Chapter 594: Buddha Heart Two Thousand (33 Today 1w)

"Hahaha!"

A fat, elderly monk with a face full of steel-wire whiskers laughed loudly, bringing the heart he had just plucked from an enemy's chest to his mouth and biting down hard.

Sss—

Fresh blood splattered; the old monk's face was covered in blood as he ate, looking exceptionally ferocious and sinister.

"Pah!"

After chewing for a moment, he spat a Buddhist bead out of his mouth, then threw the remaining half of the heart onto the ground and crushed it with one foot.

"That makes six hundred! The next Fozi will definitely be me! Hahaha!"

Triumphantly, he hoisted the corpse of his defeated foe, then tore it directly in two, letting the falling blood dye his body red.

While bathing in the blood, he let out a long howl toward the sky from the top of the deserted sand dune, roaring, "Who else is there?"

"Who else!!!"

"Who—else—"

The old monk roared, venting the killing intent in his heart; never before had he felt so powerful.

Ever since this struggle for the Fozi began, he had transformed into an Asura, walking into this meat grinder; as each opponent fell, his resolve for his future Dao grew firmer, and his strength gradually increased in the process!

He was undergoing a metamorphosis; this was an evolution that belonged to him!

He believed that as long as he continued to fight, until only he remained, until he stood out from the ten thousand and eighty people, he would completely transform into an Asura.

And by that time, whether he became the Fozi or not would no longer matter; he himself would be strong enough!

He knew that his previous battles with strong enemies could not be hidden from others; there were still hidden enemies lurking in the dark, wanting to strike at him.

But he did not care.

Fight!

Fight!!!

"Who—Ga!!?"

Pfft.

Just as he was roaring in fury, accompanied by a strange, soft sound, his voice suddenly distorted.

The old monk slowly lowered his head, his eyes widening instantly, filled with disbelief.

He saw his own chest—the kind that had been opened wide.

And within the opened chest, his heart had quietly vanished at some unknown moment; he could see the scenery behind him through the large hole.

He had thought there might be enemies, thought the enemy might be more powerful than himself... but he had never thought that he wouldn't even be able to spot the opponent's figure.

Who exactly was it?

The old monk's expression shifted slightly, and suddenly a phantom flashed through his mind; instead of attempting to treat or suppress his injuries, he muttered in a daze, "I... am the... Fozi..."

Thud.

Accompanied by a murmur like sleep-talk, he toppled backward like a golden mountain collapsing and a jade pillar falling, crashing heavily onto the ground.

Crack!

Because of his heavy body, he smashed a deep pit into the ground, sinking directly into the quicksand, instantly buried by the yellow sand, entombed in the earth, and leaving no trace behind.

Such a turn of events naturally shocked the other hidden prospective Fozi nearby; for a time, the entire desert fell silent.

This was the final moment of the Fozi selection; of the more than ten thousand Participants, fewer than fifty remained alive, and those who were left were either astonishingly powerful or possessed exceptional means.

Yet even these people had not detected any trace in that instant just now!

Who exactly had struck? What means had been used to take the old monk's life?

No one knew.

And such an unknown, terrifying existence was hiding among them; they would have to contend with such a monster.

A chill ran down their spines.

Everyone became even more cautious, not daring to show themselves easily, fearing they would become the next victim.

But they were actually overthinking it; the culprit who had done all this had already swaggered away long ago.

"Here, another six hundred."

In a hiding spot not far from the battlefield, Ren Yidao took the string of Buddhist beads from the mouth of the Incarnation that had appeared out of thin air and handed them to Mingxin.

"I told you it would be much more convenient to wait until the end to strike; adding these to the previous ones, it's already over two thousand two hundred, more than one-fifth; you'll definitely be able to secure a spot."

Ren Yidao could have slaughtered all the remaining forty-plus other contestants, but he did not intend to strike again.

It was now the end of the Fozi struggle, and more and more attention was being cast down from Spirit Mountain; his strike just now had already been somewhat risky. This time, the surprise attack hadn't been caught, but next time, once they were prepared, it might not be the same.

"This is already enough, thank you, Daoist." Mingxin took the Buddhist beads and combined the two strings; the string of beads, composed of over a thousand pieces, was draped over his body after being wrapped once, adding an unusual aura to Mingxin.

These Buddhist beads all came from various Fozi; they had different philosophies and different ideas, but at this moment, they had all turned into stepping stones beneath Mingxin's feet.

As the battle progressed, Ren Yidao also gradually figured out some of the hidden rules of the Fozi struggle.

All the prospective Fozi participating in this struggle, on this land of the Western Desert, had everything about them placed on the scales the moment they stepped into the fight.

The strong gain everything from the weak; the strong remain strong.

What was taken away during the slaughter was not just the Buddhist beads formed from hearts, but their lifelong fortune.

Under the blessing of these two thousand-plus Buddhist beads, Mingxin's cultivation had improved significantly; although more than half of his fortune had been taken by Ren Yidao, who had done the work, this was still a powerful blessing.

His aura was already several times stronger than when he started, his cultivation pushing toward Spirit Transformation; as long as he could settle his heart and refine this fortune, his cultivation would surely advance by leaps and bounds.

But Mingxin was not intoxicated by this power; he did not absorb it recklessly, but refined it one Buddhist bead at a time.

If Mingxin had only been able to rely on himself, he would have swallowed the power within without hesitation, but here, there was a Protector capable of letting him practice with peace of mind.

The more Mingxin understood Ren Yidao, the more shocked he felt toward this mysterious Daoist.

It seemed that no matter what kind of enemy it was, no matter what kind of cultivation they had, before him, they were all the same, with only one outcome—death.

He was like a bottomless pool of water, the deepest part of which could never be seen.

Mingxin felt fortunate more than once that he and his Senior Brother had the luck to meet Ren Yidao and the good fortune to become friends with him.

Otherwise, if such a person were to become an enemy, it would be a desperate nightmare.

And just as Mingxin was refining the newly acquired Buddhist beads, Minghui was staring blankly at them from the side.

But in truth, he was not looking at his Senior Brother, but at those very beads; a light like ghost fire seemed to flash within his hollow eye sockets.

"What are you looking at?"

"!!!"

Minghui was startled and turned his head abruptly, discovering that Zhang Mang had been standing behind him before he knew it.

"I, I'm not looking at anything..." He explained in a panic, then blinked his eyes and asked somewhat strangely: "By the way, how did you know what I was looking at? Can you see?"

I only have one blind eye, but you are blind in both, so how could you see?

"I'm not looking at anything either, it's just that you suddenly stopped talking, which surprised me a bit." Zhang Mang smiled and raised the book in his hand, "You left after reading only half; today's task is not yet finished."

Minghui had no cultivation, so he could not use a Jade Slip and had to use the most ancient, simple books to study.

"... Oh, alright." Minghui sighed helplessly, then reluctantly withdrew his gaze from those Buddhist beads, lowered his head obediently, walked to Zhang Mang's side, and continued to stumble through reading those characters.

Minghui thought his little actions were very covert, but he did not know that the interaction between the two of them had fallen into the eyes of others.

The others only felt the interaction between the two youths was quite interesting, but Ren Yidao had noticed Minghui's earlier abnormality.

"His eyes..." Ren Yidao could not be sure what this was, but this naturally blind eye of his might perhaps have other abilities as well.

"You noticed it too?" Yaoyue's voice transmission rang in Ren Yidao's heart; their cultivation could easily deceive everyone present, "How do you plan to handle it?"

"I don't plan to handle it." Ren Yidao shook his head slightly and withdrew his gaze from Minghui, "I am not some saint of the righteous path, nor am I busy subduing demons and eliminating devils; even if Minghui has something special about him, it has nothing to do with me."

"Besides, he is, after all, one of the few friends Zhang Mang has."

"Is that sentence your true reason?" Yaoyue raised an eyebrow and teased with a smile, "It really does echo that little monk Mingxin's words."

Of those present, only Yaoyue dared to joke with Ren Yidao; no one else would voluntarily touch this nerve.

"Who knows." Ren Yidao just smiled at this; he was in no rush to fall out with her, but he would write it down in his little notebook and settle the total account when the time came!

I'll let her taste the eighteen styles of free-hand techniques I learned from the Joyous Zen Master!

Dong—

Dong—

Dong—

Accompanied by the three bell tolls from Spirit Mountain, the killing intent across the entire desert instantly dissipated.

Everyone knew that there was no need to fight anymore.

The three tolls of the Spirit Mountain bell meant that the first stage of the struggle for Fozi had ended, and everyone remaining had successfully passed the first trial.

"Huu..."

Accompanied by sighs, the figures who had been hiding emerged from the sand one by one.

They looked at each other nervously and silently noted the other's appearance, but they were not too tense, because there would be no need to see blood in the next two trials.

Clatter, clatter...

And just as everyone stood still, a somewhat thin figure walked slowly from the distance; every step he took produced a crisp sound.

At first, they were a bit strange, thinking the young monk was carrying some unique ornament, but once he walked closer, those gazes all turned from confusion to shock.

That clattering sound came from the collision of Buddhist beads!

The more than two thousand Buddhist beads represented as many prospective Fozi like them who had all died at his hands.

One must know that apart from this person, the person who had obtained the second most Buddhist beads had only obtained five hundred or so!

Everyone moved aside in silence, clearing a path for that person leading to Spirit Mountain.

Mingxin walked forward, clasping his hands and nodding to everyone who cleared a path for him; he looked very kind and approachable, yet no one dared to truly treat him as a kind person.

And as Mingxin gradually approached, Spirit Mountain also gradually had a reaction.

The figure of the Fozi Jiexing appeared on the mountaintop; he looked down at Mingxin, his brows slightly furrowed, and spoke slowly: "Were these Buddha hearts all taken by your own hands?"

"It was not relied upon by this disciple alone."

Mingxin did not hide it and stated frankly: "Reporting to Fozi, this disciple obtained these Buddha hearts all with the help of a Protector; without the Protector, this disciple would have been unable to obtain these Buddha hearts at all."

Jiexing's brows furrowed, and before he could even speak, someone beside him took the initiative to rebuke: "Audacious! You actually let an outsider assist you; do you know your crime!?"

And Mingxin seemed to have expected this, saying calmly: "In the struggle for Fozi, there has never been a prohibition against this matter, therefore this disciple is innocent."

"Fozi, is what this disciple said correct?"

"..." Jiexing narrowed his eyes, wanting to see something in the youth's eyes, but only saw a stretch of calm.

Just as Jiexing was about to speak, a gentle voice rang in his heart—it was the voice of the Fozhu.

【"Allowed."】