269 A Dying Monk in the Pile of Bones (2/2)

After looking carefully, he realized that there was a person in the mound of bones and bodies.

That person was very old. He was bald and toothless. There were only two extremely long white brows that hung off his face and reached his chest. The person wore extremely old robes of a monk. The robes were tattered and the threads and pieces of cloth hung from his body just like his brows.

The person was extremely skinny. His limbs looked like firewood. There was no muscle nor fat on his body and a thin layer of skin was wrapped around his jagged bones. The two black holes that were his eyes looked terrifying. However, the gaze that his eyes exuded was kind and warm.

Other than the thin layer of skin that had long lost its elasticity, the old monk looked almost like the bones and bodies around him. That was why it was so difficult to spot him in the pile of bones.

There were two very fine chains that went through the monk's drum-like abdomen. The other end of the chain was nailed on the hard wall behind him. The fresh blood of decades past had turned black over the years and was painted on the tatters of his robes.

This image was rather strange and the old monk within it was terrifying.

Ning Que's finger trembled and he almost shot his arrow that was in the bowstring. Mo Shanshan clasped a hand to her mouth before she could make a sound. They had stopped themselves in time due to the benevolence and warmth in the old monk's eyes.

”Who are you?”

Ning Que held on to his bowstring tightly as he asked agitatedly. He aimed at the old monk in the middle of the Bone Mountain.

The sudden appearance of an old monk in the Front Gate of the Devil's Doctrine which had disappeared from the world for decades was hard to explain. It was unthinkable how the old man had managed to survive despite being so thin. And things that did not have a rational explanation were usually fraught with danger.

”Who am I?”

The old monk raised his head slowly. The chains that pierced through his belly rattled. A trace of pain appeared on his sallow face. However, his gaze remained warm as he reminisced.

A look of understanding passed through his eyes after a long time. Lips twitched on the loose skin as he smiled with difficulty. He said, ” I am a person who has bounded himself.”

”I have committed a grievous sin in the past and regretted it all my life. That is why I have locked myself in this place with metal chains. I swore that I would use the rest of my life to help these souls pass on in order to atone for some of my sins.”

Every slight action or words from the old monk would cause him pain from the metal chains that passed through his body. However, his weak voice and gaze were filled with benevolence like a gentle spring breeze.

Ning Que looked at the shriveled old monk with an aura of spring and asked in shock, ”What sins have you committed?”

The chains rattled again. The shriveled old monk smiled as he looked at the bodies strewn around him. He extended a finger with great difficulty and gently touched a white femur before him. He said, ”I have committed murder.”

”Committed murder?”

The old monk looked at him calmly and said, ”I entered Buddhism at 20 and became a monk. I thought that with benevolence, I would be able to help the world with the light of Buddha. Who would have thought that it would lead to the birth of these bodies? That, is my act of murder.”

Ning Que understood it but did not understand it either. It was rumored that these bodies of the Front Gate of the Devil's Doctrine were killed by Youngest Uncle. The sword marks, as well as the words on the no-word stele, made it seem that the rumors were rather close to the truth. Why would the withered old monk say that this was his act of murder?

”You... do you know my Youngest Uncle?” He asked.

The old monk looked at the two like a senior looking at his juniors. He asked gently, ”Crazy Ke is your Youngest Uncle. That makes you a disciple to the Headmaster of Academy. Who is this young lady?”

Ning Que and Mo Shanshan could feel the man's kindness and trust. There was perhaps even a trace of doting warmth. They revealed their identities subconsciously.

The old monk lamented softly, ”I had thought that I would spend the rest of my life atoning for my sins. I did not think that I would meet the descendants of my enemies. Does this mean that the Front Gate of the Devil's Doctrine has opened?”

He looked at Ning Que puzzledly, ” You are the Academy's wayfarer of this generation? You seem to have only broken the realm and entered the Seethrough state only a couple days back. Why is your state so low? Could it be that the Academy has gotten weaker with each generation?”

Following that, the old monk looked at Mo Shanshan and smiled, ”I've stayed in the Bone Mountain and not heard of anything. I do not know how much time has passed and only felt that I have slept and woken up. It seems that even little Wang has a successor now.”

Ning Que knew that he was the weakest World Wayfarer in the Academy's history. However, he was still annoyed when the monk pointed it out. However, he thought of how the old monk had stayed in the Front Gate of the Devil's Doctrine for decades, and how he had called Youngest Uncle Crazy Ke and the Master of Calligrapher little Wang. He knew that the man was an Unworldly Sublime Being and could not bring himself to scold him.

It was just, who exactly was the withered old monk?