The ruler of the Wanyao Kingdom straightened her slim waist and sat up from the couch. The few pounds of charm on her chest quivered from the movement.
Li Miaozhen, al-Asura, and the other beyond-mortal experts also rose from beside the table.
The silver-haired Yao enchantress strode out. Li Miaozhen and the others hurried after her. Zhao Shou had originally wanted to show off a bit of a Confucian cultivator’s methods, but his injuries were far too severe, so he gave up on the idea.
He obediently followed behind the Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox.
The night sky was clear, with a full moon hanging high above and countless stars strewn across the darkness.
Wanyao City had sunk into slumber in the night. The Yao were a people who valued regular routines very highly. They didn’t have as many human whims and fancies, playing deep into the night and drinking till dawn.
The group quickly arrived at the sealing tower. The tower doors stood open, and bright candlelight spilled out.
Xu Qi’an and Shenshu sat facing each other inside the tower in conversation. Seeing everyone arrive together, both turned to look. One smiled and waved, the other gave a stiff nod with a solemn face.
Zhao Shou and the others stepped into the sealing tower and solemnly bowed to the half-step Martial God.
Only the nine-tailed fox still looked as unruly as ever, like a flirtatious, ill-mannered wild girl with no sense of propriety.
After everyone had taken their seats, Shenshu said slowly:
“I know you’ve a lot you want to ask me. I’ll tell you everything about myself, exactly as it happened.”
Everyone perked up.
Shenshu did not begin at once. He spent a moment recalling the past, then in a slow voice began to speak of his own story.
“More than five hundred years ago, the Buddha broke free of part of the seal and gained the freedom to let a little of his power seep out. In order to break the Confucian Sage’s shackles as quickly as possible, he pondered bitterly and finally came up with a method.
“That was to tear off part of his own soul and inject his emotions into that part. Then he fused it into the body of the Asura King. At the time, the Asura King was already on the verge of total soul-destruction, with only a wisp of remnant soul left unextinguished within him. This part of the Buddha’s soul fused with the Asura King’s remnant soul and became an entirely new soul.
“That is me. I possess part of the Buddha’s soul and memories, and I also possess the Asura King’s memories and soul. I was often unable to tell whether I was the Asura King or the Buddha.”
The expressions of the beyond-mortal beings inside the tower all varied.
So that’s how it is. That matches my guess pretty closely. Shenshu really is the Buddha’s “other side”. Some external Beyond-rank possessing the Buddha was never a thing. Well, as a Beyond-rank, the Buddha isn’t someone who can just be possessed on a whim… Xu Qi’an suddenly understood.
He then looked towards al-Asura and the Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox, and found that the “brother and sister” were wearing matching looks of complicated emotion.
Forget you not being able to tell, even your son and daughter can’t tell whether their father is the Asura King or the Buddha… Xu Qi’an grumbled inwardly.
“The Buddha made an agreement with me. As long as I helped convert the Wanyao Kingdom, made the Southern Yao convert to Buddhism, and helped him gather fortune and break free of his seal, he would completely sever his connection with me and return me my freedom.
“He injected emotion into my soul and deepened my sense that I was the Buddha, because he feared I would regret it. I agreed to him, and after my cultivation had greatly advanced, I left Ananda and went to the Southern Marches.”
Shenshu spoke at length, recounting a story long buried in history.
“The first time I met her was in the eigth month, at the hottest height of summer in the Southern Marches. Three hundred li west of Wanyao Mountain, there was a place called Twins Lake. The waters were clear, and beside the lakes grew a kind of spiritual flower called ‘Twins’. It was said that if eaten, it could cause one to bear twins.
“I travelled south all the way from the Western Regions and passed by Twins Lake. While I was drinking and resting by the shore, waves suddenly burst across the surface, and she emerged naked from the water. The sunlight was brilliant. Her fair body was covered in droplets that reflected seven-coloured halos, and behind her were nine beautiful, flaunting fox tails.
“When she saw me, she wasn’t shy in the slightest. Instead, grinning, she asked me, ‘How long’ve you been peeking at this ruler while I bathed?’”
At a moment like that, you should’ve stolen the clothes she’d left on the shore and then asked her to marry you. Maybe she’d have thought you were an honest, dependable man and chosen to marry you… Thinking this, Xu Qi’an instinctively looked around. Only when he realised Protector Yuan wasn’t here did he relax.
As expected, fox spirits are passionate and open… Xu Qi’an then turned to look at the Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox.
“What are you looking at!”
The silver-haired enchantress and Li Miaozhen both shot up their brows angrily at the same time.
Xu Qi’an withdrew his gaze, and Shenshu continued:
“She asked me whether I was from the Western Regions. I said yes, and she immediately dropped her smiling manner and struck at me viciously. At the time, the Buddhist sect of the Western Regions and the Wanyao Kingdom often had conflicts. Buddhism liked to subdue powerful Yao and make them into mounts.
“She said I was handsome and valiant, and wanted to take me as a male favourite.”
Agree, Master, you need to seize your own future… Xu Qi’an joked inwardly, dispelling that feeling of melancholy born of the changes of ages.
Handsome and valiant? Zhao Shou and the others scrutinised Shenshu’s features with dubious looks, suspecting he was bragging.
Even al-Asura, of the same Asura race, felt Shenshu was boasting a bit too much.
The silver-haired Yao enchantress said flatly:
“We Nine-tailed Heavenly Foxes only like men who are strong and fierce. We’re not like human women, who only fancy oily-faced pretty boys.”
Men who are strong and fierce… Li Miaozhen glanced at Xu Qi’an, then when she looked at the silver-haired enchantress again, there was an extra trace of wariness in her eyes.
“And then?” Xu Qi’an asked.
“And then I beat her up, and she behaved herself. She said she was willing to take only me as her male favourite and absolutely wouldn’t be of two minds.” Shenshu smiled. “At the time, I just happened to be worrying about how to infiltrate the Wanyao Kingdom. The Yao were extremely resistant to Buddhist monks. Even if my cultivation was powerful and I could subdue them by force, it would still have been hard to convince them with reason.
“After that, I stayed in the Wanyao Kingdom under the identity of the ruler’s male favourite, and spent the happiest several decades of my life there.”
At this point, Shenshu looked at the Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox, his tone gentle.
“In the thirtieth year, you were born.”
No, you went there to convert them, not to be assimilated by them. Master, your Buddhist faith wasn’t firm enough. But then, who doesn’t love a fox spirit? Beautiful, rich, and seductive. If it were me, I wouldn’t have been able to hold out either… Xu Qi’an’s heart stirred, and he said:
“Was that why you and the Buddha fell out?”
Shenshu shook his head and said in a deep voice:
“My task had actually already been completed. She hesitated for several decades, but once the child was born, she finally agreed to convert to Buddhism and let the Wanyao Kingdom become a Buddhist vassal, so long as the Buddhist Sect agreed to let the kingdom govern itself.
“I gladly returned to the Buddhist sect and informed the Buddha and the Bodhisattvas of this matter. The Buddha also agreed, and afterwards sent Bodhisattvas, Arhats, and Vajras from Ananda to take charge of the Wanyao Kingdom.”
At this point, his expression suddenly grew gloomy.
“She opened her gates wide to welcome the Buddhists, but what came was slaughter by them. The Buddha broke his promise. He had never intended to return my freedom, never intended to spare the Wanyao Kingdom. I was merely the pawn responsible for scouting the road for him.
“He wanted to wipe out the Wanyao Kingdom at the smallest possible cost and bring the fortune of the Hundred Thousand Mountains into Buddhism.”
The Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox pressed her lips together, her expression dark.
Recalling the records in the history books, Zhao Shou suddenly understood.
“No wonder. The history books say that the Buddhists killed the Queen of the Wanyao at Wanyao Mountain, and the Yao fled in panic. They then immediately fought a guerrilla resistance war against Buddhism in the Hundred Thousand Mountains, and it took a full sixty years before the fighting was completely pacified.
“History calls it the sixty-year extermination of the Yao.”
If the Yao had been on guard and had rallied the strength of the whole kingdom, the Buddhists probably wouldn’t have found it so easy to destroy the Wanyao Kingdom. Back then, they had used a surprise attack to deal with the kingdom’s top experts. Most of the Yao had been scattered throughout the Hundred Thousand Mountains, and at the time they hadn’t had time to react.
That was why the following sixty-year war happened.
Even after losing their top experts, the Yao still resisted for sixty years. One could imagine just how powerful the greatest Yao race in Jiuzhou had once been.
Xu Qi’an frowned and said:
“I heard from Her Highness that back then, the Great Sun Tathagata Dharma Aspect rose from within your body. The Buddha could still control you?”
Shenshu nodded.
“This was His trump card, a hidden move He left behind when He separated me back then. At the time, I only sensed a power that was difficult to control, and didn’t know its true nature. The Buddha told me this was an inseparable connection between Him and me, born from the same source. If I wanted freedom, I could only erase that power.
“And the price was to help it convert the Wanyao Kingdom and help it escape its predicament.”
So that’s it… Xu Qi’an and the Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox nodded in sudden understanding.
The latter asked,
“And even now, you can still fuse? What’s going on with the Buddha’s condition? It seems very abnormal.”
She voiced the doubt Li Miaozhen had raised earlier.
The spirits of the beyond-mortal experts lifted, and they listened patiently.
Shenshu frowned.
“In my memory, the Buddha was human. That shouldn’t be wrong. Although my memories only stop at the point after He became Beyond-rank, He is me, and I am Him. I know what I am.”
Xu Qi’an pressed,
“Then why has He become what He is now?”
Shenshu slowly shook his head.
“I don’t know what happened to Him over these past five hundred years. But He is even more terrifying like this. There’s something, and I don’t know whether you’ve noticed it.”
He looked at Xu Qi’an. “The Buddha can no longer be called a ‘living being’. His mind is abnormal.”
Like some terrifying monster, a monster without emotion… Xu Qi’an nodded and said thoughtfully,
“Could it be because He transferred most of His emotions onto you?”
Back then, the Buddha had transferred most of its emotions onto Shenshu, deepening his recognition that he was the Buddha, in order to stop the memories belonging to the Asura King from taking the lead and causing this ‘avatar’ to slip out of control.
But had there really been no price to pay for that?
Perhaps His current state was exactly the price.
So that was why it wanted to use this opportunity to absorb Shenshu and complete Himself?
At that moment, the Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox looked at Xu Qi’an and said,
“Where’s the Bear King?”
Xu Qi’an stretched out his hand. Golden light gathered in his palm and formed into an exquisite miniature golden pagoda.
“It was injured a little, and is sleeping inside the tower. I’ve already healed its injuries with the Medicine Buddha Dharma Aspect…”
As he spoke, Xu Qi’an’s expression suddenly changed, and his pupils contracted slightly.
“What is it?” everyone asked.
“I think I understand why the Buddha wanted to eat Dharmapara Bodhisattva.” Xu Qi’an took a deep breath, swept his gaze around the circle, and said in a low voice,
“There’s a detail you’ve all noticed as well. It seemed unable to use any of the eight great Dharma Aspects apart from the Great Sun Tathagata Dharma Aspect. When it ate Dharmapara Bodhisattva, what it really wanted was the power of the Great Wisdom Dharma Aspect. It needed the Great Wisdom Dharma Aspect to stay lucid, to stop itself from completely turning into a mindless monster…”
The more one thought about this guess, the more terrifying it became, yet it also made perfect sense, matching their earlier speculation.
“Unfortunately, only a wisp of remnant soul is left of Dharmapara Bodhisattva, and he can’t remember much.” Xu Qi’an looked at Daoist Jinlian.
“I’ll have to trouble you, Daoist Jinlian, to restore Dharmapara Bodhisattva’s soul.”
Daoist Jinlian nodded and agreed.
“Now that Master Shenshu’s head has been recovered, the Buddha has no reason to keep sleeping. It may retaliate against the Southern Marches, and even against the Great Feng. We can’t let our guard down,” Zhao Shou said gravely.
“I need to go back and discuss this with Wei Yuan…” Xu Qi’an pinched the bridge of his nose.
They talked for quite some time. Since Shenshu needed to recuperate and recover his strength, they departed one after another.
Zhao Shou and the others were badly injured. They had intended to stay for the night in the Wanyao Kingdom and recover, but Xu Qi’an stood in the square outside the Sealing Tower, glanced into the night, and said,
“We’re going back to the Great Feng first. There’s something I want to verify.”
With that, he brought out the Stupa tower and gestured for them to enter and rest inside.
Seeing that he had no intention of explaining, Li Miaozhen and the others didn’t ask further, and leapt into the tower.
Bang!
The tower doors shut. Amid a piercing sonic boom, Xu Qi’an shot into the night sky like an arrow and vanished beyond the horizon in an instant.
From the Hundred Thousand Mountains to the capital, a distance of over a hundred thousand li, Xu Qi’an took only an hour to return.
The majestic city sat upon the vast earth, its lights scattered like stars. The closer one got to the imperial palace, the denser the lights became.
At dusk, Huaiqing had sent a message through the Earth Book fragment to inform them that the Great Warlock’s assault had already been repelled. With the strength of a Rank Two martial artist, Kou Yangzhou had beaten Arhat Du’e into not daring to enter the capital, forcing him to flee back to the Western Regions, after which Kou Yangzhou had gone straight to the main battlefield to support Luo Yuheng and the others.
Regrettably, the Great Warlock had been too sly. The moment he saw that crude Rank Two martial artist charging over, he immediately withdrew with the two spirit wisdom masters.
In this battle, Senior Kou Yangzhou had taken the MVP… Xu Qi’an had been genuinely surprised when he heard the news.
He thought to himself that Senior Kou had finally risen at last.
Tap… Xu Qi’an landed on the Bagua Platform, brought out the Stupa tower, and released Li Miaozhen, al-Asura, and the other beyond-mortal experts.
Then he led the group all the way down towards the underground levels beneath the Stargazing Tower.
There were three underground levels beneath the Stargazing Tower in total. The first level held ordinary prisoners, and had once become Zhong Li’s private suite for a time.
The bottom level, meanwhile, held extraordinary powerful beings.
At Xu Qi’an’s signal, Sun Xuanji activated one restriction after another, and they arrived at the lowest level.
Senior Brother Sun lifted his foot and stamped. A circular array of clear light appeared, and within it stood a monkey with no clothes on.
Protector Yuan, covered all over in white fur, looked a little shy. He had grown used to wearing human clothes, so baring his furry jade body in full view of the crowd inevitably made him embarrassed.
Soon enough, however, he entered work mode. After studying Sun Xuanji for a moment, he read his thoughts and said,
“You want to see Arhat Duqing?”
Back in Yongzhou, Arhat Duqing had been the main force in the attempt to capture Xu Qi’an. He had been defeated by Luo Yuheng, and later, in exchange for having the Demon-Sealing Nails removed, he had won himself a way to live.
The Jianzheng had promised Arhat Duqing that he would be imprisoned beneath the Stargazing Tower for three years, and once the three-year term was up, he would be given back his freedom.
Xu Qi’an nodded and gave a quiet “Mm.”
Sun Xuanji led the group of beyond-mortal experts through the dark, oppressive corridor and reached an iron door at the far end.
He first took out an octagonal bronze mirror and fitted it into the octagonal recess in the iron door. The bronze mirror was like a 3D projector, casting out a complex formation.
Without changing expression, Senior Brother Sun adjusted and inscribed the formation lines. After more than ten breaths, the bolts inside the iron door clicked one after another as they sprang open.
Amid the slightly heavy grinding sound, he pushed open the thick iron door.
Inside, it was pitch black. Using teleportation, Sun Xuanji summoned an oil lamp. The faint candlelight dispersed the darkness and brought a dim yellow glow.
On a pile of dry straw sat an old monk in meditation, his white brows hanging down on either side of his cheeks.
The gaunt old monk opened his eyes and looked gently and calmly at this group of powerful beings who had suddenly come calling. His gaze lingered very slightly on al-Asura and Xu Qi’an.
“The two of you are standing together. It seems that in the more than half a year I’ve spent underground, many things have happened outside.”
Arhat Duqing spoke flatly.
Xu Qi’an nodded and said,
“A great many things have indeed happened. Does Arhat Duqing want to know about them?”
The old monk didn’t answer, wearing an air of letting things take their course.
Xu Qi’an continued,
“But before that, this Silver Gong has something to ask you.”
Arhat Duqing said,
“What is it?”
Xu Qi’an stared at him.
“Outside Yongzhou City, in the underground palace, that ancient corpse, was it you who killed it?”
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