Chiluo

The divine ability 'Yetian Gate' was inherently a manifestation of Mingyang's brilliant clarity—grand, magnificent, and dazzling. In terms of sheer spectacle, few divine abilities could match Yetian Gate. Now, as a luminous barrier pressed down, massive as a mountain range and illuminating all four quarters, it terrified the temple tenants of the north into prostration and sent the common folk of the south kowtowing in awe. The three Lianmin felt as though they bore the weight of multiple mountains, immobilized for the moment. Celestial light shone downward as an unending grinding and suppressing force poured from within the heavenly gate, exerting pressure layer upon layer. Li Ximing raised a hand to his lips once more: "Hoo!" Red shifted to white, finally transforming into the glittering gold of Three Hou Shuxuan Fire that cascaded downward toward the base of the heavenly gate. Along with it surged blazing Mingyang purple fire, instantly igniting into a sea of flames. Drenched in sweat, the three found specks of golden lacquer melting from their dharma bodies and dripping into the glittering flames, where it swiftly vaporized. With that, the divine ability pressed down with even greater stability. Even worse, as the Pure Land's light in the sky was severed, the wisps of multicolored light shielding their bodies and preserving their lives grew visibly weaker. Only the precious glow naturally inherent to their dharma bodies still flickered, barely warding off the surging flames. Regardless of the trio's dire plight below, Li Ximing sat steadily atop the luminous pass, a quiet realization dawning in his heart: *No wonder Real Person Kuiqi had to seek me out and bring me back. It turns out Yetian Gate is remarkably adept at dealing with Lianmin—especially its power to grind, suppress, and sever divine abilities. It strikes right at their vital weakness!* Every kind of divine ability had its specialty. Yetian Gate was renowned for grinding and suppressing. While it did not grant Li Ximing the decisive offensive power wielded by Ye Gui or Changxiao, once Yetian Gate gained the upper hand, it was like Mount Taishi, possessing an upright, unshakeable majesty. And since Lianmin possessed no divine abilities of their own, they were pinned down completely! As the white heavenly gate overhead bore down heavier and heavier, the two Lianmin in the rear urgently turned to their leader. One whispered: "Master Pingling, we juniors have only recently ascended to the Pure Land. Our power of faith is weak, and our seats are lowly. We beg you, Master, to borrow divine abilities from the Pure Land to preserve our dharma bodies!" The three-eyed Lianmin leading them hesitated. His condition was somewhat better, and as he channeled magic power alongside them to resist the suppression, he watched their golden lacquer drip away in the true fire while sweat poured like rain. Gritting his teeth, he sent a telepathic message: "This divine ability is utterly bizarre! Do you think I don't want to borrow? Our status is within the Pure Land, so our petition can naturally reach it, but the Pure Land's light might not descend. I don't sit under the Wisdom-Revealing or Golden Lotus seats—where would I get so much faith?!" The two did not necessarily believe him, both showing doubtful looks. After all, if this fire kept burning without pause, Pingling might hold out until reinforcements arrived, but the two of them might not. Understanding that he simply did not want to bleed alone, they could only lower their voices: "We are willing to lend Master a helping hand!" Pingling's face brightened, but before he could reply, a bright white beam shot out from within the flames. Concealed by the dazzling light overhead, it lunged forward like a venomous snake. The Lianmin holding the hammer only managed to raise his dharma artifact before crying out in agony! "Ah!" As the light struck his iron-and-gold eyes, his left eye exploded into golden powder. The three Lianmin dared not delay another moment and formed seals together. The three-eyed Pingling chanted hurriedly: "Boundless across the eight directions, all is illusion; right and wrong, truth and falsehood, all are mere empty thoughts... Where the precious light shines... unfathomable merits, verified only by our Pure Land! This lowly cultivator beseeches a divine ability!" Li Ximing's Yetian Gate surged with ever-increasing intensity. Abruptly looking up, he felt the Great Void tremble, as if some realm were drawing closer to the mortal plane. Auspicious clouds emerged in the sky, and a stream of multicolored light fell. This radiance was only the size of a human head, like a pillar of light leaking downward. It sought to land upon someone, yet was halted atop Yetian Gate, shining directly onto the divine ability. The moment it shone, Li Ximing frowned, feeling a burning sting flare up. Mountain-Driving Profound Screen swiftly caught up to block it, yet found the multicolored light completely unobstructed. Only Yetian Gate's power to grind and sever suppressed it smaller and smaller. By the time it pierced through the bright light, more than half had been stripped away before it finally landed upon the crown of the three-eyed Lianmin. Upon receiving this light, Pingling's eyes grew translucent, and densely packed runes lit up across his body. Two more arms tore out from his back, pressing against the underside of Yetian Gate in an attempt to upend it. Li Ximing took a single glance. The celestial light recondensed at his glabella, and he chuckled. His eyes gradually shifted to white-gold as his hands formed seals, his thoughts turning cold: *Good, good, good. Instead of using the divine ability to flee, you actually want to overturn Yetian Gate! Let's see you try!* Sparing no effort, he circulated his magic power. The radiance of the divine ability blazed even more prominently, and the interior of the heavenly gate shone with blinding brilliance, illuminating heaven and earth in stark white. This drew a glance from Pijia in the sky and made Daixi on the ground shake his head. Kuiqi, on the other hand, showed no surprise; whether true fire or Yetian Gate, his Xiukui lineage clearly knew of both, and he merely exhaled a puff of black qi. Daixi looked somber. Even though he had anticipated that these three fools might botch things, he had not expected them to be suppressed beneath the barrier so quickly. His strength was a cut above Chen Yin's, and with the Kongxi Demon-Subduing Bowl absorbing the opponent's Fushui, he had already gained the upper hand. Seeing this state of affairs, he shook his head inwardly and pondered: *They claimed Chen Yin and Li Ximing had their hands full, yet both showed up. Could Zhelu have lacked confidence in his own heart and deceived me into charging at the forefront? If that's the case, could Ling Mei also be lurking in the Great Void?* The schemes within the Pure Land were no fewer than those of the immortal path. Although Daixi and Zhelu were both Mohe of the Kongwu Path and in the same boat, their strengths were not comparable; Daixi had been promoted by Zhelu, so he accepted his directives as a junior. Yet his wariness was by no means lacking. His heart sank slightly as he pondered: *You, Zhelu, have plenty of Lianmin under you, and not a few under the Golden Lotus seat... yet you were unwilling to dispatch two of them. Instead, among the five under my command, two dharma bodies have already been destroyed in an instant. Dammit... Between those whatever Tinglan and Qiu Hu, and out here only an initial Violet Palace Kuiqi—even granting that a Mohe was needed, could they really tie down a whole crowd of Lianmin?* After all, the core artifact suppressing and holding Tinglan and the other in the sky belonged to someone else. Unable to gauge the situation and receiving no word from Zhelu, Daixi felt something was amiss. Pinching his fingers as he stood, half his eye instantly transformed into an orb covered in runes, peering through the Great Void toward the Pure Land to urgently request reinforcements. On this side, Lianmin Pingling felt even more aggrieved. His four arms flickered between bright and dim under the increasingly heavy luminous pass. The two behind him, sheltered by his protection, barely managed to catch their breath, though their expressions were equally grim. It was not that Pingling was stubbornly determined to hold out rather than flee. The multicolored light from heaven was a divine ability bestowed by the Pure Land, of which there were only a handful of kinds; one had to take whatever was bestowed. He was not a Mohe who could freely deploy profound abilities at will. Moreover, having sixty percent stripped away by this insidious Yetian Gate, what great use could it possibly have? Misfortunes never come singly, and Li Ximing was not about to wait for him. White light darted through the air as Shangyao Fuguang descended once more. Fortunately, the two had caught their breath this time and hastily used their dharma artifacts to parry. The Lianmin holding the hammer took a heavy blow, coughing up specks of golden powder. Yet before he could recover, a streak of clear light galloped through the sea of flames. The celestial light flared intensely, and a white-gold sleeve bearing golden fire swept out from within! Li Ximing had premeditated this strike for a long time. Though the Solar Yingli Technique did not synergize well with true fire, he had arrived in person with his dharma body and utilized Gu Wind Fire Summoning to gather countless layers of flame in his palm. Finally catching his opponent off guard, he slammed it viciously into the chest of the hammer-wielding Lianmin! Li Ximing had no bodily divine ability. The hammer-wielding Lianmin should have had a chance to react, but one hand holding the hammer had already been knocked aside by Shangyao Fuguang, and his other arm was burning in the fire. Slow by half a beat, he had no choice but to take the palm strike head-on. *Rumble!* Violent true fire exploded. The Lianmin only managed a howling shriek before the Violet Palace true fire, bright as a pillar of light, punched straight through his chest in an instant, blasting away a shower of golden fragments. His eyes nearly tearing open with fury, the three-eyed Lianmin retracted all four palms at once and struck into the fire, braving the divine ability from above. *Bang!* Li Ximing took a blow and transformed into light, darting away. Suppressed by the divine ability, the three naturally could not pursue, watching helplessly as he returned to the top of the pass. The hammer-wielding Lianmin was charred black from head to toe, a massive wound torn into his chest that nearly severed him in two. His aura had diminished by sixty to seventy percent, and golden lacquer constantly spewed from his mouth as he muttered sullenly: "What an insidious fire art!" To their eyes, Li Ximing's palm strike had arrived without the slightest omen; he must have secretly chanted an incantation, using his divine ability to conceal the fluctuations of the true fire and gradually gathering power—it could hardly be described as anything but insidious. Meanwhile, Li Ximing retreated to the pass and exhaled a breath of Mingyang light. Protected by Mountain-Driving Profound Screen and with his opponent's strike having been rushed, he had merely suffered some turbulence within his body. He nodded inwardly: *A Buddhist's body truly is tough... fortunately, it is clumsy...* In essence, that palm strike contained no divine ability; it relied purely on true fire and talismanic qi. Against someone else, whether Changxiao or Ye Gui, once enhanced by a divine ability, it certainly wouldn't have landed. But against a Lianmin, it was far easier to succeed. Seeing this state of affairs, the three below had long grown terrified. If this continued, the other two would sooner or later be tortured to death by Li Ximing. Pingling had no choice but to transmit in a low voice: *This man is treacherous! Truly worthy of being from the Wei Li. The techniques he cultivates are clearly tailored from beginning to end to target us Buddhists. He is truly a nemesis to our path, and his strength is not to be underestimated. We can delay no longer!* He conveyed these words swiftly and urgently, causing the two behind him to nod repeatedly in agreement. Only then did he mention the situation inside the formation with lingering fear: *Measureless Water-Fire is far too terrifying—it severs the Great Void. Not only can those inside barely perceive the outside world, but they also hesitate out of fear of causing collateral damage. It would be better to come outside to face the enemy and simply plead with the Pure Land.* When the three had been dispatched outside, they had actually breathed a sigh of relief. The woman inside stood atop a purple pavilion with a clay pot in hand, spewing Measureless Water-Fire that could rightfully be called the bane of Lianmin. While others merely severed connections through the Great Void, this fire erased the Great Void altogether! Touch even a speck of it, and wherever you fled, the Great Void collapsed behind you. If severely injured, one couldn't even die back into the Pure Land! A lone Measureless Water-Fire was trouble enough, but even more frightening was the Shangxiang Pot handed down by the Ziyan Gate. Enhanced by Measureless Water-Fire, the flames it spewed were on the verge of submerging the grand formation! Had Mohe Zhelu not been guarding it in person, who knew how chaotic it would have become inside. The three of them had the weakest strength, so they had been driven out, spared from facing those dreadful flames. Yet with Li Ximing suppressing them like this, prolonged exposure would likely torment their dharma bodies until all their prior efforts came to naught! Just at this moment, the Eight-Beam Dharma Wheel in midair finally lit up, and out flew a monk with red skin and emerald eyes, riding atop a short-furred tiger whose coat burned like flames, commanding and awe-inspiring. Stepping out into the air, a lingering trace of relief could still be seen in his eyes, though his complexion was somewhat dim. Sweeping his gaze across the luminous pass between heaven and earth, he froze for a moment before exclaiming in delight: "A remnant of the Wei Li!" Walking through the air, he reached out with one hand into the void and dragged out a red pagoda. Glaring with widened eyes, the pagoda immediately shot forth light as the red-faced Lianmin shouted: "How dare you run rampant!" Li Ximing felt a rush of danger and knew a formidable foe had arrived. Turning abruptly, the celestial light at his glabella shot out to meet it. Amid a resounding explosion in midair and drifting smoke, the red-faced Lianmin had already ridden his tiger right before him, iron-like palms slamming toward his face. Mountain-Driving Profound Screen flared instantly, but taking this single palm strike shattered it to pieces. The tiger beneath the Lianmin roared thunderously, filling Li Ximing's ears with deafening Buddhist chants that caused his magic power to stall, forcing him to fall back. Unexpectedly, this man possessed a formidable dharma body. Without pausing in the slightest, red light blazed furiously in his eyes, and both mouths opened wide as man and mount vomited red flames that cascaded down like rain. Though Gentu Spiritual Gathering could not ward off fire, Li Ximing's Yetian Gate aided his dharma body and granted stronger resistance against flames. Furthermore, standing atop Yetian Gate under the protection of celestial light, he only felt a sharp sting in his chest upon taking the blast of flames, suffering no serious injury. Yet with the fire still clinging to his chest, he immediately pressed two fingers together and spat out Three Hou Shuxuan Fire. Though the red-faced Lianmin attacked fiercely and possessed strength clearly far beyond the three below, he knew that taking on an initial Violet Palace cultivator was still somewhat strenuous. Thus, he was well-prepared, merely forced back a step by the scorch as he blocked with his pagoda. This pagoda was forged of Geng Gold. While all fires smelt metal and counter it, Geng Gold was relatively the least fearful of fire among the Three Metals, and Chiluo was skilled with flame, so he managed to suppress the fire for the time being. Once the Three Hou Shuxuan Fire departed, the flames at the base of the heavenly gate finally subsided, wobbling slightly. Li Ximing sighed inwardly, using his divine ability to erase the flames on his chest. Facing the pagoda bearing down from the red-faced Lianmin, Yetian Gate finally uprooted from the earth. He dropped into the center of Yetian Gate, using the power of the divine ability to shield himself. Having been roasted by the true fire for so long, the three finally broke free. The precious artifacts held by the sword-wielder and hammer-wielder were slightly warped from the heat. Riding the wind as they took flight, the three said respectfully: "Our thanks to Lord Chiluo!" "No matter!" The red-faced Lianmin had eyes only for Li Ximing; why would he waste words on them? His eyes gleamed faintly as he shielded the three from the incoming celestial light, recalling the pagoda to block Shangyao Fuguang, while a fierce resolve stirred in his heart: *It would be best to devise a way to kill this man!* Li Ximing stood resolute and unmoving, holding back the spirit artifact concealed within his sleeve. Had this grand battle concerned his own interests, he would certainly have clamped down relentlessly on the three earlier, clashing head-on with Chiluo and holding out in one continuous breath to at least batter the two weaker Lianmin until they lost the ability to fight on... That would have been the best way to defeat all four. Yet this battle belonged to someone else. If he fought so fiercely and allowed Chiluo to close in, Li Ximing was bound to get injured. Whether that elixir could compensate for it was one matter, but after enduring so much turmoil over the years, he understood how much energy it took to recover from a single injury, and he truly did not wish to waste more time. Moreover, his foes could not borrow dharma power to besiege him together, and the Chongyang Star-Governing Treasure Plate possessed the ability to extricate him from danger, so there was no need to fight these four to the bitter end. He merely stood in silence: *Every single one of these Lianmin looks at me with greed, yet they won't easily let me go, either!* Sure enough, Chiluo was already forming seals to cast spells while the three guarded him within their midst. Li Ximing's gaze darkened, settling once more upon the hammer-wielding Lianmin whose body was already battered beyond recognition. *I'll send this fool on his way first!*