<h4>Chapter 281: The Lotus Pond Remains, but the Statue Niche Is Gone</h4>


    After a moment of silent pondering, Mu Xi said gravely, “Those corpses are most likely martial artists who’vee here recently. I just don’t know how many of the people made it into the depths of the ruined temple alive.”


    Ning Sihua’s clear eyes turned toward Su Yi. “Fellow Daoist, can you tell how they died?”


    “A grand formation,” said Su Yi tly. “It’s simr to the one we saw deep within Bloodthistle Yao Mountain, except this formation is obviously the work of a Buddhist expert. Except…"


    He paused to think, then said, “This formation’s power source has obviously been corroded by malevolent energies. As a result, the phenomena it produces now carry a strange and unnatural aura.”


    He then nced up at the hundreds and thousands of unearthly ck illusory lotuses overhead. “If I’m not mistaken, the power sealed beneath this formation almost certainly belongs to a yao or demon.”


    A yao or demon!


    Ning Sihua, Mu Xi, and Lan Suo’s gazes were instantly solemn.


    But Su Yi? Even as he spoke, he had already continued on his way.


    The Sanskrit sutras were like the secret whispering of ghosts. The sound was cold, eerie, and terrifying.


    The entire stretch of heaven and earth was dark and oppressive, especially the entryway to the ruined temple. The ground was piled high with corpses, the blood gathering into pools. The bloody spectacle was enough to make one’s hair stand on end.


    But it was as if Su Yi didn’t even notice it. He just continued ahead, one step at a time.


    Ning Sihua, Mu Xi, and Lan Suo stuck close to him, all of them visibly on guard.


    When they reached the crumbling temple’s entrance, Su Yi suddenly stopped in his tracks.


    Almost simultaneously—


    A figure appeared from deep within the fog. It was a monk in gray, his hands clutching prayer beads. He appeared in the doorway seemingly out of nowhere, as if he were a ghost.


    The monk’s expression was solemn as he greeted them. “Dear benefactors, this is forbidden ground. If you approach, you’ll invite a fatal cmity upon yourselves.”


    His voice boomed like a grand bell, rumbling through the air.


    Su Yi’s eyebrows shifted upward, while Lan Suo seemed to realize something. “Are you a monk of Shanglin Temple?”


    The monk’s eyes shed, and his gazended on Lan Suo. “You’ve got keen eyes, Lady Benefactor. This humble monk indeed hails from the Great Qin’s Shanglin Temple. I belong to the Arhat Hall, and my title is ‘Jueheng’ or ‘Awakening Bnce.’”


    The “Jue”, or “Awakening” generation!


    Lan Suo’s bright eyes were solemn, and she looked a bit surprised as she hurriedly transmitted to herpanions, “The monks of Shanglin Temple’s ‘Jue’ generation are all first-rate Xiantian Martial Ancestors. Everyst one of them has mastered a unique Buddhist divine skill. They’re extremely terrifying; Xiantian Martial Artists of the mundane world can’t even begin topare to them.


    Ning Sihua and Mu Xi were instantly solemn.


    Cultivation factions were on an entirely different ying field; they transcended the mundane world, and the cultivation methods at their disposal far surpassed those avable to ordinary martial artists.


    Thus, even if two martial artists were both Xiantian Martial Ancestors, the one who’d emerged from a Buddhist faction could easily obliterate a mundane foe of the same level!


    This came down to differences in umted experience, inheritances, and talent.


    But Su Yi wasn’t the least bit concerned. He said tly, “My life and death have nothing to do with you. If you truly mean well, you’d best step aside.”


    As he spoke, he was already continuing toward the crumbling gate.


    “Stop!” Awakening Bnce’s aura exploded around him, and his eyes shed like a furious golden vajra. “This humble monk said it already: this is forbidden ground! You’d best not bring misery upon yourselves, or else….”


    Before he could finish, Su Yi swept his sleeves.


    Whoosh!


    A streak of mysterious, pale blue sword qi swept through the air, targeting the monk standing in the doorway.


    “Brazen!” Awakening Bnce lost his temper. His hands formed seals, and he pressed the air.


    Boom!


    A radiant golden Buddhist hand seal condensed, solemn and imposing as it pressed ruthlessly down.


    This was a Buddhist divine skill, and it was miraculous beyondparison. This might and prestige were far beyond the likes of Situ Gong, one of the Great Zhou’s Ten Great Xiantian Martial Ancestors.


    However….


    Su Yi’s sword might have looked casual and understated, but how could it possibly be ordinary?


    The sword light shed, and with a bang, the golden Buddhist hand seal split in two like a sheet of paper, then burst apart in the air with a rain of sparks.


    And Su Yi’s sword qi continued ahead, straight toward Awakening Bnce.


    The monk’s expression shifted, and he suddenly activated his prayer beads. Dazzling golden light instantly surged forth, condensing into a translucent golden barrier right in front of him.


    Bang!


    The sword qi collided with the barrier, the resulting impact shaking heaven and earth.


    In the end, although it blocked the power of Su Yi’s sword, spiderweb-like cracks formed all over the barrier’s surface. In the end, the golden light couldn’t take it, and it crumbled into nothingness.


    Awakening Bnce trembled slightly, and he finally lost his cool. “Benefactor, do you insist on bing the Shanglin Temple’s enemy?”


    Su Yi couldn’t be bothered to waste words. He just waved his sleeves and attacked once more.


    That simple, direct efficiency left Awakening Bnce both startled and furious.


    “Compassion cannot redeem those unwilling to ept it. Since you stubbornly refuse to see the light, just wait! You’ll suffer the consequences!”


    Awakening Bnce didn’t try to fight head-on. He just turned and charged deep into the dense mists of the ruins’ interior.


    Whoosh~!


    When Su Yi’s attack passed through the doorway, the strange rippling of a formation dissolved it, and the sword qi silently disappeared.


    “Just as I thought; the ruins are covered in a formation.” A hint of a strange light shed through Su Yi’s eyes.


    After witnessing the entire exchange, Lan Suo couldn’t hold back. “Young Lord Su, aren’t you afraid that Shanglin Temple will target you? That’s the top Buddhist holynd of the Great Qin. Their ranks include no shortage of Earthly Immortals!”


    “What do you think?” Su Yi asked right back.


    Lan Suo promptly fell silent. He’d already attacked; that naturally proved Su Yi wasn’t the least bit afraid of some Shanglin Temple.


    Ning Sihua gently warned her friend, “Lan Suo, when we proceed into the temple, it’s highly likely we’lle into conflict with the Buddhist cultivators of Shanglin Temple. You’d best prepare yourself.”


    Lan Suo nodded.


    “All of you, get behind me,” said Su Yi. As he spoke, he continued ahead.


    Rumble!


    As soon as Su Yi and his group entered the doorway, the surrounding mist clouds churned and surged.


    It was as if heaven and earth had turned upside down. Everything seemed to change, and countless streaks of mist gathered from all sides and formed a giant dragon.


    This was obviously a bewildering mists formation, but it wasn’t just useful for stopping and dying intruders; it doubled as a terrifying killing formation.


    Streaks of mist stretched hundreds of feet, a vicious dragon condensed of pure, baleful mists. It coiled like an enormous chain and charged in a mad frenzy.


    Were Su Yi any other martial artist, when the cloud “chain” tightened, he would have been crushed into a meaty pulp.


    But to Su Yi, this formation didn’t amount to anything.


    Hispanions watched as—


    Divine light red in the depths of his inscrutable gaze, and with a wave of his sleeves—


    “Open!”


    Boom! Rumble!


    A streak of sword qi surged forth with a low, thunderous rumble. It arced through the air and shed, effortlessly slicing through the mist dragon. It instantly dispersed into nothingness.


    When Ning Sihua and the others saw this, they were stunned despite themselves.


    That sword stretched a thousand feet, striking like an ax through bamboo!


    But how deep and expansive were the ruins? After traversing about one thousand feet, Su Yi and hispanions surveyed their surroundings, but they were still shrouded in dense, baleful mists.


    The mists were the work of a circting formation, and they could restrict even divine sense. With Su Yi’s current cultivation, his divine sense could only cover a thirty-meter range.


    But Su Yi couldn’t be bothered to worry about that.


    It was just a bewildering mist formation. He didn’t need to worry about solving and destroying it; he could just force his way through.


    ng!


    The Abstruse God Sword appeared in his palm. He circted his cultivation and, robes billowing around him, shed repeatedly.


    At his current cultivation,bined with his attainments in the Dao of the Sword, even a casual swing could take the life of a Xiantian Martial Ancestor.


    Each of his swings now arced like a divine rainbow, prating the mists and forcefully clearing a path.


    In the face of absolute strength, skill was meaningless!


    Who cared what exquisite and subtle formation someone used? All Su Yi had to do was break it!


    “Is this guy seriously a second-level Grandmaster!?” Lan Suo was stunned. Astonishment was written all over her exquisite face.


    The power of those sweeping streaks of sword qi made even her heart palpitate with terror. She could never have imagined that this power belonged to a seventeen-year-old Grandmaster.


    As for Ning Sihua and Mu Xi, they’d long since grown ustomed to this.


    Before long, the entire group passed through the mist formation and arrived at a dried-up pond.


    This ce was in ruins too. It was inplete disrepair, but they could vaguely discern that this was once a massive ritual ground, and that the dried-up pond was at its center.


    Upon closer inspection, the dried-up bond was several thousand feet across, and the mud of its interior was cracked, with piles of withered bones.


    A single unearthly ck lotus sprouted from each and every corpse. There were thousands of them, and they swayed in ce.


    The dark, baleful energy surge from the flowers, emanating a bone-piercingly cold, sinister yin energy.


    When they arrived, Su Yi’s dark eyes focused. His divine sense keenly picked up on the presence of an extremely unusual restriction formation.


    “So that’s it. The projections of unearthly ck lotuses we saw hovering in the sky outside came from here….” Su Yi looked enlightened. “There’s a lotus pond at the center of this ritual ground. This was once a ce where Buddhists gave sermons and chanted sutras; it was austere and holy. Who’d have thought it would one day be the base of such a wicked, sinister formation…?


    “The withered corpses within the pond are likely martial artists who fell here once ago. The formation absorbs their flesh, spirit, and qi, condensing them into raw power, which it uses to maintain its operations.


    “But using blood and flesh to direct and build a killing formation? Those are clearly the methods of yao cultivators and demonic sects.?Interesting! This ce isn’t simply another Buddhist temple; I suspect there are demonic sects and yao cultivators involved….”


    Just as Su Yi was pondering, Mu Xi couldn’t help but say, “I was here once, but at the time, there were no unearthly ck lotuses in the pond. Furthermore, there was an alcove made of ck stone on the other side, but now it’s gone!”


    “Is there anything special about the alcove?” Ning Sihua asked curiously.


    Mu Xi fell silent for a while, then said, “I found my Qilin Blood Jade Pendant inside it.”


    When he heard this, even Su Yi was stunned. He vividly remembered the pendant in question; it was formed of the blood of a True Spirit. It would have been a rare and precious treasure even in the Nine Provinces of the Wilds.


    Who’d have thought that a jade pendant like that woulde from a mysterious alcove?


    Su Yi couldn’t help but recall the statue he’d obtained from the Firedome King, Xia Houlin.


    The little Buddhist statue was only about the size of a fist, yet it was carved from the bone of a True Spirit. The statue’s hands formed lotus seals, and a true dragon coiled around its upper body. It, too, was mysterious to the extreme.


    Su Yi certainly hadn’t forgotten how, when he perceived the statue through his divine sense, he saw unparalleled visions of a monk in white riding a true dragon through the stars!


    And ording to Mu Xi’s deductions, the Buddha statue was from the ruined temple too!