Chapter 281: Plucking a Flower, Sitting in Stillness, Listening to the Thunder

Knife Mountain Hell.

Jiang Jian walked through it, his body guarded by Wang Dian’s golden light, untouched by karmic force.

Within his pupils.

A frost-white vortex appeared.

Karmic fire.

The next instant.

Jiang Jian stopped, gazing at the sinner before him, and lightly brushed his finger.

A thread of blazing white flame emerged silently.

The karmic fire swept over the sinner without sound.

In the blink of an eye.

It absorbed all his karmic sins, leaving not a trace!

The origin of karmic fire increased imperceptibly.

And the sinner, his sins entirely purged, regained his mortal form, staring at himself in utter shock.

“Thank you, Wang Dian!”

The sinner snapped back to himself, fell prostrate, weeping and sobbing, bowing his head repeatedly to Jiang Jian, “My karmic debt is gone—I can finally be reborn!”

A yaksha hurried forward, bowed respectfully to Jiang Jian, then lifted the sinner into the air and flew toward the rebirth vortex.

Jiang Jian’s expression remained calm.

With a thought of his mind.

The thread of karmic fire split into two, then into three.

In an instant, it became thousands upon thousands of fine streams of light, surging wildly toward the boundless sinners of Knife Mountain Hell!

BOOM!

As soon as these fragments of karmic fire appeared, they exploded outward at an terrifying speed!

Like wildfire igniting a prairie, rising in a towering wave!

Wherever they passed, every sinner’s karmic sins were absorbed clean, not a speck remaining!

In the blink of an eye.

The crimson Knife Mountain Hell turned to frost-white.

More and more sinners had their karmic debts purged by the karmic fire, regaining their mortal forms.

Radiating from Jiang Jian, the sinners knelt one after another, bowing to him, filled with reverence and gratitude.

Soon.

These purified sinners were taken away by yaksha guards, sent to the rebirth vortex for reincarnation!

At this moment, as more karmic force was absorbed.

The thousands of karmic fire fragments burned fiercely within the hell, their flames growing hotter!

Each hair-thin frost-white flame swelled into pillars as thick as cart wheels!

Countless blazing white pillars swept wildly through Knife Mountain Hell!

Infinite karmic force flowed into them!

Though Knife Mountain Hell stretched boundlessly, holding billions of sinners.

These blazing white karmic fires multiplied geometrically.

Gradually swallowing the entire Knife Mountain Hell!

“Report, Wang Dian! We’re running out of hands!”

A yaksha landed, knelt before Jiang Jian, voice urgent, “Too many sinners await rebirth—our ten thousand guards aren’t enough!”

Jiang Jian glanced at him, saying nothing.

Instead, with a sweep of his sleeve, he stepped forward—and vanished from his spot!

The next instant.

Before the rebirth vortex.

Jiang Jian stepped forth from nothingness, gazing at the black-and-white vortex before him, expression calm.

He waited.

Waiting for his karmic fire to devour every last trace of karmic sin in Knife Mountain Hell.

In the world of the Sutra of the Ten Wheels of Ksitigarbha.

Karmic fire is intangible, invisible.

Even the Jade Emperor and all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas cannot control it.

They act with extreme caution.

They strive desperately to avoid karmic entanglement and descent into hell.

Yet Jiang Jian could actively control karmic fire!

In this story world.

Controlling karmic fire was utterly inconceivable!

Moreover.

Jiang Jian realized.

Only where his mind sensed and his eyes looked did the world become clear.

Beyond that, everything blurred—as if never loaded.

Wherever he walked, that place became utterly real.

After he left.

The places he had passed through grew fuzzy again.

Precisely because of this.

Jiang Jian had come to the rebirth vortex, standing above Knife Mountain Hell.

Every moment, he watched the raging karmic fire, ensuring it never slipped beyond his perception.

As time passed.

The vast Knife Mountain Hell gradually cleared.

The cart-wheel-sized frost-white fire pillars had long since become an endless sea of blazing white flame, sweeping every corner of Knife Mountain Hell, devouring without discrimination!

CRACK!

A clear, crisp sound echoed from deep within his soul!

Jiang Jian’s spirit trembled.

As he sensed carefully, he immediately knew.

His karmic fire’s origin, nourished by terrifying power, had advanced!

Though the karmic force in Knife Mountain Hell was simulated.

It was still modeled after residual divine essence from the wonderland.

In essence, it was not entirely false!

Even if, like the Ksitigarbha staff,

When brought to the mortal world,

Its heavenly power dwindled to a fraction.

For karmic fire, which had never advanced before, it was already remarkably significant!

The true karmic fire origin burned fiercely deep within his soul.

The original frost-white flame gradually changed color, transforming into terrifying blue-white.

Its rank had truly risen!

Meanwhile.

Knife Mountain Hell.

The karmic sins of billions of sinners were utterly purged!

Yaksha guards came and went, exhausted, escorting the purified sinners to the rebirth vortex.

The sea of blazing white fire filling the hell suddenly solidified!

The next instant, it rushed inward, converging.

Finally condensing into a single blue-white flame, which vanished silently.

Beneath the rebirth vortex.

Jiang Jian lowered his gaze to his fingers.

A twisted flame appeared.

As it burned quietly, the surrounding space collapsed soundlessly, revealing black fissures.

“Unstained by sin, untainted by karma.”

“This is karmic fire.”

Jiang Jian brushed his sleeve—the blue-white flame vanished silently.

“One more thing.”

His eyes narrowed in thought, and he stepped forward.

His form vanished once more.

When it reappeared.

Jiang Jian had already landed below the gate of the Knife Mountain Hell.

Here.

Sinning ghosts continued to arrive without end.

“In the story.”

“The Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha, moved by compassion for all beings, willingly remained guarding Yinshan, forsaking Buddhahood.”

“Such a revered Bodhisattva should have attained Buddhahood.”

Amidst surging emotions,

Jiang Jian, enduring the searing agony of his soul, forcibly severed a strand of karmic fire’s origin!

This severance was true detachment!

Jiang Jian intended

to leave this strand of karmic fire forever before the Knife Mountain Hell.

So that every sinning ghost, before entering the Knife Mountain Hell, would instantly have its karmic sins cleansed and be sent directly to rebirth!

Thus,

the Knife Mountain Hell would truly be emptied!

Yet,

the enhancement the karmic fire had just gained was immense.

Even now, by severing a small portion,

it still far surpassed its previous state—utterly incomparable.

The strand of pale-blue flame circled once, then halted before the Knife Mountain Hell, twisting and shifting until it became a colossal gate of karmic fire!

Now,

all that remained was to wait for the remaining sinning ghosts to be carried away from the Knife Mountain Hell and into the cycle of rebirth.

The great vow made by the Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha would instantly be fulfilled!

After all,

the Knife Mountain Hell was one of the true Eighteen Hells.

The Bodhisattva’s words, “the hells,”

though unspecified, could refer to any one or all of them.

But if the Knife Mountain Hell were truly emptied,

in some sense, the vow “until the hells are empty” had already been perfectly fulfilled.

As time passed,

Jiang Jian seemed to sense

an indescribable presence emanating from behind Yinshan.

“King Yama.”

The voice of the Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha suddenly entered his ears.

Jiang Jian’s gaze sharpened; the scene before him shifted instantly.

In the blink of an eye, he had left the Knife Mountain Hell and returned to the rear of Yinshan, before the Bodhisattva.

The Bodhisattva, clad in dark-black Buddhist robes, descended from his dais, his eyes devoid of sorrow or joy, gazing at Jiang Jian.

“This karmic fire is not a power meant for you.”

His words were calm.

Yet to Jiang Jian’s ears,

they sent a sudden tremor through his spirit!

In that instant,

he clearly recalled

the words spoken by the true Long Jun before his demise:

“All my memories feel so real.”

“So much so,”

“that I often doubt whether the world I inhabit truly exists.”

“Or perhaps,”

“it is merely the delusion of a madman.”

As the Dragon Lord whispered these words, his consciousness faded quietly, dissolving into a dreamlike bubble.

Jiang Jian suddenly lifted his head, gazing at the Bodhisattva.

Deep within his spirit, a persistent sense of unreality and disconnection lingered.

Was this living being merely a fabrication?

Or did it,

in some distant world, truly once exist?

But Jiang Jian knew the answers to these questions were beyond reach.

He very likely would never learn the truth.

“You have passed the trial.”

The Bodhisattva finally spoke. “Your actions surprised me.”

He paused, then chose not to elaborate further.

Instead, he changed the subject.

“I must leave Yinshan to listen to the Thunder’s voice.”

“From now on, you shall guard Yinshan in my stead, as Lord of the Ksitigarbha Hall.”

Hearing this,

Jiang Jian exhaled slightly in relief.

The Bodhisattva swept his sleeve.

The Ksitigarbha Jade Seal appeared, hovering before Jiang Jian.

The seal was dark-black, engraved with images of karmic suffering and myriad forms of sentient beings.

At every moment, streams of black light circled it, enfolding the seal, making its jade radiance overflow, emitting tiny glimmers.

Jiang Jian extended his sleeve and took the Ksitigarbha Jade Seal.

It appeared light, yet felt heavy in his grasp.

Its touch was icy-cold, like snow and ice.

“The Miraculous Realm of Yinshan.”

Jiang Jian’s gaze grew solemn.

In the story world, this was merely a token of the Ksitigarbha Hall.

But in the real world,

once he held this object, it meant he had truly become the Master of the Miraculous Realm of Yinshan!

Suddenly,

Jiang Jian sensed

that the colossal divine form behind the Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha was radiating ten thousand rays of light, torrents of karmic golden radiance surging forth, illuminating the heavens!

At the same time,

the Bodhisattva before him was enveloped in swirling Buddhist light, about to depart.

“Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha,”

Jiang Jian suddenly spoke.

The golden Buddhist light surrounding the Bodhisattva paused slightly.

Jiang Jian stepped forward, his thoughts racing, bowed respectfully, and ventured: “I wish to learn a divine technique.”

In his mind,

since the Ksitigarbha Staff and the Book of Life and Death could manifest from illusion into reality by drawing upon the divine essence stored in the Miraculous Realm,

then,

the countless strange divine techniques from the story world should also be capable of manifesting in reality!

If he used the Ksitigarbha Jade Seal to take the Book of Life and Death,

his three opportunities to manifest illusions as reality would be reduced to only one!

Jiang Jian understood

that his resources were already well-prepared.

In the short term,

he would not lack usable treasures.

Moreover,

most of these supreme treasures consumed soul-source energy.

Even if he possessed ten supreme treasures, given his current soul condition, he could only activate one or two at a time—never more.

Thus,

Rather than exhausting your mind to select another treasure and take it out,

It would be better to find another way and cultivate a divine ability.

In the real world.

Divine abilities are exceedingly rare.

Each divine ability acquired greatly enhances the foundational reserves of a Divine Palace cultivator.

Upon hearing these words.

The Bodhisattva Master turned his head and looked at Jiang Jian.

Between his slender fingers, petals had somehow appeared, drifting and scattering downward.

After a moment.

As Jiang Jian’s spirit slightly tensed.

The Master finally spoke.

“Good.”

“What technique do you wish to learn?”

(End of Chapter)