Journey to the West: Please Call Me the White Bone Demon

Just as the white light of the gourd in Lu Ya's hand surged to its peak, emitting a roar like a dragon's cry, the other four figures moved almost simultaneously.

Guanyin was the first to act.

She raised her hand and tilted the clean bottle. The remaining half cup of spiritual water in the bottle turned into a rain shower that poured down. As the raindrops fell, they condensed into tiny water needles, each of which was wrapped with a faint golden light.

Those were the traces left by her squeezing out all the remaining essence of Buddhism and attaching it to the magic.

The water needles shot out towards Zhunti in a dense, overwhelming manner, like a torrential downpour, completely sealing off every part of Zhunti's body.

Manjushri and Samantabhadra stood on either side of him. Manjushri raised his hand and drew a huge white light array in the void. As the array was activated, it generated an extremely heavy binding force, as if it would solidify the void around Cundi into amber.

Samantabhadra then reconstituted the golden Dharma image, its arms covered with cracks yet still clenched into fists. He threw a punch directly at Cundi, the force of the punch causing ripples to spread through the void.

The Buddha clasped his hands together and then suddenly opened them, releasing two giant golden palms. Instead of attacking Zhunti, they transformed into a golden canopy that covered the sky above Yingdu City, creating a thin barrier over the already shattered city-protecting formation.

He no longer expected to harm Zhunti; he only wanted to protect the city beneath his feet and give Yun Zhao a little more breathing room.

As several attacks approached Zhunti from different directions simultaneously, Lu Ya's Immortal-Slaying Flying Knife also moved.

A beam of white light leaped out from the gourd's mouth, transforming into a thin, almost invisible white line that flew towards Zhunti's brow.

The white line was three times faster than when it shattered the Buddha's palm, and it even cut a straight crack in the remaining golden Buddha light in the sky.

Zhunti stood at the center of the five attacks, his blue robes motionless, and a hint of weariness even appeared on his face.

He raised his right hand and casually waved it. A golden ripple surged from his sleeve as his robe billowed. The ripple spread outwards, and seven or eight out of ten of Guanyin's water needles were deflected the moment they touched the ripples. The few remaining needles that pierced his protective holy light rang out with a crisp sound and shattered into powder.

Manjushri's binding array silently disintegrated as the ripples passed by, and the white light scattered into countless fragments.

The fist of the Samantabhadra statue slammed into the ripples, like a punch into molten iron. The entire arm melted inch by inch from the knuckles. The statue staggered back a few steps, and several more cracks appeared.

Only Lu Ya's white line of the Immortal-Slaying Flying Knife broke through the ripples and was blocked by an invisible force three inches in front of Zhunti's brow.

The white line, suspended outside the protective aura of the saint's body, desperately tried to drill forward, emitting a faint hissing sound, but could no longer advance even an inch.

Zhunti glanced down at the white line, then flicked it lightly with two fingers. The white line made a buzzing sound and bounced back into the gourd's mouth. Lu Ya was jolted and took three steps back, the veins on the back of his hand holding the gourd bulging.

"I know what you're thinking. You want to drag it out until the Fallen Saint Pill takes effect, is that right?"

Zhunti said to himself, "Unfortunately, the effects of the Fallen Saint Pill take three hours to take effect."

Zhunti withdrew his hands and placed them behind his back. His gaze swept over the six people in front of him one by one, and his tone was calm and condescending as he stated, "You can hold out for three hours? Three hours is enough time for me to kill you dozens of times over."

Of the group, only Tathagata had not suffered much damage in the previous clash. Standing behind the golden barrier above Yingdu City, he said in a low voice, "Three hours is the time limit for the full effect of the Fallen Saint Pill, but the effect of the Fallen Saint Pill is gradual. From the moment a saint steps into the Three Realms, his realm is loosening every moment."

"He's at full strength now, but in an hour he'll only have 80%, and in two hours he'll only have 60%. We don't need to hold out for the full three hours; we just need to hold out until his level drops to a point where we can contend with him."

Guanyin's eyes lit up for a moment upon hearing this, Manjushri nodded, Samantabhadra wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and Lu Ya raised the gourd again. Everyone grasped at that tiny bit of hope in the words of the Buddha.

But Zhunti obviously heard it too.

He tilted his head slightly, a faint smile playing on his lips: "Alright, let's see if you can hold out until then."

As he finished speaking, his right hand slowly slipped into his sleeve.

Immediately, a magical artifact appeared in Zhunti's hand.

It was an object over a foot long, its entire body shimmering with seven-colored light. The staff was forged from seven different kinds of rare and precious materials, and the top was divided into seven prongs, each adorned with the seven colors of gold, silver, lapis lazuli, amber, giant clam shell, agate, and coral.

The Seven Treasures Tree.

As soon as this object appeared, the already suffocating aura around Zhunti suddenly solidified several times over. Seven-colored light spread out behind him, like a huge seven-colored wheel slowly rotating, with each ray of light carrying the Daoist charm and killing intent of a sage.

He held the Seven Treasures Tree and gently swept it forward. The seven-colored light surged over the sky, neither fierce nor domineering, but carrying an inescapable sense of inevitability, as if everything in the world could only be swept away, dissolved, or erased in front of it.

Lu Ya was the first to feel that power.

The white lines of the Immortal-Slaying Flying Knife trembled suddenly before the seven-colored light, and the gourd throbbed violently in his palm, as if even the treasure itself was afraid.

He gritted his teeth and used his magic to stabilize the white line, but as soon as the white line touched the edge of the seven-colored light, it emitted a piercing hiss as if it had been clamped by red-hot iron pliers.

Just as the seven-colored light was about to crush the group's defenses and sweep towards Yingdu City, a voice rang out once again in the void.

"And what about adding me?"

As the voice faded, a gray-white figure flashed out from the void in the southwest corner of Yingdu City.

The man was tall and slender with a thin face. He had a neatly trimmed short beard and wore a faded gray Taoist robe. An old golden fish drum hung at his waist.

"Shen Gongbao?"

Guanyin looked in the direction of the sound, her tone clearly showing surprise.

Manjushri and Samantabhadra exchanged a glance, both showing a hint of astonishment on their faces.

Shen Gongbao was infamous during the Investiture of the Gods. His words, "Fellow Daoist, please stay," led to the downfall of countless disciples of the Chan and Jie sects. Later, he was thrown by Yuanshi Tianzun to fill the eye of the North Sea, and after that, few people in the Three Realms ever saw him.

How did he end up here? And when did he become acquainted with Yun Zhao?

Tathagata was not too surprised, and glanced between Shen Gongbao and Yun Zhao before looking away.

Shen Gongbao paid no attention to the surprised looks from the crowd. He took a few steps to Lu Ya's side, threw the array plate into the air, and the array plate slowly rotated in mid-air. Countless runes spread out as light threads, weaving a dense net that covered the void within ten miles around Zhunti.

Each thread of that net carried a strange, sticky force, as if it had turned the space itself into a thick, viscous amber. Any spell or supernatural power that traveled through it would have its sharpness stripped away.

When Zhunti's swipe was blocked by the array net, about 20% of the seven-colored light lost its power as it passed through the array net, and only 80% of it reached the six people.

Taking advantage of this brief respite, Lu Ya's Immortal-Slaying Flying Knife regained its footing, Guanyin's Water Needle rose again, Manjushri's Talisman Array was re-formed, Samantabhadra's Dharma Image roared and threw a punch, and Tathagata's palms unleashed golden light. The five of them worked together to catch eighty percent of the seven-colored radiance.

After Zhunti's brush was caught by several people, he paused slightly in his hand holding the Seven Treasures Tree, and for the first time, his gaze fell solemnly on Shen Gongbao.

A hint of surprise flashed across his face, but it was quickly replaced by an even colder chill: "You're only at the mid-stage of Quasi-Saint, yet your array has managed to reduce my attack by 20%. I underestimated you."

Shen Gongbao cupped his hands in greeting and said with a smile, "You flatter me, Your Majesty. This formation of mine was specially honed to delay powerful opponents. It may not be good at other things, but it is passable when it comes to escaping and trapping enemies."

"The Sage's Seven Treasures Tree is unparalleled in its wonder. I dare not hope that it can withstand your attacks for a few rounds, but if I can hold out for a while, I should still be able to give it a try."

Zhunti glanced at him, then looked at Yun Zhao behind her.

The young man in the gray robe was sitting in mid-air with his eyes closed, surrounded by surging blue light, as if he was brewing some extremely huge change.

Zhunti's brows finally furrowed slightly. Although he couldn't see through what Yun Zhao was doing, his saintly instincts told him that he absolutely could not let this person finish what he was doing.

"Dragging out time?"

Zhunti said coldly, "Then let's see how long you can hold out."

He raised the Seven Treasures Tree in his hand once more, this time heavier and more solid than before. The seven-colored light converged into a beam of light as thick as a child's arm, within which countless tiny Sanskrit characters spun, each character carrying the pressure of shattering stars.

He stopped attacking one move at a time and instead gripped the precious tree and swung it forward with a mighty motion. The entire beam of light lashed out like a seven-colored whip towards the six people.

As the whip passed, Shen Gongbao's array net emitted a dense cracking sound, and the runes broke off one after another.

Shen Gongbao's face paled for a moment, and his hands, which were forming hand seals, began to tremble. But he gritted his teeth and activated the array plate again, and new rune threads surged from the center of the array plate to fill the broken gaps.

Lu Ya's Immortal-Slaying Flying Knife met the tip of the beam of light. The moment the white line and the seven-colored light intersected, a dazzling burst of fire erupted. He was shaken and slid back dozens of feet, his feet carving two charred tracks in the void. But he did not retreat and give way to the defensive line.

The four powers of Guanyin, Manjushri, Samantabhadra, and Tathagata simultaneously wedged into the beam of light from the side, using all their cultivation to tear, deflect, and weaken the sharpness of the seven-colored holy light.

Five people and a formation barely managed to block the beam of light high above the city of Yingdu.

The beam of light advanced inch by inch through six layers of obstacles, losing a fraction of its power with each inch it advanced, yet its speed of advancement far exceeded the rate at which the obstacles diminished.

It is approaching little by little, like a giant python trying to break free of its chains.

Zhunti looked down at the scene below, holding the Seven Treasures Tree firmly in his hand. His face was expressionless, with only a hint of coldness hanging steadily at the corner of his mouth.

He could see it clearly.

Each time these people block and refresh, they consume a large amount of mana, and their mana is already running low.