Chapter 62: Ruining Your Merits
"Ruining your cultivation? Ruining your merits?"
Qin Mu sneered coldly as he slashed at the other chains. "You're nothing but a bronze Buddha statue—where do you get off talking about merits? Your so-called merit was imprisoning the Wu Woman here, yet you sat idly by while she devoured people right in front of you. If you ever had any merits, they've long since rotted away!"
The great Buddha statue trembled, the blood-red patterns on its bronze body bursting with streaks of light. Reflected by the golden foil on its surface, it transformed into a dazzling golden giant. Its voice rumbled like thunder: "Do you realize that if you release her, how many people she will devour? How many lives she will destroy?"
"All I know is that behind you, countless bones are hidden, and you use her to commit evil. I haven't seen you do a single good deed."
Qin Mu severed the second chain, his tone icy. "Outside, there are ice tides that erupt several times a year. What have you done about them? That would be true merit—not sitting in a temple and suppressing a demon and calling it virtue. And on top of that, you allow the demon to eat people. If you had shattered the ice tides and saved the common folk downstream, then you would have real merit!"
The Buddha statue gleamed with golden light. Its hands began to move, as if it were about to come to life. The Wu Woman shrieked in terror and cried out, "This old bald donkey is an evil Buddha! He's trying to refine me to death! Hurry up!"
Qin Mu moved like the wind, darting out of the temple and urging the Young Guardian Sword to strike at the chains outside.
"The evil of sentient beings requires a great flood to wash away their sins. This is the result of their own causes and effects."
*Boom!*
A violent tremor shook the ground. The bronze Buddha stood up, its head smashing through the ancient temple's roof, its voice earth-shattering: "You heretical demon! How dare you sabotage the Dharma? Stubborn and unenlightened wretch!"
The chains binding the bronze Buddha and the Wu Woman suddenly came to life, whistling through the air as they coiled toward Qin Mu.
"Your Buddhist teachings save people only to save yourselves, not out of genuine compassion. Hypocrites."
Qin Mu leaped, dodging a chain that lashed toward him, and urged the Young Guardian Sword to strike at the final chain. "Back then, when you suppressed the Wu Woman, if you had killed her, that might have counted as merit. But instead, you imprisoned her and let her harm others. Her eating people is her sin—the deeper her sins, the greater your merit when you refine her? Bah! Every person she devoured should be counted on your head!"
*Clang!*
The Young Guardian Sword clashed against the chain, and a tremendous force from the chain sent the sword flying.
Qin Mu grunted, stumbling back to avoid two more chains that whipped toward him like black pythons. He sneered, "You sit in your temple while floods rage outside. You don't save anyone, yet you try to stop me from saving people, all while dreaming of merit? Let me tell you—every year, the elders in my village fight the ice tides to save the common folk downstream, along with the birds and beasts. They've saved countless lives! If merit alone could make one a Buddha, every one of them would already be a golden Buddha, not a lump of bronze and clay!"
"Absurd!"
The bronze Buddha loomed high, lifting its foot and slamming it down with a thunderous crash as it stepped out of the ruined temple. Its hands pressed together, and the sound of metal clashing rang out. A burst of Buddha light erupted, sending Qin Mu flying!
Every bone in Qin Mu's body shuddered. While he was still in midair, the chains shot toward him!
Qin Mu tapped his feet repeatedly on the chains, running along them as he used his primal energy to control the Young Guardian Sword, sending it flying like a dart toward the last chain binding the Wu Woman.
The chains twisted and turned like enormous pythons, crisscrossing through the air as they relentlessly attacked Qin Mu, creating a dizzying spectacle.
This bronze Buddha, though forged from brass, moved with incredible agility—utterly baffling.
Earlier, the Buddha couldn't distinguish between Qin Mu and the Wu Woman. As long as Qin Mu spoke demonic words, the Buddha would automatically respond with Buddhist mantras to refine the Wu Woman. But now that Qin Mu was trying to free her, the Buddha had taken on a different form, actively attacking him.
The massive chains wove through the air. Qin Mu stepped onto one chain, dodging the others.
The power transmitted through the chains from the bronze Buddha grew stronger. The vibrations from the chains rubbing against each other made it hard for him to keep his footing, his legs growing numb. His control over the Young Guardian Sword also became less precise.
The bronze Buddha's power was increasing, as if an endless reservoir of strength within it was gradually awakening.
Granny Si, Cripple, and the others had all mentioned this bronze Buddha, saying it was very strange. Granny Si once said she had tried to eliminate the Wu Woman but was blocked by the Buddha and failed.
Granny Si was undoubtedly powerful, yet she couldn't get rid of the Wu Woman, which meant that when the bronze Buddha's power fully awakened, it would be terrifying!
And now, that power was slowly stirring!
Even a fraction of its awakening was more than Qin Mu could handle.
Just then, a deafening roar like mountains collapsing and the earth splitting reached them. The ice tide surging from upstream had finally arrived. Towering icebergs, dozens of feet high, were being swept along by the raging river, appearing before the oasis—right behind Qin Mu!
Qin Mu was immediately cast into shadow. He glanced back hurriedly and saw countless blocks of ice being crushed and tumbled, surging to the peaks of the icebergs before cascading down with a roar, sinking to the bottom. New ice blocks were pushed up to the peaks, only to slide down again.
The ice tide crushed everything in its path. The corpses on the ice had long been ground to pulp, completely unrecognizable. All that remained were the rolling, surging icebergs, determined to annihilate everything!
"*Hum—*"
The bronze Buddha seemed to sense the approaching danger. Abandoning Qin Mu, it spread its arms and pushed forward against the surging ice tide.
*Bong!*
A massive golden bell formed from light appeared around the oasis, enveloping it!
Countless ice blocks struck the golden bell before the ice tide arrived, each impact producing a resonant *bong* as they shattered into dust. Every time a block hit the bell, ripples of golden light spread outward. From Qin Mu's perspective, it was both spectacular and breathtaking.
Then the ice tide arrived. The roar was like countless thunderclaps exploding, an unending cacophony of *boom boom boom*, mixed with the ringing of the golden bell!
The power of heaven and earth clashed with the Buddha's divine abilities, shaking the very ground. The oasis trembled violently, as if it might sink into the water at any moment.
The ice tide, blocked by the oasis and the golden bell in the river's center, grew higher and higher. On either side, the ice tide rushed downstream past the oasis, but where the oasis blocked the flow, the floating ice piled up more and more, threatening to overflow.
*Clatter!*
The chains rattled as they coiled toward Qin Mu. The bronze Buddha still had strength to spare, sending the chains snaking through the air like agile pythons, relentlessly pursuing him.
At the same time, the Buddha moved, its body clanging with metallic sounds as it continuously slapped its palms against the golden bell's walls to reinforce it.
The chains were wrapped around its body, flailing as it moved, attacking Qin Mu. The Wu Woman, now in the form of the little girl Xian Qing'er, was dragged along, stumbling and tripping. She fell to the ground, her face bruised and swollen, looking pitiful.
Qin Mu stepped onto the chains and immediately felt the Buddha's power diminish, no longer so terrifying. Seizing the opportunity, he had the Young Guardian Sword slash repeatedly. With a *clang*, he severed the final chain.
The Wu Woman froze for a moment, then raised her arms. She saw two golden rings around her wrists, with broken chains dangling from them. Joy and surprise flooded her.
There were also golden rings around her ankles, each dragging a broken chain.
"Don't just stand there—run!" Qin Mu shouted, rushing toward her.
The Wu Woman burst into laughter, a shrill, piercing sound. Suddenly, her body expanded violently, Xian Qing'er's skin tearing apart as her true form emerged—a body covered in joints, with hundreds of legs flailing. She cried out, "Little brother, jump on my back! I'll carry us out of here!"
Qin Mu landed on her. This great demon, clad in bony armor, charged recklessly, dragging the golden rings and chains as it dashed toward the back of the oasis. Its countless legs moved with incredible speed, then it leaped into the air, its long body and hundreds of legs churning as it flew toward the golden bell's wall!
"Wretch! You are my merit—do you think you can escape?"
The bronze Buddha turned, its brass hand reaching out. The golden rings and chains on the Wu Woman clattered as they flew backward, while the chains on the Buddha also rose, as if trying to reconnect with the severed links.
The Wu Woman's hair stood on end. The chains on her body yanked her down, the force from the rings on her ankles pulling her backward despite her frantic efforts.
She dug in with all her legs, crawling forward with all her might, but she was still dragged back.
Qin Mu was about to use his sword to sever the rings on her wrists and ankles when a razor-thin beam of light flashed past, slicing through the golden bell and passing between the bronze Buddha's eyes.
The Buddha roared in fury, its hand reaching for its face. The Wu Woman suddenly felt a great weight lift from her. She sprinted with all her might, leaping into the air in a few strides, breaking through the golden bell's barrier, and racing across the river's surface as she fled into the distance.
Behind them, the bronze Buddha's roars continued. Suddenly, the golden bell collapsed. The mountain-like ice tide surged in, engulfing the oasis and the Buddha. The ancient temple shattered in an instant, and the entire oasis was flattened!
"I have no quarrel with you..."
The bronze Buddha's furious words were cut short as it, along with the oasis, was swept into the river by the ice tide and crushed beneath the water!