His ten clones, taking advantage of the immobilization of the original, threw themselves on the back of the Evil Buddha like a pack of wolves on a wounded deer. They did not scratch this time, they bit. Using the Devourer Physique in its most raw form, the clones sank their teeth into the flesh of the entity, and they sucked its Qi directly from the source, without filter, without restraint.
"Gwaaaaaah!" the Evil Buddha let out an unspeakable cry of agony as he felt his essence of the Path of Humans and the Path of Asuras being literally pumped out of his body by these starving parasites.
One could see the entity’s muscles withering in places, its scarlet skin turning gray like that of a forgotten corpse. The golden blood stopped flowing, and it was replaced by black smoke of Yin Qi purified by BaiShe’s devouring hunger. The entity emptied itself of its substance, its tattoos extinguishing one by one.
"That’s it, give me everything," thought BaiShe, while his Omega Heart raced at a dangerous rhythm, transmuting the stolen power into a Primordial-rank energy that radiated from his body like a second sun.
The Evil Buddha, in a fit of desperate fury, triggered an explosion from his Dantian. This explosion projected a blinding shockwave that repelled the clones, sending them crashing to the ground like rag dolls, their broken bodies smoking in the lava. He freed himself from the original and staggered back several steps, his severed arm already regenerating in a whirlwind of black fire, although smaller than before and less firm.
"You are a monster... an abomination that devours its own world..." panted the Evil Buddha, his face now marked by the first traces of fear that he had not shown until then. His voice trembled, and his six arms hung limply at his sides.
BaiShe landed on a piece of floating rock, and he wiped the blood from his lips with the back of his clawed hand. His expression was that of a spoiled child who has just discovered a new toy, a mixture of wonder and cruelty.
"A monster? No, I am simply the variable that the Dao had not foreseen in your cycle of reincarnation," replied BaiShe in a calm voice. "Logic dictates that the strongest survives, and look at yourself. You are already decomposing under my influence. Your flesh is withering, your blood is drying up, and your fear is growing."
Simultaneously, the ten clones rose one by one, and they merged again with the original in a blinding light. This fusion increased BaiShe’s stature by several centimeters, and it made his aura even more suffocating than before. The skeletal hands emerging from the spatial rifts became thousands, then tens of thousands, forming a forest of emaciated limbs that extended all around the Evil Buddha without leaving any escape.
"I am far from finished with you, Buddha," added BaiShe as he raised his bone blade toward the purple sky streaked with black lightning. "I want to see every fiber of your Dantian liquefy in my veins. I want to feel your essence flow through my meridians. I want your death to be so slow that you can count every beat of your heart before extinction."
The Evil Buddha screamed again, and this scream was a vibration so powerful that it made black blood rain from the clouds above them. He condensed all his remaining Qi into his six fists, and he created six suns of destruction that swirled around him, emitting unbearable heat. He knew perfectly well that the next exchange would decide the very existence of the Immortal Grave and everything in it.
The Evil Buddha’s anger became a tangible source of energy. His blood-red Qi, nourished by the fury of the Asura, thickened until it became a viscous molasses that corroded the basaltic ground. Xuan BaiShe, despite his Primordial Devourer Physique and his Omega Heart that was pumping Khao at a frantic pace, felt the tide turning.
"You think you can consume the abyss, serpent?" roared the Evil Buddha, his voice a chorus of the damned resonating in the crater. "Your stomach is vast, but my hatred is infinite!"
Simultaneously, the Evil Buddha entered a destructive trance.
<Mode Berserk: Unchained Asura Rage.>
The entity no longer seemed to feel pain. It ignored the claws of BaiShe’s clones that tore at its flanks, projecting shreds of red flesh and golden blood. With a cry that made the last structures of the pagoda collapse, the Evil Buddha unleashed his rage. His six arms moved with a speed that surpassed the perception of an ordinary Overlord.
A first clone of BaiShe was seized by two muscular hands. With a sickening sound of green wood breaking, the Evil Buddha spread his arms, tearing the clone in two from top to bottom. The silver blood, manifestation of BaiShe’s Qi, splashed the ground before evaporating into purple smoke. A second clone tried to bite the monster’s neck, but the Evil Buddha plunged his fingers into its eye sockets, exploding its head in a rain of spectral fragments.
Its power increases exponentially every second, thought BaiShe, retreating a few meters while his clones were being massacred. Logic dictates that if this fight drags on in this form, my Dantian will suffer irreparable damage before I can stabilize it.
Suddenly, thanks to his Art: Third Eye, BaiShe perceived familiar Qi signatures approaching at high speed from the north. It was a vibration of purity, of Buddhist chants and sacred steel. The monks of Mount Hua, alerted by the breaking of the seals, were arriving as reinforcements. Among them, he felt the azure and pulsating aura of Zhi Mei.
They are arriving, noted BaiShe, his purple pupils regaining a normal glow.
’I cannot be seen in this Celestial Demon form by the saintess and the monks.’
Consequently, BaiShe made an instant decision. He recalled the entirety of his Chaotic Qi into his Omega Heart. The process was painful, his meridians burning under the brutal reflux of the devouring energy. His black hair became silver again, his horns retracted into his skull with a sinister crack, and his hands regained their scholarly finesse. He deactivated his remaining clones, which dissipated into a mist of neutral Qi.
The Evil Buddha, blinded by his berserk, did not understand the change. He projected his massive fist toward the real BaiShe. The young master did not try to parry with his devourer power. He preferred to let himself be partially struck to perfect his staging. The impact sent him to the ground, his body rolling in the gray ash.
It was at that moment that Zhi Mei burst from the sky, her Sidhe wings deployed and radiant.
"BAISHE!" she screamed, her voice vibrating with pure anguish.
She landed heavily beside him, her light armor emitting an azure shockwave that temporarily repelled the Evil Buddha. She knelt near him, her metal-gloved hands trembling as she lifted his torso.
"I beg your pardon, my Lord..." she murmured, tears in her eyes upon seeing BaiShe’s blood-stained face. "It took me too long to find you... this monster has reduced you to this state..."
BaiShe coughed, spitting a trickle of silver blood, and placed a weak hand on the templar’s arm. The Yin-Yang symbol on his forehead began to glow with a white light, confirming his identity as Executor to the eyes of the arriving monks.
"Miss... Mei..." he articulated with difficulty. "My duty required... that I come here... to contain this evil... Blame only my own zeal..."
Zhi Mei helped him to his feet, her purity Qi infusing into BaiShe’s body to support him. Around them, a hundred monks in saffron robes encircled the Evil Buddha. The dean of the group, a man with parchment-like skin, raised his pilgrim’s staff.
"Impious monster!" thundered the dean. "You have soiled the body of a disciple and broken the chains of the Dao! By the seven mantras of Mount Hua, we will send you back to nothingness!"
The Evil Buddha let out a laugh that sounded like a metallic rattle. His berserk mode was at its peak. He no longer saw monks, but obstacles to his hunger for divinity.
"Ants that sing..." spat the entity. "Come... my Dantian still has room for your mediocre souls!"
The fight resumed with multiplied violence. The monks began to recite the Sutra of Great Compassion, creating a golden dome to imprison the monster. But the Evil Buddha, in his Asura rage, did not seem to weaken. He projected himself forward, becoming a trail of black fire.
The scene became a slaughter. The Evil Buddha seized the first monk in his path. With his upper left hand, he grabbed his head, and with his right hand, he seized his pelvis. With a brutal twist, he separated the monk’s body in two. The golden blood of the religious, rich in sacred Qi, gushed in fetid fountains, covering the stone slabs.
"AHHHH!" the cries of the monks mingled with the crash of crushed bones.
The Evil Buddha did not stop. He used his six arms like scythes. He grabbed two monks by the neck and struck their skulls against each other until they exploded in a cloud of brain matter and bone fragments. One could hear the hiss of the Qi that the monster avidly sucked in with each kill, nourishing his berserk.
Zhi Mei, seeing her allies being massacred, tried to rush forward, but BaiShe tightened his grip on her shoulder.
"Wait, Miss Mei..." he murmured, coldly observing the carnage. "His strength is currently beyond all measure... Look... he is tearing the very fabric of the domain."
The Evil Buddha was at the center of a cyclone of flesh and blood. He plunged his hand into a dean’s plexus, ripping out his heart and Dantian in a single movement, before crushing them in his palm to inhale their essence. The severed limbs of the monks littered the ground, some still twitching in the pools of golden blood that smoked on contact with the corrupted Khao.