Chapter 167 — The Decisive Battle
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 3 of 6
Beyond all expectation, when that immense shadow collided with the blazing golden light, there was not the slightest sound—none of the earth-shaking spectacle anyone had anticipated. The golden light all around suddenly turned back, closing in from every direction, while the black qi that had blanketed the sky seemed suddenly to shrink, contracting ever smaller, yet still shooting forward—until at last the giant form of the demonic spirit was compressed to less than a tenth or even a twelfth of its former size.
Yet that black qi, still hurtling forward, grew ever denser and blacker, its baleful force increasing rather than diminishing. Amid a faint roaring howl, this black arrow split the sky, shattered countless golden barriers, and astonishingly drove straight to the very face of Reverend Pu Cheng.
The chilling cold, the hideous visage—as if right before his eyes, out of the deepest darkness!
Reverend Pu Cheng closed his eyes and joined his palms, softly chanting Buddhist incantations—light and quick, like song yet not song, like speech yet not speech. That "Great Compassion Golden Wheel," slowly revolving in midair and radiating ten thousand beams of golden light, descended from above his head and came to rest before Pu Cheng, the true forms of the Buddha and the Arhats together facing this ferocious demon such as the world had not seen since ancient times.
In the golden light, their countenances seemed both compassionate and stern—compassionate with pity for all things under heaven, stern with the fierce resolve to subdue demons and slay. Who could say which face was the Buddha's true visage?
The low chanting of sutras rose from soft to loud, in an instant resounding through heaven and earth!
Blazing golden light erupted forth, too dazzling for the eye to behold, like a heaven full of Buddha-flame consuming all things, engulfing every trace of black before it and raising up a vast golden orb in midair. Such a magnificent spectacle was truly rare in this world; all above the sea of clouds were shaken, awed by the peerless power of Buddha.
Yet just as the crowd stood dumbstruck, that uncanny black—which seemed to have been subdued by the matchless power of the great Buddha—astonishingly flickered forth once more from within the golden radiance, stubbornly resisting. Amid all that blazing splendor, it was like a slender black needle, piercing into the Great Compassion Golden Wheel.
Upon that supreme Buddhist treasure, the Buddha's countenance, so compassionate before, was suddenly and eerily crossed by a streak of black. Almost at the same instant, the solemn chanting that filled the sky abruptly ceased, and the clamorous world fell into a strange stillness.
Every gaze instantly converged upon the two figures within that golden light.
A flicker of pain crossed Reverend Pu Cheng's face, and that wisp of black qi, as if granted new life, swiftly swelled from its former thread-like thinness, gradually taking shape and revealing the figure of the Beast Sovereign.
The black qi rose higher and higher, and the righteous cultivators all changed color. From afar, the Beast Sovereign's face still showed no expression; even his eyes remained cold as ever. Now upon the Golden Wheel, the visage of the Buddha's image began to show that eerie black, growing heavier and heavier, and the once compassionate and serene countenance grew fierce, ever more hideous.
Reverend Pu Cheng's expression changed drastically. His face darkened, and with a low shout, his monk's robes billowed though no wind blew, his figure seeming in an instant to swell. As if provoked, the golden light filling the sky suddenly reversed, emitting a sharp, hissing whistle as it rushed back before Pu Cheng and swiftly condensed into a golden orb the size of a palm, golden rays darting within it, almost like the sun in the heavens—even from afar one could sense the surging Buddha-power within.
Once again, the solemn sound of chanting rose in the sky.