"As long as the Fearful God hasn’t completely turned to ash, her remains and her will refuse to disperse."
"Alas, people of this world relish the blessings brought by the Saintess, yet they often only pay lip service to honor the Mother Goddess, while secretly defying her, causing deep disappointment!"
His words were quite sorrowful, as if the identity of the mad Taoist was merely a disguise, hiding beneath those black robes a heart deeply wounded by the worldly cares, filled with great wisdom, great love, and great kindness.
"Heh." Yan Hui chuckled but did not respond.
He was a domineering person, being the high-level Commander of the Red Emperor Army, just one step away from being a "General," not even believing his own Holy Emperor, let alone anyone else?
However, the remains of a Great Cultivator at least at the Demigod Level, although unable to directly replace divinity and aid in breaking through to a demigod like "Earth Immortal Relics," could still have certain research value if brought back.
After hesitating for a moment, Yan Hui suddenly said, "Since this is supposedly the white lotus bud that the two demon paths pointedly asked for, let’s just take it away."
Saying this, he prepared to dispatch a few subordinates with lesser strength to try and remove the carcass of the White Lotus Saintess.
As for saying that the remains would incite burning desires and madness in those who saw her, that was simple; cover their eyes and plug their ears. If they don’t see or hear, it’ll be fine. Otherwise, simply poke out their eyes and deafen them, solutions are always more than difficulties.
The black-clad old Taoist stopped him, saying, "Great Commander, there’s no need to hurry. The Saintess’ remains here still control part of the grand array, suppressing the Fearful God! With her here, our efforts to eliminate the Fearful God can be twice as effective."
"Oh?" Yan Hui glanced at the old Taoist.
The old Taoist bowed his head and said, "Indeed! Don’t worry about the Saintess’ remains yet, the Fearful God is just below this hall, the direction the Saintess is looking at today is where the terrifying and strange entity is buried!"
"Hmm."
Seeing this, Yan Hui did not insist, nor did anyone try to gouge eyes or ears, but first approached the front door, while waving his hand to signal his men to disperse.
Those below the Second Tier surrounded the entire Taoist temple inside and out, ready to cover this place with the strongest firepower for remote support at any time.
Those with special professions in the Second Tier, and all Third Tier Holy Knights and others, followed in together.
After doing all this, Yan Hui made a gesture of "please."
The old Taoist immediately understood, took out a round object resembling a baby skull, and performed unclear operations.
Creek!
Amidst heavy friction sounds, the temple’s main door slowly opened, revealing the interior completely.
The arrangement inside the temple was nothing unusual; clock and drum towers, halls laid flat, much like the Taoist temple ruins and remnants seen in the past.
The only peculiar aspect was, none of the statues were complete in the various halls inside the temple that were supposed to house all sorts of deities; no god statues were enshrined.
Only in the main hall, the "Three Pure Ones Hall," were there still statues placed, though they had been intentionally altered.
Where there should have been three statues, there were now two Mother Goddess statues.
On the left was empty, in the center was the "Mother of Non-Birth," and on the right was the "No-Life Buddha Mother."
Everyone’s brows furrowed simultaneously.
Although the Red Emperor Army believed in the new god—the Holy Emperor was a declaration spontaneously propagated by the Salvation Army before and after the Great Catastrophe, prior to this they had other names such as
Regardless of whether they worshiped the Taoist sects, facing this severely incomplete, deformed, and chaotic visual, it made everyone intrinsically feel discomfort.
"Commander Yan Hui, once we open the secret passage, the Fearful God is trapped below in the sealed secret chamber, a sure catch!"
The black-clad old Taoist made no special devout gestures of worship towards the two statues of the Mother Goddess but explained a few statements before stepping forward to fumble underneath for a while.
Upon finding a switch, he directly pushed the statues aside without any reverence, pointing at the steel door seemingly welded shut with stacks, and continued: "However, you’ll need brute force to open this entrance gate, requiring some effort from you all..."
Midway through his words, suddenly from behind came the scream of a girl.
Everyone looked over and realized that unexpectedly a person was hiding behind the statues, probably due to the perfect spot, precisely behind the two statues making everyone feel uncomfortable, hence hadn’t been noticed before.
Until she herself caused noise following the statues’ movement, did she attract attention.
This was a woman seemingly under twenty years old with short white hair, her attire suggesting she was a "local" from the relics.
At this moment, the white-haired girl was delirious, speaking to herself:
"Don’t... don’t! Don’t come in!"
"Don’t come in... don’t delve... don’t come in! Don’t delve!"
With hands clutching her head, an expression of panic and extreme pain was on her face, making one easily speculate she had experienced some severe mental trauma.
While everyone hesitated suspiciously, without understanding what suddenly provoked the white-haired girl, she abruptly stood up.
"They’ve come in... hahaha, you’re going to die... you’re going to die! Everyone’s going to die, you’re all going to die!"
Her face instantly revealed numerous blood-red fissures, turning gruesomely monstrous as she jumped, directly lunging towards the direction of Yan Hui and the old man in black, a vertical fleshy mouth on her forehead spewing out a dense yellow-green gas, possibly containing strong poison!
Seeing this, Yan Hui dismissed the idea of interrogating, directly releasing a streak of Sword Qi.
The girl halted mid-air, convulsed a few times, then the sound of "crack! crack!" emanated from within her body.
After a few seconds, her body exploded with a bang, torn to pieces by the Sword Qi imbued inside, her flesh and bones, along with the poisonous gas she spewed, were all sliced apart.
She fell, turning into a puddle of mud, no longer moving.
"What was that?" Yan Hui asked, turning around.
The black-clad old Taoist observed for a moment, then suddenly realized, "Oh~ I got it, this might be a sacrificial offering for the Mother of Non-Birth!"
"Sacrificial offering?"
Yan Hui frowned instantly.
What offering needs to be sent here?
Isn’t this place supposed to seal the Fearful God?
While he was pondering, the black-clad old Taoist was already waving dismissively, "Just a frantically escaping sacrifice, don’t mind her. Great Commander, the time is almost up, better hurry to open the door, we’ll strike together and hunt down the Fearful God!"
"Hmm."
Yan Hui seemed thoughtful but no longer hesitated. After giving a command, seven imposing men resembling small giants, all captains of the Holy Knight squad, the "Dragon Elephant" in the team, marched forth.
Additionally, more than a dozen Second Tier "Iron Armor" clad in exoskeletons, looking over four meters tall, entered together.
"One, Two!"
"When the Holy Emperor descends, creating heaven and earth, saving all beings!"
The crowd lined up in stance, chanting incantations to form an array, their bodies transforming as muscles surged to become monstrous.
It’s worth noting the Red Emperor Army had originally reserved eight Third Tier "Dragon Elephants" meant to open the gate.
However, due to certain unforeseen circumstances, one "Dragon Elephant" was missing.
But it was not a problem; as Commander of this place and the leader, Yan Hui stepped forward.
Though not a "Dragon Elephant," he possessed some innate divine strength, coupled with being a "Grandmaster" in the Three Martial Arts, thereby barely filling the formation’s gap, providing some support.
With the array force bolstered, they encircled the steel plate on the ground, raised their voices, and began using brute force to open the gate.
The so-called gate was firmly embedded in the ground, a four-meter square steel plate filled with engravings and bloodstains, not merely weight but seemingly some kind of array; breaking it with brute force wasn’t so simple.
However, as the black-clad old Taoist recited peculiar chants nearby, everyone shouted slogans and exerted their utmost, in such collective effort, the steel gate was eventually forcibly lifted at one corner.
Creek——ah!
Amidst teeth-grinding piercing friction sounds, the steel gate, much like an innocent maiden forced upon the ground, slowly, arduously opened a slit.
And this slit was gradually widened open, bigger and bigger, revealing below a dark, seemingly abyssal square shaft!
Time ticked away, the gap increasingly widened.
As the steel plate was about to be completely lifted, the black-clad old Taoist’s eyes gleamed with joy.
Just then, a figure abruptly approached Yan Hui, crashing into him.
The black-clad old Taoist’s pupils shook:
"Yin Hu, what are you doing?!"