Chapter 750: Giving You Enlightenment

The combination of the Peach Tree and Nuwa's power fully protected the Daughter Kingdom.

But this "protection" is not entirely a good thing.

Because all citizens of the Daughter Kingdom cannot truly "die."

Not being able to die sounds good at first, but it is actually not.

First, we need to clarify the "Underworld and Six Paths of Reincarnation" in the Mountain-Sea Realm — it is not as imagined: when a person dies, a soul appears, ghost officials take the soul to the Underworld, and send it into the Six Paths of Reincarnation.

Forming a perfect closed loop.

Not so — at least not entirely.

The Underworld of the Mountain-Sea Realm was jointly established by the Heavenly Court and the Buddhist Sect, containing the Ten Kings of Hell and also the Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha.

And before this, if there were no Underworld to carry out affairs and form the Six Paths of Reincarnation, would not the world have fallen into chaos?

In reality, the function of the Underworld only covers part of the Mountain-Sea Realm.

The Mountain-Sea Realm: all things have spirits, and the so-called spirit is precisely the soul.

When life is born, the soul slowly condenses and is born from between heaven and earth.

When one dies, the soul also disperses.

Take an ordinary person as an example: the ten months of pregnancy is precisely the period when the soul slowly appears.

Thereafter, as one grows, the soul becomes the "divine soul," turning into a true "wise being."

Among them, there are also cases of deviation, damage, or influence during the soul's gradual emergence — the divine soul becomes deficient, turning into a fool.

When a person dies, the divine soul likewise disperses.

This process is much slower, usually taking seven days longer than bodily death — hence the origin of the legendary "first seven."

But not all divine souls disperse peacefully in this manner.

Some "powerful" souls continue to linger, difficult to disperse for a time.

Moreover, as time passes, the memories and emotions from life gradually fade, turning into beings without reason, filled with resentment toward the living, their vengeful energy soaring to the heavens.

Even more, among them arise "gifted" ghosts — self-taught, absorbing the vital energy of heaven and earth to grow stronger.

Regaining reason, they become entities like ghost kings.

But at this point, they have no relation whatsoever to their former human selves.

The Mountain-Sea Realm's Underworld — those ghost officials truly seek to capture these souls that do not "disperse on time."

Of course, some souls that could disperse on time may also be "captured."

The main work of the Underworld is actually "catching ghosts."

After capture, they drink Meng Po's soup, become a "blank sheet," then are sent into reincarnation, allowing these souls to be reborn.

Why not let these souls disperse normally?

Because souls that "reincarnate" in this way become stronger, meaning the probability of cultivation increases.

This is a method used by the Heavenly Court and the Thunder Sound Temple of Spirit Mountain to maintain the overall number of cultivators.

The Mountain-Sea Realm shattered, with no Underworld, and thus no Six Paths of Reincarnation.

Yet, due to the residual power of Nuwa combining with the Peach Tree, a special place was formed — here, the souls of Nuwa's descendants do not disperse.

Instead, they flow into the Mother-Child River of the Daughter Kingdom.

For countless years, generation after generation in the Daughter Kingdom has actually been the same group of people — or rather, souls.

The Peach Tree and Nuwa's power, to a certain extent, keep these souls clear-minded and rational.

But this cannot last forever.

Resentment toward the living gradually accumulates and lingers.

The divine soul that should have died and dispersed did not die or disperse, becoming an earth-bound spirit of this land.

Becoming what outside cultivators call a "heavenly demon."

Under normal circumstances, when outside cultivators enter the Daughter Kingdom, they do not see women transformed by heavenly demons, but pure "slaughter heavenly demons."

The reason the Daughter Kingdom still maintains its original appearance until certain conditions arise, before revealing its true form,

is because of Xia Mei.

As the continuous royal lineage of the Daughter Kingdom, Xia Mei and her mother Xia Qianju are half-beneficiaries of this great change.

Unlike ordinary people whose bodies die and whose souls remain as earth-bound spirits, gradually deteriorating into evil,

the bodies of the two will never age, never die.

They share the same lifespan as this heaven and earth.

The Peach Tree is famed for achieving what was never actually realized: "a person eating it and attaining longevity equal to heaven and earth, with sun and moon in sync."

By fortunate coincidence, this was achieved by Xia Mei and her mother.

Moreover, the two have maintained their peak condition, even able to manifest the likeness of Nuwa.

But this is not entirely advantageous.

The half-skeleton face of Xia Qianju hints at something — perhaps Nuwa's residual power is, in fact, the power of the dead, bearing resentment toward the living.

Xia Qianju occasionally loses control, unable to maintain rationality.

At the same time, she and those souls are forever trapped in the Daughter Kingdom, unable to leave.

The citizens are gradually falling into evil ghosts, and the kingdom continually collapses.

As king, Su Mei made a decision: sacrifice herself to sustain the continuation of the Daughter Kingdom.

She found that Peach Tree and actively merged into it.

Using the Peach Tree and herself, she absorbs and bears resentment, purifying the Mother-Child River.

Forming a relatively normal "reincarnation."

Xia Qianju then inherits Su Mei's position, ruling over this country.

In the vast majority of cases, the citizens of the Kingdom of Daughters have forgotten that they are "Earth-Bound Spirits," living normally.

They do not know that their Queen arduously maintains this kingdom, preventing it from collapsing into a Ghost Realm.

Nor do they know that their successive Kings are actually the same person.

Until the Kingdom of Daughters manifested and connected with the outside world, coveted by cultivators, and the suppressed resentment was released.

The entangling power washed over their bodies, transforming them into white skeletal remains — "Heavenly Demons" were born.

Why does Xia Jianjia drill troops?

Because drilling troops is actually useful; even upon becoming Heavenly Demons, devoid of memory and reason, knowing only slaughter, the combat instinct remains.

Every Heavenly Demon is a veteran of a hundred battles.

They undergo Heavenly Demon transformation and battle cultivators until the Kingdom of Daughters is about to "close its gates" again, and those cultivators leave one after another — only then does it end.

What follows is the restructuring of the mountains and rivers, akin to reincarnation cycle after cycle.

Xia Jianjia narrated the story of the Kingdom of Daughters in a steady tone, her voice slightly hollow.

The feeling she gave was like that of a wandering ghost.

She sat there, yet seemed as if she might dissipate at any moment, like an unreal phantom.

"See that peach?" Xia Jianjia pointed at the sole peach in the tree crown.

A small peach, green, unripe.

Even somewhat withered and dried up.

"When this peach completely rots and falls, we will be liberated," Xia Jianjia said.

At that time, it will mean Xia Mei can no longer maintain her current state; resentment will explode.

The Kingdom of Daughters will thoroughly degenerate into a "Heavenly Demon Ghost Land."

She, including Xia Jianjia, will all become Heavenly Demons who know only slaughter.

Or perhaps, become rational ones, yet equally filled with resentment toward the living, craving slaughter.

It is also possible the balance maintained by the Kingdom of Daughters will be broken, collapsing right there into an uninhabited death zone.

"You say you can save us; how will you save us?" Xia Jianjia looked at Tang Luo and asked.

"Amitabha; naturally, it is to deliver all you benefactors to liberation."

Tang Luo pressed his palms together; a white skeleton appeared before him, ghostly fire suddenly igniting in its hollow eye sockets.

The condensed resentment began to rise.

In the next breath, whether it was the resentment or the Heavenly Demon's white bone body, both dissipated simultaneously.

Not a speck of dust was left behind... perhaps some was left, but transferred and discarded by Tang Luo.

"You killed her?" Xia Jianjia froze.

"It is deliverance and liberation," Tang Luo emphasized once more.

Xia Jianjia closed her eyes; the scene from just now surfaced in her mind — in the instant before it vanished completely, she seemed to see a look of relief.

Death is a form of liberation.

That's right; no one in the Kingdom of Daughters ever dies.

Xia Mei and her daughter cannot kill anyone; those cultivators cannot destroy their souls either.

The "dead" merely return to the Mother-Child River.

Outside cultivators thought they were keeping the number of Heavenly Demons from increasing; in reality, whether they killed or not made no difference.

Now, Xia Jianjia could tell — that was true annihilation.

Not to mention other things; in terms of deliverance, the one before her is an expert.

Almost forgot — after this monk fetched the scriptures, he was conferred the title "Victorious Fighting Buddha."

According to Ruyi True Immortal's inside scoop, this Victorious Fighting Buddha is not the true Victorious Fighting Buddha as meant by the Buddhist orthodoxy.

There is another meaning.

If he wished, he could probably destroy the entire Kingdom of Daughters.

Buddha Land in the Palm.

In other words, everything is under his control.

"That works too; deliverance and liberation is a good thing," Xia Jianjia said, decisively closing her eyes.

"What are you doing?" Tang Luo asked.

"Aren't you going to deliver and liberate us?"

"Not including you lot," Tang Luo said, "The Kingdom of Daughters' population isn't small; deliver the majority, the resentment disperses, and the situation can slowly improve."

"Once the situation improves, spend some more time to consecrate and purify the resentment on your mother, and that'll do it."

"..."

Xia Jianjia didn't speak; her single eye widened slightly, the ghostly fire swaying in her hollow eye sockets showing her heart was not at peace.

After a good while, she asked: "It's that simple?"

"Yeah, this was originally caused by qualitative change producing quantitative change; just bring the quantity down first, then consecrate and purify, and it's done," Tang Luo took it for granted.

If it weren't for the resentment and Xia Mei being thoroughly entangled, already formed into one entity.

Even if the resentment quantity were a few hundred times more, it would still just be a matter of one Great Hand Seal.

The most fundamental condition among them is the ability to deliver.

If deliverance is impossible, everything is off the table; Tang Luo happens to be a deliverance expert — this most fundamental, also most difficult, most critical part is very simple for him.

Add in the Merit Jade Lotus, and the problem is naturally resolved effortlessly.

As for him being a god-demon walking the world, who will certainly leave this world — that sort of thing.

You think Master Xuanzang sat in withered meditation for days, self-creating the Buddha Land in the Palm divine ability, for what?

Now the entire Daughter Kingdom is his "Buddha Kingdom," taking it away directly is no problem.

"Let me consecrate you first, you look ugly as hell like this."

Searching and seeking, cold and desolate, the bleak and miserable atmosphere was broken by Tang Luo's forceful actions.

Xia Daiyu finally stopped moving and was about to bury flowers.

Master Xuanzang spoke bluntly.

"I'm ugly?!" Xia Jiange nearly lunged at Tang Luo to fight to the death, "I already told you before, you should leave! You won't leave, and now you're complaining I'm ugly!"

Angry!

"Don't argue, don't argue." Tang Luo stood up and walked over, pressing down on Xia Jiange's head, "I'm consecrating you."

"You lecherous monk!" Xia Jiange shouted angrily while shaking her head.

"This female bodhisattva, do you have some misunderstanding about consecration?" Tang Luo asked doubtfully.

Consecration is such a proper and solemn matter, what on earth are you thinking?

In the real world, never mind, with information explosion, "social morals deteriorate day by day, human hearts are not as they used to be."

Everyone is racing cars against each other, never mind consecration, any word can be made so unbearable to look at.

But you are in an isolated Daughter Kingdom that has remained unchanged for many years, why can you still produce strange associations?

"What misunderstanding, that day I clearly heard..."

"Amitabha!"

Consecrated!

The Buddha's name, always so effective.