Chapter 482: Golden Summit Duel
On the surrounding mountains, billowing demonic clouds rose from the temples one after another. Groups of high-ranking demon monks rode clouds and mist, flying toward the Golden Summit with murderous intent.
Xing Han's aura was too powerful, alerting nearly every monk in Little Leiyin Temple that a formidable enemy had arrived, prompting them to rush over.
Standing on the Golden Summit of Little Leiyin Temple as if it were an empty space, Xing Han ignored the many demon monks rushing over and said with a smile, "Why must you all court death? On this mountain, only one person needs to die—Divine Physician Qin. Divine Physician Qin, let's settle the grievance between you and me first."
Banggong Cuo was overjoyed. He propped himself up on his hands and crawled forward two steps, lifting his head to snarl viciously, "Divine Physician Qin, Senior Brother Xing Han is calling you. Why don't you come up and die?"
Jing Yan looked at Xu Shenghua and whispered, "Young master..."
Xu Shenghua frowned deeply. In this situation, he had no idea what to do. Little Tathagata couldn't bear to let Little Leiyin Temple's experts throw away their lives and certainly wouldn't help. And his own cultivation was far inferior to Xing Han's, utterly useless in this fight.
Qin Mu raised his hand to stop the demon ape, who was about to charge forward, and stepped ahead, testing the waters: "Senior Brother Xing Han, if I help you get rid of the hidden ailments in your physical body, can you spare my life?"
Banggong Cuo seemed to hear the most ridiculous thing in the world and burst into laughter: "Little Qin, you're dreaming in broad daylight..."
"Fine."
Xing Han was overjoyed and said, "If you can remove my hidden troubles, I don't mind letting you go."
Banggong Cuo's eyes bulged, and he turned his head, stammering, "Senior Brother Xing Han is joking, right?"
Xu Shenghua was also dumbfounded, unable to come to his senses for a long time.
Xing Han said leisurely, "I don't necessarily have to kill him. To me, prey resisting is only natural. Last time, when he teamed up with a group of experts to resist and wounded me, forcing me to retreat, I actually admired him quite a bit. However, if Divine Physician Qin wants to live, he must return my body parts to me."
Qin Mu agreed readily: "Fine! But some body parts I've already returned to their owners." With that, he took out the True Dragon Nest and retrieved the various arms and legs inside.
"That's nothing. If you gave them back, I'll just go and take them again."
Xing Han stepped forward and inspected them one by one. When he reached the leg Qin Mu had poisoned, he hesitated, looked up at Qin Mu, and his eyes flickered: "This leg seems different from before. Divine Physician Qin, I'm also skilled in medicine. This leg has definitely been tampered with."
Qin Mu stepped forward to examine it, scratched his head, and said, "I grafted this leg onto someone else. Look, there are knife marks here."
Xing Han squinted, studying his expression. He couldn't find any flaw, but he was genuinely wary of Qin Mu's medical skills.
"Great Venerable, I still owe you a leg. Graft this one on first."
He tossed the poisoned leg to Banggong Cuo. Banggong Cuo's face turned sallow as he shouted, "Damn Qin, you poisoned that leg, didn't you? Give me the truth! Brother Xing Han, can I refuse this leg? If I graft it on, I'll definitely die! Even if that bastard Qin just touched it, I don't want it!"
Xing Han took the leg back and said calmly, "I gave it to you, and you refused. Then I only owe you one leg."
Banggong Cuo grunted, his heart churning with conflict, and quickly said, "Give it to me! Let me check if it's poisoned..."
Xing Han tossed the leg to him, opened the box, and stored the various body parts inside. His gaze fell on Qin Mu, then circled around Xu Shenghua, and finally landed on the demon ape. He praised repeatedly, "All of you are talents. Harvesting you once you've achieved success would be quite an interesting affair, wouldn't it? Great Venerable, you should also cultivate diligently and not let the younger generation ride over your head."
Banggong Cuo's chest was filled with pent-up anger with nowhere to vent. He grunted and said nothing more.
Xing Han looked at the golden alms bowl. The bowl had been taken out of Qin Mu's painting by Little Tathagata and the other monks and now hung in the air. Wei Wu Shen stood with his arms crossed, half of his body perched on a small demon cloud above the bowl, while the other half was twisted into a curved cloud of energy, suppressed inside the bowl by the alms bowl.
Wei Wu Shen looked at Xing Han and sneered coldly.
"Wei Wu Shen, the Great Venerable once borrowed your primordial spirit to bow to me."
Xing Han laughed and said, "I'll give you another chance now. Bow to me again and see if you can bow me to death."
Wei Wu Shen said leisurely, "Your true name has already been exposed. Bowing you to death would be easy. But I'm in no hurry. I want to see you jump around and make a fool of yourself. Everyone on this mountain is doomed to die. They will all die. Why should I rush?"
Xing Han smiled faintly, looked at Little Tathagata, and said, "The main course is best saved for last. Wei Wu Shen is the main course, and Yuan Ding Tathagata is the appetizer. Tathagata, will you resist me?"
Little Tathagata pressed his palms together and said, "Senior Brother Xing Han spoke my name in front of Wei Wu Shen. I am already fated to return to heaven. Even if I don't die at your hands, I will die under Wei Wu Shen's bow. A monk is empty of all things. It doesn't matter if you take this cultivation from me. But if I die, Little Leiyin Temple will likely be reduced to ashes. I cannot bear to see the demon race's legacy disappear. So, I ask Senior Brother Xing Han to teach me a thing or two."
His aura suddenly became immensely powerful. His body radiated dazzling treasures, and with a shake, a ring of Buddha light appeared behind him, within which manifested the Twenty Heavens.
At this moment, Little Tathagata's aura was like a mountain laden with Buddhist treasures, heavy and immense. Behind him, a primordial spirit leaped out. It had a large head and a small body, its head covered in bumps, its eyes wide and blazing with light, and on its forehead grew a single upward-curving goat horn!
His primordial spirit had goat hooves, and its head resembled a qilin. It was majestic and dignified, exuding an extraordinary bearing.
Beneath its gaze, everyone present felt a sense of guilt and dared not look directly at it.
Its long horn could distinguish right from wrong and was incredibly sharp. When Banggong Cuo saw this horn, his face changed drastically, and he was filled with terror, quickly dodging.
He had done too many immoral deeds and felt that he might be impaled by that horn at any moment.
"So the great monk is a xiezhi who attained the Dao."
Xing Han was delighted by the sight and praised, "No wonder your cultivation is so strong. In ancient times, you were considered a divine being! I have many treasures, but I've never had a sacred being of the demon race like you."
Little Tathagata let out a great roar, and his primal energy erupted. Countless thunderbolts gathered in the sky, and the rolling demon clouds shot upward with lightning, forming a divine bridge of radiant light that illuminated the mountains.
His xiezhi primordial spirit leaped up, stepped onto the divine bridge, and reached its end, standing amidst the demon clouds. Thunder poured over its entire body, and the primordial spirit became half-Buddha, half-xiezhi, standing there like a xiezhi divine being. It grew even larger, and its great hand pressed downward, covering half of Little Sumeru Mountain.
Xing Han's body did not move. A divine bridge spanned the sky, and his primordial spirit leaped onto it, charging straight toward the great Buddha primordial spirit in midair.
Qin Mu's eyelids twitched. Xing Han's primordial spirit had changed again, completely different from the one during the battle at Heavenly Sage Academy.
This time, his primordial spirit was a tortoise-backed Daoist, entwined with a soaring serpent.
Boom!
Thousands of bolts of lightning exploded in midair. The two primordial spirits collided violently, and blinding arcs of lightning spread out in all directions. Each collision formed nets of lightning, casting the mountains below into stark black-and-white contrast.
Black were the shadows of the peaks, the trees, and the halls; white was the light of the thunder.
Little Tathagata moved his feet, and Xing Han moved his as well. As their feet shifted, the two divine bridges in the air also moved laterally, and the primordial spirits standing on them changed positions accordingly.
After a while, a loud crash rang out. The xiezhi divine being fell from the divine bridge and crashed onto the Golden Summit. A terrifying shockwave exploded outward, knocking everyone off balance.
Blood trickled from the corner of Little Tathagata's mouth. He swept his robe, gathering the hurricane into his sleeve to prevent it from injuring the demon monks in the mountains.
"I lost. Senior Brother Xing Han, take my cultivation."
Little Tathagata withdrew his primordial spirit and divine bridge. His face was pale. The demon monks from the surrounding mountain temples immediately soared into the air and flew toward the Golden Summit, murderous intent thick in the air.
Little Tathagata sat in lotus position, his body expanding, and he stopped them, saying, "Junior brothers, after my divine repositories are taken, I cannot escape death. After I die, go to Great Leiyin Temple. Ma Tathagata of Great Leiyin Temple is my grand-disciple. His heart is broad enough to accommodate all of you."
The demon monks were overcome with grief and prostrated themselves, weeping.
Xing Han withdrew his primordial spirit and divine bridge and said leisurely, "Why do you all put on such a sorrowful display? I don't like killing. I'm only taking Yuan Ding Tathagata's cultivation, not his life. There's no need for grief. Besides, I also intend to take Wei Wu Shen's primordial spirit. Rest assured, your Tathagata won't die. Yuan Ding Tathagata, please open your divine repositories."
Little Tathagata was calm. His body shook violently, and with a series of loud booms, layers of divine repositories opened within him. An incredibly rich treasure light burst forth from his body, illuminating the entire mountain. He said in a deep voice, "Senior Brother Xing Han, take it."
Xing Han stepped forward. Suddenly, the sky darkened. Darkness surged from the west, engulfing the lofty mountains and submerging the Great Ruins.
Xing Han looked at the darkness sweeping over Little Sumeru Mountain and praised, "The Great Ruins are truly mysterious and unfathomable."
He walked forward, gently spreading his hands apart. Beams of sword light flew from between his fingers and palms, about to cut away Little Tathagata's divine repositories. Suddenly, Wei Wu Shen burst into laughter: "Yuan Ding, receive my bow!"
The small demon cloud above the golden alms bowl shifted and transformed into an altar. Wei Wu Shen's primordial spirit bowed down.
Little Tathagata's face changed drastically. Xing Han sneered, "Trying to kill him in front of me? Dream on!"
The sword light in his hand slashed down. In an instant, layers of mysterious light coiled around Little Tathagata, forming seals upon seals. Countless runes shifted, trapping his body.
Wei Wu Shen bowed on the altar. Little Tathagata grunted. Even through Xing Han's seals, his primordial spirit was forced out of his body by the bow. The primordial spirit split apart, nearly scattering into nothingness.
Xing Han's expression also changed. He struck out with a palm, aiming at the altar.
Wei Wu Shen laughed loudly, stood up, and bowed to him. Xing Han's primordial spirit trembled, and his soul instantly disintegrated. He fell stiffly to the ground, lifeless.
The golden alms bowl let out a loud clang and shattered into pieces. Wei Wu Shen's primordial spirit leaped out, stretched its body, and laughed heartily: "Mere mortals, chickens and dogs—utterly useless. You thought I wanted to kill Yuan Ding to humiliate you, but you didn't know I was after you! Good disciple, come here!"
Banggong Cuo hugged the leg, trembling uncontrollably.
At that moment, Xing Han's box moved. The box opened, and Xing Han sat up stiffly, smiling: "Excellent shamanic arts!"
—Happy birthday to the book friend of Zhai Zhu!