“I don’t know.”
The seawater shook her head and said, “Everything I know was told to me by my master. Ling Yanzi is ultimately too legendary, and moreover, a powerful mysterious force has erased all traces of her former existence.”
“Otherwise, for such a figure, how could Senior Brother Ruchen and Your Highness the Divine Maiden have never heard of her at all?”
“The reason I suddenly mentioned Ling Yanzi is because thinking of Ancestor Yunqing brought to mind a Buddhist anecdote.”
“What anecdote?” Zhang Ruchen asked.
The seawater said, “The Ming King Sits in Meditation, Jade Loses the Pearl!”
“What is this anecdote?”
“This anecdote happened ten eons ago. It tells of the Immovable Ming King Great Venerable wanting to win the Cintamani Bead from Jade Heaven Buddha’s hand, so the two engaged in a wager.”
“One must know, at that time, the Immovable Ming King Great Venerable was a Heavenly Venerable, revered by all heavens, invincible in the world. Although Jade Heaven Buddha was one of the heavens, he had no confidence at all in winning against the Great Venerable, let alone staking the supreme treasure of Buddhism, the Cintamani Bead.”
“To make Jade Heaven Buddha willing, he had to wager on what he was most skilled at.”
“Thus, the Immovable Ming King Great Venerable wagered a meditation contest with Jade Heaven Buddha.”
Zhang Ruchen was slightly surprised and said, “To compete in meditation with a Buddha, and a Heavenly Buddha at that, the Great Venerable was truly confident enough. However, Jade Heaven Buddha should not have agreed, the Cintamani Bead holds extraordinary significance for Buddhism, once lost, he would become a sinner of Buddhism.”
The seawater nodded and said, “Exactly! But Jade Heaven Buddha had to compete, because the Great Venerable brought out a treasure he could not refuse, to wager against him.”
“What treasure?” Zhang Ruchen said.
The seawater pointed at Zhang Ruchen’s chest.
“The Arhat White Pearl!”
Zhang Ruchen understood!
Both were among the seven treasures of Buddhism, and moreover, competing in meditation, how could Jade Heaven Buddha refuse?
The seawater said, “The Immovable Ming King Great Venerable was a supreme genius of antiquity, cultivating the three paths of Kunlun Realm, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, fusing the strengths of the three schools to create the world-shaking technique ‘Thirty-Three Heavens’. So, the Great Venerable did not neglect Buddhism, nor was he incapable of meditation.”
“The two sat for sixty years.”
Zhang Ruchen said, “Sixty years is not long for them.”
The seawater said, “Yes, if it were just sitting, Jade Heaven Buddha could sit unmoving for six hundred years, six thousand years. Unmoving means body unmoving, heart unmoving, spirit unmoving.”
“But Jade Heaven Buddha ultimately lost!” Zhang Ruchen said.
The seawater said, “That is because someone intervened to help the Immovable Ming King Great Venerable.”
“One can help in meditation as well?” Zhang Ruchen said.
The seawater said, “It was Yin Xuetian, who abducted Jade Heaven Buddha’s disciple Yunqing, causing Jade Heaven Buddha’s heart and spirit to waver, thus losing to the Immovable Ming King Great Venerable and forfeiting the Cintamani Bead.”
Zhang Ruchen looked at the golden Buddhist walls around and said, “The Yunqing Ancient Buddha at that time should have been very young, right?”
“Amitabha!”
The seawater said, “Ancestor Yunqing always harboured guilt, feeling it was himself who caused the loss of the Cintamani Bead, making him a sinner of Buddhism. I think Ancestor Yunqing’s corpse appearing here is absolutely no coincidence. Perhaps, back then, he entered the Abyss of Darkness also to seek the return of the Cintamani Bead.”
“Unable to find the pearl, yet perishing in the Desolate Ancient Ruins City.”
Zhang Ruchen felt deeply moved in his heart, reciting, “The Ming King Sits in Meditation, Jade Loses the Pearl!”
“Yin Xuetian could never have imagined that the Immovable Ming King Great Venerable won the Cintamani Bead, yet gave it to Ling Yanzi. In the end, she herself became a disciple under Ancestor Yunqing, cultivating Buddhist dharma. Senior Brother, why are the affairs of the world so unfair?” The seawater said.
Zhang Ruchen could not answer this question.
Prajna said, “Ten eons have passed, perhaps even longer. Over one million years, who knows what exactly happened back then?”
“Your Highness the Divine Maiden knows nothing of these matters? You are the proud disciple of Rage Heaven Divine Venerable, did he never mention them to you?” The seawater said.
Prajna was puzzled and said, “Why would the Divine Venerable mention these to me?”
The seawater gently shook her head, looking very disappointed.
Zhang Ruchen said, “Since the Immovable Ming King Great Venerable did not lose back then, how did the Arhat White Pearl end up in your hands?”
The seawater was a disciple of Yuan Yi Ancient Buddha.
Yuan Yi Ancient Buddha was the eldest disciple of the Sixth Ancestor.
The Sixth Ancestor was a disciple of Yunqing Ancient Buddha.
Yunqing Ancient Buddha was a disciple of Jade Heaven Buddha.
If everything the seawater said was true, evidently the Arhat White Pearl had long been in the possession of their lineage.
The seawater was also puzzled in her heart, shaking her head, and said, “This I do not know! Currently, finding Yin Xuetian is the top priority.”
“Finding Yin Xuetian is easier said than done, the Abyss of Darkness is so vast, even just one Desolate Ancient Ruins City hides countless secrets.” Prajna said.
Zhang Ruchen said, “If Yin Xuetian has already perished, her corpse is likely also discarded in the Desolate Ancient Ruins City.”
“Even so, wanting to find her corpse in such a vast and dangerous Desolate Ancient Ruins City is as difficult as ascending to heaven.” Prajna said.
The seawater said, “Have you not noticed that although there are many divine corpses in the Desolate Ancient Ruins City, there are no remains of Heavenly level powerhouses.”
Zhang Ruchen nodded and said, “In that case, we still must go seek the legendary Great Nether Mountain. It’s just, where exactly is Great Nether Mountain?”
Silence for a long time.
The seawater said, “Ling Yanzi may not be dead yet!”
Zhang Ruchen and Prajna were both stunned.
The seawater said, “Why did Ling Yanzi enter the Abyss of Darkness? With the Immovable Ming King Great Venerable’s cultivation back then, breaking into the Abyss of Darkness to rescue her, how difficult could it be? Why are Yunqing Ancient Buddha and Yin Xuetian certain that the Cintamani Bead is definitely in the Abyss of Darkness?”
“Could there be a possibility that Ling Yanzi herself was born in the Abyss of Darkness?”
“Senior Brother Ruchen is a descendant of Ling Yanzi and the Immovable Ming King Great Venerable, do you have any ancestral object on you?”
Zhang Ruchen shook his head.
Ancestral objects related to the Immovable Ming King Great Venerable were probably only the Yan Zi Pei and the Jade Emperor Cauldron.
Even the Hundred Dragon Ming Emperor Armour might not have such ancient history.
Pity, these ancestral objects were not on him.
The seawater showed disappointment and said, “Using the power of bloodline, there might be a subtle connection. As long as we find Ling Yanzi, we should be able to find Yin Xuetian.”
Prajna said, “Don’t think about these first, the immediate crisis is not even resolved yet!”
“Exactly, first go rendezvous with Little Black and Gushai Jing.” Zhang Ruchen and Little Black, Gushai Jing had a subtle connection between them, confident he could find them.
Zhang Ruchen closed his eyes, mobilising mental power, sensing carefully.
Prajna looked at the divine light emanating from Zhang Ruchen’s body, lightly exclaiming in surprise, and said, “You have actually achieved divinity in mental power?”
Earlier, her attention was all on the seawater, not deliberately probing Zhang Ruchen’s cultivation changes.
Zhang Ruchen opened his eyes again and said, “I just broke through recently, hard to explain in a few words, I’ll tell you on the way. I have already sensed Little Black’s aura, follow me.”
On the way, Zhang Ruchen recounted some of his guesses about achieving divinity in mental power.
Naturally, he did not mention the secret of going to the Primeval.
Prajna said, “Perhaps there is another reason. Just now, I saw that your mental power contains Buddhist essence, quite similar to Yunqing Ancient Buddha’s aura. You must have absorbed Yunqing Ancient Buddha’s power to succeed.”
“It should be Buddha marrow.” The seawater said.
Zhang Ruchen cast his gaze towards her.
The seawater explained, “Buddha marrow can elevate a cultivator’s mental power, and a Divine Venerable’s Buddha marrow is even more extraordinary. But Buddha marrow cannot actively surge into your mental power, the Divine Venerable’s will is already fused into the Buddha marrow, needing to be refined into divine pills to consume directly.”
“For Senior Brother to absorb Buddha marrow directly, there is only one possibility. Ancestor Yunqing may still have remnant soul existing, it was he, with his own intent, aiding you to achieve divinity.”
“Already perished for eight hundred thousand years, yet still able to have intent and remnant divine soul?” Zhang Ruchen said.
The seawater said, “The power of a Divine Venerable, how can we comprehend it? Actually, to verify this is simple, just need to break open the golden Buddhist wall and probe the Buddha marrow to know if Ancestor Yunqing has remnant soul. But this is disrespect to the ancestor, and moreover, to break the golden Buddhist wall, with our cultivation, we cannot yet do it.”
“Give me the sword.”
Regardless of whether Zhang Ruchen agreed or not, Prajna seized the Abyssal Ancient Sword from his hand in an instant.
Divine light and sword glow erupted on Prajna and the Abyssal Ancient Sword.
“Splash!”
She, sword in hand, shot through the air, striking the Buddhist wall on the opposite bank of the stream.
“Boom!”
Powerful divine power fluctuations turned into circles of ripples, surging towards all directions.
The entire space trembled violently.
The Abyssal Ancient Sword was forged from creation life iron, incomparably sharp, plus Prajna’s divine level cultivation, actually truly pierced into it.
Prajna withdrew the sword.
Golden Buddha marrow flowed out from the sword hole in the Buddhist wall, giving birth to hazy rosy glow, dazzling to the extreme.
Prajna’s palm cupped a little Buddha marrow and said, “Eroded by darkness for eight hundred thousand years, even the Divine Venerable’s Buddha marrow has become dim.”
From a living Divine Venerable’s body, the flowing Buddha marrow, even a drop, was as bright as a star, temperature exceeding billions, able to drip through an ordinary god’s divine body.
Yunqing Ancient Buddha had ultimately perished, the divine substances and divinity in his body lost in large amounts, incomparable to when alive.
“It indeed contains divine soul fragments.”
Prajna’s gaze looked towards a certain direction.
The seawater said, “We must go seek the source of the divine soul fragments. If Ancestor Yunqing still has consciousness remaining, perhaps he can tell us some valuable things. Only he, having truly seen the Immovable Ming King Great Venerable and Yin Xuetian, might even have seen Ling Yanzi.”
“We cannot leave!”
Zhang Ruchen frowned, looking towards the rear.
Behind, densely packed rule divine patterns, like earthworm tracks, covered the Buddhist wall, rapidly spreading over. Accompanied by “splash splash” strange cries, thousands upon thousands of six-coloured demonic butterflies rapidly flew in.
“Swish!”
“Swish!”
Two figures emanating divine light all over appeared in Zhang Ruchen and seawater’s field of vision.
They were precisely the Death Clan divine spirits, Kongli Zang Hai and Southern Saint.
Kongli Zang Hai’s rule divine patterns were like a spider web cocoon cage, enveloping the entire space, sealing off all retreat paths for Zhang Ruchen and seawater. He said coldly, “Finally caught up to you, this time, see where you can flee.”
