Tathagata!

Flender had rich combat experience. By instinct, he folded his wings together and guarded his front.

At the same time, the seventh soul ring on his body blazed with light, preparing to release his Martial Soul True Body.

But that monster was simply too fast—so fast it had already exceeded Flender's entire lifetime's understanding of speed.

Bang!

An extremely muffled impact exploded in midair inside the great hall.

Flender did not even have time to fully release his Martial Soul True Body before he felt a force like a collapsing mountain and overturning sea slam solidly into the wings protecting his chest.

Crack...

A teeth-aching sound of bone splitting rang out.

Flender's proud pair of dark-green wings were like paper before that tremendous force, snapping in an instant.

Sharp bone stubs even pierced through flesh, and blood gushed out at once, staining his back red.

"Pfft—"

Flender violently spat out a large mouthful of blood. His body was like a torn sack struck by a giant hammer, spinning as it flew backward.

He crashed heavily into one of the great hall's thick stone pillars, then slid down like a puddle of mud onto the dusty jade floor.

"Cough, cough..."

Flender clutched his chest, coughing up blood in great mouthfuls.

He felt as if all his internal organs had nearly shifted out of place. There was not a single part of his body that did not hurt.

Yet that monster landed lightly beneath the spot where Flender had just been suspended, as if nothing had happened at all.

"Too weak..."

The monster's huge mouth, split all the way to its ears, opened and closed as it mumbled indistinctly.

Its enormous vertical eye stared fixedly at Flender, who was sprawled on the ground, and it walked toward him step by step.

"Since you're this weak, then obediently become my food."

As the monster closed in, that pungent stench of decay and icy deathly aura almost suffocated Flender alive.

Flender shut his eyes in despair.

He knew very well that today, he had completely fallen here.

Outside the Sky Screen, the entire Douluo Continent had also fallen into a deathly silence.

On the training field of Shrek Academy.

Ma Hongjun collapsed onto the ground on his backside, his eyes reddening.

Zhao Wuji clenched his fists even harder, wishing he could charge in at once and help his old brother fight!

"Boss Flender..."

Zhao Wuji gritted his teeth, a low growl rumbling in his throat, yet he could do nothing.

Yu Xiaogang's face was ashen, and he no longer even had the courage to look at the Sky Screen.

A level seventy-eight Soul Saint was simply like a stinking bug that could be crushed at will before the monsters of the Great Ruins.

That intense sense of disparity made every soul master on Douluo Continent feel a deep helplessness.

Inside the great hall of Great Thunderclap Temple.

The monster had already walked up to Flender.

It opened its foul-smelling maw, and a scarlet tongue covered in barbs shot out, rolling straight toward Flender's head.

At that critical moment.

"Amitabha!"

A vast and solemn Buddhist chant suddenly exploded above the broad ruins of Great Thunderclap Temple!

The sound of the chant was not piercing, yet it carried a majestic righteousness that struck straight into the soul.

The instant the voice rang out, the Buddhist statues in the great hall that had already dimmed actually burst forth with dazzling golden light all at once.

The golden light was almost tangible, instantly dispersing more than half of the black-red fog that filled the great hall.

The monster that had been about to devour Flender was struck by this Buddhist light, and a "sizzle" immediately came from its body, as if a ladle of cold water had been poured into a boiling oil pan.

"Roar!"

The monster let out a pained roar and abruptly pulled back its tongue. A trace of terror flashed through its huge vertical eye as it retreated several steps in succession, withdrawing directly beside the cracked lotus pedestal.

Having escaped disaster, Flender lay sprawled on the ground, gasping heavily. With some difficulty, he turned his head and looked out through the ruined entrance of the great hall.

He saw that the boundless, dense black night outside the door now seemed like a curtain forcibly torn open.

A glittering golden road had spread over directly from the depths of the distant darkness, extending all the way to the threshold of Great Thunderclap Temple.

On that golden road, an old monk in a tattered patchwork robe was walking barefoot this way, neither hurried nor slow.

The old monk looked thin and wizened, his face covered in wrinkles, two long white eyebrows hanging all the way down to his chin.

He held a string of slightly blackened wooden prayer beads, turning them as he walked, while muttering something under his breath.

With each step the old monk took, the Buddhist light radiating from him grew brighter and brighter, directly forcing the dark monsters that tried to pounce from around him back dozens of zhang.

Seeing this old monk appear, everyone in Douluo outside the light screen was stunned.

"Who is that monk?"

"He can actually stroll around in that man-eating night like he's taking a walk in a garden?"

In Heaven Dou Imperial City, many nobles widened their eyes and began whispering among themselves.

Spirit City, inside the Supreme Pontiff's Palace.

Bibi Dong also shot to her feet, her beautiful eyes fixed firmly on the old monk in the image.

She could sense that there was not the slightest fluctuation of soul power on this old monk, yet that pure spiritual power, vast as the sea, was something she had never seen in her life.

"Old Monk..."

Bibi Dong's brows were tightly furrowed as her mind raced.

Inside the Sky Screen.

The Old Monk had already reached the entrance of the great hall.

He stopped, glanced at Flender lying paralyzed on the ground, then shifted his gaze to the monster that had retreated to beside the pedestal.

"Amitabha."

The Old Monk pressed his palms together and softly proclaimed the Buddha's name.

"Evil creature, you have been suppressed beneath this Great Thunderclap Temple for three thousand years, yet the violence in you is still so heavy."

The monster looked at the Old Monk, its huge vertical eye filled with wariness, but its mouth showed not the slightest willingness to back down.

"You old bald donkey!"

The monster roared, endless resentment seeping through its voice.

"Back then, you relied on strength in numbers to seal us beneath this sunless underground!"

"Now, with just an old bag of bones half in the grave like you, you still think you can stop me?"

Hearing this, the Old Monk showed not the slightest anger on his face. He still wore that same compassionate, pitying expression.

"This old monk may be old, but the Buddhist heart that subdues demons and eliminates devils has not died."

As the Old Monk spoke, he slowly stepped over the threshold of the great hall.

"Today, you used the crack created by this outsider to try to break through the seal. Naturally, this old monk cannot sit by and ignore it."

"Outsider?"

The monster froze for a moment, then split open that terrifying maw and let out a burst of ear-piercing wild laughter.

"Hahaha! Old bald donkey, you still haven't figured out the situation, have you?"

"This seal was set down by that Tathagata of yours himself back then!"

"Now that a hole has been broken in the seal, even if you want to patch it, can you?"

The moment the monster finished speaking, the lotus pedestal behind it once again gave off a violent tremor.

"Crack, crack..."

Even more fissures spread across the pedestal.

That black-red mist sprayed out wildly like a flood bursting through a dam.

The temperature inside the great hall instantly dropped to freezing point, and even a thick layer of black frost formed over the jade floor.

And deep within that cracked pedestal, a pressure ten times more terrifying than this monster was slowly awakening.

Sensing that pressure, Flender felt sweetness rise in his throat, and another mouthful of blood sprayed out. He passed out completely on the spot.

And outside the light screen, everyone in Douluo had been frightened deathly pale.

Shrek Academy.

Yu Xiaogang stared hard at the Sky Screen, his voice trembling.

"Just how many monsters are still suppressed under there?"

"That one that came out just now looks like it was only a small fry sent out first."

"What exactly was the origin of this Great Thunderclap Temple back then, that it could suppress so many terrifying evil beings?"

Just when everyone thought Old Monk was about to fail—

In the image, Old Monk suddenly sighed.

"Since you remain so stubbornly deluded, this old monk has no choice but to offend you."

After Old Monk finished speaking, he sat down cross-legged right there on the floor covered in black frost.

He closed his eyes, and the prayer beads in his hand spun faster and faster.

"Om!"

A low chanting sound came from Old Monk's mouth.

The chanting was very faint at first, but it soon grew like a rolling snowball, becoming grander and grander.

In the end, the sound was like the tolling of a great bell, echoing over the entire ruins of Great Thunderclap Temple.

As the chanting rang out, the Buddhist light around Old Monk, which had been somewhat dim, suddenly surged.

The Buddhist light transformed into a huge golden lotus, directly enveloping Old Monk within it.

Immediately afterward, the phantom of a golden Buddha dozens of zhang tall slowly condensed into form behind Old Monk.

This Buddha had a solemn and majestic appearance. One hand formed a Buddhist seal, while the other slowly pressed down toward the cracked lotus pedestal below.

The golden handprint in midair carried a low rumble as it pressed down steadily.

The handprint did not look fast.

But the monster with the vertical eye seemed to have been struck by a binding spell, unable to even dodge.

It could only watch helplessly as the golden light descended over its head.

"No!"

An unwilling roar burst from the monster's mouth.

It stretched out its two skin-and-bones purple-black claws and thrust them upward, trying to flip over the phantom of the great Buddha.

However, the instant that black-red mist touched the golden Buddhist light, it was like throwing a handful of snow into a scorching furnace.

With a sizzling sound, more than half of the black-red mist dispersed on the spot, turning into a foul-smelling white smoke.

The monster's hands touched the golden handprint, and its bones creaked under the pressure as its body was forced back down bit by bit into that lotus pedestal.

"You bald old donkey, you can't trap us!"

"When the seal of the Great Ruins shatters completely, sooner or later we'll devour every living person in this world!"

The monster only had time to shout that one vicious threat.

The golden handprint had already pressed completely onto the lotus pedestal.

Boom!

A tremendous crash rang out, and the jade slabs on the palace floor bounced twice with it.

The cracks that had originally been spewing black smoke actually began to close little by little under the illumination of the Buddhist light.

The flaking gold paint on the pedestal's surface also seemed to reverse through time, attaching itself back again and becoming perfectly intact.

Only the lingering scent of sandalwood in the hall, not yet fully dispersed, proved that a life-and-death struggle had just taken place.

Outside the light screen, the viewers on Douluo Continent had long since been stunned speechless.

On the sports field of Shrek Academy, it was so quiet that even a needle dropping to the ground could be heard.

Yu Xiaogang swallowed, feeling his throat go dry.

"W-what martial soul is this?"

"It's not a beast martial soul, nor is it a tool martial soul. Could it be some kind of god-level body martial soul?"

Tang San stood to the side, his brows tightly knitted.

"Teacher, there aren't any soul power fluctuations from him at all."

Tang San pointed at Old Monk in the light screen, his tone filled with confusion.

"That golden giant just now was more like a kind of pure spiritual power, condensed together with some unknown energy."

On Douluo Continent, soul masters relied entirely on soul skills and close combat when they fought.

Who had ever seen a method like this—sitting cross-legged on the ground, muttering a few incomprehensible scriptures, then conjuring a golden giant dozens of zhang tall to slap a monster back underground?

That visual impact was even more shocking than Qin Mu shattering a mountain with one punch.

After all, Qin Mu had relied on brute strength.

And what Old Monk displayed was a kind of mysterious law that no one could fathom.

In Spirit City, Bibi Dong stared fixedly at Old Monk's back.

"Great Thunderclap Temple, monks, Buddhist teachings..."

Bibi Dong silently murmured those words.

There was no Buddhism on the Douluo Continent, so naturally there was no such title as monk either.

She only felt that this thin, withered old man was far more terrifying than those muscle-bound Titled Douluo.

That golden phantom even carried a noble, righteous aura that made even her, an inheritor of the Rakshasa God, feel her heart tremble.

In the images on the Sky Screen.

Only after Old Monk saw the crack in the base close up did he stop the prayer beads in his hand.

He slowly opened his eyes, and the enormous golden Buddha phantom behind him also dispersed into the air.

Old Monk stood up and walked over to Flender, who had fainted dead away.

At this moment, Flender was a ghastly sight.

The clothes on his back were completely torn apart, and the pair of wings produced by his martial soul possession had been forcibly snapped into several sections, blood pooling all over the ground.

The black-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose had also shattered on one side, leaving him looking as wretched as could be.

Old Monk sighed and shook his head.

"Once greed arises, calamity follows."

"You outsider—if you had not coveted that little bit of gold foil on the Buddha statue, you would not have stirred up this disaster."

As Old Monk spoke, he crouched down.

He stretched out a calloused hand and gently pressed it against Flender's chest.

A soft golden halo lit up from his palm.

The halo spread out from Flender's chest, slowly enveloping his broken wings and wounds.

A miraculous scene occurred.

The broken bones on Flender's back actually began to slowly reconnect and heal under the nourishment of the Buddhist light.

The blood that had been gushing out also stopped.

Although he had not yet awakened, a bit of color finally returned to Flender's originally deathly pale face, and his breathing also steadied.

Seeing this, the teachers and students of Shrek Academy finally let out a huge sigh of relief.

"This old man's really kindhearted, and he even knows how to heal the sick and save people."

Ma Hongjun wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and laughed with a chuckle.

Zhao Wuji also rubbed his shiny bald head, his face full of admiration.

"These healing methods are way stronger than the healing-type soul masters at our academy."

"He doesn't even need to light up a soul ring. Just one touch and he can set broken bones. If we could invite him to Shrek Academy as the school doctor, what would we even have to fear when we go to the Star Dou Forest to hunt soul beasts in the future?"

Yu Xiaogang glanced at Zhao Wuji, thinking, You really dare to dream, you rough brute.

You want to invite a mighty figure who can suppress monsters beneath the earth to be your school doctor?

On the Sky Screen.

Old Monk withdrew his hand and paid no further attention to Flender on the ground.

He stood up, walked to the somewhat ruined threshold of the great hall, and lifted his eyes to gaze at the boundless darkness outside.

The night wind of the Great Ruins blew in, making Old Monk's worn monk robes snap and flutter.

From within the darkness, terrifying roars rang out from time to time.

There were also pairs of ghostly green eyes wandering in the distance, yet they never dared come even half a step closer to Great Thunderclap Temple.

Old Monk turned one prayer bead, his cloudy gaze becoming somewhat profound.

"The sky over the Great Ruins is growing darker and darker."

Old Monk seemed to be talking to himself, his voice scattering with the wind.