Crack! With the sound of shattering metal, his knee was almost smashed to pieces. Li Qingshan grinned, grabbing the buddha by the head with both hands and pulling it up. “Up you get!”
He pressed down on the buddha’s eyes as hard as he could with his thumbs. He released waves of the power of tremors from both hands, which clashed with the holy glow, producing strange sounds. The great buddha lifted its golden palm and swung it at Li Qingshan’s wrist.
Crack! His wrists broke at the same time.
Li Qingshan grabbed the buddha by the head firmly, refusing to let go until his arms had shattered. The great buddha truly is powerful. Its body is even tougher than the King of Chu’s Seal, such that I’ll struggle to destroy it even if I use my full strength. If I were facing it alone, I’d really struggle to defeat it.
However, before he knew it, the effect of the feeble yet boundless buddha nature on him had weakened. This had nothing to do with their sizes. It seemed that the stubbornness and persistence of the ox demon was much more suited for fending off the aura of those who dwelled high above compared to the violence and battle-hungriness of the tiger demon. When the tiger demon rampaged in a frenzy, the ox demon sank down in the mud, but it refused to change.
However, he was not alone!
The sun sank down in the west, and the sunlight beamed over horizontally. Blueish-white robes drifted over, becoming gilded with a golden-red edge. A pair of flawless, bare feet landed on the great buddha’s head gently.
“Atone for your actions, buddha,” Xiao An said gently and held the Buddha Slaying sword in both hands with a reverse grip. Without any hesitation, she stabbed down.
The sword of white bone pierced the buddha’s head with surprising ease. It only stopped when the entire blade of the sword became embedded.
The great buddha’s forceful body suddenly halted. Golden light poured out from the wound and turned into countless beams in the blink of an eye. Her blueish-white robes ruffled around in the air, swallowed by the vast glow.
At this moment, the great buddha’s face that had been devoid of any emotion the entire time suddenly assumed a strange expression, which covered the entire face like a ripple before rapidly disappearing again. Its eyes swiveled upwards. Xiao An stood in a blind angle, but it clearly made out Xiao An’s existence.
Xiao An’s face was devoid of any emotion. Pale-white flames burned in her eyes, but she was enveloped in a golden, holy light, making it difficult to distinguish her demonic or buddhist alignment. She seemed to be filled with respect towards the great buddha, yet there was also plenty of determination to kill it.
The great buddha draped its gaze again, bringing its palms together and recovering an expression of benevolence. The sun set behind it, overlapping with its halo perfectly. It shone with the sun.
The Dauntless monk uttered the buddha’s name loudly. His face that had originally become twisted from fury suddenly eased up again. He prostrated deeply on the ground and chanted, “It can bestow dauntlessness to all beings. When somebody makes that seal, it is called the Seal of Dauntlessness.”
Note: This is a twist on a part from the Mahavairocana Tantra, from the section of Mudrās, or seals.
The Unraging monk smiled again; it was not a cynical sneer, but instead filled with great joy from the bottom of his heart. He threw his chubby body on the ground in prostration and said firmly, “By showing compassion and leniency, by punishing the wicked and embracing the good, by treating all living creatures as equal, all can attain buddhahood!”
The Seven Treasures Monk King and all the other monks bowed deeply, chanting the essence they had comprehended in their lives in devotion. The thousands of voices poured together like rivers flowing into the ocean, merging with the boundless buddhist dharma. It was even mightier than the Chant of Deva-Nāga.
The landscape of the Green province projected from the Green Province cauldron in the Fierce King of Chu’s hand suddenly faded, no longer possessing the great prestige and dignity that could overwhelm everything. The laws of the world had become meaningless too. All glory went to the great buddha.
Li Qingshan widened his eyes. The great buddha that was less than three hundred meters tall seemed to grow a thousand times larger, bursting through this world and looking down from an indescribable height. It actually shone even brighter than the sun. It did not have to swing its hands. Just its gaze could melt everything.
It felt like even if he threw his entire life into hardships and struggles, he could not even reach one of the great buddha’s toes. Even his legs that had remained standing despite the shattered knee felt an urge to bend over. That was a sense of reverence that did not originate from fear or power, but more like the sense of insignificance humanity felt when they first discovered the existence of the universe and realised the entire world in their belief was merely a speck of dust hovering in the boundless sea of stars. It was an indescribable sensation of despair.
His knees trembled, and he gritted his teeth, even shattering them. Blood and fire surged out from his mouth, but even that was not enough to drown out the deep feeling of despair. This danger was even greater than when the Dragon King of Ink Sea hunted him down and when Qiongqi threatened him. None of the hopeless situations he had faced in this life could compare to it. Even if someone killed him, that was only destruction, but at this very moment, his very will wavered violently.
If he lost himself to it right now, then it would all be over, but how was he supposed to contend against it? He could not even attach the label of “enemy” to everything before his eyes right now. There was nowhere for him to channel the tiger demon’s battle spirit, the spirit turtle’s longevity could only last an instant, and the phoenix’s nobility seemed lowly. All that remained was groundless, meaningless, pointless persistence!
A word of entrustment rang out in his mind again. “Remember, don’t lower your head to anyone, as you have once ridden on my back!”
As a result, he did not kneel!
A while later, the final ray of holy light vanished into the air, and the crack ran across the great buddha’s cheek. In the blink of an eye, cracks spread across the entire statue, and the great buddha’s impervious body shattered and dispersed. The setting sun melded into the horizon.
The short moment felt as long as an entire age.
Li Qingshan remained in the same position, his ox face filled with stubbornness. His body was stuck in the mud, but his heart was in the Nine Heavens!
The monks had originally been bowing towards the great buddha. Now that the great buddha was gone, they seemed like they were bowing towards him.
Xiao An drifted over and widened her eyes. In a daze, she seemed to see the existence of another figure, but only when she blinked her eyes again did she realise it was a false impression.
Suddenly, Li Qingshan fell backwards stiffly, like the collapse of a mountain. With a boom, he leaned against Great Buddha mountain.
In the underground caves deep below, the Soaring Locust King suddenly stood up. His mouth split open a little, and he shoved the remaining half of the grandmaster of the school of Agriculture into his belly. Demon qi surged behind him as he murmured to himself with a hideous grin, “Killing you once isn’t enough for you to die, but twice should be enough!”
“Qingshan!” Xiao An arrived beside Li Qingshan.
“A bunch of trash!” The Soaring Locust King sat back down, turning into a thumb-sized locust and flying off into the depths.
“I’m fine. How are you?” Li Qingshan spread his limbs and gasped for air. His body slowly shrank before turning back to normal. Even a mere hint of buddhist nature could suppress his mind, and the bearing alone could make his will waver. Just what kind of monster was brother ox up against beyond the distant Nine Heavens?
“It’s been quite the harvest!” Xiao An smiled. Not only had she obtained all the ?arīra left behind by the past monks of the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga, paving a foundation for her upcoming cultivation, but she had benefited quite a lot from the final Buddha Slaying stroke too. What she gained from that was no less than the former as a matter of fact. She raised her right hand and showed the Buddha Slaying sword to Li Qingshan. A golden thread now pierced the entire sword, and Li Qingshan could vaguely sense the changes inside as well.
“What an annoying sword! Keep it away from me!” The Blade Spirit of Frenzy Flower’s voice was laced with a hint of alarm.
“That truly is an existence beyond belief!” Xiao An said from the bottom of the heart, half out of admiration and half out of joy. Even Li Qingshan who had the demonic and divine coexisting within him struggled a little to understand how she felt right now.
The Dark Queen drifted over. Before she could even speak up, the black cat leapt out of her arms and landed beside Li Qingshan and Xiao An. She said in utter surprise, “Meow! Big Blacko! Li’l Whitey! It really is you!”
ps: 好了，新居所基本搞定，可以静下心来，做点该做的事情了!
