The Daoist frowned in thought, then shook his head helplessly.
“I’ve never heard of such a method. It was probably created in the Daoist Venerable’s later years and never passed down.”
After a pause, he looked at Xu Qi’an and said:
“However, although I don’t know the details too clearly, the general process involves sloughing off the old shell. For beyond-mortal Daoists, the cost would certainly be immense, but not unbearable. But you’re a martial artist…”
A first rank martial artist had vitality, qi, and spirit fused into one. It wasn’t as if the body could simply be discarded.
Take Wei Yuan for example. His primordial spirit was at second rank, but his fleshly body was that of an ordinary man, which meant Wei Yuan couldn’t truly bring out his battle strength.
Daoists were different. As long as the primordial spirit, or rather the Yang Spirit, remained, their battle strength wouldn’t be impaired.
Li Miaozhen consoled him:
“At least it’s a method worth learning from. If there’s a chance, we should still find a way to get hold of it.”
Beside them, al-Asura said flatly:
“Xu Ningyan is in the prime of life. There’s no need for him to consider such things. Besides, the Warlock God and the Gu God are about to break free of their seals. Dealing with them is the most urgent matter.”
If they couldn’t deal with them, then Xu Ningyan wouldn’t need to think about immortality anyway. The Beyond-rank wouldn’t let him live.
Xu Qi’an pinched the bridge of his nose and said:
“Let’s stop here for today. If anything comes up, send word through the Earth Book.”
…
In the night, Nalan Tianlu rode auspicious clouds back to Mount Jing City, the headquarters of the Church of the Warlock God.
This mighty city, where most of the Church of the Warlock God’s experts had gathered, slumbered beneath the tranquil moonlight, with the desolate Mount Jing behind it.
Nalan Tianlu descended from the clouds and drifted into the Hall of Warlocks.
Classical stone pillars held up the soaring dome, yet didn’t make the hall feel chopped up and fragmented. It remained absurdly spacious.
On both sides of the crimson carpet were rows of candlesticks, their red candles burning brightly.
At the end of the hall was a base more than ten metres high, upon which stood an enormous stone chair, like an exclusive throne built for a giant.
Beside the throne stood the Great Warlock Sarun Agu. He held a lamb in his arms and wore the cloak symbolic of Warlocks.
“How went the battle in the Western Regions?”
Sarun Agu looked down at the Rain Master stepping into the hall, his deep voice echoing through the empty chamber.
Nalan Tianlu stopped beside the base and shook his head.
“Shenshu recovered his head. Great Feng’s side withdrew after succeeding, and neither side’s beyond-mortal experts suffered casualties…”
He gave Sarun Agu a detailed account of the battle.
“A half-step Martial God has returned to the world. The Central Plains and the Southern Marches now have a little substance to stand on. If Xu Qi’an advances smoothly again and steps into the ranks of a half-step Martial God, then with the strength of two half-step Martial Gods, the Central Plains may truly be able to contend with Beyond-rank beings.”
Sarun Agu sighed.
A half-step Martial God was indeed terrifying, but what Sarun Agu saw even more clearly was Xu Qi’an’s power. Without him leading the affair and assisting Shenshu, today’s outcome might have been very different.
Without anyone noticing, that insignificant figure had already reached such a level.
From mildly famous to unmatched under heaven, he had needed only two and a half years.
A terrifying rising tide.
“A half-step Martial God isn’t so easily attained.” Nalan Tianlu wasn’t worried in the slightest.
“We still can’t put our mind at ease.” Sarun Agu shook his head slightly.
“The Jianzheng supporting Xu Qi’an must be for much more than merely him becoming a first rank martial artist. If you say he left no trump card behind, I won’t believe it. However, throughout history, only Shenshu has ever reached the half-step Martial God realm.
“For Xu Qi’an to step into that realm, at least in the short term, is impossible.”
The Great Warlock didn’t know the method for advancing to half-step Martial God, but because of the importance he attached to the Jianzheng and his understanding of him, he believed the Jianzheng must have a way.
Nalan Tianlu asked:
“Great Warlock, do you know why the Buddha became so strange?”
Sarun Agu said coolly:
“He resembles a monster, so naturally he must have cast off emotion and lacks the feelings proper to living beings. Among all the major systems, apart from martial artists, the higher the rank, the easier it is to sever emotions. For the Buddha to have made such a grave mistake…”
As for the Buddha’s abnormality, he could only explain it as having “made a mistake”.
So cutting away emotion is a grave mistake… Nalan Tianlu silently committed this information to memory, then asked:
“And what about the Buddha’s Dharma Aspect?”
He meant that the Buddha could only display the Great Sun Tathagata Dharma Aspect, and not any other Dharma Aspect.
Sarun Agu pondered for a moment, then said:
“My guess is that on that day, the Jianzheng borrowed the Confucian Sage’s power and wounded the Buddha.
“The Buddha had already broken free of the Confucian Sage’s seal long ago, one step ahead of both the Gu God and the Warlock God. It is highly likely that he intends to seize the initiative and swallow up the Central Plains.”
Nalan Tianlu’s expression immediately turned grave.
…
The capital, the Tower of Noble Spirit.
“That’s how it all happened.”
Xu Qi’an finished his long account, took a sip of flower tea, and felt the rich fragrance spread across his taste buds.
“So the Buddha was the Daoist Venerable’s Human Sect avatar.” Wei Yuan first sighed, then said:
“He sent Arhat Duqing to silence the ancient corpse. There must have been a reason why it absolutely had to be silenced.”
Xu Qi’an frowned and said:
“This matter is secret, but even if it leaked out, it wouldn’t have too much of an impact on the Buddha. I still can’t understand why he had to silence the ancient corpse. Does Duke Wei have any thoughts?”
Wei Yuan smiled.
“When your line of thought is wrong, step back and don’t burrow into a dead end.
“You think it wouldn’t affect the Buddha, but that’s based on your own understanding. Yet you’re not the Buddha, nor can you represent the other Beyond-rank beings. Perhaps the Buddha simply didn’t want a certain someone to see through it.”
Xu Qi’an raised his brows, pondered for a moment, then shook his head.
“Let’s not think about that for now. There are more urgent matters to deal with. Now that Shenshu has completed his body, there’s no need for the Buddha to remain dormant. He may well retaliate against the Central Plains. Duke Wei, we can’t fail to guard against that.”
Wei Yuan glanced at him.
“You’ve only just started thinking about this now?”
Xu Qi’an returned a look that said, “What’s wrong with that?”
“Al-Asura said long ago that the Confucian Sage’s statue was destroyed, and the Buddha slept for five hundred years in order to suppress Shenshu’s head. Since you were determined to reclaim the head, then after succeeding, the first thing you’d have to face would be the Buddha’s retaliation.
“I’m not asking you to think ten steps ahead. Surely you can manage two.” Wei Yuan looked like he was exasperated by someone who failed to live up to expectations.
Xu Qi’an sighed.
“Of course I’d thought of that. It’s just that I didn’t have any good ideas. At worst, we’ll join forces with Shenshu and the various beyond-mortal experts, and fight the Buddha once more.”
Shenshu’s strength had soared, and with so many experts helping him, they certainly had the power to go head-on against Buddhism. That was Xu Qi’an’s strategy.
“Well, it’ll do, I suppose.”
Wei Yuan offered a very reluctant compliment, then said:
“I made a promise to Arhat Du’e on your behalf. In future, the Great Feng will honour Mahayana Buddhism as the state religion and allow Mahayana believers from the Western Regions to migrate into the Central Plains. This will both weaken the Buddha’s fortune and strengthen Great Feng’s foundations.
“Since we’re going to be enemies of a Beyond-rank, the corresponding arrangements should have been prepared beforehand.”
Bloody hell, you old bastard, you actually turned Du’e?! Xu Qi’an was thoroughly shocked.
According to al-Asura, Du’e was a devout Buddhist arhat who always put the Buddhist Sect first. How could he possibly be won over so easily?
Wei Yuan said coolly:
“As long as one is human, one has desires, pursuits, and ideals. Grasp what they want, and you needn’t fear lacking an opportunity. And so long as there’s an opportunity, they can be won over.
“Besides, at this point, we can try forming an alliance with the Church of the Warlock God.”
Xu Qi’an gave a hum.
“Although the Church of the Warlock God loathes the Great Feng, there’s now enough reason to persuade Sarun Agu.”
Wei Yuan was right. If the Buddha began to erode the Central Plains, the Church of the Warlock God would absolutely not stand by and watch.
“Yes. The Church of the Warlock God will stop at nothing to delay matters until the Warlock God returns to the world. And we also have to delay matters, until you advance to half-step Martial God, or at the very least to the middle stage of first rank.” Wei Yuan said:
“Have you got any ideas on how to advance to half-step Martial God?”
Xu Qi’an shook his head.
That long-familiar sense of urgency welled up in him again. Ever since advancing to beyond-mortal, he had been driven onward by that “sense of urgency”.
He hadn’t dared relax for even a moment.
Yet even so, he was still far from enough.
Having reached first rank, advancing further was harder than ascending to heaven.
But the time left to him was even shorter than the time left to the national football team.1
If he wanted to stand firm through the coming catastrophe and defend the Central Plains, he had to advance to half-step Martial God.
Half-step Martial God. Across all the ages, only Shenshu had ever reached that realm.
The difficulty hardly needed saying.
Wei Yuan pondered, then said:
“I’ll point you towards a clear road. Go out to sea.
“Desolation couldn’t possibly have killed every last descendant of gods and demons. It most likely only targeted the powerful descendants. The ‘Hell Silkworm’ you saw is proof enough. Didn’t the Nine-tailed Fox go out to sea before? Ask her for a map and detailed intelligence.”
Xu Qi’an nodded.
“That was my thought as well.”
After his failed hunt for Agaruka Bodhisattva, his only way forward was to sail out to sea and hunt descendants of gods and demons.
“Oh, right, Duke Wei. There’s something I’ve never told you.” Xu Qi’an took a deep breath.
“The Gu God told me that the original first rank martial artist of the Central Plains should have been you. The Jianzheng’s original choice was you.”
He told Wei Yuan about the future foreseen by the Gu God.
Wei Yuan sat silently for a long time, then slowly nodded. He looked deeply at Xu Qi’an.
“The Jianzheng chose me. He may not have been right. But both the Jianzheng and I chose you, so that must be right.”
Then he smiled.
“I’m very satisfied with my life as it is now, Ningyan. You can just treat it as suffering in my place.”
Xu Qi’an gave a bitter smile. “Perhaps this is fate.”
…
The Western Regions.
Arhat Du’e travelled through the night back to Ananda. What met his eyes was nothing but ruins, collapsed stone and heaps of earth piled into mounds of varying heights.
It was as if the ground had been scraped away by several layers, and it was riddled with fissures. For dozens of miles around, the traces of the great battle were everywhere.
On the plain before the ruins, more than three thousand monks sat cross-legged, chanting sutras in the darkness to deliver the dead.
Wave after wave of Sanskrit chanting blended into one continuous sound.
Arhat Du’e had been mentally prepared, but after seeing Ananda’s devastation with his own eyes, powerful grief and desolation still surged up in his heart.
Ananda, this sacred mountain of the Western Regions, had been utterly destroyed.
To the devout monks, this was no different from destroying the faith in their hearts.
Du’e too was a devout disciple of Buddhism, and his feelings were extraordinarily complicated.
“Amitabha.”
Arhat Du’e pressed his palms together, his face full of sorrow.
“Who were you defeated by?”
At that moment, a voice that made it impossible to tell male from female, young from old, sounded behind him.
The Chinese national football team. So laughably bad it’s a meme in its own country. ↩
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