Ding... With a thunderous peal of the bell, Han Zhu waved his hand, and the little golden bell flew into midair, coming to rest directly above Jiang Liuer's head.
With the ringing of the bell, eight swastika symbols suddenly appeared. Pure deathly stillness descended; even the rotating Buddhist seals Xiao Hua had seen froze in that instant.
Buzz... An inexplicable gale abruptly sprang up around the little bell. Countless Brahma sounds mingled with the wind, like the sighs of ten thousand Buddhas. Along with those sighs, the crushing pressure Xiao Hua had sensed earlier surged a thousandfold, as though the collapsed Buddha statue had risen upright and seated itself upon him out of thin air! He could not move in the slightest!!
"Now is the time. Disciples... offer your Buddhist consciousness and Dharma power to the Buddha!" Han Zhu's voice rang out with exceptional compassion. "Today, we sacrifice ourselves; in the future, the Buddhist Sect shall flourish, and this very moment shall give birth to a disciple entering Nirvana!"
Upon hearing this, Xiao Hua understood that they were going to awaken Jiang Liuer. He dared not delay and hurriedly sent out his thought power. Unfortunately, his thought power had only just formed and was exceedingly weak; in mere moments, it began showing signs of drying up! Yet Xiao Hua's tranquil Buddhist consciousness continued to flow out steadily, without the slightest sign of weakening.
At this moment, just as Xiao Hua had sensed, a Buddha statue flickering with faint Buddhist light gradually condensed around the little bell. It was exactly identical to the dilapidated Buddha statue that had collapsed in Jialan Temple. Beneath its feet were the eight swastika symbols offered by Xiao Hua and the others.
The Buddha statue stood about ten feet tall. Its enormous eyes were opened wide,