Chapter 179

Brother Qian Chen walked ahead into the Hall of the Heavenly Kings, where a stone statue of Vajrapani stood before the entrance, leaning on a vajra club.

The stone statue had lowered eyes and a peaceful face, draped in painted stone divine armor, holding the vajra club upright on the ground; the club itself was cast of crimson copper, emitting faint divine radiance—should any ghost or demon enter, merely being seen by this Vajrapani statue would scatter their soul. But those entering this time were no minor spirits…

Brother Qian Chen held the Youqing Sword and waited before the Vajrapani statue for a while; the statue gave no response.

Brother Qian Chen had no choice but to circle past the Vajrapani and head toward the four Heavenly Kings' statues behind; the moment he passed the stone statue, its face suddenly twisted into a grotesque snarl, its lowered eyes widening, fangs bared.

It bared its teeth, its face flushed crimson, quietly raising the vajra club in its hand.

Preparing to strike a blow at the back of Brother Qian Chen's skull.

The four Heavenly Kings' statues also subtly gripped their magical weapons; the hall walls were covered in murals, their figures vivid—monks and nuns paying homage to the Buddhas, and scenes of Vajrapani and the Four Heavenly Kings subduing demons. The mural craftsmanship was exquisite; standing before them, Brother Qian Chen immediately felt the murals had captured divine essence.

Especially the wide sleeves and flowing robes of the figures, giving the impression they were about to stir and sway.

"Wu's robes catch the wind!" Brother Qian Chen marveled. "Could this be painted by Wu Wu Daozi?"

The eyes of the Four Heavenly Kings turned; one king, wielding a dragon and serpent, lowered the venomous snake from his shoulder, which slowly slithered behind Brother Qian Chen. The Vajrapani statue raised its vajra club—a copper weapon weighing several hundred jin—its spiritual light swirling, clearly a fine magical artifact.

The serpent and club struck simultaneously—the serpent bit toward Brother Qian Chen's throat, the vajra club smashed down upon his occiput.

Brother Qian Chen sighed, then suddenly the sword light shifted, decapitating every painted monk and deity on the murals. In the instant before, the murals transformed into countless gods and Buddhas, roaring at Brother Qian Chen; the Vajrapani raised his vajra club—but his own head suddenly fell off, clattering loudly on the ground; the dragon-serpent shot into the air, then dissolved into a wooden carving that tumbled into the dust.

The fallen Vajrapani head rolled twice, its face grotesque—how could this be mistaken for a Buddha statue?

It was clearly a yaksha!

The Four Heavenly Kings were about to roar—when a blade of sword light sealed all their voices…

"The Heavenly Kings of Anantam Temple are weaker than those of the Heavenly King Temple!" Brother Qian Chen sighed softly.

In the Great Hero Hall of Anantam Temple, the abbot seated before the Buddha statue had not moved since the flying head departed; he stared at a flickering lamp before the Buddha, its dim flame occasionally jumping, causing the Buddha's and the abbot's shadows on the wall to twist—long, distorted, monstrous.

Tap… tap…

The wooden fish's sound was calm and peaceful.

At this moment, the Buddha statue before the abbot slowly spoke.

"The flying head that just left here is dead! When a flying head dies, its corpse rots instantly… His disciples discovered the stench and hurriedly notified the demons on the other side."

"He was indeed being watched!" the abbot sighed.

"His death means Anantam Temple has been exposed!" the Buddha statue whispered. "Should we notify the Master and send someone…?"

"No. We must prioritize tomorrow's matter." The abbot spoke slowly. "The righteous sects want us to panic, want us to move—we must not move. Though Anantam Temple is not a dragon's den or tiger's lair, it is no place one can enter or leave at will. All righteous sect members within Chang'an are under surveillance; those who come will be few."

"We can handle it…"

"Anantam Temple is not the Heavenly King Temple!"

The abbot slowly raised his head—beneath his Vairocana hat was a desiccated corpse, skin stretched over bone; the Vairocana Buddha image on the hat was a white-bone demonic deity wreathed in demonic flames, grasping a man as if to drink his blood, waist wrapped in nine swaying human-skin skirts, neck adorned with a rosary of skull beads.

The crown bead of the Vairocana hat was itself a tiny skull, no larger than a thumb, yet its face was startlingly clear.

The desiccated abbot had no lower jaw; his eerie smile came only from the upper lip pulling upward, the lower half hollow.

All speech emerged from the wooden fish he struck—it too was a white-bone human skull; the abbot held a fragment of a shinbone, tapping its cranium.

The skull's lower jaw opened and closed, emitting a strange laugh.

The Buddha statue bowed slightly as the abbot said: "Yin demons have no form or substance; they can dwell in any object. If you cannot destroy all their vessels, they never die. With Yang demons commanding them, they manifest infinite transformations—among the most troublesome of divine demons."

"They can be murals on walls, stone statues in markets, lacquered carvings on eaves; they can be novice monks, priests, even rats and insects—even the faint chirping of insects in the grass might be a Yin demon. Should an intruder come, they will find everything around them has become a vessel for demons."

"How many divine statues and Buddhist paintings does this temple hold? Impossible to count!"

"And the murals I commissioned from Wu Wu Daozi—his paintings carry divine spirit. With sufficient focus, they can awaken all figures within. Of course, the murals he painted for us do not do so naturally—but once a Yin demon possesses them, every Buddha and deity will come alive!"

"Facing Wu Wu Daozi's divinely infused Buddhas and deities, any intruder with even a trace of fear will find them endowed with boundless divine power, as in legend."

"Yin demons already possess the strongest illusions in the world!"

The Buddha statue slowly spoke: "What if the intruder feels no fear of Buddhas or deities at all?"

The abbot chuckled softly: "Who in this world is without fear of Buddhas and deities? The form of Buddhas and deities is the hardest to break through. Aside from those Zen sects who curse the Buddhas and scold their ancestors—even the righteous sects, facing countless divine beings, must hold reverence. If one lacks even this reverence… is he still righteous? Is he not like us?"

"Yin demons mimic Buddhas—fear them, and they become Buddhas!" the abbot laughed. "As long as your heart holds even a single attachment, you cannot break through. Cannot break through!"

The skull wooden fish grinned, whispering with laughter.

"The Four Heavenly Kings are the skeletal remains of four monks from the Snow Mountain Great Wheel Temple; once possessed by Yin demons, they can wield the Great Wheel Temple's divine arts. The Great Wheel Temple claims a thousand turning Dharma wheels—each wheel a different spell, known as 'a thousand wheels, a thousand methods.' These four monks' bones can activate their innate Dharma wheels: the Jin Gang Wheel, the Garbha Treatise, the Spirit Treasure Treatise, and the Lapis Lazuli Wheel."

"The Jin Gang Wheel is unbreakable and perfect!"

In the Heavenly King Hall, one king's remains lay on the ground, his hands raised before his chest, forming a spinning Dharma wheel; before his palms, a Jin Gang Wheel spun, symbolizing the Dharma's indestructibility and perfect completeness. Yet through the center of the Jin Gang Wheel pierced a single sword thrust—without the slightest resistance.

Just as Brother Qian Chen had realized the demonic truth: sharp, unimpeded, even the Dharma could not hinder it.

And on the face of that Heavenly King was a look of grotesque disbelief.

Beside him, another king shimmered with lapis lazuli radiance, his hands raised as if holding up a great sun; within five or six zhang around him, a lapis lazuli Dharma realm seemed ready to form, trapping the intruder.

But the lapis lazuli Dharma realm shattered—he was pierced through the brow with a single sword, and ended.

"Lapis Lazuli Wheel: Dharma Realm of Radiant Light!"

The other two Heavenly Kings also had their bodies shattered: one split cleanly from head to toe by a single sword, his Dharma wheel incomplete—his Garbha Wheel still within his body, severed along with it.

"Garbha Wheel: All is Complete!"

"Spirit Treasure Wheel: Infinite Divine Power!"

Fragments of lapis lazuli, jeweled ornaments, relics, crystal lamps, yellow jade, coral, gold, silver, conch shells, and other Buddhist treasures littered the ground; a Dharma wheel inlaid with countless Buddhist treasures lay shattered in a deep pit, its center stamped with a conspicuously clear footprint—the last Heavenly King lay face-down, his entire occiput shattered.

"Of course, no matter how exquisite the Snow Mountain Great Wheel Temple's Dharma, it cannot escape the hands of the Fifty Yin-Yang Divine Demons. Yin demons transform endlessly; even if their vessel is destroyed, they can escape and possess another artifact!"

Brother Qian Chen played with four shadowy Yin demons in his hand, rolling them into bead-like shapes, spinning them idly; their prickly, icy, crawling texture smoothed into perfect spheres.

They lay utterly still in Brother Qian Chen's hand, daring not to stir.

"Even if the Heavenly King Hall is broken… there remain the Bodhi Hall, the Receiving Hall, the Vairocana Pavilion, the Bodhisattva Hall—finally, the Great Hero Hall. Each hall holds a Dharma manifestation possessed by Yin demons. Each manifestation is meticulously crafted, endowed with countless divine powers. The intruder will likely never reach the Great Hero Hall to face us!"

Ning Ning Qingchen leapt across eaves; the sculptures and statues on the painted beams came alive—some as large as calves, others no bigger than a thumb.

A blade of sword light, tinged with faint purple mists, would strike—each sword cut shattering the statues that charged her.

In her hand appeared a white jade bracelet-shaped ring, shaped like a dragon and phoenix; with just this one set, she collected every flying sculpture that could pierce swords. Each time she landed, black qi surged upward, animating countless sculptures—yet the moment she severed their heads, the black qi fled, and a cloud-like silk handkerchief woven of purple mists swept down to capture it.

The Yin demon's black qi surged left and right; Ning Ning Qingchen merely tossed the cloud-silk handkerchief behind her, and it drifted slowly to a high platform in the center of Anantam Temple's halls, where stood a magnetic vase. The vase sucked in the handkerchief, then expelled it—the Yin demons within had been purified.

Li Bi and Cen Can took the right path—this side held the temple's garden, with a Merit Pool and Merit Grove.

Li Bi swung his fly-whisk, striking down birds and insects from the trees; the fly-whisk killed them. Some birds transformed into demons and attacked him; Li Bi's silver threads, each like three thousand divine swords, stabbed from all directions. The demons rarely survived a single exchange before being slain…

Cen Can's sword turned into flying snow, decapitating turtles, snakes, fish, and frogs in the Merit Pool; the turtle became a demon general, armored and shielding itself; the frog wielded a steel trident, aiming for his face; shrimp soldiers, crab generals, fish and snake demons—all fell beneath Cen Can's sword, like snowflakes falling.

After clearing the demons of the Merit Grove, Li Bi came to assist; one sweep of his fly-whisk dragged the turtle general over, then a single shake of true qi killed it.

Seeing the Merit Pool empty, Li Bi even cut down every lotus flower within it.

"Lotus flowers still blooming in autumn… must be demonic!" Li Bi snorted.

Yan Shu took the left path—monks' quarters, scripture hall, dining hall. He severed the heads of every Buddha statue along the way. The monks' quarters were silent; as Yan Shu stepped inside, he saw dozens of figures lying motionless on the long beds. He swung his long sword—and saw a pair of legs, stiff and unbent, rise from the corner.

Yan Shu sneered; his sword light stretched into a vast dragon, its overwhelming aura severing every shaved head. Let the countless monks within turn into corpse-demons and charge—he did not care.

His sword struck without pause; watching each shaved head fall, he felt no hesitation—unlike other beings, seeing a shaved head removed all fear of mistaken kills.

The movement of his blade revealed peerless martial prowess in slaughter.

Brother Qian Chen advanced steadily along the central axis, passing the Bodhi Hall, the Receiving Hall, the Vairocana Pavilion—his pace never slowed; the Yin demons he gathered had formed a string of eighteen beads, tied together and twirled in his fingers. At the final hall before the Great Hero Hall—the Bodhisattva Hall—the four Bodhisattvas had been waiting long.

Their faces showed no compassion, only solemnity and dread.

Seeing the bead string in Brother Qian Chen's hand, they trembled slightly…

"Don't look so defeated…" Brother Qian Chen raised the Youqing Sword slightly. "You are Bodhisattvas! As the saying goes: seeking the Buddha is less effective than seeking yourself. You're not clay idols—can't you even protect yourselves?"