Chapter 755 - 286: A Consistent Feature of the Spiritual Communication Pavilion (Part 2)
Chapter 755: Chapter 286: A Consistent Feature of the Spiritual Communication Pavilion (Part 2)
’But if that’s the case, doesn’t that mean...’
’The Sea Race actually missed the Cloud Sea Sword Pavilion and didn’t make a move?’
"Hiss... this is a bit of a mess."
Xiao Chen felt his thoughts were in a bit of a jumble. "I’ll get the full picture first before thinking about it anymore."
He shook his head, put a stop to his various conjectures, and began to focus on browsing the remaining intelligence.
After flipping past four pages of various rumors concerning the Little Prajna Temple, he saw a full page of striking red text.
Major news: On November 23rd, between 3:45 PM and 5:15 PM, Zen Master Jingchen of Pudu Temple was besieged by three unidentified Evil Cultivators.
The two sides, one fleeing and one pursuing, crossed a distance of forty thousand miles, witnessed by numerous Loose Cultivators along the way.
Another rumor claimed that a Foundation Establishment Cultivator inadvertently discovered Zen Master Jingping of Pudu Temple fighting a massive Cyan Simurgh.
It was said that the Cyan Simurgh had three tail feathers, each over ten zhang long, and its body was a brilliant crimson-gold that shone dazzlingly.
Beneath these four pieces of news, there was actually an ink and water illustration.
The picture depicted Zen Master Jingchen fleeing on his sword, with three black-robed cultivators in hot pursuit behind him.
"What a crappy drawing. It’s fake at a glance."
Xiao Chen frowned. He had no idea who drew the illustration, but they had actually placed a Flying Sword under the feet of all four figures.
And all four Flying Swords were the same model!
It was so absurd that you had to wonder if this damn report was fabricated by someone who was drunk.
But setting aside the clearly problematic illustration, the information above was actually quite credible.
The latter account, with only one Foundation Establishment Cultivator as a witness, was hard to verify.
However, the former account of the forty-thousand-mile chase had many Loose Cultivators as witnesses. The main details were likely true, with at most some discrepancies about the location.
In other words, Zen Master Jingchen had probably been attacked for real.
Xiao Chen turned the page and, sure enough, saw several more rumors.
Some said Zen Master Jingchen fought one against three and won a great victory; others claimed he was outmatched and was ultimately abducted by the Evil Cultivators.
Turning another page, he was surprised to see a full-color illustration.
The painting showed a female cultivator in a Flowing Immortal Skirt, with three golden ribbons wrapped around her waist, glaring coldly at a handsome monk.
Below it was a short summary, which said this Cyan Simurgh had a doomed romance with Zen Master Jingping five hundred years ago.
She had come this time precisely to take revenge on the heartless man.
To be fair, the drawing was quite beautiful.
"Seriously, what is all this nonsense? Could it get any more absurd?"
Xiao Chen couldn’t help but facepalm and sigh. "I’m here to read intel, for fuck’s sake, not a storybook."
He really hadn’t expected that there were cultivators with such hobbies.
He continued flipping through, and the next ten consecutive pages were all mixed with a large number of stories.
Their content covered more than a dozen people from all levels of Pudu Temple, and perhaps influenced by that illustration...
...in any case, many of the rumors were about the grudges and romances between various beauties and monks.
Only on the third-to-last page, marked again in red text, was it noted that someone had seen a giant Sea Fish in the southeastern part of the Compassion Sea two months ago.
It was said to be several hundred zhang long in total and was a Tier Four Great Demon.
For some unknown reason, it shot past their Spirit Ship at high speed. The mere splash it kicked up was enough to cause their Defensive Array to shake violently when it hit.
As for the last two pages, they were once again filled with a few stories that were hard to verify.
"So, the overall situation right now should be: three Zen Masters have been attacked, one Zen Master’s situation is unknown, plus there’s a Tier Four Great Demon with strange movements."
Xiao Chen roughly sorted through the relatively reliable information.
’A Sea Fish several hundred zhang long, and in the southeast?’
When he saw the location, he began to suspect it might be the same one Old Dog Yi had encountered.
However, the subsequent rumor was very crude and severely lacking in detail, so he couldn’t be completely certain it was the same Great Demon.
But all in all, what was certain for now was that the Sea Race was already making moves against some of the powers in the Compassion Sea.
Moreover, it was very likely that a Tier Four Zen Master had perished.
At this thought, Xiao Chen couldn’t help but ponder.
’Could it be... could the Sea Race be the survival crisis mentioned in the Augment choice from before?’
’Hmm, looking at it now, it seems very likely!’
’This is bad!’
Xiao Chen suddenly realized that if that were really the case, wouldn’t it mean that Pudu Temple and even the entire Compassion Sea were doomed?
After all, something like ’survival’ often implies that the surrounding environment has become extremely hostile.
"Looks like I’ll have to be extra wary of the Sea Race from now on."
Xiao Chen hadn’t paid it much mind before, since he wasn’t a monk from Pudu Temple, after all.
But now he felt that this matter was trending towards affecting him as well.
"No rush. First, let’s see what major events have happened recently."
Xiao Chen opened another intelligence report and quickly read through it.
This report was much thicker, over a hundred pages long, but it didn’t contain many matters worthy of attention.
There had only been three relatively important major events in the last two months.
The first was the Fan Family’s public recruitment of a son-in-law.
In the end, a young cultivator who was only fifty-two years old and had already reached the Great Perfection of the Golden Core stage unexpectedly took first place and won the embroidered ball.
His name was said to be Yuan Zhanhui, and he was extremely skilled in Gold Element Techniques.
Throughout the entire competition, he didn’t use a single Spiritual Artifact, relying solely on his magic to overpower all rivals and claim the final victory.
It was worth mentioning that besides the direct daughter of the Fan Family, many female cultivators from branch families were also present to watch.
After the son-in-law competition ended, many Loose Cultivators were also persuaded by the Fan Family’s generous offers to stay on as Honored Guest Elders.