Snow lotus? No!
Ye Yun carefully examined the snow-covered plant.
The white leaves of this snow lotus subtly revealed fine, human-like blood vessels. The entire surface of the snow lotus burned with a white flame, within which the white thorns on each leaf were visible. At the very center was an illusion constructed of white flame, resembling a phantom Buddhist city.
Hiss…
Although Ye Yun was not very familiar with such rare treasures, as a cultivator at the Great Sage realm, he could clearly feel an urge within him.
This snow lotus could aid in enhancing his strength!
But! It made no sense that such a rare item here would go unplucked! And such a treasure in this place of Buddhist cultivation, remaining untouched, was truly inexplicable!
"How long has this snow lotus on the cliff above existed? How could you not pluck such a rare treasure to consume?" Ye Yun asked Shi Ka Ye, looking at him in confusion.
A medicinal herb that had an effect on him would be a sacred item that could lead Shi Ka Ye and his kind to immediate enlightenment! There was no reason for it to be left untouched.
"Snow lotus? I have cultivated here for two thousand years, and I have never seen the snow lotus you speak of," Shi Ka Ye said, startled and bewildered.
"Then let's go up and take a look!"
As Ye Yun spoke, his true essence surged, and he shot up a thousand meters into the air. Shi Ka Ye and San Zhang followed suit.
"This thing is called a snow lotus?" Shi Ka Ye followed Ye Yun's gaze and asked in confusion.
"Then what do you call it?" Ye Yun was also a bit baffled. This thing looked exactly like the mythical Tianshan Snow Lotus from Baidu, yet how could this ancient being who had lived for two thousand years not recognize it?
"This is the sacred object of our Folun Sect. It has existed since the very founding of our sect. Later, when the First Ancestor established the Folun Sect here, this item was designated as the sacred object of the Folun Sect, and no disciple of the Folun Sect was allowed within five hundred meters of it. True Monarch, could it be… related to the Buddhist clan?"
As Shi Ka Ye spoke, his face became filled with disbelief and wonder.
"Heh heh, that's right. Do you see the phantom image in the center? If my estimation is correct, that phantom is likely a projection of a Buddhist city from the Buddhist realm. And this snow lotus, due to its long existence, its inherent energy, coupled with its constant absorption of spiritual energy from this place, has accumulated enough energy over centuries for a single teleportation back!"
In reality, Ye Yun had more to say. The spiritual energy here was either from a small spirit stone vein or from spirit stones left by the Buddhist clan for the snow lotus to absorb!
This snow lotus was like a pet, refined by a powerful figure of the Buddhist clan!
Ye Yun looked at the snow lotus and secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The location of the Buddhist clan had been found.
However, Ye Yun did not rush in. He knew that the beings in the Buddhist clan mentioned in a certain work of Hua Yi Kingdom were incredibly powerful. Even the Great Sage Sun could not escape his grasp, let alone himself.
"When was the last time they came here?"
Once every ten years, what a terrifying frequency. If calculated from the founding of the Folun Sect, at least five hundred Human Race cultivators at the Eight-wheel realm had been converted by the Buddhist clan.
"It has been seven years since they last came. However, in the past hundred years, they have only come to take a look and then left. The spiritual energy is depleted, and there are too few people who have reached the Eight-wheel realm.
"The reason I did not go with them is that I did not use the golden magical artifacts they left behind, and I deliberately left every year when they arrived, so they couldn't sense my presence. Among the disciples, I announced that I was entering strict seclusion long ago. Therefore, very few disciples know of my existence." Shi Ka Ye explained respectfully.
From the moment he clashed with Ye Yun until now, although the time was short, the commotion had been significant. Yet, among the hundreds of monks stationed at the Folun Sect's temple, not a single one had been attracted. This was enough to explain many things.
Either they were all dead, or they were all unconscious.
Ye Yun ignored his little scheme and began to envelop the snow lotus with his divine sense, probing deeper into the mountain range. Soon, he discovered a wooden box the size of a fist about a hundred meters below the snow lotus. Wisps of spiritual energy were drifting out from the gaps of the box, seeping into the soil and stones to be absorbed by the snow lotus.
The excess energy drifted up through the snow, filling the temples beneath the snow lotus with a faint spiritual aura.
"This is… How is this possible?" Ye Yun directly ignored the golden nanmu wooden box and blurted out an expletive as he looked at the contents within.
What was inside the wooden box was something Ye Yun was intimately familiar with: spirit stones!
Spirit stones, immortal stones, divine stones – Ye Yun possessed millions of each of these. Therefore, he subconsciously assumed that these items would be commonplace and lacked any practical use.
For spirit stones, Ye Yun earned tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands daily in the New Mortal Continent, but he used them all to exchange for gold coins to boost his attributes.
As for immortal stones and divine stones, Ye Yun had obtained them through plunder from immortal cities and divine realms.
"Has Your Excellency figured out what is going on?" Shi Ka Ye asked respectfully.
"What does it have to do with you? Although you haven't used the Buddhist clan's golden magical artifacts, your cultivation technique and your environment have ultimately turned you into a half-human, half-Buddhist being! In principle, I should kill you directly!"
As Ye Yun spoke, he opened his mouth and inhaled, drawing in the spiritual energy from the air. The spirit stones themselves, under the effect of the 'Great Annihilation Technique,' were immediately depleted of their spiritual energy, turning into dust. Even the snow lotus became listless under Ye Yun's devouring, and even the phantom Buddhist city within it became more blurred.
"However! I can give you one chance to choose! Either pledge loyalty and become my dog, or die!"