Immortal I Speedrun Supernatural Game

The illusory image of the monk did not pursue them.

Only the footsteps of a few ghostly figures and Wu Wang's whining, quirky singing remained on the flat road.

Not long after leaving the gate of [Zhengjian], he encountered something new.

It was a raging fire.

It formed a wall of fire that blocked the road, and three large characters were faintly visible on it—

Positive Thinking

Standing nearby was a bald, robed monk's silhouette, who seemed to be the same one who had been guarding the gate earlier.

He recited: "The one who thinks rightly is free from all wrong views and thinks rationally."

Wu Wang leaped into the air again, attempting to fly over the flames.

Unexpectedly, the raging fire instantly intensified, with flames shooting into the sky. No matter how high he flew, it blocked his way, and the intense heat made Wu Wang's cheeks feel uncomfortable.

clatter--

Wu Wang landed on the ground with a dull thud.

He jokingly remarked, "You've learned from your mistakes, and you even know how to adapt. Not bad."

Then he turned to look at the illusory figure and asked:

"Could this fire kill someone?"

"Naturally, it is possible, but if one's mind is not pure, one will be burned upon entering the fire..."

whoosh—

Before the phantom could finish speaking, Wu Wang actually stepped into the fire.

In an instant, flames licked up the clothes, and the fair skin immediately tore open and burned under the extreme temperature, making a sizzling sound.

He was burned so badly that his whole body was emitting black smoke, but he didn't even flinch.

When they reached the center of the fire, they didn't even move.

He stood still and turned to look at the phantom.

"I don't think so," Wu Wang laughed. "The temperature of your fire is far inferior to the sacred fire of some angels."

He was referring, of course, to the incident where he was burned by the divine messenger in the audience space.

Watching the flames dance on my body, I felt like a piece of wet, unburnt firewood.

The illusory figure's dumbfounded expression made Wu Wang walk out of the fire feeling slightly bored.

Although he was barely clothed at this moment, his skin had somehow returned to normal.

"Men, get to work!"

Completely disregarding the shame of losing his clothes, he continued to move forward on the ghost's back.

This time the journey was even shorter than before.

After walking only about fifty steps, he saw a sharp sword appear in the middle of the road.

The sword floated up into the air, its tip pointing downwards as if it were about to stab Wu Wang at any moment.

Two large characters are engraved on the sword: 【正语】.

The illusory figure arrived as expected and said, "True speech is free from falsehood..."

Before the words had even finished, Wu Wang appeared beside Zheng Yujian, raised his hand, and directly grasped the hilt, lifting it high.

They performed a sword-swallowing act, a traditional folk acrobatic performance, for the other party.

However, normal sword swallowing is a highly difficult technique that involves suppressing the gag reflex and inserting the sword into the throat and stomach.

But Wu perished...

The phantom figure watched as the sword tip pierced straight through his abdomen, and couldn't help but twitch at the corner of his mouth.

Password, just swallow it...

He didn't even pull the sword out; he just walked forward with it stuck in his stomach.

After about forty steps, a bowl appeared in front of me.

The bowl is upside down on the ground, with the words "正业" (Zhengye, meaning "proper business") tattooed on the bottom.

The new phantom also spoke, "Those who pursue righteousness refrain from killing..."

"Stop, stop, stop," Wu Wang interrupted. "Can you change your lines a bit? You keep repeating the same old lines. Can't you come up with something that people can understand?"

The illusory figure remained unperturbed and calmly replied, "Benefactor, this is the basic definition of the Eightfold Path."

Wu Wang responded with a disdainful expression: "Of course I know, and I can recite them all for you right now, so let's not beat around the bush."

"Righteous occupation includes acts such as killing, stealing, and adultery. So, is not doing these things considered a proper occupation?"

The illusory figure nodded slightly: "Exactly."

But Wu Wang shook his head and said, "And then? I'm asking you, I've killed people, I've killed many, many people."

"Those who should have been killed and those who shouldn't have been killed are all dead, but I'm still alive. This can't be considered a proper job, can it?"

"By your standards, someone like me should definitely go to hell."

But the problem is—

Wu Wang reached out and picked up the bowl from the ground.

It was smashed to pieces with a sudden, heavy thud.

Looking at the fragments scattered all over the ground, the words "Zhengye" (正业, meaning "proper business") were no longer discernible.

He stood barefoot on the shards, blood flowing from his feet, and whispered:
"Your hell can't take me in."

"I love the way you guys look down on me, but can't do anything about it."

"Bring up the rest of the items as well."

After he finished speaking, he saw the illusory figure sigh heavily.

Then a table and a whip appeared not far from the road.

Upon closer inspection, one can see that the words "Right Livelihood" are engraved on the table, while the whip is inscribed with "Right Effort".

The shards on the ground and the sword stuck in his abdomen disappeared.

A steaming bowl of rice appeared out of nowhere on the table.

This time, the phantom did not explain the definition of the Eightfold Path.

It merely states the consequences in a bland manner.

“Those who follow evil ways will die if they eat it.”

Those who do not strive for improvement should be spurred on.

Without the slightest hesitation, Wu Wang swallowed the bowl of white rice.

He let the whip, which was being used to enhance his skills, beat his body until his skin was torn and his bones were exposed.

He still grinned and said, "This food... tastes worse than my sister's."

"What else? Mindfulness and right concentration?"

These words caused the illusory figure to slowly walk up to him.

With hands clasped together, he said, “Mindfulness does not originate from things. You only need to stay here and observe your own mind to achieve liberation.”

Wu Wang stared into the other person's eyes for a moment.

Then he slowly started walking forward.

The phantom behind him advised, "Benefactor, there is no way out ahead. If you do not settle your mind here, you will never have peace."

Faced with the dissuasion, Wu Wang merely paused, turned back, and asked in confusion, "No way out? Have you ever walked this road before?"

The illusory figure paused for a moment, then shook its head, saying, "This road has no end; there is no need to tread it."

These words made Wu Wang laugh.

He pointed to the road that stretched to the horizon and said, "How do you know it has no end if you haven't walked it yourself?"

Having said that, Wu Wang was about to continue his advance.

This time, the phantom did not stop it.

He simply waited with a playful, mysterious smile for Wu Wang to realize his mistake and return to the right path.

The naked figure walked further and further away, on a road that seemed to have no end.

Ten steps, a hundred steps, a thousand steps, ten thousand steps...

A minute, an hour, a week, a month, a year...

It seems that not only is this road endless, but even time here has no boundaries.

Wu Wang didn't know how many years he had spent in this place.

Suddenly, he seemed to remember something, and turned back in the direction he had come from.

After spending the same amount of time, I finally returned to the phantom.

Just when the phantom thought he had realized his mistake and returned to the right path.

Wu Wang spoke.

"Oh right, you only talked about mindfulness, not concentration. You forgot about it in your hurry."

The illusory figure was taken aback at first, then asked in confusion, "You returned just for this?" "Otherwise what? I can't exactly say I'm coming back to try and kill you to see if I can get out, can I?" Wu Wang rolled his eyes and said helplessly.

Then, a glint of excitement flashed in his eyes, and he said, "Hmm...it doesn't seem like a bad idea. How about you stick your head over here and I'll chop it a couple of times?"

Looking at this guy's menacing expression, the phantom was truly baffled.

He countered with a question: "If this humble monk were to say that only by attaining right mindfulness can one see right concentration, what are you planning to do, benefactor?"

brush--

The blade flashed across the phantom's neck in an instant.

It passed through the air without any obstruction, and the phantom remained unchanged.

Clearly, the opponent is not someone that can be killed directly.

Wu Wang slowly put the thief back into his backpack, shrugged, and said, "Oh, then I'll continue walking and see what's going on."

After saying that, he turned around and was about to leave again.

Seeing this, the illusory figure said with a hint of helplessness, "Why are you so stubborn, benefactor? Your companions are waiting outside. In this time of great importance, what is the point of wasting so much time here?"

These words puzzled Wu Wang somewhat.

He frowned and retorted, "Dude, don't you think what I said is strange? Aren't I trying to crack a code? How can that be considered stubbornness?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the phantom instantly moved in front of him.

With a serious expression, he said, "If I were to tell you clearly now that continuing down this path will only exhaust your remaining years and you will never reach the end, would you still continue?"

However, this question only elicited a dismissive reply from Wu Wang:
"Isn't walking to death also a kind of reaching the end?"

"Get out of the way, you're blocking the way."

After saying this, he walked past the illusory figure without looking back.

The other person looked at Wu Wang's back with some disbelief.

After a moment of silence, he clasped his hands together and murmured, "Amitabha..."

Wu Wang walked forward at a steady pace, his heart unmoved.

Even though he had been walking on this road for many years, he was not worried at all about any changes happening outside.

Last night, my second sister went back and told Wu Wangshi what she had seen and heard after touching the Buddha statue.

He was able to conclude—

Time in the illusion is different from the perceived time outside.

The second sister saw countless people's suffering memories in the illusion, and the time it took was completely different from the time it took for everyone outside to see her frozen in place.

In other words, the path we are currently taking may have only taken a very short time.

So short that Wu Wang didn't even feel hungry or tired.

Of course, while he may have seen through things, what he said was also his true inner thought.

Isn't walking to death also a kind of reaching the end?
As he once again moved further and further away from the phantom, until the moment he could no longer see it at all.

A golden light gradually appeared at the edge of their vision.

Wu Wang chuckled and said, "What do you mean there's no end? I still managed to reach the end, didn't I?"

He moved closer to the golden light.

They were surprised to find that it was a Buddha statue.

Although its overall appearance is similar to the [Taoist] Buddha statue that he touched, only its face is exactly the same as Wu Wang's.

It was as eerie as seeing a version of yourself who had attained Buddhahood.

Behind the other person, a halo representing the Eightfold Path slowly rotated.

His eyes widened slightly as he spoke solemnly: "Right concentration is the state of being free from desire and evil, encompassing the four dhyanas and eight samadhis."

“Benefactor, you took seven steps and escaped seven trials, but you have learned nothing and cultivated nothing.”

"Having come this far, do you think you've passed the test?"

Wu Wang tilted his head, raised an eyebrow, and retorted, "Since I've already come this far, why shouldn't I pass the test?"

The other person said with a hint of anger, "You don't understand the Eightfold Path at all! You're just forcing your way in!"

“You do not enter into right view, you do not cultivate right thought, you do not uphold right speech, you do not maintain right action, you do not rely on right livelihood, you ignore right effort, and you are uneasy with right mindfulness!”

"You! What makes you think you can pass?"

As he spoke, a halo of the Eightfold Path gradually appeared behind Wu Wang.

Each rotation of it brought pressure as heavy as Mount Tai, as if forcing Wu Wang to bow down and admit his mistakes to his enlightened self.

However, even though he was being squeezed until his face was contorted in pain, his legs could no longer withstand the pressure, causing the bones in his knees to break and stick out straight out.

Wu Wang still did not kneel down.

Instead, he pointed his middle finger at the Buddha statue's face and said disdainfully:

"so what?"

"The Eightfold Path: every step I take forward, a phantom of a bald monk appears and chants sutras for me. After he finishes chanting, he tells me to follow your rules, like finding a walkthrough for a video game. You can't get the real ending without taking this step."

"Then I'll just not follow the guide! What if I force my way through?"

"If a door blocks my way, I'll go around it; if fire burns me, I'll withstand it; if a sword guards me, I'll swallow it; if a bowl blocks my way, I'll break it; if food is laid out, I'll eat it; if a whip threatens me, I'll let it lash me; if I see no end to the road, I'll walk to the very end!"

呲——

Wu Wang drew the sword and pierced his own heart with it.

The instant of death and resurrection restored his broken leg to its original state.

However, the pressure from the Eightfold Path light wheel soon caused his flesh and bones to groan in unbearable strain.

He would do this whenever he was about to be overpowered.

The situation seems to be stuck in this strange circumstance.

"Although you look just like me, you have no idea what kind of person I am."

Wu Wang raised his head and met the eyes of the Buddha statue.

He kept stabbing his own heart, revealing an arrogant expression, and said:
"The Eightfold Path is indeed what the Buddha taught."

"But did he pursue right livelihood when he became a monk? Did he engage in right practice when he practiced asceticism? At the moment he attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, did he have right view first or right concentration first? Do you know?"

The Buddha statue remained silent.

The sarcasm on Wu Wang's face became increasingly obvious.

"You don't know, and nobody else knows."

"Because only the Buddha himself knows the path he has walked."

His words grew more and more resolute.

The Eightfold Path light wheel behind him spun slower and slower.

The kneecaps, which were constantly breaking, gradually became able to withstand the inexplicable pressure.

Wu Wang no longer needs to pierce his heart to maintain the status quo through resurrection.

He is gradually carrying that halo on his back.

"The path that the Buddha drew is his path."

"And I am walking my own path."

"For me, the road isn't something that's drawn, nor is it something to be understood..."

boom!
Wu Wang stomped his foot on the ground, veins bulging on his forehead, and stood up completely upright with the Eightfold Path Light Wheel on his back.

Then, he actually reached behind him and grabbed the pillar of the halo.

With a strong pull, he dragged it over and slammed it heavily to the ground.

Then he lifted his foot again and stomped on the light wheel firmly.

"Roads are made by walking! They're for mothers to walk on!"

"This is my Buddhist teaching!"

Click—

In that instant, not only did the Eightfold Path halo on the ground crack, but the Buddha statue standing in front of Wu Wang also cracked.

The next second, Wu Wang also opened his eyes.

He was standing once again inside the secret chamber of the stone gate, his feet resting on the golden sand river.

The Buddha statue in front of me still maintains its walking posture, but the raised leg has somehow fallen to the ground.

Keep your feet on the ground and move forward steadily.

The third eye on the Buddha's forehead also completely split open, revealing a golden elixir that looked like a relic.

Wu Wang casually dug it out.

He glanced at the black-eyed Huiming meditating beside him and casually patted his bald head.

He said kindly, "Dude, cherish every second you're alive."

"Because you'll be the next one to be crushed." (End of Chapter)