Chapter 556: Abnormal Rebirth

Bang! The earth shook and mountains trembled.

Scorching tongues of fire lashed out in all directions, leaving no corner untouched.

I only heard a muffled groan.

The next moment, eighteen crimson rays shot from those eighteen anchor points, weaving a net around me.

The crimson light was surrounded by a golden glow.

That was… Buddha light?

The net kept pressing down on me, tight and dense, while deafening chanting and wooden fish sounds disturbed my nerves; countless chaotic memories surged in my mind.

The Nirvana fire I had just fired gathered into a ball, only to be bounced back by that net.

I'm not afraid of Nirvana fire, but the mud egg tied to me is.

When I fired the Nirvana fire, I centered it on myself, so the central zone was unaffected.

But when the Nirvana fire bounced back, the sashes and blankets would catch fire first, then the mud egg would be exposed.

I immediately gathered internal energy, forming a barrier around my body, and looked at the net through it.

After I unleashed the Nirvana fire, the eighteen bronze arhats were clearly melted; these eighteen crimson rays emanated from the cinnabar spirit bones.

Nirvana fire should be able to directly melt the cinnabar spirit bones into gas, evaporating them outright.

Even if it couldn't reach that degree, it couldn't possibly suck the Nirvana fire back.

Achieving this effect shows that this layer of Buddha light is at work.

When I focused my gaze, I saw that although the Nirvana fire was caught, the parts touching the net were still burning; where the Nirvana fire made contact, the Buddha light was much fainter than elsewhere.

In other words, as long as my surrounding barrier holds, buying time, that outer Buddha light will eventually be broken by the Nirvana fire.

But even if I have that patience, Dìshì does not.

Immediately, the Buddha light rapidly condensed, forming a giant hand.

The giant hand struck the barrier, its fingers lunging straight for my bosom.

It was still aiming for the Little Guy!

I reacted instantly, summoning my longbow, nocking an arrow, and the moment I dropped the barrier, the Buddha hand was already within reach.

But… the arrow feather was also shot out at the same time.

Blazing flames followed the arrow feather as it pierced the Buddha hand's palm; the hand trembled, instantly fading, while that arrow feather seemed to have its own consciousness, immediately reversing and piercing through again from the opposite side…

In the blink of an eye, the arrow feather performed three consecutive reversals.

Before the Buddha hand could reach my bosom, the golden light completely dissipated!

At this moment, Feng Wu stood beside me, the longbow still in my hand; the arrow feather's reversing ability did not come from me, but from Feng Wu!

What surprised me most was that Feng Wu could actually detach from the longbow and independently assume human form?

How did she do that?!

This is an unexpected delight.

I had no time to ask Feng Wu; at the instant the Buddha hand vanished, I transformed into a phoenix, raised my head and let out a long cry, flapped my wings and shot toward the sky.

The Nirvana fire was driven back by my wings; after a half‑air turn, when I dove again, my wings stirred a gale that wrapped in thick flames, sweeping like a landslide and tsunami, completely extinguishing those eighteen crimson rays.

Boom!

Under the gale's crushing pressure, the Nirvana fire rebounded off the ground, shooting up several zhang high; the eighteen cinnabar spirit bone fragments finally turned into a wisp of gas and vanished between heaven and earth.

Feng Wu exclaimed excitedly: "Done!"

At that moment, a red‑white sword light flashed across the horizon; Liu Junyan once again cleaved the void.

I and Feng Wu immediately flew over, just in time to see Liu Junyan gripping the Ancient Bronze Sword, its tip probing the chest of the lying Kong Ji.

Kong Ji stared wide‑eyed, a look of dying without peace.

His chest was hollow.

The tip of the Ancient Bronze Sword moved down, piercing Kong Ji's dantian.

Inside the dantian was empty as well.

Liu Junyan frowned, his face grave.

He opened his mouth to explain the situation to me, but caught sight of the bundle in my arms out of the corner of his eye and exclaimed: "Xiao Jiu, you've given birth?"

As he spoke, he stepped forward; by now I had already resumed human form, he reached out, lifted a corner of the blanket, and then stared at me in astonishment.

I nodded and said: "Born, mother and child safe."

Liu Junyan pulled me into a tight embrace: "Sorry, Xiao Jiu, I…"

"In these special times, no one owes anyone; you held back Kong Ji and Dìshì, allowing me to give birth in peace." I whispered in his ear, "The child is with A Cheng; he should already have entered the Earth Palace by now. What's going on with Kong Ji here?"

Liu Junyan said: "Regarding Dìshì's ability to release avatars through the Heavenly Tribulation, by now you should have seen it; it's not entirely as we imagined."

I nodded and said: "At first we thought Dìshì's avatars were like his children; after they grew, they could even leave descendants, so he claimed to have many children, and in a broad sense, you, me, Feng Xianqiu, even Kong Ji, should share the same origin—but the facts are not so."

"Exactly, that's what I wanted to say." Liu Junyan said, "The avatars Dìshì releases already exist in this world; their souls have not undergone reincarnation, but through Dìshì's power, under the support of heavenly thunder, they are directly reborn, so we are not of the same origin, nor do we share blood ties; we are merely products of 'abnormal rebirth' and their descendants."

Liu Junyan glanced again at Kong Ji's corpse on the ground and said: "Kong Ji was originally a monk cultivating in the Ancient God Temple; his spiritual roots were extraordinary. If I'm not mistaken, he was chosen by Dìshì precisely because he is a person of Buddha bones.

After years of cultivation, he had already refined an inner elixir; when I first killed him, I personally saw his Buddha aura instantly converge toward his dantian, at which point he should have formed Buddha's Bone Relic.

But immediately, Dìshì took control of Kong Ji's body; when I killed him the second time, his inner elixir and Buddha's Bone Relic were both gone."

Even thinking with your toes, it's clear that Kong Ji's inner elixir and the eventual Buddha's Bone Relic were taken by Dìshì.

If the Three‑Legged Crow hadn't succeeded in rubbing against the Nirvana Tribulation, Kong Ji's body would ultimately have become Dìshì's vessel.

Unfortunately, the change came too suddenly; Kong Ji's scheme turned into drawing water with a bamboo basket—utterly futile.

Kong Ji sought the tiger's skin, and in the end he met the fate he himself had foreseen.

I let out a long breath and said: "The Buddha's Bone Relic being taken is not a good thing; the Copper Coin Person said the Divine Temple's Buddha aura is strong, and together with this Buddha's Bone Relic…"

"So bright!"

Feng Wu suddenly cried out, and Li Qingying didn't know when she had also come over.

【62> We simultaneously looked toward the bright light that suddenly flashed on the horizon.

We all looked at the bright light that suddenly flashed on the horizon.

That direction… is exactly where the ancient god temple is located!

Although Kongji is dead, the Buddha's Bone Relic he ultimately formed still managed to give Dìshì a push……