Chapter 1630 Not Seeking Comfort for Myself, But Wishing All Beings Be Freed from Suffering (Second Update)

After the two finished reading, Gui Cang gently pulled his monk robe closed and sighed. “This child truly no longer has the strength to go resolve the Sixth Tail.”

“Later, this child used the Buddhist Sect’s Inference Skills to calculate, and vaguely sensed that the Third Tail still had an unfinished strand of karma. So I followed that trail all the way here.”

Zhou Qing fixed his gaze on him, his tone carrying a probing edge. “Judging from the backlash you just revealed, that obsession-born resentment… I’m afraid it isn’t something that could have accumulated in just these hundred-odd years, is it?”

“Godfather’s eyes are like torches.” Gui Cang nodded, his tone heavy.

“Those Resentment Crystals that were brought back to Jiyuan Temple, if we want them to be completely converted and dissipated, the monks of the temple must recite scriptures day and night, and use Buddha Light to slowly wash them away. At the least it takes a thousand years, at the most ten thousand.”

“But after all these years of accumulation, the number of crystals has long since piled up like mountains. The temple’s Buddha Light has actually begun to struggle to suppress them, and now faint signs of backlash have already appeared.”

He paused for a moment, his eyes filled with worry. “Yet the Buddhist Holy Land is a place of purity in this world. If these resentments break through the Sealing and contaminate the temple’s foundation, wouldn’t countless dead souls fall into becoming uncontrollable fierce ghosts, thereby bringing even greater calamity to the world?”

“When that time comes, my Jiyuan Temple will not only fail to ferry people across suffering, but instead become the source of disaster. This is something this poor monk absolutely cannot tolerate.”

Zhou Qing nodded slightly without replying, merely looking at him with unhurried composure.

He wanted to see what, after circling around for so long, Gui Cang was actually aiming to do.

Gui Cang seemed to see through his thoughts and continued, “Until a few years ago, news came from the Fifth Tail that Godfather once manifested a Golden Seal and clashed with Celestial Phoenix Palace’s Vice Palace Master Bai Fengyin.”

“Adding the descriptions from other eyewitnesses, and combining that with the Three-Flower Corpse that has stirred up such a storm in the Desolate Forbidden area these past few years, an Ancient Buddha in the temple inferred that the Divine Techniques cultivated by Benefactor are very likely the Inscription-level Divine Techniques ‘Daluo Demon Sealing Seal’.”

“It is said that the ‘Daluo Demon Sealing Seal’ naturally possesses the power to suppress all evil spirits in the world. If we can have this Seal’s assistance, the resentment crisis of my Jiyuan Temple can be completely suppressed and dissolved.”

At this point, Gui Cang looked at Zhou Qing with burning eyes, his tone carrying a certain frankness.

“But this poor monk also understands that Godfather is currently being targeted by all sorts of powers. Setting aside whether we could even manage to find you, even if we did, how could you lightly go to Jiyuan Temple to assist?”

“After all, the human heart is hidden within the belly. How would you know this isn’t a trap set against you?”

Hearing this, Zhou Qing nodded—of course he wouldn’t go.

Back when Master Kudi fled Jiyuan Temple, he was already at Spirit Slash Realm Perfection.

And as Abbot Kuei, Kudi’s senior brother, his strength is naturally without doubt in the Supreme Realm.

Moreover, Jiyuan Temple, as a top-tier power second only to Celestial Phoenix Palace, is rumored to have several reclusive Ancient Buddhas, all of them in the Supreme Realm. Their strength and numbers are unfathomable.

If he were to go rashly, it would be no different from a lamb entering a tiger’s den.

Watching his expression, Gui Cang went on, “Therefore, this poor monk made a bold decision.”

“Using my own cultivation as a container, I quietly performed Refinement to bring that ‘Obsession Tower’ in Jiyuan Temple—where Resentment Crystals have been piling up for tens of thousands of years—into my body.”

“What?!” At this, both Zhou Qing and Shen Yunzhou’s pupils constricted, shock clearly written on their faces.

To bear the resentment of an entire Obsession Tower with a Spirit Severing body—one misstep, and you’d be devoured by resentment, reduced to a walking corpse. This was sheer madness!

Gui Cang, however, remained outwardly calm, only letting his gaze grow ever more resolute as he looked at Zhou Qing. “This poor monk knows such an act is perilous. But this poor monk and Benefactor share an old bond, so… this poor monk wanted to take a gamble.”

“Gamble on what?” Shen Yunzhou couldn’t help but speak, his tone tinged with urgency.

He truly couldn’t fathom what it was that Gui Cang hoped to gamble on with such a desperate move.

Gui Cang said, “Gamble that after this poor monk leaves Jiyuan Temple, I will still have the karmic chance to encounter Godfather.”

“If I can meet you, then for the sake of our past relationship, could you help this poor monk borrow the Inscription-level Divine Techniques to suppress and completely disperse the things Jiyuan Temple has accumulated over all these years?”

“And if you don’t meet me?” Zhou Qing pursued, his tone betraying little emotion.

Looking at Zhou Qing, Gui Cang’s gaze was clear and unflinching. “If we don’t meet, that too is the lot of this poor monk’s fate.”

“As the saying goes, ‘Every sip and every peck is preordained,’ and ‘Plant good causes, reap good fruits; plant evil causes, reap evil fruits.’ This poor monk bore the Obsession Tower precisely to resolve karmic hindrances. Even if I fail to obtain Benefactor’s help, it is still a tribulation on this poor monk’s path of cultivation.”

He paused, his voice growing ever more tranquil. “Besides, ‘Life and death are decreed; wealth and honor lie with Heaven.’ Disciples of the Buddhist Sect do not cling to the survival of the body. So long as one can dissipate a bit more karmic hindrance before passing, then this journey will not have been walked in vain.”

“Of course, in the moments before death, this poor monk will disperse some additional karmic hindrance, then find a place where few people tread, and perform self-Sealing and seated transformation. I will not entangle or affect anyone, and can also lessen some calamity for the temple—why wouldn’t I be willing?”

When Gui Cang finished speaking, he pressed his palms together and bowed slightly. In his expression there was not a trace of resentment, only a serene acceptance of cause and effect.

Seeing Gui Cang so willing to sacrifice himself and calmly walk toward death, Shen Yunzhou felt a wave of admiration surge within.

This was a true Buddha Son.

The kind who “does not seek ease for himself, but only wishes that all beings may be freed from suffering,” a Cultivator willing to use his own body as a torch, lighting others’ path through Tribulation Crossing.

Such self-sacrifice and upholding of great righteousness—how could ordinary Cultivators ever reach such a state?

Shen Yunzhou immediately turned to Zhou Qing, stepping closer and lowering his voice to whisper, “Brother-in-law, he’s a child we watched being born.”

“Back then we met his mother, Lady Li, a few times as well—her nature was gentle and kind. He can’t possibly harbor ill intent. Why don’t… we help him just this once?”

Zhou Qing, however, fell into silence, his brows faintly knitting.

His gaze lingered on Gui Cang for a moment, then swept over the blurred ‘Great’ character mark above his head, as though weighing something in his mind.

After a while, he finally spoke slowly. “Fine. For the sake of your willingness to risk yourself so that the living masses of this world won’t be ravaged by resentment, I can help you with this.”

At these words, Gui Cang jerked his head up, and the formerly calm depths of his eyes instantly flared with joy.

He hastily bowed again, his voice tinged with irrepressible excitement. “Many thanks for Godfather’s fulfillment! This poor monk is endlessly grateful!”

Zhou Qing waved his hand, his tone returning to its earlier indifference. “Give me three days to prepare. You… will stay outside the manor for now.”

As his words fell, he raised his hand and swept it lightly. The manor’s heavy gates creaked and slowly swung shut, isolating Gui Cang outside.

After doing all this, Zhou Qing turned and walked deeper into the manor.

Shen Yunzhou, full of doubt, quickly hurried after him, asking in puzzlement, “Brother-in-law, he’s your foster son after all, and he’s so upright, open-hearted, and full of great righteousness. How could you just shut him out?”