Chapter 1432: The Seven-Story Stupa

So the barriers inside the hall were weakened by the seal as well. Not nearly as solid... The thought flashed through Qin Sang's mind, and he counted himself lucky. Otherwise he would have been forced to change his plan again.

Swoosh! Wrapped in devilish flame, the pearl remained as pure as a drop of water, showing not the slightest reaction, letting the fire carry it off.

But the instant it left the offering table, the devilish palm came howling in on a cold, sinister gale and clawed viciously at the flames enfolding it.

The Red Luan Malevolence lagged only slightly behind. One more instant and it would arrive.

In the secret passage, Qin Sang stayed calm and composed. His fingers spun through a hand seal at blinding speed while his other hand pressed hard against the barrier.

With a bang, a corner of the hidden door shattered along the fissure. Then Qin Sang hurled the Spiritual Infant Talisman Puppet in his grip into the Buddhist hall.

Inside, the devilish palm was on the verge of closing around the pure pearl.

The rest of the devilish flames roared to life. Blazing fire surged forward like a tide, formed into a wall, and threw itself at the palm.

Boom! The hall abruptly darkened. Both the Buddha and the stone statue rocked. Countless black flames scattered outward, carrying the breath of annihilation.

The devilish palm fared no better. It was beaten straight back into the form of devilish light, writhing, unable to hold its shape.

The Feathered Robe Primordial Lady took it all in and grew inwardly alarmed. Who exactly is this? And what kind of spiritual fire is that? The Chaotic Devil Elder struck in haste, yes, but the power behind it is still staggering.

Even as she thought it, she moved without hesitation, meaning to drive the Red Luan Malevolence through the blockade of flame.

Just then the shockwave from the collision between fire and palm swept outward.

The skeletons on the floor, long since rotted through, crumbled to ash on the spot. Several astras went clattering into the air. On the offering table, the Lingzhi Ruyi, stripped of the barrier's protection, was jolted off by the aftershock.

Most astonishing of all was the shrine. Caught by the shockwave, it split open with a crack, and the Guanyin inside shattered into countless porcelain shards. Just like that, it was destroyed.[1]

The sight left all three of them dumbfounded. The shrine's placement had clearly marked it as more important than the pure pearl or the Lingzhi Ruyi, yet it proved this fragile. Was it merely an ordinary object of veneration? Did its importance derive from some other reason entirely?

Incomprehensible! The same thought struck all three at once as they landed on the reason.

Whatever might have been true in ancient times, in the present world of immortal cultivation no Buddha or Dao Venerable had ever manifested. These three had climbed to their positions step by step, believing in nothing but themselves, and the mind of a Buddhist follower was beyond them.[2]

I hope the pearl isn't all surface too. Qin Sang thought.

Qin Sang was glad he hadn't chosen the shrine, though a thread of worry crept in. Still, it was done, and he could only trust his own judgment.

The shrine's destruction distracted them briefly, but it didn't slow the contest for the astras.

Then, in that very moment, a point of seven-colored light blazed up from among the shards, lighting all their eyes.

Amid the countless fragments, the radiance gathered into a speck no larger than a thumb, and its body was a small stupa, crystalline and translucent as colored glass.[3]

A seven-story stupa, brilliant with flowing color, impossible to look away from.

"That's..."

A supreme treasure had been hidden inside the shrine! The discovery sent all three hearts lurching.

Swoosh! The Spiritual Infant Talisman Puppet flashed out from behind the stone statue and hurtled straight for the stupa.

The instant Qin Sang saw it, he changed his plan without hesitation. If he could take the seven-story stupa, every other astra could be abandoned.

In a flash of lightning, the puppet closed the distance.

Just then the Chaotic Devil Elder's voice transmission sounded in the Feathered Robe Primordial Lady's ear. At the terms he offered, her expression stirred faintly, and without hesitation she threw the Red Luan Malevolence over the puppet.

Laughter like silver bells rang out around it. The souls transformed into graceful women who danced within the red silk, drenched in allure, stirring the emotions of the heart.

That wasn't even the Red Luan Malevolence's most formidable method. It had been refined by the Feathered Robe Primordial Lady from harvested lust poison and malevolent qi, and once activated, it released a colorless, odorless poison that drew out the desires buried in an opponent's heart, near impossible to guard against. Even Spiritual Infant cultivators fell to it.

Poof! In his urgency, true essence surged from the Chaotic Devil Elder's palm and he stabbed the black bamboo staff forward. Soundlessly, a strange fluctuation rose through the hall, and the devilish light underwent an eerie change. It turned deep and inward-drawn, recondensing as it swept toward the stupa.

The next instant, everything shifted.

A thread of silver-white lightning shot out from behind the stone statue without a whisper of sound and struck the devilish light just as it was about to touch the stupa. Neither of them had time to stop it.

Snap! The devilish light seized up and nearly failed to hold together, coming within a hair of dispersing entirely.

It was the Sky-Eyed Butterfly's Sky Eyes Divine Light!

The supernatural ability had a barrier-breaking effect and could produce remarkable results in combat, though finding the right moment to use it was difficult. Catching the devilish light in the instant it was forming, it finally showed its full power.

At the same time, the Feathered Robe Primordial Lady's startled cry rang out before the hall. "He isn't human!"

The Chaotic Devil Elder had been breaking the Buddhist barrier and blocking Qin Sang's theft simultaneously and could spare no attention for his eye technique. During the battle before the Thousand Buddha Wall, when Qin Sang released the devilish flames and the Spiritual Infant Talisman Puppet, the chaotic power of the wall had masked it all, and the Chaotic Devil Elder hadn't seen it with his own eyes.

With the situation this urgent, and with Qin Sang having guessed something of the Red Luan Malevolence's function and disguised the puppet accordingly, neither of them had realized in time that it wasn't a living thing at all but a puppet!

And a puppet had nothing to fear from the Red Luan Malevolence!

Bang! A fist punched clean through the red silk. The graceful dancers let out shrill wails and scattered into ash.

Boom! The doors and windows before the grand hall beneath the golden roof suddenly burst apart. The Buddha light dimmed all at once, fragments of the wall of light whirling through the air as two figures smashed through and appeared at the hall's entrance. Four furious eyes cut through the storm of black flames toward the space behind the stone statue.

That fist was right under their noses when it scooped up the seven-story stupa. Within the Red Luan Malevolence the puppet moved as though through empty air, coming and going at will, and it flashed backward, evading the Chaotic Devil Token in the same motion.

The Devilish Flames of Nine Hells withdrew with the pure pearl, recalled by Qin Sang, sweeping up the Vajra on the way.

As for the remaining astras, Qin Sang didn't press his luck. Greed would likely have seen him cut off and trapped there.

By now the Chaotic Devil Elder and the Feathered Robe Primordial Lady had yet to set foot inside the hall, and there was no time left for any method at all.

The exchange had lasted mere moments. The two most precious astras in the hall were gone, taken by Qin Sang. And from beginning to end, all the Chaotic Devil Elder and the Feathered Robe Primordial Lady had seen was a stiff, lifeless puppet. They hadn't so much as glimpsed their opponent's true face!

"Die!" The Chaotic Devil Elder's furious roar carried killing intent that reached the heavens.

The terrifying aura of a great cultivator laid itself bare. Inside the hall, the Buddha and the stone statue shook without pause. Afterimages of the Chaotic Devil Elder flickered into being one after another, racing for the hidden door at appalling speed.

In the secret passage, Qin Sang had no time to examine what the three treasures did. He stuffed them all into the Thousand-Jin Ring, felt the Chaotic Devil Elder closing fast, and went cold. The lightning wings at his back beat hard, and he shot into the depths of the tunnel.

1. Guanyin is a common Chinese name of the Bodhisattva associated with compassion known as Avalokite?vara. ☜

2. Dao Venerable is a title in Daoism. Given to the highest authority, for example the highest gods of Daoism. ☜

3. A stupa is a hemispherical or mound-like Buddhist monument used as a place of meditation and to enshrine sacred relics or the remains of revered figures. ☜

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