Chapter 981: It's Not Easy for You Ordinary People to Be Traveling Merchants

"The power of incense in this Buddhist nation is quite abundant, discernible even at the border." Upon entering the Buddhist country, the Immortal Fairy perceived the faint aura of incense, a sensation starkly contrasting with the incense-barren lands of the Great Xia.

That the power of incense lingered even in these desolate, uninhabited borderlands implied that the central regions of the Buddhist nation were so overflowing with it that the excess had bled out to the very edges.

"I recall the Eldest Senior Sister mentioning that the Buddhist country is blanketed in masterless incense power, accumulated by the faithful over three hundred thousand years. To obtain this power, a monk must make a grand vow. Once the vow is fulfilled, the monk can harvest this incense power for their cultivation, proportional to the gravity of the vow."

Unlike the fettering nature of the divine incense found in the Great Qian, the incense power of the Buddhist nation did not bind its users; naturally, acquiring it was also far more difficult than in the Great Qian.

"Old Lu, someone over there seems to be under attack by demonic beasts," Meng Jingzhou transmitted his voice to Lu Yang. He was still spitting out sand and could not speak aloud.

"Then why the hell are you still blowing sand? Go save them, quick!" Lu Yang withdrew his consciousness from his spiritual space and used his divine sense to see what appeared to be a caravan of merchants besieged by demonic beasts. The situation looked dire.

The distances between the cities of the Buddhist nation were immense, and the vast deserts provided perfect cover for demonic beasts. Every year, eminent monks would wander the nation to eradicate them, but the beasts were too numerous and adept at hiding to be completely wiped out.

……

"Forget the cargo, saving our skins is what matters!"

"As if anyone here wants to die!"

"Old An, if it comes down to it, take the men and run! I'll hold the rear!"

"Bullshit! You think you're any match for these sand wolves?"

The camels trembled in terror at the scent of blood wafting from the sand wolves, some fleeing with their cargo while others collapsed flat against the earth.

The traveling merchants, veterans of the perilous wilderness, possessed martial arts skills. They drew their scimitars to resist with all their might, but the sand wolves were ferocious, and the men were no match for these bloodthirsty beasts.

Sand wolves were the very monsters merchants least wished to encounter; such run-ins boded ill, offering a mere sliver of hope for survival.

Suddenly, exploiting a lapse in a merchant's guard, a sand wolf leaped violently and pinned Old An to the ground.

Old An used his scimitar to desperately block the wolf's claws, but the beast possessed immense strength, and he gradually began to lose the contest of power.

"Old An!"

Just as they fell into despair, a stern shout rang out, echoing like divine thunder.

"Vile beast, cease your insolence!"

Through the swirling yellow sands, a figure appeared flying in mid-air, resembling a living Buddha. Behind this living Buddha shone a halo, symbolizing the perfection of Buddhist cultivation.

The halo suddenly dispersed, transforming into countless sword qi that precisely pierced the skulls of the sand wolves.

Another godlike figure struck with a fist seal, unleashing a golden fist imprint that shattered a sand wolf's brain.

Old An shoved the lifeless wolf aside and scrambled to his knees, kowtowing repeatedly. "Thank you, Master, for saving our lives."

The others recovered their senses and knelt to thank the two divine beings.

Lu Yang landed and offered a slight smile. "Benefactor... everyone, there is no need for such ceremony. My senior brother and I were merely passing through and acted on impulse. Please, stand up."

At that moment, Meng Jingzhou walked over and cast a sidelong glance at Lu Yang: Is the 'impulse' you spoke of the reason you so extravagantly unleashed countless sword qi?

Lu Yang returned the glance: Did you have to use the Arhat Fist against a pack of beasts that had barely entered the Qi Refining stage? Are you any better than me?

Under the joint efforts of the two great cultivation masters, the sand wolves were fortunately slaughtered to the last.

"Master..."

"Just call me Meng Jingzhou. This is my junior brother, Lu Yang."

"Ah? You, the two of you are the Buddhist Son Meng and Sword Immortal Lu?" Old An and the other merchants never expected that their saviors would be the legendary Meng Jingzhou and Lu Yang, and they grew exceedingly excited.

These were legendary figures of great renown; even in Great Xia, few had ever laid eyes on them, yet here they were meeting them in the Buddhist nation.

This must be what the Buddhist sects referred to as destiny.

"It is indeed us." Meng Jingzhou remained expressionless, striving to maintain a stern countenance to feign the air of a detached master, lest these merchants think he was pleased by their grand reaction.

In the ensuing conversation, Lu Yang learned that Old An was the leader of the caravan, named An Hu. They had brought a batch of solar-powered lamps from Great Xia, hoping to see if there was a market for them in the Buddhist nation, never expecting to run into sand wolves.

"Oh, you are also heading to Kaihuang City? If Uncle An does not mind, could you take the two of us along?"

Lu Yang thought to himself that good deeds truly brought good returns; this was an impeccable coincidence.

"That would be marvelous." An Hu and the others were overjoyed upon hearing this. To travel alongside such legendary figures would surely give them face among fellow merchants once word got out.

Furthermore, with these two present, the journey would undoubtedly be devoid of danger.

Subsequently, on the path to Kaihuang City, An Hu and his men encountered a Sand Wolf King at the peak of Qi Refining seeking revenge, the three notorious Desert Bandits of the Foundation Establishment stage, a demonic monk of the Golden Core stage who had fallen into darkness to prove his dao through slaughter, and Madam White Bone of the Nascent Soul stage born from a pile of corpses who sucked human essence every night.

"It really isn't easy for ordinary people like you to be merchants," Lu Yang lamented. The enemies encountered along the way were nothing to him and Old Meng, but to Old An and his men, they would have spelt total annihilation.

"...Actually, many merchants never encounter a sand wolf even once in their lives."

As for the Sand Wolf King or the three Desert Bandits, those were utter anomalies, and the demonic monk and Madam White Bone were entities they had never even heard of.

Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou sat upon camels, riding them for the first time and finding it rather amusing.

Bound to both sides of the camels were the spoils of this journey: sand wolf pelts, the Sand Wolf King pelt, the storage rings of the three Desert Bandits, the Golden Core of the demonic monk, and crystalline white bones...

These items held absolutely no value to Lu Yang and his companion. For instance, the combined spirit stones within the storage rings of the three Desert Bandits amounted to less than what Lu Yang earned in a single day. The rings also contained a key to open a secret realm; upon flipping through books brought from the Library Pavilion, they discovered the realm was meant for the Foundation Establishment stage, where many cultivators went to harvest herbs to refine pills that could increase the success rate of forming a core by twenty percent.

On the demonic monk's body was a human-skin scroll detailing the method of forming a false core, which could rival the early Golden Core stage, though future advancement would be hopeless.

The two initially thought to give all these items to Old An and the others, but on second thought, the environment of the Buddhist nation was so perilous that it might invite robbery and murder. Old An and his men could not protect such treasures, so they ultimately decided to leave them only the sand wolf pelts.

"Are the two masters coming to Kaihuang City to attend the Buddha Bathing Festival?" Old An chatted idly on the road. After spending time together, he found that the two masters were indeed as gentle and approachable as described in the storybooks, devoid of any arrogance.

"Yes, we were invited by the Kaihuang Temple to attend."

"That is wonderful." Old An and the others were delighted to hear this. With these two masters attending the Buddha Bathing Festival, the festivities would certainly be livelier.

"To be honest, we were unfamiliar with the Kaihuang Temple before this. We only learned of such a place after receiving their invitation."

Old An smiled and said, "It is only normal that the two masters did not know of it. It is likely because Kaihuang Temple changed its name; previously, the temple was not called this."

"What was it called before?"

"Erlitun Temple."