Chapter 290
Chapter 290
Breaking the deadlock — that was the whole reason I had gathered these hundred Mouse Immortal juniors to carry out the “Substitution Ruse.”
They were excellent swimmers and possessed cultivation. They could coordinate with me perfectly and help me carry out my plan.
Whatever the outcome, at least we had a chance to fight.
The river battered our bodies as the waves rose higher and higher. Overhead, lightning wove across the sky amid deafening thunder.
The water gradually climbed past my chest. At this depth, the Mouse Immortal juniors behind me were almost completely submerged. All that remained visible on the river’s surface was a “White Dragon” formed from a chain of one hundred white porcelain lanterns.
The “Hundred Children Frolic with the Dragon Lantern” Sacrifice ritual was about to reach its final stage — Shatter the Lanterns and Send the Deity Home.
Crack!
The instant the final bolt of heavenly lightning struck, I called out another warning. “Children, guard your lanterns!”
No sooner had the words left my mouth than the river ahead of me suddenly bulged into a wave taller than a man. The enormous swell came crashing straight toward us.
I gripped the Soul-Guiding Lantern tightly, planted my feet firmly in the river, and faced the towering wave head-on.
In the blink of an eye, it was upon me.
Water cascaded down the curve of the crest, revealing the Three-Eyed Toad lurking behind it.
The Three-Eyed Toad was enormous, standing a full two meters tall.
It crouched in the river, its body covered in lumps of every size. A pair of bulging eyes looked down on us with disdain, while the third eye on its forehead slowly opened beneath my gaze.
Golden light gradually spilled out from beneath its rising eyelid.
It was Buddha light.
The instant that Buddha light appeared, the Three-Eyed Toad suddenly reared upright.
At the same moment, I swept out an arm and charged toward it with the Soul-Guiding Lantern in hand.
I shouted at the top of my lungs, “Children, hold on to your white porcelain lanterns and charge with me!”
Above the raging river, the light of the Soul-Guiding Lantern shone like the morning star in the dead of night, leading the “White Dragon” straight toward the colossal creature before us.
In an instant, all I could hear was the roaring chaos of fetid wind and Blood Rain, the repeated cracks of white porcelain lanterns shattering, and the occasional muffled groans of the Mouse Immortal juniors.
I couldn’t see the way ahead, but I could still feel the small hand gripping the clothes at my waist.
The Mouse Immortal juniors were still holding on. What right did I have to retreat?
From the moment they assembled and entered the water, they had chosen to place their complete trust in me. That made it my responsibility to lead them through every obstacle in our path. Even if we ultimately failed to break this trap, I would die alongside them.
Without the “Substitution Ruse,” the Giant Three-Eyed Toad could never have appeared.
Something had gone wrong with the Sacrifice Formation, forcing the enemy to change their strategy on the fly.
The moment the Giant Three-Eyed Toad appeared, I knew that the active Sacrifice controlled by the Formation had turned into a passive Sacrifice.
Our only chance of survival was to break the Formation embodied by the Giant Three-Eyed Toad.
Only then would we have a chance to confront the Buddha Head Formation directly.
I kept moving, struggling to adapt to my surroundings. My eyes opened and closed in rapid succession, keeping the Three-Eyed Toad’s mucus from obscuring my vision.
I repeatedly swept the Soul-Guiding Lantern around me, using its light to survey the entire space.
Everything was a nauseating mix of red and yellow, with revolting mucus coating every surface.
I looked up.
Amid that sea of red and yellow, countless half-open eyes stared deeply at me as though gazing out from an abyss.
I knew that only one among those countless eyes concealed the Formation Eye.
Only by locating it precisely and destroying it could I break the Formation.
The cracks of shattering white porcelain lanterns and the pained groans of the Mouse Immortal juniors grew louder and louder. They circled endlessly in my ears, interfering with my judgment.
There were too many.
Far too many eyes — and every single one looked exactly the same. There was no way to tell them apart.
The seconds continued to tick by. The Three-Eyed Toad’s Heavenly Tribulation was nearing its end, and every passing moment could decide its success or failure — and whether we lived or died.
I bit down hard on my lip until it bled, using the pain to keep my mind clear and prevent the illusions from enslaving me.
Even so, my eyes inevitably began to sting, and my vision blurred.
The eyes overhead gradually seemed to melt together, becoming a single, enormous image of the Buddha Eyes radiating sacred light…
I squeezed my eyes shut and took several deep breaths in a row, repeating silently to myself, Xiao Jiu, stay calm! You have to stay calm! These are all illusions. None of this is real!
In that split second, something flashed through my mind.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the Golden Scale I had retrieved from the grave pit, then flicked it lightly with my finger.
The Golden Scale shone with a golden Light of Merit.
I flung it high into the air. The instant the Golden Scale left my hand, I opened my eyes and swiftly swept my gaze across the space above us.
Among the countless half-lidded eyes, I locked on to my target in an instant.
I sprang into the air and snatched the Golden Scale back, then pressed my Sword Finger against the lantern chamber. Blood welled from the wound on my fingertip, and the Ghost Face entities on the chamber immediately grew excited.
I whipped my Sword Finger toward the upper right. There was an eye there whose pupil had flashed with bloodred light the moment the Golden Scale appeared. With furious roars, all four Ghost Face entities charged toward it at once.
They sank their teeth into the eye with unerring precision and tore at it savagely.
The next moment, the entire space began to shake.
Countless globs of slime rained down, as though they meant to drown every last one of us.
The sounds of white porcelain shattering and the Mouse Immortal juniors moaning had lingered endlessly in my ears, but they were suddenly drowned out by a piercing croak.
The space shook so violently that I couldn’t keep my footing. Clutching the Soul-Guiding Lantern, I staggered from side to side.
Even so, the small hand at my waist still held on to me tightly.
The long line behind me swayed and pitched along with me, rising and sinking, yet not a single person let go or fell behind from beginning to end!
As the ripping and chewing from the Ghost Face entities grew louder, the half-lidded eyes overhead winked out one after another.
At last, one of the Ghost Face entities swallowed the Formation Eye whole. A shrill croak rang out alongside a thunderous boom, and with a deafening crash, the entire space shattered into pieces.
Our bodies were swept into the river and carried rapidly toward its center by the churning water.
The siphoning current was too powerful. After tumbling several times beneath the water, my body was suddenly forced to a complete halt.
Behind me, a tremendous force twisted together like a rope and pushed my body steadily forward.
The sensation was indescribably strange.
I felt like an arrow nocked on a bowstring, except the taut string had been buried beneath the mud and sand. Both arrow and string seemed to have turned to stone, pinned firmly beneath the riverbed.
The raging water rushed past our bodies and rapidly receded.
I silently breathed a sigh of relief.
The small hand that had been clutching the clothes at my side loosened as well.
I immediately caught it, pulled it back, and pressed it against its original spot.
The Three-Eyed Toad Formation might have been broken, but we had yet to claim final victory.
This wasn’t over yet.
The next moment, not far ahead of us in the direction of Xiaoyingkou, sacred light flared. Someone was standing there.
It was a Copper-Coin Monk, his entire body wrapped in Golden Copper Coin after Golden Copper Coin!
He walked toward us one step at a time.
His head was bowed, one hand held upright before his chest while the other continuously rolled his Prayer Beads. With every step he took, the ring of sacred light beneath his feet expanded toward us.
Gradually, that halo of light descended over me.
In that instant, it was as if he and I were the only two beings left between heaven and earth.
He extended the palm holding the Prayer Beads toward me, and a familiar, gentle voice rang out.
“Ah Wu, let us attain Ascension together…”