As Many as Come, So Many I Shall Deliver

The voices were noisy, chaotic, and filled with despair and resentment.

If it were an ordinary cultivator, merely listening to these ghostly voices would likely cause their dao heart to collapse and lead them to deviate from the path.

But Wu Gou did not.

As he listened to these voices, his thoughts seemed to drift back to a long time ago, back to his days in the underworld of the Northern Region.

"Master Grand Vow, my little girl finally spoke and called me Mother last night. She had been unable to speak since birth, and the doctors all said there was no cure..." A haggard woman was crying and laughing at the same time, clutching his sleeve, unwilling to let go.

"Master Grand Vow, many of the medicinal seeds you gave us have survived... that icy land on the back mountain looks quite green now." A young lad scratched his head, smiling with a bit of embarrassment.

"Did you carve the Buddha statue in the temple yourself? It's really beautiful." A young child looked up at the eaves of the newly renovated small temple, eyes bright and shining.

Filled with gratitude, filled with hope, filled with the warmth of the mortal world's simple life.

It stood in stark contrast to the endless, agonizing hellish elegy currently echoing in his ears.

"Sigh..."

Wu Gou sighed softly, but his chanting did not stop for even a moment.

"They are all pitiful souls as well."

As expected, even if he were to do it all over again, with the hypocrisy and calculations of the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows stripped away, leaving only this pure spark of conscience, he still could not stand by and watch the suffering of all beings.

When the Buddhist heart sees the suffering of all beings, how can it not feel sorrow? How can it not deliver them?

The aura on Wu Gou's body suddenly shifted. The piercing Buddhist light turned gentle, like the warm morning sun, or like a mother's caressing hand.

Wherever the Buddhist light touched, those malevolent ghosts who had been clutching their heads and screaming in pain gradually stopped their movements.

The ferocity on their faces, like filth washed away by warm water, faded bit by bit.

They were no longer frenzied; their faces revealed a long-lost peace.

Just then, the earth shook violently once more.

Another dragon-suppressing stake erupted from the ground.

"The fourth one."

Wu Gou murmured, his expression becoming even more grave.

As this dragon-suppressing stake broke free, a larger valve seemed to have been opened deep underground.

"Roar—!!!"

More violent and dense ghostly shrieks poured out from countless fissures in the ground.

More malevolent ghosts and more twisted black-spot monsters surged madly onto the surface. Only ghosts knew just how many criminal souls and monsters had been imprisoned and piled up beneath the provincial capital over the past thousand years.

Taking advantage of the descent of the golden Buddha and the shifting of the laws of heaven and earth, they were all trying to crawl back from hell.

Wu Gou looked at the scene before him, a bitter smile playing on his lips.

He often said that as long as hell is not empty, he vowed not to become a Buddha.

"This time, hell really is empty."

"If I can actually survive this wave," he whispered to himself, as if mocking his own situation.

"This monk might actually have to go to the Western Paradise to meet the Buddha."

"Ah."

"I haven't even tasted the dishes made by the Heavenly Chef yet. What a pity."

"Diting."

Wu Gou called out softly.

"Boom!"

The ground split open, and a semi-transparent worm-like creature burrowed out.

It was now several zhang long, its entire body crystal clear. Although it was still a juvenile, the aura it emitted was already quite strong.

"Old friend," Wu Gou looked at Diting, "give it your all. Today, the two of us must hold back this ghost tide."

Diting twisted its body in the air as if in response.

In the next moment, it dove headfirst into the ground.

The earth began to tremble.

Countless black-spot monsters had just crawled out of the cracks and hadn't even found their footing before they were pierced and strangled by semi-transparent tentacles that suddenly lunged from the ground.

Diting was a ley line worm, born with the ability to travel freely underground.

Although its body looked soft, its hardness was extremely high, allowing it to easily pierce the carapaces of the black-spot monsters.

More importantly, it could devour anything buried in the ground, including these monsters crawling out of hell.

"Crunch... crunch..."

One black-spot monster after another was devoured by Diting.

Wu Gou could feel that Diting was growing rapidly.

He withdrew his gaze and continued to recite the Rebirth Mantra, while simultaneously increasing the output of the Buddhist light.

For a time, the entire area was illuminated by the Buddhist light, turning it as bright as day.

Wu Gou sat alone in mid-air, his monastic robes snapping in the agitation of the Buddhist light and ghost qi. His handsome face was solemn and sacred, and the Buddhist light around him had thickened to a pure white, as brilliant as the rising sun.

Wu Gou felt the rapid depletion of the spiritual power and origin within his body. Looking at the ghost tide before him, which was temporarily suppressed but still seemed endless, his mind remained clear.

He knew this couldn't last forever.

But he also knew that for every moment he held out, Song Zi'an would have another chance to find his master, there would be one less point of pressure on Chen Zhou's side, and one more piece of pure land preserved in this provincial capital.

"So what if hell is empty?"

He whispered to himself, the corners of his mouth curling into a nearly defiant arc.

"This monk is right here."

"As many as come, so many I shall deliver."

The white light remained as brilliant as day.

The dazzling light not only illuminated the ruins of the imperial palace but even penetrated the pervasive ghost qi and golden light, lighting up a small portion of the provincial capital's sky.

At the Yinsi Guard station, Xiaoye and Bai saw this pure white light soaring into the sky at the same time.

"That is..." Xiaoye was stunned.

"Little Master Wu Gou," Bai said with certainty, shock evident in her eyes.

She could feel just how vast and compassionate the power contained within that white light was.

"The commotion at the palace is getting bigger and bigger..." Xiaoye couldn't help but say.

"The Lord and the others are fighting so fiercely inside. There have been three earthquakes just now, and even a corner of our perimeter wall has collapsed."

"Don't worry, don't worry!"

Compared to Xiaoye's nervousness, Bai nearby seemed high-spirited.

Bai was dragging a long chain, and on the other end, dozens of malevolent ghosts were tied up like a string of candied haws.

"We're just practicing a clear division of labor!" She triumphantly tossed the string of malevolent ghosts into the drill grounds below and clapped her hands.

"The Lord went to fight the big monsters, and we're responsible for clearing the small ones."

"That's why we should do our best to help the Lord!"

She pointed at the dense crowd of ghosts below, her face practically begging for praise.

"Look, all the malevolent ghosts in the provincial capital have been brought under our control!"

"Whether they're hanged ghosts, water ghosts, or headless ghosts, this heroine has caught them all."

"As soon as the Lord returns and sees such a large record of merit, he'll definitely praise me for doing a good job. When the time comes for a quick judgment, it'll be a massive amount of merit!"

At this moment, the drill grounds were practically overflowing with ghosts.

Every ghost with a name or reputation in the provincial capital had been caught by these two.

To prevent them from escaping, Bai and Xiaoye had even specifically used chains transformed from sword qi to bind them, packing them all together and stuffing them into the Yinsi Guard station.

The malevolent ghosts below were huddling together, wailing incessantly. Some were even being squeezed until their soul-bodies began to deform.

"Let me out... I just stole a chicken from the house of Wang Er next door, there's no need to lock me up this tightly, right?"

"I'm being crushed to death! Who's stepping on my tongue!"

Just as Bai was immersed in her fantasy of being praised...

"Boom!"

The ground shook violently once more.

This tremor was more intense than any that had come before.

The fissures from the imperial palace began to spread outside, directly tearing through the ground of the Yinsi Guard station.