"Fahui planned to have me memorize as many divine incantations as possible, then send me out of the city."
"That actually dovetailed with my own plans."
Zhu Yuanzhang sat before the altar table, lit the oil lamp, and opened the scripture before him.
Fixed Light Demon-Subduing Secret Mantra.
It was different from the [Dingguang Demon-Subduing Divine Incantation] rewarded by the system.
A secret mantra was a concise incantation that pointed straight to the essence of a scripture. Buddhist masters arrived at it through their own cultivation of supreme enlightenment, their understanding of Buddhist teachings, and generations of trial and error.
By cultivating a technique called [Mind-Settling Zen], Buddhist masters sharpened their spiritual vision until they could see the Buddha's true form. They then compared what they saw against the scriptures passed down through the world and, in the end, distilled the "Buddhist secret mantras."
Clearly, the Great Wisdom Zen Technique was a form of [Mind-Settling Zen].
Zhu Yuanzhang rubbed his aching forehead, then closed the Fixed Light Demon-Subduing Secret Mantra, which he had read less than a third of.
There were also several volumes of notes left by the late monks of Tongtai Temple.
Zhu Yuanzhang roughly understood why Monk Fahui had chosen him.
Lured by fame, fortune, and power, the rulers of successive Southern Dynasties had led the monks of Tongtai Temple astray.
Few of them still cultivated [Mind-Settling Zen], a practice that offered almost no supernatural abilities and demanded a steep price.
By the reign of Emperor Wu of Liang, not a single monk in the temple still chose to become a [Scripture-Treatise Monk] and continue studying the Eight Great Divine Incantations passed down at Tongtai Temple for a thousand years.
People took the transmission of Tongtai Temple's secret mantras for granted, freely drawing on them whenever they pleased.
When Tongtai Temple was at the height of its prosperity, this had been perfectly viable.
But once the temple fell into ruin, a grave problem arose.
Tongtai Temple's legacy could easily be usurped.
Monks who did not cultivate [Mind-Settling Zen] could still grasp the secret mantras, but they could not understand them.
Their "spiritual vision" was too weak.
All it would take was for someone to burn the few ancient scriptures in the Pagoda, and Tongtai Temple would be left with nothing but its name.
How tragic!
"Hou Jing crossed the river on October twentieth. With Xiao Zhengde's help, he broke through Zhuque Passage on the twenty-fifth."
Zhu Yuanzhang closed his eyes and silently circulated the Great Wisdom Zen Technique to restore his strength as he thought.
"That means that after the monks of Tongtai Temple send me out, I'll have at least a week to find a way to leave."
"No..."
The system's objective was [Leave Taicheng before the first day of the eleventh month].
Taicheng was the Jiankang Palace.
It stood within Jinling.
If he stayed inside Tongtai Temple the whole time, would that count as another way to clear the task?
But when he thought of the atrocities Hou Jing's Xianbei and Zahu Barbarian troops had committed in Jinling, Zhu Yuanzhang furrowed his brow.
"Probably not. Once Hou Jing enters Jinling, the magnificent Tongtai Temple will likely be the first place he loots."
"For now, I'll just have to take things one step at a time."
Zhu Yuanzhang sighed, picked up the lantern, and headed for the upper floors of the Pagoda.
The Eight Great Divine Incantations of Tongtai Temple.
Since he was still being pursued by the Incense Army in the real world, Zhu Yuanzhang was desperate for skill manuals that could quickly boost his strength.
"Even though the first level of the Great Wisdom Zen Technique is nearly complete, my 'capacity' still isn't enough to hold all Eight Great Divine Incantations."
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the scrolls laid out on the table—Sangqiwo Jataka Secret Mantra, Buddha-Spoken Soapberry Secret Mantra, and Fixed Light Demon-Subduing Secret Mantra—and thought.
"But these three scriptures are already enough."
"If I bring too many secret mantras back to reality, the sheer volume of knowledge will drive me mad in an instant, and my body will burst apart."
Ten days had passed since Fahui sent Zhu Yuanzhang into the Pagoda.
Though there were no windows inside the Pagoda,
Zhu Yuanzhang had been studying the scriptures there, and through a transparent, lotus-shaped skylight made of golden glass at the very top, he had watched the sun rise and set ten times.
Too much time had passed.
And yet, no one had come for him.
"Something's not right..."
Click.
Zhu Yuanzhang closed the manuscript of the Sangqiwo Jataka Secret Mantra, its pages secured by a metal clasp.
He rose and walked toward the first floor of the Pagoda, his expression grave.
The heavy metal door before him looked no different from usual.
Tons of solid iron formed an impregnable barrier.
Until now, even Zhu Yuanzhang had been powerless against it.
"Once, Prince Mahasattva suddenly entered the bamboo grove and came upon a tiger..."
As soon as he uttered the mantra, a torrent of "Zen intent" gathered in his limbs and bones.
Reciting the Sangqiwo Jataka Secret Mantra, Zhu Yuanzhang sat cross-legged facing the door.
His monk's robe slipped from his body of its own accord, transforming into a striped tiger.
"The tiger was too weak to hunt for food. So he took a sharp piece of wood, pierced his body, and drew blood. The tiger licked it, and its mouth opened. Then it devoured his flesh."
The tiger crouched before Zhu Yuanzhang, looking lazy.
Zhu Yuanzhang reached out and gently stroked the mane along its back.
Then the Mountain-Shrinking Fist took effect. His flesh tore and his bones shattered as he ripped off his own arm.
"Good tiger... eat. Take me out of here."
The tiger seemed to understand him. It opened its eyes and stared without blinking at the bloody wound on Zhu Yuanzhang's pale shoulder.
As though it were thinking something over.
Just one bite!
The tiger swallowed Zhu Yuanzhang's entire arm.
"Roar!!!"
After it had eaten its fill, the tiger rose and let out the king of beasts' roar toward the iron door behind it.
Bang! Bang!
The sound of chains snapping came from beyond the door.
With a creak, the iron door that had kept Zhu Yuanzhang from leaving slowly swung open.
The scene outside the nine-story Pagoda came into view.
But Zhu Yuanzhang showed no joy at his escape.
"Just as I thought."
He murmured softly.
Burned-out temples lay everywhere. Homes leaned at precarious angles, and towering flames cast light over mountains of white bones.
It was exactly as the account described what happened after Hou Jing crossed the Huai Water.
"For a thousand li, not a wisp of smoke; scarcely a trace of human life. White bones lay heaped like hills."
Yet even that was not the most terrifying thing.
Zhu Yuanzhang saw a "person" standing before the nine-story Pagoda.
He was portly, dressed in monk's robes adorned with pearls, emeralds, and gold.
But his face had rotted so badly that his original features were no longer recognizable.
When the iron door opened, he turned around.
With a throat that had long since rotted away, and should by all rights have been incapable of making a sound, he asked,
"Can Minghe obtain the Eight Divine Incantations?"
Countless crimson, vine-like veins burst from his body.
They replaced the flesh as it rotted and fell away.
Interlacing like fangs, they formed an immense web.
They blotted out the sky and surged toward Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang did not answer.
He remained silent.
The Secret History was indeed no place for clever shortcuts.
Countless blood-red veins pierced Zhu Yuanzhang's chest like sharp swords.
His expression remained calm.
Clearly, he had expected this outcome.
The system's task prompt appeared before his eyes again.
[Leave Taicheng before the first day of the eleventh month]
"Can Minghe obtain the Eight Divine Incantations?"
The monk, now transformed into a blood-red Buddha, asked again.
Zhu Yuanzhang still did not answer.
The figure before him was not Monk Fahui, but the final obsession left behind after Fahui's death.
The Sangqiwo Jataka Secret Mantra, the Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Fire, and the Mountain-Shrinking Fist instinctively flared one after another, sensing danger.
But faced with the ultimate horror before him, their resistance was meaningless.
The blood-red vines surged in, swallowing everything inside the nine-story Pagoda in an instant.
[You died]
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