Chapter 548: He Certainly Had No Shortage of Female Admirers

The present. The Demon Realm. The Kingdom of Suanyu.

The Kingdom of Suanyu bordered the Buddhist territories of the Western Regions.

Though nominally called a kingdom, Suanyu's actual territory was not large at all, roughly four times the size of an ordinary dynastic capital in the Ten Thousand Laws Realm.

A single city constituted the entire kingdom.

Within a hundred li of Suanyu, aside from dense clusters of poisonous creatures and boundless swampland, there was no trace of any other demon presence, let alone any humans.

Withered vines twisted everywhere, poisonous vapors hung thick in the air, and barren wasteland stretched on without end.

All of this together seemed to form Suanyu's natural barrier against the outside world yet today, this solitary city-kingdom, isolated from the rest of the world, was very likely about to vanish from it entirely.

Above the skies of Suanyu, strange birds were locked in fierce, wheeling combat across the heavens.

The Northern Mountain Canon records, “There is a bird whose form is like a serpent, with four wings, six eyes, and three feet, called the Suanyu. Its cry names itself. Wherever it appears, that settlement shall know terror."

These Suanyu birds spat forth a foul, venomous fluid without pause.

The venom fell like rain, and anything it touched, even stone, would corrode away to nothing within moments.

Thick poisonous vapor gathered continuously above Suanyu, layer upon layer, eventually forming a heavy and oppressive bank of venomous cloud but very quickly, streaks of fox fire cut across the sky, igniting swaths of that dense venomous cloud.

Then war chariots drawn by the beasts known as maohorses came thundering across the empty air, their arrival shaking the heavens.

Human and demon cultivators alike leapt down from the chariots, gripping swords and spears in their hands, piercing one Suanyu bird after another through the back, without mercy.

The Suanyu birds let out shrill, agonized cries, seemingly calling out their own names, before plunging down from the vast height above.

"Dark Fox Army, charge with me!"

A woman named Tushan Doudou, clad in armor and wielding a spear, was the first to charge into the enemy formation.

The spear in her hand transformed into a streak of black light, piercing straight through one of the Suanyu and as the spear flew down toward the ground, she surged forward in the same instant, seized the spear's shaft, and using the momentum, thrust it violently through the back of another Suanyu.

The dark-furred fox woman stamped both feet hard against the ground, using the force to launch herself into the air, leading the hundred thousand strong Dark Fox Army behind her in a black torrent, crashing once again into the depths of the Suanyu kingdom's battle lines.

Though the Suanyu army numbered a full six hundred thousand strong, under the assault of this hundred-thousand-strong Dark Fox Army, they were scattered and broken, thrown into complete disarray.

And just as the soldiers of Suanyu tried to break through the encirclement at any cost, another rain of fox fire came pouring down like a torrential downpour, blanketing everything below.

A woman named Tushan Yiyi looked down coldly on all of this, not the slightest ripple showing in her eyes.

She paid no mind whatsoever to the anguished screams of the Suanyu demons.

"You Nine-Tailed Fox Kingdom! Do you truly mean to exterminate us to the last?" The ruler of Suanyu stood in the midst of the battle formation, roaring at the sky, his voice filled with barely contained fury.

"And if we do?" Tushan Doudou stood with her spear planted, disdain filling her eyes, a contemptuous curve at her lips. "Do you imagine our Nine-Tailed Fox Kingdom traveled all the way to this stinking wretched place of yours for a leisurely tour?"

"Fine! Very well! Your Nine-Tailed Fox Kingdom, I will remember this!"

The Suanyu ruler flung this last threat behind him and turned to flee but before his four wings had carried him far, several formation arrays bloomed one after another like lotus flowers in a summer pond.

"Seal!"

The woman named Tushan Kankan called out softly, and the hundred-thousand-strong formation army under her command finished their incantation simultaneously, roughly two hundred formations activating in the same instant.

Within those formations, countless Suanyu demon cultivators did not even have time to cry out before being reduced to bloody mist and pulp beneath the array's power.

Following that rain of fire from the sky came a rain of crimson blood, staining the entire scorched land red.

This great battle lasted three hours in total.

At the end of it, Tushan Doudou personally cut off the head of Suanyu's ruler with her own hand.

Every remaining demon cultivator of Suanyu had lost all will to resist, kneeling in surrender one after another.

"It is over."

Tushan Doudou let out a long breath, carrying the Suanyu ruler's severed head in hand, and landed on a mountaintop, walking with great strides toward her two sisters.

"Let us pack up and go report back."

"No rush." Tushan Yiyi shook her head. "I heard Her Majesty has come."

"Her Majesty?" Tushan Doudou paused, confusion crossing her face. "A small kingdom like Suanyu, the three of us sisters were more than enough to handle it. What need would there be to trouble Her Majesty personally?"

"Perhaps... Her Majesty simply wanted to come out and clear her mind a little?" Tushan Yiyi thought it over and offered the quiet guess.

"Then where is Her Majesty now?" Tushan Doudou's eyes gleamed with adoration for her sovereign. "I will hurry over and deliver the Suanyu ruler's head to Her Majesty right away!"

"There is no need." Tushan Kankan quickly stepped back, putting distance between herself and that bloodied head, covering her nose with her sleeve in distaste, careful not to stain her own skirt. "That head is far too ugly. Let us not have it offend Her Majesty's eyes."

She paused, then continued, "Her Majesty said we should proceed with handling Suanyu according to the original plan. As for Her Majesty herself... she has gone to visit a place from her past."

"A place from her past?"

Tushan Doudou gave a small start, puzzlement showing in her eyes but very quickly, she seemed to understand something, and the light in her eyes gradually dimmed. A quiet sigh escaped her without meaning to.

Four Void Mountain.

This mountain stood quietly along the western edge of Suanyu's territory.

A woman in a long dress walked alone through a village that had long since fallen into ruin, abandoned for who knew how many years.

Beneath eaves choked with withered vines, not a single human voice could be heard, only the wind whistling through broken walls and crumbling ruins.

The woman walked step by step toward the mountain, her embroidered shoes treading over rubble and dried leaves without gathering a single speck of dust.

Though the poisonous creatures around her had no true intelligence, the woman's terrifyingly overwhelming presence still made them feel, at the deepest level of their bloodline, an unmistakable fear.

Every one of them scattered in a panic, giving the woman a wide berth, not daring the slightest offense.

She arrived at the foot of a mountain covered entirely in withered decay, stopped, raised her head, and looked quietly at this bare and lifeless peak, then lifted her long legs beneath her skirt and stepped slowly onto the crumbling stone steps.

When the woman reached the summit, a ruined and dilapidated temple appeared before her.

She stood quietly before the temple's entrance, and something like a flicker of remembrance passed through her painting-like eyes.

After a moment, she stepped forward and entered the temple.

The vermilion lacquer on the doors had long since peeled away entirely, exposing the pale, mottled wood grain beneath.

When the wind passed through, the crooked wooden door creaked with a low groan, like a bird dying of some incurable illness.

Between the cracks of the temple's blue bricks, withered yellow grass grew thick, some tall enough to reach past the ankles, others creeping low across the ground in every direction.

At the base of the walls, moss had gathered in a thick layer, so green it had darkened almost to black.

The woman passed through the ruined outer courtyard and stepped slowly into the main hall.

Through the broken roof, scattered beams of sunlight slanted in through the cracked tiles, illuminating the dust suspended in the air.

The offering table was covered in dust a full inch thick. The woman extended a finger and traced it lightly across the dust, leaving a mark clean and clear, as though cut with a blade.

She raised her head.

The gold leaf on the Buddha statue had long since flaked away entirely, exposing the coarse grey clay beneath, and the statue's body was covered in a dense network of fine cracks, like a dried-out riverbed yet the statue still held its flower and its smile, eyes lowered gently, gazing compassionately down on all the beings of the world but the woman, looking at the Buddha, could not hide the mockery in her own eyes.

"Amitabha."

Before the statue, an old monk kneeling on the ground softly intoned the Buddha's name, then slowly opened his eyes.

"Benefactor Tushan. It has been a long time." The monk's voice was calm and unhurried.

"A few thousand years, I believe."

Tushan Jingci gave the monk a light glance, her tone betraying no particular feeling.

"When I came out of seclusion at the time, I heard that your Western Regions had been pierced straight through by a cultivator of some demon sect. Not to mention the other temples, was your own Kongnian Temple not nearly wiped out entirely?"

"That is indeed... true, there was such an incident."

Xu Jing scratched his own head, a note of embarrassment showing.

Even after all these years, Xu Jing still felt a measure of shame recalling how the vast Buddhist tradition of the entire Western Regions had nearly had its lineage severed by a single man.

"If my information is correct, the one who nearly destroyed your Kongnian Temple was named Xiao Mo?" Tushan Jingci pressed, her voice cooling without her meaning it to.

"Precisely so." Xu Jing was silent for a moment before finally giving a nod.

"It was him?" Tushan Jingci said coldly, a colder chill deepening in her eyes.

Who "he" referred to in Tushan Jingci's words, the old monk knew.

The old monk seated on his prayer cushion fell into a long silence.

After a long while, he finally gave a slow nod, his voice low and even. "This humble monk does not know for certain. Only, that sect master of Ten Thousand Dao Sect looked identical to my elder martial brother."

"In truth, if that Ten Thousand Dao Sect master truly was my elder martial brother, then it would only be fitting for me, his junior, to have been mistreated a little by him."

"But..."

Xu Jing's voice grew quieter, nearly a sigh.

"Even if he is my elder martial brother, in the end he is no longer my elder martial brother."

"He was once Xiao Mo, sect master of Ten Thousand Dao Sect. Now, he is Xiao Mo, ruler of the Zhou Kingdom."

The instant Xu Jing's words settled, an overwhelmingly terrifying pressure filled the entire temple.

"I do not care how many times he has been reincarnated. If his soul is Xiao Mo, then he will always be Xiao Mo." Tushan Jingci's voice was like breaking ice, undisguised killing intent pressing heavily down through the ruined temple, as though a mountain were collapsing. "These debts, one by one, I will make him repay. No matter how much time passes! It will make no difference!"

Hearing Tushan Jingci's words, Xu Jing closed his eyes slowly and said nothing, only turning his prayer beads, as though reciting sutras in his heart.

"I have also heard that little granddaughter disciple of yours, called Wangxin, has had considerable contact with him, and that the two of them may even have developed feelings for one another?" Tushan Jingci asked at last.

Cold sweat beaded on Xu Jing's forehead, but he quickly shook his head. "This humble monk does not know the specific details. Only that Ten Thousand Dao Sect's Xiao Mo once saved Wangxin's life, and personally brought her to Kongnian Temple himself. It would not be strange for my disciple to have grown fond of my elder martial brother. But my elder martial brother, that Xiao Mo of Ten Thousand Dao Sect, seemed to think of Wangxin only as a younger sister."

"A younger sister? Ha, he certainly had no shortage of female admirers." Tushan Jingci gave a cold laugh.

With that, she turned, her skirts lifting lightly, and walked toward the entrance. At the threshold she paused and said coldly, "Suanyu, my Nine-Tailed Fox Kingdom has taken. Next, your Western Regions, the Demon Realm will claim as well."

"I have summoned you here today, bald donkey, to give your Western Regions Buddhist tradition two choices."

"First, submit to the Demon Realm."

"Second..."

Tushan Jingci paused slightly, gave Xu Jing a sidelong glance, then continued walking forward, her voice drifting coldly back from behind her, echoing through the entire ruined hall.

"Death."

After Tushan Jingci had gone, the ruined temple fell into a dead silence, a spider crawling quietly across its web, so quiet that even the sound of a falling leaf might have been heard clearly.

The old monk Xu Jing slowly raised his head, gazing at the broken, incomplete Buddha statue before him.

In the old monk's eyes there seemed to be a flicker of something distant, and something like a low sigh, dissolving into the wind.

For a moment, in the old monk's eyes, this now ruined and abandoned temple seemed to transform once more into what it had once been, thick with the presence of the Buddha, filled with the steady stream of pilgrims, its blue tiles and green eaves clean and dignified.

And within this temple, not especially renowned but deeply trusted by the common people, there had once lived a young monk.

This young monk had been good-looking, kind by nature, generous in doing good works, and his understanding of the Dharma had been exceptional.

The villagers and townsfolk at the foot of the mountain had loved him.

The masters and senior monks of the temple had loved him as well and he himself, as the young junior disciple, had always looked up to his elder martial brother as a model, admiring and studying his every word and action.

In those days, the young junior disciple had often thought to himself.

Should his elder martial brother one day become the abbot of this Four Void Temple, he would devote everything he had to assist him, helping him manage the temple well, so that its incense would burn on forever, its blessings extending across the land but then, one day, his elder martial brother had taken off his monk's robes, put on Daoist garments instead, and shouldered a traveling pack.

"Elder martial brother, will you... no longer be a monk from now on?"

The junior disciple, only eight years old at the time, looked up with wide eyes, his voice full of confusion and unease.

"Mm, I suppose I will not be, from now on." His elder martial brother rubbed the top of his junior's shaved head, giving a faint smile, his tone still gentle. "Xu Jing, from now on you must recite the sutras diligently, cultivate well, and take good care of our master. This Four Void Temple will be left in your hands from now on."

"Why? Why is elder martial brother no longer going to be a monk? Elder martial brother is so remarkable, elder martial brother could have become a Buddha someday." The junior disciple's eyes grew red with urgency, his voice thick with the threat of tears, as though he might cry at any moment.

"Why..."

The man who was no longer a monk only gave a faint, unhurried smile.

He did not answer.

He rose to his feet.

He walked, step by step.

Growing further and further away.