Chapter 377: Enlightened Monk

At the moment the immortal sword snapped, the Fifth Elder had already mentally planned out the rest of his life.

Zhou Xin had worked diligently for two thousand years, finally reaching a realm just one step away from the Tribulation Crossing Stage. He had become the master of Hundred Refinements Peak and held countless patents, generating immense wealth for the Dao Seeking Sect every year.

However, whether his lifetime’s savings could afford an immortal sword was uncertain. Immortal swords were incredibly difficult to forge—they were exclusive weapons of immortals.

Immortal swords were completely different from the immortal treasures of the Undying Sect. At best, the Undying Sect’s treasures could be considered semi-finished immortal artifacts. But the sword in Lu Yang’s hand was a genuine immortal weapon, and the difference in power was like night and day.

It was said that when an immortal artifact takes shape, its quality is so high that the heavens cannot tolerate it. The heavens will send countless trials to destroy the artifact. If left unchecked, the artifact would surely crumble. To preserve the artifact, the immortal must resist the forces of heaven, which is as difficult as becoming an immortal all over again, fraught with unimaginable dangers.

Having survived such trials to take shape, the value of an immortal weapon was beyond measure. It was certainly not something a mere cultivator at the Unity stage could afford to repay.

Even if he were to work his entire life, the Fifth Elder optimistically estimated that he might just barely be able to afford one.

Seeing the complex expression on the Fifth Elder’s face, Lu Yang coughed awkwardly.

“Fifth Elder, this immortal sword isn’t as indestructible as you think. Based on my research, this sword was likely crafted by an immortal specifically to overcome a difficult situation. It may look like a real immortal sword, but it actually doesn’t have much power.”

This sword had been forged by Ying Tian Immortal, who controlled tribulations, specifically to deceive the prodigies of the dragon and phoenix clans—both of whom were half-immortal beings.

If it could fool those two, it could certainly fool the Fifth Elder.

“Is that so?” Hearing Lu Yang’s explanation, the Fifth Elder finally breathed a little easier.

Still, he worried that Lu Yang was just trying to comfort him, so he carefully inspected the sword.

He scanned it with his spiritual sense, quenched and refined it, and even used metal-forging techniques. After a series of tests, the Fifth Elder finally understood the sword’s construction.

“Which madman forged this sword? It nearly scared me to death!”

“First, they mixed Firestone and Mountain Peak Spirit Stone to create the sword embryo. Then, through some unknown method, they quickly shaped it into a spirit sword. Finally, they applied a layer of immortal gold dust to the sword, making it look as though it had survived heavenly lightning strikes. Even someone as knowledgeable as me mistook this for a real immortal sword. No, not just me—any cultivator at the Tribulation Crossing Stage would’ve been fooled as well.”

“Without touching it, if you only look at it or use your spiritual sense, this sword is indistinguishable from a true immortal sword!”

The Fifth Elder turned to Lu Yang and asked, “You said this immortal sword was used by an immortal to get through a difficult situation. What situation? Was the immortal broke and resorted to extorting people for money?”

The bottle had originally been white but had changed color from the heat of the flame.

“I’ve traveled the world and collected eighty-eight out of the one hundred and eight known True Fires. I keep each True Fire in specially made bottles, and whenever I refine an artifact, I take them out.”

“Later on, I gathered twelve more True Fires, which is how I ended up with my current collection.”

Lu Yang was amazed. No wonder the Fifth Elder was renowned in the artifact refining world—just the collection of these True Fires would make countless artifact refiners green with envy.

The Fifth Elder continued, “Unfortunately, the remaining eight True Fires are either extremely difficult to obtain—despite me offering high bounties, no one has come forward—or they are forbidden items, which are not allowed to be collected.”

“True Fires are forbidden?”

“For example, there’s a Lust True Fire. Just a tiny spark of it can cause a person to fall into uncontrollable lust. If they don’t find release, they might die from holding it in. The court deemed this True Fire too dangerous and banned its collection.”

“Of course, if I really wanted to collect it, I could still find it. Some secret brothels use this fire, but since it’s useless for refining artifacts, there’s no need to bother with it.”

Fifth Elder held the green flame in his hand, smiling faintly. “Perhaps you’ve heard of this—this is the Desireless True Fire, which is the counterpart to the Lust True Fire. It comes from the Golden Buddha Kingdom. When ignited in the heart, it can rid you of all desires, leaving your mind clear and focused solely on the Dao.”

“When I was younger, I traveled with the Third Elder to the Golden Buddha Kingdom. We went there hoping to find the Lust True Fire in a brothel, but luck wasn’t on our side. We didn’t find the fire, but we did encounter an enlightened monk in the brothel.”

“The monk saw that both the Third Elder and I had strong connections to Buddhism, so he felt we were fated to meet. He gave me the Desireless True Fire and even demonstrated the Arhat Fist technique to the Third Elder. The Third Elder was so inspired that he returned and created the Heaven Shaking Six Forms.”

Lu Yang: “...”

Why do I recall the story differently? Wasn’t it that the Third Elder got beaten up with the Arhat Fist in the Golden Buddha Kingdom, which made him so determined to improve that he created the Heaven Shaking Six Forms out of spite?

“Wait, why was an enlightened monk in a brothel?”

Fifth Elder wasn’t surprised by the question. He had asked the same thing at the time, and the monk had answered: “Oh, that monk explained it.”

“He said, ‘Naked, I walk through the brothel, yet the Buddha remains in my heart.’”

(TL Note: Parody of the phrase “酒肉穿腸過,佛祖心中留” which translates to “Alcohol and meat pass through my gut, Buddha remains in my heart”. It is commonly used by fake monks to justify taking part in vices while pretending to be buddhists, the second part of this statement is “世人若学我,如同进魔道” which means “But if ordinary people do like me, this is like entering the world of evil”)

(End of the chapter)