Chapter 114: The Evil Buddha

Obtaining the Yin Jade was surprisingly easy; it was retrieved directly from the interlayer of the Ghost Domain without ever leaving a trace in the mortal world. Aside from Zhou Bai himself, it is unlikely anyone else could have discovered even the slightest clue regarding its existence.

He observed it closely for a long time and found that once the Yin Jade entered the mortal realm, it became extremely restrained. It looked much like an ordinary piece of jade—cyan-green in color, emitting a faint, soft fluorescence.

Zhou Bai attempted to channel Yin energy and demonic energy into it. The Yin Jade accepted everything, yet showed absolutely no reaction. The only exception was the Ghost Tree within his dantian, which seemed quite interested in it. Its consciousness conveyed that absorbing the Yin Jade would be of great help to his ghost-path supernatural abilities and should significantly increase their potential.

However, Zhou Bai naturally could not bring himself to waste it like that. He assumed it would merely improve the proficiency of his abilities; since things that could be solved with points were readily available, there was no need to consume such a precious spiritual material.

Finally, he tried to make contact with the jade using his divine sense. Immediately, his consciousness showed signs of detaching from his body, inexplicably forming a connection with the Ghost Domain. Strange whispers suddenly echoed in his ears, causing goosebumps to erupt all over his skin. As time passed, the voices grew increasingly clamorous. Not daring to deepen this connection, Zhou Bai quickly withdrew his divine sense and tucked the Yin Jade away securely.

The lunar eclipse was drawing to an end. As the moon gradually reappeared, Hangzhou City began to brighten once more. However, following this light was a faint, pervasive sound of Buddhist scriptures being chanted throughout the entire city. Zhou Bai realized the sound had been ongoing for quite some time, but he had failed to notice it earlier due to the influence of the Ghost Domain.

The chanting was rhythmic and uniform, yet the scriptures themselves were profoundly strange. An ordinary person might not have understood their meaning, but Zhou Bai was different. Having mastered both the *Medicine Buddha Sutra* and the *Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva Fundamental Vow Sutra*, his understanding of Buddhist texts far surpassed that of common high monks.

After listening for a few moments, he sensed something was wrong. The essence of these scriptures seemed to be a deliberate distortion, twisting the original meanings to turn the teachings from exhortations toward kindness into incantations that bred obsession with the Buddha.

The entire city of Hangzhou awakened amidst this chanting. The ordinary citizens had not been awake for long before their eyes turned vacant, and they, too, joined the ranks of those reciting the scriptures. The sound created by hundreds of thousands of people was deafening, enough to scatter the clouds in the sky. In the horse farms on the outskirts of the city, those who had been driven mad by the aura of the Ghost Domain were freed from their insanity by the influence of the sound, and they also began to chant.

Zhou Bai realized at once that beyond the Ghost Domain, there was an oriole waiting behind the mantis—another mysterious force lying in wait. The blockade of the ten-mile radius around Hangzhou had nothing to do with the Ghost Domain; it was the work of this newly emerged power.

He quickly used his token to contact Daoist Hou, only to receive grim news: Wen Meng had also fallen into the trance of the Buddhist chants. They were now the only two left in the entire city.

Zhou Bai began to search for the source of the chanting, but something truly chilling occurred. In the span of just ten minutes, the moon vanished from the sky, replaced in its original position by a golden sphere of light that radiated a slightly scorching heat. The voices of the hundreds of thousands grew even louder, and a layer of faint Buddhist light began to shroud Hangzhou and the surrounding ten-mile area.

The Buddhist light grew brighter and brighter. Unlike ordinary sunlight, under its illumination, there were no shadows to be found in the vast city; every corner felt glaringly bright. As time passed, the light even began to seep into buildings and rooms, demonstrating a pervasive, inescapable quality.

Daoist Hou found Zhou Bai, his expression grave to the extreme. The moment the Buddhist light appeared, his lost memories began to return. He recalled encountering that strange, four-faced monk while in Hangzhou, and he now knew who the culprit was.

When the two arrived at the small temple, hundreds, if not thousands, of people had already gathered. They were kneeling on the ground, chanting scriptures while kowtowing so violently that they did not stop even as their heads began to bleed.

"Zhou Bai, do you see anything?" Daoist Hou stared tensely at the idol in the temple, finding it so lifelike that it seemed like a living person. However, a shallow crack ran across the entire body of the statue.

Zhou Bai felt a layer of Buddhist light radiating from the idol, but it was far less dense than the light from the golden sphere above, which had enveloped the entire city. Gripping his butcher's blade, he prepared for battle. Just as he was about to speak, the expression on the idol changed.

The palm-sized statue wore a look of sorrow as it raised its head to look at the two men. "Bearing the blood of demons, yet unable to receive the mercy of my Buddha—do you not find that quite pathetic?" Its voice was extremely hoarse, like a saw grating against wood.

As the statue spoke, the people nearby became even more fanatical. The sound of their chanting grew louder, almost heart-wrenching, until many of them had rasped their voices raw.

Daoist Hou tentatively asked, "We are from the Ministry of Nether Records. The Buddhist sect and the Ministry should have no grievances, should they?"

Zhou Bai had seen Buddhist practitioners before—the monk Sanhu, for instance—and they were nothing like this idol. This entity seemed to have walked a crooked, evil path; everything about it felt profoundly strange.

"Sigh, my two donors, I apologize for the offense. It is not a matter of grievances, it is just..." Here, the idol's face shifted again, changing from sorrow to joy, and it reached out a hand to cover its mouth. "It is just that I calculated that my karmic cause and Buddhist fate lie here. I apologize for disturbing your Ministry of Nether Records, so I have restored those madmen outside the city to normalcy."

"You call this 'normal'?" Zhou Bai pointed to the kowtowing citizens, many of whom had already collapsed on the ground with bloodied heads.

"Amitabha, Amitabha..." The idol waved a hand, and the people stopped, kneeling in place with vacant expressions as their wounds gradually began to heal. "Once I find my Buddhist fate, all of this will return to how it was."

Hearing this, Daoist Hou, believing the entity to be a friend rather than a foe, could not help but say, "What Buddhist fate? Tell us, and we will help you find it so you can leave Hangzhou as soon as possible."

Zhou Bai, however, watched the idol coldly. Since it chose this exact moment, it clearly had ulterior motives. He knew that now that the Ministry of Nether Records had quelled the chaos in Xuzhou, it would not be long before they were no longer shorthanded; the forces across the Nine Provinces would not remain this thin for much longer. He did not believe a word of these ghost stories and was already prepared to strike, though he was unfamiliar with the methods of Buddhist practitioners.

Still, given the scale of the Buddhist power in Hangzhou, he knew he might not be a match for it, so he decided to act according to the situation.