The path of Audience at the Heavenly Gate was inherently the manifestation of luminous, resplendent Mingyang. Grand and magnificent, radiant and dazzling—if one were to speak of sheer spectacle, few divine abilities surpassed Audience at the Heavenly Gate. Now, as a luminous pass pressed down, massive as a mountain range and illuminating the four directions, it terrified the temple serfs in the north into prostrating in worship, while the common folk in the south kowtowed in dread.
Beneath it, the three Lianmin felt as though they bore heavy mountain ranges upon their shoulders, completely immobilized for the moment. Heavenly light shone downward, releasing a ceaseless grinding and suppressing force from within the Heavenly Gate, exerting pressure layer upon layer. Li Ximing raised his hand again, placing it before his lips:
"Whoosh!"
Red and white interwove before finally turning into a golden downpour of Three Hou Shuxuan Fire, pouring toward the base of the Heavenly Gate. Gushing alongside it was scorching Mingyang purple fire, instantly turning the area into a sea of flames.
The three monks were instantly soaked in cold sweat. Specks of gold lacquer melted and dripped from their dharma bodies, falling into the gleaming golden flames and quickly evaporating into vapor. Consequently, the divine ability pressed down with even greater firmness.
What was even more fatal was that as the Pure Land's light in the sky was severed, the wisps of multicolored light shielding their bodies and protecting their lives visibly weakened. Only the precious light naturally inherent to their dharma bodies continued to flicker, barely fending off the surging flames.
Regardless of how miserable the three below were, 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 seems Audience at the Heavenly Gate is remarkably effective against Lianmin—especially this power of grinding, suppression, and severing divine abilities, which strikes right at their weakest spot!'
Every kind of divine ability had its strength. Audience at the Heavenly Gate was renowned for its grinding and suppression. Though it could not grant Li Ximing the kind of decisive, overwhelming offensive power that Ye Gui or Changxiao possessed, once Audience at the Heavenly Gate gained the upper hand, it was like Mount Taishi, possessing an upright, grand majesty. It just so happened that Lianmin had no divine abilities of their own, so they were pinned down utterly and completely!
Presently, the white Heavenly Gate overhead bore down heavier and heavier. The two Lianmin behind quickly looked to their leader, and one whispered in a low voice:
"Master Pingling, we juniors have only just ascended to the Pure Land. Our power of faith is weak and our seats are low. We beg the Master to borrow a divine ability from the Pure Land to preserve the dharma bodies of us three!"
The three-eyed Lianmin taking the lead hesitated. His condition was slightly better. While channeling magic power alongside the two to resist the suppression, he watched their gold lacquer drip away and sweat pour down like rain in the true fire. He gritted his teeth and sent a mental transmission:
'This divine ability is simply bizarre! Do you think I don't want to borrow one? You and I have seats in the Pure Land, so our supplication can naturally reach up to the Pure Land, but the Pure Land's light might not be able to descend! I am not beneath Fahui or the Golden Lotus—where would I get such immense power of faith?!'
The other two did not necessarily believe him, both revealing suspicious looks. After all, if the 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 whisper:
"We are willing to lend the Master our strength!"
Delight surfaced on Pingling's face, but before the words had finished settling, a bright white ray of light shot out from within the flames. Using the brilliant light overhead as cover, it darted before them like a venomous snake. The Lianmin holding the hammer only had time to raise his magical instrument before crying out in agony:
"Ah!"
Shone upon by the light, his left eye among his metallic, golden eyes instantly burst into a cloud of gold powder. The three Lianmin dared not hesitate any longer and joined together in forming incantation gestures. The three-eyed Pingling hurriedly chanted:
"Immeasurable in eight directions, all is illusory; right and wrong, truth and falsehood, all are empty thoughts... Shone upon by the precious light... inconceivable merit, only our Pure Land bears witness! This humble cultivator earnestly beseeches a divine ability!"
Li Ximing pushed Audience at the Heavenly Gate to greater and greater power. Suddenly looking up, he felt the Great Void tremble with sound, as though some world were approaching reality. Auspicious clouds appeared in the sky, and a ray of multicolored light descended.
This radiance was only the size of a human head, like a beam of light leaking down. It sought to fall upon someone, yet paused above Audience at the Heavenly Gate, shining against the divine ability.
Under this illumination, Li Ximing immediately furrowed his brow, feeling a scorching, stinging pain rise. The Mountain-Driving Profound Screen quickly rushed forward, only to find that the multicolored light was completely unhindered by it. Instead, it was compressed smaller and smaller only by the grinding and severing power of Audience at the Heavenly Gate. By the time it pierced through the bright light, more than half had been eroded away before it finally landed upon the crown of the three-eyed Lianmin.
Having received this light, Lianmin Pingling's eyes grew translucent and glistening, and dense runes lit up across his body. Two arms broke through the air from his back, pressing against the underside of Audience at the Heavenly Gate in an attempt to heave the Heavenly Gate upward.
Li Ximing took just one look. The heavenly light at his brow reconverged. He chuckled, his eyes gradually turning platinum, hands forming seals as his thoughts turned cold:
'Good, good, good! Rather than using the divine ability to flee, you actually want to overturn Audience at the Heavenly Gate! Then let us put it to the test!'
Sparing no effort, he circulated his magic power, and the brilliance upon the divine ability grew even more pronounced. The Heavenly Gate blazed with blinding radiance, turning heaven and earth a stark, uniform white.
This drew a sideways glance from Pijia in the sky and a shake of the head from Daixi on the ground. Kuiqi, on the contrary, was not surprised. Whether it was the true fire or Audience at the Heavenly Gate, his Xiukui lineage clearly knew about them, and he merely exhaled a puff of black qi.
Daixi looked gloomy. Even though he had anticipated that those three fools would mess things up, he had not expected them to be suppressed beneath the gate so quickly.
His strength was a tier above Chen Yin's, and with the Kongxi Demon-Subduing Bowl absorbing his opponent's Fushui, he had already gained the upper hand. Seeing this sight, he secretly shook his head and pondered:
'They claimed Chen Yin and Li Ximing had their hands full elsewhere, yet both showed up. Could Zhelu secretly lack confidence and have tricked me into rushing to the forefront? If that is the case, surely there isn't another Ling Mei waiting in the Great Void, is there?'
The schemes within the Pure Land were no fewer than those in the immortal path. It was only because Daixi and Zhelu were both Mohe of the Kongwu Path, standing in the same boat, and Daixi's strength was no match for Zhelu's—moreover, Daixi had been promoted by Zhelu, so he accepted his bidding in the posture of a junior. Yet his wariness was by no means lacking. His heart sank secretly as he mused:
'You, Zhelu, have plenty of Lianmin under you, and not a few beneath the Golden Lotus... yet you were unwilling to send two of them out. Meanwhile, of the five under my command, two dharma bodies have been ruined in an instant. Dammit... that Tinglan and Qiuhu, and only a Kuiqi in the early Violet Palace stage—using a Mohe was one thing, but how could they also pin down a whole crowd of Lianmin?'
After all, the array core magical instrument in the sky that suppressed and contained Tinglan and her companion belonged to someone else. Daixi could not gauge the situation accurately, nor could he receive any news from Zhelu. He felt that something was amiss. Thus, standing with fingers pinching incantation gestures, half of his eyes instantly transformed into orbs densely covered in runes. Peering through the Great Void to gaze from afar toward the Pure Land, he hurriedly made an appeal for reinforcements.
On this side, Lianmin Pingling felt utterly aggrieved. His four arms flickered between bright and dim beneath the increasingly heavy luminous pass. The two behind him, having gained his protection, managed a brief respite, yet their expressions were equally unsightly.
It was not that Pingling insisted on stubbornly resisting to the bitter end instead of fleeing. The multicolored light from the heavens was a divine ability bestowed by the Pure Land, and there were only so few varieties; whatever was bestowed was what one received. He was not a Mohe who could freely deploy the wonders of various divine abilities at will. Moreover, it had been shaved down by sixty percent by that underhanded Audience at the Heavenly Gate—what significant use could it possibly have left?
Yet miseries come in pairs. Li Ximing would certainly not wait for him. White light darted back and forth, and the Shangyao Subduing Light descended once again.
Fortunately, the two had gained a moment to breathe this time and hastily used their magical instruments to intercept it. The hammer-wielding Lianmin took a heavy blow, coughing up a mouthful of gold powder. Yet unexpectedly, a beam of bright light galloped through the sea of flames. The heavenly light intensified abruptly, and out swept a platinum sleeve trailing golden fire!
Li Ximing had premeditated this strike for a long time. Although the Solar Yingli Technique did not coordinate very well with the true fire, he descended in his own dharma body and utilized the Gu Wind Fire Summoning to gather untold layers of flames in his palm. Finally, catching his opponent off guard, he slammed it viciously against the hammer-wielding Lianmin's chest!
Li Ximing possessed no physical body divine ability, so the hammer-wielding Lianmin should originally have had a chance to react. However, the hand wielding the hammer had already been knocked aside by Shangyao Subduing Light, and his other arm was being burned by the fire. He was half a beat too slow and was forced to take this palm strike head-on.
"Rumble!"
Intense true fire erupted. The Lianmin only had time to let out a howl before the Violet Palace true fire, bright as a pillar of light, pierced through his chest in the blink of an eye, blasting apart a shower of golden fragments. The three-eyed Lianmin's eyes nearly split with rage. Retracting all four palms simultaneously, he endured the divine ability from above and struck into the fire.
"Bang!"
Li Ximing took the blow, his figure turning into light and darting away. Suppressed by the divine ability, the three naturally could not pursue, and could only watch helplessly as he returned atop the pass.
The hammer-wielding Lianmin was charred black from head to toe, a massive wound blasted into his chest that nearly snapped him in two. Sixty to seventy percent of his aura had dissipated, and gold lacquer water continually spewed from his mouth. He gasped in a muffled voice:
"What a vicious, sinister fire art!"
In their eyes, Li Ximing's palm strike had come without the slightest omen. He must have secretly chanted incantations, concealing the true fire's fluctuations with his divine ability and gathering power bit by bit—insidious to the extreme. Li Ximing, having retreated atop the pass, exhaled a breath of Mingyang light. With the protection of the Mountain-Driving Profound Screen and the haste of his opponent's strike, he only suffered slight turbulence in his body. He nodded secretly to himself:
'A monk's body is indeed tough... Fortunately, they are clumsy and cumbersome...'
In truth, that palm strike did not involve any divine ability; it relied purely on true fire and talisman qi. If it had been anyone else—be it Changxiao or Ye Gui—once their divine abilities were bolstered, he certainly wouldn't have been able to hit them. Against Lianmin, however, 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 insidious. Worthy of being a Wei Li, the techniques he cultivates are clearly tailored from start to finish to target our Buddhist cultivators. He is truly an enemy of our path, and his strength is not to be underestimated. We cannot drag this out any longer!'
He delivered these words in a rapid rush, causing the two behind him to nod repeatedly in complete agreement. Only then did he mention the situation inside the array with lingering fear:
'The Measureless Water-Fire is far too terrifying, severing the Great Void. Not only do those inside find it difficult to know what is happening outside, but they also hesitate out of fear of causing collateral damage. It is actually better to come out and face the enemy, relying only on supplications to the Pure Land.'
The three of them had actually breathed a sigh of relief when they were dispatched outside. That woman inside stood atop a purple pavilion, holding an earthen pot. It was no exaggeration to call the Measureless Water-Fire she spewed the bane of Lianmin! When others severed the Great Void, it was merely an obstruction, but this fire wiped out the Great Void entirely! If even a speck touched you, wherever you fled, the Great Void collapsed behind you. If you were gravely wounded, you couldn't even die your way back to the Pure Land!
Measureless Water-Fire alone was troublesome enough, but what was even more frightening was the Shangxiang Pot passed down by Ziyan Gate. Bolstered by the Shangxiang Pot, the fire spewed forth had nearly inundated the grand array! Had Mohe Zhelu not been holding the fort in person, heaven only knew what chaos would have erupted inside.
Being the weakest, the three had been driven outside, spared from facing that terrifying fire. Yet with Li Ximing suppressing them like this, in the long run, their dharma bodies would likely be tortured to ruin as well!
Just at this moment, the eight-armed dharma wheel in midair finally lit up. Out flew a red-skinned, green-eyed monk astride a short-haired tiger whose fur blazed like burning fire, looking exceptionally majestic.
Stepping forth through the air, a trace of relief still lingered in his eyes, though his expression was somewhat dim. Sweeping his gaze across the luminous pass between heaven and earth, he was stunned for an instant, then rejoiced:
"Wei Li remnant!"
Walking on air, he grabbed into the sky with one hand, hauling out a crimson pagoda. With eyes glaring in fury, the pagoda instantly shot forth brilliant light as the red-faced Lianmin shouted:
"How dare you run rampant!"
Li Ximing felt a sense of crisis surge over him, knowing at once that a formidable opponent had arrived. Turning abruptly, the heavenly light at his brow met the attack head-on. A series of loud explosions rang out in midair, smoke billowing. Yet this red-faced Lianmin had already charged right before him astride his tiger, both palms like iron, slamming down toward his face.
The Mountain-Driving Profound Screen flashed instantly, but taking this blow, it was shattered to pieces. The fierce tiger beneath the Lianmin suddenly roared, and Li Ximing's ears were filled with deafening Sanskrit chants, causing his magic power to stall, forcing him to back away.
Unexpectedly, this man's dharma body was astonishingly powerful; without pausing in the slightest, red light flared in his eyes, and both mouths opened wide, spewing crimson flames pouring down like rain.
Although Gen Earth Spiritual Ingestion could not ward off fire, Li Ximing's Audience at the Heavenly Gate bolstered his physical frame, giving him greater resistance to fire. Furthermore, standing atop Audience at the Heavenly Gate and shielded by its heavenly light, taking this blast of flames only caused a stinging pain in his chest without serious harm. Yet the fire still clung to his chest, so he immediately brought two fingers together and spat out the Three Hou Shuxuan Fire.
Though the red-faced Lianmin fought fiercely and his strength was clearly beyond what the three below could compare to, he knew that taking on an early Violet Palace cultivator was still somewhat strenuous. Thus, he was well-prepared with his defenses, only forced back a step by the scorch before blocking with his pagoda.
This pagoda was forged of Gengjin. All fires smelt metal, so it was countered by true fire; fortunately, Gengjin was relatively the least afraid of fire among the Three Metals, and Chiluo was skilled in fire himself, temporarily suppressing the flames.
With the Three Hou Shuxuan Fire drawn away, the flames beneath the Heavenly Gate finally ceased, wavering slightly.
Li Ximing sighed internally and used his divine ability to wipe away the fire clinging to his chest. Facing the pagoda pressing down from the red-faced Lianmin, Audience at the Heavenly Gate finally rose from the ground. He landed at the very center of Audience at the Heavenly 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 instruments of the two wielding the sword and the hammer had both been roasted until they were slightly deformed. The three took to the wind and flew up, saying respectfully:
"Our thanks to Lord Chiluo!"
"No matter!"
The red-faced Lianmin's eyes were completely fixed on Li Ximing; how could he have spare words for them? His eyes gleamed faintly as he shielded the three from the incoming heavenly light. He recalled his pagoda to block the Shangyao Subduing Light, thoughts stirring intensely in his heart:
'It would be best to devise a plan to kill this man!'
Li Ximing stood imposing and unmoving, staying his hand on the spiritual instrument within his sleeve.
If this great battle concerned Li Ximing's own interests, he would certainly have clamped down on the three without letting go, clashing head-on with Chiluo and holding out in one continuous breath to at least batter the two weaker Lianmin until they lost all combat capability... That would have been the best method to defeat the four.
Yet this battle was someone else's affair. If he fought so fiercely and let Chiluo close in, Li Ximing was bound to get injured. Whether that medicinal pill could restore him was one matter, but after all these years of turmoil, he understood just how much energy it took to recover from an injury, and he truly did not wish to waste more time.
Moreover, the enemy could not borrow dharma to besiege him, and the Chongyang Governing Star Treasure Plate possessed the ability to break free. There was no need to fight tooth and nail to the death against these four. He merely stood quietly:
'Each and every one of these Lianmin looks upon me with greed; they won't let me off easily either!'
Sure enough, Chiluo was already forming seals and casting spells, with the three protecting him in the center. Li Ximing's gaze darkened, falling once more upon that hammer-wielding Lianmin whose body was already broken and battered!
'I'll send this fool on his way first!'
Chapter 891