Chapter 196: Little Monk
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The Green Noxious Bug… one of the ancient species. It was ranked fourth in the top ten ancient ominous bugs, and it was the best type of bug to use for tracking enemies’ whereabouts.
Such ominous bugs generally had the males and females working together. The tamer of these Green Noxious Bugs would normally keep the males on them and release the females which could swiftly detect and trace the enemy’s aura within the 5000-km radius.
When Shui Qianrou declared in the imperial capital that she wanted to kill Jiang Yi, Yun He already sent out the Green Noxious Bugs to track Jiang Yi’s aura. Everyone wanted to be the son-in-law of the continent’s no.1 martial expert, which led Yun He to immediately seek out for Shui Qianrou once he entered the Crystal Stone Plains. He proposed to help Shui Qianrou pursue Jiang Yi, which she naturally agreed to.
The female Green Noxious Bugs could constantly give birth to child bugs, and these child bugs had the ability to go invisible and to fly at extreme speed without any presence. Unless the target was a martial expert or an expert of the soul spirit, they would never detect these child bugs. If Jiang Yi didn’t use the Earth Fire to incinerate his enemies and coincidentally char those child bugs, he would probably still be in the dark.
Jiang Yi’s luck was rather good because these Green Noxious Bugs weren’t fully mature yet and had yet to evolve into true ominous bugs. Otherwise, Yun He didn’t even have to track Jiang Yi; these Green Noxious Bugs could use their child bugs to infiltrate Jiang Yi’s body and consume his brain tissues, causing immediate death.
Jiang Yi was currently amidst a violent sprint. He had tried digging underground and burying his entire body with mud; he even tried to traverse within the sands of the desert. However—no matter what he tried—whenever he stopped to release the Earth Fire, there would always be two invisible bugs that would fall after being burnt.
After struggling for two whole hours, Jiang Yi couldn’t be certain if he could break free from the tracking of those Green Noxious Bugs. He compelled himself to calm down and think of a way to break out of this predicament.
If his whereabouts were in the grasp of the enemy, he would never be safe. Even if he had the Silver-Moon Demon Wolf, the enemy could still effortlessly layout a trap. He was in the light while his enemies were in the dark. Furthermore, he couldn’t run non-stop—he had to eat, drink, and sleep, right?
“There is no other way!”
Jiang Yi rode the Silver-Moon Demon Wolf to stand atop a small hillside, revealing hardened eyes. Since he wasn’t about to break free from the tracking, he could only have a fight to the death. It would be up to the heavens to decide his life and death.
Since Jiang Yi was going to fight, he couldn’t just sit around and foolishly wait for the enemies to surround him. There were at least a few hundred men in the enemy’s legion and at least seventy to eighty Soul Travel Realm experts. He mumbled for a moment before he controlled the demon wolf for a rapid sprint, searching for the most advantageous terrain for this fight.
As the wind howled, the surrounding scenery went past rapidly. Jiang Yi was seated on the demon wolf’s back while his eyes narrowed, with his black hair and green warriors robe fluttering in the wind.
A man and a wolf swiftly traversed through the hills, woods, wilderness, desert, forest, and various locations. Along the way, Jiang Yi would constantly meet with martial artists, which he would steer the demon wolf away from them. These martial artists had the thought of giving chase, but they were only able to see a blue afterimage flas.h.i.+ng by—due to the extreme speed of the demon wolf.
There was a patch of desert ahead, but Jiang Yi was no longer fearful of it. He rode the demon wolf straight ahead, stirring up a mist of yellow sand. His eyes narrowed so tightly while his brows were locked together. After traveling for such a long distance, he still couldn’t find a suitable terrain that gave him the advantage.
“There is a lake ahead!”
After sprinting for another hour, an oasis appeared in the desert and in the middle of the oasis was this large lake. Jiang Yi’s mind had this idea as he shouted out, “Demon wolf, jump into the lake.”
“Bang!”
As they dove into the lake, Jiang Yi kept the Silver-Moon Demon Wolf and allowed his body to sink into the water. He looked behind his body and saw the ripples that came.
As expected.
Behind him, the water of the lake had two slight ripples, which meant that there were two bugs following him. Jiang Yi paused for a moment before swimming towards the surface of the water. He didn’t bother about it anymore and rinsed his body before having a change of clothes, some rations to eat, and rest. It was impossible to stop the inevitable. If he was to fight a war, he had to maintain his body in the best condition.
“Shh-shh-shh!”
Halfway through his meal, Jiang Yi heard the subtle sound of footsteps. Jiang Yi’s eyes turned cold and immediately summoned the demon wolf in preparation for an escape.
“Amitabha!”
Jiang Yi could hear a Buddhist saying that came from ahead, which relieved Jiang Yi’s tensed-up heart. These monks were naturally from the Great Zen Monastery, and these tracking bugs definitely didn’t come from them. Zhan Wushuang mentioned that these monks were here solely to obtain glory for the Great Zen Monastery, and they had never spilled any blood in all the previous Kingdom Wars.
“Let’s go!”
Even so, Jiang Yi didn’t wish to have an encounter with this group of monks since some of them were actually at the Soul Travel Realm.
“Amitabha, benefactor, please stay where you are!”
A tender voice echoed from ahead. The voice wasn’t loud, but it sounded like thunder right beside Jiang Yi’s ears, which shocked him. Something even weirder happened: the moment the demon wolf heard that voice, it felt like it was enchanted and didn’t move an inch no matter how much Jiang Yi commanded it.
“Wicked! What kind of magic is this? Is this the ability of the soul-spirit-type?”
Jiang Yi felt that he was in a perilous situation: if the Silver-Moon Demon Wolf didn’t move, how was he going to escape? He could see more than twenty monks in kasaya were swiftly approaching. He had no choice but to withdraw the Silver-Moon Demon Wolf while he locked his eyes in the approaching monks, getting ready to go all-out at any moment.
“Amitabha!”
Among those monks, there were a few that had the speed of a Soul Travel Realm, who rapidly approached and surrounded him. Jiang Yi was extremely tensed-up now. If this group of monks wanted to kill and seize his medals, he would probably fall in this place after he managed to kill a few of them.
After this group of monks encircled Jiang Yi, they actually didn’t do anything; and the one who represented them was actually a 17-year-old little monk. He had clear eyes with a distinct difference between his black iris and white sclera—which was staring at Jiang Yi—while he bowed with praying hands and spoke politely, “Please excuse us, benefactor! This poor monk’s dharma name isHuigeng 1 and is especially here to do some begging. Would benefactor please offer us your medals, and we will leave immediately without hurting anyone.”
Jiang Yi looked with cold eyes and spoke with a mocking tone, “You bunch of monks. If you want to rob, then just rob. Can you not be so hypocritical?”
“Not true, not true!”
The little monk shook his head and said, “Benefactor, we are not in this Kingdom War to rob anything; we are here to suppress the war. If we are to claim all the medals, everyone will stop the ma.s.sacre if there aren’t any medals to fight for. My Buddha is merciful…”
“Bullsh*t!”
Jiang Yi was so angry that his eyes rolled as he promptly interrupted the little monk and spoke with rage, “With just the lot of you, are you able to claim all the medals in a single month? Let’s speak in another way. If you are able to claim all the medals, everyone would come attacking you—are the twenty-over heads you have here enough to cleave at?
“You monks who should be studying the dharma in the Great Zen Monastery actually came here to strive for fame? What would the Buddha do if he knew about this? Wouldn’t his corpse move because of anger? If you want to s.n.a.t.c.h the medals, then just bring it! Don’t speak of any disgusting nonsense to me!”
“Benefactor, please exercise caution in your speech! You can insult this poor monk, but do not insult the Buddha!”
After being cursed by Jiang Yi, the little monk wasn’t angry as he continued to speak calmly, “What benefactor said aren’t actually problems. Even if we cannot claim all the medals, we will still achieve virtue by reducing the ma.s.sacre. As for whether we would be surrounded and killed, benefactor need not worry about us. The Buddha mentioned that…’if I don’t enter h.e.l.l, who will?’ The strive for fame is utter nonsense. Emptiness is temptation, and temptation is emptiness; fame is just like floating clouds to me. Even if the world misunderstands me, ridicule me, berates me, or is angry with me, I will still treat everything with peace and calmness…”