"Uncle Rain, Uncle Rain!!!"
Shouts mingled with the roar of the torrential rain.
In the cloudy sky stood two Bodhisattvas.
The Martial Dao Bodhisattva had three heads and six arms, exuding both Buddhist and demonic qi. Behind her, the Buddha-Demon Disk transformed into a massive dark sun.
The colossal Bodhisattva statue sneered as it reached out across the void, catching the numerous cultivators who were deploying every trick they had to flee.
Before the Martial Dao Bodhisattva, the Dharmic Avatars of these cultivators were like figures molded from clay.
Under fists radiating two entirely contradictory methods, they were easily shattered.
Brilliant light radiated across the cloudy sky, turning the rainy night into a multicolored, iridescent rain.
But how could these cultivators, all below the Void Refining realm, escape a Martial Dao Bodhisattva who spread body-tempering Buddhist Dharma throughout the world?
Thus, they completely abandoned their Dharmic Avatars and fled for their lives like madmen.
They were like a swarm of ants scurrying frantically beneath the lethal fingers of a giant.
Those who ran fast enough were temporarily safe, attempting to evade the giant's eyes and ears by hiding in nooks and crannies its massive body couldn't reach.
Those who ran too slow panicked as they accepted their impending doom.
The other Bodhisattva was brimming with majesty. Buddhist chants and Buddhist fire permeated the cloudy sky. Her Dao of the Verdant Mountain suppressed the people of the world.
The Buddhist chants of the Bodhisattva of Rebirth affected people's Soul Seas, while her Buddhist fire invaded their bodies to deliver them to their next lives.
Once tainted by it, Void Refining methods were completely incapable of purging it.
"Uncle Rain, save me!"
Perfected Qiuyue cried out in alarm.
If even Li Wei's spatial rules couldn't evade this Buddhist fire back then, how could he.
Now, three clusters of fire burned upon his shoulders, and Buddhist runes crawled all over his body like maggots, incinerating both his physical body and Spirit Soul, making him scream wildly at the sky like a madman.
However, the rainmaker high up in the cloudy sky, who could clearly inspect everything in Azure Cloud Prefecture through the raindrops, seemed as though his eyes had been gouged out and his eardrums pierced; he gave absolutely no response.
He frantically patted the fire on his shoulders.
The immense gravity unleashed by the Dao of the Verdant Mountain stripped him of even the chance to step into his Void Refining space to escape.
From behind came the clanking sound of chains, along with a woman's voice that was compassionate yet tinged with a hint of wickedness.
"It's useless. Aside from those in the same realm, no one can break the Dao of the Bodhisattva of Rebirth.
I gave you a chance, but you ignored my warning. You will bear the sins of all these people and descend to the eighteenth layer of Hell."
The people around were fleeing.
Above his head, the terrifying statue of the Bodhisattva of Rebirth dissipated into specks of starlight in the rainy night, and the countless Buddhist fires and chants in the cloudy sky vanished along with it.
Everything happened in just a few snaps of the fingers, yet it completely routed the cultivators who had charged toward Merit City, leaving them scrambling for survival in a panic.
Perfected Qiuyue looked back in horror.
A girl in a yellow dress with twin tails dragged a long, dark iron chain.
At the other end of the chain was a Body Integration Buddhist almighty expert whose eyes flashed with a hint of clarity before sinking back into a stupor as the chain glowed.
"It's you... it's you..."
Perfected Qiuyue staggered backward.
There had been a red leaf where Merit City was located, giving them one chance to escape.
At that time, he knew the Li Clan was absolutely prepared, yet he hadn't dared to show the red leaf to the others.
He was afraid the red leaf would disturb morale.
No... it wasn't about disturbing morale.
The Li Clan had given them one chance to flee.
But Perfected Qiuyue knew clearly that since the Li Clan knew so much, they must also know he was the initiator of this operation; no matter what, he had absolutely no path to survival.
With Uncle Rain present, and with so many powerful experts here, no matter how the Li Clan resisted, they were doomed.
Regardless of how many people died, he, Qiuyue, absolutely must not die.
He especially couldn't forget kneeling before Li Chang.
He wanted nothing more than to eradicate the Li Clan completely and make Li Chang his slave, forcing him to kneel before him day after day.
He had thrown away that leaf and concealed everything.
However, the moment Li Kuanghua arrived, dragging Nun Dairou, everything changed. His lifeline was severed...
"The Bodhisattva of Rebirth's Buddhist fire can awaken the human heart. My Old Ancestor ordered me to deliver you. Repent before the Bodhisattva, and you may reincarnate." Li Kuanghua was extremely obedient.
Yet the guilty look that had just surfaced in Perfected Qiuyue's eyes abruptly turned ferocious.
Unable to put out the three clusters of fire on his shoulders, he frantically channeled his Spiritual power and lunged at Li Kuanghua. "You let us flee? Ridiculous!!!"
"What gives you the right to be a Bodhisattva? The demoness from the nunnery you're dragging behind you?"
"The Li Clan is a threat to the Imperial Dynasty, a threat to the world!
The Li Clan hides filth and corruption; the Ten Deadly Sins are completely true!
I serve the Imperial Dynasty! I serve the world!"
"Everyone in the world should rejoice in exterminating the Li Clan. These people died for the nation! Why should I descend to the eighteenth layer of Hell?"
"I deserve to be enshrined in the Imperial Ancestral Temple!"
His Void Refining space, heavily rotted and eroded by the Buddhist fire and Sanskrit runes, trapped Li Kuanghua inside.
Li Kuanghua's expression changed slightly.
It wasn't because she was intimidated by Perfected Qiuyue, who was at the end of his rope, but rather because of Perfected Qiuyue's inexplicable obsession—an obsession so deep that even Nun Dairou's Buddhist Dharma could not purify him.
Soon after, she stopped overthinking it.
The Buddha-Demon Disk behind her split in half, and countless tentacles extended from it.
Demonic patterns crawled across her face as her gaze gradually turned sinister and ruthless.
"Even without Buddhist Dharma, I can still deliver you to the eighteenth layer of Hell."
Above the cloud layer where the torrential rain impacted the entirety of Azure Cloud Prefecture.
Two pairs of eyes were watching the slaughter occurring down in Azure Cloud Prefecture.
The thousands of people who had come to the prefecture, in the very instant they acted simultaneously, encountered the exact same scenarios and broke into panicked flight.
Uncle Rain, dressed in his blue robe, didn't move an inch.
He didn't care about the fate of Perfected Qiuyue or the people below.
Before him.
Stood a towering pagoda burning with flames, and a black-mist figure sitting at the very tip of the ninth floor.
One of the black-mist figure's legs dangled casually, while the other was propped up on the pagoda.
Resting his hand on his knee to prop up his chin, he observed Uncle Rain with great interest.
The person inside the pagoda was bathing in the light of the Heavenly Fire Divine Tree.
As for the black-mist figure atop the pagoda, the space around him had transformed into shattered mirror surfaces.
Both emitted the aura of a Half-Step Body Integration expert, only a single step away from breaking through, yet facing it as if it were an impassable chasm.
Uncle Rain looked down on everything, as if completely indifferent to whether this heavy rain would drown the entire Azure Cloud Prefecture.
The only thing he cared about was the indescribable Taotie beneath the iceberg.
He took a deep breath and finally spared a glance at the tall pagoda.
"You have been staring at me for a long time."
The black-mist figure answered honestly, his voice hoarse.
"I just wanted to see the legendary Uncle Rain, and while I'm at it, see if I can make you stay in Azure Cloud Prefecture forever."
Uncle Rain paid no heed to such arrogant words. Speaking as if to himself, he said calmly,
"Taotie is indeed with your Li Clan. Back then, Holy Monk Yidian and the True God staged a fake battle and then shattered the Dao Seed. Hand over Taotie, and I will naturally leave."
However, as he spoke, gazing at the bizarre phenomena occurring throughout Azure Cloud Prefecture, the trace of greed in his eyes was impossible to dispel.
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