Qingyuan Realm, Bodhi Temple, Scripture Repository.
"Senior Brother Jing Hui, it's time to eat."
Jiang Chuan placed the tray of White Jade Corn porridge on the wooden table.
Behind the table sat a burly monk with a square face.
"Sorry for the trouble, Junior Brother Jing Yang."
Jing Hui picked up his spoon and began drinking, then suddenly looked up and stared at Jiang Chuan's handsome face.
"Junior Brother, did you add the wrong seasoning while cooking this porridge? Why do I taste sleeping medicine?"
"Senior Brother, I didn't add sleeping medicine."
Jiang Chuan stared unblinkingly at Jing Hui. "I cooked the entire pot with Thousand Day Drunk."
"Junior Brother, if you wanted me to test the medicine, you should at least have told me." Jing Hui was somewhat dissatisfied.
Jiang Chuan gave an embarrassed chuckle. "I meant to tell you, Senior Brother, but when I saw you, I was so captivated by your temperament that I forgot all about it."
"As the foremost disciple of Bodhi Temple's Jing Generation, the closed-door disciple of the Arhat Hall elder, a cultivator of the Star Nirvana Sutra, and the Buddha Son's strongest contender, my temperament is indeed different from ordinary people's. Like a bright lamp in the dark of night, Junior Brother, it is only natural that you would be drawn to me."
Jing Hui's lips curved upward, his face full of smug pride.
"The root cause lies with me this time as well, so I won't pursue it. Now let me properly taste how well you refined this Thousand Day Drunk."
Jing Hui picked up the bowl and drained it in one gulp.
Jiang Chuan silently counted in his heart, One, two, three, down!
"Junior Brother, this Thousand Day Drunk of yours isn't very... very good, Senior Brother, I—"
Before Jing Hui could finish speaking, his head slammed straight onto the wooden table.
"Good thing Senior Brother Jing Hui grew up with me and had no guard against me. If it had been another senior brother or elder, I'd probably be in the Discipline Hall by now."
"Still, Senior Brother Jing Hui is powerful and is already close to breaking through to the fifth realm. I need to quickly find the scripture that Demoness wants, or it'll be troublesome once he wakes up."
Jiang Chuan turned and passed through rows upon rows of wooden bookshelves, ascending to the second floor of the Scripture Repository.
The first floor of the Scripture Repository was open to all Bodhi Temple monks. To enter the second floor, one had to receive an elder's approval.
When Jiang Chuan reached the second floor, rows of crimson-gold bookshelves bathed in the lingering glow of the setting sun filled his sight.
Jiang Chuan gave them a brief glance before swiftly weaving through the rows of shelves.
After the time it took to burn an incense stick, Jiang Chuan stopped before a bookshelf in the northeast corner and took out a gray tome.
"Ruyi Heart Sutra. This should be the scripture that Demoness asked me to find, but why would a disciple of the Mortal World Demonic Sect need a Buddhist scripture?"
Jiang Chuan's heart surged with emotion, and a trace of curiosity appeared in his eyes.
At that moment, a crisp voice rang out in Jiang Chuan's mind.
You were bewitched by Su Wanwan, a disciple of the Mortal World Demonic Sect, into stealing the "Ruyi Heart Sutra." Having just obtained it and prepared to leave, Su Wanwan, who had been waiting outside Bodhi Temple to receive you, was discovered and killed by a Bodhi Temple elder.
This Love Simulator attempt has failed.
The next moment, the afterglow of the setting sun and the tome in his hand both vanished.
In an instant, a paddy field thick with rice stalks more than half a man tall appeared before Jiang Chuan's eyes.
"Damn it! Failed again!"
Jiang Chuan kicked a clod of dirt flying. "Su Wanwan, don't you know your own capabilities? Can't you be a little more careful?! The reward I was about to get just flew away again!"
The more Jiang Chuan thought about it, the angrier he became. "Heavens! Are you screwing with me? It's been a month! I've simulated for a whole month! I haven't gotten a single reward!"
"If you really want to screw with me, then I'm begging you, go screw with someone else! Stop torturing me and send me back to Earth Star!"
As a transmigrator from Earth Star, Jiang Chuan had never expected that staying up late to read a novel would send him into another world.
At the start of his transmigration, Jiang Chuan had been extremely happy.
Before transmigrating, he had merely been a miserable worker slaving away under a 996 schedule, with no car, no house, and a life whose end he could see at a glance.
After transmigrating, he became a disciple of the Chore Yard of Bodhi Temple, the strongest sect in the Buddhist Dao, and gained the possibility of becoming an immortal patriarch, roaming freely beneath heaven and earth.
On the third day after his transmigration, when the Love Simulator activated, Jiang Chuan became even more certain that he would become a peerless powerhouse who looked down upon the universe.
Then...
He received a brutal beating from reality.
As its name implied, the Love Simulator allowed Jiang Chuan to simulate romance. As long as Jiang Chuan won over the target of the romantic simulation, the simulation would be completed and he would receive a reward.
It looked simple enough, but the Qingyuan Realm was filled with cultivators, and demons and monsters were as numerous as dogs!
Jiang Chuan's simulation targets were either killed in sword duels, slain while hunting demons and eliminating evil, or murdered for their treasures.
For thirty consecutive days, Jiang Chuan simulated thirty times.
The closest he came to success was with Su Wanwan. According to what Su Wanwan said in the simulation, as long as Jiang Chuan helped her obtain the "Ruyi Heart Sutra," she would be with him.
Yet the moment Jiang Chuan obtained the "Ruyi Heart Sutra," Su Wanwan was killed by a Bodhi Temple elder.
Jiang Chuan clenched his fists. "Failure is success's mother! Once midnight passes and the Love Simulator attempts reset, I'll keep simulating. I refuse to believe I can't succeed even once!"
After venting, Jiang Chuan recalled today's work. He took a sickle from his Storage Bag, rolled up his trouser legs, and stepped into the paddy field to harvest White Jade Rice.
Bodhi Temple was not the kind of sect that "ignored production and cultivated with single-minded devotion." From what Jiang Chuan knew, there was no sect in the entire Qingyuan Realm that "ignored production and cultivated with single-minded devotion."
After all, Spirit Stones and medicinal pills did not fall from the sky.
Chore Yard disciples like Jiang Chuan not only had to plant Spirit Rice and forge Spirit Stones, but also mine ores, gather herbs, and carry out many other tasks.
Swathes of White Jade Rice were cut down by Jiang Chuan. Crystal-clear grains hung from the ears of rice, gleaming like translucent jade beneath the sunlight.
After wiping the sweat from his forehead, Jiang Chuan hoisted a huge bundle of White Jade Rice onto his back. A crushing heaviness instantly settled over him, as though a massive stone were pressing down on him, making even his breathing somewhat labored.
"What a damn miserable life!"
Jiang Chuan carried the White Jade Rice toward the edge of the paddy field. "Although I didn't get a reward, with the memories gained from the simulations, getting out of the Chore Yard shouldn't be difficult."
The moment he walked out of the paddy field, Jiang Chuan saw Jing Hui waving at him beneath the shade of a tree in the distance.
"Junior Brother, you're much slower than usual today! Were you secretly sleeping in just now?"
Jiang Chuan was slightly dazed, because the Jing Hui he had just seen was Jing Hui from five years later.
Seeing the sixteen-year-old Jing Hui now gave him a disorienting sense that time and space had been thrown into chaos.
"I was contemplating the evolution of fate and observing the workings of the Heavenly Dao, so I was delayed for a while." Jiang Chuan spoke with a solemn expression.
Well, he had contemplated the evolution of fate, while also refusing to stew in his own misery and cursing the heavens a little.
"Junior Brother, you're even a few months younger than me, yet you can already comprehend the mysteries of fate and the Heavenly Dao."
Jing Hui looked at Jiang Chuan with admiration. "You'll definitely become Bodhi Temple's Buddha Son in the future."
Buddha Son?
Jiang Chuan wanted to say that Jing Hui's chances of becoming the Buddha Son in the future were far higher than his, but when the words reached his lips, they became—
"Senior Brother, let's go! If we're late, the elder will scold us again."
Jing Hui nodded, then lifted the White Jade Rice by his feet and headed toward the Chore Yard with Jiang Chuan.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
At that moment, clear bell chimes rang out.
Jing Hui stopped and gazed into the distance, his face full of curiosity.
"The bells of Sandalwood Forest are ringing again. Another senior brother must want to return to secular life. What's so good about returning to secular life? It makes all those senior brothers rush one after another into Sandalwood Forest."
"What's so good about keeping company with an ancient Buddha beneath a blue lamp?"
"The ancient Buddha's mount is so majestic!" Jing Hui's eyes shone brightly.
Jiang Chuan: "..."
Actually, you didn't need to become a Buddha to tame a whole bunch of majestic mounts and show off when you went out, displaying your holiness before others.
After taking a deep look in the direction of Sandalwood Forest, Jiang Chuan strode quickly toward the Chore Yard.
Having lived two lives, Jiang Chuan knew very well that he was not someone who could keep company with an ancient Buddha beneath a blue lamp forever.
After all, in his previous life, he had a phone and the internet. He could not even stay at home for three months.
There was simply no way he could remain in Bodhi Temple for his entire life, keeping company with an ancient Buddha beneath a blue lamp!
Therefore, Jiang Chuan's goal all along had been to clear Sandalwood Forest and return to secular life by descending the mountain.
As for why he did not secretly return to secular life and descend the mountain—
Jiang Chuan felt that compared to escaping the Discipline Hall's pursuit and defeating the Discipline Hall elder, clearing Sandalwood Forest was easier.
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