“Save me, save me…”
A faint, chilling cry for help echoed by his ears, like a call from hell.
Given Xu Qi’an’s current cultivation and breadth of knowledge, he wasn’t frightened, not really. He just felt that this cry for help was far too eerie.
At the same time, it reminded him of the identical plea for help he had heard back at Sangpo, from Shenshu.
But the two voices weren’t the same.
“Save me, save me…”
The cry kept coming, lingering by his ears, but in truth it was being transmitted straight into his mind, like voice transmission. No actual sound was being made.
After circling the Bodhi Mother Tree halfway round, Xu Qi’an fixed on a spot behind the tree. Tree vines hung there like a curtain, blocking the thick main trunk.
He stretched out a claw and brushed aside the dense vines. Then he saw the trunk of the Bodhi tree, and also a face imprinted on it, a wrinkled face that was clearly that of an old man.
The features of this face were broadly similar to those of the old monk, the tower spirit, though the finer details differed slightly.
The Stupa tower hanging above “Xu Qi’an’s” head gave a humming tremor. Then the agitated voice of the old monk, the tower spirit, rang in his ear:
“Master…”
The old face on the trunk looked dull and lifeless, like an utterly ordinary carving, as it murmured the same delirious words over and over:
“Save me, save me…”
So it really is Dharmapara Bodhisattva. How did he end up here? It must definitely be connected to the Beyond-rank inside Ananda. What exactly happened back then… Xu Qi’an stretched out a claw and pressed it against Dharmapara’s “face”, sensing it for a moment.
“There’s only a wisp of remnant soul left.”
He said this to the old monk, the tower spirit.
The old monk, the tower spirit, couldn’t leave the Stupa tower, but as its current master, Xu Qi’an could sense its sorrow.
“Do you have any way to help him?” Xu Qi’an asked.
Although he cultivated the Heart Gu, it was only one branch of the primordial spirit domain. Faced with the situation before him, he couldn’t offer any ideas or solutions.
After a moment, the old monk, the tower spirit, finally steadied his emotions enough to reply by voice transmission:
“I can use the ‘Great Wisdom Dharma Aspect’ to temporarily restore his clarity of mind. As for whether his soul can be repaired afterwards, that will require the help of a beyond-mortal Daoist expert.”
But even if his soul was repaired, he most likely wouldn’t recover his memories.
Given Dharmapara Bodhisattva’s current condition, most of those soul fragments had probably already been scattered to ashes. Even if repaired, he wouldn’t be the same as before, it would be equivalent to a newborn carrying a few memories of the past.
Hopefully he’ll still retain some of his memories… Xu Qi’an nodded.
“Let’s begin!”
The Stupa tower shook down golden radiance. From its peak shot up a Dharma Aspect sitting cross-legged with lowered brows, fingers pinched in a flower gesture, with a gorgeously brilliant seven-coloured halo behind its head.
For the first time, the halo turned forwards.
The rainbow-like light formed a long bridge, guiding Dharmapara Bodhisattva from within the trunk and bathing him in the light of wisdom.
Dharmapara Bodhisattva’s dull expression visibly became more animated. The vacant look in his eyes gradually regained its spirit.
He first noticed the big hairless bear before him, then looked towards the Stupa tower floating in mid-air.
“So it’s you…
“Where am I? How are you here? Weren’t you sealing Shenshu’s severed limb in Leizhou…”
Out of instinct, Dharmapara Bodhisattva asked these two questions.
“Master!” The voice of the Stupa tower turned excited again, trembling slightly.
“You’ve been missing for more than three hundred years. The Buddhist Sect searched for you all these years and never found you. So this is where you were.”
“Where is this?” Dharmapara Bodhisattva asked again.
The tower spirit answered softly:
“This is the Zen forest, the Buddha’s place of seclusion. You, you’re inside the Bodhi tree, with only a wisp of remnant soul left.”
Dharmapara Bodhisattva froze, then muttered:
“The Zen forest, inside the Bodhi tree… the Zen forest, inside the Bodhi tree…”
He kept muttering to himself, over and over, giving the impression of a walking corpse already dead in body, one that needed someone to rouse him.
Xu Qi’an asked at once:
“Dharmapara Bodhisattva, do you still remember what happened to you?”
Dharmapara Bodhisattva’s face twisted, and his voice turned shrill and anguished:
“The Buddha is Shenshu. Shenshu is the Buddha.
“It was Him who ate me, it was Him who ate me…”
“Why would the Buddha eat you?” Xu Qi’an pressed urgently.
Dharmapara Bodhisattva didn’t answer. He only screamed in mad anguish:
“He isn’t the Buddha, He isn’t the Buddha.”
Xu Qi’an didn’t know what the old monk, the tower spirit, was feeling, but he could clearly feel goosebumps rising on his own skin.
“Who is He?” Xu Qi’an shouted.
Dharmapara Bodhisattva’s cries gradually stopped. The face protruding from the surface of the trunk became dull once more, and the delirious murmur returned:
“Save me, save me…”
The old monk, the tower spirit, spoke from inside the tower, his voice carrying sorrow and desolation:
“Time’s up. This is all I can do. Please draw out his soul and send it into the tower for nourishment.”
As he spoke, the exquisite little tower opened its door, and a streak of light shot out, turning into a damaged bronze mirror in Xu Qi’an’s palm.
The bear claw gripped the Huntian Divine Mirror and shone it on Dharmapara Bodhisattva.
The face “carved” into the trunk was slowly drawn out bit by bit. During the process, Xu Qi’an instinctively let his thoughts spread and began to think hard.
The Buddha is Shenshu, that’s the same as the intelligence we got before… Buddhism has so many Bodhisattvas, so why did the Buddha eat Dharmapara Bodhisattva? He isn’t the Buddha. Was it because Dharmapara Bodhisattva discovered this secret, or was there another reason
If the Beyond-rank within Ananda isn’t the Buddha, then who is it? Shit, Shenshu’s gone into the Demon Suppressing Ravine…
…
Ananda, main peak.
Agaruka Bodhisattva awoke from meditation and opened his eyes. The first thing he did was form the Immovable Lord seal. Only then did he relax enough to inspect his surroundings.
In the eyes of this Bodhisattva, everything in Ananda at this moment, all things and all matter, was filled with Buddha nature. Even a tree, a stone, a patch of earth possessed profound Buddha nature and gave off a faint Buddhist light.
This was caused by the Great Sun Tathagata Dharma Aspect. Wherever the Buddhist light shone, that was the Buddhist kingdom.
At the same time as he awoke, al-Asura nearby also woke up. This traitor didn’t say a word, he simply leapt away at once and rapidly widened the distance between them.
Agaruka didn’t pursue. He maintained his hand seal, for he still hadn’t seen where Xu Qi’an was, nor did he know whether Shenshu was lurking nearby.
“Shenshu’s gone!”
At that moment, he heard Vaidurya’s pleasant, ethereal but emotionless voice.
Only then did Agaruka withdraw the Immovable Lord Dharma Aspect. With a stern and majestic expression, he rose and slowly swept his gaze behind him.
In his line of sight was a charred black humanoid figure, frozen in the posture of charging forwards. Judging by the Sovereign Sword in the burnt corpse’s hand, it was undoubtedly Xu Qi’an.
No life aura. Dead? Agaruka withdrew his gaze, then noticed that neither Vaidurya nor Samantabhadra was looking at Xu Qi’an. Instead, they were staring at a row of enormous footprints, black and glossy, from which one could imagine their owner’s agony as he walked on under searing torment.
The footprints disappeared into the depths of Ananda.
Shenshu had gone to the Demon Suppressing Ravine to search for his head.
Agaruka’s heart stirred. He seized the opportunity, the muscles in his legs swelling as he unleashed explosive force and shot towards Xu Qi’an.
Vaidurya Bodhisattva took the chance to unfold the colourless lapis lazuli domain. The black-and-white domain spread over the ground like water, and wherever it passed, all colour retreated and turned black and white.
Crack, crack!
Above Samantabhadra Bodhisattva’s head rose a metal wheel. The Sanskrit character representing “human” lit up, and the swastika at the core of the wheel turned to face Xu Qi’an directly.
Those beyond-mortals who had escaped could be ignored for the time being. They first had to join forces and eliminate this first rank martial artist, the greatest threat, then head to the Demon Suppressing Ravine to deal with Shenshu.
…
Demon Suppressing Ravine.
The headless Shenshu dispersed his Dharma Aspect, descended to the bottom of the abyss, and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Shenshu’s body was covered in charred black marks, over which a thin shell of ice was gradually forming.
The temperature in the Demon Suppressing Ravine was extremely low. If an ordinary person stayed here, a single breath would freeze and injure the lungs.
The place was terrifyingly silent. Not a single monk could be seen, as if this were a frozen hell.
Shenshu did not hesitate. He lifted a foot and stepped into the cave.
His pace was firm, neither fast nor slow. Before long, he heard long, drawn-out breathing from the depths of the darkness.
Bursts of cold wind blew straight at him, like the breath of a giant dragon.
Shenshu raised a finger and ignited his qi. With a puff, a flame leapt up, dispelling the darkness and lighting the surroundings.
Then he saw the scene around him, and it was enough to make one’s scalp crawl.
The stone walls of the mountain cave were tender red flesh, covered in blood vessels, rising and falling rhythmically like the beating of a heart.
Directly in front of Shenshu, embedded in that “flesh wall”, was a head.
It had the classic appearance of the Asura race, a square face, high nose, lips neither thick nor thin, and prominent brow bones without eyebrows, making it look exceptionally valiant.
Presumably, even among the Asura race, he had once been a rare handsome man.
The breathing sound was coming from this head. The head was submerged in the flesh, growing within it. More precisely, the breathing sound was being made by this enormous “monster”.
“You’ve come!”
The head opened its eyes and looked at Shenshu with cold indifference.
“You shouldn’t have come!”
The head spoke again, its voice low and carrying a sigh.
The two voices before and after had clearly different emotional tones, as if they did not come from the same person.
The voice that had spoken second continued:
“He has waited for this day for five hundred years.”
Then the head said coldly:
“Are you ready to return to my body?”
The second voice sneered:
“Return? You mean be suppressed for all eternity. Five hundred years have passed, you’ve already amassed enough power.”
The first voice said coldly:
“You have no other choice.”
Shenshu’s body roared:
“Shut up! Today I’m taking it away, and no one can stop me.”
He strode forwards, wrapped both hands around the head embedded in the fleshy wall, and pulled with all his might.
At once, the flesh wall was dragged out of shape, yet the head remained firmly embedded within it. Even with Shenshu’s monstrous strength, he still couldn’t wrench it free.
“Hah!”
His navel split open and let out a shout. The muscles all over his body instantly bulged, qi surging through his meridians in rolling torrents, filling him with vast, overflowing power.
Only under this full exertion did the head embedded in the flesh begin to be pulled out little by little, inch by inch separating from the wall.
At that moment, the “stone walls” around them suddenly came alive, writhing violently. Their stone shells fell away with a clatter, and beneath the peeling shell was still tender red flesh.
The entire cave seemed like the inside of some enormous living being.
The flesh walls contracted wildly, and from them extended one tentacle after another, wrapping towards Shenshu.
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