Chapter 690 - 378: Command Token

"Hai Shu! Hai Shu!"

His body had not yet recovered, so there was little flesh growing beneath his head. Hai Xin’s voice sounded muffled, but the two words "Hai Shu" were still discernible, heavy with emotion.

The first thing on his mind upon waking was still Hai Shu. The hatred must have been bone-deep.

Yang An stood by, smiling silently. He then patted the cage holding the Piglet, jolting Liu Feifei awake inside.

The Piglet’s eyes still held a trace of fear. Like Hai Xin, it had been startled awake. But upon seeing Yang An, it seemed to come to its senses, oinking and grunting as if trying to break free from the cage.

"You’re the Buddha’s Son?"

Hai Xin had now also regained his composure and looked at Yang An with a hint of wariness.

Yang An had saved him at the last moment, which meant he didn’t want to kill him. However, even after recognizing Yang An’s identity, he remained on guard, unsure of the former Buddha’s Son of Great Virtue Temple’s intentions.

"Elder Monk Jin’e sent me to get you."

Yang An nodded and said bluntly.

Now that he had completely annihilated Great Virtue Temple, his identity as the Buddha’s Son was dispensable. It didn’t matter if it was exposed.

"How... Thank you, Buddha’s Son."

Hai Xin almost blurted out the words "How dare you." The Great Bodhisattva Jin’e was his lifelong faith; how could he tolerate someone insulting him to his face?

But then he remembered that this Buddha’s Son had razed the entire Great Virtue Temple to the ground and had also rescued him. He immediately swallowed the words on the tip of his tongue, feeling fortunate that he hadn’t spoken them aloud.

The memory of Yang An’s terrifying power was still fresh in his mind. Just thinking about it made him break out in a cold sweat.

He could no longer sense Hai Shu’s aura. Even the auras of the Monks and Demon Fiends within Great Virtue Temple had all vanished.

This cage that had imprisoned him for countless years... He never imagined it would be destroyed in such a manner. A wave of melancholy washed over Hai Xin.

Fortunately, the Great Bodhisattva’s Reincarnation Dharma Body still existed. He could still return to the Great Bodhisattva’s side. As long as the Great Bodhisattva was there, so was Great Virtue Temple.

At this thought, something suddenly occurred to Hai Xin, and he looked at Yang An in shock.

"You just said... the Great Bodhisattva sent you?"

"It was Jin’e."

Yang An nodded. He only knew Jin’e, not some "Great Bodhisattva" or "Second Bodhisattva."

"The Great Bodhisattva is still in this world! Then this Reincarnation Dharma Body..."

Receiving Yang An’s confirmation, a joyful expression appeared on Hai Xin’s face, but he then looked doubtfully at the Piglet in the cage.

The Buddha’s Charm within the Piglet was unmistakably real. But if this was the Great Bodhisattva’s Reincarnation Dharma Body, how could the Dharma Body be alive while the Great Bodhisattva also still existed?

Yang An had no choice but to briefly explain Jin’e’s plan, and understanding finally dawned on Hai Xin.

"The Seven-Colored Dust is indeed in my possession, but it requires the Great Bodhisattva to break the Seal and retrieve it," he explained softly. In front of Yang An, his frenzied demeanor from the Eternal Prison was completely gone.

In terms of combat strength, Yang An had slain Hai Shu—who could have crushed Hai Xin—and annihilated the entire Great Virtue Temple.

In terms of personal debt, although Yang An acted to obtain the Seven-Colored Dust, he had ultimately saved him.

Therefore, Hai Xin’s current attitude toward Yang An was exceedingly polite.

"I will take you to see Jin’e shortly."

Yang An waited quietly for the sun to dissipate. At the same time, he sensed the auras of the Cultivators from the Golden Thread Pavilion, who were now not far away.

The sun, coalesced from Golden Sun Power, had transformed into an eternal, inextinguishable light and lasted for a very long time.

A full quarter of an hour passed before the light began to dim.

When the light finally faded completely, the full extent of Great Virtue Temple was revealed. Within a radius of tens of thousands of meters, the former Land of Great Virtue and Goodness had utterly vanished.

The ground had collapsed to an unknown depth. It was now a dry, dead wasteland, withered and ruined, radiating an intense heat. This aura alone made it impossible to approach; anyone who touched it would likely be instantly pulverized, leaving not even bones behind.

The number of Cultivators and Demon Fiends who had died at Yang An’s hands was impossible to determine, but the number of souls the Bow Lady had devoured in the chaos was by no means small.

Suddenly, Yang An remembered something.

’Damn it! The Command Token!’

In order to kill Hai Shu and destroy Great Virtue Temple, Yang An had used his full strength this time, not thinking about anything else during the battle.

Now, however, he began to worry. If he had accidentally destroyed the half of the Command Token that Great Virtue Temple possessed, it would have granted that old geezer Life Crane’s wish, but it would also have severed the path to the Central Continent.

Fortunately, after a brief search, Yang An’s perception quickly detected a slight anomaly within the deep crater where Great Virtue Temple had been.

His figure vanished once more, descending into the scorching crater. A moment later, he emerged from the sunken pit, holding a palm-sized object as thin as a cicada’s wing and shaped like an ear.

The object seemed to be neither gold nor jade, and he couldn’t tell what it was made of.

But the moment he took it, an information box appeared before his eyes.

"[Command Token: Right Ear]: From the Earth Immortal Dao Sect, forged from a Stone of Extreme Spirit. Contains a partial Seal. Collect the complete Command Token to open the passage to the Central Continent.

Cost of Use: To remove the Command Token’s Seal, a soul sacrifice must be performed using at least one Insect Dao practitioner corresponding to the Four Domains. This is achieved at the cost of their life and the shattering of a Forbidden Artifact.

Status: Purification available!"

’It really is an ear...’

Reading the description in the information box, even Yang An was horrified by the cost of using the Command Token.

The costs associated with other cultivation items were usually just damage, mutation, or suffering for the Cultivator. Though they were strange and varied, there was at least always a glimmer of hope for survival.