Chapter 1413: The Nine-Precept Ring

"They've already gone in." The Precept-Keeping Sage spoke in a low voice, turning the Nine-Precept ring on his other hand with idle fingers to mask the unease and excitement stirring inside him.

He and the Chaotic Devil Elder had appeared before the Buddha Lotus. With the crimson flame qi and the lotus locked in a chaotic struggle where neither would yield, there was no possibility that Qin Sang and the others had left any traps behind here, so the two of them were untroubled.

Even now, apart from Qin Sang's group of four, they remained the only Spiritual Infant cultivators to have shown themselves at Ethereal Sea.

It was possible, of course, that others had come in secret and stayed hidden, slipping past both the Sky-Eyed Butterfly and the Chaotic Devil Elder's spiritual senses.

The Chaotic Devil Elder said nothing. He fixed his attention on the pillar's center.

A strange blackness seeped out from the pupils of his murky eyes, and in an instant they became black devilish eyes.

Where his pupils had been, two minute vortices now turned, seemingly capable of drawing in light itself, reflecting the shadows beyond the gate with fathomless depth.

A moment later his eyes returned to normal. He coughed lightly and asked, "You're certain the Nine-Precept Ring can guide us through Pure Sea Sect's protective array?"

"Indeed!" The Precept-Keeping Sage hesitated, unwilling to commit himself absolutely. "Without any accidents... My master obtained this ring from the remains of a Pure Sea Sect Buddhist cultivator. It may well be the token of a Pure Sea Sect elder."

"Accidents?" The Chaotic Devil Elder sneered. "Without any accidents, Nine-Precept would have found Pure Sea Sect long ago. Would we still be waiting until now?"

The Precept-Keeping Sage did not dare argue. What the Chaotic Devil Elder said was true.

Back then, the information his master had obtained was severely limited. At the very least, they had known nothing whatsoever about the lotus array outside the sect.

"We'll talk once we're inside."

The Chaotic Devil Elder tapped his black bamboo staff against the air. A formless, colorless force erupted and enveloped them both.

The Precept-Keeping Sage had meant to summon his own protective astra, but seeing this he switched to a silver halberd instead and followed close at the Chaotic Devil Elder's back.

They passed through a gap in the lotus and entered the pillar of light. The phenomenon crashed against their protective force.

The black bamboo staff in the Chaotic Devil Elder's hand trembled faintly, an emerald glow flickering across it now and then, yet the shield around them held as solid as a fortress.

The Chaotic Devil Elder walked toward the entrance one steady step at a time, his gait unhurried. Set against Qin Sang and the others earlier, the difference in caliber was plain at a glance.

Watching this, the Precept-Keeping Sage's awe of the Chaotic Devil Elder deepened another degree. He gripped his silver halberd tightly, braced at every moment for the unexpected.

Soon they reached the gate. After a similar period of observation, they stepped through.

Whoosh! The instant they crossed the threshold a scorching gale blew straight into their faces. The Chaotic Devil Elder raised an eyebrow, lifted his bamboo staff, and pointed forward. A thin screen of light condensed before them at once, holding the wind at bay.

To his surprise, the screen of light lasted less than three breaths before pinhole-fine perforations appeared across it as though something had eaten through. In that instant countless motes of golden light pierced the barrier and came shooting at them like a volley of golden needles.

The Chaotic Devil Elder gave a soft murmur of interest but showed no panic. A flick of his sleeve sent a command token flying out, identical in appearance to the Chaotic Devil Token that the Precept-Keeping Sage had destroyed earlier, though this one was noticeably thicker and heavier.

The token swelled the moment it met the wind, expanding to the size of a door panel and shielding them completely behind it.

Ringding...

A dense volley of crisp impacts rang out. The token and the two men were driven steadily backward, but the sinister wind was finally blocked. Neither of them suffered so much as a scratch.

The Chaotic Devil Elder turned the token over to examine it. Patches of golden liquid clung to its surface, yet before he could collect any of it, the liquid dissipated on the spot without leaving a trace.

"What is this? It treats true essence as though it were nothing. Had there been more of it, what then?"

Even with all his experience, the Chaotic Devil Elder could not identify the substance. The Buddhist sects of the North Sea were concentrated mostly in the relatively peaceful Crescent Moon Realm and amounted to little, so his understanding of Buddhism only surface level.

He pondered for a moment, and when the origins of the stuff still eluded him, he turned his head and ordered, "Take out the Nine-Precept Ring."

"Yes!"

The Precept-Keeping Sage put away his halberd and removed the ring from his hand. With the Chaotic Devil Elder protecting him, he had no need to worry over his own safety. He settled into the full lotus position, closed his eyes, and cradled the ring in both palms.[1]

At once his whole aura transformed, taking on a solemn, sacred dignity that made even the Chaotic Devil Elder look twice.

A Buddhist art? The thought crossed the elder's mind as he shifted the Chaotic Devil Token to the Precept-Keeping Sage's side and looked around, taking stock of their surroundings.

Clearly they had already breached Pure Sea Sect's protective array, or some manner of guardian barrier. The gate had vanished the instant they entered. Inside the array there was no judging where one stood.

Above and below, everything was a scene of primordial chaos. They hung suspended in the void with neither sky overhead nor ground beneath.

That sinister wind had only been the beginning. The Chaotic Devil Elder could sense other assaults waiting to fall.

Even in the intervals between attacks, the crimson flame qi around them, thick past all measure, was nothing to trifle with. It steadily ground away at the protective force enveloping them.

The conventional approach was to force one's way through, analyzing the array's shifts again and again until a pattern emerged and the array could be broken. With no master directing it, the array's operation would lag, and the odds of success were high, but it was far too slow.

The Precept-Keeping Sage held a ring that had come out of Pure Sea Sect itself, and it might guide them out of the array with ease.

And yet the more Chaotic Devil Elder studied their surroundings, the graver his expression became.

This crimson flame qi should never have belonged here, but now it was everywhere, and it had even usurped the host's place entirely!

There was no telling what calamity had befallen Pure Sea Sect all those years ago. For the crimson flame qi and the protective array to coexist, sustaining that balance across untold ages while each imperceptibly reshaped the other, meant no one could say what changes had occurred in between. Was this even the original array any longer?

Thoughts racing, the Chaotic Devil Elder looked toward the Precept-Keeping Sage.

The man's entire body seemed gilded in a layer of gold leaf, his form like that of an arhat, true essence pouring ceaselessly into the Nine-Precept Ring.

Buzz... The Nine-Precept Ring vibrated softly. Buddha light radiated from the characters upon it, waxing and waning as though calling out to something.

The Precept-Keeping Sage jolted awake with a shudder. The ring nearly slipped from his grasp before he caught it. Without waiting for the Chaotic Devil Elder to press him, he began the attempt again.

After several successive tries, cold sweat was on the verge of running down his face.

"This treasure can guide me in sensing the array's shifts, but it's extremely difficult. I suspect it may only be effective at the outer edges of the protective array. The array here... seems to have been altered." His voice came out hoarse.

The situation had defied his expectations, and the Chaotic Devil Elder's words had struck the mark! The Nine-Precept Ring would likely give them very little advantage.

The Chaotic Devil Elder took the news without flinching. His eyes narrowed, a cold gleam flashing through them. "They must still be in the outer reaches. Can you find their position? It seems like we'll have to make our move sooner rather than later!"

1. Lotus position or Padmasana is a cross-legged sitting meditation pose from ancient India, in which each foot is placed on the opposite thigh. ☜