Chapter 715: Crushing a Stinkbug

In the Underground World of the Tiankeng.

Two colossal Buddha statues stood facing each other.

One Buddha statue was radiant with golden light, its expression ethereal, smiling as it held a flower; it was almost identical to the statue worshipped in the main temple, giving people a sense of brightness, grandeur, and compassion.

The other great Buddha was also a thousand feet tall, draped in a black Buddhist robe, stepping on a Black Lotus, with an underlying sense of the uncanny.

When the Black Lotus Buddha statue appeared, the crowd, who had been deeply shaken by the golden Buddha statue, regained their senses one after another, looking at the scene before them in astonishment, feeling at a loss.

Which Buddha should they worship?

For the monks of the Hanging Temple, the golden Buddha statue resembled the Buddha in their temple, and with the two statues confronting each other, they were naturally more willing to believe in this one.

But for the millions of Herdsmen, the Black Lotus Buddha statue seemed more intimate; this statue was known as the "Wuliang Zhongsheng Fo" and bore a striking resemblance to their leader, Yu Liancheng.

"Evil Demon, reveal your true form at once."

The Black Lotus Buddha statue let out a thunderous shout and struck with a palm.

The Buddha palm was vast and mighty, covering the sky and earth, enveloping the Great Thousand World; a "Swastika" symbol of Buddha light appeared in the palm, and the palm force was powerful and vast, sweeping in all directions, whipping up a violent hurricane between heaven and earth.

If this palm were to land on the ground, it would likely be enough to crush thousands of people to death.

In front of a practitioner who has reached the Leap Five Realms, ordinary humans are simply too fragile.

The golden Buddha statue chanted a Buddha name and similarly pushed out a huge Buddha palm.

Bang!

The two Buddha palms collided like a great clash of heaven and earth; the void trembled, and the entire Underground World shook violently.

Countless people were jolted from the ground into mid-air, only to fall heavily back down, and some even fainted directly, bleeding from their seven orifices.

"This fellow is indeed stronger now that he has a physical body to support him than he was in the Chessboard World," the Black Lotus Buddha statue sighed inwardly.

This Black Lotus Buddha statue was naturally manifested by Yu Liancheng using the "Self Appearance" of the Thirty-Two Appearances.

I am all appearances.

All appearances are me.

This appearance integrated the characteristics of the Tathagata Aspect, Wisdom King Appearance, and Battle Aspect, and could be said to be the strongest appearance.

Executed by the current Yu Liancheng, its power was even more unimaginable.

Yet, the palm strike, which had been unleashed with seventy percent of his true Qi, was easily caught by this golden Buddha statue, making Yu Liancheng's expression grow increasingly serious.

The golden Buddha statue before him was none other than the legendary Buddha who founded the Hanging Temple lineage. After his death, his body transformed into the Hanging Mountain, and he established the Pure Land within the Chessboard, while his soul had always been hiding in the Pure Land.

After Yu Liancheng obtained the Chessboard, he had once suppressed the Buddha within the Pure Land.

However, that was a world created by the Buddha himself; even if Haotian descended, it would be impossible to truly erase the Buddha unless every blade of grass and tree in the Chessboard World were wiped out.

And the Chessboard World was not only a Storage Space but could also accelerate or slow down time; it was a rare treasure, so Yu Liancheng naturally did not want to destroy the Chessboard easily. But if the Buddha were allowed to stay in the Chessboard, it would be a ticking time bomb, and one never knew when it might explode.

Therefore, he had to make the Buddha walk out of the Chessboard World himself to have any possibility of killing him.

It was just that making such a Buddhist master, who was intent on hiding, appear was not an easy task.

But what if he saw the Buddha Kingdom destroyed?

Could the Buddha still remain indifferent then?

Facts proved that he could not.

If Yu Liancheng had not guessed wrong, when he went up the mountain to suppress the Peak Master of Scripture Lectures earlier, the Buddha had already quietly emerged from the Chessboard World and entered his former physical body.

For these past days, the Buddha had been reviving his former physical body.

Until today, at this most critical moment, the Buddha finally achieved Lingrou Heiyi, regained control of his physical body, and appeared in the Underground World.

Had Yu Liancheng not arrived in time, with the Buddha's cultivation, these millions of Herdsmen would have had their minds forcibly twisted by a round of Buddha light, once again becoming nothing more than serfs who only knew how to farm.

"Using demonic arts to perform Buddha dharma and bewitch the masses—you are truly the demon among demons." From the Buddha's thick lips, words as heavy as mountains were spat out, shaking the void.

"Buddha dharma speaks of saving all living beings; why do I only see the saving of the golden body!?"

Yu Liancheng pressed his palms together, a faint smile spilling from the corners of his mouth: "If you were truly the Buddha, you should destroy these bald donkeys who ride on the necks of the masses, rather than using extraordinary means to twist the minds of the masses. Your methods are cruel; you are the demon among demons."

"Born with sin, only by cleansing the soul through labor can one wash away evil and enter the Pure Land after death."

Yu Liancheng and the Buddha engaged in a debate.

But for experts of their level, their wills were incomparably firm and could never be shaken by words.

The Herdsmen and monks below were deeply influenced by the two, one moment feeling that this Buddha made sense, the next feeling that the other Buddha was right. Like grass in the wind, they swayed between the two great Buddhas.

But as the conversation between the two deepened, the Herdsmen and monks took sides one after another, becoming firm and viewing the other party as evil demons and heretics.

"Between you and me, words are already useless."

The Black Lotus Buddha statue opened its palm, and in the center of the palm lay an ordinary-looking Chessboard: "A battle on the Chessboard, do you dare?"

"So be it!" The Buddha transformed into a streak of light and cast himself into the Chessboard.

The Buddha's true body was too massive; if they fought with these bodies, the living beings would be like ants, and the lives affected would be unimaginable, hence they entered the Chessboard World.

"I am going."

Yu Liancheng transformed into a streak of black light and likewise cast himself into the Chessboard World.

The two behemoths disappeared, and the Underground World once again appeared empty, with only a Chessboard still floating in the thousand-foot-high sky.

The crowd below looked at each other, at a loss for what to do.

"My Buddha is merciful." The Peak Master of Scripture Lectures pressed his palms together, emitting a vast Buddha sound: "Monks, hear my order: suppress the sinful people."

The monks were slightly startled, then immediately launched an attack on the serfs.

The two Buddha statues were gone, but on the side of the Hanging Temple, there was now the Peak Master of Scripture Lectures, an expert above the Five Realms, and the scales of victory began to tilt.

"Almost forgot, there is still you old fellow..." In the void, the voice of the Black Lotus Buddha statue rang out.

A giant hand descended from the sky, vast and boundless, its palm lines like huge gullies. The index finger stood upright and crushed down toward the Peak Master of Scripture Lectures.

The powerful aura of the Peak Master of Scripture Lectures surged forth, his whole body emitting bursts of golden light, turning the hundred-foot radius into a golden ocean.

However, it was useless.

This massive finger pierced through layers of Jinguang and pressed down onto the bald head of the Peak Master.

Boundless and infinite power poured down like a celestial river.

The Human Buddha was pressed into the surface of the earth, pressed into the soil...

In the end, where the Peak Master had originally been, there remained only a dark, lightless, bottomless abyss that one could not see the end of at a glance.

In the battlefield where slaughter had just reignited, there was not a sound.

Within the Chessboard World.

Yu Liancheng withdrew his palm, looked at the Buddha, and smiled slightly: "Crushed a bug, let us continue."

After facing the laws directly within the Haotian Divine Kingdom, his strength had already transcended the level of a Heavenly Human, nearing that of a God.