Aiden Starr's voice was on Little Sumeru Mountain one moment, and the next, it was already at the foot of the mountain, chasing after them.
He didn't care about anything else—not even whether he killed his enemies. What mattered most to him was his chest.
His voice was laced with uncontrollable rage. Laughing in fury, he said, "You've got some nerve!"
Under the chest, Ben Coates muttered in a low voice, "That kid really does have guts..."
"You actually dared to team up with that Keane brat and steal my chest! You've got guts, Grand Venerable!"
Starr's voice echoed around them, darting left and right. The darkness made it hard for him to locate Quinn Shepherd and the chest for now, so he had to search by moving about. Still, with his speed, combing a thousand miles was nothing to him.
Finding Quinn Shepherd and the chest was only a matter of time.
"You think I won't kill you? You're too naïve!" Starr's voice came from a hundred miles to the west, and as soon as he finished, it was already coming from the south.
Ben Coates's face turned ashen. He gritted his teeth and said, "What does this have to do with me? I didn't help him steal your chest—I was just escaping while I had the chance!"
On top of the chest, Quinn Shepherd exclaimed, "Starr dealt with the Ghost-Ear Witch God so quickly? That kind of strength is truly terrifying!"
Ben Coates let out a muffled grunt from beneath the chest, muttering, "My master might as well have wasted all these years of his life... But Starr will find it hard to truly refine my master's Primordial Spirit and turn it into one of his collection pieces. Cult Master Quinn, I've got a vicious plan—one that could kill my master and take out Starr in the process!"
Quinn's voice came from atop the chest: "I know what you're thinking. You're planning to head south to Suncrest Mountain in the Great Ruins and unseal the Ghost-Ear Witch God's flesh body. Starr hasn't fully refined the Ghost-Ear's Primordial Spirit yet—he's probably split the Spirit Embryo and souls apart and is suppressing them. The Ghost-Ear Witch God is still a god; if his Primordial Spirit encounters his sealed flesh, he might break free of Starr's suppression. In full form, the Ghost-Ear Witch God wouldn't be weaker than Starr—he'd likely be even stronger. Am I right?"
Ben Coates nodded repeatedly, only to realize Quinn couldn't see him nodding from above.
"Cult Master Quinn, you truly are my lifelong nemesis!"
Ben Coates praised, "With an enemy like you, I have nightmares even when I sleep."
Bruno the Dragon-Qilin grumbled, "Cult Master, I think he's basically insulting you."
Quinn said sincerely, "That's the highest praise I could ask for. But Starr may not be able to handle the Ghost-Ear Witch God in his complete form. If the Ghost-Ear Witch God gets out, the disaster that follows would be unimaginable. Still..."
A frown crept onto Quinn's face. If Starr got hold of the Ghost-Ear Witch God's Primordial Spirit, the calamity would be beyond imagining.
Just think—if Starr could refine the Ghost-Ear Witch God's Primordial Spirit, he could kill anyone he wanted. Of course, Starr had his own standards and wouldn't bother with those he deemed beneath him. But anyone who caught his eye was sure to be a god-tier existence.
With his twisted hobby, every god-tier cultivator would end up dead at his hands—then happily have their divine limbs sliced off for his collection!
This would be an utter catastrophe—its impact on cultivation and divine arts would be beyond measure.
"If only those two monsters could take each other out... that would be ideal..."
Quinn let out a sigh, but ultimately agreed with Ben Coates's plan and drove the chest southward at full speed.
"You won't escape!"
Aiden Starr's voice flickered between near and far. The Great Ruins night was so impenetrably black that even his heaven-piercing powers couldn't immediately locate Quinn and the chest's tracks.
After a short while, Quinn saw the shadowy outline of a colossal chasm ahead, and the sound of waterfalls crashing down from the darkness—more than one waterfall.
It was an extremely steep and perilous cliff.
"Wait, this is the cliff at Yong River Source!"
Quinn drove the chest to the edge of the cliff and looked down, spotting patches of light shining from the cliff wall—he couldn't tell what was producing the glow.
His mind stirred. The last time he'd come here, he'd brought Raina Bear and her daughter. He remembered how this vast escarpment split the Great Ruins into east and west, the cliff towering thousands of zhang high!
The cliff had been formed by a cataclysmic earthquake, tearing the Great Ruins apart and creating a massive fault running north to south.
This was also the source of the Yong River. The river began as waterfalls pouring from the cliff, merging into a mighty river that flowed for tens of thousands of li, eventually reaching Everpeace and becoming its largest waterway.
Quinn had also encountered a bizarre mist event here.
He and Raina Bear with her daughter were caught in a fog that locked the river; inside the mist, they saw a desert and gods forging palaces—gods from the Supreme Sovereign Era. There were ancient gods, commanded by the Pioneer Emperor, transforming the desert into an oasis. They even witnessed the ancient gods excavating the Yong River.
But the strangest thing was seeing the burial of the Supreme Sovereign Era, then, from the mist, gods of another era emerged.
That was when Pioneer Emperor Kaihuang and his ministers encountered the strange fog here, lamenting the passing of an age.
Their experiences became part of Quinn's own uncanny encounter at this place.
Two historical time-echoes overlapped at the source of the Yong River, creating a phenomenon beyond imagination.
Back then, Quinn suspected there might be entrances to other worlds here. He'd even glimpsed the overlapping of five different worlds!
"I wonder what strange things will happen at the Yong River Source after night falls?"
He felt both uneasy and a little excited, steering Aiden Starr's chest down the cliff wall. Beneath the chest, Ben Coates clung tightly to one of its legs, desperate not to be thrown off.
Meanwhile, atop the Golden Summit of Lesser Sumeru Mountain at Little Thunderclap Temple, Little Tathagata sat cross-legged, surrounded by monks with sorrowful faces. Battle-Void knelt there, eyes wide, tears suddenly rolling down and splashing onto the ground.
"I left Great Thunderclap Temple because my master was unjust, giving the Tathagata seat to my senior brother instead of me. If all beings are equal, why can Tathagata only be human, not monster? If Buddhadharma is equal, why can Tathagata only be male, not female?"
Little Tathagata's face glowed with sacred light. He smiled and said, "My cultivation was never inferior to my senior brother's, but I never cared much for human Buddhist teachings. So, out of indignation, I founded a monster-race holy land. I left Great Thunderclap Temple and established Little Thunderclap Temple here. Great Thunderclap, Little Thunderclap—both are Thunderclap, though their interpretations differ, both are Buddhadharma. The Ghost-Ear Witch God has shattered my soul with his Soul-Bowing Rite, and I lack Aiden Starr's strength. Now my soul is about to disperse. Battle-Void, bring me the Xiqiluo Staff."
Battle-Void knelt forward, holding up the Xiqiluo Staff with both hands.
"My senior brother taught you the Grand Buddha Mahayana Scripture through the Xiqiluo Staff, and because of him, I took you as my disciple. Great Thunderclap and Little Thunderclap are reconnected because of you."
Little Tathagata raised his hand, and the Xiqiluo Staff floated in the air. He said, "You are Ma Tathagata's junior at Great Thunderclap Temple. After I die, take the monks from this mountain to Great Thunderclap. Ma Tathagata will accept you all."
He fetched a robe and a scripture, placing the scripture atop the robe and handing both to Battle-Void, with the Xiqiluo Staff settling atop them.
"Ask Ma Tathagata this: Buddhadharma says all beings are equal, so why are monster statues only ever mounts for Buddhas and bodhisattvas? Can our monster race be equal too?"
Little Tathagata's soul began to split and drift away, but he continued, "Ask him again—if monsters can be equal, why are all Buddhist scriptures written by humans? Can monsters write Buddha-texts too?"
"Ask him again—is saving humans merit, and saving monsters also merit?"
"Ask him again—is eating humans killing, and eating monsters also killing? Plants and trees can become monsters too; is eating them killing as well?"
"If he can't answer, give him the Buddhist scripture I wrote as a monster Tathagata. Then he'll accept you all."
Little Tathagata pressed his palms together, smiling: "After I reach nirvana, take my corpse to Great Thunderclap Temple and ask him—can a monster Tathagata be enshrined in the Ten Thousand Buddhas Pagoda?" With that, his soul dispersed.
"Master!"
Battle-Void prostrated himself, and all the monks chanted the Great Compassion Mantra in unison.
"Little Tathagata single-handedly founded Little Thunderclap Temple, making it the only true holy land in the Great Ruins, and the only monster-race holy land as well."
Victor Bloom said softly, "There was no monster-race Buddhism, but he gave monsters their own Buddhadharma. The big monk's state of mind is no less than a Tathagata. Selena, I want to witness the human Buddha and the monster Buddha together."
Selena replied, "I'll go with you to Great Thunderclap Temple. The big guy leading these monster-monk disciples through the Great Ruins will surely face many dangers. We can help keep an eye out."
Victor Bloom said, "Little Thunderclap Temple still has many powerful monks, so crossing the Great Ruins shouldn't be too dangerous. The real danger is Quinn Shepherd. He stole Aiden Starr's chest and kidnapped Loulan's Grand Venerable. This Quinn Shepherd..."
Veins bulged on Victor's forehead. Selena laughed, "Are you jealous of him? Jealous of his exciting life?"
Victor Bloom nodded. "I envy him, but I'm not that kind of person. Even though I admire him, I wouldn't want to live his life. I just hope he survives this ordeal."
Great Ruins cliff.
The giant chest glowed faintly, and the cliff wall also radiated a soft light. All around was darkness that swallowed everything, yet here, there was still light—a wonder to behold.
The chest walked down the steep cliff wall and stopped before a patch of light. Quinn examined the glow, his face full of surprise.
The light wasn't from glowing creatures or treasures on the cliff—it was sunlight shining through cracks in the stone!
Quinn pressed his face to the crack, peering in. He saw a green prairie, a bright sky, and a blazing sun hanging overhead.
Ben Coates also pressed up to the crack, peering inside in astonishment.
Bruno the Dragon-Qilin stuck his rump out and peered into the crack as well, mumbling, "Is there a whole world hidden inside this cliff?"
"It's not that a world is hidden here, but that the cracks in the cliff wall connect directly to another world."
Quinn's eyes darted around, but he couldn't see any more. "I've always known this place was strange—five worlds overlapping... Quiet!"
Suddenly, two enormous beams of light swept down from the top of the cliff, humming as they passed by, missing the group clinging to the cliff wall.
"Aiden Starr's eyes!"
Quinn breathed a sigh of relief—then the twin beams split apart, a hundred li between them, sweeping the cliff face inch by inch, searching!
Quinn was stunned. "Aiden Starr gouged out his own eyes—now they're flying through the air, searching for us!"
His scalp crawled at the thought—just imagining the scene sent chills down his spine.
"Quinn Shepherd, there's a big crack over here!" Ben Coates called urgently.
Quinn hurriedly drove the chest forward. Its legs strode toward the large fissure in the cliff wall, then plunged inside.
[Author's Note: Birthday is over—thanks for the wishes and support! I'll keep working hard to write even more exciting chapters! Brothers, keep those blades ready, just in case...]