Chapter 544: Immortal Gate Exchange Ends

Immortal Suiyue returned to Polaris, his heart pounding from the growing commotion created by Immortal Buxiu and the Dragon-Phoenix Prodigies.

"Suiyue, you're back? How are Qilin and Ying Tian?"

Immortal Suiyue said seriously, "That foul-mouthed Ying Tian Immortal was cheating, so I taught him a lesson. Then they continued playing. When I left, Qilin and Ying Tian had both entered a state of enlightenment, as if they had discerned the Five Elements, Eight Trigrams, and the cosmic Yin and Yang contained within the game of Gomoku! Immortal Jiuchong, the founder of Gomoku, is protecting them as they meditate. I came back first."

"Oh, they're having such a fortunate encounter! Perfect, I'll make them something delicious to nourish them."

Immortal Suiyue watched Immortal Buxiu's busy figure and kindly reminded her, "Especially give Ying Tian extra nourishment. I see his enlightenment is the deepest, and he needs the most replenishment!"

Immortal Buxiu responded loudly, "No problem, this is my specialty!" She rolled up her sleeves, tightened her headscarf, and went all out. Soon, the wails of the ingredients could be heard.

Immortal Suiyue sneered, thinking, "You called me treacherous and cunning, Ying Tian? This time, I'll make sure you regret it!"

"So this is an immortal's chess game," Meng Jingzhou mumbled. He looked at it from every angle but couldn't discern the profundity contained within the chessboard by the two ancient immortals. Tao Yaoye and Man Gu had similar reactions; they saw nothing.

Qiu Jinan scoffed internally, "Nonsense. No one else in our Five Elements Sect has seen the historical reflection in a hundred thousand years. Do you expect to see it as soon as you walk in?"

Lu Yang yawned, bored. He had just woken up from the historical reflection and was mentally exhausted, momentarily unable to tell where he was. Before Immortal Ying Tian and the others noticed Immortal Buxiu, Lu Yang had watched the chess game for twenty years – albeit an accelerated version by Immortal Buxiu. Even so, this was a huge mental burden. Furthermore, he had directly faced the four ancient immortals through a space-time tunnel, connecting past, present, and future.

Qiu Jinan noticed Lu Yang's movement but didn't think much of it. The patriarch had been immersed in the historical reflection for a hundred years, completely different from Lu Yang. To outsiders, Lu Yang had merely lowered his head and yawned, all within two or three breaths. No one would have guessed that he had seen the historical reflection, though it was thanks to Immortal Buxiu's influence.

After a quarter of an hour, Qiu Jinan asked with a smile, "Are you done watching?" As expected, nothing happened. Young people just come here out of curiosity. Everyone sighed collectively. They had hoped to encounter an immortal destiny, or at least catch a glimpse of an immortal. But there was nothing.

"Immortal, was the information you just conveyed too little?" Immortal Buxiu had only conveyed five words before the passage closed for unknown reasons, and Lu Yang worried that the communication hadn't worked.

"Don't worry," she said. "Although their wisdom isn't as great as mine, they are still exceptionally intelligent. They will definitely be able to guess something and leave behind a hidden move. But I was still destined to die anyway. The hidden move they left behind probably isn't for me; it must be for something else."

"As long as it has an effect, that's good." Although he knew many dark secrets of the four ancient immortals, making it easy for them to kill him, and Immortal Qilin even tricked him into eating dirt, Lu Yang still hoped the four ancient immortals were alive.

Li Haoran's expression wavered for a moment. He had just seen the chessboard and suddenly dozed off. In a haze, he saw four figures in the immortal realm, all wielding immense power, impossible to face directly. Then he woke up and blinked his eyes.

"Was it a dream?" He tried to recall what happened in the dream, to recall who the four people in the secret realm were, but the more he thought, the blurrier his memory became. "What just happened?" Li Haoran frowned. He felt as if something had just happened, but upon careful thought, nothing had.

As the group left the immortal realm, no one noticed a figure sitting motionless on the mountain peak, like a stone statue. The figure lifted its eyelids, glanced at the departing group, then floated down into the immortal realm. The figure found the immortal realm to be the same as before, with no differences, and a trace of doubt appeared in its eyes.

"Strange," it muttered. "Was it an illusion? Why did it feel like someone saw the historical reflection just now?" The figure shook its head, dismissing the thought. "It must be an illusion. How could someone encounter the historical reflection without becoming immersed in it?"

A month passed in the blink of an eye. Lu Yang and the other four had gained a lot at the Five Elements Sect. Following the Five Elements' positions, they cultivated in the five meridians, harmonizing their channels and organizing what they had learned over the month. Lu Yang cultivated in the Metal Meridian, advancing significantly from the first layer of the late Golden Core stage to the peak of the second layer of the late Golden Core stage, reaching minor perfection.

"Fellow Daoist Baiming, we'll meet again in the jianghu!" Lu Yang and the others waved vigorously from the flying boat, shouting. Everyone from the Five Elements Sect came out to see them off.

At the Wen Dao Sect's Animal Farm.

"In the primordial Azure Heaven, the jade-green sky sang empty songs, and the vast land of Fu Li..." The high-ranking members of the Undying Cult swayed their heads, and the Buddhist chants rang out clearly. After nearly a month of Buddhist dharma immersion, they were all transformed, especially Immortal Buxiu, whose understanding of Buddhist dharma was the highest, making rapid progress. If he hadn't deliberately restrained himself, his body would have been glowing with golden light.

"Patron Bu has profound Buddhist affinity. Perhaps in the future, you could join my Hanging Temple."

"Nonsense, it's all thanks to the little master's excellent teaching." Immortal Buxiu and Shi Chan bowed to each other.

"Unfortunately, time is up. I, this humble monk, must return to the slaughterhouse to comprehend the method of 'laying down the butcher's knife and becoming a Buddha on the spot.'" Shi Chan felt great regret; he and Immortal Buxiu had met too late. Many of his views were recognized by Immortal Buxiu, who was much more enlightened than his own master. "This was a patron of great wisdom! By getting to know Patron Bu, his trip to Wen Dao Sect was well worth it!"

Under the influence of Buddhist dharma, the three female ghosts, Xiao Wu, successfully advanced to the Golden Core stage. This was only natural. Even if the high-ranking members of the Undying Cult were refined into changgui and not allowed access to cultivation resources, their casual pointers alone could give the three Xiao Wu ghosts a revolutionary understanding of cultivation, rendering cultivation resources unnecessary. Coupled with Shi Chan's dharma lectures and teachings, which helped their souls transform, reaching the Golden Core stage was a matter of course.

The disciples of Wen Dao Sect all felt that the grilled skewers tasted better this past month. Slaughtering livestock inevitably carried their resentment into the meat. While true fire could dispel resentment, its effect was slightly inferior compared to Buddhist dharma. When slaughtering livestock, the Cult Master and Vice Cult Master Jin would recite Buddhist dharma to resolve the resentment.

When Immortal Buxiu discovered this, he was overjoyed. "This is a great method!" he exclaimed. "When I get the chance, I'll talk to the second boss and see if we can promote this method to all barbecue restaurants!" This was proof of positive labor reform.

"Junior Brother Shi Chan, come again when you have the chance. If you have any needs, I will surely fulfill them." Dai Bufan personally saw Shi Chan off. He had learned that his master was still alive and believed it was his own good deeds that had touched Master Jiesha from afar, thus saving his master's life.

Shi Chan indeed had something he needed help with. "Senior Brother Dai, could you lend this humble monk some travel money?"