However, just a breath later...
The surrounding snow suddenly squirmed, and threads of faint golden vow power seeped from the ground, boring into Wu Gou's body.
"Cough, cough..."
Wu Gou crawled out from the snow pile and patted his chest. His collapsed ribs snapped back into place with a series of crackles.
"That was way too harsh," Wu Gou complained. "That hurt like hell!"
Chen Zhou's eyes narrowed.
This mad beggar was clearly a mortal, yet he could manipulate a sliver of the vow power gathered by the masses on the Buddha statue?
No, that wasn't right.
His karma was so deeply entangled with this land, this shrine, and even Jiuquan Village that the vow power was actively protecting him.
"Again." Chen Zhou pointed a finger.
Several bone spikes erupted from the ground, skewering Wu Gou through the heart.
"Ah, I'm dead, I'm dead!"
Wu Gou let out a miserable shriek and hung motionless on the bone spikes.
Three seconds later.
He pulled the bone spikes out, tossed them aside, and the bloody holes in his body healed once more.
"You're cheating! I'm not fighting anymore!"
Wu Gou plopped down on the ground and began to throw a tantrum, rolling around in the snow. "How can you be so disrespectful to your elders? I'm just a beggar with no cultivation, and you're using great divine abilities to hit me? You should be ashamed!"
Chen Zhou realized it now.
This mad beggar wasn't being serious. Someone who could casually catch the Hatred Fire and manipulate the vow power within the statue of Ksitigarbha of Great Vows couldn't possibly be this weak.
He was simply testing him.
"Why?" Chen Zhou retracted his offensive and looked at him coldly.
Seeing Chen Zhou stop, Wu Gou immediately ceased his wailing. He stood up shamelessly, relying on the fact that he couldn't be killed, and leaned in close to Chen Zhou.
"Take my advice."
Wu Gou pointed toward the horizon. "The sun is about to rise."
"The Immortal Masters of the Heavenly Sword Sect are coming."
"If you destroy the Buddha statue now, everyone in the village will die. When the Heavenly Sword Sect arrives and sees a ground full of corpses, how will the play continue?"
Chen Zhou's eyes shifted slightly.
"A play?"
This mad beggar's words were heavy with subtext.
Wu Gou stood up and patted the snow off his rear. "Does Your Excellency wish to break the deadlock of the Northern Region?"
"Then wait a little longer. Only after watching this play will you know where to strike."
"The time has not yet come; it cannot be spoken, it cannot be spoken."
Finished, Wu Gou didn't wait for Chen Zhou's reaction. He ducked his body and actually burrowed directly into a snow hollow in the ground, vanishing like an earth-spirit.
'An earth-burrowing technique?'
Chen Zhou mused, looking at the spot where Wu Gou had disappeared, but he didn't bother to give chase.
Wu Gou's stance was very strange.
He treated the shrine of Ksitigarbha of Great Vows like a chopping block, which seemed greatly sacrilegious, yet he maintained the order here and prevented Chen Zhou from destroying the statue.
He wanted him to wait and watch a play. What kind of play?
Just then, in the distance, the first ray of sunlight pierced through the cloud layer and shone upon the snowy plains.
"Awoo—!!"
A wolf's howl suddenly rang out, followed by a tremor in the earth.
The demon soldier patrol of the Moon-Swallowing Wolf Court had started their shift right on time.
Chen Zhou had originally intended to wipe out the demon soldiers, but thinking of the 'play' Wu Gou mentioned, he felt it was better to remain still.
"Then let's see exactly what kind of play this is, and what timing I'm supposed to wait for."
Chen Zhou's figure blurred as his ghost domain expanded, and he vanished from the spot.
The originally silent Jiuquan Village was instantly shattered by screams of terror.
"The wolves are coming! The wolves are coming!!"
On the snow slope outside the village, hundreds of snow wolves, each as large as a calf, were charging down.
Their eyes glowed with a red light, and saliva hung from their fangs.
Leading them was a third-stage wolf demon, wreathed in billowing demon qi, its roar shaking the heavens.
"Boys, it's mealtime!"
"Drag all these two-legged sheep back for me!"
The villagers were thrown into chaos. Some grabbed hoes and shovels in an attempt to resist, others clutched their children while shivering, but most knelt on the ground, kowtowing frantically toward the sky.
"Help us! Immortal Masters of the Heavenly Sword Sect, save us!"
"Lord Buddha of Great Vows, show your divinity!"
The wolf pack crashed into the village as if entering an uninhabited land.
Blood splattered, and miserable screams echoed one after another.
Chen Zhou hid in the shadows, watching patiently.
He saw clearly that the wolf demons were truly ferocious. They bit down with lethal intent; with one snap, a villager would be left bloody and mangled.
However, on the corpses of the bitten villagers, a layer of golden light would immediately surface, protecting their life force from dissipating.
The wolf demons seemed able to sense this vow power. Their demon qi bore down on the golden light, intending to directly destroy the mortals' souls to prevent them from reviving.
"My children, destroy those clay statues!"
"Smash the Buddha statues, and these two-legged sheep will truly die!"
"We want to eat warm flesh and blood, not these living dead that taste of incense ash!"
"Kill!!"
They seemed experienced, knowing exactly how to ensure a mortal's permanent death.
This didn't look like an act.
Chen Zhou had originally thought that since the Moon-Swallowing Wolf Saint belonged to Ksitigarbha of Great Vows, then the Heavenly Sword Sect must be an immortal sect colluding with Great Vow.
Great Vow would have his demon soldiers cause chaos as part of a performance—the wolf demons would handle the intimidation, and the Heavenly Sword Sect would handle the 'harvesting.'
Chen Zhou had assumed that was the 'play' Wu Gou wanted him to see.
But the current situation was clearly different.
It seemed the demons truly wanted to slaughter the humans, and the vow power was truly protecting their lives.
Chen Zhou continued to watch until the sky grew fully bright.
A clear, thunderous shout descended from high above.
"Vile beasts, cease your harm!"
Immediately after, several brilliant sword lights sliced through the sky, accurately striking the ground in front of the wolf pack.
The Heavenly Sword Sect had arrived as promised.
Snow surged like waves as over a dozen snow wolves were blasted away by sword qi, whimpering as they fled with their tails between their legs.
"They're here! They're here!"
"The Immortal Masters are here!"
The villagers of Jiuquan Village instantly erupted in cheers.
Ignoring their wounds, they knelt in the snow, worshiping the sword lights in the sky.
"We welcome the Immortal Seniors!!"
"We welcome the Immortal Seniors of the Heavenly Sword Sect to the mortal world!!"
The sound was deafening.
At the village entrance, the sword lights descended, transforming into four figures—three men and one woman.
They wore uniform moon-white sword robes with golden heavenly sword motifs embroidered on the sleeves. Each possessed an ethereal aura.
The men were handsome and the woman beautiful, carrying long swords on their backs, looking like exiled immortals stepped out of a painting.
The leader was a young man with sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes, exuding an air of righteous integrity. He held a green-edged sword and stood tall, possessing a fourth-stage cultivation.
However, his sword robes were stained with blood. He seemed to have forcefully pushed his spiritual qi to rush here, causing his blood and qi to churn.
"It's Senior Brother Li!"
"That's Li Zhaoye, who went out from our village!"
The woodcutter Old Li squeezed out from the crowd, looking at the young man with tears of excitement streaming down his face. "Son! I'm your father!"
This young man was indeed Old Li's son, Li Zhaoye.
Twenty years ago, he had been chosen by the Heavenly Sword Sect and taken to the immortal mountains. Now, he was a core disciple of the sect, returning home in glory.
"Form the array! Protect the villagers!"
Li Zhaoye wasted no words. The moment he landed, his long sword transformed into a curtain of light, firmly shielding the dozens of women and children behind him.
The three fellow disciples behind him also unleashed sharp sword lights.
One female disciple even used her own body to ram into a snow wolf twice her size to save a child who had almost fallen into its jaws.
"Pfft!"
The wolf's claws swept across, and the female sword cultivator's shoulder was instantly shredded.
Yet she didn't make a sound. With a reverse thrust of her sword, she pierced the wolf demon's throat and pulled the child tightly into her embrace.
"Don't be afraid... Big Sister is here. Don't be afraid..."
Her face was pale, yet she continued to comfort the wailing child in her arms.
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