Longzang

Chapter 270 If the End Comes (Part 2)

Just as Wei Yuan was about to dodge, he suddenly felt another pang of fear. The earth trembled slightly, and then a strange sensation, a mixture of cold and heat, swept over both of them.

This was a powerful divine ability to search the heavens and earth. Wei Yuan immediately concealed his aura and remained motionless.

The Vajra Divine Sense swept back and forth several times, still unwilling to give up, and swept it twice more before finally disappearing. Wei Yuan wanted to take a deep breath, but then found that his mouth had already been gagged.

Wei Yuan was somewhat annoyed. How could she be acting so recklessly at this critical moment of life and death? He pushed the girl away and cautiously extended his divine sense to check the commotion outside.

But before his divine sense could extend more than a few feet upwards, he suddenly felt a scorching heat and had to retreat. The heat contained the power of the Pure Glazed Fire, which had an additional effect on divine sense, making Wei Yuan dare not touch it.

Calculating the distance, the heat has penetrated into the soil for more than two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters). What happened on the ground? Could it be that the guardian deity has started burning the mountain?
The mountain is not empty; many small animals live among the grass, trees, and forests. Some of them have listened to the scriptures day and night and have already awakened their spirituality. In this world, these are all regarded as spirit beasts, and even those that are born weak will be carefully nurtured.

If they were really setting fire to the mountain, wouldn't that be slaughtering all living beings?

If there's no way out above, then there's only the bottom. Wei Yuan probed downwards with his divine sense, and this time it was bottomless; he explored for dozens of feet, but all he found were rocky cliffs.

Wei Yuan was calculating the distance and comparing it with the terrain he remembered, trying to see if he could dig a tunnel out underground, preferably with the exit on the cliff. However, when his divine sense reached a hundred feet below his limit, he suddenly sensed a cold, icy aura. This aura was indescribably evil, and even a slight approach made Wei Yuan tremble.

This was like being caught between a rock and a hard place, and Wei Yuan was starting to panic. What kind of hellish place was this?

However, he had considerable faith in his intuition. There were very few things that could instill such strong fear in his intuition, the extraterrestrial traveler he had seen in the Netherworld was one of them.

The blazing Buddha light above was somewhat manageable; at least the laurel tree was swaying normally when he probed it. But as soon as he approached the icy evil below, even the laurel tree seemed to freeze in time, completely still, and the sword energy condensed in mid-air. From this, Wei Yuan knew that what lay below was even more dangerous to touch.

Just as he was feeling troubled, the girl climbed up again, wanting to have a few more bites.

Wei Yuan said irritably, "You're about to die, and you still have the mood to fool around?"

The girl said, "It's because I'm about to die that I have to act silly! Once I'm really dead, I won't be able to do that anymore..."

Wei Yuan was taken aback, and surprisingly, he found it somewhat reasonable. He wasn't one to give up easily, but who knew he'd been forced into such a desperate situation? If he were to die here, there were still so many things he hadn't experienced…

The girl's body began to writhe, heat up, squeeze and rub, as if she wanted to crawl into Wei Yuan's body.

For some reason, the moment she touched him, the fire within Wei Yuan was ignited and he couldn't suppress it!
Wei Yuan resisted desperately, constantly shrinking back, not because he disliked the girl, but because he disliked his out-of-control self. However, his side was also curved; as he shrank back, he would slide back down.

The girl clearly sensed Wei Yuan's resistance, and suddenly chuckled softly, her voice like a bell echoing in Wei Yuan's ears, so beautiful it touched his heart. She twisted again, this time with extreme force.

Wei Yuan took a deep breath, trying to maintain his last bit of consciousness.

The girl said, "We're all going to die anyway, so why not have some fun one last time? I'm going to marry you anyway."

"There might still be hope. Let me think of something else..."

The girl suddenly became angry: "You just think I'm ugly!"

Wei Yuan could only earnestly comfort him: "Actually, you're just not that good-looking, not ugly."

The girl didn't have a knife in her hand; if she had, she would have already slashed it down. Childhood sweethearts, what a joke! All that talk about severing ties!

However, the girl did not move. Suddenly, she smiled softly and then put her finger in front of her eyes, where a dim yellow light shone from her fingertip.

The light was dim, but it was enough to illuminate her face.

This was a face that seemed straight out of a dream—clear, bright, clean, and purely beautiful, yet possessing an untamed and wild quality that drove one mad with desire. For example, right now, as she bit her lower lip and looked at Wei Yuan, it was practically a provocation, pointing her finger at his nose!
The faint light vanished in an instant, but that face was already imprinted in Wei Yuan's heart.

"You..." Wei Yuan was about to say something when his mouth was covered, and she whispered in his ear, "You're almost dead and you're still making excuses. Are you impotent?"

How could this be tolerated? Wei Yuan immediately exploded, flipped over and pinned her down.

Proving oneself is a very difficult thing, but Wei Yuan doesn't understand this yet.

In the darkness, after a flurry of frantic but disorganized and chaotic actions, Wei Yuan felt he wasn't making much progress. Just then, that infuriatingly annoying voice rang in his ears again: "What are you busy with?!"

Then she moved slightly, which was truly fatal. In an instant, Wei Yuan felt his primordial spirit soar to the heavens, overlooking the Pure Land of Buddha, contemplating his past life as a toad.

At this moment, a passage of scripture flowed through Wei Yuan's mind: Movement gives rise to Yang, extreme movement leads to stillness, stillness gives rise to Yin, extreme stillness returns to movement. Movement and stillness…

Before Wei Yuan could glean anything from his senior's profound words, the woman, having reached a state of extreme stillness, began to stir again, and this movement gave rise to yang energy.

Wei Yuan was forced to fight back, a fight to the death.

A clear laugh suddenly rang out from the darkness. She said, "So you're still a virgin!"

Wei Yuan was furious!
At this moment, words are insufficient; only iron will can prove it. However, haste makes waste, and before he could suppress the situation for more than a few rounds, Wei Yuan was suddenly startled, inwardly cursing his misfortune, and sure enough, he went from extreme to still.

During this rare moment of peace, Wei Yuan quickly asked, "Are we really not going to survive?"

"Of course it's true! Why would I lie to you at a time like this..." the woman said, as she stirred from her stillness.

……

Silence fell once more in the darkness, and Wei Yuan seized the opportunity to ask, "When did you regain consciousness? Were you pretending to be unconscious the whole time?"

"This is a pure land. Entering here is like encountering the mystery of the womb, making you think you are someone else. But you, you were able to break through the mystery of the womb so quickly. It's truly unbelievable."

Wei Yuan asked again, "The mystery of the womb! Then aren't we just here to die?"

“That’s the next question, I’ll answer you in the next phase,” the woman said, then returned to her previous stillness.

Wei Yuan already knew very well what the next stage would be: the next time things would reach a point of extreme activity followed by stillness.

Silence fell once more in the darkness. Wei Yuan hurriedly asked, "Didn't we come in here just to die?"

Having experienced the paper wedding dress incident, Wei Yuan quickly broke through this kind of illusion, similar to a prenatal mystery, essentially witnessing the entire transformation of the small village. But this process seemed like a dead end. Even if they killed the Demon King, there were still guardian Vajras; even if they killed the Vajras, there would most likely be Arhats and Bodhisattvas afterward. In this situation, not to mention Daoist masters, even True Lords would not escape. Wei Yuan couldn't understand why, since he had no enmity with Xiang Hou, he would be driven to his death. Did he think that if he died, his teacher would spare him?

The woman chuckled and said, "Do you think Lord Xiang is trying to harm you?"

"Logically speaking, this shouldn't be the case; his life is far more valuable than mine."

“Originally, if we were killed by the Demon King, the Pure Land would be shattered and the cycle of reincarnation would end. Then we would enter a small world containing the true blood of an Arhat, where I would bear the karma and you would inherit the true blood. But who knew that you would break through the mystery of the womb and kill the Demon King directly.”

"...So what do we do now?"

"Of course, we'll continue!"

"No, I mean... wait, not that, continue..."

From stillness comes movement.

……

It was finally time to answer questions again, but Wei Yuan's voice was a little unsteady: "Do we really have no chance to escape?"

"You can't even handle me, yet you think you can handle King Kong?"

Wei Yuan wanted to say that these were not the same thing at all, but she had already started the next step.

……

From stillness comes movement.

From stillness comes movement.

From stillness comes movement.

……

The phrase "stillness reaches its extreme and then movement returns" refers to the transformation of Yin and Yang, which is actually unrelated to time; it can be a very long time or a fleeting moment. Wei Yuan initially thought it should be the former, but in this dark and confined space, he realized he had misinterpreted the scripture; its actual meaning was the latter.

……

Wei Yuan had nothing more to ask, but he felt he would be wasting a chance if he didn't ask something, so he asked, "Aren't you tired? Why don't you take a break?"

"Why sleep now? You'll have plenty of time to sleep after you die!"

Impressive! Wei Yuan could only admire it.

……

The night was long.

……

Wei Yuan felt that the long night would eventually pass, and for a moment he had already seen the dawn. But instead, she lit a small fire on her fingertip, used the firelight to tidy her eyelashes, and then used her face to deliver another blow to Wei Yuan's heart.

Then the long night continued.

……

Wei Yuan pondered, "Why does this transformation between movement and stillness, yin and yang, never stop?"

However, the classic texts of sages have already provided the answer: if Yin and Yang do not move, the world will return to chaos, which means it will be destroyed.

But Wei Yuan thought again, isn't this the end of the Dharma era? It's just that the one destroying the world isn't a demon, but a Vajra.

……

Wei Yuan discovered that the more empty his body felt, the more active his mind became, and he would involuntarily think about many random things, for reasons he didn't know.

……

When the world finally quieted down, Wei Yuan felt that his body was no longer his own. He didn't even want to stand up, and he felt like a pile of human-shaped tofu dregs.

She was like a snake, slithering across Wei Yuan's body, sometimes from left to right, sometimes from right to left. Wei Yuan understood that she was telling him to let him off the hook for now.

Even now, Wei Yuan's mind was still a mess, unable to understand how things had come to this. But what was going to happen had already happened, and honestly... he didn't seem to have suffered any losses?
Although I only saw her face twice, if the phrase "a scourge to the country and its people" could only be applied to one person, it would be her.

The darkness was still somewhat stifling. Heat emanated from above, carrying a very strong scent of pure, crystalline fire. The fire above had been burning for an exceptionally long time, and the world below had become unrecognizable.

The woman, lying on top of Wei Yuan, suddenly said, "I've gone a little crazy because I saw an ending I'd never seen before. I never expected it to be like this... I still have to thank you. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have woken up early and remembered everything that was supposed to be erased. But seeing the mage like that... I feel so unwilling!"

There was a hint of sobbing in her voice.

Wei Yuan didn't know how to comfort her, so he could only hold her tighter.

She calmed herself down, gently tapped Wei Yuan's chest, and said, "My surname is Li, and my given name is Ruyi. Li Ruyi."

Wei Yuan silently repeated the name several times, firmly imprinting it into his mind.

"Don't forget me... Oh, you can't possibly forget me either. I have another identity outside: the Imperial Concubine of the Western Jin Dynasty."

Note:
“From Wuji comes Taiji. Taiji moves and generates Yang, when movement reaches its extreme it becomes still, when stillness generates Yin, when stillness reaches its extreme it moves again. Movement and stillness are mutually rooted. Yin and Yang are divided, and the two polarities are established.”
-
Song Dynasty, Zhou Dunyi's "Explanation of the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate"

(End of this chapter)