chapter 16
“Fiend! In broad daylight, under the clear sky, you dare to run wild in a Buddhist temple? Take a strike from my Hundred-Year Great Sword!”
Just as the Abbot was falling into despair, a thunderous shout rang out from outside.
It turned out to be Li Yi, who had left earlier but now returned to the scene. With a single leap, he somehow produced a Peachwood Sword, channeled his True Qi, and the tip of the blade glowed gold as it shot toward the Blood-clad Ghost.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The blade struck the Blood-clad Ghost, producing muffled clangs like metal upon metal.
Heavily wounded, the Blood-clad Ghost was furious, its Yin energy intensifying, sweeping in a foul wind as it clawed at Li Yi.
Li Yi dodged effortlessly, forming a hand seal in front of his chest. “Brazen Fiend, today I’ll make you show your true form!”
“Thunder Technique!” Li Yi unleashed the secret art of Mount Longhu-the Yin Five Thunders.
The ground split apart, cracking like a spiderweb.
A bolt of thunder slashed down from the sky, but failed to harm the Fierce Ghost-instead, it only made it go berserk.
Suddenly, its resentment spiked, and it grew even stronger than before.
“Exorcism Talisman.”
Seeing this, Li Yi didn’t hesitate. He quickly took out the artifact he’d gotten earlier from the Novice Gift Pack.
The Exorcism Talisman could unconditionally expel a Fierce Ghost.
Imprinted with mysterious runes, the Exorcism Talisman shot out like lightning, slapping onto the Blood-clad Ghost seething with resentment up on the beam.
The ghost let out a miserable howl and fled instantly, casting a venomous glare at Li Yi as it left-making his scalp tingle. Had he really offended it that badly?
The Abbot glanced outside. Only when there was no sign of the Fierce Ghost did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, this young master was here today, or he truly would have perished at the ghost’s hands.
“What a terrifying Blood-clad Ghost,” the Old Monk spat out a mouthful of blood.
“Old Monk, are you alright?” Li Yi asked helplessly.
After returning home, he had received a task from the System, which forced him to return to the scene.
The task was simple: investigate the truth behind the death of the Blood-clad Ghost, Zhang Na.
So, the Fierce Ghost was actually a girl.
“Cough, cough, thanks to your help, benefactor. Otherwise, this poor monk might not have survived today.”
The Abbot’s robes were soaked through with cold sweat from earlier. It was hard to imagine-without Li Yi’s intervention, he would surely have died.
“No need, no need. As Cultivators, supporting the righteous and punishing evil is our duty. This is just what we do.”
Li Yi shamelessly nodded, completely forgetting that the current mess was all thanks to the ‘Merit’ he’d previously offered to the Buddha.
“Judging by your Daoist arts, you must be a Disciple of the Master, right?”
The Old Monk gazed thoughtfully at the ashes of the Talisman Script still scattered on the ground.
“Disciple of the Master? I suppose so,” Li Yi replied, a little uncertain. His Daoist arts came from the System, so the inheritance was the real deal.
In fact, his lineage might be even more legitimate than the current true disciples of Mount Longhu.
After all, the System’s techniques never get lost to time.
Mount Longhu has endured thousands of years of history-who knows how much Daoist heritage remains?
But his inheritance came from the System.
If it’s from the System, it’s guaranteed to be first-class.
“You’re a Disciple of the Master?”
Unexpectedly, after Li Yi said this, the Old Monk’s face turned excited. He grabbed Li Yi’s hand tightly, his eyes brimming with tears.
What’s going on?
Looking at the unusually emotional Old Monk, Li Yi was completely bewildered.
Could this old guy be… a little too sentimental?
Li Yi’s expression immediately turned suspicious-this was definitely not his thing.
He preferred pretty, long-haired women with great figures, not burly, bald Old Monks with shiny heads.
This Old Monk clearly lacked monastic virtue by trying to ambush and deceive a man in his twenties. Li Yi felt he really ought to reflect on his behavior.
After all, monks are supposed to uphold monastic virtue.
[“Streamer, judging by the Old Monk’s face, there’s definitely some hidden story!”]
[“I get it, I get it-actually, the Streamer is the Old Monk’s long-lost son.”]
[“Now that’s wild. Why not just say the Streamer is the Old Monk’s long-lost father?”]
[“You’re all wrong up there! Actually, the Old Monk is the Streamer’s childhood sweetheart, who accidentally ended up in Thailand three years ago. Now he’s back and has become a burly guy.”]
[“666-reading that, I instantly pictured a million-word third-rate webnovel.”]
The comments in the Live Streaming Room exploded into heated speculation about the Old Monk’s expression.
But the wilder the guesses got, the more Li Yi, as the person involved, looked on with an embarrassed face (black lines: internet slang for speechlessness).
Honestly, it was a shame these people didn’t write webnovels.
“Child of Prophecy, this Old Monk has been waiting here for you a long time.” The Old Monk grabbed Li Yi’s hand, tears even welling up at the corners of his eyes, leaving Li Yi dumbfounded.
“Abbot, you must have the wrong person!” Li Yi paused for a moment before finally squeezing out this sentence.
He truly couldn’t recall any moment when the original owner had become entangled with the Abbot of Baoxiang Temple.
“No, I haven’t mistaken you.” The Old Monk’s tone was firm as he stood up from the ground.
His gaze was heavy, as if recalling something from long ago.
“Come with me.”
He sighed and led Li Yi by the hand to a secret chamber at the back of the temple.
Immediately, goosebumps broke out all over Li Yi’s skin. He swore: if this Old Monk tried anything out of line next, he wouldn’t care about law or morals-he’d act first with a Palm Thunder and Five Thunders Down Upon the Head combo.
He hadn’t expected that beneath Baoxiang Temple there would be such a hidden secret room.
Under the Old Monk’s guidance, Li Yi reached the basement, where a sealed stone door stood before him. Thick iron chains were wrapped tightly around the door, and densely packed, scarlet Talisman Script was branded on its surface, as if drawn in fresh blood.
A huge character for “seal” nearly covered the entire stone door.
He couldn’t help but become curious about what lay behind it.
[“The runes on this stone door look so creepy-just staring at them gives me the chills.”]
[“Careful, Streamer! I have a bad feeling about this Old Monk. I seriously suspect he wants to steal the Streamer’s handsome body!”]
Li Yi…
Though deeply interested in what was behind the stone door, Li Yi didn’t forget who the true master of this temple was.
He turned to look at the Old Monk beside him, confusion written all over his face.
What was the meaning of this?
Why would a temple dedicated to gods and Buddhas have a stone door sealed with Talisman Script in its basement?
What exactly was hidden behind this stone door?
Why had the Old Monk brought him here? For what purpose?
The Old Monk didn’t make him wait, and slowly began telling a story from hundreds of years ago.
At that time, Shen City had no name. It was just a lonely city on the frontier, but it stood as the foremost defensive line of the Song Kingdom, fending off the harassment of Barbarians.
[Translator’s note: “666” is Chinese internet slang meaning “awesome” or “cool.” “Black lines” refers to an embarrassed or speechless expression.]