"Elder Kong Bei's esteemed disciple."
Li Yuejiao smiled sweetly. "Sorry for the trouble, Fellow Daoist Jing Hui. Please introduce the spirit beasts within the Spirit Beast Courtyard to us."
Jing Hui introduced them, "There are a total of three hundred and sixty-eight kinds of spirit beasts in the Spirit Beast Courtyard, including Spirit Cranes, Black-backed Xuan Turtles, White Jade Rhinoceroses—"
"Dragon horses? I wonder whether the dragon horses of Bodhi Temple are descendants of Divine Beast Dragon Horses, or Dragon Descendants?"
The Third Prince, Li Kaitai, dressed in green and holding a folding fan, cut a dashing and refined figure as he asked curiously.
Both the Divine Beast Dragon Horses born of heaven and earth, and the mixed-blood demon beasts produced by dragons mating with Horse Demons, were called dragon horses.
Jiang Chuan answered, "The dragon horses of our temple are descendants of the Seven-Colored Divine Dragon and the Heavenly Steed."
A flicker of surprise crossed Li Kaitai's eyes. "They are actually descendants of the Seven-Colored Divine Dragon!"
True dragons had nine claws.
Golden Dragons, Silver Dragons, White Dragons, and Black Dragons might bear the name of dragon, but they were in fact merely Five-Clawed Dragons.
Like azure dragons, Seven-Colored Divine Dragons possessed a relatively concentrated True Dragon Bloodline.
Even in the distant Primordial Era, some had produced powerful figures who ascended to godhood, and many cultivators considered them divine beasts as well.
"Descendants of the Seven-Colored Divine Dragon... Bodhi Temple truly deserves its place as the head of the Nine Outer Sects. To possess such spirit beasts." Li Yuejiao sighed.
"Amitabha! Though the Eldest Princess is a guest of Bodhi Temple, you must not insult Bodhi Temple."
Jiang Chuan's voice was icy, carrying undisguised killing intent.
"Impudent!"
Princess Lingchan Li Chanyu shouted sharply.
The guards and numerous Attendants behind Li Yuejiao all revealed fierce expressions.
At a single command from Li Yuejiao, they would strike together and kill Jiang Chuan.
"Bodhi Temple is the foremost of the Three Buddhist Dao Sects, not an Outer Dao sect."
Cold light flashed in Jiang Chuan's eyes as he demanded, "What intentions does the Eldest Princess have in classifying Bodhi Temple as an Outer Dao sect?"
Buddhist Dao was merely an Outer Dao in the eyes of Immortal Dao Cultivators, but the many cultivators of Buddhist Dao had never acknowledged themselves as part of the Outer Dao.
Moreover, the leading sect among the Nine Outer Sects had always been disputed.
Some cultivators believed it was Bamboo Immortal Island, some believed it was Maha Hall, while others believed it was Bodhi Temple.
Li Yuejiao had said this before the many cultivators of Maha Hall, clearly harboring ill intent.
That was why Jiang Chuan had retaliated without mercy.
Li Yuejiao showed an apologetic expression. "This matter was indeed Yuejiao's fault. I ask Fellow Daoist Jiang Chuan for forgiveness."
"The Eldest Princess still has not realized her mistake."
Jiang Chuan shook his head. "Bodhi Temple was founded by Patriarch Bodhi-Born Buddha in the Late Middle Ages, and has weathered hundreds of thousands of years of storms and trials. To free Bodhi Temple from the label of Outer Dao, who knew how many disciples and elders died at the hands of Immortal Dao Cultivators?"
"By calling Bodhi Temple an Outer Dao sect, you are not only showing disrespect toward Bodhi Temple, but toward every predecessor of Bodhi Temple as well."
"According to the rules of Bodhi Temple, the Eldest Princess must pile up a Sin Mountain within Bodhi Temple to atone for your sins."
"How presumptuous! Jiang Chuan, do you know what you are saying?!" Li Chanyu rebuked angrily.
Li Yuejiao's delicate brows knitted tightly, her face filled with displeasure.
Sin Mountain originated with Bodhi Sacred Buddha.
Before Bodhi Sacred Buddha founded Bodhi Temple, the human race and the Demon Race still often waged war.
During one demon hunt, a moment of negligence by Bodhi Sacred Buddha led him to mistake a Snake Demon carrying the Ba Serpent Bloodline for an ordinary Snake Demon, causing all the friends hunting demons alongside him to perish.
To atone for his sins, and even more so to commemorate his friends, Bodhi Sacred Buddha relentlessly hunted demons.
He piled the countless demon beasts he slew into an enormous mountain and placed it before his friends' empty tombs.
That was the origin of Sin Mountain.
After Bodhi Sacred Buddha founded Bodhi Temple, if Bodhi Temple's elders or disciples violated serious precepts, they would hunt demons and pile them into a Sin Mountain to atone for their sins.
"Fellow Daoist Jiang Chuan, my imperial sister was indeed in the wrong, but building a Sin Mountain would require at least tens of thousands of demons."
Seventeenth Prince Li Shaoheng slowly spoke. "If this causes war between the human and demon races to erupt once more, it would not be a blessing for the common people."
"Indeed, Seventeenth Brother is right."
Twenty-eighth Prince Li Yunwen, dressed in blue with a longsword hanging from his waist and resembling a worldly young nobleman, also spoke in agreement.
Slaughtering tens of thousands of demons was an exceedingly difficult matter even for the Nine Abyss Dynasty.
After all, the slightest carelessness could draw the intervention of great demons from the Seventh Realm of the Demon Race, or even the Eighth Realm.
"Do Your Highnesses think I am negotiating with you, or do you think Bodhi Temple can be insulted?" Jiang Chuan spoke each word with deliberate force.
Li Shaoheng and Li Yunwen's expressions changed drastically.
Jiang Chuan's words had undoubtedly trampled their dignity into the ground.
"Little monk, Bodhi Temple is truly imposing, isn't it?"
Ji Yuansheng sneered as he stepped out from behind Li Shaoheng, his gaze upon Jiang Chuan filled with contempt.
How did such an idiot ever form a contract with the Great Sun Divine Bell? Still, this has handed me a heaven-sent opportunity!
In his eyes, Jiang Chuan was simply beyond all cure.
The Nine Abyss Dynasty and Bodhi Temple were forming an alliance, and this was a crucial moment.
Eldest Princess Li Yuejiao was highly likely to become the next Sacred Emperor of Nine Heavens.
If she were angered, the alliance between the two sides might very well collapse.
By stepping forward to support Li Yuejiao now, he also wanted to increase Maha Hall's standing in her heart and contribute toward preventing the Nine Abyss Dynasty and Bodhi Temple from reaching an agreement.
Looking at Ji Yuansheng before him, Jiang Chuan could not help recalling how, in the simulation, Ji Yuansheng had controlled his Divine Law Body and used Sky-Destroying Evil-Quelling Lightning in an attempt to blast him to death.
"And Maha Hall thinks it is worthy of meddling in Bodhi Temple's affairs?"
Ji Yuansheng froze for a moment before fury surged within him. He roared, "You dare insult Maha Hall?"
"Say another word of nonsense, and I'll cut you down." Jiang Chuan's eyes grew ever colder.
"Kill!"
Remembering the instructions the elders had given him before Bodhi Temple—to kill Jiang Chuan—Ji Yuansheng could no longer suppress the killing intent in his heart.
A Divine Law Body emerged behind Ji Yuansheng.
Ji Yuansheng's Divine Law Body stood ten feet tall, clothed in an earthen-yellow robe and holding a Mountain-Driving Whip. Its brows exuded boundless majesty, like an ancient deity from myth who could move mountains and drive peaks with a single thought, descending into this world.
"Junior Brother, be careful!" Jing Hui cried out in warning.
Maha Hall used the power of faith to condense Divine Law Bodies.
For ordinary cultivators, facing a disciple of Maha Hall was equivalent to fighting one against two.
Among those of the same realm, anyone other than exceptional geniuses cultivated by major powers would find it difficult to defeat a disciple of Maha Hall.
Ji Yuansheng and his Divine Law Body charged Jiang Chuan together.
A faint smile appeared at the corner of Li Yuejiao's lips, seeming both smug and mocking.
"Ji Yuansheng and his Divine Law Body are equivalent to two Fourth Realm cultivators striking together. Jiang Chuan is undoubtedly dead!"
"Die!"
The Divine Law Body swung its Mountain-Driving Whip and smashed it down at Jiang Chuan.
"Courting death!"
Jiang Chuan unleashed the Treasured Mountain Seal, borrowing the power of the low-grade Dao Artifact, the Daytime Sky Blade.
Soul-shaking killing intent erupted from Jiang Chuan's body like a spewing volcano.
Demon Slaying Saber!
Before you continue