Mister Hai’s surname was not ‘Hai’, but no one knew what his name was, and since he stayed overseas most of the time, so he was known as Mister Hai.
He was always seen being clothed in gold with a jade hairpin in his hair. Two strands of long hair fell from the side of his ear, his brows were thick and his nose bridge was high. He was charming as he seemed to always have a smile on his face, but on closer inspection, one would realize that he was not smiling.
In the mortal realm, he looked more like a charming and attractive descendant of the great families.
When the Nine-Headed Demon King took over this part of the sea, Mister Hai had been enjoying quite the reputation for some time already, which said a lot about how long he had been living. In fact, no one knew his actual age. However, his appearance had never changed.
Regardless of ranks and titles, whether it was demon kings or the great cultivators, most thought that Mister Hai was not human and belonged to some other clan. Though not even a single person had seen his actual body or form, and not many had seen him fight. Every time that he fought, it was easy and casual, and he would end a powerful enemy without much effort. This was why no one dared to look down on him.
Mister Hai had not been traveling around for twenty years now – some said that he went to other continents, some said he was cultivating in retreat. One year ago, he appeared again out of nowhere.
Every time he appeared, he would come with his mount. It was a giant whale with the blood of ancient Kunpeng. Although it was unable to shapeshift into human form, its mana was not any worse than any normal land immortals.
When the giant whale inhaled and exhaled the vital Qi, any powerful cultivators within the radius of a thousand miles could feel it, and they would be able to infer that Mister Hai appeared.
When Mister Hai came to visit the Nine-Headed Demon King, he could not bring his mount as it was too big.
A group of female demons danced in the hall of the underwater palace. They had fair arms and long legs. Every now and then, their inner thigh, almost at the groin, could be seen, and the two rows of prawns and crabs soldiers who stood guard wished that they had more eyes, just to take the sight all in.
The Nine-Headed King and Mister Hai were speaking about any and everything over wine glasses.
Mister Hai was cultured. Despite the vulgarity of the Nine-Headed King, he could still maintain the flow of the conversation, there was no awkwardness at all.
The Nine-Headed King was very entertained by their conversation. As Mister Hai was experienced and knowledgeable, he knew about a lot of strange and peculiar occurrences.
Suddenly, Mister Hai frowned, the Nine-Headed King saw and queried, “Brother, what’s the matter?”
Mister Hai smiled at the Nine-Headed King and took in another mouthful of good wine. “Nothing huge, one of my concubines was killed by someone,” he said casually.
“I thought what happened, it’s just one woman. With your abilities, you can marry even the saintess of Yaochi. If you are really mad, I could catch the culprit for you and show him some colors.” The Nine-Headed King laughed.
“It was just a little snake that I helped shapeshifted, even if no one killed her, she would be a pile of bones in a hundred years or two, so we can talk about this later. This time around, I did not come to just drink with Brother Nine. I needed your help with something.” Mister Hai did not dwell on the incident and decided to reveal the aim of his visit.
The female demonic snake attained spiritual wisdom and having spent some time in the Huafang ship in the human realm, she learned some seduction techniques. For her to meet Mister Hai was a coincidence, and Mister Hai helped her to shapeshift into a human.
To help normal demons to shapeshift into a human was a powerful Dao technique. Some sects would do that to the demons in the mountains and would keep them as the soldiers for the sect, or as bodyguards for their disciples who headed out.
The demon kings even did this on a larger scale. However, these demons did not have high spiritual wisdom, which was why they retained many of their original characteristics even after having shape-shifted into a human.
The demons who shapeshifted this way had low potential and had lost all chance at becoming a demon king.
Mister Hai had a lot of concubines throughout the years, which was why their deaths did not affect him. To him, even though the female demonic snake was fresh, he could forsake her in a heartbeat.
Qing Xuan did not have the tradition of keeping soldiers. The books and texts that Shen Lian had been reading could not possibly record every little detail about the cultivation community. This was why he did not know that demons could shapeshift through external help besides shapeshifting through their own effort.
The Nine-Headed King looked serious. Mister Hai had strong supernatural power and endless mana, for him to ask for a favor would mean that it was a serious matter.
Both of them did not have a close relationship, the Nine-Headed King was already thinking of a way to reject him without hurting their harmonious relationship.
“Brother, just tell me what you need,” he continued without pause in spite of the ongoing consideration in his mind.
“You dumb*sses, didn’t you see that I am talking about something serious? Get out of here, all of you!” he yelled at the female demons and demon soldiers.
His means were rough and the sound waves followed. Within seconds, all of the demon soldiers and female demons were out of the hall, yet the hall did not look messed up at all. The skillful manner in which he exercised his mana was an impressive feat.
Mister Hai wore the expression of admiration on his face. “Brother Nine, your mana is getting more refined and powerful. In no time, there will be another ‘Great Saint’ in this world,” he said.
The most powerful demons and monsters in this world would be known as the ‘Great Saint’, and he would be a powerful being who did not need to bow to even the Daoist masters and Buddha.
The Nine-Headed King thought, ‘The greater the compliments, the more difficult the favor is. If you insist on me helping, I would lose a lot this time around.’
The two of them exchanged some niceties before Mister Hai finally asked, “Brother Nine, have you heard of the country, Yuetuo?” He knew that the Nine-Headed Demon King was not just anyone and he could not fool him around.
“Of course, five thousand years ago, there was a Buddha who transcended left behind an orthodoxy – the Jinguang Temple. Even now, there is a Monk Baoyue who is said to be quite powerful. Even the Eagle King who flew in the sky is in his hands now.”
“Brother Nine, you are right. But I bet you didn’t know that the Moonlight Buddha attained enlightenment through the help of a Buddhist relic. Through that, he understood the path and meaning of Buddhism. After attaining enlightenment, the relic was not of much use anymore and was left behind in Jinguang Temple. I want to get my hands on the relic and hope that it could help me breakthrough, but Baoyue is not an easy person to deal with and I need your help. If we managed to get our hands on the relic, we could discuss and study about it together.”
Mister Hai detailed the secret news casually. Then, he looked down to reach for his wine glass while waiting for the Nine-Headed Demon King to reply.
The Nine-Headed Demon King did not believe in everything that Mister Hai said, but doubtlessly, there was something strange with the way the Moonlight Buddha attained enlightenment. This would explain why the Jinguang Temple was guarded by generations of powerful monks.
Buddhism was powerful and was not below Xuanmen, but it was hard to follow and to trace. Unlike authentic Xuanmen, the Daoist master could open up the nine states and could walk up the staircase to heaven step by step.
This was why the Daoists thought themselves to be authentic and brushed off Buddhism.
However, Buddhism was rooted in the mortal realm and did not reject anyone. This was why in every generation, there would be monks who were enlightened and their power and influence were comparable to that of Daoism, if not more.