Chapter 50: Buddha

It was night. Li Huowang, wrapped in a quilt, stood silently in a dense thicket, keeping watch.

The night was very cold without a campfire, as it was only March.

However, he dared not light a fire now, fearing the glow would attract the monks' pursuit.

Under the faint moonlight, Li Huowang reached into his pocket and pulled out the Daoist bell.

The incredibly potent pills Danyangzi had given him were almost gone; this bell was now the only useful item he possessed.

Thinking of how easily the abbot had held it, Li Huowang felt a surge of intense resentment.

The other side wanted to deal with him, yet all he could do was flee. This feeling was unbearable.

"In this chaotic and bizarre world, strength is paramount. To establish myself here, I must become powerful enough!"

"If even someone like Danyangzi can become so strong, why can't I? No matter how strange the cultivation methods in this world are, I must acquire them."

"I need to protect myself, and I need to protect those I care about. If I can't ask for it, I'll steal it. If I can't steal it, I'll seize it. If I can't seize it, I'll use underhanded tactics!" Li Huowang's expression gradually turned grim.

Just as he thought this, Li Huowang paused, his hand touching the back of his neck with a puzzled expression, seemingly deep in thought.

"Namo Ratna Trayaya…"

An ethereal chanting broke the silence of the forest.

Almost instinctively, Li Huowang sprang to his feet and quickly scanned his surroundings.

But the area was pitch black, and he saw nothing. The simple traps he had set earlier also showed no reaction.

"Namo Arya Avalokiteshvaraya…" The ethereal chanting echoed from the darkness again, this time closer.

"Quick! Everyone up! Go! Scatter and run, forget the donkey cart! Idiot! Do as I taught you!"

At Li Huowang's urging, Bai Lingmiao instinctively started to follow him but was immediately hoisted onto Idiot's shoulder, who then strode purposefully eastward.

Li Huowang leaped over the bushes and back onto the road, gritting his teeth as he sprinted forward. Regardless, the monks' target was only him; if he truly couldn't escape, there was no need for others to die with him.

In the darkness, Li Huowang kept running, but the chanting, emanating from an unknown source, relentlessly pursued him. He also began to smell the incense typical of a temple.

Suddenly, Li Huowang stopped. His pupils constricted as he stared at the pitch-black road ahead, where numerous fly-sized red dots were subtly flickering.

"Bodhayā Bodhayā Mitriya Nārakindhi…" The chanting grew louder and louder.

Finally, the figures in the darkness slowly emerged. They were Buddhas: colossal heads, tall bodies, yet with extremely slender legs, and large bellies.

The red dots Li Huowang had seen in the darkness earlier were actually bundles of incense sticks embedded in the Buddhas' flesh, trembling with the swaying of their massive bodies.

Tall Buddhas surrounded by white smoke should have appeared ethereal, but in the dim, wild forest path, it was an entirely different matter.

There wasn't just one such Buddha, but seven. They stood in a row, swaying their bodies as they advanced towards Li Huowang.

They took simple, repetitive steps, swaying left and right. They resembled humans yet didn't, their expressions neither smiling nor angry, but something in between.

When fully exposed to the moonlight, Li Huowang saw the face of the lead Buddha. He recognized it as Jian Dun's face. "Amitabha, Benefactor, your heart is not at peace."

Li Huowang looked up at the flesh-and-blood Buddha, at least four meters tall, before him. "So you've finally dropped the pretense, have you? You trash who worship monsters!"

"Benefactor, this humble monk does not understand what you are saying. Please return to the temple with me. Danyangzi's karma is upon you; if you leave with it, you will face great trouble, and so will all sentient beings in the world."

As Jian Dun finished speaking, he clasped his hands together forcefully. The sound of tearing flesh ensued, and numerous skeletal hands, devoid of skin and muscle, swayed as they emerged from behind him.

In an instant, like a peacock fanning its tail, the seven Buddhas transformed into seven terrifying, flesh-and-blood thousand-armed Buddhas.

"Ding-ding-ding!!" As Li Huowang vigorously shook the Daoist bell in his hand, the surroundings began to distort. The lines of the tree branches rapidly twisted, forming Master You.

Yet, amidst the ringing bell, the surrounding chaos did not affect the Buddhas. They stood unmoving, like solid reefs.

Li Huowang scooped up dirt from the ground and stuffed it into his mouth. "Shan Gen Ken!" Master You, leaving a blur in his wake, flew low to the ground towards the Buddhas.

"Halt!" A colossal Buddha palm slammed down, instantly raising a cloud of dust.

However, Master You, being insubstantial, completely ignored the attack, burrowing directly through the back of the palm and lunging towards the Buddha's large face.

As Master You fully burrowed into one Buddha's head, the towering figure began to sway. Its massive hands thrashed continuously, as if swatting flies.

This proved ineffective. Shortly after, the colossal Buddha crashed heavily to the ground. Its facial features began to melt, and its body, which should have been unaffected, also twisted with the surrounding illusions.

"Bang, bang, bang!!" The remaining six Buddhas quickly formed a circle, back to back. Then, like stone pillars, they slammed forcefully onto the ground, clasped their hands together, and began to chant arcane and incomprehensible Buddhist scriptures. "Tathagata Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi…"

As soon as the chanting began, Li Huowang immediately noticed something was wrong with Master You from a distance; the lines forming its body began to twist uncontrollably.

Seeing this, Li Huowang gripped the Daoist bell in his hand and shook it even harder. "Zhi Jian! Gou Kao Gao Hun Qu!"

Upon hearing Li Huowang declare his willingness to sacrifice more lifespan, Master You struggled to maintain its form and charged towards one of the Buddhas.

With an earth-shaking tremor, another Buddha fell to the ground. However, this was Master You's absolute limit.

Amidst the resonant chanting, Master You, who had been suspended in mid-air, dropped to the ground.

Seeing that Master You was no longer useful, Li Huowang stopped shaking the bell. But as everything around them returned to normal, Master You on the ground did not dissipate.

All the lines forming its body began to fade from their original color, transforming into a pinkish flesh tone. The formless entity had, astonishingly, been given a physical body by the Buddhas' chanting.

With a physical form, Master You now looked like a large mass of earthworms tied in a dead knot, slowly writhing on the ground.

A colossal palm, bearing a swastika symbol on its center, slammed down heavily.

"Splish!" Master You's physical body instantly turned into a pile of sludge.

The colossal palm, still clinging to Master You's flesh and blood, slowly lifted and then clasped together heavily. The remaining five thousand-armed Buddhas swayed as they approached, lining up before Li Huowang. "Amitabha, Benefactor, please return with us."