Ch.201: Dominate Heaven and Earth; Divine Being Breaks Through the Kiln 3

That giant stone statue was just slowly crawling up to its feet from the ground when the first mountain spirit came crashing over.

Xie Lian recalled Hua Cheng had once told him that back then, when he was in Mount Tong'lu, those three large mountains were a menace; always chasing him down. So naturally, they shouldn't be underestimated. Xie Lian planned to volley up and flip over its head, but he had never controlled such an enormous divine statue before after all, and to manipulate such complicated movements, he couldn't help but mess up. He didn't manage to jump up, but was instead knocked down once again.

Rumble rumble, the heavens shook and the earth quaked. That giant stone statue fell down near the royal capital of Wuyong, and crushed an entire street. With just a slight movement, a series of cracking noises could be heard, and it was the sound of those glamourous residences and palaces being crushed and shattered by that giant stone statue. In the midst of all the shaking, Xie Lian was almost thrown off again, but Hua Cheng firmly grabbed on to his hand.

He exclaimed, "Come with me!"

He took Xie Lian and hopped onto the head of that giant divine statue with a few steps. Turns out, this giant Flower-Crowned Martial God used a small crown to tie up its hair, which looked like a small balcony. The two hopped onto that crown, finally finding a place to settle; much steadier than standing on the shoulder and in the palm of the divine statue.

They hadn't had a chance to relax when the mountain spirit came at them again, knocking that giant stone statue back a few steps. Fortunately Xie Lian was prepared this time and wasn't knocked down, but he accidentally trampled another series of houses. Xie Lian couldn't help but ache for them, praying for forgiveness in his mind.

Controlling that divine statue to clumsily slip away and avoid those houses, Xie Lian wondered in bafflement, "Why do they keep chasing after me to beat me down? What did I do?"

"It's not that they're chasing gege specifically. They'd chase down anyone to beat them down, and gege looks particularly conspicuous right now."

"Such a big creature, he is rather conspicuous…"

Before Xie Lian finished his thoughts, the three mountain spirits came besieging together. They surrounded this giant stone statue, crushing towards the centre incessantly, trying to crush the statue to pieces. That divine statue couldn't move a limb, and Xie Lian couldn't move either. He used all of his strength to have the statue push back, but it couldn't move an inch, so it might not be able to defend!

He was just trying to think if there might be another way to escape and involuntarily backed up a step, bumping into a chest. He looked back and Hua Cheng grasped his shoulders.

"Let everything go and fight! Don't worry, none of them are your match. There is nothing in this world that can stop you in your step!"

His chest was like the strongest of shields, and suddenly, Xie Lian was filled with confidence. A wave of refreshing currents flowed through his body, and he gave it his all to strike back, breaking through the siege!

Rumble rumble, those three mountain spirits were forcibly pushed miles away. Dust flew, rocks fled, smoke and debris rolled. However, after they were pushed back they immediately came forth again, ready to attack once more. Xie Lian's hands instantly changed into several hand seals.

"DO, NOT, BLOCK, MY, WAY!"

That giant stone statue leapt into the air, its feet landing over the head of two of the mountain spirits, then its hand rested on the hilt of the sword hung on its waist—pull out the sword!

This entire string of movements flowed like streams of clouds and water, and that giant stone divine statue completed the actions fluently, its might like a long stretch of a rainbow, without any hesitation, no different than the real person.

Sucking in a breath, Xie Lian shouted, "I'LL CUT Y…Uh, I won't cut you yet, hold on???"

He was already prepared to swing a glorious sword and cut the mountains into valleys, yet unexpectedly, when the sword was pulled out, it didn't feel right. When he looked up, he instantly sweatdropped. That giant stone statue certainly pulled out a sword, but…there was only a hilt in its hand. What's going on???

Where's the blade???

Xie Lian was dumbfounded, while Hua Cheng dropped his face and supported his forehead with two fingers.

"…Gege, I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you, I didn't carve the blade of this divine statue. It's my negligence."

"…"

But of course!

Hua Cheng had carved this statue upon the inner stone walls of the Kiln, and in a standing posture. That giant stone statue's robes were flowy and layered, and the sword on the waist was concealed beneath the sleeves, unexposed, so only a hilt was carved. Before the divine statue was injected with spiritual powers and started moving, since it didn't have a blade especially carved, naturally a blade wouldn't just magically appear.

Hua Cheng frowned slightly, his expression solemn. "It's my miscalculation. It's not exquisite enough, next time I will carve out every detail."

"…" Xie Lian could tell he was serious, and quickly said, "No no no, it's already very exquisite. Really!"

In any case, there was no blade, so the mountains couldn't be cut. Thus, Xie Lian instantly changed battle tactics—bolt!

He hastily directed that giant stone statue to jump off from the head of those two mountain spirits, tossing that useless stone hilt behind, and stretched its legs to continue its mad run. The two stood on the crown atop that divine statue's head as wild winds blew at their faces, their black hair, white robes, and red sleeves flipping and fluttering. Even though they were fleeing, they painted a beautiful image.

A silver butterfly flew next to Xie Lian's ears and transmitted a few human voices. He instantly seized the butterfly and called out, "Is that Feng Xin and Mu Qing on the other side? Are Lord Rain Master and General Pei there too?"

Sure enough, familiar voices came from the other end through the butterfly.

"I say, Your Highness," Pei Ming said. "There's no need to be so loud when asking questions?"

"Ah, sorry, I have too much spiritual power at the moment, let me control it a little," Xie Lian said.

"…"

Mu Qing's voice came too, "What? Did you just say you have too much spiritual power? You?"

"Have you all met up?" Xie Lian asked. "Where are you?"

"We've met up with General Pei, General Pei Junior, and the others, and everyone is in the woods near the Wuyong river. We're about to retreat to the outside," Mu Qing said.

Feng Xin's voice came, "What's going on on your end? A strong unusual movement seemed to have come from the Kiln just now! Do you need us to go back and assist?"

Xie Lian quickly replied, "No need! You just stay there and we'll come pick you all up very soon, we'll talk then! Ah, we're already here!"

Ahead was the dried-up Wuyong river, and that giant stone statue crossed the gully and crouched down next to the dense forest. Coincidently, Xie Lian saw Feng Xin and Mu Qing also come out of the woods, looking around, seeming to be searching for them. However, they were looking in the wrong direction. They never thought to look up, so they didn't see Xie Lian and Hua Cheng at all.

Feng Xin said to the butterfly, "Your Highness, you're not here yet? Where are you?"

Xie Lian cupped his hands to his mouth and yelled towards the bottom, "I'M HERE ALREADY, UP, LOOK UP, ABOVE YOUR HEADS!"

"…"

Only then did the two notice that they were shrouded in a gigantic shadow, and they looked up uniformly.

Thus, they both saw at the same time an incomparably gigantic "Xie Lian" that was currently crouched down by the forest, looking downwards at them. There was even a very Xie Lian-like friendly smile on its face.

Hua Cheng couldn't be bothered to spare a glance at the two down below, and he stood on the side hugging his arms, his demeanour lazy. Xie Lian waved to the bottom.

"DO YOU SEE ME? OVER HERE!"

However, because the visual shock of this gigantic version of "Xie Lian" was too great, it was hard to notice anything else at first glance.

Mu Qing's entire field of view was completely overtaken by this face, and he mumbled, "…I haven't gone mad, have I?"

Both of Feng Xin's eyes were filled with this face too, and he mumbled, " …What the fuck, what the fuck, what the actual fuck, what in the fucking world is this thing???"

Xie Lian said, "Uh…"

Hua Cheng raised his brows, looking as if he exerted an immense effort to hold back a laugh. Truth to be told, there really was never anyone who had ever seen such a large and incredibly realistically-sculpted divine statue. In the past, the largest divine statue belonged to Jun Wu, but even that one was only half the size of this giant stone statue…

Feng Xin and Mu Qing were both too shocked, and Xie Lian had to yell a few times before they found where the real one was located. The others all came out of the woods one after the other, and when they looked up, almost all of them were so shocked by this giant divine statue that they almost twisted their necks and feet. Xie Lian didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and made that giant divine statue lay its hand on the ground, opening its palm.

"The Kiln volcano has erupted, the fires are going to scorch this area soon, and there's also three mountain spirits who might catch up soon. Come up quick, I'll take you all away!"

The party climbed up the hand of that divine statue and each found a place to settle. Xie Lian smelled that suffocating smell of sulfur in the air, and when he looked back, black smoke and flying dust were rapidly spreading. So he closed the palm of that giant divine statue and stood up, continuing its large steps forward.

After Pei Ming and the others got over their shock they were fine, but Feng Xin and Mu Qing still never came back to their senses. This was probably because they were both too familiar with the face, demeanour, and physique of the owner of this divine statue, so after having it magnified to such a size, the shock was particularly strong.

Feng Xin was standing on top of this divine statue's shoulder, and was still stewing in disbelief. "Just who did this? Who carved this? How come I've never seen this before? I've never even heard of it before?"

Hua Cheng smiled fakely. "There's way too much you haven't seen in this world."

Although he didn't clarify who, almost everyone, especially Feng Xin and Mu Qing, locked down on the same answer:

THIS GUY DID IT!

"I almost can't believe this…" Mu Qing said. "How are you moving this thing? Just how much spiritual power does this need? Do you have enough? I thought you don't have any spiritual powers?"

This time, Hua Cheng didn't answer. Xie Lian stole a glimpse at him and pressed his fist to his mouth, answering ambiguously.

"Um, well…"

"If there isn't any you can borrow, am I right? Such an easy thing," Pei Ming said.

"Hahahaha, yeah…"

Along the way, when the various monsters and demons saw lava pouring down, blazing fires blowing crazily, they also realized that things were going wrong. And when they saw people were climbing up that giant stone statue, they all cried out.

"WAIT FOR ME, TOO!"

"ME ME ME, I'M COMING TOO!"

"TAKE US, TAKE US!"

However, Hua Cheng said, "Get the hell down."

A wave of silver butterflies flew out, shimmering a chilling light, and then there was wailing and howling down below. Yin Yu was cradling Guzi, who was sound asleep, and he called out.

"CHENGZHU! Your Highness! The empty-shelled people and Corpse-Eating Rats from before suddenly became rowdy and started moving in large groups, looking like they were heading out of Mount Tong'lu!"

The Rain Master on the other hand, was riding the black ox, watching the sky intently. "Those creatures inside the black clouds also seem to want to fly outside."

Her words were true. Those creatures writhing inside the black clouds were all resentful spirits that thirsted for fresh, live flesh to possess, and then to metamorphosize into the Human Face Disease. There weren't any living beings inside Mount Tong'lu; there were only monsters and ghosts, or heavenly officials they couldn't penetrate, so of course they wanted to get out.

Millions of contorted human faces, dragging their long tails of black smoke, swirled like deformed snakes and worms above in the sky.

Xie Lian's hands trembled slightly, but still he said, "Mount Tong'lu has a barrier; nothing outside can come in, and nothing inside can go out, so those resentful spirits shouldn't be able to fly out for the moment…"

Yet unexpectedly, before he finished, Hua Cheng suddenly clutched his hand. Xie Lian's heart tightened at the same time by that gesture and quickly clutched back.

"What is it? Have I drained too much? Sorry sorry, I should conserve my use after all…"

One of Hua Cheng's hands was covering his right eye. "That's not it. Gege, you don't have to worry about that. It's Mount Tong'lu's barrier. It's broken."

Xie Lian was stunned. "What? Broken?"

He only just said not to worry because there was a barrier, what the heck???

"It's broken," Hua Cheng said. "It was probably White No-Face who opened it. Those things, they're going to fly out."