Jieputi laughed heartily, his voice reverberating through the Great Thunderclap Temple as he said leisurely, "Why should I wager against you? Right now, both you and this novice monk are in my grasp. If I take your bet, wouldn't I merely be handing you my own stakes and giving you extra chips for free?"
Xu Ying smiled. "Jieputi, you wish to be the Buddha Ancestor, the World-Honored One, the origin of all buddhas, the teacher of ten thousand buddhas, and the leader of the Buddhist realm. If your Buddhist dharma is inferior to even a little novice monk's, what face do you have to be this World-Honored One, to be this Buddha Ancestor?"
Jieputi chuckled. "If I simply kill this little novice monk, won't my Buddhist dharma be number one once more?"
Xu Ying was struck dumb, and Jijue stared in stunned disbelief.
*This man truly is an evil buddha! Every move he makes is steeped in wicked trickery!*
Steeling himself, Xu Ying was about to speak again when Jieputi gave a low laugh. "Xu Ying, there is no need to deploy your cunning mind further. Though mortals call me an evil buddha, I still bear the title of Buddha; I am a Greatly Awakened One. Your opportunistic schemes have no effect on me."
Xu Ying clenched his fists. This evil buddha was immune to both soft and hard approaches, unmoved even by reverse psychology, leaving him utterly helpless.
Young Master Yuchuan smiled. "The World-Honored One possesses the Heavenly Eye Penetrability and the Mind Eye Penetrability. Every gesture you make, every thought in your mind, is as plain as fire to the World-Honored One. Xu Ying, you had best stop wasting your cunning. World-Honored One!"
Bowing, he said, "I implore the World-Honored One to execute this wretch now, lest long nights breed dark dreams!"
Jieputi gave a slight flick of his hand, signaling him to step back, and said, "I hardly need you to teach me what to do. Xu Ying, I know you refuse to yield to me. Last time, you sealed me using the Imperial Monarch's seal technique, subjecting me to several extra years of suppression for nothing. The karmic grievances between us have yet to be settled. But as the Buddha Ancestor, I must deliver all sentient beings, and you, too, are a sentient being I must deliver. Therefore, you shall remain here at the Great Thunderclap Temple, listening to my sermons from beneath my seat."
Young Master Yuchuan was taken aback. Looking up, he said, "World-Honored One, my ancestor, the Imperial Monarch, made an agreement with you."
Jieputi replied indifferently, "I only agreed to seek Xu Ying for vengeance; I never promised your ancestor that I would kill him. Once Xu Ying converts to our Buddhist realm and becomes our protector, he will devote his heart entirely to goodness and follow only my lead. As a pure man of Buddhism who sees the four great elements as void, he will no longer oppose your ancestor."
Young Master Yuchuan was rendered speechless. He wanted to refute it, but knowing full well how formidable Jieputi was, he dared not argue.
He had remained at Jieputi's side on the Imperial Monarch's orders—partly to seek guidance in Buddhist dharma and partly to relay messages between the two sides. Over the past few years of diligently cultivating Buddhist dharma beside Jieputi, he had come to realize just how immensely powerful and unfathomable Jieputi was.
He now even doubted whether the Imperial Monarch was a match for Jieputi!
Jieputi said, "Xu Ying, you and this novice monk shall remain in the Great Thunderclap Temple as my disciples. I bestow upon you the titles of Venerables to glorify the Buddhist realm."
Xu Ying bowed. "I shall faithfully heed your teachings."
Young Master Yuchuan cast a chilling, venomous glance his way.
Xu Ying merely smiled faintly.
And so the two stayed at the Great Thunderclap Temple. Whenever Jieputi went out or returned, he had them accompany him, with Young Master Yuchuan also attending by his side. Jieputi would also convene the Venerables and Arhats upon the mountain to preach the Buddhist dharma and impart profound Buddhist cultivation methods.
Xu Ying quietly questioned Jijue, and Jijue answered, "What he preaches are the highest-grade cultivation methods of Buddhism."
Xu Ying asked, "Are there no hidden flaws or traps?"
Jijue hesitated a moment, then shook his head. "What Jieputi teaches is identical to what the Buddha Ancestor taught me."
Xu Ying was stunned. Jieputi was imparting genuine Buddhist dharma without distorting a single word or harboring malice. Did he truly intend to instruct them as future buddhas?
Did he genuinely consider himself the present-day Buddha Ancestor, the current World-Honored One?
*What is Jieputi trying to do?* He could not help falling into deep thought.
At that moment, a commotion broke out in the crowd. Xu Ying followed the sound and saw a sect master from the Taishi Great World being escorted by others before Jieputi.
For reasons unknown, Jieputi flew into a rage, summoning a ball of karmic fire that reduced the sect master to ashes, yet his fury still did not abate.
Xu Ying walked up to him and asked, "Over what has the Buddha Ancestor grown so enraged?"
Jieputi said, "While preaching abroad, Venerable Jinlong oppressed innocent men and women, slaughtered fourteen villages, murdered three thousand five hundred people, and coerced other settlements and towns into worshiping me. Therefore, I killed him."
Xu Ying was taken aback and said, "I have heard that in order to cultivate to the supreme realm, the Buddha Ancestor slaughtered countless people, gathering karmic fire to temper your golden body, which is why you were called an evil buddha. What this man did is no different from what you did back then. Yet you fly into a rage and execute him—is that not sheer hypocrisy?"
Jieputi countered, "Is hypocritical goodness not still goodness?"
Xu Ying was struck dumb.
Jieputi said, "Back then, I was merely a cultivator of the Buddhist realm. To attain supreme Buddhist awakening, I unleashed a slaughterous tribulation. Today, I am the Buddha Ancestor and govern Buddhism, so I must embody compassion."
Xu Ying grew pensive.
Jieputi smiled. "You sealed me and ambushed me. Do you know why I did not kill you outright, but chose instead to keep you here as a Venerable under my sect?"
Xu Ying shook his head. "Please enlighten me, Buddha Ancestor."
Jieputi waved his hand, dismissing the surrounding Venerables and Arhats, and said, "In the past, when I was an evil buddha, I could act with utter abandon and commit every evil imaginable. When I committed evil, it was not the Buddhist realm doing evil. But now I am the Buddha Ancestor. I am Buddhism itself; if I do evil, it is Buddhism doing evil. Thus, I can no longer commit evil, for if I do evil, it ruins Buddhism. I need someone to commit evil on my behalf."
Xu Ying's heart stirred, and he ventured, "And so I became your chosen substitute?"
Jieputi's body was lean, muscular, and towering with immense brawn. Standing beside Xu Ying like an imposing mountain, he said faintly, "Being the Buddha Ancestor is not so simple. Nor is the World of Ultimate Bliss indestructible through all eternity. In this present age, the revival of the ancient era's Great Daos is only permitted because the Immortal Realm indulges it. The Immortal Realm needs me, Jieputi, to muddy the waters right now, which is why they freed me. But what if they no longer need me?"
He continued softly, "Then I will be a thorn in their side. My cooperation with the Imperial Monarch is nothing less than bargaining with a tiger. Once the Imperial Monarch sweeps across the world, I will be his next target to eliminate. The World of Ultimate Bliss has only me; even if I am the Buddha Ancestor, a single tree cannot support a whole forest. I need buddhas, bodhisattvas, arhats, and venerables. You are a talent I hold in high esteem."
Xu Ying chuckled. "I often consider myself quite the talent as well."
Jieputi said, "That is why I can indulge you and let you destroy my avatar. Xu Ying, you are a rebel against the Immortal Realm. Faced with the Imperial Monarch, what other path is left to you? Only by throwing your lot in with me do you stand any chance of survival."
He turned to leave, his voice drifting back: "The Three Realms tide approaches. The Netherworld and mortal realm have already begun to merge. If the Immortal Realm draws near enough, will the boundaries of the three realms remain so distinct? The moment mortals can look up and see the Immortal Realm with their own eyes, all outer daos will inevitably suffer total annihilation! Xu Ying, turning to me is the only road you have left!"
Xu Ying watched him walk away and fell into deep contemplation.
Jieputi's words held truth. The Three Realms tide was growing increasingly turbulent, the yin and yang realms were gradually merging, and the Immortal Realm was surely drawing closer as well.
*Sooner or later, the Immortal Realm will descend because of this, merging with the myriad heavens and worlds to form the Earth Immortal Realm. When that time comes, who will be able to withstand the sweep of the Immortal Realm? But would seeking refuge under Jieputi and submitting to another's command be what I truly desire?*
He raised his head to gaze at the sky.
There was no trace of the Immortal Realm in the heavens.
In the mountain forest outside the Great Thunderclap Temple, Jijue was cultivating. The young monk sat cross-legged, floating in midair facing the rising sun. Buddhist radiance shone brightly around him, his golden body lucid and translucent, resembling a body of True Suchness, wondrous and luminous in essential awakening.
Behind him, a myriad-zhang Primordial Spirit stood in the void, appearing only a zhang or so tall, yet executing various Buddhist divine powers at his will—Universal Illumination, Deliverance, Salvation of Souls, Voice of Warning, Body Sacrifice, True Dharma Eye Treasury, each power refined to exquisite perfection.
After a while, his Primordial Spirit sat in the void, while Jijue dropped to the ground. As the Primordial Spirit remained still, he performed each of the Buddhist divine powers himself.
This was his required daily morning lesson.
Once he had run through the cultivation cycle, he slowly gathered his power. His posture was upright like a spear, and the Buddhist light surrounding his body surged behind his head, condensing into a halo.
"Your Buddhist dharma is not bad," came Jieputi's voice.
Jijue turned around to see the evil buddha's towering, imposing figure standing in the woods. He had arrived unnoticed, likely some time ago, and had observed Jijue's entire practice.
Jijue hurriedly offered his greetings.
Jieputi strode up to him in a few paces, looking him up and down before praising, "What a handsome young novice. Just now, watching your practice, I saw that your deployment of each Buddhist divine power was extraordinary; you have already inherited Buddhism's authentic teachings. Xu Ying is full of lies, claiming you were his childhood friend, but in this Dharma Ending Age, how could a rising Buddhist talent like you emerge? You returned from the other shore, didn't you?"
Jijue hesitated. Jieputi laughed. "Monks do not speak falsehoods."
Jijue replied honestly, "I did return from the other shore. I was trapped in the dark space-time, and it was fortunate that Benefactor Ah Ying rescued me so that I could arrive here."
Jieputi asked with a smile, "In that case, you have seen the Buddha Ancestor and the various buddhas? Have they entered nirvana?"
Jijue shook his head. "I do not know whether they still abide in the mortal world."
Recalling the scene of the buddhas departing Mount Sumeru and the World of Ultimate Bliss for the other shore, a pang of sorrow washed over him.
Jieputi said, "Though Xu Ying is wild and untamed, one thing he said was not wrong: you truly understand more Buddhist dharma than I do. However, you are young after all. Though you have learned many arts, your comprehension remains incomplete, and some of your Buddhist divine powers have deficiencies. When you executed the move Signlessness and Wishlessness, your heart needed to be empty and luminous to attain signlessness. Your signlessness achieved freedom from marks of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, birth-abiding-decay, male, and female, but it failed to achieve freedom from the mark of self. Because of that, when this divine power is unleashed, its might falls slightly short."
Jijue said, "When the Buddha Ancestor instructed me, he cautioned that when executing Signlessness and Wishlessness, signlessness must reach True Suchness. The mark of non-self is actually the true, actual mark of myself, not the absence of self."
Jieputi sneered, "The Buddha Ancestor's comprehension was flawed. Let you and me draw a river of karmic fire and each execute Signlessness and Wishlessness to cross it. If you can cross the river, I shall concede you are right."
Jijue consented.
The two each gathered karmic fire, drawing a river of karmic flames in midair.
Jieputi's river of karmic fire billowed with rolling karma, stretching a hundred zhang across. A single touch of taint would drag one into the river, burning them to ashes in an instant.
Jijue's river of karmic fire was purer, also roughly a hundred zhang wide. His heart was pure, and the karma he carried was merely that of the ancient era and the Buddhist realm, so the karmic fire formed was far less convoluted.
Each employing Signlessness and Wishlessness, the two leaped forward to cross their rivers.
The karmic fires in both rivers instantly flared with searing intensity, blazing furiously, yet the flames failed to ignite either of them. As the two reached the far banks of their respective rivers, not a spark touched Jijue, but a blossom of karmic fire clung to the hem of Jieputi's robe, actively burning.
Jieputi stared at the little flame, dazed.
He had not been harmed by the karmic fire, yet his garment had caught flame, causing his Dao heart to waver slightly.
Seeing that he had not extinguished the fire for so long, Jijue grew alarmed, assuming he had succumbed to a demonic obstruction. Hurriedly forming an incantation seal with his hands, he shouted, "Signlessness and Wishlessness!"
That Sanskrit utterance carried the force of a Daoist roar—deafening, eye-opening, striking straight into the soul.
Jieputi felt his own Dao heart stirred by it. Involuntarily executing the technique Signlessness and Wishlessness, the clump of karmic fire upon his robes instantly went out.
He closed his eyes, savoring the fluctuations in his vital essence, divine sense, and heart power sparked by Jijue's shout. What astounded him even more was that, through this very shout, he managed to comprehend the true, actual mark of True Suchness that he had never before grasped!
A moment later, Jieputi opened his eyes and praised, "Xu Ying spoke truly. Your attainments in Buddhist dharma indeed surpass mine."
A savage glint flickered in his eyes, and he muttered in his heart, *I also told Xu Ying: if I kill you, I will once again be the foremost in Buddhist dharma.*
What was a Buddha Ancestor?
The ancestor of Buddhist dharma.
What was a World-Honored One?
The venerable master of the world.
If one's attainments in Buddhist dharma were surpassed by another, how could one claim to be an ancestor? How could one be a master to all mortals?
Yet once Jijue was dead, no one would surpass him in Buddhist dharma, and thus his status as the Buddha Ancestor and World-Honored One would remain rightfully deserved!
Jijue, wholly oblivious, smiled and said, "It is not that my Buddhist dharma surpasses yours; it is the Buddha Ancestor's Buddhist dharma that surpasses yours."
Jieputi's cheek twitched violently. Flinging his sleeve, he turned to depart, sneering, "The Buddha Ancestor's dharma surpasses mine? What childish nonsense. The Buddha Ancestor entered nirvana while I endure in this world; he could not achieve immortality, yet I have. He merely bests me in minor divine powers, but in truth, he falls far short of me!"
Jijue was taken aback, watching him walk away.
Another day passed, and Jijue went to the forest once more for his daily study. When he finished, Jieputi arrived as well. Free of yesterday's hostility, he offered earnest guidance on Jijue's cultivation.
When the Buddha Ancestor and the various buddhas departed, fearing their Buddhist dharma would be lost, they had force-fed it all to Jijue like stuffing a duck, leaving parts of it beyond his comprehension. Though Jieputi was an evil buddha, his cultivation was profound and his mastery of dharma subtle and precise. Under his pointers, Jijue's cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds!
More than ten days passed like this, and Jijue's cultivation and strength leaped forward dramatically.
Jijue felt as though Jieputi were another master to him. His heart was filled with gratitude, yet tinged with unease. After all, Jieputi was an evil buddha, and Jijue's return this time was meant to resolve the problem of Jieputi and restore purity to Buddhism.
Yet Jieputi treated him so well that it made him feel conflicted.
Throughout these days, Xu Ying had been utterly indolent. He cultivated only occasionally, spending the rest of his time lying about, belly exposed, snoring away.
At times, he even plucked hairs right in front of the Venerables and Arhats, acting completely uninhibited and improper.
"Xu Ying's prayer beads—did Daoyuan give them to him?" Jieputi glanced at Xu Ying sleeping across the threshold, deeply irritated, and asked.
Jijue said, "Senior Brother Daoyuan gifted them to him, saying they were meant as protection against you."
Jieputi looked at Xu Ying, then at Jijue, thoughtful. After a pause, he said, "Your cultivation has reached the threshold. If you wish to become a buddha, the World of Ultimate Bliss will not suffice. You should go to the Ancestral Court. The Great Daos of heaven and earth are about to revive there, and only there can you achieve buddhahood."
Jijue expressed his thanks.
Catching sight of Xu Ying waking up, scuffing his shoes as he clambered onto the altar table looking for food, Jieputi felt a wave of disgust.
*Daoyuan choosing him as a protector of Buddhism seems abnormal no matter how one looks at it.*
Jieputi mused inwardly, *I would love nothing more than to kill him and this little monk. But Buddhism cannot stand on a single pillar; I must plan for what happens if I am defeated, and preserve a sole seedling for the faith.*
He looked at Jijue, murderous intent surging within him, but he forced himself to hold back. Turning away, he said, "I shall enter closed-door seclusion for the next few days. No one is permitted to leave Mount Sumeru or the World of Ultimate Bliss!"
Hearing those words, Xu Ying instantly sprang to alertness. Finding Jijue, he said, "The evil buddha is going into seclusion—this is our prime chance to escape the World of Ultimate Bliss! Get ready; we're running the first chance we get!"
Chapter 445