Eight-Armed Stone Buddha

Outside the Demon Suppression Bureau camp.

As Luo Chen's calm words fell, the surroundings sank into deathly silence.

The faint smile on Zhuge Yucheng's face vanished as well.

Narrowing his eyes, he began carefully sizing up the youth before him.

Behind him,

the five people Luo Chen had publicly singled out instantly darkened.

Among them, a Demon Suppression Envoy named Song Ji looked so grim his face seemed ready to drip water.

The corner of his mouth curled up as he shouted loudly.

"Captain Luo Chen, you may be young, but your official airs are certainly not small!"

"We are working under the Deputy Chief Director now. Do we still need to report to you?"

Upon hearing this, all the Demon Suppressing Guards shifted their gazes back and forth among them.

Song Ji's words had directly torn away all pretense.

And while he was at it, he took a jab at Luo Chen, saying he had climbed straight into the position of Demon Suppression Captain by relying on his connections.

Implying that his virtue did not match his position.

Zhuge Yucheng folded his arms and sneered.

"Luo Chen, I, the Deputy Director, can decide on the appointment of Demon Suppression Envoys."

Luo Chen swept his gaze around and saw that most people wore expressions of eager amusement.

He lightly shook his head and spoke.

"Disobeying orders and abandoning their posts without authorization. I have received no notice of personnel reassignment, so they are still my subordinates."

"With standards like these, they are unfit for any important task."

"Deputy Chief Director, are you planning to have such people work for you?"

Luo Chen rested a hand on the hilt of his saber and spoke casually.

Zhuge Yucheng narrowed his eyes, a chill rising in his heart.

But that chill came quickly and vanished just as quickly.

Xiao Xiuzhu patted the back of Luo Chen's hand resting on the saber hilt and stepped forward.

"Everyone, the rights and wrongs of this matter are already clear. We need only return and await the Chief Director's decision."

He stopped Luo Chen.

If Luo Chen truly drew his blade and killed these people in public,

then regardless of whether he was right or wrong, the Demon Suppression Bureau would no longer be able to tolerate him.

Even having the Chief Director shielding him would be useless.

After all, even if these five had committed grave offenses, they were still Demon Suppression Envoys who had risked their lives for the Demon Suppression Bureau for more than a decade.

If they were truly killed so casually while Luo Chen suffered no consequences,

wouldn't the people below turn the heavens upside down afterward?

Luo Chen thought for a moment, then suddenly smiled.

Interesting.

Damn it, a Shangguan Changyue bootlicker was doing nothing but causing him trouble.

Though Xiao Xiuzhu also looked down on Zhuge Yucheng, before the Chief Director had completely torn off all pretense with him, they could not stir up trouble.

So he hurriedly stepped out to smooth things over.

Just as the crowd argued without end,

beside the river outside the camp,

the previously calm river suddenly rolled with wind and waves, whirlpools churning one after another.

Monstrous demonic energy shot into the sky as eight hundred-meter stone pillars burst through the water and crashed toward the camp.

Everyone panicked somewhat.

Only a smile appeared at the corner of Zhuge Yucheng's mouth.

"Scatter!"

Luo Chen narrowed his eyes and fled out of the camp with the five people behind him.

Rumble!

Eight enormous "stone pillars," each a hundred meters long and ten meters thick, directly flattened the camp.

These "stone pillars" were extremely strange. They appeared to be formed of waterweed and rock, like elongated arms.

It had come too quickly, too abruptly.

Before this strike, there had been neither the slightest warning nor any leaking demonic energy.

As a result, of the more than five hundred Demon Suppressing Guards, at least three hundred were smashed to death in that single blow.

The losses could not have been more disastrous.

Xiao Xiuzhu spat blood as the great spear in his hand swept toward a massive arm charging at him, but his body was flung away.

In the blink of an eye, he had been suppressed by overwhelming force.

His pupils shrank, and he rapidly retreated.

"Peak Mysterious Aperture Realm Demonic Beast!"

How could such an existence appear here?

Luo Chen looked back and saw that, after the eight giant arms had swept across the entire camp, they actually wrapped up Zhuge Yucheng at its center and dragged him into the water.

A gleam flashed through Luo Chen's eyes.

Something was wrong. Why was that dog not afraid at all?

Luo Chen absolutely did not believe the other man had everything under control.

He knew exactly what kind of person Zhuge Yucheng was.

Just moments ago, a single look from him had frightened the man into not daring to move.

Yet now, facing such a Demonic Beast, there was not the slightest fear on his face.

Luo Chen casually cast an inspection at the tentacles.

[Eight-Armed Stone Buddha (Peak Mysterious Aperture Realm): 378/1030.]

"Go!"

Xiao Xiuzhu shouted.

The surviving Demon Suppressing Guards scattered in every direction.

That strike had already surpassed the Mysterious Aperture Realm, though it had yet to touch upon the domain of the Divine Intent Realm.

But it was terrifying enough, utterly beyond what patrol Demon Suppressing Guards like them could handle.

The river began to flow backward as a colossal being slowly rose from the water.

This was not a living Demonic Beast.

It was an ancient Stone Buddha.

The Stone Buddha's features had long been blurred by the erosion of time, compassion and eeriness intertwined.

Beneath its pedestal, several tentacles formed of waterweed and stone stretched out like the hands of a great Buddha.

The instant the Stone Buddha emerged, the waters around it seemed to freeze in place, becoming incomparably calm.

Zhuge Yucheng was held in the palm of one Buddha hand, then dragged beneath the great Buddha's pedestal into the mud before everyone's eyes.

The Stone Buddha's blurred face suddenly turned.

Luo Chen felt as though a pair of eyes brimming with malice and resentment were locking onto him from behind.

He was not wrong.

From the mud beneath the Stone Buddha, eight Buddha hands shot forth with a thunderous crash.

They actually bypassed Xiao Xiuzhu and smashed directly toward Luo Chen.

At that moment, Luo Chen's Golden Scale had long since left its sheath, Yin Yang True Gang erupting before him.

In the span of a breath, he slashed out hundreds of times.

The massive Buddha hands instantly halted, their front ends all cleaved into dust by Luo Chen's True Gang.

Luo Chen led his men dozens of miles away before everyone finally let out a breath of relief.

Just when Wang Yue thought they were safe,

Luo Chen turned and headed back without looking behind him.

He left behind only a single sentence.

"You return to the city and report this. I'll go take a look."

Wang Yue and the others were horrified and hurriedly shouted after him.

But in the blink of an eye, Luo Chen's figure had vanished beyond the edge of their sight.

Wang Yue gritted his teeth and said in a deep voice.

"Big Brother is not reckless. We cannot stay behind and drag him down. Let's send word back first."

On his way back,

Luo Chen kept feeling that something was off.

His figure darted through the forest. Standing atop a great tree, he carefully observed everything along the riverbank.

The Stone Buddha had already finished cleansing the area around the camp.

The corpses of hundreds of Demon Suppressing Guards were dragged down into the mud beneath its seat.

"Xiao Xiuzhu should have escaped, right?"

Watching this scene, Luo Chen muttered to himself.

This time, Qingyuan City's Demon Suppression Bureau had suffered catastrophic losses.

Ordinary Demonic Beasts usually had their own Territory.

They would not wander about at random.

No one could have foreseen an ambush by the Stone Buddha like this one.

Just as Luo Chen considered whether to make a move,

his gaze toward that direction narrowed slightly.

By the riverbank,

beneath the mud under the pedestal of the Stone Buddha, which stood around ten meters tall,

a massive Buddha hand opened its palm and slowly rose.

Sitting cross-legged in its palm was none other than Zhuge Yucheng.

He no longer wore his usual arrogant expression.

Instead, he looked tranquil and serene, utterly composed. With his hands pressed together and his eyes half closed, his lips moved as though he were chanting sutras.