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

After settling the five treasures, Jiang Yining walked to the corridor. The fourth treasure was still holding the abacus and waiting for her, its golden pupils blinking in the night breeze.

Explain yourself.

"The owner of the incense shop is called Jingtan. On the surface, he has been supplying incense to the Great Thunder Temple for twenty years, but in reality, his soul has been parasitized by the remnants of the divine realm." Sibao's little hand moved three beads on the abacus. "Every month, he mixes a kind of high-dimensional law powder into the purification incense powder. After the incense burns, it seeps into the temple's barrier and eventually converges at the bottom of the merit pool."

"Wasn't Xuanbei's intention in injuring the Five Treasures with the Pure Karma Incense Formation before?"

"The proportions were indeed altered by Xuan Bei, but the raw materials had already been tampered with."

Sibao put the abacus together and looked up at her: "Mother, Jingtan will act on the eve of the Unobstructed Dharma Debate. He will introduce the remnants of the divine realm into the bottom of the pool to resonate with the ancient Buddha's relics. At that time, the power of the relics will be polluted and reversed. When Fifth Sister is baptized, it will not be purification but backlash."

Jiang Yining leaned against a pillar and twirled the turquoise bell with her fingertips.

"How did you calculate the timing of his actions?"

"I calculated it three times."

Sibao held up three little fingers, looking very serious.

He pulled out a neatly folded piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it. It was covered with symbols and numbers that only those with the Heavenly Secrets Dao Body could understand. At the bottom, a red line was drawn with cinnabar pointing to two words: Tomorrow Night.

"The operation will take place at 11:45 AM tomorrow night, with an error margin of no more than two incense sticks' time."

Jiang Yining looked down at the paper, her lips twitching.

She reached out and ruffled the stray hairs on Sibao's head.

"well done."

Si Bao's ears turned slightly red, and he quickly hugged the abacus tightly, resuming his mature and composed expression.

"What does Mother plan to do? If we arrest him now, there might be accomplices behind the incense shop who haven't been exposed yet."

"No rush." ​​Jiang Yining folded the paper and put it into her storage ring. "Let him do it. We'll find out the truth once he does it."

She turned to look outside the courtyard.

"Feng Liuyun hasn't gone far, has he?"

"They're squatting outside the courtyard wall, eavesdropping." Si Bao rolled his eyes.

Feng Liuyun's voice immediately came from the top of the wall, carrying a shameless smile that came from being exposed.

"Sister Ningning, I was just passing by."

"Come in."

Feng Liuyun jumped down from the wall and landed in front of the corridor. The dust on his brocade robe had been dried by his Nirvana True Fire at some point. His peach blossom eyes looked at her with bright eyes.

"Is there work to do?"

"Tomorrow, take Sibao to the incense shop again, pretending to buy incense, but don't alert them."

"And what about the young master's fee for his hard work?"

"Four Treasures, give him an extra 100 Star Stones."

Sibao adjusted the abacus without even looking up.

"It's been noted down."

Feng Liuyun's lips twitched. Looking at this four-year-old heartless boss, and then at the expressionless Jiang Yining in front of him, he swallowed back the words "too little" that were on the tip of his tongue.

"Fine, since I'm willing to work for your Jiang family."

He turned around to leave, but after taking two steps, he turned back.

"Gu Qinghan's broken sword flicked my hand quite hard today, Ningning, shouldn't you do something about it?"

"Take care of yourself first."

Feng Liuyun chuckled, stopped pressing the matter, and led the four treasures down the mountain.

The side courtyard fell completely silent, with only the lingering scent of sandalwood and Wu Bao's long, drawn-out breathing.

The following evening.

Jiang Yining set up her small red clay stove under the Bodhi tree as usual to brew medicine. Wu Bao was in better spirits than yesterday. Leaning against the soft pillows, she played with fox tail leaves on the veranda, humming a tuneless little tune.

The door to the side hall opened on time, and Fan Chenxin walked in carrying a purple-gold alms bowl.

Today, he had an extra thick layer of medicated cloth wrapped around the back of his monk's robe, and he moved more slowly than yesterday, clearly indicating that the injuries from the three canes had not fully healed.

But he held the alms bowl steadily, without even a ripple on the water.

"The pond water today."

Jiang Yining took the alms bowl and placed it on the stone table beside the stove, glancing at his face.

"How's the injury?"

"Much better. The life force you provided yesterday has already pieced the broken bones back together by 70%."

Fan Chenxin stopped three steps away, her gaze falling on the steaming medicine pot beside her.

He hesitated for a moment before speaking.

"Esteemed benefactor, is there something you are hiding from this humble monk?"

Jiang Yining stirred the medicine with a bamboo spoon without looking up.

"Why do you ask that?"

"Last night, when I was meditating in the side hall, I sensed that your divine sense had reached out towards the direction of Bitter Sea Town several times. The frequency of your movements did not seem to be that you were observing the trade route."

Jiang Yining paused her stirring of the medicine and glanced at him.

The monk's perception was more refined than she had imagined.

"Master, you don't need to worry about these things. The debate on the unobstructed Dharma in three days is what you should be concerned about."

"If it concerns the safety of the Five Treasures..."

"It has nothing to do with the Five Treasures." Jiang Yining cut off his questioning naturally, tapping the edge of the medicine pot with her fingertips. "Master, just focus on healing and expounding the Dharma. The Buddha's bone is broken in three sections and hasn't fully healed yet. Don't worry about me anymore."

Fan Chenxin stood three steps away, his moon-white monk's robe fluttering in the evening breeze. His lips moved, as if he wanted to say something, but ultimately he didn't.

He is not a fool.

The more casually she kept him out, the more certain he became that danger was approaching.

But he had no right to question her; he was merely a Buddhist monk performing a baptism for her daughter, not one of hers.

Jiang Yining noticed that he was standing there and hadn't left, and the disappointment of being excluded was almost undisguised in his eyes.

She picked out a charred lotus seed from the oil paper package by the stove. She had roasted it casually while brewing medicine, but the heat was not controlled well and it was half burnt, but the core inside was still sweet.

"Master, have some candy to replenish your energy."

She handed over the poorly presented roasted lotus seed, her tone not much different from feeding a small animal.

Fan Chenxin looked at the dark object in her palm. Its surface was brittle and cracked, and it was not delicate at all. Even the vegetarian dishes offered by the monks next door looked better than it.

He reached out and took it.

When my fingertips touched her palm, it felt icy cold; her hands were even colder today than yesterday.

Fan Chenxin put the lotus seed in his mouth. After the bitter outer shell broke open, there was a slightly sweet and mellow taste inside. It wasn't particularly delicious, but it filled a small part of the empty space in his chest that had been there for 120 years.

"Thank you, benefactor."

"Go on, get some rest."

Fan Chenxin turned and walked towards the side hall, but after a few steps she suddenly turned back.

"Benefactor, if there is anything this humble monk needs, please do not hesitate to ask."

Jiang Yining waved her palm-leaf fan without looking at him, and simply waved her hand.

The figure in the moon-white monk's robe disappeared behind the side hall door, and the sound of the wooden fish didn't ring out for a long time, the rhythm two beats slower than yesterday.

Late at night.

At three-quarters past midnight, all was quiet on the back mountain.

Jiang Yining lay on the couch, holding the five treasures in her arms. Her purple-gold eyes were open in the dark, and her semi-saintly divine sense silently spread out, covering the entire back mountain.

A faint, dark golden aura rose from the foot of the mountain, meandering along the blind spots of the Buddhist barrier, like a snake silently slipping through the cracks.

Jingtan.

The aura bypassed the three patrolling monks' meditation rooms, avoided the Buddhist light barrier of the monastic hall, and precisely slid into the direction of the merit pool.

Jiang Yining's divine sense followed the aura all the way, watching it dive into the pool and settle down next to the restriction sealing the ancient Buddha relic at the bottom of the pool.

Dark golden dust seeped from Jingtan's body, reaching out like tentacles towards the golden Buddha light on the surface of the relic.

Jiang Yining did not move.

She simply noted down the location and method by which he touched the barrier.

The five treasures in the arms suddenly moved, and the red lotus mark between their brows emitted a faint light, as if they were resonating with some power at the bottom of the pool.

Jiang Yining pressed down on Wu Bao's forehead, and a wisp of chaotic life force covered it, severing the connection.

Wu Bao's breathing calmed down again, and she turned over and continued to sleep, clutching her clothes with her little hands.

A low, rumbling sound suddenly erupted from the bottom of the pool. It was neither from Jing Tan nor from the sound of the restriction shattering.

It is a Buddhist chant.

The Buddhist chant emanates from the depths of the seal of the ancient Buddha's relics.

The voice was deep and aged, carrying a distant echo that seemed to belong to another era, like the murmur of an ancient Buddha who had been sleeping at the bottom of a pond for millions of years, disturbed.

Jingtan's dark golden aura trembled violently for a moment, then frantically contracted back into his body, retreating hastily from the bottom of the pool as if he had been scalded.

But the sound of the Buddha's name did not disappear.

It spreads upwards from the bottom of the pool, penetrating the water surface and the stone walls, spreading layer by layer towards the entire back mountain.

The sound of Fan Chenxin's wooden fish in the side hall suddenly stopped.

The lingering sound of the Buddhist chant coming from the bottom of the Merit Pool had not yet dissipated, and that voice clearly did not belong to any monk of the Great Thunderclap Temple.