagoda of the Great Thunder Sound Temple.

This is truly a good method to guide people toward goodness.

Evil people have their own ways of being dealt with; to handle evil people, you must out-evil them.

Of course, the fierce and wicked monks holding the Demon-Subduing Pagoda have different views.

They think Tang Luo, you bastard, are just a demonic monk—hurry up and stop, this is fundamentally not guiding people toward goodness, taking refuge in the Buddha!

The effect of soul-passing is actually unaffected by those crystal stones.

It's just slightly harder to perform than usual—that's all.

"We've figured it out, let's go." Tang Luo said to Zhu Bajie and Ao Yulie.

Ao Yulie had grown somewhat accustomed to the weakening condition; his walking was no longer so floaty.

Or rather, he could already adjust his posture to appear less floaty, though his actual condition had not improved at all.

Zhu Bajie, meanwhile, proudly and confidently dispelled his own invisibility effect and caught up with Tang Luo's pace.

After brutally beating the little ones, the three swaggered away completely, utterly disregarding the "Protection Law."

The remaining guards, due to the trio's immense strength and Wen Bo's order, did not pursue but merely watched them leave.

Passing through the steps and walking out of the basin, then going another few dozen meters outward, the weak feeling receded like a tide.

Ao Yulie let out a pleased sound: "Refreshing."

Like a blocked nostril suddenly clearing, it felt so comfortable!

Turning into a stream of light, they swept up Tang Luo and the other, transformed into a dragon among the clouds, and vanished into the distance.

On the other side of the basin, Wen Bo, the eldest son of the Wen family, slowly rose to his feet, walked to the nearby high platform, scanned the crowd, and shouted loudly: "The slave system is corrupt! Backward! Inhumane! We must abolish slavery! All beings equal!"

The guards stared at each other, bewildered: "What's going on? The young master (his father is the old master) has gone mad?"

The slaves in the distance also widened their eyes.

But in their eyes, there was only surprise, no other deeper emotion.

"Master, does that ore have any special properties?" Ao Yulie asked from the sky.

"That person doesn't know; to ordinary people like them, the ore has no special qualities at all—its hardness isn't particularly high, not even as good as their weapons or mining tools." Tang Luo said.

The ore greatly affects Qi practitioners, but has zero effect on ordinary people.

No harm, nor any benefit.

Wen Bo knows the heavenly beings need the ore; as for why they need it, probably only the heavenly beings themselves know.

Possibly, some Qi practitioners and demons might know.

"Our weakening effect should be closely related to quantity."

Zhu Bajie was holding a piece of crystal ore in his hand.

When we left earlier, I just picked it up casually, and now I'm holding it—completely unaffected by any weakening sensation.

The weakening effect of crystal ore on Qi practitioners is not as severe or exaggerated as kryptonite's effect on Superman.

"Wait!"

Holding the ore, Zhu Bajie suddenly realized: "Master! Could it not be the ore's fault? Little White Dragon, stop for a moment!"

Ao Yulie ceased flying and hovered mid-air.

"We were weakened as soon as we arrived at the mine," Zhu Bajie said. "Plus, since the heavenly beings value the ore, people naturally assume it's the cause—but whether we're near those ores or not, we remain in the same weakened state, neither less nor more."

The ore in his hand was merely something Zhu Bajie picked up casually, intending to study it later.

After all, it counts as a rare object—though not precious in quantity, its effect is truly extraordinary.

Nothing like this has ever been heard of in the Mountain and Sea Realm.

Even if it has no research value, keeping it as a souvenir isn't bad.

As he looked, Zhu Bajie discovered a blind spot.

"If it's not the ore, could it be a formation?" Tang Luo asked.

"If it's a formation, it's not impossible." Zhu Bajie replied solemnly.

Don't forget, this is the world beyond the Eight Trigrams Furnace—Tai Shang Lao Jun's Tushita Palace and the Eight Trigrams Furnace are in this very world (I don't know where they are), and Tang Luo even saw the Five Finger Mountain.

This world has a significant background.

The appearance of such formidable figures suggests they might be members of the heavenly beings, having laid down some hidden formation that Zhu Bajie and his companions haven't detected.

To prevent the mine from being destroyed by Qi practitioners or demons, that's also not impossible.

Tang Luo and his companions acted swiftly and decisively—came fast, left fast, efficiency was sufficient—but they might have overlooked details.

Of course, in the vast majority of cases, such details are actually harmless.

"Let's go back and check." Tang Luo said.

Upon hearing this, Ao Yulie turned back—after all, we're not short on time, we don't need to rush to finish the task.

This god-slaying and demon-exterminating mission will likely take longer than the previous "Search for the Divine Sword" mission.

And probably much longer.

Soon, Tang Luo and his group returned near the mine; this time, having learned from experience, they didn't fly straight over but walked down the stone steps.

In the basin, Wen Bo was still delivering his "All Beings Equal" speech.

Unfortunately, even the slaves wore the expression: "The master seems a bit abnormal."