Longzang

Chapter 262 Secret Realm
Looking at the statue, Xianghou seemed to be thinking about something else, and said, "This drop of true blood did indeed come from an Arhat, but the fruition he attained is not the one already established in Buddhism. That's all I can tell you."

After a while, Xianghou seemed to come to his senses and smiled, "If I were to give you a drop of the true blood of a Buddhist Arhat, you would probably become an Arhat yourself in a few hundred years. Wouldn't the immortals of your Taichu Palace destroy me then?"

“Isn’t this drop of true blood also the true blood of an Arhat? Could it be different?” Wei Yuan asked.

Marquis Xiang said meaningfully, "Those who are not included in the legal system cannot be reincarnated."

Wei Yuan immediately lost interest in listening further. It's common sense that the less you know about Buddhist matters, the better. Once you know something, you're already involved in karma, and the senior monks are quite unreasonable.

Xianghou said, “Let’s prepare to begin. The true blood of the Arhats is here, but not in this realm. The true blood itself carries a status and has already formed its own realm. This is merely the entrance.”

Many years ago, a young man came here, received the inheritance, and bore the karmic burden. This temple was built by him. However, he devoted his entire life to trying to eliminate this karma, but died young. What he couldn't repay was repaid by his descendants, generation after generation, until today. "Ru'er, come here!"

The maid entered the small temple and stood beside Marquis Xiang.

The Marquis of Xiang said, "She is the descendant of that young man from back then, and she entered the secret realm with you this time. She will bear most of the consequences, while you will only be slightly affected. With your strength, you should not be affected. As for how much benefit you can gain from the true blood, that depends on your own fate."

The maidservant came to the Buddha statue and carefully wiped away all the dust. Then, Xianghou took out a white jade lotus basin and placed it on the offering table in front of the Buddha.

The basin contained a constant flow of clear water, neither spilling nor drying up. Floating in the water were lotus petals, forming a miniature lotus pond, with each lotus flower no bigger than a grain of rice.

"This is the White Jade Merit Lotus Pond, modeled after the Pure Land Merit Pond. Even if it only has a fraction of the original's effects, it's still a rare treasure. Did you bring the blood ink you gave me last time?"

Wei Yuan took out the blood ink and handed it over, and Marquis Xiang threw the ink grains into the lotus pond. The clear water in the pond instantly turned into thick blood plasma, its color so dark it was almost black!

The maid took out a dagger, made a cut on her wrist, and a stream of blood splashed onto the pool of blood. Then, with a casual wipe, the wound on her wrist disappeared into thin air.

Marquis Xiang handed Wei Yuan a short knife and said, "Use this knife to cut your wrists, let out a cup of blood, and then I will send you in."

This way of entering the secret realm seemed bizarre and completely out of place with the Buddhist style. Wei Yuan then said, "Wait a moment, I need to make some preparations first."

Wei Yuan then drew a simple array on the ground in the temple, placed a withered branch in the array, and then flicked a few drops of platinum water onto each position of the array.

Looking at the formation, Marquis Xiang felt it resembled both a feng shui formation and a spirit-binding formation. He wasn't very knowledgeable about formations and couldn't quite discern what kind of formation Wei Yuan had set up. Although the formation itself was simple, the spiritual objects Wei Yuan used were extraordinary, possessing a hint of celestial energy, making Marquis Xiang wary of it.

A gust of wind rose up, and the tree branches swayed but did not fall.

Wei Yuan suddenly remembered something, left the small temple, handed his new gun to his senior sister, and then returned to the temple. This time, the tree branch fell down.

Wei Yuan was very satisfied. He took the short sword and said, "We can begin."

Marquis Xiang, somewhat curious, asked, "May I ask what that formation was for?"

"That was a divination formation, used to ask about the possible outcome of a certain matter. Oh, I divined whether my two elder masters could kill you, Lord Marquis. I'm relieved to receive a positive result. If there's nothing else, I'll go in first."

Marquis Xiang remained expressionless as he activated the Blood Pool of Merit. A burst of crimson light spread out, enveloping Wei Yuan and his maid. Moments later, the crimson light dissipated, and Wei Yuan and his maid had vanished without a trace.

Only then did Xianghou look at the formation on the ground. He could still sense a trace of residual immortal energy. His lips twitched involuntarily, and he cursed inwardly: They really went all out!

The divine energy was used, and all the relevant people were present, so the result of this divination should be quite accurate.

But the more Xianghou thought about it, the more uneasy he felt. How could those two young juniors really kill him? Judging from Wei Yuan's reaction, he probably couldn't kill him at first, but then he gave the elders a gun, and then he was able to kill them.

Was the gun too miraculous, or was it the last straw that broke the camel's back? Neither answer satisfied Xiang Hou. Most importantly, they could actually kill him.
As the blood-red light filled his vision, Wei Yuan lost consciousness. Then he felt himself floating, as if he heard someone calling his name.

The voice grew clearer and clearer until Wei Yuan finally heard it clearly: "Little Stone, wake up! It's time to pay homage to Buddha!"

Wei Yuan groggily rolled over and sat up, as if it were his body's instinct. He rubbed his eyes hard before he could see that he was in a simple mud house. It was still dark outside the window, and a middle-aged man in tattered clothes was holding a dim candle and calling to him.

Wei Yuan remembered that he was an orphan in the village, and the person in front of him had adopted him when he was a child; he was his godfather. This village had a long tradition of worshipping Buddha. Every day before dawn, the whole village would go to the temple for morning prayers. The morning prayers would be completed in an hour, just as the sky was beginning to brighten, marking the start of the new day.

Wei Yuan got up, put on his clothes, and left the room, following his adoptive father towards the edge of the village. People from every household in the village came out, and together they arrived at the small temple at the village entrance.

In the courtyard of the small temple, straw mats had already been set up, and the village chief's seat was simply an extra wooden board. Wei Yuan remembered his seat, so he went to sit down on a straw mat in the corner. At this moment, a familiar figure appeared beside him. Wei Yuan turned his head and saw a familiar girl, about sixteen or seventeen years old, with a well-developed body that made her clothes bulge.

When she saw Wei Yuan, she stuck out her tongue and quickly sat up straight.

This is the neighbor's daughter, who grew up with Wei Yuan. But in the last year or two, their relationship seems to have changed. Wei Yuan mocked her for being overweight and unattractive, which angered her so much that she didn't speak to him for several days.

She looks much better now than before... Wei Yuan suddenly had this thought.

How long ago was "before"? It seems like just now.

Just then, a monk emerged from the temple, striking the wooden fish and interrupting Wei Yuan's thoughts. Then, the rhythmic chanting of sutras, with its varied intonations, began, signaling the start of the morning service.

The monk was chanting in a different language, and Wei Yuan couldn't understand the scriptures at all. But there was a power in the scriptures that guided him to chant along.

The scripture wasn't long and was quickly finished. After reciting it once, Wei Yuan suddenly felt a sense of clarity within his body, as if some impurity or filth had disappeared. However, there seemed to be a large, opaque area inside him, something Wei Yuan had never known existed before, only becoming aware of it now.

The monk began chanting the sutra a second time. After Wei Yuan chanted along once, he felt a greater sense of clarity, and a crack appeared on the large mass inside his body. Although this crack was insignificant, the monk seemed to have said that this was the beginning of eliminating karmic obstacles, a very good thing. As long as one perseveres, all karmic obstacles will be eliminated, and ultimately everyone will open their Dharma eye, attain Arhatship, and the human world will be transformed into a Pure Land.

The morning prayer consisted of nine recitations of the sutra. By the end, Wei Yuan felt much more enlightened, even his body felt lighter. He was inexplicably in a good mood, feeling as if he were one step closer to attaining enlightenment.

There's a specific order to leaving: the village chief and elders go first, then the heads of each household, then the older folks, and finally the younger generation like Wei Yuan and the girl next door.

As they were leaving the hospital, Wei Yuan and the neighbor's little girl accidentally bumped into each other. Wei Yuan already thought she was a burden because of her size, and this bumping incident, which prevented both of them from getting out of the door, only confirmed his opinion. However, since they were at the temple gate, Wei Yuan let her go first; the two of them couldn't walk together, and she couldn't even turn sideways.

Before leaving, Wei Yuan glanced back and saw the monk carrying the ritual implements back to the main hall one by one. The monk looked exceptionally clean, his face as smooth as if carved from jade.

"I didn't expect the mage to be so young..." Wei Yuan thought to himself, when suddenly his hand was grabbed. He turned his head and saw that it was a young girl.

"Brother Stone, we're going to spy on Uncle San Kui's hunting trip today to learn archery, have you forgotten?"

Wei Yuan then remembered that there was such a thing, so he followed the girl along the mountain path into the mountains. But they hadn't run far when the girl had to stop, panting heavily.

Wei Yuan thought to himself, "It would be a miracle if someone that looks like that could run fast." However, out of a sense of loyalty that they had grown up together, Wei Yuan didn't intend to abandon her and go learn archery alone.

The girl finally caught her breath and said, "Let's continue," when she saw a burly hunter emerge from the end of the mountain path. His leather jacket could barely contain his muscular physique.

The girl exclaimed in surprise, "Uncle San Kui!"

The hunter laughed and said, "If you want to steal my skills, you'd better be quick. If you're so slow, the prey will have already escaped."

The hunter walked past Wei Yuan and the girl, several prey tied to the hunting fork on his shoulder, among which a white wolf stood out.

The girl exclaimed again, "White Wolf! You hit it!"

"This beast eats a lamb every day and has bitten several people. If we don't catch it soon, all the sheep in the village will be eaten! Tell your father to send me a jar of his treasured wine, and I'll give this wolf pelt to you two as a wedding gift!"

The girl blushed deeply and stomped her feet, causing her to sway and shake. Wei Yuan was worried that she would fall.

Just then, the sun finally rose. Wei Yuan looked up and saw a huge red sun leaping out from the mountains, casting its rich red light across the world and painting everything with a dark red hue, like indelible blood.

For a moment, Wei Yuan couldn't tell if it was morning or dusk. The dim sunlight, tinged with gold, seemed to be getting closer and closer.

It should be the height of summer, but the sunlight made it even colder, and Wei Yuan instinctively shivered. He wondered why he was so cold.

Under the sunlight, the hunter's silhouette was stained crimson, and even the white wolf hanging there turned red.

For a moment, Wei Yuan suddenly realized that what was hanging on the hunting fork was not a wolf, but a blood-soaked person!

He was taken aback, and upon closer inspection, the wolf hanging on the hunting fork had transformed into a white wolf.

(End of this chapter)