The Beautiful Boss's Personal Bodyguard
Chapter 483 - 482

Chapter 483: 482

These illustrations mostly depict various hand techniques, including punches, palms, stabs, and finger movements, entirely focused on developing hand-related martial arts skills, which indeed were to Ye Tian’s liking.

"No one ever browses this book, I didn’t expect you to dig it up."

Unknown to Ye Tian, the Great Zen Master was already standing behind him, giving Ye Tian a fright, "You old man, stop sneaking up on people just because you’ve got some skills, alright?"

"I ask you, why did you choose this book?"

The book was unearthed from a dusty corner, and at first, Ye Tian thought it might be some kind of supremely treasured tome hidden away but upon opening it, he found nothing but a children’s book, complete with mouse droppings in the middle, which was honestly revolting.

But he couldn’t just say that out loud or else he’d be looked down upon by the old monk, "Zen Master, I believe there are millions of reasons to choose a book, but tracing back to the root, you should pick one that suits oneself best."

The Zen Master nodded, and Ye Tian let out a sigh of relief.

"There really are too many mice here, daring to defecate inside books."

"...This baldy!"

Ye Tian cursed internally, and as soon as he did, the entire Scripture Pavilion shook, not just the pavilion, but even the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain and the purple sandalwood spiral staircase were trembling.

It was just a curse! No need for all this fuss!

The Great Zen Master looked down, putting his hands together in front of his chest, silent.

"Crack!"

A crack appeared on the ground and quickly expanded into a spiderweb pattern, which didn’t spread further, eventually all the various lines settled within a circle.

A hint of green emerged from the center of the circle, and slowly, a small sprout appeared, the size of a bean sprout.

The bean sprout-sized leaves emerging from the ground took center stage within the circle, and that’s when Ye Tian realized the cluttered spiderweb pattern had transformed into an unknown pattern that seemed random but was actually concealing a profound mystery. The earthy yellow pattern gradually stopped resembling the color of soil and changed into a black pattern.

The old Zen Master looked out from the opening and saw the black pattern outside, sighed with his hands pressed together in front of his chest, "Cultivating a Bodhi Tree with an Evil Spirit Array, only that genius Bodhi Master could handle it."

It must be him. Ye Tian had been mindful of the man in the yellow kasaya when he heard his name on the ground. Out of the Five Elements and five people, three hadn’t shown up, so the one who left the small Bodhi tree in the fountain plaza was this Bodhi Master.

Ye Tian put the book back on the shelf and walked out of the cave, without realizing that the Great Zen Master hadn’t come with him.

The closer he got to the Evil Spirit Array, the stronger the chill he felt rushing towards him. Compared to the eerie cold in the Esoteric old nuns’ court, it was infinitely more powerful. Despite his young age, could he really be, as the old man said, extraordinarily gifted? Hmm? Where’s the old man?

Turning around, Ye Tian saw the old man cozying up in the Scripture Pavilion reading books, not even glancing his way, showing no concern for him whatsoever. In an instant, Ye Tian felt like an idiot.

"Come here, that little sapling has time to grow. Let me first tell you about the Soft and Gentle Panchen Finger."

The Great Zen Master flung the string of 108 Buddha Beads from his chest to his back with considerable flair, but the manner in which he rolled up his sleeves was somewhat lacking—it almost seemed like if you handed him a knife right then, he’d turn into a butcher ready to slaughter pigs and cattle.

Glancing at the Bodhi sapling within the Evil Spirit Array, Ye Tian slowly backed away. The Emperor isn’t in a hurry... Pah! I’m the damn Emperor!

"What do you think of this Panchen Finger skill?"

Speaking in a thick Beijing accent, it made Ye Tian feel sick. The Great Zen Master stumbled through his explanation, "Back in Beiping, if you couldn’t speak clearly, you’d be chopped as if you were an evil spirit or a twisted monster."

Serves you right, why weren’t you chopped back then. Ye Tian mused internally.

Taking the ancient book that the Zen Master handed to him, Ye Tian found it was the same one he had put down earlier—the one nibbled on by mouse droppings. The page he flipped to was the same one he had seen before, but he couldn’t recognize the string of characters beneath the illustration as the Soft and Gentle Ban Zen Finger.

The illustration depicted a finger, the index finger, from which numerous lines extended, ending with annotations and explanations. Pretending to scrutinize it for a while, Ye Tian remarked, "This finger is truly exceptional!"

The old man responded with an equally feigned sophistication, "Such young age and yet such perceptiveness, truly precious indeed!"

"Merely trifling tricks, not worth mentioning."

"You’re too modest."

The old man turned another page, which depicted two fingers, the index finger and the middle finger together, "Take a look at this."

"Two fingers. Could this be the Second Zen Finger?"

The old man nodded, "Exactly. What you’re to learn now are these two Finger Skills, the Soft and Gentle Ban Zen Finger and the Second Zen Finger."

"Zen Master, don’t trick me. Is it really called the Second Zen Finger?"

The Great Zen Master, with a half-smile, pressed his palms together at his chest, "A name is but a term. If you wish, calling it the Golden Finger wouldn’t be too much. Go with the flow, don’t be caught up in the mundane attachments."

Ye Tian had a moment of wicked thought, but it was interrupted by the crackling sound of the Bodhi sapling breaking through the soil from outside the cave. The two leaves from earlier had now become six, and the slender trunk had grown a bit as well,

"This Bodhi Tree is inherently a tree of the living, but being confined by this Evil Spirit Array, it makes no distinction between good and evil, which is quite dreadful. With your current strength, you don’t even qualify to approach the Array, I fear getting too close would result in being strangled to death."

"What should I do then?"

"Chill out! Look at this Finger Skill, don’t ask me if you don’t understand something. Even if you do, I won’t be able to explain it. This Finger Skill must be comprehended on your own, otherwise..."

"You don’t understand it either, do you?"

Ye Tian’s sour tone caused the Great Zen Master to blush and turn around to face the wall.

Unable to do anything about this old man whose cheek was even thicker than his own, Ye Tian had no choice but to squat in the corner with the damaged book. The entrance to the stairs was blocked by the Bodhi Tree, leaving no chance to get out. Deep underground, several tens of meters, it wasn’t like he could just dig another tunnel to escape, right?

Looking at one finger and then two fingers, Ye Tian’s head began to ache. He might have had some confidence if the annotations were in Huaxia language, but it was Sanskrit, and he couldn’t grasp the meaning. But as for the first finger, it looked no different in size from a normal person’s finger, with three knuckle joints, strong and vigorous, and even the fine lines could be clearly made out if one looked carefully. Ye Tian couldn’t help but admire the drawer’s skill, and at the same time, he marveled at how impressive these two pieces of paper were. The bookshelves might be somewhat rotten, but this book had been perfectly preserved, truly incredible indeed.