Chapter 842: Telling All the Past and Future

Clang!

The old war blade in Li Zhong's hand was unsheathed, and in an instant, the blade light was like lightning, slashing toward the monk sitting on the ground.

His eyes were like mirrors, reflecting everything like flowers in a mirror and the moon in the water.

The sharp Military School malevolent qi condensed on the blade edge, drawing a streak of light; its momentum was fierce, and the aura that erupted in that instant was not inferior to the fake core Qian Chen had at the beginning.

"Collecting the malevolent qi of the five metals of heaven and the Taibai Yuan Yuan Tiangang to temper the blade light supernatural power... it seems to be a remnant of Sima Yi's Bai Hu Seven Kill momentum!"

A hint of appreciation flashed in Li Er's eyes, and then his neck was beheaded by a blade as if it were a wooden stake; the head fell, dropping into the wooden bowl he was holding.

The wooden bowl held the human head, and the headless monk still sat there quietly.

Li Zhong sheathed his blade calmly, quietly waiting for the monk's neck blood to spray out like a streak of light...

And Li Zhong felt the cleanliness and neatness of the blade light under his hand, but frowned slightly—could it be that he killed the wrong person?

Western Liang Kingdom, Li Er.

These two names were taboos, involving his background.

Being spoken out so suddenly, he only had one choice: to draw his blade.

Dugu Xin said he was at the Qi Refinement level, which was correct, but he had reached the seventeenth layer of Qi Refinement, following the Daoist tradition of the ancient Qi Refinement lineage.

After the ninth layer, he should have condensed seal talismans and swallowed talismans to pass the law, but here he had to take great risks, collect earth malevolent qi, and then temper his internal qi bit by bit.

The tenth layer of Qi Refinement uses qi to control malevolent qi, the eleventh layer collects qi to refine malevolent qi, the twelfth layer condenses malevolent qi into law, the thirteenth layer makes true qi like malevolent qi, and the fourteenth layer makes malevolent qi condensation complete.

Then the fifteenth layer collects the Yuan Yuan Tiangang, the sixteenth layer refines qi into Gang, and the seventeenth layer combines Gang and malevolent qi.

And reaching this layer, one could mix the Gang and malevolent qi.

Relying on the third blade of the Bai Hu Seven Kill Blade—the Broken Army momentum, which he obtained by chance from the first Primordial Spirit of the world, Sima Yi, he could behead lower-grade and fight middle-grade Core Formation cultivators within ten steps.

It was precisely because of this that Li Zhong mixed the true qi of condensing malevolent qi and refining Gang with the malevolent qi of the Military School to impersonate it.

Which was why He Ba Du didn't see through his background.

But this method of Qi Refinement, although the true qi refined by internal malevolent qi and Gang was unparalleled in sharpness, and when combined with the broken blade he obtained from an ancient battlefield, it could break laws and kill enemies like a tiger or wolf.

But true qi was ultimately not magic power, and could not refine magic treasures or practice magic spells.

Even reaching the step of combining Gang and malevolent qi, he still couldn't fly with his physical body, and couldn't practice flying spells or magic treasures.

Li Zhong looked at the monk sitting on the Buddhist pagoda's shadow, his expression solemn—how could there be no ghost if the head fell without a drop of blood?

His true qi was fused with the most explosive Gang and malevolent qi between heaven and earth.

The Heavenly Xin Five Metal malevolent qi was the Xin Metal malevolent qi born from the invasion of the five metal veins into the earth veins, which invaded the earth qi; he had collected the residual malevolent qi from the rusty five-metal weapons he dug from the underground of the ancient battlefield, and tempered it for twenty years.

The Great White Yuan Yuan Tiangang is the starlight of the Venus star falling into the Nine Heavens, which can only form a trace of rare gang qi after being tempered by the White Emperor's Lung-Metal Divine Wind within the Qian-Xun Nine-Essence Divine Wind of the gang wind layer.

If it weren't for the Bai Hu Seven Kill Blade, which was a great supernatural power of the ancient Star Sect, reflecting the stars, and after the blade technique reached the divine level, it could draw in starlight from above the Nine Heavens.

It also happened to coincide with the rare, once-in-a-millennium celestial phenomenon of Venus occulting the Pleiades.

Only then could he draw the Taibai starlight into his body, pulling a wisp of Taibai Gang qi from above the Nine Heavens, and after ten years of accumulation, he tempered a blade light.

Refined the Seven Kill Third Momentum—Broken Army?

Under the Broken Army momentum, even the Primordial Spirit of a Jin Dan True Person condensed into a Jin Dan would be beheaded by this sharp blade momentum.

Unless... that monk was not a living person at all!

He walked slowly, holding the broken blade in front of his

Cold sweat breaks out on Li Zhong's back, and he grips the broken blade in his hand even tighter.

Yet Li Er's head holds that golden lotus seed between its teeth, keeping it in its mouth.

The head floats in the bitter water of the wooden alms bowl, still chanting the verses of the "Buddha-Spoken Muni Origin Sutra"...

The beginning of the sutra is a famous public case between the Daoist and Buddhist schools, the final sermon given by the Supreme Daoist Ancestor before merging with the Dao.

The Daoist Ancestor severed his spiritual light, holding the pearl in his hand; the Buddha smiled faintly, transmitting mind to mind, and established the Mahayana orthodoxy.

This story has been told in hundreds of millions of Buddhist sutras and recounted in Daoist texts.

Both the Daoist and Buddhist sides hold their own versions.

Almost every great power who witnessed that sermon left behind their own Daoist scriptures or Buddhist sutras.

From every direction and every angle, they extrapolated thousands of Great Daos from this event, and their disciples and grand-disciples further elaborated upon them.

It can be said that of the nine debates between the Daoist and Buddhist schools, at least eight revolved around this matter.

It is not strange for the "Buddha-Spoken Muni Origin Sutra" to begin this way, but the subsequent verses become increasingly abstruse and terrifying.

Things like "severing sentient emotion is non-attachment."

Things like "the weak are the function of the Dao; the reversal is the movement of the Dao."

Things like "the spiritual pearl radiates light, surpassing the sun and moon, and is the Sun-Moon Lamp-Bright Tathagata."

It enlightens the three ages, telling the Buddha that it will attain the Dao in the future after immeasurable kalpas, open the other shore, and save all sentient beings.

This chapter of the "Buddha-Spoken Muni Origin Sutra," which recounts Qian Chen's origin, begins like a demonic sound piercing the crown of the head.

All sorts of taboos—covered by the Buddhist causal Great Dao, hidden by the Daoist 'Sitting-in-Forgetfulness' fruit, and suppressed by the layered fruits of countless great powers—are spoken aloud by Li Er.

Li Zhong feels the world spinning; every word and every sentence causes the entire world to tremble and distort.

He cannot help but hold his head in his hands, desperately striking his forehead with the hilt of his broken blade, attempting to use this vibration to dispel the scriptures in his mind.

Those scriptures, carrying traces of the causal Dao, the intent of 'Sitting-in-Forgetfulness,' the seals imposed by various Daoist fruits, and the fragments of words interpreted by countless great powers through their own Daos, drill from Li Er's mouth into Li Zhong's mind.

It makes him want to roll on the ground and wail: "Master, stop chanting! Master, stop chanting!"

But Li Zhong still grits his teeth, not making a sound.

Finally, he finishes listening to the First Rank Spiritual Pearl Chapter, which involves the Supreme Demon Ancestor, the Future Buddha, the great Buddhist vows, Daoist secrets, Supreme taboos, and the weakness and reversal of the Dao!

When he opens his eyes, he sees the headless body of the novice monk sitting atop the Nine-Layered Golden Pagoda, behind which stands a towering Bodhi tree, holding a chaos-colored spiritual pearl in its hand, like the Buddha himself, with a circular light behind its head enveloping the Great Thousand Worlds and illuminating the ten directions.

And the Buddha-head, with the light of perfection behind it, is falling into the golden alms bowl.

Inside is a boundless sea of bitterness, in which the Buddha-head floats, with boundless suffering assailing it.

A lotus flower grows from the Buddha-head's mouth, possessing twelve ranks; within the lotus is a Pure Land, an other-shore world, transcending all seas of suffering.

This scene, where the sacred and the bizarre coexist, almost drives Li Zhong insane in an instant.

Then, within the other shore, a complete Buddha chants the Second Rank Crown Prince Chapter.

It tells of the Muni Pearl, representing the fundamental Buddhist vows and all wisdom, falling from the hands of the Supreme One, with a group of Daoists respectfully offering worship.

Until, after thousands of kalpas, the spiritual pearl falls into the mortal world.

It lands at the foot of Western Kunlun, in a kingdom where Daoism and Buddhism are intertwined; the last King of Western Liang ascends Mount Zhongnan in person to seek a trace of the spiritual pearl's light, which is reborn as the Crown Prince in the Queen's womb.

Then, when the Crown Prince grows to eight or nine years old, the three teachings of Buddhism, Daoism, and the Demon Sect stir up a great struggle in the Western Liang Kingdom, and a great army arrives from Chang'an in the East.

The Western Liang Kingdom is destroyed!

The imperial clan flees to Longxi, entrusting the Crown Prince and another imperial prince to be raised by the clan.

By the time the Crown Prince grows to fourteen or fifteen, he is a clever, sensible, and handsome youth; he follows his family from Chang'an to the Supreme Louguan to fulfill a vow, and at night, two demon lords break the seals and abduct the Crown Prince.

That day, demonic flames soared on Mount Zhongnan, and wolf-smoke billowed.

Finally, the calamity shatters the purity of the towers, and the spiritual pearl enshrined within rolls into the turbid world, triggering an endless killing calamity.

The spiritual pearl descends into the world, the false spirit and the true spirit merge, and the Crown Prince opens his eyes again; inside, however, it is chaotic and ignorant, knowing neither good nor evil, containing a trace of spiritual light of the Dao's weakness...

Third Rank: Dao-Dust Chapter.

It begins with the place that is not in the present, not in the past, not in the future, not on this shore, not on the other shore, not in the middle—the unfathomable place of reincarnation in the cosmic realms...

Fourth Rank: Supreme One Chapter.

Fifth Rank: Pangu Chapter.

Sixth Rank: Wang Mojie Chapter.

The scriptures of the "Buddha-Spoken Muni Origin Sutra," suppressed by numerous seals, become increasingly chaotic.

By the Wang Mojie Chapter, it is already chaotic, with all destruction and creation intertwined, evolving into the cosmic realms entering the final calamity, containing the entire origin of the Demon Dao, the great Buddhist vows, and even a scene where the supreme Daoist fruit of the Supreme One faintly emerges.

Once this scene is finished, Qian Chen is also unable to speak!

This "Buddha-Spoken Muni Origin Sutra" is a scripture he used to reflect upon himself with the help of the causal Great Dao held by the Buddha.

"Buddha-Spoken" is truly spoken by the Buddha, not a single bit off; it is the Buddha's prophecy of Qian Chen's fate.

But the final three ranks are encompassed by the Supreme One, and even the Buddha cannot utter a single word of them.

The scripture ends here, transforming into a Muni Pearl within Li Zhong's sea of consciousness.

He finally collapses to his knees with a thud, sweat dripping drop by drop onto the blue bricks.

The pagoda in front of him flips again; the original six-layered inverted shadow twists upward, becoming the six-layered pagoda Li Zhong is most familiar with.

And that nine-layered pagoda of boundless light, where the Buddha sat high, becomes a plain, unremarkable shadow on the ground.

Li Zhong's pupils dilate and contract repeatedly; when he catches his breath, he dares not—and cannot—recall the scriptures the novice monk recited to him.

Only then does he exhale a long, slow breath, as if he had died.

Regardless of the fact that Li Er's headless body is still in front of him, he collapses onto the ground, then rolls over to look up at the twilight sky, remaining silent for a long time.

After the twilight sun has lingered for who knows how long, Li Zhong slowly asks, "Who exactly are you?"

The headless novice monk reaches into the wooden alms bowl, fishing and fishing!

Finally, he fishes out a wet, yellow-mud head whose mouth and nose are beginning to blur, then carefully places it back on his neck; only then does the head speak: "I am the Past Dust!"

Li Zhong's pupils suddenly shrink, and he says, "The Guardian of Louguan?"