Life and Death

"What on earth killed those people!"

The group of people who ran back to the Five-Colored Altar were still shaken with lingering fear. As people living in the urban world, watching four college classmates die in bloody fashion right before their eyes delivered a mental shock that was absolute in its magnitude; no one could face death with equanimity.

"The Buddha of legend rarely took lives, and mostly suppressed monsters and demons when he encountered them. I'm afraid something was locked away beneath the Great Thunderclap Temple, and the monsters that came out just now crawled up from there."

Lu Chen knew that it was the Little Divine Crocodiles that had attacked everyone. At that moment, his heart beat faster and he felt somewhat nervous as he gripped the Vajra Pestle tightly.

He too had been attacked by those little evil creatures on his way back, though fortunately the Buddhist artifact in his hand had emitted lightning to block them; otherwise, his own life and death would have been unpredictable.

Right now, an aura of terror permeated the Five-Colored Altar, and even the few strong-willed men could not keep their composure.

Fortunately, when people were attacked, the alms bowls, ancient lamps, and other Buddhist artifacts in their hands had emitted a brilliant radiance to save them, preventing total despair and making them realize that the ancient artifacts could save their lives.

"The Five-Colored Altar is glowing. It seems there really is a path forward after all," shouted a pretty female classmate named Lin Jia who was holding a small bronze bell.

"This is just like when Mount Tai set sail. It seems there really is a path forward, but I just don't know where the next stop will be," Ye Fan said, looking at the glowing, flickering altar.

The others also saw the hope of leaving.

"The light barrier in the sky is gradually shrinking. That must be because the altar is absorbing its mysterious energy," Lu Chen said softly as he raised his head to stare intently at the protective formation that was blocking the sandstorm.

"When the altar on Mount Tai activated, those Jade Books and Scrolls must have provided the energy. Since there are no such items here, there naturally has to be another source of energy."

The others had witnessed the scene when the Mount Tai altar activated, and they understood that a path to survival truly lay before them.

Half an hour later, the light barrier in the sky had shrunk by ninety percent, leaving only the Five-Colored Altar sheltered within it. Everything outside the altar had been destroyed by the massive sandstorm.

Yet although the Five-Colored Altar blazed with blinding light, condensing a huge Taiji Eight Trigrams Diagram in the sky, it was never quite solid enough to fully open the Starry Sky Gate.

"Roar-"

Suddenly, a massive roar came from the distance, actually drowning out the thunderous rumbles of the super sandstorm. It made Lu Chen and the others tremble inwardly, their faces turning pale as though some primeval ferocious beast had been unleashed in the distance.

"What sound is that?" someone trembled and asked.

"The legends say that monsters and demons are suppressed beneath the Great Thunderclap Temple. Could it be true?" guessed someone who understood Buddhist culture.

"Hah..." Lu Chen's abdomen heaved up and down, and even his breathing grew rapid. He knew full well that it must be the Crocodile Ancestor, and he was all too aware of its terrifying nature-this was a primordial demon saint fierce enough to pluck the stars and seize the moon.

"Ah!"

While everyone was gripped by terror and trepidation, a scream rang out. A female student pointed at the light barrier at the edge of the altar and yelled, "Something is coming in over there!"

When everyone looked, a little thing the thickness of a thumb, about ten centimeters long, covered in black scales from head to toe, and resembling a crocodile without limbs, was slowly breaking through the light barrier and squeezing its body inward.

"What kind of monster is that?"

Everyone felt a chill run through them as they looked at the little creature.

For although the crocodile-like thing possessed a tiny body, it had a pair of chilling eyes that emitted a malicious and cruel gaze, just like a predator staring at a pack of prey.

"Damn it, were those classmates just now killed by this thing?" Pang Bo cursed angrily, heavily slamming the Great Thunderclap Temple Plaque down onto the ground. It stirred up ripples of divine radiance, making him look like an angry Vajra.

"It looks like a crocodile, but has no limbs!" Zhou Yi said with a solemn expression, holding a fractured bronze bell. "Could this be the divine crocodile from Buddhist legend-a creature whose body is like metal and gold, capable of soaring through the skies and tunneling through the earth?"

"It must be because we took the Buddhist artifacts that suppressed the ancient hall, causing the Great Thunderclap Temple to collapse and releasing this kind of little monster," someone said in fear.

"It's too late to say anything now. We'd better figure out what to do next!" Ye Fan shook his head. "Those classmates all died with their heads pierced through. Obviously, the Little Divine Crocodiles are terrifying."

"Some people were attacked by the Little Divine Crocodiles just now, but the divine light emitted by the Buddhist artifacts blocked them. Right now, we can only use the ancient artifacts in our hands to deal with them." Although Lu Chen was somewhat nervous, he knew that they had to get through this crisis together.

At the same time, he could not afford to stand out too much. The Crocodile Ancestor regarded them as mere ants and would not pay them any mind at all, but if he drew the Crocodile Ancestor's attention, it would undoubtedly mean certain death.

Besides, Ye Fan was the only one here who would not die. After all, that woman of peerless talent through the ages-the Ruthless Great Emperor-would absolute never allow the person she had waited over two hundred thousand years for to die here.

She was still waiting for Ye Fan, this similar flower, to bloom once again after stepping onto the pinnacle, transforming into her deceased older brother.

"Swish"

In the time it took the group to exchange a few words, that Little Divine Crocodile had already broken through the hazy light barrier, entered the Five-Colored Altar, and shot toward the crowd as a streak of Black Light.

"Ah..." Over a dozen female students let out continuous screams of terror, and several male students also turned pale with fright, stepping back repeatedly.

Although everyone had jointly seized the ancient artifacts by this point-and the artifacts would glow autonomously to fend off attacks-when genuinely facing such lethal little monsters of darkness, how many ordinary people could remain entirely composed!

"You three-inch nail, go to hell!"

Pang Bo let out a mighty roar, bringing the Great Thunderclap Temple Plaque down in a heavy smash forward. As if endowed with a spirit of its own, the ancient artifact instantly erupted with ten thousand golden rays, sending surging waves of brilliant light washing outward to engulf that Little Divine Crocodile.

A piercing, shrill scream rang out, sounding as though it had been issued by an evil ghost from hell. The light waves of the ancient artifact sliced through the air like a divine blade, cutting the Black Light-shrouded Little Divine Crocodile into two halves. Its blood spilled all over the ground, and it died right there on the altar.

Clearly, the light emitted by the ancient artifacts possessed massive lethality against those divine crocodiles.

"So these Buddhist artifacts can not only block attacks, but also kill those little evil creatures." Ye Fan raised the bronze lamp in his hand, maintaining cautious vigilance.

"The Buddhist artifacts in our hands should originally have been part of what suppressed them. Now that they've encountered an attack from the divine crocodiles, they naturally erupt with divine might," Lu Chen said, glancing at the fractured Vajra Pestle. "Otherwise, relying on ourselves alone, we wouldn't be able to unleash the capabilities of the ancient artifacts."

No matter what, the ancient artifacts left behind by the Great Thunderclap Temple were objects Sakyamuni had once used. If not for the stimulation of venomous entities like the Little Divine Crocodiles, how could a group of mortals ever hope to wield them!

"Crack..."

A succession of shattering sounds rang out. Dozens of Little Divine Crocodiles appeared within the light barrier at the edge of the altar, and even more divine crocodiles were gathering from the sandstorm in the distance.

"Damn it, there are so many of these three-inch nails!"

Pang Bo dragged the plaque backward in terror, retreating step by step. He could boldly beat and smash a single Little Divine Crocodile, but dozens, hundreds, or even more was simply beyond his ability to handle.

"The hazy light barrier has compressed to its absolute limit, yet the Starry Sky Ancient Road still hasn't opened. It looks like the mysterious energy required by the altar is still not enough."

Lu Chen raised his head, looked at the Taiji Eight Trigrams Diagram in the sky, and said, "An altar requires a blood sacrifice! Now our only option is to strike down those Little Divine Crocodiles and see if we can use them as a blood sacrifice to open the Starry Sky Gate."

"When the ancients built altars to make offerings to the gods, they would surely lay out sacrifices," Ye Fan agreed, saying, "Right now we don't have any sacrificial offerings, and if we want to fully activate the Five-Colored Altar, we can only try using these Little Divine Crocodiles."

Among the panicked crowd, there were still level-headed individuals. Zhou Yi stepped forward, shaking the fractured bronze bell to scatter a sheet of divine radiance as he spoke, "We have no way out now. We can only give it a try."

A stir ran through the crowd. The timid ones huddled together holding their Buddhist artifacts as they backed away, filled with intense dread toward those gloomy Little Divine Crocodiles.

Yet Lu Chen, Ye Fan, Pang Bo, Zhou Yi, and several others still stepped forward holding their Buddhist artifacts, confronting the hellspawn that were about to break through the light barrier and enter.

"Swish, swish, swish..."

Dozens of Little Divine Crocodiles squeezed into the Five-Colored Altar, transforming into streaks of dark light that shot toward the crowd like dozens of sharp arrows.

"Boom..."

Lu Chen swung the Vajra Pestle in his hand. As if understanding his will, the ancient artifact erupted with ten thousand bolts of electric light, thunder rumbled across the heavens, and he seemed to don a suit of thunder armor, descending like a primordial deity to sweep out torrents of lightning light. Every single Little Divine Crocodile that touched it was reduced to charcoal.

At the same time, Ye Fan raised the ancient bronze lamp in his hand, took a deep breath, and blew hard. The faint lamplight suddenly surged violently, shooting out five- or six-meter-long torrents of divine flames that burned away patches of divine crocodiles.

On the other side, Pang Bo's Great Thunderclap Temple Plaque, Zhou Yi's fractured bronze bell, and the ancient artifacts of Wang Ziwen and the others also erupted with brilliant divine radiance. At that moment, the few of them looked like deities as they slaughtered vast numbers of divine crocodiles.

The blood flowing from the corpses of those dead divine crocodiles emitted a faint red light, which was absorbed by the Five-Colored Altar and transformed into the required mysterious energy.