All Returned to Dust

The little monk's headless corpse slowly collapsed to the ground. Wei Yuan staggered back two steps and fell backward, propped up only by one end of the Buddhist staff that had pierced entirely through his body and now dug into the earth. Blood gurgled along the shaft of the staff. Wei Yuan felt as though his body were a punctured waterskin, what little blood and vitality he had left draining away in a rush. An agonizing pain he had not felt in ages caused his vision to dim intermittently; he could scarcely keep his thoughts lucid, his focus repeatedly shattered by the searing torment. It had been a very long time since he had felt anything like this. In the past, Wei Yuan's dharma body had been formidable beyond measure, rare in all the world, and the warning function of physical pain had long since been superseded by divine senses. Even if his body had been ground down piece by piece, his inner terrace would have remained bright and pure, his divine awareness swift as lightning. Only upon arriving in this world had Wei Yuan rediscovered the sensations of a mortal—that fragile yet vivid feeling of being alive. Wei Yuan reached out to grasp the staff, but the weakness in his arms forced him to abandon any thought of tearing himself free. Helplessly letting his hands drop, he patted himself down, only to find his pockets completely empty. He had forgotten to bring cigarettes today. Cigarettes? A large flood of memories suddenly surged back into Wei Yuan's mind. During his internship when he had just joined the company, he had worked overtime like a madman, until coffee paired with cigarettes became his secondary staple—while Umbrella Corporation's specially concocted all-function feed, or rather beverage, had been his primary one. Umbrella Corporation was reputed to possess the finest cafeteria in the world, fully stocked with all manner of premium, rare meats and an unlimited supply of expensive spirits. Yet Wei Yuan had only ever had time to drop by after midnight and sit for a fleeting while. During the day, Umbrella Corporation's employees had no need to visit the cafeteria at all. A single small cup of the company's specialty drink was enough to meet an entire day's caloric and nutritional requirements while keeping the mind crystal clear and thoughts sharp. One did not even need to eat. Even if one wanted to, one couldn't, since drinking the specialty beverage kept hunger at bay for a whole day. Now, however, Wei Yuan's body had reached its final moments, and he instinctively wanted to find a cigarette for one last puff. At a time like this, his body no longer desired any synthetic, potent, or efficient ingredients; it merely yearned for something completely natural, laced with impurities, and thoroughly bad for one's health. Just then, fractures suddenly spiderwebbed across the Buddhist staff. Pieces broke away and fell, dissolving upon striking the ground into clusters of golden Buddhist light that slowly dispersed into the surrounding realm. This Buddhist treasure, inexplicably, had also been destroyed. The little monk's corpse on the ground likewise transformed into countless rays of Buddhist light, drifting high into the distant sky to converge at a single point. Dragging his battered body, Wei Yuan sat down leaning against a large boulder. His chest felt completely hollow, as though a black hole had been gouged into it; the cold wind whistled through the gap, and most of the air he breathed in vanished into the void. Countless rays of Buddhist light gathered in the distance, gradually coalescing into a new little monk. The figure shifted from ethereal to solid, the details of his monastic robes growing increasingly vivid and complete—a wondrous transformation. When the little monk laid eyes on Wei Yuan again, he wasted no words. Leaping into the air, he swept a massive hand forward, transforming it into a colossal Buddhist palm that crashed down toward Wei Yuan's head! Before this mountain-like palm, Wei Yuan seemed smaller than an ant. Yet Wei Yuan exhaled sharply, and dragging his severely wounded frame, he thrust a fist toward the heavens. A faint glow flickered on his knuckles, and a near-translucent fist silhouette slammed squarely into the Buddhist palm! A bizarre light abruptly rippled across the mountain-sized palm. The originally pure golden radiance suddenly lost its luster, the metallic sheen receding like an ebbing tide, replaced by the coarse, fluid texture of yellow sand. At the center of the giant palm, like a sandcastle washed by a deluge, the form rapidly disintegrated. Boundless sand and soil rained down on Wei Yuan's head and body, burying him entirely. The colossal Buddhist palm had actually turned into dust, falling upon the earth and creating a literal mound over the ground. The little monk stared at the scene in disbelief; his right arm had already completely vanished. From beneath came a fit of violent coughing as Wei Yuan, covered in grime and soot, clambered out from the dirt mound. He spat out several mouthfuls of soil, shook his body, and poured another pile of dirt from the wound in his chest. Wei Yuan forced himself to lift his head. Looking up at the little monk in the sky, he grinned. The moment Wei Yuan's gaze touched him, the little monk's heart pounded violently, as if something he desperately wished to avoid had just come to pass. Taking decisive action, lotus blossoms bloomed from his mouth as he formed a one-handed mudra; in the blink of an eye, dozens of lotuses hovered before him. Then, the center of the monk's brow suddenly split open, revealing a mangled eye of dark bluish-green flesh. As it rolled in its socket, rotting tissue and thick yellow pus were laid bare. The instant this eye appeared, all the remains of the void monsters slain by Wei Yuan suddenly floated into the air, shedding particles continuously until a wisp of eerie, hidden essence at their very core was exposed to the world. Like moths to a flame, countless eerie essences hurled themselves toward the little monk, converging upon him. In an instant, they transformed him into a ferocious demonic monk over thirty feet tall, bearing a bluish face and black skin! The demonic monk pointed a finger, generating streaks of mutated, bloodstained Great Demon-Subduing Curses that crashed into each of the golden lotuses. The lotuses instantly twisted, letting out shrill, piercing shrieks as their petals were drenched in blood, ultimately serving as vessels for the Great Demon-Subduing Curses. With another flick of the demonic monk's finger, the lotuses descended toward Wei Yuan to suppress him! The might of these Great Demon-Subduing Curses was utterly terrifying; even an unyielding boulder would be rendered into flesh and blood, condemned to endure the eternal agonies of the Avici hell. At this moment, Wei Yuan struggled even to stand. He merely gazed serenely at the demonic monk, his eyes so tranquil that a chill ran down the little monk's spine, stirring an instinctive revulsion. The first flesh-and-blood demonic lotus flashed before Wei Yuan in an instant. Yet the moment it entered the space within three feet of him, a faint shimmer stirred within Wei Yuan's eyes. The demonic lotus froze, stripped of all vitality, and disintegrated into sand that pattered to the ground. It was as if an invisible boundary had expanded. Every demonic lotus that entered it ground to a halt, simultaneously losing its power and vitality before collapsing into mud and rotten flesh, scattering across the earth. Then Wei Yuan's gaze fell directly upon the demonic monk. The bluish-black flesh swiftly turned an ashen white before falling away like spent charcoal embers, exposing the astonished little monk within. Only then did the little monk notice something deep within Wei Yuan's eyes. Looking closer, he discerned an empty lotus throne, and before it lay half a scroll of scripture. Only at this moment did he realize in horror that the gaze of Wei Yuan's eyes was itself a profound divine ability. Before those eyes, no Buddhist law or intent could take form. The little monk suddenly remembered: was he not also forged from Buddhist light and zen intent? He abruptly looked down and saw his body still intact. Just as he felt a momentary relief, he caught the unmistakable mockery in Wei Yuan's eyes. The monk's heart plummeted. Reaching up to touch his head, he realized his head was gone! No, it hadn't disappeared—when his body had re-formed, it had formed without a head from the very start! The moment he understood, the little monk opened his mouth in a scream, but no sound came out. His divine soul rose upward, and only then did he look down in terror to see that his body had been tainted with an earthy hue, its exterior crumbling and shedding dirt in continuous showers. *All Buddhist intent returns to dust.* The thought suddenly welled up within him. The little monk could not understand why such a thought had crossed his mind, but there was no time to hesitate. A speck of his true spirit immediately transformed into a streak of light, fleeing beyond the heavens. Yet as he departed, he looked back upon this broken world, his heart bleeding. To lure Wei Yuan into this trap, he had laid down a tremendous bait. Wei Yuan watched the little monk's true spirit flee, neither caring nor having the strength to stop it. This clash had been fraught with hidden perils. Wei Yuan had drawn upon a wisp of the Pure Land's intent, effectively pitting his own attainment in the Buddhist dharma directly against the little monk's Buddhist intent. And all Wei Yuan had relied upon was nothing more than the Three Realms Ruyi Sutra, of which he had written only a small portion. Yet before Wei Yuan's pupils, the orthodox Buddhist intent upon which the little monk relied had all returned to dust. Had it been the true intent of any other grotto-heaven, Wei Yuan would have faced an arduous battle, and most likely would have succumbed to the Great Demon-Subduing Curses. But through the Pupils of the Six Realms driven by the true intent of the Pure Land, all Buddhist manifestations were drastically diminished in power, or outright broken. Wei Yuan had not expected the Three Realms Ruyi Sutra he had penned on a whim to possess such formidable power. Yet thinking deeply, the scripture's overarching outline was not even complete, its explanation of the world's structure remained unfinished, and even its definition of the bitter sea was far from clear. How could such an incomplete scripture shake heaven and earth? For a moment, Wei Yuan could hardly distinguish whether this was the might of the scripture itself or the covert influence of the King Buddha. Right now, however, there was a matter of greater importance to attend to. Within Wei Yuan's vision, scattered specks of light still drifted between heaven and earth. Floating and sinking, these specks were both residual images from the river of time and the karmic threads that had drawn Wei Yuan to this place. Every single piece of this karma was priceless and unique. Now, they lay exposed before Wei Yuan. Once he comprehended them, they could never again be used to bind or attack him. The largest temporal afterimage rested along the snowy mountain ridge. Dragging his broken body, Wei Yuan flew over and reached out to touch the speck of light. It dissolved rapidly, turning into a flowing screen of light like rippling water. Within the screen of light was a remnant snowy mountain ridge, its other end dropping off into a void cliff. The place where the Umbrella Building once stood was an expanse of pitch-black nothingness. On the last small clearing stood a young girl and a boy who was not yet ten years old. The girl was Ji Liuli, and the boy was Wei Yuan. The girl pulled the boy along as they sprinted to the final snowy ledge; beyond it lay an endless void abyss. Looking back at the surging clusters of shadows drawing near, determination flashed in the girl's eyes. "We can't escape together. You go! If a miracle happens in the future, we will see each other again!" The girl unclasped the energy core from her own body and slotted it directly into the boy's uniform. Powered by a double supply of energy, the little boy's body began to glow, turning gradually transparent. Taking out another energy core, Ji Liuli clamped it between her teeth. She drew twin blades, turned, and charged back into the swarm of shadow beasts! Though the beasts appeared to lack physical form, their lethality was terrifying, and they were intimately versed in human weaknesses. In the blink of an eye, they pinned Ji Liuli to the ground, tearing away her limbs! Pale with agony, her chest heaving violently, the girl drew in a deep breath—and bit down hard, shattering the energy core in her mouth. A blue arc of light unfolded, instantly engulfing all the shadow beasts. That was the last image the boy saw before he vanished.