Chapter 42: Wrathful Vajra

Chapter42: Buddha's Wrath Vajra

Kang! The heavy, brutal gunshot stifled the ethereal Buddhist chants and Sanskrit hymns.

The muzzle of the Wei Wu Zu spat out an inch-long, blinding muzzle flash; the scorching bullet hurtled toward that handsome, compassionate face beneath the temple eaves.

Bang!

A Celestial Maiden attending the treasures launched herself into the air, using her body to shield the Red Monk Mu Cuo from the gunshot. The tremendous impact slammed her into a temple beam, scraping a shocking streak of blood.

Amidst the rising gunsmoke, Li Jun’s face held not a shred of amusement; instead, it was etched with deep coldness, the veins at his temples throbbing violently.

He saw the Celestial Maiden slumped against the pillar, her shattered spine protruding from her neck, her twisted, broken hands scooping up scattered flesh and viscera piece by piece, stuffing them back into her body.

Her horrifying half-ruined face stared blankly at Li Jun, eyes like hooks, lips red as blood.

"Lay down the butcher's knife, return to the Buddhist fold!"

As the Red Monk slowly spread his clasped hands, the Sanskrit chanting in the air suddenly swelled in volume.

Li Jun felt a piercing, Yin-cold aura coil around him; every drop of boiling blood surging in his veins seemed to freeze.

His body felt as though it bore a massive mountain; every movement became impossibly heavy. Flesh, tendons, and bones that once responded to a single neural signal were now slowly severing their connections.

"Lay down the butcher's knife! Return to the Buddhist fold!"

All the Celestial Maidens roared the command in unison, the surging sound waves detonating beside Li Jun's ears.

The world before him began to shake once more; the moonlight overhead turned blindingly bright. Li Jun instinctively looked up, only to see the Giant Buddha reaching for the sky, as if intending to drag that full moon from the dome of heaven down into Songpan City!

Battle intent faded; boiling blood turned ice-cold.

The expression on Li Jun's face softened, his tense body relaxing.

In his muddled consciousness, a thought grew increasingly clear: I am willing to become a disciple of Mu Cuo, to become a Buddhist follower.

Clang... Clang...

Just as Li Jun was about to be converted, a harsh, grating sound of metal colliding suddenly rang in his ears.

Clang!

The Gene Lock vibrated wildly; the imprisoned Martial Genes furiously slammed against the shackles blocking their path.

Kill, kill all these false Buddhas, kill all these fake Daoists!

A deafening roar reverberated in his bloodline; the Rogue Genes, which had shown signs of dormancy, suddenly erupted.

Chi!

A spark ignited in the depths of Li Jun's heart, turning into a raging inferno in the blink of an eye.

The rage belonging to the Wu Jiu Rogue surged once more, tearing apart all the Buddhist chants lingering in his mind.

Li Jun's drooping eyelids snapped open, his gaze sharp as a blade; he curled his finger and fired!

Kang!

The muzzle of the Wei Wu Zu erupted once more with a thunderous roar, blasting a Celestial Maiden—who had drifted before him at some unknown time—straight backward.

"To resist conversion with the flesh... so you are a remnant of the Martial Path. Vajras, subdue him!"

The Red Monk Mu Cuo’s brow now held not a trace of serenity; his expression was ice-cold, killing intent awe-inspiring.

"As the Dharma decrees."

Whether it was the severely wounded one lying on the ground retrieving organs, or those unscathed Celestial Maidens, all now pressed their palms together, turning their heads in unison to look at Li Jun.

In the next instant, their exquisite, charming faces split vertically down the bridge of the nose, peeling back to the rear of the skull and neck, revealing a face with bristling beards and glaring, horizontal brows!

Their originally slender bodies swelled at a visible speed; female characteristics rapidly vanished, transforming into a frame of bulging, powerful muscles.

In the blink of an eye, the Attendant Treasure Celestial Maidens had all transformed into burly Buddhist Power Warriors. Snatching up the scattered Buddhist implements from the ground, they charged madly at Li Jun.

"Holy shit, the Buddhist sequence is this disgusting?"

Watching the bizarre scene of beauties turning into tough men, Li Jun's loathing for Mu Cuo's Buddha Kingdom peaked.

Although in the underground black markets of Chengdu Prefecture there were unlicensed doctors who took gender reassignment jobs, those only required swapping a few gender-specific prosthetics.

Compared to Mu Cuo's Buddha Kingdom and its flesh-shifting, that was mere child's play.

Li Jun was now certain he had been hypnotized; the starting point should have been the instant he locked eyes with the severed head of the Yellow-Robed Monk.

That sentence, 'I await you within the Buddha Kingdom,' was likely the post-hypnotic suggestion planted in himself.

And the Yellow Robe had constantly emphasized that everyone from Bodhi Corporation was on the fourth floor; so when he passed the fourth-floor exterior wall, he deliberately slowed his speed while listening intently to the movements inside.

That was when he had completely fallen into Mu Cuo's Buddha Kingdom.

Although he knew when he had been tricked, Li Jun still had one point of confusion.

The Yellow-Robed Monk had definitely been killed by him; the Mastery Points gained were real and wouldn't lie.

Then what was this Dharma Protector Vajra before him, looking exactly like him?

Buddhist Nirvana Rebirth?

Clang!

Li Jun sidestepped, dodging the Yellow-Robed Monk's heavy fist, and with a backhand stroke, cleaved open the opponent's chest. Simultaneously, he surged forward in an arrow step, plunging into the crowd, heading straight for the Red-Robed Mu Cuo!

Though he didn't know how to break the Buddha Kingdom, he knew that since it was hypnosis, there must exist a mental anchor point, or an array eye.

Regardless of whether this anchor was Mu Cuo, he had to slash him a few times to test it!

Li Jun flicked his right hand, parrying the Subduing Demon Pestle swinging at him. The knife hilt rotated in his grip, shifting from a standard grip to a reverse grip. He sidestepped and drove the blade straight into the abdomen of a Dharma Protector Vajra.

"Ha!"

Li Jun sank his weight and exerted force; the burly Vajra was pushed back repeatedly, its back blocking the incoming Tin Staff and Alms Bowl.

The dull thuds of blunt weapons striking flesh were sickeningly heavy. The Vajra serving as a meat shield had its back pulverized, lunging forward as it flew.

But Li Jun's figure had already slipped out from between the two Vajras who had injured their own ally; his long blade left two horrifying blood grooves across their throats.

In an instant, the long blade, having sliced through four golden bodies, did not pause. It cleaved heavily forward, splitting a blocking gilded iron rod clean in two.

In the numb, hollow gaze of that Vajra, the descending blade nearly bisected half its head.

Bang!

The Wei Wu Zu in his left hand spat fury; another Vajra, wielding a blade, was struck as if by a sledgehammer to the face. Its body tumbled several meters through the air; when it landed, its upper half was already a pile of mush.

Cold moonlight poured into the exposed top floor of the brick building, illuminating the fresh blood flowing horizontally across the ground. Maimed Vajras lay in pools of blood, glaring hatefully at Li Jun's retreating back while scooping up their own severed limbs.

Their wounds were healing rapidly, but only four Vajras remained capable of blocking Li Jun's path.

The night wind of Songpan Wei carried not only chill, but also a soul-shaking killing intent.

Mu Cuo’s gaze was icy; the chill in the long blade within Li Jun's grip ran even deeper!

Whoosh!

The whistle of the blade tearing through the air seized the initiative; the long blade swept horizontally, severing two thick arms directly.

Amidst the spraying rain of blood, four Buddhist implements smashed toward Li Jun from different angles, sealing off all his room to maneuver.

This situation of being besieged on all sides appeared to be a dead end, yet the corner of Li Jun's mouth curled into a faint smile.

Among the nine ranks of martial arts, the Single Sabre Method might not boast the most devastating force, but when it came to a chaotic melee, none could surpass it.

This sabre technique was born inherently for the battle line!

Clang!

The long blade swept back like a swooping falcon, and as Li Jun dragged his sabre and spun his body, he crashed forward amidst a succession of sharp, clanging metallic rings.

All four Buddhist artifacts were flung aside, leaving the front of the Guardians completely wide open.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The trigger was pulled all the way down, and three hideous heads violently blew apart.

Having wrested a lease on life from the jaws of despair, Li Jun waved his hand to sever the limbs of the final Guardian, thrust the tip of his blade into the gaps between the man's ribs, and dragged the still-struggling Guardian as he stepped slowly forward.

Behind him, severed limbs and broken arms were scattered everywhere, those mangled Guardians not yet finished gathering their fallen appendages.

Looking at the crimson-robed monk Mucu standing before the temple, Li Jun wiped the blood from his face with his wrist, slowly revealing a ferocious smile.

"Got any more tricks? If not..."

Before his voice could fade, a rolling sound of thunder suddenly erupted above Li Jun's head, and the violent wind pressure caused his martial artist's robes to crackle wildly.

An unimaginably colossal fist plunged down from the sky!

"Motherfucker!"

Li Jun let out a short, forceful curse, sprinted at full speed, and suddenly lunged forward.

Weirdly enough, he did not choose to pounce toward Mucu for a desperate life-or-death struggle, nor did he choose to dodge the fist smashing down from overhead.

Instead, he chose to get as far away from that temple as humanly possible!

Boom!!!!