Chapter 350 : A Breath Still Remains
This was not a grand sacrifice, yet it was enough to shake one's heart to the core.
Jiang Mo couldn't intervene, only managing at the last moment to stuff the Phantom Heart Grass into Tan Xin's chest—as the name suggests, Phantom Heart Grass is a spiritual herb that can temporarily replace the function of a heart. However, a substitute can never match the original, hence the name "phantom heart." Using the Phantom Heart Grass also had side effects; for instance, the "illusory heart" was extremely fragile and couldn't withstand the flow of spiritual energy, meaning that after using it, one could never utilize spiritual energy again.
But when life hung in the balance, these were minor concerns. As long as one's life could be preserved for the moment, everything else could be addressed later. Thus, at this moment, Jiang Mo couldn't consider more; she was simply doing her best and leaving the rest to fate.
Fortunately, Tan Xin was not destined to die.
Perhaps those dissipating spirits actively compensated for the Seven Treasures Glass Heart's insufficient Buddhist nature, or perhaps the Buddhist disciple wasn't so fragile, or maybe that Phantom Heart Grass truly had extraordinary effects...
When the blinding light dispersed and the surroundings were once again shrouded in night, Jiang Mo looked over to see Tan Xin's body go limp and fall straight backward.
She rushed forward in one stride, reaching out to support the young monk. Looking closely, she found his eyes tightly closed, seemingly unconscious. Thankfully, he still had a breath remaining, and his shattered chest transmitted faint heartbeats.
It seemed he had survived, much to her relief. She slipped the string of over a hundred prayer beads that he had given her earlier back onto his wrist: "There, now you can take the prayer beads back yourself."
Unfortunately, the young monk was unconscious and couldn't hear her words, let alone respond.
Jiang Mo didn't mind. Supporting Tan Xin, she was about to lay him flat on the ground when she looked up and discovered that the scenery before her had undergone a complete transformation—the pagoda behind her was gone, the dried well had vanished without a trace, not to mention the ground that had been paved with bluestone slabs. All she could see now was sand and soil. Looking around, the Nameless Temple had left no trace whatsoever.
She and Tan Xin had appeared in the wilderness, with no village ahead and no inn behind, only the bright moon in the sky remaining unchanged.
Jiang Mo was completely stunned. Her hand supporting Tan Xin paused for a long while before she finally laid him down. Then she looked left and right, unable to discern where she was, without even anyone to ask.
With no alternative, Jiang Mo tapped the only system she could communicate with: "System, what's going on? Where are we?"
Fortunately, the system was always present, and apart from some peculiar environments, it wasn't entirely useless. It immediately scanned the surrounding terrain and environment, quickly determining their location, and answered its host: "Host, this is a stretch of gobi desert in the southeastern part of North Abyss. Further north is the desert, and heading south will take you back to the Central Continent. As for the Nameless Temple, the seal has been reinforced, and the monks have completed their mission, so naturally, it has disappeared."
To say it disappeared wasn't entirely accurate. The Nameless Temple was quite peculiar; not only had the monks within it transformed into spirits due to their attachments after exhausting their lifespans, but even the temple itself, influenced by the faith and incense offerings, had become a type of spirit.
The Nine Abyss Sect survivors who had previously disappeared in the Nameless Temple, as well as the silent disappearance of the entire temple this time, were all the temple's own doing. Now that the temple was empty, it might have retreated into a spatial fold, perhaps never to appear before the world again, or perhaps it would reappear someday when the seal within loosened once more.
Jiang Mo had no particular thoughts on this; she only wanted to resolve the immediate predicament—of what had been a relatively lively group, her master and the Sect Leader were now absent, and even if they returned, who knew where they would appear. Waiting on the spot was meaningless. Her Senior Sister was completing her transformation in her innate space, with no telling when it would be finished. The young monk was unconscious and needed to be settled.
Finally, after some thought, she asked the system: "System, how far is it to the Buddha Sect from here? How long would it take to get there?"
A tiger and a system had spent eighty years at Xuanqing Sect, and that time wasn't wasted; the system had collected a lot of information in its spare time. For instance, the locations of the Buddha Sect and Tiandao Sect, fellow major righteous sects alongside Xuanqing Sect, were no secret, and the system had also collected maps of the entire Xuantian Continent. Thus, even if it couldn't pinpoint their exact location, calculating the distance wasn't a big issue.
The system quickly provided an answer: "The Buddha Sect isn't far. At your spirit boat's speed, it would take about twenty days of flight to reach it."
Jiang Mo was speechless upon hearing this. Truly, cultivators lived too long—flying for over twenty days was considered "not far." But complaints aside, with only her and the young monk here, she would have to take him back to the Buddha Sect no matter what.
Just as this thought crossed her mind, the system, seemingly guessing her intention, suddenly reminded her: "Host, if you want to take Tan Xin back, you'd better check his condition first..."
Hearing this, Jiang Mo immediately sensed something amiss and hurriedly examined Tan Xin's condition. The results were not optimistic—aside from the loss of his heart, the young monk had depleted much of his life force after the sacrifice, and his body showed signs of exhaustion. But these weren't the most critical issues; most important was that the young monk's soul was damaged, with only one hun and one po remaining in his body, and it was uncertain whether he could recover.
Even Jianbing was at a loss facing this situation, as she neither had suitable spiritual herbs for him nor knew how to call back souls. In the end, this only strengthened her resolve to quickly take him back to the Buddha Sect; once he was delivered, it would no longer be her concern.
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Jiang Mo didn't linger in North Abyss. She retrieved a spirit boat from her space and set off with the young monk.
During the journey, she kept an eye on Tan Xin's condition and observed her Senior Sister's progress, but the results were inconclusive—the young monk's injuries seemed to have frozen in time, neither improving nor worsening as time passed. He remained in a state with just a breath still remaining, never regaining consciousness. But at least, though he couldn't utilize spiritual energy, he still possessed a cultivator's body, so she didn't need to worry about his food and drink.
As for her Senior Sister, there was even less to report. Jiang Mo had neither experienced nor witnessed such a bloodline awakening and didn't know how long the transformation process would take. From her observations, as days passed, the spiritual energy cocoon showed no signs of breaking; instead, it grew larger. By now, it had expanded by more than one circle and no longer resembled a cocoon but rather looked somewhat like an egg...
Upon discovering this, Jiang Mo circled around it several times and even tapped it with her finger. The result of this tap was a remarkably hard sensation, making it feel even more like an egg.
Thus, Jiang Mo became a bit worried, concerned that her Senior Sister's true form might not be furry but some kind of bird.
It wasn't that she disliked birds, but a tiger and a bird together wasn't as cute as two furry creatures cuddling together—she would never admit that after having her tail and ears stroked by her Senior Sister for so long, she also wanted to stroke back.
Time passed day by day. Originally, her location was at the edge of North Abyss, and after three days of flight on the spirit boat, they completely left North Abyss behind. The spirit boat continued southward, heading toward the Buddha Sect in the southeastern region. During this time, no one bothered her; the spirit boat bearing the Xuanqing Sect emblem alone warded off most petty troublemakers, and for the rest, she only needed to release a bit of her aura to intimidate them.
Though she often found herself outmatched on Merperson Island and at the bottom of the well, in truth, a Fusion realm powerhouse in the cultivation world was definitely a formidable existence!
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Jiang Mo's journey was almost entirely smooth. After traveling for about twenty days, she finally reached the territory of the Buddha Sect.
Like Xuanqing Sect, Buddha Sect was also located deep in the mountains. However, unlike Xuanqing Sect, which occupied an entire mountain range exclusively, the Buddha Sect was not the only sect in its surroundings; nearly the entire region was the domain of Buddhist cultivators—since Jiang Mo reached the southeastern region, she had seen many Buddhist temples one after another. Some were ordinary temples in the mortal world, some had cultivators stationed there, and others were small Buddhist cultivation sects.
Unlike the domineering nature of other sects, the Buddha Sect did not cordon off areas to prohibit other sects from settling nearby. On the contrary, the closer to the Buddha Sect's main complex, the more Buddhist minor sects there were. The nearest Buddhist temple was even built on the mountaintop adjacent to the Buddha Sect!
Jiang Mo was astounded as soon as she set foot in Buddhist territory. The air was permeated with the scent of incense, and the incessant Sanskrit chants almost made her feel as if she had returned to the Nameless Temple. Looking down from her spirit boat, she saw that on the streets and mountain paths, nine out of ten people were bald. They all looked identical, with only slight differences in their kasayas to distinguish their respective sects.
In such an environment, Jiang Mo touched her full head of black hair, feeling completely out of place.
Fortunately, although there were many Buddhist temples and sects in the southeastern region, the Buddha Sect was still the largest Buddhist cultivation sect. No matter how magnanimous and open-minded they were, the Buddha Sect occupied the most spiritually abundant and best-positioned territory in the southeastern region.
Jiang Mo didn't have much trouble finding the entrance to the Buddha Sect. Before she could even state her identity and explain her purpose, she saw a young man with a full head of black hair walk out from the Buddha Sect. He was handsome, with somewhat deep-set features, but his eyes were exceptionally sharp... The instant their eyes met, Jiang Mo had an intuition that this young man might not be human.
Sure enough, after sizing her up, the young man spoke first: "I am Golden Peng. May I ask why Jianbing has come here?"
Jiang Mo immediately understood. The divine beast enshrined by the Buddha Sect was the Golden Winged Great Peng, which must be this one before her. He wasn't very old, only about five thousand years, and his cultivation level was far below that of Divine Lord Zhiming, but still surpassed Jiang Mo, a tiger cub not even a hundred years old.
When Jianbing arrived, the Golden Winged Great Peng was the first to sense it and came out to greet her.
Recognizing his identity, Jiang Mo naturally didn't waste words. With a wave of her hand, she moved the unconscious Tan Xin out from the spirit boat: "I've come to return Tan Xin to his sect."
Golden Peng clearly recognized Tan Xin. Seeing him, he hurriedly reached out to receive him, and with a probe of his divine sense, he knew the situation was not good.
Seeing Golden Peng frown, Jiang Mo feared he might misunderstand something and hastily gave a brief account of what had happened—Tan Xin was not an impulsive person by nature; since he had decided to secretly follow the Nine Abyss Sect's actions, he must have informed his sect. However, he probably hadn't expected to return in such a state, so Jiang Mo had to explain on his behalf.
After listening, Golden Peng didn't say much, only sighed and said: "Thank you for your trouble, Jianbing. Please follow me into the temple to rest a while."
Jiang Mo thought for a moment and didn't decline, following Golden Peng into the Buddha Sect.