Li Ximing’s suspicions had not arisen out of thin air. At first, he had not known Fuxia's formidable strength, and had used the Huangyuan Pass to suppress him. Now that Fuxia had escaped and revealed his Lianmin Dharma Body, those suspicions grew only stronger.
“Although my Huangyuan Pass boasts formidable suppression, every advantage has its drawback. Since he possesses a Lianmin Dharma Body, wouldn't a single punch smashing my Bright Pass to pieces serve him far better?”
A Lianmin Dharma Body was not something any Foundation Establishment cultivator could compare to. If such a fist struck solidly against his immortal foundation's true form, even if Li Ximing did not perish on the spot, he would at least spit blood, lose seventy percent of his strength, and be stripped of all power to fight on.
“Moreover, his words seethed with resentment toward me, and my forebears even slew the Wrathful Eyes Four Demons Emperor Kshetra he holds so dear. That path subdues demons with utter ferocity—how could he harbor any goodwill?”
“Even if he felt no murderous intent, constrained by the deterrence of Jiangnan’s Purple Mansions and daring not commit slaughter, knocking me aside with a single punch would have granted him complete initiative in everything that followed. Fleeing here and there is not how a Lianmin acts!”
The previous flurry of combat had unfolded like a rabbit bolting and a falcon diving. Few possessed the razor-sharp mind of Li Xijun, but once Li Ximing gained a moment's respite to think through it, the suspicions in his heart had turned into firm conviction.
With Li Ximing speaking thus, Kongheng nodded in agreement:
“No matter, let me test him once more.”
Pressing his palms together before his chest, mantras flowing ceaselessly from his lips, Kongheng unleashed five-colored radiance from his hands. Once again, colorful rain drifted down from the heavens, and lotus blossoms sprang up across the lake, filling the air with fragrant perfume.
“Still putting up a desperate struggle!”
Watching this, Fuxia barked a rebuke, though secretly delighted. He merely turned the tiger back into garments to drape over himself, allowing the drifting colorful rain to fall upon his body, rippling rings of five-colored radiance across his gold-lacquered skin.
‘Another authentic binding technique! He truly comes from no ordinary lineage!’
The binding force was thick and potent, yet Fuxia neither dodged nor evaded. After all, he, Fuxia, also hailed from a renowned great monastery. His edict-shout held little sway over Kongheng, and Kongheng’s arts likewise held limited sway over him.
Not to mention that he possessed a Lianmin Dharma Body!
Seeing Fuxia allow the colorful light to bind him while keeping his gaze fixed upon him, golden cords wound around Kongheng. The six-armed Vajra loosened its grasp and brought its six arms together before its chest to support him. The five-colored radiance pouring from Kongheng's hands never ceased, solemn and dignified.
A swath of colorful light washed over the lake. Li Ximing did not look at Kongheng, his eyes fixed unwaveringly upon Fuxia. The old monk still stood motionless amid the colorful rain. Condensing celestial light in his hands, Li Ximing thought to himself:
‘The old bald donkey hardly seems to use spells at all! He relies entirely on that Dharma Body.’
Seeing that Fuxia still did not budge, Li Ximing formed hand seals and bellowed:
“Five Waters Ward the Heavens!”
As his voice fell, the grand array of Mount Qingdu roared to life. Countless gray mists surged across the water's surface, blotting out the sky and sun. From within leaped countless water serpents, agile and cunning, brandishing all manner of magical implements condensed from lake water as they hurled themselves fearlessly toward the monk.
It was precisely the Five Waters Ward the Heavens Array of Mount Qingdu!
Once this Foundation Establishment grade array was set in motion, its momentum was truly imposing. Yet Fuxia barely spared it a glance, raising his brows:
“Mosquito-like tricks!”
Sure enough, though the gray mists billowed forth, they inflicted no harm whatsoever. Beneath the brilliant light radiating from Fuxia, the water serpents had nowhere to hide; before they could even draw near his side, the shifting lights and shadows cast by his gold lacquer blew them into clouds of white vapor.
This array was Liu Changdie's proud creation; its Morning Mist and Viper Stream were inherently meant for Qi Refinement cultivators, naturally of no use against this Lianmin Dharma Body. Undeterred, Li Ximing watched coldly as his hand seals abruptly shifted.
“Non-Buoyancy!”
Snapping two fingers together, he cast the seal, and a sheet of white light rose from beneath their feet. Kongheng and Li Ximing remained completely unaffected, but Fuxia paused slightly, his expression darkening as his eyes narrowed.
“Strike!”
Almost at the very same instant, the Bright Pass materialized from white bricks. Its corner towers shone brightly, and the celestial gate blazed with dazzling brilliance as it crashed down from the sky with a resounding boom. The piercing radiance blinded the spectating cultivators around the perimeter, forcing them to shut their eyes and shield their faces with their sleeves.
“Master Kongheng!”
Fuxia had paused for only that split second, but Li Ximing did not hesitate in the slightest. Spotting the opening, he drove the Huangyuan Pass with all his might. Celestial light burst anew from his eyes, and with a shake of his sleeve, a small banner flew forth.
The banner was merely the size of a palm, colored reddish-yellow with glistening golden markings. Emblazoned upon it was a lifelike scarlet sparrow, surrounded by five overlapping red auras, its beak wide open as if spouting flames.
A magical implement of the Dongli Sect—the Yangli Scarlet Sparrow Banner!
As this magical implement showed its ferocity for the first time, five beams of red light flew from it, each the size of a palm, coalescing into a brilliant red halo. Circling the elaborately patterned base of the Huangyuan Pass, they surged simultaneously, unleashing five kinds of fire.
“Heavenly patterns crisscross, Yangli Punitive Fire!”
The five flames displayed brown-yellow, pale yellow, goose-yellow, bright red, and vermilion, descending with overwhelming ferocity. Flames soared into the sky, instantly coalescing into fiery clouds of assorted hues above the lake.
The clouds glowed red and yellow, resplendent with light and gathering origin qi. The rainbow radiance from Kongheng’s hands never ceased as he continued to bind the monk. Behind him, the six-armed Vajra reached out its hands at the same time, yet did not release its golden cords.
‘With a magical implement of the Dongli Sect present and Lihuo blazing fiercely, if my golden cords delve into it, they will surely be melted down before long!’
Quick-witted, he brought all six arms down at once to press firmly onto the Bright Pass.
Rumble!
The flames roared. Beneath the pass, however, Li Ximing could sense that Fuxia’s expression was growing increasingly grim. The youth sneered, gritting his teeth:
“As expected! I knew something was wrong with you!”
Ever since Fuxia had struck before Mount Qingdu, he had not cast a single spell; even conjuring the horned tiger had relied on a magical implement to escape. Despite clearly possessing the strength to subdue both of them with two punches, he dragged his feet, refusing to budge whenever he could avoid it.
Although Li Ximing did not understand Shakya methods, he had sought the path of the Purple Mansion for years and was deeply accomplished in techniques and cultivation arts; suspicion had already taken root.
Furthermore, the most precious and unique aspect of his Five Waters Ward the Heavens Array lay in this single technique of Non-Buoyancy, crafted from the materials of the Weak Water that Yang Xiao'er had brought back, making it exceedingly rare:
“And Non-Buoyancy is precious precisely because it is best at draining another's magic power and disrupting wind-riding!”
“The problem lies in his magic power!”
Combining this with all of Fuxia's prior actions, Li Ximing realized almost instantly:
“This man’s cultivation has already dropped to Master! Though he possesses an empty Lianmin body, its divine wonders are completely lost! In such Zhao Shakya communal cultivation, nothing is truly his own; nine times out of ten, even his magic power has taken a massive blow, and without divine abilities, how difficult must it be to drive this Lianmin form!”
Such existences were not unfamiliar. Back then, when Li Xuanfeng borrowed the cardinal positions of Shen and You Metal to grasp the metal, he had consumed both immortal foundations within his body as fuel and provisions just to gain the strength for a single battle! How could Fuxia be any better off?!
Hearing Li Ximing’s words, Kongheng immediately understood:
“I underestimated the impact that the fall of the Wrathful Eyes Four Demons Emperor Kshetra would have on them!”
“And this is a Dharma body Fuxia cultivated himself! Having tumbled from the Lianmin rank, he possesses rich experience and profound attainment; were it not for that, he would have been immobilized long ago!”
Kongheng was far from foolish; he was merely bound by monastic precepts, unable to entertain delusions and suspicious thoughts about others in ordinary times. Now that he had thought it through, everything became clear:
“Earlier, when he tread upon a withered log as a boat, was it truly just for asceticism? I fear not! How heavy is a Lianmin body? He feared that the magic power in his body was insufficient, so he refused to fly; riding across upon a withered log at least gave him something to rely on and conserved considerable magic power!”
Kongheng was pure and kind-hearted at core; even at this point, he still refused to suspect that Fuxia had been deceiving him from beginning to end, merely viewing it as “not solely for asceticism.”
With these deductions, both men immediately realized that Fuxia's stalling, his escape techniques, and his turning garments into a tiger were largely a bluff, and their hearts eased considerably.
Rumble!
Fuxia stretched his back with all his might and struggled, producing a tremendous roar. The Bright Pass immediately shook and wobbled. Li Ximing showed no mercy whatsoever. Seizing upon the vulnerability, he drove the Five Waters Ward the Heavens Array with full force on one side while retrieving a small bottle from his robes on the other.
“Mystic Pattern Bottle!”
Celestial light erupted from the Mystic Pattern Bottle, overlaying the Huangyuan Pass. Were it not for Guiyang being a defensive implement, Li Ximing would have dearly loved to hurl that white disc into the fray as well.
‘A pity the Chongming Dongxuan Screen is in Zhouwei’s hands; otherwise, we would have had far greater certainty.’
Now, the Huangyuan Pass bore down like a mountain, gradually stabilizing. As five types of Lihuo scorched away, the magic power in Li Ximing’s body plummeted rapidly. Fuxia gradually became unable to shake it, aware that his shortcomings—his depleted magic power and the difficulty of driving his Dharma Body—had been exposed.
The old monk sighed and shook his head:
“In matters of deceit, this old monk does not match you practitioners of the Purple-Gold demonic path by one ten-thousandth. I originally intended to keep it hidden, yet I am unaccustomed to dissimulation, and indeed you saw through it.”
Li Ximing paid the old bald donkey no heed at all. He merely swallowed medicinal pills and exerted himself to the utmost, pouring his entire magic power into celestial light and infusing it into the Bright Pass.
Braving the roaring Lihuo, Fuxia resorted to his old trick. Pinching his five fingers into the shape of a lotus flower, he puffed his cheeks and exhaled a mouthful of pink vapor.
Kongheng had been keeping a close watch on him; how could he let him escape again? Bellowing fiercely with wrathful power, he shouted a sharp “Ha!” and spat forth several streaks of golden light that bored beneath the Huangyuan Pass like shooting stars. Tightening both hands, he scattered the sky full of colorful radiance and made a fierce grasping motion.
With two crisp clangs, two flecks of golden light crashed before Fuxia, sweeping away the clouds like a gale and wiping the pink vapor clean away.
Fuxia held his hand seals, his expression unchanging, but he chanted no more.
Had the Wrathful Eyes Four Demons Emperor Kshetra not fallen, to say nothing of divine abilities, in mere spellcasting, a hundred Konghengs tied together would not have withstood a single one of his incantations. Now, however, Fuxia had no choice but to admit his powerlessness.
With the fall of the Wrathful Eyes Four Demons Emperor Kshetra, the path of Wrath suffered catastrophic losses. Small sects and wild temples were not orthodox to begin with and still had many spells to rely on, but for great monasteries of his standing, formidable arts had always connected directly to the Mahasattvas, and had thus come to naught.
Fuxia was not utterly incapable of casting a single spell, nor was he unable to drive his Dharma Body to shatter the Bright Pass with a punch. But the circulation of magic power in his body was already strained; if he cast spells lightly, he might not have enough power left to return north with Kongheng...
‘Moreover, the Abbot calculated that this Li Ximing must not be killed... and it is best not even to harm him!’
Though the situation seemed difficult, the old monk paid it no mind. Crossing his legs, he sat down right amid the surging Lihuo, forming a seal at his dantian with both hands, utter silence falling upon him.
‘Why must I cast spells to break out?’
He sat quietly within the Lihuo and the Bright Pass, allowing the five-colored Lihuo to scorch him and the celestial light to temper him. He withdrew all radiance of his magic power, sitting motionless within the fire like a golden statue.
Seeing him respond this way, Li Ximing paused, understanding in an instant:
‘What a cunning old bald donkey!’
The two of them had seen through Fuxia’s bluff, knowing that not only did he struggle to cast spells, but he also lacked the magic power to overturn the Bright Pass. Thinking he was merely putting on a show, they had suppressed him with peace of mind.
Yet Fuxia had turned their scheme against them, simply sitting down at ease.
For no other reason than that Fuxia possessed a Lianmin Dharma Body. Whether it was Lihuo or celestial light, no matter how immense their might or how wondrous their power, before the true form of a Dharma Body, they were not worth a single strand of hair. Fuxia had no need to overturn anything; he only needed to expose his true form.
Meanwhile, Li Ximing’s magic power was not boundless. If they continued to wear each other down like this, it would only waste Li Ximing’s magic power, and an exhaustion point would inevitably arrive.
The lake suddenly fell quiet. Li Ximing's brows furrowed tightly as he gradually reduced the firepower of the Yangli Scarlet Sparrow Banner, only stopping when the Bright Pass began to tremble faintly, maintaining a silent suppression.
Li Ximing said in a low voice:
“Master... do you have a way to resolve this?”
Kongheng also saw the situation clearly. Sighing softly, he replied:
“At the very least, I can now speak with him on equal footing. Let me try to persuade him.”
Gliding across the surface of the lake, Kongheng passed through the steaming white vapor and the dense Lihuo and celestial light, arriving before the Huangyuan Pass.
Li Ximing was startled and hurriedly called out, saying gravely:
“Master, be careful! Lihuo and bright light have no eyes! Your fleshly body is precious; you must not share the same space with this fellow!”
Beneath the Huangyuan Pass was already terrifying to behold. Fuxia possessed a Lianmin Dharma Body and naturally had nothing to fear, but an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator entering would not last even a brief moment!
Kongheng looked back at him from afar, chuckling softly, and returned the courtesy:
“No matter, Ximing. This is my tribulation. I traveled thousands of miles and ventured south precisely to cross this tribulation.”
Li Ximing watched blankly as Kongheng stepped into the flames, braving the scorching Lihuo and dazzling celestial light until he gradually arrived beneath the Huangyuan Pass.
Fuxia kept his eyes closed and his spirit calm, uttering not a word.
Kongheng said softly:
“Senior, earlier there were things you did not speak plainly.”
Fuxia knew he was referring to the withered log and sensed the reprimand, so he said in a deep voice:
“I am a Dharma protector, not a fool. Why should I explain everything plainly!”
“I understand.”
Kongheng sat cross-legged before him, his voice gentle:
“All seven paths possess selfish motives. In this world today, none can survive without selfish motives. Kongheng has long known this. In the past, when the Mahasattvas associated with my master, they too had selfish motives.”
His words slandered the Mahasattvas, causing Fuxia’s eyes to glare in fury.
A smile appeared on Kongheng’s face:
“When the Mahasattvas visited my master back then, the sky over the Liao River was filled with five-colored radiance that night. I stood behind my master, and the Mahasattvas all tried to entice me with extravagant rhetoric, divine words, and profound teachings of golden lotuses. They spoke of chaotic heavens and earth, tears flowing from stubborn stones, and ascending boundless celestial steps to reap full measures of essence, yet they failed to win me over.”
“Yet my five senior brothers from before were all lured away.”
Kongheng’s words touched upon hidden secrets and mentioned the Mahasattvas, stirring drifting colorful clouds in the sky and golden lotuses across the lake. At last, Fuxia took on a serious expression and asked in a low voice:
“So what?”
“Abbot Fuyan is my third senior brother, Kongyan.”
Kongheng spoke in a calm tone, a smile gracing his face.
Chapter 674