Breaking Stone Statues

Divine Monk Puhong gave a bitter smile. "Junior Brother, I already asked Young Master Zhang about this. As his senior brother, I couldn't make up my mind for a while. Since that rare treasure had been in your keeping all along, I came to disturb your quiet cultivation and ask what you thought."

Divine Monk Pude's voice was still hoarse, and he spoke slowly. "In the past, our third junior brother, Puzhi, committed a grave wrong against you. Everyone at Tianyin Temple owes you a great deal..."

"This rare treasure was brought back by Junior Brother Puzhi from his travels in the northwestern Wildlands. You could say you were also his disciple, so it's only right to give it to you. However..." As he spoke, Divine Monk Pude took from his robes a round object half a foot across, wrapped in black cloth.

The fact that one of the Four Divine Monks kept this treasure close at hand showed how highly Tianyin Temple valued it.

Zhang Xiaofan felt uneasy.

After Divine Monk Pude unwrapped the black cloth, Zhang Xiaofan finally saw the true form of the Qiankun Samsara Disk.

It was a jade disk of pale blue and white. At regular intervals along its rim, jagged folds dented inward, and each fold had a fine groove running toward the disk's center, growing shallower as it went.

A soft, bright white radiance shone from the disk's center. Countless tiny square jade pieces were arranged densely in its middle, but in a clearly orderly pattern. Each face of those little jade tiles was engraved with an ancient, archaic character.

At the disk's edge, mysterious, archaic patterns were carved in the four directions—east, south, west, and north. Some resembled stars in the sky, others isolated islands in the depths of the sea, while