Great Black Buddha Mother, Divine Spirit Dharma Realm

The Yaksha had a blue face and fangs, murder gleaming coldly in its eyes.

The moment it appeared, not only the old crone but everyone nearby felt their hearts tremble in fear.

That chilling, murderous aura rushed at them, making their brows ache faintly, as though some man-eating beast had fixed its gaze upon them.

The old crone's face went deathly pale.

"I... I'll take you there. I'll take you there right now..."

She had originally thought these people were merely ordinary folk who knew a little ritual magic, capable at most of drawing talismans and chanting incantations.

Only after the Yaksha appeared did she truly understand that this man before her was nothing like the temple mediums and ritual masters she had encountered before.

Inside the Great Black Buddha Mother shrine, the incense smoke hung thick and dim.

The old crone trembled as she led the way. Huang Bai and Chen Lixing followed behind her, while the others remained outside to stand guard.

The moment they entered the temple, the old crone, with her back to them, had a trace of cunning flicker in her eyes.

That expression vanished in an instant. If Huang Bai had not been watching closely, he would have almost missed it.

The next moment, a sudden change occurred.

Whoosh!

A cloud of black mist suddenly burst from the Dharma Altar and lunged straight at their faces like a living thing.

Bang!

The Yaksha reacted with astonishing speed, throwing itself in front of them and inhaling sharply. Before the black mist could disperse, it had swallowed the entire mass.

At the same time, Huang Bai raised his hand and fired a Solar Curse.

Golden light tore through the air and struck the black altar dead center.

The black altar exploded with a roar. The lingering baleful aura within instantly dissipated beneath the scorching Yang energy, leaving not even a wisp of smoke behind.

Chen Lixing looked at the fragments scattered across the ground, his expression darkening.

"This is gu poison from Southeast Asia."

He tightened his grip on the Copper Coin Sword, ready at any moment to invite a god to possess him.

"It seems the Great Black Buddha Mother's methods are not limited to curses. It is also involved with gu and poison."

When the old crone saw that the trap she had secretly arranged had done absolutely nothing, she immediately put on a panicked expression.

"It has nothing to do with me! I don't know anything! I don't know why something like this is here either!"

Huang Bai glanced at her.

"Too late."

As soon as he spoke, a black shadow flashed from his sleeve.

Transformation—belt into snake.

A pitch-black cobra shot out, swift as an arrow skimming the ground, and bit through the old crone's throat.

The old crone did not even have time to scream. Her body swayed, then she collapsed to the ground with a thud.

Chen Lixing's heart skipped a beat as he watched.

This Mr. Huang was even more decisive than he had imagined.

There were likely more than one or two lives on this man's hands.

Huang Bai ignored his reaction. He crouched and searched the old crone's body, quickly finding several old booklets describing the refinement of poison water and gu creatures, along with some records regarding the sealing of the Great Black Buddha Mother.

Chen Lixing took them and read through them, his expression growing even darker.

"If the Great Black Buddha Mother could be sealed, that means it has not grown impossibly powerful yet."

"It has not been destroyed after all these years, which means it will not be easy to kill. What happens next depends on your choice."

"Of course we kill it." Huang Bai answered without hesitation. "If we don't deal with it completely today, it will come out and harm people again in a few decades."

Huang Bai did not say outright that this was the will of the Heavenly Dao Talisman Edict.

"Fine." Chen Lixing let out a breath. "Then these old bones of mine will accompany you on this venture."

Righteous gods did not descend to the mortal world casually. No matter how fiercely the Great Black Buddha Mother caused trouble, it was ultimately only haunting the vicinity of Chen Family Village. It had not reached the point where the gods themselves had to descend into the Lower Realm to suppress it.

True gods usually acted only against great demons that caused rivers of blood and shook the world.

Neither Huang Bai nor Chen Lixing knew that White Crane Boy was willing to lend them magic and artifacts largely out of respect for the lineage of Mount Jinhua.

For guardian gods such as White Crane Boy and the Zengsun General, taking the initiative to hunt demons everywhere had never been their first choice. Unless an evil thing truly trespassed into their territory or caused trouble right before their eyes.

Following the records in the books, the two continued deeper inside.

After passing several hidden doors and narrow passages, they finally arrived before a concealed stone chamber.

However, after all that commotion, dusk was already approaching.

Just then, footsteps suddenly sounded at the end of the passage.

Huang Bai raised a hand to stop Chen Lixing.

"Don't move yet."

He closed his eyes and sensed the surroundings for a moment. Understanding soon appeared on his face.

The two immediately retreated into the shadows and held their breath.

The footsteps drew closer and closer.

Before long, a woman staggered in.

Her face was covered in black markings. She clutched a camera tightly to her chest and muttered under her breath, looking completely unhinged. It was Li Ruonan.

As she walked, she murmured softly to herself.

"Duo Duo will be fine... She'll be fine..."

"As long as I spread out the curse, as long as more people see it, it won't fall only on us..."

Standing in the shadows, Huang Bai watched her coldly.

Li Ruonan had clearly come here intending to film the Great Black Buddha Mother's true form, then find a way to spread it, hoping to weaken the curse on herself and Duo Duo.

To put it plainly, she intended to make more innocent people share the curse.

She continued down the secret passage. The arrangements and restrictions along the way had been knocked into a complete mess by her, clearly because she no longer cared about anything else.

Soon, the space ahead suddenly opened up.

At the center of the stone chamber stood a pitch-black Buddha statue.

The statue had eight arms and a slender, eerie body. Its material was impossible to identify as stone or wood. Its head was covered with red cloth, and several mirrors used to suppress it stood nearby.

The moment Li Ruonan approached it, she seemed to lose her soul.

It was as though a voice beside her ear was constantly tempting her.

Open it.

Lift the red cloth.

As long as you see the Buddha Mother's true form, you will gain Its power. From then on, you will never have to fear ghosts, curses, or anything else again.

Li Ruonan looked dazed as she staggered forward.

She had no idea that she had not come seeking help, but to deliver herself to her death.

The next moment, she reached out and slowly lifted the red cloth.

Whoosh!

The instant the red cloth hit the ground, Li Ruonan's face twisted violently. She let out a shrill scream, as if she had seen the most terrifying thing in the world.

At that very moment, Huang Bai and Chen Lixing moved at the same time.

"Now!"

Chen Lixing charged forward in a single step, and his entire aura abruptly changed.

Blue paint surfaced across his face, and his expression became grim and ferocious. The righteous god he had invited was none other than the blue-faced Decrease General.

"Open!"

Chen Lixing roared. The sound wave took on physical form and forcefully scattered the surging Negative Chi around them.

Huang Bai followed close behind, stepping forward as white light flickered in his hand.

"Stabilize!"

It was the Stabilizing Talisman Sigil bestowed by White Crane Boy.

White light burst outward, enveloping the entire stone chamber in an instant. Everything around them seemed to slow down, and even the churning Negative Chi froze for a moment.

The Yaksha lunged out at the same time.

Its towering ghostly body charged forward almost flush with the ground. It gripped a rusted iron chain in its hand and fearlessly attacked the Buddha statue.

In this battle, it was the expendable vanguard standing at the very front for Huang Bai.

Whoosh!

The tip of the iron chain pierced through Li Ruonan's chest first.

The woman did not even have time to groan before she died on the spot.

The chain did not stop. It immediately stabbed fiercely toward the chest of the ghost mother statue, clearly intending to shatter its core in one blow.

Bang!

Unfortunately, the strike did not succeed as intended.

The iron chain was violently knocked aside, while one of the statue's eight arms shattered in its place, clearly taking the blow for the main body.

Buzz!

The rebounded iron chain suddenly came alive. It twisted through the air and coiled back like a snake, wrapping tightly around the Buddha statue and squeezing ever tighter.

Crack, crack, crack...

The statue's outer shell could no longer withstand the pressure and began to fracture one after another.

Fragments scattered across the floor, revealing the pitch-black Dharma Altar within.

The altar was covered in black lotus patterns of esoteric Buddhism, and at its center floated the twisted, hideous face of a woman.

The instant the Dharma Altar was exposed, the entire secret passage shook violently.

Black ripples rapidly spread outward, and the scene around them warped along with them.

The next moment, heaven and earth suddenly darkened.

The stone chamber, secret passage, and Buddha statue all vanished.

In their place was boundless darkness.

Strands of black thread as thin as hair flew out from the Dharma Altar. They tangled and gathered continuously in the air, eventually forming the figure of an old woman dressed in black.

The old woman had seven arms, and her abdomen hung open as brown Essence Blood flowed endlessly from it. She looked both like a Buddha and a ghost, radiating an indescribably sinister aura.

The moment Chen Lixing saw this, his expression changed completely.

"This is bad. This is the Divine Spirit Dharma Realm!"

The Great Black Buddha Mother's voice rang out as well, cold and venomous, numbing their eardrums.

"Why..."

"Why must you oppose me?"

"Mere mortals dare offend divine majesty? Die!"

As Its furious shout fell, the ground beneath their feet instantly transformed into a fetid, sticky pool of blood.

Pale white hands reached out one after another from the blood pool, desperately grabbing at the two men's ankles as though they intended to drag them into the abyss and drown them alive.

Huang Bai looked down and instead sighed.

"I had wanted to save two talismans."

After saying that, he formed a hand seal and used his final two talismans at once.

One talisman protected the body.

Golden light spread out, forming a protective barrier around the two of them in the blink of an eye, firmly blocking the blood pool and ghostly hands outside.

One talisman suppressed evil.

Boom!

A ten-foot bolt of heavenly lightning suddenly descended.

(Please vote with monthly tickets.)