Chapter 497: Chapter 353: Reshaping the Golden Body!
The young Daoist rolled and crawled, shouting all the way, until he reached the feet of Master Taixu and knelt down heavily.
“Master!”
“Something terrible has happened!”
“The statue of the Great Emperor has cracked…”
“Nonsense!”
Supreme Sage Taixu rebuked, “The statue of the Great Emperor is fortified with divine power. It’s considered a golden embodiment of the Emperor, indestructible and imperishable. How can it crack?”
“But…”
Meng Mingshan was almost in tears, “But the statue of the Great Emperor really has cracked… and it almost crushed me.”
Just now.
He had been worshipping the statue of the Great Emperor in the Heavenly Reward Palace as usual.
But before he even finished his worship, a sudden “snap” was heard. Meng Mingshan looked up just in time to see the statue’s arm fall off.
Followed by the head, both legs, and the body…
If not for his quick reaction in running out of the Heavenly Reward Palace before the collapse of the statue, he would have been crushed by now.
“That’s impossible!”
Sage Taixu refuted stubbornly.
Sticking to his denial though, the noise from the collapse of the Heavenly Reward Palace was quite loud. He was not deaf. He immediately left his room, only to see dust flying in the direction of the palace, and the once magnificent hall slowly collapsing.
Supreme Sage Taixu’s face turned pale, and he hurriedly sped off towards the palace.
Minister Wang and Xu Zhiyuan followed closely behind.
Xu Yang sat in his wheelchair, initially wanting Meng Mingshan to push him, but then he reconsidered…
His divine power already refines me, significantly improving my cultivation, and my internal injuries have completely healed… why the hell should I still sit in a wheelchair?
He immediately ditched the wheelchair and headed to the Heavenly Reward Palace.
Upon reaching the Heavenly Reward Palace…
What greeted him was a pile of ruins.
The once grand Heavenly Reward Palace had collapsed, and the statue of Emperor Dongyue housed within was shattered into pieces. Half a statue’s head happened to roll to Xu Yang’s feet.
Xu Yang was somewhat surprised.
The statue of Emperor Dongyue actually cracked?
He looked at Master Taixu, who was staring blankly at the ruins, looking distraught as if he had lost his mind. Xu Yang sighed and consoled, “Master Taixu… You have my condolences.”
Master Taixu’s body was shaking slightly, his fists tightly clenched.
He stared at the Heavenly Reward Palace, now reduced to ruins, and murmured, “It’s impossible… This is impossible… How could the Heavenly Reward Palace collapse? How could the statue of the Great Emperor collapse?”
Xu Yang understood his feelings completely.
You could say the existence of Dai Temple is to worship and venerate Emperor Dongyue!
The Heavenly Reward Palace had been built for thousands of years.
The statue of Emperor Dongyue had been worshipped by generation after generation of disciples for thousands of years…
But now that it was in his hands, suddenly…
Bang!
The statue broke!
The Heavenly Reward Palace collapsed!
Put yourself in his shoes, how would you feel meeting your ancestors in the underworld?
The collapse of the Heavenly Reward Palace attracted Dai Temple disciples to come and investigate.
Even some “martial artists” outside Dai Temple heard the commotion, and several divine minds inquired over.
Minister Wang sneered, scattered those divine minds and said, “Master Taixu, don’t grieve… As the saying goes, out with the old, in with the new. Zhang Jiyu is the chairman of our Da Xia Daoist Association. He is outside now. Later I’ll tell him to grant approval to allocate an extra 10 million for the refurbishment of Heavenly Reward Palace…”
Under normal circumstances, Supreme Sage Taixu would probably be grinning from ear to ear to hear such news.
But today, he still wore an expression of sorrow and said, “This divine image of the Emperor is equivalent to a golden body of a Great Emperor. According to our Daoist Collection in the Dai Temple… The Emperor once descended upon this golden figure, so how could it suddenly shatter?”
“Could it be…”
“The Great Emperor has truly perished?”
When he got to this point, Supreme Sage Taixu fell to his knees. His aged eyes welled up with tears, and he felt like his lifelong faith and perseverance was crumbling away.
After a few seconds of pondering, Xu Yang tentatively said, “Elder Taixu…”
Sect Leader Taixu, wiping his tears, turned his head away.
Xu Yang said, “Could there be a possibility… I’m just saying, just a possibility…you said before, the reason the divine image of Emperor Dongyue has remained intact for thousands of years is because of the divine power within it, now… that divine power has been refined by me…”
“!!!”
Supreme Sage Taixu’s body trembled like he had been struck by lightning.
He sprang up from the ground, grabbing Xu Yang’s neck, screaming, “It’s you, it was you… Xu Yang, you give me back my Great Emperor’s statue!”
Xu Yang’s face turned red with affliction.
He wanted to resist, but feared injuring the elderly Daoist Taixu. Thus, with a force applied to his neck, he disengaged his own head, positing his body a few steps back and leaving his head in the hands of Supreme Sage Taixu.
“Elder Taixu.”
“Do not be angry!”
“Minister Wang was correct: if the old does not go, the new will not come… Is it not just the statue of the Great Emperor?”
“Minister Wang will provide funds for you to rebuild the Heavenly Reward Palace… and I’ll make a new golden statue for our Emperor, how’s that?”
Still clutching Xu Yang’s head, Supreme Sage Taixu snarled, “A newly made golden statue, how can it compare to the statue that my Dai Temple has worshiped for thousands of years?”
Xu Yang said, “The golden statue I’m talking about is a real gold statue.”
Supreme Sage Taixu: “……”
He released his grip, and suspiciously asked, “Is that true?”
Xu Yang’s head dropped a bit but then quickly stabilized and floated upwards, “Would I, the Celestial Master, lie?”
Supreme Sage Taixu said, “The statue of our Emperor in Dai Temple is quite large …at least three meters high and has a gilding layer of at least one centimeter thick…”
Xu Yang retorted, “Master Taixu, I don’t like your words…Emperor Dongyue and my father co-governed the underworld; they were like brothers. He is my beloved uncle. When I make a golden statue for my uncle, would I cheat?”
“What gilding layer?”
“Isn’t that deceiving people?”
“It’ll be pure gold!”
Master Taixu: “……”
He opened his mouth and murmured, “How much …how much gold would this require?”
Xu Yang’s head floated back onto his body. He activated his divine power, attached his head, looked at the half-head of the “Emperor Dongyue” lying on the ground, gives it a flick, and then caught it in his hand.
Zoom!
An odd power seeped out from Xu Yang’s fingertips.
The next moment, the place his finger touched radiated an aura of gold. In just a moment, that half-head of the statue, larger than a basketball, had turned into pure gold!
“The 36 Malevolent-Deity Skills… Turning Stone into Gold!”
Supreme Sage Taixu was visibly shocked and exclaimed, “Celestial Master Xu has actually accomplished such profound divine power… Celestial Master Xu, can these divine image subparts be handed over to this old Daoist for inspection?”
Naturally, Xu Yang would not refuse and tossed over the half of the golden head.
Supreme Sage Taixu weighed the divine image subparts, then scratched and bit them to verify their authenticity. Once he confirmed that it was indeed “pure gold,” he handed the half gold head to Meng Mingshan and said, “This is the head of the Great Emperor. You take good care of it and send it to my room… Don’t knock or bump it…”
Xu Yang: “……”
This is very Taixu-esque!
Supreme Sage Taixu, wiping his tears and rallying his spirit, said, “Minister Wang was right, when the old does not leave, the new cannot come in. Perhaps the Emperor intentionally shattered his statue so that our younger disciples could rebuild his golden body… Minister Wang, does your offer still stand?”