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The Golden Cicada Master looked at the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage and smirked, "Haven’t seen you for a while."

The Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage cracked a smile. "Golden Cicada Master, isn’t this because you hid yourself away from old friends like us?"

The Golden Cicada Master grinned, "Do you wish to band together with Sect Master Lin and make me suffer? Sect Master Lin is much stronger than you. You may not glean many benefits from collaborating with him in the end."

The Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage was not frustrated when he heard this. He rolled his eyes and glanced over at the White Tiger Grand Sage and the Xiangliu Grand Sage, and replied, "That can’t be helped. I’m not like these two either, who only have themselves to tend to. I have many mouths to feed back at home, and if I want my children and grandchildren to be well-fed too, I’m afraid taking the safe route is not enough. I’ll have to take a few risks myself."

He may assert this now, but both Lin Feng and the Golden Cicada Master knew well enough that when things do get ugly on both sides, the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage would most likely just spectate the fight from the sidelines and pick up any leftover scraps at the end.

The Golden Cicada Master shook his head, "I may be willing to sacrifice myself, but I can never satisfy the bottomless pit of my greed."

The White Tiger Grand Sage ignored the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage and fixated his eyes solely on Lin Feng, who was literally being eyed by a ferocious tiger. Even the Xiangliu Grand Sage was itching for a brawl.

Instead, it was the main star, the Golden Cicada Master, who shook his head after gazing at Lin Feng. "It’s still too early to be restless, you two. The Earth Dragon King has already made plans to abandon Mount Taihua and join us. Let’s wait until he arrives before we chart out our plans."

The White Tiger Grand Sage and the Xiangliu Grand Sage both frowned, but since the leading man himself refused to make a move, they naturally had to stay put as well. The Golden Cicada Master let out a soft grunt and the path of light connecting the Black Loch World and the Greater Worlds began to contort, seemingly about to tear and crumble at any second.

Lin Feng twitched his eyebrows. "Why are you in a hurry to leave now?"

He tightened his grip on the path of light. Lines and lines of talisman patterns fluttered and flickered across the void amid the rosy light rays and settled on the path of light, which firmed up and became compact again.

The rainbow-coloured light rays from the Celestial Sect’s Teleportation Abhijina traced the path of light and stretched out rapidly, locking onto the Black Loch World securely. At the same time, the bleary and surreal Heaven Extreme Universal Light also extended all the way to the Black Loch World, seemingly pausing time in that portion of the Middle Worlds. The toxic smog drifting in the air became stationary sculptures, while the choppy, rolling black marshes became as stiff as hardened, sturdy earth.

Then, Lin Feng tugged at the path of light forcefully one more time as if pulling an actual rope, about to drag the entire Black Loch World out of the void into the Greater Worlds!

The faces of the White Tiger Grand Sage and the Xiangliu Grand Sage crumpled in anxiety. They finally ascertained how truly frightening Lin Feng’s Abhijina was.

As he witnessed this extraordinary sight, the Golden Cicada Master let out a soft sigh. "I originally made all these arrangements for a battle against the Leader of the Celestial Sect of Wonders, but now it seems as if I can only use them to escape."

Judging solely by the Abhijina and mana demonstrated by Lin Feng at the moment, the Golden Cicada Master would not lose faith in winning, especially with the White Tiger Grand Sage and the Xiangliu Grand Sage supporting him. But after considering the possible presence of Mount Yujing and the Celestial Sword, he did not intend to continue his duel with Lin Feng without ample confidence.

Having made up his mind, the Golden Cicada Master did not hesitate any longer. He blinked his eyes which flickered with a lustrous golden glow.

A giant cicada silhouette faded in and out of view in the void above him. It was so colossal that even the gargantuan serpentine body of the Xiangliu Grand Sage that spanned across the entire Black Loch World could not match the cicada’s immense size.

A deafening chorus of shrill cicada chirps ruptured through the skies, giving off the atmosphere of an impending apocalypse.

The nine human heads on the Xiangliu Grand Sage all opened their gaping mouths wide and let out a thunderous howl that shook the entire Black Loch World.

This portion of the Middle Worlds looked like a giant black egg from the outside, and large air bubbles began bulging up on some parts of the surface while other areas began caving in to form vast depressions. The entire surface became extremely uneven as it continued to alter and deform.

Lin Feng was not exactly bothered by the Golden Cicada Master’s cacophony of cicadas. Beside him, the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage’s face turned slightly pale as he scanned his surroundings, suddenly feeling light tremors from Mount Lingyuan, the ancestral ground of the Immemorial Ape Demon Tribe.

It was not just the Nine Netherworld Peak occupied by the Nine Netherworld Ghost Monkey Tribe, nor the Xiaocizhi Mountain of the Crimson Gorilla Ape Demon Tribe. The whole Lingyuan Mountain Range was quaking!

Lin Feng took a sweeping glance across the Lingyuan Mountains below him and pondered to himself, "Could it be one of the forgotten treasures from the Royal Holy Abyss secretly hidden by the Golden Cicada Master that triggered these changes in the Lingyuan Mountains? But it does not seem to be controlling the mountains nor boosting the energy of the ape tribes’ ancestral ground. It just seems to be using the powers emanating from a certain area of the mountains to accomplish something. In spite of this, it’s still genuinely shocking, but this would only be possible without the current Master of the Ape Tribes, the Heavenly Grandmaster Grand Sage, sitting on Mount Lingyun. The Golden Cicada Master would have no way of succeeding if the Heavenly Grandmaster Grand Sage was still nestled on Mount Lingyun’s main peak."

Lin Feng took one glance at the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage. "Even if it was the Crimson Gorilla sitting atop Mount Lingyun’s main peak, the Golden Cicada Master should not be able to do anything reckless of this sort. But seeing how he just succeeded, it seems that nobody knew he was hiding such a trick after all."

As he mulled over this, Lin Feng watched as the Black Loch World before him gradually changed its appearance. The barren world blanketed in dense clouds of toxic smog and swamps of black waste slowly burst with radiant holy light that cloaked the whole of the Middle Worlds.

The black swamps and rolling smog disappeared amidst the brilliant holy light, replaced by a multitude of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Arhats, Gaté and monks all meditating on a Sukhavati, reciting Buddhist scripture pristine bed of golden earth.

The chorus of singing and chanting reverberated through the heavens, and in the middle of the Sukhavati filled with boundless joy and peace sat a massive Buddha. His Abhijina and mana flowed through the skies and lands. The slits between his fingers contained countless coexisting Buddhist realms, each pursuing Nirvana.

At the same time, large amounts of demonic energy gushed upwards to the heavens across the Lingyuan Mountains and the Greater Worlds where Lin Feng and the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage were in, forming a huge alternate dimensional space. In that instant, Lin Feng and everyone on Mount Lingyuan seemingly departed from the Barren Expanses and entered an isolated world.

In this isolated dimension, the columns of demonic energy morphed into numerous giant demon monkeys that shrieked at the skies in unison, a scene reeking of pure anarchy. Furthermore, this world was strangely linked to the pristine Sukhavati formed from the Black Loch World.

Then, the serene and joyful Sukhavati blended with the world of the Lingyuan Mountains overflowing with demonic energy, creating a strange and distorted world that was made up of both a chorus of Buddhist chants and a cacophony of demon screams. Such a combination instantly produced a mysterious and bizarre power that bound Lin Feng and the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage.

In the centre of the Sukhavati, the Golden Cicada Master sat cross-legged with his hands joined together as he looked at Lin Feng calmly with dignity and majesty.

The Nine Netherworld Ten-sided Dual Garbhadhātu!

This was originally prepared by the Golden Cicada Master to ambush Lin Feng.

Lin Feng remained composed as usual, not being too bothered by the sudden activation of the Nine Netherworld Ten-sided Dual Garbhadhātu as he scanned the area with his Supernatural Awareness. Although he could not fully grasp the abstruseness within, he still held a rough understanding of its resulting effects.

"I see. If I stepped on that path at first and proceeded towards the Black Loch World, the Golden Cicada Master would have unleashed his secret weapon the instant I entered the Black Loch World through the Inter-World Passage. This way, I would have been imprisoned between the two realms. Under those circumstances, my Celestial Sect Teleportation Technique would be subjected to restrictions and I wouldn’t be able to escape the Alpha Destiny Tribulation. Furthermore, with the spatial dimension being in complete chaos, I would need time to summon either Mount Yujing or the Celestial Sword."

"He knew all along that without the confidence of defeating me by just using his Abhijina, he needed to force me to undergo the Alpha Destiny Tribulation, a smart move indeed. After all, this is his strongest suite and the battle method with the highest chances of victory. Only a handful of cultivators can match his strength in the Vipralopa Stage, much less surpass him."

After comprehending the Golden Cicada Master’s strategic arrangements, Lin Feng seemed as relaxed as ever. He looked up, then down, carefully taking in all the profundities of the Nine Netherworld Ten-sided Dual Garbhadhātu. "But if he deploys it now, he can’t achieve its intended effects. At most, I’ll have to leverage the distortion energy of the dual worlds to free myself and escape."

Just as expected, under the bending of space between the two realms, the path of light gripped in Lin Feng’s hands quickly cracked and fissured, about to disintegrate.

Without uttering a word, the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage immediately rushed to Mount Lingyuan’s main peak. Lin Feng on the other hand, remained where he stood and beheld the sight before him without taking any action to block the attacks. His attention was instead focused on the space above the demon world morphed from Mount Lingyuan.

The monk can flee but the temple cannot flee with him. Lin Feng still had the hints of the Golden Cicada Master’s whereabouts at his fingertips. The Ape Tribes have also prepared for subsequent attacks. It would no longer be easy for the Golden Cicada Master to summon this spell a second time.

Furthermore, Lin Feng put an abrupt stop to the Golden Cicada Master’s secret spell ceremony and used his Mana Fences to cut off communication between the Golden Cicada Master and his Dharma Avatars, hence receiving many messages that his opponent did not. Even though the Golden Cicada Master plotted painstakingly for so many years, he would still peek his own head out for these things no matter how cautious he was.

Lin Feng was pretty intrigued by the peculiar changes happening on Mount Lingyuan. It was such a rare opportunity after all. The Heavenly Grandmaster Grand Sage and the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage would certainly not welcome any outsiders investigating their Ape Tribes’ own ancestral grounds. After this incident, the Heavenly Grandmaster Grand Sage would most likely dread the Golden Cicada Master even more.

"Hm?" Lin Feng’s eyes sparkled. He opened one of his palms and grabbed the void. Strange streams of light landed in the center of his palm.

At this moment, the Nine Netherworld Ten-sided Dual Garbhadhātu suddenly collapsed and utterly destroyed Lin Feng’s binds on the Black Loch World. The dual realms broke off from each other as the Sanskrit chorus fell silent, revealing the Black Loch World’s original state before it disappeared into the void.

Mount Lingyuan returned to the Greater Worlds. In the instant when the dual realms collapsed, a ray of light shot out from Mount Lingyuan and traversed layers of the void before reaching the Black Loch World. One could vaguely make out a tiny disc in the Golden Cicada Master’s hand.

"Sect Master Lin, we’ll be fated to meet again." The Golden Cicada Master’s voice faded away into the void.

Lin Feng gazed at the Black Loch World and the disc on the Golden Cicada Master’s hand. He chuckled softly, "Why would we rely on fate to meet again? We’ll see each other very soon."

Just as Lin Feng and the Golden Cicada Master confronted each other, near a lush verdant spiritual mountain far away from Mount Lingyuan, the void split open and a giant pig covered in violet demonic flames burst out from the crack.

Without even scaling the peak, the burning pig started yelling at the spiritual mountain. "We’re in trouble, Big Senior! Master and Third Junior have been captured by the humans!"