Chapter 120: 112 Esoteric Buddhism, Part 2

“Alright! I’m in!” The man stared at the treasure note with longing and greed, struggling to move his gaze to the statue beside him.

“Just kneeling and worshiping? That’s all?” he asked.

“First, a sincere bow of worship, followed by a complex process. I’ll guide you step by step,” Zhang Rongfang said. “If all goes well, the ritual should be completed by afternoon.”

“I see.” The man nodded, indicating his understanding.

He thought to himself that money couldn’t be earned so easily; there were surely complications ahead.

With this realization, he felt somewhat relieved.

Straightening his worn-out clothes, the man walked to within a meter of the statue, then knelt.

He clasped his hands, balancing Yin and Yang, bending down, kowtowing.

Thump.

One kowtow.

Thump.

Second kowtow.

Thump.

Third kowtow!

Thud.

Suddenly, a glimmer of light flickered by, shooting out from the statue’s hand-held golden bead and penetrating the man’s forehead.

The light seemed to be some metallic object, moving fast like a bullet.

Even Zhang Rongfang couldn’t react in time.

He only saw a thin streak flash by.

Startled, he instinctively stepped back.

’What the hell was that!?’

In astonishment, he looked at the man.

“How are you?? Are you… okay?”

The man remained kneeling, motionless, seemingly stunned.

The spot on his forehead that had been pierced by the light showed a tiny, subtle blood dot.

The blood dot was as fine as a pinhead, so faint that it was barely visible without close scrutiny.

“No…no problem…” The man suddenly came to his senses, slowly standing up.

His body trembled, with sweat trickling down from his forehead, across his cheeks, and in various places.

“The money you promised… my money….” He turned his head with difficulty, looking at Zhang Rongfang.

“I will give it! Don’t worry!!” Zhang Rongfang, upon seeing the man’s face, felt his heart skip a beat.

Instinctively, he stepped back, hesitant to get too close.

At this moment, the man seemed normal.

Yet on his face, neck, hands, and scalp—any visible skin showed clear linear bulges.

As if countless tiny worms were continuously writhing under his skin.

Occasionally bulging, occasionally returning to normal.

’What the hell is this!?’ Zhang Rongfang’s vigilance heightened to the max. His hand unwittingly gripped the wish wheel on his back.

“Money…. money?? The money you promised me???” The man stepped forward.

“My wish…. money… money money money money!!!”

The intelligence in his eyes faded away, replaced by a daze.

Yet his body movements were the complete opposite, increasingly relaxed and agile compared to before.

He continued approaching Zhang Rongfang.

Suddenly, he lunged forward.

Thump!!

The ground dented with a dirt pit, as the man charged at Zhang Rongfang like a wild beast.

Clang!!

Their collision emitted a metallic clashing sound.

The enormous force forced Zhang Rongfang to retreat several steps; the wish wheel in his hand trembled, evidently rushed into the defense and overexerted.

In contrast, the gambler man now withdrew his hand, revealing crimson flesh and wriggling silvery metallic threads protruding from a clear break on his palm’s edge.

“Money, money, money, money!!” The gambler man crazily lunged at Zhang Rongfang again.

He wielded his limbs indiscriminately, treating his body as a weapon.

Eerily, he clashed his hands and feet against the wish wheel repeatedly, yet showed no signs of being sliced apart.

“The god fulfilled my wish! I want money! Money! Money!!” The man growled, his strikes becoming faster and heavier.

Boom!

Without any techniques, Zhang Rongfang slammed the wish wheel heavily on the man’s head, causing him to fall to the ground.

But it was futile; he quickly rose again, frantically lunging at Zhang Rongfang once more.

Again and again, the man seemed to lose all reason entirely in the end, only knowing to continuously get up and charge at his opponent.

Zhang Rongfang’s heart was shaken.

The man’s current speed and strength were comparable to a Sixth Grade expert, and they were still increasing.

What was crucial was that this person was originally an ordinary man, a gambler with relatively weak physical qualities.

Now he suddenly became comparable to a Sixth Grade Limit-Breaking expert??

Even without martial arts techniques, his speed and strength alone could crush a Fourth Grade opponent.

This statue is simply…

Clang.

Suddenly retreating, Zhang Rongfang clasped the wildly trembling wish wheel as the man struck it brutally with a punch, nearly causing it to fly out of his grasp.

The man’s speed and strength had increased again!??

First at Sixth Grade, now at least Seventh Grade! And still rising!

Zhang Rongfang felt both startled and furious.

Quickly wielding the wish wheel for defense, all he could manage was to block.

Despite the man’s chaotic strikes, he showed no fear of being sliced.

The wish wheel clashed against his body, sparking showers and tearing the skin, with no other effects.

Suddenly, another muffled sound rang.

Boom!!

Zhang Rongfang stepped back two steps, his face showing heightened astonishment.

Eighth Grade now!!

This man unexpectedly….

Before he could regain his senses, the man growled again and swung another strike.

This palm strike was indeed faster than the previous one.

Immediately Zhang Rongfang dared not delay, raising his right leg and using the Limit-Breaking Skill Shrinking Step Re-ascending Ridge.

One palm, one leg instantly clashed.

Boom!!!

Zhang Rongfang retreated several steps, his face suddenly flushed, and a faint pain ran through his right leg.

He was hurt!?

At that very moment.

Crack.

The man suddenly froze, maintaining a raised hand posture, standing motionless.

Blood began trickling from his eyes, ears, and nostrils.

Thud.

The man fell to the ground, lifeless.

In the midst of a faint buzzing sound, like parched soil suddenly receiving nourishing water.

The gambler man’s body slowly shriveled, as if it lost its supporting structure.

Zhang Rongfang stood there gasping, a rust-like taste permeating his throat.

He wiped under his nostrils with his hand, then looked at it.

Blood.

He was actually forced to cough up blood from an inner injury!

Glancing at the attribute panel, his life attribute temporarily dropped three points in upper and lower limits.

’What was that thing??!’

He picked up a thick wooden stick and probed the gambler man.

The other was completely motionless, his skin and flesh like rotten mud, leaving a dent with a poke.

Zhang Rongfang looked again at the statue.

The wooden stick lightly touched it.

With a clatter.

The statue completely collapsed, shattering into something resembling a large amount of sand.

“Gone??” Zhang Rongfang’s face was astonished.

Standing still, he probed the man several more times, confirming that he was completely unresponsive.

Only then did he step forward to check.

The man’s body was like a layer of willful skin sack, the bones, flesh, and blood inside completely dissolved into mucus and mud.

Zhang Rongfang grabbed the man’s hair with one hand, as if picking up a human-shaped balloon filled with water.

’Is this why the Spirit Court has been persistently exterminating the secretive sects?’

Such formidable lethality, even given to an ordinary person, could unleash speed and strength enough to injure him.

No need for coordinated techniques, chaotic fighting could injure him.

The estimated level uplift of that man had already reached the Ninth Grade.

A mere statue could instantly elevate an ordinary person to Ninth Grade….

No wonder the Spirit Court was so highly vigilant.

If a more robust martial artist were to worship it, the power…

Zhang Rongfang couldn’t even bear to imagine.

He carefully collected the fine sand from the shattered statue and packed it into a bag.

Then dug a pit to bury the body before quickly leaving the place.

Soon after he left the wooded area.

A tall figure, completely wrapped in a gray cloak, slowly appeared at the site of the statue’s collapse.

He squatted down, dabbed his hand into the barely visible sand and ash scattered on the ground.

“Not a person from the court…. The statue has been used. But where’s the person??”

Another person, dressed similarly in a gray robe, also walked out from the nearby woods.

“Forget it if we can’t find them. It seems like it didn’t succeed, let’s go.”

“Okay.”

The two no longer looked much, rose up, and swiftly left.

*

*

*

Pingya Temple.

Stacks of intelligence reports were continuously set aside by Zhang Rongfang.

He was quickly searching through a wealth of information about statues, the Spirit Court, and the secretive sects.

Since direct intelligence couldn’t be found, then… how about indirect?

The state of the statues made him realize.

The secretive sects, the Spirit Court, these are likely the deeper elements hidden behind this world.

The secretive sects had troublesome items like the statues.

Then the Spirit Court must certainly have equally resistant entities.

Recalling those shattered statue fragments.

Zhang Rongfang seemed to have some speculation.

’Since the statue was shattered and reorganized, and could still have such strong effects, then, if it were intact, wouldn’t it be even more effective? Or, would the side effects not be as severe?’

Just then, outside the main hall, a figure swiftly entered the door, soon kneeling on one knee before Zhang Rongfang.

The figure wore a similar black mask, only without the white marks like three eyes at the forehead.

“Lord Bai Ying, an urgent message from the prefecture city!”

“Bring it here.” Zhang Rongfang put down the document and turned around.

The incoming person presented a special bamboo tube.

Cutting open the wax seal and pulling out the stopper, Zhang Rongfang quickly poured a small paper scroll out of the bamboo tube.

Unfolding the paper scroll.

’A secret sect scripture appeared near Tan Yang City, find it, or the person who obtained it. ——Red Spirit.’

The total overseer of the prefecture city was Red Spirit.

Zhang Rongfang, having reviewed the Golden Wing Pavilion’s comprehensive structure, knew the identity of this Red Spirit.

Only the secret sect scripture….

Could it be that yellow cloth?

“You may leave.” He waved his hand, signaling the subordinate to leave.

“Yes.”

Watching the subordinate leave.

Zhang Rongfang recalled the strange occurrences that happened earlier.

Combining the orders and tasks from the prefecture city, this task has a mandatory marker, meaning it is the fixed task he needs to complete this year.

’It seems this affair has blown up larger than I imagined…. Many people know of my collection of statue parts.

But no one knows about me obtaining that piece of yellow cloth…. It must be kept strictly confidential.’

Putting down the prefecture city’s order, he continued to review intelligence reports.

Before figuring out what the secret sect scripture is, he must keep it a secret, not letting anyone know he obtained that piece of yellow cloth.

“Got it!”

Suddenly, Zhang Rongfang’s hand shook, nearly causing the intelligence report he just got to slip from his palm.

This intelligence mention, recorded in ancient texts, cases of worshiping secretive sect statues.

’….Worshippers often fall into a frenzy of madness, the sect calls it baptism.

If they can pass through baptism, they will become Spiritual Veins, Divine Servants for life.

If they cannot pass, then their entire potential will be exhausted, dying as their flesh rots within moments of frenzy.

In the autumn of 1124, the Spirit Court announced the establishment of the Jixian Institute, publicly confirming the Ming Sect, abolishing the secretive sect’s baptism.

In the spring of 1125, large and small secretive sects disbanded, massive crackdowns on remnants occurred across the land.

In 1126, the Jixian Institute was upgraded, established to oversee all Taoist affairs under heaven. And to monitor all secretive sect affairs, thereafter, secretive sect remnants were never seen again.

In the autumn of the same year, the Jixian Institute conveyed a decree: No one shall investigate matters related to secretive sects.’

Though this intelligence wasn’t detailed, its general content allowed Zhang Rongfang to grasp the related records.

At the bottom, a line explained the origin of such secretive sect writings. The characters on the secretive sect cloth were an ancient script called lock script.

Very few people in all of Tan Yang understand this script.

The intelligence listed three names, all of whom understand lock script.

Memorizing the names, Zhang Rongfang glanced at the intelligence’s provider—Xiong Wuye.

Then set it down into a burning brazier beside him.

The Golden Wing Pavilion’s mission, the Spirit Court’s attention, the statue’s eeriness, a multitude of signs made him understand the matter was over for now.

He couldn’t continue to investigate openly, but must gradually understand it in the shadows.

’Coincidentally, I’m currently accumulating life attributes, looking for when I might break through the limit to reach Ninth Grade.

Additionally, learning this lock script could be attempted. This Xiong Wuye can be transferred over for a detailed inquiry.’

As for the government side, after a second application, he could already transfer back to the Mingjing Palace, there’s no need to worry about his position.

For now, casually find a transitional position will suffice.

The key now is not letting anyone know he’s secretly investigating matters related to the secretive sect.

The previous traces must also be thoroughly cleared.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep