Chapter 74: Buddhist Realm in the Palm

After bringing Shan Ling and Xiao Song back to the Third Peak, Hua Changxi began packing her belongings. Everything else was easy—she could just put them into the Shennong Cauldron.

The only thing that troubled her was the Buddha's Hand, because it couldn't be stored in the Shennong Cauldron.

Moreover, the Buddha's Hand was covered in cracks, and she was very worried that a single bump would shatter it.

Hua Changxi asked Shan Ling to help her get a piece of the strongest wood, intending to make a wooden box to store the Buddha's Hand.

Xiao Song watched from the side and asked in confusion, "Master, why don't you put the Buddha's Hand into your dantian?"

Hua Changxi paused her movements: "This thing can be stored in the dantian?"

Xiao Song said with certainty, "Of course. My inheritance tells me that this Buddha's Hand was broken off from the dharma body of a deity. A deity's dharma body is the rarest of heavenly treasures, so of course it can be stored in the dantian."

Sometimes, others don't intend to harm you, but harm you without realizing it.

Seeing Yingke Song's earnest expression, Hua Changxi believed her and felt that she had gained new knowledge.

Hua Changxi, who was severely lacking in cultivation常识, simply thought that since her dantian could hold the Five Finger Mountain seal, storing a broken and battered Buddha's Hand shouldn't be a problem.

What she didn't know was how important the dantian was to a cultivator, and that it couldn't be used to store things casually. She didn't consider whether the Buddha's Hand posed any danger to her, or whether her dantian could accommodate it.

Hearing Yingke Song's suggestion, she thought it was feasible, so she cut her finger and dripped a drop of blood onto the Buddha's Hand.

The blood sank into the Buddha's Hand, but there was no reaction.

Hua Changxi looked at Xiao Song, and Xiao Song looked back at her: "Maybe... not enough blood?"

So Hua Changxi dripped a few more drops. When she reached the ninth drop, the Buddha's Hand whizzed and turned into a spiritual light that sank into Hua Changxi's dantian.

As soon as the Buddha's Hand entered her dantian, Hua Changxi's consciousness was instantly pulled into the dantian. Her body, as if losing its soul, fell directly beside the Fire Spirit Spring Pool.

Seeing this, Xiao Song was greatly startled.

"Master!"

"Master, what's wrong with you?"

"Shan Ling, where are you? Come back quickly! Something's happened to Master!"

Xiao Song was so anxious she nearly cried. She carefully straightened Hua Changxi's body and then hurriedly went to find Shan Ling.

Meanwhile, in the dantian, where the inner core used to be, there was now the Buddha's Hand.

The sea of qi surged and churned, piling up layer upon layer of huge waves, as if trying to shatter the Buddha's Hand.

Instead, on each finger of the Buddha's Hand, the character "卍" appeared, shining with golden light, suppressing the surging waves of qi.

It was amidst the overwhelming golden light that Hua Changxi regained consciousness, only to find that she had become the round inner core, but the inner core was not above the sea of qi—it was inside a giant hand.

This giant hand was undoubtedly the Buddha's Hand.

Hua Changxi was somewhat panicked, and a single thought filled her mind: she had to escape the Buddha's Hand as quickly as possible.

The rosy inner core moved swiftly within the golden hand, threading between the fingers, almost reaching the edge of the hand. But in the end, she found that her range of movement was always confined within the hand.

Hua Changxi flew back and forth several times, like walking into a ghost maze—no matter what, she couldn't fly out of the hand.

It was also at this moment that she noticed the black flame.

The black flame had also followed her into the Buddha's Hand, still steadily positioned beneath the inner core, just as before.

Inside the Buddha's Hand, Hua Changxi could not perceive the passage of time, but her heart grew increasingly anxious and panicked. Because of this anxiety and panic, she couldn't calm down and simply kept threading between the fingers over and over.

During this time, she didn't notice that the black flame, which had originally been some distance from the inner core, was drawing closer and closer, and also seemed to be growing larger.

When the black flame touched the inner core, an intense urge to destroy surged within Hua Changxi's heart.

Looking at the Buddha's Hand, she had only one thought: since she couldn't fly out, she would destroy the Buddha's Hand!

"Boom~"

Fire lotuses flew out, and in an instant, the Buddha's Hand was submerged in one fire lotus after another.

Hua Changxi watched the burning flames, and her desire to destroy continued to rise. The inner core kept releasing fire spiritual energy, pouring it into the fire lotuses, making them burn brighter and brighter.

She had a resolve that even if all the fire spiritual energy in the inner core was exhausted, she would not hesitate!

The Buddha's Hand had been left behind long, long ago. Over the endless years, its magical power had nearly been depleted. Moreover, it had been severely damaged by the giant monkey earlier, covered in cracks, and could not hold on for long.

Now, burned by the Fire Lotus, cracks soon appeared on the palm.

As the flame climbed up the fingers, the swastika marks on the fingers began to flare with golden light. The swastika on the thumb flew out first, attacking Hua Changxi as if to suppress her.

Just as the swastika was about to cover the inner core, bird patterns emerged on the core.

As soon as the bird patterns appeared, the swastika immediately became unstable and flew backward shakily.

Seeing this, the swastikas on the other fingers simultaneously flew out, surrounding the inner core in a circle, then closing in bit by bit.

As the swastikas approached, the bird patterns on the inner core grew increasingly intense.

"Lee~"

The bird patterns flew out, transforming into a Vermilion Bird. It circled the inner core once and directly shattered all five swastikas.

The swastikas turned into golden specks of light, sinking into the inner core. The Vermilion Bird, a step behind, also flew back into the core.

On the inner core, the bird patterns flashed once and then faded again.

Without the swastikas, the cracks on the Buddha hand grew larger and more numerous.

At this point, if Hua Changxi had simply let the Fire Lotus burn, the Buddha hand would have been destroyed sooner or later. But the desire for destruction within her was too strong, preventing her from stopping there. Instead, she plunged straight into the Fire Lotus.

The inner core entering the sea of fire was like pouring gasoline onto the flames; the Fire Lotus burned even more fiercely and intensely.

This was entirely a posture of exhausting spiritual energy and dying together.

"Boom~"

The Buddha hand collapsed and melted under the burning of the Fire Lotus.

The melted fragments of the Buddha hand then became fuel for the Fire Lotus, once again increasing the Lotus's power.

As a result, the Buddha hand, under the Fire Lotus’s blaze, accelerated its collapse and destruction.

"Bang~"

The Buddha hand finally shattered into pieces and was swallowed by the Fire Lotus.

The inner core also reappeared above the Qi Sea.

By the Fire Spirit Spring Pool, the mountain spirit and Little Pine, who were surrounding Hua Changxi, saw her eyelashes flutter and immediately became excited.

"Is the master about to wake up?"

As soon as the words fell, Hua Changxi slowly opened her eyes. Her gaze was first dazed, then after she spotted the mountain spirit and Little Pine, it fully returned to clarity.

Looking at the two little children before her, Hua Changxi's heart was in turmoil.

"You two… you treacherous swindlers!"

Because of the mountain spirit, she had moved the Buddha hand away and nearly died under the giant ape's heavy punch. Because of the welcoming pine, she had taken the Buddha hand inside, almost causing her and the Buddha hand to destroy each other.

They had really messed her up!

The mountain spirit and Little Pine exchanged glances, their faces full of innocence.

They hadn't tricked the immortal (master)!

Hua Changxi lay motionless by the Fire Spirit Spring Pool. At this moment, glancing at the Vermilion Bird Breathing and Refining Visualization Chart, which had dimmed a little more in her mind, she wanted some peace.

Having faced life-and-death crises twice in a row left her with lingering fear.

Not long ago, she had warned herself not to rush forward rashly. She never expected to act foolishly again so soon. How could she have been so easily convinced by the welcoming pine to accept the Buddha hand into her dantian?

Should she blame the mountain spirit and the welcoming pine?

But the decision was hers.

Hua Changxi suddenly recalled the scene from her previous life when her eldest uncle and second uncle came to fight over Grandfather's house. In fact, she could have avoided that situation.

When Grandfather was about to pass away, a neighbor reminded her to have Grandfather's will notarized.

What was she thinking back then?

She thought that since the eldest and second uncles both had houses and lived fairly well, they wouldn't fight her for the house. So she didn't bother with those trivial matters.

The consequence was that when they fought over the house, she died.

In the end, the侥幸 psychology and gambling nature deep in her bones were still too strong; even though she deliberately avoided it on many matters, at many decision-making moments this mindset still unconsciously influenced her.

This trip to Five Finger Mountain, despite the crisis when releasing the Monkey King's domain, ultimately turned out well; she paid little price and even gained Five Finger Mountain.

Plus, the rapid rise in cultivation over these past two months gave her the illusion of being a chosen one.

The Buddha's Hand incident was like a blow to the head—she was no chosen one; on the path of cultivation, a single misstep could get her killed.

Staring at the dim, almost illusory image of Zhuque's breathing and visualizing cultivation, Hua Changxi gave a bitter smile—she had wasted two chances of such a life-saving measure.

When the next crisis comes, will Zhuque appear again to save her?

"Fairy, are you all right?"

Shanling and Xiaosong, seeing Hua Changxi lying motionless, grew worried.

Hua Changxi glanced at them, then thought of her inner core, now dim from excessive qi consumption, and felt troubled: "How long was I unconscious?"

Shanling held up three fingers: "Three days and three nights."

Hua Changxi had originally planned to hurry back to Three Forks Medicine Valley, but now it had to be postponed: "I'm fine now. You two go play."

After they left hand in hand, Hua Changxi took out the Fire Spirit Stone Bed from the Shennong Ding, climbed onto it, and began to cultivate.

As soon as her consciousness entered the dantian's qi sea, she stood upon her inner core.

Seeing the black flame burning beneath her inner core, Hua Changxi frowned. She wanted to move the inner core farther from the black flame, but no matter where she guided it, the black flame followed closely, utterly inescapable.

The outer edge of the black flame had already touched the bottom of the inner core. Being burned like this endlessly, she felt something truly terrible would happen.

Especially recalling the uncontrollable urge to destroy when she burned the Buddha's Hand—how that drive, reckless of her own safety, compelled her to annihilate it; that style of combat truly left her terrified in retrospect.

This black flame could control a person's emotions, forcing irrational, extreme actions—it was too frightening.

"What exactly is this black flame?"

Gazing at the black flame, which had grown much larger than when it first entered her qi sea, Hua Changxi felt deeply worried.

If she couldn't shake off the black flame and let her inner core be burned by it like this, or if one day the flame grew bigger and engulfed the core, would she be completely controlled by the black flame?

She had to hurry up on finding the Shura Gate.

Suppressing her urgency, Hua Changxi sank into cultivation, deciding to replenish her consumed qi before returning to Three Forks Medicine Valley; after meeting her family, she would go find the Shura Gate.

Five Finger Mountain was rich in qi, and Hua Changxi absorbed qi quickly. After one night, her inner core became dazzling and radiant again.

Once her qi was restored, Hua Changxi thought of something. Golden light gathered in her hand, and five "卍" characters appeared on the fingers of her right hand.

Concentrating qi in her right hand, she struck toward a nearby hill.

Hua Changxi didn't move her body; she merely raised her right hand, but a palm formed from qi flew out, growing from small to large, and slammed into the hill.

A thunderous "Boom!" and the hill collapsed.

The formidable combat power gave Hua Changxi some comfort. She had nearly lost her life but at least gained the essential dharma of the Buddha's Palm Kingdom. Though she couldn't yet fully refine the five "卍" characters and unleash the full power of the Buddha's Palm Kingdom, she now had another powerful attack method.

"From now on, I must be steady and solid."

Hua Changxi admonished herself again inwardly. Driven by the urgent need to resolve the black flame, she didn't linger long at Five Finger Mountain.

On the nineteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, Hua Changxi, after giving her instructions to Shanling and Xiaosong early, summoned a cloud and flew toward the capital.

Though she hadn't yet mastered the somersault cloud to perfection, her return speed was still several times faster than when she had come using only light-footed techniques.

The moment Hua Changxi left Five Finger Mountain, in An Yang Prefecture, the closest prefecture to the mountain, a guest room in a back courtyard of an inn—Jiang Guanyun, who had been meditating to heal his wounds—immediately opened his eyes.

"Finally out!"

Jiang Guanyun looked at the talisman pendant flashing at his waist, murderous intent surging in his eyes.

That wild girl had become the master of Five Finger Mountain, so he couldn't kill her inside the mountain. Now that she was out, everything would be easier.

Once he killed that wild girl, he would go back to find Shanling and re-refine it; then Five Finger Mountain would be his again.

Jiang Guanyun left his room, summoned his life-bound sword, stepped onto it, and flew into the sky, chasing the flickering light spot on the talisman pendant.

Near the end of the year, Hua Changxi rode her cloud, watching the cities she passed—bustling with people, decorated with lanterns and colorful banners, filled with the cheerful atmosphere of the New Year. She was infected by the festive spirit and grew eager to see her family.

As she approached Dai City, the prefectural seat of Qing Prefecture, Hua Changxi was hesitating whether to go into the city and buy gifts for her family when she suddenly sensed a fluctuation of qi behind her and sharply turned her head.

Turning around, she saw a giant sword, a hundred meters long and formed from spiritual energy, slashing toward her.

Hua Changxi's expression changed, and she drove her cloud aside to dodge.

She avoided the giant sword, but the giant sword slashed toward Daicheng below.

Seeing this, Hua Changxi's right hand manifested a swastika symbol, and just before the giant sword struck Daicheng, she waved her hand, forming a giant hand of spiritual energy, and grabbed the giant sword.

At that moment, the people in Daicheng all saw the giant sword and the giant hand.

The aura of the giant sword was too fierce; even though it hadn't come down, its powerful shockwaves had already knocked down many houses.

The giant hand crushed the giant sword, but before Hua Changxi could flee far from Daicheng, a second sword slashed down.

By then, the people of Daicheng sensed the danger. The originally joyful citizens of Daicheng suddenly became panicked, and in an instant, Daicheng fell into chaos.

Hua Changxi had already recognized that her attacker was the old Daoist who had tried to refine the mountain spirit earlier. Her killing intent surged, and she almost lost control, nearly starting a fight with the old Daoist right over Daicheng.

Fortunately, she still had a shred of rationality. She used her giant hand to crush the giant sword again, then struck the old Daoist with a palm, sending him flying. Afterward, she mounted her cloud to pursue him, leaving Daicheng as quickly as possible.

"What evil fiend dares to cause trouble in Daicheng?!"

Not long after Hua Changxi left on her cloud, more than ten Demon-Suppression Army soldiers wearing qilin masks flew out of the city and hovered in midair, clearly taking up a formation to protect Daicheng.

Chu Junyi watched the two rapidly receding figures with a grave expression. "This world... is about to fall into chaos!"