Donghuang Ziji

Chapter 587 Devouring the Lotus Mother

"You should have asked her this question as well."

The girl answered the question irrelevantly and chuckled, "What's her performance?"

"She wants to find you. And she's very eager to do so."

The girl sighed when she heard this, "Oh, it's true, but she was never the one looking for me, I was the one looking for her, she didn't want me anymore."

As she spoke, layer upon layer of white mist appeared around the girl. When the scene took shape again, it was a magnificent temple.

“Is this the Tzu Chi Niangniang Temple?”

Jingguang looked at the building in front of her with a little surprise in her eyes. Then she watched the girl walk to the statue and whispered, "May I attain Anuttara Samyaksambodhi in my next life, so that my own light will be blazing, illuminating the suffering of all living beings, eliminating all grievances, ignorance, demonic obstacles, and all plagues..."

"May I, in the next life, when I attain Anuttara Samyaksambodhi, have a body like the bright moon, pure without any blemish, radiant and vast, connecting to the infinite Buddha light of the ten directions above, and illuminating all sentient beings in the six realms below, so that they may all be enlightened and perform various deeds as they wish."

"May I, in the next life, when I attain Anuttara Samyaksambodhi, help countless sentient beings escape from the snares of the devil, free themselves from all the entanglements of the heretics, and restore them to purity, without falling into the evil realms."

The three great wishes intertwined, layers of Buddha's light descended, and Buddha's light like the bright moon appeared on the girl's body.

Seeing this, Jingguang stepped forward and bowed, saying, "Mercy, mercy, the master made a great vow to save all living beings. Now that I have heard of it, I will help. But, you said you were abandoned, why?"

"Because Lotus Mother has now fallen into heterodoxy, she has become a great demonic snare that has bound countless sentient beings."

As he spoke, Chu Tai told Jing Guang what was happening outside at the moment.

Upon hearing this change, Jingguang was stunned for a moment. She did not expect that someone who made such a great wish would end up like this.

"You and the Lotus Mother are one, is there any way to save you?"

"It's actually very simple to solve my problem."

The girl brought Chutai and Jingguang to the statue. Behind the solemn and sacred statue were two skeletons entangled together and covered with teeth marks.

Seeing this scene, Chu Tai was stunned for a moment.

Unlike the phantoms he had seen in the past, what Chu Tai saw at this moment was part of the essence, so the fate on it could also reveal part of its origin.

"Are these the skeletons left behind by the goddess and the wizard? Did the tooth marks on them come from the devouring of the living beings here, or from the backlash of the wailing of the living beings?"

Chu Tai's question made the angry Jingguang stunned for a moment. Having seen the sacrificial ceremony before, she instinctively thought that these tooth marks came from the sacrifice, but after Chu Tai's reminder, she suddenly realized that she seemed to have overthought.

If she was really forced to sacrifice herself, it would be impossible for the girl to make three great wishes to save all living beings in this area.

Therefore, those tooth marks should not have appeared during the sacrificial process, but after the Lotus Mother began to save the world.

The girl's subsequent answer also confirmed Chu Tai's speculation.

"Namo Avalokitesvara! You have a unique vision and you can see the problem at a glance. These tooth marks appeared after I failed in my attempt to save the world."

Jingguang frowned, somewhat confused, and said, "You made three great wishes, and received the Buddha's blessing. In the future, the power of your wish should be rewarded to improve your cultivation and push it to the third level. Why did you fail and end up like this?"

"Because we miscalculated." The girl looked at the two skeletons, pointed at the older one, and said, "In the beginning, as the prototype of the goddess, when the land was dry, I dedicated myself in the family's sacrifice, allowing my flesh, blood, bones, and divinity to return to nature, allowing part of the power of nature to protect our land. This was the first time I saved this land."

"The second time was when the world was undergoing a drastic change. At that time, the principles of life and death in the entire world were misplaced, and the principles of all things changed. In order to prevent this force from distorting the lives of the people here, as a practitioner of the Guanyin method, I chose to burn my body amid the mourning of all the people here, allowing my spirit to merge with the gradually declining gods, and construct the current me, leaving behind the Dharma to prevent alienation. This was the second time I saved this land."

"At that time, the world had already declined. I was one of the few successful cases, so I received the last gift from the world and became the existence closest to the third level at that time. But unfortunately, the world was too weak to push me to a higher level. I could only choose to make a great wish, overdraw the future, build an illusory third level, and try to save the world."

"but……"

The girl sighed, her tone a little sobbing, and Chu Tai followed with a sigh and said: "But when you finally found yourself at the third level, you faced a very terrifying existence, right?"

"Yes, I saw the infinite Buddha light, the boundless Buddha light, the past Buddha, the present Buddha and the future Buddha. I was almost assimilated by the Buddha light, but the sentient beings here saved me. But in order to save me, they were also infected by the Buddha light. In order to expel the Buddha light, I can only find ways to enhance the power of the goddess and suppress the Dharma as much as possible."

"But the more I do this, the more powerless I feel. I can only watch them transform one by one. Because they have absorbed too much vitality and grown lotus and vines, they can't die normally at all. They can only beg me to kill them."

"I took action. When I killed the first person, the meaning of [Nanwu Guanyin] was formed. And when I killed the last alienated person, I was separated from myself."

"Then how did she abandon you? When?"

Chu Tai asked a new question.

The girl was silent for a while and then said, "When the world was completely hopeless and I went completely crazy, I chose to integrate them all into my illusory Pure Land, and then forcibly overlapped the Pure Land with the real world, hoping to keep them alive. It was also at that time that my two bodies were torn and devoured by them in their madness."

"That's not right."

Chu Tai retorted: "I remember clearly that the most important sentence echoing in your ears should be 'Lotus Mother of Ten Thousand Leaves and Thousands of Cores, please lead us to survive'."

"So, what happened back then? The first tooth mark on your body shouldn't have been caused by someone biting you when everyone was dead."

Hearing this, Jingguang's eyes fixed and he asked coldly, "Daoist Taining, what do you mean by this?"

"I mean, before the world collapsed, you tried to save all living beings with your own flesh and blood. Or someone wanted to gain immortality by devouring your flesh and blood? Right? Ten Thousand Leaves and Thousand Cores Lotus Mother Goddess..."

"It's all..."

The girl sighed, a green light flashed in one of her pupils, and a Buddha's light appeared in the other pupil. Although her figure and appearance did not change, her temperament was no different from that of the Lotus Mother with Ten Thousand Petals and Thousand Stamens.

She walked up to Chu Tai and said, "In the beginning, they wanted my flesh and blood to survive, but after I found that this action could really save sentient beings, I gave up my flesh and blood and tried to save as many people as possible."

"This is an evil way!"

Jingguang roared, "Even if it's to save people, you shouldn't choose to feed them with flesh and blood. They can devour flesh and blood to survive, but you absolutely cannot give them flesh and blood. You've unleashed the demons in their hearts!"

"Hey……"

Chu Tai sighed, looked at the girl and said, "Now, you still want to release the demon in Jingguang's heart, right?"

Hearing this, Jingguang was stunned for a moment, and then he roared like an angry lion: "I will never devour your flesh and blood!"

(End of this chapter)