As Ren Qing approached the crowd, many of the monks instinctively turned toward him, their eyes filled with an indescribable despair.
To his surprise, there were representatives from five different Arhat Buddhist factions present. The Secret Transmission Buddhist Sect had already infiltrated the Buddhist world to an astonishing degree.
The Laughing Lion Monastery monks immediately rose and hurried toward him.
However, Ren Qing saw no cultivators associated with Bodhisattva Fruit Positions. Evidently, Earth Immortals exercised far greater control over mortals than Heavenly Aberration Arhats, to the point that the Secret Transmission Buddhist Sect did not even bother attempting to win them over.
Bang.
One of the mutated monks climbing the Three Bodhis slipped and fell.
He crashed directly into the crowd below, instantly drawing everyone's attention away from Ren Qing.
The sound of swallowing spread throughout the gathering.
The fallen monk's body had become a tangled mass of flesh, his limbs and features no longer distinguishable. Countless sharp mouths covered his skin.
He struggled to rise, but the surrounding monks surged forward before he could.
Various manifestations of Buddhist light erupted.
No matter how fiercely the mutated monk resisted, he was quickly reduced to food.
Not even a single bone remained.
Ren Qing deliberately checked the Information Stream.
[Age: 112]
[Lifespan: 12 years]
[Technique: Śrāvaka Body]
[Created by the Nameless Ascetic.
To cultivate it, one must sever five hundred pairs of women's ears and mouths, fuse one's soul into them, then sew them across the surface of the body. The technique is completed only after the ears and mouths develop sentience.]
After devouring the flesh, a dozen or so monks regained some strength and immediately began climbing the statue again.
As they ascended, their flesh continued to mutate.
Using the Information Stream, Ren Qing discovered that their original Buddhist techniques were gradually disappearing, replaced by Śrāvaka Body.
The purpose of the Three Bodhis was becoming increasingly obvious, it forcibly granted cultivators Secret Transmission Buddhist techniques.
At the same time, it stripped away the Buddhist Qi within their bodies.
Who knew how many monks had died before the surrounding Buddhist Qi became so dense it was almost tangible?
Ren Qing headed toward a secluded corner, but several monks from Laughing Lion Monastery quickly approached him.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
"Junior Brother Zong Qing, how did you end up at the Three Bodhis?"
The eldest Laughing Lion monk took the initiative to speak.
Though his tone sounded concerned, his eyes were brimming with barely concealed ecstasy.
Several monks from other Buddhist factions also moved closer.
They were all older monks who clearly recognized Zong Qing.
"Zong Qing! Did you find the true body of the Arhat or not?"
"Where exactly is the Arhat?!"
Their questions immediately stirred the crowd.
Many monks even abandoned the opportunity to feast on flesh, eager to hear Ren Qing's answer.
Still, they represented only a minority.
Most remained obsessed with climbing the Three Bodhis, as though their ambitions of attaining Buddhahood consumed every thought.
Ren Qing remained silent.
Internally, however, he was shocked.
Could it be that among the Arhat Fruit Position Buddha Sons, there were others who had escaped their predetermined fates?
In the Mirror World, he had only seen the true body of the Laughing Lion Arhat.
Moreover, it detached itself roughly once every ten years.
So where had the other Arhats gone?
Just as Ren Qing was about to probe for information, a phenomenon erupted within the Buddhist Qi surrounding the Three Bodhis.
Countless human faces emerged in the air, howling as they drifted through space.
The light itself twisted and distorted.
The pressure of the Void Buddha descended.
Every monk felt as though disaster were imminent.
Yet simultaneously, overwhelming reverence blossomed in their hearts, compelling them to kneel and kowtow.
A powerfully built monk noticed Ren Qing's frail appearance.
Pushing aside the Laughing Lion monks at the perimeter, he strode directly toward Ren Qing.
Judging by the sutured opening on his abdomen, a palm-sized doorway embedded in his flesh, he belonged to the Gatekeeper Arhat lineage.
"You dare incur the wrath of the Void Buddha?"
"Hand over ten jin of flesh..."
His actions triggered an immediate chain reaction.
The starving monks rose one after another, fixing hungry gazes on the Laughing Lion monks.
To them, every bite of flesh meant a greater chance of reaching the summit.
"Very well."
"I will give you ten jin of flesh."
The elderly Laughing Lion monk's face changed dramatically.
He drew a blade from his robes and prepared to carve flesh from his own leg.
Then he realized that thousands of eyes had already locked onto them.
"Not enough..."
"Ten jin isn't enough..."
The Gatekeeper monk's breathing became ragged.
He tore open the sutured doorway in his chest and grabbed his own violently beating heart, seemingly attempting to calm the agitation within.
The elderly monk gritted his teeth.
Knowing hesitation might doom his disciples, he raised the blade toward his throat.
If he sacrificed himself and sparked chaos, tens of thousands of monks would descend into indiscriminate slaughter before the Void Buddha could intervene.
But just before the blade cut into his neck, a hand blocked it.
Clang.
A crisp metallic impact rang out.
"Junior Brother Zong Qing, you..."
Ren Qing merely shook his head.
The five eyes on his forehead blinked in sequence.
Golden lion Buddhist Qi surged from his body, radiating a terrifying pressure.
He casually slapped the Gatekeeper monk.
The smile on the monk's face instantly froze.
A moment later, half his body collapsed to the ground.
His upper torso had been reduced to minced meat.
Accompanied by a lion's roar, blood rained from the sky.
Although the attack appeared to be powered by Buddhist Qi, it was primarily Ren Qing's raw physical strength.
Even without activating his zombie form, his strength surpassed that of ordinary Yang Spirit cultivators.
The Gatekeeper monk was merely at the Yin Difference Realm.
Silence descended.
No one even moved to claim the corpse.
It wasn't Ren Qing's ruthless display that frightened them.
It was the immense Buddhist Qi surrounding him.
The golden lions formed from that Qi seemed alive.
"B-Buddha Son..."
The elderly Laughing Lion monk muttered unconsciously.
Not a single monk dared meet Ren Qing's gaze.
The remaining Gatekeeper monks turned pale as death.
They stood frozen in place, trembling violently.
Moments ago, they had looked ready to tear people apart and devour their organs.
Now they resembled frightened rabbits.
To them, a Buddha Son was effectively a living incarnation of a Buddha.
Reaching the summit of the Three Bodhis would merely require some extra time.
"Let's go, Senior Brother Zong Shen."
Having learned the monk's Dharma name through the Information Stream, Ren Qing ignored everyone else and walked toward a quieter area.
Zong Shen hurriedly led his disciples after him, still unable to believe what he had witnessed.
They found an open space and sat down.
Nearby monks scrambled away in panic.
The resulting territorial disputes caused thousands of monks to start fighting one another.
The smell of blood quickly filled the air.
The ground itself was coated in thick layers of dried gore.
After discovering Ren Qing's status as a Buddha Son, Zong Shen became much more restrained.
He no longer dared ask about the Arhat.
After all, achieving Buddha Son status meant inheriting a Fruit Position.
And a Fruit Position could only be granted by an Arhat.
That alone proved Ren Qing had truly found the Laughing Lion Arhat.
While observing the monks climbing the Three Bodhis and their increasingly grotesque mutations, Ren Qing quietly extracted information from Zong Shen.
Zong Shen dared not conceal anything.
Before long, he revealed the entire story.
Under normal circumstances, a Buddha Son carrying an Arhat Fruit Position would achieve fruition after ten reincarnations.
Each life, the newborn child would be taken back to the monastery.
Yet the Laughing Lion Arhat had not appeared for over three hundred years.
Back then, Zong Qing had led a group of monks away from Laughing Lion Monastery in search of the Arhat.
They vanished without a trace.
In reality, Zong Qing had somehow obtained clues pointing toward the Dead Man's Forbidden Zone.
Together with Daoist factions such as Hermit Molting, he journeyed there.
Unable to confirm whether the Laughing Lion Arhat was truly inside, he remained stationed outside the Corpse Mirror.
Thus, before dying, Zong Qing desperately charged into the Mirror World.
In the end, he became nothing more than a mindless zombie.
Yet during the three centuries following Zong Qing's disappearance, Laughing Lion Monastery never gave up.
They searched for traces left behind by the Laughing Lion Arhat.
Every clue eventually pointed toward the Three Bodhis.
The other Buddhist factions had followed similar trails.
However, once they arrived at the Three Bodhis, the nature of the situation completely changed.
With undisguised longing, Zong Shen said:
"The Three Bodhis truly allows one to become a Buddha."
"As long as you reach the Buddha's head, Junior Brother, you can attain Buddhahood on the spot."
"Two hundred years ago, a Cloth Sack Monk accomplished it."
"He became a Dharma Buddha and ascended to the Blissful Heaven together with his fellow disciples..."
The more Zong Shen spoke, the more incoherent he became.
The other Laughing Lion monks eagerly tried to add details.
Ren Qing ignored all of it.
Instead, he quietly analyzed the situation surrounding the Three Bodhis.
The Secret Transmission Buddhist Sect had clearly lured Buddhist monks here through deception.
Meanwhile, the All-Beings Buddha constantly influenced their thoughts.
As they climbed, their Buddhist Qi was gradually harvested by the Secret Transmission Buddhas.
At the same time, the climbers underwent a brutal selection process.
Only those who reached the summit could become one of the Ten Spiritual Bodies.
Ren Qing had no intention of cultivating any Secret Transmission Buddhist techniques.
However, Song Zongwu was likely at the top of the Three Bodhis.
He needed to understand what was happening.
Ignoring Zong Shen's repeated urging, Ren Qing continued observing the statue.
Soon he noticed that the Three Bodhis was not static.
Every day, it transmitted a different Secret Transmission Buddhist technique.
Yesterday's climbers had cultivated Śrāvaka Body, covered in ears and mouths.
Today's climbers were instead developing Pratyekabuddha Body, characterized by countless arms.
---
[Pratyekabuddha Body]
[Created by the Nameless Ascetic.]
[To cultivate it, one must collect seven hundred pairs of women's arms, soak them in wax oil, then ignite them after solidification while practicing a specific breathing method. Only then can the technique be mastered.]
---
Every Secret Transmission Buddhist technique was grotesque and horrifying.
Without the Three Bodhis, cultivating even one would require rivers of blood.
Ren Qing refused to believe the Nameless Ascetic established the Three Bodhis merely to reduce slaughter.
The Nameless Ascetic lacked the Information Stream.
To perfect these techniques, he must have sacrificed countless mortals over and over again.
The blood on his hands was likely beyond imagination.
Then Ren Qing realized something.
He had not yet checked the Information Stream for the Three Bodhis itself.
---
[Three Bodhis]
[Forged by Song Zongwu.]
[Requires the bones of one hundred thousand living beings and nourishment from one hundred thousand souls. Allows cultivators to practice Secret Transmission Buddhist techniques through it.]
---
Ren Qing's pupils contracted.
What role exactly did Song Zongwu play within the Secret Transmission Buddhist Sect?
They had only been separated for a few decades.
Had Song Zongwu truly mastered Secret Transmission Buddhist techniques and forged the Three Bodhis in such a short period of time?
"Junior Brother Zong Qing, it's time to climb the Three Bodhis."
"My lifespan is nearly exha, "
Ren Qing opened his eyes.
Killing intent engulfed Zong Shen.
The monk was instantly drenched in sweat.
His heart stopped beating for several breaths before finally resuming.
Ren Qing turned toward the climbers and began reverse-engineering the cultivation principles of the Secret Transmission Buddhist techniques.
To prevent them from damaging his foundation, he intended to modify the techniques first, ensuring he could strip them away later using the Stomach World if necessary.
His lifespan was approaching four thousand years.
Once he uncovered the secrets of the Secret Transmission Buddhist Sect, it would be time to enter seclusion and advance the Dead Man's Sutra.
He was getting tired of all this.
Let it all burn.