"Everyone has many regrets in life."
"The Buddha said, 'Delusive thoughts flow and change; in the snap of a finger, there are sixty instants, and in each instant, nine hundred births and deaths.'"
"Even something you believed in without a doubt a second ago might fill you with heartfelt regret the next."
As Faci murmured softly, a thick stench of blood suddenly swept in from all directions.
It poured into the meditation chamber.
Outside, the remains of the dead princes, nobles, palace maids, and eunuchs had already piled up like mountains.
The dense blood aura veiled even Faci's once-clear eyes in red.
The meditation chamber shook as Faming and Fajue left the Zen Courtyard one after another.
They began slaughtering the nobles of Xiao Liang.
They did so to seize the last remnants of the southern dynasty's dragon-vein royal qi.
The terrifying balance that had once kept the three monks of Tongtai Temple in check had been shattered.
The meditation chamber began to shake and crumble.
Then blood and black mist started pouring inside.
But unlike the crowd kneeling outside the chamber, the blood and black mist paid no heed to the dried corpse or the white tiger within.
"Do you regret it, Master? If you hadn't given me that precious medicine, lasting these three days would have been the simplest thing in the world for you."
Zhu Yuanzhang's voice was low.
"I have never regretted it..."
"As Yongjia Xuanjue said in the Ode to Cessation and Contemplation..."
Faci shook his head gently.
A flicker of struggle crossed his withered, sunken eyes, where red and green intertwined.
"When the mind is focused, it is precisely when the mind is absent."
"The mind races like a galloping horse! It flows like rushing water!"
"If you try to stop it, you only make it more chaotic."
"..."
Zhu Yuanzhang, who had been an ordinary man in his previous life, fell silent.
It wasn't that he didn't want to answer.
As a half-literate man of this era, he had no idea what Faci was talking about.
"Minghe! The workings of fate in this world are truly wondrous..."
Suddenly, Faci's voice beside Zhu Yuanzhang turned ethereal.
"My two senior brothers originally had nothing more than wicked thoughts. They kidnapped me and brought me here."
"Yet I ended up being the one who lived the longest of the three."
"And the moment I saw you, I had planned to accept Junior Brother Fahui's invitation and help him continue Tongtai Temple's lineage, doing a good deed."
"But by a twist of fate, I ended up cultivating a Human Pill Great Medicine perfectly suited to me—you."
At that, Zhu Yuanzhang's hair stood on end.
The tiger sprang up, trying to escape.
But the violent movement immediately drew the attention of the black mist and blood swirling around them.
"So... there's no need for regret."
At some point, Fahui had appeared behind Zhu Yuanzhang.
But now, as he watched Zhu Yuanzhang struggle, a strange smile spread across his face.
Then his head tilted, and his body split apart down the middle. A gleaming white skeleton emerged from within.
The skeleton that had stepped out of Faci's dried corpse moved its jaw slightly, taking on the appearance of great compassion as it spoke.
"Thank you for your sacrifice, Minghe... If I survive this ordeal, I will rebuild our Tongtai Temple lineage atop the ruins of Xiao Liang."
Zhu Yuanzhang felt himself being immobilized.
Whether it was the Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Fire or the Mountain-Shrinking Fist, both became incredibly difficult and sluggish to use.
It was that tiger-skin monk robe!
And the Sangqiwo Jataka Secret Mantra.
Damn it!
Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly understood.
No wonder Faci had suddenly become so greedy.
Faci's main cultivation was the Sangqiwo Jataka Sutra. He must have already cultivated it to perfection.
And Zhu Yuanzhang had used the Sangqiwo Jataka Secret Mantra to put on Faci's tiger-skin monk robe.
Having swallowed Xiao Tong's blood, Zhu Yuanzhang was like a juicy piece of meat that had leaped straight into Faci's mouth.
Mouthwateringly tempting!
Only Zhu Yuanzhang knew that he had reached this point through endless trial and error.
To outsiders, the fact that he had made it this far without a hitch meant there was no doubt he was blessed with great fortune.
What was more, he had just taken the Precious Blood Elixir of Xiao Liang's former crown prince.
Its medicinal power had yet to be fully absorbed.
In Faci and the others' eyes, Zhu Yuanzhang was now a walking human-shaped tonic.
A dead end! An indisputable dead end!
Unable to move, Zhu Yuanzhang could only watch as a bony hand reached toward him.
To anyone watching, the bright yellow tiger seemed to have been scared witless by the skeleton before him, standing frozen in place.
But only Zhu Yuanzhang knew the truth.
As soon as he put on the tiger-skin monk robe, it was as though something had sealed the chakra wheels in his body. They turned with tremendous difficulty.
And the skeleton before him seemed to have the same ability to suppress an enemy's cultivation.
It had completely snuffed out the last chance for Zhu Yuanzhang to fight back.
All he could do was watch the skeleton approach him from the front.
"Skeleton, skeleton! Who are you?"
As the bones drew near, songs rang out around the meditation chamber, in voices young and old, male and female.
It sounded as though countless people were chanting together, yet their voices blended together in an eerie way.
As if they were the "childhood," "youth," "adulthood," "middle age," and "old age" of a single person.
"A hero in life! A desolate grave in death!"
The eerie voice drew closer, and blood began to pour from Zhu Yuanzhang's seven orifices.
His muscles, bones, and blood vessels split apart inch by inch.
"A lord before your eyes! A skull in a hundred years!"
The fallen flesh and sinews began to cover the white skeleton before him, bit by bit.
It was trying to possess him!
Zhu Yuanzhang knew he had little time left.
He had to think of something—at the very least, something that would give him an advantage the next time he entered.
But—
Without cultivating the Sangqiwo Jataka Secret Mantra, he couldn't put on the tiger-skin kasaya.
Without the tiger-skin kasaya, he couldn't survive Faming and Fajue's indiscriminate slaughter over the next three days.
But if he put it on, he would become the life-extending medicine Faci craved.
"A dead end... Is Minghe truly doomed to die?"
His head throbbing, Zhu Yuanzhang gave up and accepted his fate.
He looked at the skeleton before him, its body becoming round and radiant again as his flesh filled it out, and sighed.
"Not necessarily."
To his surprise, the white bones Faci had become actually answered him.
"Cause and effect exist, unseen but certain."
"You borrowed my tiger-aspect Dharma body to escape disaster. One day, you will have to repay me with your flesh and skin."
"But the Heavenly Dao is merciful. It always leaves a sliver of hope."
"You had no hope of survival, yet you cultivated the Mountain-Shrinking Fist alongside the Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Technique... Incredible."
"If you can use the Mountain-Shrinking Fist before putting on the tiger-skin..."
"With an Outer Path Demon God protecting your body..."
"Then even if I take your flesh and blood, what use would they be, besides adding to my karmic debt before I die?"
The Merciful Bone Dharma Aspect had drawn close to the tiger that Zhu Yuanzhang had become.
As its two bony claws gouged toward Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, the surroundings went black.
But his hearing grew sharper and sharper.
He heard the song's melody gradually rise.
"Skin and flesh, pus and blood! White bones bound together!"
"Offer this body and mind! To the Buddha's dust!"
"This is the White Bone Aspect, Minghe. Like your Impermanence Aspect, it is one of the thirty-two aspects of our Buddha."
"Study it diligently, and you can achieve White Bone Contemplation. It is also a method for crossing the Bitter Sea with your physical body."
Faci lectured calmly, trying to soothe his good disciple as he reached the final stretch of his life.
He patiently explained one of the Pure Land Sect's secret teachings, never passed on to outsiders, preserved by this thousand-year-old temple of Tongtai.
Yet when Zhu Yuanzhang heard Faci's words, a puzzled smile appeared on his face.
"You're the one who said it."
Zhu Yuanzhang watched as Faci removed his internal organs and placed them in the skeleton's torso.
But he showed no fear, only joy.
[You died]
"Damn system!"
"Start over!"
Back at the loading screen, Zhu Yuanzhang roared.
"I'm going to kill that old schemer Faci!"
"Damn it! Is there not one decent monk in Tongtai Temple?"
Before you continue