Don't Cause Trouble Chapter 59: Former Buddha’s Son

At first, the man seemed to still be far away, but in the blink of an eye, he appeared right in front of them. Behind him were Lian Lian and Cheng Huaian, tied up. Both had a dazed look in their eyes, clearly filled with confusion they couldn't put into words.

The tall, broad man with messy graying hair walked up to the slope in an instant. He pulled back the animal-hide rope in his hand and let go of Cheng Huaian and Lian Lian. His gaze swept across the group. Lü Jiu might be unaffiliated, but the bold three characters on Ye Su’s robes were recognizable to anyone who wasn’t illiterate.

His voice was rough and hoarse, as if he hadn’t spoken in a long time. Even his pronunciation was a bit unclear: "Qianji Sect hasn’t been disbanded yet?"

Ye Su said, "Senior, if your throat is in such bad shape, maybe don’t talk."

The gray-haired man let out a grunt, then looked at the others, finally locking his gaze on Xu Chengyu.

"Sword Sect disciple? You used your divine sense earlier. Don’t you even know how to hide it?"

Xu Chengyu glanced at Ye Su, then said,

"I just advanced to the Nascent Soul stage not yet skilled at controlling divine sense."

"Are you two okay?" Ma Congqiu asked Cheng Huaian and Lian Lian.

"We’re fine," Cheng Huaian said as he looked at the man in front of them. "We owe this senior our thanks for the rescue."

Compared to sword cultivators, talisman cultivators had less physical strength. At the time, he and Lian Lian had been the slowest to react, so they fell behind. Just as they were nearing the slope, a burst of black sandstorm had surged from the side and swept the two of them away.

They had raised a barrier, but they were already in the most dangerous part of the storm. The barrier couldn’t hold for long. Once it broke, they were knocked unconscious.

When they woke up, they were in an underground cave, tied with animal-hide ropes by this gray-haired man. Once the sandstorm outside cleared, he brought them toward the slope.

The man's robe was already in tatters. There was nothing on him that could identify who he was. Xu Chengyu hesitated for a moment, then cupped his hands and asked,

"We ended up here after accidentally entering the Endless Abyss. May I ask which sect Senior is from?"

If he knew the Qianji Sect was nearly dissolved, he must have entered this place within the past few hundred years.

The gray-haired man’s voice was raspy: "I am Tushi of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Sect."

"You’re the Buddha’s son who disappeared in the Wasteland Secret Realm?!" Zhou Yun said in shock.

Two hundred years ago, the Buddha’s son of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Sect had gone to Gui Sect City and entered the Wasteland Secret Realm. He never came back not even his life lamp survived.

The Ten Thousand Buddhas Sect selects a Buddha’s son or saintess every 500 years to eventually become sect leader. But there had always been rumors that Tushi was unfit for the role. He looked too rough and savage—completely different from the refined and noble image of previous Buddha’s sons. Even his name went against the compassionate ideals of Buddhism. He was also the shortest-serving Buddha’s son in their history—only one year.

"Two hundred years, and finally someone else came in," Tushi said, glancing at Ye Su and the others.

"You’ve got some skill… but now that you’re here, don’t think about leaving. There’s no way out."

Ye Su looked at Tushi’s hair and thought,

Even a shaved head can grow out to the waist in two hundred years. It really must be hard to leave.

"Senior Tushi, what is this place?" Xu Chengyu asked.

"This place is…" Tushi was halfway through answering when he suddenly shouted toward the back of the slope,

"Who’s there?!"

Everyone followed his gaze. The originally flat area behind the slope suddenly changed. The barren earth twisted and transformed into a dense forest of gray, crumbling stone tablets.

Some of the towering stone tablets were cracked; others were so worn their inscriptions were unreadable. In the center stood a stone stele, and before it was a staff that had been pulled from the ground.

Ye Su frowned and looked at the person holding the staff.

Little junior brother?

Tushi’s expression darkened. With a "shrinking-the-ground" step, he rushed over instantly, his hand raised like a claw.

"Senior, please hold your hand!" Ye Su slapped on a speed talisman and, to everyone’s surprise, caught up with Tushi and stepped in front of You Fushi, activating her Flying Mirror Armor.

"It’s a misunderstanding."

The Flying Mirror Armor couldn’t block a cultivator of the Integration stage, but it could buy some time.

Tushi frowned and paused, sizing up You Fushi.

"You broke my formation? Who are you?"

You Fushi twirled the staff in his hand, not listening at all. Instead, he poked Ye Su in front of him and said,

"I’m hungry."

Ye Su: "…"

Tushi was shocked by Ye Su’s speed. When he saw her pulling out the talisman from behind her, he finally understood how a mere Golden Core cultivator could catch up to him.

"At first glance, that junior from Qianji Sect looks more like a Buddha’s son than Tushi," Lian Lian said from afar with a hint of regret.

"Too bad he never stands properly or sits straight."

Zhou Yun chuckled proudly:

"That’s because you haven’t seen Qianji Sect’s other junior disciple. He stands tall like a pine, still as a lone moon. Lu Chenhan doesn’t even compare in looks."

"Nonsense!" Lian Lian didn’t believe it. Lu Chenhan’s looks, presence, and cultivation were among the best of his generation.

"Believe it or not," Zhou Yun said with satisfaction, "he’s learning swordsmanship in Sword Sect now. He’ll be my junior brother too."

Lian Lian hesitated.

"Is he really better looking than Lu Chenhan?"

"He’s on par with Young Master You," Zhou Yun replied.

Normally, they just used names or "Fellow Daoist" to address people, but for some reason their senior brother always called him "Young Master You," so Zhou Yun and Ma Congqiu picked it up too.

Tushi’s eyes were filled with killing intent as he rasped,

"Give me back the staff."

Ye Su turned sideways and took the staff from You Fushi’s hand. The moment she held it, her brow rose.

The craftsmanship is exactly like Master Zhang Fengfeng’s style… but he’s only a little over 200 years old. This Buddha’s son has been trapped here that long.

"My junior brother only picked it up because the craftsmanship looked familiar like our grandmaster’s work," Ye Su said, handing the Buddha staff back.

Tushi frowned.

"Grandmaster? Who’s the current head of Qianji Sect?"

"Zhang Fengfeng," Ye Su answered.

"Does the Buddha’s son know him?"

"Him? I remember. He only reached my knee back then," Tushi’s eyes flashed with a bit of wistfulness, and his tone softened.

"That staff was forged for me by your grandmaster."

After his explanation, the group finally learned the full story: After being chosen as Buddha’s son, one must enter the Buddha Pagoda to select a square lotus base staff. But at the time, none of the staffs suited Tushi. The sect believed he was unfit for the role and tried to take away his Blessed Beads. Then Tushi sought out the Qianji Sect, and Zhang Fengfeng’s master personally forged a suitable staff for him—thus allowing him to keep his title.

"It’s been two hundred years… Does the Ten Thousand Buddhas Sect have a Buddha’s son or saintess now?" Tushi asked.

Ye Su didn’t know much about the affairs of major sects. The others exchanged looks, and finally Xu Chengyu stepped forward and said, "About a hundred years ago, the Ten Thousand Buddha Sect did have a Saintess, but… she died. There hasn’t been a new Buddha Child or Saintess chosen in the last twenty years."

Twenty years wasn’t considered long in the eyes of cultivators.

"Senior, when your life lamp went out, the Ten Thousand Buddha Sect thought something had happened to you," Zhou Yun said. "That’s why they selected new successors. Once you return, you can resume your position as the Buddha Child."

Tu Shi shook his head. "You can’t leave this realm. Every month on the twenty-ninth, a black sandstorm sweeps through. I’ve tried countless times over two hundred years and never found an exit."

"If you don’t find the gateway into this realm, you’ll either starve or get eaten by beasts. And if you do find the way in, once you enter, there’s no way out." Tu Shi gave a dry laugh. "No matter which way you go, it’s a dead end."

"What is this place?" Ye Su suddenly pointed at the stone tablets.

"I don’t know. It’s probably the center of the realm," Tu Shi replied.

Back then, he discovered that the Endless Abyss connected to this realm and opened the gateway with a formation. He fell in just as the black sandstorm hit, which shattered his golden core. That’s also when his life lamp in the Buddha Tower went out.

Luckily, Tu Shi survived and managed to form a new core here, eventually reaching the Soul Integration stage after two hundred years.

"Each time the black sandstorm comes, the stone tablets get damaged," Tu Shi explained. "At first, I didn’t pay attention, but over the last hundred years, the tablets kept cracking, and for some reason, the spiritual energy has also been drying up. That’s why I set up a formation here—to preserve what little spiritual energy is left."

If there’s no spiritual energy to sustain it, everything inside the realm will vanish along with it.

Everyone fell silent. Since they arrived, nothing good had happened.

Cheng Huai’an and Lian Lian walked toward the tablet forest to examine the inscriptions.

Seeing this, the others spread out to investigate different areas.

"These look like rune patterns," Lian Lian said from nearby.

Tu Shi immediately walked over, eager to see what she’d discovered.

Ye Su scanned the surrounding stone forest. It looked incredibly familiar not just the forest itself, but even the junior brother who had stood before the stone tablet earlier. She felt like she’d seen him somewhere before.

She had only seen this kind of stone forest in a small secret realm once before. As for You Fushi...

"Junior Brother, turn around for a second," Ye Su called out to You Fushi behind her.

You Fushi was holding some fasting pills in his hand. He glanced at the mortal opposite him, then looked back down and started counting the pills in his palm, pretending he didn’t hear her.

Seeing this, Ye Su reached out and grabbed his shoulder, turning him around with force.

...With a change of clothes to black, wasn’t he exactly the same back view she had seen in that secret realm?

She walked over to stand beside You Fushi. "Junior Brother, are you the one who left me behind back then?"

No response. You Fushi lowered his head and continued counting his pills.

"You already counted that half," Ye Su said, glancing at his palm.

You Fushi’s finger paused, then he switched to counting the other half.

"So you’re the beast from that little secret realm?" Ye Su asked thoughtfully. "Was it you who threw the Wuji Pill inside too?"

Someone had thrown that precious pill into her storage pouch—something only her junior brother would do.

You Fushi finally spoke two words: "It wasn’t."

"Alright, it wasn’t," Ye Su raised an eyebrow, pretending to believe him.

But if the Wuji Pill was in You Fushi’s hands, then had the heroine Ning Qianyao from the original novel already met him?

While the two of them stood silently side by side, a commotion broke out ahead.

"These are definitely a kind of rune pattern," Cheng Huai’an said after closely examining a broken stone tablet. "They resemble ones found in ancient texts of the Hidden Branch of the Wuxing Sect."

"Do you know what kind of rune this is?" Tu Shi's voice became a bit clearer, no longer as hoarse.

Cheng Huai’an shook his head. "That ancient book is a forbidden text of the Wuxing Sect. I only saw the cover once while cleaning books outside."

Ye Su walked over. She stared at the pattern on the broken stone tablet for a moment, then knelt down on one knee. Reaching out, she used her finger to trace several connected strokes over a faded section of the tablet. "The upper part here can be drawn like this."

Her finger moved quickly. Xu Chengyu and the others didn’t quite follow what she was doing, but Cheng Huai’an and Lian Lian almost immediately memorized it.

"How do you know that?" Lian Lian asked in surprise. The strokes Ye Su had just added—though she didn’t recognize the specific rune were definitely part of a complete pattern.

"I saw a similar stone tablet once in a small secret realm. The patterns there were more intact," Ye Su stood up and looked toward the other tablets. After a pause, she added, "Maybe we can try restoring these inscriptions."