Wu Fei looked at him. The power of his exquisite heart made his eyes exceptionally clear, giving him a compassionate air that soothed the mind and made people lower their guard.
"Village chief, there's something I'd like to ask." Wu Fei spoke with a distinctive Zen quality in his voice.
"Please ask, immortal master." The village chief's gaze grew even more respectful.
"The village's ancestral hall..." Wu Fei raised a hand to point at it and asked, "When was it built, and when was that plaque hung?"
The village chief strained to recall. "The ancestral hall was built so long ago that I can't remember, but I do have some impression of that plaque. It was hung by an ancestor from my great-grandfather's grandfather's generation. Counting the years..."
"It should have been over two hundred years."
On their way back to the sect, Kuzheng asked, "Senior brother, why did you ask about that ancestral hall? Is there something wrong with Clear Heart Village's ancestral hall?"
"I merely thought the plaque looked unlike an ordinary object. Perhaps the people of Clear Heart Village obtained it by chance," Wu Fei said.
Clear Heart Village lay in a remote location. Late at night, gusts of cold wind blew through the deep mountain woods, lending them a somewhat eerie air.
Tiny ripples suddenly spread across one part of the spiritual formation laid during the day, without drawing any of the villagers' attention.
Two figures stood before the ancestral hall with its gray bricks and red tiles: a Buddhist cultivator in white and a Devil Cultivator in black robes.
Emerging from the black jade flute, Yin Fan raised his eyebrows. "There's something wrong with this ancestral hall?"
The two large characters on the brown plaque inexplicably inspired fear in the darkness.
"This ancestral hall makes me uneasy," Wu Fei explained. Ever since hearing what the village chief had said that day, he had appeared unchanged, but doubts had secretly arisen in his heart. "Devil Venerable, do you know how old I am now?"
"Over two hundred..." Yin Fan paused as he spoke, suddenly remembering that Clear Heart Village's chief had said during the day that this plaque had been hanging for over two hundred years...
Seeing him freeze, Wu Fei turned his head slightly, looked at Yin Fan, and smiled faintly. "That is precisely the crux of the matter."
With that, he raised his hand slightly. Spiritual power swept past, and the ancestral hall's doors abruptly opened. Wu Fei and Yin Fan stepped inside.
"It looks like an ordinary ancestral hall." After surveying it, Yin Fan looked at Wu Fei.
Wu Fei swept his gaze over the entire ancestral hall. After a moment's contemplation, he extended his palm. A speck of golden light appeared in it and gradually grew larger.
At the sight of the familiar golden light, a flicker of curiosity passed through Yin Fan's mind. Once he saw it clearly, he raised his eyebrows.
Wu Fei's bonded Spirit Artifact was a... pearl?
After Wu Fei summoned the Silent Dust Pearl from his Dantian, it showed no reaction for a long time. His brows furrowed almost imperceptibly, and he was just about to put it away.
Suddenly, the Silent Dust Pearl trembled violently. At the same time, gray mist rapidly closed in on them.
Wu Fei's gaze sharpened. With a slight movement of his palm, the Silent Dust Pearl abruptly transformed into a golden barrier that enveloped him and Yin Fan.
Unexpectedly, the gray mist did not devour the golden light and get devoured in turn as it had the previous night. Instead, it covered the light layer by layer.
The two exchanged a look, both feeling a trace of foreboding.
Sure enough, just as Wu Fei and Yin Fan focused their attention on the gray mist, the ground beneath their feet suddenly shook. A bottomless black hole appeared, and they fell before they could react.
The instant they fell, Wu Fei retrieved the Silent Dust Pearl with one hand and flung out his Buddhist beads with the other, winding them around Yin Fan's wrist.
Yin Fan froze at first, then immediately reacted and gripped the Buddhist beads. The next moment, Wu Fei yanked him over, and an arm locked firmly around his waist.
They finally touched the ground after an unknown length of time. With spiritual power cushioning their fall, neither was in any danger.
There was actually something hidden beneath Clear Heart Village. After landing, Wu Fei let go of Yin Fan naturally and began examining their surroundings.
Everything around them was silent emptiness. There was nothing wherever they looked, and even the gray mist that had attacked them had vanished without a trace.
He raised his head slightly. The place they had fallen through was already covered by a black curtain, clearly intended to prevent them from returning the way they had come. This was troublesome...
"Devil Venerable?" Wu Fei suddenly realized that the protagonist had not spoken for a long time. Looking back, he found Yin Fan staring at him with a strange look.
Hearing Wu Fei's voice, Yin Fan withdrew his gaze and resumed his normal expression. "What do you intend to do, Buddha Son?"
"First, find a way out of here," Wu Fei said.
Fortunately, before coming to Clear Heart Village with Yin Fan, Wu Fei had left a letter in his room. If he did not return, the sect would merely think he had gone out to gain experience. However...
Wu Fei suddenly remembered something: the Heavenly Dao Assembly in three months.
He looked at Yin Fan and slowly said, "We must find a way out of here before the Heavenly Dao Assembly."
Sure enough, upon hearing "Heavenly Dao Assembly," Yin Fan also suddenly remembered something, and his body stiffened. At present, "Jing Fanyu" was still in seclusion. If he failed to return before the Heavenly Dao Assembly... the consequences would be rather serious.
Yin Fan rallied, a hint of seriousness entering his eyes. "Indeed."
"Otherwise, if the Buddha Son goes missing for months and fails to return even for the Heavenly Dao Assembly, everyone in the Buddha Spirit Sect will probably go mad with worry."
At his words, a flicker of amusement passed through Wu Fei's eyes. "You are absolutely right, Devil Venerable."
The place was nothing but emptiness, so the two picked a direction at random and headed that way.
A familiar gaze fell on Wu Fei. He knew it was the protagonist, but he had long since grown accustomed to it, so he let him look.
He failed to notice, however, the trace of doubt in Yin Fan's eyes. Yin Fan reached behind his back and brushed a hand over the side of his waist where Wu Fei had held him. He remembered...
The instant they had fallen, he seemed to have sensed a trace of Mahayana Stage aura from Wu Fei?
Author's note:
Thank you all so much for your support. I'll keep working hard!
Chapter 13: The sound of chanting (typo corrections)
The space beneath Clear Heart Village was rather strange. Wu Fei and Yin Fan walked for several days without seeing any other people or objects. Their surroundings remained empty throughout.
While the two rested somewhere, Yin Fan looked around, then turned toward the Buddha Son sitting upright beside him. Suddenly, he smiled and said:
"I suddenly feel that, with the Buddha Son for company, even being trapped in this empty space isn't so bad."