Chapter 701: A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire

The dim night passed.

The newborn morning sun rose from the surface of the Wilderness. The morning light first illuminated the cliff face to the west, followed by the peak, and then the light spread downward from the peak at a speed visible to the naked eye. The sound of bells rang out, followed by waves of Sanskrit chants; the Buddha Kingdom of the human world thus awoke.

The Buddha Kingdom awoke, and the monks in the countless temples within the Buddha Kingdom also awoke, beginning their morning lessons. The sounds of chanting and praying to Buddha arose from time to time; the world was filled with serenity, and the sounds of scripture were constant.

If not for the fact that beneath the Buddha Kingdom lay a hell on earth, with millions of serfs, perhaps this Hanging Temple could indeed be considered a pure Buddhist land.

The Sanskrit chants were incessant. Accompanied by the morning dew and the rising sun, a figure walked along the mountain path, heading from the Great Hero Treasure Hall at the very top of the mountain toward the bottom of the Tiankeng.

This was a middle-aged monk.

The monk wore a tattered cotton Buddhist robe. His head was not the kind of bald pate that shone and glistened under the morning sun, but rather had a layer of extremely thin, dark-green stubble. Even though the mountain road was not particularly smooth or wide, he kept his back straight at all times. His expression was as resolute as marble carved by thousands of years of wind and frost, giving one the feeling that even if the firmament were to collapse, he would hold it up.

The monk's dharma name was Qinian.

The eldest disciple of the Scripture Lecturer of the Hanging Temple, the World Walker of the Buddha Sect, he was regarded as the person closest to Buddha in the world. When he appeared in the world, he represented the Buddha Son.

Because he practiced the Zen of Silence, chewing his tongue into his belly, he had not spoken a word for over ten years.

Qinian's gaze pierced through the clouds, looking at the black dots moving slowly beneath his feet; he knew those were serfs performing their daily tribute to the Hanging Temple. However, thick smoke and flashes of fire flickered in the Tiankeng from time to time. When he further focused his Mind Power into his eyes and ears, he could hear the sounds of blade Qi clashing, screams, cheers, and various other noises, and see scenes of serfs fighting to the death with thugs, slave hunters, and monks.

And all this chaos had to be traced back to two months ago.

Two months ago, the Scripture Lecturer suddenly felt uneasy and sent Qimei, the Peak Master of the Venerable Hall, to lead the Ascetic Monks to investigate, and that was when they discovered the corpse of the Scripture Lecturer.

According to the judgment of his junior brother Qimei, an expert above the Five Realms had broken into the Hanging Temple.

Based on speculation, that person's cultivation was not inferior to the Scripture Lecturer and was very likely Yu Liancheng, who had once entered Taoshan alone.

From that day on, the entire Hanging Temple entered a state of high alert.

It was just that for a period afterward, there was no news of that expert, as if they had vanished into thin air, causing the Hanging Temple to gradually relax its vigilance.

Over a month ago, news of a serf rebellion came from the Tiankeng. But the Hanging Temple still did not pay much attention; they had ruled the Underground World for countless years, and the monks in the temple had long been accustomed to the fact that every few years, the descendants of sinners would forget the mercy of the Buddha of that time and ungratefully attempt to obtain treatment they were fundamentally unqualified to receive.

But no matter how fiercely the sinful people began to stir, in the end, the Hanging Temple only needed to dispatch a few monks with profound cultivation to easily suppress them, and could use this to prove the power of the Divine Mountain to the believers—why not do so?

But this time, the serf rebellion was different from those in the past.

This rebellion could be described as a prairie fire; in a short time, the serfs had occupied a quarter of the Underground World, and the total population of the rebel army had reached an unprecedented two hundred thousand, continuously spreading rapidly in all directions.

Of course, as the beneficiaries, the nobles naturally would not sit and wait for death. They dispatched a vanguard of ten thousand sinners composed of the old, weak, sick, and shepherds, two thousand charging knights, and eight hundred slave hunters, and even several cultivators who had walked down from the Divine Mountain, yet they still failed, and failed miserably.

Later on, Qimei, a great cultivator of the Knowing Destiny Realm, led seven powerful Cave Profound Realm cultivators down the mountain to suppress the rebellion and mediate the conflict.

The Knowing Destiny Realm, let alone in the mere Underground World, was considered top-tier combat power even in the human world; it could easily determine the direction of a war, not to mention the assistance of seven Cave Profound Realm experts.

The many high-ranking officials of the Hanging Temple held great expectations for this group.

As for the result, last night one of the Cave Profound Realm cultivators returned, and he brought back seven heads. The head of his junior brother Qimei was among them, and the other six were the remaining six Cave Profound Realm experts. The Cave Profound Realm cultivator who delivered the heads had also gone insane, seemingly having suffered some kind of shock, and could not be asked for the specific reason.

The monks speculated that perhaps this rebellion was instigated by that expert above the Five Realms.

As the turmoil intensified, it had already shaken the rule of the Buddha Kingdom, and coupled with the involvement of a Five Realms expert, it was necessary to be cautious and first go into the rebel army to gather intelligence.

The Scripture Lecturer could not move lightly, otherwise, if that expert above the Five Realms stepped into the Hanging Temple, there would be no one to stop them.

The other Peak Masters also had important matters to attend to, preparing for the great battle that might follow, so it was finally decided that Qinian, the Buddhist World Walker, would go down the mountain to investigate.

After Qinian went down the mountain, he disguised himself, turning himself into a ragged herdsman.

And as he walked along this journey, Qinian's expression became increasingly grave. Although the regions he passed through were still under the control of the Hanging Temple, these serfs seemed different from the numb ones he had seen when coming down the mountain before; Qinian felt anger from these serfs—this was anger toward the Hanging Temple, anger at thousands of years of oppression...

Once the "Wuliang Zhongsheng Fo" arrived, this anger would be completely ignited, launching the most violent attack against the Hanging Temple, the nobles, and the old order.

"Wuliang Zhongsheng Fo..."

Qinian murmured.

The so-called "Wuliang Zhongsheng Fo" was the name of the leader of this uprising, but his real name was unknown: "If you are truly a member of my Buddhist sect, how could you bear to watch the Buddha Kingdom be destroyed..."

Several days later, Qinian finally entered the sphere of influence of the rebel army, choosing a town that had been occupied for a month, wanting to obtain useful information from within the city.

The town seemed to have experienced an extremely tragic and bloody cleansing, and the bloodstains were still there. As for the residents living in the town, Qinian could likewise feel anger from them, and this anger was even more intense. He could even be certain that if he revealed his identity as a monk in the city, he would very likely be swarmed by the common people and beaten to death with sticks.

Besides anger, Qinian's greatest impression was the busyness. A bustling, heated busyness; farmers were busy planting crops, blacksmiths were busy forging the latest weapons, and even the medical clinics were overcrowded...

But in this busyness, Qinian was surprised to find that many people were actually full of vigor, not needing anyone to whip them from the side, and some even had smiles on their faces.

Qinian found a blacksmith to ask the reason.

He practiced the Zen of Silence, but fortunately, his sign language was good, allowing people to understand his thoughts.

The blacksmith laughed and pointed to the towering, majestic Divine Mountain in the distance: "Because we know that only by defeating the Demon there can we be considered to have achieved complete victory. Otherwise, once we lose, we will become slaves again, working like livestock, without freedom, and any noble who comes along can bully us. And if we are even unluckier and are noticed by the Demon, we will be skinned and deboned to be made into offerings."

Demon?!

When the other party pointed at the Divine Mountain and said the word "Demon," Qinian's brows furrowed.

"Hanging Temple, demons fill the mountain. Kill the Demon, turn the sky over, everyone reaches the other shore."

"Working hard to break the city gates this year, no need for thin clothes next year, eating our fill every day the year after, eating our fill~"

Just at this moment, a group of children passed by the street, singing a nursery rhyme, one by one beaming with joy. They perhaps did not understand the meaning of this nursery rhyme, but they liked the words "eating our fill" at the end very much, singing with extra spirit. And the adults also liked to hear them sing; sometimes when they were happy listening, they would even treat them to a couple of steamed buns.

Qinian's brows, however, furrowed tighter and tighter, and he finally left the blacksmith shop and came to a square.

In the square, over a hundred strong men were training, seemingly practicing a set of blade techniques, shouting with sound, sweating profusely.

It was somewhat similar to the body-refining methods of the Demon Sect; the blade techniques were simple and direct, slashing horizontally and vertically. But in the battlefield, they were absolutely effective and were the most efficient means of killing.

Not to mention that each of the hundred strong men could erupt with the full-force strike of an Initial Realm cultivator, the battle formation they formed by coordinating with each other could charge through the battlefield like a meat grinder.

Compared to them, the armies composed of those nobles were simply amateur troupes, hard to look at.

Not far from the square, a group of people suddenly gathered, cheering from time to time.

Qinian walked up and listened to the crowd's discussion, looking at the mortals kneeling on the ground, and quickly understood the reason.

It turned out that a batch of nobles and Living Buddhas had been escorted from another town yesterday; they were all people who had committed heinous crimes and naturally could not escape punishment.

Because there were so many heads to be cut off, the executioner's blade had become notched, and he had changed it twice. And every time someone was killed, there was a burst of cheers from the crowd below.

Watching the Living Buddhas kowtowing and begging for mercy, wetting themselves in fear, and listening to those hair-raising crimes, Qinian remained silent and did not intervene to save anyone.

By nightfall, the entire town was under curfew and had become a military camp, orderly and disciplined; anyone who violated the rules was executed without exception.

The next day, the morning sun rose, and this small town became busy once again.

Qinian looked at the small town, feeling somewhat lost and also somewhat incredulous.

In just one month's time, this small town had undergone earth-shaking changes.

And small towns like this were spread across almost every area occupied by the rebel army.

This time, could the Hanging Temple truly suppress it?

Qinian's resolve began to waver.

At this moment, he also wanted to see that originator, to see what kind of person he was, to have turned the Underground World upside down in a mere two months.

Thus, he saw Yu Liancheng, draped in a black Buddhist robe with a smile on his face, shining with ten thousand rays of light under the morning sun, like a God or a Buddha.

"Kid, you've got some nerve, coming to my territory all by yourself."

Yu Liancheng held a steaming bun in his hand, smiling as he watched Qinian while eating the bun.