Chapter 366

The crowd could not help but stop in their tracks.

Lin Jue also stopped his steps.

"The furthest we've ever gone before was probably about here; we didn't dare to venture deeper." The voice of Master Nan came from behind. This Daoist master, originally known for summoning deities, was actually quite burly in stature; now, personally carrying a large iron hammer in his hand, it didn't seem out of place at all.

Lin Jue gave a hum and looked around.

How many wooden carvings, stone carvings, bronze statues, and iron statues were here? Probably no one knew. Just as no one knew how many years this Leopard King had been entrenched here.

Lin Jue looked again at a stone carving beside him.

This was a statue of a leopard-headed, human-bodied figure taller than a person, holding a large saber in its hand. The carving on its body was not refined, with obvious traces of having been chiseled by a tool.

Besides the Leopard King, there were many demon soldiers and demon generals. It was even possible that for the past hundred years, commoners had been continuously abducted and brought here. These abducted commoners were not immediately killed and devoured, but were instead ordered and threatened to carve wooden and stone statues and cast bronze and iron statues here.

Over the past few decades or a hundred years, how many could have been created?

It was likely to be counted in the tens of thousands.

No wonder that divine general said there were things here not only to deal with him, but also things to deal with Lin Jue and the others.

The divine general was originally a divine being, and the celestial soldiers under his command were not ordinary mortals. If they came here to eliminate demons, they could just search the mountains and kill the living. Even if these sculptures all came to life, the threat to them would be limited; they would be more of a distraction.

But if Daoists and martial artists who could neither fly nor easily escape entered here and were besieged by these sculptures, it would be like deep in a battlefield; it would probably be very difficult to get out alive.

"Boom!"

A silver spear thrust over, piercing the head of a stone statue.

That leopard head was instantly shattered in half, and there was actually some moisture inside.

"This demon has big ambitions."

The silver spear was retracted, and the voice of Lord Luo rang out.

"Hmm..."

A demon like this, having magical arts when it needed them, having a background when it needed one, having soldiers and generals when it needed them, and even having some schemes and calculations—if it hoarded so many statues here, once the world fell into chaos, whether it achieved true Dao in the human realm or in the heavens, it probably wouldn't be simple.

It was just a pity that it hadn't yet achieved true Dao. With so many statues, even if it could drive them, it wouldn't be able to walk out of this leopard forest before its magical power was exhausted; it was destined to only be used for defense.

Soon, Lin Jue thought of another thing—

"I heard that for this magical art, if you want the statues to move, there must be a soul inside every single statue."

Upon hearing this, Lord Luo's gaze turned cold again.

With a turn of his long spear, he thrust out again, and a tree carved into a human shape not far away also had its forehead pierced through.

"Everyone, do not venture deeper, otherwise you might all be left inside. That demon might just be waiting for us to go in." Lin Jue said, "Let me and my Fuyao go in first to scout."

"Luo will go with the Daoist."

"Better not. Although Lord Luo has great skills, if you get trapped in a heavy siege, it won't be easy to escape. It's better to stay here and, while that demon hasn't noticed yet, lead everyone to destroy these wooden and stone statues first."

"Very well!"

Lord Luo didn't say much and agreed to it right there.

Lin Jue then took the fox and entered alone.

The humidity here was very heavy, with mist filling the sky; it was hard to tell if it was water vapor, fog, or spiritual energy. A Daoist and a white fox walked through it.

Stone caves, stone caverns, streams, and swamps; the terrain was complex.

Even Lin Jue didn't dare to enter the stone caves and caverns casually, only daring to walk on the ground.

Sure enough, as he thought, there were sculptures everywhere.

The further in they went, the larger the statues became.

If after this battle, these statues were not completely destroyed, even if only a portion remained for future generations, and future generations didn't know that a demon capable of soul-shifting arts had once appeared here, seeing these statues, who knew how much speculation and association it would trigger, and who knew if anyone would treat these statue-filled forests as a scenic spot to admire.

Lin Jue went straight to the place where the spiritual aura was dense.

"Jump up and take a look!"

The fox opened its mouth and shouted.

After saying that, it slightly bent its body and leaped upward, light and agile like a wisp of white smoke, rushing into the sky.

Riding the wind straight up, flying high, the view indeed became broader, but because of the dense water mist here, the swamps, forests, and stone caves below also became blurred.

He only saw a spring in the mountains in the distance, inside which there seemed to be a faint, huge figure soaking in the spring.

When the fox saw it, it seemed to have seen the fox as well.

The two sides locked eyes.

The fog was heavy at high altitude, and the wind blew the fog away. A patch of fog obscured that side for a moment, and when it appeared again, it couldn't be seen.

The fox landed lightly back on the ground.

"What did you see?"

"Saw a shadow, like it was there and like it wasn't, then it was gone in an instant." The fox's voice was clear and thin as it said this.

"It should be that leopard demon. It just abandoned its physical body and urgently needs the spiritual aura in the spring to nourish its soul before it can reshape its physical body." Lin Jue said, pointing a finger, "Is it in this direction?"

"Eh? How did you know?" The fox was puzzled, "Did you go to the sky to look too?"

"The spiritual energy is densest here; it should be where the spring is."

"Eh? Smart!"

The fox opened its eyes wide in surprise and followed him.

There were sculptures everywhere around them.

Suddenly, a gust of clear wind blew, and the water mist swirled.

Lin Jue was just passing a stone leopard carving when the fox seemed to notice something and suddenly turned its head.

That stone leopard carving also opened its eyes like lightning, with almost no interval, and opened its already-open mouth wide, biting towards the human and the fox.

"Bang!"

A huge claw pressed onto its nose.

The five-tailed white fox appeared around the Daoist.

Today, Lord Luo was not here, so it was the Dao-protecting fox.

That stone leopard carving was larger than an ordinary leopard, but this five-tailed white fox was a hundred times larger than an ordinary fox. Seeing the fox's claw exert force, the leopard that had opened its mouth to bite not only failed to hit its target, but the rotation of its head also had no effect; instead, it was pressed to the ground by the fox, its body flipped over with its head down and its butt up.

There was a rolling sound in the distance again.

Wall-crossing art!

Lin Jue waved his sleeve. He saw a collision sound coming from that side, and looking closely, he saw it was a stone ball rolling towards him, which was blocked halfway.

And the stone ball belonged to a stone lion taller than a person.

The stone lion had already stood up and was moving its body.

It wasn't just this stone lion; the whole mountain had movement coming from it.

"Rumble..."

Lin Jue stood with his back against the huge fox, both of them turning their heads to look in different directions.

Only to see that on the mountain, below the mountain, on top of the stone caves, inside the mountain caverns, and even inside the streams and springs, the wooden carvings and stone caves of the entire mountain forest were opening their eyes and coming to life.

Some stone tigers, leopards, and lions walked down from the stone platforms, shaking their feet; some demon soldiers and generals were moving their necks and picking up weapons; some had just stood up from the streams and springs with a splash, water and sand falling together, revealing bodies far larger than they looked from above the water.

No one knew how many stone carvings there were, thousands upon thousands. After they calmed down, they all turned their heads in unison to look at the human and the fox here.

The fox, which was usually afraid of nothing, had a somewhat dull expression when it saw this scene.

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"..."

The fox turned its head, and Lin Jue also turned his head.

The human and the fox looked at each other.

This was the accumulation of the demon king over a hundred years.

Seeing this scene, Lin Jue finally understood that it was not without reason that even the divine general found it difficult to eliminate the demon king.

If it weren't for him and Lord Luo plotting to lure the Leopard King to attack, and then enraging it to shatter its physical body, and coming here to attack by force, he didn't know how difficult it would have been.

Thinking in his heart, the demon king didn't allow him to think too much.

There was a sound of a bowstring in a large tree on the right—

Several arrows shot over.

The Daoist's whole body instantly turned into a stone carving.

"Ding ding ding..."

The arrows hit the stone carving and bounced away.

A stone-carved warrior jumped down from the front, holding a stone mace over its head and slashing down.

A stone tiger rushed over from the back.

On the side was a wooden carving carved into an evil ghost, waving its arms and claws more than a zhang long, grabbing towards the Daoist.

"Harmonizing with things..."

Lin Jue instantly returned to his original form and dodged to the side, his figure passing through the wooden carving.

With a loud bang!

The warrior's stone mace smashed onto the stone tiger's head; the force was too great, and the stone mace instantly shattered, while the stone tiger also pounced on the warrior, smashing onto the ground, stone chips flying everywhere.

Lin Jue opened his mouth and spat out a breath of spring breeze.

The stone tiger was just about to continue jumping towards Lin Jue, the warrior was just about to crawl up from the ground, and the wooden carving was turning to wave its branches, but their movements were getting slower and slower. At the same time, buds and branches grew on their bodies; the more the branches grew, the slower they moved. When the fresh flowers bloomed, they suddenly stopped in their tracks.

However, the crisis was far from being resolved.

Just on the other side, a figure two or three zhang high was walking over, stepping into the stream, splashing water more than a zhang high, and the huge five-tailed white fox had already rushed towards it.

Borrowing the momentum of the charge, it pounced on its head, and this huge stone giant immediately lost its center of gravity and fell backward.

With a splash! Another splash of water several zhang high!

The stone giant was just about to clasp its hands together to grab the fox, but the fox, using its agility, kicked off its body and, like a fish swimming in water, brushed and swam into the sky.

Sweeping its gaze, it pounced towards another stone carving.

But it wasn't just like this—

The statues all over the mountains and plains were gathering towards this side.

Wooden carvings were the easiest to deal with; burning them with fire would suffice.

It didn't even need to be dealt with.

Because these wooden carvings were mostly ordinary wood that could only move after gaining spiritual aura. Lin Jue had the wood-escape method; the so-called "harmonizing with things, things cannot harm," Lin Jue was not easily harmed by ordinary wood.

Stone carvings were also easy to deal with.

Although Lin Jue didn't have the profound stone-grinding attainments of his junior sister, he had "flowers blooming in an instant," which was also very good at dealing with stone carvings.

The difficult ones were the bronze and iron statues.

"Flowers blooming in an instant" couldn't do anything to them; he had to use a clumsy method.

Lin Jue even saw a huge leopard appearing on the mountain head in front, its figure almost the same as the previous Leopard King, only with the sunlight shining and the water vapor swirling, making it show a faint metallic color.

"Awoo~~"

The demon king's roar came from above, faint and indistinct.

Lin Jue turned a deaf ear and only focused on dealing with the surroundings.

With a wave of his hand, the flying sword shuttled.

With a breath, flowers bloomed in an instant.

However, there were too many statues here, like mountains and seas; even if his magical power was exhausted, he couldn't eliminate many at all.

Actually, his junior sister was more suitable for this battlefield.

Seeing the statues gathering more and more, the fox could still jump on the heads of the statues by relying on its lightness and agility, but he gradually had no room to dodge, and a voice came from above his head:

"Daoist, do you know? Over the past few hundred years, there have been eight people who forced this king to abandon its physical body, and now they have all become the ghosts in this king's mouth?"

"Ridiculous! Do you think only you know escape arts?"

Seeing many wooden, stone, bronze, and iron statues gathering, gathering so tightly that even the wind could hardly pass through, a bronze ox stepped over the blooming stone carvings and crashed towards the Daoist in the middle, and a tiger-headed iron statue more than a zhang high raised an iron hammer and smashed towards the middle. The Daoist's figure sank downward and disappeared directly.

With a bang! The iron hammer smashed the ground!

The bronze ox and the iron statue collided! Sparks flew everywhere! But the Daoist's figure was already gone from the middle.

At this moment, it was the Daoist's turn to leave.

Compared to it, he was much more composed.

The fox in the sky saw this, tapped its feet in the air, found an empty space not far away, dived down, and disappeared.

(End of chapter)