Chapter 304
Chapter 304
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 304
Chapter Title: Chapter 304 Wanderer, Mother
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The little boy Tianyu looked at him in bewilderment. This man was clearly older than him—why was he calling him brother?
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Chen Shi's emotions surged.
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Granny Sha had been searching for her son, nearly driven mad in the process.
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She had once enjoyed a happy family and a fulfilling life, but greed had led her astray. She asked her son Tianyu to help her enter the underworld to find the Three Lives Stone. Tianyu had gone and never returned.
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Granny Sha was divorced by her husband Xiang Yunfei, left alone and destitute. She spent the rest of her life in the torment of having caused her son's death and desperately searching for him.
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She searched her entire life, from age thirty into her sixties, until she became a white-haired crone, her once proud figure hunched and withered. In her quest for her son, she invented countless soul-summoning spells, offending countless ghosts and gods, and became a most-wanted fugitive in the underworld.
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She earned the moniker Soul-Searching Rakshasa, one of the six great villains of the five lakes and rivers, yet she remained obsessively fixated on tracking down Tianyu's whereabouts.
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Chen Shi held Tianyu's hand tightly, fearing he might be blown away by the underworld winds like other lost souls, devoured by the oxen and horses of the underworld, or slain by those deranged arhats and gandharvas. He carefully questioned Tianyu about the details of entering the Buddhist hell.
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He paid special attention to the ghost god who had brought Tianyu in.
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"He was a young man in white robes, like a noble young master, very handsome. Behind him was a massive ghost god, naked except for tattered pants, with red skin, red hair, and four fangs in his mouth longer than mine. Oh, and that red-haired ghost had unusually round, bulging eyes, like they were about to pop out."
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Tianyu continued, "The red-haired ghost called that young ghost god Young Master. The Young Master said there was a Three Lives Stone here and that he could send me in." Chen Shi's heart stirred slightly. Beside him, Zhang You's voice rang out. "That Young Master had ill intentions."
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Chen Shi glanced at him, and Zhang You explained, "An ordinary child's soul can only last seven days outside the body at most. After seven days, if it doesn't return, the body dies without fail. The Young Master knew how perilous the Buddhist hell is, and Brother Tianyu here is just an ordinary boy who's only begun studying. Sending him into the Buddhist hell is as good as killing him."
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Chen Shi nodded lightly. Originally, as long as Granny Sha summoned his soul within seven days, Tianyu could have returned to his body perfectly fine. Granny Sha had made thorough preparations back then—the underworld winds and yin energies couldn't harm Tianyu's soul, and he would have bounced back lively as ever. But with the Young Master sending Tianyu into the Buddhist hell, Granny Sha lost her connection to her son and couldn't summon his soul. Once the seven days passed, Tianyu's body died, heartbeat and breath ceasing.
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In that sense, this Young Master was the one who killed Tianyu!
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Chen Shi looked at him and asked, "What do you think the Young Master's goal was, Brother Zhang?"
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Zhang You's eyes flickered as he gazed at the glowing stones shimmering in multicolored hues. "It has to be these Three Lives Stones. He wanted them but feared entering the Buddhist hell himself, only to end up trapped like the Buddhists stuck here, unable to leave. So he needed someone to fetch them for him. Tianyu came along at the right moment, so he took the opportunity and sent him in."
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Chen Shi nodded lightly. "So, we'll probably run into him when we leave the Buddhist hell."
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Chen Shi nodded lightly. "So, we'll probably run into him when we leave the Buddhist hell."
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He invited Tianyu into his little shrine from behind his head and gathered up those Three Lives Stones, piling them inside as well. He carefully examined the Leiyin Temple.
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The Buddhist hell was extraordinarily dangerous, teeming not just with traditional ghosts and gods but also bizarre half-Buddha, half-demon entities. Tianyu surviving this long without being eaten was thanks to this Leiyin Temple. There had to be something extraordinary about it that kept those half-Buddha, half-demon beings at bay.
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These divine shrines lined every wall, each housing a Buddha statue—from the three walls to the ceiling, all filled with Buddhas forming the Western Pure Land. But the Buddha statues in the shrines had been smashed to bits.
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Though the statues were destroyed, the extraordinary power from the incense and offerings lingered, refusing to dissipate. What force had ravaged this place and shattered all the Buddha images?
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What force had compelled these half-Buddhas to enter nirvana, their flesh turning into Buddha Mountains sprouting monstrous eyes?
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And what force had driven the roaming asuras, gandharvas, and arhats mad, twisting them into neither human nor ghost? Hell not empty, Buddhas absent.
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Even the Buddhas had fallen.
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After more than ten days of recovery, Monk Wuchen's injuries had improved greatly. He limped around inspecting the divine shrines of these Buddhas, his face dim with sorrow.
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Earlier, he had seen those half-Buddhas rumored to have ascended to the Pure Land transformed into Buddha Mountains, their followers turned into ghost monks with shattered wills, nearly driving him mad. Only the company of destitute scholars like Hu Guanghan and Tian Yue'e along the way had helped him recover somewhat.
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"If the Buddha resides in your heart, why need a statue perched in a shrine?" As he grieved in silence, Chen Shi's voice reached him. Wuchen paused, pondering the words, and felt a great relief in his heart.
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"The profound dharma body of Chongxuan contains all things and self. A speck of dust unravels the world, vastness encompasses heaven and earth. Myriad forms in magnitudes, yet rooted in unity. Like scales in the ocean, all share the edge." He clasped his hands together and bowed his head. "All of the Buddha's forms are mere dharma bodies. With my heart free of dust, why cling to appearances?"
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Hu Guanghan sidled up. "Monk, what do those words even mean?"
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Wuchen shot him a look. "You penniless wretch without even oil money for lamps—think you can hear Buddhist secrets for free?" "Come on, just explain," Hu Guanghan grinned.
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Wuchen had no choice but to elaborate. "This is the supreme dharma body art of our Great Guobao Temple. It means a speck of dust holds a vast world of billions of beings, all one in origin as the dharma body. Don't go practicing it blindly—it's a secret transmission."
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Chen Shi took several sticks of incense from the little shrine behind his head, lit them, and inserted them before the central shrine. He silently recited in his heart: "Your disciple has fallen to this place, ignorant of the Buddha's name, ignorant of why this realm has gone silent and extinct. With only a heart full of fervor, I offer incense before the censer. With reverence. Now, overstepping, on heaven's behalf, I enfeoff the spirits.
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"I enfeoff all the beautiful spirits here in extinction, the silent Buddhas, as lords of the twenty layers of hell: Buddha Hell, Living Hell, Black Rope Hell, Mass Hell, Wailing Hell, Great Wave Hell, Wave-Multi-Skin Hell, Wave-Multi-Pali Hell, Net-Nose Hell, Exhaustive Hell, Corpse Hell, Razor Forest Hell, Sword Forest Hell, Cleaving Hell, Anfuda Hell, Net Wave Hell, Net Vessel House Hell, Sorrow Bell Hell, Quwutou Fragrance Hell, Pundarika Hell, and Wave Head Mo Hell. Receive the incense and offerings, gather merits, and darkly praise the divine."
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The rite concluded. Chen Shi stepped back.
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At that moment, clamor arose outside. Chen Shi's heart stirred, and he walked out of the main hall to look. He saw everyone gathered at the temple entrance, gazing ahead.
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Ahead of them, a Buddha Mountain suddenly blazed with brilliant light for some reason. The colossal mountain stretched to the heavens, its flesh turned to mud, its golden body caked in filth sprouting monstrous eyes. Now, the filth sloughed away entirely. One by one, the eyes twitched violently, withering and falling off in rapid succession.
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Gradually, a radiant gold shone from deep within the Buddha Mountain, blooming brighter and brighter!
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As the crowd watched in astonishment, a massive halo of Buddha light erupted behind the mountain, forming a gigantic wheel. A vast Buddha chant resounded from the mountain, deafening to the ears. Then another great mountain underwent the same transformation, its filth vanishing until it resembled a golden Buddha seated on the hellish wasteland.
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More Buddha Mountains shed their grime, becoming solemn and majestic.
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With the Buddha light blooming, the maddened heavenly beings—asuras, gandharvas, garudas, mahoragas—awoke as if from a dream. They floated in the halos behind the Buddhas, majestic and dignified, chanting sutras. The boundless Buddha light spread out, illuminating the surrounding darkness. Wherever it touched, it was like dead wood sprouting new life in spring, birthing endless vitality from death!
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It seemed as though this Buddhist hell was transforming into boundless pure land, the Western Paradise!
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The Buddha light's reach expanded ever wider, thoroughly illuminating their hell layer. Standing outside Leiyin Temple, the crowd saw that every underworld creature bathed in the light became gentle and serene, filled with great compassion, their ferocity and malice gone! Under the Buddha light, aggrieved souls shed their resentment, ferocious ghosts lost their savagery, lonely spirits grew flesh, wild ghosts gained form. The hellish beings transformed—some into nagas, others into yakshas.
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They became various heavenly hosts, devotees of the Buddha.
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The Buddha light pierced through space and time, shining into the next layer of hell, then the third, fourth, fifth!
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Layer upon layer of Buddhist hells gradually clarified under the light, unveiling themselves before the crowd in an incomparably grand and inconceivable spectacle! Their location was merely the first of the twenty Buddhist hells.
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Its vast expanse already surpassed the Western Cattle Gift Continent several times over! The immensity of the twenty hells was beyond imagination!
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Chen Shi stood before the temple, watching this majestic scene, unable to calm himself for a long time.
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He didn't know what had triggered this spectacle, but it let him witness the might of Buddhism in the True King Era! From this, one could glimpse how prosperous and magnificent that era had been!
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Back then, immortals might truly have existed—not just capping out at the Great Vehicle Realm with no further progress!
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Yet why had cultivators' realms regressed with the end of that era?
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He pondered endlessly, uncomprehending.
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The Buddha light kept extending downward, as if to envelop all twenty hells. One by one, the great Buddhas bathed in the light, as though truly achieving nirvana, awakening from slumber to return to the world. Suddenly, thunder rumbled from the sky. Then a majestic voice boomed from beyond the heavens, like reciting sutras or intoning a mantra—mysterious words carrying inconceivable power.
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The voice began slow and heavy, gradually quickening, faster and faster.
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Under the voice's oppression, the Buddhas' light contracted sharply. All beings transformed into heavenly hosts reverted to their original hideous, savage forms. Soon, the Buddha lights shattered and vanished. The heavenly hosts plummeted from the sky, the Buddhas turned back into mountains, filth returning as before. Everything calmed once more. Before Leiyin Temple, the crowd stared dumbly at the scene, unable to calm for a long time.
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After a good while, they returned to the temple, still recalling what had just happened. "What in the world was that?"
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As Guo Daozi voiced the question, the empty shrines in the main hall suddenly seemed to hold Buddhas of all sizes—illusions, perhaps, yet radiating light. Buddha light overflowed from the shrines, in an instant enveloping the entire Leiyin Temple and wrapping everyone within!
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From within Leiyin Temple, a thick beam of light shot skyward.
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Thunder boomed from beyond the heavens. An enormous hand reached down, tearing through the black-curtained sky, but grasped at empty air. The giant hand withdrew, the black curtain rippled, and calm returned.
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All Buddha light faded, and Leiyin Temple fell silent once more.
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After the Buddha light around Chen Shi, Guo Daozi, and the others dissipated, they found themselves out of the Buddhist hell, in the underworld proper. In the distance, a few green-skinned imps stood on tiptoe, peering their way. Spotting the group's gaze, the imps turned to wisps of black smoke and scattered, vanishing who-knew-where.
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They stood amid ruins, with two great mountains forming a gateway, a ridgeline serving as the lintel.
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Beyond the mountain gate lay the ruins of an ancient city, exuding an archaic, alien aura—relics from prehistoric times.
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Chen Shi signaled the group to form the Ten Absolutes Formation and quietly waited for that Young Master and the red-haired ghost. But after a long wait, no one appeared. "Tianyu entered the Buddhist hell at least thirty years ago."
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Chen Shi felt some disappointment and led the group away, thinking to himself, "That Young Master probably left this place long ago." A few days later, Granny Sha and Chen Tang's soul projections entered the Buddhist hell and reached Leiyin Temple, spotting traces left by Chen Shi and the others. Granny Sha and Chen Tang each withdrew their souls back to their bodies.
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Granny Sha sensed Chen Shi and the others' souls. "They've already left the underworld and returned to the living world."
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Chen Tang let out a long breath and thanked Granny Sha profusely.
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But Granny Sha was unhappy, brooding silently on the way back—likely struck deep by that Three Lives Stone.
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After more than ten days of travel, they returned to Red Mountain Hall in Gaoshan County. There, she fell ill, lying abed with a high fever, mumbling deliriously. Chen Tang, seeing this, hurriedly fetched a physician.
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The physician examined her. "Her mind and spirit are wounded, invaded by yin evils. Some calming, yang-fortifying medicine should cure her."
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The physician prescribed the medicine, and Chen Tang rushed to the apothecary to fill it. Outside, clamor arose—boiling crowds.
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Chen Tang looked out and saw throngs of people jammed together, unsure what was happening.
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He filled the prescription, paid, and asked the apothecary clerk. The clerk grinned. "So many juren scholars outside—three or four hundred of them! Word is they're the ones who died in the provincial exams a month ago, but they've come back alive! Everyone's going to see!"
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Chen Tang froze, unable to contain his excitement, and dashed out of the shop. He saw crowds surging toward Red Mountain Hall.
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At Red Mountain Hall, Granny Sha lay feverish and muddled on her sickbed, still muttering nonsense.
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"Tianyu, Mother is sorry...."
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"Tianyu, Mother doesn't want the Three Lives Stone anymore. Come back, alright?............"
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"I saw that stone and thought of you. Mother wants nothing now. This time, Mother will go down to join you."
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The door opened, and in her haze, Granny Sha saw a figure enter.
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"Granny, Granny, wake up."
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It sounded like Chen Shi's voice. "Look who I brought back?"
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Granny Sha struggled to open her eyes and saw a child beside the figure—vaguely familiar.
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She strained to see clearly, but tears welled from her eyes, blurring her vision.
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She forced her eyes wider, but more tears poured out, still obscuring her sight.
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These tears flowed uncontrollably.
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"Mother."
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She heard that voice from her dreams, the memories she'd desperately tried to forget crashing over her like a tidal wave, drowning her heart.
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"Mother, I'm back." Tianyu threw himself into her arms.