The immortal is beside me

Chapter 90: Destroy Ten Thousand Buddhas with One Body, Slash the Spirit Mountain with One Force
Outside the Jianguo Road community.

It was already past lunchtime, the perfect time to take a walk after dinner to live to the ripe old age, so the activity square became crowded again.

Under the street lights, a group of old men gathered in front of the chess table, pointing and talking as usual, but the two people actually sitting in front of the chess table had very young faces, which made the scene look a little subtly contrasting.

"Hey boy, the car shouldn't move at this point! Look, let Xiao Zhou take it down!"

"Horse jumping! Just listen to me, it's absolutely right, horse jumping!"

"Tsk tsk tsk, it seems Xiao Zhou is still more skilled."

In front of the chess table, Yuan Tiangang was surrounded by the advice of a group of old men. While thinking, he moved the last piece. Zhou Qing on the opposite side took advantage of the situation and moved his rook, attacking from both sides, and the game was for checkmate.

“Hey, this.”

The chief of staff behind Yuan Tiangang sighed deeply, his expression filled with disappointment: "Look at me, look at me, I just said I was leaving. I didn't listen to him, and now I'm suffering the consequences!"

"Thank you for your guidance, old man." Yuan Tiangang was not annoyed. He smiled and stood up. "I am a little inferior this time. I will practice and fight again in the future."

If these words were heard by the disciples of Tianji Academy, countless people would gasp in shock. What kind of ancient great power must be there to dare to instruct the Heavenly Master on the way of chess?
Amidst the discussions of the crowd, the two men put away the chess pieces, gave the table to the old men waiting on the side, and left along a small path.

"I've been teaching at Tianji Academy for a long time, but it's been a while since I've experienced the sight of so many people watching chess."

Halfway down the road, Yuan Tiangang smiled and said, "The last time I played chess with so many people watching was when I was still in the Immortal Alliance. Reliving it today, I really miss it a little."

He looked up at the night sky above him, his tone softening a bit. "Thinking about it this way, it feels like joining the Immortal Alliance was just yesterday. How much do you remember of those people back then, Brother Zhou?"

"I still remember a few."

Zhou Qing also raised his eyes to the sky. "Drunkard Zuixiao is a drunkard who loses his composure once he gets drunk. One night, he got drunk and ran over to my house and acted crazy. I beat him up and threw him out. The next day, he still insisted that he had achieved enlightenment and had achieved the Three Flowers Gathering at the Top of his Head."

"Lingyi always thought that since she cultivated the Way of Plants, she should also be good at alchemy. She would try to refine a new elixir every once in a while. Every time she refined it, she would give it to others to taste. If others refused to eat it, she would give it to her disciples. In the end, no one dared to follow her, and even her disciples ran away."

"That money-grubber, Tianlu, spends his days hiding in the Treasure Pavilion counting his few spiritual artifacts. He acts like he's asking me to borrow a spiritual artifact, demanding payment every other day and even writing me down on the first page of his account book."

"How come you can't remember anything good?" Yuan Tiangang held his forehead with one hand and sighed with a smile, "But you still remember these trivial things. You know them better than me."

"When you get older, you'll always think back to the past."

"Yes, I feel the same way." Yuan Tiangang retracted his gaze. "It's getting late, and I should go back to the courtyard. Let's say goodbye for now."

"As for the matter of Jiuli," he said with a smile, "I believe Brother Zhou has already made up his mind."

The casually dressed figure disappeared at the end of the road. Zhou Qing also turned and walked back home. As he took a step, the voice of the phoenix echoed in his mind.

"Master, are you planning to take action this time?"

Zhou Qing didn't answer, but simply closed his eyes slightly, letting the evening breeze blow past his face. Amidst the rustling of leaves, he seemed to hear echoes from twelve hundred years ago.

——"Brother Zhou, you can't defeat them this time!"

"You have now broken through the incarnation of the spirit, but that Buddhist master bears the mark of the Buddha, which comes from the blessing of the unity of the Tao! How can you fight against the Heavenly Dao alone?"

"Four of the Immortal Alliance's incarnations have already perished. If you, Brother Zhou, follow in their footsteps, what will become of Jiuli in the future?"

A breeze blew on his face, and he opened his eyes again, gazing into the distance at the horizon where the sun was setting. Under the night sky, he seemed to be able to see the golden sacred mountain looming.

The raging fire broke through the sky, and the sky and the earth changed color.

In the Pure Land, everyone in the Cangtian Sect raised their heads at the same time and looked at the figure standing proudly in the sky.

The man was wearing a red robe and holding a long sword. Red-gold flames accompanied him at his side, as if burning a hole in the sky. As he raised his hand slightly, true fire burst out in all directions, igniting the entire sky in an instant.

The azure sky turned into a blazing sky, the flowing clouds turned into flowing flames, and the countless Buddhas floating in the air were burned to ashes in an instant. The flaming wreckage streaked across the sky like a meteor shower, and fell to the ground, splashing countless blood-colored smoke.

The golden sacred mountain began to shake, and the Buddhas in it gathered their strength as one. The shadow of the sacred mountain, which was already towering, expanded again, pressing down towards the figure on the dome with the force of covering the roof.

In front of the huge sacred mountain, a red figure raised his sword.

The clanging sound of swords cut through the sky and earth. The sword light that pierced through the sky split the thousand-mile sea of ​​clouds, landed on the illusory sacred mountain, and cut out a flurry of golden powder.

Looking closely, each particle of powder is a piece of Buddha's flesh and blood. They fly in all directions like rain, splashing under the burning sky, and reflecting the red figure floating in the sky like a Shura in purgatory.

The flowing flames in the sky fell into the eyes of the people in the Cangtian Sect, as if burning their pupils as well.

Even though they had just seen countless historical greats take action on the screen, when this "Wuqing" appeared, the overwhelming power still caught their eyes immediately.

With the power of a god, he could actually compete with the Buddhist master who carries thousands of Buddha's intentions?
“This is ‘Wu Qing’.”

Song Lishan, the leader of the Huangshan Cangtian Sect, looked at the embers at his feet and whispered the name, "It is truly unrivaled."

If he had not joined hands with Buddhism this time, if he had not stood in this pure land, he would certainly have praised the great man who lived 1,200 years ago.

Destroying thousands of Buddhas with one body and slashing Lingshan with one force, the scenes before them were shocking to them. The power displayed by that person made them all amazed.

Even though they knew that this was just an illusion created by the cause and effect of the Pure Land and that it did not have any real pressure, the unparalleled momentum still struck them across 1200 years of time. These powerful people standing at the top of the current cultivation world actually felt a sense of awe.

Everyone in the Cangtian Sect exchanged glances secretly, and the same question was written in everyone's eyes.

If such a person were to exist in the present world, who among all the sects in the world could compare with him?
The answer was obvious: no one in the world could rival him. Looking back over the past two thousand years, it seemed only the original leader of the Lianxu Sect, who had single-handedly created the magnificent scene of the heavens, could surpass him.

This is a truly powerful person who has not been seen in a thousand years.

"We must admit that Wu Qing is a truly remarkable talent, both in terms of strength and courage. Looking back over the past thousand years, there are only a handful of people who can rival him."

Beside them, Elder Monk Hongyuan was also gazing up at the figure in the sky. His tone, previously calm, had become slightly deeper. "It's a pity that such a genius has fallen into the devil's ways. While he may have achieved temporary success, he ultimately cannot escape the Buddha's will."

The golden Buddha light illuminated half of the sky. The giant Buddha Kasyapa, who inherited the Buddha's true intention, clasped his hands together and chanted Sanskrit. The Buddha's sound turned into golden rain, falling on the flesh and blood on the ground.

Specks of golden light grew from the flesh and blood, like blooming lotus flowers. Thousands of golden Buddha shadows were reborn from the lotus flowers. New sacred mountains rose up on both sides of the giant Buddha, and the vast Buddha light enveloped the mountains and rivers for thousands of miles.

It is a collection of thousands of Buddhist ideas, a manifestation of Buddhism's centuries-old heritage, spanning thousands of miles and thousands of years.

The two sides faced each other across the mountains and rivers. On one side were the noble and sacred Buddhas, and on the other side were the Shura killing gods surrounded by red flames. The gold and red colors dyed the sky into two distinct parts, and the whole world seemed to be split in half.

Fires were raging, sword energy was crisscrossing, Buddha's light was flashing, and Sanskrit sounds were floating.

In the Pure Land, the vast expanse of time was infinitely compressed. The Cang Tian Sect's members could no longer discern the elapsed time in the scene before them. The clashing flames and Buddha's light caused the heavens and earth to lose their notion of day and night, and even the brilliance of the sun and moon had become barely perceptible stars.

How long did this battle last? Days? Months? Years?

They looked up at the red shadow in the sky. The shadow was wrapped in flames, and seemed to turn into thousands of meteors in an instant. As it moved, it plowed terrifying cracks in the sky that was filled with Buddha's light. Anyone who approached it was reduced to ashes in the blink of an eye.

Countless ashes fell from the sky like a torrential rain. Thousands of black raindrops fell in the eyes of everyone in the Cangtian Sect, making their hearts as calm as still water.

Wait, that’s not right!
Everyone in the sky suddenly woke up. Faced with such a powerful and magnificent scene, they were completely calm, without a trace of emotion, not even the most basic sense of wonder and awe?
This is never normal!
"Master! What's going on with this Pure Land?!"

Song Lishan, who was standing at the front, asked loudly, and while speaking, he hurriedly mobilized his soul to look inward.

In the spiritual platform, golden Buddha light was seen flowing like a stream, and like spreading ink, it was dyeing the spiritual platform golden bit by bit.

His heart suddenly shuddered, and he looked at the historical scenes around him.

As far as the eye could see, a cultivator who was rushing towards the battlefield suddenly stopped in his tracks. The magic sword in his hand fell to the ground with a clang, and the black hair on his head fell off in clumps, and in a moment, it was all gone.

With all these changes, the boiling fighting spirit on the monk's face quickly dissipated, and his tense expression slowly relaxed, replaced by a calm and indifferent look.

When he raised his head again, there was a faint swastika in his eyes.

"It seems that you have all realized the true merit of the Pure Land."

Abbot Hongyuan noticed the sudden change in the expressions and tone of the people in the Cangtian Sect and smiled slightly.

"All things are empty, obsession is delusion, see through and let go, only then can you achieve harmony."

"To free sentient beings from attachments, to transcend all suffering, and to lead them into a state of bliss without thoughts and desires—this is the path that the Buddha has attained."

"Everywhere you go, Mount Lingshan is a Buddha land. Once you enter my Buddha, all thoughts are empty. There are no eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or mind; no form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharma. There is no eye realm, and even no consciousness realm - this is the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss."

There were slight fluctuations in the scenes all around. It was the people of Cangtian Sect trying their best to cut off the influence from the Pure Land. Everyone seemed to have just woken up from a nightmare.

The soul is the most sensitive area of ​​a cultivator. It is more important than any other organ in the body, even more important than the inner organs where the golden elixir and primordial infant are located. The higher the level of the cultivator, the more he will pay attention to the state of the soul. This is an instinct similar to breathing.

But at this moment, under the premise that they could hardly detect it, the Buddhist teachings from the Pure Land had silently penetrated into their spiritual altars and affected their souls!
If they hadn't had such advanced cultivation that they noticed something was wrong in time, if they had stayed here for a moment longer, their entire souls would probably have been assimilated into this pure land!
The Cangtian Sect's members exchanged sullen glances with Old Monk Hongyuan. Above them, the Buddha's light and raging fire collided once again, creating a new impact. Endless streams of light and blazing fire tore through the sky, as if the entire world were flickering.

"That's enough." Song Lishan said softly, "We've seen enough of this pure land. Let's stop here."

The old monk Hongyuan nodded slightly. "Indeed, you are not yet willing to return to the Pure Land. Staying here any longer will not help the situation. So, I will lead you back."

With a light tap of the Zen staff in his hand, invisible ripples spread out again, smashing the scene on all sides into pieces.

As the light and shadow changed, the blazing battlefield faded away, and the magnificent temple scene reappeared. When they came to their senses, the scene before them had once again turned into a temple hall filled with smoke.

The sound of slightly heavy breathing echoed through the mist. No one spoke, but everyone was rapidly regulating their breathing, steadying their trembling minds.

The impact of their recent trip to the Pure Land was truly immense. The strange influence of the spirit, the wars of twelve hundred years ago, and the glimpses of powerful figures from history had all been enough to shock them.

"So, did the demon Wuqing seen in the Pure Land finally perish?" Someone raised his head and asked in a low voice to the old monk Hongyuan in front of him.

"Wherever the Pure Land reaches, all suffering will be overcome and all evil will be eliminated." Hong Yuan clasped his hands and declared, "Under the Holy Mountain, there is no trace of demons."

A faint voice fell into everyone's ears, silencing them all. This answer was expected, but even that didn't stop them from feeling mixed emotions upon hearing it in person.

They originally thought that Buddhism only had the upper hand in terms of power, but after experiencing the power of the Pure Land firsthand, they truly realized what the word "Buddha" meant.

That is not simply power, but authority and law.

In this pure land he created, any existence will inevitably be assimilated into him, and those who resist the rules are like those who resist heaven and earth.

The Jiuli Immortal Alliance back then, and the "Wuqing" back then, actually faced such an enemy?

Everyone in the Cangtian Sect had complicated feelings.

From a standpoint, they are now hostile to Jiuli, and they should not feel sympathy for their enemy.

But after watching the thousand-year-old images and witnessing the fall of so many powerful beings, they, as members of the immortal sect, couldn't help but feel a sense of grief. Especially when they thought of "Wu Qing", who had the power to defeat all Buddhas, but also died in the Pure Land, they felt even more sorrow for no reason.

The Buddha Shakyamuni was indeed an insurmountable mountain. This fact made them sympathize with the Jiuli people's plight, but also secretly feel fortunate for their decision to side with Buddhism.

"Then, today's matter ends here. As for the matter of reviving the Cang Tian inheritance, we will certainly provide all our assistance."

Hongyuan put down his staff and clasped his hands in greeting. "Then, we will proceed to Jiuli to discuss the Dao. I'll trouble you all to accompany us while we discuss the Dao."

p.s. The update is complete. I will sort out the outline and resume normal updates tonight.

(End of this chapter)