The abruptly appearing golden dharma form left everyone frozen in a daze.
Aqing unconsciously loosened his grip on Shen Yi’s broad sleeve, his eyes widening further and further, even his breath quickening a shade. Compared to an ordinary Spirit-Transformation cultivator, an enormous dharma form controlled by a divine spirit — that dazzling golden light would undoubtedly strike a far greater impact. A creature condensed from accumulated faith, transcendent and otherworldly, like a god or buddha.
It stood with fist clenched, its shoulders broad and thick, a ferocious golden dragon coiled about its right arm. The golden dragon slowly writhed its body around the arm, its gaze savage as it looked at the two of them. “Sss!”
“Pfft!”
Under that fist just now, the white feather-robe on the demon emperor had shattered to pieces. It braced a palm on its knee, trying to stand, but staggered again. It spat out a mouthful of blood-plasma, first fixing its stare hard on that golden body, then wrenching its head around to glare viciously at Zhang Mingyang beside it!
There’d been a moment earlier when the White-Feather Demon Emperor had genuinely hesitated — whether to seize control of Zhang Mingyang by some means, and then borrow the man’s identity to lay an ambush for a true Wutong Mountain powerhouse. It hadn’t imagined this dog-scrap was still hiding a trick.
A golden dharma form…
Those who could achieve the Spirit-Transformation realm through accumulated faith — count them all and there were only those few scant nations. Most of them were long-renowned cultivators. There was absolutely no golden body so ferocious in appearance. And who could support multiple Spirit-Transformation golden bodies — could it be Great Qian’s War Temple? Or had some small nation accumulated enough foundation again? Whatever the case, today it had well and truly been swindled!
“I…”
Zhang Mingyang, glared at by the White-Feather Demon Emperor, felt a complexity beyond words. This truly had nothing to do with him. It was an unexpected windfall, pure and simple.
“This emperor will slay you first!”
Deceived in succession by Zhang Mingyang, made sport of like a brainless fool — the White-Feather Demon Emperor was seized with fury. It abruptly loosed a long cry, feather-plume longsword in hand, and hurtled at him in a frenzy!
“I am a disciple of the Xuanguang Cave immortal sect. Fellow Daoist, aid me! There will surely be a rich reward hereafter!”
How could Zhang Mingyang not know he’d been taken for the soft persimmon — the demon emperor plainly meant to break out through his side. Gravely wounded now, he could only hastily rouse the qi of heaven and earth once more. Dense, teeming vines grew out from beneath his feet, gnarled and knotted together like an ugly giant beast bearing him dodging through the air.
“Still lying! Still lying! Do you take this emperor for a brainless pig?!”
Seeing the man surnamed Zhang still feigning not to know the golden body, the White-Feather Demon Emperor’s fury rushed to its head, and it violently swung out its sword-light. Formidable in strength as it was, it had suffered greatly earlier; in its present state, holding off two at once was near impossible. Its only path was to first stake everything on crippling one, and thus win a chance to flee. Otherwise, once Zhang Mingyang caught his breath and joined hands with the golden dharma form, it had not the slightest hope of returning to the Thousand Demon Den.
The two-zhang-three golden dharma form followed hard behind. Compared to the demon emperor and Zhang Mingyang each showing their marvels, its strikes were far cruder — its form soaring into the heavens, fists and feet crashing down at the demon emperor like a driving storm!
The white-feathered man swung his sword at Zhang Mingyang even as he had to split his attention to dodge the golden body’s attacks. One careless moment, struck square in the back, and a whole sky of flying feathers burst scattering apart — how wretched! The plumes that had earlier withstood flying swords were now, beneath those fists of resplendent golden light, fragile in the extreme, every blow deadly!
Wind and cloud surged, heaven and earth changed color. The wood-dragon gathered from vines, the white-feather longsword, the golden dharma form — the aftershock of any one of them striking blasted this once-tranquil cave estate apart in wholesale ruin. Even that stretch of bamboo grove now leaned crooked and askew, holding out with the greatest difficulty.
This was a true clash of arts between Spirit-Transformation-realm cultivators!
Such ferocious exchange, falling into the eyes of the few remaining, left Aqing utterly stupefied. Chen Zhong even forgot to use the cobblestone, and shouted toward Shen Yi in terror and excitement, “This golden body looks so familiar! My Great Qian has a similar Arhat Golden Body dharma form too! This Senior might well have some connection to my Great Qian War Temple!”
“Mm.”
Shen Yi put him off with an offhand word, not looking aside.
He hadn’t wanted to strike so soon. After all, the two were nowhere near the point of the oil-lamp running dry. It was only that he’d caught a flicker of hesitation on the White-Feather Demon Emperor’s face earlier — the thing was actually considering letting Zhang Mingyang go. Should the two of them finish their negotiating, it would then become him against two. Better to pretend to be help summoned by Zhang Mingyang, and forcibly bind the man to his own side. So long as he said nothing, he’d let the demon emperor go on guessing.
Still…
Shen Yi shook his head with feeling. At the lower realms, Mixed Origin relied on the body, and Martial Immortals used techniques. He’d never imagined that upon reaching Spirit-Transformation, it would all be reversed. Spirit-Transformation cultivators loosed every manner of art in profusion, while the golden dharma form had become a brute who could only swing its fists.
Just then, the golden body landed another fist. The White-Feather Demon Emperor’s whole right shoulder shattered, the hand gripping the sword drooping limp. But the sword-light it had swung out lost none of its momentum — it sheared through the wood-dragon with ease, then chopped hard into Zhang Mingyang’s body, opening a long gash on him from thigh to heart. He was nearly cut in two at a stroke.
Still no blood at the wound — only azure light surging, then spilling out into the heavens.
“Aaah!!”
Before the White-Feather Demon Emperor could cry out, it instead heard Zhang Mingyang begin to scream in agony. Savage light shot from its eyes. Close enough — time to go!
In the blink of an eye, the tattered feather-robe on its body turned to countless white plumes, gathering in the air into a demon-body a dozen-odd zhang wide! The sky-blotting white crane swept back with a single wing, its keen feather-tips slashing like sharp blades!
The golden dharma form couldn’t dodge in time. It crossed its two arms before it and took the blow head-on. With a crack, dense, fine fissures at once appeared on its sturdy forearms. Its whole body crashed plummeting toward the ground, smashing another terrifying deep pit into the already-shattered earth.
This was a demon emperor of the Thousand Demon Den — gravely wounded, it still carried a boundless majesty! It swept the deep pit a cold glance, its right wing laboring to flap, tearing at the wound, which brought a measure of pain into its eyes. Hesitating no longer, it fled straight toward the exit of the estate!
In that instant, golden light shot out from within the deep pit!
Brutal and domineering, it stamped down onto the White-Feather Demon Emperor’s back, its two palms seizing hard onto the wing — and then, with all its strength, wrenched!
Rrrip!
The enormous white crane let out an agonized scream, its whole right wing torn clean off, white plumes drifting down like snowflakes, together with rank, scalding blood-plasma!
This was the terror of the golden dharma form.
Their true body was the divine spirit hidden within; the dazzling golden body was merely an outer shell. It feared no pain, feared no injury. So long as there was enough accumulated faith, even were the golden body destroyed entirely, it could be reforged anew.
Back in the day, the Thousand Demon Den had gone to enormous lengths to seek out the very thing that countered divine spirits before it could cut down that whole pile of Great Qian’s Spirit-Transformation cultivators.
“Get off this emperor, damn you!”
It struggled madly, but no matter what could not throw off the golden body clinging to it. Like an abscess clinging to the bone, slowly eating away at its vitality.
(End of Chapter 268)