"Is there also a Dharma here? What a coincidence," Zhong Shenxiu suddenly felt a chill in his heart.
He thought of more, such as the homeland of the Second Yan Han Empire—the Eastern Continent, which he had also heard of, albeit only in a novel.
He further thought about the many worlds he had traveled through. Some places seemed different, yet some cultural customs and languages bore striking similarities...
"Perhaps... is there a real ’source world’ that continuously influences the myriad worlds? Causing the influenced realms to unconsciously develop in a certain direction..."
"Or, is it a projection of my other self? Could there be a powerful being, incarnating thousands of forms, casting these incarnations into myriad worlds?"
"Or maybe... the theory of parallel worlds?"
"Such profound secrets of the myriad heavens, I’m afraid, are not something a lowly creature like me can glimpse into..."
Jing Fan had no idea that just mentioning a name had greatly shocked Zhong Shenxiu.
At this moment, he calmly said, "Since the first Dharma Saint Monk passed away, every successive saint monk of our Stone Buddha Temple has been bestowed with the title ’Dharma’. It’s just that people outside mostly refer to them as saint monks, and as time passed, this detail was gradually forgotten, remembered only by the monks of the Stone Buddha Temple itself."
"I see..." Duan Mingyu didn’t think too much and smiled, "It seems that it’s just a coincidence... Wild beasts roar, and some sounds just happen to resemble some of our words... That’s normal, and the dialects are different in each place—some can’t understand each other, and if you delve into it, it’s quite startling."
He was originally an expert in the Sound Wave Skill, so he naturally had the authority to speak.
"You’re right. Today we drink heartily, and then we shall part ways."
Zhong Shenxiu laughed heartily, causing Jing Fan’s face to twitch.
"You... you always take advantage without suffering losses," Duan Mingyu laughed heartily. "I was tricked by this monk, but a gentleman’s word, swift as a horse-mounted whip!"
Zhong Shenxiu smiled in response.
Having traveled together for a time, he came to know that these two persons, in a certain sense, truly embodied the ancient knights—valuing righteousness and keeping their promises, even at the risk of their lives.
"Unfortunately... although I enjoy being friends with such people, I will never truly become one of them."
Duan Mingyu didn’t force Zhong Shenxiu to do anything specific. The three of them enjoyed a vegetarian meal together, during which Duan Mingyu engaged Zhong Shenxiu in a drinking contest, leaving Jing Fan aside.
When the moon was high in the sky, Duan Mingyu, inspired, drew his sword from within his flute and danced elegantly.
His swordsmanship, a direct inheritance of the Su Yin Sword Sect, was indeed graceful and flowing like the wind through willows, airy and ethereal, drawing great praise from Zhong Shenxiu and Jing Fan.
Zhong Shenxiu left his guest room and saw the young server tidying up the other houses in the small courtyard. Seeing him come out, the server immediately bowed and said, "Guest, your two companions have already left earlier, telling you not to worry... And, before leaving, they even settled the bill..."
Zhong Shenxiu sighed, quickly suppressed his emotions, and asked, "Where is Niu Shenjun Temple? I want to go for a visit today..."
It was surrounded by a flat area, and looking from afar, there was a circle of gigantic stones standing tall, each ten meters high, deep and heavy, even surpassing the city gates, forming a circular wall.
"Isn’t this a stone circle? This must be a stone circle, right?"
"That Shang Jun, he really knows how to have fun!"
Over the centuries, wooden structures will always decay, but such temples built with primordially stacked stones still stand tall on the earth.
Walking past massive stone columns that evoked a sense of a Greek pastoral temple, Zhong Shenxiu caught sight of the main body of the Niu Shenjun Temple.
It wasn’t large, consisting only of a main hall built with giant stones.
In the center of the main hall stood a stone statue.
A bull-headed humanoid figure, clad in a robe, holding something... due to the ravages of time, the original color and lines of the statue had mostly blurred, leaving only a vague outline barely discernible.
Gazing at the statue, Zhong Shenxiu sighed deeply.
At this point, the Niu Shenjun Temple still had offerings, but Shang Jun had long vanished into the river of history.
After all, a tyrant who had brought plague to the entire world, even when the Great Wu Dynasty’s Grand Ancestor rose in rebellion, exterminating Shang Jun’s entire clan, the whole world only cheered, not a single person lamented for Shang Jun.
"Here’s a toast to you, unnamed transmigrator... your deeds unknown, your ignominy eternal..."
Zhong Shenxiu took out a wine gourd, poured a cup of wine, and sprinkled it on the ground of the temple supposedly built by Shang Jun himself.
"It’s not so bad, at least you’re eternally remembered by future generations... As for the troubles of a destroyed nation and lost family, by that time you were already gone, out of sight, out of mind..."
"My end may not necessarily be any better than yours..."
Having done all this, Zhong Shenxiu walked out of the stone circle of the Niu Shenjun Temple, ready to leave.
But just then, he turned back for a look, his expression suddenly changing: "This... this... seems like..."
Gritting his teeth, disregarding the astonishment of the world, he directly employed qinggong to leap onto the roof of the highest nearby house to examine the specific layout of the stone circle.
"This stone circle... is part of a mysterious ritual!"
After observing for a while, Zhong Shenxiu closed his eyes, recalling the esoteric Western knowledge obtained from the Headless Earl.
"It meets the requirements for a ritual... It wasn’t haphazardly constructed."
With this preconception, Zhong Shenxiu looked again at this first Niu Shenjun Temple and suddenly felt that every part was different.
"Ancient gods are extremely powerful beings... or rather... they themselves are natural phenomena, even cosmic events... They do not pity humanity, nor do they hate us, things just naturally occur..."
"Wherever ancient gods manifest, they inevitably leave an impact..."
Zhong Shenxiu also thought of the ritual to summon the ’Gate of Thousands’, the cliff that despite hundreds of years still harbored some supernatural traces.
"My body lacks the ’Pastor’ capabilities of the main world, and the inner strength is too minor; at first, I almost overlooked it... This impact is just like the entire Niu Shenjun Temple, hiding in the ordinary..."
Zhong Shenxiu looked at the stone circle, his eyes gradually losing focus.
He saw that arc, seemingly filled with a mysterious angle, like a signal tower.
When the stone circle was completed, it seemingly became a beacon, or perhaps... a pedestal.
Some indescribable entity, traveling through worlds, no, through dimensions, and perched upon it!
It had once... descended here!
"Was it attracted by the nature of Shang Jun the transmigrator... or summoned by death and plague?"