It's Come to This, Let's Eat First!

"It is not yet time to lock in my skills."

Inside Minghe's meditation room, Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the system panel and thought to himself.

He then fished two candles out from under the bed, lit them both, and sat before the table to open the Dingguang Demon-Subduing Scroll in his hands.

Compared to the cryptic and obscure Sutra of Maitreya's Descent, the Dingguang Demon-Subduing Scroll was far more straightforward.

After all, Zhu Yuanzhang truly had no idea what the "Vacuum Homeland" mentioned repeatedly in the Sutra of Maitreya's Descent actually was.

Without the ability to commune with the "Vacuum Homeland," ninety-nine percent of the techniques in the Sutra of Maitreya's Descent could not be cast.

Zhu Yuanzhang highly suspected that the reason Mingguang concluded the Sutra of Maitreya's Descent was almost entirely useless sixty years ago was precisely because the "Vacuum Homeland" had not yet manifested in the world.

In truth, the relationship between the "Vacuum Homeland" and the "Descent of Maitreya" was not hard to guess.

They were both part of the same White Lotus Sect repertoire from the end of the Yuan Dynasty.

Just like "The Red Sun Kalpa ends, the White Sun shall rise" and "Maitreya descends, the Bright King appears," phrases like "Unborn Venerable Mother, Vacuum Homeland" and "White Lotus descends to the world, the masses shall rise up" were all rebel slogans of the White Lotus Sect.

Zhu Yuanzhang picked up the oil lamp in front of him.

Following the ritual recorded in the Dingguang Demon-Subduing Scroll, he pricked his fingertip and let a drop of his essence blood fall onto the lamp.

He began to visualize the statue of the "Dingguang Buddha" he had seen in the Mahavira Hall.

But...

Nothing happened.

"Still too slow... I should have succeeded in the visualization the instant the essence blood burned out."

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head.

Although the Dingguang Demon-Subduing Scroll clearly stated that one could visualize the Dingguang Buddha at most three times a day, and that every failure increased the risk of being consumed by demonic flames, these were not issues for Zhu Yuanzhang.

"Again!"

This time, the image of the Dingguang Buddha was much clearer in Zhu Yuanzhang's mind.

But following it came a sensation of comfortable emptiness spreading through his limbs and bones.

Zhu Yuanzhang opened his eyes.

The candle holder on the table had tilted at some point, igniting a raging fire.

Zhu Yuanzhang was sitting right in the middle of the flames, half his body already engulfed.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something.

But before he could make a sound, the flames spread further upward.

[You have died]

After dying more than a dozen times, Zhu Yuanzhang finally visualized the complete "Dingguang Buddha."

A golden light shot out from the candle holder and entered Zhu Yuanzhang's body.

"It's done!"

Zhu Yuanzhang opened his eyes, looking at the golden flames burning on the candle holder with a joyful expression.

He reached his hand over the flames; it felt warm, without the stinging pain of being burned.

This was the first miraculous effect of the Dingguang Demon-Subduing Scroll.

[Desire Fire Does Not Burn]

In reality, both the Dingguang Demon-Subduing Scroll and the Sutra of Maitreya's Descent contained very little description of actual cultivation.

There was only a visualization diagram and a few sparse incantations to point out the steps.

The rest of the space was filled with long-winded accounts of the glorious deeds and divine powers of the "Dingguang Buddha."

From Zhu Yuanzhang's perspective, although the content of the book appeared on the surface to be singing the praises of the "Dingguang Buddha" to the extreme, however...

Zhu Yuanzhang closed the Dingguang Demon-Subduing Scroll, his mouth twitching slightly as he sighed.

"This author is a master of sarcasm."

He randomly opened a page in the book that told a story praising the Dingguang Buddha for saving the suffering.

As explained in the scroll, in the sixth year of Xianping of the Song Dynasty (1003 AD), Emperor Zhenzong of Song, Zhao Heng, and the Liao Shengzong signed the Chanyuan Treaty through the words of the surrendered general Wang Jizhong.

To raise funds for the annual tribute, they ordered all temples in the empire to pay silk and cloth to the imperial court.

The temples complied readily, setting up altars and performing rituals to collect cloth from the common people.

As the reincarnation of the Dingguang Buddha, Zheng Ziyan could not bear the sight of the local government forcing the common people to pay cloth taxes, leading to the ruin of countless families.

He therefore wrote a letter of denunciation and tucked it inside his own tax payment of cloth.

The Jiangxi government discovered it and was enraged.

They immediately dispatched men to arrest this wild monk who dared to report officials so recklessly.

The official in charge of detaining the Dingguang Buddha was named Zhang Ye. Seeing that the Dingguang Buddha remained silent and refused to submit to interrogation after his arrest, he grew even angrier.

He ordered the monk's kasaya to be burned, dousing it in pig's blood and garlic juice first. Yet, when the fire died out, the kasaya had only become whiter, and the Dingguang Buddha sat amidst the flames, completely unharmed, leaving the local government no choice but to release him.

"His Majesty is advancing toward the front lines," "A great victory in the opposite direction," "Song-Liao friendship," "Collusion between officials and monks," "Layer upon layer of surcharges," "Who is it below the hall accusing this official?" "Underhanded tactics," "The Dragon King returns!"

Because there were simply too many absurdities to address, Zhu Yuanzhang could not find a suitable point to start his rant.

He could only condense it into two words.

"Badass."

"Shouldn't the author be arrested for this?"

Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at the author's name.

Minzhong Temple of Yanjing, Monk Faneng.

"So the author was already a man of the Great Liao, Great Jin, or Great Yuan. That explains it."

"However, there is an interesting point: why did the author specifically write that the Song official had to douse the kasaya in pig's blood and garlic juice before burning it?"

Zhu Yuanzhang stroked his chin, his expression thoughtful.

Could this be the method this world uses to deal with such supernatural beings?

Why does it sound like dealing with vampires or zombies?

With a thought, Zhu Yuanzhang opened his panel.

[Name: Zhu Yuanzhang (Minghe Monk)]

[Occupation: Investigator, Imperial Awakening Temple Monk (Fake)]

[Status: Out of luck]

[Skills: Great Wisdom Zen Technique (Fake), Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Technique (Fake)]

[Equipment: None]

[Note: A peaceful night, the days ahead are long]

"The mission for the first act, [Remains of the Song Emperor], is clearly complete. Why hasn't the system issued the second mission yet?"

Zhu Yuanzhang thought to himself, then looked out the window.

The night was as dark as ink, and the various courtyards of the Imperial Awakening Temple, built halfway up the mountain, were dotted with the flickering light of candles.

The monks' quarters, the Scripture Depository, and the Refectory were all located on the back mountain, while only the mountain gate and the Mahavira Hall were situated on the front mountain.

Consequently, at night, the back mountain appeared much livelier than the sparsely lit Mahavira Hall.

"Could it be that even though the danger has passed, I must complete the entire night before the next mission can be triggered?"

"Or perhaps I must first use the clearance reward to solidify the skill I have already acquired."

"Are the rewards from the previous mission not allowed to be carried over into the second?"

Thinking this, Zhu Yuanzhang stood up.

The effects of the Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Technique were immediate.

Zhu Yuanzhang could feel that his reflexes and physical fitness were much stronger than before.

Moreover, because he had just circulated his energy and successfully ignited the first "True Fire."

As his blood and qi circulated, Zhu Yuanzhang felt as if his stomach were being scorched by fire.

He felt an unprecedented hunger.

"Since things have come to this, I might as well eat."

Zhu Yuanzhang rubbed his belly, licked his lips, and looked toward the Refectory of the Imperial Awakening Temple, which was separated from him by only a few dozen meters of mountain path.

He could already smell the fragrance of chive buns.

I feel like I could eat an entire cow right now.jpg