However, at that very moment, the Nine Nether Demonic Body technique seemed to be triggered by something. It began circulating on its own, and Lin Xiao’s entire body turned pitch black. Thick black vapour poured from his skin.
Within his demon-attributed frame, every shred of flesh and blood acted like ravenous wolves, frantically devouring the Buddhist light.
The vast energy within that light was continuously swallowed into the demonic body.
It was as if he had taken some supreme tonic pill. Demonic essence washed through and tempered the demonic body, making it stronger.
In just a short while, all the Buddhist light inside Lin Xiao vanished, its energy completely consumed.
His Nine Nether Demonic Body had grown a little stronger, comparable to refining a demonic-attribute pill or cultivating the technique intensively for a long period.
“What on earth is going on?”
Sweat beaded on Lin Xiao’s forehead. The Buddhist light had shot out so suddenly that he had no time to react before it entered his body. He had no idea what was happening.
It seemed the light had intended to forge a golden body for him, only for the Nine Nether Demonic Body to devour it instead.
He could not tell if this was fortune or disaster, blessing or danger.
For now, though, he had clearly profited. His demonic body was stronger by a noticeable margin.
What puzzled him was that the Buddhist light had burst from the corpse of the Saint Heaven Gate youth.
The man was dead. Could this be some kind of inheritance that passed automatically to the next person after death?
“Rumour has it that besides cultivating an immensely powerful physique, Buddhist cultivators also generate special golden light energy that fuses with their flesh and blood, making their bodies impregnable. It is not just raw physical strength, but a fusion of strength and energy. That beam of light just now was probably meant to shape a golden body for me. What a pity…” Lin Xiao could not help sighing again.
He had heard of Buddhist cultivation before. Back at the Southeastern Domain youth gathering, there had been young cultivators who followed the Buddhist path.
Buddhist cultivation resembled demonic cultivation. The main difference was that Buddhists focused on the golden body, while demonic cultivators focused on demonic essence and the demonic frame. Just as demonic cultivators ultimately became true demons, the end goal of Buddhist cultivators was to become true Buddhas.
Of course, the definitions of “true demon” and “true Buddha” varied widely.
Without dwelling on it further, Lin Xiao collected the storage rings from the Saint Heaven Gate disciple and the ones inside his pouch. He scanned them with divine sense, found nothing particularly valuable, and flew onward.
Along the way he met no one. After travelling several hundred li, another ancient temple appeared in his sight.
This temple was slightly larger than the previous one.
Other than its size, it held nothing remarkable.
Lin Xiao stopped a few li away, sent out a strand of spiritual power, attached it to the temple doors, and slowly pushed them open.
A cloud of dust billowed out. The whole structure looked on the verge of collapsing by itself.
Through the doorway, Lin Xiao saw a six-metre-tall Buddha statue inside.
He could not tell what material it was made of. The surface was originally golden yellow, but centuries of dust had dulled it to a dim, faded hue.
Boom! Crash!
At that instant, the entire temple suddenly collapsed.
In moments, the intact building became a pile of rubble. Dust filled the air, and most of the timber splintered into sawdust.
Only the Buddha statue remained standing amid the ruins.
Countless cracks now spider-webbed across its surface.
“According to that Saint Heaven Gate disciple, the Buddhist light comes from inside these statues?”
After a brief thought, Lin Xiao sent out his spiritual power again, wrapped it around the statue, and tore it apart.
With a sharp crack, the statue shattered into pieces, sending up another cloud of dust.
No Buddhist light shot out. Instead, in the centre of the broken statue lay a small golden box, exquisitely crafted, apparently made of pure gold.
“Hm?”
A flicker of doubt crossed Lin Xiao’s mind. Rather than approach, he used spiritual power to open the box from a safe distance.
Inside sat a single white bead. It resembled a medicinal pill yet was not one. It was twice the size of an ordinary pill.
“What is this?”
Seeing no immediate danger, curiosity got the better of him. He brought both box and bead closer, examined them carefully, found nothing unusual, and finally reached out to pick up the white bead.
Whoosh!
The instant his fingers touched it, the energy inside him surged uncontrollably once more.
This time, it was not the Nine Nether Demonic Body that activated, but the Indestructible Skeleton Technique.
Primal chaos energy in his dantian circulated, linking to the six bone patterns along his spine.
Mysterious, sinister power flowed through those patterns, surging violently within him.
At that moment, Lin Xiao felt his bones hunger like empty stomachs before a feast, eager to swallow the white bead whole.
Sinister energy suddenly poured from his palm and, entirely of its own accord, began refining the bead.
Torrents of energy streamed from the bead into his body, flooding into the bone patterns in his spine.
From there, it spread to every other bone, strengthening them all.
The sinister power within the patterns grew stronger still.
The effect was comparable to refining a sinister-attribute pill or cultivating the Indestructible Skeleton Technique for a long period. In almost no time, the white bead was completely absorbed.
“What exactly is happening? Is this white bead related to sinister energy?”
Lin Xiao wondered silently.
Still, quiet joy stirred in his heart. His sinister power had increased by another measurable degree.
If he could obtain large quantities of such beads, he might be able to raise his sinister power dramatically and even push his cultivation realm forward.
“Could this be the sarira spoken of in Buddhist records?”
The thought suddenly struck him.
Sarira, legend said, were crystalline remains formed when powerful Buddhist cultivators used their dying strength to refine their own bones, ashes, and bodily essence.
They represented the very quintessence of a Buddhist cultivator’s being, another symbol of “attaining Buddhahood”.
Buddhist texts were exceedingly rare, so Lin Xiao knew little about them.
Even in the era of the Heaven-Swallowing Spirit Emperor, Buddhist cultivation had been uncommon, almost impossible to find.
Yet if this truly was a sarira, formed primarily from condensed bone and ash, it would indeed be perfect nourishment for the bone-focused Indestructible Skeleton Technique.
The fact that the technique could refine and absorb it made complete sense.
Regardless of the truth, Lin Xiao was certain of one thing. Whether it was the Buddhist light or the white bead, both had brought him enormous benefits.
“Time to find more ancient temples!”
With that, he shot into the sky and sped away.
Roughly a hundred li later, he spotted a group of people ahead.
Among them were Wu Chuo and several other disciples from Canglong Gate, a few members of the Ji family, and cultivators from various other forces.
More than twenty people in total had gathered.
In this region where everyone usually scattered, seeing so many together was rare.
Either many more people had entered the area, or something valuable had appeared, or some commotion had drawn them all here.
Sure enough, right before the group stood the ruins of another ancient temple and a thirty-metre-tall Buddha statue.
More than twenty pairs of eyes stared greedily at the statue, ready to strike at any moment.
