Chapter 611: The Soul Has Not Perished, and This Vow Shall Not End!

The headless body shot into the sky, smashing through the dome inside Spirit Mountain, and surged into the clouds with an earth-shattering momentum.

Its movements were without the slightest obstruction.

The laws were all under its command.

Although there was no Dharma Power within this headless Buddha body, its mere existence was enough to transcend many rules.

Every move it made could cause space to distort.

Every thought it had could turn laws into reality.

Powerful.

Unprecedentedly powerful.

Although the Demon Buddha's past life had perished, someone had preserved His body through special means, fusing all of His Dharma Power into the physical form.

This was the body of a Buddha, and the body of the most powerful Buddha at that; even if it only possessed the capabilities of a physical body at this moment... the power it could erupt with had already broken through the limitations of heaven and earth, truly reaching the Ascension Realm!

In an era where Immortal Gods do not appear, this represented the most powerful combat strength between heaven and earth.

As a small cultivator who had once not even crossed the Heaven Realm, and had only just stepped into the Earth Realm, this powerful strength left Mingxin somewhat at a loss.

But Mingxin only hesitated for an instant; the next moment, he understood what he had to do right now.

The headless Buddha body stepped into the void, erupting with millions of rays of Buddha light that illuminated heaven and earth, its power far exceeding the Buddha light that had previously rained down upon Spirit Mountain!

【"In the name of Mingxin, all living beings here, welcome judgment."】

Mingxin's voice, revealing a trace of stern killing intent amidst its calmness, echoed between heaven and earth, falling into the ears of every living creature present.

Judgment had arrived.

Those demon monks had originally taken advantage of the Chijiao monk charging up the Demon Mountain to flee, with the furthest having already escaped the confines of Spirit Mountain, but at this moment, they were pursued by the countless rays of Buddha light erupting from the headless Buddha body.

The moment the Buddha light made contact with them, it turned into lotus-shaped flames, rapidly swallowing them whole.

"Ah!!"

"No, no! I am willing to repent! Ah—"

"We know we were wrong! Lord Fozhu! We know we were wrong!"

"My Lord! I truly know I was wrong!"

"Ah ah ah ah ah!"

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

The golden flames ignited upon their bodies rapidly burned them to nothing, leaving behind charred corpses scorched to ash.

These charred remains still maintained the final postures they held in life; some were kneeling and kowtowing, some were rolling on the ground, and some were attempting to flee...

But no matter what efforts they made, what awaited them in the end was a judgment delayed for many years.

In this world, justice may be late, but it will never be absent.

Furthermore, there was a distinction in the flames burning on their bodies; it was not indiscriminate destruction, but rather using the demon monks' own karmic obstacles as fuel.

The more karmic obstacles, the fiercer the flames.

The fewer karmic obstacles, the weaker the flames.

Using the sins committed by these demon monks themselves to judge them—perhaps this could also be considered a form of compassion.

Although fewer than one in a hundred remained, there were indeed demon monks who luckily survived.

Some demon monks with low strength, although burned half to death by the Buddha flames, had the flames on their bodies extinguish after their karmic obstacles were burned away, ultimately surviving.

They looked up in awe at the tall figure bathed in Buddha light in the sky, that headless Buddha.

"A headless Buddha, what kind of Buddha is that!?"

"Who exactly is He!?"

No one could answer this question for them.

Let alone Ren Yidao, even Mingxin himself did not know what kind of state he was in at this moment.

Was it he who controlled the headless Buddha body, or had the headless Buddha body become him?

Was He using me to be reborn? Or was I borrowing His power?

At this moment, the two reached a special state of "You are in me, and I am in you."

After finishing the judgment of the sinners, Mingxin turned toward the horizon and "looked" at the bloody Spirit Mountain in the sky.

He stepped upward, controlling the headless body to fly toward that Demon Mountain of bones and blood.

The Demon Buddha looked at the headless body with great surprise, a moment of obvious bewilderment appearing.

That body...

Why does it look so familiar?

Is it my imagination?

Why do I feel like that seems to be my body...

My body has come back from the dead to crusade against me?

Uh... no, that's not right, someone has occupied my body.

So, you occupied my body, and now you want to use it to deal with me?

But a great power like the Demon Buddha had ultimately seen too much, with experience far beyond anyone present; after a moment of hesitation, He discovered the truth, seeing through the essence that even Mingxin did not understand at a single glance.

The Blood Bodhi He had spent a huge price to cultivate had already been fused by him into His own past remains.

Relying on the rebirth power of that Blood Bodhi, he had successfully activated the incomplete physical body of the past life and obtained immense power.

However, when facing this thief who had stolen the fruits of His labor, the Demon Buddha's reaction was very calm; He merely glanced at it once, withdrew His gaze, and continued to look at the Chijiao monk before Him.

He calmly stared at the nervous-looking Chijiao and asked softly: "World-Honored One, is the Bodhi Seed on you?"

At the very moment the Blood Bodhi appeared, the Bodhi seed hidden on the monk Chijiao resonated uncontrollably; that instantaneous leak of aura could never be hidden from the Demon Buddha, especially given how close the distance between the two was.

"... Yes." The monk Chijiao was silent for a moment, not hiding it, and said in a deep voice: "I brought it out from Zhongzhou and have been searching for the Fozi it recognizes."

Searching for you after your reincarnation... Such words, Chijiao could not bring himself to say at this moment.

But even if Chijiao did not say it, the Demon Buddha understood, especially when seeing the look of disappointment in the World-Honored One's eyes; everything had long since been seen through.

Thus, He asked: "It seems the newly born one did not choose the me of this world?"

"That is correct."

Chijiao nodded and took out the Bodhi seed, displaying it before the Demon Buddha; it had no connection to Him, but instead kept echoing with the headless Buddha body.

Compared to the current Demon Buddha, the Bodhi seed preferred the dead Fozi of the past.

"I see..." Seeing this scene, the Demon Buddha seemed somewhat melancholy, shook His head with a soft sigh, and muttered to Himself: "Does even it think I am wrong?"

"Then am I wrong?"

"No... I am not wrong."

"Buddhism must be destroyed."

Even though denied by the Bodhi Treasure Tree, the Demon Buddha's Dao Heart had never changed.

Having already walked to this step, He would not hesitate because of such a small matter, and it was even less possible for Him to doubt Himself.

Whether it is becoming a Demon through obsession or letting go to be at ease, it no longer matters.

The only thing that matters is destroying Buddhism.

"World-Honored One, whether you think this is my obsession or my extremism, the matter of destroying Buddhism is something I will definitely do." The Demon Buddha looked at the monk Chijiao, who had a solemn expression and sad eyes, and reached out toward the Bodhi seed, "Hand it to me."

To this, Chijiao took a deep breath and looked at the Demon Buddha firmly.

"If you want it, you have to come and take it yourself! That... you wouldn't really say that, would you?" Before Chijiao could speak, a playful voice spoke for Him.

"What!?" Chijiao was surprised; although He had indeed thought that, He did not expect someone to actually guess what he wanted to say.

After He turned his head and saw the person clearly, his expression became even more surprised; He did not expect that the person He had chased from Zhongzhou to the Western Desert and searched for so long without finding would actually appear before Him of his own accord.

Having searched for him a thousand times in the crowd, suddenly looking back, that person was there, in the dim light.

"You..."

"Yo, we meet again." Ren Yidao smiled and greeted the burly monk who was like a little giant, "But let's save the reminiscing for later; there are more important things right now."

Although Chijiao really wanted to ask why he had refused his contact several times before, He understood the priorities and, after nodding, looked at the Demon Buddha again.

With reinforcements, the pressure on Him was much less.

Although this little Daoist friend's strength was not strong, the girl beside him was quite strong, almost reaching the level of an alternative attainment of the Dao.

Plus that headless Buddha body, with the three of them joining forces, even if they couldn't defeat Him, it should be enough to protect themselves before the Demon Buddha.

And compared to the battle-ready monk Chijiao, the posture Ren Yidao displayed was extremely relaxed; he turned his head and greeted the Demon Buddha with a grin: "Yo! Fozhu, this place of yours is not bad... oh, perhaps I should call you Demon Buddha?"

"Daoist friend, feel free." The Demon Buddha shook His head, not minding Ren Yidao's frivolous attitude, "It is just a form of address."

"Oh, then I'll still call you Fozhu; I'm used to calling you that."

The Demon Buddha had long noticed their approach, even tacitly allowing their arrival, and had taken the initiative to withdraw the skeletal Buddha statues all over Spirit Mountain, allowing them to reach this place unimpeded.

The Demon Buddha's good thoughts now stood beside the evil thoughts, standing shoulder to shoulder with Him like a pair of twins.

The Demon Buddha looked at Mingxin, who was controlling the headless Buddha body, and asked: "Why not strike? Relying on my past life's body, you are enough to pose a threat to me."

Why are you just watching?

Mingxin was arguably the strongest among them at this moment, yet he still humbly stood one step behind Ren Yidao, clasped his hands in a salute to the Demon Buddha, and said: 【"The Fozhu's intent does not contradict what this disciple desires."】

The Fozhu wanted to destroy Buddhism, which included the destruction of everything related to Buddhism in the Western Desert Divine Continent, directly wiping out a generation.

And Mingxin's wish was also to destroy Buddhism, but it was not as extreme as the Demon Buddha's; he only intended to eliminate the source of chaos that was Buddhism, while sparing the innocent Believers and finding a new spiritual reliance for them.

Mingxin believed that there must be a point of balance between the two.

"Um, can I say something?" Ren Yidao raised his hand at this time and said with a grin: "Everyone is so familiar with each other, can we just get to the point and stop acting?"

"... Why does Daoist friend think so?" The Demon Buddha raised an eyebrow and looked at the youth curiously.

"You told me yourself." Ren Yidao shrugged, his gaze sweeping repeatedly over the good-thought Fozhu and the evil-thought Demon Buddha.

"'We are not enemies.' Didn't you say that yourself?"

"Moreover, in reality, there is no distinction between good thoughts and evil thoughts at all; I don't believe a problem that a 'no-thought' state cannot solve could trap a true Buddha." Ren Yidao secretly curled his lip, feeling his intelligence had been insulted.

It was one thing to play along with your act before, but do you really think I have no brain?

And from the very beginning, the Fozhu had been acting too friendly and had never revealed any malice.

Telling them stories, letting them ask questions, telling them secrets, not fighting back when hit... although the killing intent never diminished, the Fozhu had never taken any action; He was restraining Himself.

The reasons Ren Yidao gave were not false, but they were only a part; the real reason was that he could no longer feel that intense killing intent.

The moment Mingxin took control of the headless Buddha body, the Demon Buddha's thoughts had already shifted; He no longer regarded them as enemies.

Because they would no longer obstruct His plan.

Ren Yidao blinked at the Demon Buddha and smiled: "Everyone here is a smart person; we might as well speak directly."

Smart people? Speak directly?

"... Hmm?" Chijiao was confused at this moment, not knowing what Ren Yidao was talking about, but He did not show it; He kept a straight face, as if He truly agreed with his words.

It doesn't matter if you don't understand; just pretending to understand is enough.

"Lord Fozhu has played such a big game of chess and set up such a large formation; surely you are fishing for a big fish, not us little shrimp who suddenly popped up, right?"

The Demon Buddha was silent and did not refute.

Seeing the Demon Buddha silent, Ren Yidao knew his guess was correct and continued: "Besides, if Lord Fozhu really only wanted to slaughter the sentient beings of the Western Desert, you could have done it long ago; why wait until today? Just to wait for the Blood Bodhi to ripen?"

"If you were truly cruel enough, wouldn't it be faster to just slaughter the sentient beings and refine their essence and blood?"

If you could have done it, you would have done it long ago; why would you need to wait until today?

"So, what you are waiting for is actually not us, but some guys who will only show their heads at this moment."

Ren Yidao's smile gradually turned playful, his gaze sweeping across the horizon as he chuckled, "Using the entire Western Desert as bait just to fish for a few big catches—you truly have a grand strategy, Your Excellency! However, if they do not appear, are you not afraid of the backlash?"

"If they do not take the bait, it is naturally my own fault, and I shall bear the backlash myself. But based on my understanding of them, that is an impossibility." The Demon Buddha shook his head, a dangerous curve appearing at the corner of his mouth as his gaze also fell toward the horizon, and he nodded, "Although there are only two, it is enough to close the net."

Close the net?

What on earth is this closing the net!!?

The Demon Buddha seemed to sense Chijiao's confusion; he turned his head to shake it at him and sighed, "World-Honored One, it has been so many years, yet you are still this impatient."

Saying it again!?

!!?

The monk Chijiao's eyes widened; he was somewhat muddled and began to lose track of the situation on the field.

They were just about to fight, so how had they already become a united front at this moment!?

Huh?

What exactly did I miss?

However, the attitudes of Ren Yidao and the Demon Buddha made Chijiao realize something, and he hurriedly pressed, "You, you haven't fallen!?"

"No, I have already fallen." The Demon Buddha chuckled and shook his head, his pitch-black eyes calm, brewing with endless ferocity and malice, "But I have not yet forgotten the vow I made when I first studied under the World-Honored One all those years ago."

A vow!?

Back then, he was just a little Novice Monk abandoned by the river, picked up and raised single-handedly by Chijiao.

On the day he officially became a disciple, that little Novice Monk not only overreached himself by making the Eight Great Vows, such as "Sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them" and "Afflictions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them," but beyond that, he had also made one separate vow.

Even though thousands of years of time had drifted away like smoke, Chijiao still remembered the determination in the Novice Monk's eyes that day.

He had made the vow in a childish voice:

"I shall save all living beings from calamity; as long as my soul is not extinguished, this vow shall not cease!"

Even if betrayed by others, even if sacrificed once for Buddhism, even if his body was no more, even if only a remnant soul remained to linger in this world... he still had not forgotten his vow.

As long as the soul is not extinguished, this vow shall not cease!