Slaying God: I, the insane and witty god

As the carriage bumped forward in the fog, Wu Hen's fingertips unconsciously stroked the dark patterns on his cuffs.

Merlin's words just now, "Have you ever truly loved someone?" are still buzzing in my ears.

Like a fine needle, it opened up the emotional wrinkles that he had deliberately hidden.

He glanced sideways at Lin Qiye who was staring at his folded hands.

His knuckles glowed cold white in the moonlight, no emotion visible.

"Don't look at Aye like that."

Merlin's light laughter broke the stillness in the carriage. She leaned back on the soft pillow, her long silver-gray hair falling like a waterfall.

"I'm just asking on behalf of an old acquaintance—after all, someone has been struck by Cupid's arrow of love."

“I can’t even tell what’s true or not.”

Wu Hen's Adam's apple moved.

Three days ago outside the shrine, when the pink-glowing arrow pierced his spiritual shield,

He could clearly hear the sound of his heart beating like a drum.

But since crossing into this world, he has become accustomed to using calmness as armor.

The emotions that were suddenly cut open at this moment were like a piece of red-hot charcoal, neither to hold nor to throw away.

"Is it... an illusion?" He spoke softly, his voice even hoarseer than he expected.

"If that arrow hadn't hit, would I have never..."

"You will." Lin Qiye suddenly looked up, with a dark tide in his eyes.

"I've seen the way you looked at her."

"It's not spiritual power fluctuations, it's not spell interference."

A muffled laugh rolled out of his throat, and his fingertips rolled heavily over the calluses on his palms.

"Even a blockhead like me, who can't even fool a ghost cultivator, can see through it."

Merlin held his chin, a half-smile flickering in his silver eyes. "So what's your answer, little Wood?"

Lin Qiye's ears turned red instantly.

He suddenly turned his head to look out the window, only to crash into a familiar blue-gray mountain shadow.

"Wait—" He pressed his palm against the car window, his knuckles turning white from exertion.

"This mountain... This is the Eagle's Beak Cliff in the back mountain of the Demon Suppression Division!"

“We just passed by here three days ago!”

Wu Hen also came over.

In the moonlight, the outline of the rugged cliff really did look like an eagle's beak, even the crack on the cliff wall caused by lightning was exactly the same.

He frowned and looked at Merlin: "You said you were going to take us to get the 'gift that can break delusion', why are you going back the way you came?"

"You saw it wrong." Merlin tapped the carriage wall with his fingertips, and the carriage suddenly squeaked, as if it had run over something hard.

When Wu Hen looked out the window again, the cliff had turned into a hazy sea of ​​fog, with only a faint scarlet dot visible on the mountainside in front of him.

“We’re here, get off.”

The moment the car door was blown open by the wind, Wu Hen smelled a strong scent of incense.

He jumped out of the car and looked up. The vermilion torii gate stretched its wings in the mist, and the golden runes on the lintel shimmered.

And behind the torii gate—a huge golden shadow was penetrating the mist, like a giant floating tower.

"That's..." Lin Qiye's voice trembled. He reached out to hold Wu Hen's arm, his palms oozing with cold sweat.

“Is it a temple?”

"The remains of the Takama-ga-hara Shrine." Meilin had already stepped onto the bluestone steps, her skirt sweeping across the moonlight that looked like broken jade.

"Three hundred years ago, when the beast tide destroyed the sacred tree, only this place remained because of the power of faith."

Wu Hen followed him up the stairs.

Pale moss grew in the cracks of the bluestone slabs, and every step made a slight cracking sound.

The higher he went, the lighter the fog became, and he gradually saw the outline of the golden shadow - it was an eight-sided temple with spires.

A bronze phoenix crouched on the eaves, the gems on its tail feathers gleaming like stars in the moonlight.

But when he turned his head and looked at the foot of the mountain, his breathing suddenly stopped.

That's not a sea of ​​fog. That's a mountain of bones.

Pale animal bones, broken sword blades, and rusty armor spread out layer upon layer to the end of the sight.

As the wind blew through the pile of bones, it emitted a sharp whistle similar to a whimper, mixed with a faint roar in the distance.

It looked like some kind of sealed giant beast struggling.

"What exactly happened here?" His voice was tense and goose bumps appeared on the back of his neck.

"The price of the collapse of faith." Merlin's steps did not stop.

"When the sacred tree protected Takama-ga-hara, mortals turned their faith into chains to bind the most ferocious wild beasts."

"Then the sacred tree fell..."

She turned her head to look at him, her silver eyes reflecting the phosphorescent light floating from the pile of bones.

"The chains broke, and the wild beast awakened."

The moment he passed through the torii gate, Wu Hen felt as if an invisible barrier had been pierced.

He blinked, and when he opened his eyes again, the door of the temple was wide open.

The scene inside the door made him forget to breathe.

It was not the ruined temple as imagined, but a space with suspended aurora.

A lavender light band descended from the dome, merging into a long river in mid-air, with countless crystal bottles lying at the bottom of the river.

There is a glimmer of light sealed in each bottle - that is the power of faith, with the warm light of the world.

"This is..." He reached out and touched the nearest band of light. As his fingertips touched the purple light, memories suddenly flooded back.

He recalled the murals he had seen in the underground palace of the Demon Suppression Pavilion: mortals kneeling under the sacred tree, holding glowing fragments in their hands;

I remembered the fragments of an ancient scroll I found in the monster's lair, which read: "Divine grace is like light, when it gathers, it is a protection."

I remembered that Lin Qiye once said that the most powerful way to eliminate magic is never to rely on spiritual power, but on the human heart.

"These were the beliefs of all mortals in Takamagahara three hundred years ago." Merlin walked to his side and looked up at the long river of aurora.

"After the sacred tree fell, they did not dissipate. Instead, they solidified into something because of 'unanswered expectations.'"

She turned to look at him, stars falling in her silver eyes, "So I brought you here-"

"I want to tell you that true love cannot be influenced by magic." Her voice was as light as a feather.

“Just like these beliefs, even if the gods are gone, they still remember why they gathered together.”

Wu Hen looked at the light particles floating in the aurora, and suddenly understood where the panic in the carriage just now came from.

The arrow of love may have touched his heartstrings, but what made his heart beat faster was

It has always been the figure who blocked the knife for him in the blood rain, and the eyes that said "I believe in you" in desperate situations.

"Senior Merlin..." He was about to speak when a loud bang suddenly came from outside the temple.

Lin Qiye's voice penetrated the door, with a rare urgency: "Wu Hen!

The pile of bones at the foot of the mountain is moving!

Those skeletons... are crawling towards the temple! "

Merlin's silver eyebrows raised slightly.

She reached out and pressed Wu Hen's shoulder, and warm spiritual power came from her fingertips: "Go and take a look."

“Some answers have to be uncovered by yourself.”

Wu Hen turned to look at Lin Qiye, who had already grasped the Demon Slayer Knife at his waist.

The cloud pattern on the scabbard glowed faintly in the aurora.

He took a deep breath, and his spiritual energy flowed through his meridians throughout his body.

As he crossed the threshold of the temple, the mountain wind blew bone fragments into his face.

And at the top of the bone pile,

He saw a pair of scarlet eyes slowly opening—the eyes of a wild beast that had been trapped by the chains of faith for three hundred years.

At this moment, it finally smelled the opportunity to break the seal.

The pile of bones at the foot of the mountain exploded like grains of rice thrown into hot oil.

Wu Hen's pupils suddenly shrank into thin lines.

The bones that were originally piled up like a hill are now twisted and reorganized in strange arcs - animal bones and human armor are intertwined.

The broken blade pierced the spine for support,

The pair of crimson beast eyes at the top were filled with materialized brutality.

It was three times more ferocious than the Nine Nether Wolf he had seen in the Arctic ice field.

"It's the resentment of the wild beast that's controlling the corpse."

Lin Qiye's demon-slaying sword was unsheathed with a clang, and the blade reflected the moonlight and emitted a cold green light.

He stood beside Wu Hen, the hair on the back of his neck blown up by the mountain wind.

"Three hundred years ago, it wasn't just the desolate beast itself that was trapped by the chains of faith, but also all the creatures it had devoured."

"Now these skeletons... are its vanguard."

Wu Hen's fingertips made a crescent mark on his palm.

The emotions that I had just realized in the temple were still burning, but now they were weighed down by the overwhelming pile of bones.

He grabbed the poisoned short blade at his waist with his backhand.

The spiritual power circulated three times in the meridians - this was his habitual action every time he faced a desperate situation, like tightening up his tense nerves.

"Aye, pay attention to the wild beast's true form."

His voice was so steady that it didn't sound like he was talking about fighting against an ancient beast. "I'll stop the skeleton group."

Lin Qiye turned to look at him, and the moonlight was falling on the faint scar at the corner of Wu Hen's eye.

That was left behind when he blocked the demon's claws for him three years ago, but now it looked like a mark tempered by fire.

"Are you crazy?" His Adam's apple rolled, and he gripped the Demon Slayer Knife tighter in his palm.

"These bones are mixed with the souls of Foundation Establishment cultivators, and their number is ten times ours—"

"Because you are behind me." Wu Hen suddenly smiled, his smile like the eaves after the first clear day after the snow.

“So I can afford to be crazy.”

Lin Qiye's ears turned red instantly.

He turned his head away suddenly, but his pupils shrank the moment he turned his head: "Be careful!"

The skeletons in the front row suddenly accelerated, and several broken spears wrapped in a cold wind pierced Wu Hen's heart.

Wu Hen spun around to avoid it, and the short blade drew a silver arc to cut off the spear shaft.

However, black blood oozed out after the spear head fell to the ground - it was not an ordinary skeleton at all, but an evil creature corroded by the poisonous blood of a wild beast!

"Retreat to the temple steps!" Merlin's voice suddenly came from behind.

Wu Hen turned around and saw her standing under the torii gate, her long silver-gray hair moving in the wind, and a faded talisman pinched between her fingertips.

"There's a barrier here where the power of faith remains, which can slow down the erosion of bones!"

Before he finished speaking, Wu Hen had already grabbed Lin Qiye's sleeve and jumped onto the stairs.

Sure enough, when the skeletons rushed to the steps, they seemed to hit an invisible wall.

The skull in the front cracked open with a "click", revealing the wriggling black tentacles inside.

"This is..." Lin Qiye stared at the tentacles.

The blade glowed with a faint blue flame - that was his "Purifying Fire" that was specifically used to suppress evil spirits.

"The 'Erosion Tentacles' of the Wild Beast." Merlin raised his hand, and the talisman transformed into golden light and sank into the ground.

An ancient spell immediately appeared on the steps.

"It grows stronger by consuming the flesh and blood of living beings. When it was trapped in chains three hundred years ago, its tentacles hid in its bones, barely surviving.

Now I feel the fluctuation of the power of faith..." Her silver eyes narrowed slightly,

"It wants to devour you first, and then it will go and gnaw on the Aurora River in the temple."

Wu Hen suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck.

He finally understood the deep meaning of Merlin bringing them here - what was sealed in the Aurora River was not only faith,

It is also the "tonic" that wild beasts desire most.

And now they were standing between the tonic and the starving beasts.

"So you want us to be bait?" He raised his eyebrows and looked at Merlin, twirling the short blade between his fingers.

"Senior is very calculating."

"Why else do you think the shrine has been preserved until now?" Merlin chuckled, her silver-gray skirt sweeping across the incantations on the steps.

"Three hundred years ago, the monks used faith to build a wall. Three hundred years later, you must use sincerity to break through it."

She raised her hand and pointed at the aurora floating in the temple.

"Go get the Eight-foot Mirror."

"That floating mirror isn't just a decoration; it's the 'heart' of the sacred tree. It can condense the power of faith into real weapons."

Lin Qiye paused his sword movement.

He looked at the purple light flowing in the temple,

Suddenly, I remembered something I'd read in the ancient text of the Demon-Suppressing Pavilion: "The Eight-foot Mirror...can it reveal the deepest obsessions in the human heart?"

"Seeing is secondary." Merlin's voice suddenly turned cold.

"The key is that it can turn these obsessions into a hard bone that even wild beasts cannot chew."

Wu Hen clenched his fingertips in his sleeves.

He thought of the glimmers in the crystal bottles in the temple - the old man selling candied haws, the woman picking peach blossoms for her daughter,

The soldiers standing guard on the city walls...these most ordinary human activities suddenly became weapons against the ancient ferocious beasts.

"Aye, come with me." He tugged at Lin Qiye's sleeve, turned around and rushed into the temple.

A long river of aurora surged overhead, and the Eight-foot Mirror was suspended in the center, its surface covered with a layer of light golden mist.

Wu Hen was about to touch it, but his fingertips were burned and retracted - in the mist on the mirror,

It actually reflected his and Lin Qiye's shadows: back to back in the bloody rain, dueling in the Demon Suppression Division's martial arts arena, sharing the last half of a pancake in the monster's lair...

"So this is obsession." Lin Qiye's voice was hoarse.

He stretched out his hand and pressed it on the mirror, and the mist suddenly surged.

It reflected his childhood and adulthood: the broken knife he picked up when he was being chased by the wolf demon,

The medicine Wu Hen handed to him when he killed the monster for the first time, and the red tips of his ears when he looked at Wu Hen in Merlin's carriage three days ago.

The mirror suddenly made a clear sound.

The light golden mist condensed into substance and turned into two translucent swords, with "Hate" and "Night" engraved on the hilts respectively.

"This is..." Wu Hen held the sword that belonged to him, and the laughter of the old man selling candied haws flowed through the sword.

"The power of faith manifested?"

"It's your sincerity." Merlin's voice came from outside the hall, with a bit of relief.

"What the Eight-foot Mirror reflects is not other people's beliefs, but your obsession with each other."

"These obsessions are strong enough to string together the fragments of faith in the aurora into weapons."

Suddenly there was a loud bang outside the hall.

Wu Hen turned his head and saw the wild beast's head breaking through the pile of bones, its fangs as tall as two people dripping with black blood.

The aurora in the temple was reflected in the scarlet beast's eyes, like a hungry wolf seeing its prey.

"Hold the sword."

Lin Qiye gripped his translucent long sword tightly, and the smiling image of a woman picking peach blossoms for her daughter floated in the sword.

“It’s coming.”

Wu Hen looked at the faint light flowing on the sword and suddenly remembered what Merlin said, "True heart cannot be controlled by magic."

The arrow of love might have made him panic, but now, holding the sword formed by the obsession of the two,

He finally understood - some things were destined from the first time they looked into each other's eyes at the Demon Suppression Division's training ground.

"Aye," he turned to look at Lin Qiye, with sparks in his eyes.

"This time, I'll take your place."

The tips of Lin Qiye's ears turned red again, but this time he didn't hide.

He raised his sword, pointing the tip of the sword at the wild beast outside the hall.

There was an unprecedented firmness in his voice: "No, this time we are together."

The roar of the wild beast caused dust to fall from the dome of the temple.

Wu Hen and Lin Qiye looked at each other and jumped out of the palace at the same time.

The long sword manifested by the Eight-foot Mirror glowed with warm golden light under the moonlight.

Intertwined with the cold light of the Demon-Slaying Sword and the Poison-Tipped Dagger, they were like two torches piercing the darkness.

And in the clouds that they could not see, a golden figure was squinting down.

The Great Demon King Sky Fox held a fallen talisman in his fingertips, the spell on it still retained the warmth of the Aurora River.

"These two guys..." He murmured in a low voice, with a trace of fear in his eyes.

"It can actually activate the Eight-foot Mirror."

"Looks like we need to get that Dark Demon to...work harder."

The mountain wind blew bone fragments across the corners of his clothes and dispersed his words into the mist.

At the foot of the mountain, the roar of wild beasts and the clanging of young men's swords are interwoven into a battle song of sincerity and faith.