Chapter 653: Divine Seat (End of Chapter)
Chapter 653: Divine Seat (End of Chapter)
The altar was ancient and majestic, with a hint of sinister strangeness.
A jade pathway led straight up to the altar, its sides lined with rows of hideous demon statues, their faces ugly yet filled with reverence.
However, the altar itself was empty...
There were no candlesticks, no lamps, no offerings, and no objects of worship.
Only an exquisite and luxurious offering table stood there.
Upon the table was a smaller pedestal, equally barren and devoid of any items.
It was unclear if the altar had never been used or if Fire Buddha, aware of their discovery, had removed and destroyed all traces of offerings to cover his tracks.
"This Fire Buddha is too cautious..."
Mo Hua muttered softly.
"...and stingy, too."
He searched around, but aside from the immovable faux mountains and demon statues, everything else was gone.
The place was spotless, as if licked clean by a dog...
Mo Hua sighed in disappointment.
Fire Buddha was indeed a stingy old miser, not leaving behind a single thing for himself.
There were no spirit stones, no spiritual artifacts, and no manuals for the Meteor Fire Technique.
Not even anything to "eat"...
Mo Hua had robbed this house only to end up lonely and empty-handed.
With another sigh, he acknowledged that there was nothing to steal from this grand altar.
"What now?"
He was reluctant to just turn back.
Frowning, Mo Hua turned back to the altar once more.
There was something about this altar that felt strangely familiar.
Circling it twice, he suddenly, as if compelled by some unseen force, jumped onto the altar and seated himself upon the pedestal with an air of entitlement.
In that moment, a sense of ancient holiness descended upon him.
A faint glimmer of golden light, unnoticed by anyone, flashed in Mo Hua's eyes.
The altar shone with splendor and majesty.
The diminutive figure of Mo Hua sat atop it, facing the jade pathway with the ferocious demons bowing on either side.
The Bronze Labyrinth and the Primeval Mountain Array surrounded him.
A mystery within a mystery, an array within an array—the endless profundity of the divine path converged at the center of the altar, as if "offering" a sacred seat to Mo Hua.
Puzzled, Mo Hua blinked.
He felt as if his spiritual sense had undergone some sort of change, though he couldn't quite explain how.
Mo Hua lowered his head to examine the altar.
While it clearly belonged to someone else, he felt an inexplicable sense of ownership, as if it had been built specifically for him.
He sat comfortably upon the pedestal, his spiritual sense calm and serene, and a strange desire for offerings emerged.
"Offerings..."
Mo Hua looked around.
There were none...
Not a single scrap of offering could be found on the altar.
It was barren and empty.
With another sigh, Mo Hua admitted that he was hungry but had nothing to eat.
He suddenly empathized with his "good friend" Huang Shan Jun, the lonely and dejected mountain god, who had no incense offerings, surviving on leaky roof rainwater and stale mantou from unknown sources.
"I should bring some wine and meat to visit the mountain god in that dilapidated temple when I have the time..."
It was pitiful for a destitute mountain god to have no visitors.
Mo Hua mused, considering Huang Shan Jun's situation without regard for whether the mountain god wanted to see him or not.
"Since there are no offerings on the altar, I guess I'll leave."
It wouldn't be appropriate for him to linger, so Mo Hua stood up and jumped down from the altar.
However, as he did so, he paused, his thoughts returning to offerings.
"Offerings...
Why am I thinking about offerings?
And...
What would my offerings even be?"
He looked at the rows of crouching demon statues before him, then back at the empty pedestal, his expression contemplative for a moment before he was startled by his own thoughts.
Shaking his head hastily, Mo Hua tucked those impolite thoughts away in the depths of his heart.
The most important thing now was Fire Buddha's Meteor Fire Technique!
If he didn't steal it now, this powerful forbidden technique might forever remain out of his reach, dashing his hopes of improving the technique.
"Where is the secret manual for the Meteor Fire Technique?"
Mo Hua attempted to use the Heaven's Calculation, integrating the Heaven's Derivative Calculation, to deduce the altar's secrets.
However, some ancient presence seemed to have obscured the causal laws, and he couldn't deduce anything.
"The Heaven's Derivative Calculation is ineffective..."
Mo Hua felt regret, but immediately realized that it wasn't the technique's fault but his own lack of ability.
He was incapable of unraveling the causality of the Meteor Fire Technique.
Yet, his intuition told him that the technique was hidden within the altar.
"Where could it be?"
Mo Hua frowned.
He jumped back onto the altar and began a thorough search, inspecting every corner, edge, and surface, including the pedestal itself.
But he found no traces of any arrays.
Just then, Mo Hua heard a loud "boom" from outside.
Something extraordinary seemed to have happened within the grand hall.
Mo Hua paused, wondering, "Has the battle concluded?
Or has Fire Buddha set another ambush?"
As he stood there in confusion, the entrance to the altar opened, and a powerful, scorching spiritual energy presence emerged.
This presence was filled with killing intent.
Mo Hua's expression changed.
Mo Hua quickly performed the Five Elements Concealment Technique and then skillfully flipped over the altar, hiding himself behind it and climbing onto the head of a huge demon statue, using it to conceal his figure.
But in just a moment, the tattered kasaya and a pale-faced Fire Buddha returned.
His arms were covered in bloody wounds, torn by wind blades.
His aura had also weakened significantly, and the two flaming hearts on his chest seemed somewhat overdrawn.
"Damn that Gu Changhuai!"
"One day, I will flay his skin, burn his blood dry, and incinerate his flesh to ashes to vent the hatred in my heart!"
"Damn it..."
...
Fire Buddha cursed angrily as he walked towards the altar.
With no one around, his anger knew no bounds, and he no longer cared about his cultivation or the facade of Buddhist compassion, his language turning vulgar.
But in an instant, the murderous aura around him intensified.
Fire Buddha's whole body trembled as if he couldn't suppress the violent murderous aura within him. His lips turned white, his breath became disordered, and his eyes were filled with bloodshot threads.
He could only stop in his tracks and sit down to meditate, all the while chanting, "Amituofo."
"May the Buddha's compassion save me from suffering..."
"All worldly possessions are empty, and sentient beings are bound by the cycle of life and death..."
"Even if you kill countless people, putting down the butcher's knife will still bring redemption..."
...
Fire Buddha "brainwashed" himself several times, finally calming down as the murderous aura subsided within his body, his expression becoming devoid of joy or sorrow.
He slowly stood up again and continued towards the altar.
When he reached the altar, Fire Buddha knelt down reverently.
"The great undertaking is not yet accomplished, and failure comes at the last hurdle. Please forgive me, Your Highness..."
"The ignorant and deluded ones do not understand the truth of the world, ruining the grand undertaking of the Holy Temple..."
"They will pay the price..."
"But before that, this place will be sealed away, and in the future, when the day comes for it to see the light again, offerings will once again be made to Your Highness..."
"Please forgive me, Your Highness..."
Fire Buddha bowed his head again.
Mo Hua listened silently from behind, his brows furrowed.
Why is it 'Your Highness'?
And who is this 'Your Highness'?
I thought this was the altar of the 'Lord of the Wasteland'.
After all, he only recognized the Lord of the Wasteland as the evil god.
Is this 'Your Highness' an alias for the Lord of the Wasteland?
Or is it another demon?
As Mo Hua was deep in thought, he suddenly saw Fire Buddha lowering his head and fiddling with something on the ground.
After a moment, his fingers tapped on a brick on the ground.
The brick flashed with a faint light, and in Fire Buddha's hand appeared a thick, ancient book.
Mo Hua was shocked.
Meteor Fire Technique manual!
Was that ordinary-looking brick a storage space?
Mo Hua felt bitter.
How careless of me! Why didn't I think of that?
He had assumed that Fire Buddha would use array formations to hide his belongings.
But he never expected that he wouldn't bother with formations at all and would simply use a storage brick to hide his secret manual.
Mo Hua felt helpless.
It was his own fault for being too focused on array formations.
He had thought that everything could be solved with formations.
He hadn't considered the difficulties of those who weren't proficient in arrays.
Those skilled in swimming may still drown, and those adept at arrays can still overlook something.
Mo Hua silently reminded himself to be more cautious in the future.
Fire Buddha opened the Meteor Fire Technique manual right in front of Mo Hua. The pages were filled with dense notes on various techniques, accompanied by detailed illustrations.
Mo Hua's eyes lit up with greed.
But he only caught a fleeting glimpse, and he couldn't make out any of the content in the manual.
Mo Hua's heart was filled with urgency.
This slight emotional disturbance was instantly noticed by Fire Buddha.
With his suspicious nature and cultivation of murderous aura, he was highly sensitive to others' emotions.
"Who's there?!"
Fire Buddha exclaimed in shock.
Mo Hua immediately retracted his head and held his breath, focusing his mind.
Fire Buddha stood up, releasing his spiritual sense to search the area around the altar.
Mo Hua was initially worried, but after a while, seeing that Fire Buddha didn't seem to find anything and his spiritual sense didn't even sweep near him, he became puzzled.
Mo Hua secretly raised his head to look and saw Fire Buddha's face filled with murderous aura as he searched the area.
However, he only dared to search outside the altar, never venturing within a single stride of it.
It was as if this altar was an absolute forbidden zone.
Not only was it forbidden to step on it, but it was also forbidden to look at it or even sweep it with one's spiritual sense...
Mo Hua wondered:
"Is this Fire Buddha... that afraid?"
"It's just an altar. I sat on it and nothing happened..."
Mo Hua pondered for a moment, trying to find a reason for Fire Buddha's behavior.
Perhaps Fire Buddha, as a demon cultivator within the 'system', had to respect the 'Your Highness' that this altar belonged to.
But since he himself was not a demon cultivator and was outside the system, he didn't have to worry about such hierarchical relationships...
Fire Buddha searched for a while but found nothing.
Mo Hua's hands were originally clean.
Moreover, the critical objects around the altar had been destroyed, leaving no traces behind.
Fire Buddha frowned.
"The murderous aura is in disorder, clouding my judgment..."
"Indeed..."
Fire Buddha muttered, "This is the altar of Your Highness. It's impossible for outsiders to intrude, and no one would dare to desecrate it..."
"Indeed..."
Fire Buddha gradually calmed down.
Fire Buddha then sat down and took out a fresh, crimson-colored Flesh and Blood Elixir Pill from his pocket. He swallowed it and began to refine it slowly.
His flesh and blood seemed to squirm and recover bit by bit.
His aura also grew stronger by the moment.
A chill ran down Mo Hua's spine.
What kind of pill was this? Why was it so effective at restoring him? Was it a demonic pill?
What if he regained his full strength in a short time? What if Uncle Gu couldn't defeat him? Could Uncle Gu really be killed by him...?
The most crucial question was, how could he steal from Fire Buddha if he insisted on staying here? "I need to come up with a way to lure the tiger away from the mountain..."
Without hesitation, Mo Hua sent a message to Gu Changhuai:
"Uncle Gu."
Gu Changhuai: "Where are you? Fire Buddha has disappeared, and you..."
Mo Hua: "I know where Fire Buddha is."
Gu Changhuai's expression changed, and he immediately asked:
"Where?"
Mo Hua: "In the grand hall, at the lower right corner of the mural at the back, take ten steps to the left, and you'll find an entrance to a mountain path. Just push, and you can come in..."
"Once you're in, follow the mountain path. There are a lot of forks in the road. Take the right, right again, then right, then left..."
"Keep going until you reach the end, and you'll see the altar."
"Fire Buddha is healing himself on the altar..."
Gu Changhuai opened his mouth, then paused as if he suddenly remembered something, looking somewhat incredulous.
"You're not... also on the altar, are you?"
Mo Hua: "Yes, I'm here, watching Fire Buddha pop pills..."
Gu Changhuai's scalp tingled slightly.
This kid was too daring!
More importantly, how did he find such a secret path?
However, the situation was urgent, and Gu Changhuai didn't have time to ask further questions.
He immediately said, "Stay hidden and don't let him find you. I'm coming in to capture Fire Buddha. Take this opportunity to find a way to sneak out quietly..."
"Mm-hmm."
After that, Gu Changhuai didn't reply anymore, probably rushing over at full speed.
Mo Hua patiently waited.
After the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, a familiar, whirlwind-like aura approached from the entrance far away from the altar.
Mo Hua's eyes lit up.
Fire Buddha, who had been meditating to recover, also sensed the disturbance.
His expression betrayed a moment of shock.
Gu Changhuai?!
How is that possible?
How could he possibly find his way to this altar? Among all the Demon Cultivators in the entire Holy Temple, only he knew the location of this deepest altar.
No, the Demon Cultivators who built the altar knew as well.
But not a single one of those Demon Cultivators was spared. They were all "silenced," and their bodies weren't even used for corpse refinement. They were thrown directly into the Putrid River, melting into sewage.
This altar was the core secret of the Holy Temple.
It was an absolute secret, an absolutely safe location! How could Gu Changhuai, a mere Canon Master of the Dao Court, find this place?
Fire Buddha's pupils quivered as his thoughts raced.
After a moment, he regained his composure and slowly stood up.
"Regardless, anyone who knows about this altar... must die."
"Even if I can't kill them, I can't let them come near and desecrate the altar..."
Fire Buddha's eyes blazed with fury, and his scarlet kasaya billowed as he employed his body art, transforming into a piercing flash of fire that rushed towards Gu Changhuai.
Gu Changhuai also spotted Fire Buddha.
He didn't know where Mo Hua was, but as long as he held Fire Buddha back, with Mo Hua's quick wit, he would surely find a way to escape.
Moreover, he wanted to end Fire Buddha's life right here and now, eradicating this scourge once and for all!
Without exchanging a single word, the two of them unleashed a furious barrage of magical attacks upon each other.
Crossbow-like fiery arrows and blade-like gusts of wind clashed, shredded, and collided, sending ripples of spiritual power and flickering light throughout the area.
The surrounding rocks were blown to smithereens.
As Fire Buddha left to confront Gu Changhuai, Mo Hua, who had been waiting for this moment, jumped down from the head of the gigantic demon statue, his feet landing on the altar that Fire Buddha revered as holy.
On the other side, Gu Changhuai and Fire Buddha were locked in a fierce battle.
Mo Hua, guided by memory, made his way to the brick where Fire Buddha had hidden his belongings. With his delicate little hands, he tapped three times and pulled with his spiritual sense.
Sure enough, two books were pulled out.
Mo Hua didn't even have time to take a proper look. He stuffed them into his storage ring.
Once they were in his storage ring, they were as good as his. No one could take them back!
Mo Hua's heart was filled with joy.
He had obtained the Meteor Fire Technique manual! Mission accomplished!
This task was already more than half-successful. All that was left was to find a way to trick Fire Buddha to his death...
Mo Hua sneaked a glance at Fire Buddha, who was locked in combat with Gu Changhuai, a cunning glint flashing in his eyes.
His scheming mind was brewing all sorts of mischievous ideas...
(End of Chapter)
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