Inside Wolong Temple.
A thick purple haze clung to the air like coagulated blood. Instead of the sandalwood incense one would expect from a sacred place, a faint stench of rot and iron lingered everywhere.
Shen Qingqiu clutched tightly at Jiang Che's sleeve. She could feel the stone slabs beneath her feet trembling ever so slightly. Faint whispers seemed to crawl into her ears—countless voices murmuring at once, drilling straight into her bones and turning her stomach.
"Mr. Jiang… this place…" Her voice shook.
"Don't listen. Don't look. Hold the breath I taught you." Jiang Che didn't turn back. He raised two fingers and traced an invisible talisman across her smooth forehead.
Buzz.
A warm current flowed down from the crown of her head. The maddening whispers vanished instantly.
After passing the shadow wall of the main hall, Jiang Che stopped.
In the empty courtyard stood a massive white jade Buddha that once looked kind and serene. Now it glowed with a sickly violet light. At its feet knelt three agents from the Paranormal Investigation Bureau. Their posture was grotesque—hands pressed together, faces twisted with fanatic devotion. Beneath their exposed skin, tiny shapes writhed like swarms of insects.
Their life force rose in visible streams of white mist, feeding directly into the lotus base of the statue.
"Spirit devouring," Jiang Che said with a cold smirk. His gaze shifted toward a dark corner behind the statue. "Xuan Xuanzi. Come out. Stop shaking back there."
"P-Please spare me, Senior!" Xuan Xuanzi stumbled out from a side hall, pale as paper, clutching a wooden box wrapped in yellow cloth. "I just retrieved the Buddha Tooth when the statue came alive! Those idiots from the Bureau tried to break it open—got their minds seized instantly!"
A shrill, grating laugh echoed through the hall.
The towering Buddha's eyes slowly opened. Two streams of black blood tears slid down its stone cheeks.
"Orthodox Daoist…" the statue rasped, its voice like grinding metal, shaking dust from the rafters. "Devour you… and I shall rebuild my golden body… free from this stone prison!"
Inside Jiang Che's sea of consciousness, the old master—usually lazy and indifferent—snorted coldly. "Just a stone wraith fattened on yin energy, daring to call itself 'This Seat'? Kid, don't waste time. This thing is a secondary node of the Shen Family's Nine Dragon Lock Formation. If it lives, their cursed fate won't fully break."
"Understood, Ancestor."
Jiang Che stepped forward. His calm aura erupted like a storm.
"Demon wearing a Buddha's skin to feast on the living—did you ask permission from the thunder in my hand?"
His eyes snapped open, golden light blazing within his pupils. He raised his right hand toward the sky. The innate qi of his second-stage cultivation surged upward like a raging tide.
"Five Thunder Divine Method—now!"
A deafening crack split the heavens. A red-blue lightning bolt as thick as a water barrel tore through the purple clouds and crashed into Jiang Che's raised palm.
Wrapped in thunderlight, he looked like a divine executioner descending upon mortal sin.
"Go!"
He charged forward, moving faster than the eye could follow, slamming a thunder-wreathed palm into the Buddha's base.
BOOM—!
Lightning exploded across the courtyard. The nauseating purple fog melted like snow under blazing sun.
"AAAH! Thunder Arts! A Celestial Master!" the statue screamed. Its stone body shattered piece by piece under the onslaught. Massive stone arms swung wildly at Jiang Che, but his mysterious footwork allowed him to evade effortlessly.
He leapt into the air, stepping lightly on the sweeping stone arm. Suspended midair, he condensed the thunder into a three-foot spear.
"I planned to keep you alive for questioning. But you've fallen into madness. Time to vanish."
With a cold gaze, he hurled the thunder spear straight into the statue's forehead.
BOOM!
The giant Buddha exploded into fragments. A streak of black shadow tried to escape, only to be trapped midair by a casually cast Binding Immortal Seal.
A pitch-black crystal hovered there, radiating dense death energy.
"S-Senior… is that a spirit core?" Xuan Xuanzi stared in shock. In over a decade of cultivation, he had never witnessed such overwhelming thunder techniques.
"This is the condensed misfortune of the Shen family—a Curse Core." Jiang Che dispelled the thunder and landed calmly, his breathing steady.
He walked over to the three Bureau agents and sent three streams of qi into their backs.
"Cough—cough!" They spat out black blood, their eyes clearing.
The female agent leading them blinked in disbelief when she saw Jiang Che standing amid the ruins, the colossal Buddha reduced to rubble.
"You… you saved us?" Their advanced energy scanners couldn't even approach this place. Yet this young man had destroyed the entire temple alone?
Jiang Che ignored them. He walked to Xuan Xuanzi and took the yellow-wrapped box.
Inside was a crystalline tooth faintly emitting sandalwood fragrance—the sacred relic of a revered monk.
"Second item secured." Jiang Che smiled slightly and turned to the still-stunned Shen Qingqiu. "Let's go, Miss Shen. We've wasted enough time. I'm starving."
"Mr. Jiang…" Shen Qingqiu stared at him, mesmerized. The image of him wielding thunder was now permanently etched into her memory.
Outside the temple gates, "Gale" and a large team of agents were preparing to storm inside. When they saw Jiang Che and Shen Qingqiu walk out unharmed, they froze.
"The purple fog… it's gone?" Gale muttered, staring at the sky.
As Jiang Che passed him, he casually patted his shoulder. "Next time, use your brain—not just your muscles. Clean up the mess yourselves."
Under the awed gazes of elite agents, he stepped into a Rolls-Royce and drove away.
Inside the car, the old master's voice echoed again: "Kid, don't celebrate too soon. The statue's gone, but the Black Dragon Sorcerer has sensed you. Tonight… he's going to make a big move."
Leaning back against the leather seat, Jiang Che turned the Buddha Tooth between his fingers. A dangerous glint flashed in his eyes.
"A big move? Good. I was worried he wouldn't show."