Chen Kuang remained silent.
Huo Hengxuan continued recounting this strange and mystic tale.
"At that time, I was recovering from injuries and temporarily staying in that same village. When I went to collect the monk's body, I found this cultivation technique on him. I used it to begin my path of cultivation and walk the road that's led me here."
Huo Hengxuan made no attempt to conceal the fact that he took something that wasn't his.
He was a soldier-rogue by nature, not someone who did things without reward. That cultivation technique, he considered it his payment for handling the corpse.
If not for that attitude, he probably wouldn't have been expelled from Garan Temple for violating the precepts.
"Three days after he died, a thousand red lotuses inexplicably bloomed in the village pond, it was stunningly beautiful."
"The villagers, thinking it was something rare, harvested the lotuses and sold them at high prices in the city."
"The villagers started fighting amongst themselves over profits, turning to deceit and violence. Eventually, it attracted the attention of powerful merchants, who hired thugs disguised as bandits to raid the village and slaughter everyone."
"Within a month, the village became a ghost town."
"The merchant who orchestrated it died suddenly of illness. The moment he died, all thousand red lotuses withered and vanished."
Chen Kuang raised an eyebrow. If this were his past life, this story would be considered an allegorical fable.
But now... he knew the wandering monk's identity was likely far from ordinary.
Sure enough, Huo Hengxuan glanced at him and explained:
"I once suspected that he might've been the Pure Land's Buddha-child, 'Lionheart'. Based on the timeline, it coincides with his mysterious disappearance."
"I believe he was trying to transcend the Profound Realm by purifying karmic burden through benevolence, spreading kindness to all living beings, to achieve enlightenment and ascend to the Daoist Shore Realm."
"Unfortunately, he failed in the end."
That, coupled with what Huo Hengxuan had previously explained about Buddhist Innate Wisdom...
Chen Kuang began to guess his true plan, and felt more and more certain this old man was completely insane.
"So what you're saying is...?"
Huo Hengxuan grinned and held out his hand. A bead of golden light materialized, hanging from a red cord, a golden relic.
"I want you to impersonate the reincarnated Innate Wisdom of 'Lionheart' and enter Garan Temple as the next Buddha-child."
"As long as they're willing to treat you as the heir to the title, they'll train you accordingly. With your talent, within five years, you'll have a real shot at achieving sainthood!"
"Even if you fall short, just having that identity will be enough to deter Ji Chengtian, Donghuang, the Three Calamities Sect, and even the Mysterious Divine Path Sect. No one will dare make a move without weighing the power of the Wugou Pure Land first!"
Chen Kuang was nearly slack-jawed. This plan didn't just sound outrageous, it defied all reason.
Wugou Pure Land?
Even someone like him, just a lowly court musician, had heard of it. That was where all Buddhas gathered. A true sacred land of the Buddhist path, a kingdom of enlightenment stretching across thousands of miles.
He didn't recognize the name Garan Temple, but any temple that produced a Profound Realm-level Buddha-child had to be on the same level as the Mysterious Divine Path Sect.
To fool an organization of that scale into raising him as their most precious successor?
That was a bet against heaven itself.
If he lost that bet, there would be no salvation left for him.
Chen Kuang twitched at the corner of his mouth and glanced at the glowing relic.
"You're not just here to screw me over, are you, old man? That's one hell of a joke."
But Huo Hengxuan only laughed. He raised the shining relic in his hand, light blazing in five colors, eight sacred Buddhist aspects emerging from its surface, majestic, vast, striking straight at the soul.
"I'm not joking."
"This relic isn't Lionheart's, it's mine. Forged from my own true saintly body before death."
"And I cultivated the Mud-Forged Gold Body Technique myself. I achieved the Eight-Aspect Buddha Bones. This relic is even more convincing than Lionheart's would've been."
"You have the relic, the technique, and now, you know what really happened to Lionheart after forty years."
"If you're not the one with Innate Wisdom, then who is?"
Huo Hengxuan spoke with full confidence. But Chen Kuang took a deep breath and raised a critical question:
"Don't they have a way of testing who's truly inherited Innate Wisdom?"
Huo Hengxuan shook his head.
"As I said, Innate Wisdom isn't the same as a saint's reincarnation. What it preserves is only the memory and a portion of cultivation. The two aren't the same person."
"The only difference is that someone with Innate Wisdom has a divine soul, far more focused and powerful than an ordinary person's."
"That would be a flaw in your disguise."
"But don't worry about that, because..."
Huo Hengxuan's gaze turned deep, unreadable.
"You are someone with Innate Wisdom."
Chen Kuang's head shot up, body going stiff, as though he had been plunged into an icy lake.
"You knew all along?"
Huo Hengxuan burst out laughing. "I didn't before. But I do now!"
"You tricked me?"
Huo Hengxuan shook his head. "Not exactly. When you were able to withstand a flicker of my killing intent with your soul intact, I started to suspect."
Chen Kuang said quietly,
"So you really were trying to kill me back then?"
Huo Hengxuan grinned like a scoundrel. That familiar rogue expression returned.
"Just a little. I was planning to stop short of killing you. Didn't expect you to be totally fine."
"Normal people's divine souls can't handle that, you know."
Chen Kuang had already accepted that in a high-cultivation world, his secrets wouldn't stay hidden. But he didn't expect them to be seen through this easily...
Huo Hengxuan didn't care how much Chen Kuang was struggling to process this. He handed him the relic and said with satisfaction:
"All preparations are in place. All that's left is one thing, do you dare take the bet?"
He added: "If you don't take this path, in five years, you'll be facing a real saint."
"By then, no one will be able to stop him beneath the stars."
"And you know very well... what you're carrying."
"I know exactly what I'm carrying!" Chen Kuang sighed, then reached out and clenched the glowing relic, extinguishing its rainbow hues and divine illusions in an instant.
All that remained was a smooth, egg-sized "pebble" in his hand.
"I'll take the bet."
He studied the relic for a while longer. When he looked up again, the old man was gone.
As if the whole conversation had been a dream.
Huo Hengxuan left just as suddenly as he'd arrived, not a single trace remained.
Chen Kuang muttered with a mix of amusement and exasperation:
"Dammit, old man... you didn't even tell me where Garan Temple is..."
He hung the relic around his neck and tucked it securely into his robes.
"Whatever. I'll figure it out on the way."
Muttering to himself, he straightened his clothes. Looking at the spot where Huo Hengxuan had been sitting, he bowed respectfully like a proper cultivator and softly said:
"General Huo, rest well."
Nearby, Qingcuo had just woken up. She looked slightly dazed.
"He came?"
Chen Kuang shook his head.
"He's gone."
Outside, the ground suddenly shook violently.
A furious roar echoed from the distant city ruins, loud enough to reach the cave:
"Who dares kill the young master of my Three Calamities Sect! I will have their blood in repayment!"
Qingcuo's expression changed.
"The elders of the Three Calamities Sect, they really did come!"
Chen Kuang turned and glanced outside. Then he smiled faintly.
"Let them come."
After an unimaginably long night, his status panel had finally updated.
[You have witnessed the final end of the Zhou-Liang war. The shattered stars and fallen saints weep in unison. You have obtained the passive: "Invincible Before the Divine", The greater the disparity in cultivation between you and your enemy, the faster your Spiritual Energy and body will recover when in close proximity.]
Chen Kuang slung his zither onto his back, eyes gleaming.
"I'll draw them away. You go first."
Perfect timing.
Let them help him recover his strength!