Chapter 119 — The Mantis Stalks the Cicada, Unaware of the Oriole Behind

The moment the three-zhang golden rope appeared, it wove itself in an instant into hundreds upon hundreds of densely layered golden strands above the Qianji Daoist's head. The radiance Yun Xiuzi had hacked forth at the cost of her entire store of primal essence fell upon that net and vanished like a clay ox plunging into the sea, producing no effect whatsoever.

"Damn it all—this one is real, no counterfeit! This Immortal-Binding Rope doesn't seem to be Jiang Ziya's after all. How did it end up in Kunlun's hands?" Zhou Xuan sensed the vast, surging spiritual energy that filled the heavens; the very space above the cloud layer seemed on the verge of freezing solid. Strand after strand of coiled heaven-and-earth spiritual energy had become like so many cords, and even the circulation of his own true essence and dharma power felt sluggish.

"Amitabha! Brother Daoist, your intentions are indeed wicked!"

The Great Compassion Dharma King, however, had been drawn in by the Dharma Wheel of Silence and Extinction, his vigilance worn down to its lowest point—though that did not mean he had dropped his guard. Just as his hand reached out to seize the wheel, Zhou Yan's blood-transforming blade came slashing toward him. The blade looked utterly unremarkable, and he paid it little mind; he merely flicked his great crimson dharma robe, condensing it into a slab of iron, intending to swat the pitch-black saber aside.

As for the other three blade-lights split off from the blood-transforming blade, he gave them no thought at all. The remaining three Kings' cultivation was in no way inferior to his own; the Great Compassion Dharma King did not believe they could fail to withstand a mere wisp of blade-light. Though he suspected that light was hardly simple, he simply could not perceive anything genuinely ferocious about it—and besides, the shock of the Dharma Wheel of Silence and Extinction was simply too great. At that moment the Great Compassion Dharma King had room in his mind for only one thought: to seize the wheel. Even if the robe condensed from his true essence could not withstand the blade-light, he possessed the Arhat's golden body; what harm could one slash do?

"Senior brother, look out!" A hoarse, startled cry came suddenly from behind him—it was the Great Sun Dharma King, the most meticulous of them all, calling out a warning. Four blade-lights were already hacking fiercely toward the four Dharma Kings. A sense of alarm had suddenly risen in the Great Sun Dharma King's heart; he had been the least tempted by the Dharma Wheel of Silence and Extinction, and his mind had never been lost. Abruptly he spat forth a true mantra, and a demon-subduing vajra scepter gleaming with golden light appeared in his hand, rising to meet the blade-light that came cleaving toward him—a blade-light pitch-black, shot through with threads of dark crimson blood-color.

The Great Mercy Dharma King and the Great Maitreya Dharma King were in the same posture as the Great Compassion Dharma King: they gathered their true essence, swung their dharma robes, and meant to swat the blade-lights aside before taking the matter up with Zhou Xuan. So long as the Dharma Wheel of Silence and Extinction was in hand, they would then settle accounts with Zhou Xuan for his treacherous sneak attack.

Splurt, splurt, splurt!—the sound came again and again. The true essence condensed into the Great Compassion Dharma King's great crimson robe offered not the slightest obstruction to the blade-light; the dark crimson blade-light tore the robe straight into powder and scored a gash across the golden, metallic-textured skin of the Great Compassion Dharma King. At the same moment, the Great Mercy Dharma King and the Great Maitreya Dharma King fared no differently—each took a slash across the body, and the dark crimson blade-light burrowed straight into the Arhat's golden bodies of the three Dharma Kings.

The Great Compassion Dharma King had already seized the Dharma Wheel of Silence and Extinction in his hand. Though his spiritual cultivation had reached an exceedingly high plane, he too was shaken by a tremor of excitement: this was the legendary method for cultivating the Bodhi Golden Body! Even if he were one day to attain the fruit of enlightenment and fly to the Western Paradise of Ultimate Bliss, he would still be but a lowly Arhat. With this legendary cultivation method in his grasp, he could condense the Bodhi Golden Body and become a figure of the Buddha's own rank—no wonder he could not keep his heart from stirring.

Clang! Sparks flew in all directions as Zhou Xuan's split blade-light struck hard, solid as substance, against the Great Sun Dharma King's demon-subduing vajra scepter. Then came another splurt—and that golden, fine-looking vajra scepter was hewn clean in two by the dark crimson blade-light, all its spiritual energy drained away. The blade-light itself, however, paused for an instant, its momentum much diminished. The Great Sun Dharma King was greatly shocked to see the blade-light so ferocious; his demon-subduing vajra scepter was no mighty magic treasure, true, but it was forged of refined mystic iron and, what was more, had been consecrated by one hundred and eight deeply cultivated lamas of the Tantric school with the great-power-virtue vajra mantra. In hardness alone it likely yielded to no divine weapon under heaven. Yet now it had been sliced apart like a piece of bean curd—surely that was a bit too terrifying! Seeing such might, the Great Sun Dharma King could not help but worry for the other three Dharma Kings. The Arhat's golden body was formidable, but the four of them had only just begun to condense it; a superior flying sword could be met head-on, but this blade-light had likely reached the level of an immortal sword—how could a rudimentary Arhat's golden body withstand it?

But his own life came first. In the fatal moment, the Great Sun Dharma King had no leisure to think further. With a great shout, his body—which had worn the guise of aged frailty—suddenly shot up a foot in height, muscles knotting, blue veins thick as fingers bulging forth, his aspect fearsome beyond measure. His great crimson dharma robe burst open and transformed into two crimson lengths of silk that wrapped themselves death-tight about the dark crimson blade-light. The Great Sun Dharma King spat true mantras without cease, and one golden syllable after another was driven fiercely into the crimson sphere formed by the robe-bound blade-light.

Bang! The crimson sphere burst asunder, and the dark crimson blade-light finally dissolved, scattering away as a foul-smelling mist of blood. Then, one after another, wretched screams tore from the mouths of the three Dharma Kings who had been struck.

"Ah! This is blade-qi transformed from the blood of the Six Paths of demons! This demonic Daoist is a fiend!" The Great Compassion Dharma King had taken a slash to the hand, and the blade-light had burrowed into his body like a fat leech sucking greedily; his Arhat's golden body could offer no defense against the frantic drain of his essence and blood from within. Then came another bang—and the arms of all three Dharma Kings that had been struck exploded, raining down a sky full of pale golden blood. Seeing the situation turn dire, the three had sacrificed the chariot to save the general: they summoned their true essence and blasted the blade-qi lodged in their arms to bits, together with the arms themselves.