Chapter 329 Various (Three in One)
"To do what is possible but not to do it is to break the precepts. A treacherous cultivator is evil, so we must eliminate her immediately!"
"Deceitful cultivators are evil, and the demonic ways are equally evil. Deceitful cultivators commit evil and harm others, while the demonic ways commit endless evil. Comparing the two evils, the former, a temporary evil, is minor; the latter, an eternal evil, is a greater evil. If the greater evil is not eliminated first, the lesser evils will never be stopped!"
Beyond the sprawling Zhongqu Mountains, the gathering Buddhist cultivators gradually split into two camps, each sitting behind Jingmen or Wuqinghua, engaging in passionate debate. Their debate was no longer about whether to kill a treacherous cultivator, but rather about the fundamental principle of eliminating evil and cultivating good.
The golden light of the cassocks, which formed waves, shone like the rising tide. Even though it was almost dusk, the place was still extremely bright.
There were tens of thousands of people here, compared to the hundreds who initially besieged Luo Xuanyi. Almost all of them had come here to hear about the debate between Jingmen and Wu Qinghua. The latecomers listened to the earlier arrivals recount Luo Xuanyi's remarks and the arguments between the two sides, and before they knew it, they had split into two factions, locked in a bitter dispute.
Jingmen and Wu Qinghua either closed their eyes in silence or stared into the distance with a smile. They did not speak for a long time, just listening to the argument between the two sides.
"No matter how big or small the evil is, the right thing to do is to eliminate it all! We can split our troops into two groups, one to kill the evil cultivators, and the other to unite with the six major alliances to attack the evil sect." A Buddhist cultivator came out to stir up trouble, but was refuted by both sides.
"Attacking the demonic sect is such a serious matter, how can we treat it lightly? We have to prioritize things. The correct thing to do is to strangle the treacherous cultivators and stop them from doing evil. Moreover, the six major alliances are currently in internal strife and are unable to take care of themselves. There are even rumors that the alliance leaders are colluding with evil cultivators. Don't speak nonsense!"
The men standing behind Jingmen were all seasoned veterans. The speaker was the powerful Fang Zhen, wielding the third supreme Buddhist treasure, the Hundred Evils Slayer. Even among those in the Void Refinement Stage, his prestige rivaled that of Wu Qinghua. His commanding voice was so commanding that it instantly silenced the others.
Different from these mature and steady Buddhist elders, most of the people behind Wu Qinghua are talented people who have reached the Nascent Soul stage at a young age. Their number is seven or eight times that of the opposite side. They are arrogant and proud, and are not overwhelmed by the true energy of Fang.
"Ever since the Daowang Sect was destroyed, you, in the name of prudence, have allowed the demonic cultivators to become a threat, causing countless suffering. And now you are still cowering in fear. I'm afraid you won't lift a finger until the demonic cultivators attack the Great Freedom Hall and smash the Buddha's golden statue!"
"you!"
"The sooner we attack the Demonic Path, the better. The correct solution is to destroy them once and for all, making it difficult for them to make a comeback. Dividing our forces to attack them is nothing but a pointless waste of lives and time!"
As the scene gradually became chaotic, Jingmen slowly opened his eyes. A terrifying aura radiated from him. The pressure of the Spiritual Transformation Stage caused all the cultivators, who had been standing and debating with their faces flushed, to fall to their seats, sitting in half-lotus position and listening silently.
But Jingmen's first sentence was not a debate, but a faint call.
"Blue and white."
Wu Qinghua withdrew her gaze towards the south, stood up easily under the pressure with a smile on her face, and bowed to Jingmen with clasped hands.
"Master."
His posture remained unchanged, even his sleeves swaying slightly in the breeze. He looked calm and composed, as if he had achieved what he wanted. Jingmen's eyes were slightly complicated.
"Is your wish to vanquish demons and eradicate evil for personal or public benefit?"
"I have both public and private desires, but so what?" Wu Qinghua admitted generously. "Da Zi Zai also has a desire to find his parents, using the Mirror of Reflection to frequently visit his parents in the past. However, the Mirror of Reflection can also eliminate evil. Therefore, I personally believe that private desires and eliminating evil are not incompatible with heaven and earth."
"The six states are now in turmoil, but is it Shan Xuanyi who is causing the rebellion alone? The struggle for orthodoxy in the north of Zhongqu, and Dayan's desire to march south to fight, are endless. The people are suffering, and what about those in the south of Zhongqu?"
Wu Qinghua waved his sleeves in a deep voice and pointed to the south.
"You dare not speak, you don't want to listen, I want to speak!"
"For thousands of years, the Kingdom of Ran has been a fertile and fertile land, yet its national strength is weak and famines occur year after year. Why?"
"It's only because of the existence of the Mahāsūtra Hall and us! The State Controller controls the government, and those who believe in Buddhism donate their land to the Dharma instead of paying grain or taxes. To gain the blessings and longevity of reincarnation, thousands of acres of fertile land are planted with flowers for offering to the Buddha, and tens of thousands of acres of fertile land are covered with fragrant grass!"
"The clan used all the wild trees in the mountains and forests to build the great hall. They dug up gold and stone, not for sale, but used them as tiles for the hall and pieces to make golden robes."
"Such extravagance, such pathos! Those who don't follow the Dao can't live long, and even if there are thousands and thousands of Daoists, it's still difficult for them to return the favor to the nation. Instead of quelling the famine and human suffering, they daily declare the blood feud of the Six Great Alliances to cover it up."
"Why don't you return the government to the court? Why don't you return the land to the people? Why are you obsessed with material desires and disregard human life? And why do you indulge in verbal disputes instead of killing the devil?"
"I think the number of people you have killed is no less than that of the demons!"
All the cultivators shuddered, overwhelmed with shame. Wei Country had never had any aristocratic families like the Six Great Alliances; all of them were born into ordinary families. Many of them had witnessed such tragic scenes, and some initially cultivated simply to survive.
After entering the path of enlightenment with great difficulty, one pretends that those worldly troubles no longer exist, and one only pursues great freedom by turning a deaf ear to the truth.
But after Dazizai, no one ascended to become a Buddha. The older the generation, the more confused and lost they became. They eventually began to control the country's politics and entered the secular world, where they were keen on debating and fighting for power among the three major religions, and people's lives were in a state of decay.
By now, a new generation has emerged. They have long been disgusted with this kind of life and are eager to achieve something. That is why they are moved by the idea of exorcising demons and choose to follow Wu Qinghua.
For them, whether they were motivated by self-interest or public interest was no longer important. They all shouted.
"Return power to the king!"
"Eliminate the evil ways and establish the Dao body!"
Jingmen shook his head in sorrow. He had never known Wu Qinghua to yearn for the Great Freedom Hall and the Ran Kingdom so much. He had inherited the Ran Kingdom from generations of great masters, Guo Chi, and there was no way he would let Guo Chi collapse in his hands.
Wu Qinghua had never said such a thing in three hundred years and was Jingmen's most proud disciple. He must have been bewitched by the treacherous cultivator to have uttered such a foolish remark.
Jingmen was about to speak when his brows suddenly frowned.
"Zheng!"
The sky changed strangely, the Dao was in chaos, and everyone felt their souls tremble. Instinctive fear overflowed from their souls, and they all shut up and unconsciously circulated their Qi to resist.
Then, a series of distant roars and explosions erupted, a mixture of Taoist and Buddhist energy reaching them. Even Jingmen shuddered and stood up, gazing at the seemingly unchanged sky.
“…Great Freedom?”
Dao Luan only lasted for a few breaths before disappearing. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and were wondering what had happened, but they saw Jingmen turned around with a gloomy face and spoke word by word.
"The aura of the Tracing Mirror has disappeared, and Li Chi, Lian Nian, Lian Zu, and Lian Tai have perished."
All the logic in everyone's mind was blown away by this sentence.
The four people of Li Chi who possessed the Buddhist treasure, the Mirror of Return, were considered among the best in the Great Freedom Hall. But they died in less than half a day after chasing the evil cultivator?
Even the most precious treasure was lost.
"Now, do you still want to underestimate the disaster brought about by the treacherous cultivators?"
Fang Zhen, clutching his precious Bai Xie Tu, gripped the hilt tightly, hatred flickering between his brows. The four Li Chis had a friendly relationship with him, so he stood up and growled without question.
"The evil ways have already wreaked havoc in our land, killing Buddhists and stealing precious treasures. What else can we say? If you have blood in your veins, follow me and slay the demons!"
Almost all the cultivators behind Jingmen stood up, and some people on Wu Qinghua's side could not bear this and started to make a commotion.
Seeing that the double blow of the death of Li Chi and the other four and the theft of the treasure had made it inevitable to put aside the attack on the demon and hunt down Xuan Yi, Wu Qinghua was secretly anxious.
Even if he used all his strength, it would be impossible for him to stop more than ten thousand Yuanying Lianxu at once. Jingmen would not hold back this time, not to mention that Wu Qinghua was unwilling to kill his fellow disciples until the last moment.
His mind raced, trying to find a reason to extinguish the angry atmosphere, but whatever he said seemed to only add fuel to the fire.
At this moment, in the hot atmosphere, a faint sigh suddenly sounded.
"Finally back."
-
It was like a bucket of cold water poured over their heads. Everyone who heard the sound froze in place, not even daring to look back at the source of the sound.
For the younger generation, those who had just reached the Nascent Soul stage, this voice was like the Buddha's presence in the world. Countless times, as they recited scriptures and reached new realms, they could always hear this gentle voice, washing away all distracting thoughts.
However, compared to their surprise and joy, Jingmen, Wu Qinghua and others felt more frightened and even unwilling to accept it.
The person who was unwilling to accept the sudden evil spirit that appeared behind him was that person.
Jingmen's hands were even trembling slightly. Even when Wu Qinghua refuted Ran Guo and Guo Chi, he had never felt such a trembling feeling. He was reluctant to turn around and face reality.
After a moment of stalemate, among the crowd, only Wu Qinghua turned her head and nodded slightly to the person who walked out of the Zhongqu Mountains.
"Wuque Buddhist, you are back."
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone's eyes finally turned to look at this favored child of heaven who was once called the son of Buddha and the successor of Buddha, but had been missing for two hundred years.
The figure standing in the setting sun, illuminated by the orange-red light, betrayed no trace of human presence. The blood-red pupils and dark lines on his face betrayed a sinister, ghostly aura that belied his gentle, elegant voice.
Wherever the ghost Buddha passed, he left behind a trail of dark footprints. These were left by the extremely powerful death energy that eroded the earth, and the surrounding grass and trees all withered and died.
Wu Qinghua tried to recall the perfect Buddhist disciple from two hundred years ago, and the figure that she thought she had forgotten immediately appeared before her eyes.
The young man, who had reached the state of emptiness at the age of 110, never wore a golden cassock. Instead, he wore a blue-gray rattan robe. Whenever it became torn, he would personally go up the mountain to gather rattan and weave it to mend it. No one who saw him would believe that he would be the chosen one for the position of a Buddhist disciple.
Even Wu Qinghua was eclipsed by Wuque. Even after the Buddhist disciple disappeared and Jingmen strongly recommended him, he still refused the position of Buddhist disciple.
I thought that he would enter the realm of Lianxu when he was 110 years old, and one day Wu Qinghua would witness Wuque ascend to the realm of transformation and become a Buddha.
I didn't expect this day to come. He sighed slightly in his heart.
The Ghost Buddha's expression remained unchanged in the face of everyone's gazes, which were either surprised, disgusted, regretful or sympathetic. He smiled happily and bowed to Wu Qinghua with his hands clasped together, just as humble and polite as Wu Qinghua remembered.
"Brother, long time no see."
"I don't deserve it. I should call you a Buddhist disciple." Wu Qinghua subconsciously returned the greeting, her heart filled with complex emotions. "...It's been ages."
The Ghost Buddha chuckled and looked around at the Buddhist practitioners. Even though those who were dodging glances did not dare to meet his gaze, he still maintained his attitude and saluted again.
"How are you all?"
There were a few hesitant responses from the crowd; they didn't know how to face a Buddhist who was like a demon.
Logically, he should be killed for the Mahabodhiraja Palace to remove the filth.
The scattered sounds made a hint of loneliness pass through the ghost Buddha's face.
Finally, the Ghost Buddha bowed deeply to Jingmen, the only one who did not turn around, with admiration in his heart.
"Wu Que has been away for a long time and has not returned. It's true..."
"Don't say that name!"
Jingmen suddenly turned around in a rage, wiping out his sleeve as if to scatter all the words the Ghost Buddha had said, making sure they were no longer heard. He looked at the Ghost Buddha with an almost manic expression, gritting his teeth and saying, "I am a disciple of the Great Freedom Hall. How can a demon like you pretend to be one?"
The ghost Buddha looked down and saw the ground beneath his feet turned into black sand. He nodded and smiled without refuting.
Seeing him like this, Jingmen felt like a ball of cotton was stuck in his chest. He wanted to get angry, but his mouth trembled a few times before he said in a daze: "...You, where have you been?"
"I'm going to travel to Xuanchengzhou." The Ghost Buddha lowered his voice and answered gently, "Although I have entered the realm of Lianxu, it is just a dead practice. I want to see the various aspects of the world and do what I can."
A slight wry smile appeared at the corner of his lips.
"I never thought I would be caught by the demon cultivator."
“…” Jingmen clenched his fists.
Wu Que was born a pure Buddhist, and it was his nature to do good when he saw it, and he almost never doubted anyone. Moreover, when he went to Xuanchengzhou to do good deeds among the ordinary people, who would have thought that there were demonic cultivators?
Moreover, he silently imprisoned the cultivators of the Void Refining Realm for more than two hundred years and even transformed them into evil demons.
Jingmen suddenly realized that the crisis was lurking beside him. How many such powerful people had Zang Yaozong let in?
Wu Qinghua seized on this and stepped forward. "Brother, you were captured by the demonic sect two hundred years ago, right after you arrived in Xuancheng Prefecture? Their network of methods is so vast, yet not a single word of warning was leaked?"
"Yes, not long after I arrived, a village invited me there under the pretext of curing an epidemic. After I arrived, I realized it was a forged village created by demonic cultivators."
The Ghost Buddha spoke of this incident calmly, without a trace of resentment. "They came prepared. The leader was a Spiritual Transformation cultivator, and the rest were all Void Refining cultivators. After I eliminated all the demons in the Void Refining cultivators, I was attacked by another evil Spiritual Transformation cultivator who arrived and joined forces with the demonic cultivators. The evil cultivator then took me away, intending to refine me into the core of the formation. After two hundred years of refinement, I became what I am today."
This understated statement made everyone more and more alarmed. Wuque, the Buddhist disciple, had previously been cultivating in the south of Zhongqu. At that time, the six alliances and the three major sects had no communication, so even the leaders of the six alliances were probably unaware of the Buddhist disciple's existence.
But Wuque claimed that not long after arriving in Xuanchengzhou, he was targeted by demonic cultivators and invited to the village. The village was filled with Void-Refining demonic cultivators, and even some Divine-Transformation demonic cultivators, who had already disguised themselves and were lurking around him. Later, even Divine-Transformation demonic cultivators arrived and took him away to be used as the core of the formation. Every act was carefully planned and premeditated.
The demon cultivators had already broken through the natural barriers and started preparing for the next battle between good and evil.
Breaking out in a cold sweat, Jingmen subconsciously looked in the direction of Wu Qinghua, only to see Wu Qinghua looking at him in the same way.
Even if Jingmen did not support Wu Qinghua's idea of giving up state power and returning land to the people, he had to admit that the primary target at the moment was not only the Buddhist monks of the Great Freedom Hall but also the primary target of all righteous paths, but also the Demon Sect Zang Yao Sect.
What that evil cultivator did was insignificant compared to the survival of the entire righteous path.
"Wu...you, do you have anything else to say?" Jingmen retracted his gaze and hardened his heart. "Since you're back, you should know the rules of the Great Freedom Hall."
Clean up the house. This word popped up in Wu Qinghua's mind.
The Mahazi Temple does not advocate the so-called laying down of the butcher knife and becoming a Buddha instantly. They are free to follow their hearts, but there are also precepts that cannot be violated.
What’s more, Wuque is a child of Buddha and has been a child of Buddha.
The ghost Buddha looked at everyone with affection, and suddenly whispered: "Sorry, it's not possible now."
"Whether it works or not is not up to you to decide." Jingmen's tone hardened, even deliberately hostile. He raised his hand, and the Buddhists were stunned for a moment before reacting. Ten thousand people surrounded the Ghost Buddha from inside and outside.
Although surrounded, there was hesitation in everyone's eyes, and even the old-fashioned Fang Zhen's hand holding Bai Xie Tu was trembling slightly.
In comparison, the ghost Buddha lowered his head deeply.
"Sorry, I have something else I must do. I have to go south."
"When everything is ready, I will come back and present the head."
Wu Qinghua frowned when she heard that.
Jingmen was surprised and disappointed, his voice filled with pain: "Wuque, you have become a coward."
"..." The Ghost Buddha pursed his lips and smiled bitterly, not saying anything more to defend himself. He clasped his hands together, bowed, and walked towards the crowd.
There was clearly no aura surging from his body, but all the Buddhist practitioners except Jingmen and Wu Qinghua involuntarily took a step back.
"Don't even think about leaving." Jingmen said coldly.
Wu Qinghua revealed his golden body, holding a magic weapon in each of his six hands; he was determined to take out Baixie Tu and slowly injected spiritual power into it.
Seeing everyone's posture, the ghost Buddha sighed and said nothing.
His steps seemed slow, but in fact he arrived in front of everyone in the blink of an eye.
"Brother, let's stay and talk about it." Wu Qinghua gave a final advice.
"I don't want to hurt you."
The ghost Buddha shook his head.
"No need to act like that!"
Everyone finally made up their minds to attack.
Half an hour later, the Ghost Buddha walked out of the Zhongqu Mountains safely and headed towards the south.
The moon had risen, its bright light gleaming brightly, yet it couldn't illuminate the slightest tear or dust on the ghost Buddha's sleeve. He breathed steadily, showing no signs of injury, and only sighed.
Didn't he want to stay in Ran, see its scenery once more, and then sacrifice himself for the Great Freedom Hall? He had no attachment to life.
But when he was thinking this, the evil cultivator came up to him in the Zhongqu Mountains and gave him something that he couldn't ignore.
The ghost Buddha lowered his head and looked back at the dark shadow dragging behind him, in which was a girl.
Noticing the ghost Buddha's gaze, Gulan blinked and poked his head out.
"Why did you stop?"
The ghost Buddha stared at the child's face, finally shook his head and continued walking.
"Strange person."
Gulan muttered, but did not immediately shrink back into the shadows. Instead, he looked back.
Anyone who saw the battle just now would be terrified, even if they were the most heartless.
The mountains were destroyed and the earth shook, but all the monks who were besieging the Ghost Buddha fell to the ground without any wounds on their bodies.
Even Jingmen and Wu Qinghua fell into a deep sleep without any harm.
For the first time, Gulan felt that if everyone was knocked unconscious and fell asleep, it would be more terrifying than if thousands of people died in a bloody battle.
On the other side, Luo Xuanyi had safely passed through the Wei Kingdom governed by the Ran Taoist Temple and arrived at the border between Hairuozhou and the Dragon Falling Land.
Three-in-one~Thanks to Xia Shuixiangling for voting for a monthly ticket~
The Great Freedom Palace is determined to counterattack the demonic path hh
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
