The Emperor Reigns Them All

Chapter 239 The Outcome Is Determined

Seeing that Su Emei and Wei Xiaozhuang were coming again, Zhang Jiuling swallowed the grief and indignation in his heart and withdrew. He left harsh words, “What can you do even if you meet up with Li Ye? The gods can’t even save him as long as the Great Immortal-killing Formation is here! There is news from Shushan that the Immortal Inquiring Sword had recognized its Lord again after six hundred years! When the Sword Wielder arrives, you all will die!”

Zhang Jiuling turned into a rainbow and flew away. Su Emei and Wei Xiaozhuang did not chase after him. They retracted the fairy-like pose of the Guanghan Fairy and the God of Giant Spirit and rushed towards Mei county.

Li Ye had already left Mei county and entered the land of Qi Mountain.

After defeating the thirty-six Arhats, Li Ye scattered for a hundred miles and arrived at the border of Mei County.

Later he rested for a moment by the Wei River and continued to advance westward. After treatment, his wounds were finally under control, and his Spiritual Qi was restored. But compared to his peak condition, a huge parity still existed with both his physical condition and the reserve of his Spiritual Qi.

However, Li Ye did not have much time to rest. He must rush to Chencang as soon as possible. He had already killed the eighteen Guardian Deity, and the thirty-six Arhats had also lost their power. With Buddhism suffering such a big loss, they were likely to change strategy and target Li Yan directly.

Of course, even if they didn’t change their strategy. The Regal Guards could not withstand the strength of the Fengxiang army’s elite. Even if they had the three thousand Wolf-tooth Troop led by Shangguan Qingcheng, they would be defeated in the end. Hence, Li Ye must immediately rush over. Based on his cultivation and strength, there would always be opportunities to get Li Yan away as long as he could see Li Yan.

Qi Mountain was a county. And the reason why it was called Qi Mountain was naturally that there was a mountain in the county. It was the famous Qi Mountain.

At the top of Qi Mountain, stood Tian Luo, the abbot of the Big Snow Temple on the Golden Mountain of the Western Region. And Fa Yi, the abbot of the Juexiao Temple of the Tang Empire, stood fronting the east with all the other monks. Behind them, the first to return were five of the thirty-six arhats. Four unharmed arhats were carrying a heavily wounded arhat whose shoulder was serious hurt by Li Ye. In fact, the arhat’s entire arm was about to fall off, but he stepped forward to report to Tian Luo and Fa Yi about the battle.

Fa Yi was full of bitterness. Because what he feared the most and the last thing he wanted to see had happened in the end.

He had previously had a fierce confrontation with Li Ye, so he knew, first hand, Li Ye’s strength and that Li Ye was definitely a hard man to handle.

Fa Yi was also a Tang Empire Buddhist leader, so naturally, he was no ordinary King Kong Realm cultivator. Yet Li Ye still could beat him with one attack, which revealed that Li Ye’s power was approaching a Yin Spirit Spiritual Master. After that, Li Ye had killed eighteen Arhats under Fa Yi’s eyes. Besides being in grief, naturally, Fa Yi was feeling more frightened.

The thirty-six Arhats of the Western Regions possessed tyrannical fighting power and more than twice that of the eighteen Guardian Deity. But could they then definitely defeat Li Ye? Of course, at that time, Fa Yi also believed that Li Ye could not win. After all, after eliminating the eighteen Guardian Deity, Li Ye had consumed a lot of energy and suffered wounds on his body.

Having observed the confrontation between Li Ye and the eighteen Guardian Deity, the thirty-six Arhats should have learned something. At least so that they would not be defeated. However, after listening to the reports from several Arhats, Fa Yi knew that even though he already thought highly of Li Ye, Li Ye was still underestimated.

But now, the pressure on Fa Yi’s shoulders was a little lighter.

He and the Eighteen Guardian Deity represented the Buddhism of the Tang Dynasty. Tian Luo and the Thirty-six Arhats represented Buddhism of the Western Regions. Although both of them had belonged to Buddhism, Fa Yi felt ashamed as the Tang Empire’s Buddhism was defeated. He couldn’t lift his head before Tian Luo. Now that the thirty-six Arhats had also been defeated, Fa Yi no longer felt ashamed; he felt more relaxed.

Fa Yi was certainly at ease, but Tian Luo was furious.

After listening to the thirty-six Arhats’ report, Tian Luo was so angry that the muscles on his face twitched. He wished he could kill these Arhats before him. “Eighteen Guardian Deity, thirty-six Arhats, that’s fifty-four people. According to the Taoist sect’s way, you are fifty-four Spiritual Master Realm cultivators... fifty-four Spiritual Master Realm cultivators! Yet, you were defeated by one cultivator of the same realm! All of you! Is there such a thing in the world?”

Tian Luo was obviously beyond the boiling point. This result was something he had never expected. Fifty-four to one and the majority would actually fail. It was too unbelievable to fathom. “Eighteen Guardian Deity and thirty-six Arhats were the top forces that had endured eight hundred years of waiting. This is the best time to come out of the world and take over the Tang Empire forcefully! Sweeping the feudal princes of the world would not even be impossible with an elite army and those fifty-four people, much less the Taoist sect of the Tang Empire! The eighteen Guardian Deity and the thirty-six Arhats were the bedrocks of Buddhism. It was what Buddhism depended on to rise in the Tang Empire. It was a chance for Buddhism to win the world amid all the chaos. Now, all of them are dead!”

The more Tian Luo talked about it, the angrier he became. Things had gotten to the point that no matter how calm and strong his mental state was, he couldn’t settle himself. Even though he was prodigious in the cultivation of the mind, he was still anxious. After all, he wasn’t a man without desires. His ambition was for Buddhism to take over the Tang Empire. But as long as he had that desire, he couldn’t be in the state of total calmness. Not to mention the calamity they were facing at present, how could he remain calm?

At present, what Tian Luo saw was not the defeat of the Eighteen Guardian Deity and the thirty-six Arhats, but a broken dream. Buddhism intended to come out into the world and take over the Tang Empire.

Prior to this, Buddhism’s situation was on the up and up. But in the blink of an eye, fifty-four Kong Kim Realm cultivators were decimated to only four and a half left. There was no longer an overwhelming advantage against the Taoist sect. And they could no longer crush the feudal princes either.

The best opportunity in eight hundred years was about to vanish in the blink of an eye. As a leader of Buddhism, how could Tian Luo accept that?

He was already showing extreme self-control by not murdering people.

Tian Luo grabbed the thirty-third Arhat’s robes and lifted him up to eye-level. His eyes revealed a hint of fierceness, “Is Li Ye not human? Is he an immortal? An immortal of the Taoist sect? A reincarnated immortal? Why is he so hard to kill? Why can’t you thirty-six Arhats kill him? Tell me, why?”

Facing Tian Luo’s roar, the thirty-third Arhat was petrified. Reminiscing the battle with Li Ye, the thirty-third Arhat felt like it was all a nightmare. It was simply something that should not have happened, because no one could accept it, but it did happen.

The thirty-third Arhat had never seen Tian Luo like this before. At the Big Snow Temple on the Golden Mountain, Tian Luo always carried himself like an enlightened monk. He was always calm and peaceful, his every move commanded respect and trust. On the odd occasion when he was irate, his face never showed any anger. He had always managed to keep his composure.

Yet, the anger he was showing at the moment was even more frightening than a demon.

The thirty-third Arhat was trembling with fear. “Li Ye is not human; he’s a devil! I’ve never seen such a devil; he’s evil and conniving. He kills without batting an eye, not to mention his power. He’s very unpredictable and impossible to defend against...And he carries an infinite amount of Dan Pills, which never seems to run out. He can keep replenishing himself during battles. We weren’t able to give him a lethal blow, so he kept recovering and battling. Even if he had lost enough blood to dye his robes, he still didn’t die...”

The thirty-third Arhat told Tian Luo the whole story of the battle and every detail he knew without any reservation.

At this point, there was no reason for the thirty-third Arhat to hide anything. He had intended to exaggerate Li Ye’s powers. Because then it would make his sins seem smaller. But as he spoke, he realized that there was no need to exaggerate because the straightforward story was inconceivable enough.

Toward the end, the already frightened thirty-third Arhat felt even more ghastly during the process of recalling the battle from beginning to end. After the complete recollection, he found that his fear of Li Ye was even deeper. Seeing the anxiety on his face, it was likely that his Buddhist faith was already in collapse.

In the end, the thirty-third Arhat added, “Abbot, the devil Li Ye is completely different from the devils of the Western Region. They couldn’t hold a candle to Li Ye...A devil like this, I am afraid, I am afraid that only that cultivator of the Central Plains who went up the Golden Mountain and murdered his way into the Big Snow Temple could possibly compare... No, only the Taoist wielding a sword in blue robes from a hundred years ago could compare!”

As an Arhat, he naturally beheaded countless “devils and demons” in the Western Regions. Those cultivators who were disrespectful to Buddhism or caused trouble were all the enemies of Buddhism.

The thirty-third Arhat had also killed many and naturally knew what a devil was like. But Li Ye was, indeed, a level above them.

Tian Luo’s face was completely twisted, and the fierce look in his eyes was worse. His roar almost jumped out of his teeth. And he sprayed on the thirty-third Arhat’s face, “In the end, on the river bank, You still had four people. And when Li Ye came for you, you didn’t fight but turned and fled?”

The thirty-third Arhat immediately bowed his head. It was indeed not a glorious thing.

However, he quickly looked up. He felt that he did not do anything wrong. Under those circumstances and seeing Li Ye’s appearance, he knew he did not have a chance all. He added, “The devil is too strong, we didn’t know how much strength he had left. Thirty-one people had died, and there were only four left at that time. To the devil, we had not constituted a threat, we...”

His words were not finished, and he could not finish it.

Tian Luo had already plunged into his chest with one hand, which pierced his body and came out from his back.

Tian Luo’s expression was hideous. He tossed the thirty-third Arhat’s body and stared fiercely at the other monks, “Next time you face the devil, whoever flees will face his fate! As Buddhist disciples, we will not submit to the devil. And our faith in Buddha must not waver because we are afraid to die!”

All the monks were stunned and vowed immediately.

Fa Yi was not surprised at all by Tian Luo’s reactions. If he were him, he would do the same thing.

Through the thirty-third Arhat’s description, Fa Yi affirmed that Li Ye had exhausted his Spiritual Qi and ran out of strength at that time. He was almost an ordinary person. If the thirty-third Arhat did not retreat, then he would have killed Li Ye without effort.

In other words, the thirty-six Arhats actually did not lose, and Li Ye could not defeat the thirty-six Arhats. He was actually already a mortal man in the end. However, the thirty-third Arhat and others did not grasp the opportunity to kill Li Ye.

It was no wonder that Tian Luo would be so furious.