Praying with Incense

Aside from the Venerable One, Zhang Xuezhou had hardly ever seen any demons roaming freely within the territory of the Great Han.

Even the Demon King Feiyu and Lu Baibai behaved themselves in Chang'an City, not daring to cause any trouble.

Outside the Mahabodhi Temple, the demon kings shouted loudly, creating a chaotic scene, yet no cultivators came to restrain them.

"Is there anyone I can talk to?" the Roc Demon King cried out.

"We are your good friends!"

After shouting, the Pixiu King leaped up and landed on the top of the Maha Bodhi Temple. He poked his head out of the temple window, which immediately caused the monks inside to scream and run around in panic.

"This is boring. These people are completely different from the adults," the Green Lion King said disappointedly. "Only someone like the adults would dare to be our friend!"

"That's true," the Yellow Lion King nodded, "Which also means they're destined to only serve as food!"

"You mentioned eating, and I suddenly remembered I'm a bit hungry after traveling over a thousand miles!"

"I like to eat the ones without hair on their heads; they don't get stuck in my teeth when I eat them!"

"Those with long hair are the worst! They never shower, and they stink so badly I don't even want to eat them!"

"If only Bharanasi were here, his spitting water could wash the food clean!"

The demon kings shouted and yelled, causing many monks in the stone temple to run for their lives.

"I am a good friend of the Buddha Son Shigong. I wonder if the disciple is here?"

Zhang Xuezhou jumped off Nusina's back, spoke, and strode towards the Mahabodhi Temple, which triggered a group of monks to scream wildly and desperately.

"Why are you afraid of me?"

Zhang Xuezhou looked astonished.

He looked himself up and down, and felt that he was a perfectly normal person.

But as he strode toward the stone temple, the frantic and desperate escape of the monks who had been peering out to watch was unmistakable.

This made him look at himself several times.

"Do they think I'm a demon?"

After a moment's thought, Zhang Xuezhou realized that the monks had mistaken him for some kind of transformed demon.

However, the ability of a demon to transform into human form is not a remarkable feat; even Little Jin demon like Jin Wanliang can transform.

"Gentlemen, is the Buddha Son Shigong here?" Zhang Xuezhou asked. "I have known the Buddhist monk and have also met the leader of the Western Sect. He is not some evil demon!"

Zhang Xuezhou strode forward, reaching the inner hall of the Tongda Stone Temple.

Inside the hall are two statues. One statue has eighteen arms and holds Law Artifact such as necklaces, parasols, flower garlands, fish intestines, golden bows, and silver halberds. The other statue sits on a lotus platform with twelve layers.

Zhang Xuezhou felt that the statue's appearance was vaguely familiar.

He glanced at the statue, then looked down at the area below it.

As he stepped into the Mahabodhi Temple, the monks had nowhere to escape and could only huddle together.

"Who's in charge here?" Zhang Xuezhou asked, frowning.

"It is this poor... poor Daoist... monk!"

After a commotion among the monks, a middle-aged monk carrying a wooden staff managed to squeeze through the crowd.

The other person had a beard and hair, which was tied in a topknot, making him look somewhat like a Daoist School priest.

Pushed forward by the monks, the middle-aged monk could only respond by striking the ground with his wooden staff.

He spoke haltingly, and every now and then he would look up at Zhang Xuezhou, trying hard to listen to Zhang Xuezhou's rather stiff and unfamiliar language.

"Where is Buddha Son Shigong?" Zhang Xuezhou asked.

Zhang Xuezhou and the demons traveled a thousand miles. Along the way, he learned a lot of the language of Xiniu Hezhou. He could understand some simple things or ask some simple questions, especially those that the demons had said many times.

"The Buddhist disciple... has not returned... has not..."

After receiving a response from the person in charge of the Mahabodhi Temple, Zhang Xuezhou felt that he had once again fallen into a communication impasse.

However, it wasn't hard to discern their meaning: that Buddha Son Shigong was not present.

"Nusina is too big to fit into this stone temple. Come, let's go outside and talk!"

Zhang Xuezhou waved to the person in charge.

At this point, he could only be thankful that he still had demons like Nuxina who were fluent in both tongue and language, so translating the general meaning of the language of Xiniu Hezhou was not a problem.

"Spare me... I have an eighty-year-old in my family..."

Upon being invited by Zhang Xuezhou, the person in charge collapsed to the ground.

After pondering for a few seconds, Zhang Xuezhou had no choice but to drag the person in charge of the Mahabodhi Temple out.

His behavior horrified the monks, and some even urinated on themselves in the inner hall.

"This man said he had an eighty-year-old mother, a forty-year-old wife, a twenty-year-old son, and a sixteen-year-old daughter to support, and he was willing to offer his own daughter to save his life!"

After the person in charge was dragged out of the stone temple, the elephant demon Nusina outside the temple translated for them.

After discarding the irrelevant information, Zhang Xuezhou got to the point.

Where is the Buddha Son Shigong Shi?

He said the Buddhist disciple went to the Pure Land after entering the temple and has never come out!

How can I find the Buddha Son Shigong?

He said that only those who possess a token can enter the Pure Land and find the Buddha's disciples; they, being mere mortals, are neither qualified to enter the Pure Land nor possess a token!

The translator, Nusina, was halting and clumsy, but it was still better than Zhang Xuezhou not understanding at all.

"What about sending messages?" Zhang Xuezhou asked. "Surely you can send messages to the church, right?"

"He said that he needed to offer incense and prayers, and inform the Jieyin before he could relay the message, but he couldn't contact someone at the level of the Buddha's disciple," Nusina translated.

"Stop with the worship, just burn incense and report it!"

Having understood the situation, Zhang Xuezhou felt a sense of relief; he had traveled over a thousand miles to get here and still had some way to communicate.

"When communicating, you can say, 'A good friend from the Eastern Land has invited Buddha Son Shigong to go to the Western Kunlun Holy Land to collect treasures!'"

Nusina, the elephant demon in charge of translation, was too large to enter the stone temple, so Zhang Xuezhou had to speak first and then drag the panicked person in charge into the stone temple again.

"Friends from the Eastern Land!"

"Amazing!"

"Looks like we really do have a security order!"

Zhang Xuezhou dragged the person in charge into the temple to carry out the business, while the demons waited outside with gleeful expressions.

Since things have come to this point, the matter is basically half resolved.

"What if they don't give us the token?" the Rakshasa King asked hesitantly.

"Then let's eat them!" the Deer Demon King roared.

"A good friend can definitely give," said the Roc Demon King. "I've heard that good friends can exchange things, even valuable treasures!"

"He just said we could go to the Western Kunlun Holy Land to find treasures," said the King of Ten Thousand Foxes. "I heard that it's full of traps and formations, and also home to the most powerful demon gods and human gods in the world!"

"It's a pity that the Kunlun Sacred Land no longer attracts demons," the Green Lion King said sullenly. "Otherwise, that would be the place we should be staying!"

"That Immortal Court is utterly despicable! They shattered our Demon Race's Heavenly Court, leaving us to wander the world, without even a trace of demonic magic to inherit!"

"Practice your innate divine Divine Ability diligently!"

From a promising young demon to now a bandit king who has to worry about being surrounded and killed, the contrast is so great that it's hard to accept.

The demons could only reminisce about the ancient and glorious past they had heard, while staring longingly at the stone temple, waiting for Zhang Xuezhou to come out with the token that would save their lives.