Chapter 404: Netherworld’s Soil

At that moment, Fang Yanying fully concentrated on defeating the ninja-like white-robed monk. A series of crackling sounds could be heard coming from the copper coffin. From the coffin itself came countless melodious sounds of the Buddha mixed with the sound of the magical sword. The entire coffin turned pitch black, resembling the color of thick black ink as if it came from a dark and void universe.

A faint divine aura radiated from the coffin and melded into Shen Lian’s body. He had finally freed the divine aura from the copper coffin. At the same time, he also felt intense pain from his burnt flesh, which made his mind reel.

But the pain and suffering could not hide the satisfaction of ridding the forces of evil and having a clear mind.

Taking in the surroundings, the void was riddled with sword marks that kept increasing in numbers.

There was nothing in the void, but the void itself. But these sword marks were able to carve themselves on it. The swordsmen of the world would die without regrets having witnessed such divine ruins.

Fang Yanying was reassured after she had seen that Shen Lian restored his sanity. Her body suddenly lost strength and fell to the ground. No matter how incredible she may be, the power in her body would not allow her to wield the magical sword properly. The sword then penetrated the ground, and the sword marks stopped manifesting.

A snow lotus flower emerged together with the white-robed monk, if time went on, he would be able to seize the Lamp of the Mind.

“Monk Shanjue, you are unparalleled in skill, why resort to such a despicable act?” The spiritual energy that was as fine as gossamer flashed through Shen Lian’s eyes, and he looked at the monk as he faintly opened his mouth.

“All sentient beings are the same. To escape from the sea of suffering and attain enlightenment, the means hardly matter, it is only the results that matter,” laughed Shanjue. “Daoist Shen, such words should not be uttered by someone of your character.”

Shen Lian laughed coldly. “As expected from someone who has a flair for words, good enough to flip the tables of truth and falsehoods. However, there is an infallible reason in my mind. What would you trade in order for you to leave the Great Snow Mountain alive?”

Shanjue propped his head up with his palm, and he sighed before saying, “I have heard from my apprentice-nephew, that Qing Xuan Shen Lian will be Daoism’s next Lu Jiuyuan. From what I have observed, you have only inherited Lu Jiuyuan’s arrogance.”

His apprentice-nephew was a Zen master from one of the eight sects of Buddhism, his religious name was ‘Miaodi’, one of the highest authorities of the Buddhist Dharma of that time.

Not all the Buddhist Zen masters from the eight sects could attain the fruit of Buddhism, transcending beyond the mortal world. But in Lu Jiuyuan’s previous years, before his culmination in Daoism, he had a discussion with Miaodi who was then below fifty years old. Though after the discussion had ended, Miaodi came out, his face pale, as if his parents had just died. Lu Jiuyuan told other people that Miaodi had Dharma as deep as the sea and immense wisdom.

To garner such an evaluation from Lu Jiuyuan was no ordinary feat.

Shen Lian was considered to be the very next Lu Jiuyuan by such an extraordinary individual. Qing Xuan Shen Lian’s influence in the cultivation community could obviously be seen.

Shen Lian replied indifferently, “There is no need to speak it aloud whether I am arrogant or not.”

The Lamp of the Mind rippled and flew to Shanjue’s hand in an instant while Shen Lian was speaking.

Shanjue said, “Daoist Shen, what do you have to say this time?”

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Shen Lian narrowed his eyes and said, “A spatial manipulation technique. It seems that your mastery is extensive. You should have used it when I regained consciousness. Even though you would be hurt by my magical sword’s aura, at least you can still take the lamp away. Do you not worship this temple because of the lamp? I was dealing with the miasma of resentment left behind by the burning lamp. Why do you still insist on choosing the art of totality? Ah yes, you are afraid of being hurt, but why is that so?”

The Great Snow Mountain was the Dipamkara Temple, and vice versa. Shanjue should not be the only monk in the temple, but Shen Lian could not sense any other vital forces.

He knew there was a reason behind all this, but the clues were too few, making it difficult to decipher.

After getting the Lamp of Mind, Shanjue laughed and said, “Because I have had them descend the mountain. You knew this mountain is both a Dipamkara Temple and a manifestation of a spiritual ban. What you definitely do not know is the function of this spiritual ban.”

Shen Lian knitted his brown slightly, and asked, “What is suppressed underneath? To be able to defeat the remaining resentment left by the Light.”

Shanjue was surprised, it was no wonder this was a person of prominence, higher than many of the previous generation’s connoisseur. There were certain things that Shanjue could not understand. It was just now that he had the Lamp of Mind at hand, he would not need to worry about the burning light of resentment sealed in the copper coffin, and his longtime wish would be fulfilled. Least to say, he was rather pleased with that. He said, “What is at the bottom is none other than a square foot of netherworld’s soil. The Mind Lamp and copper coffin acted as the entire mountain’s core. Once it was removed, the Great Snow Mountain would be gone. When that happens, if there was no Mind Lamp to lead the path, one will forever be buried in the netherworld’s soil, for eternity, never to return.”

Just as he finished speaking, chunk by chunk the Great Snow Mountain melted at an unimaginable speed. The entire mountain had vanished as if it never existed before.

Shen Lian did not try to escape before this inevitably happened, nor had he ever intended to leave.

From beneath his sole, chilling vital forces gushed into his body, dirty and impure.

This was a dark and forlorn place, but it was not completely dark. A few ghost fires can be seen lingering in the surrounding vicinity, which allowed one to roughly be able to make out the terrain of the place. It was a boundless plain and the existence of any sentient beings of flesh and blood was obsolete. His hand that was burnt to ashes had started to slowly melt at a steady speed due to the invasion of the chilling vital forces.

The reason why Shanjue could not afford to get hurt was because if he was injured, the chilling vital forces would invade his body through the wound.

This was the power of the netherworld, limitless.

Shen Lian was not concerned. He was not even slightly surprised. Initially, his plan was to head to the Jintu Sect’s commemoration temple, Lindong Temple, and borrow a square foot of pure soil to obtain the Buddhist sect ingenious Dao of earth element. The Jintu Sect was one of the eight sects of Buddhism. Although inferior to the four main Daoist sects, only by a small margin. Shen Lian was worried he would not defeat them by himself but it seems that possibility would not need to be considered as he would not be going.

The pure soil and netherworld soil were exact opposites, but for all intents and purposes, they were fundamentally the same.

He was not worried that he could no longer see where Shanjue was. He was only certain Shanjue’s biggest mistake was snatching away the Mind Lamp. He smiled and helped Fang Yanying up, the magical sword emitted a faint multi-colored halo, purifying the netherworld soil around it and resisting the invasion of the power of the netherworld.

Shanjue carried the lamp, leisurely strolling on the filthy netherworld soil. The Mind Lamp contains invincible Dharma, and the ray of light emitted from it could withstand the power of the netherworld’s soil. There were also no wounds on his body, even if it was invaded by the power of the netherworld, it would not have a significant effect on him.

The greatest danger of the Mind Lamp was the grudge within the copper coffin. He had always known the location of the lamp, but dared not take it. Shen Lian had helped him alleviate his worries, naturally, he would have obliged and accepted it.

Thinking of the copper coffin, he had a sudden realization. The coffin and the Mind Lamp are one, he took the Mind Lamp, why had the coffin not flew over?

He then noticed the light emitting from the Mind Lamp had turned into strings of light and drilled into his body, he could not help but cry, “Mind Locking Curse.”