Chapter 345: Chapter 196: Donghuang Reincarnated, The Demon Cave of the Pure Land (Double-Length Chapter) (2)

The eunuch laughed grimly, extending his hand to gather all the silver coins from the boxes behind the two men.

Your Majesty’s whereabouts must not be revealed to mere mortals.

Now is the perfect time to feign a robbery and murder.

...

Inside the Da Xi Imperial Palace.

Taiqing Palace.

Originally serving as a temple for worshipping the Blood God, this place has now become the residence of the Saintess.

Numerous palace maids dressed in red clothes and skirts, adorned with silver ornaments, wandered through the halls, each cradling an infant less than three months old.

Incense burners emitting an exotic fragrance burned everywhere within the palace, enveloping the halls in a pale purple mist.

The haze lulled the infants into a drowsy state.

According to the High Priest’s instructions, these infants, as pure as white paper, must be chosen to serve the Saintess, ensuring no one develops disloyalty, and they must be girls to preserve the Saintess’s purity.

Today, the palace maids were to present the selected infants to the Saintess.

If the Saintess was dissatisfied, replacements would be needed.

As more people gathered, the palace maids serving the Saintess were pushed outside, and a few took the opportunity to chat quietly.

"Hey, I heard the Cyan Saintess came from the Central Domain?"

"Yes, the Saintess was born to the previous High Priest. During the internal turmoil, the High Priest died, but entrusted someone to take the Saintess to the Central Domain, concealing her identity."

"Sadly, the one who brought her to the Central Domain supposedly died at the hands of the Central Domain People. What a pity!"

"I heard the Saintess is merely the descendant of the previous High Priest, still very young."

"Our High Priest is impressive, actually managing to bring back the High Priest."

"Not really... it seems the Saintess found her way back herself."

"Speaking of which, I came from a farming background and don’t really know the Saintess’s name, do you?"

"Of course, I know. Yes, I’ll write it down for you."

The Saintess, who suddenly appeared a month ago, is named Qing Cuo.

As she passed by a cradle held in a palace maid’s arms, an infant with calm eyes suddenly frowned and slightly moved his fingers.

Despite his reincarnation, his soul remained strong, allowing him to clearly sense certain things.

Like... his parents in this life.

Why did they have to die suddenly?

...

In the waters of the Yang Kingdom.

"Gulp, gulp..."

Suddenly, a multitude of bubbles emerged from beneath the waves.

"Boom!"

A jet of water shot up into the sky, followed closely by a massive serpent-like creature, completely snow-white, freely roaming between heaven and earth.

"Hiss——!!!"

The dragon’s echo resonated through the heavens and earth, its presence coiling in mid-air, gazing curiously at the mountains and rivers below.

It gradually reminisced about its past experiences as mere straw, with its expression softening.

The familiar voice lingered at its ears—

"I named you Jade Snow Dragon, but at this moment, it’s unknown whether your transformation will be male or female. If you view yourself as female, just add the side of ’Jade’ to the character ’Dragon’, transforming it to ’珑’."

The white dragon suddenly fell into reflection.

"Am I male? Female?"

It lacked the relevant concept completely, naturally uncertain about what constituted male or female.

"But having more seems better! More, is good!"

Quickly disentangling from the dilemma, it thought excitedly.

"Henceforth, I shall be called Yu Xueling!"

"Right, where is Father?"

White Dragon... no, now called Yu Xueling, saw the vast world before her, her grand head brimming with questions.

She vaguely felt her father’s presence but seemed too distant to pin down the exact location.

"Never mind, Father somehow mentioned wanting to see me, I must find him!"

The White Dragon let out a long roar, flying towards the distant horizon.

...

Yang Kingdom.

Su Huaiying sat in the newly constructed "Martial Saint Mansion," gazing at the pool in the courtyard.

During this time, she secretly engaged in internal conflicts, rallying numerous forces and allies familiar to her in the previous life, forming a significant force.

Presently, she was in the position of the owner of this "Martial Saint Mansion." Initially hesitant when invited by the legendary Martial Saint’s projection, but after mentioning Chen Kuang as her benefactor, she came without hesitation.

The fragmented Martial Saint Pavilion now was no small force.

"Your Highness."

Without her noticing, Zhang Zhizhou appeared behind her, bowing and stating:

"If calculated correctly, Chen Kuang should now be on his way to Buddha Country."

Su Huaiying responded with an "Oh," pouting.

"I knew the guy has a strong fate."

Zhang Zhizhou added, "Now, with the night barbarians aggressively attacking, likely Demon Cultivators lurking in the Central Domain are stirring restlessly."

The shift between his two remarks was abrupt.

But Su Huaiying knew this man never speaks without a purpose.

Turning her head towards him, she frowned and inquired, "What do you mean?"

Zhang Zhizhou replied:

"This time, the sage brought me a message; he suspected... the Pure Land might be turning or has turned into a Demon Cave."

Su Huaiying’s expression immediately became grim, clouded with apprehension.

"Really?"

Frowning, Su Huaiying added, "Unlikely... By rights, nowhere should become a Demon Cave, and certainly not the Pure Land, those great monks are way more orthodox than the Mystic God Daoist Sect!"

Zhang Zhizhou shook his head, "The sage wasn’t entirely sure either." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

In a low voice, he continued, "But while studying numerous Buddhist scriptures on Freedom Mountain, he suspected there’s a chance that the Buddhist Sect’s cultivation technique was swapped by the night barbarians’ spies, long ago."

Su Huaiying sighed deeply.

If true, the situation they’d face is far more terrifying than the night barbarians’ invasion.

Worse still, Chen Kuang is presently heading to Buddha Country.

"Phew..."

Su Huaiying exhaled, feigning light-heartedness, "If this meddlesome guy gets involved, he might bring down the entire Buddha Country before anything else."

...

"Achoo!"

Chen Kuang opened his eyes, inadvertently inhaling a huge gulp of dust, sneezing abruptly.

He shuddered suddenly, waking up, rubbing his nose, resolutely thinking:

"I, a Moon Embrace Realm cultivator, couldn’t possibly sneeze so easily; someone must be bad-mouthing me behind my back!"

"Donor Chen, you’re finally awake!"

A somewhat familiar young, shy voice sounded beside him.

Chen Kuang turned his head, seeing the face of the young monk, Xiuzhu, whose expression shifted from worry to joy.

"You’ve been unconscious for three days. If I hadn’t seen your heart pulse steady, I might have been scared to death."

Observing his surroundings, Chen Kuang realized they were inside an abandoned temple, surrounded by dust-covered Buddha statues, intricately crafted, albeit worn by time.

It was Xiuzhu’s cleaning that caused a bunch of dust to fall.

"Why worry over me?"

Chen Kuang slapped his clothes lightly, making a quip.

Checking his soul’s condition, he noted the depletion of his Heart Lake replenished, albeit his soul remained fragmented.

Without choosing his Dao foundation, the "break and establish anew" passive seemingly hadn’t activated, yet interestingly, the cracks on his soul emitted golden rays, hinting at some evolution.

Xiuzhu earnestly stated, "Donor Chen earlier asked to take you away, entrusting your life to me, of course, I’d worry about your safety."

"If anything happened to you, I’d be responsible."

This young monk, indeed kind-hearted.

The compassion of Pure Land is truly unfounded...

Chen Kuang laughed, with Xiuzhu’s assistance, standing up, curiously asking:

"Is this the Pure Land? Why is the temple untended? I thought everyone in Pure Land worshipped the Buddha."

Holding his hands in prayer, Xiuzhu replied, "I intended to inform the donor earlier; I can only transport to the rest stop nearest to Pure Land, unable to transport into Pure Land itself."

"Now there’s still three miles to Pure Land."

Chen Kuang nodded, "Not far."

He continued, "If so, let’s depart now."

Xiuzhu said, "No rush, I have some matters to discuss with the donor."

Chen Kuang, puzzled, turned his head but saw Xiuzhu wearing a mischievous smile:

"Donor, is it true you’re posing as that Lion Heart?"