Chapter 817: The Straight Road to Heaven, the City of Buddhism, Slashing the Bodhi Heart

The destination of the knight's group was Huaihuang Town among the Liuzhen.

A group of armored cavalry riding mule-horses was enough to travel a thousand li a day, but dragging this group of alien slaves slowed them down. Fortunately, after traveling only a few dozen li along the river's strategic points, there was an ancient track.

"We've reached the Straight Road!"

Tuoba Tao looked at the ancient road that opened mountains and rivers, traveling through the land of Hebei, and couldn't help but show awe, saying: "The ancestors of the Han people are terrifying. We Xianbei people couldn't open up such a road even if we spent ten lifetimes."

"If it weren't for their endless internal strife... where would we Xianbei people have room to gallop in this Central Plains land?"

Po-Liu-Han beside him shouted: "Tuoba Tao, isn't your Tuoba family going to become Han people? Why do you still consider yourself a Xianbei?"

"Go to hell!"

Tuoba Tao raised his whip and was about to lash him.

Stepping onto the road paved with black mysterious stones, the cavalrymen all slowed their pace.

The road was peculiar; with every step taken, there were heavy phantoms on both sides, and they instantly appeared a hundred paces ahead!

"Shrinking the earth into an inch?"

Qian Chen's expression moved slightly, and he opened his eyes, only to see infinite karma flowing on this road.

The various human hearts, the hardship of labor, and the seizing of the creation of heaven and earth at the time of building this road were all reflected in his eyes...

If one had a Bodhi heart, one could naturally see the countless bones under this straight road, connect to their hearts, and perceive the kindness and reluctance in their hearts.

But Qian Chen was not such a dawdling person.

Building the Straight Road, tiring countless people to death, and harming countless people was indeed miserable, but it couldn't bury the greatness of this road.

"Those who travel a thousand li are like being in their own courtyard; those who travel ten thousand li are like going to a neighbor's house!"

"This is the great divine ability of the Thousand-Mile Courtyard! The Immortal Qin alchemists actually possessed such power, branding a great divine ability directly onto the earth, and it hasn't worn away for tens of thousands of years, becoming an eternal, wondrous sight!"

Qian Chen walked down the carriage like everyone else, walking step by step on this straight road.

At the same time, the Six Divine Abilities were triggered involuntarily, sending various heart-to-heart, ten-thousand-dharma, various-appearances, and cause-and-effect into his heart to temper his original heart, which was the Dharma gate of practicing precepts and entering the heart from action.

It was also the intention of the Bodhi Tree and the Twelve-Rank Golden Lotus to borrow the supreme Dharma power of the Buddha, brand the Five Calamities, and use infinite karma to help Qian Chen obtain the Six Divine Abilities.

But Qian Chen only used this to temper his own nature.

On one hand, he was deeply moved by the various things of the 'people' in the history that had come alive; on the other hand, he couldn't help but marvel at the creation of civilization opened up by the Immortal Qin.

"One step taken is one li; traveling ten thousand li is only ten thousand steps. If it were us, the horses would be run to death and we wouldn't be able to do it."

A cavalryman sighed: "No wonder the shamans of the past lost power to the nobles there! If it weren't for the Daoist sects of the Han people looking down on us Xianbei, I would have wanted to cultivate the Dao! Fortunately, the Great Masters of Buddhism are approachable, and even though our Liuzhen are remote, they often come to preach."

"Cultivate the Six-Character Great Brightness Mantra a little less!" Tuoba Tao said: "Although this mantra can illuminate the ten directions with brightness, it will also blunt its sharpness and wear away the sharpness of our military malevolence!"

"But the Dharma Master said that cultivating military malevolent qi is the most damaging to one's lifespan. If one doesn't cultivate the Six-Character Great Brightness Mantra, one's lifespan will be exhausted at two hundred years old."

That knight scratched his head, troubled: "And if one can cultivate Buddha light, one has the wonder of self-protection, so one won't be afraid of the alien tribes and demon tribes of the Northern Border!"

Po-Liu-Han also said: "That's right! When the old men were outside the border, they had to contribute living people to the demon tribes every year. The elderly who couldn't survive, and the children who couldn't be raised, had to be contributed to the demons of the Black Water Department."

"It wasn't easy, everyone fought with their lives to help his Cao family restore the country, but they abandoned us in this ghost place, and we still have to fight with the Rouran and demon tribes."

"Everyone has to fight with demons before entering the pass, and not only do they have to fight with demons after entering the pass, but the original miscellaneous Hu tribes have also become a climate, and they have to fight with them too? Didn't we enter the pass in vain? We've become house slaves helping their Han people guard the pass?"

"Po-Liu-Han, shut up!" Tuoba Tao said faintly.

He raised his horse whip and pointed at the straight road that stretched into the mountains and was forcibly opened up: "Do you see this road?"

"Legend has it that when the Qin Emperor sent people to open this road, he summoned the various tribes of the North."

"The Xiongnu did not comply, so thirty-six tribes were destroyed; the Donghu did not comply, so twelve tribes were destroyed; the demon tribes did not comply, so sixty-one tribes were destroyed!"

"The reason why the demon tribes of the Northern Border are hiding in the mountains and swamps, one clan and one tribe, like a demon country, is because they were forced by the Immortal Qin in the past and had to unite and flee north to the extreme wilderness!"

"At that time, the Great Fangshi of the Immortal Qin held a black iron whip. Wherever he went, the mountains and rivers would split apart on their own, and all the gods would have to cry and move away from their ancestral lands!"

"The merciful god, for the sake of her people, did not hesitate to go to Xianyang in human form to pray to the emperor, but was beheaded and hung at the Northern Gate..."

"From Hebei to beyond the Great Wall, people's feet have been worn flat, and the gods' tears have run dry! They cursed the Emperor day and night, finally causing the Emperor to pass away. But thousands of years later, another Han cavalry followed this path, trampling every tribe along the way, and marched all the way to the foot of the Sacred Mountain!"

"Among the Xiongnu, everyone can sing: The emperor has a needle, wherever he points, the sun will fall there!"

"The emperor has a whip, wherever he swings it, the mountains there will be driven away..."

"The emperor has an army, wherever he looks, the grasslands there will become his land, and the tribesmen there will bleed like rivers!"

Hearing this ancient ballad, the Xianbei iron cavalry all closed their mouths. The children of the Han noble clans mixed among them then silently leaned over and walked on this straight road with everyone.

Qian Chen measured with his footsteps, and the countless bones buried under the road, and the sad poems sung by the gods on both sides, all flowed through his heart.

Suddenly, a wheel of Buddha light fell from the Divine Foot Ability, which was another small divine ability.

Imperceptibly, Qian Chen's footsteps fell, the dust did not move, and living beings were not harmed. It seemed that a lotus flower opened invisibly, carrying his footsteps.

The small divine ability of Lotus Flowers at Every Step!

Qian Chen listened to all this, and while immersed in it, he couldn't be worn away by this misery and suffering, and he couldn't be converted by the Buddha Dharma and lose himself.

He could only think about other things.

"The Mountain-Driving Whip was taken by Ning Ning Shimei Ning! Hmm... Yan Yan Shixiong Yan is still too stubborn, obsessed with sect views, not knowing that a whip is also a sword. Who says you can't stab someone to death without a sword tip! Ning Ning Shimei Ning, sooner or later, will have a spiritual treasure from the Guanghan Palace sent over, right?"

"That blade is the most suitable; holding a whip is too much effort!"

Walking step by step like this, for who knows how long, even the footsteps of the Kunlun slave carrying the sea vat became sluggish, before Huaihuang Town appeared before his eyes.

Although named a town, it was actually a huge defense system composed of a majestic city, dozens of border cities, and countless fortresses and works. The majestic city in front had large arrow towers ten zhang high at the four corners, all of which were war magic treasures with complete seals.

Built with black stones, the heavy malevolent qi condensed into one, and the stone bricks at the base of the towers were engraved with Buddhist scriptures.

And the city wall was a full twenty zhang high, all built with long giant stones several zhang long and wide. The wall was as flat as a whetstone, and every giant stone was engraved with scriptures. There were also dark, withered bloodstains on them, and the malevolent qi inside condensed into a piece of mixed iron, which was then nourished by the scriptures to produce deep Buddha nature.

Qian Chen's Dharma Eye looked over, only to see the majestic city like a Dharma protector god with four arms spread, each holding a Vajra pestle, a human skull, a long blade, and a bow and arrow.

Only then did he know that this city was built by the Buddhist sect digging out a holy mountain of the Hu tribe, using monks' blood to write scriptures and carve the entire mountain body, and then countless people built it for ten years, only then forcibly refining a god, and casting it together with the majestic city into an immovable Luo Tian magic treasure.

If it were a Great Fangshi of the Immortal Qin, he would only sneer: "Immovable, and it deserves to be called a Luo Tian magic treasure?"

But for the demon tribes of the Northern Border and the Rouran people, this city was endless blood and tears.

"Have time to circle the city a few times!"

Qian Chen saw at a glance that the scriptures on the city wall suppressed the souls of countless fierce demons and ghosts on the battlefield. The city was hell.

The karma within was also astonishing.

Circling twice, he might be able to temper his original heart and refine two small divine abilities.

It was also said that the Buddhism on this border was indeed a bit strange; many Buddha Dharmas were close to witchcraft, which was also a trend of the integration of witchcraft and Buddhism in the Northern Border.

After all, the decline of the witchcraft Dao was a major trend.

The Buddhist sect opened the door of convenience, so even the most stubborn shamans among the Hu people had to practice two hands of widely spread Buddha Dharma, otherwise, when doing funerals for the Hu people, the family members would ask, if you didn't chant scriptures, did you take the soul to refine Dharma?

Of course, chanting scriptures didn't hinder soul-taking!

If it hindered them, they wouldn't chant...

The cavalrymen drove the slaves toward the city gate. Those military masters were used to it. If they couldn't plunder the border and passing pedestrians as slaves, their days in the Liuzhen would have been impossible to live.

Just the population that had to be sent to the Demon Kingdom if they couldn't repel the demon tribes attacking every year was enough to drain the blood of the Liuzhen.

Of course, this kind of blood-food was all plundered population from outside the border.

Central Lands people could farm, weave, and produce various materials, and could not be used lightly. If it weren't for this, the Rouran people wouldn't frequently harass and attack the Liuzhen.

It was really because they bullied each other too much; many small tribes couldn't stand the bullying of the Xianbei of the Liuzhen and defected to the Rouran, and the two sides had reached the point of blood feud.

And the population brought by Tuoba Tao was the most precious, provided for the noble seeds of various tribes and the noble clans of the Han people. The aliens who could wield blades, cultivate one or two breaths, and had natural divine abilities would be caught to be soldiers.

Weak alien races like the merman would weave cloth and spin yarn for the noble seeds of various tribes, producing spiritual objects.

An evil monk covered in skulls walked over leisurely, scanned twice, then sacrificed a Gagong bowl in his hand, cut his wrist to release blood, and then used his index finger to dip in the blood and draw a rune on the forehead of each slave.

"Done! Now you can't run away!" the evil monk threatened: "If you dare to run, I will chant a spell to cast you into hell, never to be reborn!"

After saying that, he chanted the mantra, and the skulls hanging on his neck all opened their mouths together, dozens of chanting sounds noisy in a group.

It made the group of slaves have an illusion that their souls were leaving their bodies, seeing the evil monk high above, and themselves struggling in his palm.

One by one, they were scared out of their wits.

Qian Chen saw at a glance that this method was just planting a blood curse in the slaves' bodies to facilitate capture when they escaped.

With that evil monk's cultivation, if he wanted to take a person's soul from a distance, he would have to pay many living souls, and he wouldn't even break even! Of course, planting the illusions of hell and fear now made it much more convenient to cast spells later.

And that hell was just the Gagong magic treasure in his hand, with only twenty-something layers of seals, refining a hundred or so living souls.

And the method of refining souls was extremely rough, not to mention compared to the demons refined by the demonic Dao; even some heterodox methods of concocting fierce ghosts were cleaner and neater than this.

Seeing Qian Chen's ascetic appearance, the evil monk's eyes lit up. The skulls of people with such firm mindfulness were most suitable for refining magic treasures. If he really met a monk with cultivation but no cultivation base.

His Gagong bowl could immediately change to a new embryo!

"Where did this thing come from, without half a bit of magic power, and dare to impersonate my Buddhist sect!" Fierce light flowed in the evil monk's eyes, and he was about to go up and grab Qian Chen.

Tuoba Tao blocked him and said: "Master, this person is a high monk I invited from overseas, practicing the Silent Zen, praying for blessings and longevity for my grandmother. Since you are not good at praying for blessings, don't block the way!"

Seeing Tuoba Tao holding the long blade at his waist, the evil monk could only smile without mirth: "So it's a guest invited by Old Madam Tuoba; it was my eyes that were clumsy!"

"We are dull and don't understand the Master's Great Dharma. The day before yesterday, my Master mentioned wanting to accept a disciple with a foundation!"

"I see this novice has a good foundation. What good Dharma arts can there be overseas? Why not worship under my Master's sect together with me and be fellow disciples? That would also be a creation!"

Tuoba Tao was not afraid of this evil monk, but the Master he spoke of was a high monk in the Liuzhen with extremely high magic power and deep cultivation, deeply respected by believers and trusted by the noble seeds of the Liuzhen. It's just that he didn't care about the background of the disciples he accepted, and the disciples under his sect were mixed.

If he saw Qian Chen, he might really be interested in accepting him as a disciple.

And that person was already at the Yin Spirit cultivation level, practicing both Buddhism and Daoism, known as the Great Labatu Ancestor, a figure that even his grandmother had to deal with carefully.

Qian Chen listened to all this and raised his eyes faintly.

Thinking to himself, should he find a monk with a foundation to break his first killing precept...

After all, using a Buddhist person to break the Buddhist killing precept, with a body of merit and karma, one slash to end it, how satisfying!

All kinds of causes and effects are mixed, infinite karma is attached, yet the killing heart remains as before. This is—the Precept-Breaking Blade Technique.

To put it bluntly:

Hands are itchy!

Want to sharpen the blade!

Scaring away the evil monk, Tuoba Tao had to take the Sun Gold Essence back to report, so he let one of the Xianbei people take Qian Chen to the desolate market of the Liuzhen to find a place to stay temporarily.

The desolate market was outside the barracks, originally a place for the families of the garrison soldiers to gather. Later, gradually, female entertainers, jugglers, gamblers, laundry workers, and food makers, many desolate people gradually moved in, forming markets of various sizes.

Although this was unfavorable for raising an army to fight, the upper levels had managed it several times but couldn't.

They could only let this strange scene of a market next to the barracks be.

This was the Liuzhen of the Borderlands; if it were Chang'an or Luoyang, the barracks would have to detour for the market...

Qian Chen naturally walked silently with his alms bowl. All kinds of cultivation along the way, the so-called karma leaving traces, was nothing more than two words—influence! Karma is the various influences left by sentient beings between heaven and earth.

This kind of influence is invisible, untouchable, entrusted to matter, and manifested as Dharma.

Only when it falls into the heart, and all Dharmas are passed to me, can it disturb the heart, and heart-to-heart transmission, but all Dharmas have no self, so it is called 'Karma'. And the manifested karma is just the Great Dao of Cause and Effect of the Buddha, forcibly giving it a carrier.

Qian Chen's journey was actually letting this kind of influence flowing among all living beings flow through his heart and imprint it with his heart.

This kind of influence was manifested by six divine abilities.

Heart-to-Heart Connection is that everything reached can be checked by the heart. Ordinary people have dull perception and barriers in their hearts, so they can know their own hearts but not others'. Qian Chen's infinite karma transformed into the Heart-to-Heart Connection, which is everything seen, heard, known, and felt; all living beings can perceive every thought in their hearts.

Good and evil!

Truth and falsehood!

The beauty and viciousness of human nature all surged in one by one with the karma.

This was also the reason why Qian Chen was silent and indifferent. The previous killings and the severing of living beings, the various Dharma of cause and effect on them condensed into appearances, falling on the Nezha image.

Qian Chen was troubled by the traces left in this world by more than a hundred lives.

Although most of the attachments of these people, who were called sea merchants but were actually pirates, were just like that.

But inevitably, there were a few people whose conscience had not yet been extinguished, or who had wives and children at home. Perceiving the sincere attachments on them through the Heart-to-Heart Connection, especially the expectation of children for their fathers to return home, was not easy to bear.

Not to mention the Destiny Ability, which evolved various futures.

Qian Chen slashed away the various miserable destiny appearances of a girl starving to death or being sold. Several times he couldn't bear it and wanted to pop out the Yacha Ghost Department and instantly escape to those people's side to save them according to the Dharma.

But he couldn't!

To save one person is to save thousands; to favor one heart is to favor various hearts.

These Six Divine Abilities added karma, secretly containing various Dharma gates of Buddhism. If he couldn't realize the difference between the original heart and the other heart in this compassion, Qian Chen would sooner or later be converted.

Opening his mouth to say 'unwilling'! How easy it was.

But to truly not go against his original heart and face the various miseries in the human world, how difficult it was.

At this time, Qian Chen had to be iron-hearted!

"Listening to the suffering of all living beings, watching all difficulties, having compassion in my heart, but not giving rise to the Bodhi heart! I am fighting against the Bodhisattva in my heart!"

Qian Chen could only smile bitterly; this was his first collision with the Bodhisattva's Dao heart.

Consistency is extremely difficult.

Indifference is also not easy...

Fortunately, he was not the first cause of these various miseries and karma; it was just that the suffering of all living beings flowed into his ears and reflected in his eyes with the karma.

If he personally caused the karma to flow and caused these miseries, his inner pressure would be even heavier.

This was also the reason why Qian Chen was silent and intent on asceticism.

Now, whatever he did, there was infinite pressure coming from his heart, so he could only temporarily sever his own karma and temper himself bit by bit until he broke the Five Precepts one by one.

Just as Qian Chen was wielding his blade in his heart, facing the suffering that came with various karma, and facing the most complex human heart problem in the world with his own heart.

His ascetic figure holding the wooden bowl also passed through the main street of the market.

Huaihuang Town, after all, had a deep Buddhist influence.

Although Qian Chen looked like a novice monk of sixteen or seventeen, his tattered clothes and thin body also looked like a truly ascetic monk.

This kind of action with a strong religious ritual sense was most likely to attract believers. Soon, rich people untied their waist pouches to give alms of pearls and gems. Qian Chen raised his hand slightly to refuse, and others brought the remaining food and water and poured it into his wooden bowl.

According to Buddha Dharma, Qian Chen could not refuse.

Although he was not a proper monk, since he had received the precepts, before breaking the Five Precepts, Qian Chen decided to act according to the law.

On the road, even a poor old woman, also thin and old, gave him food and water.

Karma turned, almost making Qian Chen unable to hold on.

The kindness transmitted by the Heart-to-Heart Connection was not fake, but the Destiny Ability transmitted that in a month, the old woman's granddaughter would die of hunger and thinness, and part of this karma also flowed into the food.

It was the life-saving rations of others.

If it weren't for the Heart-to-Heart Connection, Qian Chen would have wanted to lecture the old woman; how could there be a reason to give alms to a monk with only the remaining food?

But in the Heart-to-Heart Connection, the old woman clearly understood this. Giving alms to Qian Chen was because Qian Chen looked really thin, and she had the kindness that poor people have, and it was also because of the various blessings of giving alms in Buddhist teachings.

She actually had a hidden despair for her granddaughter's life, with a compassionate heart to cultivate blessings for her in the next life.

"Infinite karma!"

Qian Chen was deeply rooted in his original heart; Buddha Dharma could not save the world, and divine abilities could not transcend everything.

Even so, he still wanted to save people...

"If I chant spells and use divine abilities to save people? What is the difference between me and the Buddha? Both are opening up an illusory world with divine abilities, but facing the suffering of all living beings, having divine abilities but not using them, is it too hypocritical?"

"In the past, facing the destruction of his homeland, the Buddha chose Buddha Dharma between Buddha Dharma and divine abilities."

"But facing the suffering of all living beings, he finally chose to combine Buddha Dharma and divine abilities to try to save the world."

"I can't be worse than the Buddha! The Buddha still knew that divine abilities are not as good as Buddha Dharma, and that Buddha Dharma should come first!"

Qian Chen pondered for a long time and found that even other high-ranking Daoist experts at most learned from the Buddha, such as the Heavenly Venerable of Salvation, whose behavior was already biased toward Buddha Dharma.

And the Supreme One with a higher realm.

The Supreme One forgets feelings, the Supreme One is only me, the Supreme One joins the Dao... he still couldn't understand it a bit.

"Karma comes with the heart, heart-to-heart transmission, the most fatal. I have faced so many enemies of the heavens, demon ancestors, and Daoist venerables, but the kindness of an old woman makes me unable to deal with it."

Qian Chen actually knew that it was not that he couldn't deal with the old woman's heart.

What he couldn't deal with was the Buddha's Dao.

"Could it be that I really have to slash the other heart and establish a barrier of the heart? As long as I can't understand the hearts of others, can I persist in myself? But that self is so paranoid, wouldn't it become the demonic Dao? If I can't slash the other heart, then I can only slash my own heart!"

"The suffering of the other heart moves the compassion of my heart, compassion slashes my heart, Bodhi sprouts, and I step into that step of the Buddhist sect?"

"No, I am unwilling!"

"Absolutely unwilling..."

Qian Chen placed his hands on his knees. Although the ice-cold light was invisible, the Guanghan Slashing-Feeling Heaven Blade was already in his hand. With one slash, he could sever the Heart-to-Heart Connection and never again understand the suffering of all living beings.

But there was still a voice in his heart telling himself that doing so was wrong!

Slashing his own heart changed himself, and how could slashing the other heart not?

One is the Buddha heart, one is the demonic nature.

If the Buddha heart doesn't move and falls into demonic nature? Isn't that also giving up all previous efforts?

Qian Chen looked at the full food and water in the wooden bowl in his hand. Although rough and mixed together like swill, it felt incomparably heavy.

He sighed gloomily: "Never thought... my sword would be so blunt!"

After saying that, he lowered his head and earnestly swallowed the mixed food bit by bit.

There was no lack of leftovers.

Alas, the equal heart is always there, but the compassionate heart is not always there. Qian Chen could pick up the equal heart, but he could never pick up that Bodhi heart. A killing intent gradually bred sharpness, just waiting for someone to offend him. ===== CHAPTER 818 =====