The Immortal’s Poison

The two demon rabbits suddenly forgot how to speak when they witnessed the sudden appearance of Chang Li. They rubbed their eyes strenuously before ascertaining that they were not dreaming. Then, they leaped up in surprise and joy only to immediately fall to the ground. The little stutterer screamed in shock as he hastily rushed over to help them up.

Chang Li did not wait for them to speak as she extended a finger and lightly touched the space between the old monk Bu Le's brows. Bu Le's body immediately relaxed as his life vitality energy vanished, allowing the grand master's mind sense to probe around within his body. After a long while, Chang Li slowly retracted her finger and did the same thing on Shan Duan's body to examine the condition of his injuries.

The examination only took a while before Chang Li let out a long exhale. Her gaze returned to its prior clarity and grace as she laughed, "It's alright, you’re not going to die! I will heal your injuries tonight!

The old monk Bu Le's expression too became relaxed. Since the grand master was here, their two lives can be considered salvaged. He shook his head and said, "Take your time, take your time. We can still make it through the next two to three days but the enemy who had attacked us was very peculiar though."

At this point, the old monk Ji Fei had just found the biggest available futon cushion and patted it with the utmost respect onto the floor. Chang Li then sat down cross-legged on the futon and ordered, "Tell me the situation from the very beginning!"

The old monk Bu Le answered in response, "That time, we had rushed over to the Miao stockade village when the Wen family brother was trapped in the giant frog's stomach. However, there was a strange place at the foothill of the Seven Maidens Mountain."

"You are referring to the Land of Evil Spirits, I guess." Chang Li laughed as she raised one of her eyebrows. A sense of cheekiness appeared vividly on her delicate face and even though everyone who was seated around her was of the younger generation, they could not help but laugh out heartily as well.

The old monk nodded his head, "I've been engaged in the Buddhist cultivation for one thousand and five hundred years. I've always maintained a void of clarity deep within my heart yet this void unexpectedly started rippling when I entered the Miao stockade village. I was afraid that there was an enemy who was in concealment at that time but I was also afraid to delay Wen brother's matter. So, I allowed Shan Duan to bring some people to the Miao stockade village first while I went on a short expedition and came unexpectedly to such a wide stretch of the Land of Evil Spirits." As he said that he stretched out his arm and took the carrots, rebuking the little demon rabbit who had been reaching out for them, saying, "Don't eat that, don't eat that. Since we aren't dying, we must remember to cultivate the heart at all times!" After that, he smiled in a friendly manner towards Wen Leyang and passed the entire plate of carrots to him.

Wen Leyang received the carrots with a beaming smile. He then asked randomly, "So, you entered the Land of Evil Spirits?"

The old monk heaved a sigh and said, "Yes I did!"

"Cough..." The fat monk Shui Jing sighed as well. He grimaced and asked, "Why did you enter that place?! What you did was to ask for trouble for no reason!"

The old monk Bu Le frowned, "I had no plans to enter there initially. However... the ancient temple which was sitting on the vitality point of the Land of Evil Spirits... I knew it!"

Wen Leyang made an ‘oh' sound before he hastily inquired closely, "What do you mean?" The image of the ancient temple in the Land of Evil Spirits was still fresh in his memory; the entire big temple had a massive and imposing manner but it was angled as if it had been deliberately twisted the force of the entire universe. The Buddha statue which had been worshipped in the temple was also not smiling mercifully. Instead, the statue was baring its teeth fiercely with a malicious-looking appearance all over its face.

The old monk shook his head slowly and started to recollect a past event which had happened a thousand years ago. "About a thousand years ago, my cultivation base has almost been successfully achieved. The Great Mercy Temple in the cultivation world was like the sun in the middle of the sky - very influential. We were the leaders of the Buddhism cultivation sects in the world. I remembered firmly in my mind every day about what the wild monk had told me before. I dwelled in deep seclusion and rarely came out, not daring to be careless for even one moment. I used the Buddhist quality to tame my demonic heart wholeheartedly."

Chang Li made an arrogant ‘humph' followed by her taking out a Chinese olive fruit from her carry-on bag. She stuffed the fruit into her mouth and her white, jade-like cheek immediately puffed up with a cute bulge. 

The old monk Bu Le smiled awkwardly at his Grand Master before continuing, "At that time, I had been bored and unoccupied all day. I then heard that there was a newly-built big monastery in the mortal world known as the ‘Yama-raja's Temple'. The seat of honor at the monastery was held by the monk with the holy name of San Duan. He had a profound understanding of Buddhist studies and was preaching frequent sermons in the monk’s assembly room (Author's note: I first used the word ‘Preaching sermons in the ‘sex-trade counter', afterward it had been pointed out by a young wife with an impure mind...). Heh, all of you are not Buddhist practitioners so perhaps you haven't picked up on this - ‘Yama-raja' was one of the Buddha's twenty celestials and one of the twenty Buddhist guardian deities. Yama-raja was the King of Underworld."

The fat monk Shui Jing sniggered, "A monastery in the mortal world, yet it has such an utterly confusing name!"

The old monk Bu Le made a noncommittal smile, "I had the same thoughts too back then that a temple in the mortal world would have the impudence to use the name of a guardian deity... but now that I think of it, that was just the correct term. Not to mention the twenty celestials, even if the temple had been named as ‘The Buddha's Palm', what difference would it have made? The name was just an unreality so why would there be a need for the over-absorption of the mind? What were the difference between the Yama-raja's Temple, the Great Mercy Temple, and the Cat's Temple, or the Temple of Cows and Goats..."

As the old monk was speaking, the little monk Hope Voice, the big monk Shui Jing, and the little demon rabbit monk Shan Duan put their palms together in salutation while the expression on their faces was devoted...

Crack!

Wen Leyang snapped a carrot into two with a loud cracking noise as he watched the old monk with a nervous expression.

The few monks sniggered faintly but Bu Le seized the opportunity before Chang Li could be angered and hastily diverted the topic of discussion, "Initially, I had only been actually looking for a task to occupy myself. I got there just in time for the monk San Duan's sermon. I was both surprised and joyous after his preaching for this eminent monk's wise words were like a gem. Some of his ideologies were even more profound than a thousand-year-old demon like me who was engaged in the cultivation of Buddhism! I was in ecstasy over his sermons during those few days. Only when the others had dispersed after the lesson did I manage to tear myself away and return to the mountain. By then I had utterly forgotten about my purpose of making the trip."

The old monk Bu Le was completely immersed in his reminiscence now. His expression was sometimes joyous from the sudden comprehension of the truth while sometimes he seemed puzzled from ignorance. It was like he was still immersed in the Abbot San Duan's Buddhist studies. That intense contemplative experience made him come to a sudden enlightenment, it helped his profound understanding of the Buddhist dharma and so he had an exceptionally deep impression towards the ‘Yama-raja's Temple'.

Bu Le had calculated the day of the abbot San Duan's next sermon and left the mountain once again so he could rush over to the ‘Yama-raja's Temple'. To his surprise, that recently-built magnificent temple had unexpectedly vanished into thin air! All the monks in the temple had woken up from their sleep and realized with incredulity that they were all sleeping in the wilderness. The humongous monastery was like a huge uprooted tree and left behind a large pit of exceptional depth on the mountain slope. Since then, it has disappeared without a trace and the eminent monk and the abbot San Duan too had vanished into the winds.

The big temple that had disappeared into thin air was once a highly-debated dispute back then. The imperial court and the civil court, along with the people and the monks of Buddhism, took part in the pursuit of the temple's trail. However, they finally had to abort the mission without a conclusion as they weren't able to find any substantial clues. Everyone subsequently dismissed it as a case of demonic haunting and some even said that the ‘Yama-raja's Temple' had only pretended to worship the Buddha on the surface. They speculated that it was actually doing a dirty deal in reality and had finally offended the Buddha so the temple had been uprooted in the end.

The ‘Yama-raja's Temple' was not a cultivator's sect so no one in the cultivation world had bothered to take notice of its disappearance. The demon monk Bu Le did not want to startle the others so he investigated the case by himself for a while. In the end, he was also not able to find out any clues or traces so the temple had faded from his memory after some time.

At this point, Bu Le suddenly made a ghastly smile at Wen Leyang, "Want to make a wild guess as to which temple was in the Land of Evil Spirits?"

Wen Leyang was too sheepish to scold him so he lowered his head and ate his carrot with great effort instead.

Even though Bu Le was now recalling that incident, it was as if it had been clearly apprehended at a glance. However, while he was at the Miao stockade village, the demon monk Bu Le could not have imagined that a temple of such a grand scale which had disappeared mysteriously a thousand years ago could unexpectedly appear in the ghastly and bloodcurdling Land of Evil Spirits. The strangeness and absurdity of the incident were enough to give any concerned person goosebumps.

The demon monk Bu Le could not contain the curiosity in his heart so he had depended on his profound Buddhist supernatural powers and passed through the Land of Evil Spirits in a threatening but safe manner to the old temple. The glistening plaque which had once displayed the word ‘Yama-raja's Temple' was nowhere to be found and what had remained was a temple which was more askew than a twisted tree.

The ghost's flesh mushrooms underneath the temple had been completely destroyed back then. The old monk then probed around one time but came back empty-handed. But when he made his way back to the temple from the underground passage, the scene which had panned out before his eyes was so shocking that his scalp almost exploded.

The monk San Duan, who had gone missing long ago, was kneeling in front of the Buddha statue wailing bitterly. The monk's appearance was as familiar as before but his whiskers and beard had all turned white while his face was covered with rough skin and wrinkles. His lips were dry and withered; his teeth were sparse and yellowed. The monk San Duan's bony fists thumped madly on his chest and bald head and it looks like every punch was filled with all his strength. But regardless of his bitter wails or his violent beatings, not a sound could be heard. The old demon rabbit felt as if he was watching a silent film.

What was truly terrifying and bloodcurdling for him was that the huge and malicious-looking Buddha statue, which sat cross-legged on the shrine, was also unexpectedly shedding bitter tears soundlessly at the monk San Duan!

Bu Le had cast away his demon base one thousand and nine hundred years ago. Following that, he used another four hundred years to cultivate into a human form and spent another one thousand and five hundred years to study Buddhist dharma in the Great Mercy Temple. He had trained generations upon generations of disciples and disciple's disciples in the supernatural powers of the Buddhist sect. They, in turn, had become the new generation of eminent monks so his abilities were naturally beyond profound as well.

In that horrifying moment, his almost two thousand years of cultivation base immediately revealed its cruelty. The void of clarity within his heart bloomed vigorously as his hands pinched into the first hand seal (mudra) of the Buddha’s Nine Syllables: the Thunderbolt Seal! This mudra combined the spiritual energy from the heavens, the earth, and the three vehicles of Buddhism. He retained his unmovable yet invulnerable willpower. Following that, he loudly chanted a section of the Vajrasattva's mantra. He recited the incantation section by section and word by word, every word he recited was akin to thunder!

Soon after that clouds began to gather into a storm above the entire Land of Evil Spirits. Puffs and puffs of auspicious clouds blooming with Buddha's light arrived churning akin to the mighty waves and raging billows. The four great heavenly kings of Vaisravana, Dhrtarastra, Virudhaka, Virupaksa appeared indistinctly. Each time when one appeared he was accompanied by the sound of thunder which smashed towards the ghost temple with a loud bang.

The divine monk Bu Le used the ‘Thunderbolt Seal' to strengthen his body and mind. Soon after that, he ignited the cultivation base of the Great Mercy Temple through his entire body with his heart. This transformed into all kinds of karmic power and urged the four great heavenly kings to emanate their dharma body. He had risked his old life to vanquish the monk San Duan and the malicious-looking huge Buddha before him!

The Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path taught about compassion for all of mankind but the weeping Buddha statue had transformed into a demonic body from gathering the foul and sinful aura from heaven and the earth. Once it has taken form, it would certainly be setting off a monstrous billow.

Wen Leyang had never heard of such a matter, he was so astounded that he forgot all about the carrot in his hand. Chang Li chuckled from the side as she rubbed her stomach while asking Bu Le, "Nobody had beckoned or offended you; he had been crying to his fulfillment and yet you just came up and started to fight. You were purely asking for trouble, it serves you right for getting injured!"

The demon monk Bu Le grimaced. Back then, when he was suddenly faced with such a ghastly situation, there had utterly been no room for him to think further as he directed his supernatural powers and attacked them.

It was at this point that the little demon rabbit, who had been in the Miao stockade village at the time, had sensed that his Master was launching a huge Buddhism supernatural power. The old demon rabbit had not fought for over a thousand years so he must be caught in an exceptionally critical and dangerous situation. The little demon rabbit then brought along a few accompanying eminent monks to rush over to Bu Le's aid while the little stuttering divine monk remained on the same spot. Ah Dan had been overjoyed by the little stutterer's presence.

The monk San Duan also noticed Bu Le's presence. He was startled as well and abruptly made a sharp howl like an infant's wail. Unexpectedly, he made the exact same hand seal that Bu Le was making!

However, the monk Bu Le was using the supreme Buddhist dharma to receive and guide all kinds of karmic power from the universe to transform it into the supernatural power of conquering demons in Buddhism.

The monk San Duan, however, was more straightforward than him. He was receiving and guiding the supernatural power from the malicious-looking huge Buddha by his side. At the same time, the entire Land of Evil Spirits was surging along as layers upon layers of sinful aura steamed up and shrouded the place. Millions of thick, black-colored tornados akin to raging dragons spun in vertical circles towards the boundless auspicious cloud in the middle of the sky.

Those in the sky and those on the land battled into a messy ball in the middle of the Land of Evil Spirits. Other than the little demon rabbit Shan Duan, the rest of the eminent monks did not have the ability to enter the old temple before they were pulverized into ashes by the chilling malevolent energy. However, the eminent monks who vehemently sacrificed themselves channeled the karmic powers accumulated by themselves and wore down a huge portion of that malevolent energy.

As the little demon rabbit Shan Duan had surged into the broken temple, Bu Le and the monk San Duan were at the most crucial moment of the battle.

Finally, the big and the little demon rabbit joined hands and severely injured the monk San Duan. He was defeated yet he managed to lift up the humongous and malicious-looking Buddha statue on his shoulder before he crashed through the old temple before fleeing.

Bu Le and Shan Duan were both severely injured and they couldn't catch up to the enemy in the end.

This form of battle using Buddhist supernatural powers, an outsider had utterly no way to perceive the intensity of the situation. If one was not a Buddhism cultivator, even if one had walked all the way to the edge of the Land of Evil Spirits and looked into the area, the scene would be a stretch of boundless peace and nothingness. Which was why even though they had fought so hard that the sky was falling and the earth was splitting over here, those who were not too far away in the Miao stockade village and the Seven Maidens Mountain had not noticed the fight at all.

At this point, the old monk Ji Fei suddenly roared with laughter as he stretched out his arm and pointed at Shui Jing's bald head, "Bald donkey, you have been bluffing about your profound Buddhism cultivation to me every day. Turns out it was nothing but bullshit as you didn't even know about that incident!"

The fat monk Shui Jing blushed scarlet out of shame as he tried to defend himself weakly, "I spent every day thieving around with you, my Buddhist conscientiousness had since been worn off..."

Chang Li waited until the fat monk was done talking before she looked at Wen Leyang with a cheeky smile and asked out of the blue, "Silly little fellow, let me ask you. Do you really like the little girl Mumu?"

Wen Leyang was startled and he laughed in a simple yet honest manner, "How is this even related to that?!"

Chang Li's smile vanished abruptly, "If you truly like the little girl Mumu, then you should go over and give Bu Le and Shan Duan a kowtow each right now!"

Everyone, including the two demon rabbits, was staring in bewilderment as they did not understand what Chang Li had meant. The old monk Ji Fei's eyes were filled with astonishment before his eyes turned into the colors of the eight diagrams as he pondered secretly within his heart, "What if... that little girl Luo Wangfu had actually been smuggled away as a baby from Mount Emei by the people of Crow Ridge?"

Chang Li could not have guessed the old monk's two hundred and fifty ideas as she continued to speak sternly to Wen Leyang, "Every cause has its effect; every effect has its cause..." Before she could finish her sentence, the monk Bu Le praised from the side, "Grand Master, you have the root of wisdom in you!"

Chang Li looked at the old monk once before she continued to speak to Wen Leyang, "Ah Dan had received the soul's power in the mushroom while the monk San Duan wailed bitterly at the Buddha statue..."

Wen Leyang was suddenly enlightened as he said, "Even if that demon monk San Duan was not the person who had planted the primordial soul, he had a thousand and one connections with the mushroom incident!" Upon saying that, he did not wait for Chang Li's confirmation but knelt immediately before Bu Le and Shan Duan and gave three kowtows with the utmost respect. He then said earnestly, "This young fellow Wen Leyang conveys his gratitude on behalf of Luo Wangfu to the two divine monks, I will let her come over and personally thank the both of you when I return home!"

After the kowtows, Wen Leyang did not straighten his back but gave another three more kowtows, "This is to thank the two divine monks for acting in a just and generous manner by attending to the Miao stockade village to rescue me. Because of that the both of you had gotten injured. If the Great Mercy Temple or the two divine monks should have any needs in the future, Wen Leyang and the Nine Peaks Mountain are always at your disposal!"

Shan Duan hastily helped Wen Leyang to stand up while the old monk Bu Le chuckled, "What nonsense are you talking about, we are all a family! There's no need, there's no need!"

The monk San Duan, the moving old temple, and the broken primordial soul planted into the ghost's flesh mushroom had all been greatly connected to one another. The soul's power which had slowly taken form in the mushroom became Ah Dan's petty gain. Anyone int he place of the monk would have been restless and unwilling to let go so he would surely have sought revenge madly from Mumu.

To summarize, the demon monk Bu Le had encountered the demon monk San Duan. After a great war, both sides were defeated and wounded. San Duan's cultivation base, which was actually the Land of Evil Spirits, had been mostly destroyed by the supernatural powers guided by Bu Le. His vitality energy was severely injured so naturally, he wouldn't be as concerned about seeking revenge that soon.

Chang Li discussed with the monk Bu Le for a little while more and finally arrived at a rough conclusion. Someone had used the big temple to lay down the vitality point in the Land of Evil Spirits to condense the vital energy and stop it from spilling out. Their purpose had been to nurture and raise the ghost's flesh mushroom to resurrect the primordial soul which had been planted in the mushroom.

On the other hand, they had no way of knowing what kind of person the demon monk San Duan was and whose primordial soul he had been trying to resurrect.

Up till now, the process of how the two main demon monks of the Great Mercy Temple had received their injuries had been mostly covered. The demon monk San Duan had shifted the ‘Yama-raja's Temple' to the Land of Evil Spirits. Many years later, the Second Mother had brought along Chi Maojiu and the disciples of Miao Bujiao to take refuge within the temple. After that, Wen Leyang had brought Mumu along and unintentionally intruded there. Finally, the old demon rabbit Bu Le had entered the old temple. Under continuous coincidences, Wen Leyang then helped the Second Mother to regain control of the Miao stockade village, Ah Dan's opportunity in resurrection as a petty gain and the monk San Duan failed in his mission and was severely injured by the big and little demon rabbit. He then fled while the big and little demon rabbit too suffered from rather severe injuries.

This form of Buddhist magic art which utilized the vitality point and the ghost's flesh to resurrect a primordial soul was albeit miraculous, but it was also not considered to be overly complicated. Other things aside, should Wen Leyang possess such an ability, if someone from his closest relatives or friends had nothing left but the strand of a broken soul, he would surely try to come up with a way to arrange such a spell circle to resurrect them.

Wen Leyang finally figured out the process of the incident. He then exhaled a long and foul breath. He still had a faint and indistinct sympathy towards the monk San Duan deep within his heart.

The old demon monk Bu Le knew what was he thinking and sniggered once, "Brother Wen has a pure and honest heart but what you didn't consider was that this old temple had been used to lay down the vitality point and cut off the vitality energy. This will cause the malevolent energy on the Land of Evil Spirits to get more tyrannical with time; the malevolent energy will grow exponentially and will eventually spill over to the Seven Maidens Mountain. When that time comes, countless living souls would be plunged into an abyss of misery. The people who had been wronged and murdered would not even be granted the opportunity of rebirth. This monk San Duan's action was a murderous act against the Buddha's will!"

Wen Leyang heaved a noncommittal sigh - the old monk could be right but if there was still a strand of hope for one's family to be resurrected, how many people would consider the consequences before doing so!

He was raising a carrot to his mouth when he suddenly thought of something else. He scraped against the floor and leaped up in a flash, saying to Chang Li, "So, are Mumu and Ah Dan in danger now? The demon monk San Duan..."

The old monk Bu Le peered at him once strangely, "I thought I've already said this but San Duan had been even more severely injured than us. It would take him another three to five years to recuperate before he could even start fighting again. I don't think that it would be a problem for us to look for him after our injuries are healed!"

Wen Leyang was shocked and he muttered to himself for a while before he asked, "Then... how about the person who had injured the both of you a few days ago, was it not San Duan?"

The little demon rabbit Shan Duan chuckled as he interrupted, "Of course not, the Master and I had been injured on two separate occasions by two different enemies!"

Wen Leyang finally understood that he had assumed that the person who had injured the monks for the second time was still the demon monk San Duan; he had utterly never thought that there would be someone else.

At this point, Chang Li's smile had almost totally vanished. It was as if her delicate features were shrouded with a layer of frost as she spoke solemnly to the monk Bu Le, "What happened when the both of you were injured the second time? This matter makes all the difference, think carefully and speak carefully for me. You must not leave out even half a word!"