Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After his pleasant surprise, Jiang Chen wondered where the folks of the Sacred Zone had gone. He also thought about how to reduce the casualties of his people when he was carrying out the Sovereign Spirit Project. Since Blood Slaves were everywhere, the spearhead of the Blood Race would attack them right away before they could retreat. The worst-case scenario Jiang Chen had thought about was to die if the Sacred Zone was eliminated.
After making sure the Evil Blood Emperor did not know the whereabouts of the folks of the Sacred Zone either, Jiang Chen let him go into the Buddhist Relic. Gazing at the Buddhist Relic, his fingers pressing against its smooth surface, he could not help but be lost in thought. The Buddhist Relic was not just a simple spiritual medium. What he was sure of was that it had helped him to improve his understanding of Buddhism a lot.
“World” is an interesting word in Chinese. It is made up of two characters, “Shi” and “Jie”. “Jie” means the partition of space: east, west, south, north, above, below, and so on are called the ten directions. “Shi” means the passing of time. The past, the present, and the future are called the three worlds.
The Mahavairocana Abhisambodhi Tantra Jiang Chen practiced was composed of three chapters: the Chapter of the Past, the Chapter of the Present, and the Chapter of the Future. Everything seems to be connected in a way. It is called karma in Buddhism. “Am I connected with Buddha or is Buddha connected with me?” That was what Jiang Chen was pondering, but it was impossible to find the answer to this question.
At this moment, he clearly felt the restrictions of the World of Bloody Sea had been lifted and people could come and go freely through Sacred Spirits. Those who had left earlier all returned. Seeing Jiang Chen standing there safe and sound, they realized right away that the Evil Blood Emperor had been eliminated. Feeling thrilled, they felt that Jiang Chen even looked larger. A crisis had been resolved. Led by Jiang Chen, except for Xiao Yuan, who kind of killed himself, none of them died or was injured. It was almost a miracle!
Then each Sacred Lord heard the voice of the Sacred Spirit. It asked everyone to leave. After all the commotion, the World of Bloody Sea was extremely unstable. It had to be closed for some time. Those who had been eager to leave felt unwilling to leave at the moment. Since the crisis had been resolved, the World of Bloody Sea seemed charming to them again.
Jiang Chen and Man Tianyin parted with the crowd. Both of them felt unwilling to say good-bye. They had come here through different passages. In leaving, Jiang Chen would go back to the Heavenly Palace. And Man Tianyin would go back to the Sovereign Spirit Palace located in the Eighth Realm.
“Is your Sovereign Spirit not awake yet?” Man Tianyin hoped Jiang Chen could go to the Sovereign Spirit Palace as well. As far as she knew, Jiang Chen was one of the reincarnations of the Sovereign Spirit.
“I don’t have a Sovereign Spirit,” Jiang Chen’s words made Man Tianyin turn pale. Before Man Tianyin started to make assumptions, Jiang Chen told her about the Venerable Red Cloud and Xiao Nuo.
“This…this is insane! What if anything goes wrong?” Man Tianyin still felt worried that things could still go wrong after learning the reason that Xiao Nuo had killed him.
Jiang Chen smiled bitterly. Xiao Nuo was impulsive indeed. Touching where he had been stabbed by the Infinite Sai in his previous life, he was speechless. “What happened after my death?” asked Jiang Chen.
“I didn’t hear about your death until the end of the wedding.” Speaking of this, Man Tianyin was somehow embarrassed. She felt too awkward to talk about it.
“Oh? What did you hear?” Jiang Chen certainly felt curious.
“It was said…it was said that when you were spending your first night together, Xiao Nuo wasn’t careful enough and forgot you had never practiced…so, so she did it too hard, and unexpected things happened.” Man Tianyin’s voice was too low to be heard by then. Even her ears had flushed red.
Jiang Chen was completely struck dumb. “Couldn’t she have made up a better excuse?!! My good reputation was destroyed!” Judging from Man Tianyin’s reaction, it was not hard to imagine what it was like in the Sacred Zone when people had heard about the news.
“Since it was totally an accident, the Over Cloud Palace forgave her,” Man Tianyin hurried to shift the topic. “She disappeared for a long time afterward.” At the mention of that, Man Tianyin felt a little guilty. “Back then we couldn’t forgive Xiao Nuo, although she didn’t mean to do that. We kept swearing at her.”
“We?” Jiang Chen got the key word in her account.
“I wasn’t your only admirer in the Sacred Zone back then. As far as I know, there were even men among your admirers,” Man Tianyin said, smiling.
“Too much information!” Jiang Chen looked awkward. He supposed he’d leave that topic. “Did you ever meet Long Xing in the Sovereign Spirit Palace?”Jiang Chen turned serious at the thought of this important thing.
“Long Xing? You mean the lord of the palace?” Man Tianyin looked confused. She had no idea what he meant. But she answered him, “It’s said the lord is in a life-or-death seclusion. He hasn’t shown up for 100 years.”
Jiang Chen nodded. 500 years had passed. It was not easy for Long Xing to hold out until then. Thinking it over, Jiang Chen decided to keep the story about him and Long Xing away from Man Tianyin. It was not that he did not want to tell her. He was just afraid he would get her into trouble.
At this moment, the Sacred Spirit spoke again, urging everyone in the World of Bloody Sea to leave.
“Jiang Chen.” Man Tianyin looked as if she really did not want to part with Jiang Chen when it was time to leave. 500 years ago, she was in love with Jiang Chen, but she could not get him. Now, 500 years later, they were finally brought together by fate. That was the most wonderful thing she could ever think of.
Jiang Chen put his arms around her thin waist and pulled her into her arms. Feeling her soft body, Jiang Chen felt excited. Running his fingers through her smooth hair, he said in a gentle voice, “Take it easy. I’ll come to see you. Wait for me in the Eighth Realm.”
Man Tianyin agreed. Then she said, “And I can go down to visit you as well.”
“No. I’ve got lots of enemies in the Seventh Realm.” In the Seventh Realm, the Divine Prison Continent was the only place where Jiang Chen could stay.
Man Tianyin was very disappointed, but she did not insist. She used to be the head of a team of bandits. This experience had trained her to be strong and understanding, sometimes even too understanding, which made people feel pity for her.
The Sacred Spirit warned them for the last time. Everyone could feel they were incompatible with the World of Bloody Sea, as if it was forcing them to leave.
Jiang Chen took advantage of the last minute to give Man Tianyin a kiss, hugging her tightly, and unwilling to let her go.
Man Tianyin felt her body going weak, as if she was very drunk. Seeing this, the crowd felt envious, besides the awe they held for Jiang Chen. Men felt envious of Jiang Chen, while women felt envious of Man Tianyin.
“Thank you, Jiang Chen!”
“You are welcome to the World of Meson! Any time!”
“You must give me a chance to pay you back!”
People started to leave. They did not forget to thank Jiang Chen for his help.
“Guys!” Something occurred to Jiang Chen. He stopped those who were leaving and told them what he wanted.
“No problem. A piece of cake.”
“Just hold on there. We’ll come as soon as possible.”
“Great! Let’s have a big celebration then!”
No one refused him. Instead, they were quite interested. They all agreed right away.
Jiang Chen smiled. After seeing Man Tianyin off, he closed his eyes to communicate with the Divine Tree of Creatures. And soon, he appeared in the same swirling passage through which he had come. Jiang Chen went back to the divine tree by traveling through the passage.
“How was it? Have I satisfied the requirement of Sacred Vigor?” Jiang Chen said, smiling.
“Yes, you have.” Unfortunately, the divine tree answered seriously, without getting his sense of humor.
Jiang Chen felt awkward, but what the divine tree said next caught his attention.
“Given your excellent performance, you can choose any treasure you want.”
