Chapter 510

The moonlight rose, and Li Miao came stepping on the blood water.

The blood flowing out from the mountain gate covered the steps, and every step he took, blood threads were pulled from the soles of his boots. The crows, accustomed to eating corpses, flew into the temple from overhead, casting cloud-like shadows on the ground.

The mountain gate was ajar.

Li Miao walked to the door and pushed it open.

A fishy sweet smell rushed toward his face.

Li Miao frowned.

Judging by the amount of blood outside the mountain gate, the monks of Enryaku-ji should have been mostly dead, and it should have been stinking inside the mountain gate.

But the smell that rushed toward his face was not unpleasant. Although there was a trace of rust mixed in, more of it was a fresh fragrance like lotus leaves, mixed with the sandalwood scent of the temple, which actually had the effect of refreshing the mind.

Li Miao rubbed his fingers and walked slowly forward.

"Where are the corpses?"

There were still blood stains left on the ground, outlining blank human shapes. Looking around, there were thousands of gray-white human shapes spread out in a scarlet expanse, but the corpses were nowhere to be seen.

Li Miao scanned the area.

Minamoto Choryo had been planning for a long time. If there were any methods, they should have been prepared long ago. Whether he faced them early or late probably wouldn't have any impact. Since he couldn't use speed to defeat slowness, collecting information about his opponent was very important.

At a glance, he saw the dried blood lake left by washing the heart. The blood here dried faster than elsewhere, had already hardened, and accumulated into a thick piece of blood scab.

Li Miao squatted down, picked up a piece, and smelled it at the tip of his nose.

"Lotus scent, that strange fragrance came from here. Judging by the traces of the blood scab hardening, Minamoto Choryo should have controlled the monks first, then killed everyone at the same time, and guided the blood to this place."

Li Miao threw away the blood scab and rubbed his chin.

"The blood gathered here and was sucked dry by something."

"And then..."

Li Miao walked a few steps sideways and stopped at one place.

"Minamoto Choryo was killed."

"The footprints here are the only ones on the upper layer of the blood stains. The only living person at that time should have been Minamoto Choryo. This headless corpse that left a mark on the blood scab should be him."

"His head was smashed, and his hair is still in the blood."

"Heh, I thought he was a character, but he died by his own prepared methods? It seems my opponent tonight is not him... Could it be Master Jianzhen? Am I going to fight with the senior's corpse again tonight?"

Li Miao turned and walked toward the depths of Enryaku-ji.

The enemy's position was very clear.

The further forward he went, the fainter the bloody smell became, and the lotus fragrance and sandalwood became increasingly thick. Walking to the middle of Enryaku-ji, the fragrance was already so thick that it made Li Miao frown.

"So choking."

Li Miao fanned in front of him.

"Lotus is everywhere in Buddhist imagery: lotus throne, seeing Buddha upon blooming, tongue blooming with lotus... and Guanyin sitting on a lotus."

"The lotus scent represents that the enemy is related to Buddhism, which is not strange. But being so thick that it makes one feel sick is somewhat contrary to Buddhist philosophy, and it has a bit of the meaning of Buddha becoming a demon."

Enryaku-ji was not a single temple, but a temple complex almost covering the entire mountain. Its main buildings were the "Three Pagodas and Sixteen Valleys," among which the "Fundamental Central Hall" of the East Pagoda, which enshrined the Medicine Buddha statue and the Never-Extinguished Dharma Lamp, was the absolute core of Enryaku-ji.

The source of the fragrance also pointed directly here.

Outside the Fundamental Central Hall, the lotus fragrance suddenly weakened, and the bloody smell rose sharply, contending with the lotus fragrance.

And Li Miao finally knew where the corpses of the Enryaku-ji monks had gone.

"Tsk!"

Li Miao stopped his steps in disgust.

Ahead were the steps leading to the Fundamental Central Hall, which were originally carved from bluestone, but now stepping on them, it was a soft, fleshy piece of human bodies.

Corpse steps.