"I'm not ready to lock in a skill yet."
Inside Monk Minghe's meditation room, Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the system panel and thought to himself.
Then he pulled two candles out from under the bed, lit them both, sat down at the table, and opened the Dingguang Demon-Subduing Scroll in his hands.
Compared to the Sutra of Maitreya's Descent, which was written in such vague and convoluted terms,
the Dingguang Demon-Subduing Scroll was far more straightforward.
After all, Zhu Yuanzhang really had no idea what the "Vacuum Homeland" mentioned repeatedly in the Sutra of Maitreya's Descent was supposed to be.
And without being able to communicate with the "Vacuum Homeland," almost ninety-nine percent of the sutra's arts couldn't be performed.
Zhu Yuanzhang strongly suspected that Mingguang had concluded the Sutra of Maitreya's Descent had been almost entirely useless sixty years ago because the "Vacuum Homeland" hadn't yet appeared in the world.
Actually, it wasn't hard to guess how the "Vacuum Homeland" and "Maitreya's Descent" were connected.
They were both part of the White Lotus Sect's playbook at the end of the Yuan dynasty.
Just like "When the Red Sun calamity ends, the White Sun shall rise" and "Maitreya descends, the Bright King appears," "Unborn Venerable Mother, Vacuum Homeland" and "The White Lotus descends, and the people rise up" were all White Lotus Sect slogans for rebellion.
Zhu Yuanzhang picked up the oil lamp before him.
Following the ritual described in the Dingguang Demon-Subduing Scroll, he pricked his fingertip and squeezed out a drop of blood essence onto the lamp.
He began to visualize the image of Dingguang Buddha he'd seen in the Mahavira Hall.
But...
Nothing happened.
"Still too slow... I should have completed the visualization at the instant my blood essence burned away."
Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head.
Although the Dingguang Demon-Subduing Scroll clearly stated that one could visualize Dingguang Buddha no more than three times a day,
and that each failure brought a greater risk of being consumed by demonic flames,
none of that was a problem for Zhu Yuanzhang.
"Again!"
This time, the image of Dingguang Buddha in Zhu Yuanzhang's mind was much clearer.
But in its wake came a pleasant, hollow sensation that spread through every limb and bone.
Zhu Yuanzhang opened his eyes.
At some point, the candleholder on the table had tipped over, and a raging fire had broken out.
Zhu Yuanzhang sat in the flames, half his body already engulfed.
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something.
But before he could make a sound, the flames surged higher.
[You died]
After dying more than a dozen times, Zhu Yuanzhang finally managed to visualize Dingguang Buddha in full.
A beam of golden light shot out of the candleholder and entered Zhu Yuanzhang's body.
"It worked!"
Zhu Yuanzhang opened his eyes and looked at the golden flames burning on the candleholder, his face lighting up with joy.
He held his hand above the flames. They felt warm, but didn't cause the stinging pain of a burn.
This was the first supernatural ability of the Dingguang Demon-Subduing Scroll.
[Desire Fire Does Not Burn]
In truth, neither the Dingguang Demon-Subduing Scroll nor the Sutra of Maitreya's Descent had much to say about the actual cultivation process.
Each contained only a visualization diagram and a few brief instructions outlining the steps.
The rest was taken up by lengthy accounts of Dingguang Buddha's glorious deeds and immense divine powers.
And in Zhu Yuanzhang's view, although the text seemed to praise Dingguang Buddha to the skies...
However...
Zhu Yuanzhang closed the Dingguang Demon-Subduing Scroll, the corner of his mouth twitching as he sighed.
"This author was a master of sarcasm."
He casually opened the book to a page describing Dingguang Buddha's heroic deeds in saving the suffering.
As the scroll recounted, in the sixth year of Xianping during the Song dynasty (1003 CE), Song Emperor Zhenzong Zhao Heng and Emperor Shengzong reached the Chanyuan Treaty through the surrendered general Wang Jizhong.
To raise the annual tribute, they ordered temples throughout the realm to pay the court in silk and cloth.
The temples readily obeyed, holding ceremonies and collecting cloth from the people.
Zheng Ziyan, the reincarnation of Dingguang Buddha, saw the local authorities forcing the people to hand over cloth and driving them into ruin. Deeply distressed, he wrote a letter of complaint and tucked it among the cloth he was submitting.
The Jiangxi authorities discovered it and flew into a rage.
They immediately sent men to arrest the wild monk who had dared to report them to the court.
The official in charge of holding Dingguang Buddha was named Zhang Ye. When he saw that Dingguang Buddha had been arrested and refused to speak or submit to questioning, he grew furious.
So he ordered Dingguang Buddha's monk's hat to be burned and soaked it in pig's blood and garlic juice. But when the fire went out, the hat had only grown whiter. Dingguang Buddha had sat in the flames unharmed, so the local authorities had no choice but to release him.
"The emperor's heading for the front lines." "A great victory in the opposite direction." "Song-Liao friendship." "Collusion between officials and monks." "Each level added its own demands." "Who dares accuse this official in my courtroom?" "Dirty tricks." "The Dragon King returns!"
There were so many absurd details that Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't settle on just one thing to mock.
He could sum it up in only two words.
"Badass."
"Wouldn't they arrest the author for this?"
Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at the author's name.
Monk Faneng of Minzhong Temple of Yanjing.
"Oh, the author was already a subject of Great Liao, Great Jin, or Great Yuan. Never mind, then."
"But there's one interesting thing. Why did the author specifically mention that the Song officials soaked Dingguang Buddha in pig's blood and garlic juice before burning him?"
Zhu Yuanzhang stroked his chin, looking thoughtful.
Could this be how people in this world dealt with those who had supernatural abilities?
Why did it sound just like the methods used against vampires and zombies?
Zhu Yuanzhang had a thought and opened the panel.
[Name: Zhu Yuanzhang (Monk Minghe)] [Class: Investigator, Monks of Imperial Awakening Temple (Fake)] [Status: Unlucky] [Skills: Great Wisdom Zen Technique (Fake), Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Technique (Fake)] [Equipment: None] [Remark: A peaceful night. There's always tomorrow.]
"The first act's [Remains of the Song Emperor] mission is already complete. Why hasn't the system given me the second mission yet?"
Zhu Yuanzhang wondered, then looked out the window.
The night was as dark as ink. Candlelight had begun to appear in the various compounds of Imperial Awakening Temple, built halfway up the mountainside.
The monks' quarters, the Scripture Depository, and the Refectory were all on the back mountain. Only the mountain gate and the Mahavira Hall stood on the front mountain.
So at night, compared to the sparsely lit Mahavira Hall,
the back mountain was much livelier.
"Could it be that even though the danger has passed, I have to make it through the whole night before I can move on to the next mission?"
"Or do I have to use up my mission reward first, locking in one of the skills I've already acquired?"
"Maybe I can't carry a reward from the previous mission over to the next one?"
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 better than before.
And because he'd just practiced the technique and successfully ignited his first "true flame,"
his blood and qi circulated, and his stomach felt as if it were on fire.
He'd never been so hungry.
"Since it's come to this, I might as well eat first."
Zhu Yuanzhang rubbed his stomach, licked his lips, and looked toward the Refectory of Imperial Awakening Temple, just across a mountain path a few dozen meters away.
He could already smell the chive buns.
I feel so hungry I could eat a whole cow right now.
Before you continue