CHAPTER 202: HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A SARIRA THE SIZE OF A CLAY POT

Reports poured in from every direction at the command center of the mountain military base.

"Target hit! I repeat! Target hit!"

"Seventy percent charge remaining. The laser will be ready in three minutes."

"There's heavy smoke at the scene. We can't confirm the target's status."

Every pair of eyes was fixed on the giant screen. Now that the tornado had passed, the drones were functioning again. The aerial footage showed that the Ziyan Temple had completely vanished. All that remained below was a thick cloud of black smoke—devilish qi.

The swirling devilish qi began spreading along the mountain slope like a black cloud that had fallen from the sky, completely obscuring the situation below. Soon, a sharp roar echoed from within it, and dozens of beams shot out, destroying the drones in the air.

The screen went black.

Technicians immediately replayed the final frames in slow motion. The last two clear images showed an orange-red strand of fur, half a meter long and as sharp as a steel needle, piercing toward the drone. At the bottom of the image, the fox fiend was still standing, but it was bleeding heavily from a horrifying hole in its back.

As more images flashed on the screen, a technician shouted, "It's healing rapidly! We should aim for its head!"

"Deploy all nearby drones available. Lock onto the target quickly and send accurate coordinates to the Heavenly Sword!"

"An energy beam strong enough to destroy a stone mountain barely harmed it? How is that even possible?" someone murmured.

An old officer in uniform turned to Chi Ling. "Captain Chi Ling, do we need authorization?"

"Let the cultivators try a second time. Since we can still fire the Heavenly Sword two more times anyway, we don't have to consider using our final option yet," Chi Ling responded. If their last resort failed to kill the ancient devil as well, they would truly face despair.

The screen lit up again, showing the two Golden Core Realm instructors who had been blasted away returning. Their enchanted power surged to the brim as they flew like two meteors toward the fox fiend.

The orange-red fox fiend stood atop the mountain amid the rolling devilish qi, its fur strikingly vivid. Soon, it raised its head and opened its mouth. Streams of primal qi rapidly gathered inside, which it then fired as a two-meter-wide beam. The two instructors dodged to the sides. Though they managed to somehow avoid the attack, they still clearly felt the terrifying power within it.

The fox fiend pushed on with its offensive. From within the devilish qi, two stone chains rose. Blood-red light flared around the fox fiend, exploded outward, and turned into hundreds of light swords rushing toward the sky from every direction.

The two instructors turned pale. They immediately fled in opposite directions and used all their strength to resist the incoming swords. The four Golden Core Realm experts flying in from afar were also caught in the barrage.

The light swords locked down the entire airspace. Each sword carried only a thousandth of the fox's power, yet dodging them was impossible. Everyone had to block at least one.

The two instructors were struck and thrown into the air. One spat blood, while the other screamed in pain. They fell from the sky and crashed into the devilish qi spreading across the mountainside.

The command center fell silent. A few drones that had just flown in were again destroyed, but new footage quickly appeared.

***

"Special Warfare Unit, retreat immediately! All personnel except Golden Core Realm cultivators are to withdraw! Begin evacuation of the surrounding area!" Pang Longhua ordered as he stood up from within the devilish qi and leaned on his long spear.

While using enchanted power to resist the corruption of the devilish qi, he looked up and shouted at the drone above, "This beast might have ascended already! It'll soon take human form! Not even a nuclear bomb might be enough to stop it!"

A chain then smashed down from the mountaintop, forcing Pang Longhua to leap away and flee. He had barely evaded when someone stood up near the fox fiend in his peripheral vision, making his eyes widen in shock.

That brat's luck is unreal. He was so close when the Heavenly Sword hit the fox fiend, yet he still managed to survive. He should have stayed hidden, though. Why did he have to stand up?

Gritting his teeth, Pang Longhua prepared to rush back. However, before he could, Wang Sheng adopted an accent from the Tang Dynasty and shouted two ancient characters unrelated to combat or magic, making them echo across the sky.

"Xi Lian! Xi Lian!"

In modern language, it meant "A-Lian."

The fox fiend trembled. In its daze, it looked at Wang Sheng.

Pang Longhua stared in astonishment as Wang Sheng rose into the air on his celestial-grade flying sword. With his hands behind his back, he floated upward and chanted in the ancient tone.

Pang Longhua and the other Golden Core Realm instructor were both from Daoist sects. Still, though they barely understood Wang Sheng, they knew he was roughly saying, "Don't let your anger control you again, Xi Lian! You have cultivated for so long. Do you want all your efforts to go to waste? You know Qinglin had no choice.

"When the Heavenly Court issued its decree to purge all fiends and devils from this realm, Qinglin had no choice but to seal you here to protect you. He didn't have time to explain. Had he tried, the heavenly soldiers would have torn you to pieces. Do not make the terrible mistake of falling into darkness, Xi Lian! I've waited a thousand years for you, all so I can tell you this the moment you are freed!"

While repeating the same lines, Wang Sheng floated right up to the massive fox's face on his celestial-grade sword. Buddhist light radiated around him, sweeping away the devilish qi within thousands of zhang.

Tears welled in the fox fiend's eyes. Though it still looked dazed, a glimmer of clarity had returned to its eyes.

"What is going on?" Pang Longhua was completely confused.

The Buddhist light brought a sense of peace and serenity. Bathed in its glow, the two Special Warfare Unit instructors felt their wounds slowly healing. Their enchanted power turned sluggish, and an inexplicable calm spread through their hearts. Their urge to fight vanished as well. Now, they only wanted to sit together, play chess, drink tea, and talk about peace and the mysteries of the universe.

***

The command center across the mountain had fallen completely silent. Many of the younger staff could only stare blankly at the screen.

The aerial footage showed Wang Sheng standing on his flying sword before the fox fiend, who could easily swallow him whole. Though he radiated a warm Buddhist glow, it was not coming from within him but from the clay-pot-sized bead in his hands: a sarira[1] that a great monk had left behind after achieving Nirvana.

Clearly, Wang Sheng was not acting of his own will. With his eyes closed, he slowly reached for the fox fiend's forehead. Tears streamed from its eyes as the confusion in its gaze slowly gave way to pain, sorrow, and helplessness.

Finally, he pressed his palm against her forehead, turning the Buddhist light into a shockwave that burst outward in every direction. A rainbow pillar of light then enveloped Wang Sheng and the fox fiend, shot upward, and pierced through the sky.

"Heavenly Sword has cooled down! The missile array is ready!" someone reported in the command center.

"Wait!" Chi Ling shouted. "Do not fire. Stay on alert, but do not interfere!"

Everyone could tell this was an extraordinary moment.

***

The moment the beam had struck, Wang Sheng immediately made sword radiance burst out of Spiritless, blasting apart the stone below. He then dropped to the ground and lay flat, ultimately saving himself.

The instant the high-energy laser struck the fox fiend, the fox fiend summoned a primal-qi shield. Devilish qi burst out beneath the impact, and the scattered laser beams and energy shockwaves spread in all directions.

Buried underground, Wang Sheng felt the searing heat. He tried to envelop himself with true essence, but it was quickly depleted. Even with the Flowing Celestial Robe protecting him, he could not block the aftershock.

Amid his suffering, a gentle, flowing, water-like force wrapped around him.

Inside the pit, Wang Sheng instinctively turned his head but found nothing. Spreading his spiritual consciousness across two meters, he sensed a glowing white orb about the size of a fist slowly approaching through the earth. At the same time, a voice with a thick Shu accent echoed in his mind.

"Little One, are you a disciple from the Shu Mountains?"

Wang Sheng was stunned, but he quickly confirmed. His master had said the statue contained a sarira, which was likely the key to dealing with the fox.

Is this orb the sarira? If so... which part of the monk did it come from?

"How can you prove that you're from the Shu Mountains?" the voice asked, more clearly this time.

"I have a token in my storage artifact. The current generation of the Shu Sword Sect gave it to me."

"I see it. You're a lifetime honorary elder? The Shu Mountains have certainly kept up with the times. So... how long has it been since the primal qi returned?

"

"Senior, we should focus on dealing with the fiend first."

"Who are you calling 'fiend'?! That's the celestial beast I raised!"

Wang Sheng was speechless.

"She's just in a bad state right now due to certain circumstances, but don't worry. I left all my cultivation techniques behind to restrain her if needed. Anyway, are you really from the Shu Sword Sect? How long has primal qi been back? Why are you only at the Illusory Core Realm? I must admit, your sword intent is decent."

Wang Sheng frowned. This monk must have been quite the chatterbox when he was alive.

At that moment, two Golden Core Realm instructors charged toward the fox fiend.

"They're only sending Golden Core Realm cultivators to face my Xi Lian, who is already at the Tribulation Realm?" The voice from the sarira sounded dismissive.

In a low tone, Wang Sheng replied, "Primal qi has only just returned. Those two are already among the top experts of this era."

"Is that so? You were fighting that fake monk so desperately because you were trying to avenge that Golden Core Realm Daoist who was ambushed earlier, weren't you?"

"That Daoist is my master."

"Well, not bad. You respect your master, honor the Dao, and your character is commendable. Above all, you have the determination to give your all. You're only in your early twenties, and, if I'm sensing this correctly, you've only been cultivating for six years. Nevertheless, you've already managed to form an Illusory Core and even gained insight into the Ziwei Sword Intent. That's quite impressive."

Wang Sheng was baffled. Why was this monk focusing so much on him instead of explaining how to subdue the fox? He felt as if the monk was picking a son-in-law.

Finally, the voice sighed. "Consider this your fate. Your potential is no less than Qingzheng's, and you won't disgrace Xi Lian."

A surge of brilliant Buddhist light appeared before Wang Sheng. His spiritual consciousness was pushed back to his spiritual platform, cutting off all sense of the outside world.

Am I being possessed?

He tensed up. In front of him, a vague phantasm slowly formed. Buddhist light poured into it, revealing a smiling old monk sitting cross-legged before him.

"Come, young one. First, make a vow."

1. Sarira refers to relics found among the cremated ashes of Buddhist spiritual masters. They often look like pearls or crystal-like beads. ☜