Chapter 612: 「Buddha」

Just as the Chijiao monk was shocked into silence, the Demon Buddha moved.

He leaped from the mountain peak, his benevolent thoughts following closely behind, and the two merged in the high sky, becoming one.

Boom!

This space trembled, and the already terrifying aura on the Demon Buddha's body surged abruptly, completely breaking through the barrier between immortal and mortal, reaching the level of the Ascension Realm, surpassing the headless Buddha body controlled by Mingxin.

At the same time, the shape of the bloody Spirit Mountain beneath his feet changed instantly, finally transforming into a massive bone-colored Zen staff swirling with scarlet aura, coiled in the middle of the blood clouds; Ren Yidao and the others landed on this staff, looking as tiny as a few small insects.

"Is this the true form of the Supreme Treasure?" Ren Yidao leaped down from it, his eyes widening as he felt the Zen staff that the Spirit Mountain had become.

He had thought that after witnessing the Demon Race Crown Prince control a Supreme Treasure, he understood the power of such treasures, but he hadn't expected that it had only unleashed less than thirty percent!?

This is the Ascension Realm; this is the power of an Immortal God.

After displaying his strength, the Demon Buddha did not stop, striding toward the horizon; his figure was clearly moving rapidly away, yet in the sky, it kept expanding, occupying more than half of the heavens!

Finally, that mountain-like Zen staff was no longer massive, being lifted directly by the giant-like Demon Buddha.

Clatter.

The Zen staff swung, emitting a harsh sound, not like metal, but rather like dried-out skeletons colliding with one another.

Clatter.

"I had already died for Buddhism, but the Heavens took pity and allowed me to awaken from my slumber."

The Demon Buddha's voice echoed between Heaven and Earth, falling into the ears of Ren Yidao and his group, and also into the ears of those monks who had luckily survived.

"I pondered for months: why did I return to life? Why did I not enter the cycle of reincarnation?"

"In the end, I realized it was because I had yet to fulfill the vow I once made."

"And now... I have come to fulfill my vow."

"【I shall save all living beings from disaster; as long as my soul is not extinguished, this vow shall not end!】"

He spoke calmly, his tone devoid of fluctuations, yet it sounded as if tens of thousands of Believers were chanting simultaneously beside him, resounding through the world:

"If an Immortal God wishes to harm mortals, then they should be eliminated without delay."

"If a Buddha bullies all living beings, then one should also destroy the Buddha to protect life."

Even if the physical body is destroyed and enters the cycle of reincarnation, as long as the true spirit remains, this ambition will not be extinguished.

The Demon Buddha, or rather that former Fozi, had truly and surely fallen, walking the path of the Demon.

It was he who led the evil spirits and heretics into Spirit Mountain.

It was he who allowed the path of the Demon to run rampant in the Western Desert.

It was he who used the essence and blood of all living beings to nourish the blood Bodhi.

He used the Western Desert Divine Continent as bait, laying down layers of traps, not caring about the lives of the masses, not caring whether they lived or died.

As long as the final goal could be achieved, a little necessary sacrifice was, in his view, perfectly fine.

Sacrificing the few to save the many—perhaps most people cannot accept this.

But in his eyes, this was a cost-effective choice.

When faced with the trolley problem, the Demon Buddha made his choice decisively.

Trading one for a hundred, or even one for nine.

For the Western Desert, his crimes are too numerous to record; this is something no one can deny.

But if everything could truly proceed according to his plan, and the greatest hidden danger of the Western Desert were cleared, then his merit, likewise, is something no one could deny.

The Demon Buddha, though he has Fallen into Demon, has never truly betrayed the vow he made—to save all living beings from disaster.

He will achieve this goal... just in his own way.

A person of ultimate purity and goodness is also a person without emotion or desire.

Everything he did was not just for a small portion of people, but for all the living beings of the Western Desert.

To cut off karma is not to cut down people; to kill is to protect life.

All of the Demon Buddha's fall, all his disguises, and all the prices he paid were to lure the snake out of its hole.

It was just that he did not expect his disguise to be seen through so easily by someone.

Ren Yidao noticed the Demon Buddha's gaze fall upon him, shrugged, and said innocently: "Don't look at me like that. I could guess the truth partly because I am quite sensitive to these emotions, and partly because you didn't really try to hide it."

Yes, it was not that Ren Yidao could peer into the human heart, but that the Demon Buddha simply hadn't made an effort to hide it.

Perhaps because it was the final stage, the Demon Buddha, holding victory in his grasp, did not take Ren Yidao and his group to heart, regarding them merely as a group of interesting fated people, and perhaps even subconsciously harboring the thought of letting them serve as witnesses.

"Heh." The Demon Buddha chuckled softly, then withdrew his gaze and said: "Fellow Daoist, leave Buddhism to me; the other one is left to you."

"Fine." Ren Yidao agreed crisply, not even asking who the "other one" was.

It didn't matter.

The Demon Race Crown Prince would take action.

Although Mingxin had lost his head, he was still capable of fighting.

"It is only a pity that I did not wait for the Demon God, only for the Demon... If I could send both the Demon and the Demon God to the afterlife, I could completely ensure the Western Desert is safe."

"Oh, you don't need to worry about the Demon Race." Ren Yidao suddenly spoke, causing the Demon Buddha to look sideways; he said earnestly: "With me here, the Demon Race will not be able to turn the world upside down."

If someone without sufficient strength said this, it would be nothing more than an impossible, empty boast.

But if one truly possessed sufficient strength, then it was a promise.

In terms of strength, perhaps he was still a little lacking.

But in terms of qualification, Ren Yidao already had it.

In the name of the Demon Race Crown Prince... no.

In my own name, Ren Yidao.

As long as I am here for one day, the Demon Race will definitely have to behave and listen.

Ren Yidao did not say these words aloud, but he believed the Demon Buddha could understand and could feel his confidence.

Sure enough, after watching for a breath, the Demon Buddha nodded and said, "... Since you say so, Fellow Daoist, then I shall believe you."

Having said that, He stopped wasting time and swung His Zen staff once more.

Clatter.

The next moment, that massive Zen staff was thrown directly out by Him!

Whoosh—

The Zen staff was clearly larger than a mountain, yet its speed was astonishing; in an instant, it reached the edge of the sky and slammed into the seemingly empty air, appearing to shatter the sky itself.

Boom!!!

In an instant, the sounds of the world seemed to vanish.

Great music is soundless.

One could only see the earth shattering violently and a massive hole being blasted open in the sky.

And right behind that hole in the sky, a monster as tall as the Demon Buddha was revealed.

Glancing from afar, it was a golden, radiant Great Buddha.

But if one approached for a closer look, the monster only resembled one in spirit; upon careful inspection, there was not a single part of it that resembled a Buddha.

It had eight arms and four legs, its skin covered in scales, and each limb seemed to come from a different animal; at the same time, every arm held a weapon made of distorted flesh.

Most bizarre of all was that the monster had no face; its entire face was a circular, gaping maw, and inside the mouth were tens of thousands of sharp, ferocious teeth, each tooth bearing several twisted faces.

Roar!

Accompanied by the monster's roar, the faces on its teeth hissed in unison, glaring at the Demon Buddha.

"What kind of ghost thing is that? An Immortal God?"

Ren Yidao frowned, feeling as though his sanity had been subjected to several rounds of forced testing, and he was on the verge of breaking down and sprouting small tentacles.

Ren Yidao's nose twitched, and then his pupils suddenly constricted, his heart and mind shaken violently.

!!?

After that monster appeared, he faintly smelled a familiar scent.

As a cultivator of the Incense Divine Dao, he could not mistake this scent... it was the scent of Incense!

And it was a vast amount of Incense, so thick it was beyond measure, something the little bit of Incense on his own body could not compare to at all.

It came from the accumulation of thousands of years across the entire Western Desert, the Incense belonging to Buddhism!

"Wait, could it really be... a Buddha?"

Ren Yidao's eyes narrowed; he somewhat understood what the Demon Buddha was plotting, and why He would spare no cost to drag this Buddha into the Earthly Realm.

That monster was a Buddha.

More accurately, it was a Buddha completely backlashed by Incense, the embodiment of the concept of "Buddha" for the entire Western Desert Divine Continent.

And now, anyone with eyes could see that this conceptual Incarnation had been thoroughly corrupted and twisted.

"To twist the image of a deity by corrupting the faith of the masses, and even destroying His foundation... truly ruthless."

Incense as Poison.

Ren Yidao had long been clear on this fact, and he had early on transferred all those messy Incense beliefs onto the Dao God, which could be considered avoiding this layer of risk.

Yet even so, when seeing the final form twisted by Incense with his own eyes, he was still speechless for a moment, even feeling a chill run down his back.

It seemed as if someone was whispering in his ear:

Look, that is your original end.

If he hadn't been clever and decisive enough to cut off his connection with mortals early on, he might one day end up in this state as well.

Ren Yidao was silent for a good while, then exhaled a breath of turbid air and remarked with emotion: "How thrilling!"

Truly fucking thrilling!

It was like watching a car crash compilation.

Roar!!!

The monster let out a roar, then crawled out from the hole in the sky, falling like a meteor and smashing heavily into the ground.

Boom!

The earth cracked, creating a massive crater, but it didn't care at all, quickly crawling out from within and twitching its nose... if it had a nose.

【"Bodhi..."】

【"Bodhi..."】

The monster roared, its faceless head turning toward the Demon Buddha, while fissures split open across the center of its chest, transforming into countless scarlet eyes.

【"I smell the scent of Bodhi!"】

【"The Bodhi Treasure Tree is the Supreme Treasure of my Buddhism!"】

The monk Chijiao was stunned and was just about to hide the Bodhi seed, only to find it was no longer on his person.

!!?

The Demon Buddha's expression was calm, unsurprised by the monster's appearance, and He took out the Bodhi seed, "Are you talking about this?"

He had cultivated the Blood Bodhi precisely to lure it out; it was just that an accident had occurred at the end, but with the real Bodhi seed, there was no need to prepare a fake one anymore.

【"Hand it over!"】 The monster grew excited and charged toward the Demon Buddha, its aura not the least bit inferior to the Demon Buddha's!

【"I told you to hand it over!!!"】

Roar!!!

The monster charged with a violent momentum, but the next moment it was knocked straight back by a strike from the Demon Buddha's Zen staff, smashing heavily back into the large crater.

Clatter!

The monster surged up, lashing out with weapons from its eight arms, but was knocked flying again the next moment.

The Demon Buddha's killing intent erupted, His blood-colored aura surging to the heavens, His strikes cold and sharp, yet His expression remained very calm as He struck and said, "You are the source of all distortion; as long as you are destroyed, everything will end."

Dong!

Ren Yidao watched the Demon Buddha strike the "Buddha" and gradually move away, sighing: "That caused quite a stir! He is determined to attract everyone's attention and shoulder all the Evil upon himself."

Once such a great commotion was stirred up in the Western Desert, it would naturally invite the prying eyes of others; those awakened Immortal Gods had long been observing in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity to get a share of the spoils.

This is the dormant period for the Immortal Gods, and everyone is hiding cautiously, so why are you the only one acting so recklessly?

As for the Demon Buddha, the Immortal Gods do not know his origins, so they naturally regard him as a brainless idiot.

However, I am afraid no one expected that it would turn out to be such a one-sided crushing situation.

The Demon Buddha originates from "Buddha," so logically he should be naturally restrained by it, possessing a natural disadvantage with no power to fight back.

And in fact, he is indeed being suppressed and beaten.

It is just that it is the Demon Buddha suppressing and beating the "Buddha"; he used his terrifying strength to directly shatter everyone's illusions.

Where did this monster come from!?

Furthermore, why would he do this at this timing?

Isn't this handing over the final opportunity on a silver platter?

The Immortal Gods do not know, the Demon Buddha will not explain, and the only insiders, Ren Yidao and his companions, will not speak nonsense either.

Only the "Buddha" is getting beaten up.

?

Why?

Why am I being suppressed and beaten by him?

Why is this happening!?

Roar!?

The monster roared, but its head was blown apart by the Demon Buddha with a single strike of his Zen staff.

The fight between the two giants looked plain and simple, without any flashy moves.

At their level, all laws are internalized within the body, and every movement contains the power of laws.

Bang!

It fell backward, but the next moment four arms grabbed the Zen staff, while the other four reached toward the Demon Buddha.

The Demon Buddha simply let go of the Zen staff and smashed his fists directly into the monster's arms, blowing them apart.

Bang bang bang bang!

Roar!!!

"It seems everything is going smoothly over there." Ren Yidao withdrew his gaze and said to Yao Yue: "Then we cannot drop the ball on our end either."

"Is it finally my turn?" After witnessing the Demon Buddha's strike, Yao Yue did not feel inferior; instead, it stirred up her interest. She became excited, rubbing her hands together, eager to charge in directly. "Tell me quickly! Where is the other one?"

As a woman who has been able to fight for two lifetimes, she has never been afraid of a brawl.

Aren't they just Immortal Gods?

Just beat them up, that's all!

Besides, that Spirit Mountain is a Supreme Treasure, and our family's Divine Path Bell is also a Supreme Treasure; what is the difference!

However, Ren Yidao did not let her make a move, but instead turned to look at Mingxin, especially at the neck where the cross-section looked fresh.

"Mingxin, do as I say."

【"Okay."】 Mingxin did not hesitate and threw a punch toward the spot Ren Yidao pointed out.

Even though it looked like a light, airy punch, the commotion it caused was no smaller than what the Demon Buddha had made earlier!

Boom boom boom!!!

Accompanied by wind and thunder erupting from the flat ground, a massive Dharma image as tall as Heaven suddenly appeared, looking down at the people at its feet, and roared in fury: "Audacious!? How dare you show disrespect to an Immortal! What are you trying to do!?"

This was the second big fish to take the bait, a Human Immortal.

The opponent's aura was astonishing, but Ren Yidao was not afraid; instead, he smiled slightly at the furious Immortal who had appeared and teased:

"What are we trying to do? Can't you guess?"

"If you can't guess... why are you afraid?"