From a refugee to a martial artist

Chapter 341 Sacrifice
It was getting late, and sunlight could still be seen through the gaps in the trees, but the forest was already very dark.

According to the little fox spirit, he had only heard his elders mention the Kingdom of Xiangji, but he didn't know exactly where it was.

Moreover, the elders of the fox spirit clan have different accounts of the Xiangji Kingdom. Some say it is a fairyland on earth where everyone has a unique fragrance and lives in peace and prosperity; others say it is a land of outdated ideas and ancient rituals of human sacrifice; still others say that the Xiangji Kingdom is full of evil people who not only enslave their own people but also capture people from outside the kingdom, and even demons are not spared.

As for what methods the people of Xiangji Kingdom possess, the fox spirit couldn't say for sure; it was all just legend.

But in any case, somewhere ahead might be the location of the Kingdom of Xiangji.

The three of them discussed their strategy as they moved forward.

Regardless of the affairs of Xiangji Kingdom, if we want to rescue Master Cun and the others, we must explore that mysterious valley again.

The poisonous fog in the valley was strange, spreading extremely quickly, and it was impossible to tell whether the fog was made up of humans or demons.

Not knowing who the enemy is, what the enemy is plotting, or where the enemy comes from is what makes Meng Yuan and his companions extremely cautious.

"Don't underestimate me just because I'm not very capable. Before I came here, I consulted the Four Sages of Chongxu Temple about how to navigate the martial world! I'm very shrewd, and I made special marks along the way in case I couldn't find my way back!"

Su Xin pointed to a patch of moss with some messy marks on it and said seriously, "This is a secret mark unique to our Yunshan Temple. No one else can understand it. It is used to indicate directions."

Short downy hair had grown on her head, and although her clothes were dirty and tattered, she had already washed her face; only her neck was black.

Moreover, she was steadfast in her Buddhist faith. When she lost her shoe on her left foot, she simply threw away her shoe on her right foot as well, wanting to walk barefoot in the mountains, and even called it "harming her body to cultivate her mind."

In the end, Mingyue couldn't bear to watch any longer and had Mengyuan take out a pair of new shoes from his bundle. Suxin happily accepted them.

The three hurried along as fast as they could, but it was already quite dark, so they decided to slow down a bit.

As dawn broke, Su Xin spotted a mountain stream and was overjoyed. "I remember this place!"

She pointed ahead and said excitedly, "The valley is just ahead, we have to be careful!"

The three of them ate some dry rations there, and Mingyue took out some pills, each of them holding them in their mouths in case of any sudden changes.

Then, following the plan, Mingyue and Suxin provided support from behind, while Mengyuan went forward alone.

"Saving lives is important, but your own safety is the most important. You must take the risk, but remember that there are people at home waiting for you," Mingyue earnestly advised.

Meng Yuan was about to leave when he heard this, so he turned back, grabbed Mingyue's hands, and said, "I will always remember that you are behind me. I will never take any risks unless absolutely necessary. You must also be careful. If something happens to you, I don't know what the point of living would be."

Mingyue nodded, her eyes filled with deep affection.

Since they went south, the two had occasionally bickered, but Meng Yuan was very good at coaxing people, and they often rode together on the same horse, so they were just one step away from becoming intimate.

At this moment, Mingyue's eyes seemed to hold autumn water, with concern mixed with a touch of shyness.

Su Xin watched from the side, scratching her head and wondering about the relationship between the two. She muttered to herself, "Good heavens, don't these two treat me like a human being? They look like they're about to start talking nonsense with Senior Sister Su Qiu right away?"

"Be careful." Seeing Mingyue lost in thought, Meng Yuan knew that after this, the two of them could take another step forward, so he was no longer in a hurry.

After releasing Mingyue's hand, Meng Yuan looked at Suxin, who had her back to the two of them, and gave her a few more instructions, telling her to stay with Mingyue.

After chatting for a while, Meng Yuan leaped up and soared to the top of a giant tree.

It was early morning, and the mountains were cool. Looking into the distance, one could see the sun gradually rising, and wisps of mist rising from the forest.

There were sounds of wild beasts howling, like monkeys, tigers, and leopards.

But looking further ahead, the mountains and forests are complex, with only an endless expanse of emerald green, and the paths within them are both real and illusory.

Lightening his pace, Meng Yuan didn't land on the ground, but instead ran through the tall trees. At the same time, he activated the jade liquid, so that any slight movement around him would not escape his notice.

They traveled for more than ten miles and crossed a hill. According to Su Xin's words, the valley should have appeared before them, but Meng Yuan could not find it.

Su Xin had said that the valley where the accident occurred had a strange terrain, as if a series of mountain peaks had been cleaved open by a celestial being's sword.

Although the entrance to the valley is a bit narrow, it is still a hundred feet wide, and it gets wider as you go in. It is not an inconspicuous or hard-to-find place.

Seeing something amiss, Meng Yuan quickly calmed himself down and activated the Heavenly Secrets Technique. Once he was certain that he was not trapped in an illusion, he stopped investigating and instead retreated.

This time it's to save lives, so we must be even more careful and absolutely not risk getting hurt again.

After retreating several miles, I found Mingyue and Suxin.

Even after Meng Yuan said he couldn't find the valley, Su Xin still didn't believe him.

“I made a mark here, look.” Su Xin found a blue stone with a circle drawn on it.

Full of confidence, Su Xin ran forward, but stopped abruptly after passing a small hill.

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Su Xin stared wide-eyed, looking ahead as if she had gone mad.

Mingyue and Mengyuan followed behind Suxin, only to find that the mountains and forests ahead were still dense, with no valley entrance in sight.
Meng Yuan had Mingyue guard Su Xin while he quickly searched the surrounding ten miles, but still couldn't find the entrance to the valley or the valley that matched Su Xin's description.

“Mirage illusion? Great supernatural power? But Su Xin said that what they saw and heard while cooking over a fire should not be an illusion.”

Meng Yuan couldn't figure it out either, but he knew there were many wise people in the world, and perhaps what he couldn't see through was just a secret laid out by a wise person.

After running around for a long time, they still couldn't find a valley that matched the terrain.

Meng Yuan was not discouraged, so he simply captured a few nearby demons and planned to interrogate them in detail.

“Great Immortal, we’ve lived here for decades. Where are there any valleys? There are quite a few caves, though!” A white-haired rat spirit lay prostrate on the ground, answering every question and providing a great deal of information.

"Do you know about the Kingdom of Xiangji?" Mingyue asked.

"What fragrant country or foul country? We've never heard of them!" The white-haired rat gnashed its front teeth at the ground, its tone still carrying a hint of arrogance.

This person is even less knowledgeable than that fox spirit!
"Have you noticed anything unusual while living here?" Meng Yuan asked.

The white-haired rat spirit thought for a moment and hurriedly said, "Yes, yes, yes!"

“Tell me!” Su Xin stepped forward.

The white-haired mouse chuckled a few times, then stopped answering.

Su Xin was still curious when she saw Meng Yuan throw out a piece of silver, which the white-haired rat caught and stuffed into its mouth.

"What use is silver in this desolate wilderness? Where can we spend it?" Su Xin was truly helpless.

"Hehe, we remember you. A group of bald guys passed by the other day, and we spotted you from afar!" The white-haired rat wasn't very clever, but he was a local rat at heart. He looked at Su Xin curiously and asked, "Is being bald fashionable outside?"

He looked at Meng Yuan and Mingyue curiously and asked, "Why don't you two pluck out all your hair?" This was an ignorant rat spirit; he didn't even know that monks could be so ignorant. But this place was indeed too remote; such ignorance was to be expected.

Seeing Meng Yuan frown, the white-haired mouse dared not utter another word and immediately said, "If you ask what's wrong, here, whenever it rains, if fog rolls in the next day, we can't go out. The old folks say it's a rule set by our ancestors, that a Buddha once came here and established a Pure Land, and the fog only appears after the rain. If you accidentally enter the Pure Land, you'll never be able to get out!"

Upon hearing this, Meng Yuan and Mingyue looked at Su Xin.

Su Xin frowned and said, "There was indeed fog before we entered the valley, and it rained the night before last. But after we entered the valley at noon, we didn't see any fog anymore."

Meng Yuan and Mingyue exchanged a glance, unsure of what to do, and asked the white-haired mouse, "Does that Buddha have a name?"

The white-haired mouse kept shaking its head.

Seeing that he couldn't get any more information from the questioning, Meng Yuan took the white-haired rat and went to find its relatives.

Six intelligent rats were interrogated in succession, including an ancestor rat who had clearly entered a state of spiritual cultivation and was absorbing the essence of the moon, but the answers were all the same.

It is said that this is a saying passed down from our ancestors, that the Buddha came from the West and established a Pure Land here.

As for who the Buddha was, that remains unknown. As for the exact location of the Pure Land, that also remains unknown.

However, someone with such great supernatural power is probably not at the third level of Buddhism; they must be at the second level, or even the first level.

Apart from the current Buddha of Freedom, there are no other Buddhas of the Second Grade in Buddhism. However, tracing back to the origins, the Western Buddhist Kingdom has produced Buddhas of the First Grade, and several of them of the Second Grade.

In the Central Plains, no Buddha of the first rank has ever appeared, but one of the second rank has.

"Amitabha." Su Xin sat cross-legged on the ground, munching on the unleavened flatbread that Meng Yuan had given her, and said, "I often hear my junior sister Su Wen say that she worships the Medicine King Bodhisattva. But the Medicine King Bodhisattva is recorded in Buddhist scriptures and belongs to the Three Buddhas, which is too ethereal and unfounded."

She spoke very seriously about the past history, "Our Central Plains was in chaos for a hundred years before the Qing Kingdom was even established. Later, when our Buddhist sect was gaining power, it was the Dugu clan that suppressed it."

Su Xin glanced at Mingyue, then stuffed the flatbread into her mouth again, and continued, "Before Qing Kingdom, there was Chen Kingdom, which lasted for eight hundred years. It revered Confucianism and suppressed Buddhism, and our Buddhist sect nearly withered away. Why did Chen Kingdom suppress Buddhism? It was because before Chen Kingdom was founded, there was Wei Kingdom, which lasted for eight hundred years. Before Wei Kingdom, there was Jile Kingdom, a true earthly Buddhist kingdom, whose power was even greater than that of the Western Buddhist kingdoms. However, Jile Kingdom was destroyed very quickly, lasting only a hundred years. Then there was two or three hundred years of chaos, with countless deaths and injuries. Later generations learned from this, so when later dynasties were established, they were all wary of our Buddhist sect, and suppressing Buddhism became commonplace. Even if they did not suppress Buddhism, they would never venerate it."

As she spoke, Su Xin sighed and said, "My master said that we seek purity and our true selves. To dream of establishing a nation is to go astray. Besides, if Buddhism has no successors, it will inevitably fall into chaos."

Seeing that Meng Yuan and Ming Yue were listening attentively, Su Xin smiled sheepishly and said, "I've gone off on a tangent. When the Kingdom of Bliss was first established, our Buddhist sect was very powerful. It is said that a Bodhisattva of the second rank once appeared. That Bodhisattva saw the kingdom decline but did not help. Later, when the decree to destroy Buddhism was issued, he did not help either. According to our Buddhist legend, that Bodhisattva led many people to flee overseas."

This place is obviously not overseas, but it's not far off.

After listening to Su Xin's rambling for a while, even if Meng Yuan and Ming Yue wanted to investigate the past, two thousand years had already passed, and that second-grade Bodhisattva might be long gone.

It's also possible that this place has absolutely nothing to do with that Bodhisattva.

Unable to make up their minds, the three finally decided to wait quietly. They would wait for the rain to fall and for the fog to rise.

Knowing Meng Yuan's capabilities, Su Xin naturally became obedient and compliant. Ming Yue, having already been sexually assaulted by Meng Yuan, was also very obedient.

Unexpectedly, the forest where it had been raining frequently when I visited stopped raining.

There was nothing they could do but wait.

After waiting for half a month, on the day I went to help, dark clouds gathered in the sky and a strong wind was blowing.

There was thunder and lightning, and the heavy rain didn't stop until midnight.

The mountains are damp, wild animals lie dormant, and only birds and insects come out at night.

The three of them dared not close their eyes, and waited until dawn before they saw a faint mist rising in the mountains.

The fog rose from the mountains and forests, and soon became thick.

This time, Meng Yuan was still in front, with Mingyue and Suxin behind.

Sure enough, after walking for a short while, they found themselves in a completely different world. What had been a dead-end mountain wilderness just a few days ago now had a valley entrance.

The entrance was about ten feet wide, with low shrubs growing on the ground and vines climbing all over the sides of the canyon.

Meng Yuan held the knife in his hand, extremely vigilant, but he couldn't see anything strange about it at all. This was not some kind of mirage or illusion; it was the real thing.

Walking into the valley, after less than half a mile, the fog dissipated.

Continuing forward, one sees that the terrain on both sides of the valley is only a few dozen feet high at its lowest point, but the further one goes, the higher the cliffs seem to rise, probably close to two hundred feet. And further on, they are even higher.

The fog has dissipated, and the view is expansive.

What you see is truly a paradise on earth.

The grass was lush and green, and flowering trees covered the ground. Cranes flew lightly across the water, and white deer cried out.

The valley was covered with vines and many low trees. There seemed to be something carved on the cliff face, but it was hidden by the vines and not very clear.

Many monkeys climbed and howled on the cliff face, picking fruit and eating it, living a carefree life.

The butterflies flutter and the birds sing, yet there is no sign of violence; instead, there is an extraordinary sense of peace.

Upon seeing this, Meng Yuan immediately thought that if he could live in seclusion here with his beauties, drinking wine and appreciating flowers in his spare time, and picking flowers and plants when he was busy, it would truly be a joyful thing in life.

With his mind free of distractions, Meng Yuan found peace in his heart.

This place is exactly the same as the place Su Xin described, and there are even traces of their campsite, but they can't find anyone here.

Further on, they came to a stream where sheep and deer were drinking. They were not afraid when Meng Yuan approached, clearly indicating that they had never been hunted.

As Meng Yuan continued forward, he suddenly heard what sounded like voices ahead, and they were continuous and not just one person's voice, but rather the voices of many people praying together.

It's like monks getting together to chant sutras.

Meng Yuan crept along the very edge of the valley, and after rounding a bend, he saw an open space ahead.

A high platform stood in the open space, upon which stood two tall stone towers. People sat cross-legged atop the towers, while a large crowd gathered below, kneeling and worshipping before them.

Between the two towers was a pile of timber, and a person was tied to it.

Meng Yuan saw it clearly; the person on top of the pile of wood was clearly Su Wen.

"Fire!" shouted the person on the left tower.

"Fire!" responded the person on the right tower.

Soon, a dozen or so people dressed in fine clothes, each holding a torch, came to the fire.

(End of this chapter)