Dragon Canon

The girl watched as Wei Yuan set the cylinder in place as if he were fiddling with a machine, looking completely bewildered and having no idea what he was doing.

Just as he finished preparing, the wolf demons arrived at the door.

A flying sword shot out of the cylinder with a bang, piercing all three wolf demons. Unfortunately, he had to remove the crossguards in order to accommodate more White Drizzles. Otherwise, the flying swords could have dragged the wolf demons backward or inflicted even larger wounds.

As the saying goes, practical experience is the best teacher. Just firing a single volley was enough to give him ideas for future improvements.

The wolf demons were incredibly agile and fearless. They kept charging forward one after another and forcing Wei Yuan to continuously channel his Dao energy.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

A ceaseless roar echoed over the village as flying swords rained toward the wolf demons like a storm, mowing them down in droves. In the blink of an eye, the flying swords in the cylinder were exhausted, and there were no wolf demons left standing outside.

For the first time, Wei Yuan experienced firsthand what sustained firepower meant.

“We have to go!” Wei Yuan grabbed the girl, housed her onto his shoulder, and fled out the back door. The girl struggled constantly, demanding Wei Yuan to put her down and insisting she could walk on her own. She immediately settled down after receiving a slap on the buttocks, though.

Once outside the house, Wei Yuan looked up at the sky and saw the gate again. It was currently standing in the direction of the back mountain, still tightly closed. It was also beginning to exude a deep, dark aura.

‘More golden lights appeared in the sky and worsened Wei Yuan’s unease. After careful consideration, he decided to trust his instincts and run toward the back mountain.

In front of the small temple, Yue Sheng, seemingly in high spirits, looked at the silent and motionless Lian Xin and said, “The last age of Dharma is upon you. How can you, with your strength alone, possibly stop the collapse of the entire world? As long as even a single crack appears in your immaculate golden body, I can shatter it completely. Call me treacherous or despicable, but in the words of the Buddha, who is to say that your immaculate golden body is not simply out of step with the times, destined to be destroyed?

“Just as slow sheep are destined to be devoured by wolves, and slow wolves are destined to starve to death, in this world, only the fittest survive. Your immaculate golden body is obsolete!”

The monk remained unmoved.

Yue Sheng smiled faintly. “I knew you couldn’t accept defeat. It doesn’t matter; we have plenty of time. We’ll take it step by step.”

By now, his wolf demons had scattered in all directions, capturing the villagers. Finally knowing fear, about ten or so villagers fled, but most remained dazed, confused, and rooted in place. They were all counting on the monk to save them.

At Yue Sheng’s command, a warrior dragged a woman forward and brought his saber down on her head! The woman let out a blood-curdling scream and collapsed to the ground, but a golden light immediately rose out of her body and deflected the blade.

As the woman gradually regained her composure, her anger flared. She pointed at Yue Sheng’s nose and hurled utterly vile insults at him such as calling the white wolves a degenerate species, that Yue Sheng was the son of a bitch, and so on.

Yue Sheng’s hand had already clenched around the hilt of his saber, but he forced himself to unclench his fingers one by one.

He turned to Lian Xin and said, ‘These people you’re protecting may be crude and uncultured, but when they curse, they really hit the Buddha’s heart on the head—far more effective than your Dharma talks. You really ought to learn a thing or two from them after you’ve reincarnated.”

The monk said nothing.

Yue Sheng beckoned with a wave of his hand, and a wolf demon lifted the woman into the air and slapped her across the face so hard that she spat out several teeth! The woman, stunned by what just happened, froze in terror and did not even dare to scream out in pain.

All the villagers were frozen in place as well. They let out a cry and tried to flee, only to find themselves surrounded on all sides by wolf demons.

Yue Sheng dragged San Kui and his wife over and placed them in the center of the temple square. He looked at the hunter with interest and asked, “Do you want to be the village chief?”

San Kui’s throat bobbed as he swallowed hard. “... Yes. I’ve wanted it for a long time.”

“Why do you want to be the village chief?”

“If I’m the village chief, everyone will have to listen to me. I can curse whoever I want, beat whoever I want, and everyone will have to greet me when they see me. If they’re too slow or not respectful enough, I’ll beat them up as well! Uh, wait, no, what if they curse me behind my back? If I catch anyone secretly cursing me, I’ll beat them!”

San Kui stammered at first, but his speech grew faster as he went on. Clearly, these thoughts had been brewing in his head for a long time.

A faint smile touched Yue Sheng’s lips as he asked, “But how will you know if they’re cursing you in their hearts?”

San Kui froze; the question had indeed stumped him. But in the blink of an eye, he had an answer. “I’ll look at their eyes! If their eyes are off, they’re definitely cursing me.”

“Some people are great actors. What if you can’t tell? What then?”

San Kui scratched his head for a moment. Then, his expression turned ferocious as he said, “Then I’ll just find an excuse to beat everyone up every so often. That way, I won’t miss a single one!”

Yue Sheng’s smile grew wider as he coaxed him further, “But you’re bound to beat the wrong person sometimes, right?”

San Kui growled, “I’m the village chief! So what if I beat the wrong person? They’ll just have to take it!”

Yue Sheng laughed heartily and said, “That makes perfect sense. You were born to be village chief! But even if you were to become village chief, you still wouldn’t be the one calling the shots around here.”

San Kui’s eyes flashed with malice. “Who dares? No one in this village can beat me!”

Yue Sheng didn’t argue with him. He simply pointed at the burly woman next to him and said, “She can.”

San Kui flinched instinctively.

“In a fight, you could take on two of her with just one hand. When it comes to arguing, aside from having a loud voice and talking really fast, she can’t actually out-argue you. So why are you afraid of her?”

San Kui stammered, unable to speak.

Yue Sheng continued, “If you’re the village chief, couldn’t you find yourself a new wife? I think that one over there is quite nice.”

Yue Sheng pointed to a woman in the village. She was in her early twenties and the prime of her youth. She possessed a bit of charm as well: her eyes sparkled with allure, and her plump figure, hidden beneath her cloth, was the object of desire for many men in the village. The late village chief had often disciplined her, lashing her thighs and buttocks with his walking stick.

San Kui’s eyes lit up. “I can really be the village chief?”

“If I say you are, you are! But if you want to swap wives, you’ll have to kill your current one first.”

The fierce woman suddenly screamed, “You spineless coward, you dare?!”

San Kui suddenly said, “If I’m switching wives, I want Lil Ru! The one who ran away!”

Yue Sheng chuckled. “What lofty ambitions you have! Sure.”

San Kui gripped his hunting knife tightly, gritted his teeth, and asked, “Can I still have this woman?”

“A man often has three wives and four concubines—of course you can!”

A look of savagery flashed across San Kui’s face. He swung his hunting knife down, and blood spurted forth. He swung again and again until the fierce woman was dead, swung twice more even after she had stopped breathing.

He wiped the blood splattered on his face and said viciously to the corpse, “I’ve put up with you for far too long!”

There was a crack, and another fissure appeared on the Buddha statue. Even more water was seeping out from within.

Yue Sheng stepped before the monk and said, “See that? You’ve led them in cultivation for thousands of years, yet shattering your golden body will take me but a moment.”

He addressed the remaining villagers. “Now that we have a village chief, you’ve lost another chance to survive. So from now on, you must listen carefully to what I say and consider my words deeply—only then might you live.”

Yue Sheng immediately ordered, “Break everyone’s left leg.”

The wolf demons sprang into action, and the area in front of the temple was instantly filled with screams of agony.

Only then did Yue Sheng ask, “Who still believes in the monk, is devoted to Buddhism, and is willing to share the hardships of reincarnation with him?”

This time, only three people raised their hands, trembling.

Yue Sheng continued, “Break everyone’s right leg as well. However, whoever kills these three may keep their own right leg!”

As the wolf demons closed in, the villagers suddenly let out frenzied cries and threw themselves onto the three men. In the blink of an eye, blood covered the ground.

At least a dozen people had rushed forward to kill their fellow villagers. They then started to quarrel over who had actually struck the fatal blow, fighting among themselves.

Yue Sheng was quite pleased. He laughed heartily and said, “No need to fight over it—you may all keep your right legs, haha, haha!”

The cracks on the Buddha statue were growing wider and more numerous. A faint black mist was beginning to rise from the golden body as well.

Yue Sheng patted San Kui on the shoulder and asked, “You wanted to know who would curse you in their hearts, didn’t you? Actually that’s easy to figure out. The monk knows a certain mental method. If he teaches it to you, you’ll be able to reach everyone else’s thoughts.”

San Kui was both surprised and delighted. “Is there really such a method?”

The monk sighed and finally spoke. “If I were to pass this method on to you, this place would instantly become a Buddhist purgatory.”

San Kui was immediately annoyed and cursed, “So, you actually know it, but you refuse to teach me? It’s just a method, how can it turn this place into a purgatory? You’re just trying to trick me, you thieving bald-headed donkey, after all the offerings I gave you! Aren’t you afraid your guts will rot right through?!”