Beneath Buddha Hand Peak lay neither subterranean magma nor one of the Divine Land's ninety-nine Dragon Veins, but a peculiar pool wreathed in auspicious Buddha Light.
Below the pool, just as beneath the three great sects before it, lay a dark space. The fourth Nine-Nine Soul-Devouring Formation was hidden there.
"Is that... a śarīra relic?"
Lin Mo followed the old monk into the dark space, and the sight before him immediately caught his eye.
Eight thousand one hundred blood-red stone pillars towered within the dim underground chamber, no different from the Nine-Nine Soul-Devouring Formations he had seen before.
Above the center of the formation floated another rust-covered Ancient Sword shimmering with starlight.
Yet it was not the Ancient Sword's faint starlight that illuminated this underground space, but a golden śarīra relic floating above it!
The relic was about the size of an adult man's thumb pad. Its entire body resembled jade, and the vast, pure Buddha Light it radiated filled the underground space.
Between the relic and the Ancient Sword floated a bronze oil lamp without a wick. Where the wick should have been, a flickering golden flame burned in midair, looking remarkably alive!
"Amitabha."
The old monk bowed slightly toward the golden relic, then said softly, "These are the remains my master left behind when he entered nirvana. Though he failed to attain Buddhahood in life, he left a relic after his passing. His merits may thus be considered complete."
"This Wickless Lamp is a supreme treasure of Buddhism. It can suppress evil, achieving much the same effect as the Buddha Child's diamond dharma body through different means."
"With these two treasures suppressing this place, even if the Ancient Sword decays, this evil formation can forget about wreaking havoc. Such are Buddhism's methods for subduing demons."
*So that was