Chapter 452
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: [No Number]
Chapter Title: The World Venerable's Descent
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The four realms of heaven and earth fell utterly silent, all myriad sounds ceasing.
Lu Yang froze stiff in place, his face turning ashen as he stared at the spot where Soaring Empyrean had just vanished. Curses exploded in his mind:
"Damn beast!"
No wonder he had reached late Golden Core and sought out the Nether Mansion—that reaction speed was insanely fast. The World Venerable hadn't even fully descended, and he had already bolted!
What now?
"Activate the Book of a Hundred Lives?"
Lu Yang drew a deep breath, rapidly steadying his mind. The panel of the Book of a Hundred Lives by his side was his greatest trump card—no one could stop him from restarting!
No matter what, he now falsely held a golden status, his position nearly at the pinnacle of this heaven and earth. If the World Venerable knew of the Book of a Hundred Lives and laid targeted traps, even immortals might not save him. But the Book remained hidden—who could possibly guess he could simply suicide and reload?
Yet soon enough, Lu Yang sensed something off.
The World Venerable wasn't looking at him.
Those eyes brimming with Buddhist radiance calmly swept across the surroundings. Wherever they passed, ghosts wailed and gods howled, blood rain poured from the heavens—as if heaven and earth themselves quaked in terror!
"He's not looking at me."
In that instant, realization dawned on Lu Yang. It was like a mortal staring at an ant nest—who gave a damn about the individual ants inside?
Golden Core? Foundation Establishment?
Mere differences in ant size—utterly beneath notice!
What truly drew its gaze was the entire nest itself, this very heaven and earth. Everything else had never entered its field of attention!
Boom!
In that moment, the whole of Jiangxi shuddered violently. The World Venerable stood with hands clasped behind its back, gazing around as if reminiscing over bygone glorious days.
The next instant, It spoke.
"Return."
Two utterly calm words, spoken even in the voice of the Treasure Vase Water Moon Bodhisattva—yet they summoned the awareness and resonance of the entire heaven and earth!
This resonance was clearly unwilling, however. The resulting phenomena split into contradictions: blood rain from the skies on one side, golden lotuses surging from the earth on the other. Omens of calamity and fortune coexisted in bizarre extremity until, moments later, all the visions simultaneously faded away.
In their place appeared a beam of golden light.
This light had concealed itself amid heaven and earth, but now it was forcibly dragged forth. Countless scenes manifested within it.
Dragons coiled around golden citadels, heavenly capitals of jade bastions.
Hundreds of officials in audience, myriad homes lit by lanterns.
One glance revealed it was no mere beam of light, but a vast kingdom condensed billions of times over, radiating an indescribable weight.
City Wall Earth!
The City Wall Earth—which had escaped the Pure Land after the Earthly Buddha Kingdom shattered and the collective will was severed—was yanked back by a single word from the World Venerable!
"Too damn shameless...!"
Lu Yang nearly bulged his eyes out of their sockets, but he swiftly reined in his expression, not daring to leak a trace of emotion. After all, this was no mere Buddhist disciple.
This was a true Dao Lord making a personal appearance!
"Primal Saint Sect, Jade Pivot Sword Pavilion, Dao Court... what the hell are they all doing? Letting the World Venerable descend like this? Where's the rule of law? Where's any justice?"
The big shots in this godforsaken place had zero sense of immortal propriety!
Though a torrent of profanity raged in his heart, Lu Yang in reality unhesitatingly deployed Wall Earth to seal his aura, desperately minimizing his presence.
Of course, it did nothing.
It was mostly for self-comfort.
Boom!
The next instant, the World Venerable cradled the City Wall Earth in its palm, where it trembled nonstop—clearly ready to scatter into formlessness the moment It let go.
But soon, the World Venerable extended a hand and tapped downward gently. In a flash, hazy, illusory glows rippled across the entire Jiangxi Pure Land. Moments later, Lu Yang watched as every Buddhist cultivator in Jiangxi—every bird, beast, fish, insect, and heavenly phenomenon—had a layer of inexplicable light and shadow peeled away.
A new "Pure Land" emerged.
This surpassed Lu Yang's cultivation entirely, like gibberish scripture. Yet as the holder of the Sword Dao Fruit Position, he could clearly sense it:
"Sword Dao is寄托ed upon that!"
By rights, under Perfected Being Demon-Quelling's machinations, the Sword Dao Fruit Position had rooted deep into the Pure Land, bound inseparably to the Buddhist cultivators' collective will.
As long as Sword Dao endured, the collective will could not.
Yet now, the World Venerable had stripped this concept away—like a snake sloughing its skin, severing Sword Dao from the Pure Land!
"No, more precisely—It severed the Pure Land portion rooted by the Sword Dao Fruit Position from the unrooted portion. The former was sent away, the latter retained... restoring the collective will without harming the Sword Dao Fruit Position!"
Karma? Time? Concepts?
Lu Yang grasped the transformation but not how the World Venerable achieved it. As he pondered, It abruptly shifted its gaze.
Hiss!!!
Lu Yang sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.
It's looking at me? No—not me. At the Sword Dao Fruit Position!
The World Venerable said nothing, Its eyes of boundless Buddhist light simply staring calmly at the Sword Dao Fruit Position in Lu Yang's grasp before extending a finger in a gentle tap.
Boom!
The next instant, the light-shadow "Pure Land" It had personally excised began collapsing. All its phenomena fused into the Sword Dao Fruit Position, rendering it ever more complete and autonomous. Meanwhile, compassionate expressions dawned on the faces of the Pure Land's Buddhist throng.
"Amitabha!"
The uniform chant rang out once more. Every cultivator stood in solemn dignity, sensing the collective will's return—their faces stripped of prior joy and rage.
Purity alone. Freedom alone.
With this done, the World Venerable withdrew Its gaze. The restored collective will once more suppressed the rampaging City Wall Earth, consigning it to the Pure Land's depths.
All returned to as before.
Perfected Being Demon-Quelling's laborious scheme—pitting Jade Pivot Sword Pavilion against the Pure Land in eternal enmity—dissolved entirely due to the World Venerable's arrival!
Next, the World Venerable closed Its eyes.
When they reopened, the brimming Buddhist radiance had faded. The Treasure Vase Water Moon Bodhisattva's consciousness withdrew, vanishing like dream, illusion, bubble, or shadow.
She had returned to hidden seclusion.
After all, the Heaven of Non-existence's bindings remained.
The Treasure Vase Water Moon Bodhisattva had forced her descent by burning her grotto-heaven; with all settled, no need persisted to further erode it.
From start to finish, the World Venerable spoke not a word to anyone else.
"It's over just like that?"
Lu Yang stared in bewilderment, wholly unprepared for the World Venerable's descent to fizzle so abruptly. But soon, he pieced together the underlying logic:
"Right—the Pure Land's repeated setbacks deviated from the Dao Lord's preset course, demanding a reset. Hence the World Venerable intervened. But Sword Dao tied into Jade Pivot Sword Pavilion's plot and couldn't be touched, so It made no further outrageous moves post-descent."
In a flash, inspiration struck Lu Yang.
The World Venerable's descent held no unlimited freedom!
"Strictly speaking, It embodied the will of the four Dao Lords—a compromise they reached, tasking It with tying up loose ends!"
The City Wall Earth Pure Land was non-negotiable; it had to be reclaimed.
The Sword Dao Fruit Position was Jade Pivot Sword Pavilion's prized possession; it couldn't be ruined.
As for the Earthly Buddha Kingdom—that was fair game by skill alone. The other Dao Lords granted the World Venerable its shot, but It failed, so It ate the loss.
"This is truly..."
He had unraveled the logic behind the descent, yet no relief washed over Lu Yang. Instead, chill pierced straight to his core.
The reason was simple:
"The four Dao Lords each drew a red line across this wretched place's board. Cross any one, and you'd summon a Dao Lord's direct meddling!"
Hence the Primal Saint Sect ancestor's ploy that doomed Mu Changsheng.
Hence the World Venerable's personal hand to right the chaos.
In other words—from the very beginning, this heaven and earth's future trajectory was sealed by the four Dao Lords!