The twelve arms of the pitch-black divine manifestation held up the Mahavairocana Buddha manifestation like a mythological giant lifting the sun. The scene was visually stunning.

Even more intense than the visual impact was the explosive force of their clash. The twelve pairs of arms surged with terrifying strength, compressing the golden sun, attempting to crush and extinguish it. Meanwhile, the Mahavairocana Buddha manifestation continuously emanated a purifying force, seeking to vaporize the Half-Step Martial God from flesh to soul.

The warrior’s qi and the Buddha manifestation’s divine light intertwined and entangled, transforming into a destructive storm that raged in all directions. The dark red fleshy substance that covered the ground like sludge was stripped away layer by layer. Within a hundred-meter radius around Shen Shu, not a trace of the flesh substance remained.

Even the Buddha’s “physical body” couldn’t approach Shen Shu at this moment.

“Dong! Dong! Dong!”

Daoist Orange Cat struck the bronze bell with all his might, his Daoist robes billowing violently, his hairpin falling loose, white hair and beard flying in the wind.

Yang Gong, wearing the crown of a Lesser Sage, cast spells to amplify the bell’s power.

The bell’s toll was merely auxiliary; what truly resisted the Buddha manifestation’s control was Shen Shu’s powerful primordial spirit.

While closely monitoring the battlefield, Chu Yuanzhen took out the Earth Book fragment and transmitted:

[The Purple Yang Resident came at the perfect time, relieving our urgent crisis. However, Master Shen Shu may not be able to defeat the Buddha.]

He put it rather diplomatically.

Everyone could sense that even Shen Shu at his peak still had some distance too close to the Buddha.

Moreover, if this battle had taken place in the vast Western Regions, Shen Shu would likely have already been defeated.

In the imperial palace, Huai Qing read this transmission and massaged her temples in headache. She didn’t reply to Chu Yuanzhen, not knowing how to respond.

“Lord Wei, Minister Zhao, Minister Wang, what good strategies do you have for today’s crisis?” Huai Qing asked gravely.

This time, even the resourceful Wei Yuan had no solution.

After pondering, he replied:

“We do our best and leave the rest to heaven’s will.”

Wang Zhenwen added details:

“Immediately order the Lei Province Administrative Commissioner to mobilize officials of all prefectures and counties to evacuate Lei Province’s citizens eastward, as many as possible.

“If Shen Shu is defeated, we’ll observe how the Buddha plans to encroach upon the Central Plains, and at what speed, then discuss countermeasures accordingly.

“Additionally, send someone overseas to bring back Constable Xu. Da Feng desperately needs his fighting power now.”

Zhao Shou sighed:

“Without becoming a Half-Step Martial God, it will be difficult to contain the Buddha. But in the current situation, we can only take it one step at a time, there’s no alternative.”

Huai Qing made a sound of acknowledgment and quickly transmitted:

[First: I will immediately order the Lei Province Administrative Commission to evacuate Lei Province’s citizens. I trouble you all to hold back the Buddha as long as possible to buy time. Daoist Blue Lotus, you’re the fastest—please head out to sea immediately to find Xu Qi An.]

Being overseas, Xu Qi An was too far to contact via the Earth Book fragment.

Li Miaozhen’s task wasn’t to actually find Xu Qi An in the vast ocean but to bring his Earth Book fragment back within transmission range and inform him of the changes in the Nine Provinces.

[Second: Understood.]

Li Miaozhen knew why Huai Qing chose her to go to sea. Her system overlapped with the Daoist Golden Lotus, so her presence or absence wouldn’t significantly impact the situation.

As for Deliverer Arhat and Master Hengyuan, even Asura, though their systems also overlapped, Deliverer Arhat was now too valuable to risk acting alone, and he didn’t have an Earth Book fragment.

Master Hengyuan was essentially fourth-rank, only able to briefly burst forth with Killer Fruit power. Sending a fourth-rank expert to sea would be asking too much.

Asura was peak second-rank among peak experts, an essential fighting force they couldn’t spare.

Therefore, Li Miaozhen, skilled in sword flight and swift as the wind, became the best choice.

The Flying Swallow Heroine had an excellent grasp of the big picture and immediately accepted the mission. Without time to bid farewell to her companions, she mounted her sword and streaked away southward like a beam of light.

“Bang!”

With a tremendous explosion, the bronze bell before the Daoist Golden Lotus shattered to powder.

Li Miaozhen whirled around to see the surroundings lose color and turn black and white; to see the Vairocana Bodhisattva who had shattered the bronze bell appear before the Daoist Golden Lotus, swinging a jade knife to sever the Daoist’s head.

To see the Karura Tree appear in the colorless barrier, effortlessly grabbing the immobilized Deliverer Arhat.

To see Guangxian Bodhisattva, in the form of a young monk, standing in the distance, smiling as he watched the scene unfold.

The three Bodhisattvas had made their move.

The Arhat manifestation came and went without a trace, catching everyone off guard with a sneak attack.

They rationally avoided targeting Asura, Chu Yuanzhen, and Hengyuan.

Because these three possessed a warrior’s sense of crisis.

How could two second-rank experts without crisis awareness dodge a first-rank Bodhisattva’s ambush?

No… Li Miaozhen’s pupils constricted violently, the beam of light formed by her flying sword suddenly halting.

…

Overseas.

A massive creature floated on the sea surface, rising and falling with the waves.

Its appearance wasn’t much different from an octopus, except it was covered in blue-black scales, with turtle shell-like armor plates at the back of its head—extremely strong defensive material.

After countless years, this physical body still hadn’t decayed, containing vigorous vitality.

At a certain level, the physical body and primordial spirit become separate matters. The primordial spirit may extinguish, but the physical body’s vitality won’t disappear with it.

Take third-rank warriors for example—even if their souls scatter, their physical bodies retain vigorous life force for decades before gradually weakening, and it takes a hundred years to completely lose vitality.

As for Half-Step Martial Gods, they’re immortal and indestructible, difficult even for super-rank experts to kill.

Even if their vitality is somehow exhausted one day, body and primordial spirit decay together—they won’t leave behind just a vigorous shell, because peak warriors have already unified essence, qi, and spirit.

Fortunately, although this ancient divine demon controlled “force,” it wasn’t a warrior.

Otherwise, Xu Qi An wouldn’t have such an easy time today.

After bringing the great octopus’s body to the surface, Xu Qi An wasted no time. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he spat out the jade mirror.

“Ding!”

His fingertip lightly tapped the back of the Earth Book, and octagonal bronze discs wrapped in misty clear light flew out one after another, hovering in the air.

There were one hundred and eight bronze discs in total, each as large as a round table, inscribed with various formation patterns—some like tadpoles, some with intersecting lines, some like simple drawings of flames and waves…

Though these completely unrelated formation patterns were arranged in a mysterious rhythm, containing certain rules of heaven and earth.

These were the formation discs capable of refining first-rank expert essences… In the sky, the nine-tailed fox widened her beautiful eyes, trying to memorize the formation patterns on the octagonal bronze discs.

“If you want them, I’ll give you the bronze discs after I’m done,” said Xu Qi An, looking up with a smile as he sat cross-legged on the sea surface.

“We’re all on the same side, no need to be formal.”

“Oh wonderful, wonderful…” The nine-tailed fox was no reserved and restrained noble lady.

Xu Qi An spoke no more, maintaining his cross-legged position as he slowly rose into the air.

The hundred-and-eight bronze discs spread out, each falling into different positions, hovering above the great octopus and below Xu Qi An.

The nine-tailed fox could tell the positioning of the bronze discs was deeply meaningful, secretly aligning with the mysteries of yin-yang and the five elements. The hundred and eight bronze discs formed a massive Eight Trigrams formation of vast coverage.

Hum…

The hundred-and-eight bronze discs rotated clockwise, rippling with circles of clear light.

At first, nothing seemed unusual, but after a quarter-hour, the nine-tailed fox saw crimson fragments of light slowly floating up from the great octopus’s body. Looking closely, the light fragments were composed of twisted patterns.

They were very similar to the patterns branded on the octopus’s tentacles.

This was the ancient divine demon’s spiritual essence.

The spiritual essence was being stripped away, gathering toward the bronze discs. After being filtered by the discs, these threads of fragmentary light continued to float upward, pouring into Xu Qi An’s body.

Twisted patterns appeared one after another on Xu Qi An’s skin—the octopus’s spiritual essence.

Divine demons’ power came from spiritual essence, and the spiritual essence remaining in this ancient divine demon’s body was gradually transferred to Xu Qi An.

Being plundered by Da Feng’s first-rank warrior.

The hundred-and-eight bronze discs continuously stripped away the great octopus’s spiritual essence.

Xu Qi An’s aura slowly rose as the ancient divine demon’s remains gradually withered.

…

A mouth split open on Shen Shu’s back, softly exhaling a breath of qi.

Crack… The colorless domain expanded by the Vairocana Bodhisattva immediately shattered.

At this critical moment, Shen Shu had no choice but to help, though limited to exhaling qi to break the fixed domain.

“So you did come.”

Asura took a deep breath, his gaze sharp beneath his brow ridge as he surveyed the three Bodhisattvas.

“Perhaps we should have let you insects show off a bit more?”

“Leave quickly!”

He didn’t forget to transmit a warning to Li Miaozhen.

Guangxian Bodhisattva smiled and asked in return.

Yang Gong and the others’ expressions grew grave as they slowly drew closer together.

Based on previous experience, three second-rank experts of different systems could join forces to hold back a first-rank Buddhist Bodhisattva.

Now with three Bodhisattvas gathered, they had no chance of victory.

Meanwhile, Salun Agu suddenly drew out his shepherd’s whip and said with a smile:

“Just watch the show, why meddle in Da Feng and Buddhism’s affairs?

“You can’t withstand three Bodhisattvas working together, leaders must value their lives.”

He was warning the gathered Gu Tribe leaders who wanted to help.

The leaders gnashed their teeth in frustration.

Grandmother Sky Gu glanced at Salun Agu and said coldly:

“The Great Shaman speaks wisely. Since the Great Shaman wants us to watch the show, then we shall watch.”

The peerlessly beautiful Vairocana Bodhisattva suddenly frowned, looking at the head in her hand as it dissolved into golden light.

Meanwhile, the Daoist Golden Lotus’s body lit up with soft Buddha light. Bathed in the radiance, a new head grew from his neck.

“The Fruit of Non-Birth!”

Vairocana Bodhisattva raised her willow-leaf eyebrows, her voice carrying rare coldness:

“You killed Arhat Du Qing. The Supervisor promised to only imprison him for three years, not take his life.”

Daoist Golden Lotus laughed:

“What does the Supervisor’s promise have to do with this poor Daoist?

“In times of national collapse, what does personal credibility matter?”

Among Da Feng’s supernatural forces, Asura and Kou Yangzhou were unlikely to die due to their systems.

Zhao Shou had his carving knife and Confucian crown for protection.

Only he, the mighty Earthly Sect Leader, had no protective measures.

He relied solely on Heaven’s Dao backlash threat of mutual destruction to deter enemies—killing those with deep福缘 would invite heavenly tribulation.

Arhat Du Qing’s Fruit of Non-Birth was the Daoist Golden Lotus’s lifeline, just in case.

And now it had indeed proven useful.

On the other side, the Deliverer Arhat held by the Karura Tree quickly became ethereal, vanishing instantly.

It was just a false body, summoned by the Fruit of Offering.

Deliverer Arhat appeared beside Asura—only this crude Asura Warrior Monk could give Deliverer Arhat a slight sense of security now.

“Deliverer!”

Guangxian Bodhisattva shook his head in disappointment and sighed:

“The Buddhist sect has treated you well.”

Deliverer Arhat pressed his palms together and said flatly:

“To this seat, you are merely heretics.”

Vairocana Bodhisattva’s voice was ice-cold, killing intent boiling:

“Why waste words? Crushing a few insects takes no effort.”

She raised her foot, about to step down.

Yang Gong called out urgently:

“Retreat three hundred zhang!”

Vairocana Bodhisattva’s raised foot paused slightly but still came down.

The surrounding scenery instantly lost its color, turning black and white.

Yang Gong’s spell wasn’t useless, but for the Arhat manifestation, a distance of three hundred zhang could be crossed in an instant.

Outsiders couldn’t even tell she had left.

Shen Shu, caught in the bitter battle, split open a mouth on his back again and blew out a stream of qi.

This time, the Buddha didn’t let him succeed. The Acala Wisdom King manifestation formed hand seals, sealing off that battlefield, making the qi crash against the spatial barrier.

The colorless domain once again enveloped Asura and the others.

Just then, a streak of light brightened in the east. When it first appeared, it was like a star hanging in the night sky, but in the next moment, it descended like a meteor, directly tearing through the colorless crystal domain.

Sword qi filled the universe!

“The Terrestrial Immortal has arrived. Now things get interesting,” Salun Agu laughed.

…

Overseas.

The ancient divine demon’s remains had shrunk to less than half their original size.

In contrast, Xu Qi An now appeared as a hundred-zhang-tall giant with bulging muscles.

Twisted patterns were printed on his skin surface like tattoos.

The nine-tailed fox closed her eyes, no longer daring to look at the spiritual essence patterns that made her dizzy.

In her eyes, Xu Qi An now was the embodiment of force, the manifestation of “power.”

Any characteristic or concept of “power” you could imagine could be found in him.

Xu Qi An closed his eyes, carefully feeling the changes within his body.

After seizing the ancient divine demon’s spiritual essence, his cultivation, which was already approaching mid-stage, smoothly broke through that barrier into first-rank mid-stage, then immediately breakthrough to late-stage. But this wasn’t the end.

His power continued to surge, continuously approaching grand perfection.

But it stopped at the final step before becoming a Half-Step Martial God.

Because his essence, qi, and spirit had become unbalanced.

Balance was the secret of first-rank warriors, their foundation.

When he devoured the ancient divine demon’s spiritual essence, his qi and blood energy advanced rapidly, but his primordial spirit hadn’t been refined.

The consequence of imbalance was deviation.

He would remain at his current boundary but lose the possibility of advancing to Half-Step Martial God.

There were two solutions now. The first was to seal part of his blood energy, waiting until his primordial spirit caught up before fusion.

The Second was to dilute his primordial spirit to merge with the overwhelmingly powerful essence and qi.

The latter meant forced advancement, like walking a tightrope, with the risk of deviation if advancement failed.

“I suddenly understand the true meaning of Shen Shu’s words during the Spirit Refinement realm.”

When he died in Yun Province, he had a conversation with Shen Shu in the depths of his consciousness. At that time, Shen Shu said:

Ordinary warriors’ spirit refinement merely begins to explore limits—this is inferior. Continuously breaking through limits in desperate situations—this is superior.

Xu Qi An’s Spirit Refinement realm achievement was superior.

Impressive, right? Bought with his life.

Among a warrior’s nine ranks, only the Spirit Refinement realm primarily cultivated the primordial spirit.

Xu Qi An’s foundation at this stage was extraordinarily solid, more firm than other warriors.

In other words, his primordial spirit’s resilience was stronger than other warriors’.

So, he chose the second path—diluting his primordial spirit to merge with essence and qi, forcing advancement.

His primordial spirit tore into countless fragments, merging with the vast essence and qi. If his previous primordial spirit was a complete piece of cloth, now it was a fishing net.

Though the volume had increased, it was full of gaps.

If any of those threads snapped, his primordial spirit would collapse, turning him into a madman with disordered consciousness.

Unfortunately, the “threads” indeed began to snap—how could advancing to Half-Step Martial God be easy?

Xu Qi An first clearly felt the pain of his soul being torn apart, and then his consciousness began to chaos. As more and more threads collapsed, this chaos intensified.

He began to forget who he was, forget his former identity, forget the people around him.

Before long, Xu Qi An would completely lose himself, becoming a madman with disordered consciousness.

Just then, he heard calls from far away:

“Constable Xu, Constable Xu…”

Countless people were calling, countless voices forming the three words “Constable Xu.”

At the same time, another voice echoed in his mind:

“Supreme Buddha of Three Thousand Worlds, Supreme Buddha of Three Thousand Worlds…”

The two calls helped Xu Qi An initially recover himself. He quickly gathered his scattered spirit, repairing the broken threads one by one.

…

High in the sky, the nine-tailed fox trembled, her eight fluffy tails wrapping around her body.

She curled up in mid-air, like a weak and pitiful fox.

Huge waves rose from the sea surface, the entire earth-shaking, the sky interwoven with lightning, striking down tribulation after tribulation.

In this scene like the end of the world, Xu Qi An opened his eyes, his gaze bright as beams of light, instantly piercing through the dark clouds straight into the heavens.

A Half-Step Martial God was born.