As soon as he finished speaking, Edward and the others immediately glared at him angrily. If it weren’t for their fear of John Adams’s status, they would have made him understand why the Buddha’s kasaya is so red.

“Mind your words, heir!”

Samuel Carter also looked at John Adams with clear displeasure, but as an elder, he didn’t say anything more.

John Adams secretly curled his lips. He was obviously telling the truth, but since no one wanted to listen, he could only keep his mouth shut.

The appointed time arrived. The cremation of Master Charles was not accompanied by any complicated rituals. Edward led people to sit in a circle around the stone platform, and everyone began chanting sutras in unison.

Then, a young monk lit the firewood on the stone platform. The blazing flames rose up, surrounding Master Charles’s remains.

The nine layers of firewood looked thick, but wood doesn’t burn for long. After about half an hour, the firewood was almost all burned up, and the remains inside had turned to charcoal.

John Adams and Samuel Carter stood upwind and didn’t smell anything unpleasant.

The monk Edward was impatient. He didn’t wait for the ashes in the fire to cool completely, but personally climbed onto the stone platform and used an iron staff to poke through the ashes, hoping to find a relic.

After Edward had sifted through the ashes, his eyes were about to pop out, but he still couldn’t find the legendary seven-colored relic, only some bones that hadn’t fully burned.

Although some in the Buddhist community use bones as relics, they are far less convincing than genuine relics.

“Nothing! How can there be nothing?” Edward unwillingly searched through the ashes again, muttering in despair.

The other monks looked at each other in dismay. As the saying goes, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment—perhaps even more so. If they couldn’t find a relic, it might shake some of their core beliefs.

“How is that possible?”

At this moment, Samuel Carter below the platform also looked utterly incredulous, but then he suddenly turned around, his gaze sharp as he questioned John Adams: “How did you know there wouldn’t be a relic?”

“Do you want me to explain, or do you want to see a real relic?”

John Adams looked as if he had expected this all along, and smiled as he countered Samuel Carter’s question.

“What do you mean? The body has already been burned—how could there still be a relic?”

Samuel Carter was stunned, then asked again.

“That’s not your concern. Anyway, I have a way to produce a relic. Do you want to hear it or not?”

John Adams asked again, full of confidence.

“Hear it!”

Samuel Carter, worthy of being Zhu Di’s top strategist, made a prompt decision.

John Adams had already guessed he would agree, so he immediately stepped forward and whispered a few words into Samuel Carter’s ear.

“That simple?”

Samuel Carter looked utterly incredulous after hearing it.

“It’s just that simple!”

John Adams smiled slightly.

“Good! Someone! Go to the Xiangji Kitchen and bring several cartloads of charcoal!”

Samuel Carter gritted his teeth and gave the order loudly.

The young monk who had led them here immediately responded and ran off.

In no time, several carts of charcoal were brought to the cliff, and under the astonished gazes of Edward and the others, all of it was dumped onto the stone platform.

The embers on the stone platform hadn’t completely died out, and charcoal is highly flammable, so the fire quickly blazed up again. The pile of glowing charcoal looked like a burning grave.

“It’s not enough—have people use fans and fan it as hard as they can!”

John Adams said again to Samuel Carter.

Samuel Carter nodded. At this point, he was willing to try anything, and could only put his full trust in John Adams.

Following Samuel Carter’s instructions, several burly monks stood upwind, wielding large fans and fanning the fire with all their might. The flames of the charcoal turned from red to white, and eventually even began to glow blue.

“Master, what are you doing?”

Edward and the others finally realized something was up and hurried over to ask Samuel Carter.

“No need to ask!”

Samuel Carter waved his hand, not wanting to explain—besides, even if he wanted to, he couldn’t explain it clearly.

The charcoal burned even faster. John Adams, worried it might not be enough, had another dozen carts of charcoal brought in and added to the fire.

The monks fanning the flames rotated several times, each of them panting and sticking out their tongues from exhaustion. If they kept fanning like this, they’d soon be joining Master Charles in the Western Pure Land.

Finally, someone brought over the kitchen bellows, which replaced the monks at the fire.

The fire burned like this for nearly two hours, until dusk was falling and the flames finally began to die down.

“Are you sure you can produce a relic?”

Samuel Carter looked at the dying flames, still uneasy, and asked John Adams again.

“Probably... I think so.”

John Adams replied, stroking his chin.

“Probably? You’re not even sure yourself?”

Hearing this, Samuel Carter was so angry his triangular eyes went perfectly round.

“In theory, there shouldn’t be a problem, but this is my first time burning for a relic, so I can’t guarantee it. But don’t worry—just let me try a few more times, and once I’ve got the experience, I’ll be able to produce one every time!”

“Absurd! Relics are the supreme treasures of Buddhism, only possessed by monks of the highest virtue. How could they be produced so casually?”