Mythology

Chapter 478 Ksitigarbha, Let Us Comprehend the Great Dao Together

The night was as dark as ink, and a continuous drizzle fell.

The feast where immortals and Buddhas shared Tang Sanzang's flesh gradually came to an end.

After indulging in a feast, the incarnation seemed unchanged, but the skin surface had an oily sheen, making it look unusually eerie.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva trembled all over, constantly chanting Amitabha Buddha.

"Buddha..."

He looked up at the sky, his pupils suddenly contracting, as if he saw an indescribable presence in the pitch-black clouds.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva was filled with immense fear and prostrated himself on the ground, not daring to resist.

"Uh."

A muffled groan.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva felt his stomach churning uncontrollably, his supernatural powers in the hell realm were completely out of control, and countless evil spirits were gnawing at him.

He looked down and saw his intestines wriggling as if they were alive.

"Ahhhh!!!"

The screams of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva echoed in the rainy night. The fear in my heart had reached its peak, and it took a long time for my stomach to calm down.

"May Buddha be above, your disciple understands, your disciple will find Yang He as soon as possible."

"If Yang He doesn't die, Buddha will definitely reclaim his position."

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva manipulated the threads of cause and effect and noticed that of the Seven Immortals, only Lü Dongbin had escaped unscathed and was currently in Hongfu Temple.

"Lü Dongbin must know where Yang He is!!!"

"Even at the cost of great effort, this humble monk will retrieve the last statue of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva!!!"

The expression of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva no longer showed resentment, but only deep fear. He felt that Shakyamuni was reprimanding him. Thinking about it, it makes sense, after all, the Buddha and the demons are brothers born of the same mother.

He dug his fingertips deep into his scalp, tearing the skin and flesh apart.

Blood spurts out.

After the skin was torn off, a strange black figure emerged.

The figures were entirely black, so dark that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.

Occasionally, the black color would fade slightly, revealing a body pieced together from countless swollen pustules.

The body is covered with a dense network of thick blood vessels, which at first glance look like the body is wrapped with wriggling intestines. It is clearly the true form of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, who has been forced to descend to earth.

When Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva arrived in Chang'an, the surrounding rainwater suddenly turned into foul-smelling blood plasma, and viscous Yellow Spring water seeped from the cracks in the floor tiles.

The strange phenomenon lasted only half a breath, then a gentle breeze blew by.

The effects have disappeared.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva looked utterly desperate, not only because of the threat from Shakyamuni, but also because all the Buddhas and deities were watching him. The only thing he could do was to reduce the influence of his true form.

"Yang He! Yang He!! Yang He!!"

.........

Meanwhile, inside the scripture pavilion of Hongfu Temple.

Lü Dongbin's figure had grown to over four meters tall, making him almost unrecognizable as human. His skin was covered in scales, and his mouth was full of sharp teeth.

"He...he definitely existed! He definitely existed!!!"

The scriptures were scattered all over the ground, and Lü Dongbin flipped through them one by one. Thanks to the cover of the torrential rain, no monks noticed.

Even as he lay dying, his instincts continued to repeat themselves.

I don’t know how much time has passed.

Lu Dongbin suddenly discovered something in a scripture, his breathing became extremely heavy, and after a moment of stunned silence, he scratched his claws across the scales, carving crooked characters on them.

The demonic aura grew increasingly intense, already beginning to erode the Niwan Palace.

It was only thanks to the two Yin treasures and a wisp of five-colored divine light that his soul was protected.

"Master."

boom.

Lu Dongbin fell heavily to the ground, the struggle on his face disappearing, replaced by a ferocious expression, mixed with a thirst for flesh and blood.

He... has become a demon!

Lü Dongbin crawled on all fours toward the Zen temple where the monks were gathered.

clap clap.

After only a few steps, the demonic aura subsided by more than half again.

When Lü Dongbin opened his eyes, his consciousness had already been taken over by Yang He.

Immediately afterwards, the three ghosts that Yang He carried suppressed the demonic energy, and the Myriad Transformations Heavenly Dao Field forcibly acted on his body and soul, causing the demonic transformation to gradually subside.

"Compared to the other Eight Immortals, Lü Dongbin is at least still salvageable."

Yang He scanned Lü Dongbin's body and found that Lü Dongbin had managed to become an immortal before turning into a demon. By chance, he had refined two Yin treasures into his body and soul, fused his flesh and blood sword sheath with his Niwan Palace, and his skin and Taoist robe became part of his flesh and blood.

"I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse, but Yin Bao has already turned into a demon."

"pity."

Yang He noticed that Lü Dongbin had writing carved on his skin, but his intelligence was affected by the demonic energy and he was unable to decipher it.

"Could it be related to Buddhist scriptures? Hmm, Hongfu Temple, that sounds familiar."

After a moment of thought, Yang He remembered that Hongfu Temple was the temple presided over by Tang Sanzang and was the first stop on his journey to the West. Tang Sanzang also returned to Hongfu Temple when he returned to Chang'an by the same route.

It could be said that if there were a Tang Monk in the world of classical Chinese stories...

They will probably leave something at Hongfu Temple.

Yang He narrowed his eyes, his brows revealing disbelief. In this world, Tang Sanzang had been reduced to a medicinal herb, and his numbers were everywhere, producing thousands of bodies every night.

Logically speaking, it's impossible for the story to unfold exactly as it did in the original work.

Yang He meticulously perused each book of scriptures and soon noticed something unusual: many of the scriptures contained accounts of experiences written by monks of Hongfu Temple.

"Twenty-five years ago, a monk with the Dharma name Shiran traveled west."

"Fifty years ago, a monk named Huisu traveled west."

"Seventy-five years ago, a monk with the Dharma name Faguang traveled west."

Almost every twenty-five years, a monk would choose to travel to the outside world, but none of them ever returned to Hongfu Temple; they all disappeared without a trace.

"Could these monks be related to Tang Sanzang?"

In the original work, Jin Chanzi was not reincarnated as Tang Sanzang from the beginning. He went through nine lifetimes of death and extinction before finally getting on the right track in his tenth life.

Yang He recalls that Journey to the West describes Sha Wujing eating nine pilgrims in the Flowing Sand River, leading many to suspect that Tang Sanzang died nine times in previous lives at the hands of Sha Wujing.

The candlelight began to flicker violently without warning.

Yang He flipped through the pages of the sutra without looking up, slowly confirming the truth of his guess. Perhaps Tang Sanzang had existed. Could it be that the pile of rotten flesh in the Pure Land had given birth to intelligence?
"wrong."

"Before the Tang Dynasty was established, natural disasters also occurred every twenty-five years, so there seems to be some hidden danger in the flesh of Tang Sanzang?"

Snapped.

A jet-black hand touched the window frame, and the wooden window frame instantly rotted and carbonized, turning into wisps of black ash. Then a figure squeezed into the room.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva stared intently at Lü Dongbin, who was completely absorbed in his work.

"Jiang Qi, you..."

"Shut up, what's the rush?"

Yang He flipped through the scriptures faster and faster.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva took a half step back, realizing that the person in the Sutra Repository was not Lü Dongbin, but Yang He himself. Who would have thought that this person would be so heartless as to possess his disciple's body and soul?

What he despaired about was that the hell realm had not discovered any clues at all.

His supposedly superior supernatural abilities were utterly insignificant in front of Yang He.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's original determination to fight to the death suddenly dissipated by more than half. Perhaps there really is an immortal and indestructible supernatural power in the world. Perhaps the only condition for killing Yang He is to destroy his three incarnations.

So... is there a possibility?

The Immaculate Buddha, sealed in the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, was not restricting Yang He, but rather Shakyamuni was protecting him, after all, they were brothers. "Ksitigarbha, is your true form in its current state due to the aura of the Void?"

Yang He's voice was very soft, yet it was like a sharp knife piercing the heart of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's breathing stopped, causing the candlelight to dim. He did not immediately attack Yang He, and now he had no intention of doing so at all.

"Yes, it is."

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva responded as if by magic, and voluntarily retreated to a safe distance.

To be fair, although Yang He carried the Myriad Transformations Heavenly Dao Field, Lü Dongbin's cultivation was only at the True Immortal Realm, and the two were completely incomparable.

However, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva appears to be the weaker party.

Yang He stroked the scripture with his fingertips and chuckled, saying, "Don't immortals and Buddhas all have similar situations, which is why they urgently need celestial flesh and blood?"

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva knew what Yang He meant by heavenly flesh and blood. He did not know the origin of this great medicine called Golden Cicada, but only that it was brought by Shakyamuni from somewhere in the Three Realms.

"Now a quarter of the underworld is covered by the aura of the void, and even the Heavenly Dao has been polluted. Anyone in the Three Realms will inevitably be affected. Removing the Daoist temple is only a temporary solution."

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva regained his composure and suddenly realized that Yang He was not incapable of being a good friend.

Yang He sorted through a few useful scriptures. "The Ruins of Return should not have much of an impact on mortals, since mortals cannot absorb Yin energy and are essentially isolated from the erosion of the Ruins of Return's aura."

"Yes, that was certainly true before the Void of Return enveloped the mortal realm."

"drink wine?"

"what?"

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva was taken aback. He saw Yang He take out a wine gourd and shake it slightly. The crystal-clear wine, exuding a mellow aroma, hung in front of him.

"Give it a try; it's a fine wine brewed from the corpses of immortals and Buddhas."

Yang He has already digested the two ghost and god corpses, and the area of ​​the Myriad Transformations Heavenly Dao Field has increased by a full 40%, and the Myriad Transformations Tree has also benefited greatly.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva took a sip, a slight feeling of intoxication rising within him.

Buddhist precepts forbid drinking alcohol, but this applies to monks.

"Well."

"Ha ha ha ha."

Yang He laughed loudly and continued to ask, "As a great demon whose body and soul are suppressed by you immortals and Buddhas, why do I feel that Jin Chanzi once possessed intelligence? Tell me more."

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva completely abandoned the attack, took a deep breath, and said, "This humble monk does not know either."

"but……"

Yang He crossed his legs and said, "You can say whatever you want, even if it's just a guess."

"This humble monk believes that the Golden Cicada has not yet been born, so it keeps repeating the process of being born, which makes the drawbacks of taking the Golden Cicada more and more obvious, because of the accumulation of resentment."

"Cons?"

"It is said that one will gradually become dependent on Jin Chanzi and unable to stop."

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva swallowed, seemingly recalling the taste of Tang Sanzang's flesh.

"As for Jin Chanzi, who possessed intelligence, I remember that several monks claimed to be reincarnations of Jin Chanzi, but they all disappeared without a trace later."

Yang He did not believe that the immortals and Buddhas were indifferent to the existence of Jin Chanzi.

Moreover, Jin Chanzi's tenth incarnation must have something special about him. The immortals and Buddhas' seclusion in Chang'an was very likely for Tang Sanzang's sake.

Yang He was very interested and even considered making Tang Sanzang a permanent character.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva waited for a long time, then respectfully bowed and said, "I am willing to offer up my thousand years of cultivation to retrieve the Ksitigarbha that was left with Your Excellency."

"A thousand years of accumulation?"

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva raised his voice, “A vast amount of spiritual materials from the underworld, and billions of evil spirits contained in the Nine Turns of the Yellow Springs.”

Yang He remained expressionless, and Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva quickly increased the stakes.

"The underworld holds a supreme innate treasure, which will definitely belong to the Venerable One."

Fearing that Yang He would disagree, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva directly opened his chest and took out the corpses of the Eight Immortals, severing all the causal connections.

Yang He examined the corpses and was surprised to find that the Eight Immortals, who should have attained enlightenment, had died in such a tragic manner, with their eyes wide open.

"Your Excellency, I truly have no intention of being your enemy."

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva was terrified and knelt before Yang He, pleading desperately.

"Yes, past grievances can be forgiven."

Yang He reached out and touched the forehead of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva. "Didn't you want the Dao Fruit? Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva is indeed useless to me."

"Thank you very much, Your Excellency!!!"

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's expression softened as he sensed a large amount of yin energy entering his body.

Yang He continued, “Shakyamuni sent you here as a test. Now I feel that I can finally entrust the position of Ksitigarbha to you. Amitabha.”

Yin energy is transformed from the Ghost True Lord and contains the aura of the Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva did not realize that the Yin energy could threaten him. Well, the Immaculate Buddha is one of the Buddhist saints and is also known as one of the Three Buddhas of the Three Worlds along with Shakyamuni and Maitreya.

There's no need to covet a Bodhisattva's position; it seems it's all been a misunderstanding.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva showed reverence. He truly deserves to be called the Immaculate Ancient Buddha. Even though he used the thread of cause and effect to set up an ambush and kill him, and even though he had been secretly plotting for hundreds of years, he still had a kind heart.

"Your honor."

"Disciple understands."

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva had a clear and insightful expression, but little did he know that Yang He's eyes were twitching uncontrollably.

“I understand a principle: if you repay good with good, you will naturally receive good results. I have sinned by eating more than three thousand people over the past hundred years.”

A faint Buddhist light emanated from the area.

Yang He heard the chorus of chants emanating from the body of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, and his supernatural powers seemed poised for a complete transformation at any moment.

"Ugh."

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva was taken aback. "Why did Your Excellency sigh?"

Yang He noticed that the Yin energy had spread throughout the body and soul of Ksitigarbha, and immediately summoned the panel.

[Should I generate a permanent character, Ksitigarbha?]

Yang He's murmur reached Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's ear, "I don't know how to bestow the fruit of enlightenment upon you, but it's alright. We can comprehend the Great Dao of Ksitigarbha together. From now on, we're on the same side."

"One of our own?"

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva was inexplicably moved, and tears streamed down his face uncontrollably.

"determine."

[The permanent characters <Netherworld Patrol Sea Ghost Yuan True Lord> and <Ksitigarbha King> are compatible and meet the fusion conditions. Would you like to spend 500 points of Spirit Vision to fuse them?]

Yang He patted Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva on the shoulder and silently reaffirmed his decision.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's face was slightly flushed, and he could sense that his attainment of Buddhahood was nearing completion. If all went well, he would soon achieve enlightenment with Yang He's assistance.

"Amitabha."

With Yang He's pitying gaze, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's consciousness completely sank into oblivion.

"It's a pity that the last remaining spot was used on Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva."

"There's nothing we can do. If this problem can't be solved, we'll inevitably face restrictions everywhere."

Yang He did not put away the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva statue, as he was planning to play the role.

suddenly.

It's unclear when exactly, but the spiritual vision has seen a slight increase.

In Chang'an, where immortals and Buddhas are everywhere, this might be quite common, but this is Hongfu Temple. Could it be that the Tenth Incarnation of Jin Chanzi is already on the verge of being born?
As the sun rises, its rays bathe the halls and eaves of Hongfu Temple.

Pilgrims flocked into the temple to offer incense.

Yang He opened his Fiery Eyes of Truth, a supernatural ability that allows him to see into a person's true form, and with the added blessing of his spiritual vision, what he saw was the monk's entire body radiating Buddhist light.

All the monks were radiant, their spiritual vision revealing informational processes...

Jin Chanzi

(End of this chapter)