Chapter 607: The Supreme One, The Immeasurable Kalpa

"Good thoughts? Evil thoughts?"

Fozhu blinked, a hint of surprise in his expression; he had not expected this young Daoist to ask such a question.

"What is the meaning of this, benefactor?"

It was not just Fozhu; the others present were also stunned after hearing Ren Yidao's words.

Wasn't it Wunian Buddha Lord who had divided into good and evil thoughts? Had he not already been occupied?

"No special meaning, just a hunch." Ren Yidao shrugged and chuckled, ignoring the gazes of the others, and met Fozhu's eyes calmly.

Even though the death warning from his spiritual intuition was about to explode, his face remained devoid of fear, instead carrying a faint smile as he said, "I am not guessing wildly, but making a deduction based on reason and evidence. Would you like to hear my reasons?"

"I would be glad to hear the details."

"The reason is simple—intuition."

"Intuition?" Yaoyue blinked, feeling that what her disciple said was truly cheating.

This doesn't count as guessing wildly?

Have some shame!

However, Fozhu was not angry; instead, he nodded thoughtfully and said softly, "So it was intuition?"

"Yes, just intuition." Ren Yidao's gaze shifted downward to the shadow beneath Fozhu, "Judging by the shadow at your feet and the feeling you give me, you are similar... both singular and incomplete."

"According to your theory, that means the original Wunian divided himself into good and evil thoughts; the good thought saves people, and the evil thought slays people."

"If it is Wunian's evil thought... then, what about you?"

The atmosphere within the inner space of Spirit Mountain changed at some point; Fozhu's smiling eyes slowly opened, and the shadow beneath him also opened a pair of blood-red eyes, all four eyes staring at Ren Yidao simultaneously.

As the shadow opened its eyes, the surrounding temperature dropped rapidly, but Ren Yidao completely ignored those scarlet eyes, looking back into Fozhu's compassionate eyes, and said calmly, "Your emotions are too calm; there is no fluctuation of feeling whatsoever. Whether it is seeing the heroic sacrifice of the Fozi, witnessing the failure of your own century-long schemes, or even talking about your past, there is no fluctuation in your emotions."

"Even if you put on some cooperative expressions on the surface that can deceive others, you cannot deceive me. I can feel it; your Heart Star has not the slightest fluctuation."

Finally, Ren Yidao gave his conclusion:

"You are incomplete."

There is no one in the world who is only one-sided; everyone is three-dimensional and complex.

There is no one who is evil for the sake of evil, nor anyone who is good for the sake of good; they all have their own reasons, and they all have causes for doing so.

"At this moment, you look like a true Buddha, a compassionate saint who never gets angry, but this is merely an illusion, because you lack the capacity for anger."

Ren Yidao looked at Fozhu and asked softly, "Occupying the position of Fozhu, are you actually the good thought of that nameless Buddha from Feiyun Ravine in the past? Or the evil thought?"

The crowd was silent, seemingly all contemplating the possibility of Ren Yidao's "intuition."

The answer... ninety percent true.

"However, although I say I am asking you, I actually already have the answer in my heart."

While the crowd was thinking, Ren Yidao's firm voice broke the silence:

"If you were the evil thought, you appear too kind at this moment; you have not shown any malice toward us, which does not fit the situation of an evil thought."

"If you were the good thought, what you have done in the Western Desert Divine Continent over these hundred years is definitely not kind. You have caused too many people to die; too many innocent monks have fallen and died miserably because of you."

"Then the only possibility is that you were once both evil and good thoughts in one, but you have now separated the two, leaving only the good thought here to hold the fort."

After speaking, Ren Yidao raised his eyes, looking deeply at Fozhu, who still wore a calm and kind expression, and asked softly:

"Lord Fozhu, am I wrong?"

Good thought?

This is a good thought!?

Jiexing's heart and soul trembled; he could not believe the conclusion Ren Yidao had reached.

You say that this Demon of Demons before us, who can water blood bodhi with essence blood, is actually a good thought?

If, if this is the case, then... then what must His true evil thought look like!?

Jiexing stared fixedly at Fozhu, wanting to use his own defiled eyes to see clearly.

Fozhu looked at Ren Yidao and nodded with a light smile: "You are right, this poor monk is indeed the good thought."

Having said that, He looked deeply at Ren Yidao, as if finally noticing this young Daoist who had not shown anything special since appearing.

After a long while, He suddenly said strangely: "Strange, I seem to have seen you somewhere before? Have we met before?"

"Haha, I, a person of this current age, certainly have never met Lord Fozhu; it is probably just your illusion." Ren Yidao chuckled and shook his head.

He indeed had not met Fozhu, at least not until today; he could be certain of that.

As for whether his future self would meet Fozhu by returning to the past, that was another matter.

Who knows.

The one you are looking for is the future me; what does that have to do with the current me!

Fozhu looked at Ren Yidao's unflinching eyes and nodded slowly, not continuing to press the matter.

"Fozhu, you have actually known about the secret preparations of the Fozi and the others all along, haven't you?"

!!?

Jiexing's pupils trembled slightly; he regained some of his senses and slowly turned toward Fozhu.

"... Heh, you are right, I did indeed vaguely perceive it." Fozhu nodded, admitting it frankly, shattering the last shred of luck in Jiexing's heart.

"Then why not expose it in advance? If you had acted earlier, they likely wouldn't have been able to stir up much trouble."

Even though Jiexing was right beside him, and even though they had already paid a great price for this, making a moving and tragic sacrifice at the cost of their own corruption, Ren Yidao's words still did not leave them much face.

Because this was the truth; even if it was dripping with blood, it was a reality they had to face.

"Because there was no need?"

"Sigh..." Fozhu let out a soft sigh, looking at Jiexing with some regret in his eyes, and said: "It is indeed as you said; even if I let them do as they pleased, it would have had no impact on me."

"... Heh." Jiexing's heart was bleeding silently, and a sob that sounded like both crying and laughing escaped his throat.

At this moment, he felt like an idiot.

That these people were able to survive by the skin of their teeth was actually due to the other party's mercy... What a ridiculous fact this was.

The greatest enemy in their minds was, in truth, the benefactor who had spared them countless times.

"Heh, hehehe..." Jiexing began to laugh, not at others, but at himself.

Sneering at his own ignorance, mocking his own powerless and laughable resistance.

Yet, neither Ren Yidao nor Fozhu, who were in conversation, had any intention of looking down on Jiexing and the others.

The ignorant are not guilty.

Daring to raise a banner of resistance in the midst of danger is all the more worthy of everyone's respect.

"Child, your ideas are actually not wrong; it is just that you have been thinking about one thing incorrectly from the very beginning."

Buddha Bead actually took the initiative to speak, explaining to Jiexing: "I occupied the identity of Wunian, but I never wanted to fight for any opportunity. I woke up hundreds of years early, not to lay out plans in the Earthly Realm in advance, but because I had long since given up on the chance to compete for that final Immortal opportunity."

One wrong step, and every step is wrong.

"What you have done is already quite good."

Listening to Fozhu's praise, blood and tears slowly flowed down from Jiexing's eye sockets, falling onto his upturned mouth, and dripping onto his already deformed body.

Praise from an enemy would not bring him a shred of gratitude; only His death could make them feel comforted.

"You... will... die!" A misshapen roar squeezed out from his trachea, cursing incessantly.

Only His blood was sufficient to console the sacrificed.

Fozhu smiled and shook His head silently, as if mocking his overestimation of his own capabilities, or perhaps silently expressing agreement.

He would die; this matter had become a foregone conclusion the moment He gave up the opportunity.

He would die, but the time had not yet come.

He wanted to take those Buddhas who had long since lost their way, and lead them to fall together, falling into hell forever.

"What does the opportunity the Immortal Gods are waiting for refer to?" Ren Yidao raised an eyebrow and asked with sudden curiosity: "What exactly have they been waiting for since ancient times?"

"What they are waiting for is the chance to become a Supreme."

"A Supreme?" It was not just Ren Yidao who frowned; even Yaoyue furrowed her brows at this moment, as even she had never heard of this title before.

Perhaps the good-natured aspect of Fozhu present here truly had no intention of refusing, or perhaps He felt that Ren Yidao would know this news sooner or later and there was no need to hide it; He did not act like a riddle-maker, but gave a clear and direct answer.

"Immortal Gods are not the end; there is still a realm above the Immortal Gods. When one takes another step from the peak of the Ascension Realm, one will become a Supreme and can cross the Immeasurable Tribulation."

A Supreme?

Immeasurable Tribulation?

These two terms, never heard of before, caused Ren Yidao's expression to change slightly, and he moved his brows, saying: "Wait, is this 'Immeasurable Tribulation' you speak of a concept from Buddhism? Or is it the Heavenly Tribulation of Daoism?"

There is also an Immeasurable Tribulation in Buddhism, but it does not refer to a disaster, but rather a concept of time.

Immeasurable Tribulation, also written as "Tribulation" and abbreviated as "Tribulation," is divided into Great, Medium, and Small, and is a unit of time measurement.

A Small Tribulation is 15,998,000 years, which is nearly 16 million years.

Twenty Small Tribulations make a Medium Tribulation, and four Medium Tribulations make a Great Tribulation; thus, calculated this way, a Great Tribulation specifically lasts 1,279,840,000 years.

But if it were changed to the Daoist Heavenly Tribulation, then...

Fozhu looked at the people before Him peacefully and said softly: "Legend has it that when the era ends, the Immeasurable Tribulation descends, all things are annihilated, and the era restarts; only a Supreme can survive the Immeasurable Tribulation."

Well then.

And it is not just aimed at individuals, but a disaster for the entire world.

"Can a Supreme protect the sentient beings of a region, or can they only survive the Immeasurable Tribulation themselves?"

"No one knows; the Immortal Gods only know of the Supreme, but they do not know more."

"I see." Ren Yidao let out a long sigh, suddenly understanding everything, and shook his head: "So... this means that, no matter what, there must be a Supreme born."

Immortal Gods have jumped out of life and death and will not perish due to lifespan; it is, in a sense, living as long as Heaven and Earth.

But even for existences like them, at the moment when Heaven and Earth truly face annihilation, they cannot be spared and cannot remain aloof.

And those who can become such existences are naturally unwilling to just perish in the face of the disaster.

The longer one lives, the less one is willing to die easily.

"... Are the Immortal Gods all doing this voluntarily?"

"No, the events of that year were an accident. The change in Heaven and Earth came too quickly; the Immortal Gods did not notice, and everyone was forcibly struck down from the firmament, falling to the Earthly Realm and descending to the Half-Immortal realm."

Fozhu felt a bit of emotion when recounting this past, sighing softly: "Heaven and Earth loathed the Immortal Gods, and the strength of the Half-Immortals was greatly suppressed; the power they could exert was not even as good as the Ask Dao Peak."

"For the Immortal Gods, that was an extremely dark time."

"Some died miserably under the siege of mortals, some were assassinated by enemies, some hid to save their lives, and some took the initiative to self-mutilate and drop their realm to preserve their strength while waiting for the arrival of the opportunity."

In the end, they had to admit a tragic fact: under the suppression and even malicious targeting of Heaven and Earth, actively dropping to the Ask Dao Peak was the optimal choice to exert the greatest strength.

If one insisted on staying in the Half-Immortal realm, one would be constantly targeted by Heaven and Earth, and eventually die at the hands of ants one once looked down upon.

Thus, they made their choice, using various methods to suppress themselves, self-mutilate, and go into hiding.

"And within this disaster, it is not without a glimmer of hope."

"All Immortal Gods understand that this situation will not be eternal. After the peak of prosperity comes decline, there must be a cycle again. When the time comes for decline to turn to prosperity, a great opportunity will descend—the opportunity to become a Supreme."

"Back then, the Alliance Leader of the Butian Alliance was the first to discover the truth and wanted to swallow this secret alone, but the news eventually leaked, causing public outrage, and he was finally besieged and killed."

"After that, the Immortal Gods voluntarily disappeared from the Earthly Realm, just so as not to be tainted by worldly Causality, so as not to be affected when competing for the Supreme opportunity in the end."

After Fozhu finished speaking, the space fell into dead silence again, and everyone was digesting this shocking news.

Supreme, Immeasurable Tribulation, the truth behind the disappearance of the Immortal Gods...

"One last question."

A moment later, Ren Yidao was the first to come back to his senses; he stared into Fozhu's deep eyes and asked: "Why are you willing to tell me so much?"

Ren Yidao knew that the other party taking the initiative to say these things was not because He had truly developed a kind heart and was chatting with them, but because He was saying it for him to hear.

"You are very different." Fozhu looked deeply at Ren Yidao and said earnestly: "Perhaps, you might become a Supreme, who knows."

Me?

"Fozhu, you must be joking. My current strength is merely at the Void Refinement stage; what qualifications do I have to contend with an Immortal God?" Even with all his self-confidence, Ren Yidao did not believe at this moment that he would definitely be the biggest winner.

"Hehe..." Fozhu shook his head and smiled, offering no explanation as he slowly rose to his feet.

Then, the Blood Bodhi behind him grew rapidly, its branches stretching out. Within a few breaths, it sprouted blood-colored leaves, bloomed, and quickly withered, finally gathering all the essence of its entire body into a single point to bear a blood-colored Bodhi fruit.

And at the very moment the Blood Bodhi fell, a bell toll rang out from outside Spirit Mountain.

From another Spirit Mountain!