Starting from Hong Kong in 1988!

Chapter 33 Supernatural Powers and Dharmakaya

Five days later, Xu Guangkun, carrying a bottle of mineral water, walked towards Kowloon Walled City after getting off the plane.

The old fortified city that once housed 50,000 people is now a thing of the past, transformed into a Jiangnan-style garden with pavilions, terraces, ponds, and rockeries.

Only the foundation of the city wall at the south gate remains.

Xu Guangkun casually found a bench at the south gate, sat down, and began to wait.

I don't know how much time passed, maybe the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

"Feed".

A voice rang out.

Xu Guangkun looked in the direction of the sound and saw Jiang Lanxin walking out of the garden.

She was still the same as always, with a smile on her lips and dimples showing.

However, the last time we met was in another world.

Suddenly a world away.

Xu Guangkun was about to greet her.

"Smack."

A snap of the fingers.

But then, the neat stone-paved road crumbled little by little, the foundation of the city wall began to spread in all directions, steel bars rose from the ground, and soil and stones flew into the air. A crooked jungle of buildings was once again formed, blocking out the sky.

It was dark and sewage flowed everywhere.

They returned to the familiar Kowloon Walled City.

Xu Guangkun was startled at first, then seemed to remember something and lowered his head.

He summoned the panel and glanced at it. Since the binding was completed, he could summon this thing at any time.

"An illusion?" Xu Guangkun put away the panel and looked up.

"I was just trying to scare you, but I didn't expect you to react so quickly." Jiang Lanxin snapped her fingers again.

Looking ahead, there were pavilions and towers again, as if nothing had happened.

Jiang Lanxin sat down next to Xu Guangkun and crossed her legs.

Xu Guangkun's gaze unconsciously drifted over.

Wearing knee-length black stockings and a black mini skirt, her thighs were dazzlingly white, making her breathtakingly beautiful.

"Aren't you afraid your girlfriend will get jealous?"

Jiang Lanxin lifted her leg slightly, her tone mocking.

"Uncontrollable, uncontrollable."

Xu Guangkun coughed twice and quickly changed the subject, "I have something I want to ask you."

"You're really direct, aren't you? You don't even bother to catch up." Jiang Lanxin rolled her eyes at him. "Say it, what do you want to ask?"

"There are quite a few, let's start with the simplest one."

Xu Guangkun pointed ahead and asked the first question that people with similar experiences to his would ask.

"Was our experience the same as the hallucination we just witnessed, or did we truly return to that period of history?"

"It's impossible to travel through history, isn't it? You haven't read 'The Accidental Tourist,' but you've surely heard of the grandmother paradox, right?"

Xu Guangkun nodded knowingly; he had indeed read that book.

"However, it's not entirely accurate to call it an illusion."

Jiang Lanxin leaned back on the bench, her long legs in black stockings gently hooking her high heels.

"If this world is an ever-growing tree, then our world is the trunk, and the world we enter is a branch growing from somewhere on the trunk."

She pointed ahead, "For example, in the last world, maybe humans were born a few decades later, or maybe a certain period of history was a few decades longer, so they became like us, roughly the same, but with a timeline that was a few decades shorter."

"So it's basically all a world we're familiar with? Just at different times?"

Xu Guangkun asked with great interest, thinking that perhaps one day he might be able to see Emperor Taizong or Emperor Zulong again.

"You're wrong, you're thinking too simply." Jiang Lanxin waved her hand. "If I told you that the myths of Nuwa patching up the sky, severing the connection between heaven and earth, the Investiture of the Gods, the end of the Dharma era, and even the prohibition of spirits after the founding of the People's Republic of China are all true, and that some branches only started to grow after a certain event failed, what do you think those worlds would be like?"

"Are these things true?"

"Genuine or genuine."

Xu Guangkun frowned.

"So humans were really created from clay by Nuwa, and didn't evolve gradually from single-celled organisms?"

"That's too far in the past, who knows?" Jiang Lanxin shrugged, then added, "Some worlds are very dangerous. Think about it, your mission is always to make a name for yourself. If you go to a world where the connection between heaven and earth has failed and humans and gods coexist, what do you think the consequences of your fame will be?"

"What?"

There might be too many possibilities, and Xu Guangkun couldn't understand it, but since Jiang Lanxin specifically mentioned this, he knew it wouldn't end well.

As expected, it was exactly what he had anticipated.

"Be beaten to death." Jiang Lanxin tapped Xu Guangkun's chest. "Human faith has real power. We used to steal faith, so don't think those gods will tolerate us. Mountain gods are no different from ants in their eyes."

"I understand this part." Xu Guangkun smacked his lips, digesting the information, and then asked, "What use are these beliefs to us?"

"Restore your mountain to its original state." Jiang Lanxin waved her hand gently, then pressed her hand to her chest, and in a short while, she pulled out a clod of earth that was half a person tall.

Xu Guangkun was startled and looked around. There were people all around, but they seemed not to see them.

It's probably something Jiang Lanxin did.

Jiang Lanxin smiled at him, "Don't be nervous."

He added, "Our mountains are all in ruins. Strange beasts have fled, and their divine power is gone. What we need to do is capture the escaped beasts or use faith to restore the mountains' divine power and attract those beasts back until the mountains are completely restored to their original state."

"It's that simple?"

Xu Guangkun asked.

"I used to think it was that simple too." Jiang Lanxin sighed, then said, "It wasn't until I went through several worlds that I realized this was just the beginning. After you restore the mountain to its original state, you will face expansion."

She paused, then continued, "For example, my Southern Mountain Classic has three volumes. If I want to expand, I need to absorb the Southern Second Classic on the left side of the mountain range, or the Southern Third Classic on the right side. And they all have owners. Once any of them completely restores the mountain to its original state, Kyushu will throw us into the same world."

Upon hearing this, Xu Guangkun understood: "Raising Gu poison?"

"Yes, and the battles of us mountain gods are closely related to supernatural powers and Dharma bodies. Let's talk about Dharma bodies first. You've probably seen the shop, right?"

"Is there any difference between humans, gods, birds, and beasts, even though they all cost the same?" Xu Guangkun asked.

"Yes, they are worlds apart. A god's Dharma body can completely crush other Dharma bodies, but the prerequisite is that it must be cultivated." Jiang Lanxin looked at Xu Guangkun seriously and said, "Once a Dharma body is chosen, it cannot be changed, so how to choose it is also a science."

"How so?"

Xu Guangkun realized that choosing a god might not be a good thing.

Jiang Lanxin continued.

"Once you choose your Dharma Body, the Nine Provinces will give you a cultivation technique. For example, if you choose Erlang Shen from the Gods, the Nine Provinces will give you the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts. If you choose Wuzhiqi from the Beasts, the Nine Provinces will give you its Water Control Technique. Think about which of these two is more difficult."

Xu Guangkun didn't know about the Water Control Technique, but he knew the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts all too well. Or rather, if you changed the name, there were few people in this world who didn't know it.

There are thirty-six Heavenly Generals and seventy-two Earthly Fiends.

The signature skills of Monkey King and Pigsy.

"However, both of these things are equally obscure and difficult to understand for us, so we can only use your Mountain and Sea Points." Jiang Lanxin pointed in the void in front of her. Xu Guangkun could not see it, but he knew that she had summoned the panel.

Jiang Lanxin added, "What I told you before about Shan Hai Dian being able to make anything happen wasn't a lie. You just need to enter what you want in the search bar of the mall, and if the mall doesn't have it, they'll customize it for you."

For example, understanding cultivation techniques, or the custom-made Classic of Mountains and Seas tracking device I used to be unable to find—the store can provide anything you can imagine. It's just a matter of how many Classic of Mountains and Seas points you get, and we can only obtain a maximum of 200 points per world.

"Will a qualitative change occur when a cultivation technique is cultivated to its peak?" Xu Guangkun asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You're quite clever." Jiang Lanxin patted his shoulder. "If you cultivate to the top, you can obtain the full power of the Dharma body, just like Wuzhiqi. His technique is only to control water, but his true form is a real water monster."

Xu Guangkun also knew about Wuzhiqi.

He hasn't been idle these past few days; he's been cramming on knowledge from the Classic of Mountains and Seas and other ancient books.

He had just read Wuzhiqi's introduction.

Shaped like a monkey, with a receding nose and high forehead, a blue body and white head, golden eyes and snow-white teeth. Its neck can stretch a hundred feet, and its strength surpasses that of nine elephants. It fights, leaps, and runs swiftly and agilely.

Jiang Lanxin reached a conclusion.

"The Mountain and Sea Points required to cultivate the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts are dozens of times greater than those required for the Water Control Technique. In other words, while one is still painstakingly forging its Dharma Body, the other has already transformed into Wuzhiqi, stirring up trouble. If these two mountain gods happen to be adjacent to each other and both want to expand, who do you think will win?"

This is clearly a question that doesn't need an answer.

"This is also related to what I want you to do for me." Jiang Lanxin picked at her nails, hesitated for a moment for once, which was rare for her, before she spoke.

"No one told me these things back then, so I chose the very difficult Dharma Body. My neighbor has already fully forged his Dharma Body, and I'll probably meet him in about five worlds. I bought a magical artifact that can forcibly bring a companion with me, so..."

"So you want me to create a Dharma body that can be formed quickly."

Xu Guangkun raised his hand to interrupt.

"I know this is very unfair to you..."

Jiang Lanxin paused for a moment, then said, "But this is something you promised me."

"You're really domineering."

Xu Guangkun grinned.

Choosing a less powerful Dharma body may have an advantage in the early stages, but it could end up being just another ordinary character later on...

After talking for a while, Xu Guangkun realized that the expansion might not be an isolated case, but rather something that had always existed...

In other words, as a mountain god, one not only has to compete with the indigenous people for their faith, but also with other mountain gods for their territory, until one becomes the master of all the Classic of Mountains and Seas.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that they are surrounded by enemies.

.......

The two remained silent for a long while.

Finally, Jiang Lanxin couldn't hold back any longer and spoke up first.

"I know it's a bit much, but you'll help me, right?"

"Probably, who knows?"

Xu Guangkun gave an ambiguous answer, "Why don't you tell me about your supernatural powers first?"

Jiang Lanxin looked at him for a while, then shook her head. "You will help me."

Then he said, "Supernatural powers are complex in some ways, but not so complex in others. They come in many forms, yet there are patterns to be found. They are related to each person's underlying personality."

She pointed to herself, "For example, me. You should have guessed my supernatural abilities. They're related to information. As for why, maybe it's because I'm a very curious person."

Perhaps feeling that such an example was not convincing, she added, "For example, there are a few mountain gods I know in the mission world. One of them is particularly afraid of death, so her supernatural power is very simple: she can't die. As long as she still has magic power, no matter if you smash her head or pierce her heart, she can regenerate instantly."

As she spoke, she seemed a little thirsty, but she didn't mind. She picked up Xu Guangkun's water and gulped it down. After finishing, she licked her red lips.

"There is another person with a special kind of decision-making difficulty. His special ability is called 'If I make this choice,' which literally means that he can see what will happen to him in the future."

She recalled for a moment and then said, "There is another one who is particularly strong. Because she lacks a sense of security, she gained supernatural powers, the One-Inch Home. She can summon her real home, and within that one inch, she is invincible. Her words become law, and her wishes come true."

"So powerful?" Xu Guangkun was somewhat surprised; this was practically divine skill.

"She's dead." Jiang Lanxin shook her head. "After summoning the One Inch Clan, she couldn't move, so she was killed by flying a kite."

Jiang Lanxin turned to look at Xu Guangkun: "The battle between the Mountain God and the Sea God is not only a head-on clash, but also an information war. You'd better not let anyone know what your supernatural powers and Dharma body really are."

"learn."

Xu Guangkun nodded.

"Any other questions?"

Jiang Lanxin asked.

"there is none left."

"Let's go then. We've been chatting for so long, you must be hungry. Let's go get something to eat, I'll take you to get something good." Jiang Lanxin stood up and extended her hand to Xu Guangkun.

Xu Guangkun remained seated, saying, "To be honest, I don't want to be with you at all right now."

Jiang Lanxin was taken aback. After figuring out why, she laughed so hard she almost fell over. "You think we're friends now? You feel like you've been used? Didn't I tell you long ago that this is a road of no return? Feelings and conscience are useless. Only interests are eternal."

Xu Guangkun remained silent, his face dark.

"Fine, fine, I won't get in your way anymore." Jiang Lanxin picked up her bag and walked away in her high heels.

But halfway there, she turned back. "Let me remind you, all grudges between mountain gods can only be resolved in the other world, and cannot be exposed in front of ordinary people. This is an ironclad rule, so don't break it."

"understood."

"Well, you better not die in the mission world."

Xu Guangkun couldn't help but retort, "I won't die even if you die."

Jiang Lanxin wasn't angry: "You'd better be."

....

Two more days passed in the blink of an eye.

Xu Guangkun sat cross-legged on the bed, slowly pressing the bullet into the large black star.

Next to it was a Desert Eagle with loaded bullets.

"I don't even know what my innate supernatural power is."

Xu Guangkun looked at the panel with some anticipation.

He has been reflecting on himself these past few days and feels that he is just an ordinary person.

They will also feel tired, afraid, and hesitant.