Silver moonlight illuminated the golden fields of wheat. Fireflies flickered by the pond, reflecting in the black water like they shone with the stars.
A white figure glided over the surface of the water swiftly as silent as a ghost. She did not even disturb the fireflies.
She walked past the wheat fields at the height of summer. The smell of harvest filled the air. They did not understand the battles between cultivators. As long as they still managed to survive, the mortals would continue passing each day like normal, year after year.
A pale, slender hand swept past the sharp awns of wheat. Her head had been raised the entire time as she stared straight at the sky with her clear eyes. It was like she was trying to count the stars, like she was searching for an answer.
Swish!
A cool summer breeze swept past, making the wheat bob in the air. Her long, seaweed-like hair scattered behind her.
The sparks of fire, of stars, were in the distant horizon, giving no reply.
As a result, she gazed towards the village in the distance. The golden awns of wheat pierced the tip of her finger, letting a single droplet of blood fall. It turned into a pale-white lotus of fire, landing within the fields and spreading silently.
In the blink of an eye, the bobbing waves of wheat turned into a sea of fire.
The fields had not just been set alight. They had only lost their colour, becoming pale-white, without any sense of vitality remaining, returning to absolute silence.
The white flames surged over the pond, and the fireflies all dimmed as well, falling into the dark water and producing ripples.
The great blaze began to burn, traversing over mountains and valleys, over great rivers and over villages, towns, and cities like the surging night wind.
In a quiet little village, a sleeping child was experiencing a wonderful dream. He pursed his lips and rolled over. The white flames touched his forehead gently, and he became a part of the flames.
In an ancient town, an old man approaching death endured the torturing of sickness, unable to fall asleep as his desire for a longer life grew. The pale-white flames were reflected in his turbid eyes, and the pain vanished very quickly, turning into gentle flames together with his life.
In a sturdy city, the brothels and parlours operated into the night, blazing with lights. Wine cups were raised and emptied as music, drunken curses, and free laughter filled the place, without any signs of ending.
The beggars outside gazed at the customers that came and went with uncertainty. They wanted to go up, but they did not have the courage. They wanted to back away, but they refused to do so. They evaded between the lights and shadows, but before they realised it, that had already been their entire lives.
The pale-white flames surged in and surged back out. The lights were still ablaze and the laughter still echoed, except the music had stopped and the people were gone.
In the pale-white wheat fields, she twisted her body as her clothes fluttered in the air. Her steps were gentle as her posture changed, controlling this great blaze like a dance to her heart’s content, only facing the stars.
Women and men, the wise and the foolish, the good and the bad, the poor and the rich, the despairing and the hopeful, the painful and the happy.
All of these had once differed by so much, but they were all equal within this dance now.
However, living creatures were not equal. Even in the face of death, there would always be cultivators who refused to accept their fate, wanting to surpass everyone else, occupy blessed lands, cast down powerful formations, and guard their entrances. The pale flames could not invade those places either.
She stood under the silver moonlight, turning her body and raising her arms. The bells trembled, her black hair drifted, and the prayer beads scattered, vanishing into the mountains.
With a thought, the sword rose, twisting and turning, vanishing into space.
As a result, the entrances were breached, the powerful formations fell, and all perished.
By the time the east had begun to light up, not a single creature remained within a range of several hundred kilometres, whether it was the weakest of ants or the strongest of cultivators.
Smoke did not rise up in the distant villages, without any crowing of roosters or barking of dogs. The city even further away had become empty as well. Everything remained exactly how they were before, like nothing had happened at all.
The stars hid away and the dancing stopped. The flames swept back.
The cracks on the white bones closed up bit by bit. When she raised her wrist, there was now an additional prayer bead.
The Path of White Bone and Great Beauty showed signs of breaking through again. This was the first time she had carried out the teachings of the Path of White Bone and Great Beauty since she began practising it, as well as the first vow of the cultivation method—The boundless creatures, I vow to slaughter!
As if she had been freed from her shackles, the effect was so great that it took her by surprise.
The oceans accepted all, even the trickling streams, which was why they could reach their depths.
Although the bodies and souls of mortals could not compare to those of cultivators, they possessed a vast advantage in numbers, and it was much easier to slaughter them too. Even plants possessed spirits and essence. Every single bit was insignificant, but they could turn into the sparks of fire, gathering enough momentum to raze down grasslands.
Perhaps this was the true path of the white bone.
Under the azure sky, a black dragon ship emerged on the horizon. The governor of the Harmony province gazed at the barren land beneath him. When he first received the news, he was in disbelief, but he was forced to believe it now. He ground his teeth. “Buddha nemesis!”
The honoured guests behind him all fell silent, struggling to believe this was something a cultivator was capable of. This was no longer slaughter, but extermination.
In the past, the Soaring Locust King had also managed to throw the Green province into a mess, devouring countless living creatures, but that was after a very long period of preparation before he expanded his swarm like a snowball. Even after he achieved a certain scale with his swarm, he could not reduce several hundred kilometres into barren land within a single night.
The Soaring Locust King’s main body never appeared without good reason, and the great cultivators could kill millions of locusts with a flick of their wrist. No matter how severe the plague was, it struggled to threaten them. Even regular cultivators were capable of protecting themselves and remaining alive. Yet right now, even they felt deeply threatened.
An honoured guest deliberated. “Your majesty, I heard that the religious preceptor of the left led twenty Monk Kings in an ambush, yet they still failed to kill the buddha nemesis. We…”
“As the governor of the Harmony province, how can I just ignore this? Look, she’s right there. Everyone, get ready to strike! I heard she seems to be injured. Perhaps this is an opportunity, our only opportunity.”
She gazed at the incoming ship in the distance. Right when she was about to move, a tender sapling sprouted, turning into a banyan tree. The branches swayed, and the leaves rustled. The Great Banyan Tree King’s saddened and pained face appeared on the bark. “Stop! Xiao An, I’m pleading with you. You are making the world your enemy right now!”
He possessed unrivalled calculating power, yet he had still underestimated her horrors. The flames basically existed for extermination and extinction, exterminating all of the living and the dead. Her threat to the world was definitely no less than the Hungry Ghost realm and the Demon domain. As a matter of fact, her threat was even more direct and even more lethal.
This was the Path of White Bone and Great Beauty, razing the trichiliocosm with the Samādhi Flames of White Bone. In the past, it was only Li Qingshan’s presence that greatly offset the White Bone Bodhisattva’s influence, which stopped her from ever using the powers like this.
“My enemy?”
She narrowed her eyes slightly. With a swing of Buddha Slaying, the tree snapped and collapsed, burning and withering away.
The world shook gently, like something holding her back being torn apart silently. As a result, she no longer had any qualms.
In Towering city of the Mist Province, a wound several hundred metres in length suddenly split open on the great banyan tree. Sap poured out like blood.
Even as the god of half of the world, having grasped the power of the heavens and the earth, he could not heal from this wound. This was a sword that even Demon God Qiongqi was wary of.
By the time the governor of the Harmony province’s Black Dragon King had arrived, she had already vanished. The honoured guests all breathed a sigh of relief.
The governor of the Harmony province said sternly, “Request reinforcements from the Dragon province!”
