The brilliant moon sank in the west. It happened to be the moment in a day when the night was the heaviest, as well as the darkest moment for the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga in the past few millennia.
Great Buddha mountain was a mess, littered with the ruins left behind by the battle. The monks busied about treating the survivors and cleaning up the ruins, but they all did so silently and gloomily.
Great Buddha mountain no longer resembled a great buddha anymore. The original design of the grand hall matched the entire mountain, such that it seemed even more like a great buddha, but now, the grand hall was destroyed, a few dozen meters had been sliced off from the very top, and over a hundred places had collapsed. If a comparison had to be drawn, then it would be a headless buddha.
The Dauntless monk stood on the headless Great Buddha mountain. His expression was much sterner than usual as he fiddled with the prayer beads in his hand constantly.
The One Lamp monk arrived at the peak and reported, “Abbot, we’ve already tallied the total losses. Eighty-three have passed away, with countless more injured. There are several thousand halls and residences destroyed, while all the ?arīras left behind by eminent monks have been stolen.” He basically seemed like he was about to burst into tiers, which made his ugly face seem even worse.
Li Qingshan and Xiao An had no intentions to kill any disciples from the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga, but the effects of battle were far too terrifying. It was all thanks to the fact that all the cultivators who could cultivate on Great Buddha mountain possessed some strength that they were not crushed to death by the collapsing buildings. If it had been a city of mortals instead, there probably would not have been a single survivor.
The Dauntless monk shuddered and crushed a prayer bead.
“Dauntless, look at the disciples your Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga has accepted! One’s a buddha nemesis, and the other’s a daemon!”
The Seven Treasures Monk King had mostly recovered from his wounds after a period of recuperation. His face that had collapsed from the great buddha had turned back to normal as well. He stood up and angrily denounced the Dauntless monk. Six of his seven buddhist treasures had been destroyed, leading to a great decline in cultivation. It would probably take him over a century to recover, and he felt extremely aggrieved from being knocked off Great Buddha mountain twice.
The One Lamp monk said furiously, “Master, no one could have foreseen something like this. Didn’t you want One Will to cultivate in the Spirit K?etra temple back then?
“H- how dare you talk to me like that? I’ll definitely report this to the grand preceptor. The Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga must take responsibility. In particular, that Unraging. When we faced the buddha nemesis, where was he?”
The Seven Treasures Monk King was furious. The two other Monk Kings rushed over to console him, but they also had many complaints about the Unraging monk, which only showed just how displeased they were given their level of composure and cultivation.
The Dauntless monk shut his eyes. A while later, he opened them again and said sternly, “Where is the head monk of the Disciplinary courtyard?”
“Annihilum Brilliance is present.” A hunch-backed old monk arrived on the top of the mountain.
“Escort Unraging here. One Lamp, gather all the disciples,” said the Dauntless monk.
The two of them left with the orders.
Behind Great Buddha mountain, before the Demon Suppression hall.
“We’re still missing a piece. Go take a look in the bush over there, Duoge!”
The Unraging monk ordered Duoge around as he tried his best to reassemble the stone tablet.
“Master, senior brother he…” Duoge faltered. He had been travelling and training outside, so he just happened to have missed the battle on Great Buddha mountain. When he returned, all he saw was a mess. He caught wind that it had to do with Li Qingshan, so he rushed back to the Demon Suppression hall in a hurry, only for the Unraging monk to order him around to look for rocks.
“Be quiet!” the Unraging monk said.
Duoge was powerless. All he could do was continue searching in the bushes. The tablet of the Demon Suppression hall was just a regular piece of rock. It was no different either once it was shattered. All he could do was identify them by their shapes and colour.
Suddenly, a few auras drew close, and the Unraging monk could not help but stand up. The Annihilum Brilliance Chan Master arrived with four disciples, as well as a huge set of dark, heavy chains. Its glow was completely contained, clearly a buddhist treasure.
The four disciples of the Disciplinary courtyard had all undergone the first heavenly tribulation, yet they only managed to lift up the chains when they worked together.
“Head monk Annihilum Brilliance?” Duoge was taken aback. The shackles were a treasure of the monastery known as the Fetters. Not only did they weigh thousands of tonnes, but they could seal up cultivation as well. The Unraging monk had even joked in the past that he would send Duoge to the Disciplinary courtyard to try them on.
“It’s finally here,” the Unraging monk said softly and reassembled the stone tablet in his hands.
“Senior uncle Unraging, forgive us.” The Annihilum Brilliance Chan Master brought his palms together.
The Unraging monk stood up and planted the stone tablet that had a piece missing firmly in the ground before the Demon Suppression hall. He turned around and extended his hands. “Let’s do it!”
“On the shackles!” the Annihilum Brilliance Chan Master said, and the four disciples of the disciplinary courtyard carefully ventured over before opening the shackles with great difficulty, bringing them around the Unraging monk’s hands and neck.
“Master!” Duoge rushed over.
“Keep looking!” the Unraging monk said. Duoge stopped in his tracks.
“Lock the shackles!” the Annihilum Brilliance Chan Master ordered sternly. With a click, the shackles closed together firmly.
The Unraging monk’s shoulders sank before straightening again. His feet sank into the soil. Under the escortment of the disciplinary disciples, he made his way to Great Buddha mountain.
“I’m not going to looking for it!” Duoge followed after the Unraging monk.
“If you’re not going to look for it, then go travelling outside!” The Unraging monk glanced at Duoge deeply. He was born as a demonfolk, and his position in the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga had always been awkward. Now that something like this had happened, he would definitely face hostility from all the monks if he remained on Great Buddha mountain.
“I’m not going!” Duoge said.
“Sigh, both of them are so disobedient now. If I had known earlier, I should have just stuck with eating meat and drinking alcohol. Why’d I have to copy others and take on disciples?” The Unrasging monk smiled wryly.
Figures flickered on Great Buddha mountain. Virtually all the disciples had been gathered, amounting to several thousand people.
The four Monk Kings stood at the very centre, where the grand hall originally stood. Beside them were the various head monks and elders. They were all solemn.
The sounds of jangling shackles suddenly rang out from the distance, together with the heavy sound of footsteps. The Unraging monk made his way over step by step, wrapped in shackles and leaving behind a trail of deep footprints in the stone steps behind him. Duoge followed after him blindly.
The people parted to form a path, gazing at the Unraging monk with various different feelings—sympathy, indignation, abhorrence!
Perhaps they did not know what a buddha nemesis entailed exactly, but the figure of the demonic and divine that stood over two thousand meters tall on Great Buddha mountain had given them an unerasable deep impression. It was that daemon that had ruined the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga. That was his disciple!
He had always been different in the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga. He ignored the rules and disciplines, he ate meat and drank alcohol, and he spent even more time with demonfolk than with monks. In the end, he even created a disaster like this, which seemed to make perfect sense. Some people even speculated spitefully that he probably had fallen into the demonic path already, or he would have never taken on a demonfolk as a disciple with all the outstanding disciples that the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga had.
The Unraging monk made his way through the crowd calmly. Duoge was blocked by the four disciplinary disciples as he called out, “Master!”
“Go!” the Unraging monk looked back and said.
Duoge did not budge at all. A great clearing appeared around him. All of the monks maintained their distance from him.
“Abbot, we’ve brought Unraging,” said the Annihilum Brilliance Chan Master.
“You are in charge of the Disciplinary courtyard. What crimes has he committed today?” the Dauntless monk said.
“Poor judgement of character, sympathy with daemons, abstention from protecting the temple, desertion from battle!”
“How should he be punished?”
“By beating and imprisonment!”
The Dauntless monk nodded and asked the Unraging monk, “Do you acknowledge your crimes?”
