What Is a Lay Buddhist Disciple?

Leisurely, carefree days always passed quickly. Half a month later, as a cluster of fireworks shot into the sky from the City Lord's Mansion, more than a hundred people, including Ye Kong and the others, hurried to the square before the City Lord's Mansion.

They all stood at attention, welcoming the three instructors who had been eating and drinking well, watching the excitement from within the City Lord's Mansion, as they came to assign the next stage of their trial mission.

Of the three instructors, one was male and two were female. The man, who looked to be in his thirties, had a dark face and walked between the two middle-aged beauties. From the moment they emerged, the women's gazes had fallen upon Wen Qingxuan beside Ye Kong.

The Dark-faced Male Instructor first gave Ye Kong—a man who looked utterly at ease, his soul seemingly wandering elsewhere—a meaningful glance, which darkened his expression further. He then explained the extremely dangerous mission known as the "Life and Death Trial Ground" and forcefully required everyone to take part in this fight for survival.

When the Spiritual Road youths heard that, out of more than a hundred people, at most thirty could come out alive, someone unsurprisingly tried to become a deserter. He was promptly slapped to death and made into an example.

"Hmph! Let me tell you this: our Land of Guardianship is the second to open the Life and Death Trial Ground. Before us, another Land of Guardianship has already completed the trial."

Following orders from above, the Dark-faced Male Instructor, having killed one to warn the rest, swept his stern gaze across the crowd and revealed information that, in principle, had previously been off-limits. He hoped to use it to hook some uninvited great white shark.

"The top-ranked person from the first Land of Guardianship was named Ji Xuan. His Spiritual Body had reached the peak of Level Three Spiritual Body, and he earned a full sixty-four points in the Life and Death Trial Ground. He has already been preselected by the Sacred Spirit Institute, the strongest of the Five Great Academies! You should know that the Sacred Spirit Institute is..."

"Cough! Cough! Cough!"

The two middle-aged beauties simultaneously coughed loudly, interrupting his speech as they glared at their diligent colleague with unfriendly looks—there had been absolutely no need to say those last two sentences.

The dark-faced man gave the two women a disdainful snort and turned to leave.

What are two women from Myriad Phoenix Academy competing with me, someone from the Sacred Spirit Institute, for?

Besides, you don't accept male students. What harm would there be in letting me say a few more words? Anyone who didn't know better would think you came from that annoying North Cang Spiritual Institute.

"Say, those two female instructors aren't both here to watch over you, are they? I noticed they've been looking your way the whole time."

After the three instructors left, everyone else dispersed as well. On the road, Ye Kong stretched lazily and cracked a joke.

"Probably. But Master Shi Luo, you seem to be quite the prize yourself. That instructor from the Sacred Spirit Institute has been watching you closely, yet you don't seem very interested in the Sacred Spirit Institute?"

Wen Qingxuan twirled the somewhat disheveled strands of hair by her brow with her slender jade-like fingers, tilting her head with an amused smile.

"Then again, that makes sense. The Five Great Academies were never particularly appealing to someone of your background. Only occasionally do some fringe geniuses from ancient races or Super Powers enter them to cultivate. I only came to support Myriad Phoenix Spiritual Academy."

"Jialan Temple is known as the Lesser Spirit Temple and possesses an extraordinary foundation. If Master wishes to advance further, naturally he should go to those great temples of Spiritual Mountain. To you, the Five Great Academies would naturally make little difference."

"There isn't much difference to me, but I find North Cang Spiritual Institute somewhat interesting."

Taking a Heavenly Mystery Umbrella from his Mustard Seed Bracelet to conceal the secrets of heaven, Ye Kong spoke slowly to Wen Qingxuan.

Two question marks seemed to pop up in Xiuling's large eyes as she pressed, "North Cang Spiritual Institute should have the weakest foundation among the Five Great Academies. Why would Master be interested in them?"

Ye Kong raised his right index finger, twirled it, and smiled.

"Their strength isn't much, but a Heavenly Sovereign once passed away on the North Cang Continent, leaving behind an open trial ground. It offers some help to geniuses who need to pass the Three Lesser Tribulations of Supreme."

"Only that? I don't believe it."

Wen Qingxuan's phoenix eyes grew brighter, filled with curiosity that demanded an answer.

"Of course not. I'm not interested in that trial ground, but I'm extremely interested in that Heavenly Sovereign. Not only am I interested—very interested."

"Isn't that still the same? What's the difference... Huh? Sister Qingxuan, what's wrong?"

Unable to figure out the difference, Xiuling found Ye Kong rather dull. Just as she was about to urge Wen Qingxuan to keep questioning him, she discovered that her leader had stopped walking again.

Wen Qingxuan stood frozen in place, her face full of shock. Her pale finger pointed at the tip of Ye Kong's nose, while her graceful body beneath the battle armor trembled continuously.

"You... are you a Buddhist Disciple or a disciple of the demonic path? Do you cultivate Buddhist arts or ghostly arts? You... a person can't, at the very least, shouldn't..."

Ye Kong clicked his tongue, curled his lips, and said indifferently, "Miss Wen, why are you getting so worked up? Don't think I haven't heard that whenever the Ancient Sacred Abyss opens, the Wen Clan sends clan geniuses with Earth Sovereign strength to enter it."

"Anyway, the Ancient Sacred Abyss doesn't have your Wen Clan's ancestors buried in it. Yet isn't your Wen Clan just as enthusiastic when digging up other people's graves? He Po, the ancestor of your branch, has led the teams many times."

"If you don't believe me, go home and ask for yourself later. Perhaps even your parents have been there."

"My family did that too?"

Stunned by Ye Kong's barrage, Wen Qingxuan felt as if she had learned another new piece of knowledge ahead of time. Her mind went blank as she murmured, "That's different. How can geniuses entering ruins to seek inheritances be called grave robbing... You... forget it, I can't go on."

Wen Qingxuan, a hot-blooded young girl brimming with justice, had been ruthlessly betrayed by the glorious deeds of her clan's ancestors and elders. Left with no choice, she gave up accusing Ye Kong. Her dazed appearance was exactly like that of a rookie who had just realized the truth of the cultivation world.

Did I hurt her too much by saying that?

After observing Wen Qingxuan's dejected expression, Ye Kong felt that he needed to comfort her.

"Although it doesn't sound very nice when put that way, from the perspective of inheriting supreme arts, I believe your Wen Clan's actions are extremely meaningful. The Heavenly Sovereigns who fell within the Ancient Sacred Abyss all died fighting in the great war against the evil tribes fifty thousand years ago."

"They are already dead. We cannot allow their supreme arts to lose all successors and vanish into obscurity!"

"Going there is the best consolation we can offer our predecessors. Even if grave robbing... excavating inheritances fails, it doesn't matter. Participation is what counts."

At that moment, dazzling Buddha light shone from Ye Kong's body. With his palms pressed together and a solemn expression, the Buddha energy within his flesh radiated outward, making him seem like a true Buddha descended into the world. Every word carried earthshaking force.

"When the Ancient Sacred Abyss opens, experts from the Outer Domain Evil Tribe will also sneak inside. When people from our Great Thousand World enter, we are also contributing to the protection of the Great Thousand World. Slaying evil fiends is everyone's responsibility!"

Wen Qingxuan, whose momentum had weakened, almost wanted to laugh at Ye Kong's sudden seriousness. This fellow truly underestimated her state of mind. She, Wen Qingxuan, was no delicate child.

Still, he looks quite good like this.

"Master, you don't need to comfort me like this. I'm not a child either; it's not as though I can't understand something so simple... Um, Master, what is that thing you've taken out?"

Comforted, Wen Qingxuan quickly swept away her dejected mood, a smile returning to her face. But just as she was about to offer some polite words, she saw Ye Kong pull a sheet of white paper covered in black writing from his storage bracelet. Fifteen bold characters were written across the first line:

"Jialan Temple Directed Training Agreement for Cultivators"

With the paper in his left hand and a pen in his right, Ye Kong smiled like an insurance salesman patiently leading an ignorant young girl along.

"Look, you're the favored daughter of a Heavenly Sovereign family, yet your strength in this Spiritual Road is far inferior to mine. It's obvious you never paid much attention to cultivating your physical body before.

"The path of physical cultivation has limitless prospects. Once you sign this agreement..."

After carefully reading the agreement, which listed a purchase price of ten thousand Supreme Spirit Liquid—credit welcome—every trace of warmth in Wen Qingxuan's heart vanished in an instant. Looking at Ye Kong's brightly smiling face, she only wanted to punch him hard.

Could someone explain to her what the hell a Lay Buddhist Disciple was?!

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