Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
If a Shaolin disciple who was familiar with the area was there, he would have been able to tell that Su Qin stared in the direction of the Thousand Buddha Hall, one of the restricted areas within the Shaolin temple.
Su Qin entered the temple more than ten years ago and he had stepped foot in almost every corner of the Shaolin temple except for a couple of restricted areas. The Rear Mountain was one and the Thousand Buddha Hall was another.
Whether it was the Rear Mountain or the Thousand Buddha Hall, Su Qin sensed the concealed aura of a first-rank grandmaster emanating from within them. That was the reason that Su Qin never approached those areas.
Since the Rear Mountain was a restricted area where the Shaolin temple had imprisoned the Demon Buddha 900 years ago, it did not seem unusual for Su Qin to be a first-rank grandmaster present there.
After all, according to Su Qin’s understanding, the Demon Buddha from 900 years ago was so powerful that he could compete with a Luohan. That would have completely overpowered a mighty first-rank warrior.
It was nearly impossible to suppress such a powerful demon that merely relied on the power of the seals. No matter how powerful the seals were, over time their power weakened. When that happened, someone needed to constantly be on hand to restore the seal to ensure that the Demon Buddha would have continued to be imprisoned.
Besides that, it was likely that only a first-rank grandmaster might have been able to draw close and not be affected by the ferocious power of the Demon Buddha. That was the condition if the Demon Buddha was already suppressed by the seals.
In the end, a Divine Master Abbot of the first-rank grandmaster level was to guard the place to ensure that the seals holding the Demon Buddha imprisoned were secure. That information was top-secret and even the current abbot of the Shaolin temple at that time did not know about it.
That was also the reason why the Shaolin temple thought that there were no first-rank Divine Master Abbot in that generation. In reality, as one of the great martial arts sects with a heritage of thousands of years and as the Buddhist sects holy land that produced Luohans, there would have naturally been secrets within the Shaolin temple.
Apart from the Rear Mountain restricted area, a similar aura of a first-rank grandmaster could be sensed from within the Thousand Buddha Hall. However, Su Qin felt the presence of the first-rank grandmaster’s aura suddenly vanished.
That disappearance did not feel merely like the sudden absence of that aura. Instead, it felt like a candle in a storm that had been bitterly enduring the winds for tens of years being extinguished.
‘Is he dead?’ wondered Su Qin as a look of realization appeared on his face.
The Thousand Buddha Hall was a restricted area in the Shaolin temple because it was the place where all the generations of Shaolin Divine Master Abbots went to take their last breath. Only a first-rank Divine Master Abbot at the end of his long life had the right to enter the Thousand Buddha Hall.
‘Should I head over to take a look and see if I can sign-in there at the same time?’ Su Qin stroked his chin as excitement stirred within him.
The Thousand Buddha Hall was one of the last unexplored places for Su Qin. That also meant that Su Qin never signed in at the Thousand Buddha Hall up till then.
‘Based on the aura in the Thousand Buddha Hall, that first-rank grandmaster surely passed on. So, there’s currently no living thing within the hall. I won’t get caught even if I went in now,’ thought Su Qin as the idea occurred to him.
Under normal circumstances, Su Qin would have waited for a while before entering the Thousand Buddha Hall just to be safe, even if the first-rank grandmaster was truly dead. However, he had just obtained the Withered Tree technique.
That martial arts style of the Shaolin temple was great for concealment and disguise. When it was combined with the Impenetrable Armor technique, Su Qin was confident that even if the first-rank grandmaster walked past without looking directly at him, he would not be discovered.
Unless Su Qin deliberately revealed his aura…
‘I’ll get myself familiar with the Withered Tree technique before I decide,’ thought Su Qin and instantly all the knowledge on the Withered Tree technique gushed into his brain. In a few seconds, Su Qin’s grasp of the Withered Tree technique and reached an unthinkable level.
‘To be able to take on the form of a withered tree and have an undetectable aura.’
Su Qin’s aura grew faint and seemed to disappear completely.
“Chirp chirp.”
Right at that moment, a couple of birds landed on Su Qin’s shoulders. They had been fooled and thought that Su Qin was a dead tree. They did not notice anything unusual about him.
In the space of a breath, Su Qin slowly began to use the Impenetrable Armor technique to withdraw his aura while the Withered Tree technique was still in action.
Right away, the few birds were startled and flew away in a hurry. That was because, from the birds’ perspective, they completely lost the sense of Su Qin’s existence. At that moment, Su Qin was not a dead tree but a space of emptiness.
In reality, Su Qin was still present. All that happened was that his aura completely disappeared.
‘Pretty impressive,’ thought Su Qin in astonishment, ‘Now I should be able to enter the Thousand Buddha Hall,’ he thought as he made his decision.
It was then nighttime.
Su Qin sneaked past the patrol monks and stood in front of the Thousand Buddha Hall. Once he was sure that there was no one inside, Su Qin pushed open the large door and slowly walked in.
The lights within the hall were somewhat dim. However, as a first-rank grandmaster, he long achieved the ability to see in the dark. There were numerous Buddha statues within the Thousand Buddha Hall and before every statue laid the place where the first-rank Divine Master Abbot took his last breath.
The Buddha statues were laid out one after another. At just a glance, it looked as though there were at least several hundreds of them there.
‘I didn’t know that the Shaolin temple managed to produce so many first-rank Divine Master Abbots!?’ thought Su Qin in astonishment.
In that day and age, any first-rank grandmaster would have been one of the most powerful warriors in the world. Any one of them could have defeated an entire great martial arts sect. It turned out that the Shaolin temple managed to produce hundreds of first-rank grandmasters!
However, once Su Qin thought about it, he realized that it was expected. The Shaolin temple had a history of thousands of years. When he divided the hundreds of first-rank Divine Master Abbot by the thousands of years, it did not seem like a huge number any longer.
Su Qin slowly continued walking deeper into the Thousand Buddha Hall. With the combined result of the Withered Tree technique and the Impenetrable Armor technique, Su Qin felt like a ghost and that his presence was barely there. Even a first-rank grandmaster would not have been able to detect him if he did not fall into his line of sight.
Soon after, Su Qin had arrived at the deepest part of the Thousand Buddha Hall. He saw a figure dressed in common clothes sitting stiffly up ahead. The figure lacked any sort of aura. It was clear that he was dead.
‘Common clothing instead of monk robes? So the first-rank person hiding in the Thousand Buddha Hall didn’t belong to the Shaolin temple?’ Su Qin was overcome with surprise. That was because all that time, Su Qin thought that the aura of a first-rank coming from the Thousand Buddha Temple was from a living Divine Master Abbot of the Shaolin temple.
It turned out to be untrue.
‘How interesting,’ thought Su Qin but he did not immediately approach the figure. There was no telling whether the first-rank grandmaster had left behind traps around his corpse even though he was already dead.
Even though Su Qin was not scared, he was wary of getting himself into trouble.
‘Oh, now that I’m in the Thousand Buddha Hall, I can sign-in.’ Su Qin’s eyes lit up in excitement.
Since it was deep into the night, it was considered the early hours of the next day. Hence the daily sign-in opportunity was already refreshed.
‘System, sign-in,’ muttered Su Qin in his mind.
[Congratulations, host! Your sign-in is successful. You have obtained the magical ability, Truth-Seeing Eye.]
A cold, robotic voice rang in Su Qin’s ear.
‘Magical ability? Truth-Seeing Eye?’ Su Qin’s eyes went wide with surprise.
Over the past ten years, Su Qin obtained countless martial arts techniques, divine arts, special pills, elixirs, and other valuable treasures. However, that was the first time that he heard of magical abilities.
As he thought about it, Su Qin quickly logged in to see the system’s description of the Truth-Seeing Eye technique.