Chapter 416: The Chaos of Jiangnan Is Settled in One Day

Chapter 416: The Tumult of Jiangnan, Settled in an Instant

Throughout the battle just now, Zhao Changhe had deliberately refrained from unleashing the chaotic aura of his Godless Domain.

In its early stages, this state would plunge him entirely into an unreasoning frenzy; though it had later become somewhat controllable, leaving a flickering ember of clarity, his mind remained far less lucid than normal, and the subsequent backlash of profound exhaustion meant it could not be used lightly.

Amidst the shifting tides of the battlefield, he had to maintain his rational analysis.

Yet at this very moment, there was no longer any room for restraint.

Tang Wanzhuang's condition clearly bore the telltale signs of her preparing to unlock her third hidden treasury.

That stubborn woman had never truly believed she could be cured; at every turn, she was always ready to wage a final, suicidal war, especially now when she blindly assumed the Crown Prince could inherit her legacy, making her feel her life was utterly expendable.

"If you dare force open that third treasury, you stubborn crone, just see how I handle you once your strength fails! I will do it right in front of Venerable Suzaku; she is bound to find it highly entertaining!"

Tang Wanzhuang was utterly dumbfounded, and the hidden treasury she was about to unlock was forced to a grinding halt.

In the next instant, the heavy tank that was Maitreya charged forward; she met the onslaught with her sword held horizontally and was nearly sent flying, her back crashing heavily against—wait, what?

A pair of remarkably gentle hands supported her from behind, acting with extreme caution as if terrified she might be harmed by the shockwave. Suzaku's voice carried a mocking trace of a smile: "Do not go dying on me now. This sovereign is eagerly waiting to see exactly how you will be handled."

Shame and fury warred within Tang Wanzhuang, and before her mind could even fashion a suitable retort, Suzaku had already swept past her side, delivering a heavy, resounding palm strike directly against Maitreya's chest.

That massive sphere of flesh was entirely unlike his subordinates; it possessed no impervious, iron-clad hide, but rather acted like an energy-absorbing mass that collapsed inward, causing all of Suzaku's force to vanish as if sinking into the vast ocean, before rebounding violently to send her floating backward.

As she drifted back, she casually wrapped an arm around Tang Wanzhuang's waist to pull her along; even though blood was trickling from the corner of her own lips, her hand still found the malice to give a playful squeeze: "Such a slender waist. No wonder that man keeps yearning for it day and night..."

Tang Wanzhuang nearly rolled her eyes, her long sword rising once more to stab ferociously into Maitreya's rebounding flesh.

The fires burning within Maitreya's chest had not yet subsided when the sword pierced him through; finally driven to a maddened roar of pain, his forward momentum was checked once again.

"He is about to enter the secret realm, yet the two of you still have the heart for jests!" Tang Wanzhuang finally found the breath to speak, but when she turned her gaze, Zhao Changhe's eyes were already swimming with blood, leaving him entirely deaf to her words.

The Godless Domain...

Having broken through to the hidden treasuries, unleashing this state now caused his arms to visibly thicken, while a faint, ethereal halo of blood-light swirled around his form, an aura of malevolent slaughter soaring to the heavens, brimming with the raw presence of a demon god.

Suzaku pursed her lips, a faint spark of jealousy burning within her chest.

You truly are willing to throw your life away for her... Ah, forget it, you have done the same for me...

A creature like Maitreya truly gave her a headache; logically speaking, her own flames should perfectly counter this sort of physical defense, and after breaking through the third hidden treasury, she ought to have finished him with ease, yet for some unknown reason, he simply would not burn to ashes.

It was as though some bizarre energy resided within Maitreya's body, operating instead to suppress her own flames... How truly strange...

The White Lotus Fire?

The essential catalyst with which Maitreya forged his Sacred White Lotus Body?

Suzaku fell into deep thought.

Yet at this precise moment in Zhao Changhe's eyes, the Maitreya rushing up the mountain had vanished, the path of fire had vanished, and both Suzaku and Tang Wanzhuang had disappeared from sight...

There was only Fachi before him, who likewise seemed to be gathering the initial momentum for some devastating ultimate technique.

Fachi's form was altogether different from both the corpse demon and Maitreya... He was remarkably pure.

Even when the very entities of his faith had visibly transformed into demons before his eyes, he remained bathed in a brilliant golden light, his countenance solemn and resolute—the portrait of a true believer making a dying stand for his final holy ground.

Not a single trace of demonic malice could be discerned upon him...

If there were any at all, it lay in the faint hint of blood-light and slaughtering aura swirling around his Buddhist blade; that was the momentum forged from the White Lotus Sect's doctrine of "Attaining Buddhahood Through Slaughter," and from this perspective, it was virtually identical to the Blood God Sect—not a case of different paths converging, but fundamentally the exact same thing.

Setting aside the divine and demonic mysteries lurking behind this campaign, from the perspective of this single battle alone, it was a clash between the mortal arts of the Blood God Sect and the White Lotus Sect, a declaration of who was truly superior.

Granted, Fachi possessed the blessing of gods and Buddhas, but he, Zhao Changhe, also possessed the Asura Blood Physique.

As if by some twist of fate the battle had returned to its primal essence, a wild, surging fighting spirit erupted within Zhao Changhe's heart.

Lifting his eyes, he saw that Fachi's gaze was likewise ablaze with an unyielding will to fight, and the monk actually spoke: "Zhao Changhe..."

Zhao Changhe focused his gaze upon him.

"No matter how you might ask me how I view the Bodhisattvas and the Buddha... I would rather ask you, what did you see during that battle between the Heavenly Ranking and the divine spirits..."

Zhao Changhe spoke slowly: "The path of martial arts."

"Indeed... In their clash, we could not even find a place to stand and watch from afar... As fellow martial artists who have carved our way out of slaughter, your heart must mirror my own—unwilling to accept it, yet yearning for it, with blood burning in our veins."

Zhao Changhe's eyes shifted slightly.

"Within the White Lotus Sect, there may well be those who swindle wealth and deceive virtue..." At this point, Fachi paused, a bitter smile surprisingly touching his lips: "Perhaps there are many."

Zhao Changhe remained silent.

"But our original intent was to deliver the world from suffering, to heal the sick and aid the helpless... It also provided a gateway to martial arts for impoverished folk like us, who possessed no other ladder for advancement... You are protecting Tang Wanzhuang, while I am defending my True Void Homeland; this alone is the meaning behind our battle."

Zhao Changhe spoke deliberately: "Very well."

Fachi let out a short laugh, the madness in his eyes growing ever more pronounced: "A sea of blood can forge an Asura, and taking life can likewise bring forth a Buddha... Between you and me, our paths are one and the same; I have long yearned to do battle with you."

Zhao Changhe offered no reply.

Fasheng, Faqing, Yu Cixiu. He had slain many from the White Lotus Sect, yet it seemed he had never truly peered into the depths of their inner worlds; Fachi's words brought a touch of surprise, but within a soul gripped by the Godless Domain, there was no room for sentimental reflections, only a tightening, ever-intensifying urge to fight.

An opponent such as this was truly worthy of a battle...

Whether it was Yu Cixiu or Lyu Shiheng... did they even deserve to be called grandmasters?

Perhaps their cultivation sufficed, but in terms of breadth of spirit, they were unworthy.

To think that at this eleventh hour, he would instead encounter a true... Fachi... even if the object of the monk's obsession was perhaps a tragic thing.

With a resounding clang, the blade sang like a roaring dragon, striking straight for Fachi's throat.

As the blade rose, Zhao Changhe finally delivered his reply: "But to slay you, I require only a single strike!"

Only a single strike?

What arrogant nonsense!

They had fought for so long just now without either gaining the upper hand; did he truly believe that by merely unleashing this Godless Domain, a single strike would suffice to end him?

If you possess a hidden trump card, do I not have one as well?

The Buddhist blade swept forth to meet the Dragon-Sparrow.

Further away, Suzaku and Tang Wanzhuang watched this exchange amidst their own desperate struggle, catching sight of a colossal, wrathful Vajra manifestation rising behind Fachi's form, its killing intent turning in wild torrents, the mountain vegetation utterly shredded and broken by the sheer force of the blade aura, an unmatchable display of might.

Attaining Buddhahood through slaughter... a Guardian Bodhisattva?

What a bizarre contradiction.

Behind Zhao Changhe, an identical manifestation rose into existence.

It was not the suspended starry river that Suzaku was accustomed to seeing, but rather the phantom of the Blood God—a towering, formidable warrior drenched in gore, standing between heaven and earth, delivering a furious downward cleave with his blade.

"Clang!"

Devoid of any trickery or finesse, the two blades collided head-on.

An earth-shattering roar erupted, faintly audible even within the sealed confines of the secret realm; two fresh gashes tore open upon the approaching fleshy mass of Maitreya, as if someone had widened their eyes in sheer shock.

Yet the one most shocked of all was Fachi himself.

He could clearly feel that at the instant their blades met, the blood throughout his entire body seemed to boil into a frenzy, churning chaotically in all directions; meanwhile, a wave of malevolent slaughter crashed directly into his mind, and his consciousness—which not even the parasitic gu worms had managed to sway—was so thoroughly battered by this murderous aura that he was left nearly incapable of thought.

Before his eyes, nothing remained but an endless, echoing torrent of "Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!"

Then a pain struck his throat, and Dragon Sparrow, seizing that instant, swept aside his monk’s blade and slashed across his gullet.

Fachi’s reason flickered back, and he urgently dragged his blade in a horizontal cut across Zhao Changhe’s chest, trying to save himself and force him back. Zhao Changhe paid it no heed, letting the monk’s blade carve a long wound across his chest, even as Dragon Sparrow severed Fachi’s throat.

Blood gushed like a fountain. Fachi stood there, dazed, unable to comprehend: “Why… why…”

Why, when they had been evenly matched moments ago, after he unleashed the strongest killing move of the Maitreya Sect—the Butcher’s Blade—could he not even withstand a single blow? Zhao Changhe hadn’t even used his famed “Gods and Buddhas Scatter, Hell Thus,” nor those strange sword-like or blade-like tricks he’d shown before the Wang family gate, nor the “Small Tower, One Night, Listening to Spring Rain” that had shone so brightly in Xiangyang.

It was just an ordinary slash.

Could the blessing of “Heaven and Earth, No Self” really be so formidable?

“You’re wrong…” Zhao Changhe, clutching his chest, staggered backward and said weakly: “The Vajra’s wrathful gaze is meant to guard the Way. You thought it was, but in truth… ‘Slaughter to Become Buddha’… along this path, were you merely guarding the Way?”

Fachi stared blankly, not grasping the connection.

“Guarding the Way in Buddhism is rooted in vast Dharma, dissolving the malice in the heart. You have none… your teachings are crooked, and what you guard is crooked too… The bloodlust and murderous aura in your hearts overflow, with neither Buddhist Dharma to expel them nor the Blood God Sect’s guidance to transform and use them, gathering in the heart… And my Blood Fiend Art excels at exploiting bloodlust and murderous aura, whether my own or external… yours as well.”

“This is my secret storehouse gate. I never expected to confirm the battlefield’s murderous aura in Xiangyang, and the heart’s murderous aura here.” Zhao Changhe said in a low voice: “What killed you is yourself.”

A look of understanding dawned on Fachi, but without resentment, he even smiled faintly, then fell backward.

Almost at the same moment, the secret realm space exploded with a roar, and a shadowy mass burst forth, with Maitreya ahead already within arm’s reach.

Maitreya’s “flesh tumor” laughed wildly to the sky: “Come! Bodhisattva possession, White Lotus holy body, welcome to the true—Vacuum Home…”

“Roar!” A broad blade shot straight through, emitting a roar like a dragon’s cry.

Maitreya dodged frantically, but the broad blade adjusted its angle on its own and still struck before him.

Tang Wanzhuang and Vermilion Bird, with their vast combat experience, had sealed off every angle Maitreya could dodge left or right. If he couldn’t evade in that instant, he would never evade again.

Dragon Sparrow, like slicing a melon, cut off Maitreya’s “flesh tumor,” and a black Gu worm fell from the neck.

Zhao Changhe, having thrown Dragon Sparrow with all his might, collapsed utterly to the ground, laughing softly: “Good partner, you’re finally not being tsundere anymore…”

The remnant soul of the Corpse Demon had just managed to slip into Maitreya’s body, but now only a headless torso remained.

Corpse Demon: “…”

Who am I? Where am I?

The next moment, figures flickered around—Ying Wu and the others had chased out. Ying Wu, as if losing face, formed an extremely peculiar hand seal and viciously stamped it onto Maitreya’s chest.

A strange pattern of a wide-mouthed beast appeared on Maitreya’s chest. The Corpse Demon tried to flee but found it could not leave this headless body.

“The Pi Xiu seal—entry without exit… that Ying Wu…” Many knowledgeable minds flashed this judgment, but they said nothing more. Ancient Sword Dragon Emperor, Qinghe Sword, Lianshan Sword, Spring Water Blue Waves, Vermilion Bird’s Fire, Huayan Staff, Taiyi Sword—all descended simultaneously upon Maitreya’s body.

Space seemed to freeze for an instant, and a sense of relief settled in everyone’s hearts.

Was it over?

No matter how strong the Corpse Demon, no matter how good the vessel, under such an assault, it could only shatter.

But at that moment, Ying Wu suddenly scattered another handful of copper coins, shooting toward every teammate nearby.

Everyone was startled and retreated swiftly. The hot-tempered Vermilion Bird, even while retreating, arched her brows: “Ying Wu, you…”

Before she finished, the seemingly dead Maitreya’s body exploded with a bang.

As if prepared, Ying Wu formed another strange hand seal.

To the onlookers, space seemed to ripple like waves, then shatter like glass into pieces.

The explosion, which should have been terrifying, spread only three or four feet around—no more than a fart.

Ying Wu’s body swayed slightly, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood, his face pale as gold paper.

Only then did everyone realize that his earlier “attack” had been the fastest way to force them back a few feet… He had taken the remaining explosion alone.

Even so, blood and flesh flew everywhere, and no one knew which piece might hide a remnant soul.

Vermilion Bird, having wrongly accused him, felt embarrassed. She flew back to the ground and raised a hand.

A blaze of fire covered the mountain, turning all the flying blood and flesh into a sea of flames.

It wasn’t Vermilion Bird’s fire… It was the fire inherent in each piece of flesh. As the flesh scattered, Vermilion Bird finally found the way to utterly destroy the enemy.

Zhao Changhe could use the enemy’s murderous aura to kill them; she, Vermilion Bird, could use the fire within Maitreya’s body to burn him… Only, Maitreya’s body had been too powerful to ignite. Now was the perfect time.

A wisp of black smoke tried to sneak away amid the flames and smoke.

A cloth bag appeared before it. Tang Wanzhuang opened the bag and waited, catching it inside.

The body was burned to ashes, but the remnant soul remained. The Demon Suppression Bureau specialized in dealing with such monsters; they had long prepared soul-capturing methods.

The bag bulged as something struggled inside.

Gui Chen, beside her, pasted a talisman onto it.

The struggles grew weaker and weaker, gradually calming.

Outside the city, the clamor of battle rose. The defending monk soldiers, having lost their empowerment, could no longer withstand Tang Buqi, the Blood God Sect, and the Canal Gang. In an instant, the city gate fell, and the Jiangnan army poured in.

A faint flush finally returned to Tang Wanzhuang’s pale face, and she too collapsed to the ground.

Almost everyone collapsed. It had been too difficult… Even after winning, there were still so many steps to finish it off, unlike any previous battle.

This battle had not lasted long—they entered the city at dusk, and now the sky still held a blood-red setting sun, the horizon full of sunset clouds.

Not even half an hour had passed, yet it felt like a cycle of reincarnation.

Involving souls and bizarre ancient arts was never easy. Everyone here was very experienced; with less knowledgeable people, even if they won, they might have been traded for lives, and even then, the consequences would linger.

But now… it was truly resolved.

Zhao Changhe sat slumped on the ground, turning to look at Ying Wu, who was also slumped with no strength left. He couldn’t help asking: “Fifth Master, do you have no regard for your life? Wouldn’t it have been better to bear it together?”

“Bearing it together… I’ve seen people die from that. I don’t want to go through it again, no matter who.” Ying Wu smiled weakly: “Just now, I was careless and let it slip out. Lost face… Just making up for it. Don’t look at me like that.”

Zhao Changhe twitched his mouth and finally said in a low voice: “Idiot…”

Ying Wu looked at the long sword wound on his chest and said nothing.

Everyone here was unharmed except for two wounded. Who was the idiot?

But Ying Wu had to admire him… That throw of Dragon Sparrow by Zhao Changhe had been the decisive move of this battle. A mere man on the Human Roll, not only had he organized this hunt of gods and demons by Heaven and Earth Roll experts, but he had even become the key pivot in such a battle of gods and demons.

This was not just luck.

Zhao Changhe’s combat instinct and acuity, his ability to seize the moment and the key—truly world-class.

Given enough time, the Heaven, Earth, and Human Rolls would not be his final destination.

Tang Buqi rushed into the city, frantically heading toward Kuaiji Mountain.

The monk soldiers’ empowerment was gone; the battle of gods and demons should be over… But no one had come down the mountain for a while. Tang Buqi was extremely anxious. His aunt, who was always ready to die fighting, could something have happened to her?

The Chaos Chronicle did not flash either…

Just then, golden light flashed in the sky.

“March 18th. Tang Buqi, having retreated at dawn, returned at dusk. Taking advantage of Maitreya’s secret realm healing, he led a force in a surprise attack on Kuaiji.”

“Tang Wanzhuang, Head of the Demon Suppression Bureau, infiltrated the city, assassinated the city’s commander Fachi, lured Maitreya out of the secret realm, and together with Vermilion Bird, killed Maitreya in the city’s council hall. Maitreya, due to the Gu, transformed into a Corpse Demon, and they fought again with water and fire.”

Killed…

In the judgment of the Chaos Chronicle, from the moment Maitreya’s head was severed and a tumor grew in its place, he was already dead. What followed was a battle with the Corpse Demon.

Meanwhile, Ying Wu of the Bandit Brotherhood, Cui Wenjing of Qinghe, Xuanwu of the Four Symbols Sect, Yang Jingxiu of Hongnong, Yuancheng of Huayan Temple, and Guichen of Taiyi Sect hunted an ancient remnant soul in the White Lotus Secret Realm. The body possessed by the remnant soul was destroyed, transforming into a Corpse Demon.

The world gaped.

Read that list of names again? What kind of remnant soul is this—though defeated, still glorious, right?

Outside the secret realm, people cast sidelong glances at Ying Wu, half-smiling. San Niang covered her turtle-face mask and turned away, as if to say "I don't know him"...

Only when her hand touched the mask did she remember: Yuan San Niang belongs to the Brotherhood—what does that have to do with me, Xuanwu? San Niang lowered her hand from her face, now unabashed.

Ying Wu's face was expressionless: "I told you all along, I run a no-capital business. What's wrong with the Bandit Brotherhood, huh?"

The crowd looked up, avoiding his gaze.

"The Corpse Demon had no suitable vessel and sought to use Maitreya as its body; Maitreya fought fiercely against Tang Wanzhuang of Vermilion Bird and forcibly returned to the secret realm."

"Zhao Changhe fought with the secret realm's guardian and Fach of the Maitreya Sect outside the secret realm, cutting a throat with one stroke. From ten paces away, he threw his blade and severed Maitreya's head; the Corpse Demon's hope of re-possession was shattered here. The demonic body self-destructed, and the remnant soul was imprisoned."

"The hunt from all directions, the demon god bowed its head; the chaos of Jiangnan was settled in one morning."

"The Earth Ranking fell; the Human Ranking shifted."

"Human Ranking thirty-seven: Blood Asura Zhao Changhe."

"No need for light green or deep red—he is naturally the finest flower of them all."

[End of Volume Four]

Volume Five: The Stairway to Heaven and Earth