https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-423-A-Bamboo-Staff-and-Grass-Shoes-are-Better-than-a-Horse-A-Rain-Cape-and-Mist-are-All-On/12602158/
https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-424-423-The-Descent-of-the-Witch-King-Incarnation/12602160/
Chapter 423: A Bamboo Staff and Grass Shoes are Better than a Horse, A Rain Cape and Mist are All On
Chapter 423: A Bamboo Staff and Grass Shoes are Better than a Horse, A Rain Cape and Mist are All One Needs for Life (Part 2)
"
"I understand the gravity of the situation," O Hongcheng replied, his expression solemn.
He bowed respectfully towards the distant mountain ranges from which black smoke billowed, and then took his leave from Kongsang, his heart heavy with the weight of their mission.
…………………
Lei Jun traveled by boat, making his way downstream along the Great River. With the aid of the Yuqing Zhoutian Magic Mirror, he observed his surroundings with keen interest.
He appeared nonchalant, but his eyes missed nothing as the landscapes of Suyang gradually came into view.
The top experts from Dakuang Temple, along with an army of demons, were besieging the ancestral land of the Li Clan of Great Han in Suzhou. A fierce battle was underway, and the air crackled with the force of their clashing powers.
The Li Clan of Great Han lacked a Grand Scholar of the Ninth Heaven among their ranks, making it difficult for them to rival the might of Zuo Xiang, the abbot of Dakuang Temple.
Although the demon monk had not yet reached the perfect Ninth Heaven, his strength was already formidable and struck fear into the hearts of his opponents.
Even Ye Zhao, the clan chief of the Ye Clan from Qingzhou in Great Han, who was a Grand Scholar of the Ninth Heaven of the 'Balancing Heaven and Earth' realm, found it challenging to confront Zuo Xiang directly due to a slight disparity in their cultivation levels.
With no other choice, Ye Zhao had retreated to the ancestral land of the Li Clan in Suzhou, seeking refuge and a chance to regroup.
Under these dire circumstances, the Li Clan could not afford to be indecisive. They had to unite and cooperate with Ye Zhao and the other Great Han cultivators, opening up their ancestral land as a temporary stronghold.
Even with their combined forces, Ye Zhao was not the true master of the Li Clan's ancestral land, and their coordination was less than seamless.
Across from them stood Zuo Xiang, flanked by other experts from Dakuang Temple and a host of demons.
Ye Zhao and the others could only barely hold their ground, struggling to prevent the ancestral land from being breached.
With their focus solely on defending this one location, they were unable to fortify the outer areas, leaving them vulnerable.
As a result, roaming disciples of Dakuang Temple and demons wreaked havoc in the Jiangnan region, inflicting untold suffering upon its people.
Reinforcements from the Great Han court continued to arrive, but Zuo Xiang held the upper hand, moving with impunity outside Suzhou and keeping the Han army constantly on their toes.
Desperate pleas for aid had been sent from Jiangnan to Chang'an.
It was said that the Great Han Crown Prince, Xiang Jing, intended to lead a force south to lend his aid in person.
However, the presence of foreign expert cultivators and northern demons along the borderlands had delayed the Crown Prince's journey, leaving the people of Jiangnan in a state of anxious anticipation.
Lei Jun's boat had now reached the lower reaches of the Great River.
Through the Yuqing Zhoutian Magic Mirror, he witnessed the scenes of chaos and destruction unfolding at the Li Clan's ancestral land in Suzhou.
Compared to the ancestral lands that had been cultivated and refined over many years by the aristocratic families of Great Tang, the Li Clan's estate, though younger in terms of history, had already attained a certain grandeur. It resembled a fortified city more so than a mere manor.
But now, that city lay in ruins.
A Ninth Heaven crocodile-like demon worked in tandem with numerous experts from Dakuang Temple and other demons to breach the city's defenses.
The Li and Ye clans fought back with all their might, but they were cautious, not daring to commit all their strength at once for fear of exposing their full capabilities.
What they feared most was the black-robed monk with an icy gaze and a benign smile, who stood at a distance, his eyes glinting with an unreadable light.
The Great Han's Dakong Temple's abbot, Juexiang, was the number one master of the heretical path in the Great Han, possessing a cultivation base of the fourth layer of the Ninefold Heaven Realm.
With a mere wave of his hand, he could bring about devastating losses to the ancestral lands of the Li family.
The Dakong Temple revered the lineage of the Great Extinction Tathagata, and unlike other Buddhist sects, the Ninefold Heaven Realm was not referred to as the Dharma body, but rather, the Great Extinction.
The first layer of the Ninefold Heaven, Extinction of Kunyuan and All Things.
The second layer of the Ninefold Heaven, Extinction of the Heart, Will, Soul, and Spirit.
The third layer of the Ninefold Heaven, Extinction of All Dharmas and the Formless.
The fourth layer of the Ninefold Heaven, Extinction of the Xuan Kong World.
The fifth layer of the Ninefold Heaven, Extinction of Observation and All Phenomena, reaching the pinnacle of perfection where all five extinctions are complete, known as the 'Samaya of Annihilation', with offense and defense as one, possessing destructive power that peaks at the utmost extreme.
Among all the inheritances in the mortal world, the Dakong Temple has always been one of the most proficient in head-on offensive and defensive combat.
Although Abbot Juexiang had not yet achieved the ability of the Samaya of Annihilation, his cultivation at the fourth layer of the Ninefold Heaven, coupled with the unique skill of the Dakong Temple, the 'Void Annihilation of the Six Paths', was already extremely formidable.
The Extinction of Kunyuan and All Things, combined with the Human Path, resulted in the large-scale destruction of ritual vessels and ceremonial artifacts used by Confucian cultivators for their ceremonies and rituals.
The Extinction of All Dharmas and the Formless, combined with the Asura Path, seemed to possess the ability to annihilate all phenomena, suppressing opponents in both offense and defense.
The Extinction of the Xuan Kong World, combined with the Hell Path, continuously shattered the void, and had already torn apart the ancestral lands of the Li family in Suzhou twice. If not for Ye Zhao and other Great Han cultivators assisting from the side, this place would have fallen long ago.
News from the outside world caused the Dakong Temple's offensive to slow down temporarily, allowing the Li and Ye clans to breathe a sigh of relief.
The Hermit of East Yang Mountain reappeared in the world, traveling downstream along the Great River.
Upon receiving this news, Abbot Juexiang of the Dakong Temple did not lift the siege of Suzhou, but he secretly kept a watchful eye.
The task of continuing to pressure Suzhou was left to his fellow sect members and demons, while Abbot Juexiang himself stood by, maintaining vigilance and awareness of his surroundings.
However, his opponent arrived openly and righteously, leaving him with no need to be particularly guarded.
The Dakong Temple disciples and members of the demon race scattered on the outskirts, located upstream of the Great River, sent back messages one after another.
But then, one by one, they went silent.
Abbot Juexiang stared into the distance, and at the horizon, he saw a leaf floating on the water, drifting with the current.
On the leaf stood a middle-aged scholar, clad in a straw raincoat and holding a green bamboo staff.
With him at the center, it was as if a massive landscape painting was unfolding, sweeping across the four directions.
Wherever he passed, Dakong Temple disciples and demons were drawn into the painting.
A dense sword aura emanated from him, not sharp but carrying an infinite amount of charm and nonchalance.
"East Yang Mountain Hermit, your reputation precedes you."
A black-robed monk with a kind-looking face and a perpetual smile addressed the newcomer with his palms pressed together: "However, I wonder if your health has improved, venerable one?"
As he pressed his palms together, billowing black mist spread like thick ink, obliterating everything in its path—mountains, rivers, plants, and trees—leaving nothing but destruction in its wake.
From the boundless black mist emerged a four-headed, eight-armed pitch-black Buddha, sitting cross-legged on a black lotus.
The eight hands of this black Buddha were also pressed together.
In an instant, a pitch-black hell appeared, spanning the Great River.
Void Annihilation of the Six Paths—Hell Path.
Hell, already akin to a forbidden zone for mortals, now merged with Abbot Juexiang's domineering power and state of mind, specifically targeting the means of Confucian Grand Scholars who governed the nation with their rites and rituals, as well as the Grand Thearchs of the Talismanic arts and the Grand Shamanic rituals of the Shamanic Way.
The 'Nation and its People' unfurled by 'Wang Xu', the incarnation of Lei Jun, was abruptly halted. The boundaries of the void seemed to be constantly shattering, making it impossible to either expand or retract.
The power of annihilation, however, seemed to be expanding further along the edges of the void.
The pitch-black hell expanded accordingly.
The lone leaf carrying the scholar seemed to be sailing straight into hell.
However, 'Wang Xu' remained calm and leisurely, his bamboo staff gently tapping the air as he rose into the sky, reciting a poem with a melodious voice:
"The clouds are filled with five colors,
And the horizon shines with nine lights."
As his voice echoed, a dazzling brilliance indeed appeared on the horizon.
Amidst the billowing clouds and mist, a vast and brilliant sun descended, illuminating the pitch-black hell from above.
It seemed as if infinite light and heat were swirling within, causing the surrounding air to distort from a distance.
The four-headed, eight-armed black Buddha, the incarnation of Abbot Juexiang, did not retreat.
Above the black Buddha, a black vortex appeared, from which a pitch-black, gigantic Asura emerged, merging with Abbot Juexiang's domineering state of mind, countering the brilliant sun that now loomed overhead.
Gold and black collided in that instant.
The sunlight and black mist annihilated each other, neither yielding nor backing down.
The power of the Asura Path, which annihilated all phenomena and integrated offense and defense to overcome enemies, was fully demonstrated at this moment, even holding back the falling sun.
However, upon truly coming into contact with this brilliant sun, Abbot Juexiang's heart sank.
He vaguely felt that the power of this sun was endless, vast, and boundless, seemingly infinite.
Even if it was not truly infinite, it was at least more enduring than his Asura Path.
The other side of his sect's prowess, which excelled in both offensive and defensive head-on combat, was that their spiritual power consumption was extremely intense, and they were not suited for protracted battles.
Engaging in a contest of strength with this opponent only served to rapidly deplete his spiritual power.
'Wang Xu', however, seemed completely unaffected, holding his green bamboo staff as he walked towards his opponent without haste.
The four-headed, eight-armed black Buddha, the incarnation of Abbot Juexiang, roared from each of its four mouths simultaneously.
The power of the Hungry Ghost Path, one of the Void Annihilation of the Six Paths, combined with the might of the Extinction of the Heart, Will, Soul, and Spirit, was unleashed.
Although it was invisible to the naked eye, 'Wang Xu' could see countless formless hungry ghosts rushing towards his spiritual soul.
The opponent's technique specifically targeted the spiritual soul.
As they clashed, it remained to be seen if 'Wang Xu''s spiritual soul could withstand the attack, and his true identity would likely be exposed.
But sadly, Jue Xiang didn't have that chance.
The Rain Mist emanated from the middle-aged literati, and as the mat cloak fluttered, a vast amount of mist emerged, causing the mat grass on "Wang Xu"'s cloak to flutter as well. It was as if dragons lurked within the clouds, elusive and mysterious.
The rain mist and dragon shadow not only defended against tangible attacks but also intangible and imperceptible soul assaults.
Numerous illusory hungry ghosts approached the rain mist, only to be entangled by the rain and trapped within the dragon shadow.
"Wang Xu" waved the green bamboo staff in his hand, shattering all the intangible hungry ghosts instantly.
Jue Xiang remained calm and unperturbed, unleashing the Human Path specialized in destroying physical objects.
However, he was helpless against his opponent's mat cloak and bamboo staff.
"What are these things?" Jue Xiang was astonished.
He was uncertain if his opponent had been recuperating from injuries all these years, but he had never heard of such formidable artifacts possessed by the Dongyang Mountain man, apart from the ever-present Auspicious Bow.
"Wang Xu" strolled casually, but in just a few steps, he had already reached before the pitch-black Buddha. He waved the green bamboo staff in his hand, and the Buddha hastily raised its hands to block, only to have three of its arms shattered instantly.
A dazzling radiance flashed suddenly.
Without any warning, a brilliant beam of light resembling an arrow shot forth at extremely close range.
Jue Xiang's Asura Path was still fully engaged in resisting the Glorious Great Day above, leaving him unable to extricate himself. Thus, he could only watch helplessly as the "light arrow" pierced straight through the pitch-black Buddha!
A sharp and swift shot, even without the Auspicious Bow, it still possessed such formidable might...Jue Xiang grunted as the broken pitch-black Buddha crumbled into pieces.
The black aura expanded, resembling a night curtain that veiled the heavens.
This was none other than the strongest of the Six Paths of Void Annihilation - the Heavenly Path.
If a cultivator of the Great Empty Boundary at its peak were to employ this technique, its might would be unparalleled.
Jue Xiang's Heavenly Path, at this critical juncture, was equally formidable, aiding him in temporarily holding off the "Nation's Prestige" and the Glorious Great Day above.
He himself hastily retreated.
Unfortunately, speed was not a forte of the Great Empty Temple monks.
"Wang Xu"'s speed far exceeded his, and with a single step, he was already upon Jue Xiang. The green bamboo staff in his hand struck down once more.
Suddenly, a boundless sea of blood appeared in the air, as if endless and infinite, blocking the path between "Wang Xu" and Jue Xiang.
The green bamboo staff descended, instantly creating a void in the sea of blood.
On the shore of the great river, Ouyang Jingyuan, Wang Bujiu, Fang Junmei, and Wang Jian, among others, watched on, captivated.
"Master Dongyang, you are too kind.
Did you emerge prematurely from your recuperation?
If this is your peak state, how formidable would you be?"
However, upon witnessing the sudden appearance of the sea of blood, they collectively shuddered: "...Blood River Great Shaman!"
Not only them but even those engaged in battle within and outside of Suzhou were paying attention to the situation on Jue Xiang's side at this moment.
Although they had long heard of the fame of the Dongyang Mountain man, he had, after all, been absent for too long.
Meanwhile, Monk Jue Xiang was the most notorious evil cultivator in recent years.
It was true that the cultivators of the Great Empty Temple were not suited for protracted battles, but how long had it been?
Jue Xiang had withdrawn from Suzhou earlier, awaiting the right moment to strike with his full strength. His destructive might was at its peak at this moment, making it difficult for anyone to withstand.
Even the Grand Shaman of Kongsang, Ou Hongcheng, who had lent a hand, was startled.
The sea of blood he had unleashed was torn apart with a single tap of "Wang Xu"'s bamboo staff.
Sensing the profound and subtle might contained within the bamboo staff, Ou Hongcheng frowned inwardly.
The strength of this opponent far exceeded expectations, causing him to abandon the idea of joining forces with Jue Xiang to turn the tables. Instead, he signaled for Jue Xiang to flee immediately.
However, as this thought emerged, Ou Hongcheng's heart trembled.
It was as if thunder rumbled, giving rise to lightning-like intangible arrows that shot towards his soul.
A sharp and swift soul arrow...Ou Hongcheng grunted, transforming into a blood shadow and fleeing towards the distant horizon.
The middle-aged literati maintained his casual and unhurried pace, unperturbed and calm. After disembarking from the great river, his mat cloak fluttered, and the boundless rain mist spread out, permeating the four directions.
Having repelled Jue Xiang and the Grand Shaman Ou Hongcheng, he strolled with the bamboo staff in hand, passing by countless disciples of the Great Empty Temple and numerous demons along the way. With casual left and right strikes of the bamboo staff, he shattered the heads of monks and snapped the spines of demons, his steps unwavering.
The morale of the myriad demons and disciples of the Great Empty Temple completely collapsed, and they began to scatter and flee in all directions.
In the misty rain, blood flowed freely, yet amidst the haze, it exuded a surreal beauty rather than a gory sight.
Whether it was Ouyang Jingyuan and the others on the distant riverbank or Ye Zhao and his companions within the ancestral grounds of the Li Clan in Suzhou, all who witnessed this scene held their breath momentarily.
The Grand Chieftain of the Ye Tribe of Qingzhou, Ye Zhao, was the first to recover his wits. He exited the ancestral grounds of the Li Clan and gave chase to the similarly fleeing Ninefold Heaven Giant Turtle Demon.
The other Han cultivators came to their senses and swiftly followed suit.
The tide of battle turned abruptly.
The siege of Suzhou was lifted, and those cultivators of the Great Empty Temple and demons who had been wreaking havoc in the Jiangnan region were no longer having their way. They were either hunted down by the Han cultivators or fled for their lives.
The peace of the Jiangnan region was restored, and its people were safe from harm.
Outside of Suzhou, amidst the misty rain, the Han cultivators finally heaved a collective sigh of relief:
"We have Master Dongyang to thank for his timely aid..."
Wanting to find the man, they could only see his back.
The middle-aged literati continued in the direction Jue Xiang and Ou Hongcheng had fled, strolling at a pace that seemed unhurried yet vanished into the misty rain in mere moments, leaving only a refined and elegant recitation:
"With a bamboo staff in hand,
How fearlessly I walk through the world.
A rain cape on my shoulders,
How carefree I face the vicissitudes of life."
(End of Chapter)
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