It did not take long for Lin Xiao to retrace his path and return to the outer edge of the area where the hundred-zhang Buddha statue stood.
From afar, he saw beams of light soaring into the sky and a rolling ocean of energy surging in the distance. Within a radius of several hundred li, chaotic battles raged everywhere, accompanied by continuous thunderous booms.
“The fighting is this fierce?
Has some treasure appeared here?”
Lin Xiao was puzzled.
He had only been gone for about an hour, yet something clearly had changed. It seemed they were no longer merely contesting the opportunity within the hundred-zhang Buddha statue.
Other locations must have produced new fortunes as well.
Otherwise, widespread melee would not be taking place.
Even if golden coffins had previously been blasted open and might contain sarira or similar treasures, an entire hour had passed. They should have been looted clean by now.
Lin Xiao put away the broken Yaoguang sword and continued flying forward. This time, he had changed into a different human-skin mask.
He wanted to see if he could seize the chance to kill some experts from the Ji family and Holy Heaven Sect and weaken the hostile forces.
When he drew closer and finally saw the battles ahead clearly, he was stunned.
The battlefields before him were not fights between people.
They were fights between people and numerous Buddha puppets.
A huge number of Buddha puppets had appeared here.
Although these puppets could not unleash long-range attacks, their defences were extremely strong, their speed astonishing, and they could charge madly through the void.
Thus, even if someone knocked them back with force, they would simply get up and charge again. Overall, there were probably more puppets than people present, and every person was surrounded and attacked by several puppets at once.
Glancing hundreds of li into the distance, Lin Xiao saw a colossal golden Buddha striding quickly through the most intense sea of energy. He instantly knew that was the main battlefield for the hundred-zhang Buddha statue.
Whoosh!
Lin Xiao took out the staff he had obtained in the ancient city and swiftly flew into the battlefield, heading straight for the fiercest area around the hundred-zhang statue.
Along the way, several Buddha puppets leapt into the air and attacked him from multiple directions.
Unlike the others, who blasted the puppets away from afar, Lin Xiao swung the staff and smashed directly at them.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Drawing on his previous experience fighting Buddha puppets, Lin Xiao aimed precisely at their heads. One strike each, he shattered every oncoming puppet’s head into powder.
This shocked the surrounding crowd. No matter how they attacked, they could barely damage the puppets and only managed to destroy one after great effort.
Yet this fellow smashed one with each swing of his staff. How was he doing it?
Was it because their long-range attacks lacked power?
But they had also tried close-quarters strikes, and even those could not easily shatter the puppets. In fact, fighting up close was far more dangerous.
Could that staff in his hand be some kind of treasure?
Despite their surprise, many tried targeting the puppets’ heads with their own weapons, but they still could not shatter them.
Lin Xiao naturally paid no attention to their thoughts. He pressed forward, occasionally shaking off charging puppets with ease or smashing them just as easily.
These puppets’ defence and strength were not particularly great. They could only stall weaker cultivators, and under constant encirclement, they could exhaust groups of people to death.
To him, however, they posed no significant threat.
Soon, Lin Xiao approached the heart of the fiercest fighting.
There, the bald fatty stood atop the hundred-zhang golden Buddha, controlling it. The colossal Buddha kept moving its feet and swinging its enormous palms.
Although it emitted no energy blasts, it could swat incoming powerful attacks into vast shockwaves that rippled back against the assailants.
Meanwhile, the bald fatty himself kept clapping his palms together, sending out one green palm seal after another that collided with his opponents’ strikes.
Besides the original five eighth-layer Martial Emperor elders and the young eighth-layer Martial Emperor Leng Rong, dozens more people were besieging him.
Their strength varied. Apart from some seventh-layer Martial Emperors from the three great powers, every single one of them glowed with golden light and possessed a golden body.
Each of them stared at the bald fatty like starving wolves eyeing prey, filled with a ravenous urge to charge forward and devour him.
They were like a pack of wolves frantically assaulting their target.
Even one of the Ji family’s eighth-layer Martial Emperor elders possessed a golden body.
Leng Rong and Bi Zhuang were among them as well, both also bearing golden bodies.
This left Lin Xiao feeling rather bewildered.
Leaving aside Leng Rong, Bi Zhuang, and the Ji family elder who were already present, dozens of others who had forged golden bodies through the Buddhist light had all gathered here and were now attacking the bald fatty who also had a golden body. What on earth was going on?
Did people who forged golden bodies share some kind of connection, or was there another reason that drew all these golden-body owners here?
At the same time, Lin Xiao was shocked by the bald fatty’s terrifying combat strength. By controlling the hundred-zhang golden Buddha alone, he could withstand the combined assault of so many experts.
Moreover, no one dared to approach. The close-range power of that colossal Buddha was simply too frightening.
Anyone struck by its massive palms would be smashed to pieces. Even eighth-layer Martial Emperors could die on the spot.
Only long-range attacks allowed them to contend with it.
“First, hunt down the Ji family members!”
Seeing that both sides were evenly matched, Lin Xiao did not charge in. Instead, he prepared to fly elsewhere.
Since they were fighting so fiercely, the best plan was to let them exhaust each other and reap the profits later.
Yet at that moment, the bald fatty’s voice rang out from afar. “Hey, you from the Yaoguang lineage who killed Ji Ya and Yang Fengyi! This Buddha also belongs to an ancient tradition. How about we join forces and wipe out everyone here?”
Lin Xiao’s facial muscles twitched. He had changed his mask. How had that bald fatty recognised him from so far away?
Impossible!
He was wearing a human-skin mask and had concealed his aura with the Heavenly Eye. How could the other party know?
Moreover, the fatty had directly mentioned the Yaoguang lineage. Did he actually know about the Yaoguang Great Emperor’s lineage?
Could the ancient inheritance the bald fatty received contain information about the Yaoguang lineage?
After the fatty shouted those words, everyone in the midst of battle turned their heads. Countless gazes stabbed towards Lin Xiao.
Lin Xiao could not help glancing left and right. There truly was no one else near him.
“No need to look. I’m talking to you. Even if you change your mask and hide your aura, this Buddha can still smell you.”
The bald fatty shouted again.
Fury surged in Lin Xiao’s heart. So the fellow had sniffed him out! Just like that elder from the Demon Void Sect with the Blood Spirit Nose, he did not rely on aura or appearance; he could identify people purely by scent.
That Blood Spirit Nose had even detected the same refined blood essence as Long Tutian’s. It was extraordinarily powerful.
Lin Xiao was not sure if this man-eating, spirit-beast-transformed fatty’s nose was as good as the Blood Spirit Nose, but one thing was certain: he really could smell him.
“Lin Xiao, you are Lin Xiao?”
A Ji family eighth-layer Martial Emperor elder snarled viciously at him.
The Holy Heaven Sect eighth-layer elder also glared over while continuing to attack the bald fatty.
Yang Fengyi’s head had been twisted off by spiritual force; that was easy to see. Ji Ya had been reduced to bones and collected into a storage ring under spiritual control.
Moreover, Leng Rong had previously stepped in to block them. It was not hard for them to guess Lin Xiao’s identity.
The one who had taken advantage of the chaos to kill Yang Fengyi and Ji Ya was Lin Xiao.
After Lin Xiao escaped, the Ji family and Holy Heaven Sect had originally intended to join forces against Azure Dragon Sect in their rage. However, the two could also be considered indirect victims of the bald fatty, and the lure of the golden Buddha’s opportunities was strong. Azure Dragon Sect had also lost an eighth-layer Martial Emperor to the fatty.
Thus, they had temporarily allied with Azure Dragon Sect to deal with the bald fatty first instead of fighting each other.
They planned to kill everyone from Azure Dragon Sect here after everything was settled.
But now, after the bald fatty’s shout, they all immediately felt the urge to temporarily abandon whatever opportunity the hundred-zhang golden Buddha might hold, set aside revenge against the fatty, and first go kill Lin Xiao.
“The others are tied down by the Buddha puppets. The strength here is balanced. As long as you join the fight, the balance will tip. Besides, I’ve still been holding back. Once that happens, we can slaughter everyone here. What are you waiting for?”
The bald fatty’s booming voice rang out once more.
