[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-infinite-faith-system-join-the-divine-chat-group":3,"chapter-infinite-faith-system-join-the-divine-chat-group-infinite-faith-system-join-the-divine-chat-group-chapter-242":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Infinite Faith System: Join the Divine Chat Group",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1373422,1815,"Chapter 242: Manjusri Is Devoured—Guanyin Beholds the Eternal God","infinite-faith-system-join-the-divine-chat-group-chapter-242",242,"\u003Cp>Within the Buddhist fold—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Four Bodhisattvas.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Several Ming Wang.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And, above all, the Tathagata Buddha.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for Kṣitigarbha or the like—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not a concern at this moment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The chief aim is to purge the earthly forces first.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To rid the world of Guanyin now is tantamount to severing Buddhism’s right arm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The instant Guanyin left the mortal realm,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>every statue of the Bodhisattva of Compassion\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>grew desolate and dim.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Temples that had stood beside the Bodhisattva’s resplendent golden bodies collapsed one after another.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In places, the statues shattered outright.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Worse still, there were places where one could clearly feel that Bodhisattva Guanyin had vanished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is the arcane of the Dharma.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On Lingshan—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the sacred mountain was already awash in blood-red.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Samantabhadra and Manjusri\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>were sealed within their respective monasteries, unable to move so much as an inch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lesser Buddhist adepts had all melted into drops of blood, swallowed by the Tathagata Demon-Buddha.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sensing Guanyin’s disappearance,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>both assumed that the Tathagata had devoured her, and their anxiety mounted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"This is ill,\" Manjusri thought. \"If this Demon-Buddha has even swallowed Guanyin, am I to die as well? I must find a way to escape!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He stared at the blood-colored Buddha that barred his doorway,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>gritted his teeth,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and rushed out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His golden body burst forth to ward off the blood-taint,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>but for some unfathomable reason the gore seeped along that very golden body and invaded his primordial spirit in a grotesque way.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No... Why...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Manjusri cried out and turned to retreat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A vast, blood-soaked hand flew from the pool of gore in the heavens and seized him outright.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Like a fledgling chick,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Manjusri was carried off without managing even a token resistance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Filth was everywhere.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Countless strands of will invaded Manjusri’s spiritual platform,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>trying to remake him in their image.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Cease resisting, Manjusri... In the beginning, all are one.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Resistance is futile. We are the Tathagata, and the Tathagata is us as well.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Become one. Become one... 9-7-7...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Black flesh and blood ceaselessly befouled the golden body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter how Manjusri struggled,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>he could not dispel any of it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His golden body dulled by degrees,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and Manjusri became the second fallen Bodhisattva.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Within the blood-pool,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>an egg was being formed—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>a fetus slumbering inside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the Tathagata’s method.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since the golden body had been shattered, he simply smashed the jar entirely and turned all of his accumulation into an egg.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Break, then stand anew.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It harmed the Way itself,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and yet this defilement of Heaven’s order had actually succeeded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, the world took Lingshan for a holy place,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>but few realized how much scheming the Tathagata had invested to grow Buddhism.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First, Lingshan:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>in truth, it was a vent sealing down the filth of the world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The face it showed to the front was yang;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>its north face, yin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why did the Tathagata’s power surpass the Three Realms so that he could dominate even the Jade Emperor?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He relied upon this natural yin–yang array.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, to outsiders,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Buddhism seemed pure, flawless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But beneath Lingshan lay a dark spring that suppressed immeasurable filth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because there was aid from \"God,\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the Tathagata’s cultivation advanced with half the effort.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His plan had been\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>to use the westward pilgrimage to accrue great merit,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>in order to wipe out completely a prior error—namely, the filth sealed beneath Lingshan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Liu Che appeared—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and brought an outcome the Tathagata had never foreseen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His golden body shattered,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the suppressive power over the dark spring naturally collapsed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even had the Tathagata not sacrificed those Buddhist followers, this grand yin–yang array would, in due time, have broken apart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They would not have survived regardless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How filthy Buddhism had become—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>even the demons they had taken in had devoured many humans.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Compassion?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A hollow laugh. Without power, what meaning has compassion?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the earth’s veins,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>a solitary rift had already opened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From within, the power of unnumbered souls\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>kept dancing out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They were the aimless rage of the wronged dead—but drawn by the blood-fetus, they all merged into it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the Tathagata’s stratagem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since holy Buddha-power could not defeat that terrifying God,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>what about absorbing all the evils under Heaven?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Surely that would suffice!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With every passing second, dozens of souls flew up from the rift.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One could measure, by that alone, how many unjust souls Buddhism had slain across a thousand years.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The so-called \"deliverance\" (degree)—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>it never meant purifying the evil in those wronged souls. If it were so simple, Daoism would never have despised it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Buddhist \"deliverance\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>meant stripping away the dark side of the soul—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>in other words, dividing the soul while one yet lived.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This art works upon the soul directly,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>hence the impression that Buddhism’s mercy is boundless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In truth, the very ones \"delivered\" never even knew their souls had been split.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How tragic is that?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A monk who never angers, never rages—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>is that truly perfection?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No—only an obedient tool.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dong, dong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dong, dong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After absorbing Manjusri’s power, the fetus beat faster.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Each pulse\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>triggered a shift in the heavens.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The golden radiance of Lingshan slowly took on a faint blood-hue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those who cultivated along the Buddhist way—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>their roots affected—began to turn into filth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Light and darkness cohabited one body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Tathagata was a transfer station.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All who practiced Buddhism naturally began to show problems.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In temples here and there,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>elder monks felt an unprecedented thought stir at the very depths of their souls.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The four are empty\"—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>emptied into farce.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Desire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Resentment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Envy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Every negative emotion began to take root in their hearts and flourish.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The clearest instance was this:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the Monkey had struck down a demon by accident, and instead of rebuke, Tang Monk declared that it had deserved to die.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Master, has your temper changed? Why are you so wrathful?\" Sun the Monkey ran over with his staff and laid a palm on Tang Sanzang’s brow,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>but found no fever.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A faint blood-dark flashed through Tang Monk’s eyes. He shook his head. \"I cannot say why. When I saw that demon just now, rage welled up all at once.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"This...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Monkey could not make sense of it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So he began to investigate the surroundings,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>but in the end found no demon at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If it wasn’t some demon’s sorcery, then what evil impediment had the Master encountered?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Monkey was baffled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He could only return to Tang Monk’s side and keep close guard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Elsewhere—within the Eternal God’s domain—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bodhisattva Guanyin arrived at the Eternal Shrine borne on a beam of sky-transmitting light.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She took in the magnificence before her:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>a place suffused with brightness and sanctity—and the hatred in her heart melted away in an instant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So this is where the Eternal God dwells—so exalted,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>so stirring to behold.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Buddhism may preach that the \"four great elements are all empty,\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>but that does not mean there is nothing to admire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet her admiration lasted only a moment before the power of the laws that filled the sky left her breathless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The complete Law of Time, long and unbroken.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The complete Law of Fire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the complete Law of Love.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The powers of those three laws converged and intertwined across the sky.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It took the breath away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She lowered her head, considered, and realized that, by everything she had seen and heard in her life, she could not even comprehend such power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This had already exceeded everything she knew of power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While Guanyin stood dazed in the thoroughfare,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>a woman of similarly dignified bearing appeared before her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"My name is Dongfang Huaizhu. You are Guanyin from the lower realm. Come with me.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I... do not know—where are you taking me?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She wanted to ask \"Where are you taking me?\" plainly,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>but the other’s aura was several times nobler than her own.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It made a Guanyin long accustomed to being above others feel distinctly ill at ease—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>even a touch awkward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huaizhu glanced her over and said, indifferent, \"Naturally, the God wishes to see you. Without that, the mistakes you have made would merit millennial punishment.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mistakes?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Abetting evil?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Guanyin’s heart filled with misery; she could not even decide what to say.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had been resolved to die.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But once she arrived here, that resolve slipped out of her heart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps this was the turning of a mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet when she heard that the God wished to see her,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>she could not say why—but her heart tensed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What if the God wishes to condemn me?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the other asks, \"Why did you not surrender earlier?\"—how am I to answer?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A Bodhisattva famed for calm and intelligence—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and yet, for the moment, she lost her composure entirely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She became, instead, like an ordinary woman, letting her thoughts run in every direction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The two walked one behind the other.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Halfway to the Ziwei Palace, a dragon’s roar rang out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Guanyin lifted her gaze and saw two giant dragons flying overhead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The green-clad girl at her side explained, \"The golden dragons are dragons condensed from the Law of Fate; the black dragons are true star-dragons. Don’t be too startled... they are merely the God’s pets.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beings whose very aura inspired dread—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and they were only pets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ridiculous, then, that she had once imagined Buddhism could stand against God.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For a time, Guanyin’s heart kept sinking, and even her face grew solemn.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dongfang Huaizhu, striding before her, smiled inwardly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"We’ll see how long you can keep that lofty pose. This is tailor-made to correct you,\" she thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You chose to resist the Great God—be grateful you are not punished like a maid.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In a little while, the two reached the Ziwei Palace.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Guanyin crossed its threshold,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>she saw God seated upon the throne,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>gazing straight at her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Kneel and thank God for His grace.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the word, Guanyin obediently dropped to her knees, forehead pressed to the floor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was her enlightenment,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and it was the first time she had ever knelt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The palace was very quiet,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>but she could feel several pairs of blazing eyes upon her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then a cool voice drifted from beside the throne.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It seems your strength is quite meager. Why persist in your wishful resistance? You are less than those strange, nameless creatures.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You don’t know, Sister Huiye,\" another voice—Tiamat’s—broke in, \"women of the lower realm are ever so proud.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The two voices sang in counterpoint,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and Guanyin lifted her head a fraction—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>then lowered it again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Raise your face and look at Me...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The tone was gentle, simple—nothing like the shock she had expected.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Timidly, Guanyin raised her eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her northern-sea eyes trembled; she bit her lower lip tight and did not dare meet the gaze head-on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But God had commanded her to look—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>how could she refuse?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At last their eyes met.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Two clear tracks of tears slid down Guanyin’s delicate cheeks.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because in that instant,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>she saw what had happened in her childhood, back when she was human—before \"Guanyin,\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>when she was still called Miaoshan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only after true enlightenment did that human heart slowly cool.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And now, as she looked,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>she remembered it all.\u003C\u002Fp>",1842,"2026-06-05T21:52:16.834Z",1,"novelbin.me","3a6ada394905607e6244539b6f1b80a23f0539f4c195230aa12de55808b4339c","infinite-faith-system-join-the-divine-chat-group-chapter-243","infinite-faith-system-join-the-divine-chat-group-chapter-241",391,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Finfinite-faith-system-join-the-divine-chat-group-cover.jpg"]