Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio
Countless Buddhas wrapped in grey air stood in front of Meng Qi like stone forests. Among them the Golden Cudgel was still quite obvious. A dark shapeless swirl rotated at the boundary between the Golden Cudgel and the sky with Thunder and a green lotus turning dark and bright around it. Sometimes everything was dark and scary, and sometimes everything lit up as pure as clouds and stars gathered.
Meng Qi looked at it feeling like he was in a dream. Even the voice he heard was like coming from a dream:
“Wave your blade and let’s see whether you can save them.”
“Or you die and I’ll let them live.”
Jiang Zhi Wei struggled but could not move a bit or make a sound. Her eyes were wet with anger and worried as if she was urging Meng Qi to escape right away.
Zhao Heng lying in front of the roc closed his mouth and looked at Meng Qi with honesty and decisiveness.
If you die, we might not even be able to live. But if you are alive, we still have the hope to come back again!
Ruan Yushu was cast on the ground. Her white dress was still partly frozen and her face pale. Her mouth had no color of red and she trembled out of control. She tried to speak but no sound came out.
Her eyes turned red and her eyelashes blinked like a brush, looking so pale. Zither music flew from her Primordial Spirit disorderly.
Somehow Ruan Yushu’s words rang in Meng Qi’s mind:
“If one day, you find a chance to get rid of the Six Dao and he used us to trap you. Don’t stop because of us.”
“Being controlled by the Six Dao equals death. Why not have one or two die and wait for success in future with a chance for resurrection.”
Meng Qi thought it over and then closed his eyes. He stretched his right hand and held the sheath.
Was now a good time to draw out his blade?
Do I have to use all the strength and spirits that I’ve accumulated all these ten years today at this moment?
Besides, the Slough of Manjushri, the roc, and the sky-dragon were not anything like those I fought with before as they equaled to an Earth Fairy and some of them are even stronger than Mister Luda and Su Wuming. I have few chances to win this time…
Meng Qi pondered and his eyes were still as deep as always.
If only I was some robot with no feelings, if only I could Taishang Wang Qing, then I would have no concerns and struggle, no suffering of this kind at all.
But something is more important than one’s life!
He put his right hand on the sheath of the blade and drew it out.
Lights came out like the sun rising from the east. Everything was lit up like lightning.
This Heavenly Weapon was as sharp as always and became even stronger. He had never forgotten to sharpen it during this 10 years.
Jiang Zhiwei looked at Meng Qi with his eyes wet and filled with anger. Tears dropped down from the corner of Ruan Yushu’s eyes. Zhao Heng looked away as if this was not the result he wanted to see.
The lights of the blade became more and more stronger with an air of cruelty like a sun was going to explode out of control.
Meng Qi lifted up his blade and looked deep inside the pit through the crack where the angler kept his self.
His said in a slow but positive voice:
“All you want is my body. Let them go, otherwise I would rather kill myself than letting you get it.”
Begging would not work in this case either just to stand still and to be bound. Meng Qi was going to fight by himself.
A cold voice came out from the pit:
“I have more than one fish. You are not as important as you think.”
“If you dare to kill yourself, then they will be all be dead.”
The Slough of Manjushri lifted up his sword of wisdom towards Jiang Zhi Wei.
Meng Qi hid his emotions and drew his blade and cut down towards himself.
I’m not kidding!
The sword of wisdom came down towards the neck of Jiang Zhi Wei and even more faster than Meng Qi’s since he was going to kill someone else not himself.
The sword light was so clear and bright. Jiang Zhi Wei’s hair on her forehead was cut down.
Meng Qi stopped and then lowered his head. He said slowly:
“You win.”
If his opponent was indifferent and his death could not save Jiang Zhi Wei and others, then there was no meaning.
Meng Qi’s words lingered around with humiliation and despair. A tear dropped on Jiang Zhi Wei’s face.
“Good to know,” the cold voice rang up again from far away. Manjushri’s sword stopped before Meng Qi stopped his blade.
Meng Qi looked up.
“What do you want me to do?”
The voice said, “Seal your own Primordial Spirits and body. Then walk to Manjushri and let him to seal it completely. And you walk into the Formation and stop nearby the Golden Cudgel.”
Meng Qi closed eyes and put the blade back into the sheath. His right hand tapped between his eyebrows and Niwan and sealed Primordial Spirits and body. And then he walked toward Manjushri.
Jiang Zhi Wei and Ruan Yushu tried hard to speak but made no sound. If they had a little strength, they would definitely shake their heads like crazy and try to stop Meng Qi.
Zhao Heng closed eyes, “A man does not easily shed tears until his heart is broken.”
Manjushri looked at Meng Qi with blank eyes and a pure white arm appeared in mid-air and then touched upon Meng Qi’s forehead.
Deep in the light of wisdom, every acupuncture point and internal organ were sealed and became enabled to activate Interior Realm. And Meng Qi’s Primordial Spirits were sealed inside Niwan and became enabled to work.
Meng Qi looked back at Jiang Zhi Wei and others affectedly and then turned around firmly. He kept walking to a destined result.
He had been struggling in his whole life but could not escape destiny.
Meng Qi walked through golden buddhas standing there like stone forests and then saw the Golden Cudgel standing in the center of the pit. A green lotus was blooming in the cracks with lightning shining beside it. He could not see the Great Sage Equaling Heaven in black smoke but only the Golden Cudgel.
Next to the Cudgel a mountain stood there like a five finger palm!
The mountain was not high but seemed extremely heavy. At the top of it a crystal clear Bodhi tree branch was shining brightly. It had nine small branches, some withered, some still alive, some illusory, some real with a sense of Realm of Peace, of self, of wisdom, of brightness, and happiness.
This branch was stuck at the top with its lights looming as if watering the seal!
Between the Cudgel and the mountain, a familiar figure stood with his back facing Meng Qi. He looked at green lotus coldly wearing dark golden cassock with one bare shoulder.
This is the angler? Meng Qi stopped ten step away from him out of instinct.
“Why resist this opportunity?” the man folded his hands behind his back and slowly turned around.
Meng Qi saw a face that he was so familiar with because it was the same as his face!
The man’s face changed between two faces. Sometimes it was Su Ziyuan and sometimes it was Meng Qi on earth. But when Meng Qi looked at him, its face became the one that Meng Qi wanted to see. But compared to Meng Qi, the man looked a bit more evil.
Meng Qi suddenly calmed down and seemed to know that he could not change his own destiny. He smiled and said:
“How should I call you?”
“Ananda or Devil Buddha?”
He stopped and then continued:
“or the Master of the Six Dao of Samsara?”
Bang! Thunder exploded. The galaxy was looming, lighting up a corner in the sky.
The man in dark golden cassock said calmly,
“Whichever. Ananda or Devil Buddha or the Master of the Six Dao of Samsara, it’s all me.”
He confirmed without hiding anything.
“But how do you know that I’m the Master of the Six Dao of Samsara?”
Meng Qi sighed and said, “I have always been very curious about the martial arts written in the Exchange Manual. I’ve seen them in the fictions, animations, and dramas, but not real. How come they are written in the Exchange Manual and can be learned? If it was influenced by the aura from the Real World and the legends, some character and poems were reflections of legends might people and some incidents, then how come no such things existed in the Real World?”
“I have always been wondering why my Qi Yun became so good in those Missions of Samsara. Some tasks were like made just for me. I had no idea until Xi mentioned about the Master of the Six Dao of Samsara was now weak and then I knew the Devil Buddha was my angler arriving in the Nirvana Realm but was oppressed by Gautama Buddha.”
“Your answer now confirmed my assumption. The little jade buddha is the proof. After seeing me get adapted in the missions, you then let me have inheritance of Ananda and get the real little jade buddha to open the gate to Spirited Mountain and learned many things. But once if I seemed to want to get rid of the angler, then I would be oppressed and then get missions that was hard to complete. Just like this time Jiang Zhi Wei and others wanted to stop and return to their world but you do not allow.”
“You as the Master of the Six Dao of Samsara had two intentions in all these. One is that to cultivate your fish by assigning proper tasks. The second one is to explore the truth of what happened in ancient times without getting noticed by other big shots.”
The Devil Buddha smiled and folded his hands on back. He said in a familiar and cold voice:
“As Doomsday was getting close and the seal started to loosen up, I then had a little power and tried to find a way to get out by the help of the Seal of Samsara. Of course I want nobody to notice it.”
“You are the fish that I hide on Earth and I cut our connection on purpose then. I know everything you experienced clearly. Su Ziyuan is only a bait to hide my real fish, you. Ha, Mister Luda also got cheated. Now your Primordial Spirits and real body was going to complete soon. Once they emerged with each other, Buddha Golden Body, Ni Fuo Devil Body, and Premier true form will exist at the same time. I then might get away and find the breakthrough point.”
The Nine arts of Ananda and The Buddha’s Palm became one and achieved Buddha Golden Body but it didn’t grow complete therefore only to be called Ananda Dharmakaya.
Devil Buddha walked to Meng Qi step by step and stared at him. Then Devil Buddha nodded slightly as if he was quite satisfied with the achievement of his fish. The air around him was suffocating and stronger than any other power.
After a few steps, he stood close to Meng Qi. Two same faces looked at each other.
“Don’t struggle anymore, other me. You will soon experience the Nirvana Realm. A realm that you have never experienced before. This is your honor as my fish and this is my gift for you,” his eyes deep and his body turned vague. The Devil Buddha stretched out his right hand and touched between Meng Qi’s eyebrows.
Meng Qi did not move as if he accepted his fate. He stared at the Devil Buddha and suddenly said:
“Or, should I call you the God of Thunder?”
The Devil Buddha stopped.
