Dusk Returns to the Ruined Building

A lush bamboo forest, a secluded temple in tranquil silence.

Affairs of the martial world and emotions of the mortal realm can all end at the secluded temple, but the human heart cannot. Lü Jiayao is not an option, and even knowing this in reality is not an option.

The Buddha and the Demon did not realize this. The Kongyin Temple trapped his body, but in reality, it only trapped Mingzhi's body, not his mind, because Mingzhi was moved in front of the Kongyin Temple!

Even a monk could be moved by Lü Jiayao's current appearance, let alone the red-clad Qiongyu and the green-clad Muying?

At Xuanfeng Pass, Lü Jiayao was still a pure-hearted female disciple who wholeheartedly wanted to return to Zixia Sect. After the storm of Jianying, Lü Jiayao actually transformed into a charming witch who was with her sister. The red-clad Qiongyu and the green-clad Muying really couldn't see through her!

"Shut up! You two are the goods I robbed. You carried us out of the Yandang Mountains. If Jiayao and I are in a good mood, we'll rob other people. If we're in a bad mood, you two will still be the goods!"

A-mei discovered that Lu Jiayao had not only changed her appearance, but also her heart. She really liked her. A woman, the more alluring and seductive, the better!

"You two blockheads, neither my sister nor I want you. Hurry up and support me. You're not trying to take advantage of me, are you?"

The heart of the woman in red and jade is shattered into pieces! Lü Jiayao shifted back and forth, as if he were deliberately taking advantage of her.

The woman in red, Qiongyu, glanced at the woman in green, Muying, and sighed helplessly:

"Buddhist skeletons, worldly beauties, different hearts but the same body, my heart remains unchanged, Twilight Shadow, is that so?"

"Keep things the same, but change customs and traditions!"

Qiongyu in red helplessly supported Lü Jiayao on her back.

After her hands were freed, the first thing Lü Jiayao did was to give Amei a high five.

"Yay!" "Yay!"

The two of them were like children, gesturing and dancing excitedly.

At this moment, the Buddha and the Demon spoke from within the bamboo forest:

"Sister, it's been hundreds of years since we last met, hasn't it?"

"You, a defeated opponent of Brother Xuanfeng, still want to see me? What are you thinking? Do you even deserve to?"

"I've heard that Ji Xuanfeng has disappeared for several hundred years. Is that true or not?"

"Aren't you one of them too? Is it really necessary to turn yourself into this just to rid yourself of the demonic nature within? What's wrong with being a demon? Right, Jiayao!"

“Sister is right. Good and evil, Buddha and demon have never completely disappeared since ancient times. Perhaps this is the will of Heaven. I will become a demon and see what Heaven intends to do?”

After Lü Jiayao finished speaking, her aura changed, and a bewitching enchantress appeared, her body shimmering with demonic energy.

Lü Jiayao's charm seems to have increased even more!

"You, you... Oh, Jiayao, how come I didn't notice? I've decided, I'll take you all the way through Yanquan, and maybe I'll even help you find a good man to marry!"

"Sister, how can one be enough? I am a demon, of course the more the merrier!"

Upon hearing this, A-mei nodded frantically!

"Yes, yes, the more the merrier! Let's go, you two mounts, be good!"

The red-clad Qiongyu and the green-clad Muying were truly frustrated. Had they known this would happen, they should have killed these two people in the vast desert, especially Lü Jiayao. Sigh, she's so annoying, exciting, and unsettling!

"Amitabha Buddha, sister, have you seen Benefactor Shen?"

Even knowing the truth, his heart was still hard to purify. Watching his sister walk away, he couldn't help but ask.

"Foolish monk, now that you've entered the Buddhist order, your mind should be pure and empty. What do worldly affairs have to do with you?"

The reason A-mei didn't talk to Mingzhi was that she didn't want to mention Shen Yichen.

After finishing her sentence, A-mei shook her head and sighed:

"Kongyin Temple, how can it be empty or hidden if the mind is not at peace?"

"Sister, I heard you're the great demon of Yanquan. You must teach me how to become a great demon. Being a good person in Yingzhou is no fun. Let's go to Yanquan and I want to be a demon again!"

"Don't worry, Jiayao, Yanquan is a great place that can turn good people into demons, bad people into Buddhas, men into madness, and women into insanity!"

……

Amei and her three companions disappeared amidst laughter and sighs.

The four people who once traveled together in the vast desert have now unexpectedly come together again. Two women are demons, and what about the two men? Sigh!

The Starfall Sword and the Sunset Blade belong to the Cloud Spring Tomb. It's a pity that the Red-Clad Jade and the Green-Clad Twilight Shadow didn't know that there was also a Cloud Spring Tomb in Yanquan. Perhaps from the moment they met A-Mei, their journey to Yanquan was destined to be difficult!

Kōinji Akira stood at the entrance for a very long time.

"Alas, knowing this, you should also leave Kongyin Temple. The three-year agreement has failed, Kongyin Temple has become tainted by worldly ties, and your heart has never forgotten those ties!"

Knowing that this time he neither refused nor admitted his mistake, he slowly walked out the door, turned around to look at the couplet, and softly read it aloud:

"Having traveled three thousand roads, I came upon hearing your voice; of all the affairs of the mortal world, this is where it ends!"

He had a premonition that his calamity was truly coming. When he saw his old friends from Manghuang again, his heart was stirred. Buddhism teaches that the mind is moved by causes and conditions, and when the mind is moved, calamity will surely come.

"Master, let us leave this worldly affair behind. There are countless paths to follow, so why did this connection in the mortal world lead you to Kongyin Temple?"

Upon hearing this, both Buddha and Demon were moved!

"Knowing full well, you, you, do you know where your calamity originates?"

"I come from Manghuang, and my calamity naturally originates from Manghuang. Today, my destiny has arrived, and I fear my calamity is about to begin. The power within me is something even Buddha cannot digest. Alas!"

Knowing full well, he touched his heart and knew very well that it wasn't a matter of power, but rather his heart. To be precise, the evil power within him was also silently influencing his heart, and the sound of the bells and the incense of Kongyin Temple could no longer be suppressed!

Knowing he was turning to look towards Manghuang, he remembered the first words the white-haired, white-browed old fisherman by the Eclipse Moon Pool had said to him:

"Fate is a wondrous thing, and we should let it take its natural course!"

Knowing that he had decided not to leave Kongyin Temple, he let things take their natural course.

"Thoughts come and go, arise and vanish, fall and are born, gather and perish. Alas, as a Buddhist disciple, I cannot sever worldly ties with my heart. Whether it is fate or calamity, it is all destiny!"

Knowing full well that it would be a sigh of regret, he prepared to enter the Hidden Temple.

"Should you really go in there? Since you've obtained something that doesn't belong to you, you should let it serve its purpose. You can't hide it forever!"

Mingzhi had already stepped into Kongyin Temple with one foot, but not the other, when someone called out to him.

Knowing full well what was happening, he turned to look at the alluring and sinister woman who had appeared out of nowhere. He closed his eyes slightly and sighed inwardly.

"I've let Fuchen Temple down!"

He knew clearly that his calamity was coming, because the aura emanating from the woman was of the same origin as the aura hidden within him; the evil aura within him was gathering, fluctuating, and rising.

A beam of Buddha's light enveloped Mingzhi.

"Knowing full well that we must quickly enter the Hidden Temple!"

The Buddha's voice was cold, yet it also carried a hint of panic, because he knew that this was the inevitable calamity he was about to face, and that he couldn't stop it.

The woman in the void was too powerful; her aura alone made his heart tremble.

He knew that when he reached out to touch the Buddha's light shining on him, the demon was already rejecting him, because the evil power had appeared outside his body.

"I can go with you, but you can't kill him, and you can't destroy Kongyin Temple!"

In the void, the alluring woman burst into laughter upon hearing this!

"Do you have the final say?"

Knowing full well, he stepped out of the Hidden Temple and responded calmly:

"I'm in charge!"

"Hmph, then convince me with facts!"

In the void, the woman moved her hands slightly, and a bead flashing with azure flames appeared above Mingzhi's head, instantly shattering the Buddha's light.

This person was none other than Sister Qing, and that bead was the Azure Nether Bead, which continuously stimulated the hidden power within Mingzhi's body.

Knowing that there was no resistance, he continued until his whole body turned half black and half white.

The Azure Pearl returned to Sister Qing's body, and Sister Qing murmured to herself:

"How can he not have even a trace of consciousness? That's impossible!"

"Agree to my conditions, and I'll go with you!"

He knew he was truly in pain, because he had really become another Master Xuanku, half Buddha and half demon!

Sister Qing smiled upon hearing this!

"Let's go then!"

Knowing full well, he glanced back at Kongyin Temple and at the couplet.

Of the three thousand paths in the martial world, he has only one; of the myriad affairs of the mortal realm, he has only one tribulation. When the path ends, the tribulation will naturally dissipate, but what will the ending be? He knows but does not know!

A secluded temple stands amidst the vast emptiness, where ancient Buddhist chants linger.

Kongyin Temple has become a temple for passersby, a temple for passersby where no one is.

The Buddha-Demon in the bamboo forest is dead. Ever since Mingzhi entered Kongyin Temple, he had been using Buddhist light to dispel the evil power within Mingzhi's body, but in the end, he still failed!