Chen Lin spoke calmly, his voice utterly even. "Disciple, I leave this man to you. I still have some matters to attend to, so I'll be going."
As soon as he finished speaking, his figure began to blur, about to turn into a streak of light and vanish.
But just then, Dragon Tiger Heavenly Master hurriedly called out and raised an arm to stop him. "Senior, please wait."
Chen Lin paused and slowly turned around, his gaze settling on Dragon Tiger Heavenly Master. "Hmm?"
At that moment, Esteemed You, who had been temporarily overlooked, felt a storm surge within him.
He had thought this mysterious Myriad Law Heavenly Sovereign was merely a powerful ally summoned by the First Prince. But after hearing him call the First Prince "disciple"—and seeing a top expert at the Seventh Level Dharma Idol, Dragon Tiger Heavenly Master, treat him with such deference, even a trace of awe...
Could this senior actually be a legendary expert at the Ninth Level Dharma Idol?
And the First Prince's master, no less!
Terrifying!
Dragon Tiger Heavenly Master drew a deep breath, then wore an even more deferential smile. "Senior, please accept this small token of my respect. It's nothing much." As he spoke, he respectfully presented a plain, unadorned Storage Ring with both hands.
The others, including West Mad Heavenly Disciple, understood at once and promptly chimed in. "Senior, please accept these small gifts as a token of our sincerity."
Chen Lin looked at the several rings held out before him, the corner of his mouth curling in understanding. They know how to play the game!
"Mm, not bad." Chen Lin gave a slight nod and ran his fingers over the rings one by one. They vanished into thin air, tucked away in his sleeve. "If you run into any difficulties in the future, you can contact me through my disciple."
With that, he didn't linger. He swept his sleeve, and his figure vanished completely, along with the first ring Dragon Tiger Heavenly Master had offered. All that remained were the crowd's disappointed faces and Esteemed You's lingering shock.
Ling Tian's gaze fixed like a hawk's on Esteemed You, who lay prostrate on the ground, his aura feeble. Dragon Tiger Heavenly Master silently released the pressure around him, bearing down like Mount Tai and pinning Esteemed You in place until he could barely breathe.
Cold sweat poured down Esteemed You's body. Under the immense pressure, his instinct to survive overpowered everything else. The words burst from him almost before he could think, his voice trembling with urgency. "I... I'm willing to submit to Your Majesty—spit!" He jolted as though scalded and hurriedly corrected himself. "I'm willing to become the First Prince's inside man! I'll plant a spy in the Nine Nether Sect!"
That "Your Majesty" had slipped out unconsciously, yet it carried a hard-to-describe meaning. When he panicked and corrected himself to "the First Prince," the haste of the correction only made his original slip seem more genuine.
Ling Tian's eyes flashed.
Chen Lin returned to the Scripture Repository without a sound.
Then his Spiritual Sense, like a wisp of invisible smoke, silently slipped into one of the rings.
A moment later, a satisfied glint crossed his eyes. As expected, it was piled high with all kinds of spirit pills and medicines, and a dazzling array of spirit stones—far more than he'd expected.
He praised Ling Tian inwardly. That kid really knows how to play the game.
If he hadn't taken the initiative to speak to those people, these resources would have been hard to obtain so easily.
At the thought, a faint smile tugged at Chen Lin's lips. He paid the other rings no mind, settled into his rocking chair, and waited for time to pass.
Time slipped by quietly. Inside the attic, only the candle flames flickered, making soft crackling sounds.
When night was at its darkest and all was silent, the bell rang. Midnight had arrived.
Chen Lin closed his eyes and silently chanted, "Draw!"
It was as though invisible gears had begun to turn, and an enigmatic aura spread through the air.
[Random selection in progress...] [Selection complete!] [Today's Great Perfection Heaven-tier cultivation technique: Buddha Origin Heavenly Merit]
"Buddhist cultivation?" Chen Lin was slightly surprised. He hadn't expected this technique.
As soon as he finished speaking, a blaze of golden light erupted within his sea of consciousness, dazzling his Spiritual Sense until it wavered.
Then countless Sanskrit mantras poured down like a golden waterfall cascading from the heavens, crashing over him.
Every character radiated an aura as weighty as a mountain, imbued with solemnity that had endured since time immemorial.
A deep, solemn Buddhist chant seemed to drift from the distant past, echoing through the void and cleansing Chen Lin's soul.
The information about Buddha Origin Heavenly Merit unfolded in his sea of consciousness:
Arhat Golden Body: Under the technique's circulation, flesh, blood, and bones gradually turned to glass, becoming hard as steel and able to withstand the impact of a Heavenly Artifact without damage.
Immeasurable Buddha Charm: Bestows countless insights into the Buddha Dao, pointing straight to its origin and even containing a trace of indescribable Buddha Nature.
If true Buddhist disciples had seen Chen Lin at that moment, they would have been utterly horrified, believing him to be the reincarnation of a supreme Buddhist master whose cultivation had reached the heavens and whose mastery had attained perfection!
Unfortunately, in the Great Yan Imperial Dynasty of the present day, the top Buddhist sects had long since declined and all but vanished.
The appearance of Buddha Origin Heavenly Merit had undoubtedly opened a brand-new door for Chen Lin, one filled with endless possibilities.
After all, he had never studied Buddhist cultivation before, and Buddhist teachings had always been known for their profound breadth. This Buddha Origin Heavenly Merit was certainly a fine technique.
At the very least, it could greatly temper his physical body!
That pleased him quite a bit.
However, Chen Lin had noticed a pattern: many top-tier techniques seemed to make tempering the physical body an important part of cultivation. This puzzled him.
Why was the physical body considered so important?
Was it to bear greater power, or to withstand more terrifying backlash?
He shook his head and set the question aside for now. There were more important matters at hand.
This Buddhist technique at the Great Perfection level was an unexpected boon, but what he urgently needed now was to raise his cultivation realm.
The next moment, Chen Lin wasted no time and began absorbing the Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures and spirit stones in the Storage Rings.
The spirit treasures, brimming with tremendous energy, seemed to have found their destined home. They surged into his body, and the resources in the rings rapidly dwindled before his eyes.
Though the aura he released remained restrained, as if nothing had changed, only Chen Lin knew that the boundless energy within him was flowing, merging, and rising to a higher state at an unprecedented pace.
The process was astonishingly swift. He could even feel the barriers within him rapidly loosening.
At this rate, breaking through the bottleneck was only a matter of time.
Autumn deepened, and leaves drifted slowly down in the wind. Before anyone knew it, seven days had passed.
Over those seven days, the flames of war spread rapidly.
Backed by the Second Prince's name, Yantian Sect and the Blood Wolf Mercenary Group had spread like wildfire, already claiming two neighboring provinces and pressing their advantage to expand farther and farther.
They were now steadily pushing outward.
At the same time, the First Prince formally led his troops toward the two provinces. He fought at the front, displaying unmatched courage, and killed several enemy generals in succession, greatly magnifying his fame.
The Ninth Prince and Fifth Prince had not been idle either. The Imperial Lord had also appointed them to go to the battlefield.
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