Journey to the West: Starting with the True Lord of the Pure Land

The fire went out, and the temple was plunged into darkness in an instant.

The Wang family members couldn't even scream; they just stood frozen in boundless fear.

"Whoa!"

In the darkness, the heart-wrenching cries of an infant rose from very close by, as if surging from all directions.

It surged simultaneously from above, from below, from every corner, sharp and painful, crashing into the ears of everyone in the temple.

Old carpenter Wang's eyes widened in horror as he gripped the axe handle tightly. His son, Wang Shuan, let out a short, sharp cry before being choked by overwhelming fear.

"boom!"

Sawdust mixed with the billowing, cold wind caused the thick wooden beam supporting the door to snap.

The temple gate, already teetering on the brink of collapse due to the bloody handprints and eerie winds, shattered completely at this moment!

Outside the door, the pale moonlight coldly streamed in.

Under the moonlight, a slender woman in a long, flowing robe stood smiling outside the threshold, blocking the only exit.

A charming smile played on her lips, her eyes sparkling as she stood gracefully, exuding a captivating beauty.

However, at the hem of the robe, thick black energy surged and rolled like a snake.

Within the black mist, one could vaguely see small, indistinct faces contorted in pain, appearing and disappearing intermittently, emitting silent wails that sent chills down one's spine.

The moonlight outlined her profile; her skin was so pale it was almost transparent, gleaming with a cold, porcelain-like luster.

However, upon closer inspection, one can see that beneath that snow-white and delicate skin, there are faint, eerie patterns of blue and black slowly flowing.

It's like countless tiny poisonous insects lurking beneath the skin, ruining the beauty and exuding an indescribable eeriness.

It was the infant-eating demon mother.

"Ouch~"

She parted her lips slightly, her voice still sweet and soft, with a hint of teasing.

His gaze swept over the terrified family of five inside the temple, finally settling on the slightly trembling axe in Old Wang's carpenter's hand, and his smile deepened.

"I kindly invited you, but you insisted on being cowards."

Do you really think... hiding in this dilapidated little temple, enshrining some unknown clay statue of some scoundrel, will do you any good?

Although she spoke lightly, the intense, eerie aura emanating from her body couldn't be stopped from escaping uncontrollably.

His eyes gleamed with an inhuman, chilling light under the moonlight, a ruthless glint flashing within them.

Old carpenter Wang's body was stiff, and his hand holding the short axe trembled slightly.

The woman standing gracefully in the moonlight before me was not as terrifying as the thousand-year-old green serpent that had stirred up a mountain roar and a tsunami during the night rain at Laoya Ridge thirty years ago.

But at this moment, the female ghost was right next to him.

This is the difference between a venomous snake coiled around your neck and a landslide in front of you; both can be fatal.

He knew that begging and pleading would be of no use against such a monstrous creature that fed on infants and had no humanity.

The old heart in his chest was pounding wildly, almost shattering his ribs.

A fierce energy suddenly burst forth from the old carpenter's withered body.

Instead of retreating, he took a step forward and used his hunched body to shield his family even more firmly behind him.

He gripped the short-handled axe he used for carpentry tightly in his hand, holding it horizontally in front of his chest, the veins on the rough back of his hand bulging.

Old carpenter Wang raised his head, his old eyes widened, and he shouted sternly:

"Monster! Look carefully!"

This is the temple where the Heavenly Lord of Thunder resides!

The Heavenly Lord once slew a thousand-year-old demon snake, possessing great supernatural powers, and vanquished evil and demons!

This is no place for a lowly wandering ghost like you to act recklessly or provoke!

Retreat immediately, lest you offend the gods and cause your soul to be scattered and never to be reincarnated!

He roared until his voice was hoarse, as if he wanted to pour all his strength and faith into those few words.

On the offering table, the rough clay and wooden statue sat silently, its face indistinct, bathed in the pale moonlight streaming in from outside and the thick, impenetrable darkness inside the temple.

"The Heavenly Lord? Suppressing... the Thousand-Year-Old Green Serpent?"

Upon hearing this, the baby-eating demon mother was slightly taken aback, and then covered her mouth and giggled.

The sound carried far into the empty night, carrying an indescribable blend of allure and mockery.

She swayed her wide sleeves lightly, and black mist swirled around the cuffs, causing the faces of the infants to contort and emit even sharper hissing sounds.

"Old man, have you lost your mind and are making up stories to scare me?"

Her eyes swept over the clay statue, her smile growing even wider, which only made the dark blue lines on her face appear more eerie.

"A mere clay and wooden puppet, with no one to worship it and little incense offering, is it worthy of being called the Heavenly Ruler?"

"Suppress and kill a thousand-year-old demon king? Ha..."

"I thought it was some poor, remote place that had put up a random statue of a woodcutter to scare people."

The laughter gradually subsided.

The charming smile on the face of the baby-eating demon mother gradually faded, replaced by an unfathomable coldness and mockery.

"Don't even mention this clay statue you shoveled from some random temple; even if it really were the Heavenly Lord himself, as you claim..."

She floated forward slightly.

With just this one step, the temperature inside the temple plummeted, and the sweet, rotten smell in the air became even stronger.

"Today, I am determined to have this fresh and tender little darling."

Her voice was soft, but her gaze was sharp and fixed on the crying baby in Wang Shuan's wife's arms.

"However~"

The mother demon's tone suddenly changed, her face transformed, and she put on a charming smile again, her gaze falling on the clay and wooden statue, her tone light and cheerful.

"What you say, sir, seems to make some sense. If this really is the Heavenly Lord's territory, it would be disrespectful for me to take action directly."

so……"

She slightly raised her hand, her five fingers naturally extended, and gently waved it towards the clay statue.

"Ugh!"

A foul-smelling, eerie wind, several times more intense than before, surged forth from her sleeves without warning.

With a piercing shriek, it hurtled straight at the clay statue on the altar!

Wherever it went, the remaining incense ash on the offering table and the old incense burner were all swept up and crushed!

It was clear that they intended to reduce the last reliance and hope of the Wang family members in this temple to dust in one fell swoop!

"You dare, you monster!"

At the critical moment, an old and angry shout suddenly rang out in the corner of the temple!

Suddenly, from the previously empty shadows in the corner, the figure of a short, hunched old man with a white beard, leaning on a jujube wood cane, appeared out of thin air!

It was the local earth god of Laoya'ao who brought the unconscious carpenter Wang back to Laoya'ao back then!

"An old immortal?!"

Old carpenter Wang exclaimed in surprise, his eyes bursting with indescribable joy and hope.

He would never forget the image of that white-bearded old man with a cane until his death!

The Earth God's face turned bright red, and he had no time to respond, his eyes filled with shock and anger.

He had personally witnessed the divine might of that Heavenly Lord, who suppressed and killed a thousand-year-old demon!

Even if it's just a crude clay statue, even if the Heavenly Emperor has no idea about this remote little temple, he absolutely cannot sit idly by and watch it be destroyed by this ghost right under his nose!

The Earth God slammed his jujube wood cane hard on the ground, unleashing the earth's spiritual energy.

It transformed into a ray of light, narrowly blocking the raging wind and the clay statue!

"boom!"

The Earth God coughed up a small mouthful of pale golden blood, staggered backward, and crashed into the wall.

With a crack, the jujube wood cane in his hand split open with several fissures.

However, thanks to his desperate attempt to stop it, the fierce and sinister wind was ultimately weakened by more than half.

The remaining wind swept across the offering table, causing the clay statue to shake and tremble violently.

The already peeling paint on the tabletop was falling off, and the base had even shifted by half an inch, almost tipping over.

But it did not fall or shatter.

The Earth God wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve, leaned on his nearly broken cane, and glared angrily at the smiling ghost mother at the door, his voice hoarse:

"You audacious ghost!"

This is the place where the Heavenly Lord Yilie is worshipped! In the past, the Heavenly Lord suppressed the Green Serpent and protected this region, his merits are immeasurable!

"You are nothing but a vile creature that steals the spirits of infants to survive, yet you dare to run wild here and damage the image of the Heavenly Lord? Leave at once!"

The local earth god shouted sternly, but inwardly he was filled with bitterness.

He was merely a local landowner in this Old Crow Ridge area, barely at the Foundation Establishment stage. How could he possibly be a match for the Infant-Eating Ghost Mother, who had clearly reached the Nascent Soul stage?

The baby-eating demon mother's coquettish smile finally turned completely cold.

She tilted her head slightly, and with an indifferent gaze as if she were looking at an ant oblivious to its fate, she swept over the Earth God and then over the rickety clay statue.

Her red lips parted slightly, her voice devoid of any warmth, filled only with icy killing intent:

"I wondered where these wild, hairy demons came from, daring to ruin my good deed, Your Majesty."

Turns out he's just an old coffin-headed fool who doesn't know his own limitations!

As soon as the words "old coffin ladle" were uttered, the beautiful and delicate face of the Ghost Mother visibly distorted for a moment under the moonlight.

Beneath her snow-white skin, dark blue lines suddenly began to move, as if countless tiny living creatures were darting about beneath her skin.

The corners of the eyes and mouth are stretched to the sides at an abnormal angle, and the facial features are slightly misaligned.

In an instant, she transformed from a beautiful woman into a hideous demon, full of resentment and malice!

Although she quickly regained her charming appearance, the fleeting terror had been deeply imprinted in the eyes of every living person present.

She didn't even bother to cast any more spells; a hand with long, black fingernails suddenly opened its five fingers.

A foul-smelling, eerie wind swept straight toward the head of the Earth God!

Judging from their posture, they were going to tear the local earth god to pieces!

The Earth God was so terrified he was scared out of his wits!

He never expected that this ghost would be so vicious and violent, daring to lay such a cruel hand on him, a righteous god who had been granted an imperial decree and enjoyed the worship of the local deity!

Click to begin your wondrous journey in "Journey to the West: Starting with the True Lord Jingfa".

"you!"

The Earth God let out a short cry of alarm as he saw the ghostly claws already at his face.

Resist? He had already reached his limit by blocking the attack of the Yin Wind. Now, facing this angry grab, his meager Foundation Establishment cultivation was utterly hopeless!

Life or death hangs in the balance.

Years of caution and self-preservation instincts overcame everything.

What are the guardians of the Heavenly Emperor's image, what are the duties they bear? All of these become pale and powerless in the face of the great terror of souls being scattered and true spirits being annihilated.

"Heavenly Lord, please forgive us!"

With a soft "poof," the short, illusory figure transformed into a wisp of green smoke and disappeared into the ground without hesitation, vanishing without a trace in an instant.

"The old immortal..."

"The old immortal..."

Inside the temple, the Wang family members, whose hopes had been rekindled by the sudden appearance of the Earth God, instantly lost all color in their faces.

It was like being doused from head to toe with a basin of snow water mixed with ice.

Old carpenter Wang opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word; only a bone-chilling coldness crept up his spine and spread throughout his body.

Even the old sage... ran away?

The Ghost Mother's grab missed, and her five fingers closed in mid-air with a soft hissing sound, as if she had crushed something invisible.

She slowly withdrew her hand, the ferocity on her face fading slightly, and she returned to her cold and beautiful appearance, only the mockery and violence in her eyes were even stronger.

She glanced at the ground where the Earth God had disappeared, her red lips parted slightly, and she uttered a few words:

"That old fool who doesn't know his own mortality, he's quick on his feet."

Immediately, the Ghost Mother slightly raised her wide sleeves, without making any apparent gesture.

The simple wooden memorial tablet on the altar landed steadily in her pale, slender palm with a whoosh.

The ghost mother lowered her eyes, carefully examining the words on the memorial tablet, which were dimmed by incense smoke but were still clearly legible.

The moonlight shone on her lowered profile and the wooden plaque in her hand, half bright and half dark.

"Yi...Lie...Tian...Jun..."

She read out the name on the memorial tablet slowly and deliberately, her voice soft but devoid of warmth, as if she were reciting some unfamiliar and ridiculous title.

Read it.

She raised her eyes and swept her gaze across the ashen-faced members of the Wang family with a half-smile.

Finally, the words landed on Old Carpenter Wang's face, which was filled with despair and resentment.

"A clay frame, an empty wooden name..."

The infant-eating demon mother lightly weighed the flimsy memorial tablet in her hand, her tone casual.

"You dare to...stop me?"

Before he could finish speaking...

Her pale fingertips, gripping the memorial tablet, suddenly unleashed a thick, ink-like aura that enveloped the simple wooden tablet layer by layer.

Without even glancing at it, he hurled the ancestral tablet, shrouded in yin energy, at the face of the deity on the altar like a stone!

The yin energy howled and shot directly at the statue of the god.

If this throw hits its mark, not only clay or wooden puppets, but even metal and stone would likely be eroded and shattered by the filthy ghostly power contained within.

Old carpenter Wang's eyes widened in horror, and he dared not look any longer.

However, the wooden plaque, which was carrying an ominous black aura and moving with fierce momentum, stopped abruptly in mid-air, only three feet away from the face of the statue.

It was as if it had crashed into an invisible yet indestructible barrier, and its momentum vanished instantly.

It floated quietly before the Wang family members, in front of the statue.

Even the dark, yin energy that swirled around it seemed to solidify, no longer surging, and unable to corrode the wooden plaque itself.

This sudden turn of events caused the Wang family members' stunned gazes to involuntarily focus on the suspended memorial tablet.

The next moment, something unexpected happened.

On the memorial tablet, the four characters "Yilie Tianjun" that had been burned by incense for a long time and were crudely engraved actually lit up one by one!

The light flowed and seemed to come alive!

Then the old writing vanished like smoke.

Under the wide-eyed gaze of the Wang family, six brand-new characters were gradually engraved on the gleaming wooden surface, their color deepening as they appeared.

The Supreme Lord of Heavenly Purification!

With each stroke, a subtle lightning pattern flashes and disappears, and a vast and solemn majesty permeates the air.

As soon as the six characters were formed, the suspended memorial tablet trembled slightly.

The dense yin energy on it instantly dissipated, and the plaque was completely renewed, with a subtle, warm, jade-like luster flowing through it.

Almost simultaneously.

Behind the memorial tablet, the statue of the deity, who had been sitting upright with a powerful posture, suddenly burst forth with intense white energy, like a rushing river, surging and converging.

As soon as the white qi appeared, the cold, sweet, and rotten smell that permeated the temple quickly receded like a tide!

"Boom!"

A deep and majestic rumble of thunder echoed faintly from the depths of the clay sculpture.

At first, it was like a slight tremor in the earth's veins, gradually turning into a faint rumbling that filled this small temple.

"Heaven... Heavenly Lord..."

Old carpenter Wang trembled violently, and the short axe in his hand clattered to the ground.

He stared intently at the statue of the god, which was shrouded in lightning, his wrinkled old face trembling violently.

In the light of the lightning, his cloudy eyes were first filled with unparalleled shock and bewilderment.

Immediately, it was as if the deepest memories of my soul were ignited by the blazing white lightning.

Large, turbid tears welled up without warning and rolled down his deeply lined cheeks.

He tried to shout, but his throat felt blocked, and he could only make hoarse gasping sounds.

The rest of the Wang family members stared in disbelief, equally stunned.

Under the gaze of the baby-eating demon mother, whose alluring face suddenly froze.

Before the clay statue, light and shadow rippled silently.

A tall and straight figure emerged from nothing, transforming from the void into reality.

He wore a dark cloak, the hem of which fluttered without wind, with faint, shimmering light flowing through it.

It was as if he had always been there, only now being seen by others.

The man in the black cloak raised his hand and grasped the wooden plaque that was suspended in the air, the writing of which had been altered.

As soon as he picked up the memorial tablet, its light suddenly dimmed, and the six large characters, radiant with divine light, lay obediently in his palm.

At the entrance, the usually arrogant and domineering Ghost Mother suddenly stiffened.

The lingering mockery and coquettishness on his face vanished, his pupils contracted sharply, and he stared intently at the figure in the black cloak who had appeared out of nowhere, as if facing an abyss or a natural enemy.

The man in the black cloak brushed his hand over the newly formed six characters on the memorial tablet and spoke softly:

"If one's heart is upright, even if one prays to a clay or wooden tablet, I will still hear of it."

He then slowly raised his eyes, his gaze falling on the ghost mother who stood frozen like a statue.

His gaze remained calm, yet a flicker of lightning seemed to flash within its deepest depths:

"He has committed many evil deeds, and now he hides in desolate mountains and wild tombs..."

"I will surely kill him!"

We must escape!

The moment the man in the black cloak appeared, this thought clung to the mind of the infant-eating demon mother like a persistent carbuncle.

Her intuition was screaming a warning in a frenzy.

Her innate fear of light and thunder, stemming from the ghostly nature, made her soul feel as if it were being torn apart by the invisible aura emanating from that calm figure.

Like snow meeting the sun, like darkness meeting light.

Noticing the gaze of the man in the black cloak sweeping over her, the last glimmer of hope in the Ghost Mother's heart was completely extinguished.

Without the slightest hesitation, and daring not to hold back in the slightest, she let out a sharp cry and pushed her hands forward with all her might!

In an instant, a cold wind howled and ghostly wails filled the air!

Countless menacing black shadows surged forth from the swirling black mist surrounding her robes.

Densely packed, obscuring the moonlight, emitting piercing shrieks, they rushed towards the figure in the black cloak inside the temple, vying to devour him!

All she wanted was a moment's delay!

As the ghostly figure lunged out...

The infant-eating demon mother's figure suddenly swayed, and with a soft bang, she exploded on the spot.

It transformed into eight plumes of black smoke of varying thickness, whistling through the lingering eerie wind and night outside the temple.

They fled desperately in all possible directions—north, south, east, west, up, down, left, and right!

Its speed far exceeded what the city god's ghostly soldiers who had previously pursued her had seen.

This is his trump card for survival; once used, it will severely deplete his vital energy, leaving him only a sliver of hope for survival.

however.

Inside the temple, Chen Jiao ignored the thousands of ferocious ghostly figures rushing towards him, figures powerful enough to tear the souls of ordinary cultivators apart.

He didn't even turn around to see the Ghost Mother's true form, which exploded and scattered in all directions in an instant.

Chen Jiao simply held the wooden plaque, turned around, and walked slowly back to the offering table.

He reached out his other hand, gently brushed away the incense ash from the table, and then carefully placed the wooden plaque bearing the inscription "Huangtian Jingfa Zhenjun" back in its original position.

Just as the wooden sign touched the table.

The thousands of ferocious ghostly figures that had pounced on him from behind, almost touching the hem of his black cloak, suddenly froze.

Immediately, without warning, it transformed into thousands of tiny, pure white specks of light, silently and without a trace.

It dissipated into the air of the temple, still slightly warm from the incense, leaving no trace, as if it had never existed.

Almost simultaneously.

"what!"

A sharp, short scream of a woman suddenly rang out from the night sky outside the temple!

The sound was shrill, instantly tearing through the night.

But then it abruptly stopped, as if it had been abruptly cut off by an invisible giant hand.

Followed by.

"boom!"

A bolt of lightning tore through the night sky to the southeast without warning, its light so intense that it illuminated the temple as bright as day for a moment, even through the temple walls!

The thunder did not stop after a single sound, but rolled on like a tide, booming incessantly, with the clanging of armor and the neighing of warhorses echoing within it.

Amidst the thunderous roar, two clear, steady male voices, carrying the unique chilling aura of the Thunder Department, pierced through the night and the thunder.

The sound was clearly transmitted to the temple and echoed in every corner of Shunping City.

"Under the command of the True Lord Huangtian Jingfa, Fei Peng/Yang Feng is here!"

"You monster, surrender now!"