The world is like a prison, my body is holy

Chapter 116 If There's a South Wall (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

The bright moon is like a jade plate.

A lithe figure moved swiftly among the houses of varying heights under the bright moonlight. The sound of his imposing figure stepping on the roof tiles was surprisingly similar to that of a cat walking on the roof.

"Squeak!"

A window was pushed open, and a disheveled, unrestrained red-faced scholar stood in front of the window with a wine pot in his hand. He was about to compose a poem on the spot, fueled by the wine, when he looked up and saw a bright figure with fluttering clothes reflected in the middle of the bright moon.

He suddenly opened his eyes wide, and the wine glass in his hand fell to the ground with a "clatter".

A burst of hearty laughter immediately erupted from inside the room: "Brother Bo Xi, you're drunk!"

"Stop fooling around, come and see a celestial being descending from the heavens..."

In mid-air, Wang Wen, who had leaped over the Yangzhou city wall, sensed the location of the Yang Needle and headed west. He first flew across West Lake on water, then soared up the mountainside along the lake shore, finally landing in front of a towering, majestic seven-story, eight-sided Buddhist pagoda.

Sensing that the Yang Needle was inside the pagoda, Wang Wen raised his head and, by the moonlight, softly recited the inscription on the plaque above the main gate at the base of the pagoda: "Leifeng Pagoda... Leifeng Pagoda?"

He paused for a second, then suddenly couldn't help but chuckle, a strange urge to let out a few "ah" sounds...

Confucius said, "Is it not delightful to have friends coming from afar?"

Just then, the main gate at the bottom of the pagoda opened, and three gaunt old monks, dressed in patched robes, slowly walked out, carrying a tray lined with red silk. The old monk in the lead, with a peaceful expression, bowed slightly to Wang Wen and said, "I am Nianwu. Fellow Daoist Zhang, your presence is an honor. I have failed to greet you properly, which is not the proper way to treat a guest."

As soon as he finished speaking, the two old monks beside him put their hands together, bowed slightly, and chanted Buddhist prayers in unison.

Wang Wen laughed out loud: "You're all too happy now. I'm an uninvited villain!"

As he spoke, he reached out and beckoned, and the Yang Needle, gleaming with a dim golden light, flew back to Wang Wen's hand from the tray in the old monk's hand.

Wang Wen clenched his palms and retrieved the Yang Needle. He then put his hands behind his back, and the Yang Needle automatically flew back from his palms and hid in his hair...

"Fellow Daoist Zhang is joking..."

The old monk Nianwu seemed oblivious to the malice in his tone, and smiled gently, saying, "As the saying goes, 'Red flowers, green leaves, and white lotus roots, the three religions are originally one family,' so how can there be a distinction between friend and foe?"

Wang Wen laughed loudly: "I only said I was a villain, when have I ever mentioned friend or foe? Alright, enough nonsense. I came here late at night not to play games or exchange secrets with you. Be straightforward, are you going to hand over the person voluntarily, or am I going to infiltrate and find them myself? Give me a straight answer!"

The old monk Nianwu, his face contorted with bitterness, bowed and set down the tray in his hands. He clasped his hands together and said in an almost pleading tone, "Amitabha! With such a beautiful scene before us, why must Fellow Daoist Zhang spoil the mood? This humble monk begs Fellow Daoist Zhang, for the sake of our centuries-old friendship, to set aside your murderous intent and enjoy a bowl of fragrant tea..."

Don't try that on me!

Wang Wen looked up at the towering Leifeng Pagoda, his hands clasped behind his back, itching to strike: "I only believe in one thing in my life, and that is that people will always pay the price for their mistakes!"

"I don't believe that what I did last night was right, so I didn't leave and am waiting for you to make your move!"

"You have indeed not disappointed me..."

"I didn't even have a choice, do you think you did?"

His voice was very soft, but his tone was unusually firm.

The Venerable Nianwu sensed the firmness in the tone and knew in his heart that the principle he spoke of was the very path he practiced!

The Way is found in the straight, not in the crooked.

To obstruct someone's path to enlightenment is tantamount to murdering their parents...

The old monk sighed sadly, then sat down cross-legged without saying a word. He took off the prayer beads from his neck, gently twirled them in his hand, and calmly said, "In that case, I can only ask Fellow Daoist Zhang to first step over this stinking carcass of mine..."

Not only him, but the two old monks behind him also silently sat down cross-legged on the spot, took off the prayer beads around their necks, and silently chanted sutras.

Their voices were very soft, but Wang Wen could still hear them clearly; they were reciting the Ksitigarbha Sutra.

As they chanted, a pure Buddhist light shone behind the heads of the three old monks, and within the light, the shadow of the golden wheel of merit was faintly visible.

The kind and benevolent appearance of the three elderly monks made it seem as if the Buddha from the murals had stepped into the human world.

"What, you're resorting to moral blackmail because you can't win a fight?"

Wang Wen chuckled seemingly casually, but for a fleeting moment, he hesitated.

It's not just about hesitating when "good people raise their knives."

There is also the fear of facing Buddhism directly, and even the Buddha himself...

You can't fool yourself.

No matter how stubborn a person is or how loudly they shout slogans, when they truly face the Buddha, they can't help but wonder if the Buddha really exists, and if there really are eighteen levels of hell...

This is the power of religion. It can make even someone who doesn't believe in their teachings feel fear towards them, ultimately maintaining the attitude of "I don't believe in you, but I won't slander you either." By grasping this psychology, it can make countless people keep silent and turn a blind eye to their shady practices.

Wang Wen was not a saint.

At least not yet...

But he hesitated only for a moment before reaffirming his belief: 'If the Buddha were truly as compassionate as Buddhism claims, then He should be weeping; He should want to crush His wicked disciples and followers more than anyone else. If He doesn't feel sorrow and shame for their deeds, then He is not worthy of reverence!'

Why do so many people not believe in Buddhism? It's simply because they've read many books, and coincidentally, many of those books contain true historical events that contradict the Buddhist concept of "saving all sentient beings."

And so, Wang Wen took a step forward and resolutely walked toward Leifeng Pagoda.

"if……"

He said softly, "If you can truly go to the Western Paradise after you die and meet the Buddha, please ask him for me: can he see everything in this world?"

As he spoke, all the pores on his body opened, and plasma flowed out continuously, like a rising tide engulfing the three old monks sitting cross-legged in front of him.

The three elderly monks calmly chanted scriptures, allowing the plasma to engulf them until their final moments. Only then did they collectively utter a soft sigh: 'Yes, Buddha, can you see everything in this world?'

"Ah ah ah..."

The next second, a powerful figure, like a raging lion, burst through the top of Leifeng Pagoda. Like a wounded beast, he roared with extreme anger and sorrow, his face contorted with bulging veins.

"You don't seem like a heartless piece of trash..."

Wang Wen, accompanied by a sky full of thunder, soared into the sky and crashed head-on into the imposing figure: "How can you only see your own suffering and not the suffering of others? What about your belief that all living beings are suffering? What about your salvation of all living beings? Are you chanting the name of Buddha or yourselves?"

He questioned loudly, his fists pounding like two air hammers against the strong figure's solid chest, which seemed cast in bronze and iron. With a series of clanging sounds, he forcefully pushed him back under Leifeng Pagoda.

"Ah ah ah ah..."

The burly figure roared madly, relentlessly swinging his fists, each the size of a bowl, to clash with Wang Wen. Unlike the metallic clang of Wang Wen's fists striking him, the sound of his fists hitting Wang Wen was dull, deep, and resonant, like a large, resonant drum.

Although both of them are experts in external martial arts.

However, it was clear that Wang Wen's external martial arts skills were far inferior to those of the blind monk.

Fortunately, his internal protective energy supplemented his external training, and with his powerful true qi, which was almost at the Innate Realm level, he was able to barely hold his own against him in a head-on collision.

The clash between the two was like the ancient beasts fighting on the vast, flat land in ancient times; every move they made could cause a violent commotion like an earthquake.

They remained locked in a fierce struggle, smashing through layer after layer of the pagoda, falling from the highest level of Buddhism all the way to the lowest...

The entire pagoda trembled continuously under the force of their battle, and countless layers of accumulated dust fell.

This close and evenly matched contest lasted for about fifteen minutes...

The imposing figure remained exactly the same as at the beginning, and even after howling for so long, his voice hadn't become hoarse or broken.

Meanwhile, Wang Wen's internal energy was almost completely depleted...

Knowing he couldn't waste any more time, he seized the opportunity, raised his hand, and shoved it hard into the blind eye of the imposing figure who had been peeking for a while.

All that could be heard was a "bang".

His long-awaited punch instantly sent the already bloodied and mangled blind eye of the burly figure flying, and a surge of true energy flowed into the burly figure's eye socket...

The howl of the imposing figure abruptly ceased, and the intact eye suddenly dilated, as if it had been stunned by Wang Wen's punch.

But Wang Wen clearly sensed that this guy was still alive!

'You managed to hold on?'

He screamed in terror and quickly followed up with a sweeping leg kick. The immense force sent the burly figure, who had been standing frozen in place, spinning head and arms backward.

Wang Wen grabbed his ankle, roared, and unleashed the Crimson Palace Thunder like an electric current through a light bulb, completely piercing through the flesh in his hand. At the same time, he used the man's body as a giant iron hammer, swinging it around with all his might and smashing it in all directions.

"Bang bang bang bang..."

Amidst a violent commotion reminiscent of demolition, a bald head crashed through the wall of the pagoda, extending from inside the pagoda to the outside.

Then a large hand with its five fingers spread out slapped hard on the back of the bald man's head with a "smack"!
All that could be heard was a hysterical roar. The large hand pressed down on the bald head and used his face as a bulldozer to smash horizontally through the wall of the pagoda, causing bricks to shatter and dust to fly everywhere.

Unexpectedly, halfway through the collision, the burly figure, who had been stunned for a long time, suddenly came to his senses and kicked Wang Wen in the back with a scorpion kick, causing the unsuspecting Wang Wen to stagger back four or five steps before releasing him.

Before Wang Wen could even get his footing, the burly figure pounced on him like a vicious dog, tackling him to the ground through the dust and slamming him down on the waist with a powerful, crushing blow, before unleashing a barrage of iron fists at his head and face!

The fists rained down on Wang Wen, leaving him with no choice but to clasp his arms around his head to protect himself.

"You're still alive? Are you made of iron?"

Wang Wen screamed in shock and anger, and with a thought, the Yin Needle in his hair shot out silently.

"what……"

The burly figure who had been pounding his fists with a muffled thud let out another heart-wrenching scream, completely transforming from a one-eyed lion into a blind lion. His fists, which had been flying like a storm, slowed down a beat.

Wang Wen seized the opportunity, grabbed the man's tattered clothes with both hands and pulled him up sharply. At the same time, he used his lower body to perform a powerful backflip, using his hands and feet to push the burly figure riding on him forward, slamming his head hard onto the floor.

Taking advantage of the moment, he flipped himself up, and like a vicious dog pouncing on its prey, mounted the burly figure on the back. He twisted the man's right arm behind his back with his left hand, and pressed his right hand, fingers spread, against the back of the man's head, slamming it violently against the floor tiles: "Are you going to die? Are you going to die? Are you going to die? Are you going to die...?"

"Bang bang bang bang..."

The foundation of the pagoda trembled violently, and the imposing figure struggled frantically, groaning in pain.

The force was so great that Wang Wen was violently heaving and swaying like a bullfighter riding on the back of a bull.

He had to forcefully spread his legs apart to steady his lower body, while simultaneously straining his right hand: "You son of a bitch, you're not dead yet, you're not dead yet, you're not dead yet..."

After smashing for nearly the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the burly figure's struggle finally began to weaken...

A short while later, a loud "bang" was heard.

One second the smooth head was as hard as a steel ingot, and the next it shattered into a pile of red and white pieces, just like a watermelon falling from a height.

Wang Wen couldn't stop himself and slapped the red and white mess on the ground, getting his hand covered in tofu dregs.

Before he could even feel disgust, he heard a loud crash as a large beam tilted and fell from the sky, crashing heavily to his side a foot away.

He quickly got up, covered his head with his hands, randomly chose a direction, and charged forward with all his might...

"Boom."

Wang Wen smashed through the south wall of the pagoda and burst out from the billowing smoke and dust.

His collision became the final straw that broke the camel's back.

With a long creak, the towering pagoda slowly tilted and broke into two pieces.

The upper half crashed into the forest and shattered into pieces.

The lower half also collapsed after a tremor.

The once magnificent Leifeng Pagoda has been completely reduced to ruins!
Wang Wen stood outside the smoke and dust, hands on his hips, letting out a long sigh of stale air: "You're so hard to kill, why didn't you say so sooner? If you had said so earlier, I might not have come... Look at the mess this has made!"

Even then, his heart was still pounding wildly.

I'm still scared...

He admitted that he had seriously underestimated the monk's physical prowess.

To be precise, he never imagined that anyone in this world could train their physical body to such an extent!

With his current skills, even if it were a real robot made of bronze and iron, he could probably dismantle it into pieces with one blow, right?
But this physically strong monk, even before his power dissipated, couldn't leave a single wound, not even an inch long, on his body despite using all his strength...

It was only because this guy's martial arts skills were a bit weak and his experience in fighting was not rich enough that he was able to seize the opportunity to blind his eyes. Otherwise, it would be uncertain who would live and who would die today.

Today's painful lesson taught Wang Wen a valuable lesson: 'Practice martial arts with brute force to overcome all fancy tricks!'

(End of this chapter)