The Mysterious Lightning Wood left in the inheritance grounds after Wu Fei and Jing Fanyu had taken their shares was all ten thousand years old or younger.
Wu Fei handed all the Mysterious Lightning Wood over to the sect, though he kept some Mysterious Lightning Fruit. With the wood and fruit in hand, Jingguan and the others did not ask about the other heavenly materials and earthly treasures.
Though Buddhist cultivators cared less for material possessions than other cultivators, spirit wood like Mysterious Lightning Wood, which had already gone extinct in the cultivation world, was a matter of great importance. Handing it over to the sect was instead a good thing for Wu Fei.
At that moment, beside the Buddha Spirit Sect's Cleansing Pool.
"Senior Brother, all the spirit medicines have been planted." As Kuzheng spoke, he took a spirit fruit from the stone table.
Beside him, Wu Fei moved his palm slightly, and a round, plump bodhi seed flew out of the Cleansing Pool and landed in his hand.
"Kuzheng, go fetch the Moon Rain Silk I left in front of the main hall."
"All right." Kuzheng nodded.
The bodhi seed in Wu Fei's hand had naturally ripened and fallen from the Purple-Leaf Bodhi Tree beside the Cleansing Pool. It had already been soaking in the pool for several decades.
"Senior Brother, these prayer beads?" After fetching the Moon Rain Silk, Kuzheng watched Wu Fei's movements and asked in puzzlement.
Coating the bodhi seed with a strand of Exquisite Heart power, Wu Fei said calmly, "Naturally, they're for Junior Brother Jing of the Heavenly Sword Sect..."
"A return gift." An upgraded tracker.
Yet before Wu Fei could send out his return gift, its intended recipient came calling himself.
It was late at night, and silence lay over the Buddha Spirit Sect. A faint breeze stirred the leaves of the Purple-Leaf Bodhi Tree, producing a soft rustling.
Inside the room of the Buddha Spirit Sect's Buddha Son, the handsome, white-robed Buddha Son was reading a Buddhist scripture by lamplight. Suddenly sensing something, he slowly closed the scripture in his hands and raised his eyes.
The tightly shut door suddenly moved without any wind, then abruptly closed again a moment later.
Looking at the figure before him, Wu Fei rolled his prayer beads and said, "Every entrance you make is extraordinary, Demon Venerable."
Yin Fan detected a hint of teasing in his words, but looking at the Buddha Son's composed expression, he felt he was overthinking it. He sat down on the soft couch across the table, propped up his chin, and looked at Wu Fei. "This Venerable has come for the prayer beads."
Hearing this, Wu Fei raised his eyes to glance at him, then took the prayer beads from his storage ring and offered them to him.
"You've come at just the right time, Demon Venerable. I only finished making them two days ago."
The prayer beads intended for Yin Fan rested in Wu Fei's palm, while the black xiao Yin Fan had given him hung from the prayer beads wrapped around his wrist.
Yin Fan accepted the prayer beads and was about to speak when his expression suddenly froze, then grew somewhat cold. Hastily gathering the beads into his hand, he said, "Something has suddenly come up. Once it's dealt with, this Venerable will return to catch up with you, Buddha Son."
With that, demonic qi surged, and Yin Fan's figure abruptly vanished.
After he left, Wu Fei gazed in the direction of his departure, his brows drawing together slightly.
After the events of the great inheritance tomb concluded, the next plot point should have been the Heavenly Dao Assembly three months later. During those three months, the protagonist was supposed to be in seclusion, assimilating the inheritance.
Now, however, that did not appear to be the case.
Jing Fanyu was indeed in seclusion, but Demon Venerable Yin Fan was not...
After some thought, Wu Fei took out a Spirit Artifact: an inconspicuous black outer robe called the Shadow-Concealing Robe. It could conceal his tracks and aura, though it consumed a little spiritual power.
Leaving the sect without a sound, he followed the prayer beads' location all the way to a remote little mountain village.
Ahead, demonic qi soared into the sky, mingled with wisps of a bloody smell. Within it was an exceptionally evil aura that made Wu Fei's Exquisite Heart extremely uncomfortable.
A figure suddenly fled from the mountain village, only for a massive sword roiling with demonic qi to fly out behind him and pin him firmly to the mountainside.
Overwhelming demonic qi poured out of the village. The massive sword trembled twice, then flew backward into Yin Fan's hand.
The figure looked like an ordinary mortal, but not a single drop of blood flowed from the wound the massive sword had pierced through him. Instead, thick gray mist continuously poured from it.
At the sight of that gray mist, Wu Fei frowned deeply. It was this mist that had made his Exquisite Heart so uncomfortable just now. Sensing its aura, the Silent Dust Pearl in his Dantian also began to stir.
The mist continued pouring out in an unending stream, and both Wu Fei and Yin Fan felt an ominous premonition rise within them.
This mist must not be allowed to spread.
Yin Fan raised the longsword in his hand. Flames and icy energy covered the demonic qi originally roiling over its blade. The longsword flew out, pinning itself once more into the wound from which dense gray mist poured.
Seeing the gray mist and spirit sword locked in a stalemate, Wu Fei, hidden in the shadows, willed a thought. The Silent Dust Pearl slowly emerged from his Dantian. Golden light flickered as the pearl gradually elongated, finally transforming into a massive golden bow.
Wu Fei fixed his gaze on the mass of gray mist. A golden arrow condensed on the drawn bow, aimed at the wound the longsword had inflicted earlier, and shot forth!
As the spirit sword and gray mist remained locked in their struggle, a golden arrow suddenly flew out of the night, piercing clean through the gray mist together with the spirit sword.
When the golden light met the gray mist, they devoured each other like enemies meeting face-to-face. In the end, with the spirit sword's help, the golden light gained the upper hand, turned into a streak of light, and flew back.
After examining the corpse, a subordinate came forward to report. Yin Fan, however, having recalled his spirit sword, stared thoughtfully in the direction where the golden light had vanished.
Back at the Buddha Spirit Sect, Wu Fei swiftly took off the Shadow-Concealing Robe, put the prayer beads on the table back around his wrist, and sat upright with his eyes closed, slowly rolling the beads.
Before long, Yin Fan's aura appeared outside the door.
Demonic qi churned around Yin Fan, and a moment later, he flashed inside. Seeing the Buddha Son seated upright, he looked him up and down several times, his gaze shifting slightly.
"That golden arrow of yours came at just the right time, Buddha Son."
Wu Fei's heart paused, but the hand rolling his prayer beads did not stop. He calmly lifted his eyelids. "What do you mean by that, Demon Venerable?"
The protagonist should have had no direct evidence proving that he had fired that arrow, but suspicion was inevitable...
Indeed, things were just as Wu Fei had expected. Yin Fan's gaze swept over the black xiao hanging from Wu Fei's prayer beads, and he chuckled. "You don't have to admit it, Buddha Son..."
His vision suddenly darkened. Wu Fei tilted his head up slightly, and the Demon Venerable's mask was mere inches away.
"This Venerable asks only this: did you step outside this room just now, Buddha Son? Whatever you say, this Venerable will believe you."