Li Qingshan furrowed his eyebrows. “Why?”
Gu Yanying told him about everything she had seen and heard, which made his brows furrow more and more tightly. The featherfolk present all paled in fright. If the world were destroyed, none of them would be spared. They could only go to the Hungry Ghost realm or the Demon domain, but both of them were a choice even worse than death to them.
Meanwhile, those common living creatures would not even have a choice like that to make.
Li Qingshan fell silent for a good while before asking, “Is it my fault?”
Gu Yanying shook her head. “Where your path exists is where your heart strives towards. You had no other choice.”
Li Qingshan smiled. “That’s unlike you. What, you’re afraid that I can’t accept this? Even if I come up with thousands of excuses, I had a direct hand in this. Sure enough, it’s just not that easy to be a hero. Before we leave, I better try one more time!”
With a splash, he leapt out of the pool. The milky-white fluid trickled down from his bronze body. He was completely unclothed, currently as bare as a statue. He strode off towards the door.
Li Fengyuan offered up the clothes he had prepared beforehand. Li Qingshan shook open a set of robes and draped it around him before fastening the waistband. He asked, “Where’s Xiao An?”
“She seems to be digging up graves all over the place.”
……
The Mahachakra temple of the Lightning province.
A hand brushed past the prayer wheel. It whirled away as she made her way through the dim corridor. She turned around a corner as the setting sun dyed the palace built into the mountain red. It was tranquil and glorious. The sounds of chanting rang out in the distance.
Arriving at the entrance of the main hall, she stepped over the tall threshold with her pale, bare feet. Several thousand monks sat neatly in the spacious grand hall as their chanting rose and fell. It all suddenly stopped at this moment.
The long-browed old monk seated on the platform said sternly, “Amitābha. The sea of bitterness has no bounds. Repent and the shore is at hand.”
His voice reverberated through the hall, awakening the deaf like thunder.
The several thousand monks said together, “The sea of bitterness has no bounds. Repent and the shore is at hand.”
Their eyes were all drawn away by the white, ghost-like figure. Their voices were not as mighty and determined as the old monk’s.
As if she had not heard them at all, she made her way through the monks and approached the platform.
“Hah!”
The long-browed old monk stood up. His withered body suddenly swelled up, filling his scarlet kasaya. Three monks stood to his left and his right, all with furious countenances.
The seven great Monk Kings of the Mahachakra temple were all ready for battle. Their tremendous auras surged towards her.
She ignored all of this, arriving before the platform step by step. Battle was on the brink of erupting, but she made her way around the platform in the end.
From beginning to end, she had not even glanced at the long-browed old monk. Apart from her, everyone looked at the old monk. The old monk’s forehead bulged with veins, clenching his fist like a wrathful guardian king, about to purge demons to protect the dharma.
When she brushed past him, he suddenly seemed to deflate, falling back on his bottom on the platform.
She arrived behind the grand hall and cut down a stone door with a single slash, entering the gloomy, underground palace.
In the grand hall, a Monk King said, “Abbot, the buddha nemesis has intruded on the ?arīra palace. Activate the Chakra formation! How can we just allow her to blaspheme the full body ?arīra of the past seniors?”
The long-browed old monk countered with a question. “So what if we activate the formation?”
For a moment, the hall surged with vigour. “We’ll take the buddha nemesis down with us!” “We swear to stand with the Mahachakra temple!” “Let her know that the Mahachakra temple is not a place where she can come and go as she pleases!”
The long-browed old monk then said, “Perhaps we stand a chance against her, but what happens when Li Qingshan comes?”
The monks fell silent. Most of them had never seen Li Qingshan before, nor were they familiar with the details of the battle on Dragonshead mountain. However, everyone knew about the Spirit K?etra temple’s fate. It had shocked all the buddhist disciples across the world.
He had uprooted the entire mountain, traversing several hundred kilometres before throwing it down before Dragonshead temple. That kind of power was basically beyond imagination. It made everyone lose their courage to put up a stand.
The long-browed old monk brought his palms together and shut his eyes. “So it be!”
She had already arrived at the depths of the underground palace, currently located directly beneath the grand hall. The entire mountain had been hollowed out, with a nine-floored building constructed inside. This place consecrated a series of dried corpses. They were the full body ?arīra left behind by eminent monks of the past. Because they believed in the Wheel-turning King Chakravarti, they would send their speck of true spirit into rebirth as soon as it was no longer possible to ascend in their current life. As such, there were an extremely large number of full body ?arīra.
With a shake of her hand, the Trisepultural Robes drifted up, wrapping around a dried corpse.
She chanted the Scripture of Trisepulture. Blasphemous lines flowed across the Trisepultural Robes. The dried corpse’s eyelids twitched as its skin went from yellow to white. Its sunken cheeks gradually filled up and reddened again, no longer any different from a living person. He stood up and knelt down before her, bringing his palms together and bowing. “Master.”
The Trisepultural Robes could revive the dead, reflesh white bone, and convert the living to the dead. It could convert others to the path of white bone.
A while later, the dried corpses all stood up. There were both men and women. Regardless of their age and appearance when they passed away in meditation, they had all returned to the prime of their lives. Every single one of them was brimming with youth, vitality, and life as their eyes shone brightly.
Unlike the Skeleton Demons that the Skull Prayer Beads transformed into or the skeleton and ghost kings from the Blood Sea Banner, they all possessed the power and intelligence from their past lives. They had just been converted by her, becoming her disciples.
All those who could leave their full body ?arīra here were eminent monks of the Mahachakra temple in the past. It was possible to say that the moment she walked out of here, she could found a buddhist holy land no less than what the Spirit K?etra temple had once been.
A monk stood forward. “Master, the current abbot of the Mahachakra temple was originally my disciple. I’m willing to discuss the dharma with him so that he gives up on his path of rebirth and converts.”
“What if he refuses?”
“Then I can only bestow him with eternal silence before asking master to convert him.”
The eminent monks emerged from the underground palace. Before long, the Mahachakra temple was converted.
……
Li Qingshan raised his eyebrows slightly. Nowadays, he really did not understand what that child was doing sometimes. It made him sigh. Had the Xiao An who felt uncertain and asked for his guidance on the path of white bone already become a matter of the past?
“Then what about Xiaoming?”
Gu Yanying said, “He’s trying to control the Heaven Climbing Vine on Dragonshead mountain so that it can connect with the Asura realm.”
Li Qingshan nodded. “The only thing he lacks now is resources. If he can succeed, he’ll probably undergo the fourth heavenly tribulation very soon. We can use the Heaven Climbing Vine too. If we want to go to the Asura realm, we can go to the Asura realm. If we want to go to the Daemonic Beast realm, we can go to the Daemonic Beast realm. If we want to…”
His voice gradually slowed down. A thought appeared in his head, except it floated around in uncertainty. It was blurry and difficult to grasp, which made him sink into his thoughts.
Suddenly, he had a stroke of inspiration. “Hold on, I have a good idea! If it works, not only can we save all the living creatures in the world, but it’ll be of great benefit to us too. Let’s complete what Si Long failed to do.”
Gu Yanying’s eyes flashed. “You mean…”
“C’mon. We’ll talk once we reach Dragonshead mountain.”
The kunpeng rose up on the winds. Gu Yanying said to Li Qingshan on her back in exasperation, “Haven’t you recovered completely? Why can’t you fly over there yourself?”
“It’s so urgent. Aren’t you fast? You know, able people should always do more work. Oh also, please be a little more polite to the hero who’s about to save the world.” He spread his legs and stood on the kunpeng’s back without a single care in the world.
“Do you know that you’re really annoying sometimes? We’ve arrived at Dragonshead mountain. Hurry up and get off me!”
Gu Yanying rolled her eyes. The kunpeng circled around the Heaven Climbing Vine that linked the earth with the sky, slowly landing on Dragonshead mountain.
