"Monkey, hurry up and go! We can hold this place; don't worry about us."
Sun Wukong was not a man to dally. Knowing his brothers were ready to fight to the death, and that his own mission did not concern the Supreme Elder Lord and the others, he somersaulted onto the cloud. Just as he was about to leave, the voice of Patriarch Bodhi rang in his ears, "Wukong, you must be careful. The Jade Emperor is no simple adversary. You must not underestimate him."
Sun Wukong didn't look back, but the determination in his eyes deepened, and he soared away.
"Brothers, the Monkey has left. Now it's our time to fight to the death. How can we, the proud Demon Clan, be suppressed by a mere magic treasure?"
With that, the remaining Six Saints transformed back into their true forms. A mountainous black bull, a river-long flood dragon, a sky-huge Peng bird; the only one whose size didn't change was the Monkey King, who didn't grow larger but actually smaller. The six, originally suppressed, suddenly turned the tide and unleashed their ultimate moves. This made the six Heavenly Demons look rather insignificant, and they were all severely injured one after another.
Since his life-bound magical treasure was suppressed by Patriarch Bodhi, Master Tongtian also ran out of strength to maintain his doppelgangers and could only watch helplessly as the Heavenly Demons were wounded, and no longer was he able to remain calm.
"Brother, what are we waiting for? Use the Eight Trigrams Furnace quickly, or my Heavenly Demon Banner will be ruined."
The Supreme Elder Lord didn't speak, but his expression hardened and with a sweep of his great sleeve, he brought forth his life-bound magical treasure, the Eight Trigrams Furnace. As the furnace appeared, the injured Heavenly Demons flew into it. The Supreme Elder Lord's hands flicked continuously as various elixirs and spiritual medicines shot into the furnace non-stop. Then the flames inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace suddenly surged, enveloping both the Supreme Elder Lord and the Heavenly Demons in flames. The residual heat from the flames even forced the Six Saints to continually retreat.
"Good heavens, what kind of fire is this? Why is it so hot? Next to this, the Samadhi True Fire seems like an ordinary flame."
The Flood Dragon Demon King exclaimed, his face filled with palpitations. As an aquatic demon beast, he naturally disliked fire.
"This, this is the Nine Heavens Profound Fire, it is the most domineering flame in the world. I didn't expect the Supreme Elder Lord to have mastered this fire."
Zhen Yuanzi hadn't finished speaking when six streams of flames burst from the Eight Trigrams Furnace that was wrapped in the Nine Heavens Profound Fire, each one targeting the Six Saints. The Six Saints were shocked, as just a distant proximity to the Nine Heavens Profound Fire was unbearable. If they let the flames strike them, wouldn't it burn their souls to ash? So, all six reverted to their human forms to barely dodge it. But the fire came too fast; though they evaded it, Peng Demon King was still touched by a strand of flame. And this strand of flame was not to be underestimated; in merely an instant, it burned away half of Peng Demon King's arm.
Peng Demon King was a tough one and, without a second word, swung his right hand, severing his half-burning left arm. Although it seemed that Peng Demon King had lost half an arm, for a Great Demon like him, this injury was not too severe and could, in the future, be healed with the right spiritual medicine.
But before Peng Demon King's severed arm even hit the ground, he let out a roar filled with pain and fear. Monkey King flashed to Peng Demon King's side and asked, "Old Peng, what's wrong? Is there something strange?"
Peng Demon King forced out a few words through clenched teeth, "This fire, it burns... the soul and divine sense, and it's... still burning."
Hearing how potent the fire was, everyone was shocked. The battle was no longer manageable. Peng Demon King was just touched by a strand of the fire and was already in such terrible pain while the six Heavenly Demons were now engulfed in the Nine Heavens Profound Fire. Worse still, worrying about Peng Demon King had made everyone gather around him, resulting in being surrounded by the six fiery Heavenly Demons. Now, there was no chance of escape.
It seemed they had fallen into a desperate situation.
Some people always like to make an entrance at critical moments, just like Tang Sanzang, who now appeared.
Just as Peng Demon King and the others were ready to resort to self-harming spells in desperation, sacred chants suddenly filled the sky for no apparent reason, space itself began to tremble, and then a sky-full of flowers burst forth from some point in space-time, the petals occupying every inch of visible space. If it were just petals, it would be a slight trick, but what made the Supreme Elder Lord's heart palpitate was how these seemingly ordinary petals, falling upon the Heavenly Demons burning with lethal flames, gradually extinguished the ravenous fires. In no time at all, the flames consuming the six Heavenly Demons were completely doused. But the petal rain did not stop there; it intensified to the point where nothing else could be seen in the entire space.
The Supreme Elder Lord knew there was something strange about the petal rain and, recovering from his shock, was about to conjure up a wind to disperse it, but before he could do so, the petals gradually diminished until they disappeared. When he finally took a good look, he was horrified to see that the six Heavenly Demons had vanished, and in their place stood six bald monks, who in appearance and stature were no different from the Heavenly Demons they had replaced.
Even a fool would know what had happened by now. The six Heavenly Demons had been baptized by the rain of petals and had seemingly turned into Buddhist Arhats!