Chapter 1727: Painstaking Efforts

The whole sequence of events happened too quickly, leaving Li Changsheng completely stupefied.

Previously, he had even had the extravagant hope that they could hurt Zhao Han’s physical body a bit, potentially having a decisive impact on the overall situation. But who would have thought that these two would be defeated so quickly?

Xuan Bajing’s loss was still excusable, since his move was quite brilliant. Despite that, he had been the one who was injured.

As for Guan Chouhai’s loss, that was nothing more than a joke. Xuan Bajing had managed to test out the enemy’s special ability for him, and yet he had ended up knocking himself out!

Li Changsheng had thought that Guan Chouhai was pretty sharp. Why had his brain gone to shit today?

The two clones charged at Li Changsheng, Xuan Bajing, and Guan Chouhai just then, planning to take the chance to completely eliminate them.

Guan Chouhai fainting was one thing, but Li Changsheng and Xuan Bajing were filled with despair. They were seriously injured and didn’t have any strength to fight back. They could only watch as inevitable death encroached.

Just then, Elder Xuan Dou and little monk Jie Se, who had previously been watching the situation together with some daoists, quickly rushed over to rescue their own sect elders. Unfortunately, even though their cultivation ranks were high, these were the attacks of a grandmaster who had cultivated a yin soul. Miserable screams filled the air one after another. They suffered a huge amount of casualties almost immediately.

When he saw Elder Xuan Dou, whom he had just been fighting with, getting killed so easily, Jie Se was so frightened his face turned deathly pale. He thought, It’s not as if these guys are even from Tranquility Temple; it’s daoists dying and not monks! He turned and ran for his life.

But how could those two figures let him go? They immediately gave chase, their weapons still dripping blood.

Jie Se began screaming for his life. “I’m going to die, I’m going to freaking die! Master, save me!”

The buddha projection in the air suddenly raised its hand and struck toward ‘Guan Chouhai’ and ‘Xuan Bajing’. A hand appeared amid the clouds, and a moment later, it crashed down on them like Mt. Tai. Even though the two were formidable, they were no match for the buddha projection that was comparable to an earth immortal’s primordial spirit. They quickly dodged backward.

With a cold snort, Zhao Han’s primordial spirit also interfered, striking aside the buddha’s hand. Seemingly having noticed Master Jian Huang’s weakness, he took the chance to aim his finger at Jie Se. His seemingly ordinary finger looked as if it were crushing an ant. It was so overwhelmingly powerful that Jie Se couldn't resist in the slightest, and could only watch as that finger pressed down.

Master Jian Huang naturally wouldn’t just let that happen without doing anything. The buddha projection quickly rushed over to save him. However, Zhao Han’s primordial spirit had a strange smile as it took the chance to attack the buddha projection.

Previously, with King Qi as the main force and Master Jian Huang as the support, both sides had maintained excellent teamwork and managed to briefly hold Zhao Han off. And yet now, with the disciple as bait, Master Jian Huang took the initiative to attack. That produced a crack in their coordination.

For Zhao Han, there was no way he would let such an opportunity go. A fist, a palm, and a finger struck the buddha projection. It flickered continuously, and in the end, it could no longer hold on, dissipating into the air.

Below, the seated Master Jian Huang didn’t vomit blood, but no one would think he was completely fine. His skin began to crack all over, as if he were made of broken glass. A cold wind blew across Golden Peak, and a chunk of skin fell from his face, revealing a pitch-black void behind it. Then, his entire body could no longer hold on, fully breaking apart piece by piece. With a gust of wind, he dissolved into ashes.

When he saw Master Jian Huang try to help his disciple, King Qi immediately realized that the situation was bad. He quickly rushed over, but he was still too late. The buddha statue was already broken. Even someone with his level of mental strength felt a brief moment of alarm when he saw Master Jian Huang turn into ashes. After all, without the monk’s support, he was definitely not Zhao Han’s match.

Zhao Han seemed to have foreseen that. After killing Master Jian Huang, he used the momentum to continue his assault.

King Qi defended himself in a panic. Unfortunately, Zhao Han had been number one in this world for too long and was full of experience, not giving him any opportunities. Soon after, King Qi’s defenses broke down bit by bit. In the end, a fist imprint slammed into his chest, causing his massive figure to collapse. He could no longer hold on and returned to his body once more.

Zhao Han exhaled in relief. Taking down two powerful opponents in succession so quickly was difficult even for someone of his cultivation. He practically hadn’t held back at all. All of his cultivation had erupted in the shortest possible amount of time.

It was one thing to deal with Master Jian Huang, but in the end, King Qi was an earth immortal too. Zhao Han had needed to exhaust himself quite a bit in order to seriously injure him. Now, however, he had already dealt with the most troublesome pair. With his earth immortal power, he could return to his strongest state in just a few seconds. Everyone else was nothing more than an ant before him.

And yet, something completely unpredictable suddenly happened. A sacred Buddhist sound filled the air, and lotus flowers fell from the skies. The little monk was now completely calm, his previous alarm gone. Rings of light appeared behind his bald head. His entire figure also became incredibly holy and dignified.

Zhao Han’s expression changed greatly. He quickly evaded backward, but unfortunately, he had just defeated two great enemies. He had just spent his strength and wasn’t able to recover yet.

At the same time, Jie Se’s hands suddenly began to move around, instantly applying several magical seals to Zhao Han’s body.

Zhao Han’s primordial spirit returned to his body. His tall and mighty figure staggered a bit, and he sat down on the ground. He had always viewed others from an invincible standpoint; when had he ever shown such a sorry state to others before?

Guo Zhi and the other Imperial Guards were horrified when they saw that. They rushed over to help him. However, Jie Se’s hands joined together and a red light swept outward. The remaining Imperial Guards and Embroidered Envoy swere instantly lit ablaze, turning into ashes in the blink of an eye.

The civil and military officials halfway up the mountain were shocked. Why was there another earth immortal’s aura now? The successive appearances of earth immortals made even the calmest ones, Meng Yi and Bi Qi, sit up straight. Even though his majesty was formidable, things were going to turn dangerous if this continued! As such, they gave the order for the army waiting below to bring up the Rune Siege Cannons. They had decided to blast through the Righteous Sun Sect’s mountain defense formation.

Zhao Han’s face was dark red. He stared at the nearby Jie Se with hatred in his eyes and spat, “You aren’t the little monk. Who exactly are you?”

Jie Se brought his hands together, saying, “This poor monk is naturally Jie Se. However, this monk also had another name in the past, Ruhua. I believe your majesty knows that name.”

“So it was you!” Zhao Han exclaimed, his eyes narrowing.

King Qi was gasping for breath too, but he was filled with even more shock. He also knew that name. Ruhua had been the abbot of a generation in Tranquility Temple, as well as the master of the current abbot, Master Jian Huang. He was rumored to have been the most outstanding genius in Tranquility Temple in the past thousand years, as well as the one who had had the highest chance of breaking through into the earth immortal rank.

Unfortunately, Zhao Han had risen up and suppressed an entire generation. Ruhua had known that he could not surpass Zhao Han, and due to his age, he had passed away with great regret.

But who would have thought that he actually hadn’t died, and had even become Master Jian Huang’s disciple?!

“No, something’s not right. The way you interacted with Master Jian Huang before couldn't have been fake. If you were his master, how could you have put on such a perfect appearance?” Zhao Han asked gravely. He clearly had his own informants on Violet Mountain and knew about such details clearly.

“Without this method, how could we have hidden from your majesty?” Monk Ruhua replied with a smile. “Actually, not even Jian Huang knew about this. In order to deceive the entire world, I sealed my sea of consciousness. Normally, I really was just Jie Se. Only in that instant did I recall everything and learn of my own plans.”

𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Zhao Han said with a sneer, “It was an excellent scheme, as expected. But you Buddhists always preach about a heart of compassion, and yet in the end, you even deceived your own disciple, sacrificing his life to scheme against me. What buddha are you even cultivating at this point, what dao?!”

King Qi’s entire body turned ice-cold. Hadn’t he also been used like a tool in this scheme? If Ruhua had informed him of his real identity beforehand, then together with Master Jian Huang and the others, they could have had a chance of winning against Zhao Han. But this man just had to have chosen the most treacherous method. Now, so many people had died so miserably, while he and Zhao Han were both in terrible states. Only Ruhua was still in his strongest state.