Chapter 531
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Translator: Ace
Chapter:
Chapter Title: Fall of the Daxiong Hall
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Pure Land, Daxiong Hall.
All that met the eye was auspicious mist blanketing the heavens, rainbow lights forming an arched guard, the roof scraping the empyrean while its roots linked to Sumeru’s veins. Golden tiles and floral bricks paved paths of agate, as jeweled towers and treasure thrones brimmed with spiritual radiance.
This was the pinnacle of the Pure Land.
Every year, every month, every day, uncountable monks and arhats rushed here from across Jiangxi to pay homage. They claimed it a realm beyond the mortal world, where all worldly ties came to an end.
Yet this immortal paradise was now a riot of mortal clamor. The once-lofty arhats wore faces of terror, gnashed their teeth in fury, or floundered in panic, turning the hall into a churning cauldron. Voices rose and fell, revealing every shade of worldly vice.
“They’re attacking! They’re really attacking!”
“They’ve gone mad—all of them!”
“Jiangbei, Jiangnan, Jiangdong, even overseas—they’re all here! Several ancient monasteries have gone dark. They’re going to slaughter their way across Jiangxi!”
The arhats sensed it then and streamed out of the hall. They peered into the distance.
In that direction, a streak of light shot skyward.
The radiance pierced the clouds and set the firmament ablaze, like a candle ignited amid the celestial canopy. Flames erupted, vaporizing the vast cloud sea into a fiery haze that roiled like oceanic swells. It swept forward in a tidal surge of heavenly light, accompanied by a chilling, majestic roar as it bore down on Daxiong Hall.
Boom!
Beneath the gaze of the Pure Land’s arhats, the fiery haze crashed onto the mountain-like Daxiong Hall. Buddha light and purple flames erupted in response.
Crack-crack-crack!
The ethereal cloud sea struck like solid land, its immense weight shuddering the entire hall.
Buddha light wove into layered formations.
Purple flames surged and condensed.
The arhats rushed into position, assuming wrathful, diamond, and demon-subduing aspects. They manifested myriad Buddha dharma, yet all converged as one at their core, merging into a single blaze of Buddha light:
[Central Vasa Great Array of the Two Realms and Ten Directions]
This formation matched the one atop Heaven-Connecting Cloud Sea’s Sacred Fire Cliff exactly—a relic of successive bodhisattvas, second-grade in rank, nearing the apex of array arts.
But it lacked a master.
The mightiest arrays and spirit treasures were mere externalities. Without a controller to awaken their mysteries, even supreme grades meant nothing.
The next instant, a deafening roar echoed through Daxiong Hall, threatening to tear the supreme dharma hall apart. Every arhat within the array exploded in a spray of golden bodies, blood painting half the serene zen grove red. Only after a long moment did they reform, faces etched with dread.
“Bodhisattva! Summon the Bodhisattva!”
After a frantic beat, the arhats steadied themselves. Their eyes turned as one to a Buddha statue within the hall. They dropped to their knees in droves.
“Demons and fiends defy the dao, seeking our Pure Land’s end.”
“Pray the Bodhisattva emerge and uphold the true dharma!”
As the words faded, a gale whipped up on the spot. It scattered every expression from the arhats’ faces. The clamor died.
“Amitabha.”
At last, the statue they prostrated before stirred. It stepped slowly from its lotus pedestal, gold leaf flaking away in layers.
By the time it emerged from the hall to stand at the arhats’ forefront, the golden image had become flesh and blood: thick brows, keen eyes, a face radiating righteousness. Its expression was solemn and grave, a halo of pure, rippling round light shimmering behind its head.
It was the Dragon Snake Coiling Shadow Bodhisattva!
Yet this outer-path bodhisattva of the Pure Land wore no smile. He silently surveyed the array crumbling around them.
In his eyes, he saw every facet of Jiangxi Pure Land’s myriad beings.
A moment passed. He shook his head and pursed his lips in sullen frustration.
Not long ago, he had endured the most harrowing ordeal of his long life: possessed by the Soaring Empyrean Sun-Obscuring True Lord, helpless beneath the Know-See Barrier.
Now, Sand-in-Earth had fallen to the underworld. Most other earth-aspect fruits resided in the Dao Court. The sole City-Head Earth eluded his grasp. His standing in the Pure Land had plummeted. They now treated him as a pawn to sacrifice, bidding him shatter his own dao path to avert calamity.
And he could not refuse.
‘The Soaring Empyrean bullies me. My fellow bodhisattvas bully me. Now even a Foundation Establishment whelp dares bully me!’
The Dragon Snake Coiling Shadow Bodhisattva grew ever more despondent, numb to it all. And now they came knocking at his door. Rage blazed within him.
At that moment, as the array shattered, a majestic voice resounded.
“Come out! Today, I slay you to prove my dao!”
Such overbearing provocation, devouring mountains and rivers alike. The Dragon Snake Coiling Shadow Bodhisattva’s face darkened further. He spat back in a thunderous gale.
“Donor, do you truly intend a True Lord clash unto mutual ruin?”
The words hung in the air. A figure materialized above Daxiong Hall. Lu Yang rode the fiery cloud sea, hands clasped behind his back, gazing indifferently upon the Pure Land.
“You overthink it, senior. Does an outer path even qualify as True Lord?”
The Dragon Snake Coiling Shadow Bodhisattva fell silent.
Outrageous!
“You’re merely borrowing a fruit position on loan—unable to wield its core mysteries. No different from me. Victory’s no sure thing. You truly believe yourself invincible?”
Lu Yang wasted no more words. He pinched a dharma seal.
From the cloud sea rose a towering dharma body, its crown piercing thirty-six layers of astral clouds. Mountains formed its frame, the vault of heaven its head, rivers its veins, sun and moon its eyes. Without another word, it lifted a foot and stomped down upon Daxiong Hall!
The Dragon Snake Coiling Shadow Bodhisattva’s face twisted in shock.
Such gall!
‘This demon dragon... does it not fear death?’
Since the World Honored One attained the dao and founded Jiangxi Pure Land, none had dared such sacrilege. What it trod was no mere hall of the Pure Land.
It was the World Honored One’s very face!
Boom!
With a colossal roar, the hall atop the supreme peak tumbled under Lu Yang’s tread. Even the cradling mountains collapsed in cascades!
The shocking sight reflected in the eyes of Jiangxi’s myriad release cultivators and billions of mortals. The old Daxiong Hall had been visible from everywhere in the province, an object of boundless longing. Now its design served only to broadcast the shattering of their faith to every witness.
“Impossible!”
“With the Bodhisattva above and World Honored One watching, how—how could this be?!”
Across the land, release cultivators reeled in shock and fury, faces frozen in disbelief. Some dismissed it as illusion, refusing the evidence of their eyes.
Seeing this, the Dragon Snake Coiling Shadow Bodhisattva sighed deeply.
“Very well. Today, I cast aside my dao path for this duel.”
His words unleashed the array’s full dissolution. The once-flawless unity of his aura shattered utterly.
Thunder cracked across the firmament.
Heaven and earth sensed the “anomaly”—the telltale sign of an outer-path True Lord, unassimilated into the natural order.
An outer-path True Lord!
Inferior to an orthodox one, perhaps. Yet Lu Yang merely aped a golden position, unable to tap Covered Lamp Fire’s profundities. The odds stood even.
Truth be told, the Dragon Snake Coiling Shadow Bodhisattva held the edge. Lu Yang’s borrowed mantle lasted a mere incense stick’s time. His own endured indefinitely. Fail to slay him within that span, and Lu Yang was doomed!
Boom!
In a flash of lightning, neither hesitated. The dharma bodies collided!