Chapter 1760: A Word Becomes a Decree, Transforming Resentment; Fusing the Heavenly Ladder, Controlling This Realm

"I can only fight?"

"There's no turning back?"

Xu Xiaoshou has never been someone who embraces death in battle. Perhaps it's due to past experiences, but to this day, life remains precious in his eyes, especially his own! He can accept a fight to the death, and even at the very last moment, he won't give up. However, if there's any way to avoid a deathmatch beforehand, Xu Xiaoshou will definitely not accept it.

The Yidao Pan spun slightly, and a wisp of spiritual thought, imbued with a thought-wave, was cast into Elder Sang's ear. He went straight to the point:

"Ancient Battle God Platform, how does one transcend?"

Elder Sang was clearly not one for lengthy explanations:

"Ancestral God!"

He stated definitively:

"Unless you are an Ancestral God, you cannot transcend."

"The Ancient Battle God Platform can theoretically challenge up to the Ten Ancestors for an unrestrained battle, but it probably can't withstand the battle's aftermath for long."

"So, if you achieve apotheosis and become an Ancestor, you should be able to break the limitations of the Ancient Battle God Platform. After all, the Battle Ancestor is currently just a wisp of remnant thought."

Elder Sang wasn't verbose. But his words were essentially no different from nonsense. If I could achieve apotheosis and become an Ancestor, what would be the point of breaking the Ancient Battle God Platform's limitations? Wouldn't it be better to just lop off Ai Cangsheng's throat with a single sword stroke?

But a path of retreat was indeed cut off by these words!

"I understand."

Above the Guizhe Ruins, Xu Xiaoshou pondered for a long while. The world in his vision gradually faded until, in the end, only Ai Cangsheng remained, standing in the Southern Domain, amidst the rampant evil god power. He still hadn't made the first move. Seeing that Elder Sang in the Dead Sea still had no intention of asking him to rescue him, Xu Xiaoshou asked:

"What do you need me to do?"

Elder Sang smiled, forming hand seals:

"Live."

It was clear that holy power couldn't be used in the Dead Sea. Xu Xiaoshou might be an exception; people in the Five Domains couldn't transcend. But as Elder Sang released this seal, a drop of multicolored black blood suddenly emerged from between his eyebrows.

"What is this?"

Feng Zhongzui's eyes widened. It was indeed a drop of black blood, but it shimmered with light within the black, and the luster flickered, revealing various colors. Today had been a real eye-opener! All the "order" of the past world seemed completely inapplicable in front of these people. But then again, rules are made for slaves. For them, these mundane rules are meant to be broken!

"Sacrifice!"

Elder Sang pointed two fingers upwards. That drop of black blood shot through the void, piercing the Dead Sea and flying off to an unknown destination. The pressure on the Holy Divine Continent dropped. In everyone's mind across the Five Domains, this Buddhist chant echoed, and their souls seemed to be cleansed.

"Again!"

Everyone's mind was shaken. The shock brought by the Battle Ancestor's torso surfacing earlier had been enough. After the Battle Ancestor... what was this now, the Buddha Ancestor? No, among the Ten Ancestors, there wasn't an Ancestor like this!

Xu Xiaoshou had no idea what Elder Sang and the Holy Slave truly intended to do, and he guessed that even if he asked, Elder Sang probably wouldn't say much. But all in all, what they wanted to do at this moment was definitely related to the Holy Slave's core principle—freedom!

Live...

"I want to live, what about you?"

Xu Xiaoshou's thoughts stirred, and he threw out another question:

"Besides living?"

Elder Sang had sacrificed that strange drop of blood, and his face was already deathly pale, as if all his strength had been drained. Yet, he still pulled at the corners of his mouth, smiling, looking down from above:

"Survive, and the rest, leave to your master."

Initially a soft murmur, then a heavy emphasis! It was vastly different from the ancient war drum sound that emerged when the Battle Ancestor surfaced. After Holy Slave Wuxiu sacrificed that drop of black blood, the world only experienced a soft whisper. Then, it was like a colossal bell clanging in their ears; everyone's eyes went white from the low sound, almost causing their spirits to shatter from within and die.

"Ah—"

Upon hearing this sound, countless spirit refiners across the Five Domains shrieked in agony, clutching their foreheads as demonic energy burst from their seven orifices. Pure demonic energy! Or rather, the aura of the Demon Ancestor's power!

"Holy Slave Wuxiu sacrificed a drop of Ancestral God blood, the Demon Ancestor's blood?"

In the Dead Sea, Feng Zhongzui maintained his composure but was clearly somewhat frightened. Compared to the illusory and ethereal remnant thought of the Battle Ancestor, a genuine drop of Ancestral God blood, in the hands of a knowledgeable spirit refiner, could unleash immense power! Did Wuxiu understand it? If he didn't, there were truly few spirit refiners in the world who could! But the truth was, this seemed to be a wrong deduction, because after the momentary demonization of spirit refiners across the Five Domains...

A golden Buddhist light swept through. Everyone who was being demonized immediately quieted down. Their respective injuries were all healed, as if nothing had happened just now.

"What is this again?"

Feng Zhongzui had experienced the invasion of demonic energy, although it couldn't invade his core. But then, he also experienced the soothing of true Buddhist sounds. This was truly like being in both ice and fire, as if on one side, someone was using a knife to stab people, while on the other, someone was using divine blessings to rapidly heal wounds. Demonic nature was immortal, so the stabbing knife continued. Buddhist nature was continuous, so the healing power never stopped.

"What did I just experience!"

"Ahhhhhh..."

In just a brief moment, the people of the Five Domains plunged between demon and Buddha countless times. And this was merely the prelude to that drop of black blood being sacrificed; its power truly manifested when...

A soft sound. The void cracked, and Xu Xiaoshou abruptly turned his head. He saw a drop of black blood floating up from a very high place above the Guizhe Ruins, on the Heavenly Ladder among the clouds. It hovered quietly, as if it had already witnessed eons of change.

"No!"

Xu Xiaoshou's pupils contracted. In his eyes, it was clearly a drop of black blood. But in a sudden trance, it was no longer purely a drop of blood, but had transformed into...

"Buddha?"

Feng Xiaoshuang actually regretted it countless times. She really wanted to decline the mission and go home to rest properly. She truly wished to live another five hundred, fifty... even five years would be fine. She had no choice. She could only carry the Transmission Mirror. Following the old family head's order, she bit the bullet and aimed it remotely at the black blood on the Heavenly Ladder.

In the Transmission Mirrors across the Five Domains, the images of Lord Xu and Emperor Cangsheng immediately shrank, replaced by the Heavenly Ladder and the Dead Sea. On one side, the black blood vanished. Above the clouds, on the Heavenly Ladder, it had actually transformed into a majestic golden Buddha sitting cross-legged.

"Form!"

On the other side, the Dead Sea surged. Holy Slave Wuxiu, upon responding, became completely charred. He was like an empty shell, a body burnt to charcoal by a great fire. However, from the cracked part between his eyebrows, a golden cinnabar, strangely out of place, as if it didn't belong to him, suddenly lit up. When that cinnabar glowed golden, from the charred wounds on his body, endless golden Buddhist power surged outwards.

"Golden?"

Feng Zhongzui blinked. When he looked again, his scalp tingled. It was clearly black demonic power! And what lit up from the cinnabar wasn't golden light at all, but a bloody red glow! Before he could explain... In the minds of everyone across the Five Domains, a voice echoed, originating from a thunderous shout:

"Sang Qiye, respectfully request the divine oracle!"

"Om Mani Padme..."

"Om Mani Padme..."

"Om Mani Padme..."

It was like the previous great Brahma Dragon Sound that shook the world, yet essentially different. Because now the Six-Syllable Mantra wasn't gradually rising, nor did it cause people to become demonic, but was purely a gentle, soothing power that nevertheless carried absolute shock.

When the majestic golden Buddha on the golden Heavenly Ladder cast golden radiance upon the world, on this land of sin, the Dead Sea, within the black water, within the cinnabar, Buddhist light also shone forth. In Wuxiu's charred state, Elder Sang was initially like black stone, but suddenly his eyes awakened, and he let out a furious shout:

"Depart in ash, return with grievances!"

In an instant, the black water around him parted, and golden light gathered.

"Om..."

Amidst the golden ripples. Behind him, a huge lotus platform faintly emerged. On the Heavenly Ladder, alternately manifesting as black blood and as a Buddha, it completely solidified into the latter. That golden Buddha seemed to have expelled its demonic nature in an instant. It rose from the Heavenly Ladder and leapt down.

"Boom!"

The minds of the people of the Five Domains were greatly shaken. The Buddha on the Heavenly Ladder vanished. However, on the Universal Lotus Platform behind Holy Slave Wuxiu, a giant Buddha, sitting cross-legged, appeared. It was molded in a golden body, with kind eyes and a benevolent expression, a smile on its lips, displaying joy. Its left hand was gently raised to its belly, holding nothing, and its right hand lightly pinched to its chest, forming no mudra or seal.

"This is..."

Just by looking at it. The Big-Bellied Buddha gave a feeling of being unburdened, a golden Buddha statue that could only be sculpted in an era of peace and prosperity. It didn't have much distinctiveness. Because in times of peace, everyone could focus on their own affairs, without needing to place faith in things that didn't require faith. Seeking heaven, seeking gods, seeking Buddhas, seeking ancestors, all were inferior to seeking oneself. But the world didn't even have time to remember any irrelevant features of this Big-Bellied Buddha. In a blink of an eye, something terrifying happened...

That Buddha turned black! It was no longer benevolent but sorrowful. It was no longer unburdened but held objects in its hands, one with a string of skull beads, the other pinching a mudra of attachment. The golden lotus platform, beneath the now demonized Buddha form, faintly seeped black liquid. At one point, when observing intently, the people of the Five Domains were horrified to discover...

That Buddha was upside down! Its head rested on the lotus platform, its legs suspended in the air—in such a posture, its inverted, sorrowful eyes stared at the world, rolling around, incredibly eerie!

Xu Xiaoshou was even startled. What kind of Buddha was this, so demonic? So improper, so irreverent, so un-serious!

"Subversion, collapse, disorder..."

From this, he could only decipher such irrational thoughts. But the world is so inclusive; even if it's improper, irreverent, or un-serious, as long as it exists, there is reason. As soon as that "Inverted Buddha Form" appeared, Elder Sang became suddenly devout. He lost his eccentricity, his savagery, his creepiness. Even that face, which usually looked quite terrifying up close, now appeared very amiable.

"It moved..."

Feng Zhongzui's pupils trembled. Yes, Holy Slave Wuxiu moved. He took a step forward, his charred body degenerating, transforming into a simple gray-brown monk's robe. Black pure water surged, easily pushing away his straw hat. It turned out that his entire head... his entire head of hair had fallen out, leaving him as a monk. This monk had red lips and white teeth, a red cinnabar dot on his forehead, but his brows were tightly furrowed, looking worried. He took another step forward, without any noticeable change in power, and silently walked out of the Dead Sea, appearing beside Xu Xiaoshou.

"What?"

Xu Xiaoshou stumbled in surprise. He almost couldn't keep up with Elder Sang's speed... wait, was this still Elder Sang? He stared at the monk in front of him, stunned.

"What!"

Feng Xiaoshuang also shivered in fright. The Transmission Mirror at this moment showed Holy Slave Wuxiu, looking so illusory, so unreal. No, he shouldn't be Holy Slave Wuxiu anymore, he was Monk Robe Wuxiu... the ethereal Monk Robe Wuxiu, with a precept blade at his waist and a demon staff in his hand. This combination was incredibly strange!

Let alone Feng Xiaoshuang. Xu Xiaoshou couldn't even describe his current feelings. The enlightened monks in his memory wore red kasayas, had white beards and white eyebrows, and spoke "Shanzai, Shanzai." A monk so young would be hard-pressed to leave the temple. One carrying a blade and staff was most likely a defrocked monk! This young monk, who was somewhat like a defrocked monk but also not, passed by Xu Xiaoshou, and then suddenly light appeared in his eyes. He slightly turned his head, nodded briefly, and said:

"Meet at the Inverted Buddha Pagoda."

"Huh?"

With a crackle, Xu Xiaoshou's hairs stood on end. Meet at the Inverted Buddha Pagoda? Why did this format feel so familiar? Meet at Void Island, meet at Ranming Ruins, meet at God's Vestige, meet at Inverted Buddha Pagoda... So, are you Dao Qiongcang?! But how could Elder Sang be involved with Dao Qiongcang? Whether Dao Qiongcang could control the power he was using now was another matter entirely. After all, he had just said:

"Please, divine oracle!"

He also said:

"Depart in ash, return with grievances."

The Grudge Buddha... all these things, no matter how unbelievable, once the phrase "Meet at the Inverted Buddha Pagoda" came out, Xu Xiaoshou was able to string everything together: Elder Sang wasn't borrowing the Demon Ancestor's blood, but the Grudge Buddha's blood. Sui Yin had previously stated that the Grudge Buddha was suppressing the Demon Ancestor in the Inverted Buddha Pagoda, so was it because his power wasn't enough and he was polluted? But if this blood could be borrowed, it should have been borrowed thirty years ago. Otherwise, if the Holy Slave had a way to see the Grudge Buddha again, even the gods wouldn't have searched for thirty years without success...

"Thirty years ago, the Grudge Buddha wasn't merely an initial Saint Emperor, but already close to an Ancestral God, or even reaching the Ancestral God realm?"

"No wonder others were just messing around, while he was already suppressing the Demon Ancestor..."

This shock was even more outrageous than Ba Zun'an's forgetting emotion, Kui Leihan's forgetting son, or Dao Qiongcang's forgetting Dao. Xu Xiaoshou even dared not believe his judgment was true. But before he could think further, Monk Robe Wuxiu took another step forward. This time, his back directly appeared on the Heavenly Ladder, in every place visible to the people of the Five Domains. His height was supreme. The world was behind him. From this perspective, the world could only see the murderous precept blade and the rampant demonic staff—no one could understand such a Buddha form!

But Xu Xiaoshou knew. He was definitely not Elder Sang, but could only be the Grudge Buddha. After all, he had seen that precept blade, and he had seen that demon staff—the Buddha-Slaying Blade and the Hell-Void Demon Staff! On the golden Heavenly Ladder, the Grudge Buddha, incomprehensible to the world, dressed in a simple gray-brown monk's robe, actively turned around and cast gentleness upon this world. His Dao was extremely simple, like the current Five Domains' Brahma sound:

"All calamities befall me, the mortal world enjoys peace."

"All swords and blades be added to me, humanity is free of bloodshed."

The Grudge Buddha sat cross-legged, the precept blade gently laid down, the demon staff placed horizontally. Without saying much, a golden sarira softly emerged from his mouth. This was... Xu Xiaoshou's face showed emotion. That was a sarira! But the power upon it was almost equivalent to an Ancestral God's fate!

"A naturally born Ancestral God's fate..."

In an instant, everyone in the Five Domains thought of something. Under the Daoist mantra of this gray-brown little monk, they all thought of the "If Buddha has grievances, hell should be full" of the Ten Thrones. He, on the Heavenly Ladder, spat out the sarira. All the spirit refiners in the Five Domains who had been affected by demonic energy were drawn by its power, all their unforgivable sins gathered. The Grudge Buddha swallowed all the demonic energy, all the sins. His dim body became incredibly solid, a lotus platform bloomed beneath his feet, but the cinnabar between his eyebrows became even more crimson, like blood.

Contradiction! Still contradiction! No matter what, no one could accept such extreme contradictions coexisting in one body, yet achieving such yin-yang harmony. The Grudge Buddha slightly opened his palm. With a tearing sound, his arm charred, clearly the Wuxiu Charred Hand. But in the next instant, this Wuxiu Charred Hand, formed by attaching itself to and melting into the body based on the Thorough God Thought Dragon Burning, had its power purified by the golden sarira, returning to chaos. When all unforgivable sins and all evils were refined, the charring on the Grudge Buddha's palm faded, transforming into a gentle, water-like, golden thought.

"Vow power..."

Xu Xiaoshou's scalp tingled slightly. He had seen this kind of Thorough God Thought. This was sincere faith, undivided devotion. The last time, and only time, he had seen someone with this second-generation Thorough God Thought, was the little monk Bule — a disciple of the Grudge Buddha!

A thousand thoughts swirled in his mind. On the Heavenly Ladder, after the Grudge Buddha sat down, his heart was like still water. He reached out and stroked, and vow power overflowed from the sarira, flowing across the lotus platform and spreading throughout the Heavenly Ladder.

"Pupu..."

A strange sound emerged. When touched by that vow power, the Heavenly Ladder actually emitted sounds of corrosion and burning, and then white flames rose, but even the white flames were quickly soothed. The Five Domains were all bewildered. Even Ai Cangsheng made no move, only quietly observing the scene. But then, on the Heavenly Ladder, the golden sarira occasionally returned, and the Grudge Buddha degenerated, becoming Monk Robe Wuxiu. In a blink of an eye in the Five Domains, Monk Robe Wuxiu degenerated again, becoming Sang Qiye in the Wuxiu Charred Body.

And then another blink... It didn't degenerate anymore! At this point, Elder Sang was like a stone sculpture. He remained eternally fixed at the apex of the heavens, only a single voice reverberating throughout the Five Domains, proclaiming the firmness of his Dao and the solidity of his heart:

"I will melt the Heavenly Ladder and govern this world for one year. The Ten Ancestors cannot reverse it."