Of the vengeful spirits made it outside,wouldn't that unleash a third epidemic of Human Face Disease?
"We have to find a way to stop them!" Xie Lian cried out urgently.
Perched on the statue's shoulder below, Mu Qing's black robes and hair were thoroughly mussed and windswept. "But how?!"
The giant stone statue abruptly stopped, rousing clouds of dust and sand.
"Everyone, hold your breath!"
The flying black smoke that was hot on their trail had finally caught up. The giant stone statue raised a hand and struck; the wind generated by the blow shook the heavens and quaked the earth. If it had been lower to the ground, the gale could have uprooted centuries-old trees. Although some of the black smoke was broken up and blown away, Xie Lian still couldn't help but think, If only it had a sword!
"Gege," Hua Cheng said, sounding like he could tell what Xie Lian was thinking, "there's a way to get a sword."
"How?" Xie Lian replied eagerly.
"We'll have to see if your heavenly colleagues down there are willing."
"If you've got an idea, just say it! Stop dragging it out and feeding him your bullshit!" Feng Xin said.
Xie Lian had pretty much guessed what Hua Cheng was implying, however. "Are you saying that we should have General Pei and the others come together and transform into a sword?"
"That's right," Hua Cheng said. "Heavenly officials' powers are restricted in Mount Tonglu territory, but there are several martial gods here. If four of them transform into one spirit body and work in unison, their might should be considerable."
Pei Ming was the first to respond. "I think it's doable."
"Is it really?" Mu Qing was still doubtful. "How many martial gods do we have? Three, right?"
Pei Xiu and Yin Yu's powers were completely gone, and the Rain Master wasn't a martial god. The only ones who could come together were Pei Ming, Feng Xin, and Mu Qing.
"No, there are four. Qi Ying is here too," Pei Ming replied.
"Huh?"
Yin Yu hesitated for a moment. With one hand still holding Guzi, the other dug out a budaoweng doll. Before the seal was released, the doll unexpectedly began to shake wildly and shriek at an ear-piercing volume.
The awful noise forced everyone to cover their ears. Yin Yu hastily sealed the doll anew, digging out a different budaoweng as he nervously explained himself.
"Sorry about that, I grabbed the wrong one. That was the Green Ghost Qi Rong. This is the right doll."
He tossed the budaoweng in the air, and it exploded into red smoke. A young man appeared within the mist, then plummeted toward the ground.
The giant divine statue lifted a hand to catch him, and the young man flipped upright and landed steadily in its palm. He scratched beneath his bloody curls as he looked up, confused at the sight of the large group of people.
Although Yin Yu had snuck behind someone's back to hide, Quan Yizhen discovered him straightaway and leapt to his feet with a joyous cry.
"Shixiong!"
"…" Quan Yizhen came bounding over. The mere sight of his face gave Yin Yu a headache; he'd rather listen to Qi Rong shriek for three days and three nights than speak one more word to Quan Yizhen.
Fortunately, Pei Ming snatched Quan Yizhen away. "Come, come, time to get to work, Qi Ying. Have your reunion after we're done!"
Quan Yizhen was profoundly confused. He was already biased against Pei Ming and seemed ready to punch him in the face, but then he looked up and saw Xie Lian atop the statue. Xie Lian's hands were pressed together in prayer, offering up a sincere plea to Quan Yizhen.
"Please and thank you, Qi Ying."
"…" While he still had no idea what was going on, he scratched his head and joined the ranks.
Mu Qing certainly had an opinion about becoming a sword for another martial god, but he couldn't just say he wouldn't do it now that they'd managed to put together a group of four. He stayed silent.
The four of them formed a line upon the divine statue's palm:
Pei Ming, then Feng Xin, then Quan Yizhen, and then Mu Qing.
Hua Cheng propped an elbow on the edge of the jade crown and glanced down.
"Aren't those last two reversed?" he commented.
Logically, ordering them Pei Ming, Feng Xin, Mu Qing, Quan Yizhen would make more sense because Quan Yizhen's spiritual powers weren't as stable as the others'. If the sword was swung too aggressively while he was positioned in the middle, it might snap in half.
"No, they're not," Xie Lian replied, wiping sweat from his face. "Feng Xin and Mu Qing can't be next to each other—they might start fighting halfway through a swing. We need someone in between to separate them."
Hua Cheng quirked his brows at that. His expression seemed to say, "Please let them beat each other to death, that'd be great."
When they looked down again, spiritual light had begun to shine from the four's bodies. It shone stronger and stronger, spreading out until the four had merged into one. Finally, they became a sword of spiritual light.
The moment the sword took shape, the giant stone statue tossed it into the air, then reached up and grabbed it.
With a sharp sword in hand, Xie Lian was like a tiger given wings, his might increasing exponentially as he struck!
The vengeful spirits trailed black smoke in long tails and screeched as the sword of spiritual light slashed down, then were abruptly silenced. Riding the tailwinds of victory, Xie Lian's sword danced like a wild shower of petals, slicing and shattering millions of ghosts to pieces like the wind blowing clouds into wisps. Wherever the blade swept, it was like fireworks exploding in the sky, beautiful to behold. The nefarious creatures down below were stupefied by the display, and only when the thousand-ton boots of the giant stone statue came stomping nearby did they remember to flee.
As Xie Lian was engrossed in his sword work, the giant stone statue stumbled forward, almost falling. Xie Lian hastily used the sword to catch its fall, steadying it.
"Your Highness, what's going on?" asked the martial gods who made up the sword array.
"Keep fighting! They're gathering again!"
After controlling the giant stone statue for so long, Xie Lian was getting tired. Sweat dripped down his face, and tension had seized his mind.
"It's nothing! Just…" It was just that he'd burned up all the spiritual power he had—that's all!
He whipped his head around. Hua Cheng was standing so close behind him, like he was about to reach out. Xie Lian stopped caring about anything else and went right for it—he pounced on Hua Cheng, cupped his cheeks with his hands, and then, getting up on his toes slightly to reach, he closed his eyes and pressed their lips together.
"…" said Feng Xin.
"…" said Mu Qing.
"…?" said Quan Yizhen.
"Ho ho," said Pei Ming.
But it wasn't enough. Since they were already in that position, Xie Lian thought he might as well take a bit more—he wound his arms tightly around Hua Cheng's neck to deepen the kiss. All the fatigue he'd been feeling was swept away in an instant as his body was refilled with spiritual power.
The enormous sword of spiritual light in the giant stone statue's grip clamored with riotous noise.
"What is this?!" Feng Xin cried, clearly shaken. "What are you two doing?! Your Highness?!"
Xie Lian choked—only then did he break away. He didn't dare look down.
"I'm b-borrowing spiritual power!" he shouted to the sky. "I'm just borrowing his spiritual power! It's all very proper!"
Mu Qing was shaken too. "You don't need to do that to borrow spiritual power, though! Couldn't you just slap your palms together?!"
"Ha ha ha ha! You saw through me!" Xie Lian babbled—he didn't even know what he was saying. "So maybe it's not just to borrow spiritual power! Ha ha ha ha…" Seeing him like this made Hua Cheng join his laughter. He cupped Xie Lian's face with his hands to guide him back, then leaned down and dropped a kiss on his forehead.
"Don't be nervous, gege," he said gently.
"…" Strange as it was, this returned Xie Lian to normal. He pretended he hadn't heard Feng Xin and Mu Qing and grew solemn, forming hand seals once more. The giant stone statue pulled the sword of spiritual light from the ground and started slashing and cutting wildly like its strength was inexhaustible.
Quan Yizhen was suddenly filled with awe and respect. "So he really was borrowing spiritual power just now! He got stronger so fast."
"Complete bullshit. What do you know—" Mu Qing couldn't help but exclaim, but he quickly stopped himself and forcibly changed his tune, likely deciding there was no need to explain this to a man-child like Quan Yizhen.
"Yes, that's right, he was borrowing spiritual power."
Pei Ming laughed heartily. "That's right, indeed. But you can't borrow spiritual power like that so casually. Understand, Qi Ying?"
Feng Xin gaped. "What are you all saying?! Do you actually believe him?!"
Although the statue's might had increased, they had no giant net with which to capture the vengeful spirits, and they enveloped the entire sky. Upon seeing the power of the massive god, the spirits began to flee, flapping their tails as if they were oversized tadpoles with human faces.
"After them!" Xie Lian cried.
Yet they only managed a few steps before the giant stone statue slumped over and fell to one side!
There was no warning and no reason for this to happen; Xie Lian had taken plenty of spiritual power just a moment ago and was in excellent form.
As he felt them fall, Xie Lian looked down and noticed a massive hole in the divine statue's leg. Shattered rock fell from the wound, then a figure in white fluttered from it, landed languidly on the ground, and vanished in the blink of an eye—as elusive as a ghost, leaving no trace.
It was White No-Face. He had broken the leg of the divine statue with his bare hands!
With an enormous crash, the giant stone statue fell to the ground.
Fortunately, the statue's passengers were not ordinary folk. They reacted quickly, leaping off and landing safely.
Xie Lian and Hua Cheng leapt back onto the divine statue's chest. Xie Lian tried commanding it back up, but it struggled greatly. The giant divine statue sprawled on the ground and writhed with ponderous misery.
"How is it? Can it still stand?" asked Mu Qing from within the sword array.
"Did the power run out again?" Quan Yizhen asked. "Do you need to borrow more?"
"No. This isn't a question of spiritual power," Pei Ming said. "And Qi Ying, there's no need to remember any of that. Forget it completely."
"It's probably severely injured…" Xie Lian said. "It shouldn't move again."
While rocks felt no pain, the injured leg would probably fall off completely if they forced the statue to stand and fight. It wasn't just that its attack power was drastically reduced…but this was Hua Cheng's most heartfelt masterpiece and Xie Lian's favorite divine statue. It'd hurt him to see it destroyed like that.
Seeing that their enemy had collapsed, the vengeful spirits in the air danced wildly with mad joy and scattered. Were they just going to watch while those creatures escaped to the outside? Xie Lian glanced over and saw dark anger on Hua Cheng's face—anger toward White No-Face. He hummed for a moment, then spoke.
"Gege…" Just then, a ray of dazzling light peeked through the dense, thick black clouds, like some shining radiance had appeared above them.
Soon after, they saw a second ray, then a third, then a fourth… Countless rays of dazzling light shot down, penetrating the gloomy clouds and piercing the vengeful spirits!
This white spiritual light, strong enough to blind, was a familiar sight to the heavenly officials present. After all, it was this very aura that endlessly shone upon the Heavenly Capital.
Jun Wu had arrived!