Zhao Layue looked at the ordinary Small Stone Pagoda and thought, Who could know that the previous Divine Emperor was buried in here?
"From childhood, he liked living simply," Jing Jiu said. "Had he had any choice, he wouldn't have spent so many years as emperor in Chaoge City."
Zhao Layue looked up at him and asked, "He's the friend you came to see?"
Back on Divine End Peak, Jing Jiu had said that this friend of his was already dead.
"Though it isn't entirely accurate, in my heart he was always more of a friend," Jing Jiu said.
Zhao Layue's gaze fell on his tightly clenched left hand. "How can he help you?"
"I've rarely come here, but whenever I do, I'm at my most peaceful."
Jing Jiu looked at the stone pagoda, his eyes calm; it was impossible to tell whether his feelings were shallow or deep.
The greatest obstacle to refining the Immortal Register was not its infinitely powerful Immortal Qi, but the strand of Immortal Sense Bairen had left behind.
True Immortal Sense could not be destroyed by the Daoist arts of the mortal world. Like spring rain moistening the night, like candlelight illuminating a beam, it would slowly seep into the Dao Heart.
The Dao Heart and the Chan Heart were both hearts. Only a heart as still as water could resist this permeation.
This Small Stone Pagoda, the sunset in the Pagoda Forest, the ancient temple beneath that sunset, the temple's morning bells and evening drums, and the chanting amid the surging pines could help still his heart, then guide that strand of Immortal Sense into the realm of nirvana.
That was why Jing Jiu had come to Fruitful Accomplishment Temple.
The white cat woke, opened its eyes, and surveyed the quiet courtyard, somewhat