Chapter 151: Shattering the Void, Re-enacting the Heaven-Opening Technique

It was tragic.

Extremely tragic.

Besieged from the front and back, trapped within a grand formation, and attacked by a powerhouse at the Earthly Immortal realm, the Saint Body-possessed Ye Bai was already panting, while even Luo Feng was stained all over with blood.

They wanted to break out, but it was simply impossible.

With Earthly Immortal combatants and a grand formation hemming them in, it was overwhelmingly difficult.

Clang...

After Jiang Ming arrived and swept his gaze across the scene, the Fire Lin Sword materialized from his spatial ring. Sword Qi spewed forth, parting the drifting clouds.

Without the slightest hesitation, he brought it down. The grand formation, spanning thousands of meters, suddenly shuddered. Amidst a flash of golden light, a long, deep gully appeared across it.

The monks driving the formation along the surrounding cliff walls all trembled and vomited blood in succession, though the fracture rapidly healed right after.

"This grand formation is truly extraordinary!" Jiang Ming's eyes narrowed as his aura continuously climbed.

Below.

Naturally sensing the commotion, Ye Bai raised his head slightly. After a brief moment of astonishment, he burst into loud laughter: "Haha, Brother Jiang, you've finally arrived! I don't have to die. Hurry, kill, kill, kill! Slaughter these bald donkeys, eradicate them completely, leave none alive!"

His murderous intent was incandescently fierce, even carrying a hint of tyrannical cruelty.

"Brother Jiang, I leave it to you!" Luo Feng's voice also drifted up, laden with exhaustion and a sense of relief.

They knew that with Jiang Ming's arrival, this desperate crisis was bound to be resolved. Even if Jiang Ming fell short, other powerhouses would surely have arrived.

"Another fiend has come, die!" A monk soared into the sky, hurling a massive golden handprint toward Jiang Ming.

The power of the Heavenly Domain was fused into it, forming a palm print a hundred zhang across. Its crushing weight threatened to collapse the void itself.

"Peak Heaven and Man!"

Jiang Ming instantly assessed the opponent's strength. His mind harmonized with heaven and earth, and heavenly phenomenon pressure manifested instantly, forming a direct domain that made the golden handprint stall and prevented it from falling any further.

The terrifying pressure, the ultimate power capable of suppressing time and space, caused the attacking monk's expression to change wildly. He actually had the sensation of being unable to move.

"Scatter!"

Jiang Ming uttered a single word. The pressure of the heavenly phenomena vibrated, shattering the golden handprint directly into specks of golden light that dissolved into the void.

"Suppress!"

He gazed at the monk. The heavenly phenomenon domain, covering an area of at least ten thousand square meters, abruptly shrank. Terrifying force swept in from all directions, compressing rapidly.

"How can there be such terrifying Heavenly Domain power?" The monk was horrified. Layers of golden light blossomed from within his body as he attempted to break the confinement, but the pressure only grew heavier and heavier.

"Break for me!"

He spat out a mouthful of blood, his momentum suddenly skyrocketing. He forcefully pried open an opening for a split second, but before he could charge out, Jiang Ming's Fire Lin Sword had already arrived, piercing straight through his skull.

"My martial arts domain cannot yet be compressed to its absolute limit; otherwise, within this radius, even if the pressure couldn't crush him to death, it would at least render him completely immobile."

"If I were to further integrate the Universal Star Body Protection Technique, it should become even stronger!"

After testing his methods slightly, Jiang Ming was extremely satisfied.

Clang...

As his thoughts shifted, another sword strike descended. This time, reinforced by his martial arts domain, it directly cleaved the grand formation in two. The monks seated cross-legged on both sides of the cliff to drive the formation vomited blood once more, though this time nearly half of them suffered a fatal backlash.

Jiang Ming descended as well.

"Another great fiend has descended to the world. My Xuankong Temple will purge the demons and guard the mortal realm." A high monk below stomped his foot, creating a deep pit as his figure shot upwards.

His body was exceptionally heavy, yet it harbored a force capable of suppressing mountains and rivers. With a punch that shattered the void, he blasted toward Jiang Ming.

No artistic conception, no genuine Qi.

Yet the power contained within his fist was exceptionally terrifying. However, Jiang Ming deflected it downward with a single sword strike.

"What a formidable physical body!" Jiang Ming landed in front of Ye Bai, deeply astonished.

The sword strike from just a moment ago had only left a trace of blood on the opponent's fist, and even that had already healed by now.

"He is a supreme physical body cultivator of the Xuankong Temple, having already reached the eighth realm. Be careful!" Ye Bai warned.

"Rest assured, now that I'm here, all of them must die! Brother Ye, you and Brother Luo support each other first," Jiang Ming said rapidly.

"Alright!" Ye Bai let out a complete sigh of relief, turning around to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Luo Feng.

"Well said, all of you must die." The large monk opposite spoke with a voice like a bronze bell, also advancing toward Jiang Ming.

Step by step, leaving solid footprints behind.

His body was extraordinarily heavy, and the blood Qi within him had transformed into substance, his killing intent shocking the heavens.

A punch shattered the void.

There was no discernible momentum.

Yet space seemed to have been punched through, and the ultimate power generated endless oppressive force, twisting the void ahead.

"Then come on!" The Fire Lin Sword in Jiang Ming's hand vanished without a trace. With a shudder of his body, blood Qi surged outward, and he met the incoming fist with a punch of his own.

"Inch Fist, twenty-third layer!"

"Boundless Artistic Conception!"

He had unleashed his power to the absolute maximum. Over the past two to three years, although he hadn't meticulously deduced the Inch Fist, he had nevertheless evolved this fist technique to the twenty-third layer, capable of erupting with twenty-four times the power.

His base strength was one thousand Vajra Power.

A double gene tier, a twenty-fourfold outburst, and a fivefold amplification from the Boundless Artistic Conception allowed the power of this single punch of his to reach the level of twenty-four hundred thousand Vajra Power.

Before his fist, the void cracked, and chains of order even manifested, attempting to bind the force of this punch within the world.

Seeing this, the large monk opposite him constricted his pupils, revealing a look of horror. He, too, practiced the path of physical cultivation and understood all too well what the might of this punch signified.

Amidst his shock, a flash of despair also crossed his face.

Yet it was already too late to dodge.

Bang...

The two fists collided, and flesh and blood exploded.

In an instant, the large monk's fist, arm, and entire torso burst apart.

Eighth realm of physical cultivation.

Peerless defense.

A physique almost akin to the indestructible had failed to withstand a single punch from Jiang Ming. His entire body was blasted apart, erupting into clouds of bloody mist.

Flying bone splinters pierced through countless surrounding attackers.

Feeling the commotion behind them, Luo Feng and Ye Bai turned their heads, their pupils contracting as they revealed looks of utter shock.

"Jiang Ming, you blew him apart?"

Ye Bai cried out in astonishment. He knew the large monk's strength all too well—terrifyingly powerful and immensely difficult to injure. Even with his Saint Body, having only stepped into the seventh realm not long ago, he could suppress the opponent in a one-on-one duel, but killing him was far too difficult.

Yet such a terrifying entity had been blasted to pieces?

"Brother Jiang, you're still as monstrous as ever!" Luo Feng twitched the corner of his mouth. "I thought that over the past three years, my improvement had been fast enough to truly spar with you, but now it seems the gap has only grown wider!"

He was genuinely convinced of Jiang Ming's superiority.

"Brother Jiang, once the matters here are settled, you must help me comprehend the Dao of Boundlessness!" Ye Bai's voice was lingering, yet he too shook off his fatigue to invigorate his spirit and start slaughtering the enemy.

If they were shocked, the attackers were even more so.

That was the Lecturer in Chief, Ximen Pan! He had actually been blasted apart with a single punch?

They refused to believe it.

The other Earthly Immortal found it even harder to credit.

"Alright!" Jiang Ming responded. His martial arts domain materialized, causing the attackers' bodies to stall; the vast majority of them couldn't bear the pressure and collapsed directly to their knees.

Many of them died on the spot.

"Die!"

The Fire Lin Sword reappeared, executing the technique Myriad Swords Return to Clan. It whipped up countless strands of sword Qi centered around him, sweeping outward in all directions. In an instant, shrieks echoed endlessly.

Within a radius of several hundred meters, everything was harvested clean.

Only the remaining Earthly Immortals temporarily evaded the sharp edge, alongside a single monk who managed to escape.

Only corpses remained scattered around.

"Awesome!" Ye Bai gave a thumbs-up, then took a fierce, ragged breath and spoke rapidly, "Brother Jiang, take a quick look at Jun Qiye. A short while ago, in order to protect ourselves, he forcibly unleashed the Underworld Ghost Domain, contending not only with several grand formations of the Xuankong Temple but also two Earthly Immortal realm powerhouses. As a result, the Ghost Domain was shattered, and he suffered a terrifying backlash, causing him to pass out. His entire body is ice-cold right now, laden with thick death Qi, and his condition is extremely perilous."

Luo Feng remained vigilant of his surroundings. His telekinetic weapons also shot out, circling the perimeter to form a defensive perimeter.

"He won't die!" Jiang Ming looked toward Jun Qiye, immediately channeling the power of life and death, which seeped directly into the latter's body.

Extracting the death Qi and replenishing his vitality.

He stabilized him very quickly.

"Next, he just needs to heal himself. It's not a major issue!" Jiang Ming said. "How on earth did you guys end up crossing paths with the Xuankong Temple?"

This place was vast.

The surrounding cliff walls enclosed a pit, which was in reality a very deep basin. A rough calculation put its diameter at no less than a hundred li—very large indeed. This was a massive underground world. The cliff walls were riddled with dense clusters of caves, carved with a multitude of Buddha statues.

In the distance, a large number of monks were gathering, though they appeared extremely cautious.

The Earthly Immortal monk from earlier had vanished without a trace.

"It was an accident!" Ye Bai smiled bitterly. "After descending, I was the first to arrive at a city, bought a courtyard, and cultivated in seclusion for quite a long time. Later, I heard that you had slain an Earthly Immortal in the Dawu Territory and were going to challenge the Master. I knew that was a message being relayed, so I immediately set off for the Datang Territory!"

After arriving here, he ran into Jun Qiye, and the two of them traveled as companions, walking and cultivating along the way quite leisurely.

However, upon reaching the vicinity, Jun Qiye sensed an intensely rich amount of death Qi, resentment, curse Qi, and the like, and wanted to come over to cultivate.

"Who would have thought this was a Buddhist kingdom? I was quite surprised at the time," Ye Bai said. "I asked if he had sensed it wrong."

Jun Qiye replied that he hadn't.

And so, the two of them entered this underground world.

The deeper they went, the more expansive it became.

Especially upon reaching the bottom, they discovered a scene that left them deeply shocked: along the surrounding cliff walls at the lower level, there was an even broader space, inhabited by a massive population of people.

"They are slaves kept in captivity, forced to pray every morning, noon, and night. After praying, they are made to perform hard labor without rest. For the slightest mistake, the light punishment is whipping, and the heavy punishment is execution on the spot. They are mere slaves." Ye Bai revealed a murderous look. "There are no human rights here. The monks are addressed as Buddha Lords, while the slaves are simply property, to be disposed of at will. Brother Jiang, you should understand what this implies?"

Jiang Ming nodded.

Slaves, property, disposed of at will...

It could be described by any cruelty known to the world.

"This is a devil's den!" Ye Bai snorted. "They always say a single thought makes a Buddha, a single thought makes a demon. Now I truly understand that Buddha and demon are two sides of the same coin. Buddha is demon, and demon is Buddha."

"The two of us found it an eyesore, so we decided to level this place!"

"In fact, we did discover the Earthly Immortals, but the two of us didn't care. High-spirited and full of vigor, we intended to slaughter the Earthly Immortals."

"Who could have known that the foundation here was terrifyingly deep? There wasn't just one Earthly Immortal, and powerhouses at the Heaven and Man realm numbered over a dozen."

"Buddhist formations were everywhere!"

"The two of us were no match for them, but fortunately, Ren Tianxing and Luo Feng rushed over—only to find it still wasn't enough!"

"So, figuring that Ren Tianxing was fast enough, we had him go fetch reinforcements!"

"Good thing you arrived in time, otherwise the three of us would have been done for!"

Ye Bai recounted the cause and effect roughly.

"You guys really are unlucky; this is one of the three strongest places in the Datang Territory." Jiang Ming smiled. "Fortunately, you've turned the corner from danger!"

He raised his head and saw that the Earthly Immortal from earlier had reappeared.

Only this time, he was holding a bell in his hand.

"You great fiends, desecrating the pure land and destroying the Buddhist kingdom, deserve the ultimate punishments of this world. Remember me—I am the Great Holy Buddha of the Xuankong Temple. Today, I bring forth two supreme treasures left behind by the Buddha to completely suppress and refine you great fiends!" As the Great Holy Buddha spoke, he tossed it into the air, and the bell in his hand flew out, hovering midway.

"The Ullambana Bell, transforming the Buddhist kingdom, purifying all demons in the world!"

The Great Holy Buddha drove the bell, and the next moment, a sound rang out.

Ding, ding, ding...

Crisp and pleasant chimes echoed, and ripples were visible oscillating through the void, spreading rapidly in all directions.

Ye Bai immediately grew vigilant. His holy blood surged, transforming into divine radiance that burst out of his body, before cascading down to shield himself, Jun Qiye, and Luo Feng in the center. At the same time, he said, "Brother Jiang, you blasted one of them to death, yet he dares to act alone—that implies something even more terrifying. Be careful!"

"Rest easy!" Jiang Ming nodded.

When the ripples washed over him, he found that space instantly stagnated, as if plunging into a spatial cage, rendering him momentarily unable to move.

Hum...

Beside him, Ye Bai turned pale. He drove his holy blood recklessly, erupting with ten thousand strands of divine light as he crazily impacted the sealing force.

Jiang Ming's body shuddered, his martial arts domain fusing with the Universal Star Body Protection Technique to forcefully push open the suppressing force.

Narrowing his eyes, he saw that the Great Holy Monk's face was pale, making it evident that driving this Buddhist treasure was somewhat taxing for him.

However, the monk reached behind himself and drew out a Go board, crisscrossed with lines like palm prints, yet resembling the very laws of reality.

"This is a supreme Buddhist treasure personally carved by the Buddha, capable of suppressing all heresies!" The Great Holy Monk said as he gripped the Go board with both hands, aiming it squarely at the four of them.

His genuine Qi boiled, and golden light paved outward, causing a side of the Heavenly Domain to transform into a shimmering golden Buddhist kingdom.

On the Go board, the intersecting lines suddenly twisted, forming a vortex that emitted an endless suction force, causing even Ye Bai to involuntarily drift toward it.

Jiang Ming took a step forward, blocking the front.

"The Ullambana Bell for suppression, the Go board for devouring—if two Earthly Immortal realm entities use them in coordination, they are fully capable of suppressing over ninety percent of the Earthly Immortals in this world!" Jiang Ming's voice rang out, laced with genuine admiration.

As expected of the Xuankong Temple, their foundation was frighteningly deep.

Not only did they possess two Earthly Immortal realm existences, but they also held these two Buddhist treasures. If not for the Master in the Academy and the Watcher in the Haotian Taoism, they wouldn't have kept such a low profile.

They were simply too strong.

"But to deal with me, they fall somewhat short!"

Even Jiang Ming could not help but be moved upon feeling the terrifying suction force.

Because the surrounding space itself was warping.

Once dragged inside, it would become troublesome.

In that case...

Jiang Ming's eyes narrowed, and the Fire Lin Sword in his hand was replaced by the Mountain-Opening Axe he had brought from the main world.

The Go board contained an inner space.

Then I shall split heaven and earth!

"Heaven-Opening Technique, break for me!"

Jiang Ming brought the axe down with a single chop.