This scoundrel is a bit of a swordsman.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Xingxue's pupils contracted sharply. Like a startled rabbit, she instinctively took a half-step back and said in a trembling voice, "Why would you have such a thought? This conjecture is truly chilling. If a cultivator's three natal soul flames were to be transformed into incense sticks, wouldn't that mean turning a living person into an offering?"

"Offerings?" Upon hearing this, Xiao Xingchen was struck dumb, his body jolting violently. Looking at the Buddha statue again, he felt as if he were gradually unveiling the truth.

Three sticks of incense were offered before both the demon and the Buddha, and the three flames on his body were also like three sticks of incense. Could there really be such a coincidence in this world?

"you.."

Xiao Xingxue was about to continue speaking, but before she could finish, an overwhelming fear suddenly appeared on her face. Her right hand pointed at the Buddha statue, and she stammered...

"It...it..."

Upon hearing this, everyone looked in the direction she was pointing, and saw that blood tears were flowing from the eyes of the golden statue of Tang Sanzang, as if weeping and lamenting.

"The golden Buddha sheds tears of blood, what exactly is going on?"

The elder of the Xiao family was utterly shocked; his voice trembled.

"It seems to be crying for help, issuing a warning!"

Ling Xue's ghost sword emitted bursts of sword cries, like the howls of evil spirits. Xiao Xingchen's eyes grew increasingly deep. He sensed that he was gradually approaching the truth, but it seemed that something was still missing. What exactly was missing?

"Shen family, does anyone know the origin of the Shen family's slave seal?"

He suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs. Even after the Shen family slave seal was broken, some residue remained in his body. At this moment, he could no longer hide it and directly forced it out from his fingertips.

Seeing the remaining slave marks that had been forced out gleaming with dazzling golden light, he suddenly realized...

"So that's how it is!" Xiao Xingchen turned around suddenly, his mind clear as a mirror. The slave seal of the Shen family contained the power of Buddhist vows, no wonder it could control people. At this moment, he finally understood why that slave seal could control him so completely. It was all due to the power of Buddhist vows.

Then, thinking about the three incense sticks in front of him, it was precisely because of the power of his vows that his three flames turned into three incense sticks.

"With the three souls serving as incense and the seven spirits as lamp oil, this Buddha statue is not an object of suppression at all, but rather..."

"altar!"

"What?!" Upon hearing Xiao Xingchen's words, everyone froze on the spot. This was too outrageous.

"I don't understand, if this is an altar, what are they worshipping?" Ling Xue asked.

Xiao Xingchen shook his head and continued observing the golden Buddha statue. Tang Sanzang was crying. Why was he crying? He was almost there. Under what circumstances would Tang Sanzang cry? He quickly flipped through records about Journey to the West.

Then he started cursing.

"Damn, this Tang Sanzang seems to cry all the time. How am I supposed to know why you're crying?"

Looking back on Journey to the West, Tang Sanzang shed countless tears; there must have been at least twenty or thirty episodes, if not a hundred or eighty. It's impossible to find any more.

He turned to look at the altar. If this was an altar, could it be related to the sacrificial clan?

It's a pity that Mu Wushuang suddenly disappeared without a trace, otherwise he could have found someone to ask what was going on here.

Sacrifice, in essence, is the sacrifice of life. According to this logic, the three incense sticks here are a sacrifice to Tang Sanzang's life. Recalling the situation at the Silent Temple, the great demon Feifei was indeed nearing the end of her life when she broke free of her seal; her life force was exhausted.

Could it be that the three incense sticks stole the lifespan of the stone elephant?

This idea gave him a jolt. If this explanation was correct, then all his guesses could be put together: what appeared to be suppression was actually theft of lives.

The reason why the three incense sticks cannot be extinguished is that lifespan is the nourishment, and if lifespan does not end, how can the three incense sticks be extinguished?

As the group focused their attention, the gilded lotus lamps on the dome of the Buddhist temple suddenly burst forth with a shower of light, each drop of golden radiance illuminating a distorted human face.

Xiao Xingchen hurriedly looked up, and when he saw those pained faces, he suddenly realized that these were the faces of people whose souls had been burned to ashes by the stolen incense. Their burning souls had turned to ash, and they were now wailing in the Buddha's light.

"Watch out for the incense ash!" He grabbed Xiao Xingxue, who was about to touch the falling ashes.

"These are the ashes refined from the souls of living beings!"

Before she finished speaking, a viscous golden liquid suddenly gushed out from the crack in the ground. Ling Xue swiftly unleashed a sword curtain, and the collision between the ghost sword and the golden liquid produced a resounding bell-like sound. Only then did everyone realize that it was not a liquid at all, but countless Sanskrit scrolls as fine as hair flowing within it.

"Using blood ties as a guide, stealing longevity with the help of the Buddha's lamp,"

After Xiao Xingchen finished speaking, the Sanskrit flowed, and everyone underwent changes. A strange aura began to appear. Xiao Xingchen noticed that three flames began to emerge on the shoulders of everyone in front of him.

This phenomenon is magnified in everyone's pupils.

"You, you really have three incense sticks burning on your shoulder, who exactly are you?"

Seeing the three incense sticks on Xiao Xingchen's shoulder wasn't scary, because everyone has them. But the three incense sticks on Xiao Xingchen's shoulder were so obvious and so different from others. Xiao Xingxue was so frightened that she hurriedly retreated and distanced herself from her. Even Ling Xue was surprised to learn that a person could not have the three incense sticks on their body. Was this still a human?

"It seems we've triggered the truly terrifying mechanism here. The Three Incenses Steal Longevity, what a grand scheme."

Xiao Xingchen took a deep breath. Not only was his lifespan being stolen, but Tang Sanzang's was being stolen as well, and even the slave seals placed by the Shen family were for the purpose of stealing lifespan.

Such a grand gesture was chilling to contemplate, leaving him utterly astonished. As the golden light descended, the three fires of everyone present were being transformed into three incense sticks, meaning they had all become nourishment.

"Tell me quickly, what's the deal with these three incense sticks?" A terrified voice rang out from Xiao Xingxue. With the appearance of the three incense sticks, chaos erupted among the crowd.

"The appearance of the three incense sticks signifies that your lifespans are being stolen, including that of this Buddha statue. This is the truth."

Xiao Xingchen offered an explanation, then turned back to look in the direction they had come from. Several figures had already rushed out from that direction, the leader being none other than the young monk Miaowu.

Before the person even arrived, the image of Pigsy appeared out of thin air and instantly materialized beneath the golden Buddha.

"Master, Pigsy is late!"

A nine-toothed rake descended from the sky accompanied by a biting wind. The rake swung with chilling arcs of light, splitting the space in two: one half a sunlit hall, the other an ancient temple shrouded in eerie energy. The two scenes juxtaposed, locked in a fierce confrontation.

A horrifying sight appeared in the spatial rift: each level of the nine-story demon tower suppressed a golden Buddha statue, while the blood pool at the bottom of the tower was filled with a monkey wearing chains!

"Great Sage?" he blurted out, dumbfounded. At that very moment, the demonic intent dormant within him suddenly awakened.

"Ah!!!" Xiao Xingchen suddenly screamed in agony, clutching his head, and a dark golden Buddha mark appeared on his forehead.