Traveling the Heavens in Thunderbolt

Chapter 45: The Four Saints of the Chosen Lord Died
As the progress of the Cihang Jingzhai plan accelerated, the candidate was selected by the current Jingzhai successor, Shi Feixuan, after extensive examination, and was officially announced as the second son of the Li family, Prince of Qin Li Shimin.

The main reason is that the Li family is now powerful and has become as strong as Qin.

During the selection process, although Kou Zhong joined the ranks of candidates and was a man of equal ability to Li Shimin, he was not considered because of his inherent deficiencies due to his family background and other issues, which meant that he had no place to stand until now.

As for why Li Shimin was chosen instead of the eldest son Li Jiancheng?

This is because during the investigation, Shi Feixuan had a conversation with Li Jiancheng and found that he did not show any favor to her or even Cihang Jingzhai (meaning he was unwilling to be a bootlicker). In the subsequent conversation, he even expressed his intention to carry out religious reform.

In addition, he was already the crown prince and destined to be the emperor of the Tang Dynasty in the future. Supporting him would at most be icing on the cake, not as good as Li Shimin's timely assistance.

If a prince who otherwise would not be able to ascend the throne could be helped to ascend to the throne, the benefits would be staggering.

In order to prevent Li Gong and the Demon Sect from interfering with the matter of the Heshi Bi, Shi Feixuan and Fan Qinghui made sufficient preparations and invited the strongest trump card of Buddhism, the "Four Holy Monks" to keep an eye on Li Gong. These four people are "Master Zhihui of Tiantai Sect", "Master Daoxin, the Fourth Patriarch of Zen Sect", "Venerable Jiaxiang of Sanlun Sect" and "Venerable Dixin of Huayan Sect". Although each of them is not as powerful as the "three great martial arts masters" today, they are not far behind.

They did not seek to eliminate Li Gong, but only to hold him back so that he could not interfere in Luoyang's affairs. After all, these four had hunted down the evil king who had aliased himself as "Da De" and joined their school. Not to mention that they had practiced Zen for many years and were stronger than ever.

Li Gong now took over the position of the head from Zhu Yuyan, and reorganized the unified Demon Sect, re-acquired the doctrines of various schools of thought, unified the doctrines, and ordered his disciples to call themselves the Holy Sect. This formed a Holy Sect that was on par with the three religions of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, and he himself was the unified leader of all factions of the Holy Sect.

Shi Feixuan and the others naturally knew the seriousness of the matter, but out of confidence in the strength of the four great monks, they were not too panicked.

Unfortunately, they didn't know that Fu Cailin was killed by Ling Donglai in three moves, otherwise they wouldn't think that they could stop Li Gong with just this lineup.

In addition, Fan Qinghui also wrote a letter to the head of the Song clan, Song Que, the "world's best knifeman", telling of their long-term friendship and consoling his daughter Song Yuhua for her unfortunate experience. At the end of the letter, Fan Qinghui frankly stated the current predicament of Cihang Jingzhai, hoping that he would remove Li Gong and restore peace to the world for the sake of their long-term friendship and the hatred of their sworn brother Jie Hui's family being wiped out.

When everything was ready and Shi Feixuan, Liaokong and others were preparing for the ceremony, one of their young monks suddenly brought news that the Heshi Jade was stolen by a disguised person. This person disguised himself as Bian Bufu, a high-ranking member of the Yinkui Sect, and stole the item during a fight with a martial monk in the temple.

The person who stole the He's Jade was none other than Xu Ziling, one of the Twin Dragons. With the help of the mask he got from Lu Miaozi, he concealed himself from the monks in Jingnian Zen Temple and stole the He's Jade. In the meantime, he attempted to pin the blame on the Yinkui Sect, which was now in the ascendant.

But how could he know that the main backbones of the Demon Sect were now under the key control of the Buddhist Sect. According to the report from his spies, the person he pretended to be, Bian Bufu, was fooling around with Xi Ying in a brothel in Xiangyang, and it was impossible for him to be here.

After listening to the young monk's report, Liaokong sent someone to inform Ning Daoqi, and at the same time personally led the four great Vajras and a group of monks in the temple to search to see if they could find any clues.

Nowadays, Buddhism is beginning to decline due to the Demon Sect led by Li Gong. It originally hoped to use the momentum of Lord Tianze to curb this trend, but it cannot afford to make any mistakes along the way.

After several days of searching, Shi Feixuan finally locked her target on Kou Zhong, Xu Ziling and Ba Fenghan, the three people with whom she had discussed Taoism that day.

Shi Feixuan, together with Lao Kong and the Four Vajra, finally blocked the three men in a wine shop near "Tianjin Bridge", the place where Ling Donglai became famous in the past.

After a test confrontation, Shi Feixuan, with the help of the "Cihang Sword Canon", knew that the Heshi Bi was stolen by Kou Zhong and his two companions. So she wanted to use this incident to force the three to hand over the Heshi Bi and Kou Zhong to retire, so as to eliminate the biggest opponent for Li Shimin.

But how could she know that the He Shi Bi had been absorbed by Kou Zhong and his men as soon as they got it, so how could it be given to her now?
It is wishful thinking to want Kou Zhong to retire. At this moment, he has not yet achieved success or fame, so how could he easily withdraw from the stage of fighting for world domination?

Everyone chose their opponents, and the outcome would be decided by the winner. Shi Feixuan chose Xu Ziling, the dog, and Liaokong, because of the theft of the Heshi Bi, destroyed his years of silent meditation. Just as both sides were about to fight, a majestic voice came in, breaking the situation, "Ha, all the bald donkeys who don't want Jingnian Zen Temple are here, so I'll just send you to accompany those four bald donkeys."

Shi Feixuan and Liaokong didn't think anyone else would come, so they looked around and saw a man standing on the Tianjin Bridge. Under the moonlight, the man had long hair that fell to his shoulders, a purple face, skin as smooth as a baby's, and a burly figure. He was the most feared enemy of Buddhism, the "Blood Hand" Li Gong who was dragged to the south by the four great monks.

When did Li Gong enter Luoyang? How come he didn't get any news?

Shi Feixuan gradually felt uneasy.

Li Gong came slowly, and the pressure he exuded made everyone present hold their breath, and the scene was silent.

It was because as soon as he entered the world of martial arts, he defeated the six great masters of the Demon Sect except Zhu Yuyan and Shi Zhixuan. He was so powerful that he created the current might of the Demon Sect by his own strength, and even destroyed the entire Duzun Castle alone and swept across the Buddhist sect in the south of the Yangtze River.

Many people couldn't help but compare him with Ling Donglai, and found that this person's trajectories were so similar to Ling Donglai's. One swept the white way, and the other swept the evil way. Many people believed that he was the only one in Middle-earth who could be compared with Ling Donglai.

Shi Feixuan looked at the person who came. While she was intimidated by his power, her heart of Tao, which had never wavered, actually showed a ripple, and she felt a little favorable towards this mortal enemy in front of her.

This is because the "Cihang Sword Canon" was created by the founder of Taoism, Di Ni, after reading the "Random Thoughts on the Demonic Path". It has the same origin as the demon sect's supreme skill "The Great Method of Planting Demons in the Heart of Taoism". Li Gong, who has mastered this skill, is attracted to the practice of "Sword Heart without Self".

Fortunately, she has not cultivated the "Daotai", otherwise she would be attracted to people who have cultivated demon seeds like Qin Mengyao.

After suppressing her emotions, Shi Feixuan asked without her previous reserve, "Li Gong, how did you escape the pursuit of the four masters and appear here?" She directly expressed the doubts in everyone's minds.

Li Gong said, "Of course, they sent those old monks to the Western Paradise, where they listened to the supreme teachings under the seat of the Tathagata Buddha, and then they walked over slowly."

"You, it's impossible! The four ancestors were highly educated in Buddhism, how could they die at your hands? It must be you, the devil, who is deceiving people."

"Let's fight this devil!"

However, the monks in Jingnian Zen Temple did not believe it and vowed to fight to the death.

Li Gong looked at the monks present and could only sigh that no matter which world it was, foolish people were always the majority, stepping into death without knowing it.

In order to break the monks' fantasy, he said: "The outdated information has harmed you! You dare to use these four people to stop me. It seems that you don't know that news just came from Goguryeo that "Master Yijian" Fu Cailin died in three moves at the hands of Ling Donglai. If he can do it, how can I not do it?"

Then he said to Shuanglong and Ba Fenghan: "Tonight is the time for my Saint Sect and the Buddhist Sect to settle their grievances. You can go away on your own."

Without waiting for Shuanglong to make a decision, Liaokong spoke first: "Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling are two young heroes with deep sense of righteousness. How could they tolerate a devil like you acting so recklessly here? They will definitely stay with us to fight the enemy and stop you from doing evil."

Just to keep these three people as helpers to fight against Li Gong.

(End of this chapter)