Chapter 841: The Buddha Speaks of the Muni Original Life Sutra

"I heard you are from the Longxi Li clan?"

Li Zhong raised his head fiercely upon hearing this, his face showing a ferocity completely different from that of a great clan disciple.

He subconsciously pressed his hand on his war blade, which had already been drawn out a bit; in the years he had been fleeing to the Liuzhen, he had heard this question too many times!

Most were filled with mockery and coldness, and even those that seemed gentle on the surface hid ulterior motives.

But when he saw that person, his hand gripping the hilt subconsciously loosened.

Because in the sunlight, the youth curiously examining him was handsome, and even in Hu clothing, it was hard to hide his grace; his long hair, simply tied up, was covered in a layer of afterglow in the sunlight, and the whole person was like a god walking out of a painting.

"Dugu Xin! Don't come and provoke me..."

Li Zhong inserted the blade back into the scabbard and said lightly.

"You know me?" Dugu Xin was a bit curious.

"Not to mention the Liuzhen, at least in Wuchuanzhen, who doesn't know you, Dugu Lang?"

Li Zhong said calmly: "Everyone says your appearance is not inferior to the 'Phoenix' of the past, and sooner or later you will stand out, whether by military merit or by being favored by nobles."

This was too mean, and a hint of undisguised shame flashed in Dugu Xin's pupils.

Phoenix Child was the small name of Murong Chong, son of Murong Jun of the Former Yan Emperor; after Heavenly King Fu Jian pacified the chaos of the Sixteen Kingdoms, he took him and his sister into the harem, and his favor was even greater than his sister's.

That grace could be seen from that.

Among the people, there was always the saying "One female and one male, flying together into the purple palace," which mainly referred to this person.

But later, after his uncle Murong Chui defeated Heavenly King Fu Jian, Murong Chong invaded Chang'an and carried out a massive revenge, but because he was too cruel, he was killed by the joint efforts of the Guanzhong great clans, and even before he died, he was only at the Yang Spirit cultivation level.

The youth Dugu Xin said coldly: "I will never end up like Murong Chong. And you, claiming to be from the Longxi Li clan, yet mingling like a commoner; at this age, you are only at the Qi Refinement level, and even your cultivation method and Dao foundation are not very brilliant."

"Alright!"

A hand pressed on the youth Dugu Xin's shoulder, and the tall figure faintly shrouded this space; the town's main general He Badu pressed down on the Dugu Xin who was like a fighting cock, looking at the man who was about thirty or forty years old, down-and-out, and had low cultivation.

Li Zhong said coldly: "I have never said I am from the Longxi Li clan."

Saying this, he picked up the old war blade, pressed the straw hat on his head, and got up to leave.

"But you are..." He Badu looked at him with a complex expression: "If you think about it, among the disciples of the Longxi Li clan who can support the family now, the Secretariat Supervisor Li Chong is your uncle!"

"Li Chong?" Li Zhong smiled coldly: "You recognized the wrong person!"

He Badu frowned slightly: "Aren't you the illegitimate son of Li Cheng? Your brother Li Er entered Jiankang directly in the past, and his sword shocked the world; Li Chong once saw him with his own eyes and recognized him personally."

"What does that have to do with me?" Li Zhong pressed the brim of his hat and turned to leave.

He Badu said faintly: "I thought you would be thinking about this brother! After all, if he really is the only true transmission of the Louguan Temple, you could also rise to heaven with him."

A picture flashed through Li Zhong's mind; it was Li Bao, the head of the Longxi Li clan, standing in front of him and his mother, saying to them: "Li Er was snatched away! In the past, your father named you Zhong and Er, which meant that Zhong Er was born outside! The identities of you two brothers are too sensitive, after all... sigh, I lied about your identities, but I still couldn't protect Li Er."

"He was snatched away, someone must have leaked your identities!"

"For now, there is only one place that can accommodate you."

Li Bao handed him a customs clearance document and said: "Go! There is a Northern Frontier Great Array there, enough to suppress all secret calculations and cover up your identities."

These flashes only lasted for a moment; Li Zhong slowly pressed the brim of his straw hat and whispered: "I am also approaching middle age! Now I am just a Qi Refinement cultivator; have you ever seen such a useless great clan disciple?"

"Longxi Li clan, maybe it was just my drunken talk of climbing high when I was young! Looking at my current appearance of having just entered the Military School method after the hardest tempering, do you still believe these things?"

He Badu looked at the down-and-out man with low cultivation in front of him, and his heart was also a bit unsteady; perhaps he really recognized the wrong person?

After Li Zhong left, he hurried into the darkness, walking through the alleys of Wuchuanzhen.

The guarding True Person sat high in the gold brick tower all day, but now it was a black silhouette in the sunset, and one could faintly hear the chanting and praying of monks not far away, with vague tones rising and falling.

The guarding True Person of Wuchuanzhen was a Buddhist high monk.

The tower he lived in was also piled up with countless gold bricks, with scrolls of scriptures carved on them.

The tower had six floors in total, and was an eight-cornered Buddhist pagoda.

The gold bricks were cast from Red Sun Gold mined in Yinshan and spirit sand from the Black Water River; if one walked around the tower step by step, while chanting the 1,800 scrolls of scriptures on the bottom floor, without stopping, one brick per step, one scripture per brick.

In one turn, after chanting all 1,800 Buddhist scriptures once, it counted as a success; even if one missed a word, all previous efforts would be wasted.

In this way, 10,000 turns counted as one cultivation, and one would be granted a wisp of Buddhist power by the Buddhist pagoda...

And the second stack of bricks also had 1,800 pieces, which were another 1,800 different scriptures.

The first floor of the Buddhist pagoda had a total of 360 stacks of gold bricks; cultivating 3.6 million turns would allow one to cultivate a kind of supernatural power.

The number of gold bricks and floors on the second floor was a mystery; some said there were 13,000 stacks, each stack with 1.2 million gold bricks, and some said there were only nine stacks, each with 81 gold bricks.

Cultivating the six supernatural powers of the six-story Buddhist pagoda would allow one to enter the sect of the guarding True Person and become his true transmission disciple!

Because of this, the town never forbade people from copying and learning the scriptures on the bottom layer of bricks.

So many cultivators in the town would learn a few scriptures, chant them toward the tower every morning and evening, draw in Buddha light, and accumulate wish power... It is said that those who chant the scriptures well would also be accepted as disciples by the guarding True Person, which was also a way to get ahead.

When passing by that six-story Buddhist pagoda, Li Zhong saw a young monk with tattered clothes and a wooden bowl sitting cross-legged under the shadow cast by the Buddhist pagoda, his palms pressed together in front of his chest, silently chanting scriptures.

"Another monk who hopes to practice by turning the pagoda and enter the sect of the guarding True Person." Li Zhong sighed slightly in his heart.

But what's the use of just sitting and chanting? Could it be that he didn't know the method of pagoda cultivation? You have to turn! Like a donkey pulling a mill, memorize the 1,800 Buddhist scriptures on the bottom layer, and then chant one scripture per step, slowly chanting until the end of time!

Pagoda cultivation, everyone in Wuchuanzhen knew it, but even true Buddhist cultivators couldn't bear it after chanting to the ninth stack of scripture bricks.

The main thing was that the more than 10,000 scriptures were all difficult to pronounce, and the Buddhist power drawn down from the Buddhist pagoda in each turn was negligible, far inferior to visualizing the Buddhist pagoda and then finding the six fundamental great scriptures at the base to chant and practice.

For some reason, he felt a trace of inexplicable favor for that young, dry, and thin monk, so he stepped over.

"Are you here to turn the pagoda and practice? Most of the 1,800 scriptures on the bottom layer are useless, only six of them are truly cultivatable. You go to the temples in the town to give some incense money..."

Speaking of this, Li Zhong couldn't help but stop; this monk didn't look like he had any money.

He could only sigh: "If you are a monk with a certificate of identity, you can ask for a few scrolls."

That young monk, who looked no more than fifteen or sixteen but was as dry and thin as if he had never eaten, raised his head slightly, his eyes clear, like the reflection of stars.

"I am different from others; they chant from the bottom up, and I chant from the top down." The monk's face was also very thin, and his cheeks were a bit sunken, but with such a miserable appearance, he had a pair of clear, dust-free eyes.

His appearance, for some reason, made Li Zhong feel a bit familiar.

"The very top?" Li Zhong shook his head: "The very top is where the guarding True Person Tan Wuchen lives, and no one has ever been permitted to go up! Let alone the gold brick scriptures on it!"

Li Er smiled calmly: "Look at where I am sitting?"

Saying this, he held up his wooden bowl, turned around proudly, and turned a circle.

Only then did Li Zhong discover that he was stepping on the shadow of the six-story Buddhist pagoda, sitting exactly at the very top of the shadow cast by the sunset, and it turned out that what he said about chanting from the top down meant stepping on the shadow of the top of the Buddhist pagoda and chanting scriptures toward the sunset.

This reaction made him look even less like a high monk who had achieved cultivation!

On the contrary, he looked exactly like a little monk with an unsettled heart who hadn't achieved cultivation.

Li Zhong could only smile: "When the sun sets, the shadow will disappear. Won't you fall from the top of the tower?"

Li Er nodded slightly and said seriously: "Indeed!"

So he hurriedly sat down cross-legged and said: "I have to press this shadow, I can't let it run away!"

"What's the use of pressing the shadow?" Li Zhong laughed dumbly: "Could it be that you can still press the sun?"

Saying this, Li Zhong turned to leave; it turned out to be a crazy monk, but after taking two steps, he couldn't help but think: "Today's sunset seems a bit long!"

Li Zhong looked at the sunset that wouldn't set for a long time, and couldn't help but laugh out loud—it was impossible that the crazy monk really pressed the shadow of the Buddhist pagoda, and then the sun couldn't set!

This absurd thought made him laugh himself!

Looking back, he saw the monk still sitting on the tip of the shadow cast by the Buddhist pagoda, lowering his head, looking at the wooden bowl in his hand and chanting scriptures.

The setting sun shone on the black silhouette, reflecting in the muddy yellow water in the wooden bowl he held, slightly rippling.

The Muni Pearl at the top of the tower overlapped with the sun, like a spirit pearl twisted at the tip of the monk's fingers.

Li Zhong narrowed his eyes, only then seeing a trace of gold light flashing under the yellow water reflecting the sunset and rippling.

He identified it for a long time before recognizing it as a golden lotus seed.

"Hey?" Li Zhong couldn't help but shout: "What is the scripture at the top of the tower?"

"The Buddha Speaks of the Muni Original Life Sutra!"

The monk raised his head slightly and revealed a smile:

"It tells the story of the Muni Treasure Pearl transformed by the Sun, Moon, and Lamp Buddha, which once enlightened the Buddha, taught the Buddha the Great Vehicle Heart Method, and after 1,200 kalpas, the spirit pearl responded to the tribulation and descended to the human world, incarnating as the original life story of Li Er, the Crown Prince of the Western Liang Kingdom!" ===== CHAPTER 842 =====