Chapter 358

The saber light was like a streak of silk, slashing diagonally down from the left shoulder. The trajectory of the saber light coincided exactly with the kasaya hanging on the sacrificial Buddha. In that instant, the saber light exceeded the reaction of the ghost god, approaching the speed of Yan Shu's sword qi thunder sound.

The sacrificial Buddha like a corpse suddenly raised its head, only having time to block its chest with a pair of withered arms wrapped in skin.

At this moment, the saber light was as illusory and uncertain as moonlight reflected on water, and as hazy as flowers in the fog, reflecting into the corpse's eyes.

Instant Light Slash!

The slash of the long saber was already faster than the reflection of the saber light.

The left arm blocking the chest of the Soul-Hooking Envoy sacrificial Buddha fell to the ground, and a sharp saber wound appeared on the other right arm, the arm bone cut more than halfway through, shining with an iron-blue color.

But this only cut off the two arms in front of this demonic ghost. It still had four arms, holding magic treasures behind its back and swaying.

Black qi surged on the sacrificial Buddha's right arm, and wherever it passed, the wound still remaining with sharp saber qi emitted a sizzling sound, slowly healing. The left hand that had been cut off and fallen to the ground also flew up, reattaching to the left arm.

The long tassels hanging beside the sacrificial Buddha's ears probed out, two ribbons grabbing the Zen staff stuck beside the sacrificial Buddha, dancing the copper-cast Zen staff like a spinning copper wheel, blocking in front of it, holding off Luo Sen's second saber.

The sacrificial Buddha's arms behind its back formed a treasure vase seal and slapped out, the gloomy ghostly qi condensing into a wish-fulfilling treasure vase, hitting Luo Sen's long saber back.

"Xinyou Saber Art!" The sacrificial Buddha's tone was full of resentment: "Remnants of the Great Ming, are you still not dead?"

It tore off the left arm that hadn't yet healed and threw it out. That arm formed a lion seal with one hand, a twisted Sanskrit seed mantra printed on the palm, flying toward Luo Sen.

And its right arm raised the Zen staff, holding it level in front of its chest, its right hand turning, the nine rings on the Zen staff clanging.

The colliding copper rings emitted an ear-piercing sound, like nine white-bone monks chanting mantras, passing into everyone's ears, carrying a feeling of seizing one's soul.

Luo Sen, facing this nine-ring Zen staff, saw the sacrificial Buddha in his eyes change appearance.

It turned into an old monk with a peaceful and kind face, sitting in front of him, hands together, saying calmly: "All conditioned phenomena are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows; they should be viewed as such! Benefactor, you came on orders to exterminate my Jin Gang Temple; it was us who offended that demon, the State Preceptor. But those novices are innocent! Can you spare their lives?"

"Old monk! The laws of the state are ruthless, but these novices are not among those the State Preceptor ordered to be killed, so I can take them back and report to the Emperor for disposal! I will plead with the Emperor..."

The old monk closed his eyes and sighed: "When a state is about to perish, there must be demons."

"Since we are subjects of the Great Ming, we will discard this skin! It is nothing more than a lifetime of cultivation, it does not damage our fundamental cultivation. But Thousand-Household Luo, if you kill us, are you prepared to bear monstrous sins and sink into the Avici Hell?"

"We are just acting on orders!"

Luo Sen, wearing mountain-pattern armor and holding a Japanese saber, had a righteous face and cupped his fists.

The old monk closed his eyes. At this moment, the copper rings colliding on the nine-ring tin staff turned into the heads of those young novices, cursing Luo Sen loudly. The old monk opened his eyes again, blood-red: "Luo Sen! You killed us, we still have cultivation to reincarnate and cultivate again. But those novices were killed by you, they don't even have a chance to be reborn!"

"You helped the State Preceptor kill so many righteous people, causing the Great Ming to fall, with less than one in ten living beings surviving. You are unforgivable!"

Luo Sen's own voice was resolute: "I mistakenly trusted demons, causing the deaths of so many people! Those loyal officials and generals, high monks and great virtues, and countless innocent commoners, I have already committed a great mistake, how can I continue to live in the world?"

"If I do not enter hell, who will enter hell!"

Various familiar scenes seemed to flow from his blank memory, turning into illusions, causing Luo Sen to sink into them for a moment.

And in reality, the sacrificial Buddha's left arm, forming a lion seal, had already stabbed directly toward Luo Sen's chest.

Chan Master Master Fa Xin behind Luo Sen opened his eyes wide. He flashed and blocked in front of Luo Sen, holding the Jin Gang pestle and striking at the ghost claw reaching out. The gloomy qi outside the ghost claw turned into a man-eating lion, opening its mouth and roaring, tearing toward Master Fa Xin.

The Sanskrit seed mantra twisted, hitting the Jin Gang pestle. The powerful gloomy qi suddenly erupted, the Jin Gang pestle shattered in Master Fa Xin's hand, and he was thrown out with his body.

The man-eating lion also rushed over, and it looked like it was about to pass through Master Fa Xin's body.

Brother Qian Chen, who was suppressing the Jade Spider Scorpion with zither sound in the red building, trapping it in the back hall, slapped the zither surface. The I-Clinging Saber in his belly let out a long cry, and with the vibration of the zither strings, the saber light swept toward the main entrance.

At the critical moment, the sound blade slashed off the head of the ghost lion.

Master Fa Xin spat out a mouthful of blood, his body staggering, sitting on the ground in a slump. He put his hands together, enduring his injuries, and whispered a deep Buddha name: "General Luo! All kinds of things in the past are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows. The Buddha Dharma is boundless, turning back is the other shore! The Jin Gang Temple's disaster was caused by the Peacock Demon King bewitching the Emperor, it was not the General's sin?"

"The General was loyal to the Great Ming and acted on orders, what sin is there?"

"The Great Ming fell, we are all sinners! What sin is there not?"

Luo Sen finally spoke. His voice was difficult, as if he hadn't spoken for a long time, but that familiar voice still made Master Fa Xin look up, gazing at the face covered by the bamboo hat, and whispered: "It really is the General!"

"The General's name came from persecuting loyal officials, I am ashamed of it! Just call me Luo Sen!" Luo Sen said calmly.

He pulled up the long saber beside him and sighed: "So, this is the root of this body's obsession..."

"Arising from obsession, born from a vow. This body exists only to calm the obsession and end the past... This vow is—to end the chaotic world, to slaughter all demons, that is all!"

Luo Sen's tone was flat and without waves. He had no guilt or remorse, or rather, that deeply engraved remorse had already been ended with one saber, and now only a firm and unregretful thought remained.

He slowly raised his long saber, the tip of the saber downward, held at his shoulder. With this action, everyone knew that the great battle was about to continue.

The sacrificial Buddha slowly stood up, its left hand already reconnected to the severed arm. It moved its left hand slightly, suddenly dragging an afterimage, rushing forward at high speed, and slammed the Zen staff in its hand from top to bottom.

Luo Sen swung his saber upward, the center of gravity on his feet shifted, the long saber blocked the Zen staff, then he slashed back. The saber light and the Zen staff collided several times, true qi flowing on the long saber, like moonlight flowing, intersecting with the Zen staff that the sacrificial Buddha was swinging wildly, parrying and neutralizing, purely using martial arts to dissipate the overwhelming magic power on the Zen staff.

Both were people with shocking martial arts.

The Japanese saber in Luo Sen's hand was passed down from the Great Ming Martial Saint General Qi. It was a battlefield martial art, having taken countless lives, and could even slash ghosts and gods, and even those practitioners who did not submit to the royal authority.

The sacrificial Buddha was the Soul-Hooking Envoy among the five great ghost envoys, its origin mysterious and unpredictable, but looking at its martial arts, it was the path of the Jin Gang Temple's outer sect, and should be related to this great Buddhist sect.

Saber light crisscrossed within three yards, its momentum peerless. Every time it caught a loophole in the Zen staff's operation, it would slash toward the sacrificial Buddha's true body, but it would be blocked by the other four arms, either forming seals or holding small magic treasures.

Three heads and six arms, the Great Wheel Bright King Image, guarding so that not even water could leak through. But the long saber slashed by Luo Sen often had to clash head-on with the Zen staff. Every time the nine copper rings collided, emitting ear-piercing ghost sounds, it would cause his figure to pause imperceptibly.

Although Luo Sen's martial arts were indeed extraordinary, such flaws were becoming more and more obvious, and sooner or later, he would be caught by the sacrificial Buddha in one opportunity.

At this time, dozens of yellow talismans flew out from the building behind, swift as arrows, bypassing the heavily injured Master Fa Xin and the saber-wielding Luo Sen, striking toward the sacrificial Buddha.

The talismans exploded with countless thunder lights, the evil-breaking thunder shattering the sacrificial Buddha's demonic qi, but the thunder light falling on the withered corpse only hit black spots the size of sesame seeds.

"Even the evil-breaking talismans can't hit you! Amazing!"

The old Daoist Zhao Boyan, with skin like a chicken and hair like a crane, wrapped in a ball of golden light, descended from the sky.

The golden light gathered into curse power leaping like lightning, attached to Daoist Zhao's fists and feet. As he slapped out with one palm, the golden light leaped, impacting in all directions, covering nearly ten yards.

"Heaven and Earth Profound Sect, root of all qi. Cultivate for countless kalpas, prove my divine power!"

"Watch how my Jin Guang Curse is!" Daoist Zhao activated the Jin Guang Curse, the golden light walking all over the ground, brilliant for a time!

In the red building, Brother Qian Chen hung the Jade Spider Scorpion up and bombarded it with thunder magic, forcing it to shrink into the spider web ghost realm, relying on countless ghost qi spider silk to hide and struggle to support.

He hooked the zither strings, and a zither sound supported the battle at the main entrance at a critical moment. The Soundless Divine Thunder exploded within three feet of the sacrificial Buddha, rolling thunder splitting the void, causing the sacrificial Buddha's body to shake violently.

Its ghostly qi collapsed inch by inch, and Luo Sen at this time swung his saber light, his body advancing, his long saber slashing horizontally, like flowing clouds and water, cooperating seamlessly with the timing created by Daoist Zhao and Brother Qian Chen.

The saber light cut across the sacrificial Buddha, accurately grasping the rhythm, missing its six arms rotating and the sealing arms blocking in front. The sacrificial Buddha's withered body was lifted by the long saber, slightly bent and flying upward.

The saber light slashed across the sacrificial Buddha's waist, cutting it in half.

Luo Sen took a step forward, sliding toward the back of the sacrificial Buddha. Then his footsteps folded, turning one hundred and eighty degrees, changing into a big leap, this saber held high above his head, slashing down violently. This was the swift empty saber momentum of "The enemy jumps and flashes forward, my weapon has already seized the momentum" in the Xinyou Saber Art.

The saber momentum slashed straight down, the saber light like a curved moon, slashing the sacrificial Buddha in half from behind.

When this saber was retracted, taking advantage of the momentum, Luo Sen backhanded his Japanese saber, slashing upward, cutting off the four arms behind the sacrificial Buddha.

Daoist Zhao's golden light curse flowed through his whole body, striking out with a roar, instantly half the sky was dyed gold, the curse power unstoppable, hitting a giant hole in the sacrificial Buddha's chest, clearly seeing Luo Sen standing behind and slowly retracting his saber.

Its body was divided into two halves, slowly falling to both sides.

Between the cuts, it was full of sharp saber qi, and the internal organs were all turned into charred charcoal by the golden light curse.

Daoist Zhao slowly retracted the golden light, calmed his breath, spat out a breath and sighed: "After several twists and turns, we finally beheaded this Soul-Hooking Ghost Envoy!"

"Careful!"

The fallen ghost envoy's body suddenly erupted. The two heads behind its ears suddenly opened their eyes, leaving the body, the fist-sized skulls drilling toward Daoist Zhao's heart, the speed so fast that Luo Sen only had time to slash with his saber, beheading one of the heads.

The head drilled out of the withered corpse, bringing out streams of blood and flesh full of mucus.

That head, topped with flesh and blood like a snake, surged out from the withered corpse, as if endless, stabbing toward Daoist Zhao's heart. He was caught off guard, only having time to activate his protective magic treasure, before being severely injured by the head shattering the magic treasure.

The head entangled Zhao Boyan, like a single-headed giant snake, extremely fierce.