join patreon.com/worldoffanfiction for advanced chapters and to support the daily update
Heading south, the scenery gradually improves. It was the height of spring, when the grass was growing and birds were singing, and the air was filled with a sweet, moist scent. Gu Liufeng rode a black horse, with Huang Rong sitting behind him, swinging her legs and humming an unknown tune.
"Brother Gu, we're almost at the Songshan area. I've heard the monks at Shaolin Temple are all very rigid, so shall we take a detour?" Huang Rong peeked out, looked at the distant, mistshrouded mountain peaks, and curled her lip. Coming from a family with a long tradition of scholarship and being the daughter of the Eastern Heretic, she had never had a fondness for such prestigious and righteous sects.
"It may be old-fashioned, but it also has a lot of good things." Gu Liufeng reined in his horse, gazing at the ancient temple with a glint of shrewdness in his eyes. "Since we've passed through Baoshan, how can we leave empty-handed? Come on, let me take you to burn some incense." ... Shaolin Temple, Guest House. The monk who had been so serious and aloof was now holding a stack of silver notes handed to him by Gu Liufeng, his hands trembling. "One...one thousand taels of sesame oil money?"
The monk in charge of receiving guests swallowed hard, looking at the elegant young man before him. "Just to get into the library...and copy a few volumes of Buddhist scriptures?" "Exactly." Gu Liufeng waved his folding fan, looking every bit the devout young master of a wealthy family, devoted to Buddhism. "My elders are Buddhists, and they specifically instructed me to use this large sum of money to make copies of several volumes of original Buddhist scriptures to take back and enshrine. I've heard that the Shaolin Temple's Sutra Repository has the most complete collection of scriptures.
I wonder if the Master could do me this favor?" "Amitabha! The Buddha will surely respond to your sincere heart!" The guest monk immediately changed his demeanor. As long as one doesn't go upstairs to look at martial arts manuals, what's wrong with copying a few ordinary Buddhist scriptures on the first floor? These days, even the Buddha's golden statue costs money to maintain. ... The Sutra Repository, first floor. The air is filled with the fragrance of sandalwood, and ancient books are as numerous as the sea. Huang Rong followed Gu Liufeng listlessly, watching him wander among the bookshelves. "Hey, Brother Gu, are you really going to copy the book?" Huang Rong lowered her voice, looking puzzled: "This thousand taels of silver is enough for how many meals of beggar's chicken we could have? Are you stupid?"
"There are houses of gold in books, and beauties like jade in books." Gu Liufeng gave a perfunctory reply, but his eyes were quickly scanning the labels on the bookshelf. He is looking for the Lankavatara Sutra. As a transmigrator, he knew very well that in this martial arts world, although Shaolin Temple had the Yi Jin Jing, another peerless divine skill—the Nine Yang Divine Skill—was currently hidden between the lines of four volumes of the Lankavatara Sutra, and had not yet been discovered by the monk named Jueyuan. "Found it." Gu Liufeng's finger stopped on a set of scriptures covered in dust. He took out the scriptures, laid them on the table, picked up a brush, and began to grind ink in a pretentious manner. In reality, his mind was already preoccupied with his thoughts.
"System, activate [Secret Skill Scan] mode." As the pages turned, the originally obscure and difficult-to-understand Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures changed in his eyes. Between the lines, tiny Chinese characters emerged, crooked and twisted, yet when put together, they formed a magnificent martial arts treatise. Let him be strong, the breeze still caresses the mountain ridge; let him be arrogant, the bright moon still shines over the great river… Gu Liufeng was overjoyed. Previously, the new player gift pack from the system contained the "Divine Illumination Scripture". This unique skill from "A Deadly Secret" is renowned as the "Number One Healing Skill in the World," with its inexhaustible true energy that can even bring the dead back to life. However, in terms of its fierce power and speed of energy recovery, it is ultimately inferior to "Nine Yang Divine Skill."
The Divine Illumination Scripture governs "life," while the Nine Yang Divine Skill governs "yang." If he could combine the two, one yin and one yang, one life and one fierceness, his inner strength would reach a level that is unprecedented and unparalleled! "These characters... are so ugly." Huang Rong leaned closer, looked at the faint writing peeking out from between the pages of the scripture, and frowned in disdain: "Which monk scribbled this? 'Nine Suns'... what is that?" Gu Liufeng chuckled as he quickly collected the information using the system: "This wasn't written by an ordinary monk." As he turned the pages, he spoke slowly, as if telling a story: "Back then, Wang Chongyang, the founder of the Quanzhen School, won the Nine Yin Manual at the Mount Hua Sword Tournament. When he passed by Mount Song, he had a drinking contest with a divine monk.
Wang Chongyang won the martial arts but lost the drinking contest, so he lent the Nine Yin Manual to the divine monk to read." "After reading it, the monk felt that the Nine Yin Manual only emphasized using softness to overcome hardness, and that it was too yin and not enough to balance yin and yang. So, in a drunken moment, he created a martial art that was extremely yang and wrote it in the gaps of this Lankavatara Sutra." With that, Gu Liufeng closed the last volume of the scripture, and a system notification sounded in his mind. [Ding! Congratulations, host! You have successfully acquired the Heavenly Rank Ultimate Skill – Nine Yang Divine Skill[Host has been found to possess the "Divine Illumination Scripture". Consume 2000 story points to fuse the cultivation technique?]
Gu Liufeng resisted the urge to merge immediately and turned to look at Huang Rong, who was listening intently. "What was that monk's name?" Huang Rong asked curiously. "He calls himself 'The Drunken Monk'." Gu Liufeng put the scriptures back in their place and dusted off his hands. Huang Rong was stunned. "Brother Gu..." Huang Rong looked at Gu Liufeng's profile, which appeared particularly mysterious in the dimly lit attic, and muttered to herself: "You wouldn't actually be... an old monster who has reversed the aging process, would you? Did you also participate in the Mount Hua Sword Tournament?" Gu Liufeng laughed heartily: "What are you thinking? If I were an old monster, the first thing I'd do is capture you, you little beggar, and use you to make pills." "Let's go, the scriptures are finished copying.""Next stop, let me take you to see the real 'sparkling waters under the clear sky'."