CHAPTER 274: CHAPTER 273: IS IT ON IF IT’S NOT CLOSED?

Nezha and Old Li had been inside for quite a while, even longer than Yunxiao.

Staying in for a long time doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get a high score, but those with high scores are definitely in for a long time.

An inexplicable pressure weighed down on the Immortals vying for the Present Buddha position.

Many couldn’t sit still and simply rushed in.

At this moment, Lady Yin was also delighted. Of course, she wanted her family to score high. She gave Jinzha and Muzha an inadvertent glance.

The mother-child bond runs deep; Jinzha and Muzha instantly understood what their mom meant.

"Sorry, we’ve embarrassed the Old Li family!"

...

Two days later, Guanyin entered the Formation with Manjusri and Puxian.

A few days after that, Duobao’s Good Corpse arrived, accompanied by the Fire Spirit Saint Mother.

Currently, the Jie Sect was relatively intact. It was impossible for Duobao to join Buddhism, but now it seemed the Daoist Ancestor had opened a small window, and Duobao sent his Good Corpse to participate.

At his stage, cutting off the Self Corpse was extraordinarily difficult. The Daoist Ancestor’s treasures had been calculated by the Tongtian Sect Ancestor, but there was one thing that couldn’t be completely deciphered.

Taking a guess, it could only be that one thing.

Thus, Duobao had to come.

He had already been studying the Buddhist Scriptures for a long time, so without hesitation, he greeted the Jie Sect members and stepped into the Ten Thousand Buddha Formation.

Unconsciously, the exam’s duration had already passed its halfway mark. Everyone stopped holding back and charged forward—all, after all, needed time to score high.

...

Nezha was unaware of the commotion outside. At this moment, he still kept smiling as he moved forward, with an old monk scampering after him.

Suddenly, Nezha stopped in his tracks and stood still.

The old monk, panting heavily, asked, "World Venerable, World Venerable, what exactly have you enlightened to?"

Nezha continued smiling as he looked at the old monk. The old monk was an illusion within the Ten Thousand Buddha Formation, but at the Saint’s level, illusion and reality, life and death, were almost impossible to distinguish.

Perhaps, to the old monk, this illusory world was the truth, and he himself was the one alive, while the World Venerable Nezha before him was merely an illusion.

"If I didn’t maintain this smile, how would you know I’ve seen through all things?"

Blowing smoke and then running!

Under the old monk’s gaze, Nezha transformed into golden particles and vanished from the Ten Thousand Buddha Formation.

"World Venerable, you..."

...

When the golden light dispersed, Nezha had already returned to the entrance of the Ten Thousand Buddha Formation. He actively disengaged from the bug-abusing state and exited the Formation.

Scoring too low would be unacceptable—it would bring shame to his teacher.

But scoring too high was also no good—what if they really forced him to become a Buddha?

After all, his loyalty belonged entirely to his teacher!

So when he thought it was sufficient, he simply left. Still, his score turned out a bit more surprising than expected: 526,000 points.

Nezha looked a little nervously at the mountain peak. Did he score too high?

As he hesitated, a flash of light appeared at the portal beside him, revealing an unexpected figure—Li Jing!

He was completely dumbfounded on the spot. Had his bug usage failed? Why did he emerge at the same time as Old Li?

"Old Li, your score?"

Li Jing, still serious as ever, whispered back, "580,000."

"Hiss!"

Nezha sucked in a sharp breath and glanced around as he asked, "Did you ’open it’?"

Li Jing didn’t quite understand what this ’open it’ meant, but he roughly guessed Nezha was asking why his score was so high.

He raised his right hand slightly, seemingly unintentionally, revealing the Pagoda.

Nezha understood in an instant. Alright then, not disabling doesn’t count as ’opening,’ huh!

The two walked back together, with Nezha pondering over the matter along the way.

In the original timeline, it was Saint Taiqing who grabbed Duobao and threw him into Buddhism, giving rise to the story of transforming barbarians into Buddhists.

Now that the Jie Sect hadn’t fallen apart, there’s no way Tongtian Sect Master would allow such a thing. So, did they turn to Old Li instead?

It wasn’t that Nezha looked down on Old Li, but how could Old Li even be compared to Duobao?

The Buddha’s throne was no minor position—on a horizontal scale, it was even half a level above Nezha. Let alone the fact that it came with treasures from the Daoist Ancestor.

When the two returned to the gathering, the scores of 580,000 and 526,000 quickly spread. All the Immortals stared at Nezha and Old Li in shock.

No way, you two who played around the hardest actually took first and second place?

Nezha gestured for everyone to calm down. It’s no big deal! Just a casual test!

Too bad the Primordial era didn’t have a term like "study bitch."

Over a month later, Manjusri and Puxian emerged. The two possessed great wisdom and had long delved into Buddhism. Their cultivation had also returned to the Profound Immortal level but their governance abilities were somewhat lacking, earning them just over 30,000 points.

Half a month later, Guanyin came out. She was indeed tremendously virtuous, highly perceptive, hardworking, and capable, earning a score of 80,000 points.

This score was actually quite good. After all, even the higher-cultivated Jin Ling Saint Mother, who had practical governance experience, scored just over 90,000.

More than six months later, Duobao finally emerged, with a score of 576,000.

He was only 4,000 points behind Old Li.

The lower score didn’t necessarily mean Duobao was inferior to Li Jing.

As the Jie Sect’s Senior Brother and acting Sect Leader, Duobao’s governance skills were maxed out. The score difference likely came down to differing styles—Duobao would undoubtedly revamp Buddhism entirely according to his vision.

That would mean overturning the systems originally established by Zhunti.

Li Jing, on the other hand, repaired and built upon the existing systems.

Considering the Western Sect, painstakingly built from scratch by Jieyin, could they really hold no affection for it? If there were no other choice, Duobao was the most suitable candidate. Now, they had Old Li instead.

But how many ’affection points’ Old Li had earned, no one could say for sure.

In the end, Old Li came out on top.

Nezha found the whole affair surreal.

With Duobao’s score, unless Xuan Du himself joined the test, no other Mystic Sect disciple could surpass him. But if Xuan Du did join, wouldn’t Saint Taiqing’s machinations amount to nothing?

So Old Li was going to be the Present Buddha!

Nearly a year remained, but honestly, breaking past 10,000 points was difficult from this point onward.

As for Maitreya, Dashizhi, and others, their scores hovered just above 100,000. Their governance abilities weren’t particularly strong—if they were, the two Saints wouldn’t have had to cry at Zixiao Palace in the first place.

When Duobao heard Old Li’s score, he took a lingering glance at the Pagoda in Li Jing’s hand but didn’t say much.

One year later, the grand Primordial exam finally concluded.

The two Saints, Jieyin and Zhunti, manifested their enormous Dharma Forms above Lingshan. The Ten Thousand Buddha Formation turned into a wisp of golden light and returned to Saint Zhunti’s palm.

Jieyin wore his eternal expression of sorrow, while Zhunti took responsibility for announcing the results.

The top three Buddhas were the Three Worldly Buddhas: Past Buddha Duobao Buddha, Present Buddha Tuo Ta Treasure Light Buddha (Li Jing), and Future Buddha Maitreya.

In other words, Duobao, Li Jing, and Maitreya.

Nezha’s score ranked third, but he would never join Buddhism.

Next were the Great Bodhisattvas, including Guanyin, Manjusri, and Puxian, while Ju Liusun managed to secure the position of Ksitigarbha Buddha.

Zhunti then listed a slew of other Bodhisattvas and Arhats, most of whom were from the Jie Sect. However, these positions weren’t particularly important—what truly mattered was the Present Buddha, Old Li, organizing everything.

Otherwise, why hire him just to sideline him?