Sangqiwo Jataka Secret Technique

[Buddha Lamp Fire]

Another sonic five elements!

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Zhu Yuanzhang stared at the system page, which remained clearly visible even in the Bitter Sea.

He thought to himself.

He hadn't forgotten.

When he had been looking through the Mountain-Shrinking Fist visualization diagram,

the prompt for [Dagon (Great Ocean Water)] had appeared on the system panel.

"Looks like you've cultivated the first level of the Dharma Aspect. What is it?"

Faci's voice drifted over from beside him.

"Impermanence Aspect."

At Zhu Yuanzhang's answer, Faci's voice immediately brightened with delight.

"The Impermanence Aspect is our temple's supreme Dharma Aspect."

"Your ability to cultivate it must owe something to the thousand years of good fortune accumulated by Tongtai Temple."

"Excellent, excellent!"

"Come over here, Minghe! I'll pass on the Sangqiwo Jataka Secret Technique."

"Once I fall into slumber, put on the Tiger-Skin Monk Robe and recite the secret technique. Conceal your presence for three days."

"After three days, my two senior brothers likely won't survive this calamity. By then, they'll be well and truly dead."

"Then you can leave on your own and seek that slender chance of survival beyond Taicheng."

Zhu Yuanzhang lowered his head and replied,

"As you command. But there is something I don't understand."

"Does it concern your Dharma Aspect?"

"Exactly."

Zhu Yuanzhang thought of the blessings the system had continuously granted him in the Bitter Sea.

"During my breakthrough, I often heard someone whispering in my ear."

"He also taught me how to cross the Bitter Sea."

"It's called the Four Noble Truths."

As Zhu Yuanzhang spoke, he watched the gaunt monk's expression.

"I wasn't seeking anything. Why..."

"Why did that voice keep whispering in your ear?"

The monk, gaunt as a dried corpse, answered.

His black eyes, dark as grape seeds, fixed on Zhu Yuanzhang.

The look made Zhu Yuanzhang's scalp prickle.

"Do you know what the pills you swallowed were made from...?"

The dried corpse spoke in a hollow voice.

"Weren't they made from the blood and essence of the Xiao Liang royal family?"

"Exactly."

The gaunt monk replied, then asked in turn,

"But do you know which member of the Xiao Liang royal family?"

"I don't."

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head.

But from the monk's expression, an ominous feeling began to rise in his heart.

"They came from the former Crown Prince of the current Southern Dynasty's emperor."

At this, the gaunt monk smiled strangely.

His lips curled as he enunciated each word.

"Xiao Tong. Xiao Deshi."

"!"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked up in disbelief and said,

He looked once more through the window at the shadow of the Nine-Story Pagoda, built from gold, jewels, and fine jade.

This time, in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, the exquisite structure—a symbol of Emperor Wu of Liang's devout worship of Buddha—was shrouded in an ominous blood-red shadow.

So blatant, so bizarre, and so cruel.

"How could Xiao Yan go so far as to use his own son..."

Zhu Yuanzhang stopped halfway through his sentence.

He could hardly believe that such a cold and heartless emperor existed.

Even his own Crown Prince was nothing more than a bargaining chip to be traded at will.

"What's so hard to understand, Minghe?"

The monk's voice was hollow,

tinged with a mockery Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't understand.

"Of course, it's because Xiao Yan believed that losing a Crown Prince was a small price to pay for what he would gain from the monks of Tongtai Temple."

"I still don't understand."

Outside, the sky darkened.

Today was the twenty-first day of the tenth month, three days before Hou Jing would enter Jinling and besiege Taicheng.

It was exactly ten days before Xiao Zhengde would usurp the throne and declare himself emperor.

Zhu Yuanzhang still looked confused.

But as he sat cross-legged, his voice grew much calmer.

"What could matter more to a dynasty than its Crown Prince?"

As night fell, layer upon layer of fine, tough fur began to grow over the gaunt monk's body.

Black and white, like a tiger.

So the Tiger-Skin Monk Robe wasn't some kind of secret treasure. It was the monk's own body transformed.

Zhu Yuanzhang guessed

that the monk's cultivation method was probably similar to the Mountain-Shrinking Fist.

Both subtly transformed the cultivator's body into another kind of life-form that didn't exist in reality.

"But... do those things really not exist in this world?"

The gaunt monk's reply cut off Zhu Yuanzhang's train of thought.

"Your thinking is too abstract, so much so that it's become detached from the true nature of things, Minghe."

"What religious sect? What dynasty? What organization? They're all just one person after another. Nothing more."

"Everything must be built on satisfying people's desires first."

"Sacrificing Xiao Tong was, of course, to benefit Xiao Yan himself. Do you think Xiao Yan repeatedly sacrificed himself at Tongtai Temple solely to worship Buddha?"

"Otherwise, how could he have ruled alone for more than forty years?"

"One man consumed half of Xiao Liang's fortune."

"Unfortunately, Heaven decreed that his reign would last no more than fifty years."

"No matter how hard he and the monks of Tongtai Temple struggled, in the end it was no more than a mantis trying to stop a chariot."

Heaven had decreed that his reign would last no more than fifty years.

Then why was there Heaven?

Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to ask.

But it was clear that Faci no longer wished to discuss the matter.

By then, the candle in the room had burned at its brightest.

Faci's vital energy and spirit had reached their peak as well.

The monk's body was now completely covered in thick black-and-white fur,

making him look like a human-shaped tiger crouched in the middle of the meditation room.

"The time is right... Come closer and lend me your ear. I'll teach you the incantation for wielding the Tiger Robe."

Faci spoke. Through his opening and closing jaws, Zhu Yuanzhang saw rows of curved white fangs, each as long as a thumb.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't suspect a thing.

He went up to Faci and crouched down.

A gust of cold wind swept over him.

Zhu Yuanzhang jerked his head up, only to see a bloody maw lunging toward his neck!

[You have obtained the Sangqiwo Jataka Secret Technique]
[You have received a gift from Faci, a monk of Tongtai Temple: Tiger-Skin Monk Robe (can be taken out by spending fortune points)]

"Hm?"

"So items from the Secret History can be taken out?"

This was the first time Zhu Yuanzhang had seen something he could take out of the Secret History.

A cold sensation spread from his neck.

Zhu Yuanzhang could feel that as he lost blood,

a steady stream of icy liquid was being injected into him through the teeth Faci had sunk into his body.

It was both a blessing and a curse.

As Zhu Yuanzhang began reciting the Sangqiwo Jataka Secret Mantra,

the icy liquid gradually flowed into his limbs and bones.

Tufts of black-and-white fur also began to grow across his skin.

"Good."

A whisper came from the dried corpse in front of him.

At some point, Faci had already shed the tiger form of the Sangqiwo Jataka.

Now he gazed at Zhu Yuanzhang and let out a note of praise.

The Tiger-Skin Monk Robe Faci had bestowed upon Zhu Yuanzhang was now firmly attached to him.

His body rapidly swelled,

transforming into a bright yellow, striped tiger.

"Having learned this art, you should at least be able to survive and leave the Zen Courtyard after my two senior brothers die."

"Thank you, Master Faci."

The striped tiger raised its head and took a few unsteady steps forward.

It seemed it hadn't yet adjusted to this new body.

The tiger turned around. Its two dark eyes, each the size of a fist, reflected the seated figure of the dried corpse.

It could even speak.