Chapter 439 – Eight Precepts Evil Buddha, Black Lotus Three Sovereigns

Within the Grave of Ten Thousand Fiends, White Jade Pine Deer’s Sword Tower moved like a mobile Celestial Artifact.

Wherever it passed, Sword Qi crisscrossed the air.

As White Jade Pine Deer had been personally enlightened by Lu Chen,

her Sword Intent carried traces of the Fiend-Slaying Sword Formation.

Yet achieving the Realm of a True Immortal meant

she was no dull-witted follower of conventions.

Thus, building upon Lu Chen’s original Fiend-Slaying Sword Formation, she forged her own Sword Path.

Her Sword Path was ‘Jade Shatter’,

emphasizing a strike that draws blood with no turning back.

This was undoubtedly an extreme Sword Path.

But for one whose true form was an Innate Spiritual Tree,

such a Sword Path suited her perfectly.

For the same injuries, White Jade Pine Deer could recover in an extremely short time,

while her opponents might not.

In this world, few could rival an Innate Spiritual Tree in lifespan and vitality.

If not for her hidden injuries and the corruption by the Nine Realms Heavenly Dao during the last great calamity, which caused her Realm to plummet,

suppressing these newly awakened ancient fiends would not have been difficult.

But the world holds little room for ‘if only’.

The White Jade Pine Deer of now was no longer the invincible True Immortal whose sword strikes meant fiendish death,

but a living Immortal forced to guard one place while suppressing her wounds.

Even with her cultivation diminished, White Jade Pine Deer now displayed a terrifying Sword Path.

Wherever the Jade Shatter Sword Qi struck an ancient fiend, its body would crack and promptly disintegrate.

Yet the ancient fiends surrounding Black Taisui were far too numerous.

Coupled with their tenacious vitality,

even when their bodies shattered, they did not truly die, leaving behind their fiend cores.

It wasn’t that White Jade Pine Deer couldn’t shatter these fiend cores,

but that she chose not to.

For shattering them would release the Nine Realms Great Dao contained within back to the Nine Realms Heavenly Dao, thereby strengthening it.

Thus, White Jade Pine Deer’s task was not merely to guard the remnant bodies of ancient fiends in the Grave of Ten Thousand Fiends,

but also to prevent the Nine Realms Great Dao within these remnants from escaping.

Today, however, Black Taisui’s actions shattered the fragile balance between the two sides.

White Jade Pine Deer’s Sword Qi was fearsome,

but the fiend remnants devouring Black Taisui’s body were equally formidable.

Especially the three closest to Black Taisui, who had been feeding the longest.

The cores corresponding to these three ancient fiends were a ‘Porous Black Relic’, a ‘Mystic-Veined Severed Arm’, and… a Single Scale.

Though White Jade Pine Deer had no desire to see these former archenemies revive, the remnant bodies of these fiends were encircled at the very center.

The outer fiend remnants acted as a protective shield to some extent,

making it difficult for White Jade Pine Deer’s Sword Qi to harm the cores of these three fiends.

But White Jade Pine Deer would not wait idly.

As the aura from the core region grew increasingly powerful,

she steeled her heart and pressed a finger to her brow.

“Open.”

With the Seal upon herself lifted,

a ray of Immortal light bloomed at her forehead.Immediately, the White Jade Sword Tower beneath her feet erupted with dazzling immortal light, then began to expand continuously until it completely covered the clouds in the sky. For a moment, the entire Grave of Ten Thousand Fiends was illuminated by White Jade Pine Deer’s immortal radiance.

Boom…

A dull thunderclap echoed from the sky-obscuring White Jade Sword Tower.

Then the entire White Jade Capital began to descend steadily.

The ancient fiends below watched as the massive White Jade Sword Tower came crashing down toward them. As if recalling some terrifying memory, each of them revealed expressions of horror.

In this very same place years ago, a similar scene had unfolded.

The difference was that back then, they were at their peak, and White Jade Pine Deer hadn’t been injured from the great battle.

Had White Jade Pine Deer been at her full strength, this single sword strike wouldn’t just completely annihilate these ancient fiend remnants—it could even shatter the very boundary of this world.

For what White Jade Pine Deer was executing now was no ordinary technique, but a supreme Dao immortal art… the Empyrean Sword Seal.

Once this technique was unleashed, there was no turning back.

That White Jade Pine Deer would resort to this method now showed just how immense the pressure was from the three ancient fiends awakening. Even at the cost of completely destroying the Grave of Ten Thousand Fiends, she absolutely couldn’t allow those three to revive.

Otherwise, everything would become troublesome.

Boom!

Even after descending only a short distance, before even making contact with the ancient fiends below, the terrifying sword intent carried by the Empyrean Sword Seal had already shattered numerous ancient fiend remnants.

Instantly, the swarm of ancient fiend remnants surrounding Black Taisui visibly decreased by one-third, leaving behind a large number of dimmed ancient fiend cores.

As the Empyrean Sword Seal descended further, more and more ancient fiend remnants were pulverized.

Yet even as the sword seal mercilessly suppressed the ancient fiend remnants, White Jade Pine Deer’s aura began to visibly weaken. Her right hand, hidden within her sleeve, was now covered in cracks that had spread across her entire arm, resembling shattered glass.

Clearly, executing the Empyrean Sword Seal was no easy task for her either.

The essence of the Jade Shatter Dao was to exchange injury for injury—this was the true meaning of jade shatter.

Thus, while White Jade Pine Deer’s Empyrean Sword Seal possessed astonishing power, she herself suffered no less.

Boom!

As the massive sword seal completely descended, the entire Grave of Ten Thousand Fiends was immediately covered by the enormous White Jade Sword Tower.

The ten-thousand-zhang-high White Jade Sword Tower stood like a mountain piercing the clouds, pressing down directly upon the Grave of Ten Thousand Fiends.

From afar, Hua Ling watched this scene from Biyou Mountain, her eyes filled with admiration.

Moving mountains and filling seas—this was the true meaning of that power.

Before White Jade Pine Deer, her own status as a half-step Mortal Realm Immortal seemed only a half-step away from true immortality, yet the gap between them was as vast as heaven and earth.

Hua Ling couldn’t imagine how she could possibly withstand this Empyrean Sword Seal.

Just as White Jade Pine Deer finished suppressing the Grave of Ten Thousand Fiends, Lu Chen atop Biyou Mountain also welcomed his main body’s Spirit Transformation Tribulation.

However, compared to White Jade Pine Deer’s Empyrean Sword Seal, the commotion caused by Lu Chen’s Spirit Transformation Lightning Tribulation was considerably smaller.

As Lu Chen prepared to transcend the tribulation, he sensed White Jade Pine Deer’s condition and even detected the hidden crisis.Yet at this moment, he could not afford to be distracted, so Lu Chen had no choice but to trust that Little White Deer was now capable of resolving the matter.

At least until he successfully transcended the tribulation.

Boom!

As the first bolt of the Lightning Tribulation struck, Lu Chen’s Spirit Transformation Tribulation… had begun.

Above the Grave of Ten Thousand Fiends.

White Jade Pine Deer stood within the Sword Tower, her expression grave.

The reason was that while her Empyrean Sword Seal had achieved considerable effect, it had failed to accomplish its most critical objective: completely suppressing the cores of the three ancient fiends.

Crack!

A crisp sound rang out.

A gap suddenly appeared beneath the White Jade Sword Tower, growing larger and larger as it extended upward.

Boom!

As the White Jade Sword Tower fractured, a figure slowly emerged from the opening.

“Amitābha. I never imagined that after ten thousand years, Benefactor Bai remains as inflexible as ever.”

“In my opinion, the great Dao of heaven and earth could easily be shared among us all.”

“Why must you make things so difficult for us?”

“Why not cease hostilities now and turn conflict into harmony?”

The one who emerged from the crack in the White Jade Sword Tower was an evil Buddha, bare-chested and bearing a black Buddhist halo, with eight arms and black Sanskrit inscriptions covering his body.

However, this evil Buddha was not in good condition.

Not only were seven of his eight arms broken, but the black Buddhist halo behind him was also severely damaged.

Yet, despite being in such a broken state, the moment this evil Buddha appeared, White Jade Pine Deer regarded him as a formidable enemy.

“Eight Laws…”

White Jade Pine Deer spoke his name aloud as she stared at him.

Hearing this, the fiend known as ‘Eight Laws’ revealed a ghostly smile.

Though the smile appeared serene, it carried an inexplicable sense of eeriness, creating a stark dissonance.

“Amitābha. I never expected Benefactor Bai to still remember this humble one’s name.”

“But since you know it is I, why do you not step aside?”

As he spoke, Eight Laws slowly ascended into the air.

During this process, his body began to grow increasingly ethereal.

Before long, a massive, distorted, and ferocious-looking Buddha appeared in the clouds, confronting White Jade Pine Deer’s Empyrean Sword Seal.

“Benefactor Bai, I wonder how much of your former power you still possess?”

Having revealed his true form, the voice of the Eight Precepts Evil Buddha became deep and resentful, like a distorted Buddhist chant of the great Dao. Ordinary people would easily lose themselves in its twisted dharma upon hearing it, becoming followers of the Black Lotus.

However, this demonic sound had no effect on White Jade Pine Deer.

She first glanced at the true form of the Eight Precepts Evil Buddha, then looked down at the Grave of Ten Thousand Fiends below.

At the location of the Eight Precepts Evil Buddha, two ancient fiend cores remained: one was a broken arm, and the other was a mysterious Dragon Scale.

Without a doubt, her Sword Seal had not been entirely ineffective.

At the very least, it had forced the other two ancient fiends, who should have awakened, back into slumber.

As for Black Taisui, after donating most of his essence blood to the other ancient fiends, he had vanished without a trace.

It seemed that, having accomplished his mission, he had fled once again.

It had to be admitted that while Black Taisui’s strength ranked only in the middle among the ancient fiends, his ability to preserve his life surpassed even that of most true fiends.

Even White Jade Pine Deer had never imagined that Black Taisui would have the audacity to lurk near her Biyou Mountain for so many years, all without her sensing his presence.However, White Jade Pine Deer merely furrowed her brows slightly before dismissing these thoughts.

Because she knew that whatever she hadn’t anticipated, her Master must have already accounted for long ago.

Perhaps even the current situation unfolding within the Grave of Ten Thousand Fiends was part of her Master’s plan.

After all, similar circumstances had occurred more than once before.

With this realization, White Jade Pine Deer’s expression regained its composure.

“Eight Laws, though I am not what I once was, you too are gravely wounded beyond recovery.”

“The former Three Black Lotus Venerables—the Buddha Mother vanished, the Buddha Child eternally trapped in Reincarnation—with only one of you remaining, what gives you the confidence to escape from my grasp?”

Facing White Jade Pine Deer’s mockery, Eight Precepts Evil Buddha paid it no mind.

“Amitabha, it seems Benefactor White still fails to see reality clearly.”

“The Three Venerables of our faith have always shared one soul. Now that I have awakened, the Buddha Mother and Buddha Child will naturally return soon.”

“When that time comes, the world-ending Black Lotus shall descend once more.”

“By then, not even you, Benefactor White, nor your Master should he reappear, will be able to withstand the Black Lotus’s Buddha light.”

“Would it not be joyous if Benefactor White were to convert early and share the Heavenly Dao with us?”

Seeing their disagreement was irreconcilable, White Jade Pine Deer swiftly responded to Eight Precepts Evil Buddha’s recruitment attempt.

She retracted her Empyrean Sword Seal, allowing the Immortal Sword White Jade Capital to return to her hand.

As for the White Jade Sword Tower beneath her—

Though the Sword Tower now lay in ruins, fragile as a candle in the wind,

It still possessed immense power that none dared underestimate.

Boom!

Just as the immortal and the Buddha stood in confrontation, a thunderclap echoed from afar.

“Hmm? To think someone would undergo Tribulation Transcendence here—how peculiar.”

Sensing the Dao essence behind the thunder, Eight Precepts Evil Buddha’s face revealed astonishment.

Driven by curiosity, he immediately turned his gaze toward the source of the thunder.

But the moment he saw the face of the one undergoing the tribulation, his smile vanished abruptly.

Replaced by an expression of sheer terror.

“Impossible… This cannot be… He cannot be alive… He cannot be alive…”

Eight Precepts Evil Buddha stared fixedly toward Biyou Mountain in the distance,

His eyes filled with dread and resentment.

Seizing the moment of his mental turmoil, White Jade Pine Deer struck decisively.

A sword light transformed into a rainbow, aimed directly at the Sharira within Eight Precepts Evil Buddha’s abdomen.

Yet the sword light never reached him,

Halting a hundred meters before him.

For a giant hand had caught the sword light and crushed it forcefully.

Even after this, Eight Precepts Evil Buddha’s gaze remained locked on distant Biyou Mountain.

Proof of how profoundly important the tribulation-undergoing figure there was to him.

But the more distracted he was, the more White Jade Pine Deer pressed her advantage.

Gripping White Jade Capital in her left hand, she unleashed another sword strike.

This time, Eight Precepts Evil Buddha finally reacted.

For he knew that unless he dealt with White Jade Pine Deer before him,

He would never reach the one who should have died long ago.

Though he was still battling White Jade Pine Deer,

His mindset had undergone a seismic shift.

Gone was his initial confidence.

For he now had to wonder: Was his revival due to the Buddha Mother’s aid, or the machinations of that distant figure?After all, many similar incidents had occurred in the past.

If it were the latter, he would have to consider whether to flee immediately.

Yet he couldn’t bear to abandon this perfect opportunity to subdue White Jade Pine Deer.

For a moment, Eight Precepts Evil Buddha found himself caught in a dilemma.

This hesitation caused him to fall into a disadvantage during his confrontation with White Jade Pine Deer…

(End of Chapter)