Arc 21Chapters 501–525
No recap yet.
No recap yet.
Jiang Ru brought Xu Taiping supplies and food before his departure for Youyun Heaven, and he promised to bring Duan Xiaoyu back. During the teleportation, Venerable Jiaye appeared in the Void and asked Xu Taiping for a favor, offering to pay more.
Xu Taiping resisted Venerable Jiaye’s request to protect a reincarnated Buddha Child at Vairocana Chan Temple, but Jiaye offered him five lives and powerful rewards. When Xu Taiping tried to make his agreement conditional on where his Teleportation Token sent him, Jiaye sent him to the temple by force.
Xu Taiping arrived at Vairocana Zen Temple in Youyun Heaven, where Kasyapa’s monks welcomed him as a Dharma Protector, but an unseen attacker killed him almost immediately. He revived at the moment of arrival with one of his five lives spent, and prepared to investigate the killer while conserving his remaining chances.
Xu Taiping entered Vairocana Temple as a Heavenly Dharma Protector and exposed several werewolves disguised as monks. He reached Heavenly King Hall with Miaoxin, only to find the abbot and other monks dead.
Xu Taiping learned that the abbot had died in one timeline, then returned to the past and entered Heavenly King Hall to identify the disguised Demonic Beast. He spotted Huide reacting when his clone left, leaving Xu Taiping poised to confront the suspected demon and save the abbot.
Xu Taiping exposed and killed two werewolf demons who had infiltrated Vairocana Temple, saving Abbot Huiming and earning the monks’ reverence as the Evil-Delivering Asura Heavenly Dharma Protector. Huiming explained that the temple’s hidden demons had been lured out, and the surviving monks would now focus on the beasts outside.
Xu Taiping learned that the Buddha Child was safe and that Vairocana Temple’s damaged formation needed his prayer beads to endure. Before he could reach the hidden Evil-Delivering Asura armor, Tianlang Guyue shattered the formation and killed him, sending him back to Kasaya Hall with only two beads remaining.
Xu Taiping defeated the white-haired werewolf and hurried Abbot Huiming to replace Vairocana Temple’s formation-node artifact. As they reached the artifact, the Sky Wolf Devil Master appeared in the sky, just as Xu Taiping had anticipated.
Xu Taiping used the All Beings Are Equal Buddhist Prayer Beads to restore and strengthen Vairocana Temple’s formation, turning Sky Wolf Devil Master Guyue’s full-force attack against him. Abbot Huiming then proclaimed that monks who died protecting the Buddha Child would be guided by Ancient Buddha Kasyapa to ultimate bliss, leaving Xu Taiping troubled by the growing misunderstanding.
Xu Taiping gave the besieged monks of Vairocana Temple hope by promising them rebirth in paradise, then opened the Armor Pellet containing the Evil-Delivering Asura’s battle armor. With Fairy Lingyue controlling the Divine Artifact, he briefly unleashed its fearsome aura before putting it back to sleep.
After the Buddha Child was born at Vairocana Temple, Xu Taiping helped name him Yelai, though his parents kept Wangcai as his childhood nickname. As the temple’s magic formation began to fail, Xu Taiping used a protective artifact to prepare to defend the child against the demons.
Xu Taiping lured a group of Werewolf Demons onto the Single-Plank Bridge, defeated them, and killed their leader with one slash. As the surviving demons raised an alarm, Blade Ghost suggested a way to combine the Immortal-Rending Slash with the Cicada Cry Form, and Xu Taiping prepared to try it.
Xu Taiping received Blade Ghost’s instructions for the Immortal-Rending Slash and prepared to defend Vairocana Zen Temple alongside its monks. As the red-haired Werewolf Demon King attacked him on the Single-Plank Bridge, Xu Taiping tried to combine the Immortal-Rending Slash with the Cicada Cry Form, and their clash drove him back to the riverbank.
Xu Taiping used the werewolves to practice his blade techniques and killed Red Hair with a powerful fusion of the Cicada Cry Form and Immortal-Rending Slash. Demon Venerable Black Wood gave Gray Eye his Darkworld Blade and ordered him to kill Xu Taiping before the Devil Master broke through the formation.
Xu Taiping faced a gray-haired Werewolf Demon King wielding the Demon King Weapon Darkworld Blade on the Single-Plank Bridge, while Vairocana Temple’s leaders replenished his True Essence. He concealed the full extent of his Blade Force and unleashed an Immortal-Rending Slash that tore through the Werewolf’s attack and struck him.
Xu Taiping repeatedly struck down the gray-haired werewolf while trying to break the Darkworld Blade with the Water-Cutting Blade, but Demon Venerable Blackwood intervened and reclaimed the weapon. Xu Taiping recovered his strength and faced Blackwood on the single-plank bridge, preparing for a final clash.
Xu Taiping faced Black Wood Demon Venerable at the Single-Plank Bridge outside Vairocana Temple and answered the Demon Venerable’s Darkworld Blade with the Cicada Cry Form. His strike wounded Black Wood Demon Venerable and shattered the Demon King Weapon, leaving the Demon Venerable bleeding with a gaping chest wound.
Xu Taiping killed Demon Venerable Black Wood and held the Single-Plank Bridge against the yaomo army outside Vairocana Temple. The Heavenly Wolf King ordered his sons to fight Xu Taiping one at a time, threatening to eat them if they failed.
Xu Taiping defeated the Heavenly Wolf King's sons one after another on the Single-Plank Bridge, using their attacks to hone his blade technique. When the Heavenly Wolf King finally stepped in himself, Fairy Lingyue urged Xu Taiping to unleash the Asura Armor's full power.
Xu Taiping unleashed the Asura Armor’s power to face the Heavenly Wolf King and provoke his strongest axe strike. After dying and rebirthing in Kasaya Hall, Xu Taiping remembered the strike and began discussing how to counter it with Fairy Lingyue and Blade Ghost.
After helping Vairocana Temple prepare for the Buddha Child’s birth, Xu Taiping joined the child’s parents for a meal instead of returning to plan for his fight with the Heavenly Wolf King. The mother’s concern eased his exhaustion, and her resolve to let her son protect ordinary people left Xu Taiping reflecting on why the fight mattered.
Xu Taiping learned why the Heavenly Wolf King's axe strike carried a power he could not imitate: it held the true intent of a demon butcher. Blade Ghost and Fairy Lingyue explained the origin laws demons pursued, and Blade Ghost taught Xu Taiping the blade cultivator’s own true intent as a way to break his opponent’s.
Xu Taiping trained with Blade Ghost to fuse the Cicada Cry Form and Immortal-Rending Slash, preparing to defeat the Heavenly Wolf King with one strike. On the Single-Plank Bridge, he unleashed Hundred Cicadas United as One and tore through the Heavenly Wolf King’s axe shadow.
Xu Taiping defeated the Heavenly Wolf King’s axe strike, but the king’s final attack collapsed a meditation room and killed the couple protecting Buddha Child Yelai. After finding Yelai alive, Xu Taiping resolved to face the Heavenly Wolf King again and began preparing another attempt.
Xu Taiping defeated Heavenly Wolf King Guyue with an ultimate slash, but Guyue escaped before the monks arrived. After Xu Taiping found Sis and the Buddha Child’s family safe, hidden demons attacked them, and four monks descended to intervene.