Above Agaruka Bodhisattva’s head, the Immovable Lord Dharma Aspect appeared, sitting cross-legged with head bowed and hands joined in prayer.
However, he failed to gather the Vajra Dharma Aspect. He was severely wounded by the Confucian Sage’s carving knife, and not only his body but also his foundations had been injured. At present, he could only form one Dharma Aspect.
Daoist Heilian’s Yang spirit split once more into four, manifesting the Daoist sect’s four great Aspects of Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire.
At Xu Pingfeng’s feet appeared a circular formation, this was a formation disc that only those above the third rank could control, condensed after thoroughly understanding the two great formation manuals of the “Heavenly Stars” and the “Earth Fiends”.
In the domain of formation masters, this was known as the “mother formation”.
With the “mother formation” as the foundation, all formations could be derived: Yin-Yang, the Five Elements, Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, Thunder, as well as three hundred and sixty minor formations derived from these eleven great ones, all could be freely cast using the mother formation.
Baidi had lost his single horn. Although he could still summon thunder and water spirits, their power was much diminished. Fortunately, as a descendant of gods and demons, his physical body remained a peerless weapon in combat.
“Go!”
Daoist Heilian’s true body stood motionless, controlling the four great Aspects, which swept towards the Jianzheng from the front, rear, left, and right.
Like a vortex of air, the “Wind” Dharma Aspect was the fastest, whistling to the Jianzheng’s side and slashing out with blades of wind.
The “Fire” Aspect transformed into a blazing stream, charging straight at the Jianzheng’s face, intent on perishing together in mutual destruction.
The “Water” Aspect, streaming with pure black water spirit, collapsed into a surging river, roaring as it crashed into the Jianzheng’s right side.
The “Earth” Aspect, burly yet clumsy, advanced the slowest, lumbering towards the Jianzheng like a wild ox. Were they on the ground, the rumbling would be unceasing.
The Jianzheng first extended his palm to the left. Shields composed of hexagonal plates rose up; thwack, thwack, thwack… blades of wind struck the shields with muffled crashes, then dispersed into a wild gale.
Next, he strode actively to the right, thrusting his hand into the torrent of black water and drawing forth a jet-black longsword.
As the sword was withdrawn, the “Water” Aspect could no longer persist and collapsed instantly. At once, the Jianzheng strode forward and, with a single swing, annihilated the “Fire” Aspect.
With a hiss, steam billowed as the flames were extinguished by the water spirit.
The Jianzheng scooped up a spark, placed it in his palm, and blew gently.
“Whoosh!”
A tongue of flame dozens of metres long swept forth, engulfing the charging “Earth” Aspect.
When the flames subsided, the “Earth” Aspect scattered into ashes, drifting away on the air.
Lastly, the Jianzheng gathered up the black ash and, with a forceful grip, “refined” it into a black earthen wall dozens of metres high, which smashed the “Wind” Aspect apart.
The entire sequence took less than two seconds, cleverly using water to overcome fire, fire to overcome earth, and earth to overcome wind, dismantling the Daoist sect’s four great Dharma Aspects.
As a first-rank arcanist, these were mere conventional moves; only martial artists would recklessly meet the opposition head-on.
Daoist Heilian gave a muffled grunt, as if deep wounds had been inflicted.
The Jianzheng frowned, lowering his head to look at his right arm. At some point, it had become coated in pitch blackness, a corrupting force had invaded his body.
“Heh!”
Daoist Heilian laughed triumphantly. He had witnessed how the Jianzheng dissolved Baidi’s water spirit spells at the start and knew he was in the habit of readily refining his foes’ magic.
Thus, within the jet-black “Water” Dharma Aspect, he had mixed in an equally black corrupting force.
As expected, when the Jianzheng once again refined a “weapon” from the power of the water spirit, the corrupting force seized the opportunity to invade.
Earth Sect cultivated merit, but after turning to the demonic path, merit transformed into “corrupting force”, his most powerful weapon, far beyond the four great Aspects of Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire.
Even someone like the Jianzheng could hardly ignore it once it entered his body.
The Jianzheng clenched his right fist, shaking most of the viscous black liquid from his body, while using the power of all beings to suppress the remaining trace.
The liquid sprinkled down from high above, and any land it touched instantly became barren, the plants withered, and animals driven mad.
A flash of clear light appeared under the Jianzheng’s feet, teleporting him behind Heilian, where he struck downward at the top of his head.
What Heilian sensed, however, was not the force of a palm, nor was it the sight of the Jianzheng’s hand, he saw Zhende, saw the many fellow Earth Sect members who had died by his hand, saw the women he had abducted and violated, saw commoners he had slain.
The rage of all these people gathered into a river and swept him away.
The power of all beings—the people’s anger!
Instantly, the will to resist left him. He felt that his own corruption and evil were so great that perhaps he should simply pass away.
At that instant, Agaruka Bodhisattva quickly formed an incantation, and the stationary Immovable Lord Dharma Aspect seated behind him did the same.
The space between the Jianzheng and Heilian froze, becoming an impermeable wall, greatly hindering the strike aimed at the crown of Heilian’s head.
At the same time, Xu Pingfeng stamped his foot. The mother formation transformed into a teleportation array, spreading out abruptly to encompass Heilian within its domain.
Heilian’s figure appeared at Xu Pingfeng’s side, narrowly escaping certain death.
Agaruka Bodhisattva swiftly formed seals, “freezing” the space around the Jianzheng so that he would not have the chance to teleport in pursuit.
Crackling, Baidi opened its great maw, a searing white thunderball gathering in its mouth.
The Jianzheng placed one hand at his waist and swiftly drew out Sarun Agu’s sheep-herding whip.
Heilian’s corruption had now passed, and the God-whipping Whip could be used again.
“Crack!”
The whip lashed through the air, bringing this stagnant space “back to life”.
He did not attempt to strike at Agaruka Bodhisattva in order to break the Immovable Lord Seal, as he knew that would inevitably fail.
Instead, he opted for the next best thing, breaking the confinement of this space.
In the next instant, the Jianzheng appeared before Baidi. With the brief concealment of Heaven’s secrets, he successfully slipped past Baidi’s perception and managed to close the gap.
The Jianzheng pressed Baidi’s upper lip and lower jaw together with force.
“Boom!”
The ball of lightning exploded inside Baidi’s mouth, black smoke billowing from its seven orifices. Its brain, with lines like a walnut, splattered as its azure feral eyes bulged grotesquely.
The light faded from Baidi’s pupils. Its body slowly slumped, arcs of lightning crackling across its surface. Twitching and convulsing, it floated atop the clouds, completely losing its fighting capability.
At this moment, above the Jianzheng’s head, Xu Pingfeng’s figure appeared.
His hands formed a ring, encompassing the Jianzheng below within it. Buzz, circular arrays appeared, arranged in a column. These arrays contained all the powers of yin, yang, and the five elements, as well as wind and thunder, each excelling in attack and destruction.
The Immovable Lord Seal once again locked the space around the Jianzheng, preventing him from teleporting to dodge.
“Put down your butcher’s blade!”
Agaruka Bodhisattva did not forget to employ “precepts”, attempting to interfere with the Jianzheng and prevent him from swinging the whip to rip open the air.
They were both first rank. Even the Jianzheng could not completely shield himself from the effects of the precepts, it was just that its duration was too short, almost negligible.
But it was better than nothing.
With the double effects, the Jianzheng neither dodged nor drew the God-beating Whip in his hand.
He merely raised his hand and slapped.
Xu Pingfeng’s vision blurred as he saw starving commoners, their eyes bloodshot, cursing him, hurling abuse at him, gnashing their teeth as if they could tear him limb from limb.
The slap seemed to strike Xu Pingfeng directly, shattering his consciousness into fragments. Blood spilled, soaking his white robes.
Power of all living beings, the people’s resentment!
He suffered a backlash, a backlash from fortune.
The people represented the fortune of the Central Plains, and the dire situation of the Great Feng was mostly caused by Xu Pingfeng.
Without their master’s support, the arrays slowly dissipated.
At this point, the force of precepts faded. The Jianzheng acted decisively and swung the God-beating Whip.
Crack!
The whip struck Xu Pingfeng, sending him flying like a sandbag.
Crack!
The Jianzheng lashed out again, but this time it struck Black Lotus’s “Wind” Aspect. At the critical moment, the speed of the Wind Aspect saved Xu Pingfeng’s life.
The Wind Aspect collapsed. Black Lotus grunted, as if struck by lightning.
“Put down your butcher’s blade!”
Agaruka Bodhisattva raced forward, not giving the Jianzheng a chance to continue lashing out. First, he used the precepts to disrupt his movements. Once he got close, his back muscles exploded in strength as he threw off his kasaya.
Boom!
He launched a punch that split the air with a piercing sonic boom.
Even without his Vajra Dharma Aspect, Agaruka Bodhisattva still had the physique and strength of first rank. His physical arts were not inferior to other martial artists of the same realm.
The Jianzheng met him palm to palm, and both were thrown back.
Empowered by the force of all living beings, the palm strike failed to suppress Agaruka. But it also broke the chain of attacks for the Bodhisattva, preventing him from making use of Transforming Force techniques.
At this moment, among the five peerless beyond-mortal experts above the sea of clouds, Baidi lay convulsing, suffering from the backlash of its own thunder; Black Lotus had lost Dharma Aspect after Dharma Aspect and was likewise suffering backlash.
Xu Pingfeng suffered from a reversal of fortune and had also been whipped by the God-beating Whip, leaving him in the worst condition.
The Jianzheng, first enduring the cost of the Confucian Sage’s descent with his arcanist body, then being heavily wounded by the Great Sun Dharma Aspect, now wielding the power of all living beings and appearing valiant, but it was unclear how much longer his body could endure.
Only Agaruka Bodhisattva, although decapitated and gravely wounded by the Confucian Sage’s carving knife, looked well in comparison to the others.
The number one defence below beyond rank, was not an empty title.
“Cough, cough…”
Xu Pingfeng, his white robes stained with blood, raised a hand to cover his mouth. He coughed violently, thick blood trickling through his fingers.
His hair in disarray, he looked at the unrivalled Jianzheng with neither fear nor dread in his eyes, only calmness.
“Teacher Jianzheng, when I left court years ago and chose to support the line of Qianlong City, I already knew there would be many enemies. Over the last twenty years, I have proceeded cautiously, scheming every step.
“I successively plotted the deaths of Zhenbei King, Wei Yuan, and Zhende. But I always knew that my strongest enemy was you!
“If I could not kill you, all my schemes would be mere illusions, an exercise in futility.
Xu Pingfeng swallowed the blood welling up in his throat, slowly forcing a smile:
“So, the moment I decided to take that step, Teacher, you became the first person I planned to kill. The plot to eliminate you was set from the very beginning.
“In truth, supporting any faction would be the same. Why did I choose that line from five hundred years ago? Teacher, have you ever considered this question?
“Soldiers, money, and provisions are just embellishments. If I cannot remove you, how can I accomplish my great undertaking and be promoted to Master of Heaven’s Mandate?
“You can see the future. Today you prepared the Confucian Sage’s carving knife and the Lesser Sage’s Confucian cap, and brought Sarun Agu’s God-beating Whip. Your preparations were thorough, because you knew that this battle was to be my all-out counterattack as your unfilial disciple.
“Presumably, in the future you saw, the ones to die in this battle would be us, and the one to win would be you. At the same time, you would seize the chance to severely wound the Buddha, laying the groundwork for a later move.
“You made such impeccable preparations, calculating everything.”
Agaruka Bodhisattva slowly shook his head. “So clever, you haven’t passed over anything.”
“And what I wanted was exactly this, your foolproof plans, Teacher,” Xu Pingfeng said with a cryptic, unfathomable smile.
“Why don’t you try calculating, Teacher, now that I, who has mastered the authority of a Master of Heaven’s Mandate, am standing here before you, just a mere unworthy disciple, where does my confidence in standing against you come from?”
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!