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

The golden water in the Merit Pool turned black in an instant.

When Jiang Yining rushed to the edge of the pool with Wu Bao in her arms, this was the scene she saw. The originally clear and gentle water of the Merit Pool was as if a whole vat of ink had been poured in. Blackness surged up from the bottom of the pool, carrying strands of dark gold threads that spread in all directions.

Wu Bao arched her body in her arms, the red lotus mark between her brows throbbing wildly under the pull of that dark golden power, and all nine of the little girl's illusory fox tails exploded, emitting a faint cry of pain.

"Mother, it hurts..."

"I'm not afraid." Jiang Yining bit her tongue and pressed her semi-saintly consciousness into the bottom of the pool. She clearly saw Jing Tan kneeling beside the seal of the ancient Buddha relic, inserting her hands into the gaps of the golden Buddha light shell and pouring in strands of dark gold dust.

The purifying power of the relic is being distorted and reversed, turning from healing into soul-locking.

"Please step back, benefactor!"

A pale monk's robe swept in from the direction of the side hall. Fan Chenxin hadn't even had time to put on his shoes. He stepped barefoot on the stone steps by the pool, his face so pale that the blue veins underneath were visible. Three wounds from his cane on his back were still bleeding, but he had already jumped into the surging black pool.

A burst of Buddhist light erupted from his entire body, spreading a golden barrier at the bottom of the pool and forcefully tearing a gap in the connection between the dark golden dust and the ancient Buddha relic.

But his Buddha bone was only 70% complete.

The dark gold dust, like a snake that had smelled blood, burrowed into his back along the three unhealed cracks in the monk's staff, and the moon-white monk's robe was quickly soaked and spread with blood underwater.

"Fan Chenxin!" Jiang Yining's voice deepened.

Fan Chenxin gritted his teeth and extended the Buddha light by another three feet. He looked up at Jiang Yining above the pool, the pain in his eyes suppressed deep within, leaving only calm.

"Benefactor, protect the five treasures first, the soul-locking poison net at the bottom of the pool is rising."

His voice was muffled by the pool water, and the streaks of blood on his back floated in the black water like gold threads that had been torn apart alive.

Clang!

A pure white sword light cleaved into the night sky from the direction of the mountain gate, precisely striking the dark gold chains surging from the surface of the Merit Pool, turning the threads that were trying to climb the Five Treasures into ashes.

Gu Qinghan arrived on his sword, his frost-colored robe fluttering in the night wind, a broken sword held horizontally in front of his chest, and the pure Yang sword intent sweeping across the entire surface of the pool.

"Give me the Five Treasures." He landed next to Jiang Yining and reached out to take the children.

Without hesitation, Jiang Yining handed over the curled-up Wu Bao. Gu Qinghan put one arm around the little girl, and a layer of pure sunlight shielded Wu Bao completely.

"Jingtan is still at the bottom of the pool." Jiang Yining had already turned around to look at the other side of the Merit Pool.

"You can't escape." Feng Liuyun's voice rang out from the shadows. The Nirvana True Fire transformed into a scarlet wall of light in his palm, sealing off all of Jingtan's escape routes from the bottom of the pool to the surface. The usual smile was gone from his peach blossom eyes, leaving only cold light.

Sibao peeked out from behind the corner of Fengliuyun's robe, holding a golden abacus and a stack of account books in his arms. His Heavenly Eye was fully open, rapidly recording the flow and law fluctuations of every wisp of dark golden dust at the bottom of the pool.

"Mother, the chain of evidence has reached the seventh point: the frequency of the laws of the residual dust from the divine realm within Jingtan's body perfectly matches the powder in the incense shop's warehouse."

Jiang Yining nodded, her gaze already returning to the pool.

Fan Chenxin was still desperately holding on underwater. The Buddha light barrier was riddled with holes by the dark gold dust. He was like a candle that was about to burn out. Although the light was fading, his figure did not retreat an inch.

Jingtan stood up from the bottom of the pool, and the dark golden dust around him condensed into a blurry Buddha image. The voice of the Buddha image as it spoke carried an eerie solemnity.

"The power of the Merit Pool could have been upgraded by the Divine Realm... Chief Abbot Xuanbei, all I did was open a door for the Great Thunderclap Temple to a higher level."

Hurried footsteps came from the direction of the back mountain. Xuanbei, leaning on his staff, rushed to the edge of the pool. He saw the dark water of the Merit Pool and the shadow of the dark golden Buddha. His withered hand gripped the tip of his staff tightly.

"Upgrade..." Xuan Bei's lips moved slightly, and a hint of wavering flashed in his cloudy old eyes.

"Master, don't listen to him," Jiang Yining's voice came in coldly. "Look what your Buddhist disciple is protecting for you at the bottom of the pool."

Xuanbei looked down.

Fan Chenxin knelt before the ancient Buddha relic, his body covered in blood, his Buddha light almost transparent, yet his hands still pressed firmly against the golden seal on the surface of the relic, preventing the dark golden dust from getting in even a little bit.

He was using his own three-piece broken Buddha bone as bait to lure the dust towards himself and buy time for the relics.

Xuanbei slammed his staff heavily on the ground, his gaunt face revealing a sorrowful desolation under the interplay of dark gold and Buddhist light.

"This old monk...was wrong."

Jiang Yining didn't look at him again. After handing the five treasures to Gu Qinghan, she stepped into the pool.

The black pool water reached above her knees, and the dark gold chains tried to wrap around her ankles, but were torn apart and devoured by the Myriad Spirit Divine Tree that suddenly awakened in her dantian.

She walked step by step towards the bottom of the pool, towards the pale figure who was about to collapse.

"The Heart of the Brahma".

He looked up; his vision was blurred underwater, but he still managed to find her silhouette in the chaos.

Jiang Yining's wrist clasped his wrist, her icy fingertips pressing against the crack in the Buddha's light at his pulse point. The chaotic purple-gold life force and the fading golden Buddha's light flowed parallel underwater.

"Get out of the way," she said.

"Your meridians..."

"Step aside and hand over control of the Buddha's Light to me."

Fan Chenxin looked at her purple-gold eyes, which shone brilliantly in the dark pool. There was no hesitation or fear in those eyes, only something he had never seen in any cultivator before.

She knew better than him how to protect a child's soul.

He let go.

At that moment, control of the Buddha's Light was completely transferred to Jiang Yining. She mobilized the golden power and integrated it into the network of chaotic life force. Two laws that should not have coexisted converged in her palm, transforming into a purple-gold blade that cut and peeled away inch by inch along the dark gold contamination lines.

Jingtan's dark golden Buddha image began to disintegrate.

"No, impossible!" Jing Tan's true voice burst forth from between the fragments of the Buddha's image, filled with terror. "How could her laws merge with the Buddha's light..."

Feng Liuyun's Nirvana True Fire tightened into a cage behind him.

The last wisp of dark gold dust was torn off the surface of the relic by the Myriad Spirits Divine Wood and swallowed into its belly. Jing Tan's physical body turned into ashes in the true fire, leaving only a strange laugh echoing on the surface of the pool.

"Too late... On the day of the Unveiling of the Law, the second piece will accomplish everything for me..."

Before Jingtan turned to ashes, she smiled and looked behind Xuanbei, where there was a string of Buddhist beads, which was emitting the same dark golden light as the remnants of the divine realm.