Chapter 1 The Buddha's Demise

Buddhism appeared relatively late. Ying Gou once said, "When I was born, there was no Buddha in this world."

It wasn't meant to express anything in particular, just a normal statement of fact.

Therefore, the Buddhist realm didn't need to worry about the Xuanyuan Sword; their turn was still far, far away.

In fact, if the Last Lord hadn't been burdened by the legacy and traditions established by the First Lord, in the eyes of the Xuanyuan Sword, no matter how flamboyant or capricious he was, he would still be just a child.

However, things rarely develop according to the script. Of course, if there really was a script, it would definitely be filled with "unexpected twists."

First, the Bodhisattva discovered that he had been part of the Last Lord's scheme for a thousand years, destined to be his scapegoat.

Now, as the Bodhisattva prepared to break free, the situation once again spiraled out of control. The Qilin that descended ignored him and directly and forcibly dragged out the Emptiness Gate, which had no specific coordinates in the dark, and had already begun attacking it.

No wonder the old Daoist was puzzled; when did this Qilin develop such a deep-seated hatred for the Buddhist realm?

Boss Zhou and the old Daoist had been ordinary mortals in the hospital for so many days and hadn't contacted their employees outside, so naturally, they didn't know that this matter, in the final analysis, stemmed from Lawyer An.

Lawyer An successfully used the "the emperor can eat ten eggs and a basket of scallion pancakes every day" way of thinking to guide Old Zhang.

Old Zhang, in turn, took Lawyer An's advice as an important guiding principle, spending day and night pondering, comprehending, and studying it.

After all, Old Zhang had one particular characteristic: he was stubborn and had a knack for doing things seriously.

It's clear that the learning effect was very good, even too good.

Perhaps, during that "thinking about life" process earlier, the Qilin's brain had been operating like this:

Kill the Bodhisattva?

Kill the Bodhisattva?"

Kill the Bodhisattva.

Kill the Bodhisattva!

Which Bodhisattva to kill?

Which one to kill?

Tell me which one to kill!

Won't say?

Then I'll kill them all.

Therefore, psychological suggestion can sometimes be truly terrifying.

If you're not careful and over-suggest, things can get out of control.

"Boom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

In this collision, the Emptiness Gate finally shattered. What were once dense cracks had now collapsed for the most part.

Immediately afterward, the Qilin brazenly charged into the Emptiness Gate.

"Hey, your house is on fire; aren't you going to take a look?" the old Daoist couldn't help but remind the Bodhisattva.

Unexpectedly, the Bodhisattva supported his injured body and continued to walk toward the old Daoist, saying at the same time:

"Amitabha, a Buddhist is pure of the six senses, without attachments, neither defiled nor pure, neither increasing nor decreasing..."

"Heh, just admit you're afraid of dying. I admire you people; you can turn every little thing you do into some grand principle of the universe."

The old Daoist reached out and picked at his ear, but in his heart, he was panicking.

"The Buddha is in the heart, not in the external world. Since it doesn't exist, there's no question of destruction."

The Bodhisattva reached out, and a golden pattern flickered in his palm. Then, like a grid, the broken sky above was rewoven.

This miniature Sumeru world had just been mostly destroyed by the Qilin. Now, he could only expend his own essence to repair it superficially, at least to the point where it could be used.

This was a huge drain, but the Bodhisattva had no choice; he had to do it first.

As for what was happening behind the Emptiness Gate, he really couldn't care less. Since he had left the Buddhist realm alone and ventured into hell a thousand years ago, he had long since severed ties with that side.

Some low-ranking judges in hell often turned into big-picture theorists while chatting over tea, and some even believed that the Bodhisattva's entry into hell was a sign of the Buddhist realm's infiltration of hell.

Buddhism emphasized reincarnation, so nothing could be more in line with their needs than mastering the cycle of yin and yang.

However, in reality, since Ksitigarbha had secluded himself, no second member of the Buddhist realm had come to the underworld.

On the one hand, it was because Ksitigarbha's relationship with the Buddhist realm had reached a freezing point when he left, somewhat similar to how Ying Gou had betrayed the Yellow Emperor, established himself as king in hell.

When the Yellow Emperor's generals led troops into hell, wanting to wipe out the remnants of the Jiuli in one fell swoop, Ying Gou also unceremoniously told them to get lost.

People in the Buddhist realm naturally knew their relationship with Ksitigarbha, so they didn't bother sending anyone to help pick the fruit; otherwise, if it really caused a war between the underworld and the Buddhist realm, that would be a real spectacle.

Of course, the biggest reason was strength. Ying Gou had the strength to establish himself after betraying the Yellow Emperor, and later Ksitigarbha also had that strength.

On the other hand, it was because the Buddhas in the Buddhist realm were all immersed in building their three thousand great worlds. They had their own business to finish, so they didn't have any need to expand their business externally for the time being.

Therefore, the Qilin directly charging into the Buddhist realm, its impact on Ksitigarbha was actually the damage to the Sumeru world, which greatly injured his vitality. As for anything else, he didn't care, not at all.

"You, stop hiding!"

Terrifying golden fluid began to rise from the ground, as if this place had become a large-scale alchemy factory. The temperature of these golden fluids was extremely high, and most importantly, they carried the power to annihilate souls and cleanse everything.

The Bodhisattva's hand slowly tightened, and the golden fluid began to contract rapidly.

However, when approaching the old Daoist, the golden fluid was obviously suppressed.

It wasn't that the Bodhisattva had to play these tricks every time, insisting on creating shocking special effects, but because he needed to force the old Daoist to really make a move. If it was just a minor probing action, the old Daoist might be able to handle it, just like how the Qilin's body crushed down at the beginning, but the old Daoist played a game of one-handed shot put.

Therefore, only by using this kind of big move could the old Daoist's aura truly be revealed, unable to continue hiding.

The old Daoist was so frightened that he had jumped back onto the hospital bed.

At this moment, the previously hoped-for savior, the Qilin, had inexplicably run off to attack the Buddhist realm. This mess was truly impossible to clean up.

"Bro, you're not afraid anyway; you go for it."

From the old Daoist's perspective, he was truly aggrieved. You ate the meat, drank the blood, and even dug out a piece of the Mount Tai origin for him to fill his stomach.

At this critical moment, how could you be more cowardly than me?

Just as the Bodhisattva couldn't calculate the appearance of the Qilin, the old Daoist couldn't possibly calculate everything perfectly. He could only deduce a rough idea, with about a forty or fifty percent certainty in his heart. The rest was just a matter of who had better luck.

"Wangcai is crazy."

Zhou Ze muttered to himself.

Old Zhang sacrificed himself to bring about Wangcai's descent. Perhaps, according to Old Zhang's expectations, it was to have the Qilin solve the Bodhisattva, thereby breaking the predicament of the boss and the old Daoist.

It was a pity that Wangcai, as if injected with chicken blood, directly charged into the Buddhist realm. Perhaps, in Wangcai's view, there were many Bodhisattvas there. Although there was a Bodhisattva here, there was only one, so he simply dropped the sesame seed and didn't bother with it.

Zhou Ze could see that the old Daoist didn't dare to make a move again.

After so many twists and turns, it seemed that the initial conflict hadn't changed.

While urging Boss Zhou to make a move quickly, the old Daoist was also constantly threatening the Bodhisattva:

"Ksitigarbha, you were seriously injured when that Qilin broke through here just now. Don't force me. If you really push me, you're seriously injured now. Aren't you afraid that I'll kill you before the Xuanyuan Sword comes down and use you as a垫背 diàn bèi (scapegoat)!"

The Bodhisattva didn't care, continuing to clench his palm, and the surrounding golden fluid was swarming in at an even more rapid speed, as if to devour everything.

The old Daoist was suppressing them, but he had to control the output of power; otherwise, all previous efforts would be wasted.

Diting was also slowly flapping, transforming into his human form and appearing beside the Bodhisattva, reaching out his hand. The Bodhisattva also reached out and grabbed Diting.

The two's auras began to flow at this moment.

Diting could sense the Bodhisattva's weakness at this time. The breaking of the Sumeru world had caused more damage to the Bodhisattva than imagined. Fortunately, the Bodhisattva had now repaired the Sumeru world.

"Bodhisattva, the Buddhist realm is going to be destroyed," Diting said.

"If it's destroyed, then so be it."

The Bodhisattva was still calm, but he couldn't help but draw aura from Diting to replenish himself.

"Bodhisattva, after it's done, you leave first. I'll use my body to block this barrier."

The Bodhisattva turned to look at Diting, neither nodding nor refusing.

In reality, don't look at how flustered and overwhelmed the old Daoist was by this wave-like vast golden fluid.

If he was really completely pushed to the edge, lost control, and became enraged, releasing all his Daoist cultivation, it would be truly terrifying.

After all, the Last Lord had simply not made any progress in thousands of years, but his foundation was already thick!

"Damn it, I can't hold on!"

The old Daoist could only helplessly turn to look at Zhou Ze; he was about to lose control!

Zhou Ze didn't urge Ying Gou; he maintained a normal state of mind.

If the iron-headed fool didn't want to make a move, urging was useless.

If he was willing to make a move, he would come up on his own.

At this moment, it seemed that he had sensed that the time had come, or perhaps he thought he had watched enough of the show.

A familiar force and consciousness began to pour into Boss Zhou's body.

Hoo, about to take over, huh?

Zhou Ze naturally didn't resist, closing his eyes and directly handing over control of this body.

The handover was completed in an instant.

An aura belonging to Ying Gou spread out frantically!

Diting began to tremble uncontrollably again. Even though he had transformed into human form, his back was still a little hunched. This was all thanks to Ying Gou.

When this familiar aura reappeared, Diting instinctively felt fear.

At this moment, it was really unknown whether it was him supporting the Bodhisattva or the Bodhisattva supporting him.

The Bodhisattva also paused.

He might not have bought it, but based on the Bodhisattva's experience of having Chu Jiang Wang buy batteries, the Bodhisattva should know about that thing called a lottery in the human world.

He felt that perhaps he had really won the lottery today.

One by one, he had actually run into all of them.

But the Bodhisattva quickly reacted, and said in a deep voice:

"You are much, much weaker than the last time we met."

Ying Gou didn't respond, standing there and continuing to release his aura. The pressure of the master of the Nether Sea raged wildly in this broken, just-repaired miniature Sumeru world.

"You are a man of great ability, why put on this display of bravado?"

The Bodhisattva asked.

He could see through Ying Gou's true state at this time with one glance.

The Ying Gou who had swept through hell twice before, although the bottom of his cup was broken, there was still some water to leak at that time. However, at this time, Ying Gou only had a broken cup, and there was no water inside.

If he was only trying to scare him off with a show of strength, then that was really too naive, so naive that the Bodhisattva felt a sense of unreality.

Ying Gou ignored the Bodhisattva's words, but raised his head, looking at the golden grid that had just repaired the sky above, and opened his mouth:

"Wang…cai…"

The Bodhisattva's body suddenly froze, subconsciously raising his head to look at the sky.

The old Daoist didn't care about the golden fluid that was about to engulf him either, also raising his head to look at the sky.

"Rumble rumble rumble!!! Rumble rumble rumble!!! Rumble rumble rumble!!!"

It was like a super-large bulldozer was pushing frantically, as if this sky was trembling because of it!

Immediately afterward, with a "boom," a Qilin covered in blood, with wounds all over its body, but whose aura was still at its peak, directly charged out of the Emptiness Gate!

God knows what it had just done in the Buddhist realm, and God knows what the scene in the Buddhist realm was like now.

But everyone only saw that, in the Qilin's eyes, it was now completely covered by a shocking red!

This hatred was truly滔天 tāo tiān (overwhelming), this resentment was as deep as the sea!

Even from a very, very far distance, you could seem to feel the terrifying heat carried by the breath the Qilin exhaled at this time.

Immediately afterward, the Qilin began to descend!

This time, the speed of descent was countless times faster, fiercer, and more violent than when it had gone up to attack the Emptiness Gate before!

"Boom!"

"Crack!"

The sky of the small Sumeru world, which the Bodhisattva had just repaired at the cost of his origin, collapsed on a large scale at this time!

"Bang!"

The Bodhisattva's body trembled, and then he slowly lowered his head, looking at his chest.

There, there was a terrifying penetrating wound, as if a piece had been forcibly dug out with a large spoon.

And along with the second collapse of the sky, a chain reaction immediately occurred, and the small Sumeru world, which shared the Bodhisattva's fate, began to collapse rapidly.

At this time, the Bodhisattva was like a sieve leaking everywhere, and his vast Buddha-nature began to overflow from his body, which was equivalent to his own origin accumulated for thousands of years beginning to flow away rapidly at this moment.

"Bodhisattva! Bodhisattva! Bodhisattva!"

Diting was shouting loudly in the Bodhisattva's ear.

The Bodhisattva turned a deaf ear.

Because as a smart person, one of the smartest people in this world, he really couldn't understand now how he had lost on two words.

And these two words were not some obscure and difficult ancient mantra, nor the sound of heaven and earth at the beginning of the wilderness.

But merely filled with a strong rural flavor:

Wangcai?