The Sage Who Transcended Samsara

The strong wind stopped and the crack was half-closed. The void was half frozen like multilayer glaze.

Two huge shadows faced each other deep in the Spirited Mountain. The dark golden body’s Qi Ji collided with the black corpse’s. Lights exploded in mid-air quietly.

Lights appeared like thunder partly hidden, like a dream.

The Nether Skeleton suddenly took one step forward and the whole Spirited Mountain trembled. The yellow blood river behind him flew quickly, supported by the Emperor of Hell and the master of Hades.

The river stretched far away and swallowed the cracks as if it touched the deepest part of Spirited Mountain.

Inside collapsed temples and on two sides of crooked roads, the Luohan Sky-dragon wrapped in dead mist and air and Buddha Jin Gang all looked up.

Ten, hundreds, ten thousands… countless of them who were decayed with blood tears on their faces and strong power in their forms all shouted out loud:

“The Nether!”

These zombies of buddhas and luohan flew up and cast themselves into the illusory yellow blood river overwhelmingly as if no more buddhas existed in close areas of thirty inches.

Spider of the Vast Tiger with grey dead air jumped into the river following the zombies.

In just a few seconds, dead air and dirty stuff all cleaned up in the Spirited Mountain as if they never existed.

By having all those corpses of buddha, luohan, and demons, the river changed from vague to real and appeared clearly in mid-air with all those dead bodies floating. Meng Qi felt as if all his memories and spirits were washed away in the clatter.

It was hard to find a place like Spirited Mountain to play the power of the Nether Skeleton to its biggest level!

Facing Maha Kasyapa’s dark golden body and Zen smile, the black Nether made a fist of his right hand and attacked his opponent. The river suddenly rose up to the sky and poured down, running together with the fist as if the Milky Way has tumbled from the ninth height of Heaven.

Udumbara flowers withered one by one under Kasyapa’s feet and the pure land disappeared. His golden body was covered with grey dust and decayed slowly. Its lights were swallowed by yellow blood.

Kasyapa sighed slightly and lifted his right hands with middle finger touching thumb in the shape of flower-picking and waved.

This was not The Smile of Flower-Picking of The Buddha’s Palm, neither was Dharma’s Flower-Picking finger. It was Kasyapa’s own martial art called all is vanity. It combined the arts of The World of Vanity and changesd irregularly.

The golden finger waved and pointed to the nether corpse’s fist.

The yellow blood river suddenly changed and turned transparent disclosing luohan, buddhas, and demons and then their dead bodies were broken like dreams and bubbles.

Impermanence of life and death, all is vanity!

Bang!

The dark golden finger collided with the pure white fist and stopped in mid-air. The Nether’s yellow blood slowly disappeared and those tough zombies were broken. Kasyapa was washed by the river and its golden body became mottled with its surrounding void broken like glaze.

Meng Qi flew up in the air right after the collision and changed his position and direction. He then appeared somewhere far away and rushed towards the deep Spirited Mountain.

He left the Nether skeleton without regrets. Meng Qi would control the corpse from far away to fight against the Slough of Kasyapa.

Strong wind blew through and the cracks increased. Meng Qi fled from the battlefield quickly. Suddenly a huge golden finger appeared and pointed between Meng Qi’s eyebrows.

The finger was in the shape of Gada, coming together with eight Sky-dragons, therefore extremely strong. Kasyapa was able to keep an eye on him even during the fight with Nether Corpse!

Meng Qi didn’t slow down and rushed straight without changing directions. The golden finger suddenly trembled slightly and passed by without striking at Meng Qi.

Destiny!

Especially Kasyapa was now struggling in the fight with Nether!

Meng Qi ran far away on the winding dark road. He no longer felt prickles down his back.

He knew that he had escaped from Kasyapa’s threat.

But deep in Spirited Mountain, he dared not to relax since Kasyapa died here. He might meet with Manjushri, Samantabhadra, etc., who were much stronger than the seven buddhas.

Not a buddha but looked like a buddha!

Somehow after Meng Qi got rid of Kasyapa, he met no more luohan, buddha, Sky-dragons, or demon kings . He did not know whether it was because ninety percent of the zombies jumped into the Nether river or because Spirited Mountain was strangely quiet in the deep place. He could hear nothing but the Great Sage Equaling Heaven’s shouting voice in the far away place.

Meng Qi felt everything around was so deadly quiet.

Meng Qi walked alone in the darkness with cracks filled in the sky. Strong wind was so strong as if it could tear his body apart.

Meng Qi held the blade in his right hand and his face lit up by the thunder looked worried.

He had no idea how long he had walked. And then suddenly he saw the Golden Cudgel between the Heaven and Earth and the giant pit which could accommodate a whole city.

At this moment, the thunder mostly died out and the green lotus withered in the darkness. Meng Qi could only feel dark smoke fill up in the pit like demons dancing. Around the pit, he could see decayed golden bodies with great power filled up with dark and dead air.

These should be the buddhas that died years ago, so many more than hundreds… Meng Qi felt a sudden jolt and he realized that he had arrived in the deepest part, the core.

This was the top of Spirited Mountain where Gautama Buddha giving lectures in the past.

Considering the number of these dead bodies, most of the buddhas in the whole pure land even the whole religion probably died here.

What happened in the battle at Spirited Mountain. How come it turned out to be like this… Meng Qi knew that he could face legend in ancient times soon. Maybe he could find out what happened then.

What had Ananda done that made all these saints and demons could not forget and forgive for all these years.

Bang!

Thunder exploded together with the green lotus blooming. Stars and clouds gathered. Galaxies appeared and everything lit up.

Black air danced around in the pit together with huge golden buddhas around it. All these things seemed to become a formation.

These golden bodies were mottled, wrapped in strange grey air and dead dark mist. But their bodies were still left with the Realm of Peace.

Their faces still had remains of blood and tears.

Buddhas also shed tears. They all shed tears. What happened exactly…

Meng Qi suddenly heard these buddhas humming inside their bodies and then screamed with hatred:

“Ananda!”

…

In the World of Gods.

Kong Zhao traveled through different kingdoms following Meng Qi and saw many different things. He gradually formed his own understanding and beliefs.

He looked at his teacher asleep in the cabin and thought: teacher asked me some really good questions and inspired me to think over the books and my own thoughts and to combine them with reality. Now I gradually formed my own belief different from other saints. He is a great teacher, a knowledgeable man with a lot of experience. He’s like a dragon flying in ninth heaven.

But why did he not tell me directly his theory. Why he always kept quiet? Was it because he was waiting for a good timing when I could completely understand his theory?

Meng Qi could held his questions no longer and wanted to ask for his teacher’s instructions.

…

“Ananda!”

Meng Qi was stunned by the scream.

Ananda? Not those demons that hate Ananda but the buddhas in Spirited Mountain? Meng Qi felt so cold and his hair stood on end.

So he sold out the pure land but why then was he ran after by the Demonic Sage?

What is his obsessiveness?

It was surely not that simple that Ananda just turned to Devil Buddha!

He pondered and looked at those golden buddhas.

Suddenly a green lion walked out with a pure white Buddha sitting on its back.

Manjushri

Meng Qi felt a sudden jolt and saw a figure picked in lion’s mouth.

Zhiwei!

Jiang Zhiwei’s face was pale and her eyes blank with her clothes picked by the lion and could not move a bit.

Meanwhile white sky-dragons and the golden winged roc walked out from the”Buddha forest and casted Ruan Yushu and Zhao Heng in front.

They looked the same as Jiang Zhiwei and could not move not even to blink their eyes. They all looked at Meng Qi with a bit worried look.

Deep in the pit, a cold voice came out:

“Wave your blade and let’s see whether you can save them.”

“Or you die and I’ll let them live.”

Hearing these words, Jiang Zhi Wei struggled intensely and murmured with her head shaking strongly as if telling Meng Qi to leave them behind. “As long as the green mountains are there, one need not worry about firewood.” There were still chances to resurrect.

But she was in the green lion’s mouth and could not move freely and could not shout. Her crystal eyes were filled with worry and mist.