Chapter 396: The Wonderful Dharma Body

The Thousand-Armed Thousand-Eyed Bodhisattva is one of the most famous manifestations of Guanyin.

Only when in this manifestation can Guanyin be called one of the "Western Three Saints," honored alongside Amitabha and Great Strength Bodhisattva, serving as an attendant Bodhisattva to Amitabha.

The "thousand arms" represent the infinite vastness of great compassion, while the "thousand eyes" represent the perfection and unobstructed nature of wisdom. It is said that the Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Armed Guanyin can benefit and bring peace to all sentient beings, responding to the needs of beings according to the five departments and five types of methods, thereby fulfilling all wishes and requests.

But to Xu Jia, this Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Armed Bodhisattva had no compassion at all; it looked more like the centipede spirit National Preceptor from *A Chinese Ghost Story*, Pudu Cihang. This thing having a thousand arms and a thousand eyes did have some basis; the thousand arms need not be mentioned, but as for the thousand eyes, in *Journey to the West*, the Golden Light Temple Master had a hundred eyes that could emit golden light.

Seeing the momentum of that thousand-foot golden body and the chaotic rays of golden light from the thousand eyes, Xu Jia knew this was a difficult boss to deal with. Even if his true body were here, with the Weiji Immortal Sword in hand, he would still need to expend some effort to stabilize its golden light before daring to engage in close-quarters combat to beat it back to its original form.

Gongye Xingyun fled to this spot, looking extremely disheveled. Seeing only Xu Jia, he asked, "Did my daughter not escape ahead of time?"

"That, I do not know."

Xu Jia asked in return, "What exactly happened?"

"That Baiyun Chanshi is a lunatic. I suspect he is the reincarnation of a demon's primordial spirit, not the reincarnation of a novice monk at all."

"He actually initiated nirvana and awakened this evil demon."

"And the Buddha Treasure?"

"It's on the Amitabha crown of that Thousand-Armed Guanyin; the one emitting the golden light is it." Gongye Xingyun was anxious to go back and find his daughter, so he charged back in.

Not to mention anything else, there was a tigress at home; if his daughter were gone, he wouldn't be able to answer for it.

Not long after he left, Huogong Toutuo tunneled out from the sand. He was grinning, carrying someone in his hand—it was Gongye Lingxue. She was already unconscious, blood flowing from the corner of her mouth; she was clearly injured, and Huogong Toutuo had picked up the "corpse."

"Master, this woman fainted all by herself, and her father isn't here; she's likely dead. I'll take her as a wife, and we two husband and wife can serve you together!"

Xu Jia was speechless. He kicked him and sighed: one came out early, one went back late—they missed each other.

He immediately said, "Never mind that for now, set up a ritual, I'm going to use the 'big' one!"

Having said that, he directed Huogong Toutuo to get to work, setting up the ritual altar, and used the Eight Treasures Merit Sword as a sacrificial offering to be presented to Xu Jia's true self.

On the other side, Xu Jia's true self emitted golden light from his eyes, and then an immortal sword was refined out from within his eyes. The golden light flickered; it was indeed the Eight Treasures Merit Sword.

"It is indeed feasible to transport supplies across realms, but I wonder if something like this Eight Treasures Merit Sword counts as illegally stealing the origin of a world?"

The next moment, Xu Jia's primordial spirit, wrapped in Dharma Power, descended into the Glazed Temple.

Although the Glazed Temple had no golden body, only a molded statue, this did not matter. As long as it was created according to the proper methods of iconography, a deity could naturally descend into it. Moreover, Xu Jia cultivated the Great Yellow Court Method and was himself a "god"—an innate god of his Inner Heaven and Earth, the Opening Heaven Main Deity of his own flesh.

This was but a momentary affair. Huanglian Daoren was still bewildered, but Huogong Toutuo had already begun to worship: "So this is the Master's true strength!"

Xu Jia's primordial spirit possessed the clay statue and felt it was not very comfortable, being extremely heavy. He immediately channeled the Thick Earth Method, absorbing the Qi of the Desert Yellow Sand, and the entire statue began to grow like vegetation.

Soon, the yellow sand giant had a stature as large as the Thousand-Armed Thousand-Eyed Guanyin statue.

"Not bad, the Summoning Mountain True Form Curse is still useful." As the giant moved, it was like moving mountains and shifting peaks; for a time, the earth shook and the mountains swayed, with yellow sand and dust flying, though it reached no higher than its waist.

It looked like a tokusatsu show, like Ultraman fighting a monster.

"Using this Law of Heaven and Earth in the Desire Realm really has many restrictions, but fortunately, this is the desert!"

Xu Jia sighed and charged toward the Thousand-Armed Thousand-Eyed Guanyin.

"Who are you?"

A voice that sounded somewhat similar to Baiyun Chanshi's came through.

"Your father!"

Xu Jia threw a punch, using the Sand Essence, and smeared it all over its face.

The golden light shot onto his body, turning the yellow sand Dharma body into gold. But there was so much yellow sand, and it could gather and disperse at will; even if it all turned to gold, Xu Jia was not afraid. It was the "gold nature" that changed the material properties inside that made Xu Jia curious. It was very much like "pointing a finger to turn stone into gold," or perhaps the "Golden Pill Relic Path" mentioned in those eight verses. Is the so-called "Golden Immortal attained through dual cultivation of Buddha and Dao" really just a "golden" immortal?

Besides being worldly wealth, gold also has another name: "Great Sun True Gold." It can only be born when a sun explodes and collapses, or at the creation of the universe. Whether cultivating the Dao or cultivating Buddhism, all strongly agree that "gold is the gold of Pure Yang."

Gold has stable properties and is extremely difficult to transform or change.

Pointing a finger to turn stone into gold is something even Xu Jia finds difficult to do; at most, it can only be an "Obstruction of Sight Method," making people think it is gold.

Just like how Ji Gong can turn dog feces into gold, but after a few days, the gold turns back into dog feces.

From ancient times to the present, those who could turn stone into gold were all "Immortals."

Among the Heavenly Stems Thirty-Six Supernatural Powers, the first is "Whirling Creation," the second is "Reversing Yin and Yang," and the last is "Nail-Head Seven Arrows," while turning stone into gold is ranked twenty-third, which shows its importance. In other words, one must possess the Dharma Power to simulate the collapse and explosion of a sun to "transform" gold.

Another way is "particle collision"; it is said that some have also collided lead into "gold."

Even if this golden light is not the former, I fear it counts as the latter. This kind of energy is quite terrifying in this Desire Realm. Of course, if one ascended to the Form Realm, the true world of immortals, gold might not be so important.

Every time he was hit by the golden light, although Xu Jia's primordial spirit was already Pure Yang and could repel the influence of external methods, he still felt a sense of "stiffness."

"Just cut off the Buddha's head and take that Buddha Treasure, and it will have no energy."

"Condense!"

The yellow sand that had been hit by the golden light was extracted by Xu Jia and condensed into a golden blade in his hand.

His stature did not shrink, because his feet were planted in the desert, and this clay statue, which had self-proclaimed itself the "Da Mo Oasis Land Manager," possessed the characteristic of drawing infinite power from the earth.

Slash! Xu Jia's golden blade was imbued with the power of a spiritual treasure—or more accurately, the killing intent of the innate Three Talents.

He severed a golden arm.

That golden arm fell to the ground and became a small golden Thousand-Armed Thousand-Eyed Guanyin Bodhisattva statue, still emitting golden light, though its power was much reduced.

To be honest, with a body this large, no exquisite sword or blade technique was of any use; it was just a matter of one force overcoming ten, just hacking away randomly. Xu Jia kept hacking, and the Thousand-Armed Thousand-Eyed Bodhisattva kept parrying, resulting in its arms being severed.

It seemed it only looked frightening.

But the more he thought that, the next moment, those Thousand-Armed Thousand-Eyed Bodhisattvas formed from the severed arms surrounded Xu Jia, seemingly forming a Dharma array.

The largest Thousand-Armed Thousand-Eyed Guanyin had an extra pipa in its hands. This pipa was refined from jade. It bared its fangs and brandished its claws, looking like an insect, facing downward and crawling upside down. Those arms really became like the legs of an insect; it looked extremely eerie and made one's scalp tingle. As it crawled, arms were plucking the pipa!

"Golden Light Array!"

The golden light wove together like a net, constantly contracting inward. Moreover, under the control of the pipa, these golden lights no longer traveled in straight lines; they seemed to have turned into some kind of golden light insects, winding and twisting around Xu Jia like golden threads, wrapping around his arms, legs, and face, then tightening more and more.

Not only this yellow sand Law of Heaven and Earth, but even his primordial spirit—Xu Jia's Pure Yang primordial spirit—had "golden threads" growing out of it in an eerie fashion.

These golden threads were like some kind of parasitic plant, making Xu Jia think of the "twisting golden threads" performed by Zhao Benshan, and he had the urge to take a pair of scissors to them.

"Good, good, good. Just after being born, there is a Pure Yang primordial spirit for me to nourish myself with. Once I refine it, my 'Mituo Gengzi Golden Light Nature' will grow again. Haha, my Golden Immortal Great Dao is about to be completed!"

Xu Jia swung his blade, severing quite a few golden threads, and thought to himself: "This dog-feces gold nature is extremely troublesome. I was just bragging about using the 'big' one, am I about to flip the boat here?"

This thing is much more troublesome than the Long Life Sect Leader who practices the Heavenly Demon Secret Method and the Yellow Heaven Teaching Method, or those of the ilk of Shunji Longwang and Linji Lady who only know illusions and water methods.

Xu Jia felt this art style was like the Shushan Swordsman Biography; how did this turn into a "Weird Immortal"? It is simply an intrusion.

"Transform!"

The next moment, Xu Jia abandoned the cumbersome Sand dharma image; the clay statue had already turned the color of gold, and his Primordial Spirit residing within it actually felt even more comfortable than his physical body, but this was merely an illusion.

"Summon the Pure Brightness Evil-Slaying Immortal Sword!"

The next moment, Xu Jia borrowed the projection of the Xu Heavenly Master Evil-Slaying Immortal Sword from the Dharma Realm; once this sword appeared, ten thousand times ten thousand strands of Sword Qi, golden light, and golden threads, severed everything.

That Thousand-Armed Thousand-Eyed Bodhisattva saw this and said: "You are a descendant of a great sect; I will let you go. We originally had no grudges; I only wish to rebuild this Golden Buddha Kingdom temple..."

"What is your origin?"

"Me?"

The Thousand-Armed Thousand-Eyed Bodhisattva said: "I am Miaoshan."

"Miaoshan?"

Xu Jia did know of Miaoshan, the incarnation of Guanyin in the Central Plains, the daughter of Miao Zhuang King; these were all myths from before the Tang Dynasty, roughly during the Northern and Southern Dynasties when Buddhism was being localized in the Central Plains.

It is rumored that Miao Zhuang King fell ill, and only his daughter's eyes and hands used as medicine could cure the illness; Miaoshan then cut off her own hands and gouged out her own eyes to show filial piety (fitting the Wei and Jin period's governance of the world through filial piety, thus spreading widely across the world), eventually becoming the Thousand-Armed Thousand-Eyed Bodhisattva.

But how could you possibly be Miaoshan?

If she were truly Miaoshan, she would be one of the incarnations of Guan Shi Yin Pu Sa, so how could she have such conduct? In Xu Jia's heart, Guanyin is the greatest deity of Incense Fire belief, at least on the same level as the Wealth God, respected by both Buddhists and Taoists, with a status comparable to Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun.

This is definitely a fake, so he hacked away even more vigorously.

(End of this chapter)