# Chapter 2780: Bright King Meditates, Jade Loses Its Pearl
"I don't know."
Hai Shui shook her head and said, "Everything I know was told to me by my master. Ling Yanzi was ultimately too legendary, and there is a powerful mysterious force that erased all traces of her existence."
"Otherwise, how could someone like her be completely unheard of by Senior Brother Ruochen and the Divine Maiden?"
"The reason I suddenly mentioned Ling Yanzi is because I thought of a Buddhist allusion from Yunqing Patriarch."
"What allusion?" Zhang Ruochen asked.
Hai Shui said, "Bright King Meditates, Jade Loses Its Pearl."
"What kind of allusion is that?"
"This allusion occurred ten eons ago. It tells of how the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable wanted to win the Mani Pearl from Jade Heaven Buddha, so the two of them gambled on it."
"You must understand, the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable was the Heavenly Venerable at that time, revered by all heavens, invincible in that era. Although Jade Heaven Buddha was one of the heavens, he had no certainty of defeating the Great Venerable, much less would he gamble the supreme Buddhist treasure, the Mani Pearl."
"For Jade Heaven Buddha to be willing, he had to be gambled on what he was best at."
"Thus, the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable and Jade Heaven Buddha competed in seated meditation."
Zhang Ruochen was somewhat surprised and said, "Competing in seated meditation with a Buddha, and a Heaven Buddha at that, the Great Venerable was indeed quite confident. However, Jade Heaven Buddha should not have agreed. The Mani Pearl holds extraordinary significance for Buddhism; losing it would make him a sinner against the Buddhist faith."
Hai Shui nodded and said, "Correct! But Jade Heaven Buddha had to compete, because the Great Venerable brought out a treasure he could not refuse to wager against him."
"What treasure?" Zhang Ruochen asked.
Hai Shui pointed at Zhang Ruochen's chest.
"The Arhat White Pearl!"
Zhang Ruochen understood.
It was also one of the Seven Treasures of Buddhism, and the competition was in seated meditation. How could Jade Heaven Buddha possibly refuse?
Hai Shui said, "The Immovable Bright King Great Venerable was an unparalleled genius of ancient times. He cultivated all three paths of the Kunlun Realm—Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism—and merged the strengths of all three to create the world-shaking technique, 'Thirty-Three Heavens.' So the Great Venerable was not unfamiliar with Buddhism, nor was he incapable of seated meditation."
"The two sat for sixty years."
Zhang Ruochen said, "Sixty years is not long for them."
Hai Shui said, "Yes, if he wanted to sit, Jade Heaven Buddha could sit for six hundred years, six thousand years, without moving a muscle. Stillness refers to stillness of body, stillness of mind, stillness of spirit."
"But Jade Heaven Buddha ultimately lost," Zhang Ruochen said.
Hai Shui said, "That was because someone helped the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable."
"Can someone help in seated meditation?" Zhang Ruochen asked.
Hai Shui said, "It was Yinsnow Heaven. She captured Jade Heaven Buddha's disciple, Yunqing, causing Jade Heaven Buddha's mind and spirit to waver. Thus, he lost to the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable and lost the Mani Pearl."
Zhang Ruochen looked around at the golden Buddha walls and said, "The Yunqing Ancient Buddha of that time must have been very young, right?"
"Amitabha!"
Hai Shui said, "Yunqing Patriarch always felt guilty, believing he had caused the loss of the Mani Pearl and was a sinner against Buddhism. I think it was no accident that Yunqing Patriarch's corpse appeared here. Perhaps when he entered the Abyss of Darkness back then, he too was trying to retrieve the Mani Pearl."
"He failed to find the pearl and fell in the Ancient Desolate Ruins City."
Zhang Ruochen felt a surge of emotion and murmured, "Bright King Meditates, Jade Loses Its Pearl."
"Yinsnow Heaven never imagined that the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable would win the Mani Pearl only to give it to Ling Yanzi. In the end, she herself bowed to Yunqing Patriarch to study Buddhism. Senior Brother, why are the affairs of this world so unjust?" Hai Shui asked.
Zhang Ruochen could not answer that question.
Bore said, "Ten eons have passed, perhaps even longer. Over a million years—who truly knows what happened back then?"
"The Divine Maiden knows nothing of these matters? You are Nutian Shenzun's prized disciple; has he never mentioned them to you?" Hai Shui asked.
Bore was puzzled. "Why would the Shenzun mention these things to me?"
Hai Shui gently shook her head, looking disappointed.
Zhang Ruochen said, "Since the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable did not lose back then, how did the Arhat White Pearl come into your hands?"
Hai Shui was a disciple of Yuanyi Ancient Buddha.
Yuanyi Ancient Buddha was the senior disciple of the Sixth Patriarch.
The Sixth Patriarch was a disciple of Yunqing Ancient Buddha.
Yunqing Ancient Buddha was a disciple of Jade Heaven Buddha.
If what Hai Shui said was true, then the Arhat White Pearl had clearly been in the possession of their lineage for a long time.
Hai Shui was also puzzled and shook her head. "I don't know about that. For now, finding Yinsnow Heaven is the most important thing."
"Finding Yinsnow Heaven is no easy task. The Abyss of Darkness is vast, and even just the Ancient Desolate Ruins City hides countless secrets," Bore said.
Zhang Ruochen said, "If Yinsnow Heaven has already fallen, her corpse would likely have been discarded in the Ancient Desolate Ruins City as well."
"Even so, finding her corpse in such a vast and dangerous place as the Ancient Desolate Ruins City would be as difficult as ascending to heaven," Bore said.
Hai Shui said, "Haven't you noticed? Although there are many divine corpses in the Ancient Desolate Ruins City, there are no remains of Heaven-level powerhouses."
Zhang Ruochen nodded. "So we still have to go search for the legendary Great Dark Mountain. But where exactly is the Great Dark Mountain?"
There was a long silence.
Hai Shui said, "Ling Yanzi may not necessarily be dead."
Zhang Ruochen and Bore were both startled.
Hai Shui said, "Why did Ling Yanzi enter the Abyss of Darkness? With the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable's cultivation back then, breaking into the Abyss of Darkness to rescue her would not have been difficult. Why did Yunqing Ancient Buddha and Yinsnow Heaven determine that the Mani Pearl must be in the Abyss of Darkness?"
"Could it be possible that Ling Yanzi herself was born in the Abyss of Darkness?"
"Senior Brother Ruochen is a descendant of Ling Yanzi and the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable. Do you have any ancestral relics?"
Zhang Ruochen shook his head.
The ancestral relics related to the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable were probably only the Swallow Pendant and the Jade Emperor Cauldron.
Even the Hundred Dragon Bright Emperor Armor might not have such a long history.
Unfortunately, none of these ancestral relics were in his possession.
Hai Shui showed a disappointed expression. "Using the power of bloodline might also produce a subtle resonance. If we find Ling Yanzi, we should be able to find Yinsnow Heaven."
Bore said, "Don't think about that for now. We haven't even resolved the immediate crisis!"
"Right, let's first go meet up with Xiao Hei and Gusha Jing." Zhang Ruochen also had a subtle resonance with Xiao Hei and Gusha Jing and was confident he could find them.
Zhang Ruochen closed his eyes, mobilized his spiritual power, and carefully sensed.
Bore looked at the divine light emanating from Zhang Ruochen's body and exclaimed softly, "You've already achieved spiritual power godhood?"
Earlier, her attention had been on Hai Shui, so she hadn't deliberately examined Zhang Ruochen's cultivation changes.
Zhang Ruochen opened his eyes again. "I just broke through. It's hard to explain in a few words; I'll tell you on the way. I've already sensed Xiao Hei's aura. Follow me."
On the way, Zhang Ruochen recounted some of his conjectures about achieving spiritual power godhood.
He naturally did not mention the secret of going to the Primordial Beginning.
Bore said, "Perhaps there's another reason. Just now, I saw that your spiritual power contains Buddhist essence, quite similar to Yunqing Ancient Buddha's aura. You probably absorbed Yunqing Ancient Buddha's power to succeed."
"It should be the Buddha marrow," Hai Shui said.
Zhang Ruochen looked at her.
Hai Shui explained, "Buddha marrow can enhance a cultivator's spiritual power, and a Shenzun's Buddha marrow is even more extraordinary. But Buddha marrow cannot actively merge into your spiritual power. A Shenzun's will has already merged into the Buddha marrow and needs to be refined into a divine pill before it can be directly consumed."
"For Senior Brother to directly absorb the Buddha marrow, there is only one possibility. Yunqing Patriarch may still have residual soul fragments. It was he, through his own will, who helped you achieve godhood."
"After falling for eight hundred thousand years, can there still be will and divine soul remnants?" Zhang Ruochen asked.
Hai Shui said, "The power of a Shenzun is beyond our understanding. Actually, verifying this is simple. We only need to break through the golden Buddha wall and probe the Buddha marrow to know if Yunqing Patriarch has residual soul fragments. But that would be disrespectful to the Patriarch, and with our cultivation, we cannot break the golden Buddha wall."
"Give me the sword."
Without waiting for Zhang Ruochen's consent, Bore snatched the Abyssal Ancient Sword from his hand in an instant.
Divine light and sword radiance erupted from Bore and the Abyssal Ancient Sword.
"Whoosh!"
She and the sword shot through the air, striking the Buddha wall on the opposite side of the stream.
"Boom!"
A powerful wave of divine power spread out in ripples, surging in all directions.
The entire space trembled violently.
The Abyssal Ancient Sword, forged from Creation Raw Iron, was extremely sharp. Combined with Bore's divine-level cultivation, it actually pierced into the wall.
Bore withdrew the sword.
Golden Buddha marrow flowed out from the sword hole in the Buddha wall, giving rise to a hazy, dazzling radiance.
Bore cupped a small amount of Buddha marrow in her hand. "After being corroded by darkness for eight hundred thousand years, even a Shenzun's Buddha marrow has become dim."
Buddha marrow flowing from a living Shenzun's body, even a single drop, would be as bright as a star, with temperatures exceeding billions, capable of melting through an ordinary god's divine body.
Yunqing Ancient Buddha had ultimately fallen, and the divine substance and divinity within his body had largely been lost, incomparable to when he was alive.
"Indeed, it contains divine soul fragments."
Bore's gaze turned toward a certain direction.
Hai Shui said, "We need to go find the source of those divine soul fragments. If Yunqing Patriarch still has consciousness remaining, he might be able to tell us something valuable. Only he truly saw the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable and Yinsnow Heaven, and perhaps even Ling Yanzi."
"We can't leave!"
Zhang Ruochen frowned and looked behind him.
Behind them, dense divine pattern runes, like earthworm patterns, covered the Buddha wall and spread rapidly. Accompanied by strange "shua shua" cries, thousands of six-colored demon butterflies flew toward them rapidly.
"Shua!"
"Shua!"
Two figures radiating divine light appeared in Zhang Ruochen and Hai Shui's field of vision.
They were the Death Clan gods, Kongli Canghai and Nan Sheng.
Kongli Canghai's divine pattern runes, like a spiderweb cocoon, sealed the entire space, cutting off all escape routes for Zhang Ruochen and Hai Shui. He said coldly, "We've finally caught up to you. This time, see where you can run."
...
There will be another chapter tonight.