Many children, many blessings: Stealing the offspring of powerful figures to cultivate immortality.

Jiang Yining, standing outside the palace gate, looked at the tightly closed wooden door and heard a dull thud coming from inside. Her brows twitched.

Gu Qinghan stood behind her, the broken sword was drawn three inches from its sheath and then pushed back in, repeating this twice.

"Three blows, and the Buddha's bones shattered." Gu Qinghan's voice was as cold as a blade scraping across ice. "He brought it on himself."

"Be quiet."

The door opened from the inside, and Mingzhao helped Fan Chenxin out. The back of his moon-white monk's robe was soaked with a large dark patch, and his face was deathly pale. His steps were unsteady, but he was still walking on his own.

Fan Chenxin looked up and saw Jiang Yining standing under the corridor through Mingzhao's shoulder.

His lips moved, but before he could say anything, Mingzhao helped him walk towards the side hall.

Jiang Yining turned to Gu Qinghan and said something.

"I'll go check on his injury; the baptism of the Five Treasures must not be interrupted."

Gu Qinghan's jawline tightened, and his frosty eyes churned with emotion, but in the end he simply pushed the broken sword back into its sheath.

"I'll go with you."

"You stand guard outside the door."

Why?

"If you go in, he will be nervous. Nervousness will aggravate his internal injuries. If his internal injuries are aggravated, his Buddha light will be unstable. If his Buddha light is unstable, the baptism of the Five Treasures will have to be delayed. If it is delayed, the more days I and the Five Treasures stay on this mountain, the more jealous you will be."

Jiang Yining laid out the chain of interests in one breath, watching Gu Qinghan's expression change from gloomy to stifled.

"Your logic is sound."

"Then you should listen to me."

Jiang Yining patted the back of his hand and turned to walk towards the side hall.

Gu Qinghan followed and stood at the entrance of the side hall. The pure Yang sword intent spread out silently, completely isolating the spying aura of the Discipline Hall within a radius of five zhang.

Jiang Yining pushed open the door and went in.

Inside the side hall, the scent of medicine mingled with the stench of blood. Fan Chenxin was sitting cross-legged on a futon, trying to meditate and heal his injuries. Buddhist light emanated intermittently from his palms, like candle flames scattered by the wind, unable to solidify into a coherent form.

His monk's robe was soaked with blood and clung to his skin. Three wounds from the staff extended from his shoulder blade to his waist. Golden light faintly shone from the broken bones, indicating that the marrow was losing its Buddhist power.

"Benefactor..." Fan Chenxin sensed her presence, opened his eyes, and tried to stand up.

"Don't move."

Jiang Yining walked behind him, glanced at the shocking bloodstains, and took out a white porcelain bottle from her storage ring.

"I won't touch the wound. I'll channel chaotic life force into your back to help stabilize the shattered Buddha bone."

Fan Chenxin's shoulders and back tensed up.

"No need, benefactor, this humble monk will..."

"You can't even condense the Buddha's light yourself, how can you stabilize it? Tomorrow, the Five Treasures will undergo their seventh baptism, are you planning to use this broken state to bless her with Buddha's light?"

Fan Chenxin shut her mouth.

Jiang Yining's fingertips touched the monk's robe on the back of his heart. Through the blood-soaked fabric, a purplish-gold chaotic vitality seeped into his fingertips, flowing gently and persistently toward his shattered Buddhist bones.

That vitality wasn't as domineering as spiritual power; instead, it was like thawing spring water, slowly flowing into the gaps in the bones, gradually mending the shattered edges back into place.

Fan Chenxin's breathing became disordered.

It wasn't because of the pain; he could endure the pain of being hit by the cane.

It was the touch of her fingertips on his back, the warmth he could feel even through his monk's robe, that left him with nowhere to escape, more intense than the combined force of three canes.

"My friend, your own meridians are also injured..."

"My injuries won't kill me, but if your Buddha relics are shattered, there will be no one to perform the baptism for the Five Treasures. I can tell the difference between what's important and what's not."

Fan Chenxin gripped the prayer beads tightly with his hands on his knees, making them crackle.

After Jiang Yining finished channeling the life force, she withdrew her finger, walked around to him, squatted down, and poured a spoonful of medicine from the white porcelain bottle.

Open your mouth.

Fan Chenxin looked at the jade spoon, then at Jiang Yining squatting in front of her. Moonlight streamed in through the window and fell on her profile. Her purple-gold eyes held no extra emotions, only the efficiency of business dealing.

"This humble monk will do it himself..."

He reached out to take the spoon, but his fingers trembled in mid-air and he couldn't hold it steady at all.

The staff shattered three sections of his Buddhist bones, causing a severe loss of Buddhist power within his meridians. He couldn't even lift a spoon.

"Why are you trying to be brave when your hands are shaking like that?"

Jiang Yining didn't give him a chance to refuse; the jade spoon was already brought to his lips.

Fan Chenxin closed his eyes, as if he were doing some kind of huge mental preparation, then opened his mouth and took the spoonful of medicine into his mouth.

The bitter medicine slid down his throat, and a few drops slid down his lips and landed on the knuckles of his fingers resting on his knees.

Jiang Yining casually pulled a handkerchief from her sleeve, pinched his knuckles, and wiped the few drops of medicine clean, her movements as natural as wiping a bowl.

Fan Chenxin froze on the spot.

He lived for 120 years, and from the moment he was abandoned at the mountain gate, no one ever wiped his hands.

No one knelt down in front of him to feed him medicine when he was injured.

No one would naturally wipe his fingers with a handkerchief when they got dirty.

These things are too trivial to be recorded on a single page of Buddhist scriptures.

But these seemingly insignificant little things illuminated the empty space in his heart that had been there for 120 years more clearly than the three thousand Buddha lamps and the Buddha Heart Mirror combined.

"Benefactor." His voice was hoarse, unlike his own.

"Um?"

"What you said outside the palace just now..."

"I'm stating the facts. The Buddha Heart Mirror showed my image to hundreds of monks without my consent. Would you be happy if you were in my shoes?"

Fan Chenxin shook his head, then nodded, his expression so confused that he himself didn't even realize it.

Jiang Yining put the jade spoon back into the porcelain bottle, stood up, and patted the dust off her knees.

"I have something to ask you."

"Please speak, benefactor."

Is there something at the bottom of the Merit Pool?

Fan Chenxin looked up at her.

"When I was performing the baptism for the Five Treasures, I sensed an extremely pure source of willpower deep at the bottom of the pool, a hundred times more concentrated than the water itself. If that substance could be used to purify the residual divine poison within the Five Treasures' bodies, it should be able to eradicate it completely in one go."

Fan Chenxin remained silent for a few moments.

"An ancient Buddha relic is sealed at the bottom of the pool."

"I knew it." Jiang Yining sat back down on the low stool opposite him. "How can we get it?"

"The relics of the ancient Buddha are managed by the Vinaya Institute, and may not be used without the guidance of the sutras and the unhindered debate on the Dharma."

"The method of unobstructed argumentation?"

"In three days, the Great Thunderclap Temple will hold its once-in-a-century Dharma assembly. At that time, anyone can go on stage to debate and challenge others. If they win three consecutive rounds, they can ask the temple for one item. No one has ever been able to defeat the abbot..."

"Three days later." Jiang Yining tapped her knee with her fingertips, her purple-gold eyes already calculating something.

"You wouldn't be thinking of..., would you?"

"What I think is none of your business. You just need to heal your injuries and perform the baptism for Wubao as usual in three days."

She stood up and walked towards the door.

"donor."

Jiang Yining turned around.

Fan Chenxin sat on the futon and looked up at her. The moonlight made his pale face look like an unfinished jade Buddha, and the bitter taste of the medicine still lingered on his lips.

"Thank you, benefactor."

"What are you thanking me for? You took three lashes for Wu Bao, so consider this medicine my way of repaying you."

She pushed open the palace door and went out.

Outside the door, Gu Qinghan leaned against a pillar, his frosty eyes locking onto her the moment she appeared.

His gaze fell on the fingertips of her right hand, where a trace of purple-gold light still lingered from when she had just received the life force. At the same time, a faint aura that did not belong to her was wrapped around her fingertips, a mixture of sandalwood and Buddhist light, so faint as to be almost imperceptible.

But for someone like Gu Qinghan, whose possessiveness is so strong that he even has to count the scents, this scent is more glaring than a wound.

"Is the matter settled?"

"It's all done. His Buddha relics will be stable, and the baptism of the Five Treasures will not be affected."

"Um."

Gu Qinghan straightened up from the pillar, walked to her and stood in front of her, his gaze slowly falling from her face to her right hand.

"There's one more thing," Jiang Yining said first, her voice low.

"There is an ancient Buddha relic at the bottom of the Merit Pool, which can completely cleanse the Five Treasures of any remaining divine poison. There will be an unrestricted debate in three days. If you win, you can get it."

Gu Qinghan withdrew his gaze from her fingertips, the darkness between his brows dissipating somewhat, replaced by a different emotion.

"Debate the law? Try to reason with a bunch of monks?"

"To be honest, I'm second to none. Have you forgotten how I tricked you from the operating table into bed?"

Gu Qinghan's ear tips turned red for a moment, but he quickly suppressed it with his coldness.

"That's two different things."

"Yes, yes, those are two different things." Jiang Yining laughed and walked past him toward the side courtyard.

Gu Qinghan followed behind her, his gaze falling once again on the trace of purple-gold light and Buddhist energy mingling with the remaining traces on her right fingertips.

Gu Qinghan stared at her fingertips, his eyes darkening.