Chapter 570: Hermaphrodite

After so many years of salvation, when initial results were beginning to show, Egret suddenly wanted to eat the Seated Buddha's flesh—something no one could accept.

It wasn't just the shock of "wanting to eat meat" itself; more importantly, it was a wavering of the Buddha-heart.

"Egret is a calamity on my path of cultivation," the Seated Buddha said with difficulty. "It makes me doubt my nearly thousand years of practice."

"If cutting flesh to feed it could guarantee its salvation, I would do it without hesitation, but the problem is no one can guarantee that."

"More crucially, when I hesitate and propose hypotheses, even if I ultimately really cut flesh to feed him, it would be a result of weighing pros and cons, not a spontaneous salvation from the heart—this is not true cultivation."

Hearing the Seated Buddha's description, my mind became perfectly clear.

Egret is too cunning.

Through a psychological game, it directly broke the Seated Buddha's Buddha-heart, step by step luring him into its trap.

"Only by stabilizing the Buddha-heart can I face the impending thousand-year great calamity; whether to cut flesh or not, whether to save Egret or not, is no longer important—I must first save myself, I must enter seclusion."

"But clearly, Egret's purpose has already been achieved; it won't give me time to enter seclusion. Every day it asks me, 'Will you cut flesh to feed it? Will you personally save it to Buddhahood?' Each time it asks, I must re-examine my inner self, struggling and wavering again and again, leading me, on the eve of the thousand-year great calamity's arrival, to finally fall into heart demon, all effort wasted."

The Seated Buddha sighed deeply: "Time and fate—this is my destiny. Though I am versed in Buddhist Dharma and Merit adorns me, I ultimately failed to become a true Buddha. Egret imprisoned me in that nine-story pagoda, training a flock of eagles to peck at my flesh daily, then crying blood as sacrifice to Egret..."

I was greatly shocked, also somewhat puzzled: "It has received so many years of Buddhist Dharma baptism, why is it still so vicious? If it is so vicious, how could it have previously disguised itself so thoroughly?"

That was several decades of time.

The Seated Buddha pondered, then explained: "Later, it endured daily crying-blood sacrifices from the eagle flock, had artisans carve my thigh bone alive into prayer beads, and it also learned my appearance, donning kasaya, sitting high on the Dharma platform, lecturing and performing rites just like me. I think, in those early years, it truly wanted to devote itself to cultivation."

I asked: "Then what was the turning point that caused its downfall?"

"After it attained Buddha-body," the Seated Buddha said, "its true spirit body is a great bird, belonging to a special great demon; when such a great demon cultivates a Buddha-body, it undergoes a once-in-a-lifetime gender split, and it has always wanted to become a Buddha, viewing itself as male."

I was quite surprised, never expecting this, and asked curiously: "Did Egret return to its nature after splitting into a female body?"

Gender split means either male or female.

But I never thought the Seated Buddha would shake his head: "No, it also failed to split into a female body; its gender split is incomplete, stuck in the middle."

"What does 'stuck in the middle' mean?"

The Seated Buddha wanted to speak but stopped, while I only wanted to get to the root.

"Intersex." The Seated Buddha said, "More plainly put, hermaphrodite."

Boom.

The four words "hermaphrodite" directly struck my nerves.

When we originally speculated why Dìshì could infinitely divide, we made many assumptions.

One of the situations we analyzed was whether Dìshì might be hermaphrodite.

Like snails, like yellow eels, etc.

We focused our gaze on Dìshì, but in later contacts we found that this nearly fantastical speculation had no basis, and this idea gradually faded and was forgotten by us.

Yet we never expected to hear those four words "hermaphrodite" again today from the Seated Buddha's mouth!

So, Egret, at the moment of its gender split, failed to differentiate into a definite sex, remained stuck in the middle, becoming hermaphrodite.

Egret and Dìshì are inseparable.

Dìshì did all that for two reasons: one for itself, another more important reason—to completely rid itself of Egret.

Yet throughout his life, he was firmly controlled by Egret, unable to escape even with wings.

"Egret should have developed a heart demon during its gender cognition; an intersex being cannot become a Buddha or god, it feels it is already in hell, thus wants everyone around it to join it in hell."

"Those who fall into heart demon easily give rise to delusions; I, who once wholeheartedly wanted to save it, became the last straw it thought it could grasp—it wants to eat my flesh, drink my blood, carve my thigh bone into prayer beads to wear on its body, it dons my monk's robe, puts on my kasaya, sits high on the platform imitating me, chanting sutras and preaching, thinking that way it can become me..."

How shocking!

Yet it also made me suddenly enlightened.

Egret, at this moment, described from the Seated Buddha's mouth, let me first gain a clear and profound understanding of it.

A delusion, an forever-unattainable yearning, led to a thousand-year-long sinister plot, harming one person after another.

No.

This disaster must still be traced further back.

Must be pushed even earlier.

Pushed back before Egret formed, before those one hundred and eight eminent monks were killed!

The true architect, the one truly responsible for all this, is that usurper!

One general's fame, ten thousand bones withered.

I closed my eyes, calmed my emotions, and continued questioning, after all, this matter has only begun to this point.

I asked: "Then what happened next? Emptiness, Spirit Cat, that great fire—how did that come about?"

"Spirit Cat is a spirit cat."

When mentioning Spirit Cat, the Seated Buddha's face finally showed a smile: "While I was imprisoned in the nine-story pagoda for who knows how many years, it accidentally got trapped inside the tower; I chanted sutras and cast spells, and it stayed by my side; over time, it actually attained enlightenment, its Buddhist affinity far surpassing Egret's, and at that time, Egret's side gained a confidant—this person is Emptiness."

Emptiness appeared that early?

【51 I shook my head: "No, Emptiness shouldn't have appeared after Dìshì, should it?"

I shook my head: "No, emptiness shouldn't appear after Dìshì, should it?"

"Incorrect." The Seated Buddha said, "The Emptiness you know is the Emptiness after undergoing a division and reincarnation; before that, it stayed by Egret's side, in this ancient god temple, already cultivating for many years."

The shock the Seated Buddha brought me continues.

Secrets hidden in the long river of time are actually this numerous.

No wonder the Seated Buddha left so many backups, layer upon layer of Formation Array, finally leaving this last illusory spirit body here, waiting for my arrival.

If we hadn't persisted, we would have been knocked down early by the successive difficulties ahead, unable to reach this moment; these secrets would likely have been completely erased.

The Seated Buddha said: "Emptiness carries half the blood of Japan, he is a spy lurking within my China's Buddhism..."