Alarm bells rang in Wu Hai's heart.
Who was this?
He was the thirty-sixth generation successor of the Bone Temple and the most direct subordinate of the Founding Ancestor.
There was already a monk by the Founding Ancestor's side who had no actual skill but was a master at sycophancy. He had arrived a step too late, and the competition was already fierce.
Now, another monk had appeared?
Judging by the patchwork robe the monk wore, he was clearly a follower of the orthodox Buddhist path.
If this person joined them, would there be any room left for him, Wu Hai, in the Founding Ancestor's eyes?
No, absolutely not!
"This old bald ass clearly isn't a good person. He stinks of acidity and rot!"
Wu Hai instantly listed Wu Gou as his number one competitor. He had to demonstrate the power of the Bone Temple and prove that he was the Founding Ancestor's most useful lackey.
"Stupid dog, perform well for me in front of the Founding Ancestor!"
Wu Hai patted Huo Dou's head, pointing at Tun Yue and then stealthily pointing at Wu Gou below.
"Burn him! Burn that old dog Tun Yue to ashes!"
"And while you're at it, singe that stinking beggar down there too!"
"Woof—!!"
To make Wu Hai look good, Huo Dou poured out the flames he had suppressed for a century toward Tun Yue.
Black flames fell from the sky like a meteor shower, not only submerging Tun Yue but also inadvertently covering the area where Wu Gou stood.
Huo Dou also disliked Wu Gou. His nose was very sharp, and he could smell something else on Wu Gou besides the stench of spoiled food.
It was a scent of decay, just like that of that old pervert, Ksitigarbha of Great Vows.
"Holy crap! You dead skeleton, you're using a public mission to settle a private grudge!"
Wu Gou jumped three feet high in fright, hugging his head as he dodged and hid within the sea of fire.
As he cursed, he displayed surprisingly nimble footwork.
However, no matter where he hid, a stray tongue of fire from the earth fire would accurately lash out at him. One moment his eyebrows were singed, and the next his buttocks were scorched.
"On purpose! You did this on purpose!" Wu Gou's teeth itched with rage.
His eyes darted around, and he stopped running. Instead, he scrambled on all fours behind Chen Zhou, tightly clutching the black robe.
"Great demon, save me! Your dog is biting people!"
Sure enough, when Huo Dou's flames approached within three feet of Chen Zhou, they automatically diverted, not daring to overstep.
Chen Zhou ignored the infighting between these two jokers, his gaze locked on the battlefield.
He had discovered a startling phenomenon.
As Huo Dou's flames raged, those wolf demons—who were supposedly immortal and indestructible—began to resurrect much more slowly after being burned to ash by the black fire.
'It's working?'
Chen Zhou's eyes narrowed.
'The earth vein fire.'
The reason these wolf demons could resurrect, besides being part of Ksitigarbha of Great Vows' scheme and possessing vow power, was the earth vein fire implanted within them to suppress the rejection between their human bodies and demon souls.
And Huo Dou was the ancestor of earth fire.
Now, he was reclaiming the power that belonged to him.
Every time a wolf demon died, the flames on Huo Dou grew a bit stronger.
Correspondingly, the resurrection speed of the demons slowed down, until they were eventually unable to resurrect at all.
"I see."
In the sky, Wu Hai was still shouting: "Bite him! Bite that bald one!"
He had already transformed into a three-zhang-tall bone Arhat. Although he only had one arm, his momentum was overwhelming. Working with Huo Dou, they actually suppressed and battered the seventh-stage Tun Yue.
Chen Zhou instantly saw through the situation.
"Since the vow of the wolf demons is to become Buddhas, there is no need to follow along. Destroying them achieves the same goal—ensuring they can never attain Buddhahood."
A cruel smile curled at the corners of Chen Zhou's mouth.
He raised his hand, and countless bone spikes flew out, skewering the wolf demons struggling to resurrect on the ground like meat on a stick.
"Wu Hai, catch!"
With a casual wave, Chen Zhou threw the skewered wolf demons toward Huo Dou in the air.
"Stupid dog, dinner's ready!" Wu Hai shouted with joy. "The Founding Ancestor is feeding you!"
Huo Dou smelled the scent of flesh and blood, something he had craved most during his century of imprisonment.
He opened his massive maw and swallowed a string of wolf demons in one gulp, his tail wagging so fast it looked like a propeller.
The wolf demons let out desperate screams. They wanted to resurrect, but Huo Dou's stomach was a true purgatory; the moment they began to reform, they were digested once more.
As a large number of wolf demons were devoured, the number of believers in the Wolf Court dwindled.
On the high platform, the Moon-Swallowing Wolf Saint's aura grew weaker and weaker.
He had been torn by Huo Dou until he barely looked like a wolf, with only a head and half a torso struggling to endure.
"Why... I clearly have a human heart... I clearly learned compassion..."
Tun Yue looked at the severed limbs littering the ground, then at Chen Zhou and Wu Hai, who showed no fear during this slaughter but instead looked excited.
He suddenly wondered: which of them were the true demons?
"Too fragile."
"The human heart is truly too fragile."
"I refuse to accept this..."
Tun Yue lay in the ruins, his face covered in blood.
To cultivate this human heart, he had abandoned the ferocity of a demon. In the end, he was still stepped upon by even more vicious humans.
Just then, he felt a sudden heat in his belly.
Something had awakened inside him.
It was the ally who had been lurking within him all along: Ksitigarbha of Great Vows.
"Tun Yue, your cultivation is complete."
A compassionate voice drifted out from Tun Yue's belly.
Tun Yue froze, a flash of joy appearing in his eyes.
"Venerable Ksitigarbha? You mean... I am now the Moon-Swallowing Arhat?"
However, in the next second...
Tun Yue felt his body slip from his control.
The Buddhist light that originally protected him suddenly transformed into countless golden chains, erupting from within him and piercing back into his flesh and demon soul.
"Venerable... what are you doing?"
Tun Yue discovered to his horror that his power was being frantically drained.
"Doing?"
The voice in his belly remained compassionate.
"This seat said I would help you become a Buddha."
"Your life has been filled with too much slaughter, and your demonic nature is hard to tame. Only by sacrificing this shell of flesh and blood to this seat can you wash away your sins and attain supreme enlightenment."
"What?!" Tun Yue felt as if struck by lightning.
He looked at his hands; the silver wolf fur that had covered them was falling off in large clumps, revealing the smooth human skin beneath.
That was the human skin he had dreamed of, but now it felt like the most vicious of curses.
"No... NO!!"
Tun Yue let out a heart-wrenching scream.
He finally understood.
What ally? What 'helping him become a Buddha'?
It was all a lie!
From the very beginning, he was just a dog raised by Ksitigarbha of Great Vows.
Ksitigarbha of Great Vows needed a powerful husk to host his descent, a heart that possessed both the wildness of a demon and the greed of a human.
And he was the perfect vessel.
"You lied to me!! YOU LIED TO ME!!"
Tun Yue struggled desperately, wanting to gouge the thing out of his stomach.
But his hands were already bound by the golden chains, and his demon power was receding like a tide.
As his power vanished, the human heart he had exchanged with Xu Yunzi and treated like a precious treasure also began to rot rapidly.
"No! I won't be human! I won't be a Buddha!"
Tun Yue wailed within the golden light, his voice gradually shifting from a human's to a wolf's howl.
"I am a wolf! I am the Moon-Swallowing Heavenly Wolf!!"
"I am the King of the Northern Region!!"
In these final moments of his life...
Tun Yue's maddened consciousness cleared slightly, and he finally remembered.
He was a wolf.
He had once howled across the snowfields, and he had once fought against heaven and earth for the sake of his tribe.
When had he started believing the delusions of that old monk?
He had despised his own demon body and his own wildness.
He had learned to dress like a human, eat like a human, and chant like a human.
He had lived his life as a joke.
Only now, when death truly descended...
Did he realize that the wildness of the demon race—the very thing he had suppressed and despised—was his most precious possession.
"Awoooo—!!"
Tun Yue let out a shrill howl.
He opened his mouth, which had rotted until only bone remained, wanting to bite and tear apart the monster in his belly.
But his sharp teeth had been ground flat by years of vow power.
His claws had been trimmed until they were round and smooth.
He no longer had any weapons.
Rate on N.U.
