From the direction of the Great Thunder Sound Temple came a roar that made one’s soul shudder — as though some primordial, ancient beast had split the earth asunder, torn free from its seal, and shaken mountains and rivers, jolted the stars and moon, filling every person with a trembling that came from the depths of their soul.
But after that, it went completely silent again. That terrifying roar subsided, and beyond the five-colored altar only the rolling rumble of the sandstorm remained.
“What was that?”
“Are there other living creatures on Mars?”
“According to legend, the Buddha suppressed many demons and evil spirits. Perhaps the site of the seal is near the Great Thunder Sound Temple.”
After only a few sentences of conjecture, everyone felt their hearts leap with dread. As modern city dwellers, they had never put stock in such legends. Yet today, having experienced one unimaginable thing after another, and now thinking of still more terrifying legends, towering waves of shock surged through every heart.
If the conjecture was true, their situation would be extremely dire. The Great Thunder Sound Temple had already turned to ash — there was no longer a Buddha there, no longer any gods. They would be facing alone the demons of mythology and legend. One could well imagine what fate awaited them.
“Today has subjected our minds to shock after shock — it’s almost too much to bear…”
“The demons and monsters from old myth and legend may literally appear before our very eyes!”
Just thinking of the various possibilities that lay ahead made everyone’s blood run cold.
Endless possibilities, an unknown fate — terrifying and deeply worrying!
And right before their eyes lay a cold body, blood staining the ground, the faint smell of iron in the air — reminding them all that the current situation was already very grim. The unknown thing had appeared again, claiming a fresh life right in front of them.
“Crack!”
A strange sound came from the head of the corpse, instantly filling many of those present with dread.
“Smack, smack!”
It sounded like eating — like chewing — and it was deeply disturbing to hear. After all, that was a human skull. Some unknown creature appeared to be feeding inside it, making most of those present so horrified that every hair on their bodies stood on end.
“Crunch, crunch, crunch!”
The sound of bones being ground up rang out — like sharp teeth sawing through the skull. The atmosphere at the scene instantly became tense and suffocating.
No one spoke. The five-colored altar fell utterly silent. Many dared not even breathe, the silence taken to its absolute extreme, saturated with a creeping, hair-raising dread.
It was a torment. The sounds of feeding, of skull being crushed — together they were like a hellish requiem, tormenting the minds of all present.
Many of the female classmates covered their mouths, wanting to cry but not daring to make a sound. The scene was driving them to the edge of collapse.
Of course, not everyone was afraid. Those who held divine artifacts felt at least some degree of inner steadiness. Pang Bo was naturally fierce and bold, yet right now he felt profoundly oppressed. He hoisted the Great Thunder Sound Temple bronze plaque and was about to stride forward and smash open that skull.
Ye Fan stopped him: “Don’t act rashly.”
“Pfff!”
Just then, the blood-red hole in the forehead of the body lying in a pool of blood spurted forth a geyser of blood — and something white along with it. Many people felt sick: brain matter had flowed out.
Then, from inside the hole in the skull, a black head like an awl emerged — small, sharp, covered in scales.
“What is that thing?”
Everyone involuntarily stepped back — even Ye Fan and Pang Bo retreated several steps.
It was a bizarre creature that resembled a crocodile, crawling out from the blood-red hole in the body. It was smeared with blood and white brain matter — a sight that made every scalp crawl.
It was no more than ten centimeters long and about as thick as a finger. Like a snake yet not a snake — shaped like a crocodile, yet without legs, its underside bare and smooth, its entire body covered in black scales. Dark and sinister, it looked like something out of the underworld.
Blood and brain matter clung to its black scales — a horrifying sight. It left everyone deeply unsettled, a cold dread rising in their hearts.
This unknown creature crawled out of the hole and perched atop the skull of the corpse. Its tiny eyes emanated an extremely frigid, icy gleam as it quietly stared at everyone — like a highly intelligent life form, rather than some low-level creature.
Seven classmates. Four years of shared school days. Several living lives — gone forever. All killed by this loathsome creature.
Its gaze was incomparably vicious, like a vengeful spirit, surveying the crowd with cold eyes. It did not look at them as equals — it looked at them the way one looks at prey.
“Your mother — you’re barely three inches tall, haven’t even grown as big as a rat, yet you’ve killed seven of my classmates. I’m going to smash you flat!” Pang Bo seized the Great Thunder Sound Temple bronze plaque and swung it forward with full force, bringing it crashing down toward that cold-blooded unknown creature.
Thunder boomed, light surged to the heavens, and the bronze plaque blazed with ten thousand rays — bolts of electric light surging forward, weaving and crossing into a net that filled the sky.
“Whoosh!”
But this unknown creature was extraordinarily swift. Seeming to sense the danger, it transformed into a streak of black light and launched itself upward, dodging that brilliant radiance.
Ye Fan stepped forward with the ancient bronze lamp. He blew hard at the lamp’s flame, and a scorching divine blaze immediately burst forth and surged forward.
The ferocious creature — no longer than ten centimeters, no thicker than a finger — let out a piercing shriek, and the sheer volume of the sound was astounding. It was like a ferocious ghost shrieking and wailing, shaking the eardrums of all present and sending chills down every spine.
It was hard to imagine how such a tiny scaled body could produce such a massive and terrifying sound.
The flame from the lamp Ye Fan blew shot forward a full three meters — yet it did not truly engulf the unknown creature, only barely grazed the tip of its tail. On the spot, scales were stripped away, and the scorched half of its tail snapped and fell.
It stared malevolently at Ye Fan — like a human being with an expression, contorted with ferocity. It opened its maw and bared row after row of glistening white fangs, hissing at him in a low, continuous snarl.
“What in the world is this thing?” Many classmates in the back were terrified. Even with divine artifacts in hand, none dared to step forward.
“You little three-inch runt — eyes full of venom. I will smash you to pieces.” Pang Bo showed not a trace of fear, wild and fearless as ever. He swung the Great Thunder Sound Temple bronze plaque and charged: “You killed seven of my classmates — and all we’ve managed is to cut off your rotten tail? Go to hell!” Pang Bo was completely engulfed in the blinding radiance emanating from the bronze plaque, like an enraged war god of overwhelming might. The plaque shook, Buddhist sound shook the heavens, producing a rolling, thunderous din.
Ye Fan, meanwhile, was flanking the creature from the other side — it had only half a body left. The flames from the divine lamp burst forth like a furious dragon, the scorching heat seeming to char the very air.
From behind, Zhou Yi, Wang Ziwen, and others charged up, simultaneously raising their divine artifacts and bringing them crashing down toward that crocodile-shaped ferocious creature.
Surrounded and cut off from all sides, the creature was nevertheless too fast — like a black bolt of lightning, it darted continuously across the five-colored altar, and it was very difficult for anyone to lay a hand on it.
Piercing shrieks rang out. Chased and beaten by the crowd, the hideous, terrifying creature seemed incomparably malevolent and furious, its cries unceasing — like howling, wailing ghosts from the underworld.
“Crack!”
The sound of something piercing through the dome reached them. Several more crocodile-shaped, loathsome creatures successfully broke through the dome and drilled inside. All were no longer than ten centimeters, identical to the first. Their gazes were as frigid as evil spirits’, staring at everyone with incomparable hatred — as though they harbored an irreconcilable, blood-deep enmity.
“How can there be so many?”
“What kind of creatures are these — is Mars their nest?”
A sense of powerlessness washed over the crowd. They were not gods; they did not know how to wield the artifacts in their hands. They could only rely on the light the Buddhist implements emitted on their own to ward off mortal danger — and now so many ferocious creatures had appeared that there was simply no way to eliminate them all.
Then came a rustling sound. Outside the dome, a dense mass appeared — fully a hundred crocodile-shaped creatures, all pressing hard against the dome, trying to force their way in.
Behind Ye Fan and the others, those who had not acted — the more timid ones — had already begun to tremble. With this many ferocious creatures rushing in all at once, even with divine artifacts in hand, they might not be able to hold them all back!
“Pang Bo — stop chasing. We need to gather together.” Ye Fan called out to Pang Bo.
With so many ferocious creatures appearing, there was no killing them all. The best strategy right now was to defend, to wait until the five-colored altar had accumulated enough energy to open the ancient cosmic road.
“Roarrr—!”
Suddenly, the tremendous roar that made the soul tremble came once again from the direction of the Great Thunder Sound Temple ruins!
With that soul-shaking snarl, even the raging sandstorm outside seemed to freeze for an instant — because in all of heaven and earth, there was no other sound, only that surging, billowing roar of a beast.
The ground shook ceaselessly. The five-colored altar trembled. Outside, the storm was completely drowned out.
“The Great Thunder Sound Temple… it’s the lair of these creatures!” someone said with trembling voice.
Everyone looked outward through the dome. More and more terrifying creatures converged on them — all coming from the direction of the Great Thunder Sound Temple. Black scales blanketed the ground in every direction, dense and innumerable — easily in the thousands and tens of thousands.
“Boom!”
Suddenly, everyone felt a violent shudder through the earth. Then, from a thousand meters away, an incomparably fierce and savage presence erupted — reaching from the heavens above to the underworld below, reverberating through all of heaven and earth!
Even with the sandstorm between them, everyone still saw two lantern-like, terrifying eyes appear at the ruins of the Great Thunder Sound Temple, piercing through the darkness and distance.
That place was like a volcanic eruption — rocks launched into the sky, and many boulders the size of houses came crashing down near the five-colored altar, the commotion shaking heaven and earth.
“It’s the foundation of the Great Thunder Sound Temple… it’s crumbling. Something terrifying has emerged from underground!”
If that were true, then even with several sacred divine relics in hand, they would likely be completely helpless.
“I think I know what these crocodile-shaped creatures might be…” One female classmate said with a trembling voice.
The Tibetan regions hold Buddhism in the highest reverence — nearly everyone is a believer. This female classmate had once traveled to Tibet and visited great Buddhist sites such as the Jokhang Temple and the Ramoche Temple. An elderly Tibetan local had once shared certain legends with her.
According to those legends, beneath the Buddha’s dwelling — the Great Thunder Sound Temple — lay not a pure land or a blessed place, but the sealed remains of countless supreme demons. The creature sealed on the first level was said to be the Crocodile Ancestor: an ancient divine crocodile of boundless power, which had ultimately been subdued and sealed by the Buddha.
“You’re saying that beneath the Buddhist holy site of the Great Thunder Sound Temple, countless supreme demons were sealed?”
“That devout elder Tibetan Buddhist did indeed say so.”
Hearing all of this, everyone felt a chill sweep through their bodies. If it were true, then what was happening at the Great Thunder Sound Temple was surely the Crocodile Ancestor about to emerge — and all these loathsome creatures were its descendants.
Ye Fan furrowed his brow: “I once read certain records in an ancient miscellany…”
In that miscellaneous writing, there was a record of a limbless and clawless “crocodile” — with a body hard as vajra, capable of flying through the sky and vanishing into the earth, able to pierce through flesh and blood with ease. It was called the divine crocodile.
Zhou Yi nodded: “I have seen similar references in ancient texts…”
According to transmitted Buddhist records, the ancestor of the divine crocodile was sealed by the Buddha, and from that time on its descendants had not appeared in the world.
Everyone felt a surreal sensation — some legends they had always heard as mere stories, and yet now they were about to witness them with their own eyes. It filled them with both shock and dread.
“That elderly Tibetan Buddhist said the Crocodile Ancestor was sealed in the first level beneath the Great Thunder Sound Temple — does that mean there’s a second level, a third level…?” A female classmate asked with a trembling voice.
No one answered. Right now, if the Crocodile Ancestor truly emerged, it was enough to wipe them all out entirely.
A rustling sound arrived. Thousands upon thousands of small crocodile creatures appeared outside the five-colored altar, pressing hard against it and trying to force their way in.
“Boom!”
Suddenly, the five-colored altar shook. Five kinds of ancient runes appeared in the sky like stars shining — and the Taichi Eight Trigrams diagram was about to emerge. These were the signs that the ancient cosmic road was opening.
But at that same moment, a terrifying tremor came from the ruins of the Great Thunder Sound Temple a thousand meters away. Those lantern-like blood-red eyes rose several meters higher — clearly, it was breaking free from the underground palace’s restraints, tearing its way out to the surface.
Escape from here. Escape from Mars. That was the thought in every mind. Many people were praying — hoping the ancient cosmic road would open as soon as possible. Even if it meant drifting forever through the Desolate universe, it would be more bearable than what awaited them here.