Zanxing (Retranslated)

Chapter 291 - The Two-Life Buddha Wheel (2)

“Two-Life Buddha Wheel?” Zanxing was taken aback. “What is the Two-Life Buddha Wheel?”

Mingjing stared intently at the Buddha wheel spinning in the skeleton’s palm, a rare trace of alarm crossing his usually calm features. “In the Three Realms, all beings cycle through the Six Paths of Reincarnation, like the rotating Fire Wheel. Legend speaks of the Two-Life Buddha Wheel, which governs the laws of time and space. When the wheel turns, it can return to the past or reach the future.”

Zanxing frowned slightly. “So it’s a time machine?”

“It turns out the reward for the fifth layer of the Buddha Pagoda trial is the Two-Life Buddha Wheel,” Mingjing murmured. “No wonder no one has seen it in so many years.”

“Hey,” Gu Baiying slammed the skeleton onto the ground, interrupting Mingjing’s thoughts, “that wheel has been spinning for a while now. Aren’t you going to check it out?”

Mingjing was momentarily stunned.

The small spinning wheel in the monk’s bony palm turned slowly, but instead of moving forward, it was moving backward.

The Buddha wheel was rotating in reverse!

Zanxing’s hairs stood on end as she looked at Mingjing. Mingjing suddenly spoke, “This is bad. Someone has entered!”

The Buddha wheel should not be moving backward. Recalling that Zanxing hadn’t seen anyone else when she arrived, but Gui Yansheng had entered the tower before them, Zanxing realized, “Gui Yansheng has gone in.”

“What?” Gu Baiying asked.

Zanxing hurriedly spoke, asking Mingjing, “Master Mingjing, what happens when the wheel turns? Do you know?”

Mingjing, also anxious, replied, “The wheel changes time. If it’s moving backward, it will return to the past.”

Zanxing fixed her gaze on him. “Can the past be changed?”

Mingjing shook his head in confusion. “I don’t know.”

He truly didn’t know. The Two-Life Buddha Wheel was a legend from ancient texts, and this was his first time seeing it. As for what would happen after the wheel turned, he had no idea.

Zanxing felt a growing sense of unease. Gui Yansheng was a madman bent on bloodshed and rewriting the rules of the Three Realms. Who knew when he might end up? Perhaps he could return to a time hundreds of years ago, when the Xiao Yuan Pearl first appeared, seize it, refine it, and use his power to wipe out the mortal realm. If that happened, the people alive today might instantly cease to exist.

Her purpose in coming here was to prevent Gui Yansheng from obtaining the trial reward and becoming significantly stronger. She hadn’t anticipated that the reward in the Buddha Pagoda was even more formidable than anyone had imagined, nearly allowing Gui Yansheng to achieve his goals in one fell swoop.

She had to stop him!

But how exactly was the Buddha Wheel used?

Zanxing took a few steps forward. Seeing her actions, Mingjing expressed his concern. “Princess, what are you doing? Don’t get too close to the Buddha Wheel.”

Before he could finish speaking, Zanxing’s hand had already touched the small gold and black Buddha Wheel. In an instant, the palm-sized wheel expanded dramatically, forming a massive phantom in mid-air, like an open gateway of light, and suddenly began to draw Zanxing in.

“Princess!”

Gu Baiying’s brow twitched. Instinctively, he leaped to grab her leg, but the rotating gateway seemed like a giant beast with its mouth wide open, ruthlessly tearing both of them inside.

Clink—

The wheel stopped spinning, and the hall was left with no trace of the two.

Mingjing’s face turned ashen as he gazed at the Buddha Wheel in the skeleton’s palm, murmuring, “This is bad.”

With a loud thud, the vast mountain forest was disturbed, wild birds startled by the sound, flapping their wings and flying into the distance.

Zanxing looked around, finding herself in an unfamiliar mountain forest.

“Are you done lying around?” A gritted voice came from beside her. Zanxing looked down to see Gu Baiying pinned under her, his expression far from pleasant.

“Gu Baiying?” She was slightly taken aback, scrambled to her feet, and asked with some confusion, “How did you end up here?”

When she touched the Two-Life Buddha Wheel earlier, she hadn’t expected it to be so forceful, pulling her in despite her demon king’s power.

Gu Baiying stood up, dusted himself off, and snorted, “You’re a demon, of course I’d follow you. Who knows if this is some scheme of yours?”

“Then you’re truly disappointed,” Zanxing shrugged. “I don’t have any schemes. It’s you who ended up trapped here with me. We can’t even get out.”

Gu Baiying raised an eyebrow. “Can’t get out? Just move forward.”

Zanxing followed his gaze and saw a narrow path through the dense forest. It seemed rarely used. Without a close inspection, it was hard to tell it was a path.

She tried to open her Qiankun Bag, but it wouldn’t open here. Zanxing felt something was off. Could this place be an illusion like the one in Wufan City, rather than a real world?

As she was thinking, Gu Baiying’s impatient voice came from ahead. “What are you dragging your feet for? Hurry up and follow!”

She sighed, realizing staying here wasn’t a solution, and caught up with him.

The forest was vast, and they couldn’t find an exit immediately. Although the Qiankun Bag wouldn’t open, their spiritual energy seemed unaffected. As they walked, Zanxing said to Gu Baiying, “I don’t sense any demonic energy around here. Gui Yansheng isn’t nearby.”

“I don’t sense any cultivator energy either,” Gu Baiying replied. He then paused as if realizing the atmosphere between him and this demon was unusually calm. He subtly increased the distance between them and asked, frowning, “What exactly is your relationship with Gui Yansheng? Aren’t you the Demon King’s daughter?”

The question was somewhat complicated. Zanxing decided to keep it brief. “He’s my father’s illegitimate son. I lived in Duzhou in the past. The situation in the demon realm is complicated. Gui Yansheng wants to control it, but he’s an erratic madman who wants to slaughter the Three Realms. I had to return to stabilize the situation. Just think of it as…” She considered her words carefully. “As the power struggles among mortal royal families.”

“Illegitimate son?” Gu Baiying raised an eyebrow, half mocking, half serious. “Your father really was quite the womanizer.”

Zanxing: “…”

Was that really the point to focus on?

She glanced at Gu Baiying, who still looked the same as before—his white robe immaculate, his red headband flying, and his demeanor full of youthful vigor untainted by worldly hardships. She sighed inwardly. Breaking through in the Abyss of Extreme Ice and spending two years in closed-door training at Heishi City had made her grow quite a bit, no longer as naive as she had been two years ago.

Seeing Gu Baiying still looking the same as before, Zanxing’s past grievances with Shaoyang Zhenren seemed to vanish in an instant.

In a way, this was actually quite nice.

Noticing Zanxing’s gaze, Gu Baiying shot her a sidelong glance and asked with an inexplicable tone, “Why are you staring at me?”

Zanxing averted her gaze and spoke candidly, “There are rarely any young men as handsome as you in Heishi City. It’s only natural for me to take a closer look.”

Gu Baiying’s face stiffened, then quickly darkened, as if he had been affronted by someone’s inappropriate advances. Just as he was about to lose his temper, Zanxing suddenly turned her head and looked ahead.

“Hmm, is that a village up ahead?”