The Demon King, reborn in Japan as a monk

The Demon King, Reborn in Japan as a Monk, I Am a Demon

In the Dharma-ending Age, demons will infiltrate temples, wear the Buddha's robes, corrupt the Buddha's teachings, distort the Buddha's scriptures, abandon the Buddha's precepts, and lure people into the sea of ​​suffering.

Chapter One: Am I the Heavenly Demon?

In the desolate yet spacious hall, countless skeletons were scattered on both sides, some neatly piled together, others scattered around, as if telling of their resentment and regret in life.

A silent river of blood flowed around them, and lava moved, emitting a dim light that illuminated the space within the hall, revealing its contents with greater clarity.

Instead, they were murals, like mythological stories about Jesus in a church, depicting the past of beings who could not be called human.

Like fighting. Procreation. Trade. investiture...

It's like a scroll depicting some alien civilization.

At the very center of these paintings, or rather, at the very back of the main hall, a colossal demonic dragon with seven heads and ten horns coiled and lay prostrate in the very center of the hall. Before it was a lotus throne, resembling a lotus platform from Buddhist legend, its color jet black. A being with long hair and a black robe, but whose face was indistinct and whose appearance constantly shifted between male and female, sat on the lotus throne, eyes closed, hands clasped in some kind of mudra. Against the backdrop of the demonic dragon and the surrounding environment, the figure appeared both sacred and eerie…

Then the scene flashed, and Ishihara Akira woke up from his sleep.

"Was that... a side effect?" Ishihara Sho sat up from the tatami mat, looking at the faint sunlight streaming in from outside, and murmured softly.

Then I picked up my phone from beside my pillow and looked at the time displayed—AM: 05:26. Wednesday.

He then put his phone back on the tatami mat, sat for a while, got up from his warm bed, and went to the washroom to begin his ritualistic self-examination.

"Whoosh."

"What am I? Someone destined for disaster?" Ishihara Sho looked at his bald reflection in the mirror of the bathroom and muttered to himself, speechless. "First, I died from overworking at home, then I encountered the legendary Demon King Mara and had a mind-bending battle with him in an unknown realm. Then, because I temporarily knocked him offline, I was transported to a seemingly parallel world of Japan and reincarnated as a monk..."

According to a dialogue between Mara, the demon king, and the Buddha, which I found while searching for information during my writing process: "In your degenerate age, I will send my disciples and followers to infiltrate your Sangha, wear your robes, and destroy your Dharma. They will distort your scriptures and break your precepts to achieve what I cannot achieve with force today..."

His current situation really does seem like he has been converted by Mara into a demonic child and soldier, infiltrated into monasteries, to corrupt the Buddha's teachings, break the Buddha's precepts, and lead people astray.

Especially when Japanese monks are a group that doesn't strictly adhere to monastic rules and regulations, and who have altered the true nature of Buddhism.

This aligns even more closely with the account given by the demon king Mara at the time.

Not to mention, the monk Ishihara Akira's behavior was quite improper...

So to sum it up, he, Ishihara Shou, is a demon!

Moreover, they were personally chosen by the Demon King Mara, the so-called Heavenly Demon!

"But it seems that the Heavenly Demon is also quite good..." After looking at himself in the mirror for a while, Ishihara Sho grabbed a towel and wiped his face, daydreaming.

After all, he had accomplished nothing in his previous life. Even his writing career had only resulted in failure. Let alone earning over ten thousand yuan a month, he could only make ends meet by diligently writing.

This is why he suddenly died of a heart attack.

Naturally, there was no opportunity or time to socialize outside, meet girls, or experience anything unspeakable.

But now?

As long as he continues to play his role as the Master of Conduct at Guanyin Temple, he will naturally come into contact with female believers. With a little more effort, he can make some of them his girlfriends and experience everything he is meant to experience.

Most importantly, there is not much burden involved.

Having experienced a period of decline and loss, Japanese women have long since moved beyond the stage of material needs and have become more focused on love itself.

In other words, as long as the feelings are there, they don't really care much about money or material things.

Of course, the man shouldn't be too poor either.

Fortunately, Ishihara Sho, who owns a temple, has enough confidence in this regard.

As a reincarnation of a magician from a previous life, Ishihara Sho naturally had no reason not to be overjoyed and excited.

As for the concern that doing so would completely fall into the trap of the Demon King Mara...

Since he was able to knock Mara down once during the "Dao Debate" using his imagination, he can knock Mara down again in the next "Dao Debate"!

Even if he failed, Ishihara Sho didn't feel anything was wrong.

So what if he's a demon? He became one!

Compared to ordinary mortals, Heavenly Demons are legitimate living beings. Basically, unless they are killed or devoured by other Heavenly Demons or demon lords, he has never heard of any Heavenly Demon dying of natural causes.

In addition, there are all sorts of things one can enjoy after becoming a Heavenly Demon...

They are much happier than humans.

……

After cleaning up, Ishihara Akira returned to the room, put away the bedding, picked up his phone, found a comfortable spot to sit down, and began searching for more information about this world.

It is undoubtedly a parallel world, because the size of the planet and the area and distribution of land on it are no different from Earth in my previous life. At most, the names of the countries are different.

For example, next to Japan, rather than the name I remember.

The United States is no longer called the United States; it's now called the Beacon.

Europe is still called Europe, but its name has become more formal, now known as the European Union.

Apart from that, Africa is still Africa, Southeast Asia is still Southeast Asia, and even the level of technology is no different from the original world.

Naturally, the entertainment standards are the same, only the appearances and names of the celebrities have changed somewhat, rather than being a direct copy of the original world.

Politics and history seem to be no different from the original Earth.

The lighthouse is the center of the universe, Japan's paradise, while the Koreans are the troublemakers of Asia, they're everywhere, yet they don't show any real importance, and have become much more obedient than those on the other side of the earth.

In any case, in the last two or three years, we haven't heard of any excessive actions by Southeast Asian countries.

"Overall, it's pretty good. There's nothing I need to readjust to." With that thought, Ishihara Akira started working again, typing the words "seven-headed ten-horned dragon" into the browser's search bar to look up its symbolic meaning.

Chapter 2, Day 1

Believe it or not, there really is information about the seven-headed, ten-horned demon dragon on the internet in this world—

There are two main meanings. One is that it represents Satan, and that it is the ancient serpent, the serpent that tempted Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden!

The dragon is merely a symbol, not a physical entity.

Secondly, it represents the seven sins, the seven deadly sins in Christianity. Each horn represents one sin, and the dragon's body brings them together, symbolizing that all humans have seven sins, but they are not seen because people are often attracted by the dragon's huge horns. So the ten horns also represent ten characteristics of light. Anyway, it's a very complex combination...

It has not deviated from the Christian level.

"What's going on? After Mara, I'm being targeted by Satan again?" After reading about the symbolic meaning of the seven-headed, ten-horned dragon in religion, Ishihara Sho muttered to himself with a strange expression.

As for the other shadowy figure sitting on the black lotus platform in front of the dragon...

That's clearly a Buddhist!

Although his appearance was similar to that of Wutian Buddha in a bizarre TV series called "Journey to the West: The Sequel" that he had watched as a child in his previous life, Ishihara Akira understood that it must be the incarnation of Mara!

In Buddhist records, Mara is not only a demon king, but also a so-called demon-Buddha!

However, it's not entirely unreasonable.

After all, the most prominent manifestation of the seven deadly sins in Christianity is the seven emotions and six desires of humankind, namely the so-called "poisons" such as greed, anger, ignorance, resentment, and jealousy. These are precisely the results of the cultivation that Mara, the Buddha, used to attain the position of the Demon King. Therefore, from this perspective alone, it is not unreasonable for the two of them to be mixed together.

Even though the dragon and Mara represent the demon in Christianity and the demon in Buddhism, respectively.

But hell is interconnected, and perhaps the two of them have crossed paths on a level unknown to mortals and reached some kind of cooperation. In any case, Ishihara Akira is not at that level now, so thinking about it more is useless. It's better to put him aside for now and consider these metaphysical things when you reach the corresponding level in the future.

"But then again, I've been infected by the Demon King, so surely I should have brought some abilities with me, right? Like, some kind of cheat code or something."

With this in mind, Ishihara Sho began testing his abilities—

However, after testing for a long time, Ishihara Sho found nothing that made him stand out from the crowd.

I don't know telekinesis, I don't have any superpowers, and I don't know if I have mastered other things like hypnosis, illusion, or mind reading because I don't have any test subjects.

Therefore, judging from the current situation, I am still a mortal. Just because I have been corrupted by the Demon King and may become a Heavenly Demon, I cannot disregard all worldly etiquette and clash with modern technology and modern weapons.

I reckon I'll be back in the Six Heavens of Desire in just a few days to report back and once again explore the boundaries of my imagination with the fully-powered Demon King Mara...

……

Then, Ishihara Akira put down his phone, found the clothes he was going to wear later—a monk's robe—and transformed into a Japanese monk. He left the temple and strolled around the streets surrounding it.

This is both to familiarize myself with my future living environment and to exercise my body.

After all, in his previous life, he ended his life because he stayed up late every day without resting, always drank coffee, Red Bull and other beverages to stay awake, did not pay attention to exercise, and ordered takeout every day without paying attention to healthy eating. That's why he suddenly had a heart palpitation while writing and ended his life.

Now that he has the chance to live again, Ishihara Sho naturally wants to take good care of his body, lest he die again and return to the Demon Realm before he has had a chance to enjoy anything in Japan.

"There are very few people here..." Ishihara Sho sighed as he looked at the deserted streets.

This is not only because his family's temple is located in a relatively remote area, not in the center of Nagoya, but in the area between Rokubancho and Hibino. Although the surrounding area is full of residential areas with many residents, he is still too early to come out now—it is not even six o'clock yet!

For Japanese residents whose work hours are generally after 8 a.m., this is still a time when they should be resting, so you naturally won't see many people like him out strolling and exercising.

Not to mention, Nagoya is a central city in Japan known for its slow pace of life, unlike Tokyo, where even at four or five in the morning, large groups of people are busy rushing around, working hard to make a living.

Fortunately, Ishihara Sho didn't come out to see anyone.

Although meeting people would be a good thing for him, he wouldn't force it and would just let things take their course.

Anyway, he's still alive and in good health, so he has plenty of time to figure out whether he actually has any cheat codes!

Compared to that, filling my stomach is something I should care about more...

"I wonder if there are breakfast vendors like in China here in Japan..." Ishihara Akira muttered, rubbing his rumbling stomach.

Unfortunately, after searching around, aside from a few 24-hour convenience stores, Ishihara Akira couldn't find a single place selling breakfast, or even a small restaurant selling ramen, a Japanese specialty. Left with no other option, he went into a convenience store, bought a quick-cook meal for 500 yen, heated it up in the microwave, and then ate it with some old magazines available in the store…

"Speaking of which, how are meals handled at the temple? Do I have to cook them myself too?" While eating, Ishihara Akira tilted his head, recalling the situation.

"Thank goodness, thank goodness, I don't need to worry about it."

Because he learned from Ishihara Sho's memories that the temple's meals had long been subcontracted to Ishihara Sho's aunt, Fujita Tsubone, for 25 yen per month. Therefore, around 7:00 AM, 11:00 AM, and 5:00 PM every day, someone would come to the temple to help prepare vegetarian meals for Ishihara Sho or the believers to ensure the normal operation of the temple.

"So, you mean I got up early?" Ishihara Sho said speechlessly.

Then, Ishihara Yuuki shook his head, threw the empty fast food cup into the nearby trash can, picked up a drink, and went back to the counter to pay for the drink...

"Seikei 600 yen."