Chapter 569: Scheming (33 Today 1w)

Whoosh!

The very next moment after the candle flames extinguished and the great hall plunged into darkness, all the candles ignited again simultaneously.

However, the light that ignited this time was no longer a gentle glow, but had transformed into eerie blue flames, much like ghost fire.

Just after the candle flames reignited, the atmosphere of the entire hall changed, suddenly shifting from the previous pervasive Buddha-light to something sinister and terrifying.

Such a massive change had occurred in the great hall, yet Ren Yidao, who was inside it, remained quite calm; his expression did not even flicker.

Because he knew that all of this was a facade.

Or rather, the previous yellow light was the disguise, and the eerie blue ghost fire was their true nature.

"Lingxin Temple, Lingxin Temple... this 'Ling' (spirit)."

Ren Yidao's gaze swept over the Buddha statues, which had all transformed into the likeness of wrathful Asuras.

A moment later, he shook his head slightly, curled his lip, and said disdainfully, "Truly inferior."

He had originally thought this Lingxin Temple might bring him some surprises, but he had not expected it to disappoint him so much.

What was worshipped in the great hall were no longer Buddhas, but spirits.

Not just spirits, but evil spirits at that.

"It is not enough to just enjoy the Incense offered by mortal Believers; they even want their souls. Truly inferior."

These evil spirits had replaced the Buddhas, sitting atop the Lotus Platform, enjoying the worship mortals offered them, and using Incense to nourish their spirits, yet they were still unsatisfied and would even absorb their souls along with it.

By the end, the mortal would be left as nothing but an empty shell, their soul having entered the belly of the evil spirit.

There is no afterlife, no reincarnation, no "suffering in this life to enjoy blessings in the next" as they claim.

There is nothing at all.

This is deception, naked, bare-faced deception.

And just as Ren Yidao was thinking about how to handle this, he suddenly heard the low conversation of two monks behind the great hall.

"That Mingxin, the Abbot had already magnanimously decided to take him in, yet he was ungrateful and prepared to secretly steal the Incense! If the Abbot hadn't discovered it, he really would have succeeded."

"It's a good thing he was driven out, otherwise our share of the Incense would have been in trouble later on!"

"Hmph!"

Mingxin wanted to steal Incense?

He is not an Incense Cultivator, what use would he have for Incense?

He... wait!

"... That's not right."

Ren Yidao's eyes narrowed, a thought flashed through his mind, and he suddenly recalled Mingxin's meaningful gaze from before, as well as that sentence:

"Although the monks here have lost their Buddha-hearts, the Buddha statues have not yet lost their Buddha-nature; they are still worth a look, and perhaps you might gain something from it."

Damn it.

This bald guy with thick eyebrows and big eyes is actually not a good person either!

He even learned how to lie!

"Tsk, I've been schemed against by that guy Mingxin."

Because of their previous interaction, Ren Yidao had always felt that Mingxin was a holy monk who lived up to his imagination of a Fozi.

He never expected that this guy would also take the initiative to scheme against others.

"This guy wasn't kicked out because the Lingxin Temple changed Abbots as he said; he was looking for an excuse to provoke them after discovering the problem, and was only driven out in the end."

He fled Lingxin Temple of his own accord, and even let me come to see it with my own eyes.

The Buddhism of the Western Desert Divine Continent has a problem.

A big problem!

This was the conclusion Ren Yidao reached after interacting with Mingxin.

The Buddha-Dao here has problems everywhere, and it is vastly different from the Mahayana and Hinayana Buddhism in his imagination.

After hearing about several Buddha-Dao schools that were currently flourishing in the Western Desert, Ren Yidao felt as if he had walked onto the wrong set.

What is practiced here is less like the Buddha-Dao and more like the Demon-Dao.

But the key problem is that no one in the entire Western Desert thinks there is anything wrong with it.

Observing along the way, Ren Yidao discovered that the mortal Believers did not seem to realize that something was wrong, and were still devoutly worshipping Buddhism just as they had in the past.

And when Mingxin spoke of those things, his expression was natural, without any abnormality; Ren Yidao had thought Mingxin was also one of those who had been bewitched and didn't think these things were strange, but now it seems that is not the case at all.

Mingxin knows the problem, and he understands that empty words carry no weight; no matter how much he said, Ren Yidao would not fully believe him, so he had to find an opportunity to let him see it with his own eyes.

"However, even if he let me know, what good does it do? I have no way to set things right."

Upon discovering he had been deceived, Ren Yidao's reaction was very calm.

Ren Yidao does not intend to get involved in this mess.

This is the Western Desert's own problem, not his.

No one begged him to be this savior, and he does not need to be this savior either.

He does not even intend to take the initiative to deal with the ten evil spirits in this temple.

They are currently just sleeping and have not noticed the outside world, which is why they haven't discovered his intrusion.

But once he does something to startle them from their slumber, the problem will be huge.

Just as he was preparing to leave, he noticed a pair of mother and child in the center of the great hall.

He had to notice, because the child's crying was truly too desolate.

"Lord Buddha, I beg you to save my mother!"

Calling out, pleading, longing to receive grace and salvation.

He was very weak, his emaciated body seeming as if it would fall over like straw if the wind blew.

But he did not care about himself; he only cared about his mother, who was sleeping in his arms as if in a coma.

Time and time again he pressed his forehead against the ground, and fresh blood had long since flowed down his cheeks.

Perhaps the Buddha was finally moved by his sincerity, for the Buddha statue before him lit up slightly, as if it had noticed his wailing.

"As long as you are willing to save my mother! I am willing to dedicate my entire life to you!"

The weakest of the ten evil spirits opened its eyes and looked the weak child up and down.

Then, Ren Yidao saw disdain in its eyes.

The next moment, the light shining on the Buddha statue began to slowly dissipate.

It was going back to sleep.

Seeing this scene, the young boy's originally excited heart plummeted to the bottom, and he called out in panic:

"No! Not just this life, I will dedicate my next life to you as well!"

"As long as you can save my mother! I will dedicate all my lives to you!"

"Please! Save my mother!!!"

But no matter how he shouted, the light on the Buddha statue still gradually dissipated, until it finally extinguished completely.

It did not care about his soul; whether it was one life or two, it did not care.

Furthermore, even if the child did not dedicate it, his soul already belonged to it.

No one could use its own things to trade with it.

He had been abandoned.

Abandoned by the Buddha.

Upon realizing this, the boy stood stunned for a few seconds as if his strings had been cut, and then began to cry loudly:

"No!!!"

Wailing, weeping blood, long cries—

Perhaps feeling that the child was too noisy, the evil spirit raised its hand and reached toward the woman in his arms.

Ssh.

Accompanied by a soft sound of a soul, the woman's weak soul was gripped and pulled out of her body by it.

As long as she died, he would give up completely and would no longer continue to make noise.

As for why it did not kill the boy? It was because it was not yet time for the harvest.

Alive, he could continue to contribute Incense; if it killed him now, there would be nothing left.

An ugly smile appeared on the evil spirit's face as it sent the woman's soul toward its hideous, gaping mouth.

But just at the moment it was about to swallow, the evil spirit heard a sigh.

"Sigh..."

It was a voice full of helplessness, asking itself: "Why am I such a kind-hearted person? Why on earth is this?"

!!!

Then, before the evil spirit could react, it heard that person complain: "Really now, why are you in such a rush? If you had waited for me to leave before acting, couldn't I have pretended not to see it? But since you're acting now, how can I turn a blind eye?"

"Aren't you forcing my hand?"

"It's all because you forced me."

What?

Although it did not know who the other party was, the evil spirit's fear reached its peak at this moment.

Judging from the direction of the voice, the other party was clearly standing right in front of it, yet it had no way to see them.

Unable to observe, unable to perceive, unable to understand.

!!!

But the moment it issued a warning to the surrounding evil spirits, it felt its brow being gently pierced.

Ssh—

At this moment, accompanied by the shattering of its soul, it saw the other party.

It was a tall, demonic white fox that casually raised a claw to swat it to pieces, and with a light inhale, sucked it directly into its mouth.

It thought it was a god that could decide the life and death of mortals, but in front of a true god, it was just food.

Crack... Gulp.

Accompanied by the sound of chewing and swallowing, the evil spirit's consciousness dissipated completely.

"Too weak, not even a shred of ability to resist."

"Truly too inferior!"

After swallowing the evil spirit, Ren Yidao felt even more disdain for this group of evil spirits.

What trash, can this even be called an Incense Cultivator?

"Perhaps you don't know, but you chose Incense just because you thought it was fast. Then today, I will give you a lesson and teach you... what Incense as Poison is."

In for a penny, in for a pound; since he had already made a move, Ren Yidao naturally would not hold back.

Might as well do a good deed to the end!

If it were other cultivators, Ren Yidao might have to spend more effort, but for cultivators of the Dao of Incense, it was not so troublesome; he knew the pros and cons all too well.

Not to mention, these guys were Ghost Cultivators who did not even have physical bodies.

Before acting, Ren Yidao still had some concerns, but after he finished dealing with the first evil spirit, he found that these guys were even more pathetic than he had imagined.

Their cultivation methods were extremely chaotic; they only knew how to devour Incense and then strengthen themselves, mindlessly absorbing everything.

Given this point, Ren Yidao had already figured out a way to deal with this group.

He did not wake and kill them one by one, but instead added a little something strange into their Incense.

Incense as Poison.

Since you all absorb everything, you might as well absorb a little more.

"Hehe, this way, others will only think this is the backlash from this group of fellows having Fallen into Demon; no one will discover the truth."

After finishing all this, Ren Yidao stuffed the woman's soul back into her body and fused a portion of pure soul power extracted from the evil spirit into it.

His mother was not sick; the reason she was in a coma was actually because her soul had been harvested too much, causing it to wither.

"Mm..." After the soul returned to the body, the woman's brows furrowed slightly, and the sound she made caused the crying child to turn his head abruptly.

"Mother!!? That's great! Thank you, Fozhu!!!" The boy cried, shedding tears of excitement.

Tsk.

Seeing this touching scene, Ren Yidao curled his lip, turned his head in annoyance, and left directly from there.

Hmph!

I do good deeds without leaving a name; I will absolutely not tell them the truth.

But what Ren Yidao did not notice was that after he left, the woman who had regained her life, her gaze still somewhat dull, followed him as he gradually moved away.

In her soul state, she had seen the truth.

She knew that the one who saved her was not the Buddha she had worshipped her entire life.

But a true god.

"Fox..."

"You plotted against me." After returning, Ren Yidao immediately said to Mingxin in a bad mood, "If it weren't for the fact that the child was too pitiful, I wouldn't have paid you any mind."

Mingxin bowed his head in apology, then continued: "But there are still many children like him in the Western Desert; they have never done anything wrong, yet they suffer such treatment."

"What does that have to do with me? It's not like I'm the one who harmed them."

"But Daoist still took action; your heart is much softer than your mouth."

"Tsk! You bunch of fellows, no laughing! Especially you, Haha, shut up!"