Longzang

Chapter 1233 Another treacherous subject is trying to harm me.

The man put down his carving knife and casually sat down on a pile of firewood, just like a real old farmer. He then said, "For Fa Mi to send you to me, you must have used conditions that he had no choice but to accept. Speak, what brings you here?"

The tall, thin monk carefully chose his words and said, "There is a person who has recently risen to prominence. He is very young, but he has a title: Great Wilderness Spear Saint."

The man remained calm and said indifferently, "Is there no one left in the Pure Land? Do you need an outsider to kill someone?"

“Since you are a close friend of Brother Fa Mi, you are not an outsider.” The tall, thin monk spoke with utmost sincerity, as if he truly believed it from the bottom of his heart.

The man remained expressionless and said, "Get to the point."

The tall, thin monk gritted his teeth, a struggle flashing in his eyes, before saying, "He... he is actually a branch of our Buddhist tradition, strictly speaking, he can be considered half a living Buddhist. However, his interpretation of the scriptures has gone astray, neither the true Dharma of the Tathagata nor the path of sentient beings of the King Buddha. Moreover, his followers are increasing day by day, and there is a danger that he is shaking the foundation of Mount Ling. We must not allow him to continue like this."

However, if the Pure Land sect were to intervene, it risked being branded as a massacre of Buddhist monks, which wouldn't sound good.

The man finally revealed a hint of sarcasm, saying, "Your Pure Land has a reputation?"

The tall, thin monk remained expressionless and simply chanted a Buddhist prayer.

"What is his doctrine?"

The tall, thin monk's face showed fear as he said, "This... this is a sin, a sin, it cannot be spoken of..."

But looking at the man's face again, he gritted his teeth and said, "His teachings are not yet complete; his main purpose is to save humanity."

The man was moved again and said slowly, "A dead end! This person has piqued my interest. Did he follow through?"

"He made a grand vow!!"

The man raised an eyebrow and said, "Rare indeed! 'A hero' is an understatement; he possesses unparalleled talent. No wonder you wanted to kill him. The hatred between different factions within your sect is greater than the mortal feud of killing one's father and humiliating one's wife! However…"

He can't take the title of "Gun Saint" away from him.

The tall, thin monk said happily, "Senior is so kind! Is there anything you need? As long as the Pure Land has it, I will go back and report to my sect and bring it to you."

“No need, I have enough with my spear.” The man casually picked up a branch from the side, straightened it with one hand, and it became an ordinary spear. The tall, thin monk couldn’t see anything special about the spear no matter how he looked at it.

"But……"

The man interrupted him: "What's that person's past record?"

"He is currently at the mid-stage of the Imperial Realm and has already killed three immortals: Liu Miao, Lü Changhe, and Xu Shutong."

The man said calmly, "Three miscellaneous immortals... not bad, they're ready for a fight. What are their names?"

"Wei Yuan!"

The man didn't pack his luggage; he just walked out.

The tall, thin monk said urgently, "Senior, please wait! The external demons are fierce and cunning. My master's intention is to ask you to go to the Pure Land so that he can personally bless you, dispel illusions, and turn misfortune into good fortune..."

The man sneered, "Doesn't that count as an aid to your Pure Land? This battle will have to be attributed to your karma."

"I, Pure Land, truly want to do my best for my predecessors..." The tall, thin monk was so anxious he jumped up and down.

"No need. Keep the payment for now, and I will come to collect it when I need it in the future."

"But now is the perfect time..." The tall, thin monk was even more anxious, thinking that the Pure Land was in a hurry, which was the perfect opportunity to ask for an exorbitant price. Once Wei Yuan was killed, the price would probably be much higher.

The man had already drifted away, leaving only one sentence: "If you dare to withhold my reward, Tuoba Dafeng, your Pure Land will probably have several lotus seats shattered."

The tall, thin monk was greatly surprised, yet he didn't believe it.

He repeated "Tuoba Dafeng" to himself several times, but he couldn't recall ever having such a person in the world. Logically speaking, how could someone who could seclude himself for a hundred years, befriend Fa Mi, and have his master go to great lengths to invite him out of seclusion have no reputation whatsoever?
Just as he was wondering, a small insect suddenly crawled out of his nostril. The insect had a white, fleshy body, more than ten pairs of thin legs, and its back was covered with eyes!
As soon as the strange insect emerged from its nostril, it fell to the ground, writhed in agony for a long time, and finally turned into a pile of wood chips and died.

The tall, thin monk recognized the insect as the "Greedy and Evil Dharani Insect," which was formed from the remnants of worldly and evil thoughts of Buddhist practitioners. It was extremely difficult to deal with, and countless eminent monks had fallen victim to this little insect before attaining enlightenment.

Once the insect was removed, the tall, thin monk suddenly felt his mind clear and his heart filled with great courage and wisdom. Countless past doubts and difficulties were now easily resolved with just a thought!

He understood immediately and bowed deeply in the direction where Tuoba Dafeng had left, saying sincerely, "Thank you, senior. I am a humble monk named Fahui. If I attain enlightenment in the future, I will repay the debt of karma I have accumulated today."

……

Beside the ancient road, under a withered tree.

The sickly boy leaned against a withered tree, unconscious. After a moment, his eyelids twitched, and he looked out through the slits of his eyes. He saw the old man sitting on a rock, with a bald, burly man on one side and a lean man with a gloomy look on the other, both smiling at him.

The bald, burly man said, "So that's why you traveled all the way to a strange village to capture me. It turns out you're a remnant of the Huayu Sect from five hundred years ago! If it weren't for the merit you received from that monk, which cleared away your ignorance and allowed you to see your past life, we really wouldn't have discovered your true identity!"

The wiry man said menacingly, "You think you can just take the good deeds of a bald man so easily? If you accept the good deeds, you'll expose your true colors and fall into our hands."

The boy finally opened his eyes and looked closely at the old man. Suddenly, he saw a figure from his memory. Although the two looked completely different—the man in front of him was a lean old farmer—it still made the boy's whole body tremble and he couldn't help but shake.

In his memory, that round, seemingly kind face was the deepest source of terror, accompanying him through several reincarnations. Each awakening inevitably brought this memory with it. Whenever that face uttered those pitying platitudes, it meant a great calamity was about to occur.

At this moment, the old man smiled and said, "Don't scare him! Being able to inherit the merits of a virtuous monk means there will be karma. Perhaps one day he will sit on the throne of Mount Sumeru, and after being reborn, he will be able to go to the Buddha's Pure Land."

The boy's face turned deathly pale instantly.

He had already cleared away the illusions in his mind and seen through his past life, so he naturally knew the key point. He exclaimed, "How can that be considered attaining enlightenment? They've already attained all the enlightenment they could! If I go, I'll just become a shell that uses my own destiny and fate to nourish the golden body. I'll become nothing more than nourishment for the golden body, and in the end, I won't even have my own life cycle to continue! I don't want that!"

He suddenly remembered that before he lost consciousness, the old man had led him to beg for alms along the ancient road.

The first few people were alright. Upon seeing the young man, the cultivators readily opened their wallets, some giving him magical treasures and weapons, others offering rare and precious materials, and still others even gifting him a Daoist partner on the spot!
But what about your Daoist partners? It seems there were more than one, where did they all go?

The boy was momentarily confused, unable to recall where his gentle, cat-like little Daoist companion had gone.

These were all alright, not too terrifying. But then he remembered the scene of the old man placing the two steamed buns into the monk's hand, and a chill ran straight to the top of his head, as if he had fallen into an ice cave! He hurriedly said, "Brothers, I know the whereabouts of Bodhisattva Mingyue!"

However, the three remained expressionless, clearly not believing it.

The boy persisted for a moment, then his face turned ashen. He said, "Our Huayu Sect is clearly a righteous sect, yet you insisted on calling us a demonic sect and destroyed our sect. That's fine enough, but I have reincarnated ten times and never done anything evil. Why won't you let this go?! Do you have to exterminate us all?!"

The bald man and the lean man both turned to look at the old man, somewhat puzzled. The old man smiled and said, "You're right. Let's go."

After saying that, he actually got up, called to the two men, and then slowly walked away.

Only after they disappeared from sight did the boy dare to get up. His eyes immediately revealed a mature and shrewd look. He quickly looked around to make sure the three of them hadn't returned. Then, he gritted his teeth and ran off in the opposite direction.

After running for only two miles, a golden Buddhist light suddenly rose from the boy's body, growing brighter and brighter until it could not be suppressed!

He was terrified and searched through his memories of past lives, but still couldn't understand what had happened. The dazzling Buddha light made him, who had been timid and cautious for ten lifetimes, tremble with fear.

Left with no other choice, he made a decision and turned to run towards the nearby mountains. In his memory, there was an inconspicuous little temple there, but it was quite famous in the cultivation world hundreds of years ago. One Bodhi was attained and one Arhat was attained in the temple, making it a sacred place for Buddhist cultivation.

Now, bathed in the radiant light of Buddha, and terrified, he finally relinquished everything and joined the Pure Land. Otherwise, he felt he might not survive the night. Could he possibly believe a single word that old demon spoke?

He ran faster and faster, when suddenly he heard a "hey!" and a pair of stunningly beautiful young men and women appeared.

The two men were both exceptionally handsome and the women were both alluring, a rare sight in this world. But when the young man saw them, he felt as if he had seen a venomous snake. In his eyes, both of them were enveloped in a deep blue mist and had a sweet fragrance wafting from them, clearly indicating that they were not human!

At this moment, a man and a woman were looking at the boy with unfriendly eyes. The young man said in a deep voice, "No wonder I suddenly had a sudden feeling that this was an opportunity. I have indeed encountered a seed of Buddhism and Taoism! Which Bodhisattva has reserved you as fertilizer?"

The boy was momentarily at a loss for words. Judging from the tone of this person—no, this holy shaman—it was clear that he harbored ill intentions.

The boy forced himself to say, "I'm just an ordinary person. I was just pulled aside by a high monk and we had a few words. Now I'm going to my relatives' house."

The man sneered and said, "There are no villages in the direction you're heading, only a branch of the Pure Land. So, you say you're not a person from the Pure Land? Who are you trying to fool?"

The boy had a bad feeling and turned to run, but his body was suddenly suspended in mid-air. The woman had appeared behind him at some point and lifted him up.

The boy cried out, "Two high priests, spare my life! I really didn't do anything!"

The woman said, "Huh? He actually knows we are from the Witch Clan? This insight is probably a natural talent."

"That's perfect. Using him as a sacrifice to the heavens will also cut off the resources for a pure land!" The man's eyes flashed with murderous intent.

The boy's soul was scattered. No matter how powerful he was back then, after hundreds of years of reincarnation and escape, his spirit had long since dissipated.

He pleaded, "I have heavy karma on my shoulders. If you use me as a sacrifice, there will definitely be a backlash! When the Bodhisattvas of the Pure Land come to investigate, you will not get away with it!"

"Investigate?" The young man chuckled and said, "It would be best if a few Bodhisattvas and Arhats appeared before me so I could investigate thoroughly. As for karma, don't worry, there are very few karmic debts that our Holy Shamans can't handle, and yours certainly isn't one of them. Set off in peace!"

A scream echoed through the mountains and fields.

Several monks in the distant temple opened their eyes at the same time, looked at each other, and then carefully calculated, but found nothing.

In the mountains and forests, the young man and woman changed direction and quietly disappeared into the distance.

The woman said, "I didn't expect this guy to be a chosen one. After this sacrificial ceremony, I'll have enough resources to start establishing my kingdom and prepare for advancement. What about you, Sacred Heart?"

Saint Heart snapped out of her daze and said, "Including this one, we've already killed five chosen ones of the human race. The karma we've accumulated is long enough. It's just that the Heavenly Witch... never mind, it's not time yet. But this chosen one is a bit strange, it's like he fell from the sky. Could my luck be that good?"

……

Beside a clear stream, an old man and two men lit a bonfire, roasted two stream fish over the fire, and cooked a pot of wild vegetable soup.

Although the conditions were simple and harsh, they were warm and inviting.

The lean man asked, "Brother, is what that guy said true?"

The old man said, "It's true, isn't it? But whether it's true or not isn't important. What's important is that an ancestor hated them so much back then that he swore an oath to exterminate them all. He passed away early and didn't have time to fulfill his oath. So we, as his descendants, have to make up for the boast our ancestor made."

The two men nodded in agreement.

The bald man asked again, "What's the meaning behind those two steamed buns? I really don't understand."

The old man smiled and said, "It's nothing much, just a minor change. It's about making someone's last weakness, which was 'already' disappeared, now 'should' disappear."

The lean man said, "This is still a bit uncertain. Fortunately, the military treatise my immortal master passed down to me recently has an extra page. I've learned some minor magic, so I'll give you a hint."

The bald, burly man asked in surprise, "Isn't your military strategy supposed to be passed down orally without being written down? How come there's another military book? Is your master some kind of immortal master, Duobao?"

The lean man glared at him angrily: "Mind your own business!"

……

Wei Yuan had just returned to the ancestral land of the Lü clan and was wholeheartedly manipulating the great formation, pulling a ring from the huge finger bone underground and lifting it up little by little.

He suddenly felt a sense of disorientation, as if he were in another world.

At this moment, he sat high on the golden throne, with civil officials like ants and military generals like locusts below. Then, a sycophant announced loudly, "Bronze presents—eight pairs of peerless singing girls!"

Wei Yuan's spirits lifted, but his voice remained calm as he slowly said, "Bring him up."

A dozen or so beautiful women with exotic features entered the hall gracefully, kneeling only before reaching the cloud-like steps. Before their knees even touched the ground, several women suddenly shouted, "You tyrant, die!" and abruptly sprang up, their hands flashing with cold light, fiercely stabbing at Wei Yuan!

Wei Yuan was both shocked and furious, his good mood completely ruined. He roared, "Another treacherous subject is trying to harm me!"

　P.S.: A brief supplement is needed.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)