"This should be an illusion array," Song Wen thought to himself.
Song Wen realized that not everything he saw on East Creek Mountain with his own eyes was necessarily real.
That included the temple halfway up the mountain, the monks meditating before it, and the solemn Buddha statue behind it...
These scenes were very likely all illusions.
Just then.
Ripples suddenly spread across the barrier above the mountaintop.
Two young monks passed through the barrier.
Dazzling golden light shone from their bodies. The light gradually blazed brighter, slowly condensing in midair into a Buddha statue three hundred meters tall.
The Buddha sat upright upon a lotus platform, its rosy radiance stretching ten thousand zhang, lotus fragrance spilling in every direction.
The rosy light fell upon the believers. They were immediately overwhelmed with emotion, all falling to their knees and bowing as they continuously cried, "Dingguang Buddha has revealed himself!"
At the same time, the believers smelled that faint lotus fragrance. Their spirits instantly soared, and all the exhaustion and pain brought by their repeated kowtows vanished in an instant.
This made the worshippers even more devout, even more convinced that the Buddha had manifested before them.
Yet Song Wen saw everything clearly.
The two young monks high in the sky were not real monks at all, but two young and beautiful Foundation Establishment Realm female cultivators in disguise.
To avoid exposing any flaws, they had deliberately shaved their heads. From so far away, ordinary mortals could not tell that they were women, but they could not deceive Song Wen's eyes.
As for that fragrance, it came from powder the two women had secretly scattered.
The powder had been ground from a low-grade spiritual herb called Worry-Free Grass. It could stir one's spirits and temporarily make one forget pain and injury.