Jiang Wang blinked. The yellow-faced old monk was indeed powerful!

Fighting two Chief Seat monks alone, and with a clear advantage, was truly terrifying.

Over there, Master Kuming could no longer remain silent. Seeing that Kudi and Kubing had successively “fallen,” he quickly spoke, “Benefactor Jiang is willing to take on responsibilities and help the disciples of my Hanging Temple deliver messages. The Hanging Temple should naturally show some appreciation.”

“Alas,” Kujue interjected from the side, “Senior Brother, you should first say what kind of appreciation it will be. Are you just going to say ‘thank you’ when the time comes?”

Chief Seat Kudi of Guanshiyuan frowned, opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but probably thinking of his “crushing defeat” earlier, he closed it again, disappointed.

Kuming helplessly said, “Then, Junior Brother Kujue, what do you think would be a good reward?”

“Well…” Kujue genuinely began to ponder, “A demon-subduing dharma artifact is a must, a Buddhist Maha Mudra technique should be taught, right? We should at least get a few relics. Given the status of our Hanging Temple, if we’re going to give them, they should be high-quality ones.”

Kuming wore a worried expression. “A demon-subduing dharma artifact is easy to arrange, but Buddhist secret techniques cannot be easily passed on. Benefactor Jiang probably won’t have any use for relics, right?”

“What do you mean ‘cannot be easily passed on’?” Kujue jumped up. “Jingli is my disciple; if you don’t pass it on, I will. As for the relics…”

They began haggling back and forth.

Although Kujue was indeed doing it for his benefit, Jiang Wang found this eagerness a little overwhelming.

With a helpless expression, he said, “Masters, I’m just helping Master Guanyan deliver something. I don’t need any reward.”

“This child, why can’t he think straight?”

Kujue grabbed Jiang Wang and criticized him, “Even if you don’t need it, doesn’t your Senior Brother need it?”

The monk Jingli said innocently, “I don’t need anything. I’m very happy in the temple!”

Kujue glared at him harshly, then turned to Jiang Wang and said, “Even if your Senior Brother doesn’t need it, doesn’t your Master need it?”

He patiently said, “Your Master, the old man, is already so old, yet he’s still running around for you two ignorant disciples, working hard every day. Do you think it’s easy for him? Shouldn’t we get a few relics to nourish him?”

“I really don’t need any reward. Even if I really needed a response, Master Guanyan has already thanked me.” Jiang Wang looked at Master Kuming, his attitude firm. “This is my agreement with Master Guanyan. My coming to the Hanging Temple is just to fulfill that agreement.”

As he spoke, he took out Master Guanyan’s snow-white monastic robe from his storage box, held it in both hands, and delivered it to Master Kuming. “I promised Master Guanyan to bring his monastic robe back to the Hanging Temple. That’s all there is to it.”

Kuming looked at the snow-white monastic robe in his hands and couldn’t help but ask, “He just wanted to have this monastic robe brought back to the temple?”

He had thought that a senior monk lost in the secret realm was using Jiang Wang to ask the Hanging Temple for help. He was just about to ask for the specific location of the secret realm so that he could arrange a rescue. A monk who could survive for five hundred years would at least be at the Divine Proximity Realm. No matter how one looked at it, the Hanging Temple had a duty to rescue him.

Unexpectedly, the monk named Guanyan had no intention of asking for help. He just wanted to have the monastic robe brought back.

Jiang Wang understood his unspoken meaning and shook his head with a sigh. “When I met Master Guanyan, he only had a trace of his true spirit left. He was only able to manifest his form with the help of a treasure from one of my companions. Before parting, he just asked me to bring his monastic robe back to the Hanging Temple and burn it at his master’s grave. He said nothing else.”

Jiang Wang intentionally concealed the Jade of Spiritual Residence of Su Qiyun. Other than that, he made no concealment.

All the monks of the Hanging Temple became solemn. Even the old monk Kujue, who was usually not serious, subconsciously restrained himself.

Only a trace of his true spirit remained; indeed, he could not be saved. What kind of misfortune had that senior monk named Guanyan encountered in the secret realm to be in such a miserable state, with only a trace of his true spirit left?

Lost for five hundred years, now only his monastic robe had “returned home.”

Kuming held the snow-white monastic robe and looked towards Chief Seat Kudi of Guanshiyuan.

Kudi meditated for a moment, then said, “Master Guanyan was a disciple of Dharma Master Zhixiang. Dharma Master Zhixiang died at the hands of an external sect five hundred years ago. His body was never found, so only his robes were buried in the Dingyu Pagoda.”

Dharma Master Zhixiang had died at the hands of an external sect five hundred years ago. That is to say, before Guanyan entered the Seven Stars Tower secret realm, his master had already died.

No wonder Guanyan directly said to burn the monastic robe at his master’s grave without even asking about the situation of the Hanging Temple.

According to the Hanging Temple’s jade register,

Guanyan was a disciple of Dharma Master Zhixiang, and Dharma Master Zhixiang was a disciple of Dharma Master Dingyu.

And Dharma Master Dingyu was a virtuous and eminent monk who had left behind his golden body and formed one of the pagoda forests. After his death, the stone pagoda enshrining his golden body was the Dingyu Pagoda.

As Dingyu’s disciple, Zhixiang’s robes were also buried in the Dingyu Pagoda.

Kuming was silent for a moment, then said, “Benefactor Jiang, please come with me to the Dingyu Pagoda.”

“As it should be,” Jiang Wang responded and followed.

Abbot Kuming’s large figure flew away from the main temple of the Hanging Temple and entered the pagoda forest.

Jiang Wang then realized that the Hanging Pagoda Forest he had passed through, all those pagodas, were actually stone pagodas enshrining deceased monks!

The Dingyu Pagoda was just one of them.

This was a simple-looking stone pagoda. Under the effect of the engraved dharma arrays, it stood suspended in the air. From the outside, it looked like an ordinary pagoda in the Hanging Temple’s mountain gate.

Jiang Wang now knew that the stone pagoda enshrined Dharma Master Dingyu’s golden body and several of his buried disciples.

The group flew to the front of the Dingyu Pagoda.

Kuming released his hand, letting Guanyan’s monastic robe float in the air.

“Please, Benefactor Jiang, fulfill his wish.”

Jiang Wang nodded, stretched out his finger and flicked out a flame flower, letting it float towards the monastic robe and ignite it.

Everyone was immersed in a solemn atmosphere.

No one noticed that after Jiang Wang flicked out the flame flower, the expression of the old monk Kujue next to him suddenly became complex.

Only the pure-minded monk Jingli suddenly felt a kind of sorrow and couldn’t help but tug at the yellow-faced old monk’s tattered sleeve.

In front of the Dingyu Pagoda, the snow-white monastic robe floated in the air, burning in the flames.

This scene was a memorial, this scene was also like a rebirth.

At this moment, a voice suddenly sounded.

Jiang Wang couldn’t find the source of the voice at all. He only felt that it seemed to come from within the monastic robe.

Kuming, Kubing, Kudi, and Kujue, these four monks almost simultaneously looked up at the sky—towards the Big Dipper, in the direction of the star Tamahagane!

That power was projected from the Tamahagane star field, using the monastic robe as a beacon, allowing the voice to land here.

It was a very gentle voice.

Jiang Wang recognized that it was Guanyan’s voice.

“My Buddha.”

“Forgive my sins, forgive my delusions, forgive my fall. Forgive my willingness, forgive my infatuation, forgive my obsession. In a land of utmost evil, I have seen a flower of utmost joy. In this life, I will never become a Buddha.”

Jiang Wang’s heart shook.

Others didn’t know the cause and effect, but Jiang Wang knew the story of Guanyan and Little Trouble clearly.

In this passage, Guanyan was asking the Buddha for forgiveness, but he was also asking his master for forgiveness.

He said, please forgive my sins, forgive my delusions, forgive my fall, forgive my willingness, forgive my infatuation, forgive my obsession.

Because in this world’s most evil place, I saw my flower of utmost joy.

I have given up the Dao I have been upholding.

In this life, I will no longer pursue becoming a Buddha.