Chapter 197: The Immortals Bathe

"The common people of Dexing are truly in dire straits," Xu Jia sighed deeply.

From what he had just seen, all sorts of evil gods were deluding the people and enslaving them; every day, morning, noon, and night, they had to kneel and pray for an hour, or else strange calamities would descend.

Why? Because they were putting on a double act.

Overnight, this Dharma King had set up a "Black Sky Barrier," shrouding the entirety of Dexing and causing it to fall into the boundary between yin and yang.

That is to say, it was "twilight," where the division between humans, demons, gods, and ghosts became blurred; demons within the Dharma Realm could interfere with reality, and people in reality were more easily exposed to the Dharma Realm in various ways—perhaps by having a dream, falling ill, or being frightened. And those clay idols and mud sculptures that usually didn't manifest much began to manifest one after another; the witches and shamans, acting as spokespeople for the gods, began all sorts of sacrificial activities.

Sacrificing young girls, gods taking wives, forced worship, offering treasures, and slaughtering cattle and sheep.

If they didn't go out, there was no food, and they would be enslaved by the evil gods; eventually, it would devolve into cannibalism, and all kinds of human evil would be revealed.

If they went out, they would have to face all sorts of demons, monsters, and ghosts.

This was precisely the offering of the "Three Poisons" of Greed, Anger, and Ignorance that the Dharma King needed to please the Heavenly Demons.

Chang Yu was also trembling when he saw this: "No wonder I haven't felt right while cultivating in the cave these days; I always felt it wasn't as pure as before. I previously thought it was because of the karmic connection with you, but it turns out that evil energy was rising over there and drifting to our place."

Xu Jia nodded: "This Dharma King acts truly without restraint, relying on his Achievement of the Intermediate State, thinking that no one in the world can kill him completely. However, that may not be the case now."

Chang Yu tilted his head: "What is the Achievement of the Intermediate State? Is it that powerful? To be able to be immortal? Can I learn it?"

"No." Xu Jia recalled Elder Xianhuan saying that they should use the methods for dealing with witches to deal with this Dharma King.

Come to think of it, the only thing on his side related to the Three Poisons of Greed, Anger, and Ignorance seemed to be the Treasure Basin sitting under the golden toad's bottom, which was a Magic Tool refined by a Secret Sect monk who traveled east to Japan to seal his own "Fifty Realms Demon."

Perhaps he could communicate with that Yin Demon, to use demon to break demon, and use witch to break witch.

However, this wouldn't highlight the methods of Lushan; come to think of it, Lushan was the orthodox Witch Sect. How could it not have a method to break witchcraft? The Achievement of the Intermediate State is an achievement of being reborn in the solemn Buddha land without falling into reincarnation; it requires breaking the Attachment to Self to achieve it. The first step to breaking the Attachment to Self is to exorcise the Three Poisons of Greed, Anger, and Ignorance, reaching the achievement where "the essence neither comes nor goes, is neither defiled nor pure, neither increases nor decreases. The essence does not move, yet it can manifest the three worlds of sentient beings, environment, and time like an illusion, and can also save sentient beings like an illusion."

This kind of achievement is a method to overcome the "fear of death," but it is not something that requires one to be near death to practice; rather, it must be practiced daily. By practicing this achievement, the physical body is burned away while the spirit persists forever; even if one wanted to reincarnate, it would be impossible.

Generally speaking, the practice of the True Dharma is slow and difficult, and also requires aptitude, but fortunately, it has no obvious weaknesses or "backdoors."

Then this Dharma King is not practicing the True Dharma, but the Evil Dharma; there must be some "backdoor."

After all, the first principle of practicing the Intermediate State that Xu Jia knew was "not practicing for oneself, but practicing for sentient beings." I become a Buddha first, and then use the Intermediate State to enlighten sentient beings, guiding them toward the Buddha and toward goodness.

This Dharma King acts so perversely to summon Heavenly Demons to assist in his practice, so it is certain that he could be backlashed by the Heavenly Demons, or perhaps there is some way to break the demons.

It is just that this kind of demon occupies temples, wears a Buddha Robe on the outside, and is extremely deceptive.

For example, in Journey to the West, when Tang Seng saw the fake Buddha of Little Western Heaven, he bowed immediately and was captured as a result.

Even Sun Wukong suffered, and it was not until Maitreya Buddha arrived that the fake Buddha Huang Mei was subdued.

Xu Jia looked again at the Seven Treasures Cold Forest Kasaya in his hand; this was exactly what Elder Xianhuan had said—if he met with a predestined connection, this treasure would naturally play its role. Xu Jia used this Kasaya as an anchor to begin calculating the Cause and Effect, but he could not calculate much, because it involved the fates of too many people.

Xu Jia had to temporarily give up this calculation and instead calculate the matter of the three Flood Dragons. Xu Jia calculated that these three Flood Dragons had already gotten together with the Longevity Sect Dharma King; it was not impossible that this flood caused by the dragons was also his idea.

"Do you know that there are three Flood Dragons under Dexing?" Xu Jia asked Chang Yu.

Chang Yu nodded: "I know of them, but they are Five Metal Flood Dragons, transformed from copper mines, silver mines, and gold mines. For example, Jinsha Creek—the gold sand in it is from the washing of gold mines."

"The imperial court set up there long ago; the Yincheng silver factory and the Jiangnan West Circuit Salt and Iron Commission are over there. These three Flood Dragons are all suppressed by the imperial court's True Dragon to smelt gold, silver, copper, and iron."

Chang Yu said: "When I was young, I saw the largest copper dragon, its head and four claws suppressed by a large furnace."

Xu Jia was a bit surprised to hear this: "These three Flood Dragons are locked up?"

"That's right. Jade mining in Yushan and gold mining in Dexing are places of abundant gold and jade. I heard Cai Yu say before that this place used to be called Raozhou!"

Chang Yu had an expression of "hurry up and praise me."

The three dragons of gold, silver, and copper—mining is equivalent to digging into their flesh and blood. It is reasonable to think that every dynasty has attached great importance to this place, and it is normal for these three Flood Dragons to be imprisoned.

Now that they can escape, it is the work of the Longevity Sect; after all, this sect is one that rebels.

Salt and iron are the economic lifeline of the imperial court and have always been state-run; they are even more important than collecting taxes. The collapse of any dynasty begins with the collapse of economic taxes; prices collapse, the people are in danger, and so the deck is reshuffled and redistributed.

In other words, the land of Dexing is ten times more important to the imperial court than Yushan County.

As Xu Jia was thinking, he suddenly saw several clouds descend and gather. Observing from the Dharma Realm, there were several Immortals on the clouds: "This damned bald donkey has caused us to be unable to bathe and wash ourselves!"

Xu Jia: Huh?

Seven Immortals bathing? What kind of plot is this breaking into? The Heavenly Immortal Match? Or the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden? Why do these Immortals always like to bathe?

He didn't know which path of Immortals they were.

"Don't just say this bald donkey is hateful; there is also a stinky turtle who actually dared to peek at us bathing. Simply bold!"

After saying this, these Immortals dissipated from the Dharma Realm.

Just after they left, a black wind blew, and an ugly thing with a lecherous face and a panicked expression shouted there: "Fairy! Fairy! Listen to my explanation!"

Xu Jia shook his head and thought to himself, little fairies are the current version's answer; don't say you peeked at others bathing, even if you didn't, if they say you did, then you did. Who would believe you? As Xu Jia thought this, the Dharma Realm was filled with the sound of bronze bells and drums, which spread out and were sensed by this god-monster. His face turned black, and he descended and gathered, arriving at Xu Jia's side: "Little Daoist! Eh? No, you are an Eighth-Rank Underworld God of the Underworld, or a Demon Affairs Judge of the Wuyue Prefecture. We are colleagues!"

(End of chapter)