Chapter Ten: The Hatred of Resentment, the Pain of Parting

To prevent any further unexpected events, Ning Cheng used the staff formed from the Yellow Springs Sword to crush the gray relic. This Buddhist bone relic had long been riddled with cracks, and when smashed, it dissolved directly into gray powder. Yet, from within the powder, a faint, translucent orb the size of a pearl emerged. Inside the orb, the fleeing demon monk’s face could be vaguely discerned.

The orb was about to drift away on the wind, but after only a few meters, it was abruptly pulled back by a powerful force. It swiftly flew into Ning Cheng’s hand and was absorbed by the black staff. The demon monk’s blurred visage within the orb twisted in terror, sensing imminent danger. The staff, forged from the Yellow Springs Sword, devoured the orb without emotion.

A translucent gray dialogue box appeared above the staff:

[Detected an incomplete soul of a living being, soul strength: [Medium], contains partial soul memories. The incomplete soul cannot pass into reincarnation. Would you like to directly convert it into soul energy and extract its residual memories?]

Familiar with the process, Ning Cheng silently answered “Yes” in his heart and gained 1,000 points of soul energy. At the same time, countless fragments of memory flooded his mind, forming vivid scenes…

A five-year-old boy, cradled in his mother’s arms, slept sweetly and peacefully.

At ten, the boy witnessed his parents torn apart by the claws of monsters. A wandering monk rescued him from his suffering.

At eleven, the boy’s wisdom in Buddhist teachings became evident. The wandering monk recommended him to the abbot of Lanruo Temple, who took him as his disciple. He formally shaved his head and received the precepts.

There was a blank space in his memory thereafter.

At twenty, the boy had grown into a young man of intelligence and bravery, clad in a sapphire robe, holding a monk’s staff. He sparred in martial arts with his fellow monks and eloquently discussed Buddhist classics, earning widespread praise.

At twenty-five, the wandering monk appeared at Lanruo Temple, collapsing before the young man, covered in blood. Before dying, he entrusted him with an obscure Buddhist scripture.

At thirty, the young man had become the new abbot of Lanruo Temple. The old abbot and the wandering monk had long since turned to dust, lying quietly in two new and old tombs.

At thirty-five, the middle-aged abbot discovered the secrets within the obscure scripture left by the wandering monk. Following the map hidden in its pages, he found a secret cave and learned the truth behind the Great Jing Dynasty’s veneration of Daoism and suppression of Buddhism…

The memories concerning this revelation were blank, another gap.

At forty-five, the middle-aged abbot managed Lanruo Temple with meticulous care. Though limited by the imperial restrictions on temple size, with only a few dozen monks, each was learned in Buddhism and trained in martial arts. Despite repeated attacks by monsters, they suffered minimal losses and protected the temple from destruction.

At fifty, the former middle-aged abbot had become an old abbot. Only a few of his peers remained; the rest were younger monks and even novices.

At fifty-five, the old abbot, faced with the rise of Daoism and the decline of Buddhism, wept countless times, unable to contain his sorrow, and finally made a decisive choice.

At sixty, he passed the position of abbot to a middle-aged monk and, with his last two surviving brothers, set out to secretly undertake a momentous endeavor…

Another blank gap appeared in the memories here, shrouding what happened.

At seventy, aged and frail, riddled with injuries and pain, the old abbot hid in a dim mountain cave, clutching three Buddhist bone relics. Beside his seated form lay two eerie skeletons of monks. The cave was haunted by the floating obscure scripture.

Thereafter, the memories became vague. The dying old abbot, using the bone relics, fused his decaying body with the two skeletons…

The final scene in the memory fragments: Lanruo Temple collapsed, monsters rampaged through the Buddhist sanctuary. The old abbot, empowered by the bone relic, merged his body with that of a dead fat monk, releasing endless chill and slaughtering all the monsters…

“Ai, ai, ai!” Overwhelmed by the old abbot’s resentment and agony in the memories, Ning Cheng collapsed to the ground, unable to recover his composure for a long time.

This influence of another’s memories on his own emotions was deeply unpleasant, yet Ning Cheng’s greatest gain was the wealth of information about the world gleaned from these intricate memories—from the boy’s growth to the old abbot’s final days.

Though some key details about the Great Jing Dynasty and Daoism were missing, at least he was no longer completely ignorant.

Additionally, the soul energy converted from the incomplete soul hidden in the Buddhist bone relic by the demon monk amounted to 1,000 points, saving Ning Cheng nearly half a month’s effort, a considerable reward.

With part of the demon monk’s memories, Ning Cheng learned that there were no more relics in the ruins of the Buddhist temple. All valuables had been destroyed during the monster attacks.

Even if some remained, they were buried deep beneath the collapsed ruins, and it would take years of excavation to retrieve them alone—not worth the effort.

Ning Cheng shook his head, sighed for the temple ruins shrouded in gloom, and used 5 soul energy points to restore his stamina and spirit to their peak. Only then did he set out for home in good spirits.

Of course, before leaving, he did not forget to burn the two blank thread-bound books he had brought, reducing them to ash and burying them deep underground, thus completing his primary objective for the journey.

…

The entire ordeal took less than two days, and Ning Cheng had already finished his first Daoist mission.

The outcome was, of course, far from ideal—he received not a single coin in reward, since of the three Buddhist bone relics found, two had been taken by the demon monk, and the third was crushed and reduced to dust by the staff formed from the Yellow Springs Sword.

Upon returning to Qingyun Daoist Temple, Ning Cheng heard some curious news when reporting the mission.

According to Steward Lu, who handled the tasks and rewards, recently, many outer sect disciples from other temples had met untimely ends during Daoist missions related to the Buddhist bone relics.

Qingyun Daoist Temple had only accepted one such mission, and the person assigned was Ning Cheng.

Steward Lu said that Ning Cheng’s safe return was fortunate, and the lack of reward was only to be expected. He would report this to the elders in the temple’s steward hall to see if Ning Cheng could receive some compensation—a little extra benefit.

Ning Cheng thanked Steward Lu and returned to his residence.

The little white fox lay idly at his door, curled up like a tuft of white cotton, basking in the sun.

Seeing Ning Cheng return, it let out a sharp “Ee-ya!” and wore a surprisingly human expression of astonishment on its face.