Chapter 158
Chapter 158
I instinctively glanced toward Liu Junyan and the Fake Ascetic Monk. Their battle was still raging fiercely.
Just then, the man ahead of me, who had discarded the Leg Bone, suddenly clenched both fists and hammered them against his chest several times. Then his long, pointed nails pierced straight into his own chest, and a foul-smelling yellow liquid began to ooze from the wounds.
The instant the liquid welled out, row after row of scripture markings on his body lit up. A Yin Wind sprang from the ground and whirled endlessly around him.
The scriptures covering his body seemed to peel away in the wind, gradually merging with it.
The spinning wind became a vortex of scriptures.
Then the rotating scriptures linked together into a single whole, forming a Scripture Bell.
The Scripture Bell enveloped the man’s entire body. With another thunderous roar from him, it shot into the air and came crashing down over me.
I tried to dodge. I tried to fight back.
But the instant the Scripture Bell descended, an invisible force locked my body in place. I couldn’t move a muscle.
The man opposite me let out two hoarse chuckles and drove his fingers even deeper into his chest.
What kind of technique was this?!
Why was it so sinister?!
Just as the Scripture Bell was about to trap me, a hand suddenly slipped around my waist from behind and yanked me into the air. At the same time, another hand traced a talisman in midair, formed a hand seal, and thrust it forward.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye.
The instant the Scripture Bell exploded, I looked up and found myself staring at the newcomer’s profile.
How had Liu Junyan, who had been fighting the Fake Ascetic Monk only moments ago, suddenly appeared beside me?
Liu Junyan set me down. Just as I regained my footing, he thrust out another talisman, slamming it viciously into the man across from us.
The force of Liu Junyan’s palm drove the hand buried in the man’s chest all the way inside. Thick, putrid yellow liquid sprayed from the wound, and the scripture markings across his body immediately began to fade.
Liu Junyan forced two words through clenched teeth. “Heretical cultivator!”
“Ha. Now that’s the pot calling the kettle black.”
As the scriptures on the man’s body continued to dim and he began swaying on his feet, a slightly hoarse voice rang out. “Are you not a heretical cultivator yourself?”
The next instant, the Fake Ascetic Monk appeared beside the man.
Before now, I had only caught a hurried glimpse of him and hadn’t seen him clearly.
This time, I looked directly at the Fake Ascetic Monk — and froze after a single glance.
I knew a little about physiognomy. With most people, I could read the broad strokes of their Facial Features well enough, but I couldn’t read the Facial Features of the man before me at all.
His Facial Features were far too complex. They shifted from moment to moment, making it impossible to grasp anything definite.
To put it more plainly, I could see the course of more than one person’s destiny in his face.
His Facial Features seemed to be many different Facial Features superimposed on one another.
Granny had once told me that this was known as the Visage of All Beings.
The so-called Visage of All Beings didn’t mean that someone had an ordinary, forgettable face. It meant that as many different fates as there were living beings could be discerned from that person’s face.
That might sound exaggerated, but it truly existed.
Such Facial Features generally appeared in people like reincarnated lamas.
They reincarnated generation after generation, and some even retained memories from several past lives. Their Facial Features and fate patterns became layered together, ultimately forming the Visage of All Beings.
Could this Fake Ascetic Monk truly have an extraordinary background?
And what had his status been in the Tibetan Region?
Why had he shown up here and stirred up so much trouble? What was he after now?
Too many questions flooded my mind at once, causing me to completely overlook the Fake Ascetic Monk’s remark about the pot calling the kettle black.
I also ignored his insinuation that Liu Junyan was an Evil Monk too.
The ground shook more violently by the second as an earth-shattering roar, like that of both an ox and a tiger, thundered through the air.
Liu Junyan said, “You’ve entrenched yourself here, colluded with the prison, collected the bodies of death-row inmates to refine, and siphoned away the Dragon Aura from the earth’s ley lines. What exactly are you plotting?”
The other man clearly hadn’t expected Liu Junyan to hit the nail on the head. His already deathly pale face grew even more unsightly.
Clutching his chest, he coughed several times. Only after catching his breath did he say, “I’ve never harmed anyone here. I even kept the Qiongqi Evil Formation suppressed for the surrounding villages and towns, sparing countless people from disaster. Even if this matter were brought before the Celestial Court, my conscience would still be clear.”
“What a fine claim of a clear conscience,” Liu Junyan sneered. “You know better than anyone why you’ve entrenched yourself here.
“Did you really suppress the Qiongqi Evil Formation for the sake of the common people, or was it for the Dragon Aura?
“You’re a Dalai Lama from the Tibetan Region. Why travel thousands of kilometers to such a remote place? What exactly are you trying to do?”
The Fake Ascetic Monk opened his mouth, only to realize that nothing he said would get through to Liu Junyan.
Before the Fake Ascetic Monk could respond, Liu Junyan continued, “Then let me guess what you’ve been doing.
“You traveled all this way for the vein of Dragon Aura trapped beneath this mountain. The Qiongqi Evil Formation suppresses it beneath the mountain, making it impossible for ordinary people to detect. Even if someone did discover it, they wouldn’t be able to break the formation and draw out the Dragon Aura.
“At the end of every year, a group of Dalai Lama monks gathers here to chant scriptures and conduct ritual services. They claim to be performing Release from Suffering for the prison’s dead, but that’s only a smokescreen. Their real purpose is to help you open a breach in the Qiongqi Evil Formation so the Dragon Aura can leak out.
“Once the Dragon Aura leaks out, you still need a way to collect it and transport it back to the Tibetan Region. That’s precisely why you refined the bodies of those death-row inmates and used them to create the Corpse Formation.”
At first, the Fake Ascetic Monk had remained perfectly calm. But when Liu Junyan mentioned the leaking Dragon Aura and the Corpse Formation, his expression changed.
Clearly, Liu Junyan had struck a nerve. Everything he’d said was true.
“Heaven and earth are vast. This cannot be the only place where Dragon Aura has been trapped beneath a Seal,” Liu Junyan continued. “Why are you people racking your brains to gather it?”
At that moment, the Fake Ascetic Monk finally tore off his benevolent mask and snarled, “Liu, I advise you to mind your own business. If you dare touch me or my Corpse Formation tonight, every Buddhist cultivator in the Tibetan Region who stands behind me will raze every inch of your Pawnshop’s grounds!”
“Heh.” Liu Junyan chuckled softly. “Threatening me? I’ve driven you into a corner, haven’t I?”
Liu Junyan was even calmer than I’d imagined. He continued provoking the other man. “Losing your composure so easily means the person behind you has most likely suffered a terrible Calamity and is now struggling on the brink of death. Once he dies, every Buddhist cultivator in the Tibetan Region will be thrown into chaos. Am I right?”
I saw the Fake Ascetic Monk clench his fists. Blood had soaked through his monk’s robes.
It seemed he hadn’t gained the slightest advantage in his earlier fight with Liu Junyan.
“Let me think this through.” Liu Junyan stroked his chin thoughtfully, then suddenly said, “Could it be that your Living Buddha is at death’s door?
“Or is your Living Buddha about to pass into nirvana, but you still haven’t managed to divine the reincarnation of the next Living Buddha? Your lineage is on the verge of dying out, so your only choice is to gather Dragon Aura and overturn fate itself?”