Witch Wind

Chapter 376 The Tribulation of Ten Thousand Buddhas (Part 1)

Ahead lie the stars.

The abyss was behind him.

Xing Tianli rode the Tower of Creation and left the Black Abyss.

How can one find liberation?
Xing Tianli recited the Diamond Sutra in a low voice... Liberation, such a concept is often spoken of by senior Buddhist monks.

But for the diviner, liberation was simple—either he was taken out of the abyss and allowed to roam the world freely.

Either let Him be completely annihilated, leaving not a trace.

Even His name, His form, His face, everything, everything related to Him, has been completely erased by time, leaving not a trace.

This is also a kind of liberation.

For this liberation, He did not use His real name, but instead used the pseudonym 'Heavenly Calculator'.

For this liberation, in the Abyss, all the intelligent beings who have interacted with Him will have all their memories erased by Him when they leave the Abyss, except for the code name 'Heavenly Calculator'.

Anyway, none of those who can come to the Abyss for various reasons are as powerful as Him. Erasing their memories is very simple.

To prevent any accidents, He never even reveals His true form to anyone.

All sorts of measures were taken in advance so that if one day a powerful being could easily kill Him, then as soon as He died, everything He had would be completely erased from the immeasurable spacetime.

He's a ruthless person.

I treat myself like this.

The Celestial Calculator also answered Xing Tianli's questions about the Black Abyss, the Black Abyss Market, and its strange rules.

Hmm—In the Black Abyss Market, there's only one 'person': the Celestial Calculator!
All the other creatures—the strange creature bathing in boiling fragrant water, the peculiar figure in the old coffin, and all the other creatures engaged in trade—were all remnants of the past, captured by the diviner with unfathomable supernatural powers from bygone years.

For example, the strange creature that bathed in the fragrant water, its race, was killed by a passing predator three hundred million eons ago because it was too ugly and had a bad temper, and liked to provoke people.

Three hundred million kalpas!
Xing Tianli's teeth were chattering as he listened—he couldn't imagine how long those years had been, but in the astrologer's mouth, it was as light and casual as saying "three quarters of an hour ago."

However, considering His long years of 'imprisonment' in the Abyss, compared to a terrifying indicator like the 'Grihant number,' three hundred million kalpas is truly a minuscule amount of time.

Yes, this guy is imprisoned.

Imprisoned for far too long, far too long, until He was utterly bored, He used His supernatural powers to forcibly extract vivid memories and what He found interesting from the past, endowing them with enough power to make them move like living beings.

This terrifying supernatural power seems similar to 'manipulating creation'. These beings are all alive, able to breathe, know joy, anger, laughter, and scolding, and even have various desires. They eat, drink, and excrete, and their personalities are almost identical to those of their 'previous lives'.

However, their existence is only maintained by the diviner.

Once the diviners disappear, they too will vanish completely.

The beings created by the workings of nature are truly flesh-and-blood races. Even if the creators vanish completely, these races will continue to exist in this boundless space and time, still flesh and blood.

These remnants of the past are more like soap bubbles blown by a fortune teller; they may be bright and beautiful, but they cannot last forever.

That's an extremely terrifying tactic.

The captured remnants of the past even retained their racial talents and supernatural abilities, which is quite remarkable.

The entire Black Abyss Market collects all sorts of things, from innate spiritual materials to acquired foot binding cloths, accepting everything that comes your way. As much as you want, it will take it all. Even these remnants of the past have formed various guilds, engaging in countless underhanded dealings such as vying for business, trading, and extortion.

Boring.

It's really boring.

So the fortune teller himself acted as the head manager, letting these remnants of the past also engage in bustling business, essentially just watching the show.

As for all the collected odds and ends, the diviner was able to glean many useful insights from them.

For example, from a single gold coin, He can discern the essence of every 'being' that has handled it—directly capturing their past and present lives, understanding their destiny, and even predicting all their future encounters…

This kind of deduction is terrifying to the extreme.

The Celestial Calculator himself admitted that, according to the Buddhist cultivators of the Nine Provinces, Xing Tianli's deductions could even reach the fate of a being after hundreds of millions of reincarnations... He could see each reincarnation clearly and grasp it without the slightest error.

The things He ate and drank at the bottom of the well—cakes, sugarcane, and so on—were all interesting creatures, whose past, present, and future He considered worthy of exploration.

Of course, there are limits to this deduction.

The more profound the wisdom and spiritual light of a race, the less capable it is of making predictions. As for the Nine Provinces human race represented by Xing Tianli, even the Heavenly Calculator cannot make any predictions about their next life. The limits of His ability are... For example, for someone with Xing Tianli's cultivation level, He can probably predict the approximate fortune and misfortune of Xing Tianli in the next hundred years.

That's all.

"Wisdom is the most precious treasure and the most valuable talent in this boundless space and time... Strength may make you powerful for a time, but only wisdom, and the true civilization derived from wisdom, can endure forever and shine through the ages!" These are the original words of the Celestial Calculator.

He said that in the boundless expanse of time and space, countless mayflies and countless beasts are frantically pursuing power, as if mastering power means mastering everything.

However, without the power of wisdom, it is like a tree without roots or water without a source, destined to collapse sooner or later.

Only truly profound wisdom can interpret and master the most powerful force.

It's as if the Celestial Calculator possesses inexhaustible power, and His lifespan is so long. He has lived for an unknown amount of time before, and many years have passed since He was imprisoned in the Black Abyss.

His power is so vast that even when He is confined to the Abyss, a tiny bit of His will and power radiating outwards is enough to accomplish many things that leave the beasts roaming freely in the outside world speechless.

For example, imagine a powerful warship of a strong civilization traveling freely in the outside world. When it passes by a certain world, a small, insignificant, but natural glitch suddenly pops up in the warship's system, which directly destroys that world and a powerful creature in it with a single shot!
Such actions are as terrifying as 'fate'.

Even though the Celestial Calculator was trapped in the Black Abyss, he was still able to do such a thing, which shows just how powerful he was... But even with such overwhelming and unpredictable power, he was still trapped in the Black Abyss.

The 'frog in a well' form that He displayed in front of Xing Tianli may have been a form of self-mockery, but it may not have been an outward manifestation of His true condition—it is very likely that His true form is imprisoned in a dark, bottomless void pit—or rather, a 'black hole'?

This association makes perfect sense.

In short, that's it; that's what the astrologer's request was for Xing Tianli.

The so-called Heavenly Calculation Contract that He signed with Xing Tianli had no binding force. It was more like a kind of 'trust' in Xing Tianli's character, morality, ethical standards of keeping oaths, and the fact that he would not perish prematurely.

He believed that once Xing Tianli had enough power, he would return to the Black Abyss to release Him.

He also felt that Xing Tianli was not such an unlucky guy who died young; he should live long enough to have enough power to do this.

As for how long it will take for Xing Tian Li to gain enough power to break free...

The fortune teller said it didn't matter, we could take our time.

Anyway, He has already stayed in the Black Abyss for so many years, waiting for hundreds of billions of kalpas is just a matter of taking a nap.

The reward He gave to Xing Tianli—a reward He had paid in advance—was a strange crystal ball the size of a human head, entirely black, semi-transparent, and occasionally sparkling with countless points of colored light like fireworks.

This is the 'Tao'!
This is the aggregate of all the knowledge, wisdom, and the immeasurable number of worlds and the mysteries of the laws of heaven that the Celestial Calculator has collected over countless years, gathered from countless fragments and encountered from countless intelligent beings.

The vast knowledge, boundless wisdom, and incalculable profound mysteries of the Great Dao contained within are so immense that even the most supreme saint, the most powerful 'mayfly,' would have their skull shattered if this aggregate of 'Dao' were stuffed into their head. Indeed, let alone one, even trillions of such 'mayflies' would be unable to withstand such a massive aggregate of information within their sacred souls.

That's what makes the diviner so terrifying.

He took such vast knowledge, wisdom, and profound laws of the Dao and molded them directly into an incomparably hard crystal ball, then casually handed it to Xing Tianli.

Inside the Tower of Creation, Xing Tianli was refining the crystal ball little by little, following the methods taught to him by the Heavenly Calculator.

The crystal sphere, the size of a human head, gradually absorbed the essence of Xing Tianli's heart and blood, and was slowly burned and tempered by the witch flames generated by his witch power. Not very difficult, the crystal sphere was compressed into a spindle shape, about the size of a human eyeball and about two inches long.

Xing Tianli took a deep breath and gently pressed the light, seemingly weightless, pitch-black 'eye,' with occasional bursts of colorful light within, onto his brow.

This 'eye' was integrated into Xing Tian's brow.

Before his eyes surged boundless colorful light, and strange Daoist auras emanated from these newly formed eyes, cleansing Xing Tianli's physical body and immortal soul time and again. Within them were countless profound Daoist laws and mysteries, originating from the same source and possessing the same nature as the Dao that Xing Tianli had already comprehended and understood, yet with countless strange variations and wondrous derivatives.

Within Xing Tianli's body, brand-new Dao patterns of the same origin continuously emerged, rapidly being engraved into his flesh and blood, and quickly absorbed and fused by his immortal soul...

Behind his immortal soul, the Great Dao Flower that bloomed from 'manipulating creation' became even more radiant, and its size suddenly expanded a hundredfold—the Celestial Calculator had once encountered eight powerful races that had mastered the divine power of 'creating life.' When those eight races met Him, they were all relatively weak, and the strongest among them were only a few senior 'mayflies.'

Well, those few intelligent groups certainly possess profound wisdom, but while their 'IQ' is very high, their 'EQ' is slightly low.

They were actually fooled by the diviner, who even got his hands on their family's most treasured classics and profound secrets.

At this moment, the profound mysteries of 'creation' from those eight sublime clans are continuously merging with this lotus of creation.

It's very mysterious and profound.

Many of those profound principles are the highest teachings of a sage.

The benefits Xing Tianli received were immense. Even though he only drew a few insignificant drops of clear spring water from the endless Dao of Creation, his Divine Power of "Manipulating Creation" was directly elevated to a higher dimension.

Inside the Tower of Creation, the bodies of countless combat puppets instantly disintegrated and were directly recycled into basic materials.

Then, divine light of creation surged across the sky, and within the Tower of Creation, brand-new combat puppets quietly took shape. The materials they used were not much improved compared to before, but as soon as they were created, their basic combat power reached the pinnacle of Taiyi.

Each of their bodies contains a sap from the Mother Tree of the World.

Therefore, without the control of ghost servants, a wisp of innate spirituality naturally arises in their minds, and soon, it will evolve into a true soul that belongs only to them.

Only with such a perfect match of souls can the combat power of these battle puppets be maximized.

Their future holds even more immeasurable prospects.

Behind Xing Tian's carp immortal soul, one after another, lotus flowers of the Great Dao slowly bloomed, some with one layer, some with two layers, and some with three layers. Each layer had between nine and a thousand lotus petals.

They come in various colors and shimmer with brilliance.

The boundless profound mysteries of the Great Dao surged and boiled within Xing Tianli's body, almost completely imbuing him with a pure and rich Dao aura. Beside Xing Tianli, an overwhelmingly powerful and dense Dao aura enveloped the entire Tower of Creation.

So, Liu Luan sat down.

So, Liu Xing sat down.

So, Liu Jing sat down.

Zhong Nu and Hei Lie also sat cross-legged solemnly.

They looked at Xing Tianli with extreme solemnity, almost worship, watching the vertical eye between his brows shine brightly, watching the thirty thousand layers of radiant light swirling and surging around him, and tiny golden flowers, like jewels and flowing water, constantly gathering and dripping from the sky.

With each golden flower pendant falling upon them, the voice of the Great Dao resounded in their minds, and they naturally entered the deepest state of enlightenment.

Not only them, but also the billions of great yakshas within the Tongtian Yuling Banner, were all quietly immersed in the Death God Pool bestowed by the Jackal-Headed Outer God, absorbing endless death power while attentively listening to the profound sounds of the Great Dao.

Time passed by little by little.

The Tower of Creation, enveloped by the Daoist essence of Xing Tianli, stands over ten zhang tall and almost perfectly blends into the void. Unless one is a saint, no one can detect that such a magical treasure has quietly passed through the void.

Following the coordinates given by the astrologer and the calculated trajectory, the Tower of Creation silently flew forward.

They left the Black Abyss.

They left the star system where the 'down-and-outs' lived.

They returned to the bustling, noisy starry sky outside.

They flew past star after star, past world after world, whether newly born or in the process of destruction.

In the boundless void, as long as you have spare strength, as long as you can control your direction of travel and maintain the correct trajectory, the laws of the void allow you to accelerate infinitely. As long as you are not afraid of death, not afraid of crashing into a newly born world and being shattered to pieces, you can increase your speed to multiples of the speed of light, it doesn't matter.

The Tower of Creation slowly accelerated.

Gradually, it increased its speed to the limit that the spirit of a top-grade innate spiritual treasure could control, roughly equivalent to a hundred billion times the speed of light.

Further upgrades are possible, but even with further upgrades, the Tower of Creation will lose its stable course and may very well crash into something.

A speed a billion times the speed of light—what a terrifying speed!

Inside the Tower of Creation, Xing Tianli quietly merged with this aggregate of 'Dao'.

With his level of cultivation and strength, he didn't seek to comprehend much of the profound mysteries of the Dao. He simply followed the refining method calculated by the Heavenly Calculator to first transform this aggregate into a part of himself.

The great supernatural power of 'manipulating creation' was activated on its own.

Drops of the World Mother Tree's essence fell onto this aggregate.

Strength and power were slowly growing on this aggregate, gradually enveloping its body in a thin layer of fleshy tissue. Then, nerves, blood vessels, tendons, and other structures meandered outwards, perfectly fusing with the structure of Xing Tian Li's head.

This aggregate of 'Dao' became a 'Dao Eye' that truly belonged to Xing Tianli and was born entirely of him.

Within the pitch-black aggregate, the firework-like flashes of light on the avenue vanished.

His eyes were clearly black and white, no different from Xing Tianli's original two eyes. However, as his magic power circulated, a faint bronze-colored witch light would occasionally appear within them, and that was all.

Thirty-six years have passed quickly.

The Tower of Creation began to slowly decelerate; the celestial coordinates given by the Celestial Calculator indicated that they had arrived.

Xing Tianli also awoke from his deepest state of enlightenment—behind his immortal soul, eight thousand one hundred lotus flowers of various colors bloomed in unison, among which the 'Manipulating Creation' divine power was only the second largest in size.

The largest of all the Great Dao flowers, more than ten times larger than the 'Manipulating Creation' divine power, was none other than a blood-red 'Witch Blood Dao Lotus'.

Over the past thirty-six years, Xing Tianli has benefited the most from the bloodline power of the Wu Clan.

Of course, the greatest credit for such progress goes to the branches and sap of the mother tree of the world.

(End of this chapter)