Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 935 - 773 Brimming with Abundance (Requesting Monthly Votes and Subscriptions)

Chapter 935: Chapter 773 Brimming with Abundance (Requesting Monthly Votes and Subscriptions)

After losing contact with the Mantra people, the five warships gradually accelerated to a rapid speed of over ten thousand miles each shichen.

However, it wasn’t long before another obstruction appeared in front of them—a colossal Buddha phantom manifested in the void ahead.

This Buddha phantom was unimaginably tens of thousands of Zhang in height and equally wide in width. Upon its appearance, it filled the entire void.

"This is Randeng!" Lv Qiluo’s eyes were obscure, "This is the Divine Skill ’Law of Heaven and Earth’; however, it is merely a semblance for now. But once his Buddha Power is fully channeled, the situation will be altogether different."

Master Zhongliu pondered, "Randeng? Is it that Randeng Buddha?"

Buddhist scriptures say that this person was one of the thousand Buddhas born during the past majestic Kalpa. Because all was bright like a lamp around him at birth, he was named Randeng Buddha, also known as Tathagata of Steady Light and Tathagata of Universal Light.

Together with the current Buddha Shakya Muni and the Future Buddha Maitreya, he is honored as one of the Buddhas of the Three Times.

Li Xuan then directly issued an order through the ruby in front of him, "Three breaths later, all electromagnetic guns fire simultaneously!"

Within three breaths, all five electromagnetic guns emitted white light, tearing apart more than half of the large Buddha body of Randeng Buddha.

Although this was not enough to stop Randeng Buddha’s ’Law of Heaven and Earth’, it effectively delayed the great Buddha’s arrival. Their seven warships then smoothly passed through a hole in the middle of the great Buddha.

At the moment when Randeng Buddha was flung far beyond visibility, Li Xuan again ordered, "Change trajectory! All warships follow the flagship and move twenty thousand miles to the left."

Shifting position, making seven warships rapidly change trajectory at a high speed of over ten thousand miles each shichen, extending even to more than twenty thousand miles, was indeed very difficult.

Fortunately, they perfectly executed Li Xuan’s command.

At the same time, Master Zhongliu and Lord Tushan employed the Fantasia and Haze Techniques, shielding all seven warships.

After this, the entire fleet proceeded without any incidents.

Although Li Xuan could see several streaks of light passing through the void from afar, they were all at a great distance from them.

—Those were probably Buddhist flying magical instruments, similar to the Nine Heavens Ten Lands Pimo Divine Shuttle, capable of surpassing the speed of their Yunzhong warships by more than tenfold.

But the problem is this Infinite Taixu is simply too vast. Trying to find seven warships in this vastness that stretches trillions of miles is many times more difficult than finding a single ant in the ocean.

Li Xuan also sensed several overwhelmingly powerful Divine Consciousnesses sweeping through the void.

However, in such a vast area, they could only roughly scan it.

Under the protection of the Rule of Extreme Heaven, manipulated by Master Zhongliu and Lord Tushan, they remained safe throughout.

Approximately five days later, on August 7th, Li Xuan’s fleet, after orbiting around the brilliant Dari, once again approached the mortal realm.

Here too, many highly cultivated Buddhists attempted to block them, but the speed of the seven warships was simply too fast.

Especially when they were near the mortal realm, Li Xuan ordered all warships to accelerate at full cost, increasing their velocity to at least thirty-five thousand miles each shichen.

The moment their tracks were discovered, the seven warships entered the First Emperor’s Seal like streaks of light.

At that time, fierce flames enveloped the exterior of the seven warships.

Theoretically speaking, at such a high speed, the warships would burn to ashes within a few dozen breaths upon colliding with the mortal realm.

Lucky for them, the ’Extinction’, ’Taichu,’ and Li Xuan’s own ’Divine Power’ and ’Suppression’ from Lv Qiluo and himself, combined forces barely kept the hull intact.

However, when all the warships finally halted, the hulls still bore heavy scorch marks.

—This would certainly necessitate a major factory overhaul to replace the warships’ outer armor.

Leng Yurou, having received advance notice, piloted a flying magical instrument and upon arriving behind the warships, indeed her eyes shone brightly.

She immediately summoned Yue Qianqian to join her in tallying their gains.

This was easy; during these five days, Li Xuan had already instructed his subordinates to sort out all captured items categorically. The only thing they couldn’t do was provide an accurate valuation.

Dugu Biluo had the capability to do so, but she needed to help Lv Qiluo control the Array. Dugu Biluo’s cultivation did not allow her to move between warships.

Li Xuan’s first concern was his own Tianxingtai. To his quiet relief, Luo Yan was still safe and sound.

Possibly due to the presence of his son, Yan, this time, behaved quite obediently. He stayed inside his Lingxiao Treasure Hall without stepping out, leaving no chance for the remnant spirit of Xinyuelian Bodhisattva to do any harm.

Actually, Li Xuan had sensed this early on. Whether there was any trouble with his own Lingxiao Treasure Hall or not, he could vaguely sense it even from billions of miles away.

But a visual confirmation was always more reliable than a psychic sensing.

The second piece of good news was that the Mortal Buddha had submitted to The Court. The day after Xinyuelian Bodhisattva was slaughtered, Shaolin of Song Mountain opened its temple gates, allowing The Court’s officials to enter and inspect it.

No other temple in the world now dared to directly oppose The Court’s decrees.

Only Shi Kongxin, Shi Lingtong, and some so-called ’high monks’ wanted by The Court, the whereabouts of whom remained unknown.

According to Xiuyiwei’s intelligence, most of these people went to Xi’an, joining Prince Yi’s Rebel army.

This not only significantly increased the number of experts in Prince Yi’s army but also brought him a great deal of food, supplies, and financial resources.

However, these people, on the surface, had already severed their ties with the various temples and the Eight Schools of Buddhism. They had been expelled and were no longer part of Buddhism, but rather its apostates.

Yet, The Court’s army had not just once experienced the spectacle of ’Arhat’ and ’Vajra’ descending to assist Prince Yi’s army in battle at the frontlines.

In essence, it was the flight of the upper echelons to seek new livelihoods, leaving the temples and some of the purer monks to lie flat and be slaughtered.

This had always been the usual strategy of Buddhism and Taoism in dealing with The Court throughout the ages.

Regent Princess Yu Hongchang and several regent ministers were not particularly concerned, going about their business as usual, surveying land, organizing monk registrations, and demolishing illegal temples.

They forcefully ordered all temples across the land to hand over their Buddhist scriptures for The Court to audit and then reprint.

All content that did not comply with The Court’s policies, Confucianist scriptures, and all scriptures related to Xinyuelian were completely deleted.

This measure was strongly advocated by Li Xuan, mainly targeting ’Xinyuelian’.

To Li Xuan’s surprise, this action of auditing and reprinting Buddhist scriptures by The Court greatly boosted his reputation among the scholars.

Scholars everywhere were fervently discussing this, cementing Li Xuan’s reputation as the protector of Neo-Confucianism deep in the hearts of the people, earning their profound respect and confidence.

Despite Li Xuan’s monopolization of power in the court to the extent that he now received far more impeachment memorials daily than Shaofu Yu Jie,

the scholars of Neo-Confucianism still recognized his scholarship, his talents, his character, and his initiative to reorganize the Buddhist scriptures.

Especially the latter, which greatly satisfied those Confucianists who frowned upon many Buddhist doctrines.

The ones presiding over the compilation of the Buddhist scriptures were none other than the Minister of Rites Hu Ying, Zhangyuan of Hanlin Academy Huang Shang, and Jijiu of the Guozi Bureau Zhen Yue, all highly dignified and learned men embodying the ideal of ’heavenly humans.’

Rarely, these three not only had steady temperaments but were also well-versed in Buddhism, making them exceptionally suitable candidates.

However, after some thought, Li Xuan still sent them a note.

He hoped that these three could elevate the status of eminent monks from the Chinese Buddhist tradition over the ages, such as Fa-Xian, Zhiyi, Hongyi, Huiyuan, Huineng, Xuanzang, Huizhao, and Daoxuan, to the unequaled heights of the Ten Bhumis Bodhisattva, Samyaksam Bodhisattva (great Bodhisattva), and even Miaojue Bodhisattva (Buddha).

It would be best if, in the scriptures, they could further eliminate some of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas associated with Shendu—

Although Hu Ying’s relationship with Li Xuan was quite good, all three were highly learned and had their own opinions.

Li Xuan was uncertain if they would follow his intentions, he could only influence from the sidelines.

He knew that the ’Eight Schools of Buddhism’ were deeply rooted among the people and could not be completely eradicated; the only option was to reform and domestic them for his own use.

This was also considered his attempt at a transparent plot to split Buddhism, unsure if the various Bodhisattvas and Miaojue would be fooled.

While Li Xuan was handling these affairs, Leng Yurou arrived by his side with a thick ledger in hand.

Her expression could hardly contain her joy, and she smiled beamingly at Li Xuan, "I have a piece of good news and a piece of bad news, which would you like to hear first?"

Li Xuan raised an eyebrow, "Just say it, no need for suspense."

He noticed that Master Zhongliu and Lord Tushan, following closely behind Leng Yurou, briskly entered his command cabin.

This indicated that the so-called ’bad news’ wasn’t really that bad.

"Then I’ll start with the good news," Leng Yurou’s lips curled slightly: "Excluding those 120,000 sets of damaged Buddha Armor, the total value of various ores and metal ingots you brought back this time should exceed eighteen million silver yuan."

Li Xuan felt his heart tightly clench, missing several beats.

Although he had anticipated it, the figure Leng Yurou reported still nearly made his head spin.

Eighteen billion silver yuan, that was more than double the value of East Island.

However, Leng Yurou then spoke of the bad news: "However, of these materials, less than half can be put to immediate use, valued around seventy million silver yuan."

Seeing the puzzled look in Li Xuan’s eyes, she gently explained, "Many of these materials are rare in the mortal realm, and our Shenqi Union can’t utilize them in Black Gold Divine Armor, floating warships, or the Solar Furnace. We must first understand their properties before we can apply them to warships and Divine Armor.

Moreover, as the saying goes, scarcity brings value. If they were to be massively circulated in the market, it would only lead to devaluation, meaning they can’t be easily sold for silver coins."

As expected, Li Xuan’s excitement had somewhat diminished.

Nevertheless, he was still pleased, as this meant his financial freedom could at least continue until the end of next year.

"What about those 120,000 sets of Buddha Armor then?"

"I estimate their future value to be at least fifty million silver yuan."

However, Leng Yurou shook her head uninterestedly: "But our Shenqi Union lacks the technology for alloy separation and refining, and we don’t have enough personnel to handle them, or maybe if you could find a Buddhist practitioner willing to buy them, Shenqi Union could try to repair them."

Li Xuan understood that these Buddha Armors were destined to be stored in the warehouse for now.

He could try selling them within the Liudao Division, but the Buddhist practitioners there probably couldn’t absorb too much.

Based on Leng Yurou’s estimate, each set of damaged Buddha Armor would start at forty thousand, how many practitioners could afford this sum?

Li Xuan estimated that at most he could sell only about three to five thousand sets.