Xia Ji sat quietly beside Lake Huaqing while contemplating Deng Jue's explanation of the powers within this world.
Deng Jue's description might not be entirely correct. He was but an old general who had spent his entire life in the military. There were many things in life he might not have witnessed. It was as if Xia Ji was standing on part of a land that was covered in darkness and fog, and Deng Jue had pushed only some of the fog around him away. That was all.
From the little he could see through the fog, Xia Ji was able to determine that he was invincible. Even if he was not, he was at least someone at the known peak, but what about outside the fog?
There was three thousand years' worth of history that could be traced back before the Shang Dynasty. That era from three thousand years ago was known as The End of Ancient Times. Legend has it that at the end of that period, a huge war like no other had broken throughout the land. It was also during that time when many myths and legends had started to spread down the generations.
Among those myths were many stories about rivers boiling, the earth shifting, and the other exaggerated descriptions of the sun and moon vanishing.
As for how long this ancient era lasted, no one really knew.
Besides that, Deng Jue's mention of spellbinding military formations, ancient divine weapons, and strange species were things that should not be ignored.
As for the powers of different realms, it should be simple enough to work out.
Anyone who had not cultivated to the level of creating divine forms were people who belonged to the martial arts world. Those who had cultivated divine forms would be considered as achieving the threshold of being legends.
Xia Ji laid backward slightly as he continued his train of thought.
'The skill beads I have garnered only exist in five colors—white, green, blue, purple, and gold. For red skill beads, I would need to collect a few unique gold skill beads to attain them. The only red skill bead I have—the one for Trailokya Dhyana—has brought me many benefits. Even if the benefits were not direct, the use of the bead is still quite exceptional.'
'For example, it is able to fuse various skills at one go.'
'Or use the power of the Three Buddhas in Trailokya Dyana to create Buddhist instruments."
'Or it could be transformed into a spiritual barrier with the power to suppress.'
'To create a Buddha or divine form would require skill beads more powerful than the gold skill bead, or a purple skill bead that has been cultivated to the Ninth level.'
'The Ninth level is the maximum for skill conceptualization, but what happens after that limit? Is it possible to achieve the Tenth level?'
'The Tenth level aside, the most important thing for me is to make good use of my current advantage, which is the Golden Finger. I should continue strengthening myself with this winning edge.'
'However, I've gone through many rare books and only managed to gather mostly white and green skill beads. I'd need to use one hundred of them, which requires a great amount of spirituality and focus to fuse them to barely be able to acquire a light purple skill bead. And this is the weakest type of purple skill bead.'
'If that is the case, how will I be able to acquire gold skill beads?'
'Where in the world could numerous philosophical, ancient books of great influence be stashed away and hidden?'
…
Xia Ji rubbed the space between his eyes. "I'll get the guards to move the nobles' books into the palace and later visit the surrounding temples for a look after the situation here has settled down."
He turned his thoughts to other matters and took out the token of authority for eight hundred soldiers of sacrifice left behind by the steward, and examined it curiously.
This was a token made out of dark iron. Besides the material being heavy, it also felt ice-cold in his hands. The carvings were detailed but other than that, there was nothing special about it.
However, this little token had the power to give orders to eight hundred soldiers of sacrifice. They gave their full allegiance to whoever held the token, and not to anybody else.
Xia Ji explored the token with a thread of his spirituality and discovered something strange within it. To put it simply, this was a divine weapon.
He ordered two members of the Imperial Soldiers of Sacrifice to see him with the intention of experimenting.
Both of the soldiers of sacrifice did not look physically different from the normal guards.
There was light in their eyes.
They sounded quite well-spoken.
Their backgrounds checked out as well, and they were not people who had appeared out of nowhere.
Apart from their slightly more vicious work ethic, everything about them seemed normal.
However, when it came to questions about the token, both soldiers of sacrifice would only say, "He who has the token is our master."
He waved the token in his hands and both soldiers of sacrifice kneeled. "Master."
Xia Jie held onto the token and suddenly looked at one of them. "Jump into the lake."
The soldier of sacrifice did not even hesitate as he turned toward Lake Huaqing and leaped into it.
Xia Ji turned to the other person. "Kill yourself with the sword."
This soldier of sacrifice did not hesitate either. He gave his left finger a flick and his sword was released from the sheath. He quickly grabbed the sword with his right hand and swung it toward his neck without a moment's pause. As the sword was about to slice through his neck, Xia Ji immediately said, "Stop!"
The sword in the soldier of sacrifice's hand stopped immediately at the word, but a bloody wound had appeared on his neck. Even though he did not slit through his windpipe, he was still bleeding. It was clear that he was about to follow through with the command to kill himself.
Xia Ji looked at the soldier of sacrifice who was thrashing about in the lake while wearing light armor. "You. Get out of the lake. And you, bandage your wounds. Both of you, carry on guarding the Imperial Palace."
They replied in unison, "Yes, master!"
"You may take your leave."
"Yes, master!"
After the soldiers of sacrifice left, Xia Ji played with the token in his hand while he mumbled, "It looks like the Imperial family has some divine weapons in their hands, but weapons of such a caliber would not be enough to defeat the Frost Giants.
"The Imperial Emperor retreated not because the Shang Dynasty was weaker than Guifang, but because the plans made by the Shang Dynasty were spread out too ambitiously. Guifang had taken down the Wolf Restraining Pass too quickly and had come toward the Imperial Capital too swiftly. That was why the Imperial Emperor was forced to abandon the city so soon.
"If you truly looked into this, the Shang Dynasty is made up of many strange and curious people. Who knows how many powerhouses are hiding in the wild. Ultimately, Guifang should not be much of a match to the Shang Dynasty."
At the mention of divine weapons, Xia Ji suddenly thought about the prayer beads he had been carving using Tathagata meditation.
A thought suddenly flashed through his mind. "Buddha speaks of Mukti, otherwise known as spiritual liberation, but creating a Buddhist instrument means it would be used for binding something. If that is so, what is it used to bind?"
If he was able to attain enlightenment on this, would he be able to defend himself to a certain extent when facing other Buddhist instruments?
He took out his thirty-three prayer beads with the idea of testing out something on them.
He focused his mind and soul on this Buddhist instrument.
With that, a thought emerged from him.
The prayer beads vanished once again, turning into a golden glow within the palm of his hand.
Xia Ji turned his palm toward himself and slapped himself on the body. The golden glow immediately expanded as it became bigger, forming a gold 卍 as it completely submerged into his body.
The gold 卍 disappeared as it transformed into a bundle of gold rope-like lights under his skin, rendering him motionless.
Xia Ji could no longer control himself as he allowed some evil thoughts to form in his mind.
With the emergence of these evil thoughts, the golden lights bound him up even tighter than before.
The more active his evil thoughts, the more powerful the strength of the binding.
The next moment, an immense amount of Zen exuded from Xia Ji's entire being as he went into a spellbound state. The evil thoughts in his mind vanished in an instant.
"All that exists do not exist, all that is evil are not evil, all that are obstinate are not truly obstinate. All that is immaterial are material, yet all that is material are immaterial; all possessions are about control, yet all have no control."
He could feel the words in his heart. After he was done with this paragraph of prayer, he took a step forward with a smile on his face, and the strength that was binding him vanished in an instant as the golden light became increasingly loose.
After he had taken three steps, the gold color under his skin was now shining through his pores as they formed collectively once again into his prayer beads and fell with a smack onto the ground beneath the tree.
Xia Ji picked up the prayer beads and kept them in his pockets. "It binds one's doing and not the person. If there is no malice in one's doing, one will be released by default. This is a Buddhist instrument containing the principle of Buddhist Law and truly resonates with the philosophy of Buddha's teachings."
Xia Ji removed all distracting thoughts from his mind as he decided to increase more prayer beads to the collection of thirty-three he had. It was clear that the more beads he had, the stronger their effect. His trump cards would increase tremendously. Most people in this world could only own divine weapons through inheritance, but he was more than capable of manufacturing his own.
Since the ultimate limit to skills seemed to be at the Ninth level for now, he could use other methods to expand his advantages besides searching for more books.
The wooden box contained seventy-five wooden beads that had just been carved. He took one out and made a virtual point on the wooden bead's surface with his finger. The core of Tathagata meditation spilled with compassion all over the wooden bead, bestowing the power of Buddha over it. The wooden surface indented on its own as gold liquid flowed throughout it like a golden dragon, forming a gold 卍.
He lifted his finger.
He placed the prayer bead into the wooden box and took another one out.
The morning breeze became gradually warmer. He had carved thirty beads without realizing it and his accumulated fatigue began to show.
Xia Ji restrung his prayer beads and formed a string of sixty-three of them. He placed them in his pocket and took a deep breath as he lifted his head to look into the distance.
The warm breeze blew across the surface of the lake while a mixture of pitiful wailing and furious roars entangled within it. By the time these voices had arrived with the breeze, they had already faded.
It was heaven in the palace, but outside the palace, it was hell.
Xia Ji stood up and looked afar. Right now, there was major chaos after the battle, happening right outside the Imperial City. A huge number of people had lost their homes, many had died, and the chaos was all caused by the vast number of refugees pouring in.
It was quite easy to solve this problem. All that was needed was to open up the Imperial City's granary and it would be enough to feed these refugees for days, but the problem would continue after seven days, which might then erupt into bigger turbulence.
Xia Ji gave instructions to the guards and changed into casual clothes as he headed out of the palace, bringing along two soldiers of sacrifice with him. Xia Xiaosu had opened up the granary two days ago and had set up many stalls around the city serving up congee to help the refugees. He wanted to take a look. After all, it was impossible that his invisible enemies would not use this opportunity to create more trouble and mayhem.