Chapter 180: Killing the Demon to Silence the Witness

Within the Great Hero Hall, a gradual silence descended. One could only hear the sound of the candle wicks popping in the oil lamps before the Buddha; the sound of the wooden fish had ceased, though no one knew when. No expression could be discerned on the face of the mummy-like abbot, yet the hand gripping the wooden fish mallet trembled with an agitation he could not suppress.

The great Buddha statue spoke slowly: "Listen. You could still hear the insects outside the window just a moment ago, but now, you can hear them no longer."

The surroundings were eerily quiet. The only cricket still chirping, its sound drifting from the corner of the Great Hero Hall, had weakened by three parts. The light from the green lamp before the Buddha flickered, casting half of the abbot's face into darkness and the other half into the dim glow. The expression on that mummy-like face was no longer readable, appearing only terrifying and ferocious.

The great Buddha comforted him: "Perhaps they have only paused for a while. Insects are like that; their chirping comes in waves."

The abbot whispered: "Those were all Gu demons..."

The great Buddha remained silent for a long moment before speaking: "Lying there chirping all day, wouldn't they be tired? That is too hard on them. And that rooster that crows at dawn, too..."

The abbot's tone was wooden: "Is this a matter of being tired or not?"

"The rooster that crows at dawn is a Brain-Eating Demon."

"Every blade of grass, every tree, every insect, and every bird in this temple is a demon. To prevent the righteous path from secretly infiltrating the temple, I have long since turned this place into an iron barrel. If I want to keep those sneaky ghosts from lurking in, I must arrange for everything that might infiltrate to be our demons in advance."

At this moment, the cricket chirping in the corner suddenly stopped.

The abbot finally moved his head for the first time. The mummy-like old monk slowly shifted the bone wooden fish to the side, and the two eyes of the skull wooden fish stared fixedly at the corner—there, a tiny person the size of a little finger, wielding a fine needle shimmering with spiritual light, had pinned the cricket in the wall crevice to death.

The cricket's back bore a ghost face, its two eyes were different-colored yin-yang eyes, the fighting silk brain-cap on its head shone with a metallic luster like mixed iron, its red whiskers were thick and long like true elephant hair, bright red like chicken blood, it possessed the teeth of a dead man's skull, and the serrations on its hind legs were like guillotine blades.

If a noble youth from Chang'an who loved fighting insects saw this, it would truly be a demon insect worth a thousand gold, impossible to find.

This fine insect was now struggling weakly on the tip of the needle. The tiny person shook the needle tip, kicked off the struggling cricket, and continued its search, hopping and jumping. As if born with spiritual sense, it locked onto a spider hanging from the roof, its body pitch-black, back bearing a ghost face, and eight eyes on its head shimmering with green light.

The spider suddenly swelled to the size of a peck, intending to bite the tiny person to death in one gulp. Not to mention the potent poison in its fangs, this size alone was enough to swallow the tiny person whole.

But the tiny person, only the size of a broad bean, vanished into thin air with a single leap, then casually threw a needle, pinning the spider to the pillar.

"This is a God of the Ear Canal!" the great Buddha spoke slowly: "It can report future events, but its body is frail. Even a mortal fool could catch it."

"But this one seems a bit different!"

The Ear Canal God hopped and jumped, holding the fine needle, killing its way across. It pinned several insects invisible to the naked eye, moving from the wall corner to under the eaves, and from the roof beams to beneath the altar table in the Buddha hall, leaving behind countless tiny insect corpses along the way.

The surroundings grew even more silent!

Both the bone demon and the Buddha statue felt the eeriness and dared not strike easily.

It was not until the tiny Ear Canal God became increasingly rampant, jumping onto the abbot's Pilu hat and stabbing the lice upon it to death, that the situation changed. Those lice jumped like phantoms; when they retracted their bodies, they were so tiny that only a Dharma eye capable of peering into the most minute details could see them, but when they swelled, they could drain the blood of an adult man, clinging to a person's face like a human head in size.

Only then would the drawings of facial features on their abdomens be revealed, looking as if a person were smiling eerily.

When these lice jumped away, only a withered bone remained, devoid even of brain matter.

Yet such insect demons, which came without a shadow and went without a trace, could not escape the tip of the tiny person's needle. No matter how much they shrank or how fast they jumped, the tiny person could always stab them to death as if it had foreseen the future.

The mummy-like abbot could finally bear it no longer.

The god-demon on the Pilu hat opened its eyes and reached out to grab the Ear Canal God. The Ear Canal God let out an angry roar of "yi-ya," using the needle tip as a sword, intending to fight it.

Within three rounds, it was beaten by the god-demon until it couldn't find north...

The Ear Canal God could only let out an angry cry and vanished from sight.

The mummy abbot before the Buddha let out a dry laugh. The sound emanated from the bone wooden fish, echoing in the empty skull with a resonance that was exceptionally eerie. He whispered: "Has the righteous path of today also become so sneaky and mysterious?"

"What's the rush!" someone outside the door said in a lowered voice: "It's not your turn yet!"

Hearing that familiar voice, the mummy abbot suddenly waved his hand. A formless yin wind surged from his sleeve, opening the hall door, only to collide with a formless current of air at the entrance. As the hall door opened, two god statues were revealed blocking the way: one was the Manjushri Bodhisattva riding a green lion, and the other was the emaciated Kasyapa Venerable holding an alms bowl.

"Why are you two not in the Bodhisattva Hall, coming here instead?" the abbot snorted coldly.

"Keeping watch!" The lion beneath Manjushri glanced fearfully at the Bodhisattva Hall behind it, looking at the abbot with little courtesy. The Manjushri Bodhisattva image spoke: "Keeping watch for you!"

Kasyapa Venerable also said slowly: "Abbot, we have no choice either! Otherwise, it wouldn't be your turn; it would be our turn first! Abandoning the light to join the darkness and attaching ourselves to the strong—is that not a matter of course for us in the demonic path?"

"In the demonic path, who could be stronger than the Great Tian Mo?" the abbot said slowly: "You two have taken the wrong path!"

Manjushri and Kasyapa said no more. At this moment, the abbot waved his hand, opening all the doors and windows of the Great Hero Hall. The moonlight shone into the Buddha hall, and shadows were seen flickering outside the windows—it was quite lively.

The abbot saw a man in black standing at the window, accompanied by two gold and silver boy attendants only as tall as his calves, cleaning up the remains of the Gu demons on the ground. Countless eerie Gu insects were falling beneath the trees, lying dead in the grass.

On the ground not far away, there was even a human shape formed by countless Gu insects, severed at the waist by a sword mark.

A demon whose face was hidden beneath a black robe secretly sucked the Gu insects into his own body, nodding and bowing with a fawning smile toward the man in black: "You must tell the Master that although my skills are lacking, I can still handle some small matters for him. I killed these Gu demons with a wave of my hand. Please, do not replace me."

"I will definitely practice diligently and refine the body of the Ten Thousand Gu True Demon!"

"Understood!" the black-robed demon cultivator said impatiently: "In front of the Master, someone as useless as me has no say. Moreover, although the Master has heaven-defying talent, he has no patience for the demonic path. If it weren't for the fact that we obtained a few Yin Demons this time and needed manpower, it wouldn't be our turn to manifest!"

"So it was a fellow traveler of my demonic path who struck... In the face of the Great Tian Mo's grand plan, do you dare to engage in internal strife?"

The abbot glanced at the sword mark on the Gu demon and nodded slowly: "The Tian Mo Blood-Transforming Divine Blade... it has some heat. It must be from my Nine You lineage! Why strike at our door? If you ruin the Great Tian Mo's grand plan, you will surely seek death in vain."

"The Great Tian Mo?" The black-robed Gu demon sneered several times: "We only know of the Supreme Tian Mo; we know of no Great Tian Mo."

"Supreme Tian Mo?" The abbot's face showed confusion as he looked at the black-robed demon cultivator.

The black-robed demon cultivator was slightly stunned and whispered: "Don't look at me; I am not worthy!"

The Manjushri Bodhisattva image comforted the abbot: "Don't rush, it will be your turn soon!"

The Kasyapa Venerable image also raised the pottery bowl in his hand and sighed: "We do not know which of the Supreme Tian Mo or the Great Tian Mo is the stronger, but you are definitely the weaker one. So, old abbot, I am sorry! We truly had no other choice!"

The Yin Demon of the Manjushri image sneered: "Have you really been converted by Buddhist Dharma?"

"We demons are fickle in our loyalties; is betrayal not a common occurrence? What is there to be sorry about?"

Kasyapa secretly glanced at it, thinking: "Stupid! Such things can be done but not said. That Supreme Tian Mo disguised himself as a disciple of the righteous path and infiltrated it. Clearly, this is different from the naked 'might makes right' of the Great Tian Mo's subordinates. One must wear a bit of a disguise; one must put on a facade. The Tian Mo Master himself may have an unfixed demonic nature, but as subordinates, we must put on an appearance of loyalty, filial piety, righteousness, and morality. Even if the Tian Mo Master doesn't believe it, he will eventually feel more comfortable. If one is not hypocritical, one will eventually suffer."

Qian Chen's figure slowly walked out of the Bodhisattva Hall, and only then did the two demons in the hall realize that the main character had arrived!

At this time, all living beings in the Ananda Temple, except for the two in the Great Hero Hall, had been completely slaughtered.

Even the grass and trees growing on the ground had their vitality severed. Although they still retained a bit of green, they were already dying and would be withered and yellow by tomorrow.

Qian Chen walked slowly, using the dozens of Yin Demons to peer into the aura of these two demons.

"A god-demon that has barely touched the Yin Spirit level... If you were to command forty-nine Yin Demons with the body of a Yang Demon, you would have the might of a Yin Spirit... Pity, now they are all my demons. Wasted..."

Qian Chen glanced at the mummy-like old abbot and saw through his background.

"An evil god... Yin Spirit level, about the combat power of the second or third rank of Core Formation."

Qian Chen continued to look at the great Buddha statue.

God-demons are closely linked to their masters, nothing more than a special kind of external incarnation, fundamentally incomparable to the true transmissions of the Dao Sect or Demon Sect.

Even with Yin Spirit cultivation, they are no match for the outstanding talents of the Dao Sect's Supreme Core Formation.

For ordinary Core Formation god-demons, even if Qian Chen only refined a first-rank external pill, he could kill thousands of them with a wave of his hand. Seeing Yan Shu only had a seventh-rank external pill, yet he could contend against the combined force of thirty or forty such god-demons. Therefore, when such god-demons fight, they usually form arrays in groups of dozens, manifesting as god-demon Dharma images, and only then do they have one-tenth of their might.

"There are hundreds of temples like the Tianwang Temple and Ananda Temple in Chang'an. If half of them are chess pieces laid out by the demonic path, then there are hundreds of god-demons with Core Formation combat power."

This was a scale Qian Chen had never seen before. Even in the Central Lands, how many immortal sects could produce Yang Spirit masters, yet could not produce so many Core Formation cultivators? The Core Formation cultivators of the Dao Sect, Buddhist Sect, and immortal families all have to be painstakingly cultivated by themselves. How could they have the rapid production of the Demon Sect, which slaughters living beings to refine puppets?

If so many god-demons were to suddenly strike, turning Chang'an into an empty city in an instant would be no joke.

Currently, the only things that can suppress them are the Chang'an Grand Array, the morning bells and evening drums, the military cultivators, the high masters of the hundred schools cultivating in the imperial court, and these countless temples spread throughout Chang'an. But the most critical hundreds of temples and Daoist shrines have no idea how many have been infiltrated by god-demons.

"In extraordinary times, one must use extraordinary means!" Qian Chen's expression was calm.

Through the many clues found by following the vine to find the melon, Qian Chen had already determined that a great change would occur tomorrow on the Thousand Autumn Festival. Based on the clues obtained, he guessed that it should be the many god-demons left behind by the Empress when she was the Great Tian Mo causing chaos in Chang'an and Luoyang, breaking the city defenses and providing opportunities for An Lushan and others in the vassal towns.

In coordination from inside and outside, they would capture the two capitals in one fell swoop.

But there were still many places Qian Chen did not understand. Although An Lushan had some strength, he was inferior to both the Buddhist and Daoist families that supported the Li Tang, not to mention the vast potential of the Li Tang imperial court itself, which gathered masters of the hundred schools. Even if An Lushan were a Nascent Soul master, he could not withstand so many high masters.

Where exactly did his confidence to stir up the demonic tribulation come from?

Just by relying on those demons left behind by the Empress?

The Empress herself was still restrained by the righteous path and had to return power to the Li family. Where did An Lushan get such ambition?

In the end, there were still many missing pieces of the puzzle!

"If the countless god-demons in Chang'an City cannot be restrained, I may have no choice but to use the method of using demons to control demons!"

Qian Chen decided to make two preparations: on one hand, prepare to use the Tian Mo Tianmo Tianmo Sheli to restrain the demons of Chang'an, and if necessary, manifest as a Tian Mo to seize control of the demonic path and give the person behind the scenes a surprise.

On the other hand, try to find other clues to see if there is a better solution.

The Tian Mo Tianmo Tianmo Sheli was already one of his trump cards. To use one's own trump card before the enemy's has been revealed...

... is a sign of defeat!

Qian Chen had also tried to subdue the demonic consciousness of the Six Desires God-Demon, the Armored Corpse Demon, and the Buddha Bone Demon to dig out the black hand behind them.

But helplessly, the name of the Great Tian Mo itself had been imposed with a supreme demonic curse, which could sever all karma, and no spell could investigate it. Not to mention soul-searching, even divining the heavenly secrets could not calculate it.

Only small demons like the Yin Demons, who were not qualified to know the inside story, could be turned around by Qian Chen and used for his own purposes.

As for the Yang Demons, Corpse Demons, and Buddha Bone Demons, these great demons who knew a little about the matter were all under the restrictions of the netherworld, their lives and deaths in the hands of the person behind the scenes. A single thought could make them perish together with Qian Chen. Therefore, Qian Chen was very decisive when he struck to kill, not intending to dig anything out of them at all.

Qian Chen faintly felt that this kind of restriction should be related to the identity of the "Tian Mo."

"Tonight... should be the last chance! The night curfew isolates those hundreds of temples, making the temples occupied by the demonic path isolated islands. Cleaning them up one by one, killing for a night, might be able to destroy a small half of the demonic path's arrangements."

Seeing Yan Shu, Ning Qingchen, Li Bi, and Cen Can had each cleaned up the places they were responsible for and were heading toward the Great Hero Hall. Suddenly, they heard a thunderous loud noise from the Great Hero Hall, like rolling dry thunder. Inside the Great Hero Hall, a Buddha statue several zhang high burst into golden light, hands forming a Dharma seal, just as it was about to muster its divine might to manifest a hundred-zhang Dharma body, it suddenly collapsed with a roar and was completely shattered.

Following that, a bolt of thunder light emerged, striking the Great Hero Hall.

Seeing Yan Shu and the others could only see a mummy-like demon head looking up to the sky and howling under the thunder light, wanting to roar something, but its voice was covered by the sound of thunder, and the whole of Chang'an could only hear the sound of thunder.

Immediately, the mummy was pulverized in the thunder light... not even a trace of demonic consciousness could escape.

The Manjushri and Kasyapa before the hall trembled, thinking in their hearts:

"Killing the demon to silence the witness!" ===== CHAPTER 181 =====