These stone statues were indeed good items, but they were of no use to Lu Ding.

Neither the quality nor the quantity was sufficient.

Now at the God Ascension Fifth Layer, although he possessed Heaven-Man Unity, allowing him to accomplish the most with the least resources and achieve great success with minimal input, the scale still couldn't be this small.

Resources that were only enough for Zhan Tingzhou to break through from the Third Restriction late-stage to the Fourth Restriction late-stage would probably not even push his own cultivation half a step forward.

Therefore, he simply went with the flow, helping Zhan Tingzhou absorb these stone statues crafted with massive resources.

Otherwise, who knows how long it would have taken Zhan Tingzhou to finish absorbing them all by himself.

At this moment.

Zhan Tingzhou's body was already surrounded by four of the five colors of the Five-Colored Divine Light circulating.

He spoke to Lu Ding, "Thanks."

Originally, he had come to help Lu Ding search for treasure. The 'Slaughter Heart' of the Slaughter Goddess was a supreme treasure with numerous wonderful uses.

He never expected that before Lu Ding gained any benefits, he himself would benefit first.

This made Zhan Tingzhou feel a bit embarrassed.

Why was he always the one picking up the scraps?

And these scraps were incredibly useful to him, requiring absolutely no suffering on his part.

Thinking back to his previous life, he had also had opportunities to pick up scraps, but which time wasn't he chased like a dog?

In this life, with Lu Ding present, and Lu Ding's realm and strength far surpassing his own, even the crumbs that fell from Lu Ding's fingers were enough for him to benefit from endlessly.

And picking up scraps didn't require suffering.

So this is what it feels like to have someone backing you up!!!? 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"Don't mention it."

Lu Ding smiled, turning to look at the Slaughter Goddess statue that had been reduced to a human stick.

This thing was merely the external manifestation of the Slaughter Goddess. Its true core was hidden within, using the divine statue's appearance to absorb the power of faith while also serving as protection.

For many years, for the Slaughter Goddess, this stone statue was like its clothes, all benefits and no drawbacks.

But today, it was trapped inside its own clothes by the absolute suppression force of the Golden Ao Island wielded by Lu Ding, unable to escape, a victim of its own making.

Drawbacks either don't appear, or they are directly fatal!

Yan Yuyi glanced again at the direction of the stone statues with a pang of heartache. Those were resources even she couldn't bear to use.

And they were just given away to some nobody.

What a terrible waste.

But remembering the saying 'as long as the green mountains remain, there will be no shortage of firewood,' Yan Yuyi said, "Grand Duke Lu... you..."

Lu Ding didn't even turn his head. "Don't worry, I won't take action against you."

As soon as the words fell.

Zhan Tingzhou, who had just broken through, quietly appeared behind Yan Yuyi, drawing a short blade gleaming with cold light.

With swift, precise, and ruthless efficiency, he grabbed Yan Yuyi's hair and slit her throat in one smooth motion, without the slightest hesitation.

"But I will."

"He promised you, I didn't."

Lifting the severed head, he gave a slight nod towards Lu Ding.

Lu Ding laughed. "We're quite in sync, you and I."

"AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

Suddenly.

A roar erupted from within the Slaughter Goddess Statue, intertwined with emotions of fury and agony.

It caused the earth to tremble.

Cracks spread across the stone statue, blood spurting from them.

Lu Ding took a step back.

"Roar your mother!"

The Huadie longsword in his hand was drawn with a single-handed upward flick, then gripped with both hands for a downward slash.

Sword energy splattered.

The wind howled on.

Blowing their hair wildly.

When the wind finally ceased and their hair settled.

The roar abruptly stopped.

The stone statue shattered into pieces.

Revealing a pulsating heart inside, red to the point of being blinding.

Killing intent erupted from the arteries and veins.

Enveloping Lu Ding and Zhan Tingzhou.

A voice saturated with resentment, a blend of male and female tones, rang out.

"Lu Ding!! You broke your word!!!! Unworthy of the name Corpse-Shattering Taishui, I will kill you!!!! And you, this Fourth Restriction junior!!! I will kill you both!!! Let's die together!!!!!"

The killing intent accumulated over years was enough to corrupt any God Ascension cultivator, let alone those below that realm.

But unexpectedly.

Lu Ding remained completely unaffected within the killing intent.

White Snake Shakes Scales: Don't even try to touch me.

The lingering consciousness of the Slaughter Goddess voiced an incomprehensible question. "Why aren't you affected!!!?"

Followed by another: "And what gives you the right to be unaffected!!?"

That Lu Ding was unaffected, it could somewhat understand, given his formidable reputation.

But that Fourth Restriction guy next to him, what right did he have to be unaffected!?

Zhan Tingzhou remained as calm and composed as ever.

Killing intent?

Admittedly pure.

If he were merely a pure Fourth Restriction genius, he'd be dead today, no question.

But who told him he was a reborn expert!?

This level of killing intent wasn't even worth looking at.

The number of people he had killed in his previous life probably exceeded the number of people this Slaughter Goddess had ever seen.

It was completely like showing off one's meager skill before an expert.

However, at present, neither Lu Ding nor Zhan Tingzhou had the habit of explaining their opponents' doubts to them.

Lu Ding stomped his foot.

Dense waves of the Way of the Jinche erupted chaotically from his apertures.

The blood mist in the air was hacked apart, disintegrating, gradually dissolving.

The Slaughter Goddess, suffering pain akin to being flayed alive, began to curse.

"I curse you, I curse you both!!!!"

"I curse you to die horrible deaths!!!!"

The blood mist dissipated.

A prompt from the Golden Finger appeared in Lu Ding's mind.

[Contained Monster: Body-Killing Evil Ghost]

[Containment Reward: Fear-Killing Asura]

[Fear-Killing Asura: Using killing to stop killing, using killing to stop chaos, using killing to stop violence, using killing to stop war, killing every enemy, slaughtering all life, not for the sake of creating slaughter, but being slaughter itself.......]

The moment the reward entered his body.

Lu Ding felt an indescribable comfort throughout his entire being, an irresistible urge to spout some slick lines.

'I don't want to kill just one of you, I want to personally kill every single one of you.'

'Death is the end, and also a punishment, but dying by my hand is your reward.'

'The outcome of death is eternal and unchanging, but the process of slaughter is full of twists and turns. Come, let me turn the page that belongs to you.'

Fear-Killing did not mean fearing slaughter, but rather fearing accidentally killing all existence.

As for its specific abilities...

Lu Ding could only say it was very cool, and this wasn't merely a skill's form of expression, but a state.

Temporarily called the Fear-Killing State.

Compared to the grand scale of the Dharma Form, Lu Ding in the Fear-Killing State was concentrated essence. He felt slaughter within inches, experienced killing, yet feared that he might kill too many people at once, unable to personally kill each one. Therefore, he would use absolute, precisely overwhelming force to massacre every enemy without leaking influence to affect others.

The methods would just be very cruel.

Just thinking about it was thrilling.

Lu Ding, who had unlocked the Fear-Killing State, wouldn't aim to kill just one enemy in the future, but to kill every single enemy.

"Body-Killing Evil Ghost, quite interesting. Just wonder if I'll get to meet the Flaming-Face Ghost King in this world."

Lu Ding evaluated.

He didn't know much about this thing. Mainly, it originated from the "Sutra of the Right Dharma Mindfulness Place." Buddhist sutras were obscure and convoluted.

Simply impossible to understand.

Lu Ding only knew it was ranked thirty-sixth among the Thirty-Six Ghosts.

Although the ranking seemed low.

Compared to other ghosts, the Body-Killing Evil Ghost had the biggest background. It was subjugated by demon kings, led by the ghost king named Flaming-Face Great Being along with other evil ghosts. Also called the Charred-Face Ghost King, its origins were also extraordinary, said to be one of the incarnations transformed by the Bodhisattva Guanyin.

All this might be too complex, but it had a straightforward, long-circulated name among the people: Great Being Lord!!

Meanwhile.

On the other side of the new city.

Pu Guan, who had once been helped by Lu Ding to reclaim the Spirit Dragon Spirit Root, then fled to the new city for development fearing retaliation, somehow ended up associating with Yuwen Longyuan.

Moreover, during his time in the new city, he had also figured out the identities of Lu Ding and Fu Xinghe.

To repay the kindness, facing Yuwen Longyuan's recruitment, he pretended to join Wuwang, actually planning to secretly gather information to later quietly hand over to Grand Duke Lu, delivering a devastating blow to Wuwang as repayment for Lu Ding's help.

For him, he wasn't biased towards either side. Whether it was Wuwang or the 749 Bureau, it wasn't his business.

But Lu Ding was someone who had shown him kindness. Whichever side Lu Ding was on, he would lean towards that side.

And so.

The two were discussing the terms of their arrangement today.

Suddenly.

Pu Guan sneezed.

"Strange, I haven't sneezed in years. Could it be that a powerful being is thinking of me!?"

"Hahahaha, Dragon Commander, it seems heaven wills it. I must seek Wuwang's protection now, lest that powerful being comes for me and takes my life."