Chapter 403: Feigning Weakness Before the Enemy

Upon seeing the monk, Wei Yuan exclaimed in surprise, “Weren’t you fighting someone over there?”

Mahayamuri Buddha Mother replied softly, “It seems that although I do not recognize you, you recognize me. This is destiny, Benefactor.”

“You’re reading too much into it, master!” Wei Yuan declared firmly.

The monk chanted a Buddhist mantra and said, “Whether you recognize me or not, it does not change the fact that the karmic bond exists—neither arising nor ceasing, neither increasing nor decreasing. This is destiny.”

Wei Yuan also pressed his palms together in prayer and replied, “Master, your words are truly profound. Had you spoken thus two months ago, I would have been overjoyed.”

Two months ago, before the Shamans’ Great Karmic Curse had been cast, Wei Yuan had been busy forging ill-fated bonds so to speak.

Mahayamuri Buddha Mother replied, “This humble monk has persuaded some of those destined ones who have been freed from suffering to stir up some commotion so I may wander about a bit and observe. When The Hlai sees that the fighting over here has already reached a fever pitch, they’ll almost certainly go to Benefactor Zhao’s side to lend a hand. Benefactor Zhao is invincible in battle, so I’m sure he wouldn’t mind taking out a couple more reinforcements.”

Wei Yuan was stunned once again—what a cunning monk! He was definitely a worthy opponent!

Mahayamuri Buddha Mother smiled faintly and said, “It brings me great joy to see you, benefactor. And to have encountered the very thing I sought on this journey as well—it’s a double blessing.”

As he spoke, he bent down and snatched up the Shadowless Flying Ferret. It looked like he was moving slowly, but it was actually swift. The ferret actually failed to dodge out of the way and was instantly seized.

But just then, the cave walls suddenly burst open, and the Hlai woman who had been pursuing Wei Yuan this whole time, covered in blood and radiating a murderous aura, charged out. Behind her surged a vast horde of powerful Hlai experts. Squeezed together like slaves stuffed inside a carriage, their army aura fused together to form a veritable sea so intense that, as Wei Yuan breathed, his mouth and nose became filled with a salty, fishy stench.

Caught off guard by this sudden turn of events, the monk’s hand inexplicably slipped, and he failed to hold onto the ferret.

Freed from the weight of the pearl, the ferret leaped into the air and vanished in an instant. It was impossible to say where it had escaped to. The monk stood dumbfounded, unable to comprehend how this could have happened.

The Hlai woman glanced back and forth between the monk and Wei Yuan. Suddenly, she sniffed the air twice, and her eyes flashed with intensity as she shouted, “So it was you two who stole our clan’s ultimate treasure!”

The monk was stunned once more. Only then did he notice a faint mist of water qi on his hand—the same qi that was clinging to Wei Yuan’s own hands.

Wei Yuan let out a cry of alarm and turned to flee. But where could he possibly escape to? The Hlai woman casually pointed one of her subordinates to capture Wei Yuan, while she herself led a large force to surround and attack the monk.

Wei Yuan was merely at the Dao Foundation stage; sending a Hlai warrior after him was already an overestimation of his threat. The monk, though, was extremely formidable, so the Hlai woman did not hesitate to launch a full-scale assault. At the same time, she continuously emitted sounds inaudible to human ears to summon all nearby Hlai to her side.

Even with Mahayamuri Buddha Mother’s usual composure, he couldn’t maintain his composure at the moment. Left with no choice, his peacock Dharma appeared above his head and fought with all his might.

Meanwhile, Wei Yuan had fled into a cave, sprinting through its depths to quickly leave the battlefield. He maintained a level of speed that was just fast enough that the Hlai Avatar-stage warrior behind him couldn’t catch up, but couldn’t lose sigh of him either.

Wei Yuan hadn’t expected the Hlai to throw almost everyone they had against the monk and sent only a single warrior to pursue him. When Wei Yuan felt he had fled far enough, he suddenly turned around, summoned Dragonhawk, and took out his pursuers in a matter of seconds. As both his scholarly and martial Dragon Guard were recuperating from their injuries, Wei Yuan had no choice but to summon Dragonhawk ahead of schedule.

After slaying the Hlai, Wei Yuan discovered that he did not receive its soul. Maybe it was because he wasn’t within his own domain. Just then, waves of commotion arose again from the Great Realm. When Wei Yuan scanned the area with his perception, he noticed that dozens of mortals—eager to study the taste of the Hlai—were praying for him to cut up the warrior so they could each take a few bites from different parts to discern its texture and flavor.

They even had sound reasoning for doing so: How could they conduct research without raw data?

After he was done being stupefied, Wei Yuan conjured a torrential downpour in the Great Realm and soaked those dozens of people to the bone.

Shortly afterward, Wei Yuan noticed another group of people in the Great Realm packing their bags, preparing for a long journey.

Wait a second. Bags? They have luggage now?

Wei Yuan scanned them with his perception to see what they were carrying. Their belongings included stone bricks and stone stoves, various tools, and even some items that were clearly colls, trinkets, and artistic ornaments. In addition, they had a full set of cooking utensils—pots, bowls, ladles, and pans.

There were quite a lot of people in this group—as many as a thousand, in fact. Wei Yuan listened in on their thoughts and discovered that they were actually planning to go to the pearl he had just pulled into his Dao Foundation to establish a new religion. That large pearl was to be their god.

When Wei Yuan had placed the sea pearl inside the Great Realm, he had positioned it quite far away—a full 100 li from any gathering of mortals—as a precaution against accidents. That was why this group was packing their belongings and preparing for a long journey.

Wei Yuan was both amused and exasperated by the mortals’ antics, but he had no time to dwell on such trivialities right now. He quickly searched the Hlai warrior’s body and took everything of use. Of course, he turned a blind eye to the serpent body still writhing on the ground.

Wei Yuan took a wide detour and crept toward the battlefield where Zhao Fusheng was fighting.

At the moment, the area within 100 zhang of Zhao Fusheng had become a fiery inferno of blazing pure-white flames. There was nothing particularly special about the fire. It was simply hot enough to melt even rocks with ease.

Several powerful Hlai experts and Hlai women were besieging the man. Their Avatars were all sea creatures or ferocious amphibious beasts. Zhao Fusheng’s scroll painting was spinning rapidly and continuously spewing pure white flames. A four-legged, six-armed beast was also circling around him and engaging the Hlai beasts in fierce combat.

Zhao Fusheng were wielding a giant axe and slashing out streaks of blazing fire. Every time a fiery axe mark appeared, the Hlai experts would be forced to dodge out of the way.

Of the two Hlai women, one continuously cast various spells to bolster her allies, while the other relentlessly fired streams of water to create a tidal environment to extinguish Zhao Fusheng’s pure white flames.

Although Zhao Fusheng was at an absolute disadvantage, he showed no signs of being defeated just yet. His ability to single-handedly face a double-digit number of Hlai experts was truly formidable.

On another battlefield, the clash between Mahayamuri Buddha Mother and his enemies was growing increasingly intense. Clearly, the monk was resorting to his true abilities and finding that he was unable to break free.

At that moment, large numbers of Hlai Dao Foundations appeared on the outskirts of the battlefield. The surging tide of army aura swept across the battlefield and dimmed all flames in an instant. Some of the flames were even beginning to take on a blue hue.

No one anticipated the Hlai’s army aura to be so overwhelming—it actually suppressed Zhao Fusheng’s mystic energy by a whopping 20%! Zhao Fusheng’s situation immediately became dire, but he remained undaunted, roaring as he fought desperately.

Wei Yuan had already witnessed how formidable Zhao Fusheng’s physical body was. It was so extraordinary it could be compared to his own and knew that, despite appearances, the young man was far from being pushed to his limits. So, he decided to tip the scales and ramp up the intensity a little.

A stone appeared in Wei Yuan’s hand, and he hurled it straight at a Hlai woman. Immediately afterward, he darted into a cave and completely concealed himself.

Objects were flying haphazardly across the battlefield at every moment. Waves surged around the Hlai woman, deflecting everything that came her way. Activated by the outburst of mystic energy, the stone once again projected the scene of Zhao Fusheng’s first encounter with Mahayamuri Buddha Mother, but this time, the projection was exceptionally large and clear. The projected figure of Zhao Fusheng stood a full thirty zhang tall—towering from the ground to the sky—with every detail vividly defined and fully visible.

In the center of the battlefield, Zhao Fusheng’s face instantly flushed red. Not only that, flames of shame and fury quite literally erupted from his head and set his hair ablaze. With a frenzied roar, he threw all caution to the wind and swung his axe with all his might at the stone!

The raging flames transformed into a fire dragon and devoured everything in its path—including a Hlai Avatar-stage warrior.

The two Hlai women did not rush to their comrade’s aid. Instead, they immediately seized the opportunity to launch a frenzied assault against Zhao Fusheng. Countless spells rained down on him and covered him in wounds in the blink of an eye.

Amid the chaos, Wei Yuan quietly raised a huge gun and took aim at one of the Hlai women. Dragonhawk appeared at another location, also wielding a peculiar-looking gun. The body was over one zhang in length, with a tip roughly as thick as a bowl’s mouth.

Wei Yuan tossed over a mystic treasure-grade storage artifact, and Dragonhawk opened the rear chamber of his gun and began stuffing small powder sticks inside one after another. He packed dozens of them in at once until it was completely full before closing the rear bolt, shouldered the gun, and took aim at his target.

Wei Yuan fired first, striking the Hlai woman’s serpentine body and tearing a large hole in it, sending her tumbling away. The Hlai woman screamed in pain and struggled to get back up, but suddenly a muffled thunderclap rang out, causing the entire cave to shake ominously. Immediately afterward, the Hlai woman saw an object flying toward her at an unimaginable speed!

The object was as thick as a bowl and about a chi long. It was the bullet fired by Dragonhawk.

The Hlai woman’s upper body suddenly exploded in a shower of gore, leaving behind only the lower half of her serpentine body. It was still rolling instinctively as it hit the ground. Wei Yuan caught a fleeting glimpse of a transparent Hlai woman appearing in the air, but before he could act, she had already vanished.

From the far depths of the ocean, an angry roar suddenly rang out. The roar came from so far away that Wei Yuan almost doubted his own ears, but he was seized by an instinctive fear the next second. It felt as though a tremendous danger was approaching. Wei Yuan quickly realized that this feeling was no illusion, for the mortals in the Great Realm, having indirectly heard the roar, had also collapsed to the ground in terror.

The sense of imminent danger was strikingly similar to the feeling he’d had that day when he’d been relentlessly pursued for a million li by the female True Lord of the Northern Liao. That was why he did not even pause to collect his spoils and fled instantly.

This time, it wasn’t decisiveness that drove Wei Yuan. Zhao Fusheng had taken advantage of the chaos among the Hlai to break out of the encirclement and fled as well.

In the distance, the battle Mahayamuri Buddha Mother was embroiled in suddenly ceased as well. Needless to say, the baldie had also decided that flight was the best course of action.

The three of them had all chosen to flee in unison. As for Dragonhawk, he casually buried the powder sticks he hadn’t used up beneath the ground before returning to the Great Realm.

When the surviving Hlai woman spotted Wei Yuan, she sent only one squad of Dao Foundations to pursue him. She hadn’t even sent a warrior to lead them. She herself led a large contingent of Hlai in hot pursuit of Zhao Fusheng.

Wei Yuan was just a Dao Foundation ant, whereas Zhao Fusheng was a top-tier Avatar. The Hlai woman, accustomed to thinking with her entire body[1], immediately concluded that Zhao Fusheng must be the culprit. She simply hadn’t yet figured out exactly how he’d carried out the attack.

1. I’m not sure if it’s a typo or some joke I haven’t heard before but I get the meaning anyway. She’s not using her brain to think. ☜