Chapter 537: Destroying the Gathered Arhats

The Taiqing Grandmaster's praying mat boasted incredible strength and left the two Golden Immortals immobile. The arhats within the boulder began to panic.

"Princess, is the Taiqing Grandmaster making a move? Did he say how to deal with the cursed effigies within?" Xiao Nanfeng asked urgently.

However, Zhang Lingjun was still surrounded by red fog and appeared to be deep in meditation. She was unable to respond to Xiao Nanfeng.

Sage Yellowbrow and the Moonlight Buddha, suppressed by the praying mat, were incredibly frustrated.

"Help me!" the Moonlight Buddha howled.

A group of arhats charged forward, but were instantly knocked back by the red light that the praying mat gave off.

"There's a girl on top of the praying mat. She's the one controlling it. Kill her, now!" the Moonlight Buddha commanded.

"Understood!"

The arhats tried to escape from the hole that the Moonlight Buddha had opened up, but the praying mat was sealing it with the red light that it emitted. The arhats were unable to draw near at all.

"Create another opening! Everyone, strike alongside me!" one arhat cried out.

The arhats attacked the wall of the cave until a crack appeared.

"Continue!" the arhat in the lead commanded.

"Understood!"

The arhats attacked the wall again, magnifying the crack.

Xiao Nanfeng narrowed his eyes. He shouted, "Ye Dafu, gather everyone and protect the princess."

"Understood!"

Xiao Nanfeng rushed toward the gigantic boulder, not knowing how long the praying mat would be able to seal the two Golden Immortals. However, this was an incredible opportunity, one that he had no intention of missing out on.

Upon reaching the boulder, he used his candleflame powers and passed right through.

"How did that lad manage to enter?"

"All of you over there, go catch him and get him to bring us out!"

"Go quickly! He's only a Heaven Immortal!"

About a hundred arhats shot toward Xiao Nanfeng.

"Senior, this is an excellent opportunity. Would you strike?" Xiao Nanfeng asked.

"Very well." The black lotus, wreathed in black fog, emerged from Xiao Nanfeng's mindscape.

At the same time, Xiao Nanfeng switched to his True Yin body. A bright moon appeared to the back of his head as a blizzard began to fall. The black lotus vanished within the snow.

The arhats moved incredibly quickly and appeared beside Xiao Nanfeng in no time at all. In the lead was the arhat that had fought against Xiao Nanfeng back then.

"Lad, you were able to run last time, but you won't be able to do so again. Let's see how you block my fist this time!" the arhat shouted, snarling.

However, it missed. Xiao Nanfeng had vanished.

"What? Where is he?"

"Spiritual harmony? Is Xiao Nanfeng a True Yin cultivator?"

"True Yin is divided into three sub-realms. There's no way he can maintain perfect harmony!"

"Find him using the death chants!"

The arhats seethed in rage.

Death chants began to ring out, filling the entire limestone cave. However, Xiao Nanfeng remained nowhere to be seen. No—he did appear beside the arhats trying to break out of the boulder. He punched forward and sent the first arhat stumbling, breaking their concentration.

"Die!" the nearby arhats cried out, striking at Xiao Nanfeng.

However, the next moment, Xiao Nanfeng invoked spiritual harmony again and vanished from sight. The arhats missed once more.

"He vanished again? Keep searching for him!" the arhats roared.

Then, Xiao Nanfeng appeared somewhere else entirely.

"Over there!"

Xiao Nanfeng executed another sneak attack on an arhat, sending it flying.

Although Xiao Nanfeng had killed quite a few of the Moonlight Buddha's subordinates, he flashed all over the cave as he did so. None of the arhats were able to strike him or concentrate on making an opening out of the cave.

"Damn it! If I catch Xiao Nanfeng, I'm going to kill him!" the arhats raged.

Unfortunately for them, Xiao Nanfeng's spiritual harmony was near-omnipotent, and none of them could do anything about it.

"Destroy his moon!" an arhat suggested.

Two of the arhats rushed up to Xiao Nanfeng's silver moon and each threw a punch at it. A mouth suddenly opened up on the moon's surface, swallowing them both up—and that was it.

The remaining arhats fell silent.

"What was that? The moon ate those two arhats?!" an arhat called out.

"Let me have a try!" Another arhat flew close to Xiao Nanfeng's silver moon.

This one remained some distance away, invoking a palm strike from afar.

The silver moon suddenly flashed forward until it was right by the arhat's side, so quickly the arhat didn't have time to react. Then, the moon swallowed the arhat.

The remaining arhats: ...

They couldn't help but feel fearful of Xiao Nanfeng's silver moon.

"Was he hiding his strength all along?"

"His silver moon's filled with cursed spiritual power—it's likely that a cursed effigy inhabits it. Could that cursed effigy be working against Xiao Nanfeng? It isn't attacking us actively, after all."

"Don't provoke that cursed effigy. Keep attacking Xiao Nanfeng instead! He's no match for us!"

The arhats continued to chase after Xiao Nanfeng, even going as far as to congregate and pretend to break through the walls of the limestone cave, but Xiao Nanfeng saw through their tricks and didn't fall for them.

Xiao Nanfeng suddenly appeared out of nowhere to attack an arhat that was on his own.

"That troublesome bastard! Why aren't the death chants working against him?" an arhat cried out.

Suddenly, another one shouted, "Something's wrong. What happened to the rest of us?"

"What's wrong?"

The arhats looked around warily as they blanched. "There are twenty of us missing. The silver moon only ate three, and the rest of us aren't anywhere near it. Where did the others go?"

Just then, Xiao Nanfeng made his reappearance, punching at an arhat with so much force that the sound reverberated through the air. A tempest formed, drawing all the arhats' attention.

This time, however, not all the arhats concentrated on Xiao Nanfeng. They were staring elsewhere, too. As Xiao Nanfeng struck, a cloud of black fog appeared in a secluded region and sucked two more arhats in, then vanished from sight.

"Did you see that black fog swallow two of us up?"

"There's a cursed effigy in that black fog, one different from the silver moon!"

"I see what's happening now. Xiao Nanfeng appears merely to distract us. He's trying to cover up for that black fog!"

"Everyone, gather around!"

The arhats all assembled, not wanting to give the black fog any opportunity to strike.

"Enhance the death chants, now!" an arhat shouted.

The death chants were magnified to an incredible degree. They rumbled like thunder. Even so, it was useless. With the help of the black lotus, Xiao Nanfeng wasn't affected by them.

Xiao Nanfeng didn't appear; rather, a cloud of black fog burst out from amidst the group of arhats.

"Over here!" the arhats shouted, waving a hand.

They pummeled at the black fog to no avail. It vanished once more.

"The black fog ran off? No—two more of us are missing!"

"How could this be? Why are our death chants useless?"

"Just what sort of cursed effigy is this? It's immune to the death chants and can appear among us out of nowhere!"

Just then, the Moonlight Buddha shouted from afar, "Who might you be? Which Buddha are you a disciple of? I have never offended you to my knowledge, Sir, so why are you attacking us alongside an outsider?"

The arhats' eyes widened. Was a golden lotus hood cursed effigy lying within the black fog?

"You must be mistaken. I'm not a subordinate of the Buddhas of Three Aspects," the black lotus replied, voice resounding.

"Although my subordinates' death chants are a little varied, I can discern yours from theirs. I can't be mistaken. You've been protecting Xiao Nanfeng with your death chants and devouring my subordinates, Sir. What are your intentions? You might have hidden the traces of your actions, but the Future Buddha will surely be able to detect them. Do you intend to make the Buddhas of Three Aspects your enemy?" the Moonlight Buddha demanded.

The black lotus stopped responding.

Xiao Nanfeng appeared once again, striking at a lone arhat while the black fog sucked in three more. Then, he and the black fog vanished anew.

"Buddha, what do we do? That cursed effigy can appear and disappear at will, and we can't defend against it!" an arhat shouted.

The Moonlight Buddha replied, "If it's anything like us, then it can't appear or disappear at will. If I'm not mistaken, it must be possessing one of you. Whenever it claims more arhats, it switches to another victim."

"But we're all cursed spirits! How could it be able to possess us?" an arhat shouted back.

"It's at least a Buddha in its own right, and is far stronger than any of you. That's why it can possess you," the Moonlight Buddha replied.

"A Buddha?!" the arhats cried out.

Just then, as expected, a cloud of black smoke instantaneously drifted out from around an arhat. Only when the other arhats glanced over did they understand that it hadn't appeared out of nowhere; rather, the black fog had been possessing that arhat to begin with, and was now devouring another arhat beside the first one.

"Attack!" the arhats shouted.

All the arhats struck at the black fog to no avail. The black fog vanished again as more arhats were lost.

"Forget it. Keep trying to open up a hole in the cave. Only then will we be able to escape!" an arhat shouted.

The arhats all cooperated as they struck at the crack in the cave. It expanded even as Xiao Nanfeng and the black lotus continued to take down the arhats one after another. Before long, three hundred of their number were gone.

"The black fog's growing stronger!" an arhat cried out.

Indeed, the black lotus' strength was recovering quickly. It didn't need to possess any single arhat anymore. It floated within the black fog, its underside like a black hole, furiously absorbing more and more arhats.

The 300th, the 500th, the 700th...

The arhats began to scream shrilly, but it was useless. Before long, they had all been devoured.