The Central Region is vast, sparsely populated, with many famous mountains and rivers, ancient relics, and spiritual veins converging to form one spiritual mountain and wonderful place after another.
The 36 counties of Yuanfu were located in the hinterland of the Tiantai Prefecture, where the north and south converged, gathering the spiritual beauty of the world, which naturally gave birth to many splendid sects and ancient families.
Zhang Ruochen and the Elephant Swallowing Rabbit rushed through the night and arrived at the foot of a mountain with a rich spiritual qi.
This mountain, with a form resembling a reclining bull, apart from the relatively gentle ridge, there were two other green peaks thrusting straight into the clouds, as if they were the twin horns of the reclining bull.
Even in the dead of night, one could hear the melodious chanting of sutras, coming from the deep dock halfway up the mountain.
Looking up, one could only see a speck of light flickering on the mountainside, as if it were a candle on fire in the wind, ready to be extinguished at any moment. It was also like, an indestructible spiritual lamp that had existed since the beginning of time.
“Master Dust, the spiritual qi of the heavens and earth here is at least six or seven times denser than other places.”The Elephant Swallowing Rabbit whispered.
Zhang Ruochen’s spiritual power was powerful and proficient in Qi Observation, and he had long ago checked the geography of the surroundings.
In the depths of the earth, he found a golden-coloured spirit vein flowing through, its shape like a dragon, rushing endlessly, causing the soil above it to be filled with spirituality as well, breeding all sorts of exotic flowers and plants.
Generally speaking, such an excellent place for cultivation should have long been occupied by the various Saint Sectors of Yuanfu, how could it be so desolate?
Zhang Ruochen’s gaze, looked over to the left side of the Dao, only to see that, between the dead branches and leaves all over the ground, there was a mottled stone tablet buried.
On it were engraved four pale characters: the Sikong Zen Courtyard.
The words, with an ancient rhythm, looked like they contained some kind of Buddhist greatness, causing the holy qi within Zhang Ruochen’s body to vibrate weakly.
“There seems to be a temple in the mountains, so it’s a good idea to go and borrow a room for a few days, and wait for news of the battle between the Prison Suppressing Ancient Race and the Immortal Blood Race.”
Zhang Ruochen put away the Monstrous Sword and the Sinking Abyss Ancient Sword and placed them into his spatial ring as he took large strides towards the halfway point of the mountain.
Passing through an ancient oak forest, it wasn’t long before a green-grey Zen courtyard was indeed seen at the end of that road.
In the courtyard, an oil lamp was lit, and the moment Zhang Ruochen arrived outside the Zen courtyard, suddenly, the chanting inside stopped.
“Knock knock.”
Zhang Ruochen grabbed the bronze ring on the door that had grown green rust and gently knocked.
A moment later, the door of the Zen Garden, opened a crack.
The person who opened the door was a tall and thin young monk with a very high nose, but his skin was very dark, like the bottom of a pot, if not for the whites of the eyes showing inside, it would really be like a piece of Buddha’s clothes floating in mid-air, very oozing.
Zhang Ruochen had seen people who looked dark, but it was the first time he had seen someone who looked so dark.
Using as calm a tone as possible, Zhang Ruochen folded his hands and uttered a Buddha’s name, saying, “Master, I would like to stay in your courtyard for a few days, this is a bit of incense money, please be sure to accept it.”
With that, Zhang Ruochen took out a Sacred Stone and handed it over to the black-faced monk.
The value of a Sacred Stone was extremely precious even to a Half-Saint. Of course, putting aside the value of the Sacred Stone, just the massive amount of Sacred Qi contained in the Sacred Stone was also a great temptation to any cultivator.
The reason why Zhang Ruochen had taken out a Sacred Stone as incense money was, in fact, because he wanted to do a kind of test.
After all, the fact that the Sikong Zen Academy was situated in this place where the spiritual qi converged was really an odd thing, and as long as the black-faced monk was a cultivator, he would surely be tempted by the holy stone.
When the black-faced monk saw the Sacred Stone in Zhang Ruochen’s hand, a look of surprise flashed across his eyes, then, shaking his head vigorously, he said, “No, no, Master said that he cannot accept any wealth from the incense.”
Just at this moment, in the Zen courtyard, another footstep sounded.
“Second Senior Brother, what kind of people are outside, what are you grinding there?”
A short and fat white-faced monk, opened the gate completely, carrying his hands behind his back, walked out from inside and glared at the black-faced monk.
The white-faced monk and the black-faced monk were two extremes altogether, the skin on his body was extremely fair, and the originally white Buddhist clothes on his body even looked very grey and black.
The black-faced monk said, “Elder brother, there is an incense guest who wants to borrow a room in the Zen garden, and also has to give incense money, you see ……”
“No, no, the compartments of our Zen courtyard are all full, let him go to the other other side to borrow a room …… Wait, incense money.”
The white-faced monk finally reacted, a pair of eyes revealed a bright lustre, and immediately turned around, folded his hands, and bowed respectfully to Zhang Ruochen, “Amitabha Buddha.”
Immediately after, he stretched out a fat, soft and white hand, looking extremely subdued, and took the holy stone from Zhang Ruochen’s hand.
“Haha! Our Sikong Zen Academy lacks everything but compartments. Scholar, the poor monk’s Dharma name is Great Sikong, and he is my senior brother called Second Sikong.”
The white-faced monk called Da Sikong, glanced quietly towards the holy stone in his hand, and the flab on his face, trembled slightly, obviously a little surprised.
To actually take out a holy stone as incense money, this young man in front of him, what exactly was his origin?
Zhang Ruochen took in the expressions of the two monks and revealed a kind smile as he bowed slightly to them.
“Eldest brother, howdy, you can’t take in people of unknown origins, it’s against the rules. Have you forgotten that the white-haired female incense seeker you took in yesterday, just this morning, directly slapped a male incense seeker who tried to get close to her into flying dust?”
“Besides, our Zen Academy, there are only four monks in total, is it too busy to shelter so many incense burners?”The Second Sikong said.
The First Sikong let out a long sigh and said in a serious tone, “The Buddha lives in the temple for cultivation, and opens the door to welcome all beings. Senior Brother, your state of mind is still too low, and you need more experience before you can do so. Earlier, Master asked me to copy ten volumes of the Mahabharata Sutra to consolidate my state of mind. Now it seems that you are the one who should be copying it more. The pen and paper are placed in the scripture collection building, I have prepared everything for you, go now!”
The Second Sikong was very naive and honest, and upon hearing this, he thought that it was really because his state of mind was too low, so he immediately rushed over to the Bible Collection Building.
Looking at Er Sikong’s back, Da Sikong gave another command, saying, “After you finish copying, remember to bring it over to elder brother to help you check.”
Afterwards, it was only then that the Great Sikong turned around and gave a dignified smile with his precious appearance, “Shi master, this way please.”
“Please.”Zhang Ruochen said.
Under the Dasikong’s leadership, Zhang Ruochen walked into the Zen Courtyard.
The Zen Courtyard appeared to be quite secluded, flowing with streams, driving over bamboo bridges, and constructed with wooden pagodas for some unknown Buddhas and sacredness.
In the centre of the Zen garden, there stood a stone statue that was three feet tall.
In fact, the stone statue was not that tall, yet it appeared extremely lofty, and walking underneath it gave people an enormous pressure. An ordinary person would probably have already knelt down and bowed.
Zhang Ruochen’s eyes tightly stared at the stone statue, and suddenly, his heart shook and he couldn’t help but recite, “Buddha Emperor.”
That stone statue, which was precisely the Buddha Emperor, one of the nine emperors from 800 years ago, was exactly the same.
Someone was actually worshipping the Buddha Emperor here?
Dasikong, who was walking ahead, turned around and asked, “Scholar, what land did you just say?”
Zhang Ruochen carefully observed the Dasikong’s expression and realised that he really seemed to know nothing about it, so he didn’t specify, and just shook his head and laughed, saying, “Nothing, I just exclaimed that the Sikong Zen Courtyard is truly a place of Buddhist purity.”
Hearing this, a smirk appeared on the face of the Grand Sikong, saying, “That’s natural, but our Sikong Zen Academy has a history of eight hundred years, yet it is still hidden in the deep mountains, isolated from the world, so it is naturally quite a pure place.”
Zhang Ruochen did not comment too much, just nodded slightly and smiled.
Dasikong led Zhang Ruochen, into a more spacious chamber, saying, “Scholar, you can stay here for as long as you like, our Zen Academy not only takes care of the food, but it also takes care of the food. Haha!”
Da Sikong closed the door of the chamber, and the sound of his footsteps gradually faded away.
Zhang Ruochen’s finger, on the oak bed, gently touched it, and there was not a single speck of dust.
It was very simple, yet clean.
Originally, Zhang Ruochen only wanted to find a place of seclusion because he wanted to hide from the Immortal Blood Race, but he did not expect to find the stone statue of the Buddha Emperor in a Zen garden in the deep mountains.
When Empress Chi Yao led her army and attacked the Western Region, she was resisted by the Buddha Emperor and the entire Ten Thousand Buddha Path, and in the end, it was the strong Empress who killed the Buddha Emperor.
Because of the fear of offending the Empress and the imperial court, since then, no one dared to worship the Buddha Emperor in any of the temples throughout the Kunlun Realm.
Anyone who enshrined the Buddha Emperor was considered a rebel and would be rounded up.
“That’s a bit odd.”
Zhang Ruochen recited a sentence to himself.
Subsequently, Zhang Ruochen released his spiritual energy into thousands of points of light and began to probe the entire Zen Courtyard.
His spiritual energy found a formation in a compartment next door.
Only, that kind of formation wasn’t that brilliant, and Zhang Ruochen’s spiritual force easily penetrated in, hearing the dialogue of the three people inside.
“Old Four, you mustn’t stop me, I’m going to kill that smelly b*tch right now to avenge my boss.”
A big man with a brawny physique, baring his right shoulder, lifted a heavy knife and was about to charge towards the door.
“Lao San, you’d better calm down a bit, that woman’s cultivation, very powerful, not something we can deal with. I have already transmitted our findings in the middle of the Zen garden back to the Ministry of Military Affairs, I believe that the Ministry of Military Affairs will soon be sending experts over, at that time, it will not be too late to deal with her.”Another younger man, who was rather composed, said.
“I can’t wait that long, if you guys don’t avenge the boss, I’ll go myself.”
That burly man rushed out of the formation and smashed the door, then, lifting his heavy blade, he flew above the first floor and slashed towards one of the compartments.
Only just as his blade was lifted, a strong and extremely powerful force surged out from the compartment, as if it was a gust of cool wind, blowing past the pugilistic man’s body.
The body of the pugilistic man, as if it was made of sand, even gradually dissipated, and in the end, there wasn’t even a single bone left.
Truly ashes flew away.
That pugnacious man, was not a weakling, his cultivation had already reached the Fish Dragon Third Transformation.
From this, it could be seen that on the first floor, the female perfumer in that compartment was feared to be a rather powerful and ruthless character.
Zhang Ruochen detached a spiritual force, wanting to probe.
However, his spiritual force, which had only just moved closer to the past, immediately collapsed. Even if he used his Heavenly Eyes and penetrated the wooden wall, he could only see an illusory cloud, other than that, he could not see anything.
“So powerful.”
Zhang Ruochen was secretly shocked, not expecting that even if he casually found a Zen garden to hide in, he would be able to come across such a terrifyingly powerful person.
The Elephant Swallowing Rabbit poked out a fist-sized furry head from within Zhang Ruochen’s coat pocket and said, “Master Dust, those people are from the Ministry of Military Affairs, moreover, listening to them, the strongest people from the Ministry of Military Affairs will soon arrive. In that case, it seems that this is also a place of wrongdoing, we should leave as soon as possible.”
