Mortal: Starting with the Seven Mysterious Sects, I proved my Dao through sacrifice.

After the golden light flashed, the air on the ninth floor of the Scripture Pavilion suddenly became still, and Murong Fan could clearly hear the sound of his heart pounding. The withered figure of the Sinful Buddha appeared even more eerie in the dim light, like a demon crawling out of hell, staring greedily at his "perfect" body.

[Special energy source detected! Emergency mission triggered: Suppress/devour the "Sinful Buddha"!]

[Reward: Unlock the second form of the Altar of All Things - "Demon-Suppressing Cauldron"!]

A cold glint flashed in Murong Fan's eyes. "Since we can't back down, then... let's fight!"

"You old monster who has been suppressed for three hundred years, your physical body has long since decayed. I never thought that the Thunder Sound Sect of the Great Jin Dynasty was such a place of filth and corruption," Murong Fan said sarcastically.

"Boy, I don't have time to waste my breath on you. The Thunder Sound Sect is not for you to talk nonsense about." The old monk "Sinful Buddha" stopped talking and began to attack.

Murong Fan suddenly took a step back, formed a hand seal, and activated the "Asura King Body" within his body at full power. A dark golden image of the King of Light suddenly appeared behind him! This "Asura King Body" is a supreme Buddhist technique. The image comes with a Vajra pestle and is used to suppress all evil spirits in the world.

"roar--!"

A majestic and compassionate Buddhist chant resounded throughout the ninth floor of the Sutra Repository!

"roar--!"

A dark golden image of the Vidyaraja suddenly appeared behind Murong Fan. Accompanied by the majestic and compassionate Buddhist chant, the air on the ninth floor of the Sutra Repository seemed to explode in that instant. The vajra in the image's hand emitted a cold, chilling light. This vajra was a supreme treasure of Buddhism, used to suppress all evil spirits in the world. Even sinful Buddhas who had fallen into demonic ways could not withstand its divine power.

Faced with this sudden counterattack, the withered "Sinful Buddha" old monk not only showed no sign of backing down, but instead let out a piercing laugh like that of a night owl: "Good! Good! Good! What a rebellious junior! This majesty, this aura that is both righteous and evil, is even more intense than mine back then!"

Before the words were even finished, the old monk "Sinful Buddha's" previously cloudy eyes suddenly rolled back, and his withered body, devoid of any spiritual energy, instantly swelled up. His gray monk's robe suddenly ripped apart, revealing no longer the flesh and blood of a mortal, but a bizarre body entirely black, covered with twisted, blood-red Sanskrit characters. Each Sanskrit character exuded an evil aura, as if telling of endless pain and resentment.

"The Buddhist sect of the Great Jin Dynasty emphasizes compassion and the salvation of all sentient beings. But in this old monk's view, only by killing all sentient beings can one truly save them!"

The old monk suddenly extended a pitch-black ghost claw, its five fingers hooked, carrying a nauseatingly foul stench. Ignoring the distance in space, it grabbed at the Mingwang Dharma image behind Murong Fan.

[WARNING! The extreme demonic art "Black Buddha Annihilation Hand" has been detected! It is eroding the host's Dharma body!]

The alarm of the Altar of All Things blared wildly in his mind. Murong Fan felt an extremely cold power instantly invade his body through his Dharma form. The originally golden and dazzling "Asura King Body" began to tremble violently, and the dark golden light was quickly tainted and devoured by the black aura.

"Trying to devour my Dharma body? You dare to challenge me!" Murong Fan's eyes flashed with murderous intent. Since conventional confrontation would be countered by the opponent's strange demonic power, he might as well go even further!

"Altar of All Things, operate at full power! Since this old monster wants to use demonic arts, I'll let him taste what true Buddhist majesty is!"

Murong Fan stopped suppressing the Buddhist power within his body and instead actively activated the altar, instantly burning the thousands of merit points he had accumulated and transforming them into the purest Buddhist light energy, which he then frantically poured into the "Asura King Body".

"Snap! Snap!"

Murong Fan's bones crackled with a series of popping sounds, and his originally dark golden Dharma image, overloaded with Buddhist light, transformed into a chilling golden-red! The Vajra in his hand swelled several times in size, seemingly carrying a world-destroying force, and slammed fiercely towards the old monk's ghostly claws. Wherever the Vajra passed, the air was torn apart, emitting a piercing whistling sound.

"BOOM—!!!"

A deafening roar erupted on the cramped ninth floor of the library. The violent shockwave instantly blew away the surrounding bookshelves, reducing countless precious ancient books to dust in the aftershocks. The ground trembled violently, as if the entire library was about to collapse.

Murong Fan groaned, a trickle of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. He was thrown back more than ten steps, his feet carving two deep furrows into the hard black-gold floor. Murong Fan felt his internal organs churning, a sharp pain shooting through his chest.

The old monk, "Sinful Buddha," was also suffering greatly. His pitch-black demonic claw was smashed open by the blood-gold vajra, his skin torn and flesh ripped apart, black demonic blood splattering everywhere, making a sizzling sound, as if it were corroding everything around him.

"That feels good! Absolutely good!" The old monk looked at his injured hand. Far from being angry, he displayed an almost morbid fanaticism. "For three hundred years, ever since that hypocrite Yuan Xiang suppressed me here, no one has ever forced me to use this move. Boy, you've successfully enraged me! Today, I will extract your Buddhist essence and make you my complete puppet!"

The old monk took a deep breath, and his previously swollen body suddenly contracted, transforming him into a fully drawn bow. In the void behind him, a ferocious black Buddha phantom faintly appeared. That phantom possessed no compassion, no solemnity, only endless greed and destruction. Its eyes flashed with a scarlet light, as if it wanted to devour the entire world.

"This is the forbidden technique I failed to complete back then—'Black Buddha Devouring the Heavens.' Boy, being the first stepping stone for my return to the world is a blessing you've accumulated over several lifetimes!" The old monk's voice was filled with madness and pride, as if he could already see Murong Fan being devoured by him.

Gazing at the suffocatingly oppressive black phantom of Buddha, Murong Fan's heart clenched. The danger warning emanating from the Altar of All Things had reached an unprecedented red peak; he could feel his life slipping away bit by bit.

"A direct confrontation would be tantamount to suicide! But the ninth floor of the Scripture Pavilion is heavily sealed; there's no way out!" Murong Fan's mind went blank. He didn't know what to do. "Am I really going to perish here today?"

At this critical moment, his gaze fell upon the ancient book floating behind the old monk, emitting a faint golden light. Almost instantly, the imprint in his sea of ​​consciousness resonated strongly with the ancient book! The fluctuation of this golden light was exactly the same as the original aura in the imprint! He instantly understood that this was the original outline of the "Immovable Wisdom King Body"!

At the same time, the faint sensation emanating from the Altar of All Things allowed him to discern a deeper secret: this ancient book was closely connected to the energy network of the entire ninth-level space, and was clearly the only "eye" of the array that suppressed the Sinful Buddha! An extremely bold and crazy idea instantly took shape.

"Old monster, you're right, I am indeed unorthodox." Murong Fan suddenly stopped resisting, a strange, wicked smile curling at the corner of his mouth. "I'm also a man of efficiency. Since I can't beat you, then I'll—borrow your strength!"

Before he finished speaking, Murong Fan suddenly turned around, ignoring the black Buddha that was about to pounce on him. Instead, he gathered all the blood-gold baleful energy in his body, along with the devouring power of the Altar of All Things, into his right hand, transforming it into a streak of blood-red light, and fiercely grabbed at the floating ancient book! He knew that this was his only chance; if he failed, he would be doomed forever.

"You dare!!!"

The old monk "Sinful Buddha," who had been so confident of victory, finally let out a terrified and desperate scream. "You dare! That outline was the key to Yuan Xiang's suppression of me back then. Destroy it, and I will be sealed here for eternity!" He never expected Murong Fan to do something so crazy; the nightmare from three hundred years ago seemed to have returned.

"Boy, are you crazy! That general outline is the foundation upon which the Thunder Sound Sect suppressed me. If you destroy it, the entire Scripture Pavilion will collapse, and none of us will survive!" The voice of the Sin Buddha trembled as he frantically urged the Black Buddha Devouring Heaven to stop Murong Fan.

Murong Fan gritted his teeth, biting his tongue to pieces, and used his blood essence to activate the Altar of All Things. He transformed into a streak of crimson lightning, forcefully breaking free from the pull of the suction force. "I don't care whether I live or die, but I only want you to die!"

The Sinful Buddha watched Murong Fan's insane actions, a complex look flashing in his eyes—three hundred years ago, Yuan Xiang had done the same, even planning to sacrifice the entire foundation of the Scripture Pavilion's array to suppress him. "Madman! You're even crazier than that hypocrite Yuan Xiang!"

"Stop! I'm done fighting! I surrender! You're a madman! It seems that Yuan Xiang sent you specifically to deal with me. Tell Yuan Xiang that I'm completely convinced, utterly convinced! I've let go of my obsession!" The old monk's voice trembled almost imperceptibly, and the power of the black Buddha phantom weakened somewhat, clearly shocked by Murong Fan's suicidal fighting style.

Murong Fan didn't press the issue. He figured that if he really fought this "Sinful Buddha" old monk to the death or destroyed the Scripture Pavilion, it wouldn't be what Yuan Xiang wanted. So he decided to stop while he was ahead! At that moment, he thought to himself, "Indeed, the weak fear the strong, and the strong fear the reckless!"

Murong Fan, not one to be easily fooled, spoke up, saying, "We fought just now and both of us were injured. Senior, please give me some compensation! Otherwise..."

Upon hearing this, the Sinful Buddha nearly spat out a mouthful of black blood in his anxiety. It turned out this kid wasn't really trying to take him down with him; he was just trying to extort money from him! But with his life in the other's hands, he could only swallow his anger and say with a dark face, "This is the Buddha relic I condensed years ago, containing three hundred years of my cultivation insights, as well as the secrets of the 'Black Buddha Devouring Heaven' technique. Is that enough compensation?"

Murong Fan took the relic. The moment his fingertips touched it, countless fragmented insights into cultivation techniques flooded into his sea of ​​consciousness. It was indeed a top-tier cultivation inheritance. He was overjoyed, but he didn't loosen his grip on the ancient book. He raised an eyebrow and said, "Anything else? You just said that this ancient book is the core of the array that suppressed you. I suppose you've been imprisoned here for three hundred years. You couldn't have only accumulated this one piece of Buddha bone relic and the 'Black Buddha Devouring Heaven' manual, could you?"

"This relic contains his three hundred years of cultivation insights; it's of extraordinary value!" Murong Fan thought to himself with delight.

The Sinful Buddha trembled with rage, his fierce eyes filled with resentment and helplessness. This storage bag, inlaid with blood-red Sanskrit characters, was his last trump card, hidden away for hundreds of years. This storage bag was an extremely rare treasure in the cultivation world, containing all the wealth he had amassed over the years—hundreds of high-grade spirit stones and a few decent magical artifacts. Now, cornered by Murong Fan, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and pull it out: "This contains all the wealth I amassed back then, hundreds of high-grade spirit stones, and a few magical artifacts. It's all yours! Now you can finally stop, you madman!"

Murong Fan scanned the storage bag with his divine sense and, sure enough, found it filled with all sorts of treasures. Satisfied, he withdrew his power, floated back a few steps, and still warily stared at the Sinful Buddha, not letting go of the ancient book in his hand: "Senior, don't worry. I'm the kind of person who does things once I've taken the benefits. As long as you stay put, I'll naturally tell Abbot Yuanxiang that you've reformed. Maybe I can even send you some spiritual pills in the future. Isn't that better than suffering from heavenly lightning here every day?"

The sinful Buddha's face was ashen. After panting for a long time, he slowly dissipated the black Buddha phantom, wrapped himself back in a tattered monk's robe, and glared fiercely at Murong Fan: "Get out of here! Take your things and get out of here right now. I don't want to see you again!"

Murong Fan wasn't annoyed. He smiled and stored the *Black Buddha Devouring Heaven*, the relic, hundreds of high-grade spirit stones, and several decent magical artifacts into the Altar of All Things. He cupped his hands and said, "Then this junior will trouble you for now. I'll visit you again another day, senior." He turned and strode towards the stairs. Just as he reached the door, he heard the muffled voice of the Sinful Buddha behind him: "Boy, remember what you just said. This old monk doesn't need any pills. Bring me two jugs of the finest spirit wine. If you forget next time you come, I'll risk being devoured by the power of the seal to tear you apart!"

Murong Fan paused, smiled and responded, then walked down from the Sutra Repository without looking back. It seems I've passed Prime Minister Yuan's test; I need to figure out how to answer his questions in advance.

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