Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 149 The Mirror-like Grand Preceptor's Sudden Attack

"All conditioned phenomena are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows."

The Grand Preceptor Mingjing squinted, seemingly scrutinizing Ye Shuyun. His golden embroidered robe dazzled in the sunlight.

"The more you give, the greater your blessings will be, and you will naturally have peace and prosperity in the future."

Chang Ping'an's teacup trembled.

Even if he didn't understand Buddhism, he had never seen such an absurd interpretation!
Moreover, it's all incoherent and doesn't make any sense!
But when he secretly glanced at Ye Shuyun, he saw that although the other party was frowning, he looked like a devout believer and respectfully asked, "Grand Preceptor, you have great insight, but I don't know how to interpret the parable of the burning house in the 'Seven Parables of the Lotus Sutra'?"

Chang Ping'an was taken aback upon hearing this, and couldn't help but admire him greatly—he never expected that his third junior brother actually had a real understanding of Buddhism!

But the National Master Mingjing paused in his hand, which was holding Buddhist prayer beads: "Well, for a burning house, you need to burn more incense. The more incense burns, the more efficacious the Bodhisattva will be."

Chang Pingan swallowed hard, sinking into self-doubt.

Although he didn't understand what his third junior brother meant, it certainly couldn't be what the Mirror-like National Preceptor meant, right?
Ye Shuyun, standing to the side, smiled slightly and continued, "What the Imperial Preceptor said is quite interesting, but what about the saying 'If you see all forms as non-forms, then you see the Tathagata'?"

“You are attached to appearances. This golden Buddha statue is for the ignorant and foolish. Someone of my level of cultivation naturally knows that the Buddha sits in one’s heart. This is the true meaning of ‘all appearances are not appearances, and one sees the Tathagata.’”

Seemingly due to nervousness or impatience, the Grand Preceptor Mingjing shook his sleeves. Chang Ping'an suddenly noticed a barely perceptible black line on the other's wrist, but it vanished in an instant, and the wide sleeves covered it completely again.

Before he finished speaking, the Mirror Master suddenly took the initiative and asked, "You two seem to be martial artists, so why haven't you cultivated any true qi within your bodies?"

The courtyard suddenly became eerily quiet, and Chang Ping'an broke out in a cold sweat.

Ye Shuyun slowly picked up the teacup, took a sip of tea, and then gently placed the teacup back on the stone table.

The white porcelain touched the blue stone and made a crisp "ding" sound. He then spoke again: "I did practice martial arts for a few years, but I participated in the Immortal Fate Conference some time ago. The Grand Preceptor must have heard about it. Now we are both disciples of the White Stone Immortal Sect. We have abandoned martial arts and followed the path of immortality. Therefore, we do not have any true qi in our bodies."

The Mirror Master's eyelids twitched slightly, but he asked calmly, "Oh? You two have just joined the White Stone Immortal Sect?"

Ye Shuyun nodded: "I have only just entered the path of immortality, and have only just exhausted my true energy. I have only just entered the path of immortality."

The Mirror-like National Preceptor turned to Chang Ping'an and asked, "Is this also a benefactor? You've squandered your true energy, wasting over a decade of effort. Do you think it was worth it?"

Chang Ping'an scratched his head and replied, "Indeed, I haven't been cultivating for very long, but I didn't have any martial arts cultivation before, so whether I disperse my true energy or not doesn't make much difference."

"I see……"

As Master Mingjing spoke, he suddenly flipped the lid of the teacup onto the stone table, and then a very strange "qi" suddenly burst forth from his body.

Suddenly, a group of palace maids and eunuchs in the courtyard began to move around, and then expressionlessly surrounded the two people in front of the stone table.

Only then did Chang Ping'an and Ye Shuyun realize that the faces of the palace maids and eunuchs were very stiff, their skin was somewhat withered, and even looked like the grayish-white of the dead in the sunlight!
"I am very interested in the immortal path of the White Stone Immortal Sect. Why don't you two demonstrate some immortal techniques for me?" The voice of the Mirror Master became extremely shrill, even somewhat inhuman, but it was not the same as the voice of the Smiling Maitreya from before.

Seeing that something was wrong, Chang Ping'an was not afraid and was still trying to figure out whether the Mingjing National Preceptor in front of him was the Smiling Maitreya.

"The Imperial Advisor seems to have a very strong sense of curiosity."

Ye Shuyun stood up and took out a handkerchief from her bosom, on which was embroidered a cluster of orchids resembling weeds.

He covered his eyes with a cloud-like curtain, and somehow a handful of chess pieces appeared in his hand.

When the Mirror-like Imperial Preceptor saw that Ye Shuyun had actually covered her eyes, he was so angry that he laughed instead: "What audacity!"

Then, he struck the two of them with a palm.

The palm strike carried a gray mist—or perhaps gray light, extremely murky.

The force was overwhelming, but it was neither true qi nor spiritual power. Chang Ping'an had already summoned the Night Talk and White Egret swords behind him. Seeing this, he dared not be careless and quickly used his swords to confront the strange force.

At the same time, the expressionless palace maids and eunuchs around them all slapped the two of them, forming a complete encirclement of Chang Ping'an and Ye Shuyun!
Ye Shuyun leaped into the air, dodging the force that Mingjing Guoshi was striking head-on, and then scattered a bunch of chess pieces in the air.

Each chess piece, imbued with spiritual energy, flew out in all directions like scattered flower petals.

Bai Qi pierced through the palms of the palace maids and eunuchs, leaving a hole. However, the palace maids and eunuchs seemed unaware of this. No blood flowed from the holes in their palms; instead, a stream of blackish-yellow pus oozed out, emitting a foul stench, like that of a corpse that had been dead for many days.

The black pieces attacked later, striking the vital points on the bodies of the palace maids and eunuchs. Under normal circumstances, they should have been forced to stop their attack and collapsed to the ground, powerless. But these palace maids and eunuchs, who were clearly no longer human, although they fell due to the pressure point sealing, still maintained the posture of waving their hands. Even lying on the ground, their bodies twitched forward, a truly chilling sight.

"You are not a grandmaster!"

The moment Chang Ping'an clashed with the Mirror Master, he shouted loudly.

Chang Ping'an was very knowledgeable about the true energy of martial artists, especially spiritual energy, which should be able to "refine" true energy. However, when he faced the power of the Mirror Mirror National Preceptor, he was completely unable to "refine" it, as if...

It's like the opposite of spiritual power!
The Grand Preceptor Mingjing also had an inscrutable expression, with a sinister look in his eyes. He didn't say much, but instead gathered that strange power in his other hand, clearly intending to confront Chang Ping'an head-on.

Ye Shuyun scattered another handful of chess pieces, using them as knives to unleash wind blades that severed the limbs of the crawling palace maids and eunuchs one by one, finally stopping the chaotic scene of everyone crawling on the ground, and only then did she have time to face the Mingjing National Preceptor.

But then, his heart sank – the situation was completely different from what he had expected!
If the Grand Preceptor Mingjing were the Smiling Maitreya, with their and Chang Ping'an's cultivation levels, they could simply kill him. But if not, today would just be an ordinary discussion of Buddhist teachings—even if this Grand Preceptor was a fake monk!

But judging from Chang Ping'an's appearance, this Mingjing National Preceptor is clearly not the Smiling Maitreya, so why did he suddenly attack the two of them?

It's related to... the White Stone Immortal Sect!?

(End of this chapter)