Supreme Alchemist
Chapter 2499 - 2489: The Truth

Chapter 2499: Chapter 2489: The Truth

Venerable Liaoran spoke heavily, causing Long Yan’s heart to tighten involuntarily. Everything has cause and effect, it’s true, but what about retribution and the like? Long Yan doesn’t believe it. After all, so many people have died here, yet no one has come to care.

If Long Yan hadn’t relied on his sense of justice, he probably wouldn’t have come here. There are many other ways to complete the Old Madman’s trial.

Venerable Liaoran closed his eyes tightly, forever wondering whether the Buddhist path he insisted on was the true path or if what his disciple Shiran had understood was the true way. This was always a mystery.

Watching Long Yan, who was about to disappear from where he originated, bypass Venerable Liaoran and head straight towards the Great Hall.

"I need to trouble you with one more matter."

The disappearing Venerable Liaoran called to Long Yan, even the string of Buddha beads in his hand faintly began to vanish.

"Help me find the real answer."

"Hmm."

Long Yan did not turn around, simply responding with a light hum. In Long Yan’s view, the situation might not be as Venerable Liaoran described. It’s true that Shiran killed other Senior Brothers, and even his second disciple’s greed, which Liaoran isn’t aware of. But relying on intuition, Long Yan feels that in the Great Hall, there is an answer he has been seeking.

"Amitabha."

Watching Long Yan walk into the Great Hall, Venerable Liaoran uttered a Buddhist chant and then completely disappeared. He was originally deceased and after regaining his consciousness, naturally, his soul returned to the Netherworld.

This temple is still the old kind with wooden doors, topped with layers of window grid paper. The half-opened gate is broken and dilapidated, as if it would fall off the door frame at any moment.

Just standing at the doorway, Long Yan heard the sound of a wooden fish and the chanting of Buddhist scriptures. But this sound of chanting wasn’t the normal kind, instead, it contained a hidden breath of decisive killing. It’s uncertain where Shiran got this set of scriptures.

"You have arrived?"

Just as Long Yan pushed open the gate, the chanting abruptly halted, asking like ordinary friends would greet each other.

"Hmm, I’m here."

Long Yan stepped into the Great Hall, which was splendidly decorated, though slightly shabby. Yet, Long Yan saw the deities and Buddhas inside, even including the golden statue of the seated Buddha at the main position, all having hollow eyes without exception.

If it were ordinary people, they might have been scared to death by such a terrifying scene, but Long Yan acted as if he saw nothing, gracefully walking to the incense table, finding a clean mat, and sitting down promptly.

"I thought Dragon Benefactor would immediately look for Junior Monk to fight desperately."

Shiran’s pale face smiled a little, seeing Long Yan sit down, he respectfully placed the wooden fish in his hand to the side.

"If I hadn’t talked to your master, just seeing the ghost grudges inside the Arhat statue would certainly make me act like that. But finally, I changed my mind."

"Oh?"

Shiran’s face showed disbelief, then he asked.

"Why did Dragon Benefactor change his mind? After all, Junior Monk is indeed the murderer of so many lives, isn’t it?"

"Nothing much, I just want to know the truth of the matter. Of course, there will still be a fight."

The golden pupils in Long Yan’s eyes sparkled, there were discrepancies in Venerable Liaoran’s words, such as Meng Nian, the killer, that Ming Zhu, Shiran was always in the mindset of willing participants. If heading out to bring back Ming Zhu, why maintain such willing participant behavior, wouldn’t it be simpler to go out and bring back several mercenaries?

It’s a conflicting point, Long Yan just instinctively felt that Shiran wasn’t like the murderous demon he initially thought him to be.

"Prejudices are like towering mountains, the challenge isn’t in climbing over them but truly seeing the other’s world."

Shiran said helplessly, actually, at the very beginning, he didn’t expect things to turn out like this. But after living in this temple long enough, Shiran learned many secrets within the temple.

These things were unknown to Venerable Liaoran. The reason for killing Meng Nian was quite simple, Meng Nian was extremely greedy, he and Shiran were both orphans adopted by Venerable Liaoran. Perhaps the fear of poverty made him keen on amassing wealth. Coincidentally, recently a batch of gilded Arhat statues had arrived in the temple.

Of course, Shiran didn’t know that the gold was actually Immortal Gold, but when the Demon Clan invaded previously, some soldier’s and general’s weapons were retrieved by Venerable Liaoran. Many demon generals died in these mountains, and even now, if you climb the mountain, you’d encounter two bones that don’t resemble human bodies, eighty percent are leftover demon bones.

Driven by personal gain, Meng Nian secretly bribed the blacksmith to make the connection of the golden bowl Arhat fragile, convenient for him to take action. Then he used the cover of night to take down the golden bowl in the Arhat’s hand and secretly hid it.

So Shiran’s intention was to have Meng Nian continually carry bodies as repayment, but ironically, Meng Nian’s obsession was too deep. Even in death, he constantly thought of his gold foil, completely unaware he had died. This is why after Long Yan and others returned the golden bowl to Meng Nian, Meng Nian dissolved into nothingness.

Driven by obsession, it naturally dissipates after the obsession is satisfied.

Long Yan displayed a face of understanding, already knowing from Venerable Liaoran what would be the outcome of that little monk, where did Ming Zhu come from?

To this, Shiran just shook his head.

"I don’t know either. It appeared here by itself after everyone died; I don’t need to end its life, so I let it be."

Shiran pressed his hands together, behind him, faint white light twinkled, his face maintained a calm expression, Long Yan seemed to grasp why Venerable Liaoran who had originally achieved proper Dharma breached the anger precept, because this expression could truly be infuriating.

"Are you planning to bury so many lives in this temple?"

Long Yan tossed the seventeen ghost grudges from his storage ring onto the incense table, with a voice carrying a hint of anger, but as Shiran helplessly shook his head.

"Dragon Benefactor need not be angry; Junior Monk dares to guarantee, generally those killed by Junior Monk deserved death. Throughout these years, there have been almost no mistaken killings."

Long Yan almost laughed in anger at Shiran. In this temple, the mercenaries and hunters killed amounted to dozens. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the temple is constructed with corpse mountain and sea of blood. Yet Shiran dared to say this, why wouldn’t Long Yan feel justified in his anger?

"These eighteen ghost grudges used to be the Eighteen Vajra of Tiancan Temple, usually entrusted with temple keeper positions, but these eighteen people coveted worldly prosperity and even made deals with the Evil Cult."

A radiant white light emerged in Shiran’s hand, slowly unveiling a light curtain before Long Yan’s face. Shiran has lived for thousands of years, having such skills wasn’t surprising to Long Yan.

The scene gradually unfolded, just the first scene left Long Yan dumbstruck, eighteen majestic monks were sitting in the pub drinking wine and eating meat.