Lu Yang shook his head like a rattle-drum, adamantly rejecting his master's proposal.
Judging from the three days plus three months the Immortal Fairy had spent as Acting Sect Master, the position of sect master was anything but leisurely. In his opinion, it was far more appropriate to leave it to someone like Eldest Senior Sister—a cultivator of high prestige, exemplary conduct, and peerless learning.
Daoist Buyu felt immensely gratified. He had not expected his youngest disciple's Dao heart to be so steadfast that he remained completely unmoved even before a colossal opportunity like inheriting the position of Sect Master.
"Is Xiao Zhi around?"
"Eldest Senior Sister is currently at Prison Peak interrogating Daoist Lord Wanfa and several Tribulation Transcendence stage cultivators whose names we don't even know. Do you need me to call her out?"
Daoist Buyu breathed a sigh of relief. As long as she wasn't here, that was fine. "No, no, I was just asking casually."
Although he had been quite well-behaved lately, he always felt an inexplicable sense of guilt whenever he faced his eldest disciple.
Having returned to the sect and seeing that his third and fourth disciples had both achieved great success in their cultivation, Daoist Buyu was rather delighted.
"Who knows when the five of us, master and disciples, will finally reunite. Your Second Senior Brother hasn't returned in roughly a hundred years.
"Your Second Senior Brother caused such a massive ruckus in the Buddhist Kingdom that even I got dragged into it. Those Buddhists can't stand the sight of me."
Daoist Buyu shook his head gently. What a scoundrel of a disciple! Causing trouble was one thing, but dragging his own sect into it was another. How many times had he taught him: when committing crimes out in the world, remember to conceal your identity! No matter how repeatedly he stressed it, the brat just never remembered.
Then again, looking at it from another angle, by stirring up trouble outside and not returning to the Dao Seeking Sect, Second Senior Brother was, in a sense, avoiding bringing trouble back to the sect.
To this day, the Buddhist Kingdom still frequently sent official missives to the Dao Seeking Sect, urging them to quickly take Ye Zijin back.
Every time, Daoist Buyu fobbed them off with excuses like "a general in the field may decline imperial commands."
Lu Yang thought to himself that the Buddhists disliking his master probably didn't have much to do with Second Senior Brother at all.
Regarding this Second Senior Brother, whom he had only ever seen in portraits, Lu Yang had heard many legends.
Second Senior Brother went around speaking with sarcastic barbs every day, talking eminent Buddhist monks into breaking their precepts, vigorously promoting the cultivation method of Huanxi Chan, and disguising himself as a Buddha statue to enjoy offerings—minor offenses like these were not even worth mentioning.
Beyond that, Second Senior Brother had once proposed to several eminent monks that they should study the Phoenix Clan's method of nirvana. That way, when the monks immolated themselves upon passing away, they would not only obtain numerous sarira relics but could also live another life, providing the Buddhist Kingdom with a never-ending supply of sarira—truly a solution brimming with benefits.
Furthermore, based on the Buddhist doctrine of accumulating merit through releasing captive lives, Second Senior Brother had proposed an even more advanced theory: "giving birth is also releasing life." He encouraged monks to have more children to accumulate merit.
However, the eminent monks of the Buddhist Kingdom were too conservative in their thinking to accept Second Senior Brother's overly advanced mindset. Not only did they reject his proposals, but they also repeatedly sent people to hunt him down.
Fortunately, Second Senior Brother had learned a full repertoire of escape skills from Daoist Buyu, which was why he managed to get by in the Buddhist Kingdom safe and sound.
Lu Yang had also heard that certain pessimistic monks believed Second Senior Brother's birth heralded the arrival of the Age of Dharma Decline, earning Second Senior Brother the assessment of "The Buddha's Demise."
According to the founder of Buddhism, the Immortal Fairy, the term "Age of Dharma Decline" was just a word she had made up because she thought it sounded cool.
"Your Second Senior Brother is also an exceptional cultivation prodigy. If not for Xiao Zhi, he would have possessed the highest cultivation talent of this generation. Alas, he was born in the wrong era.
"By the way, where is our Patriarch, Daoist Xiantian?" As the Sect Master, Daoist Buyu felt it was necessary to pay his respects to this founder of the Dao Seeking Sect.
"I'll go look for him." Lu Yang didn't know where the Patriarch had wandered off to either.
After running around, Lu Yang found Daoist Xiantian at the barbecue shop, happily munching on grilled skewers.
Chapter 780