Chapter Fifteen: Shattering His Dharmakaya

  After a moment of silence, Liang Ze finally spoke slowly, saying: "I don't know what's wrong either, I just feel very uneasy in my heart. A martial artist's intuition is often accurate, and I've always felt that something was off here. From the moment I entered this place until now, it's been like this. I'm afraid..."

  The thief's words stopped at halfway, but his words were like the ghost fire in the dark night, what was frightening was not the light itself, but what was behind it.

  Another silence fell. Feng He and Bi Han looked at each other, neither of them speaking, and they sank into a dead silence once again.

  Liang Ze furrowed his brow, took out the token from his pocket and said: "This token was left to me by my master for protection. It has been burning hot since just now. There must be something here..." As he spoke, he raised the token and sniffed it lightly. A warm, woody fragrance wafted up.

  He hesitated for a moment, then said in a low voice: "Why don't we leave here tonight?"

  Liang Stealer shook his head and said, "At this moment, the night is already half gone, the mountain is high and the road is treacherous. How far can we walk? Moreover, I think that the female ghost from just now didn't die at all. She was only temporarily injured by us and lost her vitality. If we wait for a moment, she'll absorb enough yin energy to recover her strength and catch up with us. In this open wilderness, we won't be able to defend ourselves and none of us will survive!" At this moment, he had a serious expression on his face, completely unlike the mischievous and eccentric Liang Stealer from before.

  She was taken aback by his sudden and vigorous momentum, and after thinking about it, she couldn't refute it. She was speechless for a long time. Bi He was also silent for a long time, leaving only Liang Tou'er pacing back and forth inside.

  After a long time, the temperature in the temple suddenly dropped a lot, and the cold air was biting to the bone. Although there was a fire, even if you got close to it, you would still feel very cold. Liang Tou'er stopped pacing back and forth, furrowed his brow, looked at the three Qing gods' statues in front of him, and felt more and more that something was off, with an ominous feeling growing stronger by the minute.

  He suddenly changed his expression and smiled strangely, slowly smiling: "Don't you think that the middle Taqing god is a bit off?"

  "Huh?" She was taken aback for a moment, then suddenly reacted, "When I just arrived here earlier, I felt that its eyes were very demonic. What did you discover?"

  Liang's smile on his face was even more pronounced, and even though he had his back to him, he still felt something off about him with the wind. "What's wrong?"

  "Haha" Liang Tou'er laughed and suddenly disappeared. His feet seemed to be stepping on nothing, and with two ups and downs, he jumped in front of the Taicheng God statue. He held his long sword high, its body shining brightly, slightly trembling and emitting a sound like a sword hum or dragon roar. Liang Tou'er swung his left arm, and a golden light flashed by, like a thunderbolt exploding in the air. Unknowingly, this simple sword move had such great power. Standing behind him, looking at the figure suspended in mid-air, he couldn't help but feel envious: He's not much older than me, when can I be as powerful as him?

  The sword flashed by, followed by a dull thud, and it didn't seem to have stabbed into the empty air, but rather inserted into something solid. Liang Tou'er also let go of his hand and fell from mid-air.

  It fell to the ground, and the thief didn't say a word, but only retreated a few steps. As soon as he finished retreating, the entire statue suddenly began to tremble slightly. At first, it was just a slight tremor, and then it became more and more intense. It was as if there was some living thing inside that was struggling violently, and the pure sword inserted into Lao Jun's brow kept trembling, emitting wave after wave of sword hums, as if speaking in a language that people couldn't understand.

  "Drip, drip" The sound of water droplets was especially jarring in the quiet night. The two of them looked around in all directions with the wind, but still couldn't find where the water stain was.

  "Come over here, don't worry anymore." Liang Ze's voice was not loud, but it had a kind of relieved relaxation.

  Although that's what they said, they still can't avoid the anxiety in their hearts. With internal injuries all over his body, it was hard for him to walk steadily, so Bi Huan carefully supported him as he slowly made his way to Liang Shuai'er's side.

  "Ah?! This, this——” The two exclaimed in unison, Bi Han covered her mouth, hardly daring to believe everything before her eyes. Perhaps it was because of a little fear, Bi Han unintentionally leaned against Su Feng's body.

  The pure sword plunged deeply into the statue, and the sword body was trembling slightly. A strand of black liquid like ink flowed out along the fine lines on the sword body, dripping onto the ground one by one. After the black liquid dripped onto the ground, it quickly disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only a small black stain and a faint smell of blood.

  "What's going on?" Feng Bian asked while gently patting Bi Han's shoulder.

  "It's all right, the crisis is over, you don't have to be so careful with your words." Looking at Ran Fengyi's serious face, Liang Sheng felt even more amused and also a sense of relief from the bottom of his heart. "Just now when I was fighting her, I kept feeling something strange in my heart. Although it is indeed as the legend says that she cannot be injured by ordinary objects, this sword can easily hurt her. It seems that this sword has the effect of breaking evil. However, after she was hit by my sword and looked very seriously injured, her strength hardly decreased at all. This is completely different from what is written in the book 'Thousand Illusions Body, one break and collapse'. At that time, I felt that this might not be the true body of Thousand Illusions, but just a physical entity formed by the extreme yin energy, which has not yet broken free from the constraints of the true body..."

  Then, Liang Ze's speculation was repeated in his heart. When he heard that Liang Ze had broken the environment with the Palm Thunder Technique, Su Feng suddenly realized that the thunderous sound he had heard earlier when he closed his eyes and waited for death was not an illusion. Now thinking about it, he felt terrified, if Liang Ze had discovered a little later or if he had set up the array for a longer period of time, then Su Feng would have been dead long ago.

  "So, when she seemed to be destroyed by the power of this sword, I still felt a little uneasy in my heart. Later, I suddenly reacted that it was just an illusion, and her true body was still there. Combining my previous inference, I think her true body must have been sealed in this grand hall by the superior being before, preparing to be purified by the power of Tao Te Ching every day. Unexpectedly, this place declined later, and she did not completely eliminate her evil thoughts, which grew again."

  "Your meaning is, her true body is inside this statue?" Feng followed for a long time, probing and guessing.

  Liang Ze's eyes widened, and he turned his head to stare at him. "What are you looking at? Is there a flower on my face?" Su Feng was stared at by Liang Ze, making him feel a bit hairy. Liang Ze laughed and said, "I didn't expect you to be so clever. At that time, I wasn't paying attention either, just thinking that it might be hidden somewhere around here. It's because of this that I finally understood." As he spoke, he took out the compass from his pocket earlier.

  At this moment, the compass doesn't seem to show anything special. Looking at its appearance, the pointer should be pointing in a south-north direction, and it's no different from an ordinary directional compass. "Is this...a compass? Isn't a compass only used for distinguishing directions?" Bi Huan asked strangely.

  He glanced at the compass with the wind and looked deeply at Liang Ze again, calmly saying: "Your master must be extraordinary."

  It seemed that Liang didn't catch the hint of suspicion in the wind's words, and he chuckled, saying: "The art of geomancy is vast and profound, using the compass needle to distinguish the direction of yin and yang. What I've learned is only superficial. In our line of work, we need to have some understanding of everything. There were a few times when I snuck into the imperial palace, luckily I had it with me, otherwise I would have been trapped in the Red Dust Array."

  Just as they were talking, the black liquid that had been constantly dripping from the sword seemed to have stopped. Liang Ze scanned around and his expression turned solemn, he stood up respectfully. Su Feng was startled by his sudden movement and thought something unexpected had happened again.

  Liáng stealthily didn't utter a word, nor did he see the unyielding expression. With utmost respect, he bowed to the Taiqing deity image and seemed to still have a voice: "Disciple today had no choice but to desecrate the ancestral deity image, please forgive me." After three bows, he finally stood up, walked forward, and with a strange creaking sound, slowly pulled out the pure Jun sword that was deeply embedded in the statue. On the Taiqing deity image's brow, a deep hole was left behind.

  "Is the original form of that female ghost really inside this statue?" Shui Feng said, taking over the Qing Jun sword handed to him by Liang Tou Er.

  Liang Ze's mouth crooked, saying: "Originally, it was here. I think that immortal sealed her in the statue and after all these years of true scripture chanting, her resentment has dissipated a lot. This sword is also unknown where it came from, but it has the divine effect of breaking evil and beheading demons. Under its power, all dark and filthy things turned into a pool of black water. I didn't expect that this broken temple we randomly chose to settle in would have so many mysteries. You little guy almost got stuck inside."

  "And how's your wound?" asked the Wind, drawing closer to examine the gash on Liang Ze's right arm with some concern.

  Liang Zei sneered, "This little injury is nothing. I just pressed the acupoint earlier, it's all right now." As he spoke, he carefully tore open his sleeve and ripped off a piece of cloth from the corner of his garment to bandage his right arm.

  "You're so amazing, have you really been to the imperial palace?" Feng suddenly became interested in his previous words and asked eagerly.

  "The Great Ming Palace may seem mysterious to outsiders, but to me it's like my own backyard. I know exactly where the emperor keeps his favorite things, what treasures he has, and all that." Liang Ze thought back on past events with great satisfaction.

  "Have you ever seen Li Linfu?" Bihan, who had been silent all along, suddenly uttered a cold sentence.

  "Li Linfu? Is that the treacherous Prime Minister?" Liang Tou'er snorted, "If it weren't for Master's prohibition on interfering with official matters, I would have taken care of him with one knife. However, I really haven't seen him, and I can only sneak into the palace at night. I've also been to his mansion, but rumor has it that he changes sleeping places three times a night, even his wife doesn't know where he is, truly cunning. Who is this young lady?"

  "Zhao Bihuan, you can call me Bihuan. Are you really that legendary thief Liang? How old are you compared to us?" Bihuan's face still looked a bit pale, but her tone had recovered a lot.

  "Haha, it's not just you who didn't think of it, but how many people in the world know? However, young lady, I seemed to detect some resentment towards the treacherous Li Linfu from your tone earlier?"

  Bi Han's eyes dimmed, and the spirit that was there just a moment ago completely disappeared. Seeing Liang Tou'er unintentionally mention Bi Han's painful past, she told him everything about her family matters and her plans for the future, from their previous acquaintance to now.

  "Nowadays, the court is actually turbulent and not as peaceful as it seems on the surface. Li Linfu's mouth is sweet but his heart is treacherous, he is forming alliances everywhere. Since we have become enemies with him, if we don't eradicate him completely, he will definitely not give up."Liang Ze raised an eyebrow, then raised another one, smiling at Su Feng and said: "You little brat, telling me all this, isn't it just to ask me to send her to Zhejiang? Why are you being so ambiguous?"

  It hit the nail on the head, and some were a little embarrassed. Liang Ze waved his hand, not taking it seriously, "Miss Zhao, to meet is to have fate. My master once said that good fate should be kept, and evil fate should be broken off. Since Xiao Feng saved you, we might as well do a good deed from start to finish and send you to the Mu Rong family in Zhejiang. I've been roaming the Jianghu for many years, so naturally my experience is much richer than yours. Even if Li Linfu sends out some assassins against you, it won't pose a threat. However, there's something I want to make clear: although I have no grudge against the Mu Rong family, I also don't hope that you'll casually spread my identity around."