Cleaning up the battlefield after a True Demon's death was certainly no pleasant task.
Unlike ordinary Demon Monsters, True Demons left no corpses behind. They were formed from condensed demonic energy, born within the Demon Abyss. Upon death, their demonic energy swirled and dispersed, leaving only a gemlike true core.
The three Qi Refining masters must have taken that true core, but much of the dispersed demonic energy would cling to nearby objects. Left unchecked, it would continue contaminating the soil and water, and could even spawn new Demon Monsters.
There was a standard procedure for dealing with the aftermath of a True Demon's death. It simply involved gathering everything nearby that had been tainted by demonic energy, burning whatever could be burned, and using internal force to wear away the demonic energy in anything that could not.
Not only was it exhausting, but a moment's carelessness could expose one to residual demonic energy. At best, it meant serious illness; at worst, death!
Still, they had to undertake even tasks that could cost them their lives, let alone something that was merely tiring and a little dangerous.
Yet Jiang Che was the only one quite so eager.
With him taking the lead, Hu Yan and Zhang Erguo exchanged a glance and could only follow. The other Registered Disciples gradually joined them as well. The ordinary soldiers, however, did not have to come-Embryonic Breath cultivators could still resist objects tainted with demonic energy and dissolve the energy within them using internal force. Sending ordinary people in would be sending them straight to their deaths.
Jiang Che rummaged through the ruins of the main hall, picking out broken bronze and wooden objects along with chunks of rubble, gathering them one by one for later disposal. As he searched, however, his feet edged imperceptibly closer to the remains of the Buddha statue, one step at a time.
No one nearby was paying attention. In anyone's eyes, that Buddha statue was already useless.
Jiang Che approached it easily and lightly touched the ruined Buddha's body. The green light covering it flowed like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, silently pouring into his palm and disappearing into his body.
His expression unchanged, Jiang Che straightened, brushed the dust from his hands, then bent down to pick up another broken brick tainted with demonic energy.
Four days later, the cultivators had returned to Ailin.
The battle that day had ended in victory, and the True Demon had been slain. Everyone first spent an entire day cleaning up the battlefield, then another three days searching out and killing every remaining Demon Monster around the abandoned temple.
Only then was the operation to besiege the ruins of Little Hidden Temple truly complete.
Of Jiang Che's group of Azure Mystic Registered Disciples who had come from the sect, six had died between their arrival in Ailin and today.
Six dead out of seventeen-the losses could hardly be called anything but heavy.
But those who survived had reason to count themselves fortunate.
Survival alone was worth celebrating. To take part in such a grueling assault and emerge alive was an enormous gain.
With the True Demon slain, solid merit had been credited to every one of them. Even if they achieved nothing during the remaining two and a half months of operations in Ailin, their rewards upon returning to the sect would still be considerable.
The three Qi Refining masters showed at least some consideration for those beneath them, declaring that everyone could rest for the next three days. They would not even have to carry out routine patrols of Ailin Old City.
As the news spread, the disciples who had returned to the county town were all beaming with joy.
Hu Yan went straight to Jiang Che and Zhang Erguo's lodgings, telling them that several fellow disciples had pooled their money and booked a banquet at a restaurant in Ailin, so everyone could celebrate over drinks.
Jiang Che shook his head. "I appreciate your kindness, senior sister. But the fighting these past few days has taken a heavy toll on my internal force. I'd like to use these three days off to stay in and regulate my breathing until I've recovered. I'll pass on the drinks."
"Aren't we all in the same boat? One meal and a few drinks won't get in the way."
Jiang Che still declined. "You all go. Don't worry about me."
Hu Yan raised an eyebrow but did not press him further, turning instead to Zhang Erguo.
The fat fellow had been tempted, but after hearing Jiang Che's words, he hesitated briefly before shaking his head like a pellet drum.
"I'm not going either. I need to-"
"Enough nonsense."
Hu Yan's willow-leaf brows shot up. She stepped forward and seized him by the ear.
"It's fine if Junior Brother Jiang doesn't go, but you don't get a choice!"
"Ow, ow, ow-my ear! You're going to tear it off! I'll go, I'll go! Isn't that enough? But you're the one forcing me to go, senior sister, so my share of the bill... ow!"
Hu Yan paid him no heed, dragging the fat fellow out by his ear.
Jiang Che watched them leave with a smile.
Once the door closed, the smile faded from his face.
He had declined his companions' invitation because he really did have something to do.
Jiang Che took out the Breath-Regulating Pills distributed over the past several days, swallowed them one by one, and sat cross-legged in quiet meditation.
For the next two full days, he did not step outside, replenishing the internal force depleted by days of fighting. By nightfall on the second day, internal force flowed abundantly throughout his body, his spirit whole and his energy full. He felt that he had returned to his peak condition.
It was time.
Jiang Che slowly closed his eyes. His mind sank, descending into the pure white expanse of the consciousness space.
His spiritual body hovered in the air. Looking down at himself, he felt that all his gains from this period were gathered here-a full hundred and one points.
The True Demon had contributed no transmigration energy. Presumably, that was because the true core it left behind after its destruction had been suppressed and taken away by the Qi Refining masters.
It was a pity. Otherwise, a True Demon at the Qi Refining level should, in theory, have provided a very generous amount of transmigration energy.
Even so, he had accumulated a hundred and one points, restoring his spiritual body to the strength it had possessed at the very beginning. Judging by the cost of entering Willow Source's old dream, that was enough for ten transmigrations.
But today, of course, he was not going to Willow Source's old dream.
Beside the green floor tile stood a Buddha statue thirty feet tall-the new instance he had collected from the ruins of Little Hidden Temple!
In the real world, it had been a headless clay Buddha's body. Here in the pure white expanse, however, it was perfectly intact, its face benevolent and its paintwork as good as new.
He intended to try this new instance.
Whether it held fortune or disaster was unknown, but since he had brought it back, there was no reason to enshrine it and never use it.
His spiritual body slowly drifted closer, and he felt a suction drawing it in.
He did not resist. As he approached further, a young man's voice rang out, just as it did whenever he entered Willow Source's old dream, reciting the instance's prologue.
"In the summer of the fifteenth year of Xianxi, a monk came from the west, known as Master Chunji. Upon reaching Ailin County, he beheld its graceful mountains and waters, and built a hut outside the town. He felled bamboo to build a temple, naming it Little Hidden, established an altar to impart his teachings, and instructed the local people. His followers grew more numerous by the day..."
Jiang Che listened carefully, not daring to miss a single detail. The instance's prologue might contain vital information.
At the same time, he made a point of observing the changes in his spiritual body.
As the transmigration prologue was recited, his spiritual body diminished at a speed visible to the naked eye. By the time the voice faded, it had shrunk by roughly thirty percent.
It seemed that entering this Buddha statue instance once required three times as much transmigration energy as Willow Source's old dream. By Jiang Che's own reckoning, it cost about thirty points.
Expensive indeed.
When he came to his senses again, birdsong greeted his ears.
Jiang Che found himself standing in a bamboo grove. A narrow path wound from beneath his feet and through the trees. Following it with his gaze, he could see the little temple in the distance, with its yellow walls and dark roof tiles.
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