Legend Management Bureau Chapter 88

[ … words ]

He Suoyi slowly raised his hand, and the giant dark silhouette behind him mirrored the movement.

“Cleanse the mind!”

He gave a loud shout and slammed his palm down. The dark silhouette behind him followed suit, bringing a massive palm crashing down.

Sensing the danger, the three of them immediately retreated in three different directions. Upon landing, Yang Jian gently set the cat-girl down and told her, “It’s a bit dangerous here. Go wait outside for now.”

The cat-girl nodded blankly, turned around, and bolted out of the room.

Yang Jian looked at the giant Buddha statue before him, finding the situation rather tricky. He turned his head and asked Nezha, “Do you have a countermeasure?”

“A countermeasure?” Nezha pondered for a moment before saying, “You mean a strategy to beat the Tathagata? If you want me to die early, I suppose I could go exchange a few blows with him.”

“Uh…” Yang Jian offered a bitter smile. If the dark silhouette before them truly was the Lord Buddha, let alone the three of them, even a hundred thousand celestial soldiers and heavenly generals would have to think twice before acting.

“Your Highness,” Nezha said to Houtu. “I suggest we retreat and call for reinforcements first. I’ll bring up the rear here.”

“Your Highness, it’s not that we don’t believe in you.” Nezha untied the red veil from his face, rolled it into a red cord, and tied his dreadlocks into a single bundle, clearly readying himself for battle. “I’m just respecting my elders and protecting the young by letting you leave first.”

“Respecting your elders?” Lady Houtu looked slightly displeased and said, “I have no objections to you being the young one, but if you’re calling me old, I’ll teach you a fate worse than death before we do anything else.”

Nezha gulped at those words, then turned to look at Yang Jian. “Old Yang, aren’t you going to do something? Lady Houtu is about to beat me up.”

“You were being disrespectful yourself; it’s only right for Lady Houtu to punish you.” Yang Jian cupped his hands in a polite salute toward Lady Houtu and said, “Your Highness, if you wish to teach Nezha a lesson, this junior will certainly assist you. But right now, we have more pressing matters to deal with. Could you perhaps school him later?”

Houtu considered this for a moment and gave a cold snort. “Little Nezha, considering you are covered head to toe in mystical artifacts, can you help me pin down that He Suoyi for a short while?”

“No problem.” Nezha gave a mischievous grin. “Old Yang and I already have our teamwork polished to perfection. Now with you joining us, Your Highness, we might actually be able to rip an arm off this Tathagata.”

“Please don’t call this man Tathagata anymore,” Yang Jian said. “This person is merely a demon. No matter how much his outward appearance mimics the Lord Buddha, it cannot hide the demonic aura reeking from his entire body. He is no Buddha.”

Lady Houtu said, “He may not be a Buddha, but he does possess the Dao within his heart. You must not drop your guard.”

The Dao within his heart?

Nezha and Yang Jian did not understand.

“Little Nezha, get ready to move.” Lady Houtu cracked her neck. “Hold him down for ten seconds.”

“You got it.”

Nezha reached out his hand, and the golden earring dangling from his ear flew into his palm. It expanded against the wind, instantly turning into a large golden ring.

“Universe Ring, go!”

Nezha let out a cold shout, and the ring flew straight at He Suoyi.

Seeing this, Lady Houtu followed closely behind. With a swing of her heavy cleaver, yellow sand filled the air.

Seeing Houtu flying toward him, He Suoyi knew he couldn’t meet her head-on. Just as he was about to retreat, a golden ring inexplicably clamped around his neck.

He Suoyi thought to himself, ‘This golden ring is incredibly powerful. To think it could pierce through layers of dark energy to snare my true body.’

He reached up to touch it, only to find the golden ring scalding hot. The moment his hand brushed against it, a searing pain shot through him.

“The Demon-Subduing Universe Ring?” He Suoyi roared in anger. “I am a Buddha of great suffering and tribulation, yet you treat me as a demon?”

He waved his hand downward, and the giant dark Tathagata behind him mimicked the motion, grasping the Universe Ring around his neck.

The Universe Ring instantly released waves of intense heat, but the dark Tathagata was not a physical entity to begin with. Completely unaffected by the heat, it pulled hard, and the Universe Ring was stretched open like a rubber band. He Suoyi immediately stumbled back several paces, escaping its range.

“Little Nezha, keep going!” Houtu yelled. “That wasn’t ten seconds!”

Nezha gritted his teeth and said, “It’s a pity my cultivation isn’t high enough yet. I can’t split up and act independently from my artifacts, otherwise I’d come help you myself!”

“What nonsense are you spouting, child? How could an immortal possibly act independently from their artifacts?”

Nezha didn’t reply. Instead, he pulled the red cord tying his hair down from his head and actually began to slowly sing a song:

“It’s him, it’s him, it’s really him, the boy hero, little Nezha.”

“Up in the sky, he’s higher than the heavens; down in the sea, he’s vaster than the ocean.”

Houtu was taken aback. “Have you always been this stupid, child? Is now the time to be singing?”

Before she could finish, the red cord in Nezha’s hand transformed into a long ribbon, fluttering and dancing as it flew forward.

Nezha commanded the Universe Ring with his right hand and controlled the Red Armillary Sash with his left. With a wave of both hands, the two magical artifacts instantly spiraled down from opposite directions.

The Universe Ring, which He Suoyi had just broken free from, rallied once more, slipping straight over his entire body to trap him. Seeing Nezha repeat his old trick, a ruthless look flashed across He Suoyi’s face. He waved his hands again, guiding the dark Tathagata behind him. But before he could break free a second time, the Red Armillary Sash slithered around him like a water snake, tightly binding his wrists.

“Your Highness! Are you ready?!”

Lady Houtu had been chanting an incantation the entire time, completely ignoring Nezha. She tossed her heavy cleaver, and the blade sank into the ground as if dropping into water, kicking up layers of ripples across the earth. A moment later, she opened her eyes, and a dense, earth-elemental spiritual energy erupted from her gaze.

“I am the earth itself,” Lady Houtu said coldly. “Earthly Slaughter!”

The moment Earthly Slaughter left her lips, the cleaver she had just tossed underground suddenly multiplied into tens of thousands of blades. They roared up from the depths like an inverse rainstorm. Just moments ago, He Suoyi had to use his full strength to block a single strike from that blade. Now, facing tens of thousands of them, sheer terror gripped his heart.

However, he was securely pinned down by Nezha’s artifacts, rendering him completely unable to escape.

“Supreme Great Compassion, Supreme Bodhi Mind, Vast and Perfect Unhindered Great Compassion,” He Suoyi muttered under his breath. The dark Tathagata behind him expanded a bit further. “My mind is cleansed. My mind is cleansed.”

A suffocating aura of murder surfaced from the Tathagata behind He Suoyi, yet he kept chanting endlessly, “My mind is cleansed! My mind is cleansed!”

The massive blades bursting from the ground scraped past his body like pouring rain, yet that dense murderous aura, mixed with demonic energy, miraculously managed to fend off the onslaught of ten thousand blades.

Lady Houtu was currently using all her strength to mobilize the power of the entire earth. She knew full well that exceedingly few people in the entire Immortal Realm could take this move head-on. She never expected that He Suoyi would actually be able to stand his ground just by chanting a few bizarre Buddhist scriptures.

“Old Yang! Hurry up and help!” Nezha desperately steered the Red Armillary Sash and the Universe Ring with both hands. Right now, even the slightest slip in his concentration would allow He Suoyi to break free.

Having stood frozen for a moment, Yang Jian hesitated no longer. He hurled the three-pointed, double-edged lance from his hands, and the heavenly eye on his forehead shot out streaks of lightning. But no matter what he threw at him, none of it could get within six inches of He Suoyi.

Yang Jian formed a hand seal, and a mournful howl echoed from his grasp. A strange magical formation gradually appeared beneath his feet. “Summoning Artifact, Howling Celestial White Dog, Divine Howl!”

The massive formation under Yang Jian’s feet suddenly radiated blinding light. A colossal white dog leapt out from within, clearly the beast named Divine Howl. Upon landing, it glared viciously at the dark Tathagata before it, realizing that the enemy’s size was actually a bit larger than its own.

“Grrr—” Divine Howl let out a low growl, slowly pacing forward like a ferocious wolf eyeing its prey.

“Summoning Art, Piercing Fang Flurry!”

Yang Jian formed several more hand seals, and the Howling Celestial White Dog immediately charged forward. It opened its maw, its razor-sharp teeth flaring with a golden radiance, and took a massive bite out of the giant Tathagata’s shoulder. The colossal figure wavered, its color gradually shifting from pitch black to dark red, as if it had sustained a severe injury.

“Nezha, help me!” Yang Jian shouted, forming yet another hand seal.

Hearing this, Nezha quickly opened his mouth and spat a massive fireball at Yang Jian.

“Summoning Art, Blood-Fire Glaze!”

Pressing the advantage, Yang Jian reached out and caught Nezha’s fireball. He then pointed a finger forward, and the fireball melted into the white dog’s body. The Howling Celestial White Dog’s form suddenly flushed crimson. Its body began to inflate like a balloon, and upon reaching a critical limit, it violently detonated!

The massive eruption of flames was like a detonated bomb, forcing Houtu, Nezha, and Yang Jian to summon golden light to shield themselves. In a mere instant, more than half of the Myth Administration’s equipment was destroyed.

Reacting quickly, Lady Houtu pulled two small stones from her hand and tossed them out. One stone flew toward a still-operating monitor, while the other flew toward Du Yu’s physical body. Upon reaching their targets, the two stones immediately expanded, transforming into protective barriers that blocked the blast.

Looking back at He Suoyi, although he was barely managing to remain standing, the dark Tathagata behind him was now completely covered in cracks, resembling a dilapidated statue suffering from years of neglect.

“Little Nezha, count to three, then withdraw your artifacts!” Lady Houtu shouted. “Otherwise, I won’t pay for them if they get broken.”

Nezha paused. What kind of tactic was this?

Houtu spread her hands wide, looking at the blazing equipment nearby, and said coldly, “To think Earthly Slaughter couldn’t do anything to you. Fortunately, little Yang Jian gave me a wonderful gift. This time, I will teach you the principle of mutual generation in the Five Elements, and show you exactly how Fire gives birth to Earth.”

Lady Houtu’s hair whipped wildly in the air. Her outstretched arms trembled slightly as she let out a thunderous shout:

“I am all things! Heavens and earth cleansed, Universal Slaughter!”

A massive fluctuation of energy rippled outward.

Everything in the vicinity slowly disintegrated into dust, then reassembled, forming countless sharp blades that levitated in the air.

Earlier, Lady Houtu had conjured tens of thousands of blades in a single move, but this time, the sheer number of weapons was like an omnipresent hurricane, completely blotting out the sky.

Unwillingness filled He Suoyi’s eyes, and he softly murmured, “Namo, Ratnatrayaya. Namo, Aryavalokiteshvaraya…”

“Stop insulting the Buddha. Your body is overflowing with murderous intent, yet you keep chanting the Great Compassion Mantra. Don’t worry, I’ll cleanse your mind right now.”

Lady Houtu clapped her hands together, and every single sharp sword in the sky shot straight toward He Suoyi. Each blade gleamed with a dazzling golden light. The overwhelming presence of this attack left Nezha and Yang Jian gasping in shock, both thinking to themselves, ‘If we ever really offended this woman, even nine lives wouldn’t be enough.’

The howling wind stirred up by the sky full of flying swords sounded like endless claps of thunder, making it impossible to stand steady or even keep one’s eyes open.

Just as all the sharp swords were a mere foot away from He Suoyi, a distorted surge of power suddenly erupted from his body. Before anyone could see clearly what had happened, the swords all collided with one another.

The deafening crash lasted for over ten minutes, stirring up a sky full of yellow sand.

Lady Houtu sensed something was wrong. With a wave of her hand, she instantly swept away all the yellow sand, but He Suoyi was nowhere to be seen.

“Where is he?!”