Chapter 569: And then what happened?

I understand in my heart, this should be the legendary Three Bodies Buddha.

The true spiritual forms of the Dharma Body Buddha, the Reward Body Buddha, and the Response Body Buddha.

And directly behind them, A Cheng sat cross-legged, also with his eyes closed, forming hand seals, his lips constantly moving.

It's obvious that I can see all of this before me, and it's all thanks to A Cheng.

After his head and body connected, he awakened even more of the ancient shamanic arts belonging to his lineage.

Around them, in the four directions, the four spiritual forms of yellow, white, gray, and black still remain.

And further out, there is a formation array.

I don't know what kind of formation array this is; my gaze extends beyond it, looking farther away.

I saw a river.

The river channel is very wide, and the river water is black.

The flowing river water resembles a dragon, surging toward the distance.

On both banks of the river, countless heads and souls wander, wail, and struggle……

As far as the eye can see, I saw a boat.

The boat is huge, lying across the middle of the river, almost cutting off the entire river's flow.

A man stands on the boat, his hands braced on the tops of the oars, like a mountain, unmoving.

Many souls along the river seem to hate that boat and the man on it intensely, yet they also desperately crave to climb aboard.

But strangely, as soon as they approach the boat, a force drives them back.

At the same time, the boat's hull is being eroded.

Just as I was watching all this, two familiar figures suddenly appeared out of thin air at the riverbank.

One is the Seven Halls Yama.

The other is actually Yu Nian!

At the moment I saw the Seven Halls Yama, I finally realized why my line of sight behind the boat was cut off.

Because behind that boat, it's all netherworld armored soldiers!

Yu Nian's emotions seemed very agitated; as soon as she appeared at the riverbank, she wanted to rush toward that boat.

But the murmuring souls blocked her path; the next moment, she suddenly unfurled the Thousand Soul Banner in her hand, formed seals and chanted, actually beginning to collect souls.

I felt as if I were dreaming.

A fantastical dream fabricated by A Cheng for me.

But……

Meow.

The Mysterious Cat's cry suddenly rang out, jerking my gaze back, once again falling upon the seated Buddha behind Xingchen.

I actually saw the Mysterious Cat hovering above the seated Buddha, the scripture fragments hidden in its spinal bone beads fully unfurled, covering the Buddha's body.

At this moment, the seated Buddha's entire body is covered by countless scriptural characters.

Under the empowerment of these scriptural mana, the seated Buddha opened its eyes.

I don't know why, but when my gaze met the seated Buddha's eyes, filled with compassion, my nose tingled and I involuntarily wanted to cry.

I knelt down and devoutly bowed before the seated Buddha.

Then I sat cross-legged in front of Xingchen, no longer paying attention to everything around.

I know that A Cheng, the Mysterious Cat, Xingchen, and the Four Blessings Immortals all exerted themselves simultaneously, using the formation array, just to make the seated Buddha appear, open its eyes, and speak.

And he should be the only person in this world capable of dispelling my doubts and enlightening me.

Their persistence won't last long; I must seize every moment.

I decisively asked: "Blood-and-Flesh Guanyin, Mingtai Evil Wolf, Snake-eating Bird—are these the man-eating birds, traitor birds raised from blood and flesh?"

I am convinced that all of this is related to the three-foot-three-tall Guanyin statue forged from blood mud by the little Japanese back then, but I also have doubts—the timing doesn't match.

The little Japanese were driven out of China, and not much time has passed since.

But the appearance of the Snake-eating Bird dates back many, many years earlier.

I take this as a lead to investigate the truth.

The seated Buddha indeed spoke: "The Snake-eating Bird... appeared a thousand years ago."

"Every dynastic transition is, more or less, accompanied by bloody slaughter and countless hidden, shameful tactics unfit to be shown to outsiders."

"Back then, the one hundred and eight most eminent monks of the entire country were gathered by various means—such as discussing Buddhist Dharma—into this Ancient God Temple, where they were imprisoned and intimidated; under various means, the one hundred and eight monks formed an array, forcibly seizing the heavenly mandate, infusing it into themselves, to help this person seize great power.

"After this, all the monks suffered heavenly retribution; while they remained in seclusion practicing in the Ancient God Temple, a great fire quietly arrived."

I was stunned, unable to believe my own ears.

As it turns out, that great fire was ignited in this way.

"The entire Ancient God Temple was sealed off; the one hundred and eight monks, in the sea of fire, had their chests and dantians cut open, and one hundred and eight relics were forcibly dug out and taken away; while they struggled, shouted, and begged for mercy in the fire sea, they ultimately perished in the flames, their resentment deep."

"They were themselves enlightened monks, versed in Buddhism and salvation; thus, at the time, no one had the ability to dispel their resentful qi. Later, the one who gained power, upon someone's suggestion, built a nine-story pagoda in the Ancient God Temple, inlaid those one hundred and eight relics within it, and, with formation array support, completely suppressed that resentful qi."

"But no one expected that the suppressed resentful qi would gradually condense at the base of the pagoda, eventually nurturing an egg, which quietly hatched into a bird."

"When this bird broke out of the nine-story pagoda, it was exactly the first day of the eighth lunar month, when migratory birds fly south; it kills any bird it sees, devouring blood and flesh and resentful qi, continually strengthening itself."

"Afterward, it killed beasts, killed people, killed spiritual objects……"

As it turns out, the legend of the Snake-eating Bird is not a myth but an intensified version of reality.

"When I encountered it, it had already cultivated from a mass of resentful qi into a fledgling form—a large bird entirely jet-black except for a tuft of white hair on its forehead, with crimson eyes, a hooked beak with reverse barbs, and a murderous aura all over."

"I recited and lectured sutras for it every day, bringing it to witness all the beauty and suffering of this world; it went from unrestrained slaughter at first, to later eating vegetarian and chanting Buddha, and then to later rescuing the suffering."

"Its transformation was evident to all; it also gradually cultivated a Buddha body, and even over a span of ten or more years, it walked the world alone, saving all beings, never making a mistake."

I listened silently throughout, so shocked that I even forgot to breathe.

When I heard this, I still found it unbelievable.

I couldn't believe that the bird had also experienced wandering the world.

Had it also once saved all beings?

I opened my mouth, wanting to refute, wanting to ask.

But in the end, I still chose silence and continued listening.

The Sitting Buddha seemed moved as well when speaking to this point, his voice tightening, as if he had thought of something, and his emotions became unstable: "I thought I had successfully converted it, but I never expected that, when it returned from wandering the world and Merit was added to it, it asked me, Master, the Buddha cut his flesh to feed the eagle, the Buddha became the Buddha, are you also willing to cut your flesh to feed me, to convert me so that I may truly ascend to Buddhahood?"

My heart clenched tightly, and my mind went instantly blank.

I never imagined that things would develop so suddenly and take a sharp turn for the worse.

Obviously, the Sitting Buddha before me hadn't expected that either.

I finally couldn't help but ask: "And then what...?"