Chapter 231 — Slaying the Monk

"Vajra Unconquerable!

" The Half-Fool Monk blazed with Buddha-light, his sinews and frame swelling until he stood some three zhang six chi tall, and the nine-ringed Zen staff in his hand grew and lengthened with him, so that he seemed a great Buddha with a sun standing behind his head. This was the Vajra Unconquerable Art of the Buddhist school, a cultivation method famed for the divine powers of the flesh.

Buddhist arts came in many kinds: some excelled in the realm of the mind, cultivating spells and divine powers; some excelled in wisdom and sudden awakening, cultivating blade and sword arts; and some belonged to the school of combat technique, famed for the divine powers of the body.

The Vajra Unconquerable Art walked the path of combat technique, yet unlike other combat schools it was laced with spells as well; though unlike the Libationer of Mount Ba's fusion of war and law, the spells of the Vajra Unconquerable Art were hidden within the Zen staff or the prayer beads. In daily cultivation one carried the staff and the beads and ceaselessly chanted the sutras, refining one's evil thoughts into the beads and refining the sutras' divine powers into the staff.

Then, when battle came, one could release the evil thoughts from the beads and transform them into a fighting posture of utmost ferocity, while the spells within the staff were their means of taking a foe unawares and striking where he was unprepared. The Half-Fool Monk came charging in; though the Buddha-light blazed bright, this Buddha wore a face as fierce and hideous as the vajra-yakshas of a temple, and the Zen staff smashed down savagely at Shen Mu! Shen Mu had already felt the power of his Vajra Unconquerable Art; once this art brought forth the body of the vajra-yaksha, it was hard beyond measure, able even to withstand the attacks of the Chubao Sword. And its strength was beyond all reason, for it had even pressed Shen Mu's treasure ship down into the cloud layer.

Shen Mu roused the Mystic Body Three Cinnabar Art. His body shook, and of a sudden a golden light shot down from the sky and poured into him, transforming his flesh into a golden god: tiger claws and white fur, feet treading twin dragons, a tiger's head with bulging eyes and a white brow, the golden qi in his hand congealing into a bronze battle-axe shaped like a great cleaver.

From Shen Mu's left ear hung a golden serpent, hissing, swallowing and spitting golden qi.

What he had used was the True Art of the Metal Marquis, the Great White Star Lord, his spirit transformed into the form of the Great White Star Lord, master of all the metal qi under heaven. The Five Luminaries Realm held many secrets.

Shen Mu's attainments in that realm were already exceedingly high, and with the guidance of the Imperial Preceptor Jingping he had cultivated the divine transformation forms of five great star lords, long since surpassing the other powers of the Five Luminaries Realm by a measure beyond counting.

"So it is indeed a demon's sorcery! " Seeing his body change, the Half-Fool Monk gave a cold laugh. The nine rings of his staff flew and danced, buzzing as the staff swelled like a great hammer hung with nine golden rings, and came crashing down!

There was a violent shock; Shen Mu's bronze axe clashed with the nine-ringed Zen staff, and the two burst out with a terrifying force.

Shen Mu was shaken back again and again; the twin dragons beneath his feet flew out, clambered onto the Half-Fool Monk, and wound themselves about his legs, while the nine golden rings on the staff came whistling off, battering one after another against Shen Mu's crown, striking sparks of fire and knocking him head over heels a dozen times.

The Half-Fool Monk was, after all, of that realm, a man of divine powers with means aplenty. He strained with both feet and burst the two golden dragons apart, snatched up his staff and leaped, and in midair the nine golden rings came shrieking back to settle once more upon the staff.

Boom!

The Half-Fool Monk swung the staff down; it struck Shen Mu, and Shen Mu, both feet planted on the ground, slid helplessly backwards, plowing a deep trench in the earth, the bronze axe in his hand already shattered by the blow.

The Half-Fool Monk strode forward, swift beyond measure, closing the distance in a few bounds; he thrust the staff out before him, another great report, and sent Shen Mu hurtling backwards, unable to keep his footing. The staff hummed and quivered; the nine golden rings clanged against Shen Mu's chest and knocked him a hundred zhang away, flattening swathes of forest. "Sumeru Seal — hah!

" The Half-Fool Monk soared into the air, shouted the mantra, and brought one palm down upon the place where Shen Mu had fallen. The earth shook, the trees toppled, and there appeared a handprint half a mu in size, pressed deep into the ground.

Above that palm print hung the phantom of a Mount Sumeru, and countless sutra runes revolved about the mountain's phantom.

"Amitabha. The demon-path fiend has at last been beheaded and executed, and has accomplished a measure of merit for this poor monk.

" The Half-Fool Monk landed, one hand resting on the Zen staff, the other placed over his heart in salute, and standing outside the handprint he bowed and said: "This poor monk is no lover of killing. That I now employ thunderous means is only to rid the world of a scourge, a thing done against my will.

This poor monk shall recite a Rebirth Sutra for the Cult Master, and send the Cult Master's wronged soul onward to the Pure Land, to do evil no more.

.

. " He was just about to begin the recitation when of a sudden a chill ran through him. He sprang up at once, and the ground split open; golden qi spikes, one after another, burst from the earth and thrust madly up into the sky!

The Half-Fool Monk drove his staff downward; the nine rings swept out in all directions and shattered the golden spikes, and then he saw the phantom of Mount Sumeru collapse, and countless streams of golden qi gather and become numberless flashes of sword-light.

The sword-light gathered into one, ten zhang and more in length, and with a ding it pierced the Half-Fool Monk's chest. The Half-Fool Monk cried out in pain as the sword-light pierced his chest, then suddenly roared; from the prayer beads at his neck came the sound of Buddha-voice, and as it quivered sutra runes gushed from the beads. The scripture texts became rings, layer upon layer of scripture-rings clasping that sword-light, revolving without cease, until at last they held the sword-blow back.

At that very moment, before the Half-Fool Monk, water-light flashed of a sudden: there stood towering waves, and at the head of the billows Shen Mu had become the form of the Water Marquis, Lord Chenxing, man's head and red hair and serpent's body, holding a trident.

The trident thrust at the Half-Fool Monk; the billows rose to the heavens and became a vast palm print rolling down to crush him. The Half-Fool Monk roared, his Buddha-light blazing, and raised a hand to block; then of a sudden he felt a boundless force sweep over him and was sent flying by those waves. And the trident, piercing his chest, became a three-headed dragon that bore his body shrieking forward.

With a great booming crash, the three-headed dragon and the towering waves crushed the monk down against the earth and pressed out a great pit in the ground. The waters dispersed; the Half-Fool Monk scrambled to his feet, and head-on he saw a monster charging at him, an ox's head on a man's body, treading two fire dragons.

The ox-eye in the monster's brow opened, and a blade of firelight, swift as lightning, swept level and flat at him; the Half-Fool Monk raised a hand to shield his throat, his palm was seared with pain, and two of his fingers were cut away. A measure of panic stirred in his heart.