Chapter 1430: The Red Luan Malevolence

Just then the bell tolled again. Sensing its effect, they instinctively glanced around, but they couldn't locate its source either and had to let it go, turning their attention back to the golden roof.

Perhaps someone who once did Pure Sea Sect a great kindness. The Feathered Robe Primordial Lady settled on that thought and stopped digging into the statue's origins.

Her gaze traveled downward. An offering table stood before the Buddha, while the space before the stone figure was bare. It seemed like faith still mattered more.

What sat on the table caught her eye. Besides the expected pure water, lamps, candles, and sticks of incense, there were three objects that were plainly no mortal wares.

At the center stood a shrine. It rose barely a chi high, its surface worked in relief with lotus patterns, the ornamentation intricate, fluid, and beautiful, with a bodhisattva figure standing within. The whole thing was a dark red, its material impossible to identify by eye.[1]

To the shrine's left sat a Lingzhi Ruyi, arranged neatly, a bodhisattva seated cross-legged upon it.

To the right rested a perfectly round pearl, the size of an infant's fist, its surface bare of any pattern, pure as water.

Beneath the offering table lay several skeletons, all seated in the full lotus posture. No external wounds showed anywhere on them. They seemed to have died here without a sound, which was profoundly eerie.

Several more astras were laid out beside the remains. A pair of golden forks the length of an arm, crossed one over the other, sharp and keen. A round, slightly convex mirror-faced astra, resembling a mirror armor. A Vajra, heavy with imposing force. A flower basket whose blossoms remained tender and lovely, even swaying faintly, all of them shaped like the wondrous flowers of Buddhist legend.

And a small jade sword, held in the hand of one skeleton, just visible through the gaps between its finger bones.

Those were all the astras visible from outside the grand hall beneath the golden roof.

The Feathered Robe Primordial Lady's gaze passed over each of them in turn.

She ruled out the golden forks, the jade sword, the Vajra, and the mirror armor first, since those were most likely treasures of attack or defense. At her level of cultivation she hardly lacked for such things. What she valued most were unorthodox astras with singular functions.

Of the remaining four, the flower basket, the Lingzhi Ruyi, and the shrine all carried heavy Buddhist overtones, likely Buddhist treasures only a Buddhist cultivator could activate.

Only the pure pearl stood apart, and it drew the eye above everything else.

Though the shrine's placement clearly marked it as the more important piece, her attention was pulled to the pearl regardless.

An instant later her brows drew together almost imperceptibly, because she noticed that the Chaotic Devil Elder was staring at the pearl too, making no effort to hide it.

He's set his sights on the pearl as well. Of course he has. Everyone thinks alike and sees alike... She sighed inwardly, and hesitation crept in. Is offending the Chaotic Devil Elder over an astra of unknown function worth it?

After weighing it, the Feathered Robe Primordial Lady moved her gaze away and wavered between the Lingzhi Ruyi and the mirror armor. If she couldn't have the pearl, walking off with a defensive astra wasn't a bad outcome.

"Let's begin," the Chaotic Devil Elder's voice came low.

He needed her cooperation to break the barrier and take the hall's treasures before the seal collapsed.

She nodded her head and raised her right hand. A red glow shot from her sleeve, revealing a length of red silk whose body looked somewhat illusory, as though it weren't a physical thing at all.

The silk appeared, twisted once, and pale human figures wreathed in red mist came flying out of it one after another, every one of them the soul of a man of striking bearing. The souls were all naked, their faces full of delight, as if immersed in something wonderful.

"Fairy, your Red Luan Malevolence grows purer by the year," the Chaotic Devil Elder remarked with a glance, a trace of wariness beneath the words.[2]

The Feathered Robe Primordial Lady regarded the souls tenderly, her eyes rippling like spring water, and with a sweet laugh she pointed one finger at the hall.

Swoosh! The red silk lunged at the barrier and immediately dispersed like a cloud of mist. The men within changed expression at once, throwing themselves at the barrier with savage ferocity and gnawing at it in a frenzy, as though they had lost all reason.

The Chaotic Devil Elder studied the sight for a long moment, then flashed to another of the doors, raised his black bamboo staff, and slowly drove it into the barrier, his eyes half closing.

The next instant the hall shook violently, and the barrier trembled without pause.

***

Inside the hall, the secret passage's exit lay directly behind the stone statue.

Hidden within the passage, Qin Sang felt the violent fluctuations coming off the barrier and his eyes narrowed. He tracked the barrier while keeping part of his attention on the seal behind him, watching for any change. If the seal collapsed early, he would have no choice but to withdraw first.

The layout of the hall surfaced in his mind. His target was that pearl too. He had no defensive astra suited to his hand, but with the Lightning Evasion technique and the Spiritual Infant Talisman Puppet he could handle most dangers, so it wasn't an urgent need.

As for the Empowerment Vajra that Tan Hao had asked for, it lay closest to the passage. Qin Sang knew that what Tan Hao truly wanted probably wasn't the Vajra at all. It was simply the easiest thing to get.

***

Boom! Boom! Rumble...

Roar after roar tore through Pure Sea Sect, drowning out even the bell. Both the pagoda and the golden roof shook violently.

The Precept-Keeping Sage forced himself to ignore the cold on his shoulder and focused on breaking the barrier. All three of them were on guard against one another, coiled and ready, each intent on being first through the pagoda's doors once it opened.

By comparison, the Chaotic Devil Elder and Feathered Robe Primordial Lady looked far more harmonious. Her fingers held a strange hand seal, unmoving. Only the Red Luan Malevolence and those men were at work, seeping bit by bit into the barrier.

The Chaotic Devil Elder was steadier still, unmoving as a pine, the black light pouring from his bamboo staff already having tainted a broad swath of the barrier.

As time passed, the Buddhist light over the hall dimmed further and the whole structure rocked hard.

The spiritual array in the sky suddenly split open, and several more figures flew through, every one of them powerful, every one a Spiritual Infant cultivator.

With the crimson flame qi draining away, gaps in the sect's protective array had multiplied. These people had entered the array later than the Chaotic Devil Elder, yet here they were already, forcing their way in.

They had no time to recover before they saw the state of the golden roof and the pagoda. After a glance among themselves, they threw themselves toward the golden roof without hesitation, the Chaotic Devil Elder's presence there notwithstanding.

The Chaotic Devil Elder and Feathered Robe Primordial Lady paid them no mind whatsoever. The barrier was about to break, and by the time the newcomers arrived, all they would find was an empty Buddhist hall.

In the secret passage, Qin Sang sensed the crimson flame qi behind him turning more violent by the moment. The seal was heading for collapse, and his expression turned grave. He couldn't see what was happening outside, but he could tell for certain that the barrier over the hall was bleeding power fast.

Now! Qin Sang shouted in his mind and crushed the spirit talisman in his hand.

Poof!

In the herb garden, the spirit talisman in Tan Hao's hand burst into flame. His gaze snapped taut. He flung the fireball away, trod the ritual steps, and activated the set of array artifacts Qin Sang had passed to him, every piece positioned at a critical node of the garden's barrier. At the same time he rubbed his palm hard against the Misty Rain Pot.

Boom! Dense purple mist erupted and surged toward the heavens, staining a swath of the void purple-red. Within that purple-red haze, the phantom images of spiritual herbs flickered faintly, one after another.

The sudden phenomenon seized everyone's attention in an instant.

The Chaotic Devil Elder and Feathered Robe Primordial Lady were startled by it just the same.

1. a bodhisattva is a person who has attained, or is striving towards, bodhi or Buddhahood. ☜

2. Red Luan Malevolence comes from Chinese metaphysics and astrology and is associated with marriage, joy, etc. ☜

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