Imminent Disaster

Deep within the Crouching Dragon Mountain Range, magnificent palaces stretched from the summit of Hundred Dragon Peak all the way to its foot. Exotic flowers and rare grasses filled the spaces between them, while spirit beasts such as immortal cranes and spirit rabbits roamed about.

At this moment, waves of weeping and wailing drifted from the largest palace atop the peak, and the air was thick with the stench of blood.

Amid the cries, chanting continuously echoed from within the hall: "...Regard wife and children as morning dew, gathering and scattering; regard familial affection as flowers in a mirror and moonlight upon water. Know that all forms are not forms, and attain great freedom...

"...To love one person is selfishness; to love all living beings is the Dao. Cast away the delusion of the lesser self, and realize the truth of selflessness... With one thought of letting go, light appears throughout the ten directions; only when the heart bears no hindrance does one know that all living beings are myself..."

The chant was like a silver vase suddenly shattering, yet it also seemed to see through the mortal world, carrying the great joy of final liberation and freedom.

Zhao Sheng stepped into the hall. Before his eyes lay blood everywhere, corpses scattered across the floor—peerless beauties, elderly men at death's door, even toddlers of two or three.

Yet without exception, all of them had fallen in pools of blood, their eyes still open in death.

Crossing over the corpses carpeting the ground, he saw Crimson Dragon Child barefoot and disheveled, chanting scripture as he killed the wives, children, and descendants fleeing in all directions.

At the sight of this atrocity beyond all human endurance, Zhao Sheng's hair stood on end. He roared furiously, "Beast, stop at once!"

Before his words