My brother is so cunning

Chapter 903 Comeback
The Great Snow Mountain, Lingjiu Cave, the place where the Buddha attained enlightenment.

The Lingjiu Cave in the Great Snow Mountain was once just a natural cave located on the summit of the snow mountain. Since the Buddha attained enlightenment here and Lingjiu Cave gained the reputation of being a sacred Buddhist site, it has been continuously expanded over the years and has now become a large-scale temple complex on the snow mountain.

The Daxue Mountain is towering and steep, with treacherous terrain and bitter cold year-round. The air at the summit is thin and the wind is biting. It is nothing short of a miracle that a magnificent temple could be built in such a place.

However, this sacred Buddhist site was not created by Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, or Arhats using their supernatural powers. It was built entirely by devout believers through countless hours of hard work, by generations of ordinary people, using only human labor, brick by brick.

Western religions emphasize this point, and they preach to their followers that offering all one's wealth, including one's life, to build Buddhist temples is cultivating a field of merit, and that the suffering one endures in this life will be transformed into blessings in the next.

Lingjiu Temple is built against the mountain, and the temple is like a mountain fortress. Below the courtyard wall is a steep cliff. In order to resist the strong winds of the mountain, the courtyard wall was built like a city wall, which is large enough for five or six people to walk side by side.

On the courtyard wall, two venerable monks, draped in robes, stood side by side, their faces solemn as they gazed down at the steep cliffs shrouded in wind, snow, and mist.

The severe drought in the mortal realm caused by Wen Rui did not have a serious impact on the Great Snow Mountain. On the contrary, due to the decline in heat storage capacity, the lack of water vapor temperature regulation function, and the weakening of the greenhouse effect, the temperature of the Great Snow Mountain became colder and colder each year. The glacial meltwater decreased, and the snow on the mountain locked a large amount of water in the form of freezing.

Now, twenty years after the Taishan Calamity, the Western Buddhist temples adjacent to the snow-capped mountains have managed to sustain the survival needs of the believers who come seeking refuge.

Backed by a snow-capped mountain, the area has access to abundant glacial meltwater, and every spring, a small area at the foot of the mountain still has the climatic conditions suitable for growing crops.

The core defensive perimeter of the Western Religion, with its defensive forces extending beyond the outer areas, ensured the relative safety of the human race living in this region.

However, relying solely on a small planting area at the foot of the snow-capped mountains cannot support a large population. Over the years, the number of believers under the protection of the Western Church has been decreasing, from tens of millions initially to four or five million today.

Several years ago, the Creator Heavenly Venerable Wen Rui destroyed the Blood Sea Demon Clan's Taishan lair, but unfortunately, he failed to kill the Mosquito Taoist, who escaped underground and disappeared without a trace.

Since then, the activity frequency of the demonic insects has greatly decreased. On the rare occasions when there were attacks by hundreds of millions of demonic insects, they were easily extinguished by the true fire of the sun reflected by the sky curtain controlled by Guanyin Bodhisattva.

The situation has actually improved. The reduced pressure on the living environment has led to a baby boom among the Western Christian believers seeking refuge, and the population is showing an upward trend.

“Brother Shariputra, recently I have sensed a strong ominous sign, but I don’t know why. I suspect that the Blood Demon, which has been dormant for a long time, is about to launch an attack again. Has Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva sent a message to inform me of the movements of the demonic insects underground?”

"The Bodhisattva has not sent any message. Over the years, Di Ting has been searching underground for traces of the demons, but unfortunately, he has found nothing."

The high monk from the Western Regions, known as Shariputra, frowned and said, "That demon's lair was destroyed by the Creator Heavenly Venerable, cutting off his retreat and leaving him without any blood supply. He is already at his last gasp. If we can find him before the Heavenly Court, Buddha might even personally take action to kill him, completely ending this demonic calamity and restoring peace and happiness to the world."

"That's how it should be, excellent, excellent!"

Another high monk clasped his hands together and said, “The Heavenly Court has already taken the lead. If we don’t make some contributions, it will be very detrimental to our future propagation of the Dharma. Buddha, please protect us and don’t let the Creator Heavenly Venerable find the demon’s hiding place first. If the demon is killed by him, the merit of pacifying the great calamity will all belong to one person, and he will be even more powerful and influential in the future. Even Buddha will have to give him some leeway.” “Don’t worry, Junior Brother,” the monk continued, “that demon has lost his stronghold and cut off his retreat. If he wants to turn the tide, he can only do so by remaining undying in his demonic ways and targeting our followers, using the flesh and blood of these mortals to regain his strength.”

Venerable Sariputra said with certainty, “Junior brother, it might actually be a good thing that you feel a sense of unease. We are hoping that the demon will come to us so that this calamity can be completely ended. Only when the demonic calamity ends in Buddhism can our sect be prevented from being suppressed by those wicked immortals in the Heavenly Court who are unaware of their own evil deeds.”

“Senior brother is right. Once our sect has slain the demon, we can go to the Heavenly Court and order the Creation Lord to return the waters of the Five Lakes and Four Seas, and to settle accounts for his crime of showing no mercy to the common people and implementing a scorched earth policy, which has caused the lives of all living beings in the mortal world to be in vain. The number of beings that died in the mouths of demonic insects is not as many as the number of beings that died of thirst!”

"Hmph, the root of the demonic calamity has not been eradicated, so the Jade Emperor still has some reservations. But if it is destroyed by the Buddha, the greatest threat to the peace of the Three Realms will become the Creator Heavenly Venerable!"

Sariputra sneered, "When the Jade Emperor and Buddha join forces to deal with him, a mere Heavenly Venerable, he won't be able to cause any more trouble."

At this point, the two eminent monks exchanged a smile. The previous monk's worried expression vanished, as if his thoughts were clear and unobstructed, and he had no more worries in his heart.

At that moment, the ground trembled slightly, and a large snow-covered slope in the distance suddenly slid down, triggering a massive avalanche.

The roar of the avalanche was deafening and continuous, and the snow dust filled the sky, blotting out the sun under the strong winds blowing from the high mountains.

"Oh no, this isn't a normal avalanche!"

Venerable Sariputra exclaimed in surprise, "I also have a lot of warning signs in my heart. It must be an attack by demonic insects. How did they manage to sneak into our holy land without being detected by the Di Ting?"

High-ranking monks in Western religions who have reached a certain level of cultivation possess supernatural powers such as the ability to foresee past destinies. They can sense a major crisis in advance, but often even if they have a feeling, it is too late to deal with it and they cannot change their predetermined fate.

The collapsed snow rolled down, revealing the rock face beneath it. The rock face was now riddled with holes like a honeycomb, with countless culverts and exits dug out at some unknown time.

Elite mosquitoes, noticeably larger and more robust than ordinary mosquitoes, flapped their wings and flew out of the culvert, heading straight for Lingjiu Temple on the opposite side of the cliff.

The two eminent monks reacted swiftly. Venerable Sariputra, with his hand forming the Great Light Mudra, roared at the approaching swarm of bees, "Break!"

Without reciting any incantations, he simply roared out a single word, which was like a directional air-shaking cannon exploding. The visible sound waves distorted the spatial scene and swept towards the swarm of insects in the air.

Venerable Sariputra was the Buddha's chief disciple. His Buddhist cultivation had reached the Pratyekabuddha level, and the supernatural powers he displayed were even superior to some meritorious Buddhas.

The Vajra Lion's Roar technique collided head-on with the elite demonic mosquitoes. The scene that Venerable Sariputra had envisioned—shattering the swarm of mosquitoes—did not occur. The first few dozen demonic mosquitoes only swayed slightly before regaining their balance, and instead of resisting the sonic boom, they accelerated their dive.

(End of this chapter)