Chapter 280: Hell
“Proceed to Mount Ling Shan and the Great Thunderous Temple to study Mahayana Buddhist teachings.”
“Go to the Ksitigarbha Hall and inspect the Book of Life and Death.”
“Remain behind Yinshan to listen to the Sutra of the Ten Wheels of Ksitigarbha.”
……
Ten pieces of information, each with different content.
Jiang Jian understood at once.
These trials were originally meant for the Ten Kings of Hell.
The other nine gradually withdrew.
Only I remained to participate in the trial.
Thus,
No matter the outcome of the trial, whether I performed well or poorly,
I am the sole victor.
“Venerable Bodhisattva.”
Jiang Jian scanned the ten pieces of information; in an instant, he had made his decision: “I wish to go to the Hell of Yama, recite the sutras, and liberate the evil spirits.”
The Bodhisattva nodded and said: “With compassion in your heart, merit will arise naturally.”
He made no visible movement.
Around Jiang Jian, space shifted instantly.
When he regained his senses and looked around, he realized he had arrived at the Hell of Yama.
His vision was filled with a suffocating crimson; countless yakshas and ghostly guards moved through it, while damned souls suffered endless torment, their pitiful wails echoing without cease.
The Hell of Yama consists of two hells.
They are the Mountain of Blades and the Hell of Unnatural Death.
The hell before him was the Mountain of Blades.
Sharp, icy blades covered the ground, their points upward, piled into a mountain, glowing with a blinding crimson light.
Countless damned souls, naked and bare, screamed in agony as they climbed the blade mountain.
As they walked, their bodies were pierced through, organs impaled by the blades, entrails torn open, yet they still limped forward.
“According to the rules of this story world,”
“Those who kill out of idle thought are cast into the Mountain of Blades after death.”
As he pondered,
Jiang Jian walked forward and stopped beside a damned soul, observing closely.
He was a man.
His expression was numb, his face ashen; even as the blades pierced his soles, he merely clenched his features, making no sound.
Jiang Jian thought for a moment and called out to him: “Stop.”
The authority of Wang Dian—his word became law.
As golden light spread,
The man was forced to halt.
Jiang Jian began reciting the Sutra of the Ten Wheels of Ksitigarbha, as prescribed by the rules.
Streams of golden light surged forth, clearly illuminating the man’s inner being.
His remaining sins rapidly diminished.
Within mere seconds,
The man’s evil karma vanished, his karmic debt dissolved, and he returned to the form of an ordinary man.
He stretched out his hands, examining himself, unable to hide his astonishment!
“Thank you, Wang Dian! Thank you, Venerable Bodhisattva!”
The man knelt on the ground and bowed reverently to Jiang Jian, his expression deeply devout.
His karmic burden gone,
He could now be reborn, to live another life.
At the same time,
More and more damned souls gathered from all around, huddling beyond the golden light, emitting twisted screams but daring not approach too closely.
“Wang Dian!”
“Please forgive my sins, Wang Dian!”
“Please recite the sutra for me, Wang Dian!”
……
At that moment,
A yaksha stepped forward and whispered: “Wang Dian, shall I drive them away?”
Jiang Jian waved gently, his brow slightly furrowed.
After his earlier attempt,
He realized that reciting the Sutra of the Ten Wheels of Ksitigarbha once could liberate only one evil spirit.
Yet now,
The number of damned souls remaining in the Mountain of Blades numbered in the hundreds of trillions.
Worse still,
Every moment,
New evil spirits were cast into the Mountain of Blades.
If he continued in this methodical way, reciting sutras for each soul, even until the end of time, he could liberate only a handful.
If things continued like this,
His trial result would be abysmal.
As for Buddhist teachings,
Jiang Jian had no deep understanding.
He had chosen to come to the Hell of Yama and liberate evil spirits
Only because he knew the narrative arc of the Sutra of the Ten Wheels of Ksitigarbha.
After all, the realm he was in was the Yinshan Marvel.
Among the ten different trials,
Liberating evil spirits most aligned with the heart of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva.
In the story world,
Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva had once made a great vow:
“I will not attain Buddhahood until the hells are empty.”
Yet all knew that the eighteen layers of hell would never be empty.
Therefore,
Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva,
Even until the end of the story, never achieved Buddhahood.
“Emptying the hells need not mean reciting sutras.”
Jiang Jian raised his gaze, looking at the dense throng of damned souls before him, his expression calm.
“If we are to prevent new damned souls from entering,
There is another way.”
“That is to abandon the eighteen layers of hell forever.”
His idea was simple.
He intended to use special means within the story world
To help Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva fulfill the rule’s great vow, enabling him to attain Buddhahood!
If this came to pass,
This virtual story world would, within its bounded limits, truly reach its ultimate state.
And his final reward would be immeasurably vast!
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