Chapter 260 — The Old Ox and the Broken Cart

" The Left Protector Envoy Kong Lingxian raised his head and chuckled: "We folk of the jianghu like to play tricks, to scrape a living and beg a few coins from the spectators. We have made you gentlemen of property laugh at us.

" The Right Protector Envoy Xue Bi'e said with a smile: "Old bald donkey, old Daoist priest, when our cult leader went home for the New Year he told us to follow the Emperor.

If the Emperor is in peril, this old body and the old brothers of the cult cannot stand by and do nothing; otherwise, when the cult leader comes back after the New Year and demands an accounting, we cannot bear the blame. " The twelve Protector Elders and the two Heavenly Kings of the Youmo Cult jumped down from the cart. Heavenly King Shi and Heavenly King Yu stretched their limbs, bowed to the crowd all around, and said with an apologetic smile: "You are all personages high above; we old fellows pay our respects. When our cult leader handed the Emperor over to us, he was still alive and well.

If you kill him, and we give our cult leader a dead emperor, the cult leader will rage, and we shall have no choice but to die in atonement.

" The Beggar Sect's master Qi Dayou said in a loud voice: "Heretical demons! The court and the Youmo Cult are in league together.

Fellow Daoists of the Great Tingming Temple, by all means subdue the demons and rid us of them! " "Kill!

" A thunderous shout rang out, then thunder shook the heavens, and battle erupted. In an instant wild waves of qi lashed out in every direction, flattening whole swaths of mountain forest. This battle surpassed even the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping's campaign to quell the rebellion.

In that campaign there had been many sect-leader-tier beings, but compared with the sect-leader-tier powerhouses of the three holy lands they were still a notch inferior; and moreover the court too was the equal of a holy land. The strongest of four holy lands coming to blows — one can imagine the power. But this time the sect-leader-tier beings of the Great Tingming Temple and the Daoist Order had come out almost in full force, while the powerhouses of the court and the Youmo Cult had only half arrived; and with the Dao Sovereign and the Tathagata besides, the prospects of this battle were not cheerful. Once the fighting began, there were deaths. The long-eared monk went straight for Quan Dingwu.

Both powerhouses of the Divine Bridge opened all the divine storehouses in their bodies, and their fight shook heaven and earth. The long-eared monk was the head of the Arhat Court of the Great Tingming Temple, profound in the Buddha-dharma and master of the Art of Victory in Battle.

Quan Dingwu, for his part, was Grand General of Agile Cavalry, a lifetime of war and slaughter, destroying kingdoms and destroying sects, passing through death a hundred times.

In the early years, when the Grand Academy had just been founded and the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping gathered the masters of the realm to study the arts of the Dao and divine powers, Quan Dingwu had been among them; he was, one might say, one of the very finest powerhouses of Jingping. When the Art of Victory in Battle met the art of slaughter, at the first clash a sea of blood towered to the sky, and upon that sea of blood blazed roaring war-fires.

Such a marvel seemed truly to exist, yet it was formed of Quan Dingwu's killing intent. A great Buddha stood upon the sea of blood, and before the great Buddha was the long-eared monk; beside that towering Buddha he looked very small indeed. Out of the sea of blood and the sea of fire a man came howling at him — it was Quan Dingwu, behind him a horse trampling the fires of war, and on the horse a figure like a demon of slaughter, hideous and frightful, savage beyond measure.

"Heretical demon, cultivating not the true Buddha — you deserve a hundred deaths! " Golden light surfaced all about the long-eared monk.

He crossed his arms, chanted the true words of the Buddhist gate, and at the same time worked two mudras, exquisite beyond compare, striking at the places Quan Dingwu was forced to defend.

But Quan Dingwu did not dodge at all; he let the two strokes of the Art of Victory in Battle land upon his body. From under his arms arm after arm waved — arms formed of vital essence, gripping saber and shield, spear and lance, sword and halberd: the saber cut, the shield smote, the spear thrust, the lance pierced, the sword sliced, the halberd hooked.

They severed the long-eared monk's arms; the shield smote and shattered his skull; the spear ran him through the chest and lifted him up; the lance came out through his back; the sword's light wiped across his throat; and the long halberd hung his body aloft. And behind them, the god of slaughter met the great Buddha, and they crashed together with a boom; sea of fire and sea of blood surged and churned, like a great whirlpool screaming and turning about the two of them. "You did not dodge.

. .

" said the long-eared monk, impaled in midair by Quan Dingwu, hung on the long halberd, his voice hoarse. A great shield smashed down out of the sky and crushed him to powder. "On the battlefield one kills in a stroke or two — why dodge?

The battlefield is the art of killing.

To duel spells with you would be to use my weakness against your strength. " Quan Dingwu vomited great mouthfuls of blood.

The long-eared monk's two mudras had nearly shattered his five viscera and six bowels, and his ribs and shoulder blades were smashed to bits; the pain made him gasp. Suddenly a hand blazing with golden light pressed down; with a great booming crash it smote him into the earth. Another monk came killing, hands curved as if embracing emptiness, and a pagoda of eighteen heavens came crushing down with a roar — a pagoda crowded with gods and Buddhas, crushing Quan Dingwu until his bones broke and his sinews snapped. "Chan Master Yuankong, you too are of our Buddhist gate — why walk the demonic path and be the court's running dog? " Abbess Hongyin, head of the Fahong Court of the Great Tingming Temple, blocked Grand Commandant Monk Yuankong's way and urged him: "You should wake up; go no further down this wrong road!

Go further, and you will never attain the true fruit!

" Monk Yuankong's eyes flashed as he shouted: "What is the true fruit?

With a Buddha in your heart, you can never attain the true fruit.

His Majesty charged me with the law of the armies; I have turned iron law into chains wrapped about my body.

When I snap those shackles, I shall attain the true fruit where I stand! " Abbess Hongyin was enraged.

She whirled her whisk and came at him: "You are stained with evil karma — I shall rid you of it! " The great battle erupted. One after another the old Daoist priests of the Daoist Order offered up their swords, and in an instant sword-light filled the heavens — the sword arts of the Fourteen Chapters of the Dao Sword, truly formidable beyond compare, keen beyond compare, worthy indeed of the Daoist Order's foremost swordsmanship.

"Form the array — expel the demons!

" cried one old Daoist. "Set the array — refine these old ox-noses!

" Xue Bi'e shouted fiercely, and the two Heavenly Kings and the twelve Protector Elders formed a great array and met the old Daoists. The two sides had long been old acquaintances and old foes; they had fought times beyond counting, and knew each other's methods well.

On the other side, the Grand General of Heavenly Strategy, the High Minister, the Minister of Works, the Minister of State, the Prince of Mount Tai, and the rest were blocked by the powerhouses of the Great Tingming Temple.

The Great Tingming Temple had the greater numbers and surrounded them in the killing — only they passed over Emperor Yanfeng. Emperor Yanfeng turned his head, and saw Qiong Fuzi, Qi Dayou, Tian Zhenjun, and the others coming toward him, while the Tathagata and the Dao Sovereign stood, one holding his alms bowl, the other resting his hand on his sword.