Donghuang Ziji

Chapter 525 Wutai Expands Again

The embodiment of "birth, aging, sickness and death" does not have any amazing visions or brilliant colors. It is just as if some invisible barrier has been broken, and an inexplicable breath flows out from nothingness.

In the void and emptiness that cannot be seen throughout a lifetime, in a place that is extremely far away in perception, an unfathomable bottomless pit emerges, and endless energy of yin, death, silence, defeat and destruction emerges.

Sikong Xi just felt that his soul was constantly in turmoil and his body was beginning to disintegrate.

It was as if my future was already predetermined and I was bound to enter that place of nothingness and emptiness.

Under this kind of aura, the Wutai Taoist in the mountain suddenly opened his eyes and appeared in front of Sikong Xi together with Yu Guifang.

Yu Guifang manifested herself as a celestial being with three heads and six arms. The Dharma image was six feet tall, dressed in a colorful robe, decorated with pearls and jade. He sat on a jade five-colored lotus throne carved with many patterns of flying gods and concubines, and there were three layers of Buddha's light interweaving around him.

Among the six arms, the left and right four hands respectively hold a mutton-fat jade bottle with twin lotus flowers inserted in it, a ritual instrument that is similar to a combination of a vajra and a bell, a wisdom sword with many flesh threads stuck on the surface, and a skull bowl with a fleshy texture.

The last pair of hands left are placed in front of the body, with the left hand covering the right hand, and the palms of both hands facing inward, forming the Tai Chi seal, blending all the auras around the body, forming a quiet and natural artistic conception without sadness or joy, life or death.

When the Dharmadhatu appears, it integrates the two ultimate truths of purity and impermanence, life and death, and impermanence into one. It follows the harmony of yin and yang, returns to the infinity, and is based on the concept of purity, emptiness, and inaction, thus constructing a harmonious and unified realm of tranquility and transcendence.

Upon seeing this, Sikong Xi immediately dived into it, transforming himself into the guardian celestial beings, attendant venerables, sutra-holding boys, dragon girls holding pearls, and other illusions surrounding Yu Guifang. It seemed that just one person filled Yu Guifang's peaceful and detached realm, turning it into a Buddhist pure land.

And the power of "birth, old age, sickness and death" naturally fell on Yu Guifang.

Upon seeing this, Yu Guifang raised one of the six arms of the Dharmakāya, and the twin lotus flowers in the mutton-fat jade vase blossomed and withered continuously, with the two flowers always blooming and withering one after the other, creating a miraculous scene where the two lotuses would never meet each other.

And between the blooming and withering of the two lotus flowers, countless lotus petals scattered all over the sky, with an intoxicating lotus fragrance, falling on the "birth, old age, sickness and death" and further materializing them.

The originally completely invisible attraction was now materialized by the petals, transforming into a deep and chaotic airflow that kept spinning in the air, forming a huge vortex.

In the vortex, streams of air collided with each other, making a series of chaotic noises, as if hundreds of billions of people were talking in unison, or as if the chirping of countless insects and birds were mixed in. The mixture of various voices made people feel upset.

"Return...Return..."

What’s interesting is that, apart from the confusion that occurred in the beginning, these mixed voices gave off a sense of fatalism and helplessness as time went on, as if it was an inevitable future.

Feeling her own strength being absorbed by the vortex, as well as the mysterious and indescribable ancient aura contained within it, Yu Guifang could not help but curse out loud.

"What enemy have you provoked again? Why do I feel like I'm being pulled out of the cycle of reincarnation by this force? And this kind of inevitable future that seems like the natural cycle of birth, aging, sickness and death, yet it's an irresistible force? Have you really provoked some ghosts and gods in the underworld?"

"How should I know? Of the many incarnations I sent out, one tenth have already disappeared. We can only roughly determine that they are in the northeast direction. As for the others, I have also lost the relevant memories and information. But the last thing my many incarnations conveyed back was the name of a great god of destiny..."

When Sikong Xi said this, he also felt that he was very wronged. He had no idea what kind of existence his incarnation had offended that not only did it kill him, but also implicated his original body. As for the only name of Dasi left, he had never even heard of it.

If we must find a match, the only one who can be chosen is Shao Siming from Jinhua Sect.

Sikong Xi did not hesitate to tell his guess. Upon hearing this, Taoist Wutai was silent for a moment and whispered, "The Great Siming and the Young Siming are somewhat similar to the names of a pair of gods in some foreign regions. They may not be from the Jinhua Sect. But it is not wrong to regard them as from the Jinhua Sect and be vigilant... As for this aura, it is not difficult to deal with it..."

As he spoke, the Taoist Wutai stretched out a hand and slowly pressed down. The five elements of gold, wood, water, fire and earth surged with their vital energy, and the five colors flowed and fell into the vortex. After following its flow, he suddenly mobilized the veins of Mount Wutai and pressed down slowly.

Faced with this kind of suppression, the eternal and unchanging final destiny unexpectedly slowly receded.

Yu Guifang took a short breath to regulate her energy, then stepped forward and praised, "Brother, you are really powerful. You can actually think of using the five elements to mobilize the terrain of Wutai Mountain and establish this place as the mortal world. You can use the principle of the separation of yin and yang to fight against the fateful power of birth, aging, sickness and death. You can easily suppress it."

Hearing this, Taoist Wutai laughed and said, "I was just taking advantage of the situation. If you, Junior Sister, hadn't helped me test it out before, I wouldn't have been able to figure out a targeted method so quickly."

After saying that, Taoist Wutai looked at Sikong Xi again and said, "Although I have suppressed that power, Junior Brother, you should reduce your activities outside in the near future, and it is better to take back your many incarnations. Once they are triggered again, it is likely to bring bigger problems."

As he spoke, Taoist Wutai took out something from his sleeve and handed it to Sikong Xi, saying, "It just so happens that I went out to meet friends some time ago, and I got this Solomon tree growing in the westernmost part from a Taoist friend. Legend has it that this spiritual root was brought into the human world from the Qingxu Mansion in the Daluo Tianyue Palace by an immortal in the past. It is one of the Taiyin spiritual roots, and it is just right to be one of the foundations for your cultivation."

Upon hearing this, Sikong Xi took the item, feeling the rich power of the moonlight and the faint Buddhist sounds within it. After thanking the Taoist Wutai, he returned to his own place of practice and began his retreat.

Watching Sikong Xi leave, Yu Guifang couldn't help but ask, "Brother, which sect do you think the Great Sima Ming that Brother Sikong mentioned earlier is from? I saw that ability and it seems to be a magical method of the immortals, but the aura inside seems to be more in line with the methods of witchcraft. Do you think it could be that fellow Haha Patriarch? Before and after you joined the Xuanmen sect, you were schemed against by him several times..."

Taoist Wutai did not answer immediately after hearing this. Instead, he pondered for a long time before shaking his head and saying, "I don't know either. I have never seen clearly what the Haha Patriarch was thinking. He has been practicing for too long. I don't know how many tricks he has left behind."

At this point, Taoist Wutai paused and told Yu Guifang, "The closer I get to the third-grade cultivation, the more I feel that Patriarch Haha is not a simple person. He is the only one who has been stuck in the fourth-grade heavenly realm for such a long time and has not broken through yet is living a carefree life." Yu Guifang said with some embarrassment, "But now that our branch is constantly expanding, the absorption of the energy of Taiyi Immortal Sect and other local side sects has reached a bottleneck. If we want to continue to expand, we must either seize the energy of Taiyi Immortal Sect that has been re-gathered from Jinhua Sect and other Taiyi Immortal Sects, or seize part of the energy of Xuanmen Immortal Dao from Emei Sect, or absorb more energy from side sect masters like Patriarch Haha..."

"Jinhua Sect doesn't need to think too much. Although it is disgusting that we have absorbed the fate of many branches of Taiyi Immortal Sect, it will not cause those seniors in the sky to take direct action. But if we take direct action against Jinhua Sect, the nature of the situation will be completely different."

Taoist Wutai interrupted Yu Guifang's words, looked in the direction of Jinhua Cave Heaven, and said: "The Taoist Taining is also a smart man. Before he achieved the fourth rank, he stayed in the cave heaven. It was very difficult for us to interfere. But he is the core figure of the current Taiyi Immortal Sect's destiny. Unless we take action against him, the destiny that can be seized does not involve the core..."

"As for Haha Patriarch, I said before that I can't see clearly his abilities, so it's better not to provoke him. After all, he may still have some treasures left by the ancients. Maybe he can't use them much, but any one of them is enough to defeat me, or even kill me."

Yu Guifang heard this and whispered, "So, we can only continue to fight with the Emei Sect?"

"Do not."

Taoist Wutai refuted again: "Among the side sects, we actually still have some places that can be gathered, such as Zhushan Sect, Meishan Sect, Maoshan Dao, Pu'an Sect, Lushan Sect and other factions."

"Among them, the Lushan Sect has inherited part of the Taoist tradition from the Dragon Slayer Heavenly Master Xu Zhenjun. It is difficult for us to directly seize its foundation, but it is not a problem to harvest some of their branches."

"The Maoshan Sect has obtained two of the thirteen swords of Liang Shen refined by Shangqing Taoist Master Tao. We can make a plan. If we can seize the Liang Shen twin swords, we in the Wutai lineage can refine a pair of flying swords that can resist the Emei Thunder and Fire Twin Swords."

"For the remaining factions such as Zhushan, Meishan, and Pu'an, let's go there a few more times."

Upon hearing this, Yu Guifang once again responded with praise.

"Brother, what you said is very true. The roots of these side sects are distributed all over the place. If we can annex them one by one, we will have a great improvement. Brother, you can also take this opportunity to promote your own practice and achieve the third level. At that time, our Wutai will have completely established a firm foothold."

Following the decision of the two leaders of the Wutai Sect, all branches of the Wutai Sect were quickly mobilized. In addition to gathering the Taiyi branch that was having a hard time living in various places, the many branches also once again fought with the Zhushan, Meishan, Maoshan, Pu'an, Lushan and other factions.

Moreover, this time, Taoist Wutai took action many times, forcing the power of several factions to continue to shrink.

During this period, these side sects had also considered resisting a bit or uniting to rebel.

But the Taoist Wutai was well prepared. He joined forces with several other fellow Taoists and took the lead in suppressing many voices of resistance. He also incorporated some branches of Zhushan, Meishan, Maoshan, Pu'an, and Lushan into his own Wutai faction. He did not interfere with those branches and taught them more advanced methods, so that they would voluntarily become branches of the Wutai faction.

This move naturally attracted Chu Tai's attention. He was in the Jinhua Cave Heaven and couldn't help but stand at the entrance of the cave heaven, carefully observing the changes in the movement of qi between heaven and earth. He looked at the complicated qi gathering above the Wutai lineage, but then steadily settled under the breath of the Wutai Taoist, and frowned slightly.

"By forcibly gathering the fate from all over the place and suppressing it with his own cultivation and strength, the Wutai lineage has now placed all the future on the shoulders of the Wutai Taoist. If anything happens to him, or if something unexpected happens when he breaks through to the third level, the fate that has gathered at this moment will backfire on him, and the mixed fate will also get out of control, and the many sins created will drag the Wutai lineage into an irreparable situation."

Shi Huajin, who had already returned to the cave, had followed Chu Tai out when he left. Hearing Chu Tai muttering to himself, he stepped forward and said, "Master, why do you care about the future of the Wutai lineage? Such a villain will definitely not have a good ending."

Chu Tai shook his head and pointed in the direction of Emei, saying, "The Wutai and Emei sects were in opposition, but now the Wutai sect has gathered its forces and is developing vigorously, while the Emei sect has not been suppressed. It is obvious that it has also received new external support. The fight between the two will inevitably become more intense, and our Taiyi sect will inevitably be affected. Only by predicting the two sects' thoughts and the possibility of future changes in advance can we gain a greater advantage in future fights."

"So what did you see, brother?"

Shi Huajin asked, and Chu Tai shook his head and said, "For now, we can only see that there is a lot more Buddha light on Emei Qi. It should be some kind of transaction with Buddhism."

"Trading with the Buddhist sect. I just communicated with several great Buddhist masters some time ago, and I didn't find that any of them were close to Emei."

"Brother, the few Buddhist elders you went to look for earlier cannot represent all the great powers in Buddhism at present. Let's not talk about those far away. Although the few in Fanjing Mountain have not come out much in recent years, their cultivation and status are also first-rate in Buddhism. They can provide a lot of luck..."

"Junior brother, you mean Emei Sect and Fanjing Sect..."

Before Shi Huajin could finish his words, Chu Tai interrupted him and said, "This is just my guess, not the truth. After all, although Buddhism has never been able to expand in the Central Plains, many ancient temples have been left behind after so many years of succession. Who knows if there is a fourth-grade Buddhist master living in seclusion in some corner."

"Or maybe, a fourth-rank casual cultivator from a side sect suddenly found the root of the Buddhist inheritance in an ancient temple somewhere, turned to Buddhism, and became their thug? These are all possible, and they may also become a helper for the Emei Sect."

After hearing this, Shi Huajin understood some of Chu Tai's concerns, and he nodded.

"Junior brother, what you said is very true. I was thinking one-sidedly. But if Emei and Buddhism trade like this, can they still separate them clearly in the future? Those monks are not so easy to use."

"This is not something I can guess or judge. Let's first introduce some branches. A few days ago, I received a message from several senior brothers and sisters from Shang Zhu that the Yuping Village branch can return to Taiyi and even be incorporated into our Jinhua Sect as a branch."

Shi Huajin's eyes lit up, and he lowered his head and said, "I'll take care of it right away."

(End of this chapter)