Chapter 388

Chapter 388: Let’s Go Ask For Alms Together
Yu Zhao went to find Bu Yan and asked for a quiet room to meditate in.

Bu Yan did not say much. He simply led her to the door of a quiet room.

Yu Zhao thanked him, then slipped inside.

She sat down cross-legged and took the Heaven Divining Shell out of her storage bracelet. As her fingertip rubbed the rough surface of the shell, she could not help feeling a bit emotional.

She had been holding the Heaven Divining Shell all this time, yet she had never used it once.

If Su Ming had not reminded her, she might not have thought of this trump card for a very long time.

Yu Zhao picked up the Heaven Divining Shell again. She closed her eyes, just about to ask her question, when her eyelashes trembled.

She suddenly felt a little nervous.

The Heaven Divining Shell had been made by an ancient Grand Adept of divination, but it was still only a magical artifact of the cultivation world. Could it really calculate out the Method to Repair the Heavenly Ladder?

If it could not, then this last chance to use the Heaven Divining Shell would be wasted.

Yu Zhao hesitated for a moment. Then the wavering in her eyes faded and turned firm again.

The chance to do divination could be wasted. But the chance to repair the Heavenly Ladder, no matter how slim, was something she absolutely could not miss.

She closed her eyes once more, held the Heaven Divining Shell in her hand, and gently shook it.

Once, twice… until the sixth shake.

Yu Zhao stopped and pressed her palm flat on the turtle shell.

But several breaths passed, and she still did not receive any message from the Heaven Divining Shell.

She opened her eyes in doubt. Just as she was wondering if the divination had failed, a chain of dense cracking sounds rang out in the quiet room.

She looked down and saw spiderweb-like cracks quickly spreading across the Heaven Divining Shell.

With the final crisp crack, the Heaven Divining Shell split into four or five pieces and lay still in Yu Zhao’s palm.

Yu Zhao’s expression froze. Disappointment flashed in her eyes.

Not only had the divination failed, but the Heaven Divining Shell had been destroyed along with it.

Bang!

The broken shell suddenly turned into countless points of light, which all rushed into Yu Zhao’s body.

A large, complex, and mysterious block of information forced its way into Yu Zhao’s Sea of Consciousness. Her head throbbed, and her vision went completely blank.

She did not know how long it took before the scene in front of her slowly regained its color.

Yu Zhao stared blankly for a long while, then let out a bitter laugh.

This result was really beyond anything she had expected.

She did not even know if she should call this divination a success or a failure.

The Heaven Divining Shell had not given her a clear answer. Instead, it had passed on to her an unknown Formation Array Arts.

The structure of this Formation Array Arts was extremely complicated. It looked complete, but inside it contained countless small Formation Array Arts.

Yu Zhao only looked at it a few times in her mind before she felt dizzy and sleepy.

If this Formation Array Arts were only deep and hard to understand, it would not be too much of a problem for Yu Zhao. She could simply bring the array diagram to an elder skilled in formations and ask for guidance.

But the key problem was that this Formation Array Arts had to use Spirit Cores as the Formation Core, and it needed seven times seven, forty-nine Spirit Cores.

What was a Spirit Core?

It was the core of a Spirit Vein.

As long as the Spirit Core was still there, even if the Spirit Vein was mined dry, after some time new Spirit Stones would grow again.

It was no exaggeration to say that a single Spirit Core was equal to a steady, endless stream of Spirit Stones, taken without end and used without running dry.

Who in the cultivation world would be willing to use a Spirit Core as a Formation Core, and even use forty-nine Spirit Cores at once?

Yu Zhao felt that even if she emptied out the treasure vaults of the One Sect, Two Schools, Four Clans, she still might not be able to gather enough Spirit Cores.

This Formation Array Arts had truly given her a hard problem.

Yu Zhao stared at her now empty palm and gave a helpless smile.

No matter how hard it was, she still had to try.

But who should she start with?

A thought flashed through Yu Zhao’s mind, and she quickly had an idea.

…

“How many did you say?”

“Forty-nine.”

“Forty-nine what?”

“Forty-nine Spirit Cores.”

“And what are you going to do with forty-nine Spirit Cores?”

“Use them as Formation Cores.”

As soon as Yu Zhao finished speaking, she saw the corner of Abbot Jie Tan’s eye twitch hard.

Clearly, the number forty-nine Spirit Cores was a big shock to him too.

The two of them sat facing each other in silence for nearly half an hour before Abbot Jie Tan finally said slowly: “Forty-nine Spirit Cores are no small matter. I am afraid we would have to gather the strength of half the cultivation world to put that many together.”

Yu Zhao only nodded in agreement.

She did not dare say a single extra word.

Abbot Jie Tan glanced at her again and said: “Spirit Cores do not only stand for Spirit Veins. They are also tied to how rich the spiritual energy of the entire cultivation world is. They must be handled with great care.”

Yu Zhao just kept nodding and did not give any opinion.

Seeing this, Abbot Jie Tan thought to himself that Yu Zhao was quite a little fox. Since she could not handle this herself, she had thrown this hot potato into his hands.

Even he felt his heart tremble when he thought about how many Spirit Cores were needed.

Even though he knew this matter was tricky, Abbot Jie Tan had never thought about backing out.

From the moment Yu Zhao stepped through the mountain gate of Clarity Sound Temple, this matter had become tied to him, to Clarity Sound Temple, and even to the entire cultivation world.

No one could stay out of it.

Abbot Jie Tan chanted a few lines of scripture under his breath and turned his prayer beads several times. Then he steeled himself and said: “Clarity Sound Temple is willing to provide three Spirit Cores.”

After he said this, the merciful smile on his face almost fell apart.

Though people say wealth is only something outside the body, Clarity Sound Temple was the holy land of the Buddhist Order. Just keeping its daily operations going needed a huge number of Spirit Stones. When believers of the Buddhist Order came to ask for help, the temple would also give generously.

On top of that, from the elders down to the disciples, everyone in Clarity Sound Temple had a merciful heart. They were always helping those in need, and the Spirit Stones they handed out seldom got used on themselves.

For the sake of the Monk Assembly at Clarity Sound Temple, Abbot Jie Tan had worried himself sick.

This had also made him very careful with money. He saved whenever he could.

The three Spirit Cores he had just promised were not only three Spirit Cores. To him, they were like three chunks of flesh cut from his own body.

Yu Zhao did not rush to accept. Instead, she started counting on her fingers and helped Abbot Jie Tan do the math.

“If each of the Seven Great Sects gives three Spirit Cores, that would be a total of twenty-one Spirit Cores. We would still be twenty-eight short of forty-nine.”

She finished speaking and looked at Abbot Jie Tan with an innocent face.

It was as if she had said nothing, and yet as if she had said everything.

Abbot Jie Tan felt his heart bleeding. “Then… four?”

His voice trembled a little.

Yu Zhao pretended not to notice and said: “We would still be twenty-eight Spirit Cores short.”

Abbot Jie Tan took a deep breath, then slowly let it out.

“Five. We cannot give any more than that.”

If they gave any more, everyone in Clarity Sound Temple would have to go out begging for alms just to make a living.

“Thank you, Abbot. The whole cultivation world will remember the kindness of you and Clarity Sound Temple.”

Yu Zhao stood up and bowed to him with deep respect.

Abbot Jie Tan weakly waved his hand.

Now it was his turn not to want to talk.

Seeing him so down, Yu Zhao thought for a moment, then threw him a question that might cheer him up: “Abbot, in the six remaining great sects, which Sect Master do you think is the easiest to persuade?”

Abbot Jie Tan really did perk up.

He thought for a while, his eyes growing brighter and brighter, then said: “With only your word, it will be hard to convince them. If I go with you, we will save time and also be more believable. Our first stop should be Five Elements Dao Sect. Ji Yuan has always valued you and will surely believe what you say. After that we will head north, to Greenwood Sect, then Heavenly Sword Sect, one after another…”

In just a short time, Abbot Jie Tan had already planned out their route.

Then he took a wooden alms bowl out of his storage space and handed it to Yu Zhao. There was barely hidden excitement in his voice.

“When the time comes, you carry the wooden alms bowl, and I will take you along. We will go door-to-door and ask for alms together.”