Chapter 122 - 106: Tathagata Divine Palm, Fifth Form: Flower-Blooming Buddha

Chapter 122: Chapter 106: Tathagata Divine Palm, Fifth Form: Flower-Blooming Buddha

A passageway lay before him, illuminated by light filtering in from outside.

Murals adorned the walls on either side.

They depicted stories of the Furious-eyed Vajra displaying his martial prowess.

They were mostly about him wielding the Demon-Subduing Pestle and the Vow-Breaking Saber to slay demons and evildoers.

’Come to think of it, two of the weapons held by the three-headed, eight-armed Demon-Subduing Vajra were the saber and the Demon-Subduing Pestle.’

’Is there a related martial arts legacy in here?’ Zhang Ji wondered.

As he pondered this, he reached the end of the passage.

Here, he found a stone chamber. Its walls were lined with many recesses, clearly meant for holding items.

Zhang Ji vaguely remembered this place.

He recalled that these recesses were supposed to hold various martial arts manuals.

However, most of them had been taken.

Now, only a single art remained: the *Vajra Indestructible Body Divine Art*.

Scanning the room, he saw three large recesses in the very center. Two were empty, but the last one held a sculpture shaped like a book and forged from black iron.

Zhang Ji stepped forward and lifted it with both hands.

It looked to be the size of a normal book, but it weighed at least a hundred pounds.

The scripture was inscribed with ancient characters from the Xia Yu Country and a diagram of meridian circulation.

The script of the Eastern Extreme Country was somewhat similar to that of the Xia Yu Country, so even though these were ancient characters, Zhang Ji could make out some of them.

The top was inscribed with the three words "Vajra Indestructible Body." The middle section contained the cultivation details, most of which Zhang Ji couldn’t understand; he would have to use the ancient language app he’d downloaded to translate it later.

However, he could understand most of the description of its effects at the very end.

"Upon mastery, channeling the art will envelop the skin in a golden light, resembling a Vajra, from which it takes its name. At Grand Completion, one becomes impervious to fire and water, immune to all blades and spears. The physical body will not decay even after ten thousand years..."

The accompanying meridian circulation diagram was identical to the one on the giant Buddha statue outside.

This confirmed Zhang Ji’s suspicion.

The Vajra Gate had indeed managed to develop the *Vajra Indestructible Body Divine Art* by studying the giant Buddha, but they had never successfully entered the Ruins Realm.

With a thought, Zhang Ji opened the Ruins Realm space of the "Boat of Hope" on his left hand and placed the black iron sculpture inside.

He then walked over to a stone door within the chamber and pushed lightly.

RUMBLE!

The mechanism whirred, and the stone door swung open, revealing a path to the outside.

Zhang Ji followed the path and emerged at the bottom of a well just outside the Martial Monk Academy.

The stone well cover above was still intact, and Zhang Ji pushed it aside with ease.

He then climbed out of the well and headed straight back into the Martial Monk Academy.

Arriving in the main hall, he glanced at the statue of the Child Venerable before entering the trial area once more.

Soon, he was once again outside the grand hall of the Eighteen Bronze Men Array.

This time, he took a closer look at the three-headed, eight-armed Demon-Subduing Vajra.

The three heads bore expressions of compassion, solemnity, and fury.

As for its eight arms:

On the side with the furious face, three arms held a Demon-Subduing Pestle and a Vow-Breaking Saber, while the third hand was shaped into a claw.

On the side with the compassionate face, three arms held a Demon-Suppressing Bell and an Evil-Smiting Sword, while the third hand was clenched into a fist.

The solemn face was in the center and had only two arms: one holding a sword, the other held open in a palm.

’These must represent eight different schools of martial combat.’

The only one Zhang Ji could identify was the one corresponding to the open palm.

’That must be the Epic-level combat technique, the *Tathagata Divine Palm*.’

’By that logic, the other seven are probably also Epic-level combat techniques.’

However, aside from the *Tathagata Divine Palm*, he had never heard of the others. They had likely been lost to time; otherwise, given the players’ knack for unearthing everything, there was no way Zhang Ji wouldn’t be aware of Epic-level combat techniques native to Origin Star.

’What a shame.’

With a sigh, Zhang Ji stepped inside.

What followed was another vicious battle.

Well, it was mostly just him continuously sending the attacking bronze men flying or dodging their attacks.

Zhang Ji was smarter this time.

He didn’t use his full strength, keeping his power output around the [C+] level. This kept the bronze men operating at their lowest setting, saving him a lot of trouble.

After about fifteen minutes, the bronze men ceased their movements, and the great doors opened once more.

’I’ll go with compassion this time!’

With that thought, Zhang Ji walked through the Gate of Compassion.

It was a similar passageway. The murals here depicted stories of monks in kasaya robes performing acts of compassion. The martial arts they used corresponded to the bell, the sword, and the fist.

At the end of the passage was another stone chamber.

This one, however, was completely empty. There was nothing in any of the recesses.

’Not a single book left. They really cleaned this place out!’

Annoyed at having come all this way for nothing, Zhang Ji pushed open the exit door.

This time, he emerged from a meditation chamber located within the Scripture Pavilion.

However, this section of the Scripture Pavilion was completely dilapidated. The buildings had collapsed into an unrecognizable ruin. Inside, forget scriptures, not even a scrap of rotten paper remained.

Returning to the Martial Monk Academy, Zhang Ji entered the Eighteen Bronze Men Array once more.

This time, halfway through the fight, the eighteen bronze men suddenly grew sluggish before stopping completely.

The array patterns on their bodies gradually dimmed, their light fading away.

’Out of energy?’ Zhang Ji thought in surprise.

He had thought they could operate for a long time, but it seemed they only lasted for about half an hour.

Based on what Zhang Ji knew, these bronze men recharged by using the array patterns on their bodies to gather and extract a certain substance from the air, which they then converted into energy.

It took them about a month to fully charge.

A one-month charge for thirty minutes of use.

Pathetic.

That was why very few players ever bothered to collect them.

After all, they were far inferior to the AI robots in later versions of the game.

Those robots, powered by miniaturized fusion reactors, could sustain high-intensity combat for a very long time, and swapping out their reactors was easy.

For the next few minutes, Zhang Ji examined the bronze men up close, studying the array patterns on their bodies.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t figure anything out.

The dense, intricate patterns looked like a magnified microchip schematic.

When he scanned them with his Spirit, he discovered that the patterns contained even more nested patterns within them; they were incredibly complex.

’This is technology from another world.’

Zhang Ji recalled that there were players in the [School of Principle] who carved array patterns directly onto their bodies, turning themselves into living Array Plates. They didn’t need to learn the corresponding combat techniques; they could just activate them using energy and the arrays.

It was a bit like having skill slots.

Compared to the slow process of learning through muscle memory, this was undoubtedly much faster—a bona fide shortcut.

The only drawback was the limited surface area on the body. To inscribe more skills, those players often turned themselves into bizarre aberrations; transplanting dozens of extra arms and other appendages was a common sight.

Zhang Ji had even fought a match against a player from the [School of Principle] called the Hundred-Handed True Monarch.

All I can say is, it was terrifying whenever he raised his hands.

Every time he raised a hand, a different skill would activate. You could never guess what he was going to do next.

That hand-raising freak was truly a nightmare to fight!

K-CHUNK! K-CHUNK!

Just as Zhang Ji was thinking about this, the mechanism whirred again, and the three great doors reopened.

And so, Zhang Ji walked directly toward the final door: the Gate of Solemnity.

Another identical passageway. The murals here depicted stories of an Enlightened One, dressed in clean, neat robes with a solemn, dignified air, traveling the world while wielding a sword and an open palm.

At the end was another stone chamber.

Just when Zhang Ji thought this trip would also be for nothing, he spotted a black iron book resting in a recess in the upper-left corner.

He walked over and took it down.

It was covered in densely packed, tiny characters. Beside the text was a drawing of a monk striking with his palm, which clearly illustrated the circulation path of Origin Energy through the meridians.

Zhang Ji couldn’t recognize many of the characters, so he took out his phone and used an app to scan and translate them.

His eyes widened as he read the translation.

"The Fifth Form of the *Tathagata Divine Palm*, Flower-Blooming Buddha?!"