The Strange Buddha Relic

Chapter Forty-Four: The Strange Buddha Relic

"Damn it! You don't knock before coming in?! Now you've seen me naked! How am I supposed to show my face from now on?!"

Chen Lin had frozen at Yang Qianqian's piercing scream, but his reaction was swift and his skin was thick. The instant his mind cleared, his eyes darted about. He threw both hands over his vital parts, crouched down, and stared at Yang Qianqian with a wounded expression, his eyes full of plaintive accusation.

Whatever else, he'd turn the tables on her first.

"You... you, you...!"

Yang Qianqian looked as if she'd been struck by lightning. Good heavens... This shameless stinking monster had actually said that with a straight face!

"You... you, you... You're lewd! Shameless! Filthy! A pervert...!"

The little girl's ears turned scarlet with fury. She glared fiercely at Chen Lin as if she wanted to devour him. She didn't dare look down, but her lips trembled as she pointed at him and hurled every insult she could think of.

"Bang!"

Only then did the little girl realize that something about the scene seemed wrong. With a startled cry, her face turned bright red. She turned away, eyes darting in embarrassed anger, then slammed the door and fled.

Even Chen Lin couldn't help feeling awkward. He waited until the little girl had disappeared from sight, then let out a quiet breath and hurriedly took a robe from his Storage Bag and put it on.

"Well, that's just great. I really have become the perverted monster she called me... There's no explaining my way out of this..."

With a wry smile, Chen Lin shook his head and set the incident aside for the moment. After a brief pause, he picked up the oval, damaged relic again. Half of one end was missing.

"Buddha Relic (damaged), contains a secret inheritance. Method of use: Gaze upon the Buddha Relic for half an hour every day, continuing for half a month. During the meditation, you must be sincere and free of even the slightest stray thought."

Chen Lin's expression turned strange. He hadn't expected the method for unlocking the secret inheritance to be so odd. It wasn't as difficult as he'd imagined; all it took was time.

He picked up the Buddha Relic and pondered for a moment, then set it on the floor nearby and stared at it without blinking.

To meditate on the relic with sincerity, he had to dispel distracting thoughts and focus solely on it: seeing only the relic with his eyes and hearing only the Buddha's voice with his ears. Only then could he put aside all other thoughts.

As he gazed at the relic, Chen Lin's heart gradually became free of joy and sorrow, right and wrong, restraint and constraint. Little by little, the Buddha Relic changed in his eyes.

The faint sound of a Buddha chanting sutras drifted into his ears. The relic radiated a hazy golden glow, and in his mind, a towering Buddha sat cross-legged upon a lotus, palms pressed together as he chanted in a low voice. His face held a compassionate expression, pitying all living beings. Golden auspicious clouds appeared behind his head, and countless rays of auspicious light shone from his body.

"Shariputra, all phenomena are empty in nature: they neither arise nor perish, are neither defiled nor pure, neither increase nor decrease..."

In the blink of an eye, half an hour had nearly passed, but Chen Lin gradually sank deeper into the vision. An eerie look of compassion spread across his face. He forgot the mortal world, untouched by honor or disgrace.

He seemed to be standing in a vast Buddhist realm, one Buddha among many. He had mastered the wondrous teachings of Buddhism, escaped all worldly attachments, and attained great freedom.

Time flowed slowly...

"Hey! Stinking monster! You've been sitting here for ages. Hurry up and get up..."

In a daze, he heard a voice brimming with complicated emotion calling out to him. The moment it rang in his ears, Chen Lin's tightly shut eyes narrowed and his brows furrowed, as if someone had interrupted him while he listened to celestial music.

"Huh? Strange. Why does this stinking monster seem so different..."

"Hey, get up! You promised you'd take me away from the Myriad Demon Sect when you came back. Are you going to keep your word or not?"

As the girl's voice continued calling him, Chen Lin frowned, finally and gradually emerging from that illusory world.

Chen Lin opened his eyes and stared blankly at everything before him. Then he fixed his gaze on the girl beside him. The Buddha's voice still echoed in his ears, celestial flowers rained down, and his face remained full of compassion, as if he meant to save all humanity.

"Huh, stinking monster, you're finally awake..."

Yang Qianqian's delighted voice reached his ears. She still sounded fierce, but beneath it was a trace of worry.

The little girl had looked delighted at first, but when she met Chen Lin's unwavering gaze, she seemed to remember something. Her face quickly reddened, and her eyes darted away. Biting her lip, she snapped, "You... Why are you staring at me like that?!"

At the girl's sharp rebuke, Chen Lin jolted and quickly came back to himself.

"What a powerful Buddha Relic! It nearly trapped me in its spell!"

As soon as he came to, Chen Lin recalled what had happened. His expression changed at once as he stared at the relic, his face clouded with uncertainty.

If the girl hadn't woken him in time, Chen Lin thought he might have remained trapped forever in that illusory Buddhist realm, unable to escape until his body decayed and he died.

"Thank you, little girl."

After a long while, Chen Lin's expression settled. He let out a quiet breath, turned to Yang Qianqian, and thanked her sincerely.

"Thank me for what...? You're so weird..." Yang Qianqian watched Chen Lin come around and muttered under her breath, her eyes avoiding his. But soon, as if she'd remembered something, she turned fierce again. "Hey, you promised you'd take me away from the Myriad Demon Sect when you got back. When are you going to do it?"

Chen Lin watched Yang Qianqian's averted eyes and embarrassed expression, and couldn't help smiling. He knew she was still brooding over what had happened during the day. He chuckled to himself but didn't call her out. After clearing his throat, he said, "Wait three more days, and I'll take you away."

In three days, Chen Lin would have been at the Myriad Demon Sect for half a month. That was also when Hong Qianlie would check his cultivation progress, so he couldn't leave yet.

By then, his Death Energy points had reached 54,869 after his trip to the Demon Prison—a considerable fortune. Chen Lin had considered spending 10,000 points of Death Energy to remove the sect restriction in his body and flee the Myriad Demon Sect. But his innate talent, Advanced Perception, had somehow warned him that disaster would befall him if he removed the restriction.

"Ah, we still have to wait... I wonder how worried my master must be by now." Hearing they still had to wait three days, the little girl's face fell, and she seemed reluctant.

Chen Lin paid no heed to Yang Qianqian's reluctance. He left the room and went out into the courtyard, where he began cultivating the Mysterious Ancient Scripture, Dao Heaven. He didn't want to waste even a moment. For the past several days, he and Yang Qianqian had spent their time this way. Since men and women were different, and there was only one bed, Chen Lin had naturally given it to the little girl.

It was already late at night. Standing in the courtyard, Chen Lin struck one of the strange poses from the Thousand Refinement Treasure Record and began circulating the Mysterious Ancient Scripture, Dao Heaven.

Before long, Mystic Yin Essence began spreading through his body. Not only that, but a stream of white qi descended from the sky where Chen Lin stood, while a stream of black qi rose from the earth. They slipped into the crown of his head and the soles of his feet, respectively, as if drawing on the power of heaven and earth. The black and white streams broke through one barrier after another, following the meridians described in the ancient scripture, until they finally burst through Chen Lin's mind.

Ever since breaking through to the Xiantian stage, Dao Heaven had stopped absorbing only Essence of Li Fire and Mystic Yin Essence. It now absorbed a white stream of qi and a black one as well. Whenever Chen Lin cultivated Dao Heaven, he seemed to follow the two streams unconsciously to a mysterious place.

The place was extremely mysterious. A red sun and a bright moon hung in the sky, surrounded by a dense field of stars. Chen Lin felt as if he were weightless and ethereal, taking the form of his own body, only countless times smaller. He floated silently in midair, seemingly untouched by any force. It was a wondrous sight.

Chen Lin realized that this was what his soul looked like.

In this mysterious place were two pools, each about the size of a pond. Beyond them, everything was hazy and formless, like a land from before heaven and earth had fully taken shape.

The two bodies of water below seemed to have existed since time immemorial, their surfaces an eerie dead gray, still as stagnant water.

On one of them floated a mysterious, ancient coffin, covered in runes. Chen Lin knew that this was the Main God Coffin.

On the other body of water rested a blood seed radiating a red glow. It was naturally the Source Blood Seed.

The black and white qi absorbed by Dao Heaven continuously swirled around his soul. As the streams grew, they slowly seeped into Chen Lin's soul.

Chen Lin vaguely sensed that whenever his soul absorbed a little more qi, the bodies of water beneath him seemed to grow a little larger...

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And so, Chen Lin spent his days cultivating the Nine-Nine Extreme Transformation and meditating on the Buddha Relic, while diligently continuing his cultivation of Dao Heaven at night.

Over the next few days, to avoid becoming trapped in the Buddha Relic's spell again, Chen Lin spent 2 Death Energy points at the Main God Coffin to exchange for an alarm clock of the kind used in his modern past. He set it for half an hour, ensuring he wouldn't be affected again.

In the blink of an eye, three days passed.

That day, just as dawn broke and the first light spilled over the courtyard, Chen Lin, having just finished a night of cultivation, suddenly opened his eyes. His gaze seemed deeper than ever.