Chen Zhou was just preparing to withstand the laws of heaven and earth with his own strength, his brush tip pointed at the phantom of the black-spotted Judge.
Suddenly, an earth-shattering roar of battle cries erupted from the distant horizon.
The Judge was stunned, and so was Chen Zhou.
At this critical juncture, everyone in Gloomlight Province capable of competing for the Golden Buddha had already fallen within the Bone Pillar Space.
All variables should have already been part of this scheme.
How could a new force be intervening now?
Chen Zhou instinctively looked up.
At the edge of his vision, a bone Arhat a full thirty zhang tall, holding a massive bone monk staff, strode across the ruins with great strides.
Beside the Arhat followed a fire dog the size of a small mountain.
The black dog had a sleek and oily coat, burning with crimson flames, baring its teeth with a fierce and menacing expression.
Behind these two behemoths were dense crowds of skeleton novice monks and people.
In the sky above the crowd, several graceful immortal cranes circled, their cries clear and resonant.
"Ancestor, do not fear! Your most trusted lineage disciples of the Bone Temple have come to assist!!"
A deafening howl resounded through the clouds.
Zen Master Wu Hai brandished his monk staff, his face flushed with excitement.
"Disciples, charge for me!"
"Now is the perfect time to expand the territory of our Bone Temple and deliver all beings under heaven!"
The monk staff collided with the giant's fist, erupting in a piercing sound of cracking bones. The black-spotted giant's arm was smashed backward, and it staggered back two steps.
"Oho, quite tough, aren't you? Take another blow from your Buddha Lord's staff!"
Wu Hai let out a strange cry, but his movements didn't stop for a moment; the staff flew as he forcibly pushed back that giant, easing the pressure for Jian Huaishuang.
"Woof!"
Huo Dou was even more excited; seeing Chen Zhou after so long, its eyes instantly lit up and its tail wagged like a propeller, stirring up gusts of hot air.
Then it suddenly turned its dog head and spat a mouthful of earth vein true fire at the recently reassembled corpse dragon.
"Hiss—!"
The corpse dragon emitted a pained hiss as it was scorched by the true fire.
Huo Dou took the opportunity to pounce, biting the corpse dragon's neck with a frenzy, its mad-dog-like ferocity identical to Wu Hai's.
"Good dog!" Wu Hai shouted loudly. "Bite it, bite it hard!"
"It was these things that ambushed our Ancestor!"
Chen Zhou's lips twitched, and he looked at the crowd behind Huo Dou.
Shitou's whole body erupted with battle qi, his skin turning a bronze color, as he charged at the very front with a bone blade in hand.
Beside him was Hong Ling in her red robes, calmly commanding the forces.
They led a group of citizens from the City of the Wrongfully Dead, who were wearing uniform bone armor and holding bone swords.
They were all people very familiar to Chen Zhou.
There was Lu Cheng and his group of apprentices; all of them were master craftsmen, yet now they were clumsily brandishing swords, following Shitou and fiercely smashing at the black-spot monsters the giant had collapsed into.
There was Zhang Cuigu, that fierce woman who only knew how to tend to crops in the spirit fields; now she was also leading a group of farmers and peasant women, her eyes resolute.
There were also Qin Kuan and Li Dazhu, the two men responsible for leading the logging team; now they were charging stripped to the waist, the bone swords in their hands whistling through the air.
Even Widow Li, who managed the pasture and the dining hall, had come, staring intently at Shitou's back, as fierce as a tigress.
Except for the old and the young, everyone in the City of the Wrongfully Dead above the fifth-stage had come.
Seeing this scene, Chen Zhou's hand holding the brush tightened slightly.
While throwing out a Luan Fire Talisman to blast back a wave of approaching monsters, Hong Ling looked up and shouted to Chen Zhou on the high platform.
"My Lord, do not blame us!"
"Your subordinate received a message from little master Wu Gou, saying that My Lord was in a final battle against a false god in the provincial capital and needed more strength!"
"This battle concerns the survival of Gloomlight Province, and even more so the future of the City of the Wrongfully Dead!"
"Everyone in the City of the Wrongfully Dead has responded."
"We are all displaced people taken in by My Lord, people who were destined for a wrongful death, people with nowhere else to go."
"My Lord gave us a way to live, gave us a home, and gave us hope to survive in this desperate world."
"The City of the Wrongfully Dead is not just a city; it is a home, the home for all of us under My Lord's protection!"
"Today My Lord is in trouble, how could we just sit by and watch?"
"So I took it upon myself to bring everyone here!"
As Hong Ling spoke, she led the crowd to surround the phantom of the black-spotted Judge.
Although the phantom's pressure was terrifying, none of the citizens retreated.
They used their bodies, their weapons, and everything they could use to construct a human wall, attempting to isolate the phantom's interference with Chen Zhou.
"Lord God!"
Shitou shouted as he swung his blade to hack down a black-spot monster.
"My Lord and the divine messengers are all fighting for us mortals, fighting to win a future for us!"
"Although we are all mortals with low cultivation, we are not useless."
"Whenever My Lord needs us, we are willing to stand up at any time."
"We might not be able to help much, but at least... we will never let the god we believe in stand alone without help!"
"Brothers, is that right?!" Shitou turned back and roared.
"YES—!!!"
Hundreds of thousands of citizens from the City of the Wrongfully Dead shouted in unison, the sound waves shaking the heavens.
Chen Zhou looked at those pairs of fanatical, sincere, and unreserved eyes.
He suddenly smiled.
He laughed very happily, a free and uninhibited laugh.
"Stand alone without help?"
Chen Zhou murmured to himself and shook his head.
"When has this Venerable One ever been alone?"
"But since that is the case, I will leave it to you!"
"For this Venerable One, block those pieces of trash!"
Hearing Chen Zhou's response, Wu Hai's spirit was instantly refreshed as he howled.
"Did you hear that? The Ancestor said he's leaving it to us!"
"All of you, pull yourselves together! Do not lose face for the Bone Temple!"
The sentient beings were making vows, and the light shield composed of Sanskrit characters in front of Chen Zhou became burning hot.
Under the desperate obstruction of everyone from the City of the Wrongfully Dead, the phantom of the black-spotted Judge was actually isolated by these walls of flesh and blood.
The corpse dragon was held firmly by Huo Dou's bite, and the black-spotted giants were divided and surrounded by the citizens and the bone Arhat.
Jian Huaishuang's pressure was greatly reduced; amidst the dancing paper snow, the second black-spotted giant's legs were cut off, and it crashed to the ground.
Chen Zhou took a deep breath.
Since there were no more worries, it was time for a thorough settlement.
He no longer held back, injecting all the remaining death qi in his body, along with the Evil God Points that had just skyrocketed due to faith, into his ghost domain.
"Domain of Defiled Earth, for this Venerable One—OPEN!"
The grey-white ghost domain instantly pressed forward.
Light darkened completely at this moment.
The golden crack that originally hung at the edge of the sky was forcibly torn apart by an extremely overbearing power.
The rainbow mist was directly obscured, and the entire sky seemed to be covered by a giant shroud.
In this absolute darkness, a pale bone moon slowly emerged.
The bone moon hung high, and endless ash drifted down from it.
It was the manifestation of death qi, the dust of deathly silence, and the embers after the end of all things.
Ash covered every inch of the Star-Picking Platform.
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