Having cultivated myself into an immortal, all I want to do is raise female disciples.

For example, you might kneel on a prayer mat, kowtow forty-nine times, and then receive Buddhist prayer beads or a legendary martial arts manual from the sky.

Or perhaps it's about reciting Buddhist scriptures in front of this Buddha statue, and receiving some kind of Buddhist or Taoist inheritance or great fortune after finishing.

Or perhaps you could collect the missing parts of a Buddha statue, then summon a dragon... no, summon the Buddha, to fulfill one of your wishes.

There are too many possibilities... We can't possibly try them all one by one, can we?

Ye Yuchan narrowed her eyes, then turned her gaze to Zhang Ruoxue: "Ruoxue, why don't you kowtow ninety-nine times and see if this Buddha statue will give you the Lingbo Weibu (a martial arts technique)?"

Are you an idiot?

The question posed by the real fool left Ye Yuchan speechless for a moment.

The silver-haired girl scratched her head, seemingly a little impatient: "If only Junior Sister Luo Kui were here, with her Sherlock Holmes-like reasoning ability, she should be able to figure something out."

She leaned against the wall, arms crossed, her gaze sweeping over Zhang Ruoxue.

Zhang Ruoxue felt the gaze from the silver-haired girl's dead fish eyes, and immediately curled her lips, grabbing the futon and throwing it at Ye Yuchan.

"Are you saying you're disgusted with me?"

puff--

Ye Yuchan casually accepted the futon, smiling faintly as she opened her hands:

"I didn't say anything~ You're the one who took it personally."

"Tch... just a flat-chested girl..."

Ye Yuchan's face darkened. Just as she was about to have a good fight with the hot-tempered brat, she caught a glimpse of something strange under the futon.

She paused suddenly, then said to Zhang Ruoxue with a serious expression, "Ruoxue, throw me the other futon too."

Zhang Ruoxue was taken aback. Although she didn't quite understand, Ye Yuchan's serious attitude clearly meant she wasn't joking.

She immediately threw the prayer mat away, and Ye Yuchan caught it, glanced at it, and revealed a knowing look.

"What, is there something on this cushion?"

"See for yourself."

Without saying a word, Ye Yuchan tossed the two prayer cushions over. Zhang Ruoxue caught them and noticed that there were barely visible, slightly faded words engraved on the side of each cushion.

[Both demon and immortal, both evil and good, both real and fake, both love and hate]

On the side of the other futon was written—

[Flesh becomes Buddha, heart becomes demon, blood flows from severed head but does not fall]

……

"What do you mean?"

Zhang Ruoxue scratched her hair and squinted her eyes: "What is all this writing?"

"Who knows what this thing means... but these words should be related to the owner of this secret realm."

"You mean that demigod who attained enlightenment through demonic means?"

"This is the only possibility."

With only these two paragraphs, Ye Yuchan didn't know how to proceed.

But she always felt that clues shouldn't just be found in these two cushions.

"Both demon and immortal... the flesh is Buddha, the heart is demon... this must describe the master of this secret realm."

Ye Yuchan lowered her head, deep in thought.

Since the text written on this futon is an indication of the master of this secret realm, then logically, the method to leave this place should also be hidden in this brief message.

She recalled the words written on the prayer mat—

Blood dripped from the severed head, but did not fall.

Whose head will be severed?

Whose blood is being shed?

Surely you can't get through this secret realm by cutting off your own head, right?

boom!

Just as Ye Yuchan was pondering this, an extremely dull sound suddenly echoed in her ears.

What happened?!

Ye Yuchan looked up in astonishment, and then saw a scene that almost made her curse out loud.

Zhang Ruoxue was standing on the Buddha statue's shoulder, gasping for breath and shaking her aching, numb hands.

"This Buddha statue's head is so hard..."

……

When did this girl get up there?!

Ye Yuchan was startled and was about to tell Zhang Ruoxue to come down quickly when a thought suddenly flashed through her mind.

This decapitation... could it be that they're going to cut off the head of this Buddha statue?

Believe it or not, it's quite possible. After all, the master of this secret realm entered immortality through demonic cultivation, so it's not impossible that he harbors hatred towards Buddhism. If he really had to break off the Buddha statue's head to leave... that makes sense.

Besides, why not give it a try? It won't hurt you.

—Mainly because Ye Yuchan now feels that she has no extra fat left to lose…

The areas that should have been completely flattened are now perfectly leveled.

She raised her head, silently suppressing her sorrow, and instead said:

"Ruoxue, can you handle this?"

"what……"

Zhang Ruoxue was somewhat surprised that Ye Yuchan didn't stop her, but she quickly shook her arm and gave Ye Yuchan a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry, we should be able to handle it."

boom!

The spiritual energy within Zhang Ruoxue's body surged rapidly, and a semi-transparent dark vortex suddenly appeared in her palm.

She slowly calmed herself down, a glint of light flashing in her eyes. She unleashed a palm strike, extremely slow, yet so powerful that it subtly distorted the surrounding space.

Whoosh—the air was howling.

A somber palm strike.

The deadly technique that Yunping taught her in the past, although she has not yet fully mastered it with her martial arts talent, is still her most powerful martial art so far.

If even the Dark Palm technique couldn't shake this great Buddha, then Zhang Ruoxue would have no other choice.

hum~

With a sound like a deep bell, the Buddha statue's gaunt head shook violently.

Then, right before their eyes, it tumbled down from the top of the temple.

Boom!

The sound of a heavy object falling to the ground.

However, Ye Yuchan and Zhang Ruoxue didn't care about the Buddha statue's head; their attention was completely focused on the large amount of blood gushing from the severed wound.

Yes, blood.

A tremendous amount of blood, like a river bursting its banks, gushed out from the severed wound, as if Zhang Ruoxue's palm strike had truly killed a living person!

Blood gushed out like a fountain!

As the blood flowed onto the golden Buddha statue, to everyone's astonishment, the missing bead on the Buddha's neck... was constantly absorbing the blood energy, and the missing bead reappeared before the two of them in the form of a blood bead.

24. Paying respects to the deceased in the exquisite pagoda

When Duan Xingchen woke up, her head was throbbing.

It felt as if she had been struck on the head by a heavy object; the pain in her skull was so intense that she remained crouched and covering her head for a while after waking up.

"It hurts..."

"There's nothing we can do about how things have turned out this way..."

Standing in the dark, gloomy space, Gu Wangjun looked at his junior sister Duan Xingchen, who was squatting on the ground rubbing her head, and sighed helplessly: "After all, no one could have predicted that the ground would collapse like that..."

Yes.

Where Gu Wangjun and Duan Xingchen were originally standing was a wasteland.

There was no vegetation, no sign of life; all that could be seen were ruins and horrifying skeletons.

But just as the two walked to a certain area marked with an unknown array, they both felt a violent wave of dizziness wash over them. The ground suddenly collapsed, and they were enveloped in darkness before losing consciousness completely.

When I woke up—

Boom!

Duan Xingchen's head slammed into the ground.

If Duan Xingchen hadn't been a martial arts practitioner with a sacred body, falling from such a height and landing headfirst would have caused far more than just a headache.

If it were anyone else, their head would have been split open by now.

Rubbing her still somewhat aching head, Duan Xingchen stood up from the ground with tears welling in her eyes, looking around in a wronged manner.

"Leaving aside the origins of that strange formation—where am I even here..."

"I don't know."

Gu Wangjun shook his head. It was pitch black all around. He had intended to use his spiritual energy to enhance his eyesight, but when he saw a junior sister, he abandoned the idea.

If we're talking about light... isn't this right here?!

"Junior Sister".

"what?"