Chapter 123 Heartless Love (18)
It is said that the Buddha practiced to have eighteen lifetimes, seventeen of which were used to save others, and he would save himself in one lifetime. After that, he would obtain relics, which would not go beyond Mount Sumeru. The relics are pure, good and clean, but the heart of Mount Sumeru is filled with three thousand six hundred desires and evils. Regardless of which one it is, one must find the Buddha who has fallen.
"...Once you enter the Sumeru Treasury, your true nature is revealed; the Sumeru Treasury can cause one to lose their true nature." Wei Feng looked at the images and text in the water mirror, then cautiously glanced at Jiang Gu walking ahead. "Master, the Wind and Moon Secret Realm is so vast, where should we go to find the fallen Buddhist cultivator?"
It's no wonder Wei Feng asked that question. Nowadays, whether in Pingze or Wangyue, the number of Buddhist cultivators is extremely small. They walk the path of the common people and save the world. If they don't have extremely strong strength, most of them would perish early. Xumi harbors their resentment and doubts. Sometimes, the questioning of the purest and most virtuous people shakes people's minds even more.
“A thousand years ago, a Buddhist sect perished entirely in the Wind and Moon Secret Realm. According to records, more than ten thousand people were killed,” Jiang Gu said casually. “And we are only looking for three Sumeru Hearts.”
Wei Feng quickened his pace to catch up with him, "But Master, more than a thousand years have passed. Perhaps those Sumeru Hearts have already been dug up by someone, and we don't even know where those Buddhist cultivators died."
Jiang Gu turned his head and gave him a cold look.
Wei Feng paused, then said in a low voice, "Retrieving the Heart of Sumeru is fraught with danger, and the reward is merely a hairpin. Can't we refuse it?"
Jiang Gu ignored him and continued walking forward, but the man grabbed his arm. "Master, I—"
“I never believe in coincidences.” Jiang Gu suddenly spoke, looking straight into his eyes. “Whether it’s you appearing at the auction or the Gouchen hairpin reappearing five years later.”
His words were both direct and veiled. Now that the things the two had deliberately ignored were out in the open, the balance they had managed to maintain was about to be broken again. Wei Feng's face turned pale. "Master, I just want us to live. I just want to... protect you."
"No need," Jiang Gu said calmly. "Life is earned by oneself."
He spoke so bluntly that Wei Feng knew that trying to dissuade him would be futile. He knew that danger lurked ahead and wanted to protect Jiang Gu, but deep down he couldn't help but agree with Jiang Gu's words—in his subconscious, his master always had a way.
The relics from a thousand years ago were not easy to find, let alone the Sumeru Heart, which was difficult to distinguish between real and fake. The master and disciple searched for a whole day but found no clues. As night fell, Jiang Gu found a flat and sheltered place to sit and rest.
Wei Feng didn't want to be alone in the Spirit Realm. The "conflict" during the day was brief and subtle, and they tacitly let it go. He sat down next to Jiang Gu and smelled the fragrance on his body.
It is an extremely light and faint fragrance, like a tender bud sprouting in the thin snow of winter, or the warm sunshine in the spring breeze, cool yet with a comforting gentleness.
Jiang Gu was meditating when he suddenly felt a weight on his shoulder, followed by the sound of even breathing. He glanced over and saw Wei Feng's long, thick eyelashes and straight nose. His fair and soft cheeks were flushed with a healthy pink, and he was completely unguarded towards him.
He frowned, wanting to push the person away and give them a good scolding, but a stronger will in his heart kept him unmoved.
So he closed his eyes and continued to regulate his breathing. An invisible spiritual power slowly rose up, enveloping the sleeping youth and isolating him from the cold and wind from the outside world.
However, Wei Feng was destined to have an uneasy sleep.
The person who was fast asleep reacted even faster than Jiang Gu. The moment Jiang Gu opened his eyes, the overwhelming ghost patterns engulfed his body like a tidal wave, and then carried him forward at high speed along the ground. The place where they had been meditating was crushed by spiritual power, and all the flowers, grass, trees and stones were turned into dust.
In the blink of an eye, Jiang Gu had no time to think. He shouted through the ghostly runes, "Wei Feng!"
Wei Feng reacted quickly, stretching out his arm to pull him out of the ghost pattern, holding him to avoid the second attack, and pushing him on the back. Jiang Gu stepped on his shoulder and summoned the statue. Amid the sound of the statue shattering, he separated half of his primordial spirit and entered the statue. The broken hand of the statue withstood the opponent's attack.
Wei Feng had already taken this opportunity to circle around behind his opponent. The dragon silk in his palm flew out and transformed into a sharp blade. Then, the ghost pattern wrapped around the hilt of the blade. He gripped the blade with both hands, let out a fierce shout, and swooped down from the top of the blade, heading straight for his opponent.
The spiritual energy from both sides collided, creating a surge of energy that forced Jiang Gu and Wei Feng to retreat dozens of feet.
A mocking laugh rang out, and the attackers finally revealed themselves. Feng Wujiu lazily crossed his arms and said with some surprise, "You guys reacted quickly. I thought we could succeed. But being able to see a beauty under the moon is worth it."
"Feng Jiuyi, you're courting death!" Enrage flared in Wei Feng's eyes. The dragon silk in his hand split in two, transforming into twin blades. As he charged towards Feng Jiuyi, the blades dispersed into mist, then reappeared behind him like a ghost. The dragon silk blades slashed at his neck, but were blocked by Feng Jiuyi's mace-like magic weapon. The dragon silk blades instantly transformed into white silk, wrapping around the mace and sealing its spiritual power. A fierce, ghostly face flashed across Wei Feng's face. His eyes blazed with black mist as he bent his knee and slammed it heavily into Feng Jiuyi's shoulder and neck.
"Heh, just a dog raised by Chu Guanshan, how dare it bark at me—" Feng Wujiu felt a pain and reached out to grab the white silk ribbon, intending to tear it, but his hands were suddenly bound by a magic array.
He turned around abruptly and saw Jiang Gu, who was surrounded by a magic array not far away.
A young man with a cool and aloof demeanor stood under the moonlight, surrounded by hundreds of magic arrays. The constantly changing runes within the arrays reflected a pale gold hue onto his white robes. The instant Feng Wujiu looked over, he moved with incredible speed, almost transforming into a streak of light. Stepping on the magic arrays that rose beneath his feet, he swiftly formed hand seals, using the arrays around him to unleash a surge of powerful spiritual energy as he charged straight at Feng Wujiu.
Wei Feng's gaze lingered on Jiang Gu for a moment before he suddenly withdrew the dragon silk ribbon. With a flip, the ribbon hooked onto Jiang Gu's formation, transforming into white mist and continuously supplying spiritual energy into it.
With a deafening roar, the entire secret realm trembled.
The thousands of formations shattered, and the broken statues bowed slightly to shield Jiang Gu from behind. Even so, his white robes were gradually soaked with blood. He staggered forward, his internal organs seemed to be shattered, and his consciousness became somewhat hazy and indistinct.
"Master, he's not dead!" Wei Feng's shout jolted Jiang Gu awake.
Without even turning around, he drew his Crimson Snow Sword, took two quick steps, used the stone statue as leverage, and soared into the sky. Feng Wujiu was already upon him, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, but his smile was extremely sinister. "It seems I underestimated you, you piece of trash from Pingze."
Before he finished speaking, the Dharma image behind him suddenly appeared. Unlike Jiang Lin's small Dharma image that was the same size as his original form, and also different from Song Ping's Dharma image that could only manifest in part, Feng Wujiu's Dharma image was almost towering and standing taller than the statue. The Dharma image tilted its neck and slashed the long mace in its hand straight at Jiang Gu.
Jiang Gu's pupils shrank sharply. He channeled all his spiritual power into his sword and flew away. His figure was as small as a mosquito in front of the Dharma Image, but he could not find a chance to escape. Wei Feng turned into mist and appeared and disappeared, but he could not break through Feng Wujiu's omnipresent formation.
"Master, it's a sealing barrier!" Wei Feng shouted, leaping to dodge the long mace as it came crashing down, but he was almost skinned alive. At the critical moment, Jiang Gu pulled him back, and they narrowly escaped.
"Jiang Gu, I advise you to stop struggling." Feng Wujiu sneered, "If I didn't have to bring you back alive, you would have died a thousand times over by my hand."
Jiang Gu was breathing heavily. He held onto Wei Feng's back tightly, unable to move under the pressure of Feng Wujiuyi's aura. His current cultivation level was only at the Great Perfection of the Mahayana stage, and Wei Feng had lost his heart and Yuan Dan and could not fight for long, so their strength was greatly reduced. Meanwhile, Feng Wujiuyi's true strength was already at the Golden Immortal level... They had almost no chance of winning.
But he did not intend to surrender so easily.
He released Wei Feng, drew his sword, and charged straight at Feng Wujiuyi within the Dharma Form.
"You won't listen to reason, so you'll have to suffer the consequences!" Feng Wujiu sneered. "Although I need you alive, you're too weak. What if I accidentally crush you to death?"
The long mace in Faxiang's hand slammed down, the shockwaves from his spiritual energy coalescing into a storm that swept across the land. Amidst the flying sand and stones, the temperature plummeted, making it impossible to breathe.
"Master!" Wei Feng transformed into mist, enveloping Jiang Gu entirely within his body.
Jiang Gu showed no sign of backing down. He took out the black jade bracelet and placed it on the heart of the statue. Then, he and Wei Feng, who had turned into mist, transformed into a stream of light and entered the broken stone statue. The Crimson Snow Sword, which had already developed cracks, transformed into a stone sword and appeared in the statue's hand.
Without Jiang Gu saying anything, Wei Feng wrapped all the sharp dragon silk around the stone sword, directly blocking Feng Wujiu's attack.
Jiang Gu manipulated the stone statue as if it were his own body. He twirled his longsword in his hand and slammed his other palm into the ground to activate an array. The array, reaching to the heavens, gleamed with a dark green luster, faintly echoing the black jade bracelet in the heart of the statue. The black jade bracelet instinctively healed the primordial spirit, and its spiritual power was gentle and harmless. Feng Wujiu's dharma form was momentarily slowed down, which became his fatal flaw.
"Wei Feng!" Jiang Gu shouted.
The mist enveloping his body suddenly burst forth. Wei Feng raised his hand, gripped the three-leaf bamboo shackles on his ankles, and twisted them sharply. Instantly, he transformed into a hideous and terrifying monster, more than ten times larger than the size Jiang Gu had seen in the cage and the spiritual spring. He roared and charged forward, the ghostly patterns like mist instantly engulfing Feng Wujiu's Dharma form, which was originally pure and bright but was now stained black.
Jiang Gu poured all his spiritual power into the stone sword without reservation. As Feng Wujiu's avatar was enraged and resisted Wei Feng's bite, the magic array around him surged, and he leaped up, wielding the sword with both hands, and directly pierced through the original body of Feng Wujiu hidden in the avatar.
The broad stone sword nearly cleaved Feng Wujiu's body in two. He stared wide-eyed in disbelief, wanting to retaliate, but Wei Feng's ghostly markings enveloped him completely, and the mist clung to every meridian, rendering him unable to move. Even so, the stone sword in Jiang Gu's hand began to tremble and crack uncontrollably.
He gritted his teeth and didn't loosen his grip on the sword. Blood began to slowly seep from his seven orifices, and his tiger's mouth was split open. Jiang Gu could even hear the crisp sound of his meridians and bones breaking piece by piece.
"You... how... could you kill me..." Feng Wujiu struggled in his death throes, unable to believe that he had died at the hands of insignificant people like Jiang Gu and Wei Feng.
Jiang Gu gripped the sword and roared angrily. With a fierce twist, the body beneath the sword instantly flew apart, and Feng Wujiu's heart and primordial core were crushed to pieces. The massive primordial spirit also gradually dissipated due to the loss of support.
The stone statue, which had been holding up, shattered completely into dust. Jiang Gu, clutching the Crimson Snow Sword, which had been mostly melted by Feng Wujiu's primordial spirit, knelt on the ground, took a few short breaths, and then spat out a mouthful of foul blood.
"Master..." Wei Feng, who had returned to human form, struggled to get up from the ground. His condition was no better than Jiang Gu's; there was hardly a good spot on his body, not to mention his horribly mangled primordial spirit. He trembled as he helped Jiang Gu up. "Master, are you... alright?"
Jiang Gu lifted his blood-stained eyelids, his breath carrying the scorching smell of blood. His vision was blurred and gloomy, and his consciousness became hazy. He slowly raised his hand, and Wei Feng thought he wanted to touch him, so he grabbed his hand and placed it on his face. However, the next moment, Jiang Gu grabbed his neck tightly.
Wei Feng's neck was almost crushed by him. He was breathing heavily but dared not struggle.
Then he saw Jiang Gu slowly approach, a faint smile appearing on his face, splattered with blood and flesh yet breathtakingly beautiful, but his voice was chillingly cold:
"Who is Chu Guanshan?"
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