Chapter Fifty: Xuan Huan and Shang

  The monk who was chasing from behind was even more surprised to see this situation, a thief who dared to steal from Shaolin Temple actually had such lightness of foot, and was even faster than him, a natural-born master. Not only that, but he could also sneak into the back mountain without making a sound, and just now he had been chasing from the tower forest in the back mountain all the way to the present. If it were an ordinary person, their internal energy would have been exhausted long ago, but this little thief must still have some energy left over, and his speed was even faster than before, definitely not a nobody.

  The Ling that was visible in his eyes was about to burst out of the wall, Xuan Huo was momentarily anxious and suddenly mobilized his energy. He opened his mouth again, and let out a loud roar, but this time it was different from the previous few times. It was no longer an aura that shook the mountains and rivers, but instead a golden "Om" character burst out of his mouth.

  It wasn't until the wind that he realized this was a similar sound wave secret to Shui Long Yin. He only saw that one "Om" character, like a real body, flipping and growing bigger in mid-air, striking directly at Ling's back.

  Ling only heard the sound of rushing air beside his ear, and hastily turned his head to see the golden true words breaking through the air. He didn't have time to be surprised. Suspended in mid-air, he had no place to borrow strength, nor could he turn around. After a slight hesitation, he took a deep breath and protected his back with a "thud" sound. This blow landed squarely on Ling's back, and he silently endured it, blood gushing up to his throat before being swallowed back down. However, Ling also used the force of this blow to fly out diagonally, clearing the walls of the Shaolin Temple and landing outside.

  My heart tightened as I watched, because under the wall was hiding Liang Zei, if they were discovered by the monk, both of them would be in danger. Although I saw the golden Buddha's seal hit Ling's back, he seemed to have not been hurt at all, and after crossing over the wall, he jumped up again.

  Besides Rong Feng, Xuan Huo was also shocked. He volunteered to catch the thief, or else it would be a great shame to let the thief escape right under their noses?

  He no longer concealed himself, mobilizing all his strength, and with one foot treading on empty air, a golden lotus flower suddenly appeared under his foot. His body, which should have fallen, instead borrowed force to rise up, and with one foot on the wall, he chased after him like this, without noticing that there was still a young man hiding at the foot of the wall.

  Ling held a box covered with yellow silk and made of sandalwood in one hand, his body bathed in moonlight as if he were a wandering deity of the three realms. A monk followed closely behind him, gradually disappearing into the distance. Only then did Feng let out a long sigh of relief; their actions had been far too reckless, and a single moment of carelessness would have led to both of them being punished by the temple.

  After about half a minute, no more sounds could be heard from Ling and the monk. It was then that Liang Ze slipped out of the shadows. As soon as he emerged, he heard a distant roar from the monk, "This is a plan to lure the tiger away from its mountain! The real relic is in the hands of that thief!" This thunderous roar was like the howling of waves, rolling and surging, and it reached Rang Feng's side, still clear and audible.

  Liang Tou'er hastily glanced in the direction of the sound, his eyes filled with uncontrollable surprise. He hadn't expected to be detected by the Buddha's Ming Wang so soon. Although he was startled, his feet didn't stop moving, and he darted out like an arrow, heading towards the thicket where Su Feng was hiding.

  It wasn't until the wind passed that he finally understood, the real Sharira had actually fallen into Liang Ze's hands. No wonder he saw him holding a purple sandalwood box earlier, it was indeed a clever trick to deceive heaven and cross the sea. However, the subsequent strange occurrence made his heart, which had just calmed down, hang in suspense once again. Another golden light rose from within Shaolin Temple, heading towards Liang Ze's direction. It was the second Ming Wang!

  Liang Tou'er didn't look back again, but he also knew that pursuers were coming from behind. A master of the First Heaven indeed lived up to his reputation, and it wasn't easy to deceive their eyes and ears. He hastily took a few phantom steps, arrived at the thicket where the wind was hiding, flipped his wrist, and a pale golden light object broke through the air. Then, with a flicker underfoot, his entire body twisted strangely, suddenly turning in the opposite direction, fleeing towards the opposite direction of Ling.

  Watching the golden object floating slowly towards him, he knew it was the key to their journey - the Buddha's relics. Not daring to be careless, taking advantage of Ming Wang not having chased out of the temple yet, with a flick of his wrist he received it, without even having time to take a closer look, hastily activating his Phantom Steps to retreat backwards, disappearing into the thicket, sealing it up with his internal energy as he walked.

  Up to this point, the three people who had gone up the mountain together went down in three different directions. As they walked with the wind, they turned their heads back to take a look, and it was okay, the monk hadn't chased after them.

  Sui Feng secretly let out a sigh of relief in his heart, and didn't look back again. Silently, he clenched the relic tightly in his palm, even sweating from the effort. For some reason, this relic seemed to have a spiritual nature, and could slowly absorb his internal energy on its own. Originally, sealing it was already difficult, but now the difficulty had increased several fold. Although Sui Feng's body contained the Taiji diagram, his foundation was still shallow after all. In order to seal it for as long as possible, he could only retract his Phantom Steps and descend the mountain at a normal pace.

  Unconsciously, they had already reached the middle of the mountain. It seemed that Liang Ze's plan was indeed effective. Although they still couldn't escape the eyes and ears of the innate masters, after all, the relics were now in their hands, and Rong Feng's heart finally felt at ease.

  He looked up at the bright moon that had just reached its zenith, and his heart felt even lighter with the wind. He walked a few more steps, when suddenly a Buddhist chant "Amitabha" sounded from behind him, startling him so much that he nearly jumped up, his scalp tingling. Taking a deep breath, he barely calmed himself down, then turned around, pretending to be unaware of anything.

  In front of him was an old monk with a completely white eyebrow and beard, gazing at him with deep eyes. For some reason, he felt that the old monk's eyes seemed to see through his innermost secrets, making his heart panic. His back was slightly wet, as if he had broken out in a cold sweat. After being stunned for a long time, he awkwardly bowed and said: "I have seen the master, I don't know why the master came down the mountain at midnight, what is the noble purpose?"

  The old monk's eyes were slightly closed, his gaze calm and peaceful. He said softly, "Benefactor, I am Monk Xuanhuan. This time, I have come for your sake."

  Startled by the wind, he was given a glance by the old monk, and his unease seemed to dissipate with the evening breeze. He asked calmly: "Master, what do you mean by this? I don't quite understand."

  Xuan Huan shook his head and said, "The donor's spiritual roots are naturally formed, and he should understand that all things in the world are cause and effect. Good karma leads to good results, bad karma leads to bad results. Although the donor has not entered Shaolin this time, he wants to create a bad result with Shaolin, which is not appropriate. The sea of suffering is boundless, and the poor monk dares to advise the donor to turn back while there is still a chance." Xuan Huan's words were clearly hinting at something, but in his heart, he didn't think it was so simple.

  His entire demeanor suddenly became stern, his eyes calm as still water, without a ripple. He said: "I don't quite understand what you mean, Master. But the Tao Te Ching says: 'Great sound is scarce of voice, great image has no shape.' Can good and evil in the world be discussed with just one word? Even if it's Shaolin's evil karma, it may not necessarily be someone else's evil karma. Is there really absolute good and absolute evil in this world? Master, your generalization might be a bit too biased."

  Xuan Huan was taken aback, and the eight words "great sound is rare, great form is shapeless" kept swirling in his mind. He pondered the true meaning of "good and evil, right and wrong, can they be generalized?" For a long time, he finally let out a deep sigh and said: "Alright, alright, I didn't expect that after decades of devoting myself to Buddhism, my understanding is not even comparable to that of a young man. The donor's words are indeed correct, I am enlightened." After speaking, he bowed deeply in the direction of the wind, turned around and left. With a sigh and a smile, he slowly walked towards Shaolin Temple.

  As the wind was in his heart, he also had a slight realization. He had studied Taoist scriptures since childhood, and the words he spoke earlier seemed to be on the tip of his tongue, naturally flowing out. Now that he thought about it, he was somewhat skeptical - were those profound words really spoken by himself? As he watched Xuan Huan walk further and further away, just a few steps, her figure disappeared into the darkness of night. Su Feng also fell into deep contemplation. "Looking at his appearance, I should know that the Buddha's relics are on my body, why didn't he take them back?"

  After a moment's thought, I don't know what to think about, so I won't think about it anymore. Just as I was about to turn around and go down the mountain, I heard a shocking voice from the Shaolin Temple: "Xuanhuo, Xuan'you two fellow disciples, come back! The deeper the attachment, the more illusory it is; let go of the attachment, and you will see the Tathagata."

  This was Xuan Huan's voice. Compared to the other Ming Wang's loud roar earlier, his voice at this moment had a few more parts of detachment and profundity, but fewer parts of majesty and overlordship.

  He took a last look at the ancient temple under the moonlight and hastily turned around to head down the mountain again.

  No longer anxious, he also put away his lightness skill and walked slowly, enjoying the rare tranquility. "Let go of attachments, see the truth." The old monk's words seemed to still echo in his ears, "But what is the attachment that belongs to me?" The night was cool as water, there was no echo, only the dawn wind and bright moon.

  He returned to the small cottage at the foot of the mountain when Liang Ze and Ling had arrived for some time. As soon as he entered the door, he saw that Ling's face was snow-white, without a single trace of blood, and there were still residual fresh blood on the corners of his mouth. The back of his shirt was torn open, revealing a large purple-red wound, and Liang Ze was helping him apply medicine to treat his injury.

  Upon hearing the door sound, both of them turned their heads around. Ling's originally dim eyes suddenly flashed with a dazzling light again and said: "How is it, Xiao Feng, did you bring back the sarira?"

  As he gazed at him with the wind, he felt a bad taste in his heart. He opened his tightly clenched palm and revealed a round bead inside that shone with dark golden light, about the size of a longan fruit.

  Two people looked at the sarira, both with excitement on their faces. They had been planning this for so long and now their efforts were finally not in vain. Liang Tou'er stared blankly at the sarira, muttering to himself: "I clearly remember that I was following a Ming Wang behind me, when suddenly I heard someone shouting loudly, and then the Ming Wang behind me turned around and left. This matter is really strange."

  He coughed and said in a hoarse voice, "That one word 'Ming Wang Yin' is really powerful. A surge of innate energy rushed into my body, requiring me to use all my strength to resist it. At that time, I walked halfway up the mountain, but couldn't catch my breath, almost letting the monk behind me catch up. Faintly, I also heard a sentence, something like 'If your attachment is too deep, it's just an illusion.' I don't know why, but after hearing this, the monk behind me actually turned back, and at that time, I was almost exhausted."

  Startled by the wind, he immediately told everything about what had just happened with Xuan Huan.

  Ling listened and was stunned, silent for a moment. Liang Tou'er also couldn't speak for a long time before saying: "This Xuanyuan is extremely highly ranked, being the head of Shaolin's Discipline Court, second only to the abbot. His martial arts skills are also extremely high, slightly inferior to Xuandeng. Who would have thought that because of your one sentence, not only did he retreat but also called back his two junior brothers..."

  Ling sighed and interrupted Liang Tou: "Xuan Huan did this to repay a debt."

  "What's going on?!" Both Feng and Liang were shocked.

  Ling took a deep breath and calmly said, "There are only five people in the entire Shaolin Temple who have entered the Xiantian realm. Among them, Xuanhuan and Xuandeng have been at the Xiantian Earth level for over ten years, while the other three are all at the Xiantian Mystic level. Xuanhuan has always been stuck at the early stage of the Earth level and hasn't made any progress, but today he must have gained some insight from Xiaofeng's words."

  "What!" Feng was shocked and lost his color, those words were just casual remarks, how could they be as magical as Ling said?

  Liang Tou'er was shocked and after a long time of contemplation, he slowly said: "I also heard my master mention this before. He said that it's hard for innate experts to make progress even by an inch, and they need to enlighten themselves in their daily lives. Sometimes, they may gain nothing for years, but sometimes, just one sentence from someone else can suddenly open up their minds."