Chapter 554: Successor of the Nen-ryū

In the outskirts of Nara, wild grasses grew in abundance.

After hundreds of years of war and successive years of famine, the ancient paths through the mountains and forests were pitted and filled with mud, devoid of travelers. Occasionally, a cold crow would glide past; this was the only visible sign of life in this region.

Following the ancient path to its end, one could see a collapsed mountain gate, its vermilion lacquer mottled, revealing the grey-black base of rotted wood. Stone lanterns lay shattered on the ground, and vines climbed up along the gate edges, spilling into the temple.

No human voices, no human tracks.

The gold lacquer on the Great Buddha in the Golden Hall had long since rotted away, leaving only a clay statue looking down upon the crowd. Spiderwebs hung down along its half-open eyelids, congealing with droplets of dew.

"This is... not quite what I imagined."

Lu Wushuang used her soft sword to roll away the spiderwebs on the gate, lowered her head, and walked into the main hall.

Li Miao did not reply for the moment; he simply stood in place, closed his eyes, and listened for a while. After frowning, he suddenly raised a hand, clenched it into a fist, and struck violently toward the clay Buddha statue.

Boom.

With a muffled thud, the clay statue remained motionless at first, but within a few breaths, dense and uniform cracks like spiderwebs spread across it, and it collapsed bit by bit along the pedestal.

"Hmm, indeed, it is not quite the same."

Li Miao nodded.

He had originally thought that the corpse of Master Jianzhen would be sealed within the clay statue just like Bodhidharma, but now it seemed that the methods of Buddhism might truly be quite different from those of Shintoism.

"Come to think of it, Master Jianzhen is different from Bodhidharma; he was a figure who had been through the official channels. There should be an official account of how his corpse was preserved, right?"

Li Miao asked.

Lu Wushuang naturally knew who he was asking, so she relayed the question to Nanako.

Nanako actually pondered for a while before giving an answer.

"Sokushinbutsu, living body offering."

"Legend has it that after Master Jianzhen passed away, his physical body did not decay. It was wrapped in lacquered cloth and placed in the Miei-do Hall behind the Golden Hall. Every year on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, a ceremony to open the shrine was held, lasting for seven days. During this time, Master Jianzhen's remains were left for pilgrims to pay their respects, but this ceremony was later abandoned due to the wars."

Seeing that Li Miao and Lu Wushuang were noncommittal, she hurriedly added.

"My father participated in a shrine-opening ceremony when he was a child and saw Master Jianzhen's remains—the body was damaged, and the gold mud had peeled off; it had been many years since anyone had repaired it."

Li Miao frowned.

He really did not want to hear news of a high monk's corpse being desecrated; it reminded him of a certain cheerful yet long-winded old monk.

"Where is the Miei-do Hall? Take me there."

Nanako nodded and led Li Miao toward the back of the Golden Hall. The Tang Zhaotisi was not large, and because it had been in disrepair for a long time, most of it had collapsed. There was not even anyone to repair or sweep it, leaving only a few main halls, so the Miei-do Hall was not hard to find.

Just a cup of tea later, Nanako bit her lip and stood beside a piece of already rotted ruins.

Li Miao raised his hand, and his protective true energy overturned the entire ruin along with the attached mud, revealing a massive, empty coffin beneath.

"Not here."

Li Miao stepped forward, wiped the coffin, and poked it with a finger. He rubbed the powdery wood shavings on his fingertips and sneered.

"It seems someone got here first. At least half a year ago, Master Jianzhen's remains were still here, but later, someone took them away in advance."

Lu Wushuang tilted her head.

"The Enryaku-ji temple stole it themselves?"

Li Miao shook his head.

"Hard to say. The most likely culprit is Enryaku-ji, but I always feel like someone is pulling strings behind the scenes... Doesn't the six-month timeframe sound familiar to you?"

Lu Wushuang pondered for a while, then suddenly realized.

"Are you talking about the leader of the Ming Sect?"

"Half a year ago, that was exactly when Enryaku-ji started using the Gu insects, and the Gu insects are the unique method of the Ming Sect leader, Ji Tianrui... Are you suspecting that it was Ji Tianrui who came and took Master Jianzhen's remains?"

Li Miao nodded but did not reply.

It was still just a guess; he could not jump to conclusions. When clashing with other opponents, he could just charge forward swinging his fists, but when dealing with Ji Tianrui, the harder he charged, the more he would fall into her calculations. ===== CHAPTER 555 =====