The evening drum at Pufa Temple had long since sounded. Most of the worshippers had left, and the branches of the thousand-year-old pines outside the temple stretched into the air like coiling dragons. Moonlight poured down, making the Thousand-Year Ancient Temple seem ever more secluded.
The night sky was deep, the Milky Way brilliant. Wang Xuan walked toward An City beneath a sky full of stars, feeling somewhat uncertain. Had he provoked "one" again?
He grumbled inwardly. This is really cursed! Once it involved Mysterious Factor, unnatural phenomena beyond scientific explanation would occur.
He felt tense, not knowing what unpredictable event might happen tonight. He truly did not want to be tormented again.
By now, he had gained some insight. Everything in this world was balanced. Whenever one felt that something was to be gained, one must also be paying something in return.
He had taken the initiative to absorb Mysterious Factor, believing he was excavating myths buried by the years and would carve out a brilliant path in the field of Old Arts. Yet was he not also drawing close to danger? Perhaps this was a deep pit from the start, with bait carrying a sweet fragrance placed ahead, waiting for later arrivals to approach. This might well have been deliberate on the part of the ancients.
At this point, Wang Xuan absolutely did not dare underestimate those people from ancient times. Since they had once shone so brilliantly, they must have possessed extraordinary and terrifying aspects. He now seriously doubted the truth behind Ascension to Immortality.
"I hope I can get through tonight safely!"
Wang Xuan had left home early in the morning, only to return beneath the stars and moon. He ate something simple by the roadside and did not get home until after nine at night.
After washing up, he visualized a golden great sun, its blazing flames burning away the clouds and mists that filled the sky, illuminating a bright and clear world. Golden rain of light scattered everywhere, sacred and peaceful.
"Demons and devils, keep away!"
Wang Xuan took a deep breath and lay on the bed. Before long, he Fell into Slumber. That was one of the benefits of practicing Old Arts: he never suffered from insomnia.
Sure enough, his worries came true. Even after circulating the Root Method before bed and visualizing a dazzling great sun to disperse the gloomy mist and darkness, something still happened.
Close at hand, an Old Monk sat by his bed. His body surface was blackened, as if it were about to rot away, and dark red blood streamed from his eyes as he watched Wang Xuan.
Wang Xuan's hair stood on end. With a whoosh, he flung back the covers, jolted awake, and sat upright. The sensation had been far too real. He seemed to have smelled a faintly rotten odor just now.
Did the visitor come with ill intent? He turned on the light, drank a glass of water, then silently circulated the Root Method. Tonight would definitely not be peaceful.
Moreover, he felt that there was something off about this Old Monk. He was not peaceful in the slightest. There was no Buddha's light Shining Upon all things, nor had he manifested any sacred dharma form.
On the contrary, the Old Monk's entire body was blackened and seemed somewhat decayed. He could not be mentioned in the same breath as the Female Daoist practitioner, who had casually summoned lightning as resplendent as a river of stars.
Yet the two had one thing in common: blood flowed from both their eyes, as though they had experienced some exceptionally tragic event and remained unwilling even after death.
"This pit is a little too deep. I somehow fell into it, and the situation doesn't look good!" Wang Xuan was rarely so grave, and his heart felt incomparably heavy.
He increasingly felt that the truth behind Ascension to Immortality might be many times more complicated than even his guesses at Pufa Temple. A mere glimpse had already made him feel deeply afraid.
Earlier, he had been immensely confident. He alone in the world could enter the Inner Scenery Realm, and he had done so through his own power, without the guidance of a patriarch. In this era, he could still stand firm within the time of emptiness and clarity.
But now, he felt a little horrified. His achievements were indeed astonishing and extraordinary, yet that did not necessarily mean they were good. Without realizing it, he seemed to be slowly lifting a certain heavy and mysterious curtain pressed down by the years. Doing so might mean danger was drawing near.
These past few days, he had been thinking about how to find strange objects similar to the Ascension Stone so as to increase his strength.
At the time, he had believed that if some of the ancients' residual spiritual energy appeared, then even if a few strange scenes emerged, it would be no big deal.
But now his heart pounded with fear. What he had imagined before had been far too beautiful.
If he triggered mysterious events repeatedly and several inexplicable beings appeared around him—a Daoist Master, a Fairy Maiden, an Old Monk, and so on—it would be vastly different from the harmonious scene he had imagined, with everyone gathered around a table to play mahjong.
"This time, I didn't even enter the Inner Scenery Realm, yet an Old Monk with bleeding eyes followed me here. Could it be that as long as one discovers Mysterious Factor in the real world and draws it in and absorbs it, some unpredictable things will happen?"
Wang Xuan felt he had suffered a huge loss this time. At the very least, last time he had used the Female Daoist practitioner's residual spiritual energy to enter the Inner Scenery Realm, greatly improving his strength.
This time, the Old Monk had given him nothing, yet stubbornly followed him home. His body emitted a rotten smell as he sat at the head of the bed and watched him.
After another round of visualization, Wang Xuan fell asleep again.
Sure enough, the Old Monk returned. His skin was blackened, blood dripped from his eyes, and he sat motionlessly at the head of the bed, watching Wang Xuan without saying a word. That alone was enough to make one shudder.
Wang Xuan did not wake up. Instead, the scene he had visualized manifested. Another Wang Xuan appeared, gripping a Dark Gold staff and smashing it straight toward the Old Monk's head as he Sat Cross-legged at the bedside. There was not the slightest gentleness to it; it was exceedingly fierce.
He had thought it through. Since this residual spiritual energy could not interfere with the real world or harm his spirit, and since the visitor came with ill intent, there was no need for him to indulge it. He would simply strike first.
Otherwise, if he encountered more of them in the future, would he have to worship each one like a lord? It would exhaust him to death.
With a bang, the Old Monk exploded apart. Before he collapsed, he seemed profoundly taken aback. Astonishment appeared in those dead-gray eyes.
"Since you seek something from another, speak properly. Don't put on that kind of attitude!" the Wang Xuan holding the Dark Gold staff barked. As for his true self, he remained asleep and did not awaken.
A moment later, the Old Monk reappeared. This time, he did not sit by the bed. Although blood still flowed from his eyes and his body remained blackened and decayed, he was very self-aware. He stood farther away and pressed his palms together.
In an instant, hazy Buddha's light fell, revealing an extremely blurred scene. Arhats sat cross-legged, a Bodhi tree swayed, and Buddhist chants rang out.
In his dream, Wang Xuan's subconscious stirred violently. He saw those scenes, so blurred they were nearly dispersing. Rather than immediately waking in alarm, he was drawn in. Had bodhisattvas truly existed in the past?
Within those scenes, Stone Pagodas lay scattered, ancient temples crumbled, bodhisattvas soared into the sky, golden-bodied arhats rose, and Bodhi trees tore free from the earth. Amid the rain of light cast down by Buddha's radiance, those sacred scenes entered the depths of space.
What did this mean? Wang Xuan was puzzled. Was this a scene the Old Monk had shown him because he sought something from him?
Very soon, the Old Monk seemed unable to hold on. Those scenes, already blurred to begin with, shattered into fragments and ceased to exist, unable to manifest again.
The Old Monk himself also wavered unsteadily, his nearly decayed form beginning to blur.
At that moment, Wang Xuan noticed a detail he had previously overlooked from the Old Monk's unstable state. When the Old Monk dimmed and was about to vanish, it was as though a heavy curtain covered his decayed body.
Then Wang Xuan awoke. His subconscious had been moving violently, and he rose from his slumber.
"There's something strange here. The Old Monk seems to have come from the darkness, manifesting himself from a very distant place and exhausting all his strength just to achieve this. Yet the Female Daoist practitioner had always stood right before me. I never noticed the detail that should have been obvious. Perhaps they are actually all in some faraway realm. If so, the Female Daoist practitioner is extraordinarily powerful, far beyond the Old Monk."
After another round of visualization, Wang Xuan fell asleep again. That night, he resolved to have a "proper chat" with the Old Monk. When trouble came, do not panic; communicate slowly.
The Old Monk reappeared, still walking out from the darkness. His figure was blurred, and in his demonstration, he seemed to step out from a stone wall, snapping the iron chains binding him.
Although Wang Xuan's subconscious had not awakened, it began to shake violently again. Could the Old Monk have been trapped within the stone wall, only to be released after Wang Xuan absorbed Mysterious Factor that night?
Then another Wang Xuan appeared. It was the image he had preset through visualization, still holding the large staff. "Since you seek something from another, why not show some sincerity? Mortals seeking Buddha offer incense; when Buddha seeks mortals, what should Buddha do? In earlier years, a Female Daoist practitioner entered my dream and once taught me a method to join the ranks of the Transcendent Immortals."
A woman three thousand years older could help one join the ranks of the Transcendent Immortals. Wang Xuan did not dare spout such nonsense, but it did inspire him. He could give the Old Monk a hint and demand some benefits.
At this moment, Little Wang truly feared nothing, preparing to solicit a bribe from Buddha!
The Old Monk blanked out, then silently demonstrated a fist technique. He really gave him something in return?!
Wang Xuan's subconscious naturally could see it and quickly memorized it. This seemed to be... the Great Vajra Fist? Moreover, it only had a few moves repeated over and over.
The Old Monk was quite diligent. He demonstrated very clearly how to exert force and how every part of the body, including the five viscera, should vibrate.
The Great Vajra Fist was indeed a secret supreme art. Back at Great Black Mountain, the man in black, Sun Chengkun, had used it. Even after Wang Xuan mastered the Golden Body Art, he could barely withstand it. His fingers had nearly been shattered by the vibrations, and his nails had been lifted by the terrifying force.
What the Old Monk demonstrated was incomplete. He struggled to stretch his body, but his strength failed him, and he could only demonstrate this much. When he swung into the later fist forms, his own body actually began to disintegrate.
Wang Xuan woke again and, Sitting Cross-legged on the bed, spoke directly. "If you can continue showing me that fist technique, appear in my dreams. If you cannot, do not disturb my sleep. After I wake tomorrow, I will carefully consider your problem."
He recalled that fist technique. It seemed somewhat different from the man in black's Great Vajra Fist. He pondered it for a while and felt that it was anything but simple, perhaps exceedingly extraordinary.
In the end, Wang Xuan entered his dream, but the Old Monk did not reappear.
At dawn, Wang Xuan woke up and seriously recalled what he had experienced in the dream. He began slowly practicing those fist seals. He found the outer postures easy to imitate, but the vibrations and exertion of force in the various parts of his body were extremely difficult!
"No rush. Take it slowly. Today, I still need to make a trip to Pufa Temple and resolve the Old Monk's problem."
Wang Xuan felt that the scenes from the dream—the bodhisattvas departing, the ancient temple collapsing, the thousand-year Bodhi tree tearing free from the earth—might all be related to certain historical events in reality. As long as he learned the truth, he could solve the Old Monk's riddle and completely deal with this mysterious event.
Early in the morning, Wang Xuan returned to Pufa Temple.
Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice. Why did it sound like Old Chen? Was it an illusion? His old colleague had clearly run off to New Star after being frightened. Wang Xuan had even spoken with Qing Mu on the phone two days ago and had heard nothing about Old Chen returning. Moreover, Qing Mu had said Old Chen would remain there for some time.
"No, it's Old Chen!" Wang Xuan Believed he could not possibly have heard wrong. His senses were now incredibly sharp.
To confirm it, he quickly rushed toward a courtyard and, sure enough, found Old Chen.
In Wang Xuan's view, Old Chen was emitting ominous energy all over. After all, the Female Daoist practitioner whom he could not get rid of was following him. Wang Xuan turned and Walked Towards the exit, unwilling to be dragged down by Old Chen again.
Yet as he turned, Old Chen saw him too and actually... ran away even faster than Wang Xuan!
What was going on? Something was clearly wrong! Wang Xuan was deeply surprised. Why had Old Chen run upon seeing him? Shouldn't he have come over to pour out his grievances and ask Wang Xuan to send away that "celestial immortal"?
Wang Xuan immediately realized that Old Chen, who loved fishing, was harboring no good intentions and was hiding something from him. Fortunately, his reaction was lightning-fast. He spun around and went after Old Chen.
"Old Chen, I saw you! Stop!"
Morning glow Shone Upon everything. Quite a few people had already come to the temple to offer incense. Under so many watchful eyes, Old Chen did not want to draw attention. He abruptly stopped, then calmly walked back.
"Where in life do we not meet again?" Wang Xuan greeted him.
"Meeting again, right before our eyes." Though Old Chen had heavy dark circles beneath his eyes, he remained remarkably composed, replying with the calm of an old god.
"Fate is wondrous beyond words." A passing Old Monk gave the two of them a surprised look, interjected with a sentence, then walked away.
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