"Amitabha Buddha, Benefactor Qin, there is no need for you to harbor murderous intent towards this humble monk."
Samantabhadra Buddha clasped his hands together, his face showing neither sorrow nor joy.
However, his words did not dispel Qin Shou's concerns; instead, they made him even more serious.
If the thought had only flashed through my mind before, now a real killing intent was manifesting within me.
The world is vast, and there are many who harbor ill intentions; he dared not gamble.
"What should I do?"
Qin Shou stared intently at the old monk in front of him, asking not only the monk but also himself.
If possible, he would not want to commit this "ungrateful act".
But this matter concerns the Empress, and is of great importance. If there is even the slightest mistake, she and her many disciples may not escape disaster.
"Amitabha Buddha, this humble monk is already a dying man, why should Qin Shi take action?"
The old monk had a kind face and was surrounded by a faint Buddhist light, but compared to before, it appeared particularly dim and lifeless. His body also began to slowly dissipate under the chanting of the Buddha's name.
"This humble monk mistakenly glimpsed a celestial face, and suffered the karmic backlash, his entire Buddhahood vanished, and this remnant soul is but a candle flame in the wind, clinging on by a mere breath."
"This humble monk only wishes to return to Foshan before I dissipate, to settle my affairs and reconcile the karmic debts of this life."
As the old monk spoke, half of his seated body gradually dissipated, and his upper body also became increasingly transparent, with only a tiny ray of Buddha's light, the size of a grain of rice, radiating a faint glow from between his eyebrows.
"well..... "
Qin Shou sighed, a hint of helplessness in his eyes.
"Thanks to the master's help, my disciple was able to recover his remnant soul. But in the end, it was just an exchange of interests. If I had a choice, I would not want to kill anyone in my life."
"But as you surely understand, Master, the matter of the Empress is of paramount importance. Not only will it have unimaginable consequences for the beings of this world, but if the immortals and gods of the upper realm were to learn of it, it would likely cause unimaginable harm to the billions of lives in this world."
"so........"
Qin Shou raised his eyes, staring intently at the old monk before him. "How can you convince me that you won't reveal my disciple's secret on our trip to Foshan?"
Whew~
The courtyard fell silent for a moment, then a gentle breeze swept by, carrying a petal that landed between the two of them.
However, the falling petals seemed to touch an invisible force, instantly turning into dust and dissipating.
"Um... I suddenly remembered that I have something to take care of at home, so I'll go back and deal with it first. I'll come to visit again next time."
Brother Song, see you another day.
Seeing the somewhat subtle atmosphere on the mountaintop, Luo Xihe turned to slip away. However, just as he was about to leap into the air, the protective array enveloping the mountaintop suddenly activated, unleashing an invisible force that imprisoned Luo Xihe in place. Even Luo Shen'an, who had taken two steps back, was also immobilized, his raised foot landing in mid-air.
"Emperor Luo has come from afar, and I haven't properly entertained him yet. There's no rush to leave; let's have a meal here later."
Qin Shou spoke calmly.
Luo Xi forced a smile. "Well... this emperor never eats, so..."
"The food I cook on my mountain is delicious; you'll like it."
"I don't like it."
"You'll like it."
"I really don't like it."
"You really don't like it?" Qin Shou frowned and looked at him.
“I really don’t like it.” Luo Xihe shook his head decisively, his white beard trembling.
"All right. "
Qin Shou lowered his head, and suddenly a blue dragon appeared above the great formation. The giant beast roared and hovered above Luo Shen'an's head.
"If you really don't like it, then I'll just have to kill him first."
"??????"
Luo Shen'an stood still, not moving an inch. What does this have to do with me?
I never said I didn't like it!!!
Of course, I don't really like it either, but if you insist on keeping me, I might like it for a while.
"If you kill him, will you let me go?"
Luo Xihe cautiously probed.
“…” Luo Shen’an’s eyes widened.
He couldn't believe these words were coming from his own ancestor.
Is this still the same kind and gentle ancestor who loved to tease me since I was a child and took me by his side to cultivate?
How could his 36-degree mouth utter such cold words?
Qin Shou paused for a moment, then looked at Luo Shen'an, "What do you think?"
Luo Shen'an: "I don't think my ancestor would abandon me."
"Hmm." Qin Shou nodded, answering Luo Xihe, "No."
"Alright, then I guess I'll still really enjoy your food; it must be really delicious."
Luo Xihe spread his hands, resigned to his fate.
Because he had no choice.
If the opponent were just a cultivator at the early stage of the Tribulation Transcending Realm, I might be able to escape even if it meant sacrificing ten thousand lives. But the opponent wasn't like that; I clearly sensed a power beyond the Tribulation Transcending Realm just now.
"Master?"
Qin Beast turned his gaze back to Samantabhadra Buddha.
If the other party cannot provide an answer, then I will have no choice but to leave them on this mountaintop until they "die of old age".
"Amitabha Buddha, this humble monk hereby makes a solemn vow, according to the laws of Heaven, that I will never reveal a single word of what happened today. If I break this vow, may I be forsaken by both gods and Buddhas, my soul scattered and my spirit annihilated, never to be reincarnated again."
After Samantabhadra Buddha made his vow, the heavens of this realm seemed to respond.
Qin Shou looked up at the sky for a while, then looked down at the old monk again, his gaze intense yet unfathomable.
The old monk remained calm and composed, showing neither sorrow nor joy, his gaze meeting Qin Beast's without flinching.
Luo Xihe: ...Looking left at the Qin beast, looking right at the old monk.
"well..... "
Finally, after being stared at by Qin Beast for so long, the old monk sighed, a wisp of Buddhist light trembling slightly, and continued, "This humble monk is Samantabhadra of Mount Buddha in the Western Heaven Domain. Today, I swear here that I will never reveal a single word of what happened today. If I break this oath, may I be struck down by heaven and earth, erased from the Three Realms, and forever be condemned to seek Buddhahood, yet never attain the affinity for Buddhism, and may the Buddhist community never have peace..."
"Hmm? This is fine."
Qin Shou nodded calmly.
Then his gaze fell on Luo Xihe.
Upon seeing this, Luo Xihe quickly raised his finger.
"I, Luo Xihe, hereby swear an oath to Heaven: if even the slightest leak of what happened today is revealed, I am willing to be punished by Heaven, struck by lightning, and die a horrible death."
"I, King Luo Shen'an of Tiansheng, hereby swear..."
Seeing that her ancestor had made a vow to Heaven, Luo Shen'an also began to recite the same vow to Heaven with great confidence.
For cultivators, as long as they cultivate to the Golden Core Realm, the Heavenly Dao oaths they make are valid. The higher the realm, the more inviolable the Heavenly Dao oaths become, because the karmic backlash they suffer will be greater.
After Luo Xihe and Luo Shen'an made their vow to Heaven, the two of them breathed a sigh of relief.
Both of them were powerful cultivators at the Integration Realm, some having cultivated for tens of thousands of years. It would be too frustrating for them to perish just because they discovered a secret that was of little use to them.
Just as the two breathed a sigh of relief, they met Qin Shou's unwavering gaze.
"What's wrong...?"
Luo Xihe raised an eyebrow and asked tentatively.
Qin Shou didn't speak, but just kept staring at him.
After staring for a while, Samantabhadra Buddha spoke.
"Amitabha Buddha, perhaps Benefactor Qin feels that Emperor Luo's vow was not sincere enough."
Not sincere enough...?
Luo Xihe's lips twitched. What a damn insincere remark.
"Ahem, I, Luo Xihe, hereby swear that I will never reveal even the slightest detail of what happened today. If I break this oath, may I be struck by heavenly lightning, die a gruesome death, be erased from the annals of all realms, and be condemned to eternal damnation in hell..."
"Brother Qin, what do you think of this?"
"hey-hey...... "
Luo Xihe stared at the Qin beast with an awkward smile.
The Qin beast remained silent.
Luo Xihe's face immediately fell.
"Isn't this enough?"
He was speechless. It was just a vow to Heaven, why did this little idiot make such a fuss? If he had known, he would never have come to save Xiao Shen'an. That way, he would never have met this "young man" whose emotions were so unpredictable and whose depths he couldn't fathom.
"I, Luo Xihe, hereby swear an oath to the Heavenly Dao..."
Immediately afterwards, Luo Xihe began to solemnly swear an oath to the Heavenly Dao.
After the ancestor finished reciting each sentence, Luo Shen'an, who was standing to the side, would also chime in.
"It's not toxic enough!"
After a long while, Qin Shou frowned and said with some worry.
"That's not poisonous enough!"
Luo Xihe is going crazy.
Having cultivated to his level, he usually didn't experience much emotional fluctuation. But at this moment, he desperately wanted to beat this little idiot to death, then hang him up and whip his corpse, slapping his face repeatedly, asking each slap, "Is it poisonous? Is it poisonous? Is it poisonous? Just tell me, is it poisonous or not...?"
Are you cursing me in your heart?
Qin Shou stared at Luo Xihe with an unfriendly gaze.
No, ^^.
Luo Xihe smiled. It's just a vow, I'll just keep sending them. I've already sent them, so it doesn't matter.
only........
"Please enlighten me, Brother Qin, how should I, this emperor, swear an oath?"
Luo Xihe was genuinely seeking advice this time, because he really couldn't think of any other words he needed.
Qin Shou stroked his chin, pondered for a moment, then sighed and said, "Sigh, you guys are really something, dragging your feet even when making a vow."
"............." Luo Xihe was speechless. I've posted this more than ten times already, okay? What can I do if you're not satisfied?
What the hell? Making such a fuss over a vow to Heaven.
xsb,xsb,xsb......
"Brother Song..."
Luo Xihe looked at Song Ningsheng with a questioning gaze.
He didn't want his millennia of cultivation to be wasted in this wretched place.
Song Ningsheng turned his head, pretending not to see. He really couldn't say anything about this, because he was afraid that after he spoke, the other person would suddenly say, "Oh, so there's still a lingering obsession here..."
"Alright then, you shall swear according to what I wrote."
With a wave of his hand, Qin Shou sent over a brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. He wrote with lightning speed, only stopping half an hour later.
Luo Xihe held the densely written characters, his lips twitching incessantly.
"This...this...this is too much, too poisonous!!"
Luo Xihe's eyes widened.
However, Qin Shou wouldn't tolerate him, and reprimanded him impatiently, "Just read it aloud."
"Hmph, what do you take me for? This is utterly outrageous! What if I refuse to obey?"
Even a clay figure has a temper, let alone an emperor of a dynasty.
"Old Song, why don't I let a couple more obsessions accompany you on this mountain?"
Qin Shou raised his hand, and dazzling beams of tribulation light erupted from within the Four Spirits Sacred Array.
"Wait a minute."
"Today, I, Luo Xihe, hereby swear that if I break this oath, may my Dao foundation crumble, my body and Dao vanish, and I be barred from reincarnation. Even if I do enter reincarnation, I will be tormented by ghosts—the kind of huge, fat, and ugly female ghosts weighing hundreds of pounds, a hundred ghosts every day, one ghost a hundred times… In my next life, I will be reborn into a lifetime of misfortune, nightmares coming true, a male prostitute, a female prostitute, or both a hermaphrodite… My children will be born without an anus, and all my daughters will be… I will choke to death while eating, choke to death while drinking, die in my sleep, or fall to my death while walking… I will never have a wife, and I will never have a wife in my next life… If I am lucky enough to have a wife, each of my children will be different, none of them resembling me… And all my neighbors will call me Old Wang…"
After a quarter of an hour of rapid-fire recitation, Luo Xihe's mouth was almost dry before he finally finished.
Then he handed the paper to Luo Shen'an.
Luo Shen'an's hands trembled as she held the paper, not because it was particularly poisonous, but because reading it aloud was just too... shameful.
Why hesitate?
Qin Shou spoke gently.
What Luo Shen'an heard was like a demonic sound piercing her ears, causing her body to tremble.
"Without hesitation."
"Since you didn't hesitate, why didn't you recite it? Perhaps you have a guilty conscience?"
"Absolutely not."
Luo Shen'an took a deep breath, held the letter, and began to read it aloud.
"Today, I, the King, hereby swear..."
After half an incense stick's time, I finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Um. "
Qin Beast was very satisfied.
"Swear this oath a hundred more times, and this matter will be considered closed."
Luo Shen'an and Luo Xihe, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, suddenly froze.
Luo Xihe: ...Are you being polite?
Luo Shen'an:............That doesn't seem very polite.
"Please forgive me, everyone. I'm just worried that there are too many people making oaths in this world right now, and Heaven might overlook your sincerity if it's not careful. So I've decided to use numbers to mitigate the risk."
Qin Shou's voice was sincere, and his eyes were even more sincere.
The two of them felt a little embarrassed, and even had a feeling that it would be unreasonable for them not to do as they were told.
"I, Luo Xihe, hereby swear an oath to the Heavenly Dao..."
"I, Luo Shen'an, hereby swear an oath to the Heavenly Dao..."
And so, these two pillars of the Luoshen Dynasty, today on this great wilderness, held a piece of paper and recited it to the Heavenly Dao again and again.
By the end, neither of them needed to look at the paper anymore; they typed away fluently, one after another.
As the sun sets, the moon rises.
The two were still muttering to themselves.
Even Song Ningsheng, who was standing to the side, couldn't stand it anymore and spoke up to discuss it.
Qin Shou glanced at him. "Thank you for coming along, senior."
Song Ningsheng: ..........
"I, Song Ningsheng, swear to Heaven today..."
"Amitabha Buddha, Benefactor Qin, this humble monk cannot hold on for much longer, will he...?"
"Amitabha Buddha, Master, you have worked hard. I suddenly feel that the vow you just made is not quite right. Please allow me to study it carefully and write a vow for you myself."
"Amitabha Buddha, no need. This humble monk finds the scenery here exceptionally beautiful; enjoying this last bit of beauty is enough."
"Amitabha Buddha, excellent, excellent, Master, please proceed."
"Amitabha Buddha..."
"Amitabha Buddha..."
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