"Benefactor, this old monk is the first seat of the Arhat Hall of Leiyin Temple. Please retract your spell, and we can discuss this properly."
Monk Guangji found himself engulfed in black flames, suspended in mid-air. After uttering a few curses, he dared not continue and quickly softened his stance.
"Very well, what do you wish to discuss? Speak."
Yang Hong turned around, stopping thirty feet away from Monk Guangji, and watched the black torch with folded arms and a smile.
"Please extinguish these flames, fellow Daoist, so we may converse."
Monk Guangji gritted his teeth and trembled as he finished speaking. Suddenly, he lunged towards Yang Hong in mid-air, attempting to grab him.
However, Yang Hong, who was prepared, simply shifted his flying sword underfoot, narrowly avoiding Monk Guangji's "loving embrace."
"Alas, it seems there is nothing to discuss. Farewell, monk."
*Snap*
Yang Hong extended his right hand and snapped his fingers in the air. A streak of blood-red flame appeared around the black flames engulfing Guangji.
"Ah! Red Lotus Karmic Fire!
This is the Red Lotus Karmic Fire! Who are you? How can you wield the Red Lotus Karmic Fire?"
"Heh heh ~ You guessed it?"
Yang Hong controlled the Red Lotus Karmic Fire, pulling Guangji towards the ground, but still keeping him three feet above it, trying not to scorch anything on the ground.
"Are you a Golden Immortal descended?
No, you must be a Grand Unity Golden Immortal descended! Otherwise, even a Golden Immortal would be incinerated by the Red Lotus Karmic Fire!"
"Oh ~ You guessed right!
But there's no prize."
Yang Hong continued to spout nonsense, while his spiritual power continuously surged into the Red Lotus Karmic Fire. The black flames weakened, replaced by blood-red ones.
By then, Guangji's karma and spiritual power were consumed, and the Red Lotus Karmic Fire began to burn his life force.
"Immortal Venerable, please retract your divine abilities. This humble monk wishes to abandon the darkness and embrace the light, to serve at the feet of the Immortal Venerable as an ox or horse, subject to your command."
Guangji knelt in the air, kowtowing to Yang Hong and begging for mercy, all traces of his former arrogance and haughtiness gone.
"Hmph ~ You are not worthy. Return to reincarnation."
As Yang Hong spoke, he dropped his playful demeanor. His form shifted, and an image of Bodhisattva Puji appeared before Guangji.
"You are~ You are a Bodhisattva of Buddhism!
Why? Why? Why!"
Amidst a burst of impotent rage, Guangji's body turned to ash, and his Nascent Soul was also burned into specks of white light that dissipated in the air.
As Guangji turned to dust, his magical artifacts and storage equipment remained undamaged. Even his white monk's robe was intact.
A pile of equipment, no longer supported by its owner, scattered on the ground. Yang Hong waved his hand and collected them.
During this time, a faint golden light rapidly submerged into the ground. Yang Hong clearly saw it but pretended not to, maintaining the appearance of Bodhisattva Puji as he flew back to the place where the Buddhist cultivators had set up their array to trap people.
It must be stated that Bodhisattva Puji was female. Yang Hong, dressed in a man's Daoist robe, was now a woman, identical in every detail to the Bodhisattva Puji of the past.
Yang Hong had only initially unleashed the Red Lotus Karmic Fire. Its primary ability was to burn the enemy's karma and spiritual power. The more karmic demerits a cultivator possessed, the more spiritual power would be burned.
If the spiritual power was depleted before the karma was consumed, it would begin to burn the life force.
During the burning process, as long as Yang Hong infused the Red Lotus Karmic Fire with spiritual power, the burning speed could be further accelerated.
However, there was one thing he knew very clearly: although the Red Lotus Karmic Fire was extremely ferocious, it also possessed great compassion and would not burn the soul of a cultivator!
It was truly magical how the flames, born from the soul, ultimately did not destroy it. It was a contradictory and wondrous phenomenon.
That faint golden light that submerged into the ground was the origin of Guangji's soul.
With the ability of a ninth-tier Buddhist cultivator, it was only a matter of time before he returned to Leiyin Temple.
Therefore, sowing a few seeds of internal strife within Buddhism seemed like a good idea.
Arriving outside the previous formation, there were no longer any traces of the array or people. Those Buddhist cultivators had once again used their means to conceal the formation.
"Interesting, but this works perfectly for me."
Yang Hong smiled and approached the formation. He released his powerful divine sense, quickly locating the invisible array. While observing the battle within the array with his divine sense, he began to study how to infiltrate the formation space without damaging it.
Inside the formation, the battle had already reached its climax.
Five female cultivators, dressed in blue robes, were bombarding the golden array that trapped them with various ice spells.
Outside the golden array, nine monks sat cross-legged in four directions, continuously chanting Buddhist names. Boundless golden light was being poured into the golden formation.
As the monks infused their spiritual power, the golden formation continued to shrink, now less than two feet wide. The five female cultivators could only defend back-to-back, constantly casting spells.
"Indeed, they are cultivators from Beiheng Prefecture. They appear to be from one of the Ten Great Immortal Sects, the [Glazed Moon Palace]."
Observing the combatants, Yang Hong quickly identified the affiliation of the female cultivators.
"The Buddhist sect is becoming increasingly brazen! Although the Glazed Moon Palace consists entirely of female cultivators and maintains a low profile, their strength is immense. Furthermore, they have good relationships with other sects among the Ten Great Immortal Sects through the marriage of their female disciples."
"Right~ these bald donkeys are trying to capture dual cultivation cauldrons!"
Yang Hong's expression turned peculiar as he thought of something. The [Glazed Moon Palace] was also a sect skilled in dual cultivation, and it was a type that benefited both parties, renowned throughout the Taiyuan Continent.
These bald donkeys were probably planning to use the "Immovable Blissful Buddha" technique to absorb the essence of these five female cultivators, which was why they hadn't resorted to killing them.
"Alas~ what a shame for these beautiful women whose martial arts are as exquisite as flowers and jade. Let me be the one to free you."
Outside the formation, Yang Hong found several weak points in the array. With a thought from his divine sense, a few tiny blood-red flames first passed through the concealment formation, then penetrated the golden trapping array, and silently landed on the five blue-robed female cultivators.
"Ah~ Ah~ Masters, we surrender~ surrender! We surrender!"
"Please, Masters, retract your divine abilities, we surrender."
"Masters, we are willing to become your Dao companions!"
Black flames ignited on the five female cultivators. The fire, burning from their souls, caused them such pain that they immediately declared their surrender!
"Hahaha~ Do you know the might of this Buddha now? Swear the Heavenly Dao oath, and we will release you."
The Buddhist cultivators were somewhat surprised by the black flames, but upon hearing the female cultivators' submission, they became overjoyed.
"I swear... I swear..."
The five female cultivators hastily swore their oaths to escape the torment of their souls burning.
However, halfway through their oaths, the black flames appeared on the nine Buddhist cultivators as well!
"Ah~ demonic women, what sorcery did you use to infect me with this fire!"
"Kill them, kill them quickly!"
The nine Buddhist cultivators had no idea where the fire came from and quickly tried to kill them, fully activating the array in an attempt to incinerate the female cultivators and stop the burning of the black flames.
However, even after reducing the five female cultivators to pulp, they could not extinguish the black flames on themselves. Instead, blood-red flames began to burn.
Yang Hong, outside the formation, watched as fourteen golden lights transformed into rainbows and vanished. Only then did he dispel his invisibility and cautiously enter to collect the storage rings and make some arrangements.
Then, using a遁术 (escape technique), he returned to a hundred miles east of Chaoyang City and, along with Ran Boreen and the other who had been waiting, took a teleportation array to officially depart from Chaoyang Immortal City.
Shortly after Yang Hong returned to Qingfeng Mountain, he heard news that the [Glazed Moon Palace] had declared war on Leiyin Temple.