Chapter 176: The Indestructible Golden Body!
Yulan Mountain.
A stream of radiant light descended from the sky.
It was a Golden Divine Chariot, with silken curtains fluttering in the wind. From within, a tall and graceful figure stepped out and landed on the ground.
"The ruins of the Great Bright Monastery… I've finally arrived."
Li Xun stored away the Divine Chariot and looked around. The world before him was bleak and desolate, everywhere he looked were crumbling walls and shattered remnants. The mountain wind blew cold, the grasses had withered, and the entire scene was steeped in desolation.
Within a radius of ten thousand miles, there wasn't a single patch of intact ground.
Every mountain peak seemed to have been cut in half.
From that alone, one could imagine how devastating the battle was when the Great Chu Dynasty destroyed the Great Bright Monastery. The land had been completely blasted apart.
No one knew how many powerful cultivators had taken part in that battle.
"I wonder where the legendary Indestructible Golden Body of the Great Bright Monastery is hidden."
Li Xun scanned his surroundings. Stepping over tangled weeds and brittle branches, he slowly made his way deeper into the ruins. Though he appeared to be walking, his pace was swift, with each step, his figure would fade and reappear hundreds of meters away.
Before coming here, he had pored over ancient texts, learning what he could about the Great Bright Monastery.
The temple had two signature techniques, one was the Immovable Wisdom King Sutra, used to cultivate spiritual consciousness, and the other was the Indestructible Golden Body, a supreme body-refining method. Both were high-grade Saint-level divine techniques.
But strangely, after the temple was destroyed, both techniques had vanished without a trace.
The Great Chu Dynasty had turned the entire ten-thousand-mile region upside down in their search, but even they couldn't find a clue. Eventually, they had no choice but to give up.
After exploring nearly half the ruins, Li Xun finally stopped in front of a Buddha statue.
The jade pendant gifted to him by Fa Zhao began to glow with a gentle Buddhist light, which seemed to resonate with the statue before him, forming some mysterious connection.
"So it's here?"
Li Xun looked up, eyes gleaming with excitement.
The Buddha statue stood a thousand zhang tall, hollowing out an entire mountain just to forge it. It must have once been majestic and awe-inspiring.
But now, the statue's head had long since disappeared, and its entire body was riddled with cracks, as though the slightest touch would send it crumbling into dust.
Buzz!
Suddenly, a mysterious fluctuation pulsed through the air.
The statue's chest split open, revealing a golden portal, dazzling and brilliant, as if it led to the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.
"Fa Zhao didn't lie to me after all!"
Li Xun's eyes flickered. He didn't immediately step inside, but instead captured a rabbit from the surrounding brush and tossed it into the portal.
It wasn't that he didn't trust Fa Zhao, but rather, he didn't trust the Great Bright Monastery.
After all, before its fall, the temple had been on the verge of establishing a Buddhist theocracy.
Who could say for sure they didn't have some brainwashing mechanisms hidden within?
If he just charged in carelessly, he might fall victim to some unknown trap. Even if it wouldn't cost him his life, it could still cause unnecessary trouble—so better safe than sorry.
A quarter of an hour later, Li Xun retrieved the rabbit and examined it closely.
It was still alive, its eyes clear and alert.
Only then did he step confidently through the portal.
Inside, he found a small space, no more than a hundred zhang in area. At the center floated a golden book, radiating a holy light.
Whoosh!
Li Xun's form flickered, and he appeared next to the book, reaching out to grab it.
The moment his hand made contact, countless golden characters burst forth, flying into his mind like a tidal wave.
"Indestructible Golden Body!"
. . . . . .
Seven days later.
Three powerful figures appeared in front of the Buddha statue that Li Xun stepped into.
"Why did he suddenly vanish?"
A gaunt man's eyes flashed with sharp light as he scanned the surroundings, a flicker of doubt surfacing deep in his gaze.
"Duke Wei, are you sure you didn't follow the wrong trail?"
Standing beside him was a middle-aged man of noble bearing, exuding the aura of someone long accustomed to authority.
His gestures were elegant, yet carried the weight and presence of a high-ranking general, hardened by countless battles.
This man was none other than Duke Qi of the Great Chu Dynasty, a descendant of the founding heroes.
Compared to newly promoted dukes, these descendants of the founding nobles still held their ducal titles, but their actual strength tended to be somewhat lacking, since their peerages were hereditary, passed down through generations regardless of strength.
Even without reaching the Divine Palace Realm, they could inherit the title of "Duke."
"Absolutely not!"
Duke Wei responded firmly.
"I've trained in my tracking technique for centuries—it's a high-grade technique to begin with. And Li Xun is only in the Life and Death Realm. There's no way he could have escaped my tracking."
"That's what makes this so strange."
Duke Qi murmured as his spiritual sense spread outward, covering a radius of three thousand li.
But he found nothing at all—Li Xun had seemingly vanished into thin air, without a single trace left behind.
"Li Xun is the Holy Son of Xuanyang Holy Land. Logically, he should have headed south, but instead, he came west and disappeared right here, at the ruins of the Great Bright Monastery."
"Tell me, do you think he came here looking for something?"
At this point, the third duke, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke.
He looked curiously at the massive Buddha statue before them but could not detect anything unusual.
Unable to find any clues, he turned his attention elsewhere.
"Duke Ding, are you implying that Li Xun came here looking for the Indestructible Golden Body or the Immovable Wisdom King Sutra?"
Duke Wei chuckled at the thought.
To him, the likelihood was far too slim.
"For over a hundred years, the Great Chu Dynasty has sent countless experts here, and none have found a trace of those Saint-level divine techniques. What makes Li Xun so special that he'd succeed on his first visit?"
"We can't rule out the possibility," Duke Ding said thoughtfully.
"Whether he came to retrieve a technique or simply took a detour to return to Xuanyang Holy Land, one thing is certain—Li Xun's aura disappeared right here."
"He can't have gone far. Let's each search the surrounding area. Maybe we'll find a clue."
Duke Qi issued the order.
Though only a mid-stage Divine Palace Realm expert, he was the highest-ranking and most senior of the three, so the others naturally followed his lead.
"Very well."
The other two dukes agree without protest.
Soon, the three men scattered in different directions, their vast spiritual senses surging like tidal waves, covering every corner within several thousand li.
They turned inside out every place that could possibly hide a person.
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