The Supreme Lord Donghuang

“Buddhist essence!” Hearing Zhou Donghuang’s words, the eyes of the two golden-crowned eagles following behind, be it Big Gold or Little Gold, all lit up with glee.

“Young Master, that red goshawk was just a lowly eagle demon of inferior blood, but with the help of the Buddhist essence, it was able to achieve the late Connate stage... that Buddhist essence must be something extraordinary, am I right?” Little Gold asked as he followed the footsteps of the young man leading the way ahead of them.

“It is indeed extraordinary,” agreed Zhou Donghuang as he nodded and continued walking. “Based on what you have told me, and the fact that the red goshawk managed to reach the late Connate stage... the Buddhist monk that left the essence behind must be at least of the Primal Core stage, or maybe even the Dharma Laws stage!”

Dharma Laws. That was the stage above the Primal Core stage.

Both Big Gold and Little Gold were clearly aware of this, so when they heard Zhou Donghuang’s words, their eyes narrowed. “Dharma laws?!”

“Even if it is the Buddhist essence left behind by a monk who had achieved the Dharma Laws stage, today, its power is left with just a fraction of the original,” said Zhou Donghuang with a sigh. But he added, “Even then, even if the Buddhist essence is hardly left with any of its original power and is far less useful to us than what it used to be at its peak... it is still very helpful to all of us now. On the whole, we will gain much from this.”

As he spoke, in the deep recesses of Zhou Donghuang’s eyes, a shimmer of light seemed to appear, shining especially brilliantly in the glow cast by the fire of the torch in his hands.

“Young Master.” After Little Gold had spoken, Big Gold also piped up. “Just now, the little bottle of fluid that you took out, what liquid was that? It was somehow able to mask your human scent.” Big Gold was fully aware: if the young man had not used that bottle of liquid to mask his human scent and thus was able to carry out a sneak attack without the red goshawk noticing... today, even if they had used the qi-increasing elixir, they would not be able to have killed the red goshawk.

“That is the scent-mixing potion, a potion I produced using the leftover herbs from some other medicine.” Hearing Big Gold’s question, Zhou Donghuang could not help but slow his steps. “That scent-mixing potion, after it makes contact with any object and is rubbed on the body, will be able to mask the body’s scent for half an hour.”

The scent-mixing potion was a kind of unpopular potion that Zhou Donghuang had decided to produce on a whim. Although he had produced more than ten bottles, he had only one bottle on him.

Before today, he never would have thought that the scent-mixing potion would be so useful in such situations, and could be said to have even turned the tides in the most crucial of times.

“If not for the scent-mixing potion today that allowed me to hide from the red goshawk without it discovering my presence... even if I had used the qi-increasing elixir, it would have been extremely difficult for us to kill it without a sneak attack.” Zhou Donghuang was clearly aware that without either one of the qi-increasing elixir or the scent-mixing potion today, they would not have been able to kill the late Connate red goshawk demon. Of course, Big Gold and Little Gold had been crucial in retreating in a straight line at the most important moment.

“Humans are really amazing, producing a potion like that,” exclaimed Little Gold. Its eyes were also filled with fear, because this also meant that if any other human used this potion against it, the human could also be able to destroy it with a sneak attack.

“We’re here!” At the same time, Zhou Donghuang had discovered that there was no further road leading forward using the light from the fire torch in his hands. As he looked around him, he saw that there was a pile of bones on the ground in the corner of the cave, and on top of the bones lay pieces of clothing.

Most important, within the pile of bones that lay on the ground, there was a round orb that was golden in color. Even from that distance, one could sense the coldness that was emanating from within the orb that seemed to push anybody more than a thousand miles away.

“Young Master, this is the Buddhist essence?” Little Gold looked at the faintly golden orb, its eyes widening.

“Yes,” responded Zhou Donghuang with a nod of his head.

Little Gold’s eyes were filled with confusion. “Young Master, didn’t you say that the golden glow outside was emanating from this Buddhist essence? Why is it no longer radiating any golden glow? Furthermore, since we entered this cave, we have not been able to see any golden glow.”

“We cannot see the golden glow inside this cave because there is no light, but this area is still filled with the energy that it is releasing uncontrollably... as for the golden glow outside, it is caused by its energy mixing with the natural light outside, which is why you see the glow,” explained Zhou Donghuang. “If you stand outside at night, if there happens to be moonlight or starlight, then you will still be able to see a faint glow that appears and disappears intermittently... but if there are no moon or stars that night, then you will not be able to see the golden glow.”

“I see,” responded Little Gold.

At the same time, Big Gold was staring intently at the Buddhist essence that was glowing brightly. It did not forget to ask the young man, “Young Master, this little Buddhist essence... are you able to tell what level of Buddhist monk left it behind?”

Zhou Donghuang’s eyes had not left the Buddhist essence ever since his gaze had landed on it. Now, hearing the question from Big Gold, his eyes shone as he answered, “This Buddhist essence was left behind by a Buddhist monk of the early Dharma Laws stage after he had sat here to attain nirvana. It looks like even when you first discovered it, it had already gone past the stage where it could absorb spirit energy to replenish itself, and had begun depleting its internal energy and dissipating into ash. Otherwise, the golden glow that it radiated would surely reach further than the area where you attained intelligence! Now, the power within it is less than twenty percent of its original at most... roughly similar to a Buddhist essence left behind by a late Primal Core stage Buddhist monk who has attained nirvana.”

As he spoke, Zhou Donghuang’s eyes seemed to shine even brighter. To him now, even if it was just a Buddhist essence left behind by a late Connate stage monk, it would be an incredibly valuable treasure to him.

“Early Dharma Laws stage? Late Primal Core stage?” Both Big Gold and Little Gold were noticeably disappointed after hearing Zhou Donghuang’s words.

If this was originally a Buddhist essence left behind by a late Primal Core stage monk, they would have been more than satisfied. However, knowing that this was originally a Buddhist essence left behind by an early Dharma Laws stage monk, they were not only not satisfied, but were disappointed that they had missed their best chance.

“Learn to be happy with what you have.” The look in the two golden-crowned eagles’ eyes allowed Zhou Donghuang to easily see their disappointment. He told them, “Think about it this way... If you had not told me about this and waited until the two of you had achieved the Connate stage and become Connate demons before coming back here, it could already have disappeared. Even if it was still around, its power would be left with much less... and that red goshawk could possibly have achieved the penultimate Connate stage. Could the two of you, who would have just reached the Connate stage, be able to defeat a penultimate Connate stage red goshawk?”

Hearing his words, the eyes of Big Gold and Little Gold were no longer dark and even shone brighter than they used to be, because what Zhou Donghuang had just said did indeed make sense. What they had right now was in fact a decently good outcome.

“Young Master, do you have any way to take this Buddhist essence?” Big Gold asked Zhou Donghuang. Seeing that the young man had not even reached the Connate stage, Big Gold was suspicious if he would be able to take the Buddhist essence.

Zhou Donghuang was silent but answered Big Gold with his actions. He stretched out his hands gently and easily grabbed the Buddhist essence with his outstretched hands. In fact, the hand that Zhou Donghuang had used to grab the Buddhist essence was emanating waves of gentle inner Qi that infused into the Buddhist essence, allowing him to use a special method to suppress the icy cold power that shot straight out of the surface of the Buddhist essence like icy cold daggers.

In the instant that Zhou Donghuang grabbed the Buddhist essence, the icy cold power that was radiating from the golden orb seemed to completely disappear. Rather, it had been absorbed back into the orb.

“Let’s head back!” After taking a look around him and not seeing anything of value, Zhou Donghuang called out to the two golden-crowned eagles as they left the cave.

The two golden-crowned eagles soon realized that after that had left, the golden glow around the cave had disappeared. “Young Master, what is going on here? Why is the golden glow from the Buddhist essence gone?”

“I have already used my Qi to seal it so that the power within the essence will no longer leak out of the orb. Since it is no longer interacting with the light outside, it will no longer produce the golden glow that we used to see,” Zhou Donghuang replied as he held the Buddhist essence in his hands. “You should have noticed it a long time ago... in the instant that I picked up the Buddhist essence, not only did the icy cold atmosphere within disappear, but the noise that had been sounding in your ears had also disappeared as well.”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The two golden-crowned eagles streaked across the sky like black lightning as they flew towards the Chu royal city, making their way back home.

“Young Master,” asked Little Gold along their journey. “Since the Buddhist essence left behind by a monk is so valuable... why did the Buddhist monk find such a place to meditate and achieve nirvana? And he even left his essence right there. Why didn’t the monk just achieve nirvana in front of his friends or family and leave the Buddhist essence to them?” Little Gold was perplexed about this matter.

“Buddhism is concerned about this thing called “Fate”... only a small portion of Buddhist monks would choose to achieve nirvana in front of their close friends or their disciples, and leave their essence to them. Most other Buddhist monk are more concerned about leaving it to fate, and will choose to leave the Buddhist essence at a place where few people would know about, and wait for someone fated to find it,” answered Zhou Donghuang.

“And what if there is no one fated to find it? Wouldn’t that Buddhist essence be left to waste?” asked Little Gold again.

“To most Buddhist monks, even if nobody finds their Buddhist essence, and it is left to disappear like ash in the wind, it is also a form of fate,” continued Zhou Donghuang.

“Young Master, you... how do you intend to make use of the Buddhist essence?” asked Big Gold curiously.

“Don’t worry, the two of you will definitely benefit as well,” assured Zhou Donghuang with a slight smile.