Chapter 162: Return

The area covered by Chen Jin's spiritual sense was completely enveloped by this rolling sea of dark clouds. Within these layers of turbulent clouds, the twisting "loach-like" entity could no longer be perceived by him, which was precisely what troubled Chen Jin the most—the unknown is always the most terrifying.

However, while the sky held the unknown, the earth was by no means a mystery. Therefore, Chen Jin's gaze pierced like a sword straight toward "Little Mao."

Swoosh...

The flying sword in "Little Mao's" hand suddenly jerked, instantly shredding Little Mao's palm into a bloody pulp, with bits of flesh, bone fragments, and residual blood splashing in all directions.

The flying sword returned once again to Chen Jin's hand.

"All living beings suffer, and this is the suffering of the flesh." "Little Mao" smiled as he looked at his mutilated hand.

"You truly are full of boundless mercy. Since you are so merciful, why manifest yourself here and forcibly seize this kid's physical body? Could it be that your mercy is nothing more than filth at the bottom of a cesspit, capable only of spilling forth and never of being reined in?" Chen Jin asked bluntly.

"Hehe, mercy is not something I preach, so benefactor, please do not shower me with unearned praise." "Little Mao" shook his hand, and immediately, his mangled hand began to regenerate, returning to its original state at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Watching this scene, Chen Jin furrowed his brows deeply. This regeneration was not like healing a simple wound and then recovering; rather, it was the complete destruction of an entire organ followed by instant restoration. These were fundamentally two entirely different levels of healing.

In short, Chen Jin himself was still incapable of achieving such a feat.

Moreover, the entity's words struck Chen Jin as somewhat strange. This was by no means a monk who constantly had mercy on his lips; this was entirely a heretic who had strayed from the orthodox path.

Chen Jin recalled the monk he had met that night in the fake temple—that too was a monk with a story, vastly different from the one before him now.

These thoughts flashed rapidly through Chen Jin's mind, yet he had no intention of reasoning with "Little Mao." With a sudden movement, he lashed out with a palm strike.

This palm strike surged with wind and thunder, as if the dark clouds in the sky had finally accumulated enough strength to vent their pent-up grievances, unleashing a thunderous might.

Rumble...

Chen Jin's palm could now truly be called a palm thunder, and visually, its intimidation factor was quite extraordinary.

Furthermore, it was far from just for show; the air surrounding the two of them was scorched by the extreme heat of the thunder, and the burning stench was pungent enough to choke the nose.

Yet "Little Mao" felt not the slightest bit of anxiety—or rather, Chen Jin's attack was so swift that he had no time to display any expression. Although facial expressions failed him, his body's reflex was extremely fast. Thrusting his hands forward, a layer of grayish Qi surfaced to cover them.

Four palms violently collided with one another.

Thud-thud-thud...

"Little Mao" failed to withstand Chen Jin's palm force, toppling backward directly onto the ground and spinning around three times in the dirt.

Seeing this, Chen Jin pressed his advantage relentlessly, instantly summoning a bolt of lightning.

The lightning materialized abruptly in mid-air, instantly enveloping "Little Mao." Even as he rolled about, he was utterly incapable of escaping this volley of thunder, which forcefully pinned his body to the ground and mercilessly "flagellated" him.

Roar-hiss...

A cry resembling both a serpent and a dragon echoed from within "Little Mao's" body.

The lightning that had previously shrouded "Little Mao" vanished in an instant, and "Little Mao" himself disappeared as well, leaving only a massive python coiling in place and darting its forked tongue.

With cold, sinister eyes, it stared fixedly at Chen Jin, continuously flicking its tongue as if it intended to swallow Chen Jin whole in a single gulp.

"The Eight Dragons of the Heavenly Realm?" Chen Jin asked with a peculiar expression as he looked at the giant python.

It seemed that according to the records in ancient Buddhist scriptures, the Eight Dragons of the Heavenly Realm looked precisely like this. Perhaps dragons did not truly exist there; rather, it was massive pythons that attained the righteous fruit, and they were referred to as dragons by mortals...

His-sss...

The giant python was as thick as a grown man and three zhang in length, repeatedly darting its tongue toward Chen Jin.

"Have you stopped being human?" Chen Jin shouted boisterously at the giant python.

"#￥%**&+@￥..." The giant python hissed while uttering a string of bizarre utterances.

"Sanskrit?" Chen Jin listened with curiosity.

He had studied Sanskrit, and his mastery of the language was likely even superior to that of ordinary monks.

Yet, despite his proficiency, the way the giant python was hissing and speaking left him completely unable to comprehend a single word. He could only rely on a faint curry-like accent to deduce that it was indeed Sanskrit.

Rumble...

Just as Chen Jin was conjecturing, he suddenly felt the ground beneath his feet turn loose and give way. The earth was collapsing.

The moment Chen Jin perceived the situation, he immediately leaped into the air, attempting to evade it.

However, an irresistible gravitational pull emanated from beneath the earth, anchoring Chen Jin's entire body and exerting a vertical downward drag, pulling him inexorably into the sinking ground.

Chen Jin found himself unable to ascend into the air; he could only be dragged bodily into the earth by this immense force.

Crackling sounds erupted all over Chen Jin's body. The earth that threatened to bury him was blasted into fine powder by the thunder he released, but this pulverized soil instantly reaggregated into a sticky, fluid state, redoubling its efforts to bury Chen Jin all the more fiercely.

"￥……#￥*&@#￥" Another string of incomprehensible language reached Chen Jin's ears.

Thud...

Following that, Chen Jin felt the fluid earth pressing in around him solidify in an instant. His entire body seemed to have been directly encased in quick-drying concrete, and this concrete hardened rapidly, pinning him firmly in place.

However, this battle of magic was far from over, for Chen Jin had also summoned reinforcements.

Against the Eight Dragons of the Heavenly Realm, Chen Jin was undoubtedly no match—or rather, not a match at all, much like an infant fighting an adult.

Yet infants are capable of calling upon adults. Just as "Little Mao" had summoned the Eight Dragons of the Heavenly Realm, Chen Jin was naturally able to do the same.

Chen Jin had summoned Zhang Daoling, the celestial master and ancestor of the Zhang family.

Consequently, Chen Jin spent the subsequent moments underground, listening to the successive violent explosions and feeling the intense tremors shuddering through the earth above.

After about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, the external clamor fell completely silent.

Just as Chen Jin anticipated being rescued from his "concrete" prison, he suddenly experienced a dizzying spin of the heavens and earth.

The scenery within his field of vision was no longer dark-yellow soil and rocks, but rather the familiar layout of his modern home. He had abruptly returned.

He hadn't even had the chance to feign some sort of ascension, and as for whether Lü Dongbin's wife, Wei Sangzi, had been saved... well, Chen Jin could easily verify that by checking the black leather book.

The answer was yes, she had been saved; Wei Sangzi's fate seemed to have been altered... or perhaps not quite, for Chen Jin wasn't entirely clear on what her original destiny had been, seeing as those books contained no record of such a person.

Nevertheless, with the great master Lü Dongbin backing the operation from behind the scenes, the completion of the task was guaranteed.

As for the reward for this mission, Chen Jin had already secured it: a volume of the *Pure Yang Sword Classic*, an ounce of *Taibai Gengjin*, a bottle of *Pure Yang Pills*, and a volume of *Master Lü's Personal Notes*. It appeared that Master Lü was exceedingly satisfied, as the rewards bestowed were remarkably generous.