Chapter 114: The Divine Powers of Buddhism

Master Bear patted Fu Yang’s head with his chubby, furry little paw. "Hmm, not bad, kid. To be able to use the Maoshan arts of a First-Rank Adept before even receiving your formal ordination—you’ve got potential. You truly are worthy of having been personally trained by the great Master Bear... ow, ow, ow! That hurts!"

Before he could finish, he let out a sharp cry of pain. It turned out that Fu Yang had started pinching his soft, white belly again.

"Whew... it’s so satisfying to squeeze. There’s a perverse thrill in bullying a real panda... I just can't help myself when I see something so cute."

"Damn it! Are you some kind of psychopath, kid?"

Master Bear flipped over, jumped up, and stretched out his own furry little paw to poke Fu Yang’s stomach vigorously, loudly asking if that felt unpleasant. They locked eyes for a moment, then burst into laughter.

As the man and the cat were playing around, Master Bear’s body suddenly stiffened.

"What’s wrong?"

"Watch out!"

With a powerful shove, Master Bear used his small body to send Fu Yang flying back two or three meters, before rolling quite a distance himself. At the same time, he leaped away.

Fu Yang was stunned on the spot. "This damn fat cat! Has he gone crazy?"

But the next moment, he fell silent, feeling a sudden surge of gratitude.

For in that split second—too fast to react—a grey orb of lightning the size of a human head came whistling in from outside the VIP lounge.

*Crackle, snap.*

Lightning and thunder roared, the display of power terrifying.

*Boom!*

The grey orb struck exactly where Fu Yang and Master Bear had been lying just moments before. It enveloped a radius of three meters in flashing thunder, blasting the tables and chairs into powder and tearing a massive hole in the thick carpet, revealing the smooth marble floor beneath.

"This is... the Maoshan Yin-Thunder Curse!!!" Fu Yang recognized it instantly.

***

Master Bear stared intently at the entrance of the lounge. "Damn it! So there’s another guy who can use the Maoshan Yin-Thunder Curse... it would take at least thirty pounds of giant catfish to deal with him!"

"I already said that I spared your lives in the ruins of Ronghua Village. Since you’ve gotten involved again, I won’t show any more mercy."

Following a voice familiar to Fu Yang, a man in black Taoist robes wearing a hideous ghost mask—the evil practitioner Liu Mengshu—slowly walked through the door.

"Evil practitioner, it really is you!" Fu Yang tensed up, watching him like a deadly enemy.

Master Bear paused, turning his head to look at him. "Kid, you know this guy? He looks... pretty formidable."

"Liu Mengshu, an expelled disciple of the Maoshan Sect, known as the 'Evil Practitioner,' a Third-Rank Adept."

*A Third-Rank Adept?!*

Master Bear’s chubby body trembled, the flesh on his back wobbling in a rather comical fashion. "Kid, how did you manage to provoke such a terrifying entity?"

Even this foul-mouthed fat cat spirit felt a headache coming on. In the "Adept" realm of Taoism, each additional rank of ordination brought a leap in power. The most significant jumps occurred at the third, fifth, and seventh ranks. This meant a Third-Rank Adept possessed a fundamentally different level of power compared to a First or Second-Rank Adept. That was why Liu Mengshu had shown such overwhelming strength when facing Fu Yang and Ah Huang earlier.

"What do you mean 'provoke'? This guy is the mastermind. He’s likely the one controlling Wan Tiancheng to coerce the business tycoons of Jiangcheng!" Fu Yang gave a bitter smile. He had long suspected that someone like Tu Kacha didn't have the power to make Wan Tiancheng bow so easily. The Evil Practitioner must have been involved. He had hoped the man wasn't on-site, thinking they could finish the job quickly and leave before the official authorities arrived... but the worst-case scenario had come to pass. Liu Mengshu was indeed near the Marriott Hotel.

"A little brat who knows some amateur magic, and a talking fat cat spirit. This combination is rather interesting." Liu Mengshu walked forward leisurely, his voice calm. When he saw the remains of Tu Kacha’s head, he just sneered, "Useless trash."

***

Fu Yang and Master Bear braced themselves. Master Bear, in particular, revealed his feline nature. His four furry paws gripped the ground tightly, his back arched high, his fur standing on end, and a low, guttural "meow, meow" sound rumbling in his throat. He was puffed up in alarm.

Liu Mengshu stopped about twenty meters away. His eyes, visible through the metal ghost mask, examined Fu Yang with great interest.

"The move you just performed, was that my Maoshan 'Great Spirit Finger'? Are you a Maoshan disciple? Oh, wait, you are a descendant of the Ghost Path. It’s normal for you to use techniques from other schools."

Fu Yang was shocked. It seemed this Evil Practitioner knew a lot about the Ghost Path! He actually knew that early-stage practitioners of the Ghost Path had no techniques of their own and usually relied on the arts of other sects.

*That makes sense,* Fu Yang thought, his mind racing to find a way out of the deadlock. *He let us go before because he recognized I was a Ghost Path practitioner; he must have some connection to the sect. But he probably doesn't know I am the only true heir to the Ghost Path lineage. After all, I possess the 'Wild Devour,' and only Viki and I should know about that.*

Master Bear jumped out, one paw on his hip and the other pointing forward. "You ugly monster, hiding your face behind a mask! Since you know the kid is a descendant of the Ghost Path, why don't you get lost? Is this lineage something an expelled Maoshan disciple can afford to provoke?"

The Evil Practitioner laughed heartily. "If the Ghost Path still held its power, I would naturally be wary. But the sect was destroyed hundreds of years ago. Now, it’s nothing but a bunch of disorganized stragglers without true inheritance. If it weren't for the fact that a Ghost Path practitioner once did me a favor, this kid would have been dead months ago..."

Before he could finish his sentence, a golden ring of light, three meters in diameter, suddenly manifested beneath his feet! In the center of the ring was the phantom of a lion, roaring toward the heavens. Its two giant paws clamped down tightly on the practitioner’s legs, rendering him immobile.

"Oh? Mount Putuo’s 'Immovable Lion Array'? A weak cat spirit with mediocre strength, not only capable of human speech but also Buddhist supernatural powers? You are no ordinary creature. You have some great secrets on you..." Liu Mengshu looked down at the roaring lion trying to drag him into the ground, his tone laced with surprise, though he remained unperturbed.

"What are you standing there for, you idiot? Do you want to have a romantic date with this evil priest? Run!"

Master Bear leaped, his round, chubby body clearing a distance of six or seven meters in one bound. He landed with a thud and sprinted toward the door, his four short legs moving at a frantic, desperate pace.