Chapter 1331: Great Thunderclap Temple

Chuan Ying froze, then hurriedly bowed in alarm. "Greetings, Elder!"

Hei Shi raised one hand slightly. The shopkeeper immediately cupped his hands and withdrew, leaving the two men alone inside the room.

Since he had not been told to rise, Chuan Ying remained bent at the waist with his hands cupped.

Hei Shi walked slowly around him in a circle, stopped directly in front of him, and patted him on the shoulder.

Chuan Ying's body trembled.

When nothing happened, he had only just begun to relax when Hei Shi suddenly struck, tapping several points on his body in quick succession and placing restrictions on him.

With his spiritual power sealed, Chuan Ying was startled. He raised his head. "Elder..."

"Ah, no need to worry." Hei Shi waved a hand, then clasped both hands behind his back and asked with a smile, "How is your little life with Xue Luo'er?"

Chuan Ying hurriedly replied, "This subordinate knows his duty. I live every day trembling with caution, as though walking on thin ice, terrified that I might be exposed."

Hei Shi nodded. "Good! As long as you still remember your duty. I was beginning to think you'd drowned in a land of tenderness and forgotten who you were."

Chuan Ying said, "I would never dare forget!"

Hei Shi lifted his chin. "Take off the false face."

"Elder..."

"Hm?"

The words on Chuan Ying's lips went back down his throat. Slowly, he raised both hands and peeled away the false face, revealing his true appearance.

Even Hei Shi could not help raising his brows at what he saw. Compared with the radiant Chuan Ying of before, this was practically another person.

His facial skin sagged. Without spiritual power supporting it, the flesh had collapsed completely. Dark blotches covered his face, and strands of gray-white had begun appearing in his hair. Taken together, the various flaws could only be described as ugly. Compared with his former appearance, the difference was truly one of Heaven and Earth.

Chuan Ying seemed to read his own appearance in Hei Shi's eyes and lowered his head without speaking.

Hei Shi patted his shoulder again and pushed him toward a mirror hanging on the wall. "Look. Take a good look at what you really look like."

Chuan Ying did not want to, but he did not dare refuse. Slowly, he lifted his head.

He took one look and immediately turned away, his voice trembling. "Elder, my medicine..."

"You mean this?" Hei Shi turned his hand over and revealed a pink pill with a faint crystalline translucence. He held it between two fingers and waved it lightly.

Chuan Ying's eyes immediately lit up. Unable to restrain himself, he reached for it.

Hei Shi turned lightly aside and avoided his hand, strolling back toward the center of the room.

Chuan Ying's grasp closed on empty air. He slowly turned his head, his face knotted with distress.

Looking at the pill between his fingers, Hei Shi chuckled. "This Youthful-Countenance Pill, refined through a secret art of the Demonic Sect, truly is a marvelous thing. You know that better than anyone. After taking it, how many women became entranced by you? How many beauties threw themselves into your arms of their own accord? How many willingly loosened their robes for you? Even the Pavilion Master of the Ice and Snow Pavilion couldn't resist your charms. You gained both beauty and fortune and enjoyed every pleasure of the flesh. This old man is terribly envious!"

He looked back at Chuan Ying and mocked, "Now look at that ghostly face of yours. Once the medicine's effect is completely gone, you'll become hideously ugly! If Xue Luo'er saw what you look like now, she might be frightened half to death. Would she still love you then?"

Chuan Ying's Adam's apple moved. "Elder, this subordinate has done nothing wrong."

Hei Shi's expression chilled. "Is that so? Then why has there been no movement on the matter I ordered you to handle? Don't tell me my words were never passed on to you."

Chuan Ying hurriedly said, "Elder has misunderstood. This matter is no small thing. This subordinate cannot act rashly. I've been considering how to proceed, and I now have a plan. I was preparing to make my move."

Hei Shi raised a brow. "Oh?"

"Before Elder, this subordinate would not dare speak a single false word."

Hei Shi smiled without quite smiling. "In that case, I didn't make this trip for nothing. Take it!" With a flick of his finger, he sent the pill flying.

Chuan Ying hurriedly caught it in both hands and almost without thinking shoved it straight into his mouth and swallowed, as though afraid someone might snatch it away.

Hei Shi flicked several threads of spiritual power from his fingers and removed the restrictions on Chuan Ying's body.

Chuan Ying immediately closed his eyes, circulated his spiritual power, and began refining the medicine to draw out its effects.

A miraculous change gradually appeared on his face. A faint red glow followed his blood vessels toward his cheeks. Some strange force seemed to infuse his skin. His complexion slowly turned pale and smooth, like the white of a freshly peeled egg, while the loose flesh gradually drew taut again...

...

"Look! That great mountain ahead seems to have been split apart by something!"

Three snow-feathered flying mounts soared high in the sky, one rider on each. Yun Ji suddenly pointed toward the towering mountain range ahead.

Niu Youdao and Yuan Gang looked over.

The vast and majestic mountains were probably the highest range they had seen since entering the Fifth Domain. Cloud and mist gathered around them, faintly veiling the peaks in rosy light, yet a huge gap split the range through the middle.

At first, the two men had assumed it was a natural break. After Yun Ji's reminder, they looked more carefully. Judging from the angle and pattern of the fracture, it truly did resemble something that had been cleaved open.

Niu Youdao raised a hand in signal.

Yuan Gang made several low "woo-woo" calls and directed the three snow-feathered mounts toward the highest summit.

Once they landed, the three looked around the mountaintop, which was covered in weeds and ancient vines. They began exploring on foot and soon discovered the ruins of destroyed structures.

It was obvious that an immense architectural complex had once stood on this mountain.

By now, none of them found such ruins particularly strange. During their travels through this world over the past several days, they had already discovered a number of sites that showed signs of former human habitation. Without exception, every one had been violently destroyed. Judging from the remains, extraordinarily fierce battles seemed to have taken place before the structures were ruined.

There was another peculiarity.

Although they had found several such ruins, every one appeared to have been a Buddhist temple complex, something that could be seen from the surviving carvings.

They had found temple ruins, but no ruins of cities or fortified settlements. Every sign suggested that this had once been a world of Buddhist practitioners, with no trace of ordinary secular people ever living here.

Only Buddhist practitioners, yet no sign of secular believers?

That was difficult to understand.

Any religious order depended on support from believers. How could there be fruit without roots?

So far, they had not discovered a single human being anywhere in this world. Without human interference, it had become a realm where birds and beasts preyed on the weak.

The vast ruins before them were no exception. After pulling away vines covering broken walls and shattered structures, the surviving carvings clearly showed that this too had been a Buddhist site.

Rustle!

Yuan Gang suddenly swept a foot across the ground, drawing Niu Youdao and Yun Ji's attention from where they were separately examining the ruins.

Yuan Gang seemed to have discovered something. His gaze traced out a rectangular line, as though he had identified some kind of route, and he followed it forward.

Niu Youdao knew he was skilled at reconstructing scenes and tracking from small clues. Yuan Gang had probably noticed something. He exchanged a glance with Yun Ji, and the two followed.

Yuan Gang eventually stopped at one location and looked around.

Niu Youdao walked over. "What is it?"

"Master Dao, this should have been the position of the main entrance to the central structure."

Once he said that, Niu Youdao's expression turned thoughtful. He understood what Yuan Gang meant.

Shing!

Yuan Gang drew the saber from his back and began using it to part weeds and probe through the rubble.

Yun Ji looked puzzled. She asked Niu Youdao, "What is he looking for?"

"Let's see."

After quite some time, Yuan Gang suddenly bent down.

Crash!

He seemed to wrench a long slab out from beneath the ruins. Then he looked back and called, "Master Dao, found it."

Niu Youdao flashed to his side.

Yuan Gang had overturned a heavy panel bearing writing. Though the surface was buried beneath the marks of age, one glance was enough to tell that it had been made of metal.

Yun Ji came closer and finally understood what Yuan Gang had been searching for. "It's a signboard. Only half of it!"

Niu Youdao swept away the accumulated grime and weathering with spiritual power, immediately exposing a brilliant purple-gold surface beneath.

Yun Ji crouched, reached out, and touched it for a while. "It's made from rare Purple Gold from Beyond Heaven. This half alone is half a zhang long. How large was the complete signboard? What sort of temple would use a plaque this enormous?"

"Temple?" Niu Youdao murmured as he stared at the surviving characters.

He could clearly make out only the character for "Temple." Another character had been sliced diagonally through the middle, leaving no way to tell the temple's full name.

Yun Ji ran a hand over the broken edge and drew in a breath. "This was cut apart by a weapon, or something very much like one. Purple Gold from Beyond Heaven is this hard, yet the cut is so clean. The strength of whoever did this is difficult to imagine!"

Crash!

Yuan Gang, who had gone searching elsewhere, dragged another heavy slab from the distance. He had found the other half of the signboard and hauled it over with some effort.

Once the two broken halves were fitted together, Niu Youdao swept away the weathering from the newly uncovered surface.

The damaged character could finally be read.

It was "Thunderclap."

Four characters had originally been written across the entire plaque:

Great Thunderclap Temple!

After reading them, Niu Youdao and Yuan Gang stood dumbfounded for a moment, then looked at each other.

Yun Ji stared at the signboard and murmured, "The writing is the same as that used in the mortal world... Great Thunderclap Temple! What an imposing name."

Yuan Gang tentatively asked Niu Youdao, "Master Dao... is this Great Thunderclap Temple that Great Thunderclap Temple?"

In their previous life, he would unquestionably have assumed it was fake. But after coming to this cultivation world and personally witnessing ghosts, monsters, and other strange things, even he no longer dared be certain.

Niu Youdao said, "You're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask?"

Yuan Gang said, "Could this really be the legendary place? If it is, then this was supposed to be a land where the Buddha-Dharma knew no bounds. How did it end up like this?"

Yun Ji looked back at them. "What legend? Why have I never heard of it?"

Niu Youdao slowly shook his head, showing that he did not understand either. Then he frowned and muttered to himself, "Land of the Buried Buddha... Land of the Buried Buddha... So that name really does seem to mean something..."

He sighed and swept his gaze around the ruins. "Split up and search. Let's see whether there's anything else to find."

The three separated.

In the end, they found nothing else of use. More importantly, even if there had been something unusual among the ruins, the three of them knew so little about this place that they might not have recognized it.

Eventually they regrouped at the edge of the ten-thousand-zhang abyss splitting the two mountain masses apart. High-altitude winds howled through the chasm.

Yun Ji suddenly rose into the air.

After surveying the terrain from high above, she descended again, amazement in her voice. "It isn't only this mountain. The entire mountain range stretching across the land looks as though some force split it open in a single stroke. A range a hundred li wide seems to have been severed outright. What kind of earth-shaking blow could have done that? If it truly was the work of a person, the thought is almost unimaginable. Power like that could probably destroy Heaven and Earth!"

"Come on. Let's go down and look." Niu Youdao glanced into the bottomless abyss and jumped first.

Yun Ji caught Yuan Gang by the arm and followed him down.

[End of Chapter 1331]