Chapter 18: Evil Buddha

When Chen Ye returned to this corpse pit, the sky had already brightened considerably.

The warm sunlight poured down; while it dispelled some of the eerie chill, it also made the corpses within the pit appear even more gruesome.

Fortunately, Chen Ye was no longer a newcomer to this world of transmigration; over these past few months, he had witnessed numerous human tragedies and had developed some composure, barely able to adapt to the sight before him.

He walked slowly around the corpse pit, then pulled a pile of withered wood from his storage bag, muttering incantations.

With a shout of "Fire come!", the pile of withered wood instantly burst into roaring flames.

Using the burning wood as a brush, Chen Ye began carving hexagrams around the corpse pit. At this moment, his dantian sea of qi spun rapidly, continuously supplying him with spiritual energy.

This sensation made Chen Ye feel incredibly exhilarated, just like a person who had been poor for most of their life suddenly becoming rich overnight; the feeling of spending money like flowing water was particularly thrilling.

After a period of busy work, Chen Ye finally set up a crude formation.

Wood generates fire, and yang energy is abundant; no matter what dangers lurked within this corpse pit, using fire to overcome them would surely not lead to major errors.

Once the formation began to rotate slowly and the surrounding temperature quietly rose, Chen Ye then cast the "Transport" technique, preparing to pull the corpses in the pit out one by one.

Spiritual Eyes, Transport, Invisibility, and Wall-Passing—these were all the most basic spells on the path of cultivation; however, their consumption was also considerable.

Back when Chen Ye was at the Spirit Awakening realm, merely casting the Spiritual Eyes spell could deplete all the spiritual energy within his body.

Now that he possessed a dantian sea of qi, he truly had the bearing of a cultivator.

He chanted a spell for quite a while, then grasped at the empty air with both hands; an invisible force quietly arose, steadily lifting a corpse and slowly sending it out beyond the great pit.

Chen Ye was still unskilled in the Transport technique; he could only transport them one by one, and he needed to be fully focused. If he was slightly distracted, the spiritual energy would spill out wildly and be wasted in vain.

At Chen Ye's current level, if he tried to use the Transport technique in a magical duel, it would be a path to death.

Facing a sword cultivator like Su Chunyi, he would likely be finely minced by sword light before he even finished chanting the spell.

But Chen Ye was now like a child who had just received a beloved toy; even though he was sweating profusely, a satisfied smile spread across his face as he tirelessly cast the Transport technique.

From relatively intact corpses to those already completely rotted, Chen Ye carefully fished them all out.

When the last corpse was transported up by Chen Ye, something different finally appeared at the bottom of the corpse pit.

Chen Ye bent down to look, and the scene before him left him utterly stunned.

"A Buddha statue?"

At the bottom of the great pit, a black Buddha statue, soaked in corpse water, stood quietly.

Upon closer inspection, one could see light emanating from the Buddha statue's round, large belly, as if it contained some mysterious object.

This truly aroused Chen Ye's curiosity.

Although legends of immortals and Buddhas were occasionally circulated in this world, they were far from the complete mythological system Chen Ye was familiar with in his past life; only a few names were known.

Especially regarding the Buddhist sect, its lineage was scarce; even terms like Bodhisattva or Arhat had never been heard, and regardless of what Buddha it was, they were all collectively called Buddha.

Even more strangely, the Buddhist sect was not regarded as a righteous faction.

The most famous Buddhist sect currently was the Niepan Sect, yet it was universally recognized as a demonic sect. As for other scattered Buddhist sects, they were all classified as heterodox paths, existing outside the righteous way.

The root cause lay in this world's Buddhist sects adhering to the philosophy of severing the karmic causes and effects of the red dust.

Although the Buddhist sect had precepts, it strictly upheld one baffling rule.

No matter what heinous crimes one had committed before, once one became a monk, it was "put down the butcher's knife and become a Buddha on the spot."

In the past, many demonic villains, chased to the point of having nowhere to go by the righteous path, would turn and join the Niepan Sect; and those monks accepted everyone, shielding them all.

Naturally, the people of the righteous path found this unacceptable.

Why should shaving one's head be enough to sever karmic causes and effects and exempt one from guilt?

The Buddhist sect had its own explanation: becoming a monk meant transcending the mundane world of red dust; if the righteous path had its own rules, did the Buddhist sect not have its own rules?

The Niepan Sect was a typical case of chanting the scriptures wrongly, clearly displaying the style of a demonic sect.

Since neither side could persuade the other, they could only settle it with strength, deciding superiority by fists.

Later, the great war between the righteous and the demonic broke out; the Niepan Sect's sect master met his end at the hands of the righteous path, and since then, they had fallen silent for a period.

During this period, it was rumored that a disciple of the Niepan Sect achieved great enlightenment, resolutely defected from the sect, and founded the Heart of Mercy Temple. This Heart of Mercy Temple conducted itself with upright conduct, only accepting children of good families, and strictly observing the monastic rules.

However, since its origins lay in the Niepan Sect, despite such cautious words and deeds, the Heart of Mercy Temple was still regarded as one of the heterodox paths and had not yet been recognized by the various righteous sects.

Could it be that the Niepan Sect had recovered its strength and had disciples walking the world again to chant their twisted scriptures?

Chen Ye knew very little about the Niepan Sect; what he knew was merely widely circulated news.

Now, facing this strange Evil Buddha, although he could not determine if it was related to the Niepan Sect's lineage, he could be certain that this Evil Buddha was by no means an ordinary object.

As Chen Ye was pondering whether to use the Transport technique to test it, he saw that Evil Buddha suddenly open its eyes.

In an instant, two beams of Jin Guang shot out like lightning, piercing straight at Chen Ye's face.

Chen Ye reacted quickly and immediately dodged to the side. However, that Evil Buddha had already locked onto him; the Jin Guang in its eyes, like agile swimming snakes, swept back and forth over his body.

Chen Ye suddenly felt his body as if imprisoned by an invisible force, becoming stiff and sluggish; every movement was half a beat slower.

"Indeed, there is a trap."

Chen Ye silently cried out that things were bad and, acting decisively, activated the formation he had set up earlier.

In an instant, a ring of roaring flames rose into the air, and a blazing wall of fire blocked the Evil Buddha's Jin Guang from the outside.

Chen Ye immediately felt his body relax, regaining his usual agility.

Truly, being prepared prevents trouble; if he had not prepared this formation early, he would likely have fallen victim to a sneak attack at this moment.

But just as Chen Ye let out a sigh of relief, a strange chanting sound reached his ears; faintly, he heard a phrase: "Put down the butcher's knife, and become a Buddha on the spot!"

The Buddha's true words, which should have been solemn and dignified, now sounded to Chen Ye like the mournful wailing of evil ghosts, a demonic sound that snatched souls.

Chen Ye felt his spirit and soul overturned, his five senses confused, his legs turning weak, and he could not even stand steadily.

And that Evil Buddha at the bottom of the pit, while chanting this hair-raising evil curse, slowly rose and floated toward Chen Ye.

At this extremely critical moment, Chen Ye suddenly heard Hearing Mo Ci transmit a voice: "Destroy your own ears!"

Chen Ye gained a moment of clarity and suddenly raised his hand to forcefully slap his own ears.

With a "Buzz," the intense pain of ruptured eardrums and a strong sense of dizziness surged, nearly making him lose his balance.

But Chen Ye gritted his teeth and forced himself to stay upright, ignoring the fresh blood streaming from both ears, and pulled out the sword talisman Su Chunyi had given him from his bosom.

Driven by Chen Ye's spiritual energy, the palm-sized sword talisman instantly bloomed with brilliant sword light, shooting toward the evil Buddha like a meteor.

The evil Buddha seemed to sense a lethal crisis; golden light burst from both eyes, colliding violently with the sword light.

However, that sword light was swift as lightning and unstoppable. With a sharp "screech," it broke through the golden light and flew before the evil Buddha.

Half of the evil Buddha's head was sliced off, revealing a glittering golden interior, as if cast from pure gold.

Yet this strike also exhausted the sword talisman's power; the sword light dissipated, and the talisman paper turned to ash in midair.

Chen Ye only saw that the Buddha statue's head was mostly missing. Because his eardrums had been ruptured, he could hear no sound, nor could he tell whether the evil Buddha's demonic hum had been broken. But the evil Buddha still hovered in midair, seemingly not yet completely destroyed.

Now was not the time to be stingy. Chen Ye unhesitatingly launched the second sword talisman. Another flash of sword light—this time, the sword light cleaved the Buddha statue right down the middle, splitting it cleanly in two.

The two halves of the golden Buddha fell from midair, and the things stuffed inside its belly clattered noisily across the ground.

Chen Ye carefully gripped the third sword talisman tightly in his hand, staying vigilant at all times, afraid that the evil Buddha might be feigning retreat.

After waiting a long while and confirming the Buddha statue's spiritual energy had completely dissipated with no chance of recovery, Chen Ye finally bared his teeth, plopped down onto the ground.

This battle had even ruptured his eardrums—truly a brutal fight.

However, a cultivator's constitution was different from an ordinary person's. Though a ruptured eardrum was painful, it was only a minor injury; he only needed to take medicine and rest to recover quickly.

Chen Ye had no time to spare for his wounds now. After confirming again and again there was no danger, he leaped into the great pit.

A ruptured eardrum was a small matter; what truly pained him was the sword talismans Su Chunyi had given him—now of the three, only the last one remained.

When the Buddha statue had been split open earlier, many things had scattered out. After all this commotion, whether it was a gain or a loss depended entirely on what treasures were hidden inside.