Dragon-Marked War God

In the end, Lan Yingjie and Lan Zi could only resign themselves to fate and obey Zhongsheng Temple’s arrangements. But for them, what had been the point of traveling all this way? Wasn’t it to fight, to train, to enter the illusory realm of the Great Thunderclap Temple and contend with all the other heroes?

Lan Yingjie clenched his fists tightly. This was the greatest humiliation of his life!

A warrior can be killed, but not humiliated! As a genius disciple of the Mu Clan, this was even more painful than being killed. If you made a brave and seasoned warrior guard the granary, wouldn’t that be lamentable? That was exactly how it was for Lan Yingjie. Unfortunately, facts speak louder than words. He really had failed to cross the Zhongsheng Bridge, and that alone meant he had been utterly and miserably defeated in front of Jiang Chen.

Lan Luo sighed. If they had not clashed with Jiang Chen before, and if Jiang Chen had not crossed the Zhongsheng Bridge while they were left stranded here, perhaps Lan Yingjie and Lan Zi would not have been so pitiful. But that was fate. Or you could say they had brought it on themselves.

When heaven sends disaster, one may still survive. When one brings disaster on oneself, there is no escape. They had driven themselves into this dead end, so who else could they blame?

Jiang Chen was calmer than anyone else, because the fact that he had stood out was the greatest irony for Lan Yingjie and Lan Zi. It was like a hard slap across their faces, one that had caught Lan Yingjie completely off guard.

“Today, Junior Brother Jie Yan will take all of you to the ruins of the Great Thunderclap Temple. We six great temples have agreed to gather at the foot of Mount Yanling in half a year’s time and then head to the Great Thunderclap Temple. By then, many experts will appear. The other temples among the six are also no ordinary forces. Be careful and cautious all along the way. This old monk will wait for your triumphant return. Amitabha.”

Master Jie Qian pressed his palms together, a faint smile on his kindly face.

“Yuan Qing, Yuan De, Yuan Bao, go with your Martial Uncle Jie Yan.”

Before Master Jie Qian had even finished speaking, three young men in monk’s robes stepped out from behind him. Their strength was astonishing. All three had reached the Half-step Divine Emperor Realm. Zhongsheng Temple was really going all out in this battle. Three Half-step Divine Emperor genius disciples, they were practically staking their pillars on this.

The strength of Zhongsheng Temple gave the people of the four great clans a whole new understanding. After all, as the leader of this campaign, it was not that surprising for Zhongsheng Temple to bring out this kind of strength. On the contrary, if their strength had been too low, the four great clans would have thought Zhongsheng Temple had no one worth using.

As for the four great clans, they only had four Half-step Divine Emperors: Luo Binwang, Xuanyuan Yumo, Dou Bai and Lan Mao. Even Goddess Luo had not reached the Half-step Divine Emperor Realm. But if it came to a fight, who would come out on top was still unknown.

“Monk, wait for me. If anyone dares to touch a single hair on your head, I, Jiang Chen, will grind their bones to dust and scatter their ashes, and make sure they can never be reborn.”

Jiang Chen swore silently in his heart. He knew that it was lucky he had managed to join Zhongsheng Temple’s expedition this time. Otherwise, if the monk had to face so many experts alone, it would definitely be a life-and-death battle, and the outcome would very likely be tragic.

Jiang Chen was extremely confident that the person in the illusory realm of the Great Thunderclap Temple was most likely the monk. But one should prepare for the worst. If it was not the monk, Jiang Chen could set his heart at ease. If it was the monk, he would have to make an enemy of everyone. But for the sake of his brother, so what?

With everything ready and their departure at hand, Lan Yingjie’s face was full of dejection and desolation. After this battle, he might very well never recover, because among the four great clans, he was the weakest one, even weaker than Jiang Chen, the weakest of them all.

As the six great temples assembled, everyone was in a state of full readiness. Zhongsheng Temple alone had as many as seven Half-step Divine Emperors, and the other five great temples were no less impressive. This plan to wipe out the Reincarnated Living Buddha and seize the God Suppressing Monument had clearly not been planned in a day or two. It seemed the monk’s days had been no easier than his own. Making it this far step by step must have been very hard for him. Most importantly, being forced into the illusory realm of the Great Thunderclap Temple meant he had been driven into a life-or-death situation.

Mount Yanling was where the ruins of the once glorious and splendid Great Thunderclap Temple stood. For three hundred thousand miles around Mount Yanling, everything was empty. The peaks had crumbled, the ancient trees and vines had withered, the birds and beasts had all scattered, and sand and stones flew about. It could be said to be a desolate wasteland, extremely bleak.

From somewhere came the caws of a crow or two, extremely mournful, like the silent cries of countless people who had once been buried in this boundless Buddha land.

The wind howled and the cranes cried. There was no spiritual energy at all. Once upon a time, this had been the place with the densest spiritual energy in the whole Divine World. With his supreme Dharma power, the Buddha had converted the great dragon of the spiritual veins beneath the earth, making Mount Yanling the place with the richest spiritual energy under heaven. That had laid an absolute foundation for the Buddhist path to unify the Divine World.

In the past, the Buddhist Realm had unified all directions in the Western-pole Divine Land and brought the world together. Even the Central Region Divine Land could not rival it. Hundreds of millions of years ago, Mount Yanling and the Great Thunderclap Temple had been the grandest, most magnificent and most yearned-for holy site in the Divine World.

How many experts had come here drawn by its fame, and how many powers had pledged their allegiance? The Buddha’s grace had been unmatched in the world, the first in the Divine World, with no one above him. The Buddha had no desires and sought nothing, pure and governing through non-action. But in this world, there would always be someone who wanted to fight, someone who wanted to take his place and become the supreme king, remaining forever in the river of time.

This was history, and an era that stirred the blood.

Countless people had longed for it and bowed down in worship. The might of the Buddha and his boundless Dharma had spread across the divine lands. Buddhist chants had rung out again and again, converting countless birds, beasts and villains and ferocious creatures, bringing peace and harmony to the Divine World.

But when things reach their extreme, they turn into their opposite. Rise and fall, glory and disgrace. After hundreds of millions of years, Mount Yanling had long since lost its former glory. Countless experts had fought here. The Buddha had fallen, the Buddhist Realm had been torn apart, the Venerables had scattered without a trace, countless Arhats had been killed or wounded, and the Buddhas had perished body and soul. No one had escaped the catastrophe.

With the Buddhist path collapsed, the world fell into chaos. The nine regions and eighteen counties once again fell into a situation where each ruled on its own. The Central Region Divine Land still stood tall, but the Western-pole Divine Land had lost its former glory.

Today’s Buddhist Realm, today’s Mount Yanling, was rarely visited by anyone. No one remembered that this had once been the most glorious place in the entire Divine World. Here, a God Emperor had once discussed the Dao and astonished all who heard him. Here, a battle of Heavenly Kings had once shocked the world!

The years of history leave no trace. After hundreds of millions of years, the only thing that remained unchanged was the blue sky overhead. And the changes in the Buddhist Realm had become the greatest sorrow of the Western-pole Divine Land.

For thousands and tens of thousands of miles, the palace walls had crumbled. The people were gone and the buildings were empty. The Buddhist pagodas were no more, and the statues of gods had collapsed. The Buddhist Realm no longer bore the slightest resemblance to what it had once been.

It was hard to imagine how awe-inspiring its former glory must have been. Jiang Chen sighed inwardly as well. Why had he not been born in that age when heroes rose like the wind and clouds? He had entered the Divine World far, far too late. He had missed the ancient war, missed the turmoil of the Divine World, missed the collapse of the Buddhist path, missed the era in which every expert was remembered.

Jiang Chen touched the sand beneath his feet. There was a broken Buddhist lamp. With a light touch, it turned into flying ash and drifted away between heaven and earth.

The wind rose and clouds surged, and yellow sand filled the sky. When Jiang Chen set foot on this land, he actually had a feeling of déjà vu. Monk, are you really inside the illusory realm of the Great Thunderclap Temple?