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Chapter 213 Huayan
The old monk raised his head.

Finally, his face emerged from the Buddha's light, but it was nothing extraordinary; it was merely ordinary.

"Is it Zhengde? You've finally come here."

It was an ordinary sentence, but it made Zhengde tremble. He said it in a voice that seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth.

“Master, do you know how long I’ve been looking for you? I started looking for you ever since you were captured. At first, I heard that you were sent to the Great Snow Mountain, so I traveled thousands of miles to that distant land, but I couldn’t find a single clue. Later, I heard that someone saw you in Wuzhou, so I rushed there.”

Upon hearing this, the old monk sighed softly and said...

"Zhengde, you've worked hard."

Who would have thought.

Zhengde, who had always been gentle and refined, suddenly raised his voice and roared.

"I'm not suffering! As long as you, Master, are still alive, I wouldn't suffer even if I died. But, but, but how could you do this!"

In an instant, Zhengde's youthful face had become as if he had gone mad.

“I had imagined many scenarios for you, Master—tortured beyond recognition, imprisoned in a deep dungeon, or perhaps even long dead. But I never imagined you would be like this—Master, how could you be here! How could you personally hold this world-destroying ceremony, or even become the Dharma King of this Tantric sect!!!”

However, in response to this series of accusations, the old monk simply sighed peacefully.

He waved his hand, first deflecting a series of arrows and several bursts of malevolent energy, then spoke softly.

"Zhengde, do you think that your master has fallen into demonic possession?"

Zhengde gritted his teeth.

"Entering Tantra through Zen inevitably leads to demonic possession, not to mention that the techniques practiced in Tantra are thoroughly demonic. With your cultivation level, Master, you are probably already a demon god of this world. For the sake of all living beings, your disciple can only try to find a way to convert you!"

Otherwise.

The old monk simply shook his head gently.

“Zhengde, I taught you a long time ago that seeing is not necessarily believing, but you still haven’t remembered… Use the Heavenly Divine Path’s method of observing the world to see what I really look like now?”

Upon hearing this, Zhengde was taken aback—the facts were already laid bare, so what was there to refute? But out of respect for the old monk, he still used his magic.

An invisible vortex spread out, and everyone was covered in a layer of color.

Zhengde himself was yellow, representing that he had not committed any evil deeds in his life. Cai Yuankui was black and white, with white predominating, representing that he was both righteous and evil, surrounded by a layer of gray, making him difficult to see clearly. The old monk...
He sat on a lotus throne, his entire body bathed in a golden light like the sun, so much so that even the Buddha's light was obscured at first glance.

Zhengde knew this color.

That is the immaculate Dharma body of someone who has attained the Bodhisattva stage and is only one step away from becoming a Buddha.

But how could this be?

Zhengde was even more confused.

—Even though Master has abandoned Zen and entered Tantra, and has committed all sorts of evil deeds, why can he still maintain such a perfect Dharma body?

Seeing Zhengde's stunned expression, the old monk's expression remained as calm as ever. He glanced at Zhou You and Cai Yuankui beside him before slowly speaking.

“Zhengde, I know what you’re wondering about, but the reason is actually quite simple.”

"—Because I have never been possessed by demons, nor have I ever practiced esoteric Buddhist magic, and everything I have done is not to slaughter others, but quite the opposite, to redeem this world."

Zhengde opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but Cai Yuankui, who was standing to the side, breathed heavily for a few moments and then anxiously interrupted.

"That's impossible! I've dealt with the Fanmi for so many years, do you think I don't know what kind of people they are? If you don't practice their methods, how could they possibly let you ascend to this supreme position!"

However, no matter who he was talking to, the old monk remained as calm as ever.

"Yes, what you say is indeed correct, so this old monk has spent a lot of effort and even broken many precepts. But how should I put it... let's do this."

The old monk suddenly raised his head and looked at the crowd.

“Zhengde, and the other two benefactors, I know you are full of doubts, so I will explain it to you first—as for the cause… let’s start from when I was betrayed by Liaochen.”

As they spoke, a golden light shone down, transforming into a solid wall that trapped the three of them. The old monk, as if it were none of his business, began to speak slowly and deliberately.

"...So that everyone may know, back then, because I couldn't stand the Tibetan Buddhist practice of human sacrifice, I led the entire Ci'en Temple to war against them. Everything was fine at first, but who could have imagined that Liaochen, whom I had always trusted, would become a traitor? Just when I was fighting several masters to a critical point, he suddenly led his men to launch a sneak attack from behind. Caught off guard, I and all the monks who were with me at the time were captured in one fell swoop."

At this point, the old monk gave a wry smile, and then continued.

"That was truly a fall from heaven to hell. On the very first day I was captured, they destroyed all my cultivation, and then, under the pretext of insurance, they cut off all four of my limbs—you must understand, it wasn't a direct severing, but rather a slow, inch-by-inch, peeling away of my limbs every day."

"...And half a month later, even the last bit of my bone was removed, but that wasn't the end of it. Those barbarian people pulled out all my teeth, gouged out my eyes, cut off my ears, and then threw me into the pigsty to be raised with those fat pigs."

At this point, not only Zhengde, but even the well-informed Cai Yuankui showed a somewhat unpleasant expression.

However, the old monk remained oblivious, speaking calmly as if he were simply recounting someone else's story.

“Those were the most difficult days of my life. I couldn’t live, and I couldn’t die. I was treated like livestock and played with for amusement every day. To be honest, I even thought about turning away from Buddhism at that time. You know, I have been doing good deeds all my life, eliminating evil, helping the poor and saving people, and purifying the polluted. Why did I have to fall to this state after accumulating so many good deeds?”

"Where was Buddha when my limbs were cut off? Where was Buddha when my eyes were gouged out? Where was Buddha when I was reduced to crawling like a worm in a pigsty?"

Zhengde hesitated as if he wanted to say something, but was immediately stopped by the old monk.

"That was the closest I came to falling into demonic possession. At that time, all I thought about was getting revenge, and I would do anything to pull me back. But ever since that thought came to mind, I have been hearing many voices—countless corrupted gods and Buddhas tempting me, trying to make me take that final step towards depravity."

At this point, the old monk let out a soft sigh.

"—But I rejected all of those voices."

Seeing Zhengde's stunned expression, the old monk suddenly smiled.

"Because one day I suddenly realized that all results are the causes of all things. That is what is meant by 'all the evil deeds I have committed in the past are due to beginningless greed, anger and ignorance'."

"My current state is nothing more than the retribution I deserve."

(End of this chapter)