Chương 279: Plundering Destiny

Just as Song Que was focusing his mind to condense his true dharma idol form. Suddenly, in a daze, the illusory figure upon the Lotus Pedestal seemed to receive some kind of stimulation and began to boil violently. Before he could even react, it manifested into the form of an elderly monk wearing a white cassock. The monk's skin was as dry and wrinkled as oak bark, and two snow-white eyebrows hung down past his chin. Fuck me!

Before Master Song could even understand what was happening, simply staring blankly at everything before him, the old monk suddenly opened his eyes. What kind of gaze was that?! It was like the boundless starry sky, or a deep, endless cosmic black hole! Song Que's entire soul was uncontrollably sucked inside, without the slightest room to struggle or resist!......

"Who kneels below? Are you willing to take refuge in my Buddha?" After an unknown amount of time, a majestic voice echoed from the depths, jolting the still-dazed Song Que awake. He then realized he was kneeling haggardly on the ground. Before him, seated in the void, was a colossal Great Buddha, countless tens of thousands of meters tall. He felt as if he had become an ant, humbly worshipping a deity in the heavens.

"Are you willing to take refuge in my Buddha?" The call echoed in his ears like a grand temple bell, making Song Que feel his very soul vibrate. Dazed, he instinctively opened his mouth:"I am wil..." Bzzzt bzzzt bzzzt... Right at this moment, the Tesseract deep within Song Que's mind suddenly burned wildly. Hundreds of thousands of electric currents surged through his body, into his limbs and bones. The numbing, stimulating pain instantly jolted him awake from the illusion. An illusion! It was all just an illusion!

Shuddering in fear as he looked at the colossal illusory figure before him, Master Song's face turned ferocious. Gritting his teeth, he roared:"Break!" Instantly, tens of thousands of golden lightning bolts, as thick as water barrels, crashed down from the void, covering the sky as they struck toward the Great Buddha. The illusion was quickly blasted to smithereens, riddled with hundreds of thousands of holes. Yet bizarrely, its face remained completely unchanged. It was still as devoid of joy or sorrow.

Even as it finally transformed into motes of light and vanished into nothingness, those Buddha eyes continued to stare at him with the same cold indifference. This sent waves of chills down Song Que's spine. He madly commanded the lightning to continue wreaking havoc, shattering the illusion and then blasting apart the illusory figure of the old monk in the white cassock upon the Precious Lotus Pedestal. Only when everything returned to dead silence did Master Song finally stop.......

Returning to reality, Song Que found himself still maintaining his cross-legged meditation posture on the bed. Not much time had passed, and the dense night still blanketed the world outside. He didn't know when, but sweat had poured down his back like a waterfall, completely soaking his clothes, which now clung uncomfortably to his body. Frustrated, Master Song tore off the excess fabric, standing stark naked in the middle of the room.

Only after a while, when a few cool night breezes blew past, did he feel somewhat clear-headed. Even now, Song Que's heart was still pounding with lingering terror. His chest heaved as he took several deep breaths, clenching and unclenching his fists a few times. Only when he felt absolute, one hundred percent control over his body did he finally feel at ease. Regarding what happened today, Song Que didn't know what the outcome would have been without the Tesseract's warning.

But just thinking about how he had almost subconsciously followed the other party's commands for a brief period... he could guess with his knees that his future fate wouldn't have been good! Even if he luckily survived, he would merely be enslaved as a puppet by the other party, living in a daze, completely losing his autonomy. Did Hui Wu harm me? This was the first thought that popped into his head. But thinking carefully, this theory wasn't very reliable.

Putting aside the fact that Hui Wu's attitude toward him during their interactions had been quite good, if he had been faking it all along, then this monk's acting skills were simply too incredible. Losing to him wouldn't be an injustice at all. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"But the probability of this was low. Furthermore, his 'convenient' little brother had no motive to harm him! Not to mention that Hui Wu himself also practiced the Marvellous Lotus Sutra visualizations! This meant the possibility could be eliminated by 99. 9%." From this, the remaining reasons could only be that Hui Wu was unaware of a flaw in the technique, or... he himself had cultivated it wrong! Countless people in Lingying Temple practice this without issue, except me!

Master Song bitterly concluded that he had cultivated it wrong. As for where he went wrong, with his intelligence, he could already vaguely guess. It was likely entirely due to his crude method of absorbing karma to accelerate the visualizations! Indeed, there is no such thing as a free lunch in this world. To gain something, one must pay a corresponding price! Old Demon Song's retribution had arrived.

Secretly observing the Precious Lotus Pedestal in his sea of consciousness, where a white illusory figure was beginning to form once again, Song Que was now truly crying without tears......... The next morning. After tossing and turning all night without sleeping, Grandee Song still hadn't come up with a single solution. Other than using the Tesseract's energy to blast the illusory figure apart to delay its formation, he had no way to completely destroy it.

It was truly more terrifying than cancer cells clinging to his body! And now, our Lord Heavently Saber was in the final stages of metastasis, about to die without finding a cure! These methods are too mystical! I have no way to defend against them! Depressed, Song Que locked himself in his room, scratching his head and pondering countermeasures. It wasn't until the two Yang sisters forcefully dragged him up that he had no choice but to walk out miserably.

Today was the agreed-upon day to return to Giant Willow Village with the Li family for tomb-sweeping. Everyone in the house was fully prepared, just waiting for him to be ready to set off. Having temporarily failed to find a solution, Master Song decided to stick to the plan and return to his hometown. Hopefully, with the ancestors' blessing and a trip to clear his mind, he might be able to come up with some terrible idea.....

"Ah..." Watching Song Que step into the room, Zuo Mu, who was leisurely sitting and drinking tea, was startled by the changes on his body and blurted out in fear.

"What's the matter, making such a fuss?" Already in a bad mood, Master Song immediately glared at him angrily.

"Young Master, you... you..." Seeing his appearance, and connecting it to what happened last night, a sharp glint flashed in Master Song's eyes.

"Has something happened to the destiny on my body?" Oppressed to the point of breathlessness by his Young Master's aura, Zuo Mu shivered for a moment before managing to explain with difficulty:"Young Master, the destiny on your body... it... it looks very bad!"

"Explain it clearly to me!" Song Que, whose complexion was already poor, now had a face so gloomy it could drip water. The crowd around them also realized something was wrong, stopping their tasks and walking over curiously. With over a dozen pairs of eyes staring at him, Zuo Mu didn't dare beat around the bush and immediately said:"Young Master, yesterday I mentioned that a layer of purple clouds enveloped your destiny. Originally, I thought it was some kind of blessing protecting you. But it turns out it's not!

Today, a problem occurred! This layer of purple Qi has begun eroding into your golden Qi! Its appearance is exactly as if it wants to completely devour your entire destiny! It's utterly terrifying!" Thinking of this, Old Zuo couldn't help but shudder. It was his first time seeing such a method! He didn't know who the culprit was, but their methods could simply be described as heaven-defying. Calling it a divine ability or magic wouldn't be an exaggeration!

Not knowing who the person was, where they were, or what method they used, they could just plunder someone else's destiny! It was too fucking terrifying! As for what would happen to the person whose destiny was plundered, Zuo Mu didn't know. After all, he had never seen a living person without destiny on their body. Originally, he agreed to follow Song Que not only because he was won over by this scumbag's 'virtue,' but largely because he coveted the massive destiny on this guy's body.

How did the world completely change after just one night's sleep, before I even had time to adapt to my new identity?! I just followed a master, and he's immediately targeted by some hidden immortal! Who knows how long he has left to live! My, Zuo Mu's, fate is truly bitter! Indeed, life is a series of journeys. Perhaps I, Zuo, need to pack my bags and hit the road once again....... Having no time to care about this guy starting to harbor thoughts of running away, Master Song's heart grew extremely heavy.

It seemed he wasn't some illegitimate child of the imperial family! The source of all these purple clouds must come from one place! The Xiao Imperial Family of the Central Region, the Dharma Temple of the Shanxi Circuit in the Western Region, the Three Purities Temple of the Hebei Circuit in the Northern Region, and the Taiyi Family of the Jiangnan Circuit here in the Southern Region—these were the four great holy lands currently holding up the sky of the Great Yan Dynasty!

Only these four families could produce purple cloud destiny. And the only one related to him was... one! The Dharma Temple! It sounded absurd, as the two sides had never had any interactions, but Song Que was 100% certain of this judgment! As for the reason? It was simply because of the two cultivation methods he practiced! The Flawless Glazed Body and the Marvellous Lotus Sutra visualizations! The most crucial one was the latter! You reap what you sow; what you borrow must be repaid!

He had borrowed their cultivation method to falsely remove his karma, and now the creditor had come knocking! They simply and brutally wanted to take him—body, soul, and wealth—all away! As for the illusory figure sitting on his Precious Lotus Pedestal? If he wasn't mistaken, it was the creator of this technique: Bodhidharma! Although he had no evidence whatsoever, Song Que felt his speculation was incredibly close to the truth. Thinking of this, chills ran down his entire body.

If this was truly the case, then he had to accept a terrifying reality: Bodhidharma is still alive! One had to know that he established the Dharma Temple two hundred years ago! Furthermore, Bodhidharma was already a Great Grandmaster back then; he couldn't have been young! Calculating it this way... wouldn't this old man be nearing three hundred years old by now?! Wasn't he simply an old monster?! Could a person really live that long?! Even a Great Grandmaster couldn't be this absurd, right?!

Moreover, now that a tiny shrimp like him had been targeted by that ultimate final boss, Song Que couldn't help but cry until his tears ran dry. Is it easy for Master Song to survive?! He could only pray that his entire deduction was wrong! He hoped that everything last night was just an illusion caused by Qi deviation during his cultivation! Love your country, love your compatriots! Big bosses, wherever you are, please sit still! Don't come looking for Baby Song!