Chapter 2: Pagoda
The banquet suddenly fell silent, and everyone's gaze shifted in unison.
Yu Ci's eyes turned faintly cold as he turned to look at Monk Yi Xin beside him. The square-faced monk showed no expression. Facing the surprised or excited gazes of the crowd, he placed a small and exquisite seven-story pagoda on the table.
The focus of everyone's eyes immediately shifted again. The seven-story pagoda on the table stood barely over a foot tall, entirely dark gold in color. It seemed to have been fashioned from the mold of a real pagoda. Its bottom floor had a door, while from the second floor upward, every level had four doors and windows, its edges adorned with hooked lotus-leaf ornaments. At the top sat a gourd-shaped finial, supported below by a lotus flower. Yet on closer inspection, it was formed from a patchwork of grotesque demon figures. Though exquisitely made, it made people deeply uncomfortable to look at.
Monk Yi Xin said softly, "This Illusion Demon Pagoda was acquired by this old monk in his early years. It was a magical artifact forged over two hundred years by the demon monk 'Ghost Sha,' once rampant in the Western Buddhist Kingdom, using his unique Buddha Bathing Merit to empower it. Three Thousand Yin Demons are sealed within. Once deployed, it can seize a person's soul, or set up the Eighteen Yin Demon Wheel Formation to trap and kill powerful foes. It is exceedingly formidable. This treasure was refined through the 'one artifact, one method' approach. Converted to the Tiangang Disha Refining Method, it would be equivalent to a top-grade magical artifact of the twelfth heaven. However..."
Before the cultivators at the banquet could marvel, Yi Xin shook his head and added, "This treasure does not suit this old monk's own