Chapter 419

In the former site of the Fo Gu Temple within Langzhong City.

Even though it was deep night, the dense sound of hooves and the overwhelming murderous aura radiating from the soldiers filled an area spanning several li.

Standard tents were neatly arranged atop the ruins of buildings, torches flickering, illuminating the prominent temple rising above the surrounding structures, its walls a dark red, exhaling a foul, bloody stench with the wind.

The entire city of Langzhong had imposed a curfew; if the Jian Tian Si did not send reinforcements soon, they might even enforce a daytime lockdown.

"The new Emperor has ascended the throne, and the palace is already in chaos—I've known for a long time there would be no reinforcements."

The Right General stepped onto the city wall and exhaled a heavy breath, gazing down at the Fo Gu Temple, where flesh and skin fused into a filthy barrier blocking the martial aura, upon which veins of Buddhist script had sprouted.

The Wei Guan frowned: "But what exactly is the Jian Tian Si up to? If we wait much longer, once the Fa Jiao has fully absorbed the golden body buried beneath, it'll be too late."

The Right General shook his head; the situation was already a mess—natural disaster, demonic forces, the Fa Jiao—all piled together. Sending a few registered external personnel here already signaled a stance.

"Carry out my order: tomorrow, impose a daytime lockdown—Langzhong may take in, but no one leaves." The Right General's eyes flashed cold as he gazed at the houses below: "The day after tomorrow, write your letters home; in three days, slaughter the city to appease the murderous aura."

The Wei Guan froze, his lips turning instantly white.

Appease the murderous aura. Appease the murderous aura.

"Yes."

Military orders cannot be disobeyed; the civilians alone may not be enough—half of our tens of thousands of soldiers might have to be sacrificed too.

The Right General watched the retreating Wei Guan, a flicker of pity in his eyes—but what could he do?

The Fa Jiao was expanding too fast; after the last disaster, nearly half the people of Langzhong had joined the Fa Jiao—they were even willing to sacrifice their entire families for the Yu Ershen.

"Delivering hay in the middle of the night?"

"I think there's something suspicious about you two! Soldiers, seize them!"

A commotion drew his attention; he quickly stepped several paces to the other side of the wall and looked down.

What he saw was every soldier guarding the gate lying on the ground, a white-robed Daoist Priest gripping the Wei Guan's throat, searching his body, then tossing him aside.

"No money." The white-robed Daoist clicked his tongue, raising his gaze to meet the Right General's.

The next instant, the hay cart flew upward, straight toward the Right General.

"One cart of hay, one tael of silver. Hurry up." Su Lin glared impatiently at the man.

"His armor and gear seem valuable," Meng Qi said. "The helmet is inlaid with agate, and it carries a trace of dragon aura—likely granted by the Emperor."

The Right General: "."

The Right General frantically patted himself, pulling out a silver ingot and handing it over.

He didn't know why these two Daoist Priests, who looked so ethereal, had come to deliver hay, nor why the price had jumped from one coin to one tael—but he knew clearly: these two were absolutely untouchable!

Su Lin split the silver ingot in half and gave one portion to Meng Qi.

Meng Qi took it, nodded, and said: "The karmic debt is settled. Let's go to the Fo Gu Temple."

They left the hay cart atop the high wall, their figures vanishing in the blink of an eye.

"Fo Gu Temple?"

As the Right General puzzled over it, from the location of the Fo Gu Temple within the city, a brilliant blue sword light erupted into the night sky, cleaving open space to form an oval, and a vast, boundless force descended from the distant stars, enveloping the entire city in countless starlight.

The void crackled with sharp pops—crack! —as if glass shattered; even now, inside, believers continued offering their flesh and blood to build the towering walls.

Ashes to ashes.

Su Lin swept his sword through the annihilated filth; the ash was blown away by the raging wind, revealing the true form of the Fo Gu Temple.

They were emaciated commoners—old and young, mostly women and children—who, upon seeing Su Lin and Meng Qi break through the blockade, showed no fear; instead, their eyes burned with hatred.

"They've come to stop us from becoming Buddhas beside Yu Ershen!"

"Stand up! The dogs of the unfaithful have arrived! Kill them!"

A monk, clad in a tattered cassock, small as a dwarf, wore a black rag on his head, upon which purple dye had been smeared into a large character: "Wu."

"Don't fear—when the true Buddha beside Yu Ershen descends, everyone can become a Bodhisattva in heaven!"

At his call, several monks wearing white cloth emerged from the half-collapsed front hall, chanting Buddhist mantras, their bodies radiating golden light, covered in twisting, worm-like symbols writhing across their skin.

The believers, seeing this, their eyes blazed with awe, as if beholding a priceless treasure, surging toward the monks.

"Take me first! Take me first!"

"My entire family died for Yu Ershen—I must become a Buddha to bring them back!"

"Messenger, take me!"

The scene was utterly grotesque: inner believers clung to the monks, wrapped around their necks, torsos, and thighs; outer believers who couldn't reach them clung to other believers; soon, several small mountains of people formed.

The sound of cracking bones and wails followed one after another, yet more still leapt onto the pile, until—

【Xing Shen Bore Ruo Bo Luo Mi, Wu Shi Zhao Jian Wu Yun Jie You, Pu Ti Sa Duo, Yi Bo Ruo Bo Luo Mi Duo Gu.】

The sound of sutras echoed; the human mound gradually collapsed inward, each believer's skin splitting open, oozing blood and plasma, organs and flesh melting into pools of golden liquid. Amid a horrifying sucking sound, the flesh mountain molded itself into five towering golden Buddhas.

This was the guiding. This was the universal salvation. This was becoming a Buddha.

Meng Qi watched this scene and asked softly: "Da Su, what do you think we should do with these lay believers?"

"Kill them, or spare them—it's up to you if you think they're salvageable," Su Lin said coldly, gazing at the fanatical believers.

"Just so you know, I have no psychological burden. Compared to this kind of cosmic Buddha transformation, I'd rather send them straight to the Buddha."

"Heh, that's not what I meant," Meng Qi sighed helplessly.

Though many among them were pitiful, these people had now become foolish tools aiding evil, their hands stained with others' blood.

In truth, this world was once the Underworld; before Heaven's Dao went mad, all beings here were ghosts in the Underworld.

Su Lin stared at the golden, tentacle-waving Buddha head and asked:

"This world once had the Eight Immortals, the Three Pure Ones, all kinds of myths—do you think it once had a Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva too?"

Now that it has become the mortal realm, all gods and Buddhas are gone, leaving only a feudal society teeming with demons and evil.

For the people of this world, has anything truly changed?

"Suffering is like a halberd; the mortal realm is a hell." Meng Qi plunged the Kuangdao Bawang into the ground beside him, raised his right hand in a Buddhist gesture, and chanted: "Thus have I heard: once the Buddha dwelt on the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven."

The blade entered the soul; Meng Qi's figure suddenly vanished, and the Golden Body of the Buddha appeared in the sky, seated in meditative posture, forming a mudra, cradling an ancient glazed lamp and a purple soul—True Ming Buddha had reappeared in this world!

Compared to this Golden Body of the Buddha, that flesh-and-blood tentacle Buddha was utterly insignificant; its Buddhist radiance was like the difference between the moon and fireflies. Trueding Buddha pointed one finger to heaven and one to earth, and amidst swirling Buddhist light, solemnly proclaimed:

"Above heaven and below earth, only I am supreme."

A golden, clear star suddenly exploded; the ten-thousand-character seal coalesced into a tide, boundless light like an ocean illuminating the "Buddha" below, and amid blooming glazed lotuses, the tentacle Buddha shed blood-tears, clasped his hands together, and turned to ash.

"Heavenly demons!!!" The tiny, dwarf-like Monk had somehow entered the collapsed hall; he dashed out, clutching two dark-red corpses with twisted faces, and roared at Meng Qi in the sky:

"Yu'er Shen had already decreed: crush this horde of heavenly demons!"

"Hahaha!! Yu'er Shen brings all good things! Fortune shines high, the money-tree and treasure-pot bless with three treasures!"

He set down the two "flesh-body Bodhisattvas" dug from the Bone Temple, then pulled from his robe a string of prayer beads and a stone—instantly, his entire body melted into a liquid, merging with these objects into a single mass.

Su Lin looked at the weapons in the civilians' hands—rusty scissors, kitchen knives, even stones—and even now they still acted for Yu'er Shen. Clearly, Meng Qi's crackdown was still weaker than these pyramid-scheme cultists.

Belief without knowledge is like this: even if Yu'er Shen is the true culprit, these people don't care, because they have lost everything—including reason—and can only cling to fantasy, willing to do anything for that illusion.

He casually seized a shadow that flickered from the crowd, lunged forward with a dagger aimed at his chest, his mouth emitting a chilling, ancient laugh: "Yu—"

Pah!

Su Lin smashed the head into pulp, then swept his perception clean across the ruins of the Precious Hall, revealing a sunken pit beneath the ground.

Inside the pit, dozens of face masks and six "flesh-body Bodhisattvas" floated atop the nauseating liquid, a string of prayer beads and a stone intertwined, radiating intense light.

Nearby, a group of monks in robes and an old monk in a kasaya sat inside a cage, their eyelids and mouths sewn shut with thread, only able to sit trembling on the ground with hands clasped.

"Heavenly Dao?"

Su Lin sensed a force about to descend; the broken, buried drums, bells, qing, and nao—those solemn Buddhist instruments—sounded together in Buddhist music.

The entire sky flickered between dark and light; a vast power breached Su Lin's blockade, emerging from the void to form five androgynous Buddhas, nested and layered upon one another, self-engendering, self-consuming, self-reaping.

"Five Wisdom Buddhas?"

The Heavenly Dao governing all flesh, desire, and reproduction.

Suddenly, two crane heads abruptly appeared, biting off one wrist each from two of them, swallowing the palms; their bloodied beaks dripped golden blood as they flapped wings, emitting piercing crane cries.

A mysterious force began affecting this region, urging all life to break free from flesh's bonds; Yu'er Shen began wielding the hybrid power of Heavenly Dao to descend—the stone gradually transformed into a moving flesh-Buddha statue; every shift and motion of it visibly warped the surrounding space, causing everything to sink inward spontaneously.

"From wielding blades to Confused Siming descending—quite a leap. Close your eyes."

Su Lin glanced at the flesh-Buddha, then at Trueding Buddha in the sky, clasped his hands, and said:

"All forms are illusory; if you see forms as non-forms, you see the Buddha."

Meng Qi immediately closed his eyes—not only that, he sealed his soul as well.

A tiny, brilliant, pure glow of fireflies emerged from the void, gathering around Su Lin and extending outward, gradually forming a colossal figure: a Golden Buddha, expressionless, eyes filled with redemption, standing between heaven and earth.

The mudra in his hand instantly burst forth with boundless light.

The crane cries sounded again, more heart-rending than cuckoo calls; an invisible force spread, and the two flesh-Buddhas that had absorbed the believers' flesh emitted illusory ripples toward Su Lin and Meng Qi, utterly disregarding these two true Buddhas.

"Neither defiled nor pure, neither increased nor decreased."

"I am one, and I am ten thousand."

"The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao."

In a daze, the "Buddha" donned a dark cloak, becoming impossible to gaze upon; his radiance blazed, an ocean of immeasurable light emerged, waves crashing as countless light-feathers drifted slowly down, while thunderous Dao-sounds echoed endlessly from the void.

"Eternity."

As if proclaiming, as if seizing authority—in but an instant, the Buddha underwent a cataclysmic transformation; a strange smile curled his lips, his back seemed linked to the origin of all things, the law of creation manifested as light, bathing the flesh-Buddha.

The crane cries ceased abruptly.

Yu'er Shen seemed to see something—the Buddha reflected everything into His perception.

The flesh-Buddha split open, and from within emerged a black crane-like being; it flapped its wings in terror, trying to flee, but exploded instantly into a pile of shattered stone.

"Amitabha Buddha, well done, well done."

Su Lin's gaze turned to the remaining Faith Sect followers, then—

When Meng Qi opened his eyes and returned from his sealed soul, the Bone Temple had been utterly renewed.

Hmm.

Literally, utterly renewed.

Many monks sat cross-legged on cushions, hands clasped, chanting sutras, while he himself stood atop the glorious Precious Hall, receiving the monks' worship.

"?"

Meng Qi figured he'd closed his eyes for only half an hour—how had he time-traveled again?

He gazed downward; many of the monks' faces were those of the former Faith Sect followers, yet now they all wore white monk robes, their bodies stained with pure Buddhist power.

The only oddity was that these monks' true spirits were already chaotic and twisted into knots, within them seemed to dwell some faint power—

Meng Qi shuddered and did not probe further; after glancing around, he descended from the Precious Hall to stand beside a familiar presence.

"What happened?"

"Conducted an experiment."

Su Lin tapped an electronic wooden fish, watching the merit counter on his phone screen: "+1 +1 +1," satisfied.

"Probably enlightened them?"

The two walked out of the hall together; Meng Qi glanced at the rebuilt Bone Temple and felt an inexplicable strangeness—as if something was missing.

"That plaque… 'Bone Temple' is unlucky."

He thought, and swept his sleeve.

The characters on it now read—"Great Lei Yinsi."

"Good." Su Lin nodded, handing Meng Qi a string of prayer beads: "Brother Trueding, will you start a business in this world?"

City People's Hospital, Rehabilitation Department.

Qian Fu was still shouting and raging, clearly disturbing the other patients.

"Move out of the way!"

Several orderlies pushed a gurney out of the elevator; on it lay a woman with dirty dreadlocks and a brow piercing.

"Aren't you Sister Wu?" a young male doctor passing by asked. "It's been so long—how did you end up like this?"

The woman called Sister Wu was hooked up to an IV, both palms wrapped in plaster and bandages.

"Car accident—I'm just cursed. The Buddhist prayer beads I bought from the Leshan Giant Buddha are gone. Maybe some doctor's got sticky fingers."

Sister Wu began cursing loudly, and soon she was wheeled inside.

At this moment, two faces Li Huowang recognized appeared—the two psychiatric professors. Both had refined features, no older than thirty or forty, one with thick hair, the other with thin hair.

The doctor with thick hair handed the other doctor a string of Buddhist prayer beads.

"Just picked it up in the hallway. Here, take it."

"Can't you at least give me a new one?"

The two exchanged remarks as they walked past, and as they passed Li Huowang, he saw their name tags—【Su Tianfu】、【Meng Zhending】

A bit late, sorry

(End of Chapter)