Chapter 737: The Golden Body Buries a World; The Burial Ground of All Living Beings Must Not Be Desecrated

Endless black mist surged and sank within the Nine Serenities Yinhe, while the Penglai Starship radiated divine starlight, bathing within it.

The ship's hull overflowed with divine light, magnificent and incomparable, as if a deity resided within. Amidst the endlessly eerie Yinhe, it emitted a pressure that suppressed all things.

Yet, this pressure provoked a fierce spirit holding a parasol, her dress stained with blood, as if the laws of the Nine Serenities had descended.

Although slightly weak, she still stepped onto the Yinhe, as if it were divine soil!

Qian Chen watched that starship crossing the Yinhe, revealing a trace of a cold sneer...

"You think you can leave after offending me, Qian Chen!"

Xin Hengping held the Mirror of Courage, reflecting that Buddhist golden body, illuminating every bone, meridian, and internal organ of the golden body without omission, even revealing many traces of the golden body's cultivation of Buddhist Dharma.

Yi Da, standing to the side, casually imprinted a piece of scripture. This was a remnant of the scripture cultivated by the old monk; if brought to the Central Lands, it could create a new minor sect!

In the past, Penglai occupied a continent and possessed immense power. Xu Fu was even more calculating, deliberately cultivating many branches of inheritance on Penglai Continent—Buddhist, Daoist, and miscellaneous schools, even Demon Sects—then collecting the sources of various traditions into Penglai, using Golden Men to gather and suppress the Penglai Continent's destiny.

This avoided any single family becoming too dominant and conspicuous.

However, Penglai remotely controlled various sects; besides their own, even Penglai itself did not know how many traditions were under Xu Fu's control.

Penglai did not even know how many incarnations of various sect ancestors Xu Fu possessed. Many times, when other major sects on Penglai Continent clashed with Penglai, Xu Zu would not step forward, causing Penglai to suffer many losses.

Therefore, Penglai was now very careful to cultivate its own branch traditions.

For such remnant scriptures today, Penglai would find an inner-sect disciple, order them to go out and establish a sect, and then leave behind various means of control!

"This golden body is so dilapidated, yet it still contains a trace of immortality. The great Dharma of the Buddhist sect is truly extraordinary!"

Yi Da tapped the pottery vat, emitting a deep, clear, and lingering note, like a pottery bell, carrying a flavor of extinction and purity—it had remarkably not been eroded by the laws of the Nine Serenities!

"This pottery vat is a transformed Underworld Treasure... I fear it is the legendary 'Sitting Vat' treasure of the Buddhist sect. Unfortunately, it is already broken!"

Yi Da saw at a glance that this pottery vat had already transformed within the laws of the Nine Serenities, which was why it could no longer be eroded by them.

It seemed that this Buddhist golden body could be preserved so perfectly in the Yinhe was not solely due to the golden body's own power; the credit of this pottery vat was not small either.

An Underworld Treasure, as Qian Chen had previously mentioned, is a magic treasure buried in a geomantic treasure land to transform. Its seals are replaced by the laws of the Nine Serenities. Like Ghost Treasures, they are all extremely eerie magic tools.

Xin Hengping hesitated. In this way, this pottery vat was actually a good coffin. If it were intact, burying someone in it might nurture the vitality of the physical body, forcibly extending their life.

But it was broken after all!

Otherwise, there might be Xu family descendants in Penglai who would be tempted to be buried in the pottery urn, and he would find it difficult to stop them.

After all, the status of Xu family descendants in Penglai was too special; they didn't even put the sect's traditions in their eyes! Because Penglai was just Penglai, while the Xu family had branches in many major sects on Penglai Continent, and many held real power.

Penglai's customs were similar to those of the Central Lands; what decent person wouldn't be buried in a coffin?

Yi Da scraped a layer of dark golden silt from the bottom of the vat, rubbed it finely with his hand, and nodded slightly: "The golden body was eroded by the Nine Serenities, peeling off its gold lacquer. Nurtured by this Underworld Treasure pottery vat, it is like gold mud cellar-aged for ten thousand years. It is an excellent material for preparing talisman ink and can be used to write Heavenly Mansion True Talismans!"

"In the Demon Path, it is even a supreme treasure for refining certain gods and demons. We must leave some for Xu Zu..."

He carefully collected some of the gold mud, a smile inevitably appearing on his face.

Talisman ink capable of depicting Heavenly Mansion True Talismans was extremely precious. In the past, when Xu Shaoweng spoke of refining Qian Chen into six Heavenly Mansion True Talismans, it was mostly boasting; the talisman materials on his person could only draw four sets of Heavenly Mansion True Talismans.

Adding the probability of failure, being able to imprint two would be considered lucky!

With just this gold mud talisman ink, this trip was not in vain...

The remaining bottom-layer gold mud of slightly inferior quality was refined by Yi Da. A mass of Southern Brightness Separation Fire ignited in his hand, actually forcibly re-refining the decayed gold mud into liquid gold. It was remarkably the execution of a Great Divine Ability—Turning Stones into Gold!

Drop by drop, the liquid gold was the essence of the golden body, which he poured back into the golden body.

Accompanied by a layer of gold plating, although the golden body remained thin and withered, its surface became much more brilliant, and the golden body finally recovered a trace of its immortality.

Turning Stones into Gold is considered one of the Great Divine Abilities, despite not relying on methods heavy in slaughter, because such means relate to the Dao of Creation and are one of the precursor divine abilities to Manipulating Creation.

That is why Yi Da's status among the Nascent Soul cultivators of Penglai is so special.

It even vaguely implies he stands on equal footing with Penglai's Primordial Spirit True Immortals...

It is precisely because he masters this Great Divine Ability, possessing the bearing of a Fangshi!

In Turning Stones into Gold, the lower level is merely a technique of truth and illusion; the middle level involves changing the nature of objects and begins to touch upon the Dao of Creation; while the upper level involves the supreme pursuit of both Creation and Longevity in the Immortal Dao.

In Turning Stones into Gold, the "Gold" does not merely refer to the metal gold, but also points to the quality of immortality.

Turning Stones into Gold is the transformation of material nature to achieve immortality; it is a supreme method of the Immortal Dao, which is why it is a Great Divine Ability.

If this divine ability did not belong to the Dao of Creation and lacked the power of slaughter, it would certainly have its name among the Thirty-Six Heavenly Dipper Great Divine Abilities!

Xin Hengping thoroughly penetrated the golden body with the Mirror of Courage. He stared at the dim light above that single green lamp and suddenly spoke: "Just now, I saw the green lamp beside the golden body was not extinguished, so I knew this golden body was unusual!"

"Because the green lamp burns with Buddhist nature; as long as the Buddhist nature is not extinguished, the green lamp is not extinguished. And the fellow Daoist's Primordial Spirit will not be extinguished either!"

Once these words were spoken, the group of Penglai Elders beside him were all stunned. Someone said in disbelief: "Sinking in the Nine Serenities Yinhe for ten thousand years, even a Primordial Spirit would inevitably be destroyed. How could it be maintained until now?"

"If a Nascent Soul cultivator went down, I fear they wouldn't last three days! Even a Primordial Spirit True Immortal couldn't survive ten thousand years without dying, right!"

Several Elders were incredulous.

Xin Hengping, however, said calmly: "You can survive for ten thousand years entirely because of the two supreme treasures beside you. The green lamp before the Buddha burns long and is never extinguished, protecting your spirit! And this Underworld Treasure pottery vat was formed by sensing the Nine Serenities during burial, capable of resisting the erosion of the Nine Serenities' qi, protecting your physical body!"

"Moreover, I fear you were not swept into the Nine Serenities Yinhe after entering extinction... but rather your own world decayed, fell into the Return to Ruins, and you had no choice but to enter the pottery vat for extinction!"

Looking at the golden body that had been plated with a layer of gold but remained dead silent, without any fluctuations.

Xin Hengping suddenly struck, pointing at its Heavenly Spirit: "Your relic is in the skull! Fellow Daoist, do you really want me to force you?"

A glimmer of light suddenly lit up in the eyes of the golden body, coming from the green lamp suddenly ignited beside it, reflecting in its eyes.

The bowed, withered corpse slowly raised its head, chanted a Buddhist name, and said: "This old monk is already a dead person; why must the benefactor press so hard?"

"My Huazang Small World perished after passing through forty-eight thousand kalpas!"

"One hundred thousand disciples of my Buddha entered extinction... all kinds of faith and vows entered my remains, only then allowing me to achieve the golden body! There were also the Four Directions Pure Lands offering the long-burning green lamp, the extinction vat niche, the Huayan Treasure Tree, the Miaozang Golden Body... combining the power of all kinds of Pure Lands to bury the Tripitaka Great Scripture into my body!"

"This old monk voluntarily followed the Huazang world into extinction, drifting into the Nine Serenities, just to bury the living beings of my Huazang... to become a Buddha monument!"

"In the Return to Ruins kalpa, the extinction vat niche was broken, the Huayan Treasure Tree was lost... leaving only this old monk's old body, a broken vat, and a green lamp... drifting into the Nine Serenities Yinhe, missing the living beings of my world here!"

"In the past, someone told this old monk... when a person dies, there is a Three Yin body; the physical body dies as the Upper Yin falling, the soul returns as the Middle Yin departing... in the human world, memories are completely gone, karma is settled, then it is the Lower Yin dissipating!"

"Now this old monk has already... forgotten the Buddhist Dharma, extinguished the thoughts, extinguished the Buddha heart, settled the remnant thoughts... just to remember the twenty-six billion sentient beings of my Huazang world, using the Primordial Spirit to remember a world, continuing until this old monk completely dissipates! This body... is an external object, the benefactor can take it, I only ask... do not extinguish this trace of thought!"

The old monk frankly told everything, saying that his Primordial Spirit was burying a world, burying the living beings in his memory, and had no value left.

Therefore, he could discard the green lamp and broken vat, only asking to walk through his final life and follow the living beings into extinction!

But a strange light appeared in Xin Hengping's eyes, and he smiled slightly: "Fellow Daoist achieved the Primordial Spirit; although you have suffered much wear and tear in the Nine Serenities Yinhe, the essence of the Primordial Spirit is not extinguished. My sect masters supreme means of creation, perhaps we can extend your life! Why not defect to my sect and leave the final incense for the Huazang world?"

The old monk sighed: "When the Huazang world perished, many fellow Daoists had already fled to other worlds; how can we talk about continuing the sect's incense?"

"This... old... monk... followed the living beings into extinction because my heart was already dead... since the heart is dead, why must the body live? Now I am not myself, but just a memory, a nostalgia!" The broken golden body seemed to have exhausted its final strength, sighed lingeringly, staggered, and finished this passage with extreme difficulty.

"In that case, fellow Daoist's memory preserves all the legacies of the Huazang world. Since you have no heart to continue the incense, why not gift this legacy to us."

"In this way, the scriptures and legacy of the Huazang world will continue forever with my sect; wouldn't that fulfill your regret, fellow Daoist?"

"You want... the scriptures?" The golden body said word by word, with difficulty.

"Unfortunately, three thousand years ago, I forgot the final scriptures... I originally recorded the Huazang Tripitaka! Alas... in these years of extinction, I actually felt that every blade of grass, every tree, every flower, every smile, every greeting in that world... was actually... more worth remembering than those scriptures."

"So when my Primordial Spirit... gradually weakened..."

"When I began to slowly... forget... I chose... to start with those useless things..."

The withered, corpse-like old monk revealed a calm, composed, and indifferent smile, carrying a trace of nostalgia, and slowly said: "Therefore, I can no longer... recite a single word!"

"Why doesn't fellow Daoist think about it again?" Xin Hengping's expression turned cold, and he said with his hands behind his back: "Otherwise, don't blame us for not showing mercy!"

He reached out, his fingernail pointing at the golden body's Heavenly Spirit, piercing into the scalp, touching the skull, at a point crystal clear like jade, a bone quality different from the other withered yellow and quiet ones!

The golden-bodied old monk slowly closed his eyes, pressed his palms together, intending to enter extinction. Although he could not end with long contemplation, he did not want the final pure land of his spirit to be desecrated by others.

Let it go!

But just at this moment, the layer of gold lacquer on his body suddenly acted like thousands of long nails, piercing into his body, fixing all magic power and breath. At the same time, Xin Hengping suddenly inserted his fingers into the golden body's skull, and together with it, thoroughly sealed that relic Buddha bone.

"Refusing a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit!"

Xin Hengping dug out the relic Buddha bone and began to search the soul...

The old monk's trace of remnant thought calmly unfolded his Primordial Spirit.

A world of solemn dignity, like a three-story pagoda, bathed in Buddha-light, where all the common folk worshiped the monks, free from strife, a peaceful and beautiful world unfolding slowly like a scroll, every face so vivid and alive.

Whether this was the true appearance of the Huazang world was no longer important! But it was the Huazang in the old monk's memory...

They greeted each other, just like usual, starting a new day.

However, the sky had already ignited with white kalpa fire, and a finger, like a heavenly pillar, pierced into this world. Accompanied by the falling kalpa fire, no one was in pain, no one was afraid, and there was no wailing; it was just faint, and everything disappeared into the kalpa fire.

Xin Hengping's divine sense broke into a pure land, tearing open the Scripture Hall, but the scriptures inside were truly as the old monk had said, empty without a single word!

"Damn it! What he said was actually true!"

The furious Xin Hengping squeezed the relic Buddha bone, thoroughly extinguishing everything within it.

Living beings?

What use did he have for these living beings?

A wisp of green smoke from the green lamp finally slowly dissipated, and the final trace of light fell...

Qian Chen's demonic sense also stepped into that Scripture Hall at the moment of the curtain call. Watching countless wordless scriptures thrown into the kalpa fire, the Nine Serenities laws represented by Qian Chen were like holding a funeral for the final memory of an entire world!

"You don't care? The Nine Serenities cares!"

"Therefore, the Nine Serenities must also make people accompany the burial of a world's swan song!"

A world died at this moment, along with memories, along with a thought, along with wisps of green smoke...

In the pitch-black Yinhe, some things swept over. Under the infinite Nine Serenities qi, something poured into the old monk's golden body like a great tide.

That was the tombstone recognized by the Nine Serenities, bearing the destruction of a world, bearing its past!

Xin Hengping twisted the relic Buddha bone, his expression indifferent, just about to kick the golden body down with disdain, when he suddenly saw a withered finger reach out in front of him, and with a speed that seemed slow but which he could not react to at all, gently plucked away the relic Buddha bone between his fingers.

The Buddha corpse stood up tall and put the relic back into its own skull!

Yes, it had no Buddha fruit in its lifetime, but after death, it had already become a Buddha...

Because, the Nine Serenities recognized it; it is the living beings, and the living beings are the Buddha!

The withered, decayed golden body slowly raised its head, the gold lacquer plated by Turning Stones into Gold rapidly dimmed, turning into slightly black gold rust. Xin Hengping trembled all over, his heart filled with wild alarm, and he quickly flew back into the depths of the starship.

But the Buddha corpse only looked forlornly at the extinguished green lamp, reached out its withered hand, and picked it up!

Qian Chen drew out his blood-red scythe and knocked on the door of the starship...

Nine Serenities Taboo Three: The Burial Ground of All Living Beings Must Not Be Desecrated! ===== CHAPTER 738 =====