Chapter 800: Beating the Candle in the Snow to Tears, and Rewarding Him with Heavenly Thunder? (Happy Lantern Festival~)
The Donglin Buddha has collapsed.
It collapsed in front of everyone inside the Xunyang Grottoes.
The young man in the scholar's robe had just used up three tubes of spirit ink.
Apart from the resounding crash of the river against the broken stones of the Buddha statue, the field was deathly silent.
Regardless of the court officials on the high platform who were desperately trying to stop the destruction of the Buddha.
Or like Xue Zhongzhu, Wu Daozi, and others who used various methods to launch a powerful surprise attack on the Donglin Buddha.
All fell silent, watching helplessly as the giant Buddha statue collapsed and sank into the river.
As the sun sets, the Buddha statue is dismembered and thrown into the river.
This scene has a touch of poetry to it.
It would be even better if there were no loud crashing waves or the sound of water hitting the rocks.
Unfortunately, in this era, dramatic changes inevitably represent immense destructive power, accompanied by tremendous noise.
The fall of the Buddha into the river caused the river level to rise several meters for no apparent reason.
The shockwave from the collapse sent up waves tens of feet high that crashed against the south and north banks of Shuangfengjian.
The south bank is farther away, so the waves have slowed down considerably by the time they reach that side.
However, the main grotto and the north bank where everyone was located were not so lucky.
The price of being the closest was that the river swelled rapidly, and a wave crashed into the open space of the main grotto.
However, while everyone instinctively panicked and fled, the young man in the scholar's robe remained calm and composed, his hands behind his back.
As the surging river waters approached the main grotto, it seemed as if immense pressure was pressing down on the surface of the river, causing the waves to surge back into the water.
The mighty power of the great river was quelled by another mighty force!
There was no "storm" stirred up.
With a certain ban in place, even the waves of the river cannot "fly".
The river water gradually receded.
The sound of the giant waves gradually subsided.
Besides the dazzling sunset over the river, there are also river fish curiously playing around the sunken Buddha head in the river water;
In addition, there is the ushnisha (cranial protuberance) on the top of the golden Buddha head, which stands out above the river surface and symbolizes nobility.
Everything returned to normal.
As the sun slowly sets, the surging river continues its rushing flow, with fish swimming in the shallows, day and night.
The collapse and destruction of a large Buddha statue seems to be no big deal to them.
The current power struggle and fierce battles surrounding the Donglin Buddha within Shuangfengjian are of no great importance to them; they will still be there a hundred years from now.
The same seems to be true for a certain young man in a scholar's robe standing on the high platform of the main grotto at this moment.
Ouyang Rong dusted off his hands, turned around and asked the crowd with a smile:
Why isn't anyone saying anything?
Xue Zhongzhu, Wu Daozi, Wei Shaoqi, and the others all tilted their heads, silently watching the sunken Buddha on the river.
"Hehehe..."
The old woman with the white eyes next to Ouyang Rong had her dantian shattered, was coughing violently, vomiting three liters of blood, and was now hunched over, clutching her abdomen, kneeling on the ground.
The Yin-Yang School's Purple Qi Refiner bowed his head deeply, his expression unreadable. From his mouth, which was constantly gurgling blood, came faint sounds, as if he were in great pain, as if his heart was being gnawed by insects.
Yi Qianqiu, Lao Yangtou, and the others stood frozen in place, staring blankly at Ouyang Rong's back.
A young girl in purple palace attire stood in the center of the high platform, her outstretched hand having been withdrawn at some point.
The inscription that reads "The two of them worked together with utmost sincerity to cast a Buddha statue" is located on her head.
Rongzhen stood beneath the lotus-shaped dome, staring intently at the sunken golden Buddha on the river, speechless for a long time.
Beside the high platform, the remaining white-clad female officials and imperial guards, numbering only a fraction of the original number, had bewildered or frightened eyes. Their weapons fell to the ground, and like their superiors, they had lost their way and something else.
It's hard to explain.
The crowd gradually turned to look at Ouyang Lianghan, who was smiling.
They gradually understood what this young man in the scholar's robe was doing.
No wonder that after seizing the Great Buddha Formation, he used the Donglin Great Buddha without any regard for its value, and even dared to risk his life to exhaust the Golden Light and defeat four Hammer Men with his sword, which was used to suppress the entire field.
He spared no effort in using the golden sword energy of the Emperor Wen.
Since the Buddha statue was originally going to be destroyed, this was a way of making use of waste.
Wei Shaoqi coughed violently, covering his mouth, and with Du Shuqing's help, stood up and bowed towards the high platform:
"Ouyang... what is the meaning of your actions? Is your assistance solely out of consideration for Lady Yue? If so, this is truly a case of the flood washing away the Dragon King's temple..."
Having learned from the example of Granny Song who indiscriminately claimed teammates, Wei Shaoqi became more cautious and refrained from making indiscriminate attempts to get close to others.
Ouyang Rong asked curiously:
"I can build this Buddha statue, and I can also destroy it. What are your opinions?"
These words were not only addressed to Wei Shaoqi and others, but also seemed to be directed at Rong Zhen and others.
The people on the platform, including Rong Zhen, looked at the young man in the scholar's robe with incredibly complex expressions.
They knew that Ouyang Lianghan was right; he had indeed built the Buddha statue, but they had recently turned the tables and kicked it out of the game.
What he felt back then, they seem to be experiencing now as well.
"Knock knock—"
Ouyang Rong held the bronze scroll in one hand and gently patted the gourd at his waist with the other, as if gesturing for everyone to look over.
He said with a sincere expression:
"Alright, does anyone have any comments or want to leave? If not, let's get down to business. I'm sorry for taking up so much time."
Everyone fell silent.
Opinions? Leave?
The Buddha statue was destroyed in an instant, but a sword that had been laid out for an unknown period of time still hung high above everyone's heads.
Would they dare to object?
Wei Shaoqi looked helpless. At that moment, he noticed that Mr. Wu next to him seemed to be looking at the Empress.
Wei Shaoqi followed Wu Daozi's gaze and saw the Great Queen standing there, her golden hair somewhat disheveled, obscuring her face from behind.
The Great Queen of Yunmeng reached into her bosom, seemed to fumble around for a moment, and took out a small box and opened it.
The small box was strange, with many runes on it.
Glug—
The box made a sound when it was shaken, and there was a vaguely visible rolling bead-like object inside.
Xuezhongzhu's hands trembled as he opened the box, where he found a round ball inside.
But in the next instant, Ouyang Rong appeared in front of Xue Zhongzhu and casually took the box.
"Another healing and qi-replenishing pill?"
He squinted and asked, then poured out the pill and placed it in his palm.
After a moment, the young man in the scholar's robe tilted his head in slight confusion:
"A discarded pill?"
But in the next instant, he quickly grasped the pill, stuffed it into the box, and pressed it down with a hand seal.
"Are you courting death? This is the discarded core of some heretical cultivator, left behind after failing to advance to the Purple Qi realm. Instead of destroying this filth, aren't you afraid of attracting lightning? Or was it originally intended to be used to strike down a Buddha statue?"
Ouyang Rong squinted and asked Xue Zhongzhu, and the Kui Xing Talisman appeared, temporarily locking the aura of the waste pill.
"Get out!" Xue Zhongzhu suddenly looked up, staring intently at the scholar-robed youth who had disarmed her a second time, her blue eyes blazing with fury.
Only the observant Ouyang Rong noticed that there was a hint of crystalline moisture in those arrogant and fierce blue eyes.
I don't know if it's that kind of liquid.
Upon hearing this, Wei Shaoqi, who was standing to the side, seemed to have just learned that Xue Zhongzhu had prepared this backup plan. He vaguely remembered that the small box was given to the eldest female ruler by the second female ruler before she left. He originally thought it was a healing or qi-replenishing pill, but he did not expect that it was used to attract heavenly lightning to cause trouble.
However, this level of heavenly lightning is not ordinary lightning. It doesn't discriminate between friend and foe. Once it falls, it's like a lightning pool, striking anyone.
Wei Shaoqi, who was his companion, hesitated to speak. Just then, with a "whoosh," he saw Mr. Wu next to him suddenly turn half of his body into a talisman and burst into flames.
Wu Daozi was originally a portrait, as thin as paper... Perhaps this is why he could walk in the painting, since a living person cannot walk in a painting... Not long ago, after being exposed and torn apart by the young man in the scholar's robe, Wu Daozi has been in a state of standing upright and split in two, with the two halves of his "body paper" floating weakly.
Right now, half of the squinty-eyed old man's body has turned into burning paper, and tiny arcs of electricity can be faintly seen in the flames.
Ouyang Rong turned around, slightly surprised.
"You drew the lightning-attracting talisman before you came?"
Wu Daozi sighed and clasped his hands in a fist salute to him.
Xuezhongzhu swiftly retreated and escaped.
As half of Wu Daozi's body burned, it was as if something had been triggered.
The whole world darkened.
The crowd, who had been completely confused, looked up in bewilderment and found that the sky, which had been clear and sunny just moments before, was now covered with dark clouds.
Clusters of dark clouds gathered above the twin peaks, with the center of them directly above the main grotto.
Arcs of electricity, like silver snakes, appeared in the dark clouds, resembling brief, silvery cracks.
The lightning was visible to the naked eye, but the thunder had not yet struck.
Everyone in the room looked up at the sky, and the atmosphere gradually became chaotic.
The young man in the scholar's robe tilted his head slightly, and the smile on his lips faded a little.
The old musician, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke:
"It's heavenly lightning. There are only two possibilities for its appearance. Either there is something unclean, such as some alien beings breaking through to a higher realm, or the dead harming the living, or some other dirty things that will trigger heavenly lightning, or there is an existence that heaven and earth cannot tolerate... These are all easy to trigger heavenly lightning."
Just then, on the high platform behind them, the old woman with the white eyes, who was on the verge of death, suddenly took off her robe.
A purplish-black Taoist talisman could be seen flowing from the wound on his right shoulder.
The ancient Han-style lamp in Granny Song's hands broke:
"If I die, none of you will live!"
She stood amidst the shattered fragments, and three hundred and sixty star trails reassembled in her pupils:
"Mars guards the heart, and Greedy Wolf enters the life palace!"
A ray of light appeared, transforming into a stream of light that entered her palm.
A dark vortex appeared at the cracked wound of her Dao pattern.
The old man was plunging his blood-stained fingers into the crown of his head, his expression ferocious:
"The eighth-generation lamp-bearer of the Imperial Observatory respectfully requests the ancestral master to open the door—"
In the next instant, a faint, dark, and decaying aura emanated from the vortex on his shoulder.
This open door leads nowhere.
Above the Xunyang Grottoes, the dark clouds suddenly became even darker, and electric arcs became increasingly intricate.
It looked as if there was a thunder pool "reservoir" in the dark clouds.
Among them, electric snakes of colors such as blood, gold, and blue appeared.
In the past, sunlight, even as a single color, could terrify cultivators or strange spirits.
Three types appeared in just a few breaths, and there were far more.
Seeing that, in addition to the blood-red lightning, golden lightning spots were also faintly appearing, the old musician frowned deeply:
"This is bad! This lightning has nine layers! I've never heard of such a thing before. There must be a lot of unclean things in the field! There must be more than just these two, otherwise there wouldn't be such severe lightning."
"The discarded pills of unorthodox Qi cultivators will at most attract ordinary lightning tribulations."
"The legendary Ruins of Guixu is in the East Sea. It is said that no one can find and come out alive. Only the first lamp-bearer of the Imperial Observatory went there once before his death. Only his bones returned silently. He wrote a message to the Imperial Observatory that he could only live for three days. He also said that he had placed a restriction there. Before his bones turned to ashes, he left a mark for the next lamp-bearer, which became a final Yin-Yang technique."
"Miss Song is abusing this technique to lure in heavenly lightning, but it shouldn't be this serious... Is there something even dirtier on the field...?"
The old musician looked around in confusion, and everyone else was equally puzzled.
Ouyang Rong certainly knew which things were "unclean" to God.
His expression showed no surprise. He glanced at the dying, crazed old woman with white eyes and the inhuman, ghost-like Wu Daozi, then crushed the ruined pill with a single palm strike and curled his lip, saying:
"I knew you'd come if I stayed too long. You three filthy things have dragged me down with you. You couldn't even hide properly, swaggering around like that. You really think you can control heavenly lightning? You have no respect whatsoever..."
Ouyang Rong glanced again at the strange white sturgeon that was "splashing" after him.
"You've added fuel to the fire, and you too must undergo tribulation. I only enlightened you because I found you truly remarkable, but now I've become entangled in my own trap. I don't know if this connection should be formed. Oh well, I belong to the previous dynasty anyway, cough."
The young man in the scholar's robe turned around, clutching the painting in his hand, his eyes slightly lowered:
"Ninefold? I've only ever seen that in the murals in tombs. I never expected to receive such treatment on this trip."
As he spoke, he reached out to grab the gourd, paused halfway, and withdrew it, placing his hand in front of his abdomen. He muttered something in a voice no one could hear:
"Stop drinking too much. You've been slacking off for so long, and you haven't even drawn your sword yet. You've come all this way just to watch, and you've only ever made one strike... Do you have any ideas?"
Thunderclouds were gathering faintly above.
A destructive force of thunder was gathering above the Xunyang Grottoes.
Wu Daozi frowned deeply, and Xue Zhongzhu, the instigator, was also stunned.
Neither of them expected it to be so serious.
Originally, the purpose was simply to summon heavenly lightning to hold off Ouyang Rong.
As a result, a precedent was set, and the heavenly lightning escalated to such terrifying levels time and time again.
It seems they can't run away anymore.
Only Granny Song smiled sinisterly:
"You will all die, hahaha! This move, Returning to the Void, was originally meant to deal with rebels, but Ouyang Lianghan, you are the biggest rebel. I will take you down with me even in death!"
She looked up, as if welcoming the arrival of the thunder.
Both jade and stone were destroyed.
Yi Qianqiu's eyes widened like saucers:
"Deputy Supervisor Song, you've gone mad! We're still here! The Princess is still here; she's the next Lamp Bearer. Your abuse of the Void and destruction of the first generation's Dao patterns is a betrayal of the Princess! A betrayal of the Grand Master of Fate!"
Granny Song's smile was both tragic and insane:
"She called me an old man! How dare she call me an old thing, all for a stinking man! I've had enough! She's been so coy and hesitant, and this stinking man ruined my dantian, yet she didn't even try to stop or plead for me. Just die, all of you, just die!"
Rong Zhen remained silent, slowly turning her head to gaze indifferently at the crazed, glaring old woman for a moment. Then, in a very soft voice, she uttered three words:
"Old man."
"Hahahahaha..."
Granny Song burst into laughter, laughing uncontrollably. Her laughter aggravated the wound in her lower abdomen, causing her to vomit blood. Her flesh and blood were sucked into the vortex of Guixu on her shoulder, gradually draining her away until she was just skin and bones.
The old woman's cloudy eyes were wide open as she stared at the entire scene, as if she were about to die and witness everyone being cleaved into ashes.
Wei Shaoqi turned his head sharply and pleaded earnestly, "Could you please lift the ban and allow us to fly and use escape techniques? Otherwise, none of us will escape. If you lift the ban now, we may still have a chance to survive."
But then Ouyang Rong, without anyone noticing, picked up a gourd and drank from it.
He ignored the foolish noise around him, his clear eyes gazing at the sky as he sipped his wine.
Seeing this, everyone's faces turned somewhat desperate.
Just as the world-destroying thunderclouds were about to complete their formation.
The young man in the scholar's robe suddenly put down the gourd and hung it on his waist.
Under the watchful eyes of everyone, he turned around and walked alone towards the thunderclouds.
(End of this chapter)
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