Chapter 159 : Pixelation
Before her transmigration, Jiang Mo was just an ordinary person—afraid of insects, afraid of death, and afraid of ghosts.
These vicious souls before her were even more terrifying than malevolent spirits. Jiang Mo's heart initially quailed, and as the vicious souls continuously tore and gnawed at the protective golden light around her body, that cold, yin energy crawling up her spine made everything seem even more horrifying.
At some point, that fear took root in the white tiger's heart. She unconsciously took a step back, revealing a hint of timidity.
Seeing this, Wuxiang opposite her seemed somewhat surprised, but then smiled. Noticing the white tiger's retreat at the same time as Wuxiang was naturally Yun Qingyue, whom the tiger was protecting—though the Senior Sister was also affected by these vicious souls, she didn't show disappointment at the white tiger's retreat. After all, the white tiger was still young; it was normal for a cub just a year old to feel afraid when facing such ferocious circumstances.
Yun Qingyue formed her fingers into a brush, quickly gathering golden light at her fingertips. Then, with a movement of her fingertip, she drew a talisman in the air. The talisman formed instantly, and she pushed it forward toward the white tiger, still emanating golden light.
Yun Qingyue was a sword cultivator, not a talisman master, so she was certainly not proficient in talismanic arts. However, she had been quite curious as a child and had been interested in talismans, formations, pill refining, artifact crafting, and the like. Since her master was somewhat unreliable and loved to go into seclusion, she had stayed briefly at Mount Tianyang, Mount Luoxing, Mount Qionghua, and Mount Qingyun. Her martial uncles and aunts, out of respect for her master, were willing to give her some guidance, so she had picked up a hodgepodge of skills.
She had once learned talisman arts from a certain martial uncle, merely scratching the surface, but surface knowledge was often sufficient—what she had just drawn was only a soul-stabilizing talisman, particularly effective against ghost cultivators, with the power to calm and stabilize one's soul.
Sure enough, as the talisman struck her body, Jiang Mo immediately felt a wave of warmth on her back, and the previous chilling sensation seemed to disappear completely. She steadied herself, her fear receding, and was just about to take action against those hideous vicious souls when she heard her Senior Sister from behind: "These vicious souls are not easy to deal with. Let me handle them."
As Yun Qingyue finished speaking, she truly stepped out from behind the white tiger, raising her eyes to meet Wuxiang's smile across from them.
Seeing this, Jiang Mo felt inexplicably blocked in her heart, both worried and annoyed. She hurriedly stepped forward to shield her Senior Sister behind her again: "They're just a few vicious souls. I said I'd handle them, Senior Sister, don't steal my fight!"
After saying this, the white tiger raised her paw and clawed at the vicious souls in front of her.
The white tiger was an auspicious beast—even the protective golden light around her body could harm vicious souls, let alone her active attacks. With one swipe of her paw, the vicious soul that had been gnawing at her protective golden light was instantly torn into several pieces. The vicious soul let out a scream of agony and retreated. Though it wasn't killed in one strike, its body, shattered by the white tiger's claws, couldn't regenerate, and the previously thick death energy and killing intent had greatly diminished.
Looking at the vicious soul now, its originally substantial soul body had become transparent, as if it could dissipate with a gust of wind. Simultaneously, on the string of prayer beads Wuxiang had thrown, a certain bead developed cracks, and the previously hidden talisman was instantly broken.
Wuxiang, who had been displaying neither joy nor sorrow, finally changed his expression at this moment, his gaze toward the white tiger turning grim.
Jiang Mo sensed something but paid no attention, her tiger eyes gleaming brilliantly—she was afraid of ghosts, true, but seeing these vicious souls crumble under her claws naturally gave her some confidence. Looking at these vicious souls now, with less fear, she only found their appearance of death ugly and, besides being terrifying, quite painful to look at.
So while swinging her claws to attack the vicious souls, she mentally addressed the system: "System, you should have a pixelation censoring function, right? These vicious souls before me are really too harsh on the eyes and affecting my performance. Quick, add some pixelation."
Hearing her lively tone, the system was momentarily speechless, but still obediently added pixelation for her.
This was much better—Jiang Mo could no longer see those ugly, vicious souls. Looking at the pixelated figures, she couldn't generate any fear. She immediately attacked with all four paws, her efficiency instantly increasing... Looking at this combative and fierce white tiger now, and thinking of the timid, retreating white tiger from before, they seemed like completely different tigers, making one wonder if they had remembered incorrectly.
Wuxiang, who had witnessed the entire process, had been deceived by the white tiger's earlier behavior. By the time he reacted, he found that more than half of his one hundred and eight vicious souls had been destroyed. His prayer beads, which had been glowing with treasure light, now became dim and broken.
Looking at the scene before him, a red light seemed to flash in Wuxiang's dark eyes, and his hands quickly formed a Buddhist seal.
In an instant, the broken prayer beads radiated brilliance again. The originally damaged beads now shone with great light at this moment. But this light seemed like the final burst before extinction, and those broken beads soon annihilated in this dazzling light. At the same time, the vicious souls that had been injured by the white tiger's claws instantly recovered to their peak state, with even greater ferocity than before, rushing toward the white tiger like moths to a flame.
Jiang Mo was enjoying her pixelated rampage, and whether it was the vicious souls whose soul bodies had become transparent after being clawed by her, or those whose soul bodies were still substantial and hadn't been attacked yet, in her eyes, apart from subtle differences in shade, there wasn't much difference.
In the midst of battle, the white tiger hadn't noticed these subtle changes. Additionally, with her golden light protection, these vicious souls hadn't even managed to break through her defenses, so she naturally fought with even more freedom. Until one vicious soul bit through her protective golden light with efficiency far exceeding those before, she had no time to react and could only watch helplessly as the vicious soul pounced toward her face...
In this critical moment, the most reliable was always her Senior Sister—a spiritual sword as ice and snow suddenly appeared in front of the white tiger, its blade flashing, cold light erupting, instantly cutting down that vicious soul.
A fair white hand lightly patted the white tiger's head, and Yun Qingyue said in a steady tone: "Be careful, these vicious souls have been strengthened."
The white tiger pressed her ears down, not from pain from the pat, but from guilt.
She mumbled a response, no longer daring to use the system's pixelation to take shortcuts. Coincidentally, the system probably shared her thoughts and didn't wait for its host's orders before canceling the pixelation, so a scene of even more ferocious vicious souls abruptly entered her sight... However, this time the white tiger wasn't timid, affecting her performance. When swinging her claws to attack, she was even more fierce than before.
It was all these vicious souls' fault, making her continuously lose face in front of her Senior Sister. Smash them, smash them, smash them all!
༻༺❀༻✧⋆｡°✩☽༓☾✩°｡⋆✧༺❀༻༺
While Yun Qingyue and the white tiger encountered Demon Monk Wuxiang, Tan Xin, who should have followed closely behind, was still in the pagoda of Foguang Temple. Not only had he not pursued the stolen glass lamp, he had instead sat cross-legged on the cushion in front of the Buddha statue, eyes closed, reciting sutras.
No one knew why he remained there, no one knew what had happened to him. Only a decayed Buddha statue, with eyes still compassionate despite the decay, silently watched the young monk before it.
Who knew how much time had passed when a breeze blew in through the window, stirring the young monk's moon-white cassock.
Tan Xin suddenly opened his eyes, black and white clearly defined, neither joyful nor sorrowful, like a deity overlooking the mortal world. But this illusion lasted only a moment; as his eyelashes blinked lightly, the divinity in his eyes faded. Those clear black and white eyes were once again tinged with worldliness, becoming those of the small monk who usually pretended to be serious but would reveal two dimples when he smiled.
The young monk placed his hand over his heart, something flashing in his eyes. Then he withdrew his hand and stood up, pressed his palms together and bowed once more to the Buddha statue before him, saying: "Thank you for your generous bestowal, but this humble monk must leave now."
The Buddha statue naturally gave no response, still looking at him with those compassionate eyes, watching him bow, watching him leave.
Tan Xin followed in the direction Yun Qingyue and the others had left. Regardless, everything that happened in Foguang Temple had been because of him; he couldn't let them face danger alone. As he departed, on the silent ninth floor of the pagoda, the Buddha statue that had been sitting properly in its niche, though decayed, seemed to lose its final support and collapsed in an instant.
With a "crack," the Buddha's head rolled down from the niche. It rolled all the way to the window, and its upward-facing eyes happened to look through the window, able to see the clear sky outside.