Wayfarer

Chapter 504: Buddhas of Three Aspects

This was the first time the lotus hood had encountered any trouble. It continued to float atop Xiao Nanfeng's head without being able to enter his body.

"Just what are you? Why don't you have a soul?" the lotus hood cried out.

Xiao Nanfeng reached out for it, only to have it vanish from sight.

Everyone looked toward Xiao Nanfeng in surprise. Did he have some method of counteracting the hood?

"It ran off. Be careful—I'm sure it must have possessed one of you!" Xiao Nanfeng shouted.

Everyone blanched and whirled around, trying to identify anyone who might be suspicious.

"I think you're the one who's possessed, aren't you?" one yellow-robed man said.

"Hm?" Everyone turned to the man.

"We all saw that hood enter your body. You might have pretended to tear it off, but that was just an illusion to deflect suspicion, wasn't it?"

Everyone narrowed their eyes at Xiao Nanfeng. What if their first instinct had been mistaken? What if Xiao Nanfeng hadn't been able to defend against the lotus hood, and all that had been an act?

Xiao Nanfeng frowned. "Are you aware of what my position in the Imperial Court is?"

All eyes were on the yellow-robed man again. They could all tell that Xiao Nanfeng was doubting his identity.

They all knew that Xiao Nanfeng was a Martial Aspect of the Imperial Court, all save the cursed effigies present. Could the yellow-robed man be a cursed effigy instead?

The yellow-robed man replied, "Aren't you Xiao Nanfeng?"

"Someone shouted my name just now. What I'm asking you is my position within the Imperial Court," Xiao Nanfeng repeated.

He took out a suit of arhat armor and melded with it, clearly on guard against the man.

The man frowned, knowing that the game was up. He instantly dashed toward Xiao Nanfeng.

Xiao Nanfeng, in the form of a golden arhat, threw a punch at him.

The two fists were evenly matched. A tempest formed around them.

"The yellow-robed man must be possessed, and Xiao Nanfeng isn't!" someone shouted.

When the yellow-robed man saw Xiao Nanfeng use Hegemon's Fist, his gaze grew fierce. He shouted, "Explode!"

"Self-destruction, again?" The cultivators nearby hurriedly drew back.

The tremendous explosion forced Xiao Nanfeng back, and his arhat armor cracked instantly. He withdrew from it and kept his armor back in his storage ring.

Just then, two more men emerged from among the gathered cultivators and attempted to attack Xiao Nanfeng. They were incredibly strong—both True Immortals.

"Save Xiao Nanfeng!" Zhang Lingjun shouted.

"Protect the division leader!" Chang Bing and the others shouted.

They had equipped their suits of arhat armor at the first sign of trouble, and now shielded Xiao Nanfeng from the two True Immortals.

"You overestimate yourselves," the two True Immortals called out.

In a series of attacks, the golden arhats were smashed to pieces. Zeng Daniu shot forward and brought Xiao Nanfeng to safety.

"Princess, open up the barrier. We have to escape," Xiao Nanfeng called out.

Zhang Lingjun didn't respond to Xiao Nanfeng. She stood immobile.

The two True Immortals quickly smashed apart the remaining golden arhats before attacking Xiao Nanfeng again.

"Don't kill him. There's something strange about his physical body, so leave him alive," Zhang Lingjun suddenly said.

The two True Immortals stopped short and retreated to Zhang Lingjun's back. Her countenance had changed completely, as if she were a different person altogether.

Everyone immediately guessed that Zhang Lingjun had been possessed by a cursed effigy as well.

Zeng Daniu was so shocked that he immediately attempted to launch himself at her, but Xiao Nanfeng held him back. "Hold on. Calm down."

Zeng Daniu's eyes were red with anger. Even so, he forced himself to calm down.

Xiao Nanfeng turned to Zhang Lingjun. "Senior, Zhang Lingjun, whom you are possessing, is the daughter of the princess who once resided in the Palace of the Moon and the granddaughter of the Heavenly Emperor. If anything were to happen to her, the Heavenly Emperor would never forgive you."

Zhang Lingjun narrowed her eyes and considered her body. She smirked. "No wonder she seemed so familiar. She was even able to activate the Palace of the Moon's access token. So she was that girl, now all grown up. To think she would have offered herself up just like that. I couldn't have asked for a better present. Don't worry. I won't kill her. After all, I still need to use her to threaten the current Heavenly Emperor, haha!"

"Senior, we didn't mean to intrude. Would you allow us to leave? We are open to any stipulations you might impose," Xiao Nanfeng stated immediately.

"We'll agree to any conditions," Ao Shuai agreed immediately.

"Anything as long as we can leave!" another cultivator shouted.

Zhang Lingjun shook her head. "You're hardly qualified to negotiate with me. What's more, you're the ones I want. Why would I let you go?"

"It's going to devour our souls and spiritual power. We can't just allow ourselves to die like this. We have to snatch the Palace of the Moon's access token, or none of us are going to make it out!" Ao Shuai called out.

"Understood!" everyone replied.

The cultivators shot toward Zhang Lingjun, but she was under the protection of two True Immortals.

The fight ensued in a storm of fire and wind.

"Zeng Daniu, follow me," Xiao Nanfeng commanded.

Zeng Daniu seemed unwilling. He wanted to rescue Zhang Lingjun instead.

"You can't save her now. Follow me. I can rescue her," Xiao Nanfeng continued.

Zeng Daniu finally nodded. He ran toward the remnants of a few sets of arhat armor alongside Xiao Nanfeng.

By then, Chang Bing and the others had clambered out of their ruined suits. They were all injured, but fortunately, none among them had died.

"Hide in the Yin-Yang Cauldron. Hurry!" Xiao Nanfeng shouted.

"Understood!" everyone replied.

Chang Bing immediately retrieved the Yin-Yang Cauldron. He and his fellow disciples darted within, including Zeng Daniu.

Xiao Nanfeng murmured a mantra, causing the Yin-Yang Cauldron to rapidly shrink in size. He kept it within his robes, then flew toward the nearby barrier.

Afar, the cursed effigy that had possessed Zhang Lingjun eyed Xiao Nanfeng. Seeing that he was intending to escape, the cursed effigy smirked. "Dream on. Not even a True Immortal can escape without the Palace of the Moon's access token."

The other cultivators eyed Xiao Nanfeng even as they fought. Upon seeing Xiao Nanfeng flee, they gave him disdainful looks. "Ignore Xiao Nanfeng. He won't be able to escape," someone called out.

Just then, as Xiao Nanfeng touched the barrier and activated his candleflame powers, he popped out on the other side.

"What?" the cursed effigy possessing Zhang Lingjun exclaimed.

The other cultivators were astonished as well.

"How did Xiao Nanfeng flee?"

"He didn't even need the Palace of the Moon's access token!"

"Can we get out, too?"

The cultivators rushed toward the barrier in glee—only to find themselves trapped by the barrier.

"We can't get out. This barrier is impossible to penetrate!"

"How did Xiao Nanfeng escape? This can't be!"

"Get back here, Xiao Nanfeng! Take us out with you!"

The cultivators roared in outrage, but Xiao Nanfeng had already fled from the scene. There was no way he would turn back.

The moment he emerged from the barrier, he was surrounded by countless purple-furred monsters.

He immediately unsealed the Yin-Yang Cauldron. "Zeng Daniu, get me out of here! Hurry!"

Zeng Daniu rushed out from the cauldron, grabbed Xiao Nanfeng, and rushed into the midst of the purple-furred monsters.

Because Zeng Daniu was in the form of a purple-furred monster himself, the other purple-furred monsters largely relented. Only a rare few continued to eye Xiao Nanfeng, intending to snatch him from Zeng Daniu's possession, but they were pushed aside. He brought Xiao Nanfeng all the way out of the monster horde and toward safety.

Standing on a mountain ledge, Xiao Nanfeng glanced toward where the lotus pond was located. The fighting raged on.

He released Chang Bing and the other disciples from the Yin-Yang Cauldron. "Chang Bing, restore these suits of armor as quickly as you can."

"Understood!" Chang Bing and the others replied.

Chang Bing brought his fellow disciples to a secluded valley close by, established formations in the vicinity, and began to repair the armor.

"Xiao Nanfeng, the princess is in grave danger. Why have you brought me out here?" Zeng Daniu asked impatiently.

"Calm down, General Zeng. You heard what the cursed effigy said, too. Although it has possessed the princess, it needs to use her as hostage against the Heavenly Emperor. It won't kill her."

Zeng Daniu forced himself to suppress his anger and frustration. He ultimately nodded. "What should we do, then?"

"Relax. There are surely those who have cultivated avatars among the trapped cultivators, so the news of what's going on should quickly spread to the outside world. There'll be a large number of strong cultivators flocking in to rescue the princess. The best-case scenario would be if the Heavenly Emperor himself got involved. These cursed effigies would surely be done for then. As for us, we should ensure our own safety first while I think of a plan."

Zeng Daniu nodded in exasperation. "Very well."

"Keep guard. I'll meditate and think of a potential solution," Xiao Nanfeng said.

"Understood." Zeng Daniu nodded.

Xiao Nanfeng also entered the valley in which Chang Bing was located. He found a quiet place to sit and meditate as he contacted the black lotus in his mindscape.

"Senior, do you know what those lotus hood cursed effigies are?" Xiao Nanfeng asked anxiously.

By then, the black lotus had finished digesting the monk hood it had just consumed. It wrote out, "Enemies really do cross paths often..."

"You know of them?" Xiao Nanfeng's eyes lit up.

"I do. We were from the same era. The Buddhas of Three Aspects ruled the world then, with their three aspects of past, present, and future. The cursed effigies here were all subordinates of the Past Buddha, and were once strong cultivators with manifestations of lesser Buddhas in their own right. They must have been revived as cursed effigies," the black lotus wrote out.

"If the cursed effigies here were all subordinates of the Past Buddha, does that mean that the Past Buddha is their king?" Xiao Nanfeng confirmed.

"Indeed. The Past Buddha is likely the one who possessed Zhang Lingjun, but, given its tone, it must have been seriously injured by the present Heavenly Emperor."

"What about the purple-furred monsters here, then?" Xiao Nanfeng asked.

"I'm unaware of the specifics, but from the looks of it, Zhang Lingjun's mother's subordinates hadn't been cursed by the Heavenly Emperor. Rather, he's protecting them by transforming them into purple-furred monsters. It's not a punishment, but rather a means of sealing the monk hood cursed effigies that have latched onto their bodies. It's a particularly advanced technique. The Heavenly Emperor of the present is highly skilled," the black lotus surmised.