Dusk Returns to the Ruined Building

Smoke rises from the northern Meng, a thousand silences, the moon's shadow falls on the dilapidated temple!

Shen Yichen merged with heaven and earth using the art of meditation, thinking he would find out what the couplet was about, but instead he entered another space, a very strange space.

Shen Yichen saw the Emperor Tree. Under the Emperor Tree stood a person with his back to him. The ground beneath his feet resembled a chessboard, crisscrossing, yet composed of thousands of mountains and rivers.

Shen Yichen could walk on water or on mountain peaks; the feeling was both real and illusory, with thousands of mountains and rivers beneath his feet.

"You've come, but you shouldn't have. This path is incredibly difficult, and this game of chess is equally difficult!"

The person under the Emperor Tree spoke first, while Shen Yichen was still dazed.

He had entered a state of Zen meditation, merging with heaven and earth, but he didn't see this scene outside the Thousand Temples, nor could he have seen such a scene, because there couldn't possibly be an Emperor Tree around the Thousand Temples.

Shen Yichen's first thought was that he was dreaming again, but he had never heard of Zen meditation entering a dream before!

"You seem a bit dazed, lost, and confused. Well then, let's see who I am!"

The person under the Emperor Tree turned around.

Shen Yichen was so startled that he took three steps back and exclaimed in surprise:

"You, who are you?"

The person under the Emperor Tree smiled, a smile that Shen Yichen knew all too well and felt all too warmly.

"You don't even recognize yourself anymore? Have you become that stupid?"

Shen Yichen stared at the exact image of himself beneath the Emperor Tree, speechless with shock. It was indeed himself, except that the person was surrounded by the aura of the Holy Emperor Technique.

"W-where is this?"

"Are you asking me? You should know, we're the same person!"

Shen Yichen kept shaking his head, wondering if he had too much water in his brain.

Shen Yichen tried to walk among the mountains and rivers, but it didn't affect him at all. He wanted to find a way to leave; this place was really too strange.

"Your heart is not steadfast, why do you summon me?"

Upon hearing this, Shen Yichen stopped. Looking at himself beneath the Emperor Tree, he softly asked:

"I summoned you? If you are me, why didn't you summon me? You brought me here, didn't you?"

"Why have you suddenly become so smart? I've been waiting for you under the Emperor Tree, and I'm pretty sure it was you who summoned me!"

Shen Yichen frowned slightly; he really couldn't understand it.

Can you tell me where this is?

"It seems your resolve is truly wavering. In that case, I have no choice but to ask you to leave!"

No sooner had Shen Yichen finished speaking than a figure flashed over and attacked him with a palm strike.

Shen Yichen looked horrified and quickly used his internal energy to resist.

"You, how can your Holy Emperor Technique be so powerful? Aren't you me?"

Shen Yichen received no answer; he only saw a smiling face of his own before being slapped out of that mysterious space.

Shen Yichen's heart suddenly trembled. He was sitting cross-legged outside the Thousand Temples, and what he saw was still a mountain, a Buddha, a world, a thousand rivers, a thousand paths, and a thousand worlds.

The purple-robed man, Ji Xuanren, was standing behind him. Shen Yichen's expression changed slightly. He was in harmony with heaven and earth, and he had no idea when Ji Xuanren had come to him.

That means he wasn't in harmony with heaven and earth at all. So where did he go in his meditation?

Shen Yichen slowly stood up, his face showing both solemnity and confusion.

The man in purple, Ji Xuanren, also had his brows furrowed. He used his fingers to control his qi and wrote on the ground:

"Are you comprehending the Dao of the Saint Emperor's Technique?"

Shen Yichen was slightly taken aback.

Shen Yichen looked at the man in purple, not understanding what Ji Xuanren meant, and could only shake his head. He could not tell what he had seen and heard, because there was an Emperor Tree there.

Ji Xuanren also wrote:

"The Unity of Heaven and Earth Holy Emperor Technique is the strongest path of the Ji family's Holy Emperor Technique. Do not neglect the essential for the trivial!"

Shen Yichen shrugged and shook his head. He didn't know how to explain or respond, and he was also afraid to speak.

Shen Yichen hesitated for a moment, then wrote a sentence on the ground:

"I'm dozing off!"

The man in purple, Ji Xuanren, shook his head and continued writing:

"The Ji family is rife with trouble; caution is paramount, and one must always be wary of others!"

"Oh, are you talking about me? Are you telling him to be wary of me? You've crossed the line again. I'm sorry, my promise is no longer valid!"

Yixuan actually walked out of the courtyard.

Shen Yichen and the purple-robed man Ji Xuanren were shocked. They hadn't noticed anything at all. This was impossible!

Shen Yichen looked at the Heavenly Phase Dragon in Yixuan's hand and was shocked. The Heavenly Phase Dragon was too powerful.

"You, you've been here for a while?"

Shen Yichen had no choice but to speak; Yixuan had already spoken.

"He's secretly cultivating on his own, without telling me. He really wants to surpass me in secret!"

Shen Yichen pointed to the couplet and replied:

"Yi Xuan, didn't you say this was about me? Let me see, I..."

Shen Yichen was stunned. He kept rubbing his eyes and looked at the couplet again, but still...

Shen Yichen hurriedly pulled Yixuan along, pointing to the couplet and saying:

"Yi Xuan, what... what did you see?"

Yi Xuan was also shocked, and the purple-robed man, Ji Xuanren, was also stunned.

The couplet has changed!

"A thousand mountains, a thousand Buddhas, a thousand worlds; a river, a path, a mortal realm!"

The three people looked at each other in bewilderment, but those words were not altered by humans; they too bore the marks of a thousand years of history.

"This, this couplet was written by a member of the Ji family!"

Yi Xuan voiced his bold guess, which Shen Yichen believed, and he thought of one person—Ji Xuanfeng.

How old is this Yixian Temple?

Purple Robe Princess Xuanren and Yixuan, of course, had no idea.

"It's been over a thousand years. It's said that during the battle between good and evil, a monk lived here. Because he killed too many people, he eventually disappeared without a trace!"

On the wall of the dilapidated temple, Dao Buwen drank wine, gazing at the waning moon in the sky.

Shen Yichen and the other two were slightly startled, but did not make any further moves.

"Senior, is that person a member of the Ji family?"

"No way! That person is a hermit who cultivates both Buddhism and Taoism, or rather, he entered Buddhism through Taoism. He is known as the Thousand-One Mute Monk because he can't speak. Of course, these are just legends!"

Yi Xuan lowered his head in thought, murmuring:

"Could this not have been written by a member of the Ji family? But..."

Shen Yichen understood nothing. He stared quietly at the couplet, muttering to himself:

"A thousand mountains, a thousand Buddhas, a thousand worlds; a river, a path, a mortal realm!"

"The most foolish thing a person can do is try to figure everything out. The Tao emphasizes going with the flow, just like drinking alcohol—whether you're drunk or not, it's all the same!"

Dao Buwen flew away. Shen Yichen and Yixuan were both stunned when they heard this. They looked at each other, as if they were both caught up in the moment.

"How could he dare to walk alone at night?"

Yi Xuan smiled as she looked at Shen Yi Chen.

"Yichen, I've noticed that you're always the most clueless person around. Your cluelessness doesn't discriminate between time and situation!"

"go away!"

"Go back to sleep, we have a whole day of travel to do tomorrow!"

Yi Xuan pulled Shen Yichen into the Thousand Temple, and of course, neither of them dared to speak.

Those who are not confident in their way only dare to speak when they are sitting on the wall; the reputation of the mute monk Qianyi remains.

In fact, Shen Yichen and Yixuan did not know that there were many legends about the Thousand Temples in Yanquan. It is said that people of good and evil died here because their words affected the cultivation of the Thousand Mute Monk.

Both the righteous and the evil factions sent people to question them, but they were all killed. After that, no one dared to come again. Not long after, the mute monk Qianyi also disappeared, but it seems that people who speak in the temple still die.

Over time, anyone passing by the Thousand Temples would stop talking inside, because there was a ghost in Beimeng Mountain, and anyone who spoke there would be targeted by the ghost.

Shen Yichen leaned against that pillar again. He really didn't know, and didn't want to be the dumbest person.

On a cliff in Beimeng Mountain, he lost his footing and fell, looking at the shadows in the night with a slight frown.

"How could you leave the Tomb of Loyal Bones?"

"Hmph, are we that close? Let me remind you, that young man knows the Holy Emperor's Technique of Unity of Heaven and Earth!"

The path is unstable when one drinks; one tilts one's head back and drinks heavily.

After a long while, the shadow on the cliff gave a cold laugh!

"Hmph, so you knew all along!"