Even while immersed in his cultivation, Su Nan was aware of everything happening around him.
The game had become a reality, and he naturally sensed the significant commotion.
His gaze pierced through the clouds, taking in everything below.
He could see that there were monsters lurking in the distant city, causing chaos throughout the entire city.
But the bigger crisis was the late Profound-level tiger demon that had already arrived at the foot of Mount Song. If no one stopped it now, it would undoubtedly bring catastrophic devastation to the city below.
"Late Profound-level, perfect! I'll use you to test the power of this Great Sun Golden Body and collect some offerings while I'm at it."
The Great Sun Golden Body Sutra truly lived up to its reputation as the fundamental scripture of the Ancient Great Sun Sect. Even after entering the first level, he gained a formidable ability akin to a divine skill.
With a flicker, he transformed back into a black eagle and arrived on the Shaoshi Mountain where the Shaolin Temple was located, preparing to use his skills again.
At the foot of the mountain,
The tiger demon approached step by step, towering like a small mountain.
Qi Hong stared at the tiger demon, ready to make a final desperate move.
Headquarters had already approved the use of heavy weaponry, and he had to buy enough time for that.
"Roar..."
The tiger demon spotted Qi Hong, its mouth full of sharp teeth opening, emitting a deep growl that seemed disdainful and mocking.
In the next moment, the tiger demon's figure flashed, creating a whirlwind as it appeared not far from Qi Hong.
Qi Hong held his breath, preparing to act.
In his hand was a hand grenade.
He was waiting, waiting for the tiger demon to get closer.
In his view, this tiger demon was a magic-using creature, and its physical body must be its weakness. As long as he could find an opportunity, calculate the timing correctly, and let the hand grenade explode right under the tiger demon when he threw it, there was a chance to severely injure it.
"Just one more meter! Just one more meter!"
Qi Hong shouted in his heart.
This time, it seemed that fate was on his side. The tiger demon seemed to be completely unaware of the danger, getting closer and closer.
When the tiger demon was within the distance Qi Hong wanted, he immediately pulled the pin from the hand grenade and calculated the timing. Qi Hong decisively threw the hand grenade.
The hand grenade traced an arc, rapidly enlarging in the tiger demon's eyes. However, the tiger demon showed no intention of evading it. Perhaps in its view, this little thing could never harm it.
This scene filled Qi Hong with joy.
However, in the next moment, his joy turned to disappointment.
Boom!
Just as planned, the hand grenade successfully exploded beside the tiger demon, sending fragments flying in all directions.
However, when everything settled, the tiger demon was still standing there. The damage from the hand grenade did not seem to have caused any significant harm to the tiger demon. Instead, this attack had completely infuriated it.
"Roar!"
The tiger demon roared, and a massive fireball headed straight for Qi Hong.
"Danger!"
Qi Hong shouted in his heart. At this life-and-death moment, he burst into an unprecedented speed.
The fireball descended, and this attack was dozens or even hundreds of times more destructive than the hand grenade.
Terrifying power left a crater with a diameter of dozens of meters at the scene, and rocks flew everywhere.
In the nick of time, Qi Hong managed to escape the center of the attack, only being struck by the residual shockwave.
But even that shockwave sent him flying several meters, slamming him heavily to the ground. He coughed up large mouthfuls of blood.
"It's a complete failure..."
Qi Hong's face turned pale, and he wanted to get up and continue fighting, but his body no longer responded to his commands. He knew he had failed completely.
His eyelids felt heavy, an unprecedented drowsiness washing over him. He couldn't help but want to close his eyes.
Suddenly, the corner of his eye caught something, and his eyes widened.
In the night sky, three streaks of light consecutively streaked across the horizon at an incredibly fast speed, heading towards his direction.
Those were the remote firepower strikes from headquarters!
"They're here! Finally!"
Qi Hong's eyes lit up as he watched the approaching light, his face filled with anticipation.
"Is that... official long-range firepower?"
"Great, the authorities have finally used those weapons!"
In the distance, some players who were fleeing also noticed the unusual activity in the sky and couldn't help but stop and watch.
The streaks of light tore through the night sky at unimaginable speeds, and in just a breath's time, they had already arrived.
Boom...
Three deafening explosions rang out, accompanied by flames shooting into the sky, creating a tremendous spectacle.
"Did that monster die?"
Everyone looked towards the location where the flames had fallen, their eyes filled with hope.
Many people were too far away to see the situation there and could only silently pray.
Unfortunately, it seemed that their prayers had little effect.
"Roar..."
The tiger's roar was ear-splitting and shattered everyone's illusions.
"That didn't kill the monster?"
"Is this the strength of a Profound-level creature? It's too powerful!"
After a brief moment of shock, the people once again fled at a faster pace.
In their view, unless the authorities used even more powerful nuclear weapons, they couldn't kill the tiger demon. But if nuclear weapons were used, they would also be in danger if they stayed.
Qi Hong watched the tiger's roar, his eyes filled with unwillingness.
In his eyes, although the tiger demon had large patches of charred fur and scattered wounds on its massive body, it could not even be considered seriously injured, let alone fatal.
What most devastated him was that the wounds on the tiger demon's body were rapidly healing!
Qi Hong felt despair and closed his eyes in unwillingness.
Suddenly, just as he closed his eyes, he saw a golden light ascending.
"What is that?"
Opening his eyes once more, he realized he hadn't been mistaken. On the towering mountain peak, there was indeed a golden light.
The golden light ascended, as if a great sun was dispelling the darkness.
The people who were about to flee halted once more and looked in the direction of the rising golden light.
The golden light grew increasingly dazzling.
In the next moment, an astonishing scene unfolded before everyone's eyes.
A colossal golden figure appeared within their sight.
What was even more unbelievable was that the appearance of this golden figure resembled that of a Buddha!
The Buddha stood among the mountains, resembling a towering giant from legends.
Gazing down, at this moment, everyone felt like mere ants.
"B-Buddha's divine manifestation?"
Everyone stared in astonishment, momentarily rooted in place.
The colossal golden Buddha raised its arm, its palm shrouding the sky as it descended towards the tiger demon below, as though it intended to crush the entire mountain.
The tiger demon sensed an unprecedented danger and turned to flee without hesitation.
Unfortunately, being a magic-using creature, speed was not its forte.
In front of the massive palm that was like a mountain, it had no chance of escaping in such a short time.
Boom!
As the Buddha's palm descended, it seemed as if an earthquake had occurred, causing the earth to crack.
The Buddha's palm was withdrawn, and the colossal golden figure gradually began to disappear.
When all the phenomena had vanished, the nearest players were astonished to find that the once arrogant tiger demon had lost its vitality.
"This... this..."
Seeing this scene, people widened their eyes, unable to speak for a while.
After a while, someone finally regained their composure and exclaimed, "The tiger demon is dead! The tiger demon was actually killed in one blow by that golden Buddha!"
"The tiger demon is dead? Killed by the golden Buddha?"
"The divine manifestation of Buddha, the divine manifestation of Buddha!"
...
The news spread instantly, and as soon as they heard that the tiger demon had been killed, everyone was overjoyed.
Many people even knelt down in the direction where the golden figure had appeared.
"Could it be that there really are divine beings in our world? Are those legendary immortals and Buddhas real?"
"Yes, in the world of demons and monsters, there are martial artists and creatures, so there should be divine beings in our world too!"
The phenomenon of the golden Buddha's appearance was too dazzling, visible for miles around Mount Song.
On the forum,
The hot searches about the Profound-level monsters that had appeared everywhere were replaced by topics about the golden Buddha in just a few minutes.
Su Nan withdrew his Dharma form.
A satisfied expression appeared in his eyes.
"M-Master, what technique did you just use?"
Eagle Gao and Black Armor, the two demons, were trembling. At the moment when the phenomenon appeared, they had almost knelt down involuntarily.
"It's nothing, just some tricks." Su Nan said indifferently.
The phenomenon just now was naturally caused by him.
It was the ability he gained after entering the first level of the Great Sun Golden Body Sutra.
It was called "Radiant Golden Body."
It was somewhat similar to the legendary Fatiànxiàng. When used, it could transform into a gigantic golden figure.
Paired with a multitude of transformations, it provided a visually stunning impact.
However, the attack he had just executed, while incredibly powerful, had completely drained the power of the Great Sun Golden Body Sutra.
Transforming into the golden body required a significant expenditure of energy. The larger the golden body's transformation, the more energy it consumed. Under normal circumstances, a preliminary-formed golden body that transformed to a height of ten zhang was the most suitable.
However, for the sake of visual impact, Su Nan had forcefully expended his energy to continuously increase the size of the golden body.
As a result, just one attack had completely depleted the power of the Great Sun Golden Body Sutra.
But this couldn't be helped. To manifest his divinity, he had to pay some price.
Fortunately, the effect satisfied him greatly.
At this moment, he could clearly feel that a large amount of starfire devotion was converging towards the temple because of him.
And...
He found that the devotion formed because of him was even more malleable and could be refined at a speed several times faster than before!
"This is the correct way to cultivate the Devotion Dao. In the future, I must find a way to actively collect Devotion." Su Nan murmured to himself.
Su Nan had no idea.
Just as he killed the tiger demon, on a remote mountain peak where few people ventured, more than a dozen individuals in black waited in silence. In front of them lay a spatial passage.
If Su Nan were here, he would immediately recognize these people as members of the Destiny Sect!
They waited, waiting for the arrival of their clan's powerful members.
At this moment, someone received a message that prompted others to take out their phones immediately.
When they saw the information on the forum, their brows furrowed.
"It's impossible; there can't be so-called gods and Buddhas in this world."
"That must be some kind of illusion caused by a certain technique, intentionally created by someone."
Ordinary people might think that there could be gods and Buddhas in this world, but as descendants of the Tian Clan, the members of the Destiny Sect knew better.
Not to mention this world, even in other worlds, there were no so-called gods and Buddhas.
Even if they existed, they were just powerful cultivators.
"If it was intentionally created, why did they do it?"
Another question arose in the minds of the group.
Soon, someone thought of something and said, "The location where the golden Buddha appeared is a famous Buddhist sanctuary in this world, where devotion is abundant, and someone is collecting devotion!"
Upon hearing this, the others first paused, then their voices grew solemn:
"Who dares to cultivate the Devotion Dao? They're simply asking for trouble!"
"Cultivating the Devotion Dao is most suitable for the Secret Power System. Wang Nan is a Physique System cultivator, and Zhang Yang is a Magic System cultivator. Could it be that mysterious Lang Shisan who has never shown himself?"
"It's very possible; only Lang Shisan, in addition to Wang Nan and Zhang Yang, could have killed a peak Profound-level demon like that."
They quickly analyzed the situation.
It had to be said that these people were well-informed, and in just a short moment, they had deduced a lot.
"Whoever they are, we cannot allow them to succeed; we must stop them."
"Indeed, our ancestors worked hard to eliminate the Devotion Dao; we cannot let them reappear."
"But with our current strength, it's not easy to kill them in this world. We can only wait until we enter the Demon World."
They quickly deliberated.
If possible, they naturally wished to eliminate this uncertain factor in its infancy.
Unfortunately, their strength did not allow for it.
In this world, their recovery rate exceeded that of most players, but compared to the rate of improvement of Su Nan and his group, they were still lacking.
At this moment, someone thought of something else and said, "Let's not rush into the Demon World; the spatial passages are still opening, and it's expected that King-level demons will descend soon."
"With the strength of the humans in this world, it's not easy to deal with King-level demons. Even with the use of nuclear weapons, it's not certain if they can be defeated. I've received information that the official representatives of the Hua Country contacted Wang Nan yesterday; they must be trying to get him to intervene."
"If Wang Nan doesn't intervene, it's fine, but if he does, it might be an opportunity for us. We might be able to try to kill him after he's seriously injured by the demons."
...
The crisis on Mount Song had been resolved, but disasters in other places had not stopped.
Artillery roared, gunfire was incessant, and fighter jets streaked through the sky.
Common-level demons and Spirit-level demons could be quickly dealt with using heavy weapons, but Profound-level demons were not so easily dealt with.
"According to incomplete statistics, there are currently up to eight locations nationwide where Profound-level demons have appeared, and the situation is critical."
"We're already doing relatively well here; the situation abroad is even more dire. In the game worlds they were in, there were already numerous demons, and the demons that have descended this time far outnumber ours. Some cities have even fallen, with heavy casualties."
Just over ten minutes had passed since the game merged with reality.
In just this short span of ten minutes, the impact on the real world had been catastrophic.
Countries with powerful military forces were relatively better off; they deployed various weapons, and as long as the demons were not in the Physique System or were not late-stage Profound-level or peak Profound-level, they could barely cope.
However, weaker countries were in a dire situation. Just one Profound-level demon was enough to destroy them.
In Hua Country's command center,
"How many Profound-level demons have we not dealt with yet?"
"Among the demons discovered so far, there are still five that haven't been dealt with. Four of them are in the Physique System; they either have extremely fast speed or formidable physiques, making it difficult to kill them."
"There's also one Profound-level late-stage demon in the Secret Power System, and its recovery speed is too fast, and its vitality is stubborn. The damage we've inflicted on it is not recovering as quickly."
"The Night Watchmen have already set out; now our goal is to try to buy them time and prevent those demons from entering the cities."
Listening to the summaries of the various reports, the people present collectively sighed with relief.
The current situation, while not optimistic, was still within a manageable range.
However, this state of affairs did not last long.
Soon, a piece of news shattered everything.
"Bad news, a King-level demon has descended on Da Jiang City!"
(End of this chapter)