This rain was truly heavy, just like a flood. The wind screamed along with the roars of thunder and lightning, causing the entire Violet Firmament Ancient City to be caught in the torrential downpour.
“Boom!”
The thunder sounded like a mountain had collapsed. The little children under the roofs shrunk their necks in horror. Afterward, a bright flash of lightning traveled through the sky like a heavenly saber splitting the world in half.
This was the power of the heavens. If struck by such lightning, even a cultivation elder renowned in one direction would immediately turn into ashes.
And on this rainy night, an earth-shattering news was being spread throughout Violet Firmament Ancient City. Countless big families and cultivation sects all summoned their experts and wanted to hold an emergency meeting. In a short period of time, many cultivation experts rushed out of the main gate, along with the cavalry, towards a far direction.
It was predetermined that this would not be a peaceful night. There was an unknown fight taking place and it destroyed a huge part of the inner city. When the city guards arrived, there was only blood stains on the ground. As the stains were mixed with the rain, they were finally and completely washed out.
The matter of the Feng Clan chasing the traitor was not forgotten either. All of the gates of Violet Firmament Ancient City were stationed with experts. Feng Feiyun couldn’t escape no matter how far he went.
“Rumble!”
Thunder was still roaring.
The raindrops were as big as a human thumb, and they fell on the rooftop of the one thousand year old buddhist pagoda, creating many “clip clop” sounds. The world couldn’t regain its tranquility.
This time, Feng Feiyun went to the front door and into the buddhist pagoda. He felt that the decorations of this place were similar to the ones inside the Mortal Life Temple, but there were also some differences that carried along an exotic flavor.
The crumbling walls were covered with cobwebs. There were places that were wet due to the rain and created a musty smell.
Along the wooden winding stairs, he, step by step, headed into the darkness.
However, the difference this time was that the nine talismans in Feng Feiyun’s hand started to shine brilliantly and gently floated up from his hand. The nine talismans, like nine spirit lights flying in the air, illuminated the road ahead of him.
With the nine talismans’ vivid light, the formations on the ground and in the air were completely visible. Feng Feiyun finally could avoid the maze as he stepped into the center of the pagoda.
The monastic robe was still in the tray at the center of the pagoda. The monastic robe was of a blueish-gray color — old and ordinary. It didn’t carry any spiritual power. Even the cotton fabric was of the most common kind.
There were embroideries of red spider lilies and had a laced print: “Red spider lily; one thousand years to bloom and one thousand years to wither, flowers and petals never meet each other. Feelings not because of karma, fate preordained before life and death!”
The words ‘red spider lilies’ carried so much grief. Seeing these letters, people couldn’t help but feel a sense of sadness.
That year, the abbot of the Mortal Life Temple imprisoned himself in a dark pagoda because he loved a woman. He spent his time with buddhist chants in order to calm his mind, to forget the woman that was already destined to never be with him.
However, no matter how profound his buddhist beliefs were, it couldn’t resist the demons of his mind. After hearing about the death of that woman, he took off his monastic robe and carried a butcher knife instead. He used the lives of more than one thousand monks in the Mortal Life Temple in order to give the woman a sliver of life. Finally, he even refined his own body.
This was the essence of the red spider lilies. When the leaves grow, the flowers still won’t have bloomed. When the leaves fell down to the ground and become fertilizer, the lilies used its life to become the nutrients for the flowers, in order for them to bloom.
At that moment, the abbot of the Mortal Life Temple sat here with complex and painful emotions. It was truly not something ordinary people could understand.
Feng Feiyun deeply sighed and gazed at the lonely white skeletal hand. This hand was nearly cut off from the body and it seemed to be holding something.
“Who could actually cut off the hand of a master like the abbot of the Mortal Life Temple? What is in his hand?”
Feng Feiyun couldn’t understand. A person that could even reverse destiny would be considered the most elite in the Jin Dynasty, who would be able to cut off his hand?
“Yes, maybe at that moment, the emotions of the abbot were extremely confused and he started to lose his mind. At that moment, he cut off his hand in order to regain his sanity. Unfortunately, in the end, everything still became shambles.”
A person capable of causing a high monk of the buddhist faith to be so infatuated, so deep in love…
This woman must have been someone without equals in this world.
Feng Feiyun didn’t want to wait too long. He wanted to throw the nine talismans into the monastic robe, then put it on and leave, but…
“Swish!”
The buddhist robe that was on the tray on the ground suddenly stood up. It was as if it turned into a man, and it turned around to face Feng Feiyun.
Even though the robe was empty and there was only the skeletal hand in the sleeve, Feng Feiyun still felt that it was a living existence. It was like the robe was hiding a person who was looking at him intensely.
“Don’t hurt her. I deserve to die, but she should live.”
An ancient voice resonated from the buddhist robe. This was not a ghost but an ancient immortal sentiment. A remnant immortal echoed because he couldn’t forget.
Even though it was such a simple statement, the emotions contained inside would cause others to cry. This was a high monk from one thousand years ago, pleading to a junior one thousand years after.
These were the last words of a dead person. They were filled with sorrow and irrationality.
“I deserve to die, but she should live!”
These words kept on resonating in Feng Feiyun’s head. It could be that because of these words, the monastic robe refused to fall and was persevering, persevering for more than one thousand years. Now that Feng Feiyun was finally here, it quickly said its last words to him.
The plea one thousand and eight hundred years apart.
This plea would make it so difficult for any person!
“Boom!”
The monastic robe eventually became unable to resist and softly fell down to the floor, creating a large cloud of dust.
The lonely white skeletal hand finally lost the last of its spirit energy and fell to the floor, becoming white skeletal dust. Within the skeletal dust, there was an extremely blinding green light.
It was a Buddhist Jade Bead. It was as large as a longan fruit and green all around. With nine small needle holes, the lights were shot out from these nine holes.
Feng Feiyun put the bead inside his hand and immediately felt a chilling surge throughout his body. This coldness invaded him down to the bones and spread to his neck. It caused his brain to become calm and he no longer panicked.
Vague buddhist chants resounded in his ears as if there were countless buddhist high monks chanting just for him. Feng Feiyun was sure that, while holding this Buddhist Jade Bead during cultivation, there was absolutely no chance for Qigong Deviation.
“This jade bead is truly amazing. I wonder how many profound buddhist truths are hidden within from the many generations of high monks. This is definitely a sacred relic of the buddhist faith.”
“In recent times, my cultivation increased way too rapidly, resulting in instability and a shaky Immortal Foundation. However, holding this bead in my hand, all of my spirit energy instantly became normal and my foundation became purer with vigorous life. It’s as if I had just broken through again.”
Feng Feiyun felt that there was even more to the mysterious power of the Jade Bead. He used two fingers to hold the bead and looked inside the nine holes. He only noticed the lights inside. It was as if he was stranded in an endless desert, with many buddhist statues emanating faint golden lights.
The inside of the Buddhist Jade Bead seemed to be another world. It was extremely mysterious. Because Feng Feiyun’s cultivation was too low, he could only see a corner of it before being turned back by an invisible power.
“It is time to leave. Right now, the entire Jing Huan Mountain must be surrounded by the major forces. Countless experts must be there as well.”
Feng Feiyun taped the nine talismans in the coat lining of the Na Lan Buddhist Robe and wore it on his body. He didn’t feel that anything was different, but the robe was very soft and his whole body felt lighter.
“Haaa, why am I flying again!”
Feng Feiyun felt that his body was, once again, moved by an invisible force into a very thin layer of space. Suddenly, his whole body was wet and the sounds of thunder rang in his ear.
“Poof!”
Once again, Feng Feiyun fell into the river, that was as wide as the sea, outside of Violet Firmament Ancient City — just like the last time — without any explanation. It was as if he was being controlled by a spirit technique. A thousand miles were as close as a couple of inches.
Once he got out of the city and escaped from the encirclement of the Feng Clan’s experts, he would have already escaped to the heavens. From now on, the sky was vast and the earth was wide; it would not be easy to trap him again.
The moment he crawled up from the river, the rain was still pouring down from the sky. It was still pitch black, and he couldn’t see his five fingers in front of him.