15: Monster or...

As the saw blade scraped a string of sparks from Tang Ku’s neck, Nezha heard a grating, teeth-aching sound.

“Alright, I was overthinking it!”

Watching the saw blade break into countless pieces, Nezha couldn’t help but relax, and said with a bitter smile, “I say, Holy Monk, your body is almost as indestructible as that monkey’s Vajra, do you get this benefit after becoming a Buddha?”

Swish!

Countless saw blades reappeared in mid-air, then took turns sawing at the monk’s body.

Listening to the grating sound, Tang Ku replied to Nezha, “This and becoming a Buddha are two different things. My body is so special because I once Cultivated a Body Refining Cultivation Technique. If we have time after we complete the task here, we can exchange pointers, perhaps it can make your body even more robust!”

“Is it that punching Cultivation Technique you used before?”

Nezha’s eyes lit up, “That’s definitely something I want, it felt so heroic…”

“I usually call that feeling ‘supremely cool and handsome’!”

Clang!

All the blades broke again, and Tang Ku finally turned around to look at Nezha.

“Supremely cool and handsome… hmm, interesting!”

Nezha laughed heartily, patting Yang Jian’s shoulder, “Did you hear that, True Lord? From now on, I am the Supremely Cool and Handsome Third Prince!”

“No effect!”

Yang Jian ignored him, instead looking around, but found that no Formation or portal-like objects had appeared at all.

“So, I suffered for nothing?”

Tang Ku put on his monk robes and kasaya, saying helplessly.

However, thinking about it, it truly wasn’t for nothing. After experiencing the Eighteen Levels of Hell, he accumulated a total of eight Iron Fist Points, plus the previous ones, that makes 29 Iron Fist Points available to allocate. The overall gain was quite substantial.

His current body data was: Intellect 15, Strength 17, Skill 10, Agility 11, Speed 13, Defense 20. This means that these 29 points could almost allow him to symmetrically enhance his strength.

However, he still needed to deliberate on where to add them to those body stats.

Just as Tang Ku was lost in thought, Nezha suddenly exclaimed, “Wait, why do I feel like something’s wrong with the surroundings?”

Tang Ku suddenly looked up, only to see the scene of the Saw Blade Hell he had just witnessed begin to fade like an ink painting splashed with water. The original dark red hue instantly turned into cold blue and white, and the surrounding temperature also seemed to gradually drop with this fading. With a light exhale, white steam puffed out from his mouth, as if he had instantly gone from summer to winter.

Immediately after, the entire space transformed into a world of ice and snow. The vast land was covered in ice and snow, and in the distance, there were continuous snow-capped mountains and… icebergs!

Yang Jian’s eyes instantly lit up, and he said in a deep voice, “The Holy Monk’s actions just now still triggered the mechanism. It seems that to reach Avici Hell, this is the process!”

“What if we accidentally die in Hell?”

Nezha looked at the two with lingering fear.

“Then it’s just bad luck!”

Tang Ku smiled bitterly and helplessly, “If it weren’t for a golden body of this strength, no one would dare to brave the Eighteen Levels of Hell!”

“I seem to sense someone… no, that’s a great demon, not a person, in that direction, but this aura is so strange, as if it’s mixed with more than one kind of power…”

Yang Jian frowned, pointing to the distant iceberg, “My third eye can’t see clearly either!”

Tang Ku scanned his surroundings and said helplessly, “It seems the person we’re looking for is there. Hmm, it’s just that I don’t know what happened that caused him to be trapped there… We’ll know once we go take a look!”

Although he didn’t sense the aura like Erlang Shen, he could see the body data of the person over there.

Intellect! Strength? Skill? Agility? Speed? Defense?

Except for Intellect being an exclamation mark, all the rest were question marks!

“Could it be that thing… or rather, that person, has already exceeded the System’s sensing ability, which is why it’s like this? How terrifying must his strength be then?”

However, Tang Ku no longer had time to ponder these things, because the person in the iceberg was very likely the one he was looking for.

Given the trio’s traveling speed, this distance actually wouldn’t take much time at all, roughly only ten li or so. They basically arrived at their destination in less than two minutes.

Beneath the iceberg was a huge hole, about six or seven meters in diameter, like a man-made tunnel. The cold Qi inside was biting, and even with their physiques, they felt a bit unable to withstand it.

They looked at each other, then Tang Ku gritted his teeth and said in a deep voice, “We’ve overcome eighty-one tribulations, so this one last shiver is nothing. Let’s go, let’s see who’s inside!”

With that, he directly activated his Vajra Zen Skill to warm himself up and took the lead in walking inside.

“The Holy Monk speaks in a strange way, but it does fit his experience!”

Nezha smiled and followed closely, with only Yang Jian bringing up the rear, slightly furrowing his brow and slowly catching up!

The situation inside was much more intense than outside; the biting cold wind howled outwards. Even with their powerful magic, they couldn’t help but shiver a little. The cold wind seemed to penetrate into one’s bones, like a small ice knife slowly cutting at one’s joints.

Finally, with great difficulty, they reached the exit, and the three suddenly felt their eyes brighten, having arrived in a very spacious area.

This space was as large as a football field, with eight enormous chains, each over three meters in diameter, covered in thick frost, extending to the very center of the area. And in that central position, a monstrous beast, mountain-sized, was actually chained!

It resembled a tiger, with two horns on its forehead, two wings on its ribs, and a strange yet ferocious appearance.

“This, this is the ancient Vicious Beast, Qiongqi?”

Nezha exclaimed in shock, “Why would it be imprisoned in Avici Hell?”

“No, it’s not Qiongqi! Or rather… it’s not entirely Qiongqi!”

Tang Ku murmured, “Didn’t you sense that besides the powerful demonic Qi of a Vicious Beast, there’s another kind of power on it?”

Nezha shook his head, turned to look at Yang Jian, and showed a puzzled expression.

Yang Jian was bewildered, staring blankly at the beast’s massive body!

The eight iron chains seemed to be arranged according to a certain rule, passing through its wings, collarbones, and the bases of its four limbs, firmly fixing it there. The chains were covered with runes, and powerful energy was continuously output, suppressing the Vicious Beast the moment it even tried to move!

“Who knows how many thousands of years this monster has been trapped here? Just the cold Qi here, which can freeze an Immortal to death, is already more terrifying than all the punishments of the Eighteen Levels of Hell combined!” Tang Ku said in a deep voice.

“Sanzang, you’ve finally arrived!”

The voice was vast, yet everyone heard it clearly!

In Tang Ku’s soul, Golden Cicada’s memories instantly surfaced, and he almost blurted out, “Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva?”