Chapter 301
Chapter 301
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter:
Chapter Title: Deadly Mists and Buddhist Hell
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Immortal Bridge Blessed Land. The mist grew heavier and heavier. Daoist Jinlu stood beside the collapsed Immortal Bridge, his heartbeat gradually quickening.
This mist had come on fiercely. By the time he noticed it and tried to leave, it was already too late.
Suddenly, a shrill scream echoed from within the mist. Daoist Jinlu's heart jolted—he knew someone had met their end.
Another shrill scream followed, and then the cries came without end, ringing out from every direction in Immortal Bridge Blessed Land.
"Chen Shi was right. This place is indeed extremely perilous. I must leave at once!"
Daoist Jinlu hesitated no longer. He immediately headed off in the direction Chen Shi had gone.
He focused his mind completely. The Divine Shrine floated behind his head, with the Divine Embryo seated within it. He condensed a strand of sword qi that illuminated the surroundings, guarding against dangers hidden in the mist.
He cultivated the Flying Immortal Sword Scripture, a technique said to produce Corpse Liberation Immortals. The final step involved using the sword one had refined to die in one's stead, fooling the yin messengers, while the true body shed its mortal shell and roamed free. This sword scripture was the supreme art of the Supreme Vast Origin Palace—not as exquisitely profound as the Mysterious Subtlety Sword Scripture, but a single strand of its sword qi possessed astonishing power, capable of shattering anything indestructible.
Screams rose and fell around him without cease, with juren meeting their demise at every moment. Daoist Jinlu quickened his pace, his figure flashing forward like a streak of floating light.
He dashed over a hundred li in short order, reckoning he should be nearing the edge of Immortal Bridge Blessed Land. Yet after sprinting dozens more li, the mist persisted!
Ahead, more than a dozen juren were fleeing madly. Daoist Jinlu's heart leaped with joy—he was about to catch up and join them—when suddenly, a skeletal claw shot out from the mist, seizing one juren and dragging him back into the fog. One grotesque claw after another emerged from the mist, lunging at the juren. Even those with extraordinary strength could not evade them; they were snatched away and vanished.
Daoist Jinlu knew things had turned dire. He immediately unleashed his sword qi, merging his body with it to transform into a beam of sword light that soared into the air with a whistling cry!
"There's still one more!"
The instant he took flight, a massive skeletal hand thrust out from the mist and clamped onto the sword light.
Daoist Jinlu was horrified beyond measure. He struggled with all his might, but the skeletal hand's strength was unimaginably vast.
A colossal mouth yawned open in the mist, parting the surrounding fog. A nimble tongue lashed out, coiled around Daoist Jinlu, and with a whoosh, yanked him straight into its maw!
Daoist Jinlu tumbled into the monster's mouth. Looking up, he saw its teeth—like white giant hammers—crashing down from above, smashing into his body. A single blow pulverized his flesh!
His nascent soul attempted to flee. It had just escaped his body when a blast of yin wind swept it away, delivering it into the monster's belly.
"Regret... not heeding Chen Shi's words."
In his final moments, an utterly useless thought flashed through his mind.
The fiends in the mist devoured every soul in Immortal Bridge Blessed Land. They searched meticulously but found no survivors. With none left, the monsters turned on one another, brawling viciously in attempts to consume their own kind.
At that moment, a whistle pierced the mist. Long whips cracked through the air, lashing the monsters and flaying their flesh.
The ferocious beasts grew far more docile, herded like livestock by the whistles as they charged off in the direction one group of juren had fled.
The mist churned. From behind the monsters came the faint rumble of wheels rolling. A ghost god with a lower body formed of enormous cart wheels and bearing multiple arms reeled in its whips, speeding through the fog. It was like a shepherd, with the mist-shrouded monsters as its flock of sheep and oxen, and the juren and other cultivators as the pasture grass to fatten them.
Now, this patch of grass had been grazed bare. It was time to seek the next.
Chen Shi and the others walked along the bases of these colossal Buddhas. They craned their necks to gaze upward, where the red eyes dotting the Buddhas' bodies stood out starkly in the underworld's faint ghostly glow.
One juren could not resist the urge. He unleashed a flame spell; the fire sprouted wings in midair, transforming into a blazing phoenix that soared through the sky.
Wherever the fire phoenix passed, it illuminated the blood-red eyes.
These were eyes embedded in the giant Buddhas, each backed by thick, elongated tentacles.
The eyes seemed deeply curious about the fire phoenix and pursued it—but their trailing tentacles were not long enough. After flying a short distance, they were always yanked back.
"What in the world are these eyes?"
The juren murmured to himself.
"Are they creatures of the underworld... or Buddha eyes? And these giant Buddhas—are they stone statues? Carved right out of the mountainsides? How could anyone have sculpted so many?"
He sounded terrified.
If they were Buddhas sculpted from the mountains themselves, how much manpower would that have required? How many years of labor?
And how could stone statues sprout eyes of living flesh and blood?
Unless... the giant Buddhas were not statues at all, but bodies of flesh and blood?
"Gu-ji."
A strange noise came from the foot of the Buddha beside them. An eyelid at the Buddha's ankle peeled open, revealing a massive blood-red eye that swiveled to fixate on them.
Everyone's scalps prickled. Most of them were at the Nascent Soul Realm or Soul Transformation Realm—not weaklings by any means—yet the eyes on these Buddhas filled them with dread.
The blood-red eyes drifted upward, hovering over their heads and gazing down at them with eerie intensity.
This particular eye was roughly the size of an acre, still some distance away, but its crimson glow bathed the path ahead in scarlet light.
They pressed onward. More gu-ji gu-ji sounds echoed as huge red eyes sprouted from the Buddhas one after another, floating overhead to light their way.
Chen Shi's expression turned wary. He tapped his foot lightly, silently extending his nascent soul force field and activating Wind Thunder Transformation.
His nascent soul force field formed a spherical domain centered on him, extending five zhang in every direction. It was the same range covered by his Wind Thunder Transformation.
The others mostly failed to notice his nascent soul force field. Only Guo Daozi sensed something amiss. He scanned their surroundings warily before abruptly drawing a talisman in midair with his finger—a thunder talisman.
"Sizzle!"
The thunder talisman ignited, but not a shred of its power manifested.
Guo Daozi was utterly astonished.
"A dao domain? Or something else?"
The Celestial Master Mansion's dao arts were profoundly unfathomable, and the Nine Heavens Three Treasures Golden Book he cultivated was among the pinnacle dao cultivation methods in the Ten True Cultivation Books. The talismans he drew outclassed those of other talisman masters. Yet the power of the talisman he had just drawn had been completely "borrowed" away!
Some force surrounded them—one even he could not comprehend—that had siphoned away every ounce of thunder art power!
This was why he suspected it was a Refining the Void Realm expert's dao domain!
Yet even a Refining the Void Realm nascent soul dao domain should not be this bizarre—nay, outright malevolent!
Just then, one of the massive blood-red eyes overhead quietly split open. It bloomed like a flower, dividing outward into five petals.
At the flower's core lurked an azure-faced, fanged ghost monster. Fleshy stamens plunged into the backs of the group.
The ghost stood two or three zhang tall, head downward and feet upward. Suddenly, the stamens withdrew silently from their backs. The ghost plummeted, reaching out to seize the tallest juren in the crowd. A look of delight spread across its indigo face!
The ghost's head was hairless, ringed with Buddhist scars—like a monk transformed. It had just drawn near when thunder rumbled in the air. A blinding bolt of lightning flashed into existence, piercing the ghost monk through!
The ghost monk froze in place before plummeting to the ground.
The group scattered in haste. The ghost monk hit the earth and abruptly gaped its blood-filled maw, unleashing a shrill scream. A gust of blood wind erupted from its mouth, spraying upward!
The blood qi surged into the sky over ten zhang high, forming a canopy of blood mist.
As the ghost monk spewed blood mist from its mouth, its body deflated like a punctured sack. In moments, nothing remained but a gigantic, shriveled husk of skin—terrifying in its scale.
The group stared in shock and retreated warily, baffled by what had befallen the ghost monk.
Guo Daozi stepped forward and thrust a strand of sword qi at the husk. The skin dented but repelled his sword qi.
"This monkish fiend has refined a golden body!"
Guo Daozi was startled. He glanced at Chen Shi, his heart pounding wildly.
"Ghost God Domain! Chen Shi commands a Ghost God Domain! He—he couldn't be a ghost god himself, could he?"
People called any incomprehensible space governed by bizarre great dao rules a Ghost God Domain.
Such domains were typically caused by demons, remnants of prehistoric entities, fragments of immensely powerful treasures, or other unfathomable things exerting influence over a region of the real world.
Chen Shi's nascent soul force field produced the exact same effect!
Even an elite disciple of the Celestial Master Mansion like Guo Daozi could not discern how this ghost monk had died!
A death by some incomprehensible method—that was the hallmark of a Ghost God Domain!
Yet how could a normal cultivator, who had yet to form a nascent soul or refine a dao domain, possibly wield a Ghost God Domain?
"He might not even be human!"
Guo Daozi recalled the legends of countless demons dwelling within Chen Shi's body, immensely powerful ones at that. His heart raced faster.
"Chen Shi may already be dead! The 'Chen Shi' before us is actually a demon in disguise, sneaking into the yang world!"
Tian Yue'e was ever thrifty. She rolled up the ghost monk's husk and slung it over her back, chuckling.
"This ghost skin is prime material—can't let it go to waste! We can fetch a fine price for it at Juxian Tower!"
The others looked on with envy.
They pressed on. More ghost monks spawned from those bizarre giant eyes around them, but they were struck by lightning before they could close in. Winds arose within their bodies, shredding them from the inside. Or water and fire erupted internally, scorching flames from their eyes, ears, nose, and mouth—or gouts of water that dissolved even their bones.
Or they were pulverized by invisible forces!
These ghost monks had surely been monks in life, their bald scalps marked with ring scars and golden bodies tough enough to repel Soul Transformation Realm spells. Had they descended upon the group, the examinees likely could have done nothing against such monstrosities. They would have been slaughtered in moments, reduced to fiend fodder.
"What an impressive golden body!"
Even Chen Shi could not help marveling. He examined the ghost monks' husks, puzzled.
"Were all these fiends monks in life? But how could there be monks in the underworld? How did they end up like this? Why do they dwell inside these bizarre eyes?"
At that moment, thunderous booms like a storm erupted ahead—rumble after rumble—as if some colossal entities were locked in combat.
Chen Shi signaled the group to halt and crept forward stealthily. There, two ghost monks had pinned a monk against a cliff face, pummeling him with heavy fists that shattered bone and snapped sinew, leaving him on the brink of death. Nearby lay the shattered corpses of several other monks—victims of the ghost monks.
That monk had also cultivated a golden body, radiant with golden light. He stood six chi tall, handsome in appearance. It was none other than Monk Wuchen, whom Chen Shi had crossed paths with several times before.
His strength clearly fell short of the two ghost monks; his golden body was on the verge of shattering.
Chen Shi charged forward. One ghost monk immediately abandoned Wuchen and wheeled on him—but the instant it entered the five-zhang range, lightning struck. Yin winds invaded its body!
This ghost monk was far stronger than the previous ones. Sensing danger, it clamped its mouth shut, sealed its nine apertures, and leaped back.
Yet merely sealing its acupoints could not withstand Wind Thunder Transformation.
Its body swiftly swelled. Unable to endure, it screamed—a spray of blood mist—and deflated into a husk in an instant!
The other ghost monk, still battering Wuchen, saw this and recoiled in horror. It fled from Chen Shi as if he were a specter himself. With a whoosh, it leaped into a blooming eye-flower midair. Stamens pierced the muscles of its back; the petals folded shut, reforming a giant eye.
The eye retracted swiftly, merging into the Buddha statue's surface. The eyelid closed, and the eye vanished.
The other eyes, as if startled, withdrew into the Buddha bodies one by one, lids sealing shut. In moments, the towering Buddhas grew dim and somber, every glowing red orb extinguished.
Chen Shi hurried over and helped Monk Wuchen to his feet.
"Monk, you still with us?"
"Yes."
Monk Wuchen slumped as he spoke.
Tian Yue'e and the other examinees rushed up, tending to his wounds and setting his broken bones.
Guo Daozi circulated his nascent soul, using mana to levitate Monk Wuchen and spare him from jostling.
Monk Wuchen turned to Chen Shi.
"Now, you owe me nothing."
Chen Shi was surprised, unsure what he meant.
The group continued onward. Monk Wuchen lay suspended in the air, gazing at the colossal Buddhas seated between heaven and earth. Tears suddenly streamed down his face.
Guo Daozi smiled.
"Monk, why the tears?"
Monk Wuchen broke into wrenching sobs, overcome for the moment.
After a while, he regained some composure and steadied himself.
"These giant Buddhas are half-Buddhas of our Buddhist sect—not stone statues. We are in the Buddhist Hell right now."
"Hell is divided into monkish and lay varieties. Our Buddhist Hell comprises twenty layers, distinct from the eighteen layers of the mundane hells—they're in different places altogether."
Chen Shi had no knowledge of these distinctions and listened carefully.
"The legends of the Buddhist Hell hail from Huaxia Divine Continent. The Sutra of Questions from Maitreya Bodhisattva describes twenty hells: Living Hell, Black Rope Hell, Heap Hell, Screaming Hell, Great Wave Hell, Potava Hell, Avici Hell, Jujuro Hell, Corpse Hell, Sword Forest Hell, Saber Forest Hell, Dismemberment Hell, Afuda Hell, Apopo Hell, Azhata Hell, Uboluo Hell, Kumuda Hell, Fragrant Hell, Fentoli Hell, and Botoumo Hell."
Monk Wuchen's expression grew vacant as he murmured.
"Our Buddhist high monks and virtuous masters followed the Great Ming soldiers to West Ox New Continent. The Great Ming populace multiplied and prospered, but lost souls and wild ghosts had nowhere to go. The realm they haunted became known as the underworld. Back then, the yin and yang realms were not fully separated. Without ghost gods to manage them, chaos would reign."
"And so the True King constructed the mundane world's eighteen layers of hell, inviting avatars of the Ten Yama Kings to guard them. Judges and yin generals from Huaxia arrived in avatar form as well, severing the yin and yang realms so the living and dead walked separate paths."
"Our Buddhist high monks and virtuous masters forged the twenty layers of Buddhist Hell to gather the world's departed souls."
Monk Wuchen gazed at the towering Buddhas flanking them.
"According to the records of my Grand Repayment Temple, in the True King era, the three great Buddhist holy sites boasted numerous high monks half a step from Buddhahood. To break through, they entered the Buddhist Hell and swore mighty vows: no Buddhahood until the hells stood empty. Many eminent monks followed these half-Buddhas in cultivation. When the True King era ended, the twenty layers of Buddhist Hell—and those near-Buddhas—vanished without trace."
"My Grand Repayment Temple preserves a legend: they attained Buddhahood and entered the Paradise of Ultimate Bliss. It has inspired countless monks of our temple."
By now, his eyes brimmed with tears once more. He was one of those inspired monks.
Hu Guanghan, beside Chen Shi, asked, "Monk, are you saying these heaven-spanning Buddhas are the Buddhist experts who once garrisoned the hells?"
Monk Wuchen wiped away his tears and sized him up.
"And you are?"
"Hu Guanghan of Wangwu County."
"You're no scion of a great clan?"
"No."
Monk Wuchen offered no reply to his question.
"The sinews of these giant Buddhas have turned to stone, their flesh to earth. They were too powerful in life—far stronger than my master, Zen Master Bitter Bamboo—their golden bodies flawless, allowing their Buddha forms to endure."
Tears fell from Monk Wuchen's eyes.
"Evil qi festers within them, birthing these flower-not-flowers, eye-not-eyes monstrosities. And those who followed the half-Buddhas in cultivation? They've become the ghosts in those flowers' hearts."
"They aren't in the Paradise of Ultimate Bliss at all!"
Grief overwhelmed him, and he wailed.
Chen Shi, unsure how to console him, patted his shoulder.
Monk Wuchen cried all the harder.
Seeing this, Guo Daozi hurriedly said, "Benefactor Chen, stop patting him—his shoulder bone is broken. You're hurting him."
Chen Shi withdrew his hand, a touch embarrassed. He asked, "Monk, how do we escape this Buddhist Hell?"
"We can't escape!"
Monk Wuchen sobbed.
"If we could, why didn't our half-Buddha ancestors escape back then? We're trapped here to die!"