Pawn Crossing the River

This is the method of the immortals. Qi Xuansu didn't need to show off. He just followed Cihang Zhenren with Xiao Yin and watched from a distance.

Cihang Zhenren continued to descend, and several smaller sandworms broke out of the sand. These sandworms had no consciousness, so they were not afraid. They still attacked Cihang Zhenren.

Their fate can be imagined. They were immediately cut by the sword light inspired by Cihang Zhenren, and they were not cut in two, but broken into dozens of pieces. Even creatures like sandworms had no chance.

If Qi Xuansu came here alone, he might have to spend some effort, but Cihang Zhenren was so simple and violent. Cihang Zhenren didn't even draw his sword, but splashed the sword light with his bare hands.

Cihang Zhenren's cloud shoes stepped on the hot yellow sand without stirring up a trace of dust, but a moment later, with Cihang Zhenren's foot as the center, a circle of ripples spread rapidly, and countless yellow sand was pushed outward by the ripples.

The ripples circled one after another without stopping, and the yellow sand under the feet was constantly pushed away, piling up into high sand dunes around.

This scene was like peeling off the layers of an onion, gradually revealing the real situation inside.

As the yellow sand was pushed away layer by layer by the ripples released by Cihang Zhenren, Cihang Zhenren's figure continued to descend, and a temple buried under the yellow sand also saw the light of day again.

It is strange to say that this temple was buried under the yellow sand, but there was no obvious damage, and even the yellow sand did not flow into the temple. It seemed that there was some invisible ban to isolate it, which is why people can still hide in the temple.

Through the ban, it can be vaguely seen that this temple is magnificent, surrounded by Buddha's light, sacred and solemn, and even bursts of Sanskrit sounds, as if countless Buddhists are chanting scriptures, as if this is a Buddhist holy place somewhere in Mount Xumi, and it seems to be a branch temple of Nalanda Temple.

Such a scene is naturally puzzling. Why should such a temple be built in such a barren land, and why such a temple is abandoned.

At this time, Cihang Zhenren was blocked by this layer of restriction and could not continue to descend.

So Cihang Zhenren really drew his sword.

It was the "Lotus of Wonderful Dharma" passed down from generation to generation in the Cihang lineage. The sword body was overflowing with colorful brilliance, which was quite similar to the "Seven Treasures Bodhi" of the Buddhist immortal. It had many blessing effects on the sword skills of the Cihang lineage, but it was only a half-immortal object, a hair's breadth away from the real immortal sword.

Generally, according to tradition, the master would pass this sword to the disciple early, just like Qingwei Zhenren passed the "Human World" to Li Changge early, but because Zhang Yuelu already had the "Three Five Male and Female Swords to Slay Evil" given by the Heavenly Master, this sword remained in the hands of Cihang Zhenren, and Cihang Zhenren gave Zhang Yuelu the "Six-Character Bright Mantra Sword" which was more inclined to auxiliary functions.

I saw Cihang Zhenren holding the "Lotus of Wonderful Dharma" and just lightly scratching it. With a sound of breaking that seemed to ring in my ears, the invisible restriction was separated by a line, and at the same time, this line of gap was constantly expanding, and finally the entire restriction was completely broken.

That's not all. Master Cihang held his sword horizontally in front of him, flicked his fingers on the sword, and thunderous sound resounded.

"Da Ci Lei Yin Sword"!

As the thunderous sound resounded through the Buddhist temple, everything in front of him changed accordingly.

The magnificent Buddhist temple became gloomy and dilapidated, and the sacred Buddha light turned into an indescribable and muddy atmosphere.

And those so-called Buddhist Sanskrit sounds also turned into a strange whisper that made people feel fearful and almost crazy.

The previous invisible restriction was like a veil, looming, making people unable to help but have all kinds of fantasies about the face behind the veil, and even supplement it by themselves, but after the veil was really lifted, and then looking closely at the true face, it was completely different.

This is the true face of this temple.

Probably because it was buried under the yellow sand, this temple was much better than the temple Qi Xuansu saw in the Sea of ​​Death. It was just dilapidated, but at least there was a roof, not just an outline.

Qi Xuansu brought Xiao Yin to the side of Cihang Zhenren. The mountain gate of the temple here has been destroyed. At this time, the three of them happened to be standing outside the main hall of the temple. They saw that the gate was closed. It was not an ordinary gate, but a stone gate with densely packed "people" painted on it. At first glance, it looked like an arrangement of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Arhats. A closer look showed that they were not people. Their faces were distorted, and they were not the hideous distortions of ordinary people. Their faces showed the characteristics of a vortex. They could only be said to be human figures, revealing a sense of weirdness.

Cihang Zhenren said: "From the strength of the ban here, it is obviously the work of an immortal. It is likely that it was set by Bodhisattva Xiao. I just broke the ban by force. Bodhisattva Xiao must have noticed it. She may not show up to take action, but in order to prevent her from having any means of killing and silencing people, we still have to act quickly, otherwise there will be changes."

Qi Xuansu said: "That's right."

After saying that, Qi Xuansu had already taken action.

Although the heavy stone door was tightly closed, Qi Xuansu clapped his palms fiercely, and the body spirit in his body suddenly appeared, and pushed forward together, generating an unparalleled force, directly pushing the heavy stone door open.

Inside the stone door was also a gloomy and dilapidated scene, and even a layer of strange fog.

Qi Xuansu did not hide from Cihang Zhenren, took out the "Tai Chi Bagua Mirror" and directly dispelled the fog. What he saw was that there was indeed a stone Buddha sitting upside down here, with his back to the main door. Without looking, he knew that the stone Buddha was not any Buddha in Buddhism, and it had only one eye.

Cihang Zhenren walked in slowly, looked up at the stone Buddha sitting upside down: "Now Buddhism has fallen to this point, and it doesn't hesitate to borrow the power of the outsiders. It's sad and lamentable."

If someone else said this, especially someone from the Taoist sect, it might be a bit sarcastic, but if it was said by Cihang Zhenren, it would be really lamentable. After all, the Cihang lineage was originally a branch of the Central Plains Buddhism. Although they joined the Taoist sect later, they still had some feelings for Buddhism.

The so-called outsiders refer to the demons from outside the domain.

The Buddha also mentioned the existence of demons, and the Buddhist scriptures clearly recorded the battle between the Buddha and the demons.

Qi Xuansu said: "There are too many branches of Buddhism. The Central Plains Buddhism has the essence of the three religions. As for the other Buddhist sects, they are not worth mentioning."

Cihang Zhenren glanced at Qi Xuansu: "You are the only one who can talk."

Qi Xuansu smiled and did not continue to delve into this topic.

As the Taoist sect expands, a question is inevitable. Is the Taoist sect the Taoist sect of the Central Plains? Or the Taoist sect of the world? Why did Chen Shuhua betray the Taoist sect? The deep reason is not easy to think about carefully, let alone to say it clearly. In other words, the top leaders of the Dao Sect knew this very well, but they were reluctant to say it out loud for some good reasons.

From this, we can further infer that will the Central Plains lose control over the Dao Sect? This is a question that has little impact in the short term but has a great impact in the long run. This is also one of the legitimacy of the support for the Dao Sect families. They originally represent the power of the Central Plains. If they control the Dao Sect, the Central Plains will control the Dao Sect.

Especially when the Dao Sect began to decline, trade was depressed and conflicts were intense. Equality, morality, and justice were all not worth mentioning. These things were like antiques. They were valuable only in prosperous times, and they would be taken seriously and regarded as the starry sky above their heads. In troubled times, they were not worth mentioning.

At this time, grouping is the foundation. The trend of thought represented by the Li family essentially caters to this trend and is extremely popular.

If the Li family had not shown great ambitions and even wanted to use this wave to establish a hereditary grand master, which caused the joint resistance of the Zhengyi Dao and Quanzhen Dao, the Li family would not have been in such a difficult situation. But even so, Zhengyi Dao and Quanzhen Dao had to follow this trend, which was specifically manifested in lip service.

Moreover, if Taoism becomes the Taoism of the world, then wouldn’t it be a waste of effort? After all, Xuansheng’s original intention of integrating Taoism was not to strengthen Taoism but to save the world. Taoism was Xuansheng’s tool to save the world. The fundamental meaning of Taoism’s existence was to save the people of the world, not to maintain the rule of Taoism. This “world” strictly refers to the Central Plains.

If the interests of the Central Plains are damaged in order to maintain the rule of Taoism, then is it Taoism that is wrong, or is it the Central Plains that is wrong?

This question cannot be avoided or covered up all the time.

The time node for making a choice is approaching, and it is not an exaggeration to say that this is an urgent problem for the eight generations of great masters to solve.

Qi Xuansu withdrew his thoughts and looked around.

There are indeed many murals on the walls here.

The content of the murals is more complete than that of the previous temple. After all, only broken walls and ruins were left in the previous temple, while this temple is relatively complete and has hardly suffered any damage.

So the missing murals have also been completed.

The first missing mural in the previous temple is the "Virgin Mary" holding a baby.

Judging from the order of the murals, this happened during the pilgrimage, which should be after going up the mountain and before going down the mountain.

When going up the mountain, there were many pilgrims, including monks, shamans, Taoists, Confucian scholars, and priests. When going down the mountain, only monks and shamans were left, and the monks were holding a baby in their arms.

Obviously, this baby is the key.

Further ahead, a masked woman is worshiping the one-eyed stone Buddha.

This so-called "Virgin Mary" is the masked woman, but the woman at this time has taken off the mask and replaced it with a long veil, like a shadow, still covering her face, only revealing one eye.

The woman held the baby in both hands, with the one-eyed stone Buddha sitting upside down behind her and the kneeling pilgrims in front of her, all raising their hands, as if waiting for a gift.

The perspective of the next mural changes. It is no longer the "Virgin Mary" and the baby, but the fight between the pilgrims. These believers with extraordinary origins seem to be under some unspeakable charm and lose their reason. Or perhaps this is the end of the story. Just like those treasure hunts in secret places, they can still cooperate in the process of treasure hunting, but in fact they are sleeping in the same bed but dreaming different dreams, each with their own ghosts. As long as the treasure is found, they will turn against each other and fight.

The third mural is the result of this chaos. The monk and the shaman stood at the end. The monk came to the "Virgin Mary", knelt on one knee, raised his hands devoutly, and the shaman wearing a bronze mask stood aside and watched coldly. Perhaps it was the shaman's "non-contention" that laid the foundation for the two to work together.

In the fourth mural, the "Virgin Mary" put the baby in the monk's hand.

This is connected. In the end, the monk and the shaman went down the mountain together, and the monk held the baby in his arms.

Qi Xuansu couldn't help but have a guess that perhaps Monk Xiao and Bodhisattva Xiao were related to this baby.