Witch Wind

Chapter 385 My Heart Turns to Buddha (Part 2)

Xing Tianli gave a soft shout.

He clenched his right fist and gently, slowly, struck towards Sima Guang.

Sima Guang took a deep breath, clasped his hands together in the posture of a child worshipping Guanyin, and his palms emitted azure-gold Buddhist light, which slowly collided with Xing Tianli's fist.

With a muffled thud, Xing Tianli remained motionless. Sima Guang looked up in horror, staring at Xing Tianli in disbelief. He swayed and involuntarily took three steps back. With each step, his feet left a clear, three-inch-deep footprint on the stone pavement.

Xing Tianli couldn't help but admire the exquisite control of power.

The impact was so powerful that Sima Guang was forced to retreat. Xing Tianli thought that he would cause a major earthquake, but he didn't expect that he would neutralize the force so easily.

This guy is hiding his true intentions very well.

In Sanhu County, his cultivation level was at the late stage of Celestial Immortal, and he was on the verge of breaking through to the Perfect Realm. It seemed he was hiding his true cultivation; the protective talisman he gave his daughter was at the Golden Immortal level.

If anyone were to speculate on Sima Guang's cultivation level based on the fluctuations of this talisman and treat him as a true Golden Immortal, they would be in deep trouble—this fellow is actually a peak Taiyi cultivator. Moreover, he is a genuine peak Taiyi cultivator from a Buddhist sect, with profound and unparalleled techniques, and his physical strength has reached the level of a luminary!
It must be understood that Xing Tianli was able to reach the limit of power that a Taiyi realm physical body could achieve under the suppression of the heavenly Dao in the dark.

The power of a single luminary is not so easily achieved. Xing Tianli possessed the bloodline of Pangu and the legacy of a sage, and was protected by the fundamental law personally compiled by the sage. Only then could he achieve the power of a single luminary... But how did Sima Guang manage to do it?

Sima Guang stared at Xing Tianli in horror: "Great Luo?"

Xing Tianli looked at him in astonishment: "The power of a single luminary? The suppression of the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth in this Holy Cloud Continent is even stronger than in other worlds. How do you possess the power of a single luminary?"

Sima Guang pondered for a moment, then clasped his hands together and said softly, "May Buddha have mercy. I have reincarnated a hundred times in the Holy Cloud Continent, accumulating a hundred lifetimes of cultivation, and stacking a hundred golden bodies to gain such immense power."

Sima Guang sighed: "I never expected that compared to you, senior, I'm like a mayfly trying to shake a mountain. I'm truly ignorant of my own limitations... Um, may I ask you, senior, what exactly is the Great Luo Realm like?"

He stared intently at Xing Tianli, his face full of anticipation, like a primary school student waiting for his teacher to answer his questions.

Xing Tianli pondered for a moment, then slowly nodded: "My cultivation can still rise a great distance, and my magical power has not yet been fully accumulated... Even so, my physical strength is eight hundred and ten trillion times that of yours... This is the Great Luo!"

Sima Guang was dull and lifeless.

Sima Huo's eyes widened in horror: "What? You look like a refined and handsome young man, but your strength is eight million and one hundred thousand times that of my father?"

Xing Tianli looked at Sima Huo and said softly, "This is the Great Luo. The longer one immerses oneself in it, the more incredible one's power becomes. Ordinary cultivators who do not specifically cultivate their strength but focus on comprehending the Great Dao, if they reach the peak of the Great Luo, their physical strength will be at least one hundred million yao, which is one hundred million times the physical strength of your father."

"And your father, a body cultivator at the Great Luo level, if he were willing to endure a long and drawn-out process, could reincarnate a hundred times in the Great Luo realm. With his cultivation techniques, temperament, and fortune, perhaps his physical strength could reach trillions of stars, or even higher."

“Little girl, you’re wrong. My power is eight million one hundred million… a billion times that of your father. You forgot to say ‘a billion’ just now!”

With a slight smile, Xing Tianli looked at Sima Guang and said, "Since you, Prefect, have reincarnated a hundred times... then you must be a senior in the path of cultivation. You must know that the higher the cultivation realm, the greater the difference in strength between small levels. It is common for Qi Refining, Human Immortal, Earth Immortal, and Heavenly Immortal to challenge each other across levels, or even kill enemies beyond their level."

"A mere Qi Refining cultivator, wielding a top-tier immortal weapon, can slay Earth Immortals and Heavenly Immortals as easily as cutting melons and vegetables. But once they reach the Golden Immortal realm, they can at most fight beyond their level within the Golden Immortal realm. Once they reach the Taiyi realm, unless they are peerless geniuses or people with great fortune, fighting beyond their level is just a dream."

"Upon reaching the Great Luo Realm... hehe, even if a low-level Great Luo is wielding a spiritual treasure, a high-level Great Luo will basically crush a low-level Great Luo... the difference in strength between even a small realm is like the difference between an ant and a giant beast."

"I am fortunate to have some good fortune. In the Great Luo Realm, my strength is considered extremely strong. Even those seniors who have been immersed in the Great Luo Realm for countless years would probably not be able to withstand a single punch from me."

Xing Tianli showed off his power before turning to Sima Guang, who looked on with a face full of surprise: "So, Your Excellency the Prefect, are you relieved now? Shall we find a place? Let's have a good chat?"

Sima Guang took a deep breath, and with a wave of his official robe sleeves, the footprints on the ground disappeared silently.

He solemnly bowed to Xing Tianli, then turned around and pulled the dazed Sima Huo along, leading her towards the street where the prefect's mansion was located: "Fellow Daoist, please follow me... ah, bah, an official that even dogs wouldn't serve... Fellow Daoist, please follow this old monk. Over the years, this old monk has extorted quite a bit of money from those lackeys and secretly acquired several very nice mansions."

"It's very quiet, and no one bothers us."

At the end of the main street where the prefectural governor's mansion was located, there were several old ginkgo trees, each over twenty feet tall. In late spring, the trees were covered with fresh green leaves. When the sunlight shone down, tiny specks of light swayed, making the quiet four-courtyard house look like a golden leopard.

The courtyard was indeed quiet; apart from a few white-haired, frail old servants, there was no one else in sight.

Sima Guang led Xing Tianli and his group to the house. He clasped his hands together in a gesture of respect to an old servant and said in a deep voice, "Bring my junior sister and the children here. From today onwards, that damned prefect is no longer in office."

Several old servants raised their heads at the same time. They were old, and the flame of their life was almost extinguished, but there was a faint sound of surging blood essence coming from their bodies. Their skin was shriveled and black, like chicken skin, and faintly glowed with a golden light.

The head servant asked in a deep voice, "What happened?"

The old servant's voice was hoarse and his speech was slow, as if he hadn't spoken for many years. Moreover, when Xing Tianli and his group first entered the courtyard, their eyes were sunken and their ears were closed on their own.

But as the sound of surging blood and essence rang out, and as golden light flowed beneath their skin, their eyes brightened, their ears opened, and muscles rapidly grew beneath their skin.

These old servants... no, these old monks, they were probably practicing Buddhist methods like 'silent meditation' before, not only not speaking, but also not seeing or hearing.

It wasn't until Sima Guang arrived at this residence that some kind of pre-set mechanism within them was triggered, transforming them from being deaf, mute, and blind into having such an astonishing aura—in their previous state, they probably had no idea whatsoever about the great battle taking place above Sanhu County.

Sima Guang said softly, "Good thing... The appearance of the Primordial Spirit Ape will surely bring about a great change in the world. Our chance to avenge our sect and seek justice for the descendants of the Nine Provinces has probably arrived."

Sima Guang glanced at Xing Tianli.

Several old monks shuddered, and they hissed, "A Primordial Spirit Ape? Impossible... Back then..."

With a heavy sigh, the old monks nodded to Sima Guang, then took a deep look at Xing Tianli, paying particular attention to his purple Taoist robe, and then to the black-haired monk and the bell maiden behind him.

Several old monks, their eyes gleaming, hurriedly ran to the backyard.

Before long, Xing Tianli, Sima Guang, and the others were seated in an elegant tea room in the third courtyard. Several old monks had just served tea when a very well-maintained beautiful woman, seven or eight delicate young women, five adult youths, and a dozen children aged eight to twelve followed an old monk in.

Xing Tianli glanced at them and immediately realized that the bloodline aura of these young men and children all originated from Sima Guang.

The beautiful woman, along with her sons, came to the tea room.

The delicate young women followed the two old monks to another courtyard to rest.

The three women, Liu Jing and Liu Luan, sized up the young men and children. They all noticed that their bloodline originated from Sima Guang—a shaman of the Witch Temple, whose perception of essence and bloodline aura was always exceptionally keen. Liu Luan loudly proclaimed, "You call yourself an old monk? Are you a monk? And... how come you're married and have children?"

Sima Guang clasped his hands together and said softly, "If I don't go to hell, who will? This lineage of my Dharma must be passed down. When I pass away and reincarnate, and embark on the next stage of my journey, I will always need a trusted and reliable person to protect me."

Pointing to the sky and then to the ground, Sima Guang said softly, "Those hairy beasts are keeping a close watch on our clan. If I am not careful, a large number of people will be implicated... In that case, let's spread the teachings among our relatives."

Sima Guang grinned and said, "The things I've done will lead to the extermination of my entire clan, nine generations. So, I might as well have all the male members of my nine generations become Buddhists, so that I can die without regret. But there's no need to implicate other people." Xing Tianli was amazed by what he heard.

Sima Guang was truly a ruthless man, ruthless to himself and even more ruthless to his people. But towards the descendants of the Nine Provinces, he genuinely possessed a compassionate heart... let's just call it compassion for now.
If it were some powerful and ruthless individuals, would they care about the lives of ordinary people?

Ordinary people are merely tools and stepping stones for them to achieve their goals and realize their life ideals—if it were those guys, they would have already spread their teachings all over the world, disseminated Buddhist scriptures, and made all the descendants of the Miao people in the nine provinces of the world practice Buddhism.

It is easy to imagine that once such a scene unfolds, the winged army descends from the sky, inevitably leading to a continuous battle with countless casualties.

Moreover, it is certain that those who died or were injured were all descendants of Kyushu.

Sima Guang's actions may not conform to Buddhist precepts... but in this world, your lineage is about to be severed and your Dharma lineage is about to vanish. In Xing Tianli's view, whether or not you abide by those precepts is not a big deal.

Sima Huo was so angry that he trembled all over, and his face turned red and blue in waves.

She glared angrily at her father, remained silent for a moment, then suddenly rushed forward and began punching and kicking her eldest brothers: "So, you all kept it from me, you all kept it from me?"

The Sima family children obediently squatted on the ground, covering their heads with their hands, letting their eldest sister beat them.

Unfortunately, the cultivation method Sima Huo practiced was inferior, a low-grade product bestowed upon officials of the Nine Provinces by the Winged People's nobles. Not only was the resulting magical power mixed up, but it also had absolutely no tempering effect on the physical body.

Sima Huo's fists were swollen and red from the beating, but his brothers' faces didn't even change color.

Enraged and extremely aggrieved, Sima Huo stopped fighting. His two fists were swollen and round like the heads of a black-haired pig, and the skin on his fingers was congested with blood and had become somewhat translucent.

Sima Guang sighed softly: "My dear girl, you will eventually get married."

"You have such a cold and aloof personality. Your father usually just embezzles some money and grain from the county treasury. Anyway, if your father doesn't embezzle, plenty of people do. That's the atmosphere in the Nightmare Cloud Dynasty. Your father has to blend in with the crowd and can't be too aloof from his colleagues."

"That's how it is. Your father was just a little greedy and married a few more concubines, and you roll your eyes at him all the time."

"If your father tells you, 'Oh, our whole family are demons, we are all Buddhist practitioners, and those hairy beasts have a blood feud with our whole family. Our goal is to wipe out their entire clan, leaving not a single hair behind.'"

"Given your personality, if you were to cultivate profound Zen and Buddhist practices... you would eventually get married. If you were to marry and go to your husband's family, and find that your father-in-law is a hundred times more greedy, a hundred times more lustful, and a hundred times more cruel than your father... wouldn't you kill your husband's entire family with a single punch?"

Sima Huo shut up.

She asked herself honestly, could she really do such a thing?

As a result, Sima Huo grew angrier and angrier, his eyes turning green with rage, a series of gurgling sounds coming from his throat, his eyes rolling back, and he almost fainted.

With a flash, Liu Xing appeared beside Sima Huo, touched her chest with his finger to help her catch her breath, then crushed a magic potion and smeared the powder on her fist. Sima Huo's fist swelled up, healed, and became smooth and white again.

"Your Majesty, this little girl has quite a good temper." Liu Xing smiled brightly, "We'd like to have her join our Witch Temple."

“Witch...Hall…” Sima Guang’s face suddenly turned red. He was a remnant of the secret lineage of the Ten Thousand Buddha Thunder Sound Temple. He had some secret files on the Miao people of the Nine Provinces. The inheritance of the Ten Thousand Buddha Thunder Sound Temple was extraordinary. Of course he knew what the ‘Witch Hall’ was.

To put it bluntly, the Temple of the Witches is the ancient origin of the civilization of the Nine Provinces. For an extremely long period of time, the Temple of the Witches was the true sky above the heads of the Nine Provinces people.

Confronting heaven and earth, commanding gods and slaughtering demons, in that perilous and endless primordial era, the existence of the Witch Temple illuminated the path of humankind's progress in that long, dark night. The legacy of the Witch Temple can be considered the crystallization of human civilization in ancient times.

In terms of legal principles, the Temple of Witches is the purest and most orthodox among all human races.

Looking back at the major dynasties of later generations, well, they all had a slightly off-putting feel to them.

Especially in the Great Zhou Dynasty, ever since King Zhou knelt down before the heavens and proclaimed himself the "Son of Heaven," the spirit and vitality of the human race have been almost completely worn away. They no longer possess the indomitable spirit of the ancient times when they wielded great axes and cleaved the Southern Heavenly Gate, nor do they have the heroic ambition of destroying the Heavenly Court and making everyone a god, dominating the Three Realms.

"Young lady, kneel down!" Sima Guang shouted sternly, "This is your opportunity, why aren't you kneeling down?"

Sima Huo was startled by Sima Guang's loud shout. She knelt down in front of Liu Xing with a thud, while Liu Luan and Liu Jing hurriedly stood side by side on either side of Liu Xing: "Hey, hey, hey, wait a minute. You can't just kneel down. If you're going to take on disciples, the three of us have to treat them all equally."

Xing Tianli rolled his eyes.

Sima Guang remained silent.

Sima Huo kowtowed heavily to the three unreliable fellows, and thus, three more masters appeared, each carrying a wine jar.

As soon as she finished kowtowing, Liu Jing turned around and stretched out her hand to Xing Tianli: "Give me some benefits, the three of us sisters are very poor, pitiful!"

Xing Tianli rolled his eyes again. What, what, what is this all about?
Xing Tianli let out a heavy sigh, took out the silver brocade pouch left by the old monk of Wanfo Leiyin Temple, and waved it at Sima Guang. Sima Guang's eyes immediately turned bloodshot and red.

Xing Tianli smiled and nodded, then took out a heavy Mingwang armor from the brocade pouch. The armor was carved with countless lotus flowers and swastikas, and decorated with fiery patterns. With a flick of his finger, this supreme Buddhist treasure armor transformed into a ray of Buddhist light and merged into Sima Huo's body.

Sima Huo groaned, and within her body, wisps of golden-red Mingwang flames rose, beginning to cleanse her marrow, replenish her essence, and strengthen her physical body.

Xing Tianli then took out a seven-layered relic-bearing Buddha light banner from the pinnacle of the Great Luo realm. At his fingertips, the banner transformed into a wisp of Buddha light, merging into Sima Huo's brow. Strands of Buddha light began to surge across her spiritual platform, continuously cleansing and strengthening her soul, gradually removing the impurities caused by the inferior methods.

"What weapon do you use?" Xing Tianli asked to himself before Sima Huo could answer. "Judging from your impulsive nature, you're quite like a certain monkey. It would be a waste of your talent if you didn't use a stick... cough, Buddhist sects have always liked using sticks, haven't they?"

Sima Guang grinned.

These are two supreme-level Buddhist treasures protecting her. I've always felt I've treated my eldest daughter rather unfairly, and she's encountered an incredible stroke of luck. To be honest, even at the height of the Ten Thousand Buddha Thunder Sound Temple, there's no reason to bestow two supreme-level Buddhist treasures upon a newly initiated disciple!

That's too extravagant.

They have no sense of how to manage their money.

However, these treasures are used on his own daughter—well, being 'generous,' 'generous,' and 'spendthrift' are naturally the most precious virtues of mankind, aren't they?

Xing Tianli pulled out a large, black staff with three jade rings tied to each end, and carved with countless Buddhist mantras for subduing demons. This staff was over ten feet long and as thick as a large bowl. It was agile and changeable, its weight as light as a feather or as heavy as Mount Tai. It was also a supreme Buddhist treasure weapon of the Great Luo level that could change at will.

After handing the pole to Sima Huo, Xing Tianli pondered for a moment, then nodded and said, "Alright, you three, you can teach her the secret techniques and arts of the Witch Palace later. The Witch Palace's heritage is too vast; how can she learn it all in a short time? Let's build a foundation first."

The so-called "laying the foundation first" means that Xing Tianli directly taught Sima Huo the fundamental method of "The Furnace of Heaven and Earth - One Stick of Incense", and further separated a furnace of heaven and earth from his body, which was transformed into Sima Huo's natal furnace.

With a 'crack', the moment his natal furnace was successfully refined, Sima Huo's cultivation level directly rose to the peak of the Celestial Immortal realm, with one foot almost stepping into the Golden Immortal realm.

Sima Guang clasped his hands together, chanting Buddhist prayers, his face filled with the compassion and kindness of a Buddha.

(End of this chapter)