Chapter 76: Emerald Eyes

A hand crossbow strike had eliminated the Illusory Banner monk of Huangliang, and a stealthy ambush had dispatched the Crescent-bearing monk. In an instant, the three monks' combined formation was thoroughly shattered. Liuchou’s wounds were healing at a speed visible to the naked eye. The surrounding monks, witnessing this terrifying scene, were struck with panic and fled in all directions to save their lives.

If even three subjugation-tier Zen masters could not deal with this enemy, how could ordinary monks dare to provoke him?

The Golden Bell monk looked at Liuchou; Liuchou looked back at him with a half-smile, half-sneer on his face, before his body tilted slightly—

Instantly, the monk whirled around and fled desperately into the distance!

However, Liuchou did not give chase. Once he steadied his posture, an intriguing expression crossed his face. He simply stood on the spot, making not the slightest move.

It was not until the surrounding monks had completely vanished from sight that a mouthful of blood abruptly spurted from the corner of Liuchou's lips. His body swayed, and he dropped heavily to the ground, panting violently. His limbs trembled uncontrollably, refusing to steady.

The turbulent power raging within his body had finally broken past his control. Managing to hold on until the monks departed had been his absolute limit!

The damage inflicted by spiritual artifacts was not merely physical; the influx of spiritual essence disrupted the very foundation of a demon's inner core. This threw Liuchou's demonic qi into utter chaos, rampaging through his body and tearing apart his muscles and meridians from the inside out. The trauma went far beyond what was visible on the surface.

Therefore, after taking the first blow, Liuchou had immediately swallowed a spiritual pill. Once ingested, it began to repair his injuries, yet it proved powerless to quell the force of the foreign spiritual essence. Pushed and pulled by these conflicting powers, his inner demonic qi surged chaotically, fracturing his meridians over and over while constantly trying to heal them. The overlapping sensations made him feel as though he were boiled in a cauldron, enduring agonizing torment both inside and out. Though he had mustered his final strength to slay the Crescent monk, his body had reached its absolute limit, leaving him with not a shred of energy to spare.

By forcing himself to wait until the monks fled, Liuchou had already reached the end of his tether. His swaying had merely been due to his inability to suppress the internal turmoil, yet by sheer coincidence, it had terrified the Golden Bell monk into fleeing, sparing Liuchou's life.

Even so, he was now entirely paralyzed. Forget carrying away the captured monk; even leaving under his own power was an ambition far exceeding his capabilities. Any ordinary monk could come along and take his life with ease.

His current situation was no different from a blind man riding a runaway horse toward a deep abyss at midnight—teetering on the edge of life and death with no escape!

***

At this moment, Qingmei had been reduced to a bloody pulp. Her entire body was battered and torn apart by the Bodhi seeds; flesh and minced meat were inextricably mixed with shattered veins and blood vessels, forming an unrecognizable mass. She could no longer maintain a human shape and had reverted to her true form: a white fox with red-and-white fur and twin tails at her rear.

One of her eyes was tightly shut, but the other, fixed upon the monk, burned not only with agony but with an undiminished, boundless ferocity and hatred, devoid of the slightest trace of submission or plea for mercy.

"Amitabha. Truly a demonic spawn by nature, utterly devoid of any remorse," the monk sighed deeply. Chanting a Buddhist title, he flatly declared, "However, even so, do not dream of entering the cycle of reincarnation through death! I possess the Ksitigarbha Buddhist Verse. There are vacancies among the three thousand ghost courts; even in death, your name shall be submitted to fill a post, barring you from crossing the three desolate paths or attaining rebirth!"

Qingmei uttered not a word, but her lips parted, revealing a mouthful of razor-sharp fangs stained crimson with blood, framing a grim, desolate smile...

Having spoken, the monk raised a hand and pointed. The three remaining Bodhi seeds shot into the air once more, spinning rapidly as they hurtled toward Qingmei with the fury of thunder!

Yet!

Before the Bodhi seeds had flown halfway, they suddenly froze in mid-air, as if caught by an invisible hand. After a brief quiver, the halos enveloping them vanished entirely. They dropped to the ground like ordinary stones, bounced twice, and fell completely still.

***

Faced with such an extraordinary anomaly, even the monk was deeply startled. He whirled around to gaze into the distance...

Yet the very moment he raised his head, a flash of white filled his vision. A pale halo consumed his entire field of view, displaying only a dazzling expanse of white light that shook the soul. Waves of air and billowing dust erupted outward in expanding rings. As the white halo faded, a figure had materialized right before the monk.

The newcomer wore snow-white robes, a golden ring bound around his head, a silk sash tied at his waist, and the hilt of a long sword protruding from his back. Standing with his back to the monk, he extended one palm flatly while forming a sword-seal with the other, not even sparing the monk a glance.

Without a breath of wind, Qingmei's body slowly lifted into the air and suspended itself mid-flight. Then, a massive gourd gradually materialized from the void, pouring a stream of crystal-clear spring water the thickness of a finger directly over her.

Under the cascade of the spring water, the bloodstains on Qingmei's body were washed away, revealing her shattered physique. Yet as the water cleansed her, her mangled flesh and skin instantly regained vitality. They squirmed continuously, knitting and fusing back together at a speed visible to the naked eye...

The monk looked up in astonishment, watching as the "Seamless Prison" he had cast was breached with a massive hole right through the center. Sparks flickered at the jagged edges, rapidly spreading outward. It would not be long before the barrier was completely destroyed without a trace.

"A peak... Great Demon!"

Terror gripped the monk's heart. Based on demonic cultivation standards, his own strength had already reached the mid-stage of a Great Demon, but his opponent clearly surpassed him. Anyone capable of effortlessly shattering a celestial-grade artifact had to be at least at the peak of the Great Demon realm...

Just as he attempted to probe the newcomer's strength, his entire body trembled, seized by an uncontrollable shiver.

The monk slammed his foot down, and a streak of white-cyan light surged from the earth, transforming into a green lotus beneath his feet. The lotus spun wildly, and amidst a surge of green radiance, he shot away into the distance like a streak of light!

"Ngh..."

From the beginning until now, Qingmei had kept her eyes locked onto the monk. Hatred and agony had sustained her consciousness, keeping her fiercely awake. Seeing the monk attempt to flee, Qingmei cried out.

Yet given her grave injuries, what escaped her lips was merely a faint murmur: "Ngh..."

Who would have thought that her reward for this would be a sharp, resounding slap across the face from the white-robed man!

Under this blow, Qingmei's stubbornly sustained spirit instantly shattered. Unable to hold on any longer, she lapsed into total unconsciousness. Meanwhile, the cascading spring water had coalesced into a sphere of water, completely enveloping her and suspending her in mid-air.

Only then did the man turn around, casting a sideways glance in the direction of the monk's escape. The corners of his mouth hooked upward, revealing a flash of grim, white teeth as he muttered softly, "Trying to escape? If you get away, how am I to answer to our father?"

The man possessed a handsome appearance with striking features. Upon closer inspection, his brows and eyes bore a strong resemblance to Qingmei's when she had disguised herself as a man. However, his demonic qi was far more potent. At the peak of the Great Demon stage, demonic qi was entirely restrained internally; unless casting spells or losing control, it was completely imperceptible to outsiders. But right now...

The demonic qi radiating from his body was as tangible as reality itself, resembling towering, razor-sharp swords that pierced the sky, emanating an endless, biting aura of slaughter.

This fiend was none other than Qingmei's older brother, the eldest young master of the Tushan clan, and the current head of the family: Tushan Bietong!

Though Bietong spoke thus, he made no aggressive move toward the fleeing monk. Instead, with his palm held steady and channeled demonic qi, the emerald liquid within the water sphere began to spin rapidly. It repeatedly washed over Qingmei, flowing from her limbs throughout her entire body before draining away, continuously purging the black, stagnant blood of her internal injuries... As the water churned, Qingmei's snow-white, pale complexion gradually regained a hint of color. Her breathing grew deep and steady, and she fell into a deep, peaceful slumber suspended within the water.

***

Only then did Bietong exhale a long breath, using the back of his hand to wipe a few beads of sweat from his brow.

These beads of sweat were born not only from the consumption of demonic power but also from lingering fear over the recent close call. A moment later, and it would have been eternal separation. Even as a Great Demon, Bietong couldn't help but shudder... If Qingmei's little lark hadn't fortuitously flown straight into his hands, forcing the news to take a roundabout route from the Great Roc King, it truly would have been too late.

After resting briefly, he slowly turned around and walked toward the monks' encampment. The sphere of water hovered unhurriedly in mid-air behind him, maintaining a distance of ten feet and tailing him every step of the way.

After walking several dozens of paces and rounding a mountain ridge, the figure of the fleeing monk abruptly came into view. The monk was spurting a look of absolute horror as he urged the green lotus beneath his feet forward with frantic desperation, occasionally glancing backward before whipping his head around to bolt again. His expression, posture, and movements were precisely those of a man running for his life in blind panic—yet the green lotus beneath him remained completely stationary. The monk himself was utterly oblivious, showing no awareness of the anomaly whatsoever.

Even when he glanced back in Bietong's direction, his gaze passed straight through without actually seeing him...

Bietong paid him no mind. He knew very well that the monk's five senses and six consciousnesses had been sealed by his Bietong eye technique, plunging him into a permanent illusion. If left unattended, the monk would continue this frantic flight forever, without food or water, until he died of exhaustion, his soul denied release for eternity!

If Qingmei, a mere lesser demon, possessed soul-sealing arts of such caliber, Bietong, a Great Demon, was naturally far more formidable.

As Bietong walked toward the camp, monks crossed his path. Without him lifting a finger, those monks began hallucinating horrific visions: some leapt off cliffs, some drew blades to slit their own throats, while others mindlessly smashed their heads against boulders and trees. They continued unabated even as their skulls split open and blood flowed, refusing to stop until their brains burst and death finally claimed them!

Qingmei had nearly died here; naturally, Bietong had no intention of showing mercy. He dealt fatal blows to every single monk, slaughtering them to the last.

***

Liuchou was frantically gathering the scattered demonic qi within his body, exhausting every ounce of effort to expel the foreign spiritual essence. Moreover, the demonic pill bestowed upon him by the Golden Cicada had already been prepared; at the slightest hint of danger, he would swallow it and endure seven days of utter exhaustion just to survive the present crisis.

At that very moment, however, an intensely chilling wave of demonic qi swept past him. Liuchou felt as though his skin had been pricked by countless wheat awns. He abruptly halted his movements, raised his head, and locked eyes directly with a pair of emerald-green pupils.

A man clad in snow-white robes stood beside him, gazing down with a puzzled expression. Hovering quietly in the air directly behind the man was a massive sphere of emerald water, within which a human silhouette lay in repose. Because the figure was lying on her back, only her profile was visible, concealing her features.

Though Liuchou did not recognize the newcomer, judging purely by the demonic qi, the visitor was definitely neither a mortal of the Zhou lands nor a Buddhist monk, but a formidable powerhouse among the demon race.

The white-robed man met Liuchou's gaze for a moment before asking casually, "The affliction within you... is that the Western Buddhist magic of those monks?"

Liuchou only knew that this power caused him intense agony and discomfort, but as for whether it should be classified as Buddhist magic, Taoist sorcery, or immortal arts, he truly couldn't tell. He offered a bitter smile and replied, "I was indeed struck by a monk's spell, but as for what it actually is, I haven't the faintest idea."

"Ah, that settles it then. Since the monks harmed you, you certainly aren't one of them," the man nodded. Extending a finger, he flicked it through the air toward Liuchou. Instantly, an overwhelmingly potent surge of demonic qi poured into Liuchou's body. With a single rotation, it completely swept out the remnants of the foreign spiritual essence. "There. Get up and speak!"

Liuchou sprang to his feet, about to speak, when his gaze caught sight of the water sphere hovering behind the monk, within which Qingmei's form was clearly discernible. His expression shifted drastically as he demanded, "Exalted Lord! The person inside the water sphere behind you is my friend. May I ask why you have enclosed her within that orb?"