The members of the Preaching Squad looked utterly dispirited.
This backlash was more violent than any they had suffered before.
It was as though an invisible hand had seized the hearts of all five members of the Preaching Squad and given them a savage squeeze.
"Cough, cough... cough..."
Zhu Bajie struggled to get up, only to feel every limb and bone trembling, as if his entire skeleton were about to fall apart.
"Monkey Brother... wh-what the hell is going on?"
Blood trickled from the corner of Little White Dragon's mouth, and his already pale face had turned paper-white.
A profound sense of helplessness settled over everyone.
They had never imagined that after fighting their way through so many obstacles, before they had even met the three national preceptors of Chechi Kingdom, they would first stumble here in Three Pure Ones Temple.
And they had fallen so inexplicably, so miserably.
"Switching bodies... doesn't work."
"Switching souls... doesn't work either."
Sha Wujin spoke as well, sounding somewhat dazed.
Tang Sanzang clutched his chest, his eyes filled with disbelief.
"Different paths, same destination. The result is always the same."
"No matter what we do, as long as we touch those three clay statues, they revive."
"And turn into those... those half-human, half-clay monsters!"
The aura emanating from those monsters was far too strange.
It was not merely terrifying. It also possessed an evilness that made their very souls tremble.
It was as though they were not sacred statues of the Three Pure Ones Heavenly Venerates, but some sort of desecrated, twisted existence.
"We can't just keep wasting time here, can we?"
They certainly could not.
The air in the great hall grew increasingly heavy. The pressure from the clay statues had weakened somewhat after they stopped moving, but it had not disappeared.
Those