Chapter 291: Fatal Bait
“Relic…”
When they heard Jiang Li’s request, the higher-ups of Benevolent Travel Temple fell silent in embarrassment. They looked at each other and could not make a decision.
Those few relics were all formed by their Benevolent Travel Temple’s deceased senior monks.
On the one hand, this was their ultimate treasure, and on the other hand, each relic was the remains of a senior. No matter what, they had to show respect.
If they lent the relics to others, it would probably be blasphemy to them.
However, Jiang Li was so generous to them. He had already delivered the Earth-rank medicinal pills to them, and he was only borrowing the relic for a period of time. It was not like he was asking for them directly.
If they rejected this, they would probably offend him.
“This… Alliance Leader Jiang, please allow us to discuss this.”
The few of them did not take the medicinal pills in Jiang Li’s hand. Instead, they walked to the side and gathered together. They took out the communication spirit stone that directly connected to their hometown and started to communicate via voice transmission.
Jiang Li did not mind and ran to walk around the beach.
He casually scattered some sea tree seeds. After this battle, there were many sea beast corpses left behind. It could be used as fertilizer to grow the seedlings and trees.
If he planted a field of Great Sea Floating Wood nearby to strengthen the defense, with the deterrent force of this plant, it could greatly reduce the harassment of the enemy sea beasts.
He walked around and returned. The people from Benevolent Travel Temple were waiting for him. Clearly, they had already discussed the outcome.
“Alliance Leader Jiang, we have already discussed with the Abbot. We monks should do all that we can to help in this situation.”
“The relic will be transported over with the next batch of the Great Mountain Alliance’s fleet.”
“In addition, my Benevolent Travel Temple will give you a secret Buddhist scripture. I hope Alliance Leader Jiang can chant it with the relic three times a day during this period.”
The Benevolent Travel Temple finally agreed to Jiang Li’s request.
After all, they owed Jiang Li a huge favor. In a certain sense, Alliance Leader Jiang could be considered a person with deep Buddhist affinity.
With the gift of Shu Mountain earlier, they naturally could not be too stingy. In addition, Alliance Leader Jiang was a genius. What if his comprehension of the Buddhist scripture was also excellent?
Then, the three major forces might be connected through this medium.
Thus, Jiang Li had finally achieved a small goal.
Using the relic, it could accelerate the refinement of Ananda’s blood tears.
After the Great Mountain Alliance’s Mechanism City obtained the city’s core, the speed of repair was more than ten times faster than usual.
Jiang Li also arranged for some cultivators who were skilled in movement techniques to scout the nearby environment and prepare for the long term war in the future.
As for himself, he left this place alone.
Ever since he became the Alliance Leader of the Great Mountain Alliance, he had always had guardians and elders by his side. Although he had some additional safety assurance, it was very inconvenient for him.
Right now, there were many things to do in Mechanism City, and it could not be defended without experts.
Jiang Li used this as an excuse to let all the higher-ups stay in the city while he rode on the Wood Dragon Rayquaza and flew in a certain direction.
…
Netherworld Illusion, Fengdu City.
Jiang Li’s sword cultivator clone was sitting in a simple room and reading a few books under the guidance of a male ghost.
This was the thing that Jiang Li had obtained from the husband of the Ghost King Bride, Yang Ruozhi. It was called the mystic technique manual from the Du family.
Burning Incense Dao.
This was a manual that used the secret technique of absorbing the faith in incense offerings. There were four parts: plucking incense, eating candles, listening to sounds, and reading prayers.
It was probably the kind of thing that everyone knew in ancient times.
In terms of the popularization of ancient inheritances, it was even more widespread than Jiang Li’s Demon Awakening Technique.
Of course, being common did not mean that it was not good. The Dao Techniques mentioned were profound, and every word was precious. Jiang Li had learned many ancient cultivation methods and had his own judgment about the good and bad of these things in the past.
The so-called Burning Incense Dao was actually extremely common in ancient times. From the Golden Immortals to the small ghosts in the mountains, they would at least absorb two mouthfuls of faith.
However, the difference was not small.
The range of absorbing incense offerings was divided into several levels. Some were so small that there could only be one house, one village, one field, or one city. It could also be as large as a country, one region, one continent, or an entire world.
Apart from quantity and range, the speed at which they absorbed incense offerings, the conversion rate, and safety were all of the utmost importance.
In fact, the Bodhisattva Heart Sutra itself could be used to absorb the power of incense offerings, but Jiang Li was unwilling to do so.
He wanted to let the statue clone cultivate through this path, but the clone was a parallel mind formed from the Bodhisattva Heart Sutra, so it could not cultivate the Bodhisattva Heart Sutra itself.
This new Burning Incense Dao could make up for this.
In fact, to him, the cultivation method of the Burning Incense Dao was secondary. The most important thing was the ancient text he had learned from Du Xianzhu.
As he learned those words, Jiang Li gradually interpreted a portion of the monolith inscriptions he obtained from the environment of the Thousand Mechanisms Sphere.
The contents of the monument were not complete, or rather, the complete content was carved on several different stone monuments.
After reading this portion of the monolith inscriptions, he could only know that these were the last words of despair before death and promises of some things.
“My Dao will perish. Sage, neither man nor god, is undying and indestructible. Return to the palace and fall into the void, gather the treasures of the world.”
“Primordial Beginning Heavenly Venerable, in the Clear Profound Sky, in the Seven Treasures Mystic Garden, the Jade Emperor Palace, on the Ascension Throne, with countless others, speaks of spiritual treasures. It’s really a unique method.”
“The True Sages, Limitless Divine Kings, Spiritual Children, Jade Maidens, and 90 million people raise six sacred forces and illuminate the heavens. There is no separation between the ten directions of the infinite Brahma Shakti. The multitudes from ten directions come as the Qilin dance and the Phoenix sing.”
“Golden Immortals of the Brahma Heaven, Mahayana Bodhisattva, the four factions and eight great sects, attend the Azure Rainbow Four Summit, circling in front of the Dao. The rain of Profundity Flowers will fall like clouds, and under the candle will be the Everlasting Limitless World, the Profound Capital Realm…”
“With a sigh, the mass will not inherit the Dao, and the heavens will be destroyed.”
“With mortals and saints colliding, the darkness breaks the light, and the world shakes. There is no peace. All the qi in the living world will become turbid, the sky will shake and the earth will crack, and bones will grow. Corpses will be buried, souls will fly away, and Fengdu City will be surrounded by iron. The Nine Nether of eternal night will collapse and be destroyed.”
“The souls suffering in hell have no hope of reaching the heavens. The cycle of reincarnation has collapsed, in the Immortal tomb and Buddhist cemetery, all sin is abandoned and virtue is eliminated. The three evils speak of suffering, and there will never be relief. At this time, how can the sinners of the world live with their meager strength…”
“My Dao is about to perish, and so will the other Dao.”
Even though the content had already been translated from ancient texts into the current language, it was not so easy to understand.
However, in general, this monument seemed to depict the extremely glorious generation of Immortals and Buddhas of ancient times.
In simpler words, there were more Golden Immortals than dogs, Zenith Heavens were everywhere, and Sages would show their faces every few days and hold banquets.
It was a scene that no one could imagine in this era.
There were also some jealousy and dissatisfaction mixed in, as if he was complaining about the Sages, Zenith Heavens, and the other pioneers who were pursuing the Dao. They kept all the good things in the world for themselves and did not give these people, who came later, a chance.
He actually dared to write and criticize the Sages? From this aspect, the situation at that time should have indeed been terrible to a certain extent. It was probably because the Sages could no longer protect themselves that he dared to vent like this.
Then, in the middle, something seemed to have suddenly happened to the Heavenly Dao they were chasing.
The person who left behind the monolith inscriptions used the words ‘the mass will not inherit the Dao, and the heavens will be destroyed’ to express his helplessness.
What followed was the second half of the tragic story. From the Nine Heavens Divine Buddha to the Nine Nether ghosts below, none of them had a good ending.
If Jiang Li did not guess wrong, this monument should have been left behind by a certain immortal before the ancient cultivation world collapsed and was about to enter the Cultivationless Age.
The Cultivationless Age was such a terrifying term for cultivators.
Who could imagine what would happen if the spiritual qi in the world suddenly dried up?
It was as if the oxygen in the air suddenly disappeared, and there was almost no way to survive.
Jiang Li looked at those words and could roughly understand the despair he felt at that time.
If he threw himself into the environment… hmm… wait, he did not seem to be afraid of the Cultivationless Age.
Jiang Li looked at his Spiritual Qi Infusion status and suddenly felt as if he had been born in the wrong era.
That immortal recorded some tragic scenes at that time and some countermeasures of the Immortals, Buddhas, and Gods.
It also mentioned that the six paths of reincarnation seemed to have been split up by someone. At that time, the ancestors and gods had set up a certain agreement, but the details of the agreement were not recorded in this monument.
Six paths of reincarnation… Eh? Immortal tomb and Buddhist cemetery?
Jiang Li’s interest arose when he saw these four words, and he started to yearn for the other stone monuments.
It was because according to the words on the monument here, one of the methods they used to deal with the Cultivationless Age was to build a tomb to pass through this difficulty by hibernation.
Among the other stone monuments, it was very likely that the exact location of the Immortal tomb and Buddhist cemetery was recorded.
If he could go to those places to take out some things, Jiang Li might be able to make up for the gap between him and those pioneers and achieve a breakthrough.
Immortal pills, divine weapons, immortal medicines, heavenly palaces, jade wine, and fairies!
Did he want it? Right there, where they buried everything in the world.
Go and find it! An ancient secret treasure!
As long as he found those buried legacies, everything that Immortal Cultivators wanted could be easily obtained!
This was a huge secret. As long as fewer people knew, no one would compete with him.
Thinking up to here, even with Jiang Li’s temperament, he could not help but laugh when his expression failed to be maintained.
However, his laughter did not last long before it was interrupted by a knock on the door.
“It’s time to set off.”
The cultivator who had invited Jiang Li to join the group came to remind him.
Since he was unwilling to reveal his name, Jiang Li would call him Old Ghost for the time being.
Jiang Li looked out the window. The thick fog above the city was slowly dissipating, and in its place was a night sky without sun or stars. Only the moonlight could shine on the land of the dead.
This meant that someone had used the three lifetime stone to summon the Netherworld Illusion in a specific area in the outside world.
This situation had already happened several times in the past ten days. A large number of human cultivators had secretly crossed over from the Ghost King Desolate Ground through the illusion realm.
Among them were even some famous cultivators in the cultivation world of the Eastern Region.
As for their goal, it was obvious.
In the past few days, even the pressure in Fengdu City was slightly heavier than before. Clearly, an extraordinary event was brewing.
Old Ghost had not been idle these few days. The number of people he had secretly organized had already reached 50. It was obvious that he could not think of bringing these 50 people to make a fortune.
Most of the people, including Jiang Li, were cannon fodder that he had specially prepared for the plan.
Jiang Li knew this, but he did not expose it. He also wanted to see the treasure underground palace in Fengdu City.
A group of people dressed plainly moved on the streets of Fengdu City. These people were all experienced. As they moved, no one could tell that they were together.
The ghost market in Fengdu City was thousands of times more prosperous than Qin Shuman’s Seven Roads Ghost City.
They similarly charged yin-yang lifespan as remuneration, and the goods here were only things that one could not think of and could not be bought here.
It was said that there were a few large forces that were constantly transporting mortals and rogue cultivators into the city. As long as they accumulated enough lifespan, they could even purchase Earth-rank artifacts.
Right at this moment, all the ghosts on the street paused, and then they turned their heads in the same direction with stunned expressions.
There, a talisman exploded in the air, and a few wisps of aura spread out.
The wisps of aura were half pure Yin and half pure Yang. Although they did not seem to have any cultivation level, their purity was shocking even to Jiang Li.
Old Ghost who stood not far away from Jiang Li noticed something, and his expression instantly changed.
“Nine Yang Boy! Nine Yin Girl! There really are such physiques in this world!”
“Damn it! This place is about to fall into chaos. Stop the disguise. Follow me!”
As soon as the old ghost finished speaking, he did not even pretend anymore and directly used his spiritual qi to expose the aura of a living person. He used his movement technique and ran far away.
However, as he had said, not a single ghost cared about him.
All the ghosts in the city stared in the direction of the aura and their eyes turned red.
To these ghosts, children with that physique were no different from immortal pills and Dao fruits.
As long as he absorbed it, even the Ghost King could advance on the spot and transform into an existence of a higher level.
It could be imagined how tempting the aura of the boy and girl was to these ghosts.
For a time, tens of thousands of ghosts roared crazily. Countless ghosts darted into the sky. Apart from some Earth Binding Spirits that were tied up by Fengdu City, all the other free ghosts surged in the direction of the aura.
From the looks of it, even if a Soul Formation cultivator stood in front of him, he would be torn to pieces in less than half an hour!
Outside the city, there were still people who continuously threw aura talismans into the air, drawing them further away.
This was a very good method.
However, the duration of the aura talisman was less than four hours. This meant that the boy and girl had definitely been brought into the illusion.
Once it was absorbed by a certain Ghost King, no one present would be able to endure the consequences.
After he thought through all of this, Jiang Li cursed in his heart, but he was helpless and could only execute his movement technique to follow closely behind Old Ghost.