Chapter 1017

The capital of the Glazed Buddha Kingdom, once the Glazed Pure Land, was solemn, harmonious, peaceful, and clean; everyone was free of worry, everyone lived and worked in contentment, everyone had a pure body and an immaculate heart.

Today's Glazed Pure Land.

The palaces and towers still look as they once did, but the lofty Buddhist pagodas have lost their former luster. The relics that were once inlaid in each pagoda, emitting a soft light day and night to illuminate the whole city, have all been damaged and destroyed by the demon horde.

The little demons are greedy.

The golden tile roofs, silver wind chimes, bronze-cast Buddha statues, and the jade tiles paving the ground—all were looted clean by the little demons.

On the city's once clean and pleasant blue‑stone avenues, human bones are now scattered everywhere, the skulls and bones still bearing countless tooth marks.

Along the roadside, large trees hang tattered scraps of human skin.

Under every eave, lumps of bloody flesh are strung up with human sinew, thickly coated with a mixture of salt and spices—obviously stored as winter provisions.

Within the Glazed Pure Land city, springs and streams once ran everywhere, clear rivers crisscrossing the city. Each season, a hundred flowers bloomed; petals, leaves, and bamboo leaves fell upon the water, where fish of all colors frolicked and vied.

Now, the city's waterways remain, but the once‑clear flow has turned black‑red, exuding a foul, putrid stench.

Wild boars, hares, rats, and monkeys run rampant through the city; various grass snakes, scorpions, toads, and centipedes lurk in the palaces and towers; huge mosquitoes, flies, horseflies, and gadflies nest and swarm everywhere.

Wu Tie sat atop the highest pagoda of the Glazed Pure Land, his back against the dim, lusterless gourd‑shaped finial, wearing a grim expression as he gazed upon the once mighty city now utterly disfigured.

The Demonic Supreme and a host of the strongest fiends stood beside Wu Tie, their eyes rolling wildly, a hint of frenzy and excitement in their gaze as they looked down upon the city.

Jia Ye knelt beside him, silently chanting sutras, tears streaming like a spring, dropping continuously.

A thick aura of vengeful poison mixed with towering killing energy surged skyward, forming a black‑pitch cloud that blanketed the entire city.

A faint light emanated from Jia Ye's body; within a hundred‑zhang radius around Wu Tie and the others, any resentment or killing energy that approached was gradually dissolved by that glow. From the void could be heard faint sighs of release, occasional flickers of spiritual light, then vanishing unknown where.

"Has your royal uncle gone mad?" Wu Tie asked Jia Ye, bewildered. "You mean it was your royal uncle who shattered the Glazed Pure Land's Buddha Light Grand Formation, causing the land to be overrun?"

Jia Ye stopped chanting and nodded slowly. "Yes. If it weren't for your royal uncle taking the ancient Buddha's sarira from this pagoda, the sarira's power could have at least protected the Glazed Pure Land for three to five years."

With reddened eyes, Jia Ye whispered, "With that three‑to‑five‑year reprieve, I would have already gone to Wuguo to beg the sovereign for aid, and our Glazed Buddha Kingdom would not have suffered this catastrophe."

Wu Tie remained silent.

Jia Ye whispered softly, "Your royal uncle, fearing death, sold the entire Glazed Buddha Kingdom to preserve his own life and property."

He gave a bitter laugh and shook his head. "I, too, fear death; otherwise I would not have studied divination, nor sought that faint glimmer of survival in the darkness."

"Your royal uncle fears death, and I fear death too—but if he were like me… why has it come to this, why has it come to this?" Jia Ye's right hand trembled as he pointed to the ruined city below, murmuring, "This city, this city… the blood and sweat of countless ancestors, so many good folk within…"

With a "wah," Jia Ye spat out a mouthful of blood.

Then it was as if a gate had opened in his throat—mouthful after mouthful of blood gushed forth nonstop.

"This lad is overcome with grief; his stagnant fire has damaged his heart meridians—tsk, tsk… he's worked himself into this state for nothing, why bother?" The Demonic Supreme remarked sarcastically from the side, "You're not doing so badly yourself, are you?"

Wu Tie turned his head and gave the Demonic Supreme a faint glance.

The Demonic Supreme immediately shut his mouth, turned his head, and watched a pack of wolf‑headed little demons laughing "heehee hahaha" as they chased and played down a street several li away.

Wu Tie produced a healing treasure pill and tossed it to Jia Ye.

Jia Ye spat a mouthful of blood, caught the pill, shoved it into his mouth, and swallowed it hastily. He drew a few breaths, then bowed with palms together to Wu Tie: "Your Majesty, I have lost my composure… but… the people of the Glazed Pure Land are all good folk; what sin have they committed to deserve this calamity?"

Wu Tie remained silent.

After a long while, Wu Tie murmured, "Yes, hearing you speak of the Glazed Buddha Kingdom along the way, your realm—high and low—is mostly good people. Good people suffer calamity; why is that?"

"This is unfair, unreasonable; good people ought not to suffer such disaster. They should not be made fodder for these demons, nor be treated with such cruelty."

"But such a thing, since it has happened…… then there must be something wrong." Wu Tie murmured: "This kind of wrong thing, we, perhaps can correct it? Can we?"

Wu Tie raised his head to look at the sky, and went into a daze for a moment.

Then he flicked his sleeve, throwing Mi Wu out of his sleeve, and said to Jia Ye: "This is Mi Wu, the great leader of the Wisdom God Clan among the extraterrestrial demons…… I feel that some mistakes were made by them; as long as you don't kill him, you can hit him as you like."

"Remember, don't kill him, because he still has use value." Wu Tie said seriously to Jia Ye.

Mi Wu's body suddenly stiffened; he looked at Wu Tie with an incredulous face, then let out a hoarse scream: "Your esteemed Majesty, great Majesty, I am loyal to you, for you I have even betrayed my own kin…… you cannot……"

Jia Ye's body also suddenly stiffened; he murmured: "Extraterrestrial demons? Wisdom God Clan? Ha, I know you…… I know, I know…… many traitors of the Glazed Buddha Kingdom turned to the demon horde because of your deception."

Jia Ye gritted his teeth; a strand of golden flame spurted from every pore of his body, he gave a 'keke' cold laugh, his face twitching, and slowly drew from his sleeve a vajra pestle as thick as an arm.

Mi Wu looked at Jia Ye with difficulty: "Esteemed sir, I feel…… we are our own people, we can have a good talk."

Jia Ye gave a 'boom', and the vajra pestle slammed into Mi Wu's head.

Then his neck, shoulders, ribs, back, both arms, both legs, lower body, calves…… the vajra pestle flickered with streaks of lightning, emitting a dull thunderous sound that continually struck Mi Wu's body.

Mi Wu dared not resist; he clenched his teeth and submitted to Jia Ye's beating.

From time to time he squeezed out a few broken explanations from between his teeth: "This Glazed Buddha Kingdom…… I, I had no part in it…… even if some of my kin were involved…… that wasn't me…… not me…… it has nothing to do with me."

The vajra pestle was extremely heavy, atop it lay an extremely overbearing Buddhist prohibition; each strike brought forth visions of heavenly dragons, each strike possessed the strength of myriad dragons. Though the Wisdom God Clan, to which Mi Wu belongs, has keen minds, their bodies are extremely fragile.

The vajra pestle crashed down; Mi Wu was beaten until his bones broke and tendons ruptured, his five viscera and six bowels all severely injured.

He spat out mouthfuls of blood, looking at Wu Tie with a face of utter despair—"I am loyal to you…… how could you tear down the bridge after crossing the river, forgetting the old ones when you have new ones?"

This was an intensely fierce, extraordinarily cruel beating.

After Mi Wu was beaten nearly beyond human form, Wu Tie stuffed a few life-saving pills into his mouth, took him back into his sleeve, and then threw out Huan Wu as well.

Jia Ye gritted his teeth, lunged forward and delivered another brutal beating.

Thus, Mi Wu, Huan Wu, and dozens more of the Wisdom God Clan were tossed out of Wu Tie's sleeve one by one, letting Jia Ye beat each of them in turn.

In the end, Jia Ye himself dropped the vajra pestle and knelt on the top of the pagoda.

"Your Majesty, thank you…… but even if I killed them, what would it change?" Jia Ye murmured: "Your Majesty is right; some things are clearly wrong. We should correct this mistake."

Wu Tie gathered up the last unlucky wretch who had taken a beating, and said in a low voice: "Still, being able to give them a beating probably makes you feel a bit better. We should get down to proper business."

Jia Ye's expression suddenly tightened, then he solemnly nodded and rose to his feet.

The Demon Supremes and others nodded excitedly, all the while gazing toward the original imperial city of the Glazed Pure Land.

Wu Tie raised his right hand, and a vast expanse of water vapor condensed in the void, quickly freezing into a thin ice mirror several zhang in diameter hovering before him. Wu Tie locked the ice mirror toward the imperial city, then chanted an incantation, exhaling nine breaths in succession onto it.

A faint light flickered in the ice mirror, and large patches of light and shadow began to flicker.

Wu Tie swiftly examined the shifting light and shadow in the ice mirror; eventually the shifting image stabilized.

This is a hall of ancient style, built with jade bricks paving the floor, a mix of gold-thread nanmu and sandalwood as the main materials, and covered with green glazed tiles.

The hall is about a thousand zhang wide and over six hundred zhang deep, quite a large scale.

The actual space inside the hall is roughly a thousand times its external appearance, showing that the hall contains an extremely exquisite spatial restriction.

Now inside the hall, more than a dozen long tables are arranged in a row, laden with various meats and wines, while countless bone fragments are scattered on the floor; the once solemn and clean hall has been trampled into a filthy mess.

A tall, rather handsome middle-aged man with a shiny bald head, wearing a fur-trimmed robe with colorful flowing sashes, with several strings of golden bells hanging at his waist, smiles as he sings and dances in the center of the hall.

In his gestures, the middle-aged man appears rather awkward, obviously not skilled in song and dance.

Yet he exerts himself, twisting his waist like the dozens of pale-faced beauties beside him, the golden bells at his waist jingling continuously with a pleasant sound.

In the hall's corner, a dozen or so disheveled girls, expressionless, hold various instruments and play off-key, out-of-tune melodies.

Jia Ye stared at the scene in the ice mirror, his mouth opening wide, then tears streamed down silently as he gave a bitter laugh: "Why does he do this? Why again? In the Glazed Buddha Kingdom he was already second only to the emperor, above all others… he… he… he… he sold the entire Glazed Buddha Kingdom just to serve as… as…"

Wu Tie also stared wide-eyed in shock.

This handsome middle-aged man, singing and dancing drenched in sweat, is none other than the one who sold the Glazed Buddha Kingdom… Jia Ye's Uncle Wang?

Wu Tie muttered: "I thought he must have been treated very well."

"Ha, just a slave." The Demon Supreme spat disdainfully onto the ground.

The middle-aged man singing and dancing, his head shaved as smooth as a mirror, had a deep blood-red "slave" brand burned into the center of his forehead.

This is an insult.

A great insult.

Yet he continues to dance energetically, chanting songs, a bright smile on his face.

His smile is so sincere, showing no reluctance or embarrassment at all.

Jia Ye closed his eyes and quietly recited the scriptures.

He could no longer bear to watch; if he could, he would roar out to his Uncle Wang: "What are you after by doing all this? Is it merely to stay alive?"

With that middle-aged man's cultivation, if he merely wanted to survive, he could flee overseas; among the countless islands of the outer sea he could pick one to hide in, the boundless ocean—who could find him? Those demons, who would spend hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of years searching for a fugitive?

You sold the entire Glazed Buddha Kingdom—what exactly are you seeking?

A yellow wind rolled in from the south, a colossal nine-headed yellow lion panicked and burst into the Glazed Pure Land, speeding toward the Imperial City. The closer it got to the city, the more its body shrank; by the time it reached the hall's gate, it had dwindled to a dozen zhang long, then rolled on the spot and transformed into human form.

The Old Ancestor Level Heaven finally fled all the way back to the Glazed Pure Land.

However, Wu Tie's escape speed far surpassed that of the Old Ancestor Level Heaven; Wu Tie, leading people, arrived here ahead of him.

With a booming "dong," the Old Ancestor Level Heaven kicked open the hall's main gate and rushed in panic.

"Disaster! Disaster… Where is the Black Dragon Sovereign? Where is the Heaven‑Swallowing Sovereign? And the other brothers?" the Old Ancestor Level Heaven trembled all over, roaring hoarsely at the demon sovereigns seated behind the long tables.

More than a dozen demon sovereigns who had been feasting and "enjoying" the song and dance sprang to their feet.

These demon sovereigns left to guard the Glazed Pure Land are the lowest in the Heaven‑Covering Demon Alliance, their cultivation far inferior to that of the Old Ancestor Level Heaven.

The demon race values strength; the strong win, the big fist is the boss. The Old Ancestor Level Heaven's fist is many times larger than theirs, so he is the boss among bosses.

"Old Brother Level Heaven, what's happened? Where are the others? Didn't you bring your brothers to follow Old Brother Heaven‑Overturning?" a tiger‑headed demon, twenty zhang tall, dropped the thigh he was holding and asked the Old Ancestor Level Heaven in surprise.

"We've capsized in a gutter… Quickly send word to all the brothers, have them bring their elite forces to gather here." The Old Ancestor Level Heaven said with a grim face: "This time, our Heaven‑Covering Demon Alliance might… hehe…"

Wu Tie flicked his sleeve, and the tens of thousands of subdued Descending God Clan spirits—about twenty‑odd million—came crawling out of his sleeve in a tumble.

"Wu Tou, you lead your brothers as the supervision battle team… let them attack the Glazed Pure Land." Wu Tie said coldly: "Mi Wu and Huan Wu, take the Wisdom God Clan to devise plans, while the other great god clans serve as the main assault force."

"Whoever dares to lag, Wu Tou, just cut off their heads."