In the front mountain, the battle raged fiercely, sword qi piercing the heavens.
Yet, the back mountain was as silent as a graveyard.
Zen Master Wu Hai propped himself up with his bone monk staff, sticking his rear out as he sniffed around the snowy ground like a sneak.
'Sluuuuurp—'
Wu Hai took a deep breath, looking intoxicated by the faint scorched stench carried on the wind and snow.
"That’s it, definitely it!"
Wu Hai’s skeletal joints rattled with excitement. "That smell... though it’s a bit faint, that fierce and dismal aura couldn't belong to anyone but that stupid dog, Huo Dou!"
Back when the Bone Temple hadn't yet fallen into decline, Huo Dou was the slaughtering beast that guarded the mountain gate.
As he swung his staff to clear the thick snow, he indulged in a pleasant fantasy.
'Once I find the sect-protecting divine beast and use Huo Dou's power to break through to the seventh stage, our Bone Temple's lineup will be complete.'
'The Ancestor will preside over the center, and I, Wu Hai, will lead Huo Dou to conquer all directions.'
'When that time comes, we’ll take down this Gloomlight Province, skin those golden bodies, and offer them to the Ancestor so he can cultivate Great Vehicle Buddhism.'
"Hmph, let's see how that mere fifth-stage little monk, Ku Chan, tries to compete for favor then!"
"The Bone Temple is the true orthodox Buddhist Sect, and I, Wu Hai, am the Ancestor’s direct lineage and his most valued subordinate!"
Ga-ga-ga, the mere thought of it made him want to laugh out loud.
The more Wu Hai thought about it, the more energized he became, his strides growing larger.
The deeper he went, the more restrictions appeared around him.
From a valley not far away, the faint sound of wolf howls echoed. They were extremely shrill, as if tens of thousands of wild beasts were being tortured.
It was the forbidden land of the Heavenly Sword Sect—the Sword Tomb.
Sharp streaks of sword qi sealed the valley entrance, and a bloody aura soared within, suggesting that something extraordinary was imprisoned there.
"What's so interesting about a pile of scrap metal?"
Wu Hai glanced toward the Sword Tomb with a face full of disdain.
He had no interest in swords, and no interest in wolves. He was interested in dogs.
He bypassed the Sword Tomb entirely and, following that elusive scent, ducked into a hidden, shaded snow bank.
Just as he rounded a corner, Wu Hai suddenly stopped. He immediately thrust his staff into the snow and curled himself into a ball, camouflaging himself as a pile of roadside withered bones.
On the snow ahead floated a dozen or so translucent, strange creatures.
They looked like humans but had long tails, their entire bodies condensed from ice and snow.
They had no facial features, only a gaping black hole for a mouth that hummed a low, shallow song.
These were snow demons.
They were a bizarre class of monsters unique to the Northern Region that specialized in the path of the soul and loved to lure living souls away.
At this moment, the group of snow demons was holding chains condensed from frost.
Attached to the other end of the chains was a long line of dazed dead souls.
Most were mortals, but there were also a few low-level disciples wearing Heavenly Sword Sect robes.
Their eyes were dull, and they followed the snow demons mechanically, seemingly being led toward a destination further ahead.
"Oh my, what a coincidence."
Wu Hai jumped out from behind the snowdrift, slung his staff over his shoulder, and flashed a 'kindly' smile.
"This monk was just worrying that I hadn't accumulated any merit today."
Wu Hai let out a loud shout, his staff whistling through the air like a gale as he smashed it directly into a snow demon's face.
The thick monk staff struck that large face with the sound of a howling wind.
Even without using bone divine techniques, his hard bones and brute strength alone were not something these third or fourth-stage snow demons could withstand.
Physical salvation was the most lethal.
The snow demon didn't even have time to scream before it was smashed into a cloud of snow powder.
"Bold monsters! How dare you illegally detain innocent souls!"
"The Northern Region is the territory of my Ancestor!"
Wu Hai roared with righteous indignation while expertly swinging his staff like he was playing a game of whack-a-mole, one strike for every demon.
"Today, this monk shall deliver you all on behalf of the Ancestor!"
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
A localized blizzard suddenly erupted within the snow bank.
In the blink of an eye, the dozen or so snow demons were completely wiped out by Wu Hai.
Deprived of their guides, the string of dead souls stood aimlessly in the snow, lost.
Wu Hai looked at these lonely ghosts and sighed, then perfunctorily held a single hand up to his chest.
"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Since you're dead, stop wandering around."
Wu Hai scratched his bald head, realizing he had forgotten the words to the Rebirth Mantra because he hadn't recited scriptures in so long.
"Forget it, sincerity is what matters."
"Amitabha. In your next life, reincarnate into a good family. Don't believe in those old bald asses anymore; believe in our Bone Temple, believe in the Ancestor! Go on, off you go!"
Wu Hai muttered some nonsense and then gave a wide sweep of his sleeve. He whipped up a gust of yin wind that directly scattered the souls.
While he couldn't bring them back to the City of the Wrongfully Dead, letting them return to heaven and earth was better than being eaten by that old pervert Great Vow.
"Another day of saving all sentient beings. Amitabha. Wu Hai, you are truly too compassionate."
After his moment of self-reflection, Wu Hai didn't dally. He kicked open the entrance to the underground tunnel from which the snow demons had come.
A much stronger scorched stench hit him in the face.
"Heh, that's the stuff!"
Without a second word, Wu Hai jumped right in.
The underground world was a realm of its own.
It wasn't cold like the surface; instead, the temperature rose the deeper he went.
The underground caverns branched out in all directions like a labyrinth.
What disgusted Wu Hai even more was that no matter which tunnel he took, thick fleshy tubes hung from the ceiling.
They looked like the esophagi of some giant beast, or perhaps umbilical cords connecting to a mother body, densely blanketing the entire underground network.
There seemed to be liquid flowing inside them, emitting a faint golden light, extending all the way to the deepest part of the earth.
"The ground beneath the Northern Region sure looks peculiar."
Wu Hai disdainfully used his staff to push aside an umbilical cord blocking his path and followed its direction deeper down.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, the surrounding rocks had turned crimson, and the air was so parching it was suffocating.
This was already tens of thousands of feet deep.
The earth's core fire veins converged here, and rolling magma roared and surged beneath his feet.
Along the banks of the magma river, there were signs of explosions everywhere.
The cavern walls were smeared with black-red flesh and blood residue; though dried, it still emitted a faint aura of Buddhist dharma.
"Eh?"
Wu Hai leaned in to sniff it, looking puzzled.
"Such dense Buddhist power... and this smell, why is it a bit like death qi, and also like vow power?"
"Could some high monk have self-detonated here before?"
Wu Hai couldn't make sense of it, but since this was Great Vow Ksitigarbha's turf, traces of Buddhist dharma were normal.
He continued forward. A few steps later, he saw another human-hand lotus pedestal. Because it didn't fit his aesthetic, Wu Hai shattered it with a single strike of his staff.
Following the umbilical cords, he found a massive vortex in the center of the magma river.
Countless cords converged here, plugged into a giant ball of flesh at the center of the vortex.
The flesh ball was the size of a house, its surface covered in golden Buddhist seals. It contracted and expanded like a heart.
In ancient legends, the Huo Dou could consume flames and excrete eternal fire; wherever it went, fires were sure to follow. It was a beast of war and slaughter.
This place was filled with fire veins from the earth's core, clearly modified by the power of the Huo Dou.
"Found you!"
Wu Hai was so excited he nearly jumped into the magma to take a bath.
He could clearly feel that Huo Dou was inside that ball of flesh.
"Stinky dog, is that you, stinky dog!"
Wu Hai immediately activated his Buddhist dharma for protection and leaped into the magma with a splash, shouting at the top of his lungs.
"Come out! It's your Lord Wu Hai!"
"Stop sleeping! The Ancestor has come to take you home!"
"Our Bone Temple is really something now! The Southern Region has been leveled, the Northern Region is about to be broken, and we'll soon unify Gloomlight Province!"
"The Ancestor has a rabbit and a chicken by his side now. If you come late, there won't be a spot left for you."
"By then, you'll only be able to guard the gate and won't even get a warm meal!"
Wu Hai hollered nonsense as he swam, terrified that the Huo Dou inside wouldn't hear him.
Perhaps it heard the words 'guard the gate,' or perhaps it sensed the familiar bone aura.
The flesh ball suddenly began to tremble violently.
"ROAR—!!"
A muffled roar pierced through the thick fleshy walls.
The roar was filled with tyranny, anger, and a hint of the grievance one feels upon seeing family.
Immediately after, the golden light of the Buddhist seals on the flesh ball’s surface intensified, attempting to suppress the internal unrest.
"Dammit, you still dare to bully my dog!"
Seeing this, Wu Hai was enraged.
He raised his staff, channeled his full skeletal death qi, and prepared to smash the flesh ball.
"Open for your Buddha Lord!!"
However, just as his staff was about to strike the ball.
"BOOM!"
The originally calm magma river suddenly erupted.
The magma next to the flesh ball exploded upward as a gargantuan creature surged out.
It was a monster that looked like an earthworm but was as massive as a dragon.
Its body was covered in tumors and tentacles. It had no eyes, only a circular mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth.
Countless umbilical cords were also attached to it; it seemed to be the watchdog left here by Great Vow Ksitigarbha to guard the flesh ball.
As soon as the earthworm appeared, it opened its massive maw and lunged at Wu Hai to bite him.
As its teeth churned, a faint earthy-yellow light flickered.
"Hmm, earth dragon power?"
Wu Hai was startled and quickly raised his staff to block.
He had heard that the Aspect of All Beings possessed a realm earthworm that carried the earth dragon power.
Not only was it an expert at tunneling through the earth and moving freely underground, but it could also traverse realms, treating realm barriers as if they were nothing.
It should be at least a 7th-stage divine entity, but this one didn't look like it. How could a divine beast look so disgusting?
Judging by its aura, it was nowhere near as oppressive as a 7th-stage Symbiosis stage entity either.
The earthworm's massive mouth was deflected by Wu Hai's staff. Its body tilted, and it bit into the nearby rock instead.
In an instant, the hard obsidian was crushed to powder.
Wu Hai was knocked back, tumbling several times in the magma from the impact.
"Dammit, you dare stop this monk from saving my dog?"
Wu Hai steadied himself, his anger peaking.
His bones rattled and ground against each other as he instantly expanded, transforming into a three-zhang-tall bone Arhat.
"I was in a good mood today and only wanted to save my dog without taking lives."
"Vile beast, since you wish for death, then this monk shall first deliver you before saving my dog!"
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