In Buddhist allusions, there is a Western paradise and a hell of endless pain.
Those who do good deeds, help those in need, accumulate merit, and after death can ascend to the bright glazed Pure Land of the West and enjoy ultimate happiness;
Those who do evil, oppress good people, and accumulate sins will fall into endless hell after death and suffer torture day and night.
Because of this, when Zhang Yao saw this terrifying scene of pitch-black earth and land, he immediately thought of the legendary hell, which was created by the Mani Temple.
But as soon as his thoughts changed, he overturned his thoughts directly:
"No, this shouldn't be a man-made 'hell'..."
The reason is simple:
The core of the operation of the entire Mani Kingdom is the system of good deeds. Not only monks have to accumulate good deeds, but Buddhist temples of all sizes also advise and guide ordinary people to abandon evil and do good, sincerely worship Buddha and promote good deeds.
In this context, if Mani Temple really created a real hell, there is no reason not to publicize it and use it to further consolidate the system of good deeds.
The real existence of hell is far more powerful than the mythical rumors in deterring evil people and evil deeds.
But Mani Temple did not do this. This can only vaguely explain that this dark land hidden deep in the devil's cave and constantly tormenting the souls of mortals cannot be seen from the light and cannot be known to others.
"If this is not a hell created by the day after tomorrow, then the origin of these souls is very problematic..."
Zhang Yao realized this, and his spiritual thoughts swept across him in an instant.
At this moment, dozens of new ghosts emerged from the dark land, and were tightly trapped by chains composed of black spells.
The physical appearance of these dozens of ghosts was firmly written down by Zhang Yao.
Then, Zhang Yao turned around and flew away, flying towards the 'Jinpan Wellhead' above the underground world without stopping.
Just a dozen breaths later:
"boom!"
Zhang Yao rushed through the metal shaft and landed on the green bricks next to the Demon Suppressing Well.
He waved his sleeves, and several storage bags flew out from his body. Then his body swayed, and the puppet avatar appeared. He rolled up the storage bags and flew away.
"call!"
Zhang Yao took a deep breath, looked away, walked to the Demon Sealing Hall, sat down, and sighed.
"It's better to act a little more arrogantly..."
"It's a bit reckless to rush into the devil's cave without confirming the extent of Mani Temple's monitoring methods."
After he achieved the golden elixir and broke through the barriers, he dominated the same level and subdued a country. He was famous wherever he went, and it was inevitable that his heart would be a little wandering.
Just like today's exploration of the Demon Suppressing Well, after figuring out that the abnormal reaction of the turbid air caused by the earth soul crystals, we should have stopped in time, but in a moment of carelessness, we discovered a secret that we should not have discovered.
At this moment:
He could only hope that Mani Temple's monitoring methods were not perverted enough to be able to detect every detail in the demon caves filled with turbidity, otherwise his actions would be destined to be hidden.
"Fortunately, I have a puppet who can take away my property in advance and find a remote place to bury it."
Zhang Yao felt much calmer when he thought of this.
If Mani Temple discovers his behavior and prepares to send people to silence him, then he will be fearless.
The person coming is the Golden Core Perfection, and he can definitely fight a fight and escape even if it doesn't work; if it is the old monster Nascent Soul, then he will directly break the Golden Core and die, and the true spirit will escape and be reborn with the help of the earth's divine womb. .
The worst outcome would be to lose all his wealth and lose everything, but his cultivation level and talent are still there, and it is only a matter of time before he makes a comeback.
"..."
Zhang Yao sat cross-legged and closed his eyes on the futon, refining the demonic energy and practicing his magical powers, calmly waiting for the outcome of this matter.
No matter what the future holds, he can deal with it calmly.
…………
Mani Kingdom, the central land.
Deep inside the Mani Temple, which is magnificent and majestic, is the Dajue Hall.
"Buzz!!"
The moment Zhang Yao, who was tens of thousands of miles away, came into contact with the black land deep in the devil cave of Changle Mountain, the entire Mani Jade suddenly buzzed and vibrated.
Tongxing Arhat, who was sitting cross-legged in front of the jade biscuit, suddenly raised his head, his eyes flashing with light, and he saw the place on the jade biscuit that represented the Changle Mountain Demon Cave, with a dazzling red light rising and flashing continuously.
In the next moment, this red light will break through the jade and trigger an alarm throughout the Great Awakening Hall.
"Kaka!"
The red light suddenly went out, and the Mani jade also calmed down its restlessness.
Tongxing Arhat slowly withdrew his palm, his expression remained calm, and his eyes were as deep as a bottomless pool.
"...Here comes another one."
He murmured in a low voice, like feeling or sighing. After reciting the Buddha's name, the huge Dajue Hall fell into silence again.
…………
One hour, two hours...
One day, two days...
In Changle Palace, Zhang Yao waited until seven days and nights passed, but nothing happened.
There were no accusations, no summonses, no golden Arhat coming to kill them with great force, everything was the same as usual.
"boom!"
Zhang Yao stood up and left the Demon Sealing Hall, turned into a dazzling white rainbow and flew away. After wandering around the Changle Mountain area for tens of thousands of miles and confirming that there were no ambush traps, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"It seems that Mani Temple's monitoring methods are not as powerful as I thought."
"Perhaps in the underground world where turbidity is rampant, even if you have powerful means, you cannot truly establish a monitoring system."
After Zhang Yao guessed this, he felt much relieved.
After returning to Changle Palace, he sat cross-legged on the futon, still thinking about the scene he saw in the devil's cave:
"What does the black land represent? What secrets do those living souls hide?"
"The most important thing is... is Mani Temple's plan related to us, the foreign Golden Core monks?"
This was what he was most worried about. It would be tragic if he unknowingly became a pawn of Mani Temple.
On the surface, the Mani Temple invites outside Jindan monks to sit in the demon cave just to refine the demonic energy, maintain the stability of the Mani Kingdom, and at the same time give out good deeds. It can be regarded as an act of each getting what he needs and working together to benefit both.
But the problem is that they still have a shadowy ghost land hidden in the devil's cave, and there must be other plots behind it.
"Thousands of years ago, many foreign Golden Elixir monks died at the hands of Mani Temple, but basically it was them who broke the rules and did not abide by the system of good deeds."
"But if there is a hidden plan from Mani Temple behind this, then the rumors may not be true..."
Zhang Yao frowned when he thought of this, feeling very entangled in his heart.
He has discovered the secret of Mani Temple. If he does not investigate and turns a blind eye, he will really feel uneasy.
But if he continued to explore the secrets of the Demon Cave, he accidentally touched the reverse scale of Mani Temple. Facing such a behemoth, he was unable to fight against it.
"Unless you leave, it will be difficult not to be implicated if anything happens in Mani's country."
"Even judging from the worst speculation, if I have fallen into the plan, I may not be able to avoid it if I leave Mani Country..."
Zhang Yao thought about it again and again before finally making up his mind:
"Then let's start with those ghosts and visit them secretly, but to be cautious, don't enter the devil's cave again."
"If Mani Temple's plan has nothing to do with me, then just pretend not to know, accumulate good deeds, and redeem the treasure as soon as possible."
"If their plan has already implicated me..."
Zhang Yao's eyes became darker:
"That's impossible. We can only make a big fuss, stir up trouble, and not let these bald donkeys have an easy time!"
…………
A few days later.
The incarnated puppet who was previously dispatched by Zhang Yao to the border of Mani Kingdom finally returned to the Changle Mountain area.
In Changle Palace, Zhang Yao took back the previous storage bag and immediately sent his avatar to the mortal world to secretly investigate the lives of those ghosts.
The journey was day and night, rain or shine.
Zhang Yao's puppet incarnation controls the escape light, maintains the Taoist method of hiding his figure, and wanders in the vast Changle Mountain area.
The Kingdom of Mani spans hundreds of thousands of miles. The area near Changle Mountain alone has thousands of cities, large and small, and the number of ordinary people living here is counted in the tens of millions.
In such a vast sea of people, trying to find dozens of specific people is no less than finding a needle in a haystack.
Fortunately, Zhang Yao's goal was very clear. He had a fixed date and time of death, the body and appearance of the ghost when he was alive, and most importantly, a method that could search the memories of mortals on a large scale, which was extremely efficient.
Even so, Zhang Yao also found his first target after traveling to more than a hundred cities and spending more than ten days.
Changle Mountain area, in Tianze City.
In a luxurious mansion covering an area of more than ten acres, a large family was noisily arguing:
"I don't care. Anyway, the old man promised before he died that we cannot separate our families."
"If we can't separate the family, then it will be useless to feed you rice bugs? You have a pretty good idea. Just say that last year when the shop distributed dividends..."
"Fart, why didn't you say anything when the old man was here? As soon as the old man left and his bones were still cold, you started to settle old scores?"
"No matter what, we are all a family, sit down first and then talk."
The masters and ladies in several rooms were accusing and arguing with each other. The atmosphere became increasingly tense, and many servants and maids hid far away.
In the hall, Zhang Yao maintained his invisibility and sat on a chair nearby, watching the farce.
"Buzz..."
The unparalleled power of spiritual thoughts penetrated every hole like mercury pouring down the ground, reading through the memories of dozens of people at the same time.
Zhang Yao's eyes flickered and his expression was very subtle:
"I can't believe it..."
The truth about those ghosts was completely opposite to what he thought.
The first target he found was a chubby, wealthy old man who was a famous rich man in Tianze City.
Contrary to what he expected, this old man was not only a wealthy landowner who had done many evil things during his lifetime, but was actually a well-known good person near Tianze City, and was respectfully called 'Li Dashanren'.
Opening porridge shops, building bridges and roads, donating money to run schools, and providing relief to victims of disasters... It can be said that Li Dashan is a real philanthropist. He does all kinds of good deeds, and the whole family sincerely worships Buddha and has donated to several temples.
It stands to reason that such a great virtuous person will ascend to the Western Paradise after death.
However, after his death, his soul was taken away out of thin air, trapped by the power of the formation in the devil's cave, and endured terrible torture day and night on the dark land.
"Why did Mani Temple do this?!"
(End of chapter)
