Nightfall

As the Strings Broke and Sound Arose, Here I Am

From several simple sentences, Ning Que confirmed two important facts: the monk with an enigmatic state was the Chief Preaching Monk of the Xuankong Temple, and the monk was going to kill both Sangsang and him.

Faced with such a serious situation, he had no time to think about the strength gap between himself and the Chief Preaching Monk. He even had not thought at all before he acted with what was left of his courage and determination.

As the Great Spirit in him spurted out, his right foot made a stone pit on the hard ground. In a flash, he appeared before the chief monk like a ghost. He raised the podao high above his head, with the blazing Haotian Divine Light, and cut at the top of the monk’s head, as if he was going to burn all the clouds in the sky above his head.

The podao, hard and heavy, mercilessly cut down to the bamboo hat on the chief monk’s head, causing a loud clunking noise. It was like cutting down an ancient bell which echoed melodiously!

The bamboo hat instantly shattered into dust, splashing everywhere. The chief monk’s bare head with scars left by the burning incense was faintly visible. However, his expression did not change at all and even his silver eyebrows did not tremble a little.

Ning Que’s hands holding the hilt trembled again but had no sign of stopping. With a loud shout, his podao cut down again with Haotian Divine Light. The attack was so quick and violent that the Chief Preaching Monk was cut seventeen times within a split second. Every cut landed on different places, but were equally fierce and strong.

The first cut when he burnt the sky and broke the mountain was the most powerful cut he had made. It was so many times stronger than the one he made then to blind Liu Yiqing at the side door of the Academy.

The seventeen cuts he made at the time were the best he could do. He could not even make it if he had not been forced by the strong fear.

However, every cut, whether it was the most powerful or exquisite one, turned out to be meaningless to the silent and serene old monk.

He could not even cut off a single eyebrow of the monk, let alone hurt him.

As the power of podao died down, the bamboo hat worn by the Chief Preaching Monk was still splashing around. His kasaya was cut into numerous pieces by the blade, but they had not yet fallen.

Ning Que retreated dozens of feet like a ghost to where he had originally been, his face pale.

As a breeze from the lake wafted over, the kasaya worn by the Chief Preaching Monk slowly floated away like butterflies, revealing his naked body. Then a disciple changed his clothes for him.

Tens of thousands of devotees in the temple knelt on the ground and kowtowed reverently at this moment. None of them noticed the scene.

But Ning Que saw clearly that there was no any trace of his attack, nor cuts on the chief monk’s old body. That sent a chill through his spine. Then he recalled what Qi Mei had said in front of the small courtyard.

“The Buddhadharma is eternal, the person trained to become the Zen Buddha, and the physical body will be that of the Buddha. The mind is also trained until it is that of the Buddha. Now my physical body is like that of Buddha.”

After the battle in the small courtyard, Ning Que knew clearly how strong Qi Mei was and how terrifying his healing capabilities were. But he was only a disciple of the Chief Preaching Monk and only his body had become like that of the Buddha.

The Chief Preaching Monk of the Xuankong Temple could not be pierced through by the Primordial Thirteen Arrows, nor injured by podao with the Haotian Divine Light. He had obviously attained the highest state of Buddhism, which meant that both his body and mind were indestructible.