Chapter 845: A Single Thought Reverses the Realm of Truth and Illusion

Qian Chen did not pay him any mind.

The exterior of the Great Nirvana Golden Body was gilded—a gold that, while dimmed by the passage of time, remained immortal, its hue carrying a trace of archaic green.

It wore a robe of pure gold, the folds light and ethereal yet heavy, its chest and arms bared. A halo of mixed colors bloomed from its chest, and its overall demeanor was serene.

The Golden Body's eyes were slightly closed, appearing peaceful, yet beneath those thin eyelids, a profundity like a human heart being a prison was revealed.

The Golden Body was the skin, and it was also the prison.

The Buddha-nature of three hundred and sixty million sentient beings, once converted, sealed away the even greater demonic nature reflected outward by them.

Now, this Golden Body sat behind Master Tan Wuchen like a Buddha statue. Yet, while the statue's hands rested naturally on its lap, two more hands seemed to reach out from beneath its ribs, embracing Master Tan Wuchen.

These two hands were like the shadows cast by the Buddha's hands; they flashed by in the mere instant that Li Zhong was slightly dazed, so fast they seemed like a hallucination.

"Senior..." Li Zhong raised his head, only to see that Qian Chen's expression remained indifferent.

"You think it was I who imprisoned him?" Qian Chen seemed to know what he was about to say and said faintly, "It is his own cultivation that imprisoned him."

"Converting three hundred and sixty million sentient beings and believers! Heh, in truth, he has always been deceiving himself with illusions. Otherwise, why would he indulge in the Joyous Zen that borders on the heterodox? I turn the void into reality, but the void is not void, and reality is not reality."

Qian Chen walked up the stairs step by step, climbing toward the level above the underground palace.

"The void of hundreds of millions of yin demons is void, but the distracting thoughts and karma of three hundred and sixty million sentient beings are real and not void. The reality is that his arduous cultivation is real, but the conversion of sentient beings and the liberation of Buddha-nature are incomparably illusory."

Qian Chen slowly peeled away the skin from his chest, bit by bit, his fingers breaking through yellow mud. The skin on his chest peeled off like a layer of mud shell, and the muscles within were merely yellow earth rolled up by grass roots.

The final few ribs were nothing more than things as withered and rotten as wood.

Finally, after peeling away the yellow mud from the skeleton, he dug out a chaotic spirit pearl from a palm's depth.

The spirit pearl was about the size of a thumb. Qian Chen pinched it in his right hand and showed it to them.

"Thus, dreams are inverted, and truth and illusion are hard to distinguish... You think it is inconceivable that I turned the reflection into a nine-story pagoda and the six-story pagoda into a reflection in a single thought? In truth, he sits high atop the Buddha pagoda, but his heart is constantly falling into the abyss."

"Grasping the true nature of sentient beings is nothing more than a single thought of mine. Thus, the high pagoda is inverted, and truth and illusion are hard to distinguish!"

"Light-Pervading Noble Virtue Bodhisattva!" Master Tan Wuchen pressed his palms together and chanted the Buddha's name.

The Golden Body behind him also pressed its palms together; one pair of hands joined before its chest, while the other pair passed beneath Master Tan Wuchen's ribs to join before his chest.

Master Tan Wuchen was held firmly in the embrace of the ten-foot-tall Golden Body, securely imprisoned.

He said despondently, "This poor monk only thought that all sentient beings possess Buddha-nature, forgetting that all sentient beings also possess demonic nature. The Buddha said: 'Seven hundred years after my Nirvana, the demon Papiyan will gradually destroy my true Dharma.' I originally thought Papiyan was a heterodox enemy of the Buddha, but I did not see that Papiyan is the Buddha himself."

"Therefore, this Jin Gang Samaya Buddha Pagoda was transformed into an Icchantika of the Womb-Store in a single thought of the Venerable Lord."

An Icchantika is one who denies cause and effect, holds inverted heterodox views, does not believe in present or future karmic retribution, does not associate with good friends or wise teachers, does not listen to the teachings of the Buddhas, and is destined to fall into hell with no hope of release.

Buddha-nature is hidden within sentient beings like a child hidden in the mother's womb, hence it is called the Womb-Store.

And the severing of good roots, the Icchantika, is also like a child hidden in the mother's womb; it is innate to sentient beings, and compared to Buddha-nature, it is more fundamental, more solid, and more natural. All demonic nature sprouts from here.

Therefore, the Buddha-nature of sentient beings obtained by the Jin Gang Samaya was easily inverted by the Icchantika of the Womb-Store, and a Buddha pagoda was instantly transformed into a demon pagoda.

The fundamental demonic nature of the sentient beings within, when the Great Nirvana Golden Body was transformed into a demon fetus, was the demonic nature of three hundred and sixty million sentient beings returning to a single source, which is also the Supreme Supreme Tian Mo of the Womb-Store.

This demon was formed in the belly of the Great Nirvana Golden Body, demonstrating the principle that all Buddha-Dharma is like a skin bag, and the fundamental nature of sentient beings is the demonic thought of the Womb-Store.

It was a Supreme Supreme Tian Mo Supreme that Qian Chen casually pointed into existence, and the Moon Demon was also hidden within it. It wanted to peel off the skin bag of the Great Nirvana Golden Body, but the Womb-Store Demon demonstrated the principle that there is no need to peel it off, for the demon is already within.

Moreover, the demon is also beneath the Moon Demon's skin bag.

According to the fundamental principle of the Demon Path of using demons to control demons, the Moon Demon could not see through the Womb-Store demonic thoughts of sentient beings and failed to subdue the Womb-Store demon within itself, thus it was controlled by the demon.

The reason Master Tan Wuchen was imprisoned by the Golden Body was precisely because he himself possessed the Womb-Store demon.

The entire nine-story Buddha pagoda had infinite desires from which demonic nature sprouted. Various yin demons served as the external appearance, and countless yin demons served as the bricks and stones to build the nine-story pagoda. However, the fundamental source of this demonic nature was hidden in the hearts of sentient beings. Thus, Master Tan Wuchen had a demon pagoda outside and a demon fetus inside, imprisoned within the pagoda.

Unless the distracting thoughts in the minds of the three hundred and sixty million sentient beings are all severed, and unless the demon fetus in the hearts of the three hundred and sixty million sentient beings is completely removed, there can be no liberation.

That is why Qian Chen said it was not he who trapped Master Tan Wuchen, but Master Tan Wuchen's own cultivation that trapped him; he merely pointed out the truth within.

When Master Tan Wuchen saw the Dao Dust Pearl, all illusions in his eyes vanished, and he saw the True Suchness. He knew that the illusion he used to deceive sentient beings and claim that the Buddha-Dharma could convert them had been replaced by the truth of the sentient beings' true liberation.

The truth of the Great Nirvana Sutra descended and transformed into a Buddha pagoda; one cannot be liberated without truly converting all the sentient beings within the sutra bricks.

This difficulty is too terrifying. One must know that a part of the essence of Buddha-Dharma is illusion.

The Pure Land converts sentient beings partly by using supernatural powers and illusions to confuse their hearts, and then gradually cultivates them from illusion into truth.

But most Buddhist disciples, and even many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, are still stuck in the stage of converting people with illusions. Encountering the True-Illusion Dao Fruit within the Supreme Dao Dust Pearl, they have met with terrible misfortune and are firmly suppressed.

Qian Chen only needed to take away the various illusions in the Buddha-Dharma, letting the real and undeniable suffering and inner heart press down, to suppress ninety-nine percent of the Mahayana disciples in the world.

"Senior, sitting on the shadow, did you really fix the sun in place?"

The moment Li Zhong saw the Dao Dust Pearl, he also saw the truth through the spiritual light, yet he discovered that everything around him was real and undeniable, so he couldn't help but ask.

"Of course!"

Qian Chen said calmly, "If it were Buddha-Dharma, to fix the sun, one would only need to fix one's own heart. But I am a disciple of the Dao..."

He paid no mind to the tattered monk's robe on his body, the wooden bowl in his hand, or the ordination scars on his head, and said solemnly, "The Dao Dust Pearl fixed the sun, which means it fixed time. The reason sentient beings are still moving forward is because they have fallen into illusion."

"Everything now is an illusion cast by the Earth Immortal Realm onto the River of Time through the Dao Dust Pearl."

Li Zhong did not understand and asked, "What does this mean?"

"It means that if I leave this nine-story Buddha pagoda, the illusion created by the Dao Dust Pearl will shatter, and all time will flow back to the moment you first saw me. Unless I reverse truth and illusion and turn all of this into reality!"

Li Zhong understood now.

The space-time they were currently in was illusory, or rather, the Dao Dust Pearl had packed everything from the Earth Immortal Realm into the spirit pearl and projected it into the future. Qian Chen could choose whether or not to turn this illusory future into reality.

"So, go ahead and do it! No matter what happens, as long as it is not to my liking, it is illusion."

Qian Chen said calmly, "Wuchuan Town is about to encounter a great calamity of the Demon Path, and that Moon Demon that wants to seize Master Tan Wuchen's skin bag is the vanguard."

"And I have laid a net here, just waiting for the Great Supreme Supreme Tian Mo to enter the trap..."

Li Zhong hurriedly asked, "How can one distinguish the truth from the illusion in this? How will I know when everything becomes reality?"

"In the illusory time, this Buddha pagoda has nine stories, and I am at the top of the pagoda. In the real time, this Buddha pagoda has only six stories, Master Tan Wuchen is at the top of the pagoda, and I am sitting in the shadow beneath the pagoda!"

Qian Chen said calmly, "So you only need to look at this pagoda, and you will be able to distinguish between illusion and reality!"

"You came to Wuchuan, you must have realized that among the various clans, foreign tribes, and even the various Daoist lineages of Northern Wei, the ones with the greatest potential and the most likely to open up the future are the military family disciples here. Alas, because they harbor great secrets, they are feared by everyone and have always been unable to integrate into them and establish their own prestige!"

Qian Chen looked back at Li Zhong and smiled, "Is that right?"

Li Zhong recalled Dugu Xin's attitude from not long ago and nodded slightly, "Harboring secrets is the greatest despair. It means you are isolated from everyone, with no one left to trust, and even less trusted by others."

He stuck his broken blade into the ground at his feet, covered his face in dejection, and sighed, "This is also the reason why I have achieved nothing in the Six Garrisons for forty years."

Qian Chen's fingers pinching the Dao Dust Pearl flickered slightly, and the bronze tiger-faced tablet reflected within the spirit pearl became real. Then, he pulled that jade tablet from his own memory, and very quickly, a piece of mutton-fat white jade engraved with the beautiful scenery of Western Kunlun Mountain also manifested in the spiritual light of the Dao Dust Pearl.

With a casual wave, the spirit pearl hovered in mid-air.

The bronze tiger-faced tablet and the jade pendant suddenly overlapped, opening a secret realm on Kunlun Mountain. In the Cloud-Top Heavenly Palace within the mountain belly, a bronze door was engraved with a relief of an eight-headed bronze tiger god.

The bronze tiger-faced tablet landed on the door, and the eight-headed tiger god suddenly gained an extra roaring head.

Immediately, the bronze door slowly opened, leading to a majestic continent. Flying boats and immortal cities traveled upon it, and countless cultivators flew in and out among the mechanical artifacts, truly a holy land for cultivation.

"This is the Kunlun Continent, now the Yingzhou where the Immortal Qin and many remnants of the Daoist lineages expelled from the Central Lands are entrenched."

Qian Chen pointed casually, and the bronze door landed in a forbidden area of the Yingzhou Sect, opening the secret treasures within. Countless Feathered Heavenly Humans flew out from a cluster of palaces surrounded by mountains, and the auras of dozens of Primordial Spirit Heavenly Humans who had sealed themselves in secret treasures soared into the sky, only to be casually frozen by Qian Chen.

"It seems that the so-called secret treasures of the Western Queen Mother's Kingdom do indeed exist."

Li Zhong looked at this scene reflected by the Dao Dust Pearl, dumbfounded. This time, he completely and utterly believed that the Louguan Dao had not the slightest covetous heart for the secret treasures harbored by him and his brother.

With such supernatural powers, Li Zhong clearly felt that what was reflected in the Dao Dust Pearl was an illusion.

But it seemed as if with a casual wave of Qian Chen's sleeve, everything would turn into reality.

After all, the auras of those Primordial Spirit Heavenly Humans were so—real, real to the point that they seemed to be struggling within the spiritual light, just like insects fallen into amber. ===== CHAPTER 846 =====