The Secret Treasure of the Golden Bead, Heavenly King Vajra Art

Inside the prison, blood stained the ground.

Every prison guard lay dead in the pool of blood, their deaths gruesome.

Four figures dressed in black robes, their limbs and faces shrouded in black mist, approached the cell where the demon was held. With a reach, they tore the entire cell door clean off its hinges.

"It's you lot. I didn't expect the four of you to be taking orders from Chu Gu," the demon said, slowly emerging from Lu Dengke's chest as it looked at the four who came to rescue it.

"The matter of the thousand people's essence cannot be delayed. It's no longer feasible to travel to other villages and counties to collect essence. Where is your Spirit Gathering Banner? Where is it now?" the leader questioned.

"That Demon Subduing Captain found it and took it away. I don't know where he's hidden it now."

"What?!"

The four were startled. "How could you let the Demon Subduing Captain discover the Spirit Gathering Banner?"

"You don't know, but the Demon Subduing Captain who came to Wendeng County this time is quite sinister. He seems to have the ability to discern essence, and his personal strength is not to be underestimated. Even the ghosts I summoned using the Spirit Gathering Banner couldn't do anything to him," the demon complained after crawling out of Lu Dengke's chest.

However, the four demons standing outside had no intention of listening to its woes. They were ordered to come to Wendeng County to rescue someone.

Rescuing the person was secondary; their main mission was to retrieve the Spirit Gathering Banner containing the essence and return it to Chaotian Capital.

Now that the Spirit Gathering Banner was not in the demon's possession, they would likely have to pay a considerable price to find it.

"Take him with us. Since that Demon Subduing Captain imprisoned him here, the Spirit Gathering Banner must also be hidden within the yamen. We'll search for it now."

One person walked into the cell and picked up the demon, who had no hands or feet. The group then prepared to leave the area quickly.

Just then, at the entrance passage of the prison, a figure suddenly walked in from outside, blocking the demons' escape route on the spot.

"It's that Demon Subduing Captain!" the demon being carried exclaimed in surprise.

The newcomer was Ning Xiu.

"As expected, there are accomplices." Ning Xiu frowned as he looked at the five demons in the prison and the corpses of the prison guards scattered on the ground.

Publicly and brutally killing prison guards within the yamen was an act of provocation against the Great Shang dynasty and a disgrace to the Demon Subduing Bureau.

Quietly, Ning Xiu's right fist turned crimson, and visible heat rose from its surface.

"Be careful, this guy isn't just any Martial Dao Eighth Rank. Don't hold back," the puppet demon warned.

The four demons, their bodies shrouded in black mist, stepped forward, all exuding killing intent towards Ning Xiu.

Now that they had been discovered, they couldn't let this Demon Subduing Captain leave alive.

Swish!

The blood puddle beneath one demon's feet instantly turned from red to black. A large number of hands emerged from the blood puddle, densely covering and engulfing Ning Xiu.

Another demon rapidly formed hand seals. A large amount of blood droplets floated out from within its body, hovering motionlessly in mid-air.

In an instant, all the blood droplets transformed into thin, crimson needles, all shooting towards Ning Xiu.

The prison passage was already narrow. The attacks from these two demons effectively blocked all of Ning Xiu's evasion space, leaving him nowhere to hide.

He could only choose to face all the attacks head-on.

Low-grade martial artists excelled in close-quarters combat but were relatively lacking in methods to deal with long-range attacks.

Typically, they would either dodge or endure the attack, then find a way to close the distance with the enemy to leverage their strengths.

These demons had fought against members of the Demon Subduing Bureau many times before and were naturally experienced.

By launching a sudden, fierce magical assault on Ning Xiu at the first encounter, they clearly intended to inflict severe injuries and incapacitate him.

In an instant, Ning Xiu took a sudden step forward, actively advancing towards the demons' magical techniques.

He broke through the tide of black hands and the numerous blood needles directly with his body, which cultivated the Golden Bell Shield.

The black blood hands and blood needles conjured by the demons were formed from filth and possessed a 'body-piercing' effect. They were specifically created by the demons to counter the hardening skills of martial artists.

Although Ning Xiu managed to break through, his body's surface was covered in numerous red marks. Several of these red marks even oozed beads of blood.

This was the first time Ning Xiu had sustained such serious injuries since upgrading the Golden Bell Shield to the ninth level.

It had to be said that the demons before him were indeed not simple, far more powerful than the Scaled Demon and the puppet demon encountered previously.

While Ning Xiu was inwardly surprised, the demons exclaimed in shock, "How is this possible?!"

They were well aware of the body-piercing power of the black hand tide and blood needles. The hardening skills of a Martial Dao Eighth Rank martial artist should not have been able to withstand them.

Yet, this Demon Subduing Captain practicing martial arts appeared unusually relaxed. To what profound level had he cultivated his hardening skills?

Within a few steps, Ning Xiu had closed the distance to the four demons and reached out to grab one of their faces.

Whoosh!

A suction force instantly erupted from the demon's body. A black vortex emerged from the demon's mist-shrouded head and slammed into Ning Xiu's face.

The powerful suction churned Ning Xiu's blood and essence, causing his blood to surge towards his head, threatening to erupt from his seven orifices at any moment.

Ning Xiu endured the discomfort within his body and quickly plunged his hand into the black mist, accurately grasping the demon's face.

The Internal Energy of the Great Sun Profound Scripture erupted at this moment. As Ning Xiu's palm exerted force and squeezed, a heart-wrenching wail echoed from within the black mist.

As Ning Xiu released his grip, the demon collapsed to the ground. The black mist on its face dissipated, revealing a face whose entire structure had been distorted by external force, causing blood to flow from its seven orifices.

[Killed Demon, Universal Proficiency +800]

With a swift and clean movement, Ning Xiu crushed one of the demons. He immediately followed up with another punch towards the demon beside him. Seeing its comrade die gruesomely at Ning Xiu's hands, the other demon was quite alarmed.

In its haste, it raised its hand to block, but it had greatly overestimated its own strength and underestimated Ning Xiu's skill.

The Pure Yang Extreme Fist struck the demon's palm with immense force, then, with overbearing power, slammed into the demon's chest.

Without any surprise, the demon's chest instantly caved in. Broken ribs pierced through the flesh and skin, and blood gushed out like a fountain.

[Killed Demon, Universal Proficiency +900]

Everything happened in mere moments, leaving the other demons no time to react.

Just as the Puppet Demon had said, this Demon Subduing Captain was indeed no ordinary Martial Dao Eighth Rank. He was definitely not simple.

After consecutively killing two demons, Ning Xiu now stood like a silent demon king, his ruthless methods directly intimidating the remaining three.

"Run!"

Someone shouted, and the demons immediately took off, desperate to escape the prison.

Martial artists inherently possessed a significant advantage in close-quarters combat. Now, this Demon Subduing Captain could also ignore their sorcery with his Hardening Skill.

The difference in strength was not even on the same level. How could they fight? Naturally, running was the priority.

The remaining three demons were all valuable witnesses. Escorting them back to the Demon Subduing Bureau would surely yield a lot of useful information.

Ning Xiu would not let them escape so easily. He grabbed the iron prison door, which had been torn apart by the demons, and hurled it with all his might towards the fleeing demons.

Boom!

The iron prison door landed precisely in the center of the passage, blocking the escape route of the demons. Ning Xiu quickly caught up and grabbed the arm of the demon carrying the Puppet Demon.

"Where do you think you're going?" As the powerful Blood Essence of the Pure Yang Extreme Fist erupted, the black mist surrounding the demon instantly merged like ice and snow meeting a scorching sun. Finally, the demon's true face was revealed.

Surprisingly, it was a remarkably beautiful woman, and a purple rose tattoo on the fair skin of her right cheek was particularly striking.

Seizing this opportunity, another demon quickly skirted around the iron prison door and continued to flee rapidly towards the outside of the prison.

Since one demon had been captured alive, there was no need to deliberately capture the others.

After all, Ning Xiu was alone and couldn't be in multiple places at once. Even capturing two demons would be difficult to manage.

He immediately reached out, pulled the iron prison door out of the ground, and threw it with great force.

The heavy iron prison door, moving at an incredibly fast speed, struck the fleeing demon's back. The demon immediately collapsed to the ground, motionless.

[Killed Demon, Universal Proficiency +700]

Four demons had broken in, but in the end, not only did they fail to rescue the Puppet Demon or take the Spirit Gathering Banner, but they also ended up with three dead and one captured.

The remaining female demon looked at Ning Xiu, her face pale with fear. She had never expected the Demon Subduing Captain who came to Wendeng County to be so ferocious.

She had dealt with Iron Horse Demon Subduing Captains before, but she had never encountered anyone so fierce.

"What are you looking at?" To prevent the female demon from causing any trouble, Ning Xiu knocked her unconscious with a palm strike. He then picked up the female demon and the Puppet Demon she was carrying and started walking back.

He planned to lock them in separate cells. With this incident, he couldn't stay in Wendeng County any longer. He had to escort these two back to Chaotian Capital as soon as possible to prevent further trouble.

"You're quite restless, aren't you? Even locked up in the prison, you can still have other demons come to rescue you. It seems you really have quite a few Puppet Clones in Wendeng County that can help you send messages to the outside world."

After locking the Puppet Demon back in the iron cage, Ning Xiu patted its face and sneered.

Each palm strike carried some force, so after a few blows, the Puppet Demon's face swelled up like a pig's head, looking comical.

"You think you're so great, you ruined our plan. Someone will deal with you." The Puppet Demon mumbled incoherently.

Ning Xiu couldn't quite make out what it was saying, only that it was threatening him. He didn't pay it much mind. He relocked the iron cage door and got up to leave the prison.

Given the tragic events of the night, it was his oversight for not strengthening the prison's guard by having Dong Fu assign more personnel.

Before Ren Qianxing could deal with all the Puppet Clones in Wendeng County, the two demons imprisoned in the jail absolutely could not be lost.

Ning Xiu was now preparing to notify Dong Fu to send people to clean up the mess in the prison, allocate funds to compensate the families of the deceased posthouse guards, and arrange for new guards.

Although Ning Xiu had been in complete control during the recent battle and hadn't sustained any injuries, his recently changed clothes were once again ruined, becoming tattered and full of holes.

Having been in the Demon Subduing Bureau for less than half a month, Ning Xiu estimated he had already gone through four or five sets of clothes.

At this rate of clothing consumption, Ning Xiu finally understood why Demon Subduing Captains wore the Mysterious Silver Lock Armor when they went out.

That equipment was durable; even if hit multiple times, it wouldn't damage the clothes underneath.

Ning Xiu pondered whether he should start wearing that set of Mysterious Silver Lock Armor himself.

Otherwise, constantly losing a set of clothes after every battle, even a Demon Subduing Captain couldn't afford it.

Just a few steps out of the prison, something slipped out of a hole in his chest and fell to the ground.

Ning Xiu noticed and looked down, seeing the Six-Word Golden Bead he had been keeping in his chest.

The six characters on the surface of the Six-Word Golden Bead had turned a deep red from Ning Xiu's daily chanting of the Vajra Sutra. Even at night, it emitted a conspicuous red glow.

This item was truly miraculous. Ning Xiu had persisted in chanting the scriptures daily for several days, hoping to unlock the secret of this Six-Word Golden Bead.

However, whether it was the wrong method or the wrong timing, other than the characters on it turning red, the Six-Word Golden Bead showed no other changes or reactions, which was very puzzling.

He reached out to pick it up, intending to put it back in his chest. Just then, as the Six-Word Golden Bead came into contact with the bloodstains on Ning Xiu's palm, the entire bead began to vibrate violently.

It then immediately flew out of Ning Xiu's palm, soaring into the air and spinning rapidly about ten to twenty feet above the ground.

"Om! Ma! Ni! Pad! Me! Hum!"

The vast Buddhist chant echoed through the night sky. Golden wheels, vajras, pagodas, and lotus flowers spun out from the Six-Word Golden Bead, shooting straight towards the heavens.

Instantly, the pitch-black night sky of Wendeng County was painted with a golden firmament.

With a flash of golden light, it began to rain golden drops from the sky.

The heavy rain fell, splashing golden lotuses on the ground that vanished in an instant.

Ning Xiu looked up, dumbfounded, at the entire spectacle. He was utterly awestruck.

Who would have thought that the Six-Word Golden Bead, once activated, could produce such a display?

Within the golden rain, Ning Xiu saw a giant seated, with the holy form of a tiger and bear, furious eyes, drooping ears, a blazing golden wheel on its back, and holding a massive vajra, floating in the sky.

The falling raindrops began to transform into characters, arranging and piecing themselves together, finally forming a golden scroll.

Ning Xiu's gaze became entranced, his mind completely absorbed by the golden scroll, unable to break free.

West of Chaotian Capital, at the Great Lingyin Temple.

In the previously silent Buddhist temple, the evening drum and morning bell suddenly rang on their own, without anyone striking them.

The incense burned at an inexplicably faster rate, with ash falling piece by piece.

More than ten old monks who were meditating suddenly opened their eyes, looking north with disbelief.

"This is... the Heavenly King Vajra Art of a Great Arhat!"

"To think that the Great Arhat left behind this cultivation technique! It is a great fortune for Buddhism! A great fortune indeed!"

"We must find this person. Regardless of what path they cultivate, they shall be treated as an honored guest of this temple."

Within a few breaths, the celestial phenomenon and all anomalies vanished. The night returned to its usual dark and calm state.

The citizens of Wendeng County, deep in their sleep, had no idea that such a significant event, worthy of being recorded in the county annals, had occurred in Wendeng County that night.

Thanks to 'mkmkn' for the 176 fan value.

Thanks to 'Dao Yuan Liao' for the 100 fan value.

Thanks to 'Shu Shuo Wu Jie' for the 100 fan value.