Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“This is Buddha, a real Buddha…” Ba Tuo looked like he had just seen a ghost.
Ever since he entered the Vajra temple as a young boy, he read all the Buddhist scriptures in the temple. He even studied more obscure texts. So, he had a lot of knowledge of Buddha. However…
Only then did Ba Tuo realize how wrong he had been all along. The real Buddha was immortal and golden. It was something he would have never been able to imagine.
“What’s this?!” shouted Tong Ru, the Protective Arts Master. He forced himself to recover from his shock as his voice was full of trepidation and horror.
The entire area was shining with a strong and permeating heavenly light.
Tong Ru felt like every stand of the Internal Force within his body weighed a ton. He felt like it would have been impossible for him to budge it even an inch, let alone attempted to manipulate and move his Internal Force.
The other seven Vajra temple disciples fared even worse. They collapsed in terror to land on their bums right from the start. They just sat there looking horrified.
Time continued to tick. After a moment, the heavenly light began to fade. Once the heavenly light had completely faded, the group from the Vajra temple violently regain their senses.
“Where…Where’s that person?” asked one of the Vajra temple disciples in a whisper. As he said that, he realized how there was no one under the Bodhi tree.
“The Shaolin temple can’t be underestimated…” said Tong Ru with a long sigh. At that moment, all he wanted to do was to talk with the people who spread the rumors about how the Shaolin temple was losing its powers.
How could the Shaolin temple have been in such a state when they produced such a stellar young disciple that had control over heavenly light? If that was considered losing their touch, then the Vajra temple should have just given up.
“So did we win or lose this Buddhist Debate?” asked a disciple of the Vajra temple cautiously. The rest of the disciples tensed up and immediately turned to look at Ba Tuo. Even Tong Ru turned to look at Ba Tuo.
“A winning lost?” said Ba Tuo with a smile. How could he win a Buddhist Debate when he was up against Buddha?
“Master, let’s head back to the Vajra temple. The Shaolin temple’s truly worthy of its status as the top Buddhist sect. There’s no need for us to wonder about it any longer!”
Once Ba Tuo finished speaking, he started walking in the direction of the Vajra temple. Tong Ru sighed softly and followed behind him. The other seven disciples exchanged looks then fell into step behind Tong Ru.
Once they were back at the Vajra temple, Tong Ru reported everything exactly as it happened to the Vajra temple abbot. The Vajra temple abbot was silent before he softly said, “Could it be that a true Luohan may rise from the Shaolin temple this generation?”
“A Luohan?” repeated Tong Ru in surprise.
A Luohan of the Buddhist sect was equal to the Martial Arts Legend of Jianghu. The power of a Luohan surpassed and was far beyond the nine ranks of the martial arts. Each Luohan or Martial Arts Legend was practically invincible and undefeatable!
*****
When Su Qin returned to the Shaolin temple, most of the disciples outside the Great Palace Hall were sent away by abbot Hui Wen and the temple court heads.
‘I never expected that a tiny trigger would bring such a reaction. It also used up more than half of my Internal Force,’ thought Su Qin as he massaged his brows. The golden buddha in him who represented the teachings of the Buddha Palm technique had calmed down.
When Su Qin was engaged in the Buddhist Debate with Ba Tuo and was asked the question ‘What is Buddha?’, Su Qin immediately thought of the Buddha Palm technique. The Buddha Palm technique is also known as Buddha’s Technique. In that time and age, there was nothing that came close to Buddha’s presence other than the Buddha Palm technique.
That was the reason Su Qin decided to send a tiny trigger into the depths of his brow right at that moment. Even though Su Qin was still not able to use the Buddha Palm technique, it did not mean that he could not trigger some reaction from it.
As soon as Su Qin sent the trigger, that gigantic golden Buddha appeared. That appearance saved Su Qin a lot of problems.
‘I wonder what level of martial arts the Buddha Palm technique belongs to?’ wondered Su Qin.
Su Qin was a first-rank grandmaster with a robust Internal Force. Despite that, a tiny activation of the Buddha Palm technique spent the majority of his Internal Force. If he were to properly use the technique, that might have resulted in him having all of his internal force sucked out of him.
Su Qin was deep in thought as he returned to the Miscellaneous Court. At that moment, the Miscellaneous Court head regained consciousness and his complexion had improved by quite a fair bit.
Despite this, Su Qin could sense that his lifespan had shortened significantly and he was approaching the end of his life. Su Qin estimated that he only had about five to ten years left before he would breathe his last.
“Sigh…” Su Qin sighed softly and walked up to ask, “Master, are you alright?”
“I’m fine.” the Miscellaneous temple court head waved his hand and said, “I got too worked up before but I’m much better now.”
He paused before continuing, “Now that I’m old, my body’s weak and it’s something I must accept…”
In the following weeks, the Shaolin temple abbot Hui Wen and all the temple court heads were in torment as they waited for the Vajra temple to announce the result of the Buddhist Debate.
Abbot Hui Wen was surprised when months had passed but there was still was no news from the Vajra temple. It was as though the Buddhist Debate with the Shaolin temple had never happened.
“Logically, since the Vajra temple won the Buddhist Debate, they should’ve announced it to the world. Why haven’t they announced it?” grumbled the Precepts Court head.
Even though it was hard for them to lose the title of the top among the four Buddhist sects, yet the result was clear. A win was a win and a loss was a loss. That was a fact that even the Shaolin temple could not refute.
However, the Shaolin temple could not understand why the Vajra temple had not announced the result yet. Did they expect the Shaolin temple to first admit to the world that they lost to the Vajra temple?
How could that have been possible? As one of the greatest martial arts sects in the world, the Shaolin temple still had its pride. Besides that, it was normal for the winner of the previous Buddhist Debates to handle the announcement of the result.
“What on earth is going on?” muttered abbot Hui Wen with a perplexed expression.
Even though the Vajra temple was silent, abbot Hui Wen did not want to step forward and ask them about it. That was because not many of the great powers in the world knew that the Shaolin temple and the Vajra temple conducted a Buddhist Debate. All of the few that knew about the Buddhist Debate assumed that the Vajra temple was lost. Hence, abbot Hui Wen was unwilling to clear up that misunderstanding.
As for the Vajra temple, since they lost to the Shaolin temple, they similarly felt bewildered as to why the Shaolin temple was radio silent. After waiting for several months, the Shaolin temple had still not mentioned anything about the Buddhist Debate. In the end, the Vajra temple just assumed that the Shaolin temple was too unbothered to do anything with the result.
As for the culprit of the whole mess, Su Qin, well he naturally went back to his normal routine. Signing in and obtaining rewards. Sweeping the temple floors.
[Congratulations, host! Your sign-in is successful. You have obtained the Withered Tree technique.]
Su Qin looked elated as he stood in front of the Scripture Pavilion. The Withered Tree technique was one of the great Shaolin martial arts styles. Its greatest application was not in attacking or defending. Instead, it was in being able to concealment and disguise.
Once mastery of the Withered Tree technique was achieved, he would have been able to control his aura at his own will and take on the form of an actual dead tree. His aura became completely undetectable.
“This is great! The Withered Tree technique and the Impenetrable Armor technique are the perfect combos when used together!”
Su Qin was overjoyed. With the Impenetrable Armor technique, Su Qin could already completely suppress his aura. What would his ability to conceal himself be like when he had then possessed the Withered Tree technique?
Right as Su Qin was preparing to give the Withered Tree technique a test run, his expression suddenly changed.
“Huh?”
Su Qin froze as he stared ahead of him.