Chapter 925: Four Ferocious?

When Tang Luo and the others appeared in this icy snowy land.

The surrounding chanting grew louder, and the flying snow in the sky condensed into a huge ice-snow Buddha, which slapped its palm toward Sun Wukong and Tang Luo.

The ice-blue giant palm fell, bringing endless chill.

Sun Wukong lazily yawned, and within that yawn, violent power turned into endless gale that spewed from his mouth.

The ice-blue giant palm was instantly torn apart, and the ice-snow Buddha couldn't last long, collapsing on its own.

Snowflakes surged across the sky, a tremendous avalanche.

The avalanche dissipated on its own when it neared Tang Luo and Sun Wukong; it wasn't a technique, merely Sun Wukong releasing a trace of his qi and blood power, which was enough to produce that effect.

"Using this trash to wear us down—does it help? Maitreya, if you've got the guts, come down and fight fair and square! Whoever backs down is the grandson!" Sun Wukong employed the goading tactic.

He knew Maitreya was surely watching everything here.

With this level of attack, you want to wear us down?

It might have a slight effect on the severely wounded Tang Luo, but for Sun Wukong it's basically like Jingwei filling the sea—like an ordinary person holding a shallow metal spoon at the seaside, scooping water, trying to drain the ocean.

But having no effect is one thing; being annoying is another.

Maitreya obviously wouldn't be angered by this level of goading.

Hmm… no matter what, at this moment Maitreya would surely have a true Buddha's reaction—that is, even if Sun Wukong pissed on his hand right in front of him, Maitreya could still give a hehe smile.

Things are about done; just slap Sun Wukong into the mountain.

"Amitabha."

Maitreya didn't answer; a series of not particularly neat Buddhist chants rose up, answering Sun Wukong.

Amid the wind and snow across the sky, the silhouettes of over a hundred people slowly appeared.

Precept monks—each level of the Subduing Demon Tower has a considerable number of precept monks on guard, serving as jailers.

The precept monks in the first eighty levels (the first level being the entrance, with no guards) have all been killed by Sun Wukong's staff.

The precept monks now appearing total one hundred and eight.

Each of them is either bald, wearing a white fur coat, or a heavy white cloak, seated upon ferocious demon beasts like lions, tigers, and bears, which serve as their mounts.

These precept monks don't quite look like monks… aside from the mounts, such demon-beast mounts are a Buddhist tradition exemplified by the Great Thunder Sound Temple.

Many arhats and bodhisattvas like to ride such things.

I don't know how this trend formed, but the Tathagata obviously always sits on a golden lotus.

The other two of the Three Buddhas are the same.

Probably a wave led by the Five Great Bodhisattvas?

"Amitabha."

The Buddhist chants annoyed Sun Wukong; he casually waved his hand outward.

Terrifying power gushed out without any pattern, extremely wasteful, forming a wave spreading in all directions.

That group of precept monks performed no better than their peers; in the wind and snow, instantly fewer than five remained. Although their cultivation, each had actually reached the arhat realm, qualifying as powerful fruit-position beings in Buddhism.

"Monster!"

The remaining precept monks were furious, killing intent palpable.

"Huh?" Tang Luo turned over, flicked a finger, and a precept monk's head burst open; the headless corpse fell.

"They have merit, yet these monks have gone demonic." Tang Luo said.

"Are these the people imprisoned here?" Sun Wukong wondered slightly.

It's not unusual for the Subduing Demon Tower to imprison monks; what power doesn't have a few traitors?

Even the Heavenly Court and the Great Thunder Sound Temple are no exception.

Even the number of traitors in the Great Thunder Sound Temple is not small—they aren't traditional betrayals but mostly have gone demonic.

However, being imprisoned in the Great Thunder Sound Temple is a punishment, meant to "lay down the butcher's knife and become a Buddha instantly," returning to the Buddhist fold.

These precept monks show no sign of being punished.

"Not important."

Tang Luo couldn't be bothered to care why these precept monks are like this.

Perhaps long-term violence breeding violence, bullying and oppression, eventually leading to demonization.

"Also." Sun Wukong tossed the golden hooped staff into the air; it enlarged in midair, falling like a heavenly pillar.

In a tremendous boom.

The ground beneath continually cracked and sank, and Tang Luo and Sun Wukong fell into what seemed a bottomless abyss.

Not long after, both set foot on solid ground again.

"So thin?" Sun Wukong retracted his golden hooped staff; this layer's environment is the same as the previous one—icy snowy land.

The "earth" separating the two layers is about twenty thousand kilometers thick.

However, after the shattering, resistance suddenly surged to an extravagant degree, exhausting the power of that casual staff strike.

It seems that striking layer by layer downward is somewhat easier than breaking through multiple layers at once.

But Sun Wukong lacks that patience.

Just after landing, he raised the golden hooped staff and slammed it down without a word.

Heaven and earth overturned, the world spun.

The surrounding scene shifted from icy snowy land to yellow sand filling the sky.

"Which level is this?" Sun Wukong looked around and then up at the sky.

Destroying too much at once, he couldn't count clearly.

"I don't know; just keep smashing—we'll eventually reach the bottom." Tang Luo remained calm.

Just then, yellow sand surged across the sky, not forming any Buddha image, but pouring down headfirst.

Terrifying power, enough to grind steel-reinforced bones into nothing.

"Someone is fighting." Sun Wukong turned his head to look.

A group of blazing ferocious ones is battling a group of monks.

Those monks, needless to say, are all precept monks of the Great Thunder Sound Temple, and all are in the Arhat realm.

Among those fighting them, there are humans and also humanoid demon beasts; within this Demon-Subduing Pagoda they also display considerable strength, though they are at a disadvantage, they can at least exchange blows with these precept monks.

This is related to their not weak strength, and also to Sun Wukong smashing down with a staff, which weakened the Demon-Subduing Pagoda's suppressive force for a short time.

As time passes, this suppression will become strong again, after all Sun Wukong did not completely destroy the Demon-Subduing Pagoda.

The number of precept monks here is far greater than that of the precept monks on the unknown number of layers above.

As more and more precept monks arrive, the battle situation begins to change; the golden great Buddha envelops all directions, after suppressing the prisoners of the Demon-Subduing Pagoda, it rushes straight at Sun Wukong and Tang Luo.

Sun Wukong grabbed his head, placed his palm near his mouth, and spat out.

Hundreds of monkey hair avatars appeared, charging toward those golden great Buddhas and precept monks; the staff in his hand turned into a sky-full of staff shadows, crashing down.

After just a few seconds, the battle ended; a group of monkey hair avatars not retrieved by Sun Wukong instead gathered, forming a giant ape.

Both hands raised high, then slammed down onto the ground.

A bottomless pit appeared, yet it was not pierced through in one blow, and the surrounding quicksand kept surging in.

As if a void had been forcibly punched out in water for a moment, it would soon be refilled.

The giant ape again raised both hands and slammed down, enlarging the unhealed "wound".

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

The giant ape of the monkey hair avatars, like a pile driver, destroys this layer's "ground" at a speed surpassing recovery; reaching the next layer is only a matter of time.

And this time, it is quite long; under these circumstances, Sun Wukong's patience can still endure, and it is truly not long.

"What are you doing! We want to go up! Bring us, we'll help you kill all the monks of the Great Thunder Sound Temple together!"

The group of imprisoned criminals actively went to meet Tang Luo and the other.

Although it is daytime, the sky has always been shrouded in mist that isolates everything; even if Sun Wukong destroys his way along, the mist does not dissipate, as if it coexists with the Demon-Subduing Pagoda.

They also aren't quite aware that the above has already been utterly destroyed by Sun Wukong.

Sun Wukong couldn't even be bothered to glance at those prisoners.

The monkey hair avatars' pile-driving is more interesting than them.

Tang Luo, however, took great interest in watching these guys; they were sinister and cunning, or pretended to be, rough and violent, or pretended to be.

Moreover, there was an unavoidable killing intent and bloody evil aura.

Whether those imprisoned in the Demon-Subduing Pagoda are all bad people, Tang Luo doesn't know, but these individuals before him are certainly not good people.

If they were to be redeemed……

"Charge forward and kill!"

"Kill together!"

"Exterminate that group of monks!"

"Let the Great Thunder Sound Temple run with blood!"

Tang Luo looked over; those people immediately seized the opportunity, flew over, and surrounded him, constantly clamoring.

They wanted to escape; following these two suddenly appearing strong ones was the best way.

"No, we go down, we want to release more people!" Someone also proposed a genuinely constructive suggestion: "Follow me, I know the way to the next layer; let's go together! We can help you!"

"Help us?" Tang Luo suddenly laughed, "Great idea, you can indeed help."

Before those people could show a smile, or even as their bloodthirsty smile became even more frenzied.

Tang Luo extended his glazed bone claw; a thousand hands cannot defend against it!

Blood mist filled the air.

The way to help is naturally to transform into merit power; that is the most effective.

"Ah." After doing this, Tang Luo suddenly clapped his hands, "I know why those precept monks all fell into demonhood; they are all bad people."

"Why?" Sun Wukong asked.

"They surely did the same thing as I did."

"Huh?" Sun Wukong was somewhat speechless, "Master, are you really admitting to being a demon monk?"

"I've always thought what Maitreya said wasn't a big problem." Tang Luo didn't care at all, "Actually I think, if the owner of the merit jade lotus weren't me but someone else, and they redeemed me, they would also gain considerable merit power."

"Boom!"

Compared to before, the sound that rang out wasn't loud, and the next layer was broken through.

The monkey hair avatars were recalled by Sun Wukong, and the two fell together into the dark passage.

————

"Roar!"

An angry roar, the enormous hand blocked the golden hooped staff; then, as Sun Wukong exerted more force, it was torn apart.

The massive body was smashed to more than half by a staff, the remaining part collapsed.

As if a mountain collapsed.

In the western wilderness there is a beast; its form is like a tiger but larger, fur two feet long, human face, tiger legs, pig's mouth with teeth, disturbing the wilderness, named Taowu. One name is arrogant, the other is hard to train.

The fallen monster is Taowu.

In the Mountains and Seas Realm it is also a vanished ferocious beast, merely different from the Mountains and Seas Realm's "species" general term.

Appearing inside the Demon-Subduing Pagoda, there is only one, named Taowu.

Moreover, its strength is extremely strong; even if it were the Great Sage Equal to Heaven of old, it might not be a match for this Taowu.

"The previous layer was Glutton, now it's Strange Odd, the next two layers should be Chaos and Strange Odd?" Sun Wukong shook off the blood on his golden hoop staff and guessed.

"His tone slightly excited, this is the kind of battle that makes him feel exhilarated."

"Probably. After two hours, we should have reached the bottom." Tang Luo said.

One can see that the surrounding void is filled with numerous faintly visible talismans, these talismans densely packed, extremely numerous, to the point that one could say the entire space is composed of these talismans.

Each talisman bears a six-character mantra.

Seeing this made Sun Wukong feel furious, and at the same time gave him a feeling of being pressed under the Five Elements Mountain again.