Starting with the titmouse, seventy-two transformations

Chapter 426 Body-Outside-Body Technique, Demon in the Painting
"What do you mean?"

Liu Sheng was completely confused. He shook his head vigorously and was about to ask further when he heard Du Bingyan's suspicious voice:

"what do you mean?"

"Didn't you hear me just now..."

He subconsciously asked a question, but realized something was wrong halfway through his sentence. He looked up and saw Du Bingyan looking puzzled.

"What did you hear?"

Du Bingyan's eyes widened, her face filled with even more confusion:

"Liu Lang, what's wrong?"

"I...it's okay."

Liu Sheng swallowed hard and looked around. The Guanyin statue, incense burner, offering table, and prayer cushion were all neatly arranged and in perfect condition.

Looking again at the center of the underground palace, the golden jars on the two lotus pedestals are intact and show no signs of damage or leakage.

The lid of the jar had been lifted, revealing two withered old nuns sitting upright in the pile of spirit stones. They were the two Tongxuan Ancestors of Shuiyue Nunnery, their life force already severed.

Around the golden vat, several elderly nuns sat cross-legged, wearing kasaya robes, and had already passed away.

It was none other than Abbot Jinglan of Shuiyue Nunnery, along with Elders Jingxin and Jingyu.

"They were clearly killed on the spot by the Six-Eared Macaque, their chests and abdomens ripped open, their skulls shattered, and their blood splattered on the ground. How could they be completely unharmed and die so peacefully?"

Liu Sheng felt a chill run down his spine and a bone-chilling coldness rise from the soles of his feet.

I clearly saw and heard it with my own eyes and ears before, so how could everything have changed completely in the blink of an eye, or even without blinking?

He instinctively glanced at Du Bingyan beside him and saw that she looked pale and sad, but her emotions were still relatively calm. It seemed that she had just discovered this scene.

"Our sect leader and several other senior uncles and senior masters passed away here. It seems they encountered a formidable enemy and had no choice but to retreat to the forbidden area in an attempt to awaken our patriarch. In the end, even our patriarch perished."

She walked around once, pondered for a moment, and then voiced her speculation in a low voice.

Liu Sheng nodded noncommittally, then suddenly turned and ran back towards the Hundred-Mile Buddhist Corridor he had come from.

The statues that had been smashed and shattered before were now all intact, lifelike, and vivid.

It seemed as if the scene of shattering before was just his illusion.

At this moment, Du Bingyan also caught up, following his gaze to examine the statues on both sides, her face full of doubt:
"Liu Lang, what's wrong?"

But Liu Sheng clearly remembered that when she passed by the Buddhist corridor earlier, she looked heartbroken and angrily denounced the murderer who smashed the statue.

But at this moment, they have forgotten everything, as if it had never happened.

"Is it a problem with my memory, or did nothing actually happen, and everything that happened before... was just my hallucination?"

Liu Sheng broke out in a cold sweat. Suddenly, he felt something and looked down to see a monkey hair growing on his right palm!

Yellowish-brown, about three inches long, seemingly ordinary, yet heavy, comparable to a mountain.

Monkey hair...

Falsehood and truth intertwine; when falsehood is taken for truth, even truth becomes falsehood; when truth is taken for falsehood, even falsehood becomes truth…

Six-eared macaque!
it is true!
Liu Sheng recalled that the monkey had pressed hard on his right palm at the end, which turned out to be giving him this monkey hair.

But it's just a monkey hair, is it really necessary to go to such lengths?
Or is there something special about this monkey hair?
There are some accounts of monkey hair in Journey to the West.

For example, Sun Wukong could pluck a hair and blow on it to create a clone or object, which seemed to be called "body-outside-body technique".
If the monkey in question was indeed the Six-Eared Macaque, and truly possessed the same abilities as Sun Wukong, it would certainly also know this "body-outside-body technique".

Therefore, the black claw in the Qingyuan Cave ruins that possessed Master Jingyue was not her true form, but merely this monkey hair.
A sudden realization dawned on Liu Sheng; his guess was probably correct.

But I don't know any "body-shifting techniques," so what use is this monkey hair to me?

If only you could teach me this spell, but that monkey is too stingy... Or is this spell too high-level for me to learn right now?

Liu Sheng complained inwardly as he returned to the underground palace with Du Bingyan.

There are so many spirit stones, numbering in the thousands, we can't let them go to waste.

In fact, the spiritual energy here is much richer than that of the outside world, making it an excellent place for secluded cultivation and breakthrough.

By consuming the Human Essence Pill and utilizing the almost liquefied, rich spiritual energy, one can successfully break through to the Yellow Court realm in a short time.

But now is not the time, after all...

Among the nuns who had passed away earlier, there was no body of Abbess Jingyue!

Logically speaking, after the Six-Eared Macaque used his "body-outside-body technique" to possess the body of Abbess Jingyue and left, that physical form should still be here.

However, after searching around the underground palace, he did not find Jingyue's body.

This gave him a bad feeling.

Back in the Qingyuan Cave ruins, he and Abbess Jingyue were together. Before falling into the Four Phases Tribulation Realm, they passed through a Buddhist temple and monastery. She stood in front of a mural for a long time, seemingly possessed by a demon in the mural, and knew many secrets of the Four Phases Tribulation Realm.

Later, she took away the black claw that had been suppressed by the golden-patterned jade bottle, which led to her being possessed by a hair of the Six-Eared Macaque.

In reality, she was possessed by two demons in succession.

Liu Sheng was simply prejudiced, believing that the two could not coexist and that one of them would inevitably die, so he overlooked the other possibility.

What if the two could coexist, or what if the Six-Eared Macaque, this powerful demon, disdained to kill the demon in the mural?
After all, objectively speaking, the demon in the painting possessed the nun Jingyue, and for whatever reason, she did indeed rescue Liu Er from under the golden-patterned jade bottle.

Judging by actions, not intentions, this cause and effect is something Liu Er must accept.

"Therefore, the demon in the painting may not be dead, and is currently occupying the body of Abbess Jingyue."

So, where could she be?

Liu Sheng suddenly stopped, his eyes gleaming brightly.

"Master!"

At this moment, Du Bingyan cried out in alarm, rushed to the Guanyin statue, and burst into tears.

On the left palm held by the stone statue, there is a middle-aged nun, wearing a Zen robe, with her hands clasped together, her appearance dignified, and her head bowed as she recites the Great Compassion Mantra.

It was indeed...

It's Abbess Jingyue!
The Great Compassion Mantra, also known as the "Great Compassion Dharani Sutra of the Thousand-Handed and Thousand-Eyed Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva".

It is proclaimed for the benefit of all sentient beings by Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, possessing inconceivable divine power, capable of eradicating grave sins, removing obstacles and difficulties, fulfilling good wishes, and even assisting in the attainment of ultimate liberation.

Later, its ability to "eliminate sins, remove difficulties, and fulfill wishes" was often used to cleanse sins and deliver the souls of the dead.

The Great Compassion Mantra being recited by "Master Jingyue" right now seems to possess some kind of terrifying magic—

It dispels the murderous intent in one's heart, calms the fighting spirit, and makes one involuntarily reflect on all one's own sins, beg for redemption and forgiveness, and inexplicably give rise to the thought of conversion.

This is a very clever method, combining many techniques such as hallucination, intoxication, mind manipulation, hypnosis, and spiritual erosion, so that people are unknowingly drawn into it and cannot extricate themselves.

But after witnessing the terrifying way the Six-Eared Macaque could confuse truth and falsehood, Liu Sheng found this kind of tactic clumsy and laughable.

"Qiang!"

A sword's cry echoed in his mind, and a silver light reflected in his eyes. He activated his level 6 sword heart, severing all distracting thoughts and instantly regaining his senses.

At that moment, Abbess Jingyue suddenly looked up and smiled calmly at him:
"Benefactor Liu, how have you been?"

(End of this chapter)