Chapter 604: A Footprint
Calmwind Pass was the only entrance to Beastmaster, consisting of two towering peaks full of treacherous climbs.
Only one plank road built on trestles coiled around the ridge like a dragon.
At the top was a monastery with earthy-yellow walls and green roof-tiles. Inside was a lamp, still lit. Spirit trees surrounded the place. Beasts were roaming around - the image of a paradise.
“How can this be?!” Chi Yao shouted in horror with her hands covering her mouth after seeing the inside of the monastery.
The other three girls couldn’t believe their own eyes. Their expression darkened.
Wu Qinghua’s expression was even uglier. She looked at the nun sitting on the praying mat and couldn’t calm down: “Junior Aunt… is dead…”
The nun sitting straight inside the monastery was no longer alive.
Feiyun grabbed her wrist and said: “She’s cold outside but her blood is still warm, it hasn’t been long, and, she committed suicide for atonement.”
Wu Qinghua and the four girls became unhappy. Chi Yao coldly said: “Ancestor Liu is a person of virtue and prestige, too merciful and wouldn’t even kill an ant. Now, she was killed by a villain and if you keep on slandering her, I will not go easy on you.”
Ling’er added: “Feng Feiyun, her mental fortitude is peerless in the contemporary, she can’t commit suicide.”
Feiyun snorted and lifted the nun’s sleeve, revealing the ground beneath. There was a bloody character, “sinner”. Her finger has been ground down to the bone - clearly from writing the character numerous times.
The girls had no response and their heart grew heavier as if something has been broken in their mind - their confidence.
“I’m certain that after hearing about the missing scripture, she chose to commit suicide.” Feiyun emotionlessly said.
“Amitabha.”
“Amitabha.”
The girls closed their eyes and chanted. Who knows if it was to cross over their ancestor’s soul or to hide the fear in their eyes.
Qinghua still couldn’t accept it because the sect’s reputation would be destroyed overnight. Furthermore, it would be a great blow to the female disciples here with an adverse effect on their cultivation.
“Maybe… we’re missing something else…” She said.
“You can check whether your ancestor is still a virgin then. I’ll be waiting outside.”
He walked out of the entrance and stood in the yard to look at the red clouds over yonder behind the mountains. A red mist appeared in his eyes, feeling the existence of a powerful foe.
This was a strange feeling for these top geniuses. They could sense each other though they were so far away.
Feiyun closed his eyes and continued to feel. He could see a monk in white sitting in this courtyard, resembling a holy Bodhi Tree with a blinding glow slowly emerging from the soil.
He could hear the Buddhist hymns, the most peaceful of them all as if a great monk was chanting.
Suddenly, the sounds turned into a terrifying spear and went straight for his throat.
“Boom!” He formed two fists and raised the iron chain to block in front of him.
A massive power slammed into his arms causing sparks to go flying.
Feiyun suddenly opened his eyes and leaped backward. He stared towards the direction of the spear and could see a single footprint.
It has been here for a while, almost washed away by the rain but its dao laws remained.
He carefully observed and murmured: “Just one footprint already contains so much power with enough heavenly dao to activate the worldly momentum, in tune with the veins here. That’s quite impressive.”
“But why only one footprint? Does he only have one leg?” Feiyun frowned.
Rhino ran over with its massive body and an awe-inspiring aura. The beasts nearby squirmed on the ground, not daring to move.
“Brat, what happened? I sensed a movement in the worldly laws.” It asked.
Spirit beasts were very in-tune with nature and laws of the world, and the rhinoceros had a good bloodline on top of that.
Feiyun memorized the footprint to the exact details before slamming on the ground to create a sinister rune. He smiled: “You missed it. A supreme elder of the camp committed suicide for atonement. The world would be shocked to hear this.”
Rhino’s eyes were wide open, same with its large mouth revealing the two rows of teeth - clearly frightened by Feiyun’s revelation.
Wu Qinghua has come out, not in the best of moods. Strangely enough, she wasn’t furious, at least not expressively.
The four girls had nothing to say. Even Ling’er who has been outside before became speechless.
Feiyun knew the result of the examination right away and was impressed that they were still relatively calm - indeed the best seeds of this generation.
After a while, Qinghua spoke: “No one is to speak about this matter. Immediately cremate Junior Aunt Liu right now and return to tell the camp master that she had died from qi deviation, resulting in severing veins.”
The four girls quietly nodded and burned both the corpse of their ancestor along with the monastery. Nothing was left behind by the fire.
They gritted their teeth and felt very uncomfortable as if a rock was pressing down on their heart. Their Buddhist heart, trained for so many years, started to waver.
“Feng Feiyun, you must know who did it, tell me now and I will go take his dog life!” Chi Yao had a cold expression. The sword floating on top of her hymned and pulsed with images of white butterflies. This sword energy crushed the vegetation nearby to dust.
Feiyun stood there with his evil aura oozing out just like a devil: “Naive girl, even your ancestor was ridden by him, let alone you four.”
“Feng Feiyun, you better watch your mouth, do not insult our ancestor!” The gorgeous Huaji Ningxiang scowled: “Bring this up again and I will take you down at all cost!”
“You’re only twenty yet you dare to call us girls? I want to see what you can do.” Chi Yao was not amused and took out her spirit sword with a lunar pulse on the blade.
They were prideful on top of hating Feiyun, thinking that he was a devil. If it wasn’t for the camp master’s order, they would have teamed up to kill him already.
He smiled in response: “Wu Qinghua, you should just take these amazing geniuses back to the camp, their presence only distracts me.”
Qinghua glanced at the four and told them to back down: “With the death of the Junior Aunt, all the clues are gone now. Where do we go from here?”
“If it wasn’t for your camp master saving me with the Calmheart Mantra, I wouldn’t be bothering myself with your mess.” Feiyun directly walked down the path with the five girls and Rhino behind him.
Feiyun was really too arrogant and didn’t show any respect to the Buddhist Supreme. The four girls became increasingly exasperated with him.
He suddenly stopped and asked: “How many other Buddhist sects are within three thousand miles of the camp?”
Beastmaster was located in the middle of the great mountain range but it wasn’t the only one. This place had ample resources and around one thousand sects nearby with their own territories.
Qinghua said: “A total of eighteen shrines and six convents. The strongest must be Life Temple fourteen thousand miles to the north of us, and Ancient Path Shrine six thousand miles to the west. They have more than ten thousand Buddhists; the rest aren’t on the same scale.”
“So many Buddhists gathered around here. Looks like it must be because of Beastmaster’s holy reputation.” Feiyun murmured: “We don’t have any clue now so let’s test our luck at Ancient Path Shrine first.”
He jumped on Rhino and told it to fly towards the west.
For a person who has been coveting a Buddhist scripture, they would want to flip the page and start learning right away.
Feiyun believed in his intuition, thinking that after taking the scripture, the first thing that man would do was researching it. Thus, he would be picking a place nearby to stop.