Chapter 229

The White Crane Child did not choose to passively defend below the altar; instead, he raised his trident with both hands and actively lunged forward.

The Gate Guardian True Monarch slightly shifted his body and placed his left wing across his front, intending to defend and slip past simultaneously. He had no intention of getting overly entangled, his gaze fixed solely on his sealed artifact.

He had realized that although he still held a decisive advantage, he was unable to break the deadlock. If the situation continued to drag on, he had a faint ominous feeling.

"Snap!"

The trident in the White Crane Child's left hand snapped. This was due to two reasons: the extreme defensive strength of the wing, and the recent increase in power of both the Child and Lin Shuyou. Together, these factors caused the weapon, which A-You had brought with him when he first went to university in Jinling, to finally meet its end.

However, the Gate Guardian True Monarch, who was about to slip past, suddenly paused. He lowered his head and pulled back the wing covering his front.

A trident was embedded in his chest.

The trident quickly dissipated into green smoke, but the wound it left was real, with thick, black blood continuously flowing from it.

He was wounded.

Perhaps, only beings of the same kind could truly understand each other and know how to genuinely wound him.

Rage was burning in the True Monarch's eyes. Yet, he still did not counterattack the Child, instead continuing to fly towards the altar.

The White Crane Child's vertical pupils narrowed, and he pressed forward, ready to intercept.

The young man's voice echoed in the Child's mind: "No need to intercept. Prepare for the next strike."

The Child's speed slowed. He loosely clasped his hands, and two tridents reformed.

Li Zhuiyuan jumped off the altar from the side.

The Gate Guardian True Monarch completely ignored the young man, instead going directly to a stone pedestal covered with talismans and striking it with one hand.

"Buzz!"

The anticipated scene of the stone pedestal cracking open and the artifact appearing did not occur. What first met his eyes was a dazzling white light. Perhaps he had not anticipated that the young man had not only sealed the stone pedestal immediately but also set up a formation beneath it in such a short time.

This time, the Gate Guardian True Monarch didn't even have time to lower his wings and was thrown off the altar by the white light. While he was still in mid-air, the White Crane Child closed in, and two tridents stabbed forward again.

The Gate Guardian True Monarch let out a low growl from his throat, twisted his body, and swung a powerful punch. The Child crossed the two tridents, stabbing into the True Monarch's punching arm, then slid his hands down, gripping the opponent's arm. The punch was fierce, but most of its force was deflected by the Child. Not only that, but the Child also advanced further, re-forming a trident in his right hand, intending to stab it into the opponent's head.

"Retreat." The young man's warning came from his mind. A warning was necessary; the Child was getting carried away.

The Child voluntarily dispersed his attack, kicked the True Monarch with both feet, and used the momentum to fly backward. The next moment, the True Monarch's two pairs of wings behind him rapidly closed like a large clam, almost enclosing the Child within them.

"Die!"

The True Monarch's two wings spread open again, poised to attack.

"Thud!"

Runsheng's shovel landed at this moment, striking heavily on his back wing. The True Monarch's body swayed forward. He turned back in shock, unable to understand why this guy's attacks were getting stronger with each blow. But as he prepared to turn and find Runsheng, the resentful infant's nursery rhyme echoed again, and the ghost-wall appeared once more.

"Roar!"

Amidst the roar, his muddled senses returned, but Runsheng also used this opportunity to retreat a distance, preparing for his next strike. Meanwhile, the White Crane Child pressed forward again. His phantom tridents could pierce the True Monarch's wing defense, and each time he advanced, he could inflict another wound on the True Monarch.

Li Zhuiyuan let out a breath; the foundations of their strategy were now complete. The subsequent combat pattern would be a repetition of the established cycle. When Runsheng attacked, the Child prepared; when the Child attacked, Runsheng charged. In between, Tan Wenbin's deceptive minor spells were introduced at appropriate times, solely to control the rhythm.

Yin Meng's poison jars were not suitable for throwing now, as they could contaminate their own advantageous battleground. However, her whip was not idle; it continuously lashed out, solely to provide leverage for the Child and Tan Wenbin to adjust their tactical positions. She dared not offer her whip to Runsheng, because Runsheng was too heavy and too strong for her to pull. Furthermore, Runsheng was in the phase of accumulating and layering his power, so it was impossible for him to release his strength at this moment.

Ironically, Li Zhuiyuan was the most idle. He realized he truly didn't need to do anything now; if he did, it wouldn't be an improvement but would instead disrupt the existing rhythm.

It wasn't that the Gate Guardian True Monarch hadn't thought of targeting seemingly weaker opponents; if he had done so at the start, he would indeed have had a good chance of killing one or two. But now, whenever he had such an intention, it was immediately detected by the young man, and the pace of the encirclement would speed up, pushing him back.

With the red thread connection, the team's coordination had reached a remarkably smooth level. This was precisely the effect Li Zhuiyuan had always aimed for. A team should act like a team and fully embrace the advantage of overwhelming numbers. It shouldn't be just one or two people working relentlessly while the rest act as accessories or cheerleaders.

The Gate Guardian True Monarch continuously let out frustrated roars. If he could start over, he would definitely retrieve the artifact from the stone pedestal the moment he woke up, and then, at all costs, kill the seemingly idle young man! Don't think the young man standing outside the battle is doing nothing. Every time he harbored other thoughts to change the current situation, the young man's gaze would immediately shift, and those besieging him would instantly change their formation.

Runsheng's accumulated momentum was growing higher and higher. Now, with every swing of his shovel, the True Monarch no longer dared to simply block with his wings as before but had to actively dodge. Even if a strike missed, Runsheng would quickly close in, determined to find a point of impact to solidly unleash the power he had gathered before he would retreat. To that end, Runsheng did not hesitate to exchange several punches and kicks with the True Monarch. Even though each time worsened his injuries, causing more blood to flow, his momentum would still rise another level with the next blow.

Facing such an opponent was utterly despair-inducing, because you couldn't determine where his limit lay. He was like a tireless wave, repeatedly crashing against the sandy shore and reefs. In short, either you possess the absolute power to crush him in one blow, or you have a way to interrupt him; otherwise, you are destined to be worn down to death by him.

This was probably the feeling one got when facing Uncle Qin's true strength. When Baishang Town under Chongming Island faced Uncle Qin like this, they probably felt the same despair. One person was equivalent to a thousand soldiers and ten thousand horses, capable of challenging an entire faction alone.

Perhaps they really had to thank this Gate Guardian True Monarch; he provided an extremely suitable template, strong but not excessively so, practically Runsheng's perfect whetstone.

At the same time, Li Zhuiyuan also noticed that it was only after fighting for a long time that the Child found time to insert three "path-seeking" incense sticks into his head. This meant that the duration of each phase had been significantly extended. This was because the Child had previously left a considerable amount of divine power within Lin Shuyou. Coupled with Li Zhuiyuan forcefully sharing half of his 'gift package' with A-You, this resulted in A-You having an abundance of divine power available for the Child to draw upon after descending, effectively strengthening his sustained combat ability as if he had an auxiliary fuel tank.

Yin Meng was smiling, happily wielding two whips, one in each hand. Before, she was merely a battlefield poisoner. Now, she was a battle coordinator. She had decided that after this wave subsided, she would further refine her whip techniques and also lengthen her whips. Indeed, Runsheng was right; it was best to listen to Xiao Yuan, who had a good mind. In the past, she never imagined she'd be doing this kind of work.

It could be said that aside from the Gate Guardian True Monarch's suffering, the entire team had become more refined and proficient through this stage of cooperation.

Although Li Zhuiyuan did not directly interfere in the battle, he wasn't doing nothing. The young man's hands were kept behind his back, constantly forming hand seals. The eight stone statues on both sides occasionally trembled slightly. However, movements of this magnitude were not worth mentioning at all in such a lively situation.

After a prolonged tug-of-war battle, they were about to enter a critical phase. And often at this time, changes were most likely to occur, forcing out trump cards that were previously held back.

"Slow the pace, don't apply excessive pressure, pull back a bit!"

The young man's voice appeared in his companions' minds, like a timely bucket of cold water. Indeed, the Gate Guardian True Monarch suddenly knelt down, covering his entire body with his wings, and immediately, a fierce, grating sound of bones rubbing together came from within. When he spread his wings and stood up again, his entire physique had doubled in size compared to before. At the same time, the outer skin on his wings completely peeled off, and with a whoosh, each wing bone simultaneously pierced into his massive body, supplementing his internal structure and re-coordinating support for his entire being. While his physique changed, his skin, stretched by this expansion, became thin and transparent.

A ball of red fire ignited in his abdomen. The firelight shone through his body, casting light throughout the entire temple. In an instant, the oppressive and eerie atmosphere within the temple was swept away, replaced by a sense of divine majesty. That fire was the origin of his divine essence.

Strictly speaking, the current White Crane Child and the Two Generals of Augmentation and Diminution are all in this state, possessing only primordial divine power, not physical bodies. Each time they sensed a medium entering a trance, they would separate a portion of their divine power to descend, attaching it to the medium to slay demons and evil spirits. There is a cost, there is a reward. Consuming a portion of their primordial divine power in exchange for further accumulation of merit was, in essence, a transaction with both capital and returns. The Grand Marshal figures generally did not treat mediums as people; their casual use and exhaustion of the mediums' bodies was also a way to cut costs.

However, the lineage represented by the Gate Guardian True Monarch had long been submerged in the river of history, silent at the bottom of the sea, with no mediums left in the world to enter a trance for him. This meant that the small amount of primordial essence he preserved could only be consumed, not replenished. His self-petrification and sealing was also to protect and preserve this spark of primordial essence, to prevent it from being completely extinguished. Now, he could no longer care about anything else.

Li Zhuiyuan carefully observed the ball of red flame. From the current perspective, the Gate Guardian True Monarch was not a traditional Yin God. He had a physical body, yet he wasn't a medium. Combining this with the fact that the other eight stone statues here were all surnamed Yao, it was not difficult to guess that the medium lineage of this Yin God figure was originally confined within a single family. Therefore, this Gate Guardian True Monarch should also be surnamed Yao, most likely the most revered and oldest ancestor of that family. This was completely different from the current lineages of Grand Marshals and the Eight Generals. Although it was inevitable that a temple might have a higher proportion of family members of a certain surname or family passing down the tradition, temples were relatively independent of each other, and any family could invite the Yin God figures to descend.

In the past, the "Yin God figures" were clan leaders with physical bodies. The current Yin God figures are former Ghost Kings, not only lacking physical bodies but also having long severed their earthly ties. The past was family inheritance; the present is temple inheritance. The ceiling in the past was obvious; the current Yin God's upper limit and strength are significantly higher. The changes are significant, but if one looks down from the highest position in this ecological niche, all these changes are nothing but efforts to prune intermediate powers and strengthen their own vertical management capabilities.

Li Zhuiyuan now couldn't help but wonder, was the "Ksitigarbha Temple" on the plaque truly fake? If this place was real, then it meant that the Yin God lineage systems like the Eight Generals and Grand Marshals did not appear later or were not ancient enough, but were, in history, once interrupted and corrected.

So who reshuffled the deck?

"You... are guilty of a capital offense!"

A deep, muffled voice echoed through the temple; the sheer sound of it alone made people's eardrums ache. The Gate Guardian True Monarch's eyes were blood-red. He now desperately wanted to slaughter and crush all these ants who had surrounded and suppressed him for so long!

Runsheng and the White Crane Child awaited the young man's command. They also had trump cards they could use and were confident they could regain the previous suppressive rhythm after using them. However, Li Zhuiyuan did not issue such a command. Being able to push the Gate Guardian True Monarch to this point, Li Zhuiyuan was already very satisfied. Pushing further, with additional costs, would result in a loss.

Li Zhuiyuan brought his hands from behind his back to the front, interlaced his fingers, and arched them upwards.

"Crack... crack... crack..."

A series of stone-flaking sounds rang out as the eight Yao family medium stone sculptures all peeled away, revealing the corpses sealed within. Li Zhuiyuan had already completed the preliminary preparations earlier. With his current abilities, controlling eight puppets to fight all at once was truly a stretch. If he really did that, he would surely suffer from eye bleeding and exhaustion again, and the effectiveness would also be very low. However, if it was just to control the eight of them to perform some simple, basic movements, then it wouldn't be a big problem. Li Zhuiyuan now wanted to try using the Sutra of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva to guide and activate his puppets into a trance. If he succeeded in making them enter a trance, it would prove that this lineage buried at the bottom of the sea had an undeniable connection with the current Grand Marshals!

All eight Yao family puppets spread their left hands open, clenched their right hands into fists, raised a leg, and stomped!

Everything happened very quickly. The Gate Guardian True Monarch had just revealed his trump card and begun using his divine essence, when on the other side, the stone statues had already peeled off and collectively entered a trance! In an instant, eight portions of the red flame from within the Gate Guardian True Monarch floated out, falling into the bodies of the eight Yao family puppets.

Li Zhuiyuan immediately showed a pained expression; the pressure of controlling eight people to complete a trance simultaneously was truly immense. But in the young man's eyes, there was also shock. The lineage was truly... consistent!

"No!"

The Gate Guardian True Monarch clearly hadn't anticipated such a bizarre situation. His descendants, who were buried with him after their deaths, were now trying to snatch the meager "porridge" left in his ancestral bowl. This small amount was not even enough for himself. He had kept it hidden and sealed, but now that so much was suddenly distributed, he could no longer sustain even this towering body.

The Gate Guardian True Monarch's body began to shrink. The wing bones that had previously pierced into his body now became sharp blades tearing through his form. In a few breaths, the Gate Guardian True Monarch reverted to his original size. And his wings, once considered powerful defenses, now pierced through his body, pinning him like a hedgehog.

Li Zhuiyuan immediately stopped controlling the eight puppets, and blood began to flow from his nose. His companions naturally wouldn't miss this excellent opportunity. First, Runsheng, with layers of accumulated power, swung his strongest shovel strike, short of going all-out.

"Thwack!"

This shovel strike landed on the True Monarch's back, causing a large area of his back to immediately indent, and his entire body was flattened, leaving his already disarrayed body utterly mangled. The White Crane Child leaped forward; while in mid-air, he breathed upon the trident formed by his magic, imbuing it with a stream of true fire. Then, aiming for the True Monarch's head, he plunged it downwards with great force!

Without the protection of his wings, Yin Meng's poison jars finally had room to be effective. A string of poison jars was flung out, broken open by a whip lash over his head, and the poisonous mist descended, completely covering the True Monarch's body.

"Ah..."

The True Monarch raised his head, letting out a painful wail. At this moment, confusion appeared in his eyes, followed immediately by clarity. The power that had previously manipulated and deceived him receded; it was exactly a re-enactment of what had happened on that island before.

His gaze swept around, first lingering on the young man: "You are not... Bodhisattva..." Until his death, he couldn't understand why the young man could employ such inconceivable methods, but he was certain the young man was not Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva.

Finally, his gaze settled on the White Crane Child. The Child closed his eyes. That previous trident strike had been his most brutal, but now, he didn't want to meet the other's gaze directly.

The Gate Guardian True Monarch painfully raised his hand, which was largely melted, plunged it into his own abdomen, and pulled out a faint, candle-like spark of divine essence. Extending it towards the White Crane Child, he hoarsely chanted:

"Evil spirits and monsters... only slay, do not absolve."

The Child opened his eyes, seeing this scene. Immediately, his vertical pupils disappeared, and he fled.

Lin Shuyou looked at the scene before him, then immediately looked at Brother Xiao Yuan.

Li Zhuiyuan: "Take it."

"Oh."

Lin Shuyou walked forward, extended his hand, and took the flame from the True Monarch's hand. There was no burning sensation, but it was very hot. Lin Shuyou gritted his teeth to keep from crying out. After the flame entered his body, a red mark appeared on the back of his hand.

Half of the Gate Guardian True Monarch's head had already melted, and the remaining part of his skull, losing support, slumped down: "It seems... something... happened... in the temple..."

Li Zhuiyuan: "Yes, otherwise I wouldn't be here."

"It was I... who failed... to guard the gate..."

"Thud!"

His head detached from his body, and the rest of his body melted into a puddle of viscous liquid.

Lin Shuyou looked at the red mark on the back of his hand, his expression complicated and solemn.

Tan Wenbin walked over, bumped A-You, and said: "A-You, it was your brilliance this time that forced the Child to descend. If you ask me, this Child is something else, always disappearing at critical moments. This time, he was actually scared to this extent by the aura of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, whose authenticity is unknown. Hasn't he heard the story of the true and false Thunder Sound Temple?"

"Brother Binbin."

"Yes, Brother Xiao Yuan?"

"I think back on the bridge, the Child truly sensed the aura of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva."

Hearing this, Tan Wenbin and Lin Shuyou both immediately widened their eyes. And Li Zhuiyuan's next sentence made all four people present shudder.

"Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva... is right here inside."