Chapter 16 "Monks are foolish and can be taught, but demons are evil and bound to bring disaster?"

Wang Guan frowned, pondering the half-line of the poem. Suddenly, he raised his head, straightened his back, and his Daoist robes moved without wind. His originally neatly groomed beard and whiskers writhed wildly as if they had a life of their own.

From his gaunt body, a vast demonic aura, as dark as ink, emanated.

The demonic aura, like a veil, permeated and enveloped the entire Great Buddha Hall. Seemingly ethereal, it was incredibly tangible, making it difficult to breathe and almost causing one to faint.

The Shan Xiao (mountain spirit) had many identities: monk, Daoist, human, demon.

When playing the role of a monk, he was the kind-faced abbot of the solitary Cold Temple.

When playing the role of a Daoist, he was an alchemist who bewitched wealthy officials with the art of immortality.

When playing the role of a mortal, he was Wang Guan, a benevolent and wealthy merchant from South Zhili, who believed in harmonious wealth.

Only the last role, the demon, did the Shan Xiao not need to act. He was a demon by nature, a ferocious and evil demon who drank blood and had beasts devour humans.

"Hahahaha."

Wang Guan waved his Daoist sleeves and laughed wildly, "You say I am a demon?"

He took a light step in the air, and the stone floor of the Great Buddha Hall below suddenly collapsed, leaving a huge footprint.

"You say I am evil?"

He took another step, and the lesser demons on both sides of the Great Buddha Hall, whose cultivation was insufficient, were directly bent over by this step from afar. One by one, they lay prostrate on the base of the Buddha statue, their faces horrified, their bodies trembling wildly, and torrents of blood gushed from their orifices as if it were free.

"You say I am disaster?"

He took a third step, his pale long beard moved without wind, and his withered hand swept out a gust of demonic Qi, as dark as ink.

The gale was initially curved like a crescent moon, as narrow as a willow leaf. As the distance increased, it gradually dissipated and deformed, eventually coalescing into a row of heavily armed, grim-faced skeleton soldiers.

"Kill!"

The skeleton soldiers, composed of demonic wind, were enveloped in a fierce, eerie blue demonic flame that seemed to devour humans, and charged savagely toward the mission squad with shrill roars.

Lesser demons and monsters along the way, merely grazed by the blades, spears, swords, halberds, axes, and hooks in the hands of the skeleton soldiers, began to rapidly fester and decay.

In just a few breaths, they were eroded into a pool of yellowish-green pus on the spot, and even their panicked cries for help were still stuck in their throats, unable to be uttered.

Demons retreated, and ghosts dispersed. Guests who still had the strength to barely move under the pressure withdrew from the Great Buddha Hall like a receding tide.

No demon or ghost wanted to participate in this battle, dared not, unwilling, and unable.

At most, they feared the reckoning that the Shan Xiao might bring after the battle, thinking of launching a few ranged attacks from outside the hall to lend a hand.

They would shout a few "Daoist Wang Guan is mighty" to join the crowd, but they would never dare to personally take the risk and step into the hall—after all, those who came to the banquet were all minor demons and monsters who considered themselves shameless and good at self-preservation.

After all, in this day and age, those demons who were not smart enough and relied on their demonic power to act recklessly had long been eradicated by the Daoist and Buddhist sects, or by the officials.

Even after retreating to the courtyard, the demons could still feel Wang Guan's vast demonic power in the Great Buddha Hall. While they were terrified, they were also deeply puzzled, unable to help but wonder if the Hundred Demon Pill was really so effective, allowing the Shan Xiao to greatly increase his cultivation to this extent in just one year.

Inside the hall, facing the sudden attack of the skeleton soldiers, Wanli Fengdao (Ten Thousand Mile Blade Sealing) snorted and drew the three-foot autumn water blade named "Zhan Long" (Dragon Slayer) from his waist.

*Ceng—*

From a distance, the sword was like a ray of moonlight shining down through the clouds, chilling, radiant, and sparkling like lightning. Under the reflection of the sword light, even Wanli Fengdao's old face, which had been overloaded for at least a decade, looked a bit more solemn and dignified.

*My predecessor's three-foot blade in its sheath, once entered the Wu pool to slay the dragon's son.*

Wanli Fengdao silently recited the unknown past in his heart, drew his sword, and charged into the skeleton battle formation.

Twisting, cleaving, thrusting, spinning, slashing, paring.

The sword light crisscrossed,灿 (can - bright).

As bright as stars, he waded through the blades, spears, swords, halberds, axes, and hooks, broke through the formation amidst the clashing of metal, and silently returned the sword to its scabbard.

Behind him, the skeleton soldiers, still holding up their weapons, remained frozen in place for a moment before collapsing with a crash, as if realizing what happened.

"Swordplay?"

Wang Guan sneered, hovering in the air, raising his arms, standing on one foot like a golden rooster, and leisurely stomped down.

The ink-colored demonic Qi in the hall, like a veil, rolled, stirred, and condensed, like a black cloud covering the sky, pressing down on everyone.

Wanli Fengdao's expression changed drastically, his hand pressing on the sword hilt.

Everyone's scalp couldn't help but tingle, every hair on their body stood on end, the air seemed to freeze and become heavy, and breathing, a normally simple action, now required exerting all their strength to move their chests.

"Disperse!"

Xing Hechou roared, a golden light flashed around him, and a suit of ancient iron armor appeared on his burly body.

The armor was composed of more than 1,500 fish-scale plates and more than 600 long strip plates, with metal round shields that were polished extremely smooth like mirrors on the front and back of the chest. Helmet, neck guard, ear protectors, tiger-head shoulder armor, dragon-head epaulettes, knee skirts, and leg bindings were all complete.

Name: Ming Guang Kai (Bright Light Armor)

Type: Armor

Quality: Rare

Defense: Moderate

Effect 1: Unyielding {Passively increases the wearer's stamina limit by 20%}

Effect 2: Resilience {Passively increases the wearer's toughness, reducing the duration and intensity of stun, slow, fear, and other effects received by the wearer}

Note: Seeing the light of the sun, the world is bright.

Xing Hechou, clad in golden iron armor, suddenly bent his knees, the wolf-head knee armor and iron knee skirt collided with a clanging sound, hoarse and grinding. The hard ground under his feet shattered like a spider web under the pressure of gravity.

In the next instant, he leaped high, his iron fists like cannonballs, bombarding the cloud of demonic Qi.

*Black clouds press down on the city, threatening to destroy it, the light of armor shines towards the sun, golden scales opening!*

For a long time, the mission team had been preparing for this day. Almost the moment Xing Hechou shouted "Disperse," everyone else scattered with great tacit understanding.

Wanli Fengdao, who was best at lightness skill, moved back and forth between the left and right beams of the hall. Taking advantage of the gap where Xing Hechou attracted Wang Guan's attention, he suddenly increased his speed. With a few leaps, he passed the censer in front of the Great Buddha Hall, put his arm around the waist of the woman named "Hong Niang," and landed lightly on the ground.

"Stay here."

Wanli Fengdao said quickly, turned his head hurriedly, and saw Xing Hechou, clad in golden armor, had already charged into the black cloud, and his fists, wrapped in iron gauntlets, were directly pounding at the soles of the Shan Xiao's feet.

*Zheng—*

The sound of metal clashing resounded throughout the Great Buddha Hall, and shockwaves visible to the naked eye shook the black cloud open and spread outward.

Wang Guan, floating in the air, leaned back and staggered a few steps before regaining his balance.

Xing Hechou crashed to the ground, the tiger's mouth of his palm under the iron gauntlets was torn open, oozing blood, and his clenched fists were still trembling.

He felt a sweetness in his throat, swallowed the blood in his mouth with a straight face, barely stood up, and looked at Wang Guan in silence, the fighting spirit in his clear eyes surging, as if burning with flames.

"Hmph."

Wang Guan snorted coldly, rolled up his Daoist robe and put his hands behind his back. As his sleeves fluttered fiercely, demonic Qi re-condensed into dark clouds around him.

"Fire borrows the power of the wind, the wind helps the fire's might."

The Daoist's eyes did not contain a trace of emotion, he looked down at the ants below indifferently, and said calmly.

The black cloud of demonic Qi behind him was like a pool of oil into which a match had been thrown, first a spark flickered, and then it was a prairie fire!

The entire black cloud burned fiercely, the fire was not orange and warm, but eerie blue, cold, and without a trace of temperature.

The eerie blue fiery clouds, writhing, rising, like maggots on the bone, scorched the golden roof of the Great Buddha Hall. Wherever it went, everything melted, and in an instant, the bricks and tiles dissolved, the beams collapsed, the walls crumbled, and smoke filled the air.

Amidst the smoke, the Great Buddha Hall, with half of its roof burned away, was exposed to the moonlight.

"What a fierce demonic flame."

Li Yi clicked his tongue slightly, his expression grave. This demonic fire would cause injury if grazed, and death if touched. This was much more terrifying than white phosphorus bombs, and he didn't want to test whether a mortal body could withstand the burning of demonic flames.