Chapter 1174: Fist Like The Storm

The fist fell like rain, and the intent blew like the wind.

The rain wouldn’t stop, and the wind wouldn’t cease.

Despite this, Mara Sacrament Heavenly King remained perfectly fine. Not only that, the Buddhist sound conjured by the impacts were growing increasingly powerful and mind-bending.

“Cease wasting your strength. So long as the Veluriyam Sacred King Pagoda is still intact, you cannot lay a hand on me.”

Inside the light, Mara Sacrament Heavenly King watched Ye Qing and said emotionlessly, “If you surrender, then I can make you a protector of the Mara Sect.”

“Hahaha! Protector?”

Ye Qing burst out laughing. “I might have considered it if you offered me the position of cardinal, but

protector

? That’s just beneath me, man!”

“Insolent cur!”

Angered, Mara Sacrament Heavenly King raged, and his kingdom of Buddha shook. “If that is your wish, then I shall drop you into the Crimson Divine Flame and burn you forever!”

“Crimson Divine Flame?”

Still punching non-stop, ridicule crept onto Ye Qing’s expression. “Why don’t you look down and check out your so-called Crimson Divine Flame?”

Mara Sacrament Heavenly King instinctively obeyed his order, and that one look nearly caused him to lose his shit.

His kingdom of Buddha was burning as ever, but it wasn’t his Crimson Divine Flame that was burning. No, it was some sort of pure, beautiful red flame that was blooming mysterious-looking red lotuses.

This wasn’t the point, of course. The point was that the fire of red lotuses was burning away the resentment and karmic sin afflicting the souls. Over time, the monsters burning within the sea of flames no longer struggled and even regained their original appearance, and the mindless worshipers no longer looked mindless.

Every soul seemed to be regaining their minds and steering away from his control.

“Hellfire?!”

Mara Sacrament Heavenly King[1] cried out in surprise as worry quickly clouded his mind.

Mara Sacrament Heavenly King practiced a cultivation art called the “Sacrament Heavenly Sutra of Deliverance”. It was a Way focused on delivering the people from suffering and enlightening them from ignorance. However, it took an immense amount of time and effort to practice the cultivation art the straight and narrow way. It was something only a person of extraordinary willpower could pull off.

Mara Sacrament Heavenly King possessed neither the patience nor the benevolence, so he sought out a different method. First, he cruelly ripped out his victim’s soul. During the process, he would torture them using all sorts of cruel methods so that it would be filled with resentment and distortion. The greater the hatred, and the stronger the obsession, the greater the amount of power he obtained when he “delivered them from suffering”, and the more pious the converted souls turned out to be. This greatly accelerated his cultivation speed.

The monstrous souls drowning inside the Crimson Divine Flame of his kingdom of Buddha were resentful souls that had not yet been fully “enlightened”, and the pious worshipers praying on the red lotuses were those who were.

The souls were both his slaves and the foundation of his kingdom of Buddha. They were the ones who provided him with limitless power.

Normally, these souls were undying and eternal so long as they were inside the boundaries of his kingdom of Buddha. Absolute power aside, there were very, very few ways one could defeat his souls in a permanent fashion.

Unfortunately for Mara Sacrament Heavenly King, hellfire was one of those few methods. Hellfire could burn away all sins and karmic hindrance of a soul, purifying them so that they might pass away and enter nirvana in peace and tranquility. It was the bane of his cultivation art.

This was why Mara Sacrament Heavenly King was worried. If the souls regained their consciousness and strayed from his control or entered nirvana, then his kingdom of Buddha would cease to exist.

Realizing the threat the hellfire posed, Mara Sacrament Heavenly King immediately summoned rainwater within his kingdom of Buddha.

To be specific, each rainwater was as heavy as a lake and as massive as a river. This would surely be enough to extinguish the hellfire.

“Seriously, dude? You think I would tell you about the hellfire if it wasn’t already too late for you to do anything?”

Ye Qing barked out in laughter. “Rise!”

The next moment, the storm of fists surrounding Mara Sacrament Heavenly King abruptly scattered in every direction, blowing away the rain or annihilating them outright. As a result, the downpour was completely cut off. Not a single drop was able to reach the hellfire.

“You—”

Mara Sacrament Heavenly King tried to rage, but Ye Qing interrupted him, “Just shut up already, would you?”

In fact, Ye Qing had seen through the Mara Sacrament Heavenly King from the beginning thanks to his Yin Yang Spell Eyes. That was why he purposely drew away the martial intent’s attention while secretly purifying the souls using the Hellfire Red Lotus Saber Art[2] and diminishing his strength.

Logically speaking, the kingdom of Buddha was the Mara Sacrament Heavenly King’s Martial Domain. He should have noticed the Hellfire Red Lotus Saber Art the second it was planted inside it. However, the Mara Sacrament Heavenly King before Ye Qing was just a wisp of martial intent, not the true Mara Sacrament Heavenly King. His Martial Domain only possessed the form but not the essence as well. Combined with the fact that Ye Qing was masking his efforts with his fist intent and his spiritual power, and Mara Sacrament Heavenly King never realized the hellfire was burning his kingdom of Buddha until it was too late.

As the hellfire continued to purify the souls, the kingdom of Buddha’s power declined at a rapid rate. Realizing that he was in terrible danger, Mara Sacrament Heavenly King performed a mudra and shrank the range of his kingdom of Buddha rapidly. At the same time, immense power flooded into his Veluriyam Sacred King Pagoda and caused it to shine brightly. It then transformed into ninety-nine Buddhist mudras.

Each Buddhist mudra was a mountain, so ninety-nine mudras were ninety-nine mountains.

The next moment, the mudras fell on top of Ye Qing.

At the same time, Ye Qing thrust his palm toward the sky before clenching it. The storm of fists that had been blowing away the rain immediately flew back into his fingers.

When his fist was fully clenched, it was as if this entire corner of the world had fallen into his hand.

If his fist was the heavens, then to grasp his fist was to grasp the heavens.

The next moment, Ye Qing’s fist smashed toward Mara Sacrament Heavenly King. Even before the fist made contact, the ninety-nine mudras shattered one after another. The sky of clear, veluriyam light dimmed, and the Veluriyam Sacred King Pagoda began crumbling inch by inch.

The Mara Sacrament Heavenly King’s eyes bulged with disbelief. It was because his instincts were warning him of danger. Grave danger that could rob him of his life.

There was nothing he could do about it though. This was one punch, but it wasn’t really one punch. It was the combination of the thousands of punches Ye Qing had unleashed earlier.

One of Ye Qing’s punches was already heavy enough. Thousands of them combined? Neither heaven, earth, celestial, Buddha, god, or demon could stop it!

BOOOOOOM—

The clear light disappeared, and the Buddhist pagoda shattered. Mara Sacrament Heavenly King himself was blasted into pieces together with his so-called kingdom of Buddha.

“I’ve remembered you...”

Despite the sheer power behind Ye Qing’s punch, the Mara Sacrament Heavenly King’s martial intent wasn’t eliminated completely. The fragment left behind a threat and flew straight toward the mouth in the sky.

Clearly, the Mara Sacrament Heavenly King was trying to escape to safety through the passage.

He survived that? No wonder they say that Sages are hard to kill.

Ye Qing withdrew his fist as a wave of exhaustion and a pounding headache washed over him. His job wasn’t done, however.

“Don’t be like that! Stay with me!” Ye Qing called out to Mara Sacrament Heavenly King while pulling out the Earthly Sovereign Bell. For obvious reasons, he was going to wipe out the Mara Sacrament Heavenly King’s martial intent completely.

Before he could do anything though, the face in the sky abruptly distorted and popped out of existence.

“Ruyi! What are you doing?”

The Mara Sacrament Heavenly King’s martial intent roared in anger.

Ye Qing subconsciously glanced in Devi Ruyi’s direction and saw her slowly stepping out of the sky. Right now, the woman’s face was as pale as a sheet, and there was blood on her lips. She looked like a wildflower that was weathering the storm, frail yet tenacious.

For some reason, her cultivation level had plummeted all the way to the Spirit Master stage. Ye Qing reckoned that it had something to do with being possessed by Mara Sacrament Heavenly King’s martial intent.

1. I just want to mention that the author kept switching between two titles—Mara Sacrament Heavenly King and Mara Myriad Art Sacred King—for some reason, but as far as I can tell they’re the same person. I’m sticking to one title but if you think I’m wrong, and that Ye Qing is in fact fighting two different people, then do mention. ☜

2. Ayy, this saber art has seriously come in clutch so many times. ☜