That giant stone statue was just slowly crawling up to its feet from the ground when the first
mountain spirit came crashing over.
Xie Lian recalled Hua Cheng had once told him back then when he was in Mount TongLu, those
three large mountains were a menace chasing him down, so naturally they shouldn’t be
underestimated. Xie Lian subconsciously planned to volley up and flip over its head, but he had
never controlled such an enormous divine statue before after all, and to manipulate such
complicated movements, he couldn’t help but mess up, so he didn’t manage to jump up but was
instead knocked down once again.
Rumble rumble, the heavens shook and the earth quaked. That giant stone statue fell down
near the royal capital of WuYong, and crushed an entire street. With just a slight movement, a
series of cracking could be heard, and it was the sound of those glamourous residences and
palaces being crushed and shattered by that giant stone statue. In the midst of all the shaking,
Xie Lian was almost thrown off again, but Hua Cheng firmly grabbed on to his hand and
exclaimed, “Come with me!”
He took Xie Lian and hopped onto the head of that giant divine statue with a few steps. Turns
out, this giant Flower-Crowned Martial God used a small crown to tie up its hair, looking like a
small balcony, and the two hopped onto that crown, finally finding a place to settle, much
steadier than standing on the shoulder and in the palm of the divine statue.
They hadn’t had a chance to relax when the mountain spirit came at them again, knocking that
giant stone statue back a few steps, but fortunately Xie Lian was prepared this time and wasn’t
knocked down, but he accidentally trampled another series of houses. Xie Lian couldn’t help but
ache for them, praying for forgiveness in his mind. Controlling that divine statue to clumsily slip
away to avoid those houses, Xie Lian wondered in bafflement, “Why do they keep chasing after
me to beat me down? What did I do?”
“It’s not that they’re chasing gege specifically, they’d chase down anyone to beat them down,
and gege looks particularly conspicuous right now.”
“Such a big creature, he is rather conspicuous…” Before Xie Lian finished his thoughts the three
mountain spirits came besieging together, surrounding this giant stone statue, and crushing
towards the centre incessantly, trying to crush the statue to pieces. That divine statue couldn’t
move a limb and Xie Lian couldn’t move either. He used all of his strength to have the statue
push back but it couldn’t move an inch, so it might not be able to defend!
He was just trying to think if there might be another way to escape and involuntarily backed up a
step, bumping into a chest. He looked back and Hua Cheng grasped his shoulders, “Let
everything go and fight! Don’t worry, none of them are your match. There is nothing in this world
that can stop you in your step!”
His chest was like the strongest of shields, and suddenly, Xie Lian was filled with confidence, a
wave of refreshing currents flowed through his body, and he gave it his all to strike back,
breaking through the siege!
Rumble rumble, those three mountain spirits were forcibly pushed miles a mile away, and dust
flew, rocks fled, smoke and debris rolled. However, after they were pushed back they
immediately came forth again, ready to attack once more. Xie Lian’s hands instantly changed
into several hands seals, “DO, NOT, BLOCK, MY, WAY!”
That giant stone statue leapt into the air, its feet landing over the head of two of the mountain
spirits, then its hand rested on the hilt of the sword hung on its waist – pull out the sword!
This entire string of movements flowed like streams of clouds and water, and that giant stone
divine statue completed the actions fluently, its might like a long stretch of a rainbow without any
hesitation, no different than the real person. Sucking in a breath, Xie Lian shouted, “I’LL CUT
Y… Uh, I won’t cut you yet, hold on???”
He was already prepared to swing a glorious sword and cut the mountains into valleys yet
unexpectedly, when the sword was pulled out, it didn’t feel right. When he looked up, he
instantly sweatdropped. That giant stone statue certainly pulled out a sword, but… there’s only a
hilt in its hand. What’s going on???
Where’s the blade???
Xie Lian was dumbfounded while Hua Cheng on the side, dropped his face and supported up
his forehead with two fingers, “…Gege, I’m sorry, I forgot to tell you, I didn’t carve the blade of
this divine statue. It’s my negligence.”
“…”
But of course!
Hua Cheng had carved this statue upon the inner stone walls of the Kiln, and in a standing
posture that giant stone statue’s robes were flowy and layered, the sword on the waist was
concealed beneath the sleeves unexposed, so only a hilt was carved. Before the divine statue
was injected with spiritual powers and started moving, since it didn’t have a blade especially
carved, naturally a blade wouldn ‘t just magically appear.
Hua Cheng frowned slightly, his expression solemn, “It’s my miscalculation. It’s not exquisite
enough, next time I will carve out every detail.”
“…” Xie Lian could tell he was serious and quickly said, “No no no, it’s already very exquisite.
Really!”
In any case, there was no blade so the mountains couldn’t be cut. Thus, Xie Lian instantly
changed battle tactics – bolt!
He hastily directed that giant stone statue to jump off from the head of those two mountain
spirits, tossing that useless stone hilt behind, and opened its legs to continue its mad run. The
two stood on the crown atop of that divine statue’s head as wild winds blew at their faces, their
black hair, white robes and red sleeves flipping and fluttering. Even though they were fleeing
they painted a beautiful image. A silver butterfly flew next to Xie Lian’s ears and transmitted a
few human voices. He instantly seized the butterfly and called out, “Is that Feng Xin and Mu
Qing on the other side? Is Lord Rain Master and General Pei there too?”
Sure enough, familiar voices came from the other end through the butterfly.
“I say, Your Highness,” Pei Ming said, “There’s no need to be so loud when asking questions?”
“Ah, sorry, I have too much spiritual powers at the moment, let me control it a little.” Xie Lian
said.
“…”
Mu Qing’s voice came too, “What? Did you just say you have too much spiritual powers? You?”
“Have you all met up?” Xie Lian asked, “Where are you?”
“We’ve met up with General Pei, General Pei Junior, and the others, and everyone is in the
woods near the WuYong river. We’re about to retreat to the outside.” Mu Qing said.
Feng Xin’s voice came, “What’s going on on your end? A strong unusual movement seemed to
have come from the Kiln just now! Do you need us to go back and assist?”
Xie Lian quickly replied, “No need! You just stay there and we’ll come pick you all up very soon,
we’ll talk then! Ah, we’re already here!”
Ahead was the dried up WuYong river, and that giant stone statue crossed the gully and
crouched down next to the dense forest. Coincidently, Xie Lian saw Feng Xin and Mu Qing also
come out of the woods, looking around, seeming to be searching for them. However, they were
looking in the wrong direction, and they never thought to look up, so they didn’t see Xie Lian and
Hua Cheng at all. Feng Xin said to the butterfly, “Your Highness you’re not here yet? Where are
you?”
Xie Lian cupped his hands by his mouth and yelled towards the bottom, “I’M HERE ALREADY,
UP, LOOK UP, ABOVE YOUR HEADS!”
“…”
Only then did the two notice that they were shrouded in a gigantic shadow and they looked up
uniformly.
Thus, they both saw at the same time an incomparably gigantic “Xie Lian” that was currently
crouched down by the forest, looking downwards at them. There was even a very Xie Lian like
friendly smile on its face.
Hua Cheng couldn’t be bothered to spare a glance at the two down below, and he stood on the
side hugging his arms, his demeanour lazy. Xie Lian waved to the bottom, “DO YOU SEE ME?
OVER HERE!”
However, because the visual shock of this gigantic version of “Xie Lian” was too great, it was
hard to notice anything else at first glance. Mu Qing’s entire field of view was completely
overtaken by this face, and he mumbled, “…I haven’t gone mad, have I?”
Both of Feng Xin’s eyes were filled with this face too and he mumbled, “…What the fuck, what
the fuck, what the actual fuck, what in the fucking world is this thing???”
Xie Lian, “Uh…”
Hua Cheng raised his brows, looking as if he exerted an immense effort to hold back his laugh.
Truth to be told, there really was never anyone who had ever seen such a large and incredibly
realistically sculpted divine statue. In the past, the largest divine statue belonged to Jun Wu, but
even that one only reached halfway of this giant stone statue…
Feng Xin and Mu Qing were both too shocked, and Xie Lian had to yell a few times before they
found where the real one was located. The others all came out of the woods one after the other,
and when they looked up, almost all of them were so shocked by this giant divine statue that
they almost twisted their necks and feet. Xie Lian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and made
that giant divine statue lay its hand on the ground, opening its palm, “The Kiln Volcano has
erupted, the fires are going to scorch this area soon, and there’s also three mountain spirits who
might catch up soon, so come up quick, I’ll take you all away!”
The party climbed up the hand of that divine statue and each found their place to settle. Xie Lian
smelled that suffocating smell of sulfur in the air, and when he looked back, that black smoke
and flying dust were rapidly spreading, so he closed the palm of that giant divine statue and
stood up, continuing its large steps forward.
After Pei Ming and the others got over their shock they were fine, but Feng Xin and Mu Qing still
never came back to their senses. This was probably because they were both too familiar with
the faces, demeanour, and physique of the owner of this divine statue, so after having it
magnified to such a size, the shock was particularly strong. Feng Xin was already standing on
top of this divine statue’s shoulder but was still stewing in disbelief, “Just who did this? Who
carved this? How come I’ve never seen this before? I’ve never even heard of it before?”
Hua Cheng smiled fakely, “There’s way too much you haven’t seen in this world.”
Although he didn’t clarify who, but almost everyone, especially Feng Xin and Mu Qing, locked
down on the same answer:
THIS GUY DID IT!
“I almost can’t believe this…” Mu Qing said, “How are you moving this thing? Just how much
spiritual powers does this need? Do you have enough? I thought you don’t have any spiritual
powers?”
This time Hua Cheng didn’t answer. Xie Lian stole a glimpse at him and pressed his fist to his
mouth, answering ambiguously, “Um, well…”
“If there isn’t any you can borrow, am I right? Such an easy thing.” Pei Ming said.
“Hahahaha, yea…”
Along the way, when the various monsters and demons saw lava pouring down, blazing fires
blowing crazily, they also realized that things were going wrong, and when they saw people
were climbing up that giant stone statue, they all cried out, “WAIT FOR ME TOO!”
“ME ME ME, I’M COMING TOO!”
“TAKE US, TAKE US!”
However, Hua Cheng said, “Get the hell down.” And a wave of silver butterflies flew out,
shimmering a chilling light, and then there was wailing and howling down below. Yin Yu was
cradling Gu Zi who was sound asleep and he called out from below, “CHENGZHU! Your
Highness! The empty-shelled people and Corpse-Eating Rats from before suddenly became
rowdy and they started moving in large groups, looking like they were heading out of Mount
TongLu!”
The Rain Master on the other hand, was riding the black ox, watching the sky intently, “Those
creatures inside the black clouds also seem to want to fly outside.”
Her words were true. Those creatures writhing inside the black clouds were all resentful spirits
that thirsted for fresh, live flesh to possess, and become the human face disease. There
weren’t any living beings inside Mount TongLu, there were only monsters and ghosts or
heavenly officials they couldn’t penetrate, so of course they wanted to get out. Millions of
contorted human faces dragging their long tails of black smoke swirled like deformed snakes
and worms above in the sky. Xie Lian’s hands trembled slightly but still said, “Mount TongLu has
a barrier, nothing outside can come in, and nothing inside can go out, so those resentful spirits
shouldn’t be able to fly out for the moment…”
Yet unexpectedly, before he finished Hua Cheng suddenly clutched his hand. Xie Lian’s heart
tightened at the same time by the gesture and quickly clutched back, “What is it? Have I drained
too much? Sorry sorry, I should conserve my use after all…”
One of Hua Cheng’s hands was covering his right eye, “That’s not it. Gege, you don’t have to
worry about that. It’s Mount TongLu’s barrier. It’s broken.”
Xie Lian was stunned, “What? Broken?” He only just said not to worry because there was a
barrier, what the heck???
“It’s broken.” Hua Cheng said. “It was probably White No-Face who opened it. Those things,
they’re going to fly out.”
———–