The Strange Buddha Relic

Chapter 44: The Eerie Buddha Relic

"Damn it! Don't you know how to knock before entering?! Look at this now, you've seen everything! How am I supposed to face anyone in the future?!"

Chen Lin was frozen stiff by Yang Qianqian's piercing shriek. However, his reflexes were lightning-fast and his skin was thick enough to stop a blade. The moment his mind cleared, his eyes darted around, his hands lunged to cover his vital points, and he crouched down. He stared at Yang Qianqian with a look of aggrieved accusation, his eyes brimming with pathetic resentment.

Regardless of the truth, he had to strike first and shift the blame.

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

Hearing this, Yang Qianqian felt as if she had been struck by lightning. Heavens... this... this shameless, stinking demon actually had the gall to say such things!

"You... you, you... you pervert! Shameless! Filthy! Deviant!..."

The young girl's ears turned beet red with rage. She glared at Chen Lin with such ferocity that it seemed she wanted to devour him whole. She didn't dare shift her gaze downward, her lips trembling as she pointed at him, unleashing every insult she could possibly conjure.

"Bang!"

Finally, the girl realized the situation was entirely inappropriate. With a startled "Ah," her face flushed a deep crimson. She whipped her head away, her eyes darting about in shame and fury, and she slammed the door shut as she fled.

Even with Chen Lin's thick skin, he couldn't help but feel awkward. Seeing the girl vanish, he let out a long breath and quickly retrieved a robe from his Storage Bag to put on.

"Well, that's just great. I've truly become the perverted demon she called me... and there's no way to explain this away..."

With a bitter smile and a shake of his head, Chen Lin pushed the incident to the back of his mind. After a moment's thought, he picked up the oval-shaped, broken Buddha Relic with the missing corner once more.

Buddha Relic (Fragmented): Contains a secret scripture inheritance. Usage: Meditate upon the Buddha Relic for half an hour daily for half a month. During meditation, one must be sincere and free of all distracting thoughts.

Chen Lin's expression turned strange. He hadn't expected the method to unlock the inheritance to be so peculiar. It wasn't as difficult as he had imagined; it was actually quite simple, requiring only time.

He held the Buddha Relic, pondered for a moment, then placed it on the floor nearby and fixed his gaze unblinkingly upon it.

To meditate on the relic with sincerity, one had to purge all delusions and focus entirely on the object. His eyes were to see only the relic, his ears to hear only the sounds of the Buddha; only then could he cast aside his wandering thoughts.

As he stared at the relic, Chen Lin's heart became devoid of joy or sorrow, right or wrong, restraint or desire. Gradually, the Buddha Relic began to change in his eyes.

Faint sounds of a Buddha chanting sutras drifted into his ears. In his vision, the relic radiated a hazy golden halo. In his mind, a towering Buddha sat cross-legged upon a lotus, hands pressed together in prayer, chanting softly. The Buddha's face wore a look of compassionate mercy for all living beings, with golden clouds floating behind his head and a thousand rays of auspicious light emanating from his body.

"The relic is the emptiness of all phenomena; it is neither born nor destroyed, neither defiled nor pure, neither increasing nor decreasing..."

In the blink of an eye, the half-hour was nearly up, yet Chen Lin remained deeply immersed. His face wore an eerie, compassionate expression, having forgotten the mortal world and remaining unmoved by favor or humiliation.

He felt as if he were situated in a vast Buddhist kingdom, one of many Buddhas, having attained the profound dharma of the Buddhist path, shed all worldly attachments, and achieved great liberation.

Time flowed slowly...

"Hey! You stinking demon! You've been sitting there for half a day, hurry up and get up, you..."

In his trance, he was disturbed by a voice filled with complex emotions. The moment the sound rang out, Chen Lin's tightly closed eyes twitched, and his brows furrowed, as if he had been interrupted while listening to celestial music.

"Huh, strange. Why does the aura of this stinking demon feel so off..."

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

However, as the girl's voice continued to call out, Chen Lin's brow furrowed, and he finally began to emerge from that illusory world.

Chen Lin opened his eyes, looking at his surroundings with initial confusion before fixing his gaze directly on the girl beside him. The sounds of Buddhist chanting still echoed in his ears, flower petals seemed to fall from the sky, and his expression remained one of pity for the world, as if he were there to save all mankind.

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

Yang Qianqian's joyful voice reached his ears. Although she still sounded fierce, there was a hint of underlying concern.

The girl had been full of joy, but upon meeting Chen Lin's direct, unblinking stare, she seemed to remember something. Her face flushed red, her eyes darted away, and she bit her lip, snapping, "What... what are you staring at me for!"

Hearing the girl's sharp rebuke, Chen Lin jolted, quickly snapping out of his detached state.

"What a powerful Buddha Relic! It actually made me sink so deep I couldn't pull myself out!"

Once fully awake, Chen Lin recalled the previous events. His expression shifted instantly, and he stared at the relic before him with a look of uncertainty.

If the girl hadn't woken him in time, Chen Lin feared he might have remained forever lost in that illusory Buddhist kingdom, unable to escape until his physical body rotted away and he died.

"Thank you, little girl."

After a long silence, Chen Lin's expression calmed. He let out a breath and turned to Yang Qianqian, speaking with solemnity.

"Thank me for what... you're so strange..." Watching Chen Lin wake up, Yang Qianqian muttered under her breath, her eyes darting away as if she didn't dare look at him. But soon, she seemed to remember something else and glared at him. "Hey, you promised me you'd take me away from the Myriad Demon Sect when you got back. When are we leaving?"

Seeing Yang Qianqian's shy, embarrassed demeanor, Chen Lin couldn't help but smile. He knew the girl was still brooding over what had happened earlier that day. He found it amusing but didn't point it out. Clearing his throat, he said, "Wait three more days, and I will take you away."

In three days, it would be half a month since Chen Lin had entered the Myriad Demon Sect, which was also when Hong Qianlie would check his cultivation progress. He couldn't leave just yet.

By now, his Death Energy points had reached 54,869 after his trip to the Demon Prison—a massive fortune. Chen Lin had considered spending 10,000 points to remove the sect's restriction within his body and flee, but his innate talent, Advanced Perception, gave him a vague warning: if he removed the restriction now, disaster would befall him.

"Ah, we have to wait even longer... I don't even know how worried my Master must be right now." Hearing that he needed three more days, the girl's face fell, and she looked quite reluctant.

Chen Lin naturally ignored her reluctance. He walked out of the room into the courtyard and began practicing the mysterious ancient scripture, Dao Heaven. He didn't want to waste a single second. For the past few days, this was how Chen Lin and Yang Qianqian had lived; after all, there was only one bed, which Chen Lin had naturally ceded to the girl.

It was late at night. Chen Lin stood in the courtyard, assuming the strange posture from the Thousand Refinement Treasure Record, and began to circulate the mysterious Dao Heaven.

Before long, the Mystic Yin Essence began to spread through his body. Not only that, but a wisp of white energy and a wisp of black energy descended from the sky and rose from the earth, respectively. They entered through the crown of his head and the soles of his feet, vanishing into his body as if drawing power from the heavens and the earth. These black and white currents surged through his meridians as recorded in the ancient scripture, finally rushing into his mind.

Ever since he broke through to the Xiantian stage, Dao Heaven no longer merely absorbed the Essence of Li Fire and the Mystic Yin Essence; it now simultaneously drew in these white and black currents. Whenever Chen Lin practiced Dao Heaven, he felt as if he were being transported to a mysterious place along with these two currents.

This place was incredibly enigmatic. A red sun and a bright moon hung in the sky, surrounded by a dense field of stars. Chen Lin felt ethereal and weightless, appearing in his true form—though shrunken countless times smaller than his physical body—floating silently in mid-air, completely detached from all worldly tethers.

Chen Lin realized with a start: this was the appearance of his own soul.

In this mysterious place, there were two pools of water, each the size of a pond. The area surrounding the water was a hazy void, resembling a primordial region before the heavens and earth had fully taken shape.

The two pools beneath him seemed to have existed since the dawn of time, displaying a strange, deathly gray hue. They were as silent and still as stagnant water, without a single ripple.

Floating quietly upon one of the pools was a mysterious, archaic coffin covered in dense, intricate runes; Chen Lin knew this to be the mysterious Main God Coffin.

On the other pool of water sat a single seed radiating a red halo—naturally, this was the Source Blood Seed.

The white and black currents absorbed by the Dao Heaven flowed ceaselessly around his soul, slowly merging into Chen Lin's soul as the volume of the currents increased.

Chen Lin faintly sensed that every time his soul absorbed a bit more of the currents, the surface area of the pools beneath him seemed to expand by a fraction.

In this manner, Chen Lin spent his days cultivating the Nine-Nine Extreme Transformation and meditating upon the Buddha Relic, while at night, he continued his diligent practice of the Dao Heaven without pause.

Over the past few days, to avoid falling into that inescapable state of obsession while meditating on the Buddha Relic, Chen Lin had specifically spent 2 points of Death Energy to exchange for a modern alarm clock from his past life at the Main God Coffin. By setting it for one hour, he ensured he would no longer be affected.

In the blink of an eye, three days had passed.

On this day, as the sky just began to break at dawn and the morning light spilled down, Chen Lin, who had just concluded a night of cultivation in the courtyard, suddenly opened his eyes, which now appeared even more profound.