Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know

End of the Great War

The Biluo Valley Master said, "Then it's fortunate we still have a backup plan."

"Amitabha." The Wuxiang Temple abbot softly flicked the prayer beads in his hand, and after reciting a Buddha's name, he tossed them into the air.

At the same time, Shu Yanyan and Qiu Congxue saw above their heads a peacock shining with multicolored divine light. Under the light, the spider lilies withered. Shu Yanyan's smile froze on her mouth and she said dully, "No way, the Buddhists have even called in the Great Peacock Wisdom King?"

In Buddhist teachings, it was said that the peacock was born from the phoenix, and liked to eat people. One day, she devoured the Buddha, who cut her stomach and escaped, and wanted to kill her. The other Buddhas dissuaded him, believing the peacock had a destiny to be reborn, so he sealed her in a spiritual mountain and gave her the title, "Mother of Buddha, Great Peacock Wisdom King Bodhisattva".

The Peacock King was said to have the power to protect from disasters, cure illnesses, and prolong life. Shu Yanyan's flowers and Qiu Congxue's ghosts were both powerless under its might.

Under the Buddha's light, the spider lilies wilted, and the vengeful ghosts reentered the paths of samsara.

Shu Yanyan had it a bit better. Even if minds were cleared of desires under the Buddha's light and the power of her charm was weakened, it didn't harm her foundation. However, Qiu Congxue was a ghost cultivator, and she was in danger of being released from the world into samsara, her very life at risk.

Within the couple dozen remaining Nascent Soul disciples, eighteen took off their wigs and exposed bald heads, sat cross-legged, and began reciting sutras.

"What's going on?" Shu Yanyan cried. "I never heard there were a bunch of monks in the array! I can't do anything to them!"

Qiu Congxue chuckled in the midst of the Buddha's light and said, "Just now, we've killed or injured most of these righteous disciples, and the rest are vitally injured and can't fight anymore. Our duties are already done. Just wait for me to destroy the Wisdom King avatar, so you can escape."

"Are you crazy? Do you want to be sent on?" Shu Yanyan said. "Is Qiu Congxue someone who'll sacrifice herself for others?"

"Oh, you shut up." Qiu Congxue gave Shu Yanyan a kick and flew upward. Many bones extended from her body, blocking the Buddha light for her.

A string of prayer beads was faintly visible in the light. Qiu Congxue could smell her own body burning, and her shield of bones gradually dissipated under the light's assault.

She found it!

Reaching out bone fingers, she grabbed the prayer beads and threw them into the distance.

Shu Yanyan heard a terrible cry come from Qiu Congxue, and her silhouette vanished in the light. The eighteen monks all spat up blood. In this fight in which neither side had attacked, there ended up being no victor.

The Buddha's light vanished. Shu Yanyan glanced at the beaten and bloodied righteous cultivators and the monks who had no more power to fight. Her smile faded and she said lightly, "You can go."

The crowd stared at her uncomprehendingly, having thought she would start a massacre. Instead they heard, "There have been uncountable casualties in this decade-long war. Both the righteous and demonic sects will need a century to recover afterward. Enough have died, and I've also done enough killing already."

With a piece of black cloth in her hand, she turned and left, leaving the surviving cultivators looking at each other in disbelief.

At the outskirts of the Xuanyuan Sect's mountain range, Baili Qingmiao was unceasingly working to pick up fallen cultivators, giving first aid to the survivors. She headed further and further, gradually leaving behind the other troops, and when she saw a black-robed figure on a riverbank, she quickly picked them up with the Moonlit Frost Silk.