Xuanxia

Chapter 429 Inner Demon
After an unknown amount of time, Huiyuan slowly opened his eyes.

His whole body was covered with scars, his face was so swollen that it was almost unrecognizable, and his robes had long been torn to pieces, reduced to strips of cloth hanging on his body.

He was still sitting cross-legged in the courtyard, but it was already very late in the day. There was no moon or stars in the sky, only thick dark clouds. He didn't know how much time had passed since he set up the magic array.

"Are you still... in the illusion... or have you already..."

Huiyuan covered his chest and started coughing violently, with blood flowing out from the corners of his mouth uncontrollably.

"This, this is an illusion array that I created myself, but why does it have such a sinister and brutal meaning?"

He murmured to himself: "This is not the magic of my Buddha at all..."

"Amitabha."

At this moment, a voice suddenly sounded beside him: "The so-called gloomy and cruel things do not come from outside, but from the heart of you and me."

Huiyuan was stunned.

This voice is exactly the same as his own!
He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a man walking slowly in the shadow of the courtyard at night. His appearance and expression were exactly the same as his!
However, this "Huiyuan" looked even more holy and pure. He was wearing a plain white monk's robe without any patterns on it. He had nothing on his body or in his hands. His eyebrows were lowered and there was a smile on the corners of his mouth.

Huiyuan in white took steady steps and finally stood in front of Huiyuan.

"You are……"

Hui Yuan's eyebrows jumped: "What is this illusion this time?"

"This illusion was created by you and me. With your practice, you should be able to recognize it... The illusion has ceased." Hui Yuan in white clothes said calmly, "This poor monk, it is not an illusion."

Hui Yuan looked at him steadily: "You... are the inner demon of this poor monk."

"Do not."

Bai Yi Hui Yuan said softly: "You are the inner demon."

In the secret room in the basement of the courtyard, Qiu Chan and a group of other young women gathered together. In front of them was a bronze mirror, which was the Tai Chi mirror that had helped Qiu Chan distinguish between reality and illusion.

This time, the mirror clearly showed the situation in the courtyard, and also captured the conversation between the two Huiyuans.

"Senior Sister Qiu."

Si Yu whispered excitedly, "Master Fu performed very well in this play!"

Qiu Chan snorted and said, "You've seen it all, this man lies as easily as eating or drinking water! Be careful of him!"

"Oh~" Several other sisters cried out in dissatisfaction: "Why don't you be careful of him?"

Qiu Chan crossed her arms and did not answer, but looked in the mirror with a somewhat worried look in her eyes.

Yes, the Huiyuan in white is Fu Qingzhou.

In fact, two days had passed since Huiyuan set up the illusion array.

During these two days and two nights, he was unable to break out of the illusion, but kept circulating and struggling in the layers of nested illusions. He suffered great torture both physically and mentally, and his aura was weakened to the extreme.

Only such a long period of torture could make a Cave Heaven Second Realm powerhouse become so weak and debilitated.

During these two days, Fu Qingzhou and his team secretly took Hui Yuan's essence and refined another Yiyan Pill.

This is the origin of “White-robed Huiyuan”.

In the small courtyard, Huiyuan looked at Fu Qingzhou in front of him, and his expression changed several times.

But in fact... Fu Qingzhou was also a little nervous.

It is impossible to accurately ask the secret in Huiyuan's heart by relying on the illusion array.

Therefore, he had to remove the illusion and take advantage of the monk's extreme weakness and confusion to pretend to be his other personality in order to deceive and question him.

But to be honest, he's not particularly good at this kind of abstruse tricks...

There's nothing I can do but pretend to be cool.

"Wisdom illuminates the source, and compassion manifests itself."

Fu Qingzhou clasped his hands together and said softly, "May I ask, do you still have compassion and wisdom in your heart?"

Huiyuan's face struggled for a moment, he sighed, and didn't dare to answer.

"You understand."

Fu Qingzhou said calmly, "You are an accomplice to the evil, blinded by greed, and debauching a good family. You also cover up your crimes and flatter yourself... Huiyuan, if you are not the inner demon, then who is the inner demon?"

With every word he spoke, Huiyuan's body shook violently and his expression became more miserable.

"I, I have no choice, I have no choice..."

He lowered his head, clenched his teeth, and murmured through them. "Is there no way?"

Fu Qingzhou's tone was still calm: "How did Master teach you and me back then?"

Of course, he didn't know how Master Huiyuan taught, but he just lied and made up stories. He just didn't believe that the previous generation of monks in Jinchan Temple had never said any Zen sayings.

Sure enough, Huiyuan sighed again.

"To be strong is not the right path, to guard one's heart is the only way... That's it." The sadness on his face slowly faded away, and he gradually realized something: "Master has already said it, has already said it..."

"To be strong is not the right way, to keep your heart is the only way."

Fu Qingzhou repeated Huiyuan's words and said calmly: "Thanks to you for remembering, I am now a poor monk."

Huiyuan raised her head and looked at him, her expression suddenly clear: "So that's it."

After saying that, he also clasped his hands together and bowed deeply to Fu Qingzhou, and a faint, sacred Buddhist aura emanated from his body.

Fu Qingzhou smiled slightly: "So...what should you do now?"

"I should face up to the sins I have committed." Hui Yuan said seriously, "Make amends for past mistakes."

"good."

Fu Qingzhou's eyes lit up slightly, and he said with a smile, "Please."

"Yes."

Huiyuan responded and changed his posture from sitting cross-legged to kneeling.

Then, he slowly bent down towards Fu Qingzhou and hit his forehead against the floor tiles.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!" Fu Qingzhou shouted in his mind: "Old man, hurry up and help create some strange images, otherwise he won't believe it!"

"Tsk..."

The smoker said impatiently: "It's so annoying. It's not like you don't know magic. Why don't you do it yourself?"

"He saw through my little magic in the blink of an eye!" Fu Qingzhou urged, "Please, please, I won't trick you this time. I'll get the Xuanxing Divine Iron when I get back and let you touch it for half an hour!"

"Half an hour..."

The smoker suddenly became interested: "Okay."

On this side, Huiyuan's head had hit the ground.

"I was bewitched by Concubine Jing and hoped to get close to the Yuan family in exchange for the lost Buddhist secrets, so as to compete for the right to lecture in the future. In the process, I used the power of the Golden Cicada Temple to help her and fight for the position of Queen. I also raped the palace maid Wen Qingru after taking the medicine. This is a serious crime."

He said in a deep voice: "From now on, I have decided to sever my ties with Concubine Jing, return to the temple, and take the initiative to explain the matter in detail to Brother Huikong, the head monk of the precepts, and am willing to accept any punishment... I will also do my best to compensate Wen Qingru for all her losses, cleanse her name, and let her live in peace."

As soon as he finished speaking, a thick white smoke rose from the body of "White-clothed Huiyuan" and dissipated into the air. There was not a single trace of spirituality in the white smoke, but it gave people a sense of profoundness and mystery... After the white smoke rose, the figure of "White-clothed Huiyuan" seemed a little blurry and illusory.

Seeing this, Huiyuan's eyes brightened and he bowed his head again.

"I was coerced by my two senior brothers Huijue and Huixin to search for potential disciples for Fanyin Temple and provide them with generous funds for cultivation. As a result, I indirectly killed countless lives and committed a heinous crime."

After saying this, he raised his head again and kowtowed heavily once more: "Senior Brother Huikong once trusted me and sent me to investigate the actions of Senior Brothers Huijue and Huixin. However, I eventually misunderstood their words and concealed the truth for them. I even thought that this was for the benefit of Jinchan Temple. Now I know that I was totally wrong!"

More and more white smoke rose from Fu Qingzhou's body, and his figure became more and more illusory.

But he couldn't hide the smile in his eyes.

Every word Huiyuan uttered while kowtowing was more important than the last!

He has done a lot of things for Huijue and Huixin, and can even be considered one of their "own people". He knows a frightening amount of inside information!

Damn it, isn’t the evidence Huikong wants right here?
Of course... this is just his one-sided statement. Hui Xin still needs to be caught.

Finally, Huiyuan finished kowtowing. The floor tile he was kowtowing on had been shattered and his forehead was swollen. It was obvious that he felt really guilty and did not use any of his true energy to protect himself. Each time he kowtowed, his movements were extremely heavy.

Not only that, there were two tear marks on his face... He didn't know when he was in tears.

"very good."

Fu Qingzhou, whose figure was no longer visible in the white smoke, said softly, "In my opinion, you and I should write down all our crimes so that Brother Huikong can clean up the temple. After that, we should spend the rest of our lives to make amends for our mistakes. If the people we have harmed have relatives, we should go and make amends for them. If there are no relatives to make amends for, we should do good deeds and eliminate evil deeds to redeem ourselves."

"…You are right." Hui Yuan smiled and said, "If you want me to die, I will do it; if you want me to practice asceticism for the rest of my life, I will do it for the rest of my life, just to find peace of mind."

Fu Qingzhou nodded slightly, then gently clenched the Buddhist beads in his hand that controlled the magic array.

The enormous power of the illusion array pressed down on Hui Yuan again. His already exhausted body and mind could no longer bear it. His body swayed slightly, his eyes rolled back, and he fell to the ground, fainting.

(End of this chapter)