Chapter 295: Mysterious Force
After briefly explaining the rules and origin of the Secret Archive to Wang Wei, Wang Tian and the other upper echelon of the sect began to gather all information or knowledge regarding Buddhism.
A few hours later, a small pile of books and jade talismans was placed in front of Wang Wei.
"That’s it?" he asked. Although this amount looked large, compared to the amount of information regarding other subjects, this was quite disappointing.
"You should be glad that our sect has so much information left. As you know, information about Buddhism was mostly lost after the Incense Era," replied Wang Tian.
Wang Wei nodded his head, sat cross-legged on the floor, opened a book, and read it. However, a few minutes later, a frown appeared on his face. He then quickly opened many of the books, used his Divine Sense to read some of the jade talismans.
The reason for his odd behavior was that he quickly realized that he could not understand the words in these books. He knew the language they were written in, but every time he focused on them, a vague shadow seemed to cover his mind, making it impossible to understand what he was reading.
Additionally, Wang Wei realized that he could not remember any of the things he read; a few seconds after reading anything, the information seemed to vanish from his mind.
With his perfect memory and powerful soul, this was very odd. So, he raised his head to look at his family.
His father raised his shoulder and said: "This is a normal situation for anything related to Buddhism. And according to our records, this phenomenon is the same in different worlds across different world communities."
"So powerful?"
Everyone nodded their heads.
"Is there a way to go around it? Otherwise, this whole plan will be obsolete."
"Well, one of our ancestors left a passage telling future descendants how to deal with the situation."
Wang Chang then handed Wang Wei a scroll. He opened it and read a single phrase inside the entire page:
"Only those who have Buddha in their hearts can become enlightened."
"That’s it?" he asked. "More importantly, why so cryptic?"
No one could give him an answer. By now, Wang Wei was used to his ancestors always being cryptic and esoteric when doing things. Even he has started to become that way since he began controlling the power of Fate.
Taking a deep sigh, Wang Wei closed his eyes and entered a deep state of meditation. In his mind, he began to picture a massive golden Buddha in his mind based on a statue he saw in his previous life.
The Golden Buddha was vast, majestic, and had a benevolent smile on his face. He gave the feeling that he wanted to save all sentient beings, and guide them to escape the shackles of reincarnation by becoming enlightened.
While Wang Wei was picturing the Golden Buddha, the same figure appeared in his Sea of Consciousness. Then, Wang Wei unconsciously chanted:
"Namo Amitabhaya Tathagataya."
As soon as he said these words, seven golden lights flew from his Seven Chakra and entered his Sea of Consciousness to blend with the Golden Buddha. Following this, the Buddha left Wang Wei’s Sea of Consciousness and manifested in the real world.
It exuded a golden light that enveloped the entire Secret Archive. And every one that the lights touched felt peaceful, their minds at ease like they were in the embrace of their loving mother.
Then, they felt like a heavy weight or burden was lifted from their shoulders. Immediately, these people checked their bodies and discovered that the cultivation bottleneck that they were facing loosen up a little.
As for the True Monarchs, they felt like the hidden injuries inside their bodies were healed slightly, thus increasing their lifespan. Even a Quasi-Emperor like Wang Chang felt the same.
The upper echelons of the sect smiled after seeing this, thinking that not only had Wang Wei succeeded, but also benefited from this experience. Unfortunately for them, their happy smiles did not last long.
A few seconds after the Golden Buddha manifested, everything in the small world that the Secret Archive was located in suddenly stopped moving as if frozen in time. Even Wang Chang--the person with the highest cultivation in the room--was also frozen in time.
Then, a mighty and mysterious force seemed to descend into the room; the first thing it did was destroy the Golden Buddha, then it entered Wang Wei’s mind trying to forcefully eradicate all his memories and knowledge regarding Buddhism.
During the entire process, Wang Wei was incapable of moving or doing anything. Although his mind still worked properly, he could not do anything at all. Even his soul was useless at this moment.
However, something else in his body did work. It was the Will granted by him from the Duyu Realm. The Will manifested itself in his own and resisted the mysterious force that was invading Wang Wei’s mind.
Unfortunately, it was too weak. Knowing this, the Will immediately fused with Wang Wei’s soul, then used its power to resist, and it was somewhat successful. Nevertheless, it just managed to delay the time that mysterious force took effect.
While all of this was happening, Wang Wei--for the first time in a very long time--felt very powerless. He suddenly remembered his confrontation at the last Trial in the Pagoda. How weak and helpless he was against that giant hand.
Then, a wave of intense anger overcame him thinking about the misery he suffered at that time. And with that anger, came another powerful will residing inside his body: his own will.
It was the will that could defy the odds, make the impossible possible; it was the Will he used to make the Wrath of Heaven bleed even though this should not be possible.
Then, Wang Wei snorted.
The snort echoed throughout the Secret Archive before traveling throughout the entire small world. And the snort was not about to stop; it seemed to want to travel further into the void, to echo throughout All Heaven and Myriad Worlds.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, countless runes suddenly appeared to surround the small world to prevent it from traveling far. Nevertheless, even those runes trembled and cracked before stopping it.
As for the person who used them, she became pale for a moment, then a small trace of blood slid down the corner of her mouth. However, Wu Hong quickly wiped the blood, then used some secret technique to return her pale complexion to normal.
Meanwhile, after Wang Wei snorted, he used his own will to instantly crush that mysterious force. Then, everyone could finally move again.
But they all had a look of horror on their faces.
"What was that?" asked Yu Yan.
No one answered her. Of course, she knew that this was a rhetorical question. Well, she was wrong.
"That’s the Absolute Beginning Magic," replied Wu Hong. Everyone then looked at her.
"The Absolute Beginning Emperor had an unnatural hatred for Buddhism, so after becoming an Eternal Emperor, he cast a magic that cut off the beginning of Buddhism, thus eradicating them from existence.
"Anything related to Buddhism will be wiped out by the magic..."
Wu Hong suddenly paused. "Now that I think about it, there is something wrong with this situation. Whether it is your Seven Chakra System or the Manifested Buddha, none of that should be possible under this magic. Unless it was broken, or someone discovered a loophole in it."
"Is that a bad thing?" asked Wang Wei.
"Not really. I’m just thinking that this guy spent all his life fighting the Buddhist Sect to the point of him even being killed, and yet, someone still managed to crack his magic. I can imagine him fuming in his grave," responded Wu Hong with a smirk.
"The Absolute Beginning Emperor is dead?" asked Yu Yan in surprise.
"Well, yes and no. To beings like him, death is not really the end. It’s more like he’s in a state of existence and non-existence."
"Limbo?"
"Well, it’s more complex than that, but you can think of it that way."
The people nodded but did not ask any further. By now, they were used to Wu Hong’s mystery or strangeness. And many of them had different theories on her real identity.
Although a lot of people did not fully trust her because of this, they trusted Wang Wei’s ability to judge people.
After this brief chat, Wang Wei was prepared to go back to his reading. However, an old man suddenly appeared in the room and said: "What’s going on here? What just happened?"
Wang Wei was instantly on alert as this old man was a True Monarch. However, his father just raised his hand to motion him to calm down.
"This Supreme Elder Li Tan; he’s the guardian of the Secret Archive," explained Wang Tian. Then, he went to explain the situation to Li Tan.
After hearing the entire story, the old man nodded, then, without saying anything else, he disappeared.
"Don’t mind," said Wang Tian. "His personality has always been like that."
Wang Wei just nodded his head as he did not care about things like that since he had more important work to do.