Chapter 248: Old Monk Wang Yue, and the Road to Heaven
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The palaces were majestic, like wonders. They were like immortal palaces, scattered all over the mountain.
However, at the same time, the surrounding islands, darkness, and jade pillars did not disappear. Instead, they also existed in his vision and overlapped with the palace.
Lin Yan was momentarily shocked. At this moment, his perspective was extremely strange. Not only could he see the jade pillar, jade lotus, and hanging coffin, but he could also see the dazzling palaces.
It was as if two worlds had overlapped. The vision was chaotic and very strange.
Lin Yan immediately reacted. “This is… an illusion!”
“Young friend, there’s no need to panic…”
Suddenly, an old, declining, and compassionate voice sounded from above. It was the call he had heard before!
“This is the Illusionary Flower and Moon Technique. It stacks my Nightmare Illusion on the real world. As long as you focus, you can break out and be unaffected…”
Lin Yan didn’t say anything when he heard that. He first tried to focus. As his thoughts became clearer, the surrounding illusion slowly dissipated, revealing the dark island underground.
However, as long as he relaxed his mind, the illusion would return and gain the upper hand.
“Young friend, I don’t have much time left. Please come forward…”
Lin Yan looked up at the jade pillar. Just now, he had retreated from the jade pillar. Clearly, the person who spoke to him was the old monk wooden carving sitting on the jade pillar.
Lin Yan activated the Azure Dragon Riding Wind and Thunder again and jumped down to the lotus platform.
In his real perspective, the old monk was still a wooden statue, not moving at all.
However, in the perspective of the illusion, there was a real old monk sitting there. His eyes were filled with pity, and there seemed to be dense sorrow on his face. He slowly raised his head, and his eyes were like the deep sea. He bowed slightly. “Greetings, young friend.”
Lin Yan nodded hesitantly. “Who are you?”
“My name is Wang Yue. I’m the 43rd abbot of Heavenly Eye Temple and the last abbot.”
“Heavenly Eye Temple… Ancient Fan Nation!”
“So, my homeland has already been called the Ancient Fan Nation… Young friend, I wonder how many years has it been since the destruction of the Fan Nation?”
Lin Yan narrowed his eyes and carefully observed Wang Yue. He said, “I’ve only heard people talk about Ancient Fan Nation, but I don’t know much about it. I only heard that it was about 400 years ago.”
“Four hundred years, the world has changed…” Wang Yue’s face was filled with disappointment.
Lin Yan narrowed his eyes and probed. “The world has changed. In your eyes, isn’t it like fleeting clouds? The person from 400 years ago can actually live to this day. You’re really a god.”
Wang Yue sighed. “It’s just 400 years. There are many people in this world who have lived much longer than this. How can 1 be called a god?”
Lin Yan’s expression changed. “In this world, there are many people like Master who can live so long?”
Wang Yue nodded, but then shook his head.
“What do you mean?”
“There are indeed many people who can live for hundreds or thousands of years.
“However, a person’s lifespan is 100 years. If someone can really live for that long, is he still human?
“He’s no longer human…”
“There’s a price to pay for longevity, and it’s an extremely heavy and unbearable price.”
Lin Yan’s heart was in turmoil. In this world, there were actually many people who survived from ancient times like the old monk?
However, he had never heard of it from Liu Lanqing and the others!
What was going on in this world!
The old monk didn’t seem to be willing to say much about longevity, nor did Lin Yan.
After a moment of silence, he said, “Master, you called me here, right? Why did you call me here?!”
Wang Yue chanted a Buddhist proclamation. “1 called you over because I saw you hunting the Ghost-Faced Fish in the Jade Pool Lake below and ruining the balance here. 1 hope you won’t hunt anymore.”
“Ghost-Faced Fish? It’s the Poison-Toothed Trout we’re talking about, right? Are you worried that I’ll destroy the ecological balance by killing too many Poison-Toothed Trouts?”
“Ecological balance? That’s a precise phrase.
“That’s right. This Jade Pool Lake is a formation set up by our Heavenly Eye Temple. It’s called the Heavenly Eight Dragons Array.
In the Jade Pool Lake, the 360 jade pillars are the cores of the array, maintained by the Ghost-Faced Fish.
“If too many Ghost-Faced Fish are killed or injured, the Corpse Buddha Cockroach will take advantage of the situation and destroy the jade pillars. The hundreds of years of effort of the entire Heavenly Eight Dragons Array will be wasted.”
Heavenly Eight Dragons Array?
Lin Yan’s eyes flickered. He didn’t know if this old monk was innocent or if he had done it on purpose. He actually told him such a secret. Wasn’t he afraid that Lin Yan would use this to threaten him?
Lin Yan didn’t believe that he didn’t have any special motives.
“Young friend, you’re right. I do have something to ask you for help with.”
Lin Yan’s body tensed up. “You can hear what I’m thinking?”
The old monk shook his head. “With this technique, 1 can only sense the good and evil intentions of outsiders.”
Lin Yan was slightly shocked, but he didn’t believe what he said. He said in a low voice, “Master, you’re very capable. However, when 1 came previously, several jade pillars in the poisonous lake above had already collapsed and broken. The array formation you mentioned might have been broken.”
The old monk shook his head. “The key to this array is the 360 jade pillars in the Mirror Lake. It doesn’t matter if a few of the jade pillars below are damaged. They will grow back.”
He put his palms together again. “Young friend, there’s not much time left. The thing you’re looking for is on the rock wall in that direction, 100 feet below the water.”
He pointed to a direction on the right.
Lin Yan’s eyes turned even colder. “Do you know what I’m looking for?!”
The old monk’s face was calm. “The God’s Domain is approaching. Young friend, you’re looking for a way out, right? It’s in that direction.”
“God’s Domain? So, you call the Chaotic Fog God’s Domain?”
The old monk nodded. “Chaotic Fog. That’s quite accurate…
“The God’s Domain is approaching. A calamity will descend here. We’ve prepared for hundreds of years, but in the end, this moment has finally arrived…
“Young friend, go take a look. When you go over, be careful of the Buddha Demons scattered from the stone coffins. Because the jade pillars are damaged, some Buddha Demons have already woken up and broken free…
“I know that you don’t trust me yet.
“However, 1 still want to remind you that the God’s Domain is everywhere. It doesn’t have any gaps. If you want to sneak in through the secret passage, I’m afraid you won’t succeed.”
Lin Yan’s expression changed again. “Could it be that the fog can enter the ground through the sealed lake and passageway?”
The old monk did not say anything else. He just put his palms together and said, “Young friend, you’ll know when you see it.”
As he spoke, the golden light slowly retracted, like a lotus flower recombining into a flower bud.
The entire underground world returned to darkness and silence. The old monk in front of him was still in the motionless wooden state.
Lin Yan carefully stared at the old monk’s wooden carving a few times. Seeing that he was indeed motionless, he retreated with a solemn expression.
He still had many questions to ask the old monk. The eyes on the island, the reversed gravity, especially Xiaozhi’s jade statue…
He touched his chest. There had been several earthquakes and Xiaozhi had fallen asleep several times. It was obvious that it had something to do with this. The old monk must know what had happened to Xiaozhi.
Walking to the edge of the island again, Lin Yan recalled what the monk had said, and his heart sank even more.
Could it be that the underground passage that he had hoped to use to escape was also a dead end?
Lin Yan had an uneasy feeling that he would return here soon…
Suppressing the uneasiness in his heart, Lin Yan went into the water and swam in the direction the old monk had pointed.
Just as he swam for a while, the waves in front of him suddenly exploded. A black shadow rushed towards Lin Yan.
The flames in the darkness were dim, and Lin Yan couldn’t see clearly. He directly activated the Azure Dragon Riding Wind and Thunder in the water. Amidst the roar, lightning and wind blades scattered in all directions. The Azure Dragon phantom churned and directly cut the rushing black shadow into pieces.
“This is…”
This was also an Eight-Armed Vajra, but it looked even worse than the one on the shore. It only had four thick arms and one foot, which was also curled up beside its body, connected to its flesh membrane.
Still…
This foot was actually in human form!
“So, could it be that this Eight-Armed Vajra, or the so-called Buddha Demon, is transformed from a human?”
Looking up, there was indeed a jade pillar here. On it, there were several jade branches extending forward and back. Under the jade lotus on the side, there were twelve blood-colored stone coffins hanging. Two of them had already shattered and were empty.
Two…
The Savage Flame in Lin Yan’s hand churned and instantly transformed into a long saber that slashed at the waves behind him!
Another Eight-Armed Vajra was split into two by him.
He swam towards his destination and slashed at a few more eight-armed Vajras along the way. Soon, Lin Yan found the cave that Wang Yue had mentioned.
As he swam through the cave entrance, it extended downwards. Lin Yan swam all the way in. The cave was winding. Fortunately, there was the
Spirit-Snatching Demonic Flame to illuminate the way.
Soon, the surrounding gravity flipped again. Lin Yan fell into deep thought. He was already a long distance away from the underground ruin, but the gravity still flipped again.
This meant that the gravity reversal was not limited to that underground ruin. Instead, there was a similar effect for a long distance.
Was this the work of the Ancient Fan Nation, or was this the world itself?
This time, it was obvious that he was floating up.
If not for the Mixed Water Technique, it would have given people endless pressure if he was limited to this tightly sealed underground tunnel. However, the A/lixed Water Technique guaranteed Lin Yan’s breathing in the water, so there was nothing to fear. After an unknown period of time, the surrounding undercurrent suddenly surged with immense strength.
Lin Yan could only circulate his strength and forcefully resist the undercurrent as he swam forward. After a distance, he suddenly raised his head from the water. He had arrived!
Lin Yan raised the Spirit-Snatching Demonic Flame in his hand and was immediately delighted. He was right. This was the underground pond of the Dragon Absorbing Water!
Lin Yan jumped up from the pond and landed on the ground. He couldn’t help but feel excited.
He was really here!
The ruins of the underground Buddhist Kingdom were really connected to the outside world!
Lin Yan heaved a sigh of relief and looked at the underground cave that continued to extend downwards. This time, he was familiar with it and quickly followed the rock wall to the bottom.
“No wonder there are poisons at the end of this passageway. It seems that the two of them are related to each other…”
He strode towards the passageway and quickly arrived at a charred area. This was the place where he had used the Azure Dragon Riding Wind and Thunder to kill Guo Fan.
On the side, the dark blue Netherworld River flowed quietly.
Lin Yan was about to rush to the end of the passageway when his pupils suddenly constricted as he stared intently at the Netherworld River.
On the Netherworld River, wisps of silver-gray mist slowly floated and gathered, spreading towards the passageway at the same time.
“Chaotic Fog!”
Lin Yan took a deep breath. This was clearly an underground sealed space, so why would it produce Chaotic Fog out of thin air?!
When Lin Yan observed carefully, he realized that the Chaotic Fog rose from the Netherworld River!
The Netherworld River was like a container of fog, constantly releasing Chaotic Fog. In the blink of an eye, the entire top of the Netherworld River was covered in a layer of gray and silver!
“Netherworld River, Chaotic Fog…”
Lin Yan’s heart suddenly sank to the bottom. Wang Yue had said that the Chaotic Fog would not let go of any gaps. Was that what he meant?
Lin Yan didn’t barge in. In the blink of an eye, the Chaotic Fog was so dense that it was almost impossible to see what was inside. It enveloped the entire underground river.
Splash!
Suddenly, a faint sound of water sounded from the Chaotic Fog before it fell silent again.
Lin Yan suddenly held his breath.. Something had climbed up from the Nether River!