Treasure

Lin Jing felt nothing from the demonic pressure on the first floor. His verdict was that it was inferior to a Soul-Ensnaring Pill.

He stepped forward, heading toward the stairs to the second floor, waiting for Buddhist light to bathe him and strengthen his mind.

Yet after waiting for ages, his steps growing slower and slower, the supposed Buddhist light still failed to appear. Instead, more fluctuations of demonic power seeped from the walls on this floor, making Lin Jing frown.

The Pineleaf Squirrel noticed something was wrong too. It poked its head out of his monk's hat and prodded Lin Jing. Why was this different from Elder Mo's description? Where was their opportunity? Surely Lin Jing's crow's mouth hadn't really brought disaster down on them the moment they arrived?

Absolutely impossible...

Lin Jing hesitated and took a small step back, wondering whether he should leave first.

Thinking about it now, cultivation really was best approached steadily, one solid footprint at a time.

"Let's go back."

The Pineleaf Squirrel agreed. After speaking, Lin Jing turned and headed back, ruthlessly strangling his own curiosity.

Unfortunately, something strange happened after all. The spreading demonic power condensed into a snake, except this snake... was as small as a loach and looked utterly feeble, as though it might die the next second.

"Eminent monk, please stay!" Black Loach cried.

Lin Jing halted with stiff steps and looked at Black Loach, his face full of misery.

Eminent monk?

Me?

Lin Jing pondered inwardly.

He ventured, "After all these years, it seems it's time to reinforce this pagoda's seal."

"Eminent monk!" Black Loach jumped in fright. "This lowly demon has realized his mistakes! Please give me a chance to repent!"

"The pagoda's seal is still very secure! This lowly demon paid an enormous, agonizing, irreversible price... just to let a tiny sliver of consciousness escape. It can't affect anything at all!"

"After being sealed here for so many years, this lowly demon has sincerely repented. I beg you to release the Buddha Seal. I am willing to acknowledge you as my master, become your demonic servant, and remain by your side, cleansing my heart and turning over a new leaf."

Lin Jing stared coldly at the snake, his expression growing increasingly overbearing.

"Insolent demon, you're still trying to beguile people's hearts!"

"This hardly looks like sincere repentance."

The Pineleaf Squirrel's heart raced inside his hat. Beast Tamer, what are you doing?

"Ah!" The demon steeled himself and said, "This lowly demon understands. I am willing to reveal where I hid my treasure back then as proof of my loyalty."

Hearing this, Lin Jing felt there must be some hidden secret involved, so he watched the snake demon without expression.

"This lowly demon's treasure is hidden on Heavenly Yin Mountain, at the border between the Desolate Domain and the Empty Domain. However, only I can open the entrance to the treasure. You may go and search, eminent monk. If you find it, you can return and take me as your servant. This lowly demon will gladly offer up everything I obtained from the Grotto Heaven!"

Before Lin Jing could speak, a beam of golden Buddhist light suddenly pierced the pagoda walls shrouded in fluctuations of demonic power, illuminating the entire floor from every direction.

Amid the snake demon's piercing screams, a phantom figure condensed within the Buddhist light.

It was an exceptionally handsome young monk dressed in white.

He looked at the loach-like snake demon, then at Lin Jing, and considered briefly.

"You, you, you..." Black Loach stared at the white-robed monk in terror, but the monk merely sighed and said, "After all these years, Undying Black Serpent, your perception has deteriorated this much."

"You went to such lengths merely to release a sliver of consciousness and seek help from an 'eminent monk' conjured by a 'Qi Refinement Realm cultivator'?"

"If the demon kings who once served under you learned of this, who knows how they would laugh at you?"

After the white-robed monk finished speaking, Black Loach froze and examined Lin Jing carefully, but still could not see anything amiss.

Only when the white-robed monk waved his hand did the Illusion Path True Qi enveloping Lin Jing and his companion drift away.

Seeing the enlightened eminent monk with boundless magical power turn into a young Beast-Taming Cultivator, Black Loach abruptly rolled over several times in the pool. A deathly silence hung over the scene.

"A Beast Taming Sect cultivator..."

"The Qi Refinement Realm..."

"Aaaaaaaaah!" Black Loach flew into a towering rage, furious beyond measure. Staring at the innocent-faced Lin Jing, the snake shouted, "Damn the Beast Taming Sect! Damn it! You're a Beast-Taming Path cultivator-why are you cultivating the Illusion Path?! You'll be the death of me!"

"Damn you, damn brat! Just you wait! Once I get out, I'll tear you into ten thousand pieces and wipe out your entire Beast Taming Sect!"

Still shouting, the snake was purified by a beam of Buddhist light, leaving Lin Jing standing there with an innocent expression.

Heaven could bear witness: he was innocent. Aside from chatting with this old demon for a bit, he was entirely the victim. He hadn't done anything.

Where had all that resentment come from?

"It was because of the Buddhist aura you conjured that he decided to stake everything on one desperate attempt. After all, the seal on this Buddhist pagoda requires Buddhist methods to undo," the white-robed monk said.

"The eminent monk you conjured possessed great magical power, giving him hope of breaking the seal. After all, the figure you assumed was the second Buddhist cultivator to enter this pagoda in all these years."

"This junior, Lin Jing, a disciple of the Beast Taming Sect, pays his respects to you, Senior." Lin Jing wanted to slap himself twice. Why had he turned himself into Fahai for no reason?

"No need to be nervous."

"To think a Beast Taming Sect disciple has mastered such a profound Illusion Path art. It seems the outside world has changed considerably... This is a strand of my consciousness. I sealed it here precisely to deal with a situation like today's."

"Several thousand years ago, he was a mighty demon who feared neither heaven nor earth. To think that, in his efforts to break the seal, he has now fallen to such a pitiful state, crawling to a Qi Refining cultivator for help." The white-robed monk found it amusing.

Lin Jing was speechless. Anyone would go mad after being sealed away for thousands of years.

Even the monkey was only pinned down for five hundred years.

"Young friend, I have good news and bad news. Which would you like to hear?" the white-robed monk continued with a smile.

Lin Jing's heart jolted, and a bad premonition arose.

"Senior, what is the bad news?"

"The bad news is that I sealed my consciousness within the Buddhist pagoda, and that seal is one with the pagoda itself. The release of my consciousness also means the pagoda's overall sealing structure will loosen, and its ability to seal demons will grow increasingly weaker."

"This contingency was originally meant to activate much further in the future, when he truly possessed the ability to break the seal. I never expected an illusion technique to give all three parties a false alarm." The white-robed monk shook his head. This was an outcome he had not foreseen.

Lin Jing's face darkened.

So the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda really was going to loosen?

"That will happen decades from now. You need not blame yourself or worry. Just report everything truthfully to your sect."

"Though his abilities are peculiar and he is difficult to kill, his cultivation is not high, and he is extremely easy to suppress. With the Demon-Slaying Bureau around, there will be no trouble."

"Perhaps you should hear the good news too," the white-robed monk said. "The 'treasure' the Undying Black Serpent revealed just now consists of several seeds of extraordinary plants he obtained from a Grotto Heaven after accidentally entering it in his early years and killing the prodigies of various major sects."

"Back then, the major sects hunted him down not only because he had brought disaster upon the region, but also because they wanted the items from the Grotto Heaven in his possession. At the time, he refused to speak no matter what. Yet today, he yielded to a mere Qi Refining cultivator like you. It was only natural that he became immensely furious after discovering he had been deceived."

Let him rage, let him rage. Lin Jing no longer cared. They wouldn't have another chance to meet anyway.

"The information about this treasure's location may be of some use to your Beast Taming Sect. Whether it is true or false, however, is something you will have to determine yourselves," the white-robed monk said.

"Thank you for your guidance, Senior." Lin Jing took a deep breath. As long as it wasn't all bad news, that was fine. After all, that Patriarch Wang... Batian over there looked quite fierce.

"Young friend, you must have entered the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda for the Buddhist light. In that case, I cannot let you come all this way for nothing. This Buddhist light is my Buddha Core Divine Ability, and it does indeed strengthen the mind. I also see that you share an affinity with Buddhism. If you do not mind, I shall bestow a blessing upon you, in honor of the fate that brought us together."

As the young monk spoke, he smiled. Without waiting for Lin Jing or the Pineleaf Squirrel to reply, he shone a skyful of Buddhist light down upon them.