Seeking Truth with a Sword-Chapter 370 - 322: The Layer of Gold

Chapter 370: Chapter 322: The Layer of Gold
The iron box, unable to bear the burden, finally burst asunder. Shards flew through the air, sparkling under the light of the candles in the Floating Tower. Inside the iron box lay precious metals compressed to their limits.
Li Ang spread open his hands, releasing the constraints on Mo Si. The pitch-black threads immediately extended and relaxed, spinning a web as they precisely latched onto every piece of metal in the air, rapidly devouring them.
Absorb... Evolve.
Mo Si’s surface grew increasingly radiant with a dark golden color. Each thread’s diameter reduced, and its length increased until they were so light that they could flutter in the air, lifted by the breeze caused by the candle flames, as if they were feathers.
This hairy appearance... Could it be the omen of Yuan Tianshi’s troubled old age...
The thought flashed through his mind. In the next instant, Mo Si suddenly contracted, wrapping itself entirely to form a giant cocoon.
"Xu Puti, what do you think? If someone were to fill a world as big as three thousand times the great thousand world with treasures..."
Outside the Grand Hall, the monks sat in a circle, one hand beating a wooden fish and the other turning Buddha Beads, reciting the Vajra Sutra. The circular Vajra Formation surrounding them, like an inverted golden bowl, shielded them from the Demonic Qi on the square, which was so thick it obscured visibility.
Within the black mist, eerie howls rose and fell. These were accompanied by the sounds of footsteps, tearing flesh, gnawing, infants crying, seductive pleading, and even calls from the monks’ relatives and shouts of scolding from Buddha. The incessant demonic sounds weakened the monks’ will.
A young monk finally could no longer hold on. The look of faltering on his face grew clearer, his recitation of the Buddha Sutra becoming slower and filled with more errors.
At last...
His skin swelled rapidly, bursting through his robe. His eyes bulged, filling his sockets until they exploded. His jaw split along the midline, sprouting a new row of sharp teeth at the break. From his three-part mouth, he began reciting the Demon Scripture, blasphemous to the extreme.
CRACK!
A Fine Gold Zen staff swung through the air, ruthlessly crushing its skull. Then, a large hand grabbed the grotesquely deformed headless body and threw it beyond the Vajra Circle.
"Continue chanting," Abbot Lian Nan said. He stood at the edge of the Vajra Circle, turned, and planted his Zen staff firmly. His cold gaze sternly swept over all the monks. "Do not stop."
This scene bore almost no difference to the temple’s usual evening practice, except for the stains of blood on the ground, the cacophonous demonic sounds from outside the Vajra Circle, and the fact that everyone could die at any moment.
The sky-darkening Demonic Qi blocked out the sun above. The Vajra Circle itself became the only source of light, struggling to survive amidst the black winds.
Every second, the number of demons outside the circle grew. These included not just pilgrims returned from death, but also fellow disciples from the Jialan Sect. Some laughed hideously, others wept tears of blood, and some wailed as they demanded souls. They struck the Vajra Circle with twisted claws, clubs, and swords, shaking the minds of the over three hundred monks inside.
"Xu Puti, what do you think? Can a Sotapanna have such a thought..."
Accompanied by the chanting of the Buddha Sutra, Abbot Lian Nan wandered within the Vajra Circle. His Zen staff reaped those monks whose Mana was depleted, whose minds had collapsed, and who had morphed into demons. The number of monks steadily decreased, from over three hundred to just one hundred and ten. Abbot Lian Nan’s expression, too, turned from cold to rigid, and then numb.
"Continue chanting!"
He dropped the broken Zen staff, snapped a demon’s neck with his palm, and threw the corpse outside. Ignoring his blood-covered hands, his eyes nearly bursting from their sockets, his voice hoarse and frantic, he yelled, "Do not stop!"
This time, only about fifty people in the circle could still hear him.
"Xu Puti, as countless as the sands in the Ganges. So are these sand-like Ganges Rivers..."
The chanting of the Buddha Sutra continued, though its volume had diminished more than tenfold. The once unbreakable golden bowl had now become as thin as porcelain, on the verge of collapse. Abbot Lian Nan looked up; the Demonic Qi boiled, filling the heavens and completely obscuring the sun.
"Xu Puti..."
Thirty-eight monks.
"Xu Puti..."
Twenty-one monks.
"Xu Puti..."
Fourteen monks.
The golden bowl, now as thin as a cicada’s wing, finally cracked open. Demons impatiently squeezed towards the breach, one after another, only to be met head-on by Lian Nan. His body burned with Buddha Light, his kasaya strained over his muscular form. Every punch, every palm strike, annihilated a demon. Like a rock, he held back the demonic tide.
At the breach in the Vajra Circle, foul blood flowed freely, and corpses piled into mounds. Lian Nan’s punches grew slower, the wounds on his body multiplied, and his breathing became increasingly labored.
THUD. THUD. THUD.
Heavy footsteps drew nearer, making the earth tremble.
A massive demon pushed through the throng of lesser demons as if parting a tide and stood outside the golden bowl. Its belly was layered with human faces, each one eerily familiar.
"Lian Nan!!!" the central face screamed. "You conspired with the officials and led beasts to devour humans! You claim to be a monk in vain, and you invoke the name of Buddha in vain! You deserve death!!"
"Monk?" Lian Nan sucked in breaths with difficulty, like a broken bellows, and said hoarsely, "I have renounced my loved ones and left the joys of the world behind. Why can’t I call myself a monk?
You ignorant men and women live in confusion.
I gave you illusions.
I sent you to the Pure Land early—how is that not honoring Buddha?
As for my life, if you want it, come and take it."
"Then perish."
The towering demon threw a punch that passed through the gap in the golden bowl. Their fists collided mid-air.
BANG!
The demon’s arm exploded into countless chunks of flesh and blood, enticing the Low-level Demons lurking in the shadows to greedily chase and devour the pieces. Meanwhile, Lian Nan knelt on one knee, his arm gone. Blood gushed from his shoulder, but fortunately, the Jialan Secret Skill allowed him to forcefully constrict the blood vessels with his muscles, staunching the flow.
The unabated aftershocks of their punches sent the monsters near the gap flying and shattered the internal organs of several monks inside the Vajra Circle.
CRACK.
The Vajra Circle finally gave way, breaking apart. The long-salivating demons rushed forth in a frenzy.
At that moment, Abbot Liao Wu slowly opened his eyes. The Buddha Beads in his hand, made of two hundred White Jade beads, were being counted to the final one.
"...Pravarana Sura Bismi Vegasvaha, Svaha."
The Buddha Sutra was finally completed. A mighty windstorm, centered on the Buddha Beads, swept outward in all directions.
Thousands of low-level demons were lifted by the wind, torn apart, and their blood rained down from the sky. Even the formidable Demons transformed from Cultivators had to prostrate themselves on the ground.
The Mountain Guarding Array was a domain unto itself, and the Buddha Beads were the very essence of that domain.
Abbot Liao Wu held the Buddha Beads in his left hand, slowly stood up, and raised his right hand vertically before his chest, extending two fingers. The wind changed abruptly with his motion. A massive amount of Spiritual Energy gathered and condensed above the Grand Hall, taking the shape of two giant fingers.
Then, they pierced downwards.
BOOM!
The roof of the Grand Hall shattered without suspense. The heavenly handprint moved indomitably, crushing the ancient, steel-strong wooden beams as if they were tofu, until it encountered the Domain of the Time Sand, where its speed finally slowed.
This was a struggle between the very essence of this realm and the Time Sand. The two fingers descending from the sky pushed onward with difficulty, while inside the Sumeru Hourglass, the Time Sand flowed more rapidly, almost reaching the bottom.
"Non-Empty Accomplishment! Almsgiving without Fear!"
Abbot Liao Wu shouted, and a brilliant Buddha Light erupted from his body. The Buddha’s hand imprint above the Grand Hall pressed down again. It broke through the layers of obstacles posed by the Time Sand and gently touched the top of the Demon Buddha’s head.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!—
The sound of flaking gold paint was incessant. The thick golden layer of the Demon Buddha statue burst open, and the Demonic Qi permeating the air suddenly faltered.
Was it a success?!
Lian Nan, kneeling on one knee, smiled miserably. He slowly rose, about to say something, but then he saw Abbot Liao Wu’s expression change drastically.
BOOM!!!
The Demonic Qi within the Grand Hall, like a spring compressed to its limit suddenly freed, surged out of the hall exponentially.
Within the roiling black mist, a gaunt and tall Demon Buddha, dressed in a Dharma Robe, slowly stepped down from the Buddha Altar.