The severed arm once again manifested as a three-headed, six-armed flame giant. Twelve pillars of mystic fire crisscrossed around it, while a Golden Crow perched atop the sun above its head. Everywhere it passed, a vast sea of flames spread; flowing clouds dissolved into mist, and the earth steamed and churned into rolling lava.
The thirty-six bronze warriors stood upon the Heavenly Dipper positions, with Ming'e supporting them from the side. The monk's staff clashed with the three-headed, six-armed flame giant like lightning. The flame giant formed from the severed arm moved with stark simplicity: a horizontal sweep, a vertical stroke, a chop. Each spare motion seemed fused with heaven and earth, existing like a law of the world.
Boom! Boom! Boom! The thirty-six bronze warriors and Ming'e attacked like thunderclaps. Yet every strike was knocked back by a single, supremely simple blow from the flame giant.
At times, the flame giant had three heads and six arms; at others, it split into three, trading blows with the thirty-six bronze warriors and the Thunder Monk Ming'e.
The twelve pillars of mystic fire sealed off the surrounding airspace. They clashed fiercely with the Heavenly Dipper Domain of the thirty-six bronze warriors and Ming'e's Thunder Domain.
By now, the Ghost Ant King had already led the Void-Devouring Ghost Ant swarm toward another part of the Buddhist Sect. The several thousand monks chanting the Golden Sun Mantra had also moved on under the cover of Ming'e and the others.
"Ghost Ant King, why have you allied with the Crimson Moon Desert to oppose my Buddhist Sect?" A Buddha's shadow flickered into view in the void. The moment it appeared, flashes of lightning emerged. But this lightning was unlike the magical fluctuations of Ming'e's thunder powers; it was like tribulation lightning descending from the