Wise people were not immune to falling into traps; rather, they never fell into the same trap twice. As for being plotted against, Wei Yuan did not truly mind. In any case, he possessed ample capital to turn the tables; even if he was tripped up, he could always climb back out. Any scheme that failed to kill him outright would do nothing more than put him on guard, rendering it entirely useless against him from then on. Wei Yuan looked down at the old monk's corpse, then cast his gaze upon the devotees and monks surrounding him—grief and indignation welling within them so intensely that they provoked a resonant tremor across the entire realm. Suddenly, yellow mist surged from his body like a terrifying sandstorm, and countless mirage demons rained down, burrowing into the earth without delay.
Half an hour later, more than a hundred corpses of devotees lay before Wei Yuan. Every single one had tripped and fallen to their death upon this mirror-smooth plaza, dying before his eyes one after another.
Had it been anyone else, their state of mind might have wavered, but Wei Yuan remained completely unmoved.
The moment the half-hour mark arrived, a colossal voice suddenly boomed between heaven and earth: "Pure Land trash, get out of our grotto-heaven!"
In an instant, the master of heaven and earth changed.
The devotees and monks stood utterly bewildered, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Those with vehement temperaments dashed their heads against the incense altar before Baoxing's shrine, dying on the spot, while the vast majority remained frozen where they stood, seemingly stripped of the ability to think.
Wei Yuan unfurled the Spirit Herding Ring, drawing all the surviving, dazed devotees and monks inside. He then waited a short while, but the Buddhist light of a finger capable of wiping out an entire realm never descended.
It seemed that, just as Wei Yuan had anticipated, an attack of that caliber—capable of directly annihilating a realm—inevitably carried a hidden cost, even if the Pure Land could shift most of the karmic consequences onto his head. And that cost was undeniably exorbitant.
Just as when Wei Yuan had burned eight hundred thousand Shamans to ash with the red lotus karmic fire years ago, the price was taking a crucial, irreversible step toward becoming the reincarnated avatar of the King Buddha. If eight hundred thousand Shamans carried such a staggering toll, then an entire realm along with tens of millions of mirage demons would be far worse. After all, from the standpoint of heavenly karma, a single mirage demon was no less significant than an adult human. Annihilating tens of millions of mirage demons was equivalent to slaughtering tens of millions of people.
This time, with Wei Yuan scattering several million more mirage demons across the realm, the Pure Land did not launch another genocidal strike.
Seeing no further movement from the Pure Land, a large detachment of cultivators finally emerged from the Spirit Herding Ring and began constructing a localization formation right where they stood. Once the coordinates were secured, Wei Yuan could shuttle back and forth whenever he wished.
With that, the first round of clashes against the Pure Land drew to a close. At the cost of tens of millions of mirage demons and having thirty thousand Dao Foundation cultivators entangled in karma, Wei Yuan had seized the Heaven of Joy and Bliss, the Heaven of Sorrow and Longing, and a nascent, embryonic small realm.
Leaving behind tens of thousands of templates to reshape the realm, Wei Yuan took flight toward the Heaven of Sorrow and Longing. But the moment he became airborne, he felt as though his entire body were coated in thick slime, his form growing considerably heavier.
This was the karmic burden that had been transferred onto him back in the Heaven of Sorrow and Longing. At the time, Wei Yuan had been in a rush to launch a surprise attack on the new realm and had paid it no heed; now, however, it felt thoroughly awkward and cumbersome.
Now, Wei Yuan possessed means of resolving it. With a shift of his will, the cloud sea of mortal karmic luck rapidly dissipated. Under the scouring wash of vast quantities of mortal karmic luck, the karma dissolved accordingly. In the end, Wei Yuan expended thirty million units of mortal karmic luck to completely cleanse himself of the karmic burden. Thus, thirty million units of mortal karmic luck were added to the cost of victory, yet compared to the harvest of three realms, the price remained utterly negligible.
By now, the Heaven of Sorrow and Longing had transformed entirely into a dead land where ordinary cultivators could no longer survive. Wei Yuan had no choice but to release cultivators from the Splendor of the Many Realms to first erect formations to sustain life, after which he deployed the template Dao Foundation cultivators from the Spirit Herding Ring to gradually expand their area of control. After all, the cultivators from the Splendor of the Many Realms lacked physical bodies and were far weaker at altering heaven and earth than corporeal cultivators of equivalent cultivation. All the rough, heavy labor still had to be done by the templates.
Although the Heaven of Sorrow and Longing had been wiped into a dead land by the Buddhist light of that single finger, its underlying essence was still a fragment of a world—an invaluable treasure nonetheless.
Wei Yuan used the Heaven of Joy and Bliss as an anchor to pull the Heaven of Sorrow and Longing and the unnamed small realm closer. For anything to transform from illusory to real required vast amounts of resources; finding a natural realm—even if only a dead world fragment—would provide immense assistance when Wei Yuan eventually manifested his heart-realm into reality. Furthermore, that final small realm laid bare a secret of the Pure Land's Buddhist realms. It was a Buddhist land that had only just begun to be fashioned; Baoxing had seemingly intended to forge it into a blissful realm rather than a world of dread like the Heaven of Sorrow and Longing.
From this small realm, one could see that Baoxing had likely obtained a fragment of an extraterrestrial world first, reconstructed it into a relatively independent and complete natural realm upon that foundation, and then converted it into a Buddhist land. The method of conversion was to utilize chosen devotees and Buddhist disciples, refining and transforming the realm under the empowerment of Buddhist light. Once the entire realm was fully refined, it would become a world of ultimate bliss like the Heaven of Joy and Bliss.
Yet this process was bound to be extraordinarily protracted. Wei Yuan estimated at the time that full conversion would require at least a thousand years. A vast paradise like the Heaven of Joy and Bliss had cost Shanle a full six thousand years.
Once cultivators of the Pure Land attained a fruit status, they became virtually immortal and indestructible, except that they had to continually undergo reincarnation. Lacking a suitable physical body, they would keep reincarnating; only upon encountering an appropriate vessel would they awaken within it, completely reducing the physical body to an empty vessel.
Thus, Bodhisattvas possessed boundless lifespans and endless time, allowing them to refine Buddhist lands one by one to amass as their foundation.
Unfortunately, the colossal world where Wei Yuan had been born was already in a state of severed karma, drifting through genuine nothingness. Without the Three-Eyed Bird, Wei Yuan could not even return. Furthermore, that world held great danger; it seemed the enemies who had destroyed it back then had not departed far and were still watching from a distance. Otherwise, borrowing the methods of the Pure Land might have offered hope of reviving it.
After arranging the three realms, Wei Yuan returned to Qingming to check on the wounded template cultivators.
Most of the injured cultivators were entangled in karmic repercussions. While that would be a catastrophic issue anywhere else, handling it within Qingming was relatively manageable. Wei Yuan bestowed several dozen strands of mortal karmic luck upon each person, suppressing the karma to a level where it would no longer threaten their lives or Dao paths. At most, they might encounter slightly more bad luck in the future and could no longer gamble casually.
Many of the backup plans Wei Yuan had prepared for this battle had gone largely unused; only Feng Tingyu and Zhang Sheng had stepped in once each. As for that Arhat who was clearly cannon fodder, he had ironically been blessed by misfortune: Wei Yuan had been entirely focused on chasing Baoxing and had no time to deal with him, ultimately allowing him to find an opportunity to slip away.
Having dealt with mundane matters, Wei Yuan finally returned to the small Pure Land temple. By now, the small temple had settled into the Heaven of Joy and Bliss, taking root and anchoring the realm with the power of the Pure Land grotto-heaven. Whenever Wei Yuan stepped out of the temple, he would be in the Heaven of Joy and Bliss.
At this moment, only a single small patch of ground remained outside his control in the Heaven of Joy and Bliss—roughly the size of a small town. Several hundred thousand devotees and enlightened beings were crammed inside, men shoulder-to-shoulder with beasts and beasts jostling men, leaving barely enough room to lie down. By pooling their united will, they had barely clung to this tiny corner of the realm, defending it stubbornly.
With a sweep of his divine sense, Wei Yuan ordered the mirage demons to dig earth and the templates to erect walls, throwing up a ring of high barriers around the territory of these original denizens of the Heaven of Joy and Bliss. Laying down formations, he sealed them tightly within.
As for food and drink—if they already enjoyed ultimate bliss, why would they need sustenance?
Besides, all living beings were equal. There was soil beneath their feet; if mirage demons could eat soil, why couldn't the devotees?
Afterward, Wei Yuan returned into the temple. He glanced first at Liandeng curled in the corner, then picked up the three volumes of scripture from the altar to examine their inner imagery. Sure enough, the Three Realms Ruyi Sutra remained unchanged—its imagery had not shifted, nor had its status risen.
It seemed that although he had won the battle, the fundamental doctrines of both sides had never clashed because there had been no formal doctrinal debate. In other words, the Pure Land did not consider itself defeated.
Yet had Wei Yuan lost, he was certain the Pure Land would have had an entirely different rhetoric—for instance, claiming that dharma lineage lay in establishment and deed rather than debate. If Wei Yuan lost, it would simply mean his dharma lineage was deficient, making debate irrelevant.
That was quintessentially Pure Land.
Fortunately, Wei Yuan had anticipated this. He set down the Three Realms Ruyi Sutra and looked toward Liandeng. "Have you given any thought to where you'll go from now on? How about I send you back to the Palace of Grand Beginning?"
Liandeng immediately threw his arms around Wei Yuan's thigh and wailed, "You can't! I've bled for the Immortal Venerable, fought side by side with the Immortal Venerable..."
Prying Liandeng off, Wei Yuan sighed. "With a temperament like yours, how could you ever be an ordained monk?"
"I'm no monk! I only listened to scriptures before the Buddha!"
"You've listened to scriptures for hundreds of years—how could you still have such a temperament?"
Liandeng's voice shrank lower and lower. "I... I don't think I used to be like this back then. I don't know what happened, but after listening to the scriptures, my mind grew restless and worldly thoughts multiplied, completely out of control. I heard that if one listens to scriptures before the Great Sun Tathagata, it isn't like this."
Wei Yuan's thoughts stirred, struck by contemplation. He then set Liandeng down and told him simply to sweep the small temple daily and do nothing else. He cast another glance at the skeletal frame sitting cross-legged in the corner, sighing inwardly. After so many upheavals, it had reverted to this state; perhaps the karmic opportunity had simply not yet arrived.
Upon the lotus, there was still only an indistinct silhouette, blurry as before.
Right then, Wei Yuan sensed something: an old friend had come to visit Qingming Immortal City.
Wei Yuan exited the Splendor of the Many Realms and stepped into the guest hall of the immortal city, where he found an exquisitely featured monk already seated and waiting. Wei Yuan looked closely for a moment before asking with a hint of uncertainty, "Kongque?"
The young monk rose and bowed. "It is indeed this humble monk."
"Your appearance has changed a great deal..." Wei Yuan said.
Kongque gave a bitter smile. "When even the divine soul has altered, how could my appearance remain the same? In truth, I am quite surprised Benefactor could still recognize me."
Wei Yuan frowned. "What happened? Has the golden body awakened?"
Back then, the Peacock Buddhist Mother had been no minor figure without origins; her fruit status was high even across all of Spirit Mountain. Once the one holding that fruit status awakened, Kongque would inevitably be supplanted—there was no such thing as waking up halfway.
After his initial slight lapse in composure, Kongque steadied himself and said placidly, "If the golden body's fruit status had truly awakened, it would be a blessing. However, while the golden body shows signs of reviving, it has long failed to wake. Thus, my divine soul is currently unstable, and my appearance has changed along with it."
This concerned the path of the Pure Land; Wei Yuan had no idea what to say. Furthermore, how much of Kongque was still the peacock he had known in the past was uncertain. Wei Yuan's heart cooled, shedding any desire to reminisce. "Master, what brings you here?"
Kongque chanted a Buddhist invocation and said, "I have long heard that Benefactor cherishes the common folk as his own children, and that the people under your rule live in peace and contentment, possessing the air of a golden age. Now Benefactor has witnessed the Heaven of Joy and Bliss, and seen how Buddhist disciples are received into the Buddhist land to enjoy pure and ultimate bliss.
"Pardon my bluntness, but no matter how prosperous Qingming becomes, there will always be impoverished and incapacitated folk. Whether mortal or cultivator, each must toil bitterly day after day merely to obtain a mouthful of food.
"Yet in the Heaven of Joy and Bliss, devotees all attain supreme ease. They may act according to their true hearts—listening to scriptures, reciting the Buddha's name, or lying drunken beneath pine branches in the woods, entirely at their own discretion. Comparing the two, which is superior and which is inferior is self-evident.
"Since this is so, why are you unwilling to allow the Pure Land's orthodoxy to spread within Qingming?"
Wei Yuan replied slowly, "Originally, I had no desire to entertain your words. But in your final question, you did not address me as 'Benefactor,' so I have decided to answer you after all. The Heaven of Joy and Bliss holds merely eight hundred thousand living beings, accumulated bit by bit over several thousand years. Qingming has existed for a mere few decades, yet it already holds six hundred million people. And from the perspective of hundreds of millions of people...
"Can filling one's belly on meat be the same as filling one's belly on grass? What you offer is not being well-fed; it is merely staying alive."
Chapter 1248