Guanyin Closes Her Eyes and Saves No One; When Guangong Opens His Eyes, Someone Must Die!

By the time Chen Yan returned to Shanxi Town, it was already deep into the night.

Luckily, it was nighttime, and there were few people left on the streets. But the occasional drunkard or night watchman who saw a General Statue sprinting madly all looked as though they had seen a ghost. For a time, the General Statue racing through the dead of night became yet another legend among the people of Shanxi Town.

He rushed home in one breath and set down the General Statue.

Thud!

A dull impact rang out, sending dust flying.

Facai, dozing in the tree, was startled out of his wits. His fur stood on end as he looked at the statue on the ground, then at the sweat-drenched Chen Yan beside it, his eyes filled with shock.

In just this short time, you actually kidnapped a statue of a god and brought it back?!

Ignoring Facai's terrified expression, Chen Yan followed the methods imparted by the Divine Strike Technique. With practiced ease, he remolded the General Statue, removing its aged impurities and retaining only its core clay pellet. Then he began a series of steps: clay draft, polishing, mold-making, sculpting...

By the time the brand-new Guangong Statue took shape, the sun had already risen in the east. The morning sun broke through the dawn, and a ray of light pierced the clouds to spill across the earth.

"Whew! Finally finished."

Looking at the Guangong Statue before him, Chen Yan let out a long breath and wiped the sweat from his brow, his heart brimming with accomplishment.

The Guangong Statue stood roughly two feet tall. Its face was like a heavy jujube, its lips as though painted with rouge. It had phoenix eyes and silkworm brows, held a straight blade in its hand, and looked dignified, imposing, and full of majesty.

Most striking of all were the Guangong Statue's eyes, half-open and half-closed.

As the saying went, Guanyin closed her eyes and saved no one; when Guangong opened his eyes, someone was bound to die.

A half-open-eyed Guangong was precisely Guangong at the moment of killing!

Of course, what satisfied Chen Yan most was the Incense and Fire Prayer Power contained within this Guangong Statue.

Because it had directly inherited the incense offerings of the General Statue, although some of its Incense and Fire Prayer Power had dissipated after so long without worshippers, the accumulation of several centuries had still preserved a considerable portion.

Moreover, perhaps because Chen Yan had personally sculpted this Guangong Statue, at the moment it took shape, he sensed a faint, indistinct connection between himself and the statue. The feeling was deeply mysterious, impossible to describe clearly.

But Chen Yan had no mind to care about that now, because he could finally cast spells!

With excitement in his heart, Chen Yan took a deep breath. First, he respectfully bowed to the Guangong Statue, then lit a stick of incense.

Facai, perched in the tree, had widened his eyes. With curiosity written all over his face, he stared fixedly at Chen Yan's movements below.

After worshipping the Guangong Statue, Chen Yan hesitated no longer. His expression turned solemn as he pressed his hands together, crossed his ring fingers and little fingers, aligned his middle fingers tip to tip, bent both index fingers against the joints of his middle fingers, and tucked his joined thumbs into his palms.

Thus, a complete Divine Strike Deity-Summoning Seal was formed. The instant he finished, Chen Yan felt a strange inspiration rise within him. In that moment, his gaze sharpened, his brows turned fierce, and with sudden enlightenment, he stomped his right foot hard against the ground and shouted the incantation:

"Emperor Guan, descend upon my body! By the laws, swiftly and urgently!"

The very next second after the spell was spoken, something miraculous happened.

The half-open, half-closed eyes of the Guangong Statue suddenly flew wide open. A "golden silk ribbon" formed from countless golden grains surged forth from the statue, transforming into a golden streamer that shot directly into Chen Yan's body.

In an instant, Chen Yan felt an immense, surging power flood into his limbs and bones, spreading through every corner of his body. A vast and righteous aura overflowed from him.

Facai's fur stood completely on end as he stared in shock at Chen Yan below, whose entire body radiated golden light, his eyes round as saucers.

"Hiss, what incredible power!"

Chen Yan, wreathed in golden light, looked at his hands and clenched his fists. At that moment, he felt as though boundless strength filled his entire body.

He stepped over to the stone pedestal in the small courtyard. This pedestal was ordinarily used by Chen Yan for strength testing, and it weighed a thousand jin.

Before reaching the Third Blood Qi Realm, Chen Yan could only half-lift this stone pedestal each time.

But now, with just a slight exertion of one hand, Chen Yan effortlessly raised the thousand-jin stone pedestal.

With a casual toss, the enormous pedestal flew ten meters into the air, then crashed down and kicked up a gust of wind, only for Chen Yan to catch it easily again.

Chen Yan could not even feel the weight of the stone pedestal!

"Hiss—was the effect really this fierce?!"

Chen Yan's eyes widened as he looked at the huge stone pedestal, light as nothing in his hand. Even though he knew Divine Strike would greatly enhance the caster's physical strength, he had never expected such an enormous boost!

Double?

Triple?

Or tenfold?!

At this moment, Chen Yan felt that even if a Martial Master of the True Force Realm stood before him, he could punch the other man to death!

The kind where he blew him apart in one punch!

Well, blew him apart in the physical sense.

Chen Yan stomped his foot excitedly, and even the hard bluestone floor let out a creak of unbearable strain.

However, First Grade Divine Strike had one drawback: when casting Divine Strike, the statue had to be nearby. Unlike Second Grade Divine Strike, it could not be cast anytime, anywhere.

Therefore, before Divine Strike advanced to Second Grade, Chen Yan would have to carry a Guangong Statue around with him for at least some time.

Fortunately, the Guangong Statue Chen Yan had made was neither large nor heavy. For Chen Yan at the Third Blood Qi Realm, it was nothing much.

At that moment, Chen Yan greatly envied Old Daoist Liu's "treasure" that could retrieve objects at will. He wondered whether it was something like the storage bags from cultivation novels in his previous life. If he had one of those, things would be much more convenient.

He could ask Old Daoist Liu about it tomorrow when he went to see him.

After that, Chen Yan began practicing the Blood Fiend Saber Technique in the small courtyard. Although the Blood Fiend Saber Technique had already advanced to the realm of perfection, making him comparable to a saber grandmaster, Chen Yan remained extremely curious about the realm beyond perfection.

It had to be said that after casting Divine Strike, bolstered by Incense and Fire Prayer Power, Chen Yan could feel the all-around improvement in his physique. Whether it was strength, speed, reaction time, defense, or anything else, everything had grown explosively.

If he had possessed First Grade Divine Strike when he faced Ding Feihu and his group before, Chen Yan was confident he would not have needed a sneak attack at all. In a single exchange, he could have crushed all nineteen of Ding Feihu's men like dry weeds and rotten wood.

But very soon, Chen Yan's joy turned to sorrow.

The Incense and Fire Prayer Power that had filled his body suddenly receded like the tide. An extreme weakness surged into his heart, Chen Yan's face turned pale, his legs gave way, and he dropped onto the ground on his backside.

It was not that the side effects of Divine Strike had kicked in. Chen Yan simply did not have enough Magic Power to keep casting Divine Strike.

After all, Chen Yan had only just become a cultivator at the early Essence Cultivation stage. There was only that little Magic Power in his dantian. Being able to use Divine Strike at all was already no easy feat; wanting to sustain Divine Strike in battle was nothing but wishful thinking.

In the tree, Facai looked at Chen Yan, sprawled on the ground in a miserable state, and revealed a mercilessly mocking grin.

Chen Yan was furious. Muttering curses, he climbed to his feet from the ground, his face still somewhat pale, and cursed aloud:

"I'm going to buy Five Grains right now! I'll eat them every day!"

But once he thought of that, Chen Yan's expression turned gloomy again.

He had originally thought that the hundred taels of silver looted from Ding Feihu's bandit gang would last him for a while. Yet at the rate the Five Grains Qi Nourishment Record consumed food, in another ten days, Chen Yan would be poor enough to eat dirt again.

"Still too poor..."

Chen Yan let out a long sigh, but obediently bought another thirty dou each of top-grade Five Grains, enough for him to eat for a week.

After eating today's portion of Five Grains and sensing the Magic Power in his dantian grow a little stronger, Chen Yan's face showed a trace of comfort. His Divine Strike Technique could last a little longer now...

By then, the sky was already fully bright. Though he had not slept all night and had instead "cultivated" the entire night, Chen Yan did not feel the slightest bit sleepy. On the contrary, he was radiant and full of energy.

He asked Facai whether he wanted to go out, and after being refused, Chen Yan did not mind. With Facai's current abilities, even ordinary Skin-Peeling Puppets could not harm him.

He wrapped the Guangong Statue tightly and carried it on his back. It looked like a piece of luggage, so it was not particularly conspicuous.

As usual, he went to the old woman's home and gained a bit of merit, then headed straight for the Shanxi County yamen.

Now that he had cultivated Magic Power, Chen Yan wanted to see whether he could ask Old Daoist Liu for some materials to draw talismans. While he was at it, he could also sound him out about whether he might teach him an qi-guiding method.

Though eating one meal of the Five Grains Qi Nourishment Record could equal one day of cultivation, using it together with an qi-guiding method could speed up Chen Yan's cultivation, at least before the Dao Foundation Realm.

He arrived at the Shanxi County yamen.

Along the way, Chen Yan noticed that every constable passing by him would stop of their own accord and salute him with respectful, admiring gazes.

It left Chen Yan completely baffled.

Only when he ran into his old acquaintance Zhao Gang and asked about it did he receive Zhao Gang's smiling explanation:

"Because word has already spread that you killed Ding Feihu and his group all by yourself. Everyone is enraged over the massacre at Little Yellow Village, so naturally they hold you, the one who eliminated Ding Feihu's gang, in great respect."

At this, Zhao Gang patted Chen Yan on the shoulder and said with deep emotion:

"Uncle Zhao watched you grow up. You've made something of yourself now, and Uncle Zhao is proud of you.

Work hard under Lord Liu. Shanxi Town is too small to contain you. The world outside is far broader!"

Chen Yan understood that Zhao Gang had attributed his rapid rise in strength to Old Daoist Liu. He did not explain, merely nodding heavily.

"I will!"

"Go on. Lord Liu is in the rear offices."

Chen Yan nodded. Without any false modesty, he turned and left, heading straight for the rear offices.