"How do we explain this to Great Yan?" the Silver Frost Envoy asked, surprised.
"Tell them the truth. Say it was lost."
"Wouldn’t that be... ill-advised?"
"This place is guarded by the Three Great Yan Institutes, so the search is their responsibility. I will not compensate for any wasted ti. A deal is a deal," Jiang Shan said calmly, his heart as still as water.
"Saint Monk, do you know who stole it?"
"I have a good idea. It was likely one of the two groups from earlier today."
"Are you referring to the Eighth Prince and the Seventh Prince?"
"Precisely." Jiang Shan nodded slightly. Gripping his Zen Staff, he glanced in a certain direction and instructed, "Report it to the officials. If the Relic is lost, the Three Academy Cultivators will bear the greatest responsibility. Great Yan will not let the matter rest; they’ll surely search high and low for it. If we get involved, we risk attracting trouble. It won’t be fatal, but it will be a nuisance."
"If a fated person appears who can rge with the Relic, then they are destined to be with my Buddha. This trip will not have been in vain."
Jiang Shan was clearly confident about the Relic’s whereabouts. He wasn’t afraid of it being lost, allowing it to remain out in the open to stir up trouble in the Capital City and keep the Great Yan Court busy.
This would allow the Silver Frost Country to profit from the situation, making a move against the Great Frost or, at the very least, giving them a month to formulate a sufficient plan.
If the Sacred Object was truly absorbed by soone, he would still not be at a loss. At the very least, he would have planted a seed of the Seven Ancestors Lineage in Great Yan and found a suitable candidate.
No matter what happened, he would co out ahead.
He had another reason for choosing to offer the Buddha’s Relics: he wanted to probe the true condition of the Emperor of Great Yan.
But now, there was no way to et the man, and the Emperor of Great Yan hadn’t even co to try for himself.
This couldn’t help but make him wonder if Great Yan was truly as simple as it appeared on the surface.
"I will follow all of the Saint Monk’s commands!"
The Silver Frost Envoy cupped his fist, accepted the order, and quickly set things in motion.
「...」
「That night.」
In the Capital City, the moonlight was as brilliant as silk. The sound of the night watchman’s gong occasionally echoed through the streets, but it was drowned out by the clamor of the night markets. The Imperial Capital was as bustling as ever after dark.
「Langya Royal Mansion.」
Lu Yunwan let out a simple-minded laugh. "I never expected we could swap out the Relic so easily. Using a Bodhisattva’s Dao Lotus to carry it made it a piece of cake."
Before him stood a burly Mad Monk nad Fan Shen. A smug look appeared on his ferocious face. "Five hundred years ago, my Great Leiyin Temple produced a Bodhisattva, you know. If it weren’t for the Great Celestial Dragon Temple and the Great Golden Cicada Temple carving up the Seven Ancestors’ legacy, we wouldn’t be a step below them."
"With these Buddha’s Relics, securing the Buddhist Dao Fortune will be as easy as taking sothing from our own pocket. However, that White-robed Monk must have a way to track it. As long as we find a qualified person to rge with it as soon as possible, our plan will be foolproof. Even if the White-robed Monk cos looking, it will be of no use."
Lu Yunwan asked, puzzled, "How does one rge with the Relic?"
The burly Mad Monk explained, "One must possess a Pure Zen Heart and view the great world as nothing. They must firmly believe that all living beings are equal, treating emperors, generals, ministers, peddlers, and porters all the sa. They also need a heart of great fearlessness and a clear state of mind, undisturbed by worldly things. But such a person is hard to find in this world. Only the Arhat Bodhisattvas of my temple could even try."
Hearing this, Lu Yunwan pondered for a mont. ’I definitely don’t qualify,’ he thought.
The education he had received since childhood destined him to have no affinity with a Zen Heart.
’What a joke.’
’Emperors, generals, ministers, peddlers, and porters, all treated the sa?’
’If all living beings are equal, then the concept of status shouldn’t exist. Everyone is born equal, with no special privileges. Does such a world truly exist?’
"We must get the Buddha’s Relics back to Leiyin Temple as soon as possible."
As they spoke, they had already ordered their servants to prepare a carriage to leave the city.
They hadn’t taken more than a few steps out of the Prince Mansion.
A group of people appeared at the end of the main gate’s path. Every one of them was masked, with varied builds and powerful auras.
They surrounded Lu Yunwan’s carriage.
Lu Yunwan didn’t panic, instead snorting coldly. "I knew it. I’m not the only one coveting the Sacred Object."
He snapped his fingers lightly.
From within the Prince Mansion, over a hundred White Shark Armor Soldiers erged. The Armor they wore was crafted from Demon Shark Dorsal Fin Armor provided by the East Sea Sect.
In addition, there were nurous Martial Monks wielding long staves. Their bare upper bodies were a brilliant gold, like bronze statues, and their stances ford the concentric rings of an Array.
The black-clothed masked figures in the distance remained unfazed. More experts appeared on the rooftops, their eyes glinting maliciously, their killing intent palpable.
Their leaders were a Sword Cultivator wielding two blades, the Black-clothed Armored Woman, and a one-eyed old man.
"There’s a Middle Fifth Grade expert. It seems we have no choice but to fight today," the Five-Finger Mad Monk said, licking his lips.
He rely clenched his fist, and a Purple Gold Qi began to circulate across his face as he completely unleashed his aura.
With a stomp of his right foot, his figure vanished.
The shockwave from that stomp tore through the area with devastating force, shattering all the bluestone bricks within a hundred ters. The ground cracked inch by inch, and a large crater appeared.
BOOM!
A trendous crash echoed as a building collapsed. With a re lift of his hand and foot, he had already slain one of the black-clothed masked n.
CLANG!
The sound of a blade slicing through the sky rang out. A chilling Sword Intent condensed in the air, transforming into streaks of iridescent light.
In just a dozen breaths, the Five-Finger Mad Monk and the Sword Cultivator separated and clashed again. Sword Qi flew everywhere. The monk’s fists and the cultivator’s blades seed like two ancient Exotic Beasts colliding—at tis like raging waves, at others like beasts in a deadly struggle.
As the dual-wielding Sword Cultivator battled Fan Shen, Lu Yunwan’s expression turned grim. "Who dares oppose ?"
Just as anger and shock filled him, the Black-clothed Armored Woman stood beneath the full moon. Perched on the black eaves of a roof, her posture was tall and straight. Her high ponytail reached her waist as she drew a long blade resembling a tachi.
User Comments
0 comments from readers