Chapter 203 - 13: Discovering a Secret Room, Burning It Down

Chapter 203: Chapter 13: Discovering a Secret Room, Burning It Down

Chen Ye’s eyes narrowed slightly.

He had only ever seen this type of Buddha in a few extremely obscure texts on Esoteric Buddhism.

He glanced again at Abbot Liao Chen, who was bowing his head and chanting Buddhist scriptures, a look of helplessness on his face.

From head to toe, the old Monk exuded the air of an enlightened master.

Yet Chen Ye detected an extremely faint, sinister chill emanating from him—an aura completely at odds with the fragrant incense of the Buddhist Hall.

The aura was buried extremely deep. It would have been impossible to notice if not for Chen Ye’s Perception Power, which was far beyond that of an ordinary person.

’So something *is* wrong here.’ Chen Ye scoffed internally, but his expression remained unchanged.

Of course, this search also yielded nothing. Chen Ye left the Black Buddha Temple with a deeply troubled Cong Bo.

Cong Bo sighed the entire way, frustrated by the lack of clues.

Chen Ye, however, remained silent, his mind racing.

If Miss Zhang and her group really were connected to the Black Buddha Temple...

Then how did they vanish without a trace in broad daylight?

With so many people, the monks couldn’t have just knocked them out one by one and carried them inside, could they?

The commotion would have been too great.

Unless... they had another, more covert method.

Chen Ye’s gaze returned to the distant Black Buddha Temple, his eyes turning cold and sharp as a blade’s glint.

...

Night.

A sliver of a moon hung high in the sky, casting a cold, clear glow.

A shadowy figure shot out from the darkness like a phantom, then slipped silently into the now-quiet Black Buddha Temple.

It was Chen Ye.

The daytime search had long since ended.

The temple was quiet, the only sounds being the steady breathing of the Monks and the occasional chirping of insects.

Chen Ye didn’t alert anyone.

He moved like a lithe cat, weaving through every corner of the temple and carefully inspecting every inch of the grounds.

He first went to the Great Heroic Hall.

In the Moonlight, the Dark Great Sun Buddha Statue looked even more bizarre and sinister.

Chen Ye circled the statue, knocking and tapping on its surface. He even used his Inner Qi to probe it.

He finally determined that the statue was solid, with no hidden passages or mechanisms beneath it.

He then inspected every floor tile and pillar in the hall.

He found nothing out of the ordinary.

’’Could I have been wrong?’’

Chen Ye frowned.

Unwilling to give up, he meticulously searched every part of the temple: the Monks’ quarters, the kitchen, the woodshed—everywhere.

But again, he found nothing.

The entire Black Buddha Temple looked like an ordinary, even somewhat dilapidated temple.

Just as Chen Ye was about to give up for the night and return the next day...

He stopped in front of the rear hall at the very back of the temple.

This rear hall was used to store sundries and as a place for the Monks to meditate and chant.

The Demon Slayer Department had searched it during the day and found it completely empty.

But now, as Chen Ye stood outside the hall looking at its silhouette against the Moonlight, he keenly sensed that something was off.

From the outside, the hall’s footprint seemed just a fraction larger than its interior dimensions suggested.

The discrepancy was incredibly subtle.

Had it not been for Chen Ye’s astounding powers of observation and his superhuman spatial awareness, he would never have noticed it.

During the day, with so many people around and the light being so clear, it would have been easy to overlook such a minuscule visual discrepancy.

But in the silence of the night, starkly outlined by the Moonlight, this sense of incongruity was magnified.

’The walls... there’s a hidden compartment!’ Chen Ye’s eyes lit up instantly.

He had finally found the key to the mystery!

But Chen Ye didn’t act rashly. In a flash, he silently leaped into a large tree beside the rear hall, concealing himself perfectly within its dense canopy.

He decided to lie in wait.

After all, in such an uncertain situation, acting rashly would only alert his quarry. It was better to wait and see what happened.

He waited for most of the night. Just when Chen Ye was beginning to think the night would be fruitless...

CREAK—.

The door to the back courtyard was gently pushed open, and a figure walked in.

Chen Ye focused his eyes and saw it was none other than Abbot Liao Chen.

The abbot walked straight into the rear hall and closed the door behind him.

But Chen Ye had chosen an excellent vantage point. From his perch in the tree, he could see into the hall through the latticed window. The light was dim, but with his exceptional eyesight, Chen Ye could still see the scene inside clearly.

He watched as Liao Chen walked to one of the hall’s walls. The abbot ran his hand over the surface for a moment, as if searching for something.

He quickly found the spot. His fingers tapped a specific brick on the wall several times, following a particular sequence with deliberate pressure.

CLICK... GRIND...

The faint sound of a turning mechanism followed.

Then, the wall, which had appeared perfectly seamless, slowly parted from the middle.

A pitch-black entrance to a secret underground passage was revealed behind it! ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Chen Ye’s pupils contracted the moment he saw the secret passage.

’Just as I suspected!’

’That old bald-headed fraud, acting so pious and compassionate during the day. To think he was hiding a secret like this all along.’

Abbot Liao Chen lit an oil lamp and, without hesitation, entered the secret passage.

As his figure vanished into the darkness, the wall slowly slid shut, returning to its original state and leaving no visible seam.

Chen Ye waited in the tree for a while longer. Once he confirmed that Liao Chen wasn’t coming right back out, he moved, silently floating down from the branches.

He went to the wall, but he didn’t open the secret passage; who knew if there was an ambush waiting inside.