Chapter 551

The tall ship began to fly again.

On the deck, there was a large mass of colorful halo, with four flags distributed around it, within which one could faintly see golden flowing light and scorching flames.

Within this mass of halo, Li Fei, Shi Caiming, and Zhou Xuanwo formed a circle, watching Bai Meng 'tossing about' Wuche's Dharma Skeleton Holy Body.

As a top-tier True Person with two natal magic treasures, although one was self-detonated, there was still a true spirit in the other natal magic treasure, so his life was not in danger.

If Wuche hadn't thought about using the self-detonation of his natal magic treasure to heavily injure Li Fei, but had decisively abandoned the Nine-Ringed Flying Dragon Staff and used the Dharma Skeleton to use 【Divine Footwork】 to escape, Li Fei and the others wouldn't have been able to keep him.

As a result, the self-detonation of the Nine-Ringed Flying Dragon Staff affected the spatial divine ability, preventing Wuche from leaving at the first opportunity.

Taking advantage of him being at his weakest, Bai Meng seized the opportunity to trigger the unique divine ability 【Star Picking】 to snatch control of the opponent's Dharma Skeleton Holy Body.

Because of this, the 【Divine Footwork】 Wuche was performing was interrupted, and he completely lost the chance to escape.

Now Li Fei, Shi Caiming, and Zhou Xuanwo were using their own martial domains and formations to suppress Wuche together, helping Bai Meng complete the plunder of the Dharma Skeleton Holy Body!

Bai Meng rarely revealed a look of excitement, putting her own natal magic treasure, the Seven Treasures Profound Bracelet, on the Dharma Skeleton's wrist, using the formation to 'infect' the formation of the Dharma Skeleton Holy Body, thereby fully triggering the 【Star Picking】 divine ability, making it impossible for Wuche to self-detonate even if he wanted to.

This Zhaixing Sect Sect Master only had the cultivation of the Tiangang realm; even if Wuche only had a Dharma Skeleton Holy Body left, the formation was still a notch stronger than hers.

The reason she could plunder so calmly was, firstly, because there were three experts nearby helping her plunder, and secondly, because Wuche's current state was very poor.

The Dharma Skeleton, which previously looked like a Vajra Venerable, now looked very miserable:

The abdomen was completely pierced through, and the wound hadn't healed.

The top of the head was split open, as if it had been smashed like half a watermelon, revealing the metal texture engraved with golden Sanskrit characters inside.

The head, along with the neck, was 'embedded' into the chest.

Various divine abilities of the Dharma Skeleton were suppressed, causing the Dharma Skeleton to be unable to heal and only able to maintain this miserable state.

Bai Meng groped around the Dharma Skeleton with an excited face for more than thirty minutes, then stood up and looked at Li Fei and the others:

"The difficulty is a bit high; it has to be ground down slowly."

No one expected her to be able to snatch the natal magic treasure of a top-tier True Person who was at the peak of Tiangang and Earthly Fiend perfection, only one step away from breaking through, so quickly.

If the Zhaixing Sect were that powerful, it would have been the number one sect in the world long ago.

"Is there really a chance to snatch it over?"

Zhou Xuanwo asked curiously.

In his view, this 【Star Picking】 divine ability was just bullying the weak and was only useful against people with a lower realm than oneself.

"Nonsense, otherwise would I be tossing about blindly?"

Bai Meng rolled her eyes.

"If this thing is snatched over, can it maintain its original divine abilities?"

Li Fei also couldn't help but ask curiously.

The reason why a natal magic treasure has the word 'natal' is because it is connected to the warlock's life, so the divine abilities contained in the magic treasure are also closely related to the warlock himself.

Once the warlock's true spirit is destroyed, all the divine abilities of the natal magic treasure will also dissipate, leaving only an 'empty shell'.

If other warlocks get this 'empty shell', they must also re-condense the divine abilities, just saving a sum of 'materials'.

The True One magic treasure 'Dream Order' that Li Fei once obtained was an 'empty shell' left behind after a True Lord died.

If Bai Meng just wanted to snatch an 'empty shell', she could directly destroy the true spirit Wuche left in the Dharma Skeleton Holy Body, without having to toss about at all.

So Li Fei guessed that the opponent's method must have some reasoning.

Facing Li Fei, Bai Meng's attitude was much better; after all, Wuche was defeated by the other party:

"As long as I can snatch it over, even if the opponent's true spirit dissipates, I can preserve the divine abilities of this natal magic treasure, only the power will decrease."

Li Fei was somewhat surprised: "In that case, you can also possess a second natal magic treasure, or even more natal magic treasures?"

Bai Meng shook her head: "If I want to trigger the divine abilities, I must entrust my true spirit within it; in essence, I still only have one natal magic treasure, just that the available divine abilities have become more."

Li Fei understood.

To simultaneously control multiple natal magic treasures, one must nurture more true spirits, and this has extremely high requirements for talent.

Although Bai Meng can plunder other people's natal magic treasures and keep their divine abilities from dissipating, she only has one true spirit and can only display one natal magic treasure at the same time.

However, even so, this gives her a chance to break the limit on the number of divine abilities.

Once she can snatch this Dharma Skeleton Holy Body of Wuche's, her strength can immediately be raised by a level!

It's just that defeating a top-tier expert is already very difficult, and capturing them alive, completely suppressing them, and then slowly plundering the natal magic treasure with divine abilities is even more difficult.

Bai Meng just happened to have a chance to try it this time.

Next, Zhou Xuanwo and Bai Meng, these two Royal Consultants, will both go north with Li Fei, so Li Fei naturally hopes that Bai Meng's strength will be as strong as possible.

"How long is it expected to take to succeed?"

Li Fei asked.

Bai Meng: "That's hard to say; if it's fast, ten days or half a month. If it's slow, a year or half a year is also possible. And during this period, it must be ensured that this holy monk's true spirit doesn't cause trouble."

Zhou Xuanwo said: "It won't work for us to keep consuming like this; let's suppress his true spirit first."

He and Bai Meng are both top-tier True Persons, and Li Fei can also be considered a top-tier True Person; the three of them joining forces still have some means that can be used.

"I can weaken his true spirit first."

Li Fei said.

Bai Meng nodded immediately: "Then I will trouble the Marquis of Jingan."

So Li Fei's eyes focused, looking at the Dharma Skeleton on the ground.

The three experts present all sensed a powerful sword intent full of murderous intent flash by, as if a giant monster had emerged from beneath the sea surface, only to quietly submerge into the deep sea again.

That kind of sudden horror made the three of them secretly terrified!

"Is this the combination of magic and martial arts?"

Bai Meng looked at Shi Caiming.

She sensed magic true power from this sword intent, and also sensed martial arts mind, the two powers completely fused; it was a mental attack method she had never seen before.

Consciousness world.

Wuche was in a white monk's robe, just like what he was wearing when he first entered Pudu Temple.

He knelt before the Buddha statue, and a green lamp before the Buddha illuminated the main hall.

Wuche put his hands together, chanting scriptures devoutly.

This was his self-defense posture; after being captured, he used his true spirit to construct such an illusion to resist the invasion of external enemies.

Outside the temple, the setting sun sank into the distant mountains like coagulated blood, and the sound of the sky tearing like silk shredded the cicadas' chirping.

A giant blood-colored sword broke through the sky and stabbed toward the temple below!

The sea of clouds surged, the giant sword was like heavenly punishment; the closer it got to the temple, the stronger the pressure it brought.

The copper bells under the flying eaves of the ancient temple were mute, and the stone lions guarding the steps cracked.

Wuche knelt before the Buddha statue, the lamp flame of the green lamp flickered, and the sound of chanting stopped abruptly.

He didn't stand up, but maintained the kneeling posture, continuing to chant.

This time he was chanting the "Diamond Sutra".

A golden Buddha statue appeared out of thin air, one hand placed before the chest; the temple where Wuche was located was in the palm of the Buddha statue.

The other hand pointed upward to the sky, the fingertip meeting the giant blood-colored sword.

Broken spears and halberds, cracked shields, war horses lying in pools of blood... scenes from the battlefield appeared on the body of the giant sword.

When the blade edge struck the Buddha finger, the map of ten thousand miles of rivers and mountains spread out at the point of collision, and mounds of bones built into Jingguan appeared.

A silent collision; the ginkgo trees inside the temple dropped leaves crazily, every golden leaf turning into dust on the way down.

Wuche, who was chanting, suddenly had blood and tears flowing from his eyes!

The damage brought to him by self-detonating his natal magic treasure was extremely heavy, plus the Dharma Skeleton was being suppressed by several experts joining forces, so the power he could exert at this time was limited.

And this Blood Might Seven Kills of Li Fei's didn't hesitate to refine blood souls with the 【Refining Objects】 divine ability to enhance its power!

So just one collision, and Wuche was injured on top of injuries.

He still didn't want to give up, forming seals with both hands, and the golden Buddha statue also stretched out the other hand, the two palms overlapping together, striking upward with a 【Wish-Fulfilling Seal】.

"Bestowing upon the world? Do the people of the world need your bestowing?"

Li Fei's voice resounded through the heavens and earth.

Wuche was unmoved, chanting as before:

"If I don't enter hell, who enters hell?"

The two people's minds intertwined, and each other's philosophies could be clearly reflected in the other's heart:

"The Buddhist side doesn't engage in production; if everyone eats vegetarian and chants Buddha, how will the world operate?"

"This is a foolish view. My Buddhist side, from the small novice monks down to the Buddhas, all emphasize the combination of farming and Zen; if one doesn't labor for one day, one doesn't eat for one day. If everyone believes in Buddha, then everyone labors, and there will be no meat-eaters plundering the production of others."

"The Buddhist side says all living beings are equal, but why can the Buddhas be high and mighty? Your Pudu Temple claims to be a Buddhist holy land; dare you say there is no distinction between the three, six, and nine grades?"

"Only after there is cause and effect reincarnation can there be equality for all living beings. If one life is not equal, if placed in thousands of lives, then everyone is equal, and everyone can become a Buddha."

"..."

Li Fei soon gave up communicating with the opponent.

Any theory that can be passed down through the ages cannot have obvious loopholes for people to refute.

Against a holy monk like Wuche, it was even more impossible for Li Fei to rely on 'debating the law' to convince the opponent.

He also didn't care about convincing the opponent.

Just beat him into submission!

Continue to trigger the 【Refining Objects】 divine ability to convert blood souls into true power and mental power.

The giant blood-colored sword continued downward, the Buddha finger broke inch by inch from the fingertip, and then the entire Buddha statue crumbled along with it!

Wuche inside the temple bled from the seven orifices, no longer able to maintain this illusion...

On the deck, Li Fei exited Wuche's consciousness world.

Bai Meng and Zhou Xuanwo had already taken advantage of Wuche's mind suffering heavy damage to join forces in performing magic to suppress his true spirit.

A moment later, the two stopped.

Bai Meng nodded to Li Fei and Shi Caiming, signaling that there was no need to continue using martial domains to suppress the Dharma Skeleton Holy Body.

Up to this point, this fourth strongest person of the Buddhist side, the holy monk with the best chance of breaking through to become a new Buddha, was considered truly captured!

His flesh body should still be left in Pudu Temple, but without the two natal magic treasures, he was basically considered crippled.

Next, if the true spirit within the Dharma Skeleton Holy Body also perished, the flesh body would be in even more life-threatening danger!

"I trouble the two consultants to look after this Dharma Skeleton."

Li Fei left a sentence, turned, and entered the tall ship to see Li Lei and Zhang Yuqing.

He gave the two a rough explanation of today's events and comforted them.

After returning to his separate room, Li Fei finally had time to summarize today's exchange with Wuche.

This fourth strongest person of the Buddhist side was indeed a Prince-level expert worthy of the name.

But in reality, the number of blood souls Li Fei consumed to deal with Wuche was not as many as the blood souls consumed when he fought seven against one previously, dealing with seven Dukes.

And the pressure Wuche brought to Li Fei was stronger than the seven Dukes joining forces.

Because those seven Dukes actually weren't adept at joint attack techniques, and their coordination was far inferior to Wuche's two natal magic treasures.

"Wuche's strength lies in the coordination of the two natal magic treasures, but this is precisely his greatest weakness."

Li Fei pondered, "If the connection between the two natal magic treasures were stronger, making it impossible for me to slash it, then this battle would have been truly troublesome."

If the connection between the Nine-Ringed Flying Dragon Staff and the Dharma Skeleton Holy Body hadn't been slashed, no matter which natal magic treasure Li Fei attacked, the attack would have been reflected back; that would have been truly hard to fight.

He would either have to slowly consume with Wuche and see who was more persistent.

Or bet on his sword-body 'unsheathing' and consume more blood souls to perform 【Sword Sacrifice】 to strengthen his attack power. Gamble and see if his attack ceiling could break through the opponent's defense ceiling and break the opponent's 'reflection mechanism'.

It's just that if he did that, the risk would be very great.

"So in a duel between top-tier experts, what's more important is to find loopholes through the 'interaction' of domains and domains, thereby formulating targeted tactics."

Li Fei summarized the gains of this battle.

"Wuche's weakness lies in the connection between the two natal magic treasures; then what is my weakness? If I were the enemy, what kind of tactics would I formulate to target myself?"

Li Fei's heart moved, and he thought of himself through Wuche.

He fell into deep thought because of this...

After thinking for a long, long time, Li Fei had to somewhat narcissistically admit one point:

"I don't seem to have any obvious weaknesses..."

Xiji Province.

Mount Pudu.

The place where the Buddhist holy land, Pudu Temple, is located.

Seventy-two Buddhist pagodas wound up along the mountain, and the prayer flags hanging from the pagoda tips danced in the gale.

The setting sun dyed the entire mountain range red, and the clouds floating between the mountains were plated with golden edges.

The entire temple was brightly lit, permeated with a faint sandalwood scent.

Before the main hall of the temple were three thousand levels of green jade steps, each level engraved with fragments of Buddhist scriptures.

Every time Qin Zihong walked past these steps, he felt that his heart was also dyed with a faint Zen intent.

But the anxiety in his heart that grew day by day made it truly difficult for him to be calm.

In the Battle of Bai Feng Plain, the army he led was defeated.

He and King Li, Qin Mingli, could only return to Mount Pudu with the people from Pudu Temple.

Afterward, he learned the news of the Third Imperial Prince's death, and through the various details of that battle, he roughly guessed the plot between the Buddhist side and the Third Imperial Prince.

Thus he understood that he was actually the pawn that was sacrificed!

The reason he was still alive now was thanks to the imperial court winning.

A mutiny in the Southern Border, the defeat in the Battle of Bai Feng Plain; Qin Zihong's power had basically been exhausted.

He knew very well that his only value now was his identity as the former First Imperial Prince.

If the Buddhist side wanted to fight out of Xiji Province in the future, they might need to use his name to overthrow the current new monarch.

But his role had changed from being indispensable at the beginning to becoming not so important now.

Qin Zihong was unwilling to accept this status quo!

He stepped over the steps one by one and arrived outside the main hall.

Because of his identity, no one stopped him along the way.

Inside the main hall, an old monk sat with his back to Qin Zihong, meditating before the Buddha statue.

"Qin Zihong requests to see the Elder."

Qin Zihong saluted the old monk.

"Please enter, Your Highness."

A gentle voice came from within the main hall.

No matter what, at least on the surface, Qin Zihong was still very respected within this Buddhist holy land of Pudu Temple.

He stepped into the main hall.

But the old monk still had no intention of standing up, which surprised Qin Zihong somewhat.

However, he didn't make a sound, nor did he urge, waiting quietly behind the other party.

He knew that this old monk's status within Pudu Temple was unusual; the other party was one of the six Great Arhats and also the monk of the 'Jing' generation with the highest seniority in Pudu Temple, with the dharma name Jinglian.

Not only that, the other party also had a disciple, who was the current fourth strongest person of the Buddhist side, Wuche.

So at the present time when the Buddha Jingheng was in seclusion and the two Heavenly Kings didn't manage much, almost everything in the entire Pudu Temple was decided by Jinglian.

Qin Zihong stood for a while and found that Jinglian seemed to have been staring at the green lamp offered before the Buddha statue.

He couldn't help but take a few more looks at this green lamp.

Having stayed in Pudu Temple for so long, he also understood a lot.

For example, this green lamp offered before the Buddha statue in the main hall had a great background; it was rumored to be a magic treasure left behind by the Buddha!

The Buddha and the Dao Ancestor respectively founded the Buddhist side and the Daoist side.

In the cultivation world, some people felt that these two had already gone beyond the pinnacle and had long since transcended the world.

Others believed that these two were still just pinnacle experts and hadn't broken through that boundary.

In fact, more people believed the latter.

Because if the Buddha and the Dao Ancestor had both broken through to beyond the pinnacle, they should have at least left behind some inheritance.

But for thousands of years, the Buddhist and Daoist sides had also been groping for the path beyond the pinnacle.

True Lord Qingxu made an attempt, but failed.

However, regardless of which viewpoint one held, at least the Buddha and the Dao Ancestor couldn't be viewed as ordinary pinnacle experts; this was recognized by the cultivation world.

The green lamp left behind by the Buddha was naturally not simple either.

It was rumored that this green lamp before the Buddha had been lit since the day Pudu Temple was built.

To this day, it had lasted for a thousand years!

Qin Zihong looked at this green lamp and gradually became somewhat entranced.

In a trance, he felt that the wick of this green lamp seemed to be flickering?

"Your Highness."

Jinglian's voice brought Qin Zihong back to his senses.

I don't know when, but Jinglian had already stood up and turned to face Qin Zihong.

"Greetings, Elder."

Qin Zihong hurriedly saluted.

"Does Your Highness have anything to do?"

Jinglian asked gently, his expression revealing a few obvious signs of fatigue.

Qin Zihong looked at the other party, took a deep breath, and suddenly knelt down on both knees!

Jinglian was startled and hurriedly stepped aside to avoid it:

"What does Your Highness mean by this?"

Qin Zihong looked up at the solemn Buddha statue above:

"Elder, I have also enjoyed all the glory and had lofty ambitions. But looking back now, the Emperor has fallen, and my brother has died.

The grand cause of hegemony is, after all, just an empty dream!"

Jinglian frowned: "Why does Your Highness have to be so disheartened? It is just a dragon in the shallows now..."

Qin Zihong knew that the other party was unparalleled in eloquence and that he definitely couldn't win in a debate, so he didn't give the other party a chance to finish speaking at all.

Facing the green lamp before the Buddha in front, he bowed long and prostrated:

"Living in the Buddhist holy land for several months, I watched the incense smoke of the treasure tripod before the hall, gathering and scattering without reason, just like human glory, like dew and like lightning.

Now I have suddenly awakened; although the jewelry is heavy, it is not as cool as the kasaya; although the palace is vast, it is hard to compare to the square inch of a meditation cushion."

Speaking of this, Qin Zihong pushed his voice with force, resounding through the main hall:

"My Buddha is merciful, I am willing to use the body of an imperial bloodline to seek proof of the Tathagata's Nirvana Dao!"

(End of chapter)