Wandering Gods of Day and Night

Mo Tingsheng remained unfazed in the face of "Time"'s curse, sneering coldly, "I never made an alliance with your family's Young Miss. What I do has nothing to do with her."

"Boom!"

Yunwu Venerable struck the ground of Mingjiang Prefecture once again, and this time, the tremor was exceedingly violent,

The Zhou Family's Jingyi Shop was thrown into chaos; chairs and tables toppled en masse,

even the hefty counter nearly tipped over. Zhao Wuya, being close, managed to steady it with one hand, preventing its collapse.

"Haha, Zhou Xuan along with Bone Elder, the City God, and the Witch guarded Mingjiang Prefecture's eleven reservoirs—does it even matter?

Utterly useless. The big shots of Mingjiang Prefecture actually desire this catastrophe; they are eagerly anticipating this apocalypse for Mingjiang Prefecture."

Mo Tingsheng laughed recklessly, his behavior so abrasive that Zhao Wuya, usually unwilling to resort to violence, removed his shoe and slapped him across the mouth.

"You're unbearably annoying. Can you shut up?"

Slap, slap, slap.

Several strikes landed, though Mo Tingsheng didn't seem too hurt.

Zhao Wuya even regretted his choice of footwear, wondering why he always preferred cloth shoes—hitting someone with them wasn't painful at all.

"Hahaha, Yunwu Venerable couldn't possibly trigger such massive devastation. I've said it before—the real disaster has only just begun... hahaha."

Mo Tingsheng was near madness.

"Young Miss, the Young Miss is going to die. This disaster arriving ahead of schedule will inevitably lead to her death."

The Evil God "Time," humiliated by Zhou Xuan, the Painter, and Guan Niang, had always been consumed by fury. Yet when the Young Miss crossed his thoughts, his grief overwhelmed him, and tears streamed down.

"Young Miss, Young Miss..."

…

"Can a Yunwu Venerable who is at the eighth tier but striving for the ninth tier cause such commotion?"

The disciples of the Bitter Ghost had regrouped and were moving upstream, heading for the most turbulent area of the Peak Flood.

Zhou Xuan set out on his Day Trip to the flood's origin; he walked through the air, gazing at the flood's convergence—a muddy yellow wall towering nearly a hundred meters high.

The mud wall surged forward majestically, resembling an apricot-yellow world devouring everything in its path.

Zhou Xuan was highly skeptical—could Yunwu Venerable's strikes truly possess such earth-shattering power?

If he were so formidable, then why had Buddha Country developed so covertly in Jing Country over the past three centuries?

"Why does Buddha Country waste time every day? Couldn't they just find a few ruthless Yunwu Venerables to wreak havoc on Jing Country with endless assaults?"

All those natural disasters, floods, droughts—I'd take turns crashing through; wouldn't Jing Country have been ruined by now?"

As Zhou Xuan stood upon the Peak Flood observing, the Painter tore through space and appeared by his side.

"Young Master, isn't the cultivation hierarchy of Buddha Country quite different from that of our Jing Country?"

The Painter had also sensed something amiss.

"Do you think the eight incense sticks of Buddha Country could measure up to our Jing Country's nine incense sticks?"

Zhou Xuan asked.

"That seems plausible."

"I think it's impossible."

When Zhou Xuan battled against Mo Tingsheng, he hadn't felt that the Taiping Monk from Buddha Country possessed any unique qualities related to incense offerings.

The Painter contemplated further, "Perhaps Yunwu Venerable isn't just at the eighth tier striving for the ninth; maybe… he has already ascended to the ninth tier of incense."

"Old Hua, have you ever seen anyone at the ninth tier of incense?" Zhou Xuan inquired.

"Never." The Painter shifted his tone and remarked, "But ancient texts describe the ninth-tier incense in the human world as possessing grand, awe-inspiring momentum—capable of harnessing the forces of mountains and rivers, capable of borrowing the power of the stars. But that's the ninth-tier incense we're talking about.

A Yunwu Venerable who hasn't ascended to the ninth-tier incense wouldn't exhibit such grandeur; the difference is a definitive divide, like heaven and earth."

The Painter sighed and told Zhou Xuan, "That's why I suspect the Yunwu Venerable has already reached the ninth-tier of incense."

"Even if he had reached the ninth-tier of incense, he definitely wouldn't have such immense grandeur."

Zhou Xuan stated with absolute certainty,

because he had personally witnessed the power of someone at the ninth-tier of incense—Peng Hou from Peng Town!

That was a God-level figure beneath the Heavenly Dome.

The source of God-level power arises when a human reaches the ninth-tier of incense, ascends to the Heavenly Dome, and slays an Old God.

Since Peng Hou was God-level, he must have achieved the ninth-tier incense.

At Peng Town, Peng Hou's Heavenly Ghost Map was indeed ferocious; relying solely on his strength, he suppressed the Tattoo Clan,

but even his grandeur could unquestionably not reach the level of shaking Mingjiang Prefecture's ground with mere impact.

Zhou Xuan shook his head and remarked, "I suspect someone within Mingjiang Prefecture is stoking the flames."

He looked upward at the Heavenly Dome.

The God of Suffering's flame burned dimly and erratically, helplessly watching the imminent calamity about to unfold on the land below.

"Ah Xuan, I've almost deciphered the communication method of the Netherworld Stone—just the final bit of calculation remains."

Miss Qiang's voice rang out.

Zhou Xuan lowered his head and asked, "Miss Qiang, help me analyze this. Does the immense flood and ground tremors in Mingjiang Prefecture perfectly align with the power attributes of the Buddha Mantra?"

"The alignment isn't perfect," Miss Qiang replied. "Moreover, the power attributes of the ground tremors have been constantly shifting. Initially, that force caused the reservoir's waves to tremble to heights of over ten meters—it was just one kind of power.

But recently, the strongest tremor raised the Peak Flood by tens of meters, and at least three distinct types of power were involved."

Different types of power indicated involvement from multiple individuals.

"Old Hua, there really are people stirring the waters."

Zhou Xuan gazed at the still-rising Peak Flood and sighed.

For the first time in his life, the phrase "stoking the flames" appeared before him in a tangible form.

"Are there Buddha Country infiltrators in Mingjiang Prefecture?"

"Yes." Zhou Xuan nodded.

"Who are their infiltrators, so powerful? Could it be someone akin to the Mother of Hundred Demons?"

"Perhaps… it's a Mingjiang Prefecture God."

As Zhou Xuan stared at the flood, he caught sight of a faint red thread, barely discernible.