Chapter 112 — The Heavenly Fox

The flame beast raised its head and gazed at Little Grey, who was enveloped in golden light in midair. After a long moment, it suddenly let out a roar, and in an instant the temperature within the great hall surged, as though it had become a sea of fire.

Amid the thunder of its roars, its attention clearly shifted from Ming Li to Little Grey. Its four limbs slammed against the ground, and it leaped violently, charging straight at Little Grey. Flames blazed all over its body, and even the mysterious flame totem halo rotating ceaselessly behind it seemed to catch fire, shining with incomparable brilliance.

Beneath the crushing might of that sky-blotting firelight, the golden radiance around Little Grey was pressed down in an instant. The flames surged madly forward, and Little Grey seemed about to be swallowed whole.

At that desperate, critical moment, a figure appeared before Little Grey—Ming Li. He rose into the air and hovered in front of Little Grey. Under the urging of his true arts, the black Soul-Devouring Demon Staff blazed bright from end to end, shedding rays of deep green luster laced with faint threads of blood.

In moments the beast's enormous head had reached Ming Li. Facing such a savage and ferocious monster, Ming Li could see with perfect clarity the sharp fangs within that cavernous, blood-red maw.

Deeply, now—breathe!

Amid the swirling sparks that filled the sky, a single Buddhist mantra-character suddenly appeared three feet before Ming Li, blazing with golden light. A moment later a flicker of azure passed across his face, and just before the beast's giant claw struck the mantra, the golden light upon it also took on a faint blue-green hue.

Since the founding of the Canglan Sect and the Brahma Sound Temple, the two great true arts—the "Great Brahma Prajna" and the "Supreme Ultimate Mystic Purity Way"—had been unleashed at the same time for the first time.

Fire filled the heavens, like mountains, like oceans!

The beast howled and roared, and brought down a single palm. The colossal force of flame struck the mantra head-on, and in that instant an incomparable radiance burst forth from the point of collision. The mountain-like fire was hurled back in an instant, and the massive beast was flung back bodily; the entire hall shuddered without cease under the invisible shock.

The flame beast landed back on the ground, seemingly startled as well. It jerked its head up, and its great flame-burning eyes fixed upon the figure ahead.

The golden light of the mantra gradually dimmed, then scattered, slowly vanishing into the air. Ming Li's body came down, and the moment his feet touched the ground he stumbled, his face draining white.

Soul-Devourer drifted slowly down and hovered before its master, still shedding a faint dark-blue glow amid the firelight across from them.

The corner of Ming Li's mouth twitched slightly; he forced it still, but a moment later it twitched again, and at last his shoulders jerked and he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood with a retching cry. The crimson blood seemed to dissolve into red mist, scattering before him.

Like that bitter, sorrowful rain of many years ago!

Drop by drop, bead by bead, the blood wrapped around the black staff. The former "Dark Iron Rod" quietly devoured every drop, drawing it soundlessly into its shaft without leaving the slightest trace.

Upon the Blood-Devouring Bead, the red glow slowly brightened.

A chill ran through Ming Li's whole body.

The savagery he had been holding back all this time could no longer be contained. Ming Li threw back his head and howled, his eyes blood-red. In an instant ten thousand thoughts flashed through his mind, and endless blood and bones came surging at him like a nightmare, coiling around him. His trembling hands slowly clenched tight, as though he could no longer endure the blood that seethed boiling through his veins!

Across from him, upon the flame totem behind the beast, the eight fierce deities also glimmered faintly, as if answering the bloody, murderous aura that rose from him.

At this moment Ming Li seemed to have become a cruel and savage beast himself, locked in confrontation with the flame beast before him. The great hall was scorching hot, and even the air seemed to burn.

"Roar!"

Suddenly the flame beast gave a low growl, and for the first time it seemed to feel a trace of unease.

Little Grey descended from the air and landed before Ming Li.

The eye upon its forehead glittered with golden light, and from countless places across Little Grey's body came the simultaneous crack-crack-crack-crack of joints shivering and snapping violently. Then, beneath the gaze of both Ming Li and the flame beast, Little Grey began to transform.

Upon its originally slight frame, countless thick, sturdy muscles suddenly bulged. Amid the cracking of its joints, Little Grey's body slowly grew larger. In a span of time the human eye could follow with perfect clarity, a monkey that had stood less than half a man's height swiftly swelled amid rapidly multiplying muscle and bone, and in the blink of an eye had actually surpassed Ming Li in size.

Muscle by muscle, mass bulged across Little Grey's arms, chest, and belly; its head grew larger, and long, sharp fangs even appeared in its mouth, stark white and coldly gleaming, jutting out beyond its huge jaws. The palms once meant for plucking fruit now grew keen, sharp claws.

At last, when this monkey, transformed into something utterly terrifying, had become a savage beast nearly as tall as the flame beast itself, it slowly opened its eyes—the two eyes beneath that third one.

A crimson, blood-devouring gaze, shot through with golden light, blazed forth.

The vast altar hall, which had been spacious enough, now suddenly held two such gigantic monsters, and at once became cramped beyond bearing. Little Grey's eyes were full of murderous light as it glared at the flame beast opposite, roaring without cease.

The flame beast slowly turned its huge head. In its eyes there was nothing to be seen but flame, no expression or emotion whatsoever. Yet it was plain that, facing this enormous ferocious ape that had transformed so abruptly, it too felt some measure of wariness.

Suddenly Little Grey roared, and the third eye upon its brow blazed with golden light; a beam of golden radiance shot out, and the flame beast, with a low growl, dodged aside.

The golden light struck the ground with a thunderous boom, blasting a great crater in the hard crimson rock.

Before the flame beast could react, Ming Li, who had been standing behind Little Grey all along, had already leapt into the air. In an instant a strange radiance cloaked his whole body, and the Soul-Devouring Demon Staff before him shot toward the flame beast with a whoosh.

Almost at the same instant, Little Grey pounced at the flame beast as well.

The flames in the beast's eyes turned blazing hot in an instant...

Suddenly, just as Ming Li, his heart flooded with slaughter and bloodlust, was throwing all his strength into attacking the beast opposite, the Mystic Fire Mirror on his right arm seemed to wake with a start, bursting forth with a pure yang force of incomparable intensity, far surpassing anything it had ever produced before, and charged at the savage aura of the Blood-Devouring Bead that filled the meridians of Ming Li's body.

Ming Li's body convulsed, and his face went almost instantly deathly pale. His body, leaping in midair, felt as though it had been struck by a colossal force; it seemed to him that in a single instant a thousand sharp blades were stabbing into the flesh and blood of his body all at once. That pure yang force within him, as though provoked by the cold, savage aura of the Blood-Devouring Bead, incredibly turned in an instant into a searing, scorching flame that filled every meridian in his body, warring ceaselessly with the icy aura of the Blood-Devouring Bead.