Chapter Ninety-Seven: The Transformations Among Everyone

Previously, because the climate had warmed, they had remained in slumber, sleeping from the Ice Age until the present day. Only when their hunger became unbearable would they go out to hunt.

These vile and cunning creatures concealed their tracks, dragging any adventurers or passersby who entered the snow mountains into the darkness, where they tore them apart and devoured them piece by piece.

At these words, everyone froze for a moment, and then a deep chill rose in their hearts.

So the Great Xia nation had once lived on this land alongside beings left behind from the Ice Age?

Imagining the scene of these creatures feeding on human flesh, everyone felt a blaze of fury ignite within them.

Great Xia was not unwilling to welcome neighbors.

But these were not neighbors.

They were enemies!

And for enemies, Great Xia would welcome them only with gunfire and artillery!

But Lin Fan was not finished.

"Now... with the descent of the gods, with the aura of the divine realm appearing on Blue Star, they too will awaken completely!"

"And when they wake, starving and ravenous..."

"Great Xia will become their hunting ground! The unprepared common people will become their food, torn into chunks and stuffed into their mouths, greedily sucked and chewed!"

In Lin Fan's mind, once again arose those scenes of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

The hair-raising sound of chewing, and those ferocious, grotesque, hideous grins, made Lin Fan clench both fists unconsciously.

At this moment, the soldiers and members of the Godslayer Army listening to him also clenched their fists.

"Great Xia is our homeland!"

"We will never allow them to defile our homeland!"

"This is our land!"

"We will never allow them to harm our fellow countrymen!"

Fury burned.

In this instant, whether it was the members of the Godslayer Army or the three hundred soldiers led by Situ Lan, the same flame burned in their eyes.

Defend Great Xia!

This land must never be violated!

Not by gods, not by the uncanny, and certainly not by these evil beings that sought to feed on the people of Great Xia!

"Gunners, set up the machine guns! All combat teams, establish your positions and prepare for battle! You have ten minutes!"

"The instant the cave is blown open, I want your firepower to blanket every corner of that cave. Do not give those snow men a chance to wake up!" Lin Fan shouted into the radio. "Godslayer Army, prepare for battle. Some of the stronger snow men may be able to ignore bullets and shells. The moment the suppressive fire stops, I want you to charge into the cave. Not one snow man may escape. Not one of them may have the chance to set foot on Great Xia territory!"

"Let them see who the real master of this land is now!"

In truth, in his previous life, the snow men who emerged from the snowy mountains were not afraid of bullets and shells at all.

Their hideously resilient skin was beyond imagination, able to withstand rocket-propelled grenades head-on. Only an area bombardment by missiles could completely wipe them out. Yet these creatures were extremely cunning, extraordinarily adept at concealment, and hid in the dark corners where people lived, leaving Great Xia unable to use missiles without restraint.

In the end, Lin Fan and several of Great Xia's guardian deities paid an appalling price before they managed to purge the snow men completely. Even the snow man chieftain, in a furious frenzy, had his bloodline erupt once more and nearly turned the tables on Dao Wuqian of the future.

But now—

Those snow men were still asleep, weak to the point of fragility, not yet nourished enough.

Lin Fan was striking while they still slept!

As those snow men had slaughtered the unprepared common people in his previous life, so would Lin Fan slaughter them in this one!

This was the vengeance of Great Xia from the future!

"Yes!"

The soldiers immediately took orders and began piling together hard ice and frozen, rigid stone to build crude fortifications.

Thirty light and heavy machine guns were assembled at once and mounted at different angles, laid out in a semicircle. Their firing lanes completely covered the cave mouth!

More soldiers also laid a simple minefield before the entrance, leaving only three safe paths for the Godslayer Army. If those snow men wanted to break out, they would have to cross the minefield!

The members of the Godslayer Army likewise took up their stances. Old Master Dao Wuqian held talismans in one hand and a sharp cold sword in the other. The sword’s edge was colder than the snow atop the Heavenly Mountains; killing intent gathered upon it of its own accord, born with a nine-inch blade!

That unseen murderous aura twisted the air around them, and every snowflake that touched it split silently in two!

The Immortal-Slaying Sword.

The Daoist sword of slaughter.

Venerable Compassion, meanwhile, stood wrapped in a brocade Buddhist robe, his whole body radiating boundless Buddhist light. The nine-ring monk’s staff clattered in the bitter wind, and when he gently tapped the ground, the frozen earth cracked like a spiderweb beneath that tremendous weight.

He seemed like a reincarnated living Buddha.

This was the Buddhist relic once worn by that great monk.

Yet Venerable Compassion found something strange about it. By rights, the holy monk Tang Sanzang was said in legend to be helpless and frail... so why was this nine-ring staff so heavy and hard that, had Venerable Compassion not already perfected the Diamond Body of Buddhism, he might not even have been able to lift it?

And then there was the staff itself.

At first, Venerable Compassion had thought the marks on it were mere rust, but upon closer inspection, he discovered they were the blood of countless demons and fiends.

But a monk’s staff in Buddhism was generally only an ornament, at most used to enhance Buddhist qi. It was not a weapon for battle at all.

Moreover, legend held that Tang Sanzang never killed. In those tales, it was rather the unruly Great Sage Equal to Heaven under his name who was fiercely bloodthirsty and tyrannical, endowed with immense strength, while Tang Sanzang himself was merely a kindhearted man too gentle to harm a chicken, wishing only to save all beings.

So the question was this:

How had the supposedly powerless holy monk Tang Sanzang carried this immensely heavy nine-ring staff all the way on the journey west, with the staff even stained by the blood essence of countless demons and monsters?

Ever since he obtained this nine-ring staff, Venerable Compassion had felt that something was off, as though the Buddhist texts’ account of the holy monk Tang Sanzang might be mistaken...

But in any case.

As Venerable Compassion stood there, resplendent Buddhist light burst forth, merit clouds guarded his body, and his entire figure seemed gilded in gold.

He was nothing short of sacred, a being who pitied the world.

At the same time, Xingye held the Fish Intestine Sword. His whole person seemed to transform into clouded ink, drifting and vanishing within the biting wind, impossible to catch even by the naked eye.

Gongshu Ming, however, was even more eye-catching.

By now, besides the left arm that had already been severed, even his formerly intact right arm had become a steel prosthetic, covered in intricate patterns. One glance made it clear that it contained who knew how many mechanisms within.

And the saw in his hand gleamed with icy light, as though it could saw through anything.

As for Mister Mo Buzhi, he was very low-key.

He held the Master's Brush in his hand and stood quietly there. Yet in the few days since they had last seen him, Mister Mo Buzhi seemed to have grown much stronger. His originally flowing Confucian robe was now bulging tight with a bizarre and terrifying mass of muscles that had appeared from nowhere.