"Beiju Luzhou... Alright. My old Sun has been wanting to fight a master. But what about Master..."
The monkey looked at Tang Sanzang, fearing something might happen to the old monk after he left.
Unexpectedly, Tang Sanzang smiled at him and said: "Wukong, your teacher has now recovered his Dao Fruit. The cultivation of the divine method has progressed rapidly. Even if a Bodhisattva-level figure came, your teacher could handle it."
"What about Junior Brother Sha and me?"
Zhu Bajie looked at Yang Jian, wondering what their duties would be.
Yang Jian pointed his finger toward the sky.
The Drifting Monk understood and said: "Heavenly Court?"
"Yes. Although the Jade Emperor verbally obeys the instructions of the gods, he has not actually practiced the divine methods. He is merely a hypocrite.
I want you to go up and thoroughly investigate the pasts of those immortals. If there are criminals who have committed offenses—execute them without mercy..."
Yang Jian was ready to assert his authority.
At present, the power of the faith was growing larger and larger. He didn't want to play family games anymore.
When cruelty was necessary, be cruel.
The situation was better than people.
At the beginning, the Jade Emperor had killed his father and suppressed his mother beneath Peach Mountain.
Yang Jian could do nothing about it then.
Now that he had power, he could naturally make the other party surrender.
Blame him for not being willing to submit!
If he had abandoned the identity of the Jade Emperor early on, practiced the divine law, and become a believer—
He wouldn't have given Yang Jian such a headache.
Zhu Bajie sneered and said: "Just in time to settle old accounts with those former friends. They used to look down on me..."
The Drifting Monk followed: "When I was running errands, my elder brother would call on me. But now that I've been knocked down to the mortal world, they don't even let out a fart. We also want to settle things with our former friends."
The Little White Dragon rolled his eyes when he heard this.
Good grief. The heavenly court was full of nothing but snobbery.
Once you've been cast down to the mortal world, who would even acknowledge you?
Nanzhan Buzhou.
Once a place where Buddhism flourished—originally a land where bodhisattvas dwelt.
But now it had long since been reduced to a land of demonic disaster.
Kong Xuan, as the priest of the faith, guarded this place!
At this moment, she wore a half-patterned mask covering everything below her nose. The armor she wore did not reveal even a sliver of skin.
As one preparing for the status of goddess—
Kong Xuan protected herself very carefully.
She would not allow anyone to catch even a glimpse of her skin.
This was her chastity before the gods. Her devotion to the gods.
Countless clansmen knelt at her feet, reporting recent events.
"It is so, Lord Priest. Mount Putuo has been completely demonized following the departure of Miaoshan and the gods. The Black Bear Spirit and others have wreaked havoc upon the world, but there is no response from Mount Putuo itself."
"What about the other three dojos?"
"The dojo of Ksitigarbha has been reduced to a land of the underworld. Forgive me—I was unable to gather intelligence there."
"The same is true for the remaining two dojos!"
Kong Xuan looked at her tribe and nodded. "Assemble our forces. We attack Mount Putuo..."
"Yes!"
The faith not only recruited monsters—it also recruited humans.
After witnessing the demon plague's arrival, many humans had come seeking refuge. Currently, Kong Xuan commanded one hundred thousand followers and more than one hundred cultivation sects.
The Dragon King of the South Sea had also joined her faction early on.
Otherwise, he would have been destroyed by the Black Bear Spirit.
Even so, he had still lost two dragons!
It had been useless to ask for help.
The Dragon King had completely lost faith in the heavenly gods.
In a moment, the assembly of believers was complete.
The battle began!
Mount Putuo.
The former dojo of Miaoshan—originally a sacred place filled with flowers across the mountains—was now shrouded in thick, miasmic air and heavy with the power of resentment.
The power of the Tathagata had spread to all Three Realms.
The Black Bear Spirit had originally been on par with Wukong. The terror of his strength was already evident.
Now that he had gained this foreign power, he had transformed into an existence at the Golden Immortal Realm.
"Huh... it's a pity Guanyin ran away. Otherwise my old bear would have killed her with a single stroke!"
The Black Bear Spirit's eyes were filled with blood. His tone brimmed with murderous intent.
The spirits within Mount Putuo were almost all the same.
All had been eroded by the power of darkness.
Even their bodies had changed.
For example, the Black Bear Spirit nowadays was far taller than before. Many strange gray lines had appeared on his face—like rotting flesh. They emitted a foul odor.
The Caidie girl standing beside him sneered and said: "The king must not be angry. Lord Demon Buddha said—as long as we kill all the dogs of the gods, we can attain immortality when we look back."
At the mention of the Eternal Faith—
The Black Bear Spirit became both furious and greedy. A few days ago, he had wanted to kill some dragons to fill his belly—but had been repelled by a mere cultivator shrimp soldier.
What a humiliation!
That was just a shrimp soldier. Not even a dragon.
How infuriating!
"Report... Great King! The Eternal God Faith has launched an attack! They say they will destroy the Four Great Demon Kings and completely take down Nanzhan Buzhou!"
"What?!"
The Black Bear Spirit was shocked. He flew directly into the sky.
He hadn't even managed to steady himself when—
A ray of golden ripples flashed across his neck.
One of the Four Great Demon Kings—the Black Bear Spirit—decapitated!
"The King..."
"The King..."
...
The monsters could not believe their eyes. Their king had been slain the moment he appeared.
As it turned out—they heard the Black Bear roar: "Stop your damn crying! I'm not dead yet... Who attacked me?!"
The pale, carrion flesh glowed with a strange radiance.
Countless tentacles spread from the Black Bear Spirit's severed head.
In the end, it reconnected with the body seamlessly.
"Huh... what kind of power is this?"
Outside Mount Putuo, countless members of the faith were launching their assault.
Kong Xuan had arrived at the peak of the mountain, planning to eliminate the Black Bear Spirit first.
As it turned out—she had not expected this.
Her Immortal-Slaying Light had killed the Black Bear Spirit in a single strike—
Yet it had caused him almost no real harm.
This slash had severed the physical connection entirely.
So why was the Black Bear Spirit unharmed?
Divine power condensed in her eyes.
The secret of the Black Bear Spirit suddenly appeared before Kong Xuan's gaze. She saw that his body had long since rotted away—filled with insects.
And his head was occupied by a strange gray worm.
The Black Bear Spirit's golden core and spiritual platform had both been corrupted.
It was the worm controlling him—but the Black Bear Spirit himself did not know it.
"How revolting. I didn't expect the Tathagata's method to be... this..."
Whoosh.
The golden Immortal-Slaying Light flashed again.
This time, it was aimed at the head.
The worm inside felt the threat to its life and let out a piercing scream.
And the Black Bear Spirit reacted as well.
He turned to resist.
As a result, his head was split open like a flower.
The gray bug looked at Kong Xuan and spoke in a bitter voice.
"Kong Xuan... you betrayed me, yet you still dare come to deal with me... You will die!"
"Heh... who are you? Ah—so you are a fragment of the Tathagata's consciousness. You're doing quite well for yourself... controlling your own Buddhas with such an ugly form."
"Hmph... your so-called god can never enter this world. The passage has been blocked by me!"
"Then stay tuned and see..."
Kong Xuan moved her finger.
This consciousness was obliterated entirely!
Along with the last trace of the Black Bear Spirit's true self, the remaining monsters were simple...
Kong Xuan called out to the people below: "When you encounter high-level monsters, you must strike the head. There are corpse worms inside!"
"Understood, Lord Priest!"
Seeing the energetic believers, Kong Xuan smiled faintly.
Then she retrieved a jade slip.
She began contacting Yang Jian.
"What's the matter?"
"I've discovered the Tathagata's secret. Right now, enemies at the Golden Immortal Realm and above all have corpse worms embedded in their minds. But the body itself does not know it."
"There is such a thing?"
"Yes. Today I attacked Mount Putuo. This is the latest discovery. So for Beiju Luzhou on the northern side—tell the monkey and my brother to be more careful.
The corpse worm may not be fixed in form. As long as the corpse worm doesn't die—
The monster will not be destroyed."
"Understood. I've got it."
Yang Jian's expression became grave.
The Tathagata was growing more and more powerful by the day. The timing of his own decision to act was just right.
Then Kong Xuan continued: "When the Tathagata's consciousness departed, it said it had blocked this world. I don't know if that's true or not. If we cannot stay in contact with the gods, we will be in a very passive position."
"Haha, don't worry about that. As a priest, you can contact the gods at any time..."
"Really? Then I'm relieved."
Kong Xuan closed the jade slip and flew toward the South Sea next.
Within the Wuzhuang Temple—
The two people who had heard the entire exchange fell into silence.
Zhen Yuanzi pursed his lips and asked: "Is it truly this horrifying?"
"If you think I'm lying to you, you're welcome to leave the Daoist temple behind and wander for a while. Since Mount Putuo has suffered this fate, it's probably the same in other places.
If you believe in Daoism and don't wish to join the faith—I also approve of you.
But can the Dao save you now?"
The Dao follows nature. But divine law stands above all else."
Faced with Yang Jian's painstaking persuasion—
Zhen Yuanzi turned his head and looked at the plaque of his worship.
The character read:
[Heaven and Earth]
As the earth collapsed today, and the heavens were shattered—
There was no way to preserve his own peace.
That's it... that's it...
It would be good to join the faith.
"This old Daoist wishes to worship at the door of the gods. I hope the Master Priest will take me in..."
Zhen Yuanzi sighed softly and placed his floating dust upon the table.
He prepared to kneel.
"You are all worshipping brothers. Zhen Yuanzi, what are you doing with this kind of grand ceremony? You only worship the gods—no other person is worth kneeling to."
"No need even for the Master Priest?"
Zhen Yuanzi asked suspiciously.
After all, he was the messenger of God.
Wasn't it right to kneel before him?
Yang Jian chuckled and said: "In the eyes of God, we are all just pious people. No one needs to bow down to anyone else. Low-level believers may worship my identity—but true respect is reserved for God alone."
"So that's how it is."
Zhen Yuanzi finally understood.
It seemed this faith truly was good.
After subduing Zhen Yuanzi, Yang Jian had nothing else to attend to. He opened a space door and leapt a million li back to his own place of worship.
"Come here. Invite Fairy Chang'e and Yutu out. Prepare for the sacrifice!"
"Yes."
Since Kong Xuan had said that the Tathagata had sealed off the Three Realms—
Then he would have to see the real result for himself.
In a moment—
A peerless fairy in an aqua blue dress stood upon the altar. Beside her was a timid girl.
"May I ask Mr. Erlang—if I leave, can I truly find peace?"
"By God's side, no one can disturb your purity."
Chang'e nodded in satisfaction. Then she knelt upon the ground and closed her eyes.