Starting with the divine power of the Great Vajra, he traversed the heavens.

Chapter 492 Long'er (Seeking monthly votes at the beginning of the month!)
Steamed locust flowers are delicious.

The raw material consists of flower buds that are not fully opened and still have dew on them. These buds are soaked in lightly salted water, then drained, and coated with flour before being steamed.

When eating, it is served with minced garlic, vinegar, and chili oil as a dipping sauce.

It has a soft and fluffy texture, a base flavor that is sour, spicy and savory, and a lingering fragrance of locust blossoms.

The texture is rich and layered, and the salty tartare is incredibly easy to cut!

"So, that kid Ao Jue doesn't have any bad intentions." Hongxiu opened her mouth, "Just plain stupid?"

Ren Shaoyang picked up a piece of locust flower, which was already coated with minced garlic and chili sauce, and looked very pretty.

He gently put it in his mouth and chewed it slowly.

As the molars ground up the dough and flowers, a burst of complex aromas—garlic, vinegar, chili, dough, and flowers—was released!

Ren Jianshen gave a satisfied "hmm," then sipped his wine, his eyes narrowed with delight, and nodded repeatedly.

(P.S.: I was quite resentful while writing this.)
"Hey! I'm talking to you, stop eating!"

Hongxiu watched anxiously, stamping her feet to urge him on.

Ren Shaoyang popped a mouthful of locust blossoms into his mouth, sipped his wine, and then leisurely put down his chopsticks, saying with satisfaction, "It's fucking delicious!"

Leaning back in his chair, he said lazily, "That kid Ao Jue was chosen by Wu Wudi ten years ago and taught the 'Heavenly Mandate Sword Path.' It was because of this ill-fated relationship that he was able to rise so quickly and make such rapid progress in his swordsmanship."

"Unfortunately, the gifts of fate have always come with a hidden price. The 'Heavenly Fate Sword Path' that Ao Jue learned was secretly modified by Wu Wudi. The higher he cultivated it, the more evil the sword energy became, and the more it resembled the aura of the 'Great Evil King'!"

Hongxiu said, "I see! That's why when Aojue challenged you to a sword duel, he would unconsciously use the 'Heavenly Fate Sword Path,' which would naturally attract the Buddhists."

Ren Shaoyang laughed and said, "First, we secretly threw the 'Sword Worship Token' into Wanjie Valley, and then we sealed Ao Jue's senses so that he could not perceive the similarity between his sword energy and the 'Great Evil King's' saber energy. By doing both, we completely nailed him to the pillar of shame for being a knife thief."

"Then they threw the 'Great Evil King' into our house, which ultimately made it seem like I was the one who manipulated Ao Jue to steal the knife."

"But," Hongxiu asked, "why would Wu Wudi do this?"

"He wants to kill two birds with one stone."

Ren Shaoyang chuckled and said, "Firstly, I need to use Ao Jue and the Buddhist people to probe my skill level in preparation for the battle of Leifeng Pagoda."

Hongxiu nodded: "I encountered Wu Wudi in the woods, and he was indeed spying on me."

"Secondly, it is to prepare for a backup plan."

"What preparation?"

Ren Shaoyang laughed and said, "If he is defeated and dies at my hands, his descendants can seek the master of the 'Great Evil King' again in order to break the blood curse of the Wu family."

Hongxiu suddenly realized: "Ao Jue!"

"Yes."

Ren Shaoyang smiled and looked at Ding An beside him. He saw Ding An using an eagle knife to scrape the nick on the Great Evil King's blade, making a cracking sound. The Great Evil King trembled incessantly.

“Ao Jue’s cultivation technique is connected with that of the Great Evil King, so it is only natural that he would abandon the sword and use a saber.”

“After all,” Ren Shaoyang said quietly, “Ao Jue is much easier to deal with than I am.”

"Why didn't he just let Ao Jue take the knife?" Hong Xiu asked.

Ren Shaoyang laughed and said, "Because Wu Wudi is arrogant and invincible, he not only wants to break the Wu family's blood curse, but also wants to find a real opponent to fight to his heart's content." He shook his head, "Ao Jue is not taken seriously by Wu Wudi."

Ding An looked up, bewildered, and said, "So, the Great Evil King only passed through my hands briefly, and ultimately it will still be in your hands, Shao Yang?"

Ren Shaoyang took a sip of his drink and smiled, "Yes."

Ding An shrugged, carried the Great Evil King over, placed it on the table, sighed, and said, "Alright, whatever you say."

Hongxiu sensed the disappointment in his tone, so she coughed twice to clear her throat and said, "Ding'an, you are also very remarkable."

"What's so great about me?" Ding'an scratched his head, puzzled.

"This great evil king is extremely vicious and evil, leading people to evil and killing countless people."

Hongxiu shook her head and said, "But in your hands, you can't cut this or kill that. If I hadn't come, it would have turned into a woodcutter's axe!"

After saying this, the Great Evil King trembled slightly, as if expressing his grievances.

"Hey~! It really is!"

Ding An clapped his hands, "I resisted the bewitching influence of this evil blade!"

Hongxiu nodded, then looked at Shaoyang: "Crippled man, what is that old 'Wu Family Blood Curse'? What made that old bastard Wu Wudi plot against us like this?"

Ren Shaoyang explained the reason.

Three hundred years ago, Wu Hui, a traitor to Buddhism, mistakenly entered the Nine Void Boundless Realm, obtained a demonic sword called "King of Calamity," and slaughtered nearly a thousand people in the martial world.

Upon hearing this, Hongxiu asked, "Only a thousand people?"

Ding'an frowned as well: "That's not much!"

"Hey!" Ren Shaoyang slammed his hand on the table. "Don't act too much like a villain! Our readers have been complaining lately!" He declared righteously, "We're the good guys, the protagonists!"

"That's right, that's right~"

Hongxiu and Ding'an smiled obsequiously and gave each other a thumbs up, "We may kill, set fires, poison, and refine human pills, but we are the righteous ones, the protagonists!"

"Stop pretending." Ren Shaoyang waved his hand and continued his explanation. Wu Hui's killing spree was so ruthless that everyone was on edge, so they called upon Yun Dingtian, the "reincarnated Guan Yu," who wielded the divine sword "Wu Bixie" and won a narrow victory over Wu Hui.

At the same time as his victory, his family of thirty-six people tragically died of the plague.

Yun Dingtian fought for Heaven, for Buddha, and for the righteous path, but ultimately his family was destroyed and he was heartbroken. He then clashed Nu Bixie and Jie Wang together, and the two swords merged into one, becoming the 'Great Evil King'.

"So that's how it came about?"

Hongxiu gently stroked the Great Evil King's blade, stuck out her tongue, and smiled sweetly.

The Great Evil King was terrified and cried out in anguish.

"Even the Great Evil King isn't as evil as you! You've even started eating iron, do you think you're some kind of 'Bodhisattva of Great Joy'?"

Ren Shaoyang rolled her eyes at her and continued her story.

With the "Great Evil King" in hand, Yun Dingtian became an unparalleled demon, and no one in the world could subdue him.

Just as he was rampaging, Wu Wuer, the ancestor of the Wu family, emerged from the mountains and fought a decisive battle against Yun Dingtian with the divine sword "Tianming".

After ten days and ten nights of fierce fighting, Wu Wu'er summoned heavenly lightning to strike Yun Dingtian, ultimately causing his death and the dissipation of his Dao.

Before his death, he cursed the world to extinct all Buddhist teachings, and that the Wu family would never have another genius. As soon as the evil curse was uttered, he was immediately punished by heaven, and his body was brutally blasted to the point of complete annihilation.

In the centuries that followed, countless eminent monks and virtuous masters tried to destroy the "Great Evil King," but all of them suffered undeserved calamities and met untimely deaths.

In the end, the only option was to hide the sword in Wanjie Valley, where it was suppressed by high monks chanting sutras every day.

Due to the curse of the Great Evil King, few martial arts prodigies were born among the descendants of the Wu family, and they gradually declined.

"Hey! That's not right!" Hongxiu raised her hand and said.

Ren Shaoyang looked at her and smiled, "You mean to say that Wu Wudi is a martial arts prodigy, right?"

"Yes, yes!" Hongxiu nodded repeatedly. "Did he break the curse?"

“Wu Wudi went to Lingyun Cave in his youth,” Ren Shaoyang said. “This place gathers the spiritual energy of the land, and he also had a fortuitous encounter in the cave, which not only dispelled half of the curse, but also created the ‘Ten Strong Martial Arts’.”

"However, this is only a temporary solution. To completely break the curse, we must defeat the peerless martial artist wielding the 'Great Evil King'!"

After hearing this, Hongxiu shook her head and said, "I see! The martial artists in this world are really crazy."

Ding An muttered under his breath, "No one's crazier than you! Who's going to gossip about others?"

The little beggar suddenly turned around, staring intently at him, and said, "Were you talking behind my back?"

"I didn't!" Ding An said expressionlessly, but under Hong Xiu's gaze, he couldn't help but burst out laughing. "No!"

Hongxiu snorted coldly, but surprisingly didn't elbow him.

Ren Shaoyang stood up, facing the wind and looking south. His white robe fluttered in the wind, like clouds and mist billowing.

Hongxiu leaned closer to him, frowning, and said, "Besides Wu Wudi, who else is worthy of your attention?"

"A long-lost person, a long-lost sword!"

"sword?"

"A peerless sword that shakes the heavens and earth, unmatched in its kind."

Hongxiu raised an eyebrow and chuckled, "The reincarnation of the Sword Saint?"

"That's right!"

Ren Shaoyang laughed loudly and said in a clear voice, "Sword Saint Long'er has already made his debut in the martial world." His eyes were bright and his spirit was shining. "However, he has become a little monk!"
-
Dixin Temple in Hangzhou.

"Click click click~!"

The sound of chisels striking the stone was incessant, and gravel fell to the ground in a flurry.

A novice monk walked in, put down two steamed buns, and said, "Junior brother, you have been working on this Buddha statue for several days without sleep or food! Take a rest, eat something, and then continue."

The thin figure seemed not to hear, and showed no sign of stopping, continuing to tap the stone.

But the Shakyamuni Buddha statue he sculpted was solemn and dignified, serene and peaceful, free from worries.

The young novice monk gazed at it intently: "This Buddha statue is the best I have ever seen in my life! It's even more benevolent than the Buddha statue in the main hall!"

He loudly congratulated him, "Junior brother, it seems you've succeeded!"

Suddenly, the focused figure stopped striking the keys.

He slowly turned around, revealing himself to be a young monk, no more than thirteen or fourteen years old, with delicate eyebrows, phoenix eyes, a straight nose, thin lips, and a cool gaze, as if nothing in the world concerned him.

Only a single cinnabar blood mole on his forehead, so strikingly red, added a touch of fierce arrogance.

"Do not."

He spoke softly, his voice like a cold spring striking a stone.

The novice monk was taken aback: "What do you mean, 'not'?"

A flame seemed to flicker deep within the young monk's eyes. He gazed at the solemn Buddha statue and said in a deep voice, "Not enough."

(End of this chapter)