“Praise the infinite rebirthing Night Bodhisattva...” “Praise the infinite rebirthing Night Bodhisattva...” “Praise the infinite rebirthing Night Bodhisattva...” Everyone clasped their heads in prayer and chanted when they saw the silhouette in the sky. A short while later, the gong rang again, and everyone stopped chanting. They sat on the ground in perfect unison. Buddhist chanting slowly resounded from the air after everyone had taken their seats. It was smooth like water and ethereal like the divine. Black lotuses slowly descended from the sky, and rays of black light swayed in the air. It was a fantastical sight. Everyone was drunk on the chanting and at peace. Thɪs chapter is updatᴇd by 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝·𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖·𝕟𝕖𝕥 The humans weren’t the only ones who were acting . Countless Strangers had crawled out into the open to listen to the Buddhist chanting as well. “This Night Bodhisattva is quite something!” Inside a restaurant, Ye Qing raised his wine cup and took a sip. The Buddhist chant possessed some sort of mysterious power that slowly but surely diminished one’s evil intent, indifference, and hostility. It did not matter how wary or malicious they were, the Buddhist chant ground it all into nothing, leaving only pure goodwill and devotion toward the Night Bodhisattva behind. This applied even to Strangers. At first, Ye Qing did not realize that he was being affected as well. As the Buddhist chant continued, his caution, wariness, paranoia, malice, bloodthirst, and all other negative emotions slowly dissipated into nothing. Instead, it was replaced by tranquility, peace, and all sorts of good emotions. Over time, he slowly became absorbed in the Buddhist chant. Not only that, the Night Bodhisattva’s image gradually appeared in his heart as well. He began to feel respect, admiration, and devotion toward her. As these feelings deepened, so did the image of the Night Bodhisattva became clearer and more mysterious. That was the point where the Buddhist chant started echoing inside his mind, mysterious and profound. For a time, Ye Qing’s internal world was cleared of all unnecessary thoughts. He was going to sit on the floor and chant that profound sutra together with the Night Bodhisattva as well. At the last moment, the Earthly Sovereign Bell shook inside his mind, and an invisible yet grand bell chime echoed throughout his headspace. At the same time, penta-colored profound light shone inside his internal world like the sun. The bell chime was endless, and the profound light was boundless. Bit by bit, the image of the Night Bodhisattva disappeared like snow. As soon as the image disappeared, the mysterious Buddhist chant also disappeared in an instant. The feelings of worship and devotion also disappeared like nothing. That was the point Ye Qing finally regained his clarity of mind and realized what just happened. Seemingly sensing his awakening, the Night Bodhisattva in the sky slowly bowed her head and cast her invisible yet all-penetrating gaze on the ground. Luckily, Ye Qing activated his Innate Yin Yang Qi the instant he awakened and masked his energies using its way of complementing and opposing yin and yang. Beside him, a penta-colored auspicious cloud also appeared on top of Feng Qingyou’s head and cast down wisps of cloudy, profound qi. After searching for a moment and finding nothing, the Night Bodhisattva eventually withdrew her gaze. This all sounded like it took a very long time, but in reality it only lasted a few breaths. Nothing changed, and no one sensed anything amiss. Only the Buddhist chanting had become louder and more grandiose. “Tsk tsk... I can’t believe we almost fucked up there!” Inside the inn, Ye Qing rubbed his nose with an embarrassed look on his face. The Night Bodhisattva turned out to be more anomalous than he thought. She was able to influence his mind and warp his perception without him noticing at all. If not for the Earthly Sovereign Bell, it was possible that he would have succumbed to her power. What would happen to him if he had succumbed? Well, he would become like the populace of Nanjiang. He would have devoted his heart, mind and soul fully to the Night Bodhisattva and become her most loyal worshiper. He would have died for her without a second thought. This was probably the Night Bodhisattva’s aim. She wanted to convert everyone into her devout worshiper. Usually, deities did not demand worship from their people. It was something that was given freely by the people themselves. However, the Night Bodhisattva clearly did not care about the consent of the people. She outright used her ability to influence, corrupt, and twist one’s soul so that they would worship her to their dying breath. You could practically hear her saying, “You will worship me whether you like it or not.” It was truly tyrannical. What was amazing was that this type of influence, corruption, and distortion was invisible, traceless, and nearly impossible to guard against unless you knew it was coming. Not only that, it wouldn’t affect the people’s consciousness and mind at all. The only sign that something was wrong was their single-minded devotion toward the Night Bodhisattva. Now that he thought about it, it was somewhat similar to his Paranirmita Boundless Heavenly Demon Dependent. It was equally anomalous, mysterious, and evil. It sounded like he was demeaning himself, but there was no denying the truth. The Paranirmita Boundless Heavenly Demon Dependent was evil. This spell was evil as well. But of course, as anomalous as the Night Bodhisattva’s ability was, the biggest reason he nearly succumbed was his own carelessness. He was a new Sage bearing the Innate Yin Yang Qi and the Profound Yellow Mother Qi. On the way back, there wasn’t a single villain or Stranger whose ass was hard enough to withstand a kick from him. Even a powerful Stranger like the Evil Infant had fallen to him practically effortlessly. Naturally, he had become quite full of himself. In his opinion, this so-called Night Bodhisattva was just another small fry he could suppress with the flip of his palm. It wasn’t like he was completely defenseless, but he certainly wasn’t on his guard either. That was why the Night Bodhisattva was able to teach him a lesson in humility; remind him that there were always taller mountains, greater men, and deadlier Strangers out there. Had he prepared himself properly by guarding his mind with the Earthly Sovereign Bell and securing his consciousness with the Innate Yin Yang Qi, then he wouldn’t be in this embarrassing situation at all. In summary, he got careless! “This Night Bodhisattva probably hail from unusual roots. I do not think she’s an ordinary Stranger.” Feng Qingyou looked up and stopped underestimating the Night Bodhisattva as well. “So? Should we fight her, or...?” Ye Qing asked. He just lost face in front of Feng Qingyou just now, so he was itching to make up for it with a beatdown. As anomalous as the Night Bodhisattva’s ability was, he wasn’t scared of her in a straight fight. “No, let’s not beat the bush and alert the snake. Besides, that silhouette is just a mental avatar, not her true self. Killing it would not do anything.” Feng Qingyou shook her head. Ye Qing shrugged and replied disappointedly, “Fine.” “Relax. There are plenty of opportunities for you to recoup your face in the future.” Feng Qingyou smiled. “We have two main priorities right now. One, we need to locate the true body of the Night Bodhisattva. Two, we need to figure out the connection between the Night Bodhisattva and those who have been corrupted by her. We need to know if killing her would cause harm to their mind, consciousness, or even their life.” Ye Qing nodded and turned serious. If the bond between the Night Bodhisattva and her victims were weak, if killing them would snap them out of their trance without any side effects, then this matter was very simple. They simply needed to locate the Night Bodhisattva’s base and kick her ass. But if their bond was as deep as his bond with his Heavenly Demon Dependents, then this would be an entirely different story. They would need to be very careful with how they handled this. This was no joking matter. Hundreds of thousands of people’s lives including Feng Qingyou’s good friend, Meng Feixue, were at stake here. That was why they must tread carefully.