Chapter 261: Thousand Hand Golden Statue
He poured the 300,000 souls into the coffin, filling up the number of ghosts inside again.
In fact, Jiang Li had already obtained a large number of souls during the battle in the Mother River.
Coupled with the 300,000 this time, the total number of ghosts in the coffin had already exceeded 2 million.
However, ordinary souls needed time and a large amount of spiritual qi to transform into Soul Burial Ghost Soldiers.
If Jiang Li wanted them to become official ghost soldiers after advancing, he would still need to wait quite a while.
Ignoring all this for the time being, Jiang Li grabbed another ore placed at the side.
The ore felt heavy and smooth to the touch. A thick layer of wax was applied to the surface of the ore to protect it.
At first, he did not feel anything, but after two breaths, the skin on his palm began to turn green and numb. He was actually poisoned.
With Jiang Li’s current astonishing resistance, he was still poisoned despite being separated by a tight layer of wax. It could be seen how intense the toxicity of this ore was.
This was a top-grade poisonous ore that Jiang Li had spent a huge sum to purchase at the auction.
It was said that this thing had an extraordinary origin. It had once been swallowed by a thousand-year-old poisonous flood dragon and was soaked in the flood dragon’s poison day and night. It was only after that poisonous flood dragon was killed by an expert that it was cut open and taken out.
It was the main material that Jiang Li planned to use to forge the second coffin nail.
The seven coffin nails could have a huge effect and amplification on the Yin Burial Coffin.
If it was made into a second coffin nail, it could cause the coffin to gain the poison attribute.
After that, he would make every Soul Burial Ghost Soldier carry poison and become a million poisonous souls that were impossible to guard against. Then, the threat of Jiang Li’s Ghost Soldiers would undoubtedly increase greatly.
After putting it away for the time being, Jiang Li looked at the last item in this auction. This was also the culprit who almost emptied his wealth.
It was a golden statue from ancient times.
The golden statue was more than ten feet tall. It had a thousand hands on its back as it sat on the lotus platform. One could imagine that it should have been a grand and imposing temple deity back then.
However, the golden statue now revealed traces of wear and tear everywhere. It was severely damaged, and there were not many intact hands behind it.
After all, this was the same as the Dragon Imprisoning Lock. It had been passed down from ancient times to today. It did not have an indestructible special material like the Dragon Imprisoning Lock. It was already abnormally rare for it to remain like this after experiencing the passage of time.
The key was that this golden statue contained a mysterious power, which was also the reason why it was so expensive.
The Immortals and Buddhas behind the golden statue had already disappeared, and the golden statue’s face was already blurry,
However, in the long period of the Cultivationless Age, this golden statue had always been worshiped by a certain mortal country.
Many times, in order to worship it, streets were emptied. Sometimes, there would be three to five devotees burning incense every month.
With the help of the not-so meager incense offerings, despite its poor material, the statue could actually last for ten thousand years without decaying and remain until today.
In the end, it was bought by Jiang Li at an astonishing price of 1.65 million.
When Alliance Leader Jiang saw this golden statue placed on the auction stage, his eyes were already red.
He felt an inexplicable familiar resonance from inside.
It was as if threads had grown in the depths of his soul, trying to connect to the golden statue.
Due to the abnormality of the soul coupled with the special appearance of the golden statue, he immediately recalled some things from his previous life.
Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara transformed into three thousand incarnations and listened to the pleas of all living beings. As for the incarnations known to the world, there were only 33 of them.
Among them, the Thousand-Hand Guanyin was the 33rd incarnation.
In Jiang Li’s understanding, in the ancient times tens of thousands of years ago in the continent of the Nine Provinces, many existing Immortals and Buddhas were very similar to the myths and legends of his previous life.
In his previous life, it was only a legend, but in the continent of the Nine Provinces, they were true historical figures.
However, perhaps because too much time had passed, there were fewer records of Immortals and Buddhas here.
After Jiang Li obtained the Bodhisattva Heart Sutra, he specially got someone to inquire about it. Unfortunately, even some knowledgeable sect seniors had never heard of the name Goddess of Mercy, not to mention the Thousand-Hand Guanyin.
Therefore, the possibility of this golden statue being fake was not high!
Of course, the most important thing was still the miraculous connection between Jiang Li and this golden statue.
After some thought, he reached out and pressed down on the golden statue. He silently circulated the Bodhisattva Heart Sutra and used it to attempt to probe the Buddhist statue.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Li easily established a connection with the Buddhist statue.
It was as if his sound world’s perspective was supposed to be linked to this. As soon as he touched the golden statue, he was sucked in.
Then, a large number of voices sounded.
At first, there was a noisy and dense buzzing sound. It was crowded together, making it difficult to hear clearly and annoying.
Jiang Li’s main body frowned tightly. He smelled a faint smell of incense at the tip of his nose, and his eardrums began to hurt. It was as if many people were talking to him and asking him for something.
Buzzing words continuously surged into his mind.
The tip of his nose stung, and his ears hurt. Four traces of blood flowed out.
How could a Foundation Establishment cultivator easily endure the complicated sounds of burning incense and praying?
The slight injury to his soul made Jiang Li feel a little helpless.
However, Jiang Li did not panic and did not stop. He composed himself and directly pulled the first and second parallel minds over.
Perhaps due to the obstruction of space, the third Parallel Mind—Yaksha clone—could come over, but there was still a time difference of about half an hour.
The situation in the Asura World was not like the Nine Provinces Continent. If one suddenly lost consciousness and fell to the ground, it was very likely to be eaten by passing monsters.
Now, in the Asura World, Jiang Li only had this seed, so it was naturally impossible for him to give up easily.
Therefore, he only summoned the help of the first and second Parallel Minds.
After transmitting a large amount of noises into his mind, Jiang Li immediately felt much more relaxed.
Sitting in the consciousness space with the other two Parallel Minds, he summoned nine Ghost Lantern Cold Flames around their bodies.
Under the nourishment of the Ghost Lantern Fish’s lantern every day, his nine cold flames were much stronger than before. When they were released, they were the size of a basketball, and around 30% of the center had turned pale white. Their might was even greater than before. If the Nine Nether Wood was struck by the current cold flames at that time, it was unknown if it would have a chance to escape.
Ghost Lantern Cold Flames surrounded his body. Ninety percent of the distracting thoughts of the voices were burned away by the cold flame, and the remaining ten percent was divided by two parallel minds. Although in the ears of ordinary people, it was still no different from a thousand burly men snoring together.
However, under Jiang Li’s Bodhisattva Heart Sutra, he could barely hear some of the voices inside.
…
“Oh Bodhisattva~ My husband has entered the capital city for the imperial exams. This journey is filled with dangers. Bodhisattva, please bless my husband to be the top scoring scholar!”
…
“Oh Bodhisattva~ Boohoo~ My eldest child fell into the well when he was three years old and died prematurely~ My second child fell from the stove when he was three years old and died~ Boohoo~ My poor third child was born an idiot. Now that he’s three years old, there’s a threatening plague! Bodhisattva, please have mercy and save my child!”
“I’m kowtowing to Bodhisattva! I’m kowtowing to Bodhisattva!”
…
“Oh Bodhisattva, I’m a village official. I’ve been living a vegetarian life and have been a follower of Buddha my entire life. I’ve never done a single bad thing! It’s just that I have a son who’s naughty and mischievous. Two days ago, he made a move on the daughter of a farmer tenant. That girl was so foolish that she actually hung herself!”
“My poor son is now held responsible and his life is in danger! Bodhisattva, please show mercy and bless my child to be safe and sound!”
…
“Oh Bodhisattva, my daughter has been tricked by her teacher into losing her purity. Now, she’s already four months pregnant… What should we do…”
…
One after another, prayers were sorted out by Jiang Li with the Bodhisattva Heart Sutra.
This was the life of mortals, it revealed the bitterness and suffering of living in the world.
Ancient Immortals and Buddhas enjoyed the incense offerings of the human world to live for a long time. This might be the feeling they had.
Through the Bodhisattva Heart Sutra, Jiang Li could sense that although the Immortals and Buddhas had already disappeared, after tens of thousands of years of worship, this statue actually contained a considerable amount of incense and faith.
However, Jiang Li did not intend to absorb them.
After absorbing it, it could possibly allow Jiang Li’s cultivation to advance by leaps and bounds, directly breaking through to Golden Core or even Nascent Soul.
However, there were too many chaotic wills and emotions mixed in the incense offerings. Before he had the ability to remove its influence, any bit of it would pollute his inner self. It was not worth it.
It was like eating snake and frog meat raw. As long as one dared to eat them, they would be infected by parasites.
Jiang Li had the Nine Nether Earth Fruit that could assist in his cultivation. If he was not trying to perfect his cultivation, he could break through to the Core Formation realm now. There was no need to go after such detrimental shortcuts.
However, just because Jiang Li was unable to absorb the energy within it did not mean that he was unable to obtain other benefits from it.
The Great Carefree Bodhisattva Heart Sutra was a very special spirit refinement cultivation method.
What drove the cultivation method to circulate was not any spiritual pills, wondrous medicines, or natural treasures, but the suffering and experiences of the mortal world.
As long as he had experience and comprehension, he could greatly increase his spirit refinement cultivation.
As for this Thousand-Hand Guanyin statue, it recorded the voices of the world.
Jiang Li’s mind sank even deeper. He grabbed the voices of the prayers and dug deeper.
For a time, all the other voices were covered up and suppressed. Jiang Li seemed to have seen everything through the eyes of the golden statue.
Mortals’ wishes comprised nothing more than life and death, wealth, and lust. However, greed, anger, and hatred could not be explained so easily with just a few words.
In the countless voices that had accumulated over a long period of time, Jiang Li slowly found similar voices and tried to understand more about these devotees.
One, two, and three… most of the voices were already blurry and indistinguishable, but some of the especially “devout” voices were still intact.
The woman who asked to bless her husband’s imperial examination sounded very ordinary.
However, this voice started praying every few days, and it went on for seven years. The content was exactly the same, but the voice went from sad and worried at the beginning to crazy later.
Her husband had not returned home for seven years. Long ago, this woman had gone insane because she could not take the blow.
As for her husband, he had either died outside or had another family. It was very likely that he would never return.
As for the women whose children would not live past the age of three. Before this, she had asked for children several times.
However, after her prayers, another old woman’s voice would start asking for forgiveness from Bodhisattva.
It was because that woman’s first three children were all girls, and their family was poor and could not afford to raise more children.
Therefore, under the old lady’s ‘methods’, those girls were forcefully killed by external forces.
However, the woman did not know. She only thought that her life was hard and that her children were unlucky.
There were also more mortal tragedies displayed in front of the silent Buddha statue.
Regarding the sorrows of mortals and life in general, he watched from a third party’s point of view without emotions as he listened to the voices and cries.
After some time, Jiang Li seemed to have understood something. The Bodhisattva Heart Sutra circulated at high speed, and his Mind attribute gradually increased.
Listening to the voices, focusing on the people, saving the world from all kinds of suffering.
Thereby came boundless merits. There was constant chanting, and all living beings were honest and sincere, facing all kinds of evil that led to suffering.
Attain perfection by staying away from suffering and achieve a brilliant Dao. The sea was influenced by the waves, and when the winds blew, negative karma would dissipate.
Listen with one’s own ears and see with one’s own eyes, gain great morals and deep foundation.
The dullness of all emotions falls into the five turbidities, and ghost deities record the punishments in the afterlife.
In the blink of an eye, the world became hell, oh Great Sorrow.
Humans decide to walk on the two paths of good and evil, oh Great Benevolence.
Amidst the myriad of voices, another profound scripture sounded in Jiang Li’s ears. It was called Thousand Hands!
Three days later, Jiang Li came out of the room.
At this moment, he looked slightly different from before. His aura was deeper and more reserved.
The aura that had become a little ostentatious due to his sudden increase in strength was now firmly retracted.
His spirit refinement cultivation broke through, and the fourth Parallel Mind was born. Jiang Li had already thought of its destination.
…
Asura World, the Vemacitrin Blood Fighting Arena.
After the Fallen Blood Yaksha clone obtained victory in the blood battle and joined this place, he was casually assigned the identity of a guard.
Although it was not an important position, the advantage was that he could move freely in many places.
After leaving the wilderness, Jiang Li finally saw a glimpse of Asura civilization through him.
This was a race without morals and ethics.
The men were extremely ugly while the women were extremely beautiful. However, regardless of gender, they were like a collection of desires, living in the moment.
While the Fallen Blood Yaksha was guarding, hundreds of sexual intercourses had already happened in the audience seats of the Blood Fighting Arena.
They acted openly in public. Not only were they not ashamed, but they even invited other Asuras to join them.
The Lawless Land was truly chaotic. If they did not agree with each other, there would be a life and death battle.
Jiang Li could not understand their social situation. However, due to their chaotic rules, the yaksha clone found an opportunity to sneak attack and kill the guard captain here. Then, he replaced the original captain and sat in the management position.
With greater authority and scope of activity, Jiang Li quickly discovered some secrets of this Blood Fighting Arena.
Below this huge building was another world of its own.