The immortal master was extending her life, so how could she think such things?
Besides, he was a cultivator. What kind of woman couldn't he have...
But after a while, she could no longer endure the warmth. Her whole body turned pink, as though she had been in a sauna, and her skin became translucent and lustrous, making her much more beautiful than before.
Su Yu didn't care what Mother Ye thought. He was simply doing his utmost.
After cleansing her body, he gave her two jade talismans and told her that Ye Fan would return in as few as thirty years or as many as fifty. Then he turned into a wisp of clear Qi and dissipated.
Leaving Ye Fan's father and Mother Ye to their joy.
Before long, Ye Fan's father picked up the thousand-year-old spiritual herb and took a sniff. Its fragrance refreshed his heart and lungs, making him feel wonderfully comfortable.
He turned and saw that his wife was radiant. Her skin was snow-white and delicate, as though water could be pinched from it. She looked at least ten years younger and more attractive than ever.
The middle-aged man couldn't help feeling a stir of desire, but he knew this wasn't the right time today, so he could only hold back...
Mother Ye was delighted by the opportunity her son had obtained, yet she also recalled how it had felt just now. Though she knew she shouldn't, she still spat softly, feeling that the immortal master had done it on purpose, deliberately making her legs go weak even now...
"The jade talisman I left behind has activated. It seems everything on Earth has been arranged."
Beyond the stars, Su Yu stirred his divine sense inside the ancient coffin and noticed that the divine sense he had left behind had dissipated.
This was another fallback he had prepared!
As a stowaway, it was necessary to take out some insurance for himself.
At that moment, the giant Bronze Coffin also began to tumble violently. Feeling it shake, everyone's hearts leaped into their throats.
"What happened?"
"Has help arrived?"
Everyone started talking at once, visibly excited. They all longed to escape their present peril and had no wish to travel to another planet.
After several jolts, the coffin lid flipped over, and what had been a wall became the floor. A gap also opened up. Everyone fell to the floor.
Soon, the Bronze Coffin grew still.
"Light! There's light!"
Sure enough, dim light was streaming in from outside.
"The giant Bronze Coffin overturned, and the lid tilted open, leaving a gap. We've finally escaped danger!" The bronze lid had shifted from its original position, leaving a gap wide enough for two people to walk out side by side. But it was very dark outside, so the light entering the coffin was faint.
A cheer went up, and everyone scrambled forward, eager to escape this dark and terrifying space. They didn't want to stay another second.
Although the immortal had said they were traveling to the Big Dipper Star Domain, he hadn't truly convinced them. There was no way they could have reached it in such a short time, and perhaps they had returned to Earth.
Su Yu flew straight out with the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid above his head. He was determined to obtain the Quasi-Emperor Forbidden Artifact refined by Sakyamuni.
He was desperately short of such resources at present. Though he possessed a half-emperor weapon and a Great Saint weapon, he could hardly wield their full power. That was his weakness...
But when everyone rushed out of the Bronze Coffin, they froze like clay statues and wooden carvings.
The earth was reddish brown, as though soaked in blood, cold, hard and desolate. Barren emptiness met their eyes in every direction. Huge rocks stood scattered across the ground, looking like tombstones as far as the eye could see. The light between heaven and earth was dim and gloomy, like a deathly dusk wreathed in a faint black mist.
Everyone stood dumbstruck. This could never be the summit of Mount Tai!
The reddish-brown earth stretched as far as the eye could see, remote and deathly silent, without the slightest sign of life. It was unlike any place they knew.
A huge stone stele stood on the red earth, bearing two ancient bronze-script characters written with strokes like iron hooks and silver slashes: Mars.
And there was the strange sky, with two moons hanging overhead...
By then, Su Yu had reached an ancient temple. A single lamp glowed faintly beneath its entrance.
Before him stood an ancient bodhi tree, gnarled and mighty as a horned dragon. It was withered from top to bottom, with only five or six green leaves scattered on its branches two meters above the ground. Each leaf was translucent and sparkling, gleaming green like divine jade. This was the Immortal Bodhi Tree, which had already perished.
Su Yu looked at the dead bodhi tree with some regret. All its vital essence had been lost, and it was no longer the Immortal Divine Medicine that had driven countless people mad.
Without hesitation, he plucked three Bodhi Leaves from its branches. They shimmered like translucent green agate, with natural Dao patterns on their surfaces.
The remaining three Bodhi Leaves swayed on the tree, giving off a beautiful azure glow. Su Yu used his magic power to send Chaos Qi into the ground, then probed beneath it with his divine sense. Streams of inky light began to descend from the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid.
With a muffled rumble, the entire bodhi tree, trunk and roots alike, vanished into thin air. Su Yu stored it in the space within his chaos longsword, sprinkled it with spring water containing vital essence, and refined Source into Qi to envelop it and preserve the form of its trunk.
If he hadn't needed to take the Bodhi Seed into account, he could have dug three feet into the ground and taken the tree and soil together. Unfortunately, he couldn't do that. He hadn't picked all the Bodhi Leaves, hoping to see whether he could revive this remnant of the bodhi tree.
There was another bodhi tree like it at the Great Thunderclap Temple on Mount Sumeru in the Big Dipper, also a remnant root of the Immortal Bodhi Tree.
He had not touched the Bodhi Seed. It was Sakyamuni's compensation to the Sacred Body Lineage, an apology for torturing and suppressing one of the nine Great Sacred Bodies.
If Su Yu hadn't obtained the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid, he wouldn't have worried about much in his struggle to survive and would certainly have tried to take it.
But now that he had an emperor weapon, he didn't intend to seize this fortunate opportunity.
Afterward, Su Yu walked straight into the temple. The ancient temple was small, with only one Buddha hall. It was empty, with almost nothing inside, and everything was covered in a thick layer of dust.
Su Yu glanced at the spotless Bronze Lamp, then activated the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid. A faint Extreme Dao pressure instantly filled the entire temple, and the various Buddhist implements inside began to glow: a broken bell, a wooden fish, a Vajra Pestle...
At last, Su Yu noticed a bronze Buddha statue covered in cracks, with a dim radiance flowing over it.
He walked up to the small statue and swept his sleeve, brushing away the thick dust on it.
In this Great Thunderclap Temple, apart from the Bodhi Seed outside, this Quasi-Emperor Forbidden Artifact was the most valuable thing. The rest were merely damaged Buddhist artifacts, reasonably powerful to mortals but of little use to him.
Just as he was about to store the bronze Buddha statue in his chaos longsword, a somewhat illusory spirit burst from it. The spirit shone with golden light as it rushed toward Su Yu's sea of consciousness.
"Hmph..."
The corners of Su Yu's mouth lifted slightly as he looked mockingly at the Crocodile Ancestor's Divine Embryo. The Devouring Heaven Demon Lid above his head released a beam of black light that bound it.
The Crocodile Ancestor's Divine Embryo struggled fiercely and viciously, but could not break free of the black light.
"Should I call you stupid or greedy? You saw an Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon and still dared to attack me. Where did you get the courage?" Su Yu spoke calmly as he looked at the monster, blinded by greed.
He had long ago guessed that the Crocodile Ancestor's Divine Embryo might be inside the Buddha statue.
After all, Li Xiaoman, who obtained the statue in the original story, had been controlled by it.
"Junior, if my true body weren't trapped, I could blow you dead with a single breath! An ant like you dares speak to me this way? Damn you!" The Crocodile Ancestor's Divine Embryo roared furiously, its great mouth looking ready to swallow Su Yu whole. Its eyes gazed greedily at the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid, its face savage and ferocious.
"Save those words for Sakyamuni." Su Yu's gaze turned cold, and his hands formed a seal. As the Devouring Heaven Demon Jar slowly rose and sank, the black light wrapped around the Crocodile Ancestor's Divine Embryo swiftly became a chain of light. It pierced straight through the spirit's head amid a howl of pain, then bound it fast.
Su Yu took out his chaos longsword and stored the sealed Demon Saint's Divine Embryo inside. This was a superb material for refining artifacts, and he couldn't let it go to waste.
Chapter 14: Distant Buddha Chants, Hazy Smoke of the Mortal World
At the Mars stele, the others saw Su Yu flying through the air. They weren't overly frightened and soon headed in the direction he had flown. In this desolate place, they could only choose to follow him.
After dealing with the Demon Saint's Divine Embryo, Su Yu walked out of the temple.
A faint, ethereal rhythm drifted from afar. The distant Buddha chants were delicate and lingering, as though a Buddha were singing nearby, and the entire Great Thunderclap Temple gave off a faint golden light.
Su Yu frowned. The anomaly made his heart sink, and he turned to study the Great Thunderclap Temple closely.
It was still the same dilapidated temple, yet his spirit seemed to hear a faint, intermittent Zen chant, as though it came from beyond the heavens.
At first, he thought it was an illusion, but the Buddha chants gradually swelled, echoing throughout the ancient temple like the resonance of great bells. They were solemn and vast, sublime and profound.
As though boundless pressure had descended upon it, between the opening and closing of divine eyes, golden light filled the sky, surging from the Great Thunderclap Temple and becoming three thousand illusory Buddhas arrayed across the heavens. Supreme Buddha chants issued from them.
The six-syllable Buddhist mantra rang out: "Om, ma, ni, pad, me, hum..."
The immense Buddha chants resounded through the heavens and shook the firmament. Heaven and earth and all six directions trembled!
The profound Zen chants were vast beyond measure, cleansing all filth and washing away the dust of the mortal world. The area around the ancient temple was bathed in sacred, peaceful light.
Suddenly, Su Yu's body shuddered, and his black hair flew. Wisps of black light spilled from the crown of his head, then formed an illusory Devouring Heaven Demon Jar above him.
At first it was indistinct, but it gradually grew more solid. Black light flickered and Dao rhythms flowed around it. It looked ancient and natural, like a vessel for the Great Dao, seemingly capable of suppressing all the heavens and myriad worlds, mysterious and unfathomable.
All the light in the world was drawn into the jar. Boundless Buddha light flashed and changed shape within it, before finally vanishing.
Su Yu opened his eyes, breaking out in a cold sweat. Such a method had pulled him directly into an illusion. Buddhist methods were frightening indeed.
On the other hand, he felt somewhat helpless. There had clearly been an inheritance of a Buddhist divine art in that illusory space, yet he hadn't obtained it.
"Was it not fated to be mine?" Su Yu frowned. He greatly disliked this sort of mystical nonsense.
He contemplated the Dao once more, hoping to trigger that illusory space again...
Before long, Ye Fan and the others also arrived at the temple. Seeing Su Yu sitting cross-legged before it, they didn't dare disturb him and went inside.
Ye Fan stepped over the threshold. Dust filled the room, bearing the weight of years like an ancient scroll of history, while an aura of vast antiquity pervaded the air. He walked straight up to the Stone Buddha and grabbed the ancient Bronze Lamp beside it.
The lamp looked ordinary and ancient in style, but it was warm and smooth in his hand, without the cold hardness of metal. It felt more like a piece of warm jade. Astonishingly, though the ancient temple was full of dust, the lamp was spotless, as if dust could not touch it.
The others also began searching for Buddhist artifacts left behind, stripping the ancient temple bare.
Outside the temple, the dozens of Divine Guidance Techniques Su Yu had unleashed all vanished into the vast void without a response. He could only give up with a long sigh.
"Buddhists only know how to pull this sort of trick..." Su Yu shook his head and stopped trying, but he made a note of it.
When he saw the Western Bodhisattva in the future, he would certainly suppress her to avenge today's grievance...
Ye Fan saw the pit in front of the temple, walked around it, and found the Bodhi Seed in the soil.
After Pang Bo took down the Great Thunderclap Temple's plaque, the entire ancient temple began to shake. The Stone Buddha inside cracked with a series of sharp snaps. Finally, with a loud boom, the Stone Buddha shattered and turned to ash. Then the Great Thunderclap Temple itself crumbled to dust in a gentle breeze.
The treasures everyone had obtained, whether whole or damaged, all gave off astonishing light. The sight left them deeply shaken. This phenomenon seemed to be an obscure omen of some kind, and it was obviously no good sign.
With this side story over, Su Yu's eyes shone brightly, and he suddenly shouted, "Back to the Bronze Coffin, quickly! Great danger lurks here!"
Before his words had faded, rumbling suddenly rose from the reddish-brown earth. The empty land shook, as though thousands of troops and horses were charging across it, or furious waves were surging through an angry sea.
The panicked crowd rushed together toward the giant Bronze Coffin. As they stumbled through the ruins of the heavenly palace, a sacred light suddenly shot into the sky behind them. A divine figure, with a white jade divine pagoda above his head, unleashed a beam of divine light.
In an instant, a deep white radiance sliced across the entire sky. Countless splashes of blood and fragments of remains flew through the air, staining the heavens red. Every black baby crocodile was cut down.
Everyone was stunned. This shocked them even more than flight had. All the satisfaction they had felt upon obtaining the wondrous Buddhist artifacts turned to fear...
"Junior! You suppressed my divided spirit and killed my descendants. When I break free, the first thing I'll do is grind your bones to dust!" A chilling roar came from the direction of the Great Thunderclap Temple.
It was as though a primordial beast had shattered the earth and broken free of its seal. Its roar shook the mountains and rivers and rocked the stars and moon, making people tremble from the depths of their souls.
The illusory figure of a giant crocodile appeared in midair, its scales sharp and its body towering into the clouds. Two huge blood-red eyes in its savage face stared fixedly at Su Yu.
Su Yu gave no answer and turned to fly toward Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin. Being ignored made the Crocodile Ancestor even angrier, but he could do nothing. He could only rage helplessly, roaring and cursing Sakyamuni like a madman.
"Damn Sakyamuni! You bald donkey, you've gone too far! Ah! Damn you..."
The fleeing crowd also sensed the terror behind them. That overwhelmingly ferocious presence and the roar that chilled their minds reached up to the heavens and down to the Yellow Springs, reverberating between heaven and earth. Many turned deathly pale and ran toward the giant Bronze Coffin in a daze, stumbling as they went.