A Glimpse of the Sea of Bitterness

Joyful Heaven. Wei Yuan stood in midair, gazing down upon the land. Measured by the standards of the mortal realm, Joyful Heaven spanned barely a thousand li across, which counted as large among realm-heavens of its kind that Wei Yuan had seen. But Joyful Heaven no longer possessed its pristine verdant lushness; yellow dust and haze permeated everywhere. Countless scenic vistas had turned into desert, leaving only a stretch of several dozen li at the center and a tiny speck at the far south with any trace of green. The endless yellow haze was churning grit and sand. Most of Joyful Heaven had been reduced to wasteland, former great rivers stripped down to bare riverbeds. Not only was the earth riddled with holes and scars, but even the mountain ranges were pitted through and through. Beneath the dust, it was entirely mirage demons. There were simply too many mirage demons. They had helped Wei Yuan firmly pin down the authority over Joyful Heaven, but the cost was that nearly all natural things within Joyful Heaven had been devoured by them. Mirage demons could even eat soil, and there was nothing living they couldn't consume. Wherever they spread, they had even drunk up every drop of water. Back then, to prevent the monks from seizing Joyful Heaven back, Wei Yuan had placed no restrictions on the breeding and expansion of the mirage demons when he departed, aiming to cement his control over this realm-heaven's authority. Yet when he returned after tying up all loose ends, he suddenly discovered that, unbeknownst to him, nearly half of Joyful Heaven's authority had been reclaimed by the Pure Land! At the same time, he found the number of mirage demons had exploded, shattering the one-hundred-million mark! What was more, they were still multiplying by five to ten million a day. What did a hundred million mirage demons mean? Right now, the vast majority were not even as big as a finger, but once fully grown, they could reach tens of feet in length! Once all these mirage demons matured, tiny Joyful Heaven would likely be chewed into a hollow honeycomb. And what was going on with the realm-heaven's authority? Why had so much of it suddenly been snatched away by the Pure Land? Had Wei Yuan not returned in time, disaster might truly have struck. Wei Yuan immediately cast his divine sense across all of Joyful Heaven. Only then did he understand: the Pure Land had drawn upon the power of multiple arhat and Bodhisattva golden bodies, quietly descending one after another into the surviving devotees. Every arhat and Bodhisattva golden body possessed an immortal's status, and the original devotees of Joyful Heaven were perfectly attuned to them. Thus, their descent was completely silent and undetectable, and the Buddhist devotees allowed the descended golden bodies to exert their maximum potency. Once descended, these arhats and Bodhisattvas did nothing overt. They simply eroded the realm-heaven's authority in secret, wresting away control over Joyful Heaven. Once they succeeded, they could replicate Wei Yuan's feat from that day, expelling every single mirage demon directly into the Void Heaven. Shanle was an enlightened Bodhisattva capable of walking freely in the Void Heaven, but the mirage demons had no such ability. Cast into the Void Heaven, the entire race would be wiped out in under three breaths. From this, one could see these arhats and Bodhisattvas were hardly broad-minded. Shocked, Wei Yuan immediately began a meticulous inspection of heaven and earth. As his divine sense swept across, it was like stirring up a hornet's nest—more than a dozen beams of golden light flared up instantly, fleeing in all directions! Though the Bodhisattvas and arhats possessed an immortal's status, they had only descended as divided spirits, and by inhabiting the bodies of devotees, they reached Scenery Command level at most. Without a second thought, Wei Yuan surged his divine sense forth in a thunderous pounce toward the slower ones. With a vicious swat, two figures detonated on the spot, scattering into a sky full of glittering gold light. Another two figures shed vast patches of golden radiance and grew extremely dim, but managed to escape. Wei Yuan took over the authority of heaven and earth, sealing Joyful Heaven entirely. After thoroughly scanning it several times, he finally confirmed that no hidden golden bodies remained. Most of the dozen-plus golden bodies that had just fled were arhats, along with three Bodhisattvas—quite a formidable lineup. Initially, only one Bodhisattva and two arhats had descended. Discovering that Wei Yuan was absent, they attempted to steal the realm-heaven's authority. They made some progress, but met with immense difficulty. So they summoned more arhats and more Bodhisattvas. After two waves of reinforcements, they had amassed the lineup seen today. Just as control of the realm-heaven seemed within their grasp, Wei Yuan returned without warning, leaving the divided spirits of two slower arhats shattered to pieces. Once the arhats' divided spirits shattered, specks of golden fireflies lit up in the air and slowly drifted downward, like two showers of golden light. As the luminous rain seeped into the earth, vitality burst forth at once; dots of fresh green sprouted eagerly from the soil. The tips of these new shoots gleamed with gold, their coloration starkly different from ordinary spiritual plants. Once grown, they would surely become entirely new spiritual trees and flowers. Speaking of which, aside from a single Red Lotus Bodhi, Wei Yuan had rarely seen any spiritual flora from the Pure Land. The two showers of golden rain each covered an area of more than ten li—one falling among the mountains, the other beside a lake. The earth swiftly shed its yellow hue and took on shades of gold and viridian. In the countless deep pits chewed out by the mirage demons, vines sprouted and gradually filled the hollows. Judging by the speed at which all things grew, it would not be long before two scenic blessed lands appeared out of nowhere. Looking at the fresh shoots born of arhat blood covering the ground, Wei Yuan finally let out a breath of relief. Losing a divided spirit was neither a minor nor catastrophic loss; given those two arhats' karmic attainment, Wei Yuan had just slapped away at least a thousand years of their cultivation. For the next several centuries, they would not be able to leave the Pure Land and travel abroad, or they would risk losing their karmic attainment. As for the other two who had narrowly escaped with their lives, each would need two to three hundred years to recover. Wei Yuan had torn away a portion of their divided spirits as well, which formed two small blessed lands about a li in size on the ground. Because their rank was higher, the blessed lands formed from their soul-blood were smaller, yet held even greater potential. Wei Yuan immediately suppressed the nearly berserk mirage demons, barring them from approaching the four newly born lands and driving out any that had slipped inside. These four areas had been nourished by the divided souls of arhats and Bodhisattvas; who knew what heavenly treasures might sprout here in the future? If he left the mirage demons alone, all that arhat blood would end up in their bellies. Primarily, the innate standing of mirage demons was inherently low; feeding them spiritual items from a blessed land was an utter waste. To put it vividly, given what little skill mirage demons possessed, feeding them rotten fish and foul shrimp was already a luxury—why waste sea cucumbers on them? Only now did Wei Yuan have the leisure to examine the information recorded within the realm. In the scholarly terms of immortals, this act was called tracing back karma. Upon careful examination, he realized how bizarre things truly were. When golden body after golden body quietly descended, the several thousand template Dao Foundation cultivators and dozen-plus Core Formation cultivators left behind noticed nothing at all. Instead, it was the mirage demons that instinctively sensed the threat, finding that the authority of heaven and earth they held was diminishing. Yet they were far too occupied, endlessly entangled in mating. To preserve their authority over heaven and earth, they instinctively initiated frenzy-breeding. The size of newly born mirage demons shrank to the size of a fingernail; what had previously been called birthing had now turned into spawning roe. Small as the newborn mirage demons were, their souls were only slightly weaker, still capable of claiming a share of heaven and earth's authority. Thus, in this frenzy-breeding mode, the realm's mirage demons used the terrifying influx of millions of new births a day to forcibly resist wave after wave of descended Pure Land powers. The two sides had reached a stalemate until Wei Yuan's return. After all this turmoil, Wei Yuan grew vigilant. There had to be a reason why the Pure Land was expending so much effort to seize a single realm-heaven. By now, Joyful Heaven was scarred beyond recognition; it simply could not sustain over a hundred million mirage demons. Caught between a dozen-odd golden bodies and more than a hundred million demons, the realm-heaven had grown exceedingly frail. Yet the mirage demons each held a portion of heaven and earth's authority, and even if gathered back into the Splendor of the Many Realms, there was nowhere to house them. Thus, Wei Yuan commanded all the mirage demons to contract and converge at eight points along the edge of the realm-heaven. In an instant, churning clouds of dust and an endless yellow tide surged toward the eight locations, piling up into eight literal mountains. Next, Wei Yuan commanded that, aside from the few dozen mirage demons with the highest cultivation, all the rest enter a dormant state, merely staying alive. With that, Joyful Heaven's burden dropped substantially, allowing it to catch its breath, though the realm's origin energy still ran a deficit. Now holding total sway over Joyful Heaven's authority, Wei Yuan immediately discovered another massive drain on the realm's power: the original devotees of Joyful Heaven. Packed together so tightly they could not even lie flat, every one of them was nevertheless brimming with vigor, uttering joyful praises from time to time. Compared to before, their consumption of realm power had barely decreased. Moreover, they were bound as one with Joyful Heaven; if moved out, Wei Yuan was certain they would choose to end their lives and dump the karma onto his head. If he told them to curb their activities to lessen consumption, Wei Yuan could easily imagine their reaction—they would surely snap, "In your dreams, demon!" At that thought, Wei Yuan didn't bother asking. He simply waved his hand, scattering a sheet of spiritual light. This Mystic Origin Life-Prolonging Art could preserve life and keep their souls intact. Then, Wei Yuan flicked his fingers repeatedly, sending out dozens of snowflakes that bloomed into swirling snow, blanketing the area inside the high walls. This was the Cold Sky Flying Snow Art, capable of congealing physical bodies and freezing souls. Within the high walls were seven hundred thousand people; Wei Yuan unleashed dozens of spells in a single breath, entombing everyone within a city of ice in the blink of an eye. With this, the drain on the realm plummeted to less than a tenth of what it had been. Joyful Heaven barely managed to maintain a fragile balance, its subtle wonders beginning to stir once more. And as master of Joyful Heaven, Wei Yuan felt his divine sense suddenly jolt. Borne aloft by the power of heaven and earth, it rose continuously, soon flying out of Joyful Heaven. It was not his physical body leaving Joyful Heaven, but rather his divine sense ascending to higher planes, taking on the sensation of ascension. At this moment, Wei Yuan felt as if he stood atop the dome of Joyful Heaven. Right before his eyes, a speck of intense light suddenly ignited in the previously empty Void Heaven. Then, like the rising sun, that pinpoint of light mounted higher and higher until it illuminated the entire Void Heaven, unveiling a brilliant sea of light before Wei Yuan! That radiant sea expanded endlessly, eventually permeating the entire Void Heaven. Light surged across its surface; within every cresting wave lay boundless karma. Wei Yuan focused his gaze and realized the entire sea of light was, in truth, an ocean of karma. Whenever a wave surged, a momentous karmic tie manifested. And every one of these karmic threads was tied to Buddhist cultivators. Above the radiant sea hung more than a dozen colossal fireballs, illuminating the sea of light like so many blazing suns. Wei Yuan's heart shook. He finally understood what this was. This was the gathering place of karma for all Buddhist cultivators beneath the heavens; the fiery celestial bodies aloft were the karmic attainments of Bodhisattvas. This was the true face of the Pure Land—the legendary Sea of Bitterness. Only by mastering Joyful Heaven and viewing the cosmos from its vantage was Wei Yuan able to catch a glimpse of the Sea of Bitterness.