“Fellow Immortal Shen, this humble monk still has to go and collect those golden booklets, so I won't stay.”

Master Zhikong had come to the door to say goodbye.

The common people of the Divine Dynasty had seen a lot of the world. Without real benefits, they would never have put their faith in an evil creature.

Besides the spirit light that made people feel warm and comfortable all over and could cure hidden ailments, the rat demon had also handed out a great many golden booklets.

Gold was precious, but more precious still were the scriptures engraved inside.

Each booklet recorded only a short passage, but it was without question the Three-Kalpa Lotus Dais Method—the very method Shen Yi had used to protect his spirit-soul through the kalpas and take in heaven and earth.

Now he had to take every one of them back, and it wasn't because Zhikong was stingy.

With a method like this, even an experienced practitioner could fall into delusion with one slip, let alone ordinary mortals holding only a remnant scroll. If one of them couldn't resist greed while reciting the scripture and took just one more look, the consequences didn't bear thinking about.

Beyond that…

The monk Zhikong raised his eyes slightly and looked through the roof at the imperial qi filling the sky.

A vague unease stirred in him.

Lately, thefts of methods like this from the Teaching had been getting more and more frequent. The Bodhi Teaching was one of the Three Teachings, yet it was as though the monks guarding its pavilions had all dozed off together.

He was only an ordinary Pilgrim. He didn't know why trouble kept cropping up. He could only hope it wouldn't disturb this good world of men.

“Farewell, Master.”

Shen Yi nodded in return. He didn't actually need the Earth God's warning; he wouldn't have gotten too close to Master Zhikong at a time like this anyway.

He had just killed a Pilgrim of the Bodhi Teaching. Whether he wanted to join the Teaching or get something more out of it, he would have…