Chapter 347 - Hidden Scripture
As Fahai looked like he was about the get angry, Shen Lian then continued, "I was just joking with you. My augury uses the Taixu Divine Qi as the basis to obtain the innate hexagrams to predict everything in the world. It"s only about eighty to ninety percent accurate. If you"re curious and intend to learn, I doubt that"s possible."
Fahai snorted and said, "This... When this poor monk used to travel around, your ancestors weren"t even born yet. Who cares about your technique?" He wanted to call himself as this mister, but as he recalled that he was now a monk, he then changed his mind and called himself a poor monk.
He had problems that were unique to the demon clan, but at the same time, he was really proud. Given that he agreed to Baoyue that he would be a monk unless Baoyue changed his mind, he would then be a monk forever.
Naturally, he was interested in Shen Lian"s techniques, as Qing Xuan was one of the four main Daoist sects. The techniques within the sect were not something comparable with the other smaller sects. In terms of practicing augury during a normal day, the technique might not be useful; but in time of crisis, if one could learn the authentic Xuanmen technique, perhaps one could escape from any misfortune.
It was often said that it was not a burden having a variety of Daoist techniques. Fahai could agree with it.
As he saw that Shen Lian did not intend to share, he was indeed disappointed, but at the same time, he did not want the boy to look down on him.
Shen Lian did not care about what Fahai was thinking. His fingers were moving about and a stroke of clear Qi was surrounding his fingers, like unbroken silk. Eventually, the eight Qi of sky, earth, mountain, swamp, water, fire, wind, and lightning came out and they formed an image. In the void, it looked like a mirage. One could see the unbroken chain of carts. It was obvious that it was a fortification on earth.
Shen Lian had gained some perception of the Four Symbols formation.
He used the five elements to form the eight Qi, and the reverse of eight Qi to gain the five elements. The transformation happened at will. While his mana and cultivation experience did not improve, but he had obtained more tricks using Taixu Strategy.
The people in the city came and left in crowds. The influence of the secular mortal world was deep. It was facing a lake.
The scenery of the lake was the beauty of the secular mortal world.
In the end, there was a baby crying. Its cry could pierce through clouds. The image was then shattered.
When Fahai heard the baby"s cry, his mind could guess that it was the reincarnation of Baoyue. However, despite his rich knowledge, he could not identify this hustling big city. He asked Shen Lian, "Where is this?"
Shen Lian replied, "You will find it if you head east."
With Fahai"s ability, he could remember the fortification clearly even within the time span of several hundred to a thousand years. On the other hand, he was not going to look everywhere just to find it.
He also had to sort out the matters at Jinguang Temple before he headed out.
After saying goodbye to Shen Lian, Fahai then returned to Jinguang Temple.
When he entered the mountain gate, he was scanning the surrounding randomly with his glaring empowered eyes. Behind the woods and the rocks, he saw a monk was digging a hole at the hillside. It seemed like he was burying something. He then attempted to shorten the distance between them to inches. Within a step he was already in front of him, to see what he was trying to bury.
He could recognize this monk. It was the student of Baoyue the Venerable"s junior apprentice-brother, Zen Master Baoguang. His name was Huiming. He was originally a general in Yue Tuo Kingdom, as such, he had great martial arts skills.
Monk Baoguang was once the national advisor of Yue Tuo Kingdom. Huiming had been a.s.signed to be the protector for Baoguang then. He was under Baoguang for many years.
Ten plus years ago, Baoguang had a battle with Chen Jianmei with the intention to obtain the Golden-bodied Arhat. He did not succeed, and worse still, he lost all his power and became a normal human.
Baoguang then quit his position as the national advisor of Yue Tuo Kingdom. He then practiced Buddhism in peace at Jinguang Temple. Since Huiming had followed Baoguang for many years, he too followed suit and became a monk, and the student of Baoguang.
Five years ago, Baoguang was bored of his life and hence he decided to travel. As he lost his power, the journey around the world was rather inconvenient. Huiming followed and offered his service day and night.
Fahai came to the side of Huiming without using any technique to hide. Huiming realized it immediately.
When he saw it was Fahai, he quickly greeted and said, "Abbot, why are you here?"
When he was on the way back, he knew that Baoyue had pa.s.sed away and that Fahai had become the new abbot of Jinguang Temple. While Fahai was originally from the demon clan, but his skills were akin those of celestialists. As he was also the student of Baoyue the Venerable, none of the students in Jinguang Temple dared to go against him.
Fahai said, "Why are you not taking care of your master but back here in the mountain? What are you doing, digging a hole here?"
As his divine thoughts dispersed, he knew that Monk Baoguang was not on the mountain.
Huiming revealed some grief in his expression. He then said, "My teacher just pa.s.sed away in Jingang Temple. Before he pa.s.sed away, he asked me to bring this box, along with his ashes back. He asked me to bury this box here. He also wanted me to ponder about the Dharma in the temple and to never leave."
He unwrapped the bundle, and there was an ossuary and a box inside.
The box was of the color of green jade. It was translucent, but one could not see what was inside, not even with Fahai"s divine thoughts.
He said, "This is where the spiritual vigor of the mountain is. Why will your master ask you to bury something here? Show me what it is."
Huiming hesitated, "Abbot, master has ordered me to never open the box, else great misfortune will happen."
Fahai laughed out loud, "Baoguang can fool you but not me. This poor monk has seen all kinds of things in the world. I wonder what this thing is, that it can even bring me great misfortune."
Huiming wanted to advise against it, but then he realized now he could not speak, and his feet could not move.
He felt angry, he did not understand why Uncle-Master took this demon king into the Buddhist sect. With his temper, he did not look anything like an enlightened monk great morality.
While he was angry, he could not do anything against Fahai.
Fahai took the green jade box to his hand, and soon there were countless swastika symbols flying around, like streaks of ribbons that entangled around the box, preventing Fahai from opening it.
The small restriction could not stop Fahai.
He opened his mouth and took in a huge gasp. His mouth was as big as a basin. The swastika symbols then flowed into his mouth like a stream. The symbols were swallowed completely within a short period of time.
He opened the box, and he could see there lied an old-looking book. The t.i.tle was written with the cloud script, and it said "Sky Demon Scripture".
Fahai was curious since Monk Baoguang practiced Jinguang Temple"s Dharma, which was originally from the Moonlight Buddha who had transcended beyond the mortal world. With all the proper techniques, why would he have something like the Sky Demon Scripture?
The Sky Demon words showed that it was definitely demon arts.
While there were three thousand great ways which would end the same way despite the different paths, eventually the proper techniques and the devil arts could escape the shackles of the heaven and earth. There were, however, reasons why Daoism and Buddhism were considered proper.
For countless years, whether it was the immortal Zhenren or the Golden-bodied Arhat, they were both from the Daoist or Buddhist sects. Their presence suppressed the other cultivating sects, especially since people like Tian Xian state and Bodhisattva"s highest level, who had transcended beyond the mortal world were continuously appearing from the two sects.
As such, it was rare for the cultivators in the world to obtain the essence of such techniques. One could not even get it with money.
There probably was a cultivator who possessed the strengths of both proper and evil techniques, but such existence would be rare, and the odds was not even one in a thousand years.
Fahai lost interest, he said, "I was wondering what this was - it is just a book of evil arts. Look at how nervous you"re."
He took out the Sky Demon Scripture and slapped it on Huiming. His restrictions were released.