Am I the only cultivator in this cultivation group?

Deep inside the side hall, the sound of wood being dragged on the floor continued.

Squeak squeak squeak…

Not fast, not heavy.

It was as if someone was dragging a rotten, swollen wooden chair, inching it away from the oil-stained floor.

The ever-burning lamps in the hall flickered gently, casting an uncertain light on the surroundings. The chanting of Buddhist prayers outside the door grew closer, and the rustling of monks' robes against the ground was approaching the threshold, like a group of dead people slowly gathering around, drawn by the light and scent.

Li Hu stared at the deepest patch of lamplight, his head throbbing with pain, yet the scene before him grew clearer and clearer.

What he saw was not an empty side hall.

Instead, it was a young novice monk huddled in a corner.

The young novice monk's face was covered in tears, and he clutched a dark lamp tightly in his arms. His lips trembled, and he could only repeat one sentence over and over: "This disciple dares not, this disciple dares not..."

"What did you see?" Huang Yaoying asked immediately.

"Fox, hurry up and say that the Faceless Buddha didn't chase us into the side hall. He should have a BOSS-limited range. And judging from his previous state, it seems that the Faceless Buddha won't attack us directly, but rather control those ghost monks and worshippers. But we have to hurry, I don't want to ruin my account in this dungeon."

Guang Chengzi urged him on.

Li Hu pointed to the innermost part of the side hall, his voice tense: "There's another lamp inside."

"It's not these, it's the innermost black one."

Guang Chengzi looked in the direction he was pointing and raised an eyebrow.

"Black? I only see a bunch of lights, nothing particularly dark. Are your fox eyes using a hidden layer?"

"Enough with the nonsense." Bai Xiaoyu had already stood in front of Li Hu with her sword drawn, and said without turning her head, "Disciple, continue."

Li Hu gritted his teeth, suppressing the stabbing pain in his head, and said urgently, "Those lamps weren't just placed randomly. The ones in front... seem to be lamps for a Dharma assembly, but the one in the back is the key."

"The young novice monk held onto the lamp, too afraid to move."

He said... "This disciple dares not."

"It was the lamp-keeping monk." Huang Yaoying's eyes narrowed, her mind working quickly. "After the Dharma assembly went into chaos, it seems that the lamp-keeping monk didn't dare to remove the last lamp, which is why the entire Dharma assembly has not ended."

"Interesting." Guang Chengzi flicked his whisk, but his smile had faded considerably. "All the strategies for this dungeon are hard to find online. Those who failed to enter the dungeon are all deathly silent. I didn't expect you to actually be able to find clues through immersive experience. You've got something."

"Let's give it a try first," the Taoist Ran Deng said coldly.

After he finished speaking, he took a step forward with the lantern.

The dim yellow flame in the ancient lamp flickered slightly, and several strands of fire shot out, each heading towards the rows of ever-burning lamps in the side hall.

puff!

puff!

puff!

The dozens of Buddhist lamps in the front row went out immediately.

At the same time, a deep, muffled thud suddenly came from outside the door, as if some enormous creature had taken a heavy step outside the hall. Immediately afterwards, the pressure of the Dao Core Realm that had been pressing down on everyone's heads noticeably weakened.

Bai Xiaoyu's eyes lit up immediately.

"It actually works!"

"Then what are we waiting for? Turn off the lights!"

Guang Chengzi let out a strange cry and flung out a handful of talismans. The talisman light rained down, hitting the lamp holders with perfect accuracy. With a series of soft "poof poof poof" sounds, most of the Buddhist lamps in the side hall were instantly extinguished.

As soon as the lights went out, the chanting of Buddhist prayers outside the side hall immediately became chaotic.

No longer as orderly and dull as before, but instead filled with an indescribable sense of panic and chaos, as if the monks and pilgrims who had come to chase after them had suddenly lost some kind of support.

But in the next instant, a dark shadow flashed outside the door, and three monks on duty squeezed into the side hall. Their eyes were dark and surrounded by Buddhist light. They raised their hands and pressed down on the crowd!

"Well done!"

Bai Xiaoyu brandished her longsword, a red shadow flashed out, the sword light was like fire, and in an instant she cut the monk on duty at the front in half.

"My disciple, you continue your search; leave the fighting to your master!"

"You, as the master, are getting more and more eloquent with your words." Guang Chengzi chuckled, but his hands never stopped wielding the thunder talismans. "But this job can't be done all by yourself."

Boom!

A burst of lightning shattered half of the temple door frame, instantly turning two rotting corpse worshippers who were about to rush in into charred fragments.

Huang Yaoying guarded a three-zhang radius around Li Hu. Any monster that slipped in was either slit in the throat by her sword or had half of its body sealed by frost, making it difficult for it to take another step.

"Don't just stare," she said coldly. "Where is that lamp?"

Li Hu blinked hard.

The lights in the hall appeared to him as ever-burning lamps in reality, and as chaotic shadows of the night of the Dharma assembly. The overlapping shadows made him almost nauseous, but in the innermost corner, he saw the young novice monk clutching a lamp, his shoulders trembling as he cried.

In reality, however, there was nothing there at all.

"It's right there!"

Li Hu suddenly pointed.

"At the very back, behind the third row of light fixtures!"

Bai Xiaoyu and Huang Yaoying looked over almost simultaneously.

But there was clearly just a dark shadow there.

"Get out of the way."

Suddenly, the Taoist Ran Deng spoke.

Carrying the ancient lantern, he walked directly in the direction Li Hu had pointed. The two monks on duty ahead had just rushed forward when they were engulfed by the fiery snakes spewed from his lantern and instantly burned to ashes.

He walked all the way to the shadowy figure and shone his lamp on it.

hum-

The air in the deepest part of the side hall rippled slightly, like the surface of water.

The next moment, a small, dark lamp slowly appeared out of the air.

The lamp was extremely old, its edges covered in scorch marks and cracks, yet a tiny, dark, blood-red flame still flickered in its wick. It had been hiding behind all the other lamps, like an eye lurking in the shadows, quietly watching the whole farce unfold.

"There really is one." Guang Chengzi laughed. "Well done, little fox, you actually found it for me."

"Don't touch it!"

Li Hu's expression changed drastically, and he almost instinctively shouted out.

The Taoist Ran Deng paused, turned his head, and glanced at him.

Li Hu covered his head, breathing rapidly, but his eyes shone with an astonishing light: "It's not like that... the lamp can't be destroyed directly."

"This isn't an ordinary lamp; it's the last lamp guarding the ceremony. If it's smashed, the instance will completely spiral out of control!"

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Guang Chengzi asked, swatting away two rotting corpse worshippers. "Don't tell me we have to kowtow to it before blowing it out."

"It's not about blowing it out, it's about bringing it back to the main hall."

Li Hu stared at the dark light, his voice growing faster and faster, as if he had finally grasped the real thread from a jumble of images.

"The bell rang incorrectly, the offerings were made incorrectly, and the lamps haven't been removed... Extinguishing only the lamps in the side hall isn't enough now."

"Just one last step."

"We must take this lamp back to the empty prayer mat in the main hall."

"An empty prayer mat?" Bai Xiaoyu was taken aback. "You mean, that spot that's always been empty?"

"Yes!" Li Hu nodded. "That's not the Buddha's seat, nor the abbot's seat; that's the seat of the lamp-keeping monk!"

Upon hearing this, everyone in the hall was startled.

Huang Yaoying was the first to react.

"No wonder that spot has been empty all this time." Her eyes suddenly turned cold. "Because it was never meant for Buddha in the first place."

"It's reserved for the person who didn't take the lights off in the end."

"Tsk." Guang Chengzi clicked his tongue. "Now that you mention it, it makes sense. This instance is really cunning."

Bai Xiaoyu gripped her sword tightly, turned her head and said, "Disciple, go and get the lamp."

"Huh? Me, me take it?" Li Hu's tail tightened. "Master, this thing looks weird."

"Nonsense, of course you take it," Bai Xiaoyu said matter-of-factly. "None of us can see this light, only you can. If you don't take it, who will?"

"Besides," she paused, her eyes crinkling into a smile that held a strange, reassuring quality, "with Master here, what is there to be afraid of?"

Li Hu felt a sudden surge of warmth in his heart.

Yes.

There is a master here.

Thinking of this, he gritted his teeth and mustered his courage to walk toward the small, dark lamp.

The closer I got, the worse the headache became.

He could even hear the little novice monk's intermittent sobs, trembling as if they were right next to his ear:

"This disciple dares not...this disciple dares not remove the lamps...the bell tolls before the Buddha arrives, this disciple dares not..."

Li Hu swallowed hard, stretched out his claws, and suddenly grabbed the lamp.

ice.

The moment he touched it, it didn't feel like touching a lamp; instead, it felt like touching a piece of dead human bone soaking in well water, so cold that the entire fox shivered.

At the same time, a long string of images suddenly flooded into his mind.

The kitchen staff poured blood into the pot, and the monks screamed in alarm. The bell rang in the main hall, and the monks' expressions changed.

The Buddha statue cracked, and the entire hall was filled with panic. Someone shouted, "Remove the lamps! Remove the offerings! Disperse!"

But the young novice monk in charge of keeping watch over the lamps knelt on the spot, holding the last lamp, and cried, "This disciple dares not."

Then, everyone died.

The Dharma assembly did not end.

Li Hu groaned, his face turning almost transparently pale, but he hugged the lamp even tighter in his arms.

"I see."

"I know everything."

"Let's go back to the main hall!" Huang Yaoying shouted.

"You don't need to tell me, I've wanted to leave for a long time!" Guang Chengzi swept away a patch of black shadows with his whisk, muttering to himself, "This damn dungeon has finally come to a decent solution after all this time. If it drags on any longer, I'm starting to wonder if the developers want me to die on my way to work overtime."

Stop joking around, protect him!

Bai Xiaoyu cleared the way with her sword, Huang Yaoying covered the rear, the Burning Lamp Taoist held the central line with a lantern, and Guang Chengzi used thunder talismans and golden light talismans to bombard the corridors and doors. The group protected Li Hu and fought their way back from the side hall to the main hall.

But as soon as they stepped into the main hall, the entire hall suddenly sank.

On the altar, the faceless Buddha had completely solidified.

It was draped in tattered gold, with Buddhist banners fluttering behind it even without wind, and its blank face slowly turned toward the crowd. Although it had no eyes, everyone clearly felt it in that instant.

It was looking at the lamp in Li Hu's arms.

"lay down."

A voice suddenly resounded from the depths of everyone's hearts at the same time.

It doesn't sound like a human voice.

It's more like a heavy, ancient, and utterly hollow echo.

"Put down the lamps, the Dharma assembly is not over yet."

"You think you deserve to sit in that seat?"

"You think you're qualified to clean up the mess on behalf of Buddha?"

Li Hu's legs went weak from the sound, and he almost knelt down.

"My disciple!"

Bai Xiaoyu grabbed him and raised her sword, staring intently at the Buddhist altar.

"Don't listen to it, just keep moving forward!"

"That's right." Guang Chengzi also chuckled through gritted teeth. "A shameless face, but plenty of nonsense. There are a few of us here today, so feel free to sit down. Anyone who tries to stop you will die."

Huang Yaoying didn't waste any words. She simply stepped forward with her sword drawn and said coldly, "Randeng, the Buddhist altar is yours."

"Um."

The Taoist Ran Deng only responded with one word.

The next instant, the ancient lamp in his hand suddenly shone brightly!

The dim yellow flames instantly rose three feet higher, and the blazing light swept towards the Buddha altar like a tidal wave. The dark golden Buddha light behind the faceless Buddha, when illuminated by the fire, showed a noticeable distortion for the first time, as if a layer of skin covering its surface had been severely scalded and wrinkled by the fire.

The faceless Buddha finally moved.

With a swift movement, the air in the entire main hall seemed to collapse. The monks on duty on both sides of the altar rushed out, and the pilgrims outside, their bodies rotting, surged in like madmen.

"Perfect timing!"

Guang Chengzi laughed loudly, flicked his whisk, and dozens of talismans flew out like a celestial maiden scattering flowers.

"Today, Daoist Guangchengzi will set off a spectacular firecracker to end the banquet for you, you shameless wretch!"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Thunder and lightning roared, causing the Buddha's light throughout the hall to tremble wildly.

Huang Yaoying's sword flashed like frost, and she sealed off half of the palace gate by herself. Anything that rushed in was either killed by her sword or frozen in place by the cold.

Bai Xiaoyu stayed by Li Hu's side the whole time, her red clothes flowing like a protective flame that clung to him tightly.

"Disciple, charge!"

Li Hu dared not hesitate any longer. Holding the cold, black lamp, he rushed towards the empty prayer mat at the far left.

The closer he got to the prayer mat, the clearer the images in his mind became.

The young novice monk who cried and dared not remove the lamp, the old monk who shouted "Dismissed!", the large pot of soup that had not yet been removed, the cracked Buddha statue... all of them were present at this moment.

Li Hu rushed to the empty prayer mat, bent his knees, and knelt down heavily.

The lights went out and the floor was turned off.

The lamplight flickered.

The faceless Buddha on the altar suddenly emitted a low hum, and the entire hall shook violently, as if something was frantically resisting this scene.

"You dare not leave the party."

"You don't dare."

You don't deserve it.

The sound came in layers from all directions, making Li Hu's eardrums ache and his mind feel like it was being torn apart.

But as he looked down at the lamp before him, all that remained in his mind were the trembling words of the young novice monk: "This disciple dares not..."

Li Hu suddenly stopped being afraid.

He has lived for 170 years, enduring hardship to this day, and has almost died.

Don't dare?

Why shouldn't I dare!

Thinking of this, he suddenly raised his head and, facing the faceless Buddha high above the altar, shouted for the first time, "You're not even here, what's the point of holding a banquet!"

This shout was urgent, impulsive, rustic, and fierce, and it stunned Guang Chengzi for a moment.

"Wow." Guang Chengzi chuckled as he exploded the talismans. "This fox is so desperate, it even dares to curse Buddha."

Li Hu stared intently at the Buddhist altar, picked up the lamp, and blew it down with all his might.

call--

The lights went out.

At the same time, he shouted in a hoarse voice, enunciating each word clearly:

"Before the Buddha arrived, the bell had already gone astray!"

"The offerings are in disarray, the lights are out!"

"This concludes today's Dharma assembly!"

"Withdraw the offering! Disperse! Let all beings return to their origin!"

The moment the last "go" was uttered.

The entire main hall suddenly fell silent.

All the chanting of Buddha's name, all the roars, all the sounds of wind, bells, and strange cries, all came to an abrupt halt at that moment.

The faceless Buddha on the altar froze for a moment, and then a thin crack slowly appeared on its blank face.

Click.

Click click.

Click.

The cracks spread from the center of the forehead to the chest, and then the entire Buddha statue began to crumble inch by inch. The dark golden halo behind it, like punctured filthy bubbles, dispersed outwards in clumps. The monks in the hall bowed their heads in unison and knelt down again with their palms clasped; the rotting corpses of the worshippers outside the hall also seemed to have lost all support, collapsing to the ground one after another and turning into dust.

"No--"

The sound only managed to utter half its last syllable before shattering completely.

The next moment, the Buddha statue collapsed with a crash!

Gold fragments and black ash fell together from the sky.

At the very center of the shattered Buddha body, a point of dark golden light quietly emerged.

It was no bigger than a thumb, yet its surface was covered with fine Buddhist patterns, and inside, a faint, jet-black flame seemed to slowly flicker. It was neither holy nor evil, but rather carried an indescribable sense of solemnity and antiquity.

[Dungeon cleared]

[Settlement in progress...]

[First-clearance bonus being distributed...]

[Obtained: Relic of the Faceless Buddha]

The dark golden relic trembled slightly and flew straight towards Li Hu.

Li Hu instinctively reached out and caught it.

It feels warm to the touch.

"This damn dungeon is finally over..."

Bai Xiaoyu breathed a sigh of relief, "Good disciple, you've really made your master proud."

"Then Master, this relic of the Faceless Buddha..."

Li Hu opened his palm, but was stunned to find that the relic that had been in his palm had disappeared.

"What relics?"

Bai Xiaoyu looked puzzled.

Li Hu scratched the back of his head. "It's...gone?"