Evil Buddha

When Chen Ye arrived at the corpse pit again, the sky was already bright.

The warm, gentle sunlight poured down, and while it dispelled some of the eerie chill, it also made the corpses in the pit look even more gruesome.

Fortunately, Chen Ye was no longer the greenhorn transmigrator he once was. Over the past few months, he had witnessed many human tragedies and had developed enough composure to barely stomach the sight before him.

He paced slowly around the corpse pit, then took a pile of withered wood from his storage bag and began to chant.

With a shout of "Fire, come!", the pile of wood instantly erupted into a raging blaze.

Using the burning wood as a brush, Chen Ye began to carve hexagrams around the perimeter of the pit. At this moment, his dantian sea of energy spun rapidly, providing him with a steady stream of spiritual power.

This feeling was incredibly exhilarating for Chen Ye, much like someone who had been poor for most of their life suddenly striking it rich; the sensation of spending energy like water was exceptionally exciting.

After some busy work, Chen Ye finally set up a crude formation.

Wood generates fire, and the yang energy was flourishing; no matter what kind of danger was hidden within this corpse pit, using fire to suppress it would surely prevent any major mishaps.

Once the formation began to run slowly and the surrounding temperature rose quietly, Chen Ye finally cast the "Transport" technique, preparing to fish out the remains in the pit one by one.

Spiritual eyes, transport, invisibility, wall-phasing—these were all the most basic spells in the path of cultivation, yet their consumption was not insignificant.

Back when Chen Ye was in the Qiling Realm, merely casting the spiritual eye technique would have drained his body of all its spiritual power.

Now that he possessed a dantian sea of energy, he finally had the true bearing of a cultivator.

He chanted for a good while, then reached out his hands to grasp at the empty air. An invisible force emerged, steadily lifting a set of remains and slowly moving them out of the large pit.

Chen Ye was still clumsy with the transport technique, able to move only one body at a time. Moreover, it required his full concentration; if he lost focus even for a moment, his spiritual power would dissipate wantonly, wasted for nothing.

At Chen Ye's current level, trying to use the transport technique in a real fight would be a death sentence.

If he encountered a sword cultivator like Su Chunyi, he would likely be sliced into mince by sword light before he even finished his incantation.

Yet, Chen Ye was like a child who had just received a favorite toy; even though he was drenched in sweat from exhaustion, his face was filled with a satisfied smile, and he practiced the transport technique with tireless enthusiasm.

From the relatively intact remains to those that had completely rotted away, all were carefully fished out by Chen Ye.

When the very last set of remains was moved up by Chen Ye, something different was finally revealed at the bottom of the corpse pit.

Chen Ye leaned over to look down, and the sight before him left him stunned.

"A Buddha statue?"

At the bottom of the large pit, a Buddha statue, soaked black by corpse water, stood silently.

Looking closely, he could even see light emanating from the statue's round belly, as if it contained some mysterious object.

This truly piqued Chen Ye's curiosity.

Although legends of immortals and Buddhas were often passed down in this world, they were nowhere near as complete as the mythological systems he knew from his past life; only a few names were known to the public.

The Buddhist sect, in particular, had a scarce heritage; he hadn't even heard of titles like Bodhisattva or Arhat. No matter what kind of Buddha it was, they were all collectively referred to as Buddhas.

Even more peculiar was that the Buddhist sect was not considered a righteous path.

The most well-known Buddhist sect at present was the Nirvana Sect, yet it was universally recognized as a demonic sect. As for other scattered Buddhist sects, they were all classified as heterodox paths, drifting outside the righteous sects.

The root cause lay in the Buddhist philosophy of this world, which advocated for severing the karma of the mortal world.

Although the Buddhist sect had precepts, they held fast to one baffling rule.

No matter what heinous crimes one had committed previously, once they became a monk, it was a case of "putting down the butcher's knife and becoming a Buddha on the spot."

In the past, many demonic overlords, cornered by the righteous sects, would turn and join the Nirvana Sect, and those monks would never turn anyone away, shielding them all.

The righteous sects naturally found this hard to accept.

Why should shaving one's head be enough to sever karma and absolve one of guilt?

The Buddhist sect had its own rhetoric: once ordained, one was already transcending the mortal world. You righteous sects have your rules, so why shouldn't our Buddhist sect have its own?

The Nirvana Sect was a classic case of chanting the scriptures incorrectly, with a blatant demonic style.

Since neither side could convince the other, they eventually had to rely on strength and let their fists do the talking.

Later, the Great War between the righteous and demonic sects broke out, and the leader of the Nirvana Sect perished at the hands of the righteous, leading to a period of silence.

During this time, it was rumored that a disciple of the Nirvana Sect had a great awakening, resolutely defecting from the sect to found Cixin Temple. This Cixin Temple acted with integrity, only accepting children from good families and strictly observing the monastic precepts.

However, because of their origins in the Nirvana Sect, even with such cautious conduct, Cixin Temple was still viewed as a heterodox path and had not yet been recognized by the various righteous sects.

Could it be that the Nirvana Sect had recovered and had disciples walking the world again to chant their twisted scriptures?

Chen Ye knew very little about the Nirvana Sect, and what he did know were merely widely circulated rumors.

Now, facing this eerie evil Buddha, while he couldn't be certain if it was related to the Nirvana Sect's heritage, he could conclude that this evil Buddha was definitely no ordinary object.

Just as Chen Ye was contemplating whether to use the transport technique to test it, he saw the evil Buddha suddenly open its eyes.

In an instant, two beams of golden light shot out like lightning, piercing straight toward Chen Ye's face.

Chen Ye reacted quickly, hurriedly dodging to the side. However, the evil Buddha had already locked onto him, and the golden light in its eyes, like agile snakes, swept back and forth across his body.

Chen Ye felt as if his body had been restrained by an invisible force, becoming stiff and sluggish, with every movement a beat slower than it should have been.

"A trap, indeed."

Chen Ye felt a sense of foreboding and made a split-second decision to activate the formation he had set up earlier.

In an instant, a ring of raging flames soared into the air, a wall of fire isolating the golden light of the evil Buddha.

Chen Ye felt his body loosen immediately, regaining his usual agility.

It was truly a case of being prepared, for if he hadn't set up this formation in advance, he would have surely fallen victim to a sneak attack.

But just as Chen Ye breathed a sigh of relief, a strange sound of chanting reached his ears, faint and indistinct, yet he heard the phrase: "Lay down your butcher's knife and become a Buddha on the spot!"

What should have been a solemn and majestic Buddhist mantra sounded to Chen Ye now like the shrill wailing of an evil spirit, a demonic sound capable of stealing one's soul.

Chen Ye felt his mind reeling and his senses becoming disordered; his legs went weak, and he could barely stand.

Meanwhile, the evil Buddha at the bottom of the pit continued to chant this hair-raising curse while slowly rising and floating toward Chen Ye.

In this moment of extreme crisis, Chen Ye suddenly heard Mo Ci's voice transmission: "Destroy your own ears!"

Chen Ye regained a moment of clarity and violently raised his hands to strike his ears with all his might.

With a loud "hum," the sharp pain of ruptured eardrums and a wave of intense dizziness washed over him, nearly causing him to collapse.

But Chen Ye gritted his teeth to steady himself, ignoring the blood streaming from his ears, and pulled the sword talisman gifted by Su Chunyi from his robes.

Driven by Chen Ye's spiritual energy, the palm-sized sword talisman instantly erupted with brilliant sword light, shooting toward the evil Buddha like a meteor.

The evil Buddha seemed to sense a fatal threat; its eyes shot out beams of golden light, colliding fiercely with the sword light.

However, the sword light was as fast as lightning and unstoppable; with a "zing," it pierced through the golden light and flew right before the evil Buddha.

Half of the evil Buddha's head was sliced off, revealing a golden interior that looked as if it were cast from pure gold.

Yet, this strike exhausted the power of the sword talisman; the sword light dissipated, and the talisman paper turned to ash in mid-air.

Chen Ye only saw that the Buddha statue was missing most of its head. Because he had ruptured his eardrums, he could not hear anything and was unsure if the evil Buddha's demonic sound had been broken, but the evil Buddha remained suspended in mid-air, seemingly not yet completely destroyed.

Now was not the time to be stingy, so Chen Ye did not hesitate to unleash a second sword talisman. Another flash of sword light streaked across, and this time, it cleaved the Buddha statue down the middle, splitting it directly into two.

The two halves of the golden Buddha fell from the air, and the contents of its belly scattered across the ground with a clatter.

Chen Ye cautiously gripped the third sword talisman tightly in his hand, remaining vigilant, fearing that the evil Buddha might be feigning defeat.

After waiting for a long time and confirming that the statue's spiritual energy had completely dissipated with no possibility of recovery, Chen Ye grimaced and collapsed onto the ground.

This battle had even ruptured his eardrums; it was truly a brutal affair.

However, a cultivator's physique is different from an ordinary person's; while a ruptured eardrum is painful, it is only a minor injury that will heal quickly with medication and rest.

Chen Ye had no time to worry about the pain, though; after confirming repeatedly that there was no danger, he leaped into the large pit.

A ruptured eardrum was a small matter; what truly pained him was the sword talisman gifted by Su Chunyi, as only one of the three remained.

When the Buddha statue was split open, many things had scattered; whether this ordeal was a gain or a loss would depend on what treasures were hidden inside.