Great Emperor-level Comprehension

The Bronze Buddha Statue was only fist-high.

Its face bore an expression of sorrow and suffering, lifelike in every detail.

It looked ancient, as though it had rusted.

The statue was also covered in cracks.

"Found it—the Quasi-Emperor forbidden artifact Sakyamuni forged to suppress the Eighteen Levels of Hell!"

Lu Zhou treasured it like a priceless find and stored it in his Qiankun Pearl, holding half a Jade Ruyi in one hand.

At that moment, Ye Fan and Pang Bo had already entered the Ancient Temple.

Ye Fan headed straight for the bronze lamp and snatched it up in one grab.

His movements could be summed up in five words: fast as hell.

Zhou Yi entered behind them. He stepped onto the thick dust and uncovered an alms bowl beneath it.

More and more people entered the Ancient Temple afterward.

Seeing this, Lu Zhou hurriedly stepped up his pace in collecting Buddhist treasures.

He remembered that there was an intact string of Buddhist Beads atop the statue's head, and half a Vajra Pestle behind it.

With that in mind, he quickly circled behind the statue and indeed found half a Vajra Pestle.

When he wanted to take the Buddhist Beads from atop the statue's head, he saw that a somewhat haggard-looking woman had already taken them into her hands.

This was probably the female classmate Emperor Ye had sympathized with, the one he had once drunkenly driven a Mercedes to take to a hotel in the middle of the night.

Lu Zhou could only give up.

Just then, he saw Ye Fan handing the Bronze Ancient Lamp to Pang Bo and telling him to search the Ancient Temple carefully with it. No matter what artifact he found, he was to take it.

Lu Zhou did not dare delay.

Holding two Buddhist artifacts, he rushed toward the Bodhi tree outside the Ancient Temple before Ye Fan could.

Just as he plucked four Bodhi Leaves and prepared to take the remaining two as well, Ye Fan came over.

He arrived beneath the Bodhi tree, crouched down, and began digging through the soil around its roots.

Ye Fan had just seen faint, nearly imperceptible green radiance flowing from the six Bodhi Leaves. A small part drifted toward the Five-Colored Altar, while most of it seeped into the roots.

He suspected there was some treasure at the roots.

Very soon, he dug up a Bodhi seed.

By then, Lu Zhou had also picked all six Bodhi Leaves.

They looked at each other and smiled. There was a touch of goodwill in those smiles.

Afterward, they each put away their Bodhi seed and Bodhi Leaves. Neither said anything more; everything was understood without words.

Ye Fan turned and headed toward the Ancient Temple.

Lu Zhou, meanwhile, placed his hand on the Bodhi tree that was about to turn to ash and stored it in his Qiankun Pearl.

Unfortunately, after entering the Qiankun Pearl, the Bodhi tree still turned to ash.

Perhaps that was its fate.

While everyone was still busy searching the Ancient Temple for Buddhist artifacts,

Lu Zhou began checking what he had received from signing in at the Great Thunderclap Temple.

"Three instances of Great Emperor-level comprehension?"

"Oh? Not bad this time."

Lu Zhou thought of the scripture within the Bronze Coffin.

With those three instances of Great Emperor-level comprehension, plus the six Bodhi Leaves he had just obtained, Lu Zhou figured he should be able to hear that scripture like Ye Fan and memorize all of it, right?

As he was thinking about this, Pang Bo had already moved several large stones and removed the plaque engraved with "Great Thunderclap Temple."

This sight left many of Pang Bo's classmates dumbfounded. They felt that Pang Bo was incredibly fierce.

Lu Zhou noticed it as well, and then he thought of Crocodile Ancestor's descendants.

Just as he took a step to run toward the Bronze Coffin, a vast Six-Character Buddha Sound resounded through the heavens.

At the same time, all the artifacts they had obtained from the Buddhist hall, whether intact or damaged, emitted a gentle glow. Brilliant radiance shone forth, filling everyone with alarm.

The Ancient Temple shook, and the Stone Buddha cracked apart. Finally, with a boom, the Stone Buddha turned to ash, while the Great Thunderclap Temple crumbled into dust in a faint breeze.

Then, the light of the Buddhist artifacts in everyone's hands withdrew and dimmed, returning to their ordinary states.

"Move! I have a bad feeling. I think we should return to the Bronze Coffin first."

Lu Zhou was the one who spoke.

It was not because he had some do-gooder complex.

He was farming favorability.

Leaving aside Ye Fan and Pang Bo, those two monsters, among their classmates who reached the Big Dipper in the future, all of them except Liu Yunzhi's little group would achieve something remarkable.

Even though Lu Zhou knew the plot and could be considered a walking cheat code,

who could say what the future held?

This was Covering the Heavens. Maybe someday in the future, he would need their help!

It was only a reminder. It was not as if Lu Zhou would lose a piece of flesh over it!

Yet the moment his words fell, one of Ye Fan's classmates stepped forward and began firing at him!

"A bad feeling? Why don't I have one?"

"There might be some terrifying ghost thing inside that coffin!"

"You were already of unknown origin and not one of us. Now you want to drag us back into that coffin with you. What are you plotting?"

Lu Zhou noticed that as the man spoke to him, his eyes were burning with desire as he stared at the Jade Ruyi and Vajra Pestle in Lu Zhou's hands!

Lu Zhou understood immediately. Someone had set his sights on the Buddhist treasures in his possession!

He looked at the others, but no one spoke.

Seeing that, Lu Zhou could not be bothered with them anymore.

Kind words could not save those determined to die.

He turned and left at once.

He sprinted toward the Bronze Coffin.

But he remembered that man. If not for his concern that Crocodile Ancestor's descendants were about to emerge, he would have beaten that brat senseless.

Seeing this, Ye Fan and some of the others seemed to sense that something was wrong as well.

"I think we should listen to him. I have a bad feeling too."

After Ye Fan said this, he and Pang Bo ran after Lu Zhou.

Seeing Ye Fan and Pang Bo act this way, the remaining people looked at one another. Ignoring Li Changqing, who had just spoken, they blindly followed Lu Zhou and the others.

This made Li Changqing furious.

"Let's go!"

Liu Yunzhi held a damaged fish drum in his hand. He patted Li Changqing, and then their group followed as well.

Here, some butterfly effects began to emerge.

Originally, this fish drum should have been obtained by Li Changqing, then later taken by Ye Fan and given to Zhang Ziling.

And the Vajra Pestle that should have gone to Liu Yunzhi had now ended up in Lu Zhou's hands.

Perhaps this was karma ordained by fate!

Lu Zhou had taken Liu Yunzhi's Vajra Pestle, and now Liu Yunzhi's group had their eyes on him.

Not long after they ran some distance, a sandstorm swept across Mars.

They noticed that the hazy circular barrier, over a thousand meters in diameter and centered on the Five-Colored Altar and the Great Thunderclap Temple, was dimming and about to vanish!

This seemed to confirm Lu Zhou's earlier warning that something was wrong.

Everyone was horrified and immediately ran even faster.

What followed was a great terror!

Crocodile Ancestor's descendants appeared.

The first to die was still one of Ye Fan's female classmates.

As she ran, she let out a scream and fell into the dust.

Her face was filled with terror, and there was a thumb-thick bloody hole in her forehead.

This sight terrified Ye Fan's classmates. Every one of them felt chills creep down their spines.

Ye Fan stopped two male classmates who wanted to approach. After a brief exchange, they did not hesitate and continued running toward the Five-Colored Altar.

Soon, they were attacked by those little crocodiles again.

Someone died again.

They discovered that the Buddhist artifacts brought from the Ancient Temple could block the little crocodiles to some extent.

A drama of human nature amid life and death began to unfold among them.

Lu Zhou stood beside the Bronze Coffin and silently watched the scene.

Only when some little crocodiles pierced through the light barrier and rushed onto the Five-Colored Altar

did Lu Zhou have no more show to watch. He joined the battle as well. The Five-Colored Altar lacked energy, and they had to slaughter enough little crocodiles to offer them as blood sacrifices.

In the end, after several more people died, the Five-Colored Altar seemed to have finally gathered enough energy. They entered the coffin again and were pulled by the Nine Dragons, rushing toward the Big Dipper.