In an open clearing deep in the mountain valley, two enormous creatures were locked in a vicious struggle.
One was a golden python forty or fifty feet long; the other was an azure tiger as large as a house.
The golden python had its body, covered in gleaming golden scales, wrapped tightly around the azure tiger's lower half, while its jaws clamped onto the tiger's neck. The golden scales on its body flickered between light and dark, their outlines wavering as though they were not truly real.
Roaring thunder rang out from inside the azure tiger. Ignoring the python coiled around its lower body, it tore at the python with both front claws, while its blood-basin maw bit down on a long stretch of the python's tail, desperately trying to swallow it.
The azure tiger's body shone with an oily sheen, and distinct bamboo grain marked its surface. It was unmistakably a Mechanism Puppet refined from individual pieces of azure bamboo.
While the golden python and azure tiger puppet remained locked in a stalemate,
the white jade boat flew up before the two giant beasts.
A Buddhist invocation rang out: "Amitabha."
A young monk with red lips and white teeth flew out from the cliff on one side of the valley. Holding an open golden scripture in one hand, he waved it toward the two battling giants.
A soft pop sounded.
The golden python immediately burst apart, turning into countless golden Sanskrit characters that streamed back. With a flicker, all the characters vanished into the scripture.
"The Vajra Temple's famed Demon-Subduing Golden Sutra is nothing more than this."
As those words fell, two men and a woman flew out from the cliff on the other side of the valley. The woman, dressed in white palace robes, spoke coldly to the