“Dark Gu, are you a Southern Marches shaman?”
Beneath al-Asura’s prominent brow, his naturally sharp eyes fell upon the cloaked figure.
He gave off a strange feeling; when looking down upon others, he seemed both contemptuous and aloof, yet at the same time, composed and gentle. The two opposing qualities merged perfectly in him.
Xu Qi’an ignored him and cast a glance at the brightly lit stupa tower. The doors were tightly shut, making it impossible to see what was inside.
But he knew that within the tower, sixty-eight Zen Masters had formed a meditation formation, drawing on the fortune of the Hundred Thousand Mountains in the Southern Marches to suppress Shenshu’s severed limb.
Zen cultivation was the very foundation of the Buddhist system. The Buddhist path emphasised sudden enlightenment, and to attain this, one must enter a state of deep meditation.
This demonstrated the importance of Zen cultivation.
A master deeply proficient in Zen could sit in meditation for several years, decades, or even a full sixty years, without eating or drinking, completely cut off from the outside world.
The sixty-eight Zen Masters within the tower were now in such a state, neither eating nor drinking, like statues.
They were completely oblivious to what happens outside.
According to Fuxiang, every sixty years, a new group of Zen Masters would take the place of the previous ones, sitting in meditation and maintaining the formation in rotation.
Furthermore, Xu Qi’an could sense the power of a formidable formation protecting the stupa that sealed Shenshu.
He withdrew his gaze, and a hoarse voice sounded from within his hood:
“I am not a member of the shaman clans.”
He paused, then continued slowly:
“I am a fallen disciple of the Buddhist sect, Wutian!”
As he said this, the cloaked man pulled back his hood and raised his head, revealing a young and handsome face. Golden paint lit up at his brow and spread rapidly over his body, turning to dark gold.
Hiss,
Flames erupted behind his head, forming a burning halo that illuminated the darkness!
This was a Vajra, a religious protector of the Buddhist sect.
A look of astonishment finally appeared in al-Asura’s sharp yet calm eyes. “Wutian?”
His voice was young and rich.
“Much has happened in these five hundred years. I uncovered the Buddha’s secret, and learned the truth behind the war that destroyed the Yao. So, the Buddhist sect could no longer tolerate my presence.”
The cloaked man gave a derisive laugh and said mockingly, “Has none of the Bodhisattvas or Arhats from Ananda ever told you about me?”
He was bluffing al-Asura, attempting to glean information from the young son of the Asura King. Al-Asura had only recently returned, and even if he knew of the existence of the “Buddha Son”, he could never guess that his opponent had mastered the Vajra body.
By outward appearance, he was already a true Vajra.
By fabricating the identity of a fallen Buddhist disciple, he hoped to trick this powerful figure who had once taken part in the War against the Yao, and perhaps obtain some crucial intelligence.
Faced with this man who named himself Wutian, al-Asura’s face remained calm, almost devoid of emotion.
Xu Qi’an remained undeterred and raised his voice:
“The Buddha is a treacherous and untrustworthy villain, unfit to rule over the Buddhist sect! Back then, he used Shenshu to destroy the Kingdom of the Yao…”
Before he could finish, al-Asura’s eyes suddenly shone with golden light, and a deafening sonic boom erupted in mid-air as he vanished from the rooftop, swooping down like an eagle hunting a rabbit.
How fast…! Xu Qi’an’s danger sense went off at once, urging him to dodge.
But his legs felt rooted to the ground, unable to move.
It was not that he was unwilling to move, but rather that he had been trapped in place by the power of Buddhist precepts.
Without a single chanted sutra, the power of the precepts descended instantly. Once a Zen Master reached the level of Arhat, a mere thought could “regulate” the words and actions of an opponent, compelling them to obey the various precepts of the Buddhist sect.
Such a strong reaction, he really does know the truth behind the War against the Yao, and what I just said seems very close to the truth… Suddenly, a beam of golden light shot out above Xu Qi’an’s head, transforming into a delicate miniature pagoda.
The suppression power of the second floor unfolded.
With a thunderous boom, a circular pit with a radius of a hundred metres collapsed at his feet.
Al-Asura was forcibly brought crashing down, as if subjected to a thousandfold increase in gravity.
The restraint of the Stupa Tower had disrupted al-Asura’s rhythm, and the precepts holding Xu Qi’an only lasted for about a second.
“The Stupa Tower?”
There was evident surprise in al-Asura’s voice.
Since intervening in Jianzhou to resist the Vajra Dharma Aspect, the elder monk in the tower had never again mentioned his “promise not to act against disciples of the Buddhist sect”, as though he had forgotten his own rule.
Of course, last time had been out of sheer necessity, and the tower spirit had chosen to compromise with circumstances.
As for this time, Xu Qi’an had entered the tower himself to ask the old monk for aid. The reason the tower spirit was willing to once again break his rule was because Xu Qi’an had divulged to him the secrets he had recently uncovered.
Such as: the Buddha being sealed by the Confucian Sage, the connection between Shenshu and the Queen of the Wanyao Kingdom, and the possible deal between Shenshu and the Buddha, among other things.
Following these clues, Xu Qi’an, with “expert” analysis, speculated that the disappearance of the Dharmapara Bodhisattva might have something to do with the Buddha’s secret.
He then patted his chest and promised to help the tower spirit find Dharmapara Bodhisattva, missing for over three hundred years.
The price was that from now on, the Stupa Tower must respond to all of his requests.
Xu Qi’an darted out without a sound, his perfect mastery of Transforming Force ensuring he made no noise at all, and not a single brick cracked beneath his feet.
Whoosh!
Using his left leg as an axis, he powered his waist and back, driving his right leg out like a whip, cracking through the air with a sharp whistling sound.
al-Asura reached out his right hand, grasping the ferocious whip-like leg. With a bang, the muscles in his arm trembled violently, shaking madly and dispersing the terrifying force.
Xu Qi’an’s other foot rose swiftly, launching another attack without a gap. First a knee strike drove into al-Asura’s face, followed by both fists pounding left and right, each punch heavier and more powerful than the last, blast after blast of force exploding through the air.
The previously silent sky above Nanfa Temple rang out with a series of “firecracker bangs”.
Throughout this exchange, the suppressive power of the Stupa tower’s second level was constantly at work, firmly repressing al-Asura.
For a martial artist, once the initiative was seized and the first move made, it was possible to unleash a devastating amount of damage.
Had it been any other third-rank expert from a different path, their physical body would have already been smashed to pieces.
But al-Asura only staggered backwards, muscles tensing with every attempt to lunge forward, but each time, Xu Qi’an’s violence broke his attempts.
Crunch, crunch, crunch… With every step back, al-Asura left deep footprints in the ground.
After his stance was broken again, the muscles around al-Asura’s neck suddenly swelled, all the muscles in his body tensed as one, as if to force a counterattack.
Ding!
At that moment, sabre light burst from Xu Qi’an’s chest, striking al-Asura’s throat in a shower of sparks. Though it did not break through his, it stung his skin and made cold sweat run down his back.
The muscle groups that were gathering force stalled from the shock.
Combo kill him, combo kill him, never ending combo kill… The longer Xu Qi’an fought, the braver he became. Holding the Taiping Sabre in his mouth, whenever al-Asura tried to interrupt his rhythm, he used the sharpness of the sabre to shatter the other’s build-up.
The battle in the west courtyard drew the attention of warrior monks and Zen masters within the temple; figures rushed out of meditation halls, some flying on magical artifacts, others watching from the rooftops of nearby towers.
Upon seeing two golden figures, blazing fire rings behind their heads, battling fiercely outside the tower sealing the demon monk, they were all bewildered.
Their first thought was: What’s happening?
Why are Protector Vajras fighting inside the temple?
The second: Who is that Vajra?
The third: That Vajra is actually able to beat al-Asura into a rout?
“He’s not a Protector Vajra, he’s an outside enemy!”
A white-browed old monk said in a deep voice.
The rest quickly realised the Vajra fighting al-Asura was not one of their own.
Currently, there were only two Vajras in the Buddhist sect, Dufan and Du’nan. If a new Vajra had appeared, the sect would have announced it to all Buddhists.
And this person had not even shaved his three thousand troubling hairs.
“Gather everyone from Nanfa Temple, form a formation together to deal with him.”
The senior monks began organising manpower to face the enemy.
As an ancient sect with thousands of years of inheritance, they naturally mastered the method of concentrating even the most “meagre power” to combat or restrain beyond-mortal experts.
The cost was that many would die in such an effort.
However, as long as one of their own beyond-mortal was present, any loss was worth it.
Boom!
Suddenly, a cannonball tore through the night, bombarding Nanfa Temple, levelling walls and blowing roofs sky-high.
More explosions followed from afar, all over Southern Country City, smoke and flames rose to the sky.
Miao Youfang, Yeji and the Yao clanspeople, who had infiltrated Southern Country City, now sprang into action, detonating the gunpowder previously hidden around the city to foster chaos.
Boom, boom, boom… More and more artillery shells came raining down, fireballs erupting all over Nanfa Temple.
An unmanned artillery platform swept overhead, dozens of guns belching fire and raining down shells.
The gathering monks were disrupted by the barrage and fell into momentary confusion, but soon managed to organise a counterattack.
The warrior monks drew their bows and let fly arrows, each one carrying powerful Qi, howling through the air.
The Zen masters controlled magical artifacts to chase down the airborne artillery.
By this time, most had looked away from the demon-sealing tower, and at that moment, a beam of clear light rose from the tower’s tip. Dressed in white, a veil hat on his head, Sun Xuanji arrived atop the tower through a teleportation formation.
Buzz~
With a slightly grating sound, a circular formation glowed under Sun Xuanji’s feet.
Next, more circular formations appeared one after another, stacking downward, a total of twelve, dividing the sealed tower evenly into twelve sections.
The whole tower shook violently, soft golden light shining from its body as distorted Buddhist script emerged, trying to resist the “strangulation” of the twelve formations.
The script was gradually erased, the golden light faded.
Just as Sun Xuanji had said, in the face of a third-rank arcanist like him, the Buddhist sect’s formations were crude.
At this moment, al-Asura was caught up in Xu Qi’an’s relentless assault, unable to recover the situation.
If al-Asura was in such a state, it went without saying the monks were even more dismayed.
“This is bad, the Demon-Sealing Tower is about to be destroyed…”
Someone cried out in alarm.
Just then, behind Sun Xuanji, an intense flame suddenly erupted.
A ring of fire blazed up, illuminating its owner: a nine-foot-tall Vajra, draped in kasaya, half his chest bare.
Al-Asura!
Al-Asura… Xu Qi’an’s pupils contracted slightly.
Then who am I fighting with?
Al-Asura put his palms together as if forming a sabre and slashed down fiercely.
Thud… A head flew up, falling from the tower top, and the twelve circular formations instantly shattered.
Thus, in action, he showed everyone present the price experts of every path must pay for being caught at close quarters by a beyond-mortal martial artist.
Comments for this chapter. You will need a GitHub account. Please follow all terms and conditions of GitHub issues and maintain etiquette in the comments. Cookies are required for this functionality.
If you want to talk with other readers about Nightwatchers (or other cultivation type books) you can join our cultivation groupreading discord server!
I also have a Kofi, which for legal reasons is definitely for supporting my digital art only (promise!): ko-fi.com/yanxin ... plus I guess server space isn't free, and I don't want to put ads/trackers... ever, so thank you if you do!