Harvest

Seeing the earthen wall that had been shielding Bai Sui collapse, the abbot assumed it had been shattered by the Buddha's hand. Although he found the lack of any collision sound strange, his suspended heart eased slightly, believing there was still a chance to turn things around.

After all, those on the periphery had only seen the Buddha's hand strike toward Bai Sui and crumble the moment it touched the earthen wall.

Seeing the wall disintegrate now, they assumed the two forces had simply canceled each other out; they were not among the twelve monks, could not perceive chakra, and had no idea what had actually transpired.

In truth, even those twelve monks were currently bewildered, knowing only that the portion of chakra forming the Buddha's hand had inexplicably vanished for reasons unknown.

Watching the Buddha remain frozen in place, the abbot could not help but shout, ordering them to attack Bai Sui.

Upon discovering that his domain could suppress ninjutsu, Bai Sui grew bold; he rose into the air and took the initiative to fly toward the giant Buddha.

Every part of the Buddha's body that entered his domain fell apart, and the entire figure began to shrink rapidly.

Unlike the wilting chakra Buddha, Bai Sui's surroundings began to glow as they became saturated with a massive amount of chakra.

From a distance, it appeared as though a radiant Bai Sui was walking on air; wherever he passed, even the Buddha seemed to bow its head and lower its eyes. Many of the devotees who had previously knelt for the Buddha's descent now turned to kneel before Bai Sui instead.

Watching the Buddha shrink until it was less than three meters tall, the twelve monks finally conceived a solution.

The monks shouted in unison: "Guizang: Boundless Light!"

The Buddha, which had been shining with immense brilliance, immediately dimmed. Not only that, but in the blink of an eye, it turned ink-black, appearing as if carved from black jade.

The transformed Buddha was even smaller than before, barely over two meters tall. Perhaps realizing it had shrunk too severely, it finally stood up from its lotus throne.

Standing, the black Buddha managed to regain a height of three meters, recovering a fair amount of its imposing presence.

At the same time, Bai Sui noticed that this black Buddha was indeed different; its chakra was more condensed. Although it was still being dismantled by his divine sense, it was at least no longer crumbling at the slightest touch.

For the sake of safety, Bai Sui could not wait for the opponent to attack; he prepared to strike first.

Having accumulated a vast amount of chakra within the domain around him—which was of no use to him anyway—Bai Sui decided to test his hypothesis.

Guided by his divine sense, the massive quantity of chakra began to converge, all of it converted into wind and blasted toward the black Buddha. One must realize that this chakra amounted to nearly half of the original giant Buddha, so its power was self-evident.

It was fortunate that Bai Sui had not come here to kill today, or he would have converted it into fire, likely creating a sea of flames.

Of course, that immense chakra was not just for show; even converted into mere wind pressure rather than wind blades, it was enough to blow down a temple hall behind the target.

As for the black Buddha, it dissipated the moment the twelve monks were blown away.

Naturally, Hongan-ji Temple, a major institution that had stood for hundreds of years, did not possess only these twelve warrior monks.

The abbot, having sensed that things were going poorly, had already taken the opportunity to flee.

He had now gathered the remaining warrior monks and was preparing countermeasures against Bai Sui.

Bai Sui had allowed them to prepare earlier because he was interested in the giant Buddha, but things were different now; he was no fool and would not allow himself to remain in danger.

He rose into the air, flying higher and higher until he reached an altitude of about thirty meters, where the entire temple grounds lay beneath his gaze.

He naturally saw the actions of the warrior monks clearly. Under the coordination and command of the abbot, the monks injected chakra into the stone lanterns, pagodas, and various stone statues throughout the temple.

Under the infusion of this chakra, a large chakra formation began to link together. From high above, the stone statues lighting up below formed a massive swastika symbol.

As this symbol gradually manifested, tiny sutra characters began to permeate the ground of the entire temple; looking closely, they were the Three Pure Land Sutras.

Bai Sui sensed a threat from the formation below. Although he did not know its specific function, he certainly would not wait for them to complete it.

Bai Sui used his Qi Sword for the first time in a long while. A bright white blade of energy shot forth, heading straight for the nearest stone statue below.

The warrior monks below naturally noticed Bai Sui's movement; one pressed his left hand against a stone lion while his right hand swung a monk's staff to strike at the white light.

However, this sword energy, which Bai Sui had nurtured for many years, was far sharper than the monk imagined. It not only snapped the metal staff in his hand but continued on, unabated, to decapitate the stone lion.

Furthermore, after confirming the stone lion was destroyed, it headed straight for the next warrior monk. In just a few breaths, stone statues at over a dozen nodes were destroyed.

Bai Sui watched clearly from the air; at first, the destruction of a few nodes did not affect the formation's expansion, but once he severed one of the sides forming the swastika, the formation was truly compromised.

The sutras, which had been rapidly spreading, now stalled, and the light upon them began to flicker.

As Bai Sui's Qi Sword darted rapidly, the bright nodes below began to extinguish one by one.

Moreover, to prevent these people from pulling any tricks, Bai Sui manipulated the sword to collapse the main halls, ensuring they could not hide any schemes where he could not see them.

Of course, Bai Sui had come for exchange and exploration, so he did not harm anyone, intentionally avoiding the crowds. Thus, only a few monks who were blind enough to try and intercept the sword with their bodies suffered serious injuries; the rest were unharmed.

As the Qi Sword roamed, the once solemn and magnificent temple was reduced to ruins, and the ground looked as if it had been plowed. Yet, even so, Bai Sui found no sign of any deity appearing, which he found quite a pity.

Naturally, the monks were not stupid; realizing Bai Sui had no intention of killing them, they ceased their resistance. After digging the abbot out from a pile of rubble, they collectively surrendered to Bai Sui.

Looking at the monks kneeling in the dirt before him, Bai Sui did not make things difficult for them, merely taking some items from the temple as compensation.

Bai Sui, who had arrived alone, returned with a carriage, which was filled with items the abbot had voluntarily offered as restitution.

There were two large chests of gold coins, ten large chests of silver coins, and a large chest of jewelry; as for the copper coins, there were simply too many, so Bai Sui did not accept them.

Bai Sui cared little for these, however; his true harvest was the five book chests, filled with books and scrolls collected by the various temples.