NCCnovel Chapter 287 The Mysterious Old Monk
Chapter 287 The Mysterious Old Monk
Sun Wukong and the White Dragon rode on clouds.
The closer the two got to Mount Ling, the more pronounced and heavy the eerie aura became.
It was a viscous, icy coldness that seemed to seep into one's very bones.
It was completely different from the original, albeit illusory, but still peaceful and radiant Buddha light of Lingshan.
Even more strangely, within a thousand miles of Mount Ling,
There wasn't a single living creature in sight.
Birds no longer fly across, beasts have vanished, and even the plants and trees have taken on a sickly, withered appearance.
Something's not right!
Something's nine out of ten wrong!
Sun Wukong stopped in mid-air, activating his Golden Eyes of Truth at full power, and looked towards the direction of Mount Ling.
"The Buddhist light emanating from Mount Ling... seems to be devouring everything around it!"
"Devour? Aren't Zhunti and those other guys supposed to revitalize the West?"
"Why would they do this?!" Ao Lie asked, puzzled.
"Look," Sun Wukong pointed to the faint outline of a Buddhist temple visible halfway up Mount Ling.
"Those rays of Buddha light are spreading outwards, and wherever they spread, life is drawn out and transformed into even more intense rays of Buddha light."
This is not the Buddhist path of salvation; this is plundering all life force from the surrounding area!
After Ao Lie focused his attention and examined the area closely, he indeed found that wherever the Buddha's light passed, the spiritual energy was drained, the vegetation withered, and the streams dried up.
But the withered grass and trees, and the dried-up streams, were instead enveloped in a thin golden halo.
If you don't look closely, it does indeed resemble the sacred power of Buddhism.
But those with profound understanding can perceive a deathly stillness within it.
"How could this be?" Ao Lie exclaimed in shock.
"This hasn't happened before!"
"That's why I said something wasn't right."
Sun Wukong gripped his golden cudgel tightly.
"Let's go, let's get a closer look."
The two concealed their presence and quietly landed on a desolate mountain on the outskirts of Mount Ling.
However, what the two were unaware of was that Tongtian had been protecting them from the shadows all along.
Otherwise, they would have been tainted by this eerie Buddha light long ago!
As the two approached, the entire view of Mount Ling became clearer from here.
The entire sacred mountain was enveloped in a thick, golden Buddhist light.
But deep within the Buddha's light, a faint gray-black mist swirled.
The chanting and Buddhist hymns that should have filled the mountains sounded like countless people sobbing and wailing.
It was forcibly distorted into the sound of chanting.
"That's...!" Sun Wukong's pupils shrank suddenly.
He saw something even more terrifying.
There were indeed monks walking on the mountain path of Lingshan.
But those monks... moved stiffly like marionettes, their eyes empty and lifeless.
With each step, a faint gray footprint is left behind, from which wisps of black mist seep out.
They weren't walking normally; instead, they gave the impression of being dragged along.
Further away, in the direction of the Mahavira Hall, a gray pillar of light appeared and disappeared.
Within the pillar of light, there seemed to be countless faces struggling and roaring, but they were all forcibly suppressed by the surrounding Buddhist light.
"That beam of light..." Ao Lie's voice trembled.
"I've seen records of this in ancient dragon texts..."
That's the Resentment Power Refining Buddha Array, a forbidden array from the ancient evil Buddha lineage.
Using the resentment of millions of living beings as fuel, the golden body of the Venerable Resentful Buddha is forged.
But that evil Buddha lineage was wiped out by our three races working together during the Dragon-Han Great Calamity.
How did I end up here?!
Where did Zhunti and Jieyin get this thing from?!
Before Ao Lie could finish speaking, a cold voice suddenly rang out behind them:
"Now that you're here, why hide?"
Sun Wukong and Ao Lie turned around abruptly upon hearing the sound!
Not far behind, a monk was standing.
The monk's face was withered, his eyes were tightly closed, but a vertical eye was split open between his brows.
There were no pupils in the vertical eyes, only a slowly rotating gray vortex.
He wore a tattered monk's robe and held a gray wooden staff with nine skulls hanging from the top, worn so much that it was impossible to tell what race they belonged to!
Who are you?
Sun Wukong held his golden cudgel horizontally in front of his chest, his Chaos Dao Foundation fully activated, ready to strike at any moment.
"This humble monk... has no face."
The monk spoke slowly, his voice somewhat eerie.
They didn't seem like Buddhist monks; they were more like ghosts from the underworld.
"By the decree of my Buddha, I have been waiting for you here for a long time."
"Wait for me?" Sun Wukong sneered.
"You Buddhist sect really doesn't learn your lesson. My master destroyed the evil corpses of your two Bodhisattvas before, and it seems you haven't learned anything at all?!"
As he spoke, he secretly transmitted his voice to Ao Lie:
"I'll hold him off for a bit, you go back to the underworld immediately and report this. Something terrible has happened at Mount Ling!"
I think this old monk is acting very strangely.
If even Buddhist monks have become like this, then things will be difficult!
"Trying to leave?"
The faceless monk seemed to have seen through their telepathic communication, and a strange smile appeared on his withered face.
"Since you're here, why don't you all stay?"
The gray wooden staff tapped gently.
"Buzz—!"
A gray halo radiated outwards from the center of the staff.
Wherever it passed, the space became somewhat viscous.
Sun Wukong's expression changed drastically.
"Not good! Peak Quasi-Saint!"
"Ao Lie, go!" he roared, his golden cudgel growing ten thousand feet tall as he slammed it down towards the faceless monk.
At the same time, he grabbed Ao Lie with his other hand and threw him forcefully out of the gray halo!
"Trying to leave?"
The faceless monk neither dodged nor evaded, letting the golden cudgel strike him.
Wukong suddenly felt as if he had crashed into metal.
The old monk's body was indestructible!
At the same time, he made a grabbing motion in the air with his empty left hand.
A giant gray hand appeared out of thin air and grabbed at Ao Lie, who had been thrown into the air!
"Get out of my way!" Sun Wukong's eyes blazed with chaotic light.
He mobilized every last bit of his internal energy.
The golden cudgel turned and smashed towards the giant gray hand again!
"clang--!!!"
Three of the giant hands were smashed away, but even so, the remaining force of the hand did not diminish, and it still managed to grab one of Ao Lie's dragon legs!
"Roar—!" Ao Lie roared in pain, his dragon blood splattering everywhere.
But he also took this opportunity to break free of his restraints, transforming into a beam of white light that broke out of the gray shroud and instantly disappeared into the eastern horizon.
One escaped.
The faceless monk withdrew his tattered giant hand and looked at Sun Wukong.
His tone remained calm.
"But it's okay, as long as you're here, that's enough."
"What exactly do you want?"
Sun Wukong gripped his golden cudgel tightly, staring intently at him.
"I, Buddha... need to borrow your Chaos Dao Foundation for a while."
The faceless monk slowly opened his tightly closed eyes.
Inside were two swirling gray vortexes!
"Borrow?" Sun Wukong said disdainfully.
"That depends on whether you have the ability!"
It wasn't that he was arrogant, but rather that he was convinced his master was watching closely.
His absence now is definitely to hone his skills.
Since that's the case, he had no more scruples and would just beat them to death!
Just as he expected,
Tongtian was hiding in the surrounding void, carefully observing the strangeness of the old monk, ready to make a move at any time.
Wukong calmed himself down and then stopped holding back, unleashing his full power of his Chaos Dao Foundation.
The aura of a peak Great Luo cultivator steadily increased.
After the fierce battle last time, his cultivation level has faintly touched the threshold of Quasi-Saint!
"war!"