After a moment, the Stone Giant chieftain also came over to pay his respects. He spoke with Xiao Hua for a while before respectfully taking his leave. Yet from beginning to end, the Stone Giant chieftain scarcely glanced at the Buddha niche they had once worshipped so devoutly. Standing within the magma, Xiao Hua swept out his divine sense and saw many Stone Giants in the distance cultivating, bustling about, or searching for newly condensed essence stones. The magma no longer bore its former deathly appearance, and Xiao Hua's mood improved further.
However, when his divine sense fell upon the Buddha niche, his heart gave a sudden thump. Although the Buddha statue within sat cross-legged there and had already been restored intact, the crack running from its crown downward remained strikingly clear. Even more so, two streams of crimson magma flowed from between the statue's eyes, like two trails of blood tears!
"Let's go. We'll stay outside for a while!" Xiao Hua said coldly, then fled out of the magma without looking back.
Confucian cultivator Xiao Hua and the other avatars did not quite understand, while Buddha Bodhi swept his Buddha consciousness across the Buddha niche, pressed his palms together, and proclaimed the Buddha's name before following them to the surface. By now, some disciples who had ventured nearby had already returned in groups. Seeing Xiao Hua and the others standing atop the mountain, they were all delighted. They did not dare approach to pay their respects, merely bowing from afar before following custom and sitting cross-legged in their respective places.
Xiao Hua stood on the mountaintop without releasing his divine sense. He merely watched the crimson clouds filling the distant sky and remained silent for a long time, allowing the orange-red setting sun to cast his face in an