Panic Returns

"What happened?"

Master Taihang frowned as he looked at the young monk before him, who seemed to be fleeing in blind panic, and asked softly.

His voice seemed to carry a peculiar magic that involuntarily calmed people down.

Seeing the kind-faced Master Taihang before him, the bloodstained monk seemed to have found something to steady himself with. After taking several rapid breaths, he finally cried out.

"This is bad! Something happened at the Demon Suppressing Pagoda."

Recalling the horrifying sight he had witnessed earlier, an uncontrollable fear surfaced on the monk's face once more.

"The Rakshasa Ghost sealed inside the Demon Suppressing Pagoda escaped and vanished. The uncles and senior uncles responsible for guarding the pagoda have all met with disaster."

Swish!

At those few words alone, the chanting that had risen and fallen like waves throughout the vast hall abruptly stopped.

The monks seated in meditation looked at one another, each reading disbelief and panic in the others' bewildered faces.

"You..."

Upon hearing this news, even the normally composed Master Taihang could no longer remain calm.

His face gradually turned pale, and even his fingertips trembled uncontrollably.

"Is what you said true?"

The old monk asked again, unwilling to give up hope.

"How would this disciple dare joke about something so important?" The young monk's voice had begun to carry a faint sob.

Like the Hundred-Foot Centipede, the Rakshasa Ghost was a Limit-Breaking Great Yokai that had occupied this vast forest even before Moon Country was founded.

Their strength was evenly matched.

However, the Supernatural Being ancestors who founded Moon Country had paid an enormous price to seal away the Rakshasa Ghost.

As for the Hundred-Foot Centipede and the other great yokai, no one knew why they had disappeared from the forest.

Though tales of the Five Great Demon Kings had been passed from mouth to mouth among the refugees over the past century, the monks of Moon Country had never sensed the distinctive demonic energy fluctuations of those Demon Kings.

So no one had taken those stories seriously.

That was until the Hundred-Foot Centipede suddenly appeared, easily killed Master Taiyi, and nearly caused a great calamity.

Only then did the monks of Moon Country realize that those Limit-Breaking Great Yokai might not have vanished into thin air, but had instead entered some realm beyond their comprehension.

The Hundred-Foot Centipede's appearance had not been a coincidence. It was only the beginning...

After decades, even centuries, of accumulation, those Limit-Breaking Demon Kings of old were beginning to return to the world one after another.

Moon Country's earliest records of the Hundred-Foot Centipede described it as a giant centipede merely sixty or seventy meters long, whose poisonous mist had been quite limited in effect.

But according to reports from Renguang, the other warriors, and witnesses, the Hundred-Foot Centipede that had reappeared in the forest was already over a hundred meters long, and the poison lingering in the forest was ferocious beyond belief.

Even remnants of its venom, after being diluted for several days, could still inflict tremendous harm on Supernatural Beings.

There was no doubt that, after several centuries of development, these Demon Kings had become even more terrifyingly powerful.

But the monks who had founded Moon Country had mostly passed on by now.

Even if a few eminent monks remained in this world, they had no way of continuing to fight.

First the Hundred-Foot Centipede, then the Rakshasa Ghost.

If nothing unexpected happened, it would not be long before great yokai such as the Blood-Eating Rabbit, the Great Toad, and Fang Ghost Moon appeared once again.

At that thought, Master Taihang blankly raised his head.

He looked around. The enormous statues of bodhisattvas and arhats seemed to transform into Demon Kings one after another, gazing down from on high upon the human world with boundless greed.

Even monks of profound cultivation felt waves of helplessness and despair at that moment.

"Martial Uncle, Martial Uncle!"

Renguang's clear, powerful voice rang beside Master Taihang's ear.

There was not the slightest trace of negative emotion on his face. It was as though golden flames burned in his eyes.

"We must first deal with the corrupted aura left behind by the Rakshasa Ghost, then send people to track down its whereabouts."

"The remaining Demon Kings may very well reappear as well. We need to send people to thoroughly investigate the places where they last vanished and see whether they left behind any clues."

"Good!"

Master Taihang steadied himself. "We'll proceed as you said. Then notify the abbot and the general about this matter."

The monks in the Buddha Grotto began to bustle about.

In the blink of an eye, the once-lively Buddha Grotto had emptied out.

Only the giant python in the mural remained, looking down upon everything with utterly emotionless pupils.

Just as the monks of Moon Country fell into immense panic.

After logging out of the Willow Template and going downstairs to eat a large bowl of luosifen, Su Heng leisurely logged into Great Serpent Gamia's body as well.

Gamia was still curled up in the hot spring, asleep.

Compared to the last time he logged out, Gamia's size had not changed much. She was still around 120 meters long.

However, the definition of Gamia's muscles had become far more pronounced.

If, the last time he logged out, Gamia had been like a cute young girl with a little softness around her belly—

Then Gamia now was a fiery dancer with smooth, sculpted abs.

The large amounts of fat once used to store energy had been converted into muscle. Whether in strength or defense, Gamia had improved dramatically.

Inside Gamia's body, the heart that had originally existed somewhere between illusion and reality was gradually solidifying.

Through the system's godlike perspective, Su Heng could clearly see and sense every subtle change in the template's body.

The newly formed second heart was much smaller than the first. It grew in the center of Gamia's torso and looked more like some kind of special energy crystal.

Dense blood vessels connected to the second heart, allowing it to provide even more power for Gamia's enormous body.

Moreover, with a second blood-pumping organ, even if her first heart suffered severe damage and temporarily stopped beating, Gamia could continue fighting with the formidable power provided by her second heart.

An excellent-grade limit-breaking talent.

It brought Gamia comprehensive improvements. Her bones, muscles, and blood were all being strengthened simultaneously.

However, because Gamia's body was simply too massive, the transformation would still take some time to complete.

Besides that—

The things Su Heng had done after fighting the Hundred-Foot Centipede that day had finally begun to pay off.

True Points transformed from faith flowed in from all across the forest. Even within the sealed Moon Country, quite a few of Gamia's followers had appeared.

Everything seemed to be developing in a positive direction.