The tribulation lightning pierced through Mo Yuan, instantly incinerating his sin-soaked husk into charcoal.
Yet, through his death, he had drawn the true heavenly punishment upon Mother Snake, who had been suppressed for five hundred years.
Several bolts of tribulation lightning followed in quick succession, aiming directly at Mother Snake, who had been completely unshackled beneath the ruins of the Soul-Suppressing Tower due to Mo Yuan’s fall.
Within the bronze-colored torrent formed by the swarming locusts, Mother Snake and Piao were still in the process of devouring and fusing.
Piao’s insectoid body was torn to shreds by Mother Snake, only to heal frantically under the call of Mother Snake’s origin.
Her consciousness wavered between agonizing pain and primal hunger, teetering on the brink of collapse.
After absorbing part of Piao’s life essence, Mother Snake’s originally withered and hunched form of a peasant woman actually filled out slightly.
However, faced with the pressure of the heavenly tribulation, her form began to tremble violently. In her compound eyes, composed of countless twisted human faces, a look of terror emerged.
She wanted to flee, to hide, but she was held in a death grip by Piao, maintaining a macabre embrace.
Several golden lightning bolts, as thick as bowls and carrying the wrath of the heavens, struck savagely at Mother Snake and Piao in the center of the ruins.
Boom—!
The blinding lightning instantly swallowed the entire ruin. The earth shook violently, and a wild wind kicked up bronze-colored dust, shrouding everything in a destructive white light.
The intense energy shock caused Jiang Ziang and the few surviving elders and disciples to nearly faint.
The lightning faded, and the dust settled.
The ruins of the Soul-Suppressing Tower had been transformed into a massive crater, with green smoke curling up from the scorched earth.
At the bottom of the pit, Mother Snake’s peasant form, which had been bitten to pieces, completely disintegrated into a bloody mess.
Her corpse began to swell as countless locusts burst through the skin, emerging with a buzzing roar.
However, from the center of those nauseating remains of Mother Snake, an exceptionally fat monk suddenly tore through her remaining abdominal cavity and slowly crawled out.
His skin was fair and delicate, nearly transparent, appearing exceptionally jarring against the blackened environment.
He wore a slightly worn but clean vermilion kashaya and was barefoot, his steps steady as if walking on lotuses.
A benevolent smile was frozen on the monk's face. His eyes were curved like crescent moons, showing no pupils.
But the smile was merely on the surface, like a mask meticulously painted and pasted onto a spherical object.
Upon closer inspection, beneath that nearly transparent skin, it seemed as if countless tiny things were slowly wriggling, moving like living creatures under the flesh.
The fat monk cast a faint glance at the sky.
The dark clouds brewing the final bolt of the tribulation were as thick as ink, with lightning rolling and roaring deep within the layers.
He simply flicked his sleeve in a casual manner.
In an instant, a power devoid of any worldly fire, yet carrying the grace of a Buddha plucking a flower, gently swept across the sky.
Boom...
The tribulation that had been brewing for so long collapsed in an instant.
The dark clouds dispersed, the lightning vanished, the wild winds died down, and the sky returned to a clear blue, as if the apocalyptic scene from moments ago was nothing but a dream.
The fat monk withdrew his gaze and, with an eternal smile on his face, walked slowly toward Piao beside Mother Snake’s remains.
Piao’s body had also been struck by the lightning; she was nearly broken and her breath was weak, but she managed to maintain her human form.
Piao’s heterochromatic eyes were half-closed. The beautiful half of her face reappeared, but it was filled with agony, her consciousness struggling on the edge of fading away.
"This monk was wondering why Mother Snake, after a century of refinement, still couldn't transform into a Copper-Body Arhat, preventing this monk from achieving complete merit."
The monk's voice was full of benevolence, yet it carried the innocent complaint of a child.
"It turns out Mother Snake was incomplete, having split early on, and by some strange twist of fate, a monster like you was born."
His gaze swept over Piao, his benevolent smile never changing.
"A monster born from the mixed resentment of one who starved to death and the greedy evil thoughts of Mother Snake... yet you actually grew a human heart?
"Interesting, truly interesting.
"No matter, once fused, she will be whole again."
With that, the monk reached out and roughly stuffed Mother Snake’s remains toward Piao’s mouth.
His smile remained unchanged, but as his arm extended, the tiny wriggling beneath his skin became even more pronounced.
After finishing this, the fat monk turned his head and looked at Jian Huaishuang nearby.
At this moment, Jian Huaishuang was heavily injured by the lightning shock and was barely supporting himself, his face full of wariness.
He could not sense the presence of the person before him; it was as if he were just an ordinary mortal.
But that was clearly impossible. Someone who could extinguish a heavenly tribulation with a wave of their hand must have a cultivation level far beyond his own.
The monk's gaze pierced through Jian Huaishuang’s paper armor, reaching the evil spirit power hidden within him.
That precisely curved smile now hinted at a touch of mockery. "White Jade, you're here too?"
These plain words were like a thunderclap striking deep into Jian Huaishuang’s sea of consciousness.
The White Jade entity within him, which had been dormant due to the Soul-Shaping Pill, suddenly flared up like a wildfire being ignited.
An eerie jade-colored light emerged uncontrollably from the depths of Jian Huaishuang’s eyes.
His body trembled slightly, and through the cracks in the paper armor, slimy strips of flesh seemed ready to burst forth.
He wanted to suppress it, to resist.
But suddenly, a whisper carrying vast divine power echoed in his ear.
'No need to resist. Let White Jade out.'
It was the voice of the god!
Jian Huaishuang could clearly feel that the whisper came from the Bone Seed in his sea of consciousness; he was not being bewitched by White Jade.
After understanding this, Jian Huaishuang instantly gave up his resistance.
He did not doubt any order from the Lord.
Soon, the jade light around him flared up, and the rigid face was replaced by the eerie smile belonging to White Jade.
"Smiling Face?" White Jade’s voice came with multiple echoes, as if several people were speaking at once, layered upon each other.
"Talk about a narrow path for enemies."
His laughter rose, filled with unabashed sarcasm:
"What, fallen this low? Five hundred years have passed, and you can't even cultivate a Copper-Body Arhat?"
White Jade’s smile became increasingly arrogant, evil energy radiating from him, his eyes full of haughty disdain.
The monk stood quietly without rebutting, his eyes still curved like crescent moons with no pupils visible.
White Jade sneered, "Then I should thank you for helping me suppress this vessel. Now, shouldn't we old friends have a proper catch-up?"
The fat monk remained still, his voice gentle as before, yet every word was like a needle.
"You little ghost, you just stole a bit of lamp oil and think you truly master Great Vehicle Buddhism?"
He paused for a moment, his smile deepening. "You reincarnated and recultivated just to find yourself a husk like this?"
The fat monk shook his head dismissively. Murderous intent exploded in White Jade’s eyes as countless meat tendrils burst from his body, whistling as they lunged toward the monk’s skull.
"Are you jealous that I succeeded?" White Jade mocked while attacking. "I’m not a failure like you, letting a five-hundred-year plot go wrong."
The fat monk was not angered. He simply shook his head, a nearly imperceptible sigh within that smile.
"An unpolished evil spirit. You have the form, but no spirit."
Then, his eternal smiling face split open from the center like a lotus flower. Inside was not flesh and blood, but a cluster of countless tiny human faces, all maintaining that same extreme smile.
The moment the human faces met the meat tendrils, White Jade’s smile suddenly froze.
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