Chapter 191: Demon Buddha Avatar
Wang Shouzhi shook his head violently, then fixed his gaze on the ground—the monk's shadow was clearly dragging normally behind him, where was any skeleton? He vigorously rubbed his bloodshot eyes, a hoarse voice squeezing from his throat: "I... I'm seeing things?"
Monk Miao Si smiled compassionately, the moonlight coating his smooth bald head with a silver glow: "Benefactor, your mind is greatly disturbed, it is only natural to have hallucinations."
"Hallucinations?" Wang Shouzhi suddenly erupted, his blood-stained hands grabbing the monk's collar, "Was that bowl of poisoned tea also a hallucination?! Is the black blood on my mother's corpse also a hallucination?!" His nails dug deep into his palms, fresh blood dripping through his fingers onto the monk's snow-white kasaya, blooming into dazzling red plum blossoms.
The monk neither dodged nor flinched, instead reaching out to stroke his twisted face. That hand was as cool as jade, instantly freezing Wang Shouzhi's violent emotions.
"Do you know the story of the Buddha cutting his flesh to feed the eagle?" Miao Si's voice suddenly became ethereal, each word striking Wang Shouzhi's very soul, "To save a dove, willingly cutting away all flesh and blood—this is true great compassion."
Wang Shouzhi staggered back: "You... what do you mean?"
"Your mother's life," the monk suddenly approached, a strange golden light flashing in his pupils, "what did it exchange for?" He violently tore open Wang Shouzhi's robe, revealing the enchanting lotus brand on his shoulder, "It exchanged for the awakening of the chosen one!"
The night wind suddenly stopped. Wang Shouzhi suddenly heard the sound of his own blood rushing, that brand was growing hot, so hot it made his internal organs tremble.
"You... are you saying..." his teeth began to chatter, "My mother's death... was... was necessary?"
"Not only necessary, but a meritorious deed." Miao Si put his hands together, a phantom Buddha light actually appearing behind his head, "The Buddha said: 'If I do not enter hell, who will?' Your mother sacrificed herself to fulfill the great cause and has already reached the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss."
As he spoke, he suddenly formed a hand seal, a golden light striking Wang Shouzhi's brow!
"Ah—" Wang Shouzhi fell to his knees, feeling as if thousands of red-hot steel needles were moving through his meridians. The spiritual energy that had been dormant in his dantian for years suddenly boiled, and as his qi sea churned, he clearly heard a "crack" sound—the bottleneck of the Profound Connection Realm shattered!
"This... this is impossible..." he looked at his hands in horror, a faint golden spiritual energy flowing beneath his skin, every bone emitting a clear sound like jade stones colliding. In the center of his qi sea, endless true essence was condensing and expanding at a visible speed...
"Origin Return Realm..." Wang Shouzhi trembled all over. He remembered his master had only barely touched the threshold of Origin Return after a hundred years of seclusion, yet he himself... in a single breath, had achieved it on the spot!
Miao Si's voice suddenly became incomparably grand: "Do you see? This is the Mandate of Heaven!"
As his voice fell, Wang Shouzhi's spiritual consciousness violently exploded, transforming into a nebula-like vortex—precisely the sign of entering the Origin Return Realm!
"You have been chosen, child." The monk's tone suddenly softened, as if coaxing a lost child, "Three years from now, there will be a great calamity in heaven and earth. Only those who have experienced the pain of losing loved ones can wield the key to salvation."
Wang Shouzhi's pupils began to dilate. He saw countless scenes flashing before his eyes: his mother's gratified smile before her death, his own strange calm when serving the tea, and... and the high monk in his dreams constantly repeating "This is true compassion."
"I... I am really..." his voice became ethereal, the sense of power from his soaring cultivation washing away his reason.
Miao Si suddenly pressed his hand on Wang Shouzhi's crown, a string of golden Sanskrit characters flowing from his fingertips: "Remember, to kill one to save ten thousand is the heart of a bodhisattva; to kill loved ones to save the common people is the realm of a Buddha."
Wang Shouzhi's struggle gradually weakened. He vaguely saw his mother standing in the clouds, smiling at him, while the monk's bewitching words echoed in his ears: "Do you hear? She is proud of you in the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss..."
Amidst the cries of night owls, Wang Shouzhi suddenly erupted with a blinding golden light. When the light dissipated, a lotus-shaped golden mark appeared on his forehead, the pain and confusion in his eyes replaced by an eerie calm.
"I understand." He slowly rose to his feet, the pressure of the Origin Return Realm causing the surrounding tombstones to crack, "My mother's death... was worth it."
Miao Si smiled with relief.
Under the moonlight, his shadow suddenly split into countless twisted human figures, then returned to normal in an instant.
But this time, Wang Shouzhi did not see it—he was infatuated with the surging power within his body, the corners of his mouth lifting into an arc that was both like crying and like laughing.
But just at this moment—
"Demonic words to delude the masses!"
A cold shout exploded like thunder, and in an instant, the gloomy wind across the entire burial ground suddenly stagnated.
Jiang Che stepped through the void, his white robes fluttering, the cold light in his eyes like swords.
With each step he took, a red-gold fire lotus bloomed beneath his feet, scorching the void until it twisted.
"To bewitch someone into murdering their own kin?" He stared at Monk Miao Si, his voice suppressing a monstrous rage, "I saw the hypocrisy of you bald donkeys in my last life, but I never expected you to be even more disgusting in this life!"
The compassionate smile on Monk Miao Si's face faltered slightly, then returned to normal: "Amitabha, this benefactor, killing is to protect life, severing karma is not severing people. This poor monk is merely enlightening a fated person."
"Enlightening?" Jiang Cheng, enraged, laughed instead, "Making someone poison their own mother with their own hands, then deceiving them that it is the mandate of heaven? Your Buddhist sect's 'compassion' is truly sickening!"
Before his words had fully left his mouth, his right hand had already formed a sword seal, a red-gold line of fire bursting from his fingertip, instantly illuminating the area within a hundred zhang as bright as day!
"Great Day Burning Heaven Sword!"
Boom—!
A hundred-zhang fire sword descended from the sky. Before the sword's edge arrived, the tombstones on the ground were already exploding, and as the earth flew up, countless withered bones were directly vaporized by the high temperature!
Monk Miao Si's expression finally changed: "Great Day Burning Heaven Art! Half-step Longevity Realm?!"
He hurriedly formed seals, the Buddha light behind his head surging, transforming into a golden Buddha phantom to block before him. However—
Crack!
The fire sword struck down, and the Buddha phantom actually shattered like glass! The remaining force undiminished, directly sending Miao Si flying several hundred zhang, crashing through three desolate tombs before he barely managed to stop himself!
"Pfft—" Miao Si spat out a mouthful of golden blood, his kasaya charred black, his face full of disbelief, "You... you are only half-step Longevity, how could you..."
Jiang Cheng gave him no chance to catch his breath, clapping his hands together as nine phantom suns suddenly appeared around him: "Great Day Burning Heaven—Nine Yangs!"
The nine great suns howled forth, twisting the space wherever they passed, even the moonlight being burned into fragments! Miao Si hastily offered up a string of black sandalwood Buddhist beads, the 108 beads instantly transforming into 108 Arhats, forming a formation to resist.
Boom boom boom—!
The explosion sounds echoed across the four wilds. Each time a great sun struck the Arhat formation, a patch of golden-bodied Arhats would be annihilated. When the ninth great sun exploded, Miao Si's Buddhist beads were completely shattered, his whole body blown apart, his right arm even directly carbonized!
"Impossible!" Miao Si was horrified, "Your cultivation is clearly a major realm lower than mine! How could you so easily break my Grand Arhat Formation!"
Jiang Cheng sneered without a word, and the next moment a red-gold fire seal had already condensed in his palm, precisely the killing move of the Great Day Burning Heaven Art—"Heaven Burning Seal"!
In the distance, Wang Shouzhi stood there dumbfounded.
He had just wanted to step forward to help, when Miao Si's voice transmission suddenly sounded in his mind:
"Go! This calamity is also part of the Mandate of Heaven! For each calamity you overcome, your cultivation will grow! Remember, you are the chosen one!"
Wang Shouzhi trembled, looking at the fierce battle in the distance, then lowered his head to look at his own hands glowing with golden light.
That's right... the monk had said, the path to saving the world was destined to be full of hardships...
He gritted his teeth fiercely, turned, and transformed into a streak of golden light to escape.
Jiang Cheng noticed this with his peripheral vision but did not give chase, merely scoffing: "Run? Within the bounds of the Immortal Spirit City, where can you hide?"
As he spoke, the Heaven Burning Seal in his hand had already locked onto Miao Si, "I'll deal with you, this demonic monk, first!"
Miao Si's face was ashen. He suddenly tore open the kasaya on his chest, revealing a pitch-black swastika seal on his heart: "You forced me to do this!"
As the swastika seal writhed, countless twisted black Sanskrit characters actually crawled out, instantly wrapping him into a three-headed, six-armed Demon Buddha!
Jiang Cheng's pupils suddenly contracted: "Demon Buddha Avatar?!"
"You actually recognize it... no! What Demon Buddha!? This is the Vajra of Wrathful Eyes!" The Demon Buddha Miao Si waved all six arms, six streaks of black Buddha light twisting towards him like venomous dragons!
Jiang Cheng suddenly laughed: "Still so stubborn, as expected... your lineage has always been demonic, not Buddhist!"
The Heaven Burning Seal smashed down, and the instant it collided with the Demon Buddha, the ground of the entire burial ground directly sank three zhang! The shockwave swept across ten li, flattening all the surrounding tombs!
When the dust and smoke cleared, four of the Demon Buddha Miao Si's six arms were severed, and for the first time, blood stained Jiang Cheng's white robes.
"For a half-step Longevity to force me to this extent..." Miao Si's voice began to distort, "Who exactly are you?!"
Jiang Cheng wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, the killing intent in his eyes growing even stronger: "The one who will kill you!"
...
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