95: Chapter 95 Seeing the suffering of sentient beings, the Buddha transformed into the form of an Asura.

Chu Xuan pulled Wang Ruozi in front of him and looked at the fox with a gentle smile.

Because she had not eaten the food from the mountain, Wang Ruozi was clearly terrified of the fox, keeping her head lowered, not daring to look.

The fox was reluctant to let him go: "Then you must return soon. She still needs to undergo Spirit Washing..."

"You already have me, do you still need her?"

Chu Xuan smiled indifferently and walked away with Wang Ruozi. The others looked on with slight surprise, but since Wang Ruozi was brought by the fox and even the fox hadn't said anything, the others naturally had no objections.

The fox's gaze seemed to be caught by Chu Xuan. It was only after his back had disappeared for quite a while that her body suddenly shuddered, and her hazy eyes returned to clarity.

After a moment of daze, the corners of her bright red lips curled up slightly: "What a little rascal. Big sister will eat you sooner or later..."

Leaving that aside, as Chu Xuan and his companion walked quickly out of the Mahavira Hall, Wang Ruozi glanced back at the Great Buddha, who was still eating flesh, and said with a trembling voice: "Big brother, are we going to escape now?"

"We can't leave yet. Follow me first."

Chu Xuan's expression was solemn, lacking his previous playfulness. He pulled Wang Ruozi up the stairs along the corridor to the right of the Mahavira Hall.

He had never forgotten his main purpose for coming here. Gathering intelligence on the Resurrection Society was just a secondary objective; the truly urgent matter at hand was to prepare for slaying the Great Buddha.

The corridor ended after less than thirty steps, splitting to the left and right.

Looking to the left, one could clearly see the Scripture Pavilion behind the Mahavira Hall, and in the plaza between the Scripture Pavilion and the Mahavira Hall stood several broken stone tablets.

Looking to the right, there were no tall courtyard walls shielding the edge of the temple. Instead, a dirt and stone path wound upward, passing by a small vegetable garden. About ten meters away sat a mud-brick house enclosed by a low mud courtyard.

Inside the courtyard, an Old Woman with disheveled hair was hunched over, peering toward the temple.

Because it was so dark and there were no lights in that mud courtyard, at a glance, the Old Woman looked like a ghost.

"Ah!"

Wang Ruozi was startled and was about to cry out, but she quickly raised her hand to cover her mouth. Her body had been trembling since just a moment ago and had never stopped.

"Don't be afraid. I will bring you out of here alive." Chu Xuan patted the young girl's shoulder.

Wang Ruozi nodded vigorously and pinched her arm hard, tears falling from the pain, but she finally managed to steady herself: "Big brother, I definitely won't hold you back."

Chu Xuan nodded and concentrated on looking left and right again.

The stone tablets outside the Scripture Pavilion! The lonely Old Woman beside the temple!

Everything matched the hints from Future Tang Zheng.

Chu Xuan narrowed his eyes slightly. He did not yet know if the Old Woman posed any danger, so he first took Wang Ruozi toward the Scripture Pavilion on the left.

According to the hints from Future Tang Zheng, to slay the Great Buddha, one must first smash the five glowing statues and destroy the gold seal on its face to remove its immortality.

Once the Great Buddha's face gold seal disappeared, it would lose the influence of its original body and its strength would skyrocket. At that moment, one must have a woman put on a floral cotton-padded jacket and use a copper mirror to shine on it, or ring the bell to freeze the Great Buddha before it could be slain.

Both the copper mirror and the floral cotton-padded jacket were at the home of the lonely Old Woman beside the temple.

As for whether to use the copper mirror or ring the bell, only one of these two options was the correct answer; one could only choose one...

Thus, the hidden clue on the stone tablets outside the Scripture Pavilion was the key!

The two quickly arrived outside the Scripture Pavilion. They saw that there had originally been nine waist-high stone tablets, but now only four remained, and their surfaces were damaged. The other five stone tablets had been pulverized, and stone powder and debris could still be seen on the ground.

These stone tablets were originally meant to record Buddhist scriptures, but now it was as if all the engravings had been artificially erased. Looking closely, one could still vaguely see faint traces of scriptures.

And now, new text had been carved onto the four remaining stone tablets. It was crooked, and each tablet bore a sentence, as if written with fingers.

Looking at the traces of the carving, it shouldn't have been long ago.

Chu Xuan could even see faint traces of blood in the indentations of the characters.

However, if this was truly written with fingers, then neither the size of the fingers nor the force used was something an ordinary person could possess.

"The Buddha sees the suffering of all living beings, yet takes on the visage of an Asura."

When he saw this first stone tablet, Chu Xuan couldn't help but frown slightly. He then moved to the next tablet.

"The heart mirror is clear, reflecting the past and present."

Chu Xuan pondered for a moment before looking at the next tablet.

"Morning bell and evening drum, unable to escape fate."

Chu Xuan did not stop and looked at the fourth tablet.

"Body stained with dust and mud, can avoid the Buddha's eyes."

Chu Xuan looked at Wang Ruozi beside him and asked: "Can you understand what this means?"

Wang Ruozi shook her head, then nodded again: "I don't understand Buddhist Zen, but if we interpret it literally, this first sentence, 'The Buddha sees the suffering of all living beings, yet takes on the visage of an Asura,' should mean that the Buddha has compassion in his heart, pitying the living beings drowning in the sea of suffering, but he is helpless and has transformed into an Asura of Hell."

After speaking, Wang Ruozi hurriedly added: "This is just my personal interpretation. If it's wrong, please don't blame me, Big brother."

"No, you're not wrong!"

Chu Xuan slowly closed his eyes, recalling the details from Future Tang Zheng's hints once again, as well as the conversation when Old Wu and the others discussed the System tasks when they were coming up the mountain.

In the hints from Future Tang Zheng, the Great Buddha was influenced by the obsession of its original body, causing its movements to be sluggish and its agility to be extremely low. It would only be after destroying the gold seal on its face that its strength would skyrocket.

And Xiao Zei had mentioned before that the task the System gave him was to help the Great Buddha find its true self.

Then this first sentence undoubtedly alluded to the Great Buddha.

Perhaps he was originally a compassionate monk, but one day a Dark Rift suddenly appeared here, changing everything.

This monk had a compassionate heart, but he himself had been parasitized by a Strange Creatures, turning into the visage of an Asura. Although he still had obsessions, he was helpless.

The original villagers here were not seen. Were they parasitized by other Strange Creaturess, or eaten?

The Great Buddha should still have a trace of consciousness that had not been completely extinguished.

The carvings on these stone tablets here were perhaps left by him... Thinking of this, Chu Xuan stared at the indentations of the characters on the stone tablet again. The size of the indentations seemed to correspond exactly to the thick fingers of the Great Buddha.

"The heart mirror is clear, reflecting the past and present... Is this 'mirror' a typo? It should be 'state of mind', right?"

Wang Ruozi stood in front of the second stone tablet, her eyebrows knitted slightly: "That's not right either. Perhaps it's just purely comparing the heart to a mirror that can reflect a person's past and present lives."

After saying this, she looked at Chu Xuan cautiously.

"Don't worry about me."

Chu Xuan pointed to the third stone tablet: "Continue."