Chapter 28: A New Task
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
“Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms does have a sense of humor…” Meng Qi secretly curled his mouth.
Meng Qi had suspected that the Jade Buddha was a trigger medium when he found it had unexpectedly broken into two at the end of the first World of Samsara. Thus, he buried it in the corner of the Chores Yard, hoping it would interrupt the call of Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms, but apparently, it did not work.
However, Meng Qi actually found himself somewhat looking forward to the World of Samsara again. He wanted to become stronger through the World of Samsara and break through from his current situation.
“Never mind, Junior Brother, Bodhi Yard is focusing on this issue, so I know they won’t mistreat us. Now I will go back to my room to rest,” Meng Qi said to Zhen Hui as he pretended to calm down.
Zhen Hui was itching to go to the Kung Fu Acting Hall. Right now, he could not help turning his head toward Meng Qi. “Senior Brother, it’s not like you to say that!”
“You know me well…” Meng Qi thought. “How is this Junior Brother suddenly so clever? He’s usually so stupid…” He said, “Junior Brother, never mind, we should figure out the reason first.”
Zhen Hui nodded his head without fully understanding and went back to the meditation room ahead of Meng Qi and started to meditate. Now it was the essential time for him to open up his Elixir Field, so he took great care to do it.
Meng Qi had fully understood the power of Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms. He did not avoid Zhen Hui as he closed the door and crossed his legs to harmonize Qi-circulation.
His breathing became increasingly peaceful and long. Meng Qi gradually reduced the fear and dread in his heart. All of a sudden, his vision turned black and then flashed bright, and the next second he was in White Jade Square.
There was no change here. White clouds were floating in the sky and there was a dense fog around. Statues of immortal birds and animals were all about.
“Little monk, catch the blade!” Jiang Zhiwei’s voice arose clearly, like a golden oriole. A Buddhist Commandment Blade flew toward him in a beautiful arc.
Meng Qi raised his right hand and easily caught the blade. He saw Jiang Zhiwei standing nearby, with her pale yellow skirt fluttering in the breeze. Zhang Yuanshan and Qi Zhengyan walked over with their clothes fluttering.
“You have made great progress,” Jiang Zhiwei said with a smile, without frustration or aggravation for entering the Samsara task for the second time.
She could tell Meng Qi’s skill level by observing how he had caught the blade.
Meng Qi was actually more comfortable around these acquaintances than those in the Shaolin Temple. He said with laughter, “I don’t want to meet Siddhartha Gautama while I am in my prime.”
He stroked the refined steel of the Buddhist Commandment Blade while speaking.
“Hey, it’s rare to hear you speaking like a monk.” Seeing Meng Qi’s movement, Jiang Zhiwei slightly nodded her head and said, “I know it’s hard to get a sharp-edged Buddhist Commandment Blade in the Shaolin Temple, so I have prepared one for you.”
“Then I must thank you for your favor, Lady Jiang.” Meng Qi called her that deliberately.
And before Jiang Zhiwei could refute, his face turned serious. “Lady Jiang, Senior Brother Zhang, and Senior Brother Qi, have you noticed something weird since we came back from the task last time? I found that the small Jade Buddha with me was broken.”
He decided to tell them honestly rather than beating around the bush. After all, it was such a huge issue that if he did not say it clearly, Zhang Yuanshan and the others would miss the clues. Additionally, now the small Jade Buddha had broken into two, thus it seemed to be useless. Therefore, it would be very unwise to lose the trust of Zhang Yuanshan and Jiang Zhiwei over it.
Jiang Zhiwei wrinkled her deep black eyebrows, thought carefully, and slowly shook her head. “I haven’t encountered anything similar.”
“Me neither,” Zhang Yuanshan said for sure after thinking it over. And Qi Zhengyan also shook his head and gave a negative answer.
“It seems that my Jade Buddha breaking was an accident.” Meng Qi slightly nodded his head. But inside his heart, he had an inkling that it was not that simple, yet he could not sort it out.
“By the way, there’s one important thing that I haven’t told you about what happened in Great Buddha’s Hall.” Zhang Yuanshan could not figure out the thing about Meng Qi’s small Jade Buddha either. He told Meng Qi and Qi Zhengyan about the two mysterious organizations, the Immortals and the Myths. Jiang Zhiwei added some words occasionally.
Meng Qi took a breath. “Could it be possible that the root of the World of Samsara is in our world?”
Zhang Yuanshan had already accepted the word “world”. He said thoughtfully, “In our world, there used to be the Taoist Primogenitors and Buddha, devil emperors and demon kings, and a time of Myths; and even big shots who were so powerful that they ruled the whole world. And even now, the Dharmakaya land immortals are not that inferior to the immortals from that time. They can remove the mountains and fill seas and break into the blue sky. It is not strange that Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms is from our place.”
“What happened to those big shots?” Meng Qi was always curious about it. How could those big powers have vanished in the river of time?
Jiang Zhiwei knew Meng Qi was a green hand in Jianghu. She smiled and dimples appeared on her face. “It’s said that some of them were killed by other big powers, while some others were dead because of their life exhaustion.”
“Life exhaustion?” Meng Qi asked surprisingly. In his mind, the big shots who could be regarded as immortals would have definitely had eternal lives.
Jiang Zhiwei gave a long sigh. “It is destiny. Even an immortal has worries about their lifespan. Though they may live thousands of years or more, eventually they can’t escape the fate of death.
“In history, how many marvelous big shots have exerted themselves to think up all kinds of exquisite techniques, such as life-stimulation, resurrection, and spirit-seizing—also from a deity or ghost? But it’s shameful that all of those things are just temporary, not ways out of destiny. So many of these big shots either built up tombs to find a way to last forever after death, or silently vanished in the river of time. Probably only the Taoist Primogenitors and Buddha from the legends can get detached from the world and become immortal.”
“From the legends?” Meng Qi asked sharply. Weren’t they immortal in the real world?
“Before the time of the Myths, the Taoist Primogenitors and Buddha were rarely seen in the world. If it weren’t for Siddhartha Gautama offering his help when the Demonic Buddha tried to eliminate Buddhism tens of thousands of years ago, all humans would think they had passed away one after another. However, the dispelling of the myth has shown hope to all the powers.” Zhang Yuanshan was full of emotions. “Rumor has it that Buddhism has an exclusive training technique that enables people to live as long as the sun. What a pity that it’s only hearsay.”
Meng Qi slightly exhaled. “So the Budhha and the deities will all get old and die?”
He was so young that he did not have many feelings about life exhaustion.
“It can’t be called old. The big powers who have pursued Tao Dharmakaya decayed before death.” Qi Zhengyan showed a trace of admiration, though his face was devoid of expression.
“Decay before death? What’s the lifespan of those who have pursued the Luohan Golden Body?” Meng Qi asked curiously.
Zhang Yuanshan shook his head and laughed. “Junior Brother Zhen Ding, it might be too early for you to know about this. Well, currently the lifespan of the land deities who are in Dharmakaya is, normally, two to three hundred years. But it’s said that in the time of the Myths, these big shots can live tens times longer than that, which may result from the change of the universe.”
Ancient books and records from the time of the Myths were particularly rare. There were only unreliable stories passed down, so later generations could only make guesses.
“Newcomers will join in this task.” At the moment, the solemn and majestic voice of Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms rung out.
The voice faded as if there were a big sun befalling with brilliant light, which was so harsh that even Zhang Yuanshan and Jiang Zhiwei, who had opened up their Eye Apertures intuitively, closed their eyes.
After everything returned to normal, Meng Qi saw that there were four people lying on the white jade tiled floor, two men and two women.
“You bastard! I can’t believe you dare to come!” The first one to wake up was a large man, wearing a greasy brown suit. He jumped up cursing and directly aimed his long blade at Meng Qi, who was the nearest.
He seemed to have expected his foe, and he just started attacking without observing the surroundings.
While the two women and the other man were just waking up, they heard a shout and saw the slashing.
“Ah!” A delicate girl among them, wearing a pale-pinkish long skirt, screamed out and shivered with her hands surrounding her chest.
Next to her was a graceful lady. She took a hairpin from her head with a rush and looked so nervous, as if worried that the large man would take aim at her.
The middle-aged man wrinkled his brows and looked at the surroundings up and down from the corner of his eye, his expression becoming increasingly grave.
Meng Qi saw the large man waving his blade, and then made a basic judgment in his mind. He slid away, and like a ghost, flashed to the man’s back. And with a hit from the back of the Buddhist Commandment Blade, the man was beaten, causing him to stagger around.
“Stop!” As the large man barely steadied himself, Meng Qi shook his head and shouted out. His power was enough to reach the primary level of Qi-cultivation, the same as Zhen Liang, but he was more valiant and tough with truly remarkable skills. If it were one month before, he would have floundered when fighting with him. But now, after a long period of training with Zhen Miao and fighting with a variety of people in the Kung Fu Acting Hall, it was just a piece of cake to take him down.
The large man also noticed something abnormal in the surroundings. He was surprised and distrustful, looking at Meng Qi with his blade to the ground.
He was subdued by Meng Qi’s strength and this inexplicable change, which made him immediately put down his pride.
Meng Qi thought maybe a Karma point could be gained if he went to lead these new people. So his eyes swept over the four new people. “You may have noticed the abnormal situation here. My title is Zhen Ding, and I’m not much different from you, only that I have come to this World of Samsara before.”
“World of Samsara?” the middle-aged man in the wide-sleeved robe murmured and stood up slowly.
Meng Qi pointed at the light pillar in the middle and roughly introduced Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms to them. “So, you can exchange the Karma points for exclusive martial arts, divine Refined Weapons, elixirs and miraculous drugs, and anything else you can imagine here.”
“The Buddha’s Palm? Book of Shocking the World? Heavenly Emperor’s Scripts?” the large man asked through his harsh breathing.
Meng Qi pointed at the light pillar, seemingly out of interest. “You can go see it for yourselves.”
“No Karma points given from doing the introductions! I’ll never do that again!”
“Master, divine monk, I… I am so weak. Can you speak to Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms and ask him to release me to go home? I’ll definitely not say a word about it.” The girl in the pale pinkish clothes scrambled to her feet and begged Meng Qi.
Meng Qi, with his palms put together, said with a sigh, “Amitabha, donor, do you think it is possible?”
That girl already had tears filling her eyes, which dropped directly. She sobbed, “Mother… mother… help me, help Little Zi…”
Meng Qi had the same feelings about the situation. He turned to Jiang Zhiwei and notified her to comfort that girl as they were both females. But whether she could survive in the later Samsara tasks would depend on the situation at the time. He, Jiang Zhiwei, and others would possibly not sacrifice themselves for this stranger.
Jiang Zhiwei slightly opened up her mouth using Secret Voice-sending. “Little monk, what does Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms exactly mean by this? Why is an ordinary girl here? Alright, that big guy must have the strength of the enlightenment period.”
She always thought that the World of Samsara was like choosing an undead insect, and its targets were the young people in Jianghu.
Meng Qi shook his head to show that he could not figure it out. Suddenly, he remembered something and then he walked over to Jiang Zhiwei next to the crying girl and said, “Lady Jiang, have you broken through?”
His question was vague because there were strangers present.
“Yes, I have.” Jiang Zhiwei patted the girl, Little Zi’s shoulder and comforted her in a low voice.
“Divine monk, my name is Xiang Hui. I would appreciate very much for your mercy and consideration.” The large man saw the exchange list on the Central Light Pillar and then quietly moved to Meng Qi’s side, nodding and bowing to please him.
After the fight with Meng Qi just now, he thought that this little monk’s strength was profound and was probably better than the other three.
Meng Qi looked at Xiang Hui, who did not look right at him, with a faint smile. When he was about to speak, suddenly the surroundings began changing—the mountains and water began overlapping, and the light and darkness were interweaving.
“Barbarians in the north have conquered the Central Plains. Their policies are reactionary and they kill the common people. The Shaolin monks have all joined in the local rebellions.
“In order to eliminate this trouble, the leader of the northern barbarians, General Duo Ercha, is preparing to lead numerous masters and troops to Mount Shaohua and thus destroy the Shaolin Temple.
“Duo Ercha has bought many monks over to the Shaolin Temple in advance, so this time, his success is basically a certainty. But luckily, some righteous men have sacrificed their lives and sent out this message.
“Main task one: Split up into two teams, break through the interception of the masters sent by Duo Ercha, and bring the list of traitors to the Shaolin Temple. The time limit is three days. For those who don’t arrive on time, 50 Karma points will be deducted. At the end of the Samsara task, those whose Karma points are insufficient will be obliterated! If you arrive on time and get into the temple, 50 Karma points will be awarded.
“Main task two: To be released after the completion of Main task one.”