Demon-Suppressing Tower

After receiving the Life-Bound Beast-Taming Spatial Treasure, Lin Jing thanked Elder Mo again and proclaimed his loyalty to the sect. In life, he belonged to the Beast Taming Sect; in death, he would be its ghost. Even if he reincarnated into the animal realm, he would still be a beast of the Beast Taming Sect. Elder Mo fell silent at that.

"All right, I know you love the sect. You haven't an ounce of the composure someone with a longevity body ought to have. Let me send you back."

"Thank you for your trouble, Elder Mo, but we can make our own way back." Lin Jing wanted to pass through Cloud-Tilling Peak and test the results of the Pineleaf Squirrel's training over the past few days.

"It's no trouble." A Golden Core Stage cultivator possessed formidable magical power. Just as the Black Bear Monster could blow a little white mouse away with a single breath, Elder Mo could send Lin Jing and his companion flying with a slap.

"Then sorry for the trouble, Elder Mo, but please send us to Cloud-Tilling Peak," Lin Jing said.

"Cloud-Tilling Peak?" Elder Mo asked in puzzlement. "What are you going there for... eh? Squirrel Leaping to Heaven?"

Something suddenly occurred to him. "I actually forgot about that place. Have you already learned the history of the Pineleaf Squirrel clan and that Sect Guardian Deity?"

"Yes. Last time, when Senior Brother Ouyang and I passed through Cloud-Tilling Peak, the Pineleaf Squirrel tried jumping, but it didn't succeed. It's trained hard these past few days, so I was planning to take it there for another try."

"I see..." Elder Mo looked rather interested. "Very well. I'll take you there."

As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Jing's vision swam. In the blink of an eye, they arrived at Squirrel Leaping to Heaven. Elder Mo stood nearby, apparently in no hurry to leave, and said to Lin Jing, "Go ahead."

Lin Jing didn't care whether anyone watched. He immediately summoned the Pineleaf Squirrel with the "innate earth-and-wood sacred body," which had been building a home inside the Spatial Treasure.

"I've trained hard with you for days. Let's try again and see whether you can start a family genealogy of your own!" Lin Jing said.

"Squeak?" Once summoned, the Pineleaf Squirrel stood on the ground and looked around. Realizing it had returned to Cloud-Tilling Peak, its emerald eyes lit up with confidence. To leap over this place, it had endured torment from all manner of demons, devils, and monsters until its mind had nearly collapsed.

Confronted with all those terrifying displays of might, its heart had been tempered until it could remain as still as water.

That growth gave it considerable confidence.

Whoosh!

The Pineleaf Squirrel brought out its largest Red Leaf and leaped onto it. A red gleam flashed, and it shot into the sky. Elder Mo wasn't surprised by the sight; he already knew this squirrel's abilities very well.

"A flying leap is still a leap..." he murmured to himself. He wasn't as short-sighted as Senior Brother Ouyang.

Unfortunately, it only flew a little higher than last time before the Pineleaf Squirrel bared its teeth and was forced back down by the tremendous pressure. Together with its Red Leaf, it spun straight downward like a wind-and-fire wheel.

"Elder Mo! Sorry for the trouble, but please catch it!" Startled, Lin Jing once again asked someone else to intervene. Elder Mo casually caught the dazed Pineleaf Squirrel and brought it to his side.

Its leap to heaven had failed again. As the Pineleaf Squirrel vomited, it looked as though it had been struck by a thunderbolt out of a clear sky. Not because it couldn't start its own family genealogy, but because its training with illusions might have to continue for some time...

"It failed?" Elder Mo shook his head. "Even a treasure beast failed. What exactly was this dear friend of the second sect master thinking...? Could any Pineleaf Squirrel really succeed?"

"What a pity. Perhaps once it reaches Foundation Establishment and develops a demon king bloodline, it'll succeed," Lin Jing said. "Or, Elder Mo, does the sect have a place specifically for training the strength of the mind?"

Over the past few days, he had found that the illusions were becoming less and less effective at training the Pineleaf Squirrel. Mainly, the squirrel knew beforehand that they were illusions, and after experiencing them so many times, it had developed some degree of immunity.

An Illusion Path Spell like this worked best the first time it was used against an opponent.

"A place to train the mind..." Elder Mo hesitated. "There actually is one. I even mentioned it to you just earlier."

"The Great Wilderness Demon-Suppressing Pagoda?" Lin Jing guessed.

"Yes." Elder Mo nodded. "To thank the Four Great Sects for their assistance, and for agreeing to help guard the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda, that Buddhist cultivator serving as a guest elder of the Demon-Slaying Bureau left a special Divine Ability in the pagoda before departing."

"The Demon-Suppressing Pagoda has multiple floors, each with a formation that absorbs the demonic power of the demon underground, keeping it perpetually weakened, unable to cultivate or resist."

"On certain floors, that demonic power is transformed into the demon's oppressive might and directed against anyone who enters."

"It isn't the demonic pressure itself that tempers their minds. Rather, whenever someone withstands the demon's might, the special Divine Ability that Buddhist cultivator left in the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda activates, bestowing Buddhist light that bathes their minds and makes them stronger."

"This was also meant to help the Four Great Sects train more cultivators capable of slaying demons and defending the righteous path, so that when they encounter demons or followers of evil paths in the future, they'll have enough courage to face them."

Lin Jing thought the place sounded good. "Elder Mo, may the Pineleaf Squirrel and I enter?"

"No!" Elder Mo's beard skewed sideways. "The demonic pressure in the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda is not something a Qi Refinement Realm cultivator can withstand. I told you before, didn't I? Of the Beast Taming Sect's three great secret arts, Undying Reincarnation has particularly high requirements for the strength of the soul. Normally, only after disciples reach Foundation Establishment and become True Disciples are they qualified to enter the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda to temper their minds in preparation for learning the Deathless Reincarnation Art."

"If it's only the pressure of a Foundation Establishment demon... given its current condition, that shouldn't be difficult." Lin Jing looked at the Pineleaf Squirrel as he spoke to Elder Mo.

"As for me, I should be all right too." After taking over the first batch of Mutant Dragonbone Flowers and studying them, the Black Bear Monster had told him that the conjured images not only possessed extremely powerful pressure, but could also withstand a certain degree of pressure themselves. So long as the enemy didn't actually attack, they were utterly lifelike.

With that, he transformed into a towering Buddha seated cross-legged atop a lotus throne. His aura transcended the mundane, like the most exalted deity in the mortal world, his sacred form solemn and majestic. Śarīra light shone behind him, sending forty-two white rainbows stretching from north to south and illuminating the entire peak.

"Mo Wuyou!!!" Buddha Tathagata opened his eyes and gently raised a hand. Terrifying pressure enveloped Elder Mo, making his pupils contract as a bead of cold sweat ran down his face.

"I am a Buddha of the Immortal Realm. Ambushed by a powerful enemy, I was forced to reincarnate into the lower realm. I now lack only fifty Spirit Stones to open the Ascension Passage. If you help me return to the Immortal Realm, I shall reward you handsomely in the future." His Buddhist voice filled the air.

Elder Mo jumped in fright, but hearing the squirrel's laughter, he immediately remembered. "So this is the Illusion Path Spell you comprehended in Bodhi Heaven. To think it's so lifelike! Its might rivals that of our sect's ancestor."

"Elder, try directing your pressure at me." At Lin Jing's words, Elder Mo nodded and unleashed his Golden Core pressure on him. Yet against the illusion constructed from exquisitely precise purple true qi, against the manifested might comparable to a Nascent Soul ancestor's, Elder Mo's Golden Core pressure had little effect on Lin Jing.

It was as though Lin Jing's illusion had deceived not only his enemy, but himself as well.

"That defies the heavens..." Seeing this, Elder Mo had never imagined that the spell Lin Jing comprehended in Bodhi Heaven would be so formidable. He couldn't help saying, "If that's the case, you two can indeed enter the Demon-Suppressing Tower and use the Buddhist-light Divine Ability to strengthen your minds! Ordinary demonic pressure is utterly ineffective against either of you."

Lin Jing returned to his original appearance. "Wonderful! By the way, Elder... that demon has been sealed for so many years. The seal won't suddenly loosen as soon as we go there and let it escape, will it?" "Absolutely impossible."