Get Out of the Sea of Bitterness

The origin of the heavenly light was too high, and Wei Yuan's cultivation was not yet deep enough, so he could not see where it came from. At this moment, the highest he could perceive was the fifth tier, where Baoxing resided; anything above that was beyond his sight. The heavenly light fell tier by tier, shining directly upon the Sea of Bitterness. Yet after nearly three years of contemplation, Wei Yuan's comprehension of the Sea of Bitterness had advanced another level. In his eyes now, the heavenly light descended like a plunging waterfall. Every time it passed a star or a great sun, it warped noticeably. The stars were not too extreme, but the suns caused the surrounding heavenly light to warp and cave in toward them, so that the light emerging beneath each great sun was already a layer thinner. Diminished layer upon layer in this manner, it was still magnificently radiant when it finally fell upon the sea of light. Bathing in this light caused karma to slowly take root and grow. Normally speaking, the heavier a person's karma in the mortal world, the easier it was to awaken extraordinary talents, and the more likely they were to encounter momentous events. Here, neither light nor sea followed the concepts of this realm. The heavenly light was unstoppable, enough to illuminate the Sea of Bitterness straight through. Just as it was doing now: piercing through boundless Buddhist karma, it remained brilliantly dazzling. Yet Wei Yuan could now tell that after being absorbed by that Buddhist karma, the heavenly light was weakened by a fraction. What was this heavenly light, after all? Where did it come from? Why did the Void Sky return to silence, while the Sea of Bitterness was resplendent with light? A succession of questions arose, endless and inexhaustible. The more Wei Yuan understood, the more he realized how little he actually knew. Just as he was immersed in the Great Dao, his natal divine ability suddenly sensed a faint wisp of danger. Wei Yuan looked up and saw that a great sun in the third celestial tier had moved directly above his head. Then, a massive golden hand slammed down brazenly! "Shanle—" Wei Yuan knew this Bodhisattva cultivated Dao attainment and was unskilled in magical combat. Thus, although the golden hand descended with menacing momentum, Wei Yuan felt not the slightest fear. He was even prepared to clash head-on to see what might this great Bodhisattva of the elevated third tier actually possessed. The giant hand descended slowly, crawling at a turtle's pace in Wei Yuan's eyes. Unfortunately, his position was simply too low, and the dharma body he manifested in the Sea of Bitterness was determined by his own Buddhist attainment, remaining fixed in size for now. Therefore, if Wei Yuan wished to strike back, he would have to wait until the giant hand descended right above his head. Though a Bodhisattva held the status of an immortal, Wei Yuan's Mind Manifestation World was now larger than the celestial heavens of many immortals. His configuration of seven grotto-heavens and six true spirits was more than enough to crush the likes of Cangwu and Liumiao back then. Many Pure Land Bodhisattvas possessed attainment in name only and lacked combat prowess, so Wei Yuan felt no trepidation fighting one. At present, the dilemma Wei Yuan faced before ascending to immortality was merely which Great Dao he should take charge of. Once he selected the authority of a Great Dao, mastered it, and elevated his Mind Manifestation World, he would succeed. Yet Wei Yuan was stuck on precisely this step. It was not that he lacked choices, but that he had too many. Samsara and the Pure Land were both authorities concerning the very foundations of this realm. However, samsara had to be contested not only against the Pure Land, but also against foreign races, especially the Ancestral Shamans. As for the Pure Land, needless to say, he would inevitably have to compete with Great Baohua; it was merely a question of how much he could wrest away. Wei Yuan had inherited the lineages of King Buddha and Arhat Guangzhi; relying solely on his current comprehension, he was essentially guaranteed a great Bodhisattva seat. Moreover, he had authored the Three Realms Ruyi Sutra, pointing directly to the root of the Great Dao. In the future, once the incense offerings in the Three Realms' temples flourished and his lineage rose, Wei Yuan could advance even further, attain the true fruit, and achieve Buddhahood. Besides that, the sword intent in the fourth grotto-heaven was exceedingly sublime, and with Xihe—manifested from a strand of the Fourth Generation Palace Master's divine sense—residing within, Wei Yuan could copy his way into becoming a vice palace master of the Sword Palace just by following her example. On top of that, he had once grasped a surface-level glimmer of the Beginning of a Sword. If he walked further down that path and found a way closer to the Beginning of a Sword, he would not even need to master it completely; upon ascending to immortality, he would still be a peerless sword cultivator of his generation, fully capable of competing with Bai Kaishui for the position of Palace Master. The Ancient Full Moon held an exceptionally high status, holding promise for proving the Great Dao of Taiyin. Yet a Star Lord was stationed along this Dao, making it difficult to seize full control over its authority. The Evil Sun Heavenly Pillar went without saying: if Wei Yuan dared to prove it, it would dare to kill him. The Azure-Patterned Azure Dragon likewise held an exalted status, containing within it more than one Great Dao of Time. However, Wei Yuan was currently far from comprehending time, let alone wielding its authority. As for the other Great Dao contained within it, it was even more ethereal and elusive. All Wei Yuan knew was that when borrowing its power, his own status would receive a slight elevation. Such an elevation was more crucial than any other kind, yet he had no clue whatsoever why it occurred. Then there was the Central Spirit Mansion. Even now, Wei Yuan had no idea what was truly inside. Every time he entered, he beheld a different world. Those worlds were distinct from this realm, appearing more as though a sheer veil had been draped over the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth. The trouble was that every visit presented something different; the difficulty of comprehending the origin Dao from tens of thousands of disparate worlds was easy to imagine. Wei Yuan only knew that the Central Spirit Mansion undoubtedly pointed toward some fundamental Great Dao of Heaven and Earth, but his current attainment was insufficient, leaving him unable to discern it. However, each time he entered the Central Spirit Mansion, Wei Yuan would always see Maiden Yin-Yang. Yet she stood motionless like a statue, her relationship with the Central Spirit Mansion completely unknown. Wei Yuan had investigated many times, and Maiden Yin-Yang would simply stand open for him to inspect, but in the end he had failed to figure out anything meaningful. Wei Yuan had reviewed his entire Dao path, yet the giant hand had still not descended into place. Finally, the giant hand descended to Wei Yuan's tier and swept forward in a ferocious grab! The giant hand howled past above the sea of light. The celestial winds it kicked up merely ruffled Wei Yuan's hair—and nothing more. Though the giant hand had stretched out with all its might, its fingertips were still a certain distance from Wei Yuan. That gap proved to be an insurmountable chasm, and in the end, it grasped nothing but empty air. Wei Yuan was stunned at first, and then it dawned on him: Shanle's arms were too short! Once he realized this, Wei Yuan could not hold back any longer. He burst into boisterous laughter, doing his utmost to project his mirth to the heights above. Towering fury descended from above. Then, a single finger lowered and pointed at Wei Yuan, barking, "Heterodox mongrel cultivator, why don't you try striking me once if you dare?!" What was there to fear? A faint speck of sword light lit up at Wei Yuan's fingertip. Without hesitation, he sprang upward, employing the power of the seventh grotto-heaven to nudge his form slightly forward along the river of time. As a result, this sword strike would arrive an instant earlier than anticipated, functioning like an instantaneous slash that was virtually impossible to guard against. This was a magical method Wei Yuan had comprehended when Baoxing evaded Zhang Sheng's sword strike. Wei Yuan leapt lightly into the air. Under normal circumstances, he should have appeared abruptly right beside that finger, cleaving horizontally with a beam of sword light and lopping off half the finger before stopping. Yet the moment Wei Yuan's feet left the ground, the colors before his eyes shifted violently, and the Sea of Bitterness vanished like a burst bubble! His surroundings turned entirely into the Void Sky; naturally, his sword strike could no longer be launched. He looked around and pondered for a moment. After Splendor of the Many Realms stirred briefly, Wei Yuan arrived at his conclusion: he had fallen out of the Sea of Bitterness. Wei Yuan's figure flickered, and he reappeared upon the Heaven of Joy and Bliss. Only when his feet touched the Heaven of Joy and Bliss did the Sea of Bitterness manifest once more. That finger remained right where it had been, pointing at Wei Yuan with utter derision. This time, Wei Yuan did not hesitate. With a wave of his hand, he unleashed a beam of sword light infused with one million portions of human luck! The sword light sliced through the heavenly light and soared straight up, but after traveling some distance away from Wei Yuan, it vanished into thin air, never landing upon the finger at all. Wei Yuan's expression turned cold. He shot into the sky, and seeing the Buddhist finger grow larger and larger, he was about to unleash an all-out strike when darkness suddenly flashed before his eyes, and his surroundings reverted to the Void Sky once more. He had fallen back into the Void Sky. Wei Yuan began to ponder again. A moment later, after Splendor of the Many Realms stirred, his reflection yielded an answer: the Sea of Bitterness had to exist within a special dimension, and the Heaven of Joy and Bliss was the cornerstone that allowed one to perceive the Sea of Bitterness and stand firmly within it. In scriptural terms, this was the vessel for crossing the sea. Wei Yuan himself could not stand on his own in the Sea of Bitterness; once he left the Heaven of Joy and Bliss, he would "fall" out of that dimension. Wei Yuan continued to ponder, and moments later he gained another realization: those Bodhisattvas and Arhats—or at least a considerable portion of them—were just like him, incapable of standing on their own in the Sea of Bitterness. The reason they could dwell permanently in the Sea of Bitterness was by virtue of their fruition seats. Those stars and suns were precisely the manifestations of their fruition seats. At least Shanle was clearly unable to leave his fruition seat, which was why he misjudged the distance, stretching his arm with everything he had yet still failing to grab Wei Yuan. Perhaps cultivators below the third tier were all unable to leave their fruition seats? Thus, that Buddhist finger was currently placed in a spot Wei Yuan could not possibly reach, intended to strike a blow against his Dao heart. However, Wei Yuan's comprehension was not only extraordinarily sharp, but also abundant in sheer quantity; hence, he figured out the crux in mere moments. Wei Yuan returned once more to the Heaven of Joy and Bliss. The Buddhist finger still hung high above, pointing straight down at his crown. This time, Wei Yuan ignored it completely. Standing with his hands clasped behind his back, he continued to contemplate the Great Dao of the Sea of Bitterness. Having learned from the two previous attempts, Wei Yuan simply planted his feet firmly upon the Heaven of Joy and Bliss and moved no more. The uplifting force from the mortal world gradually intensified, but Wei Yuan suppressed it all. If that Buddhist finger was not withdrawn, Wei Yuan intended to wait until the uplifting force grew strong enough to carry him within reach, then launch a sudden surprise assault. When that time came, Wei Yuan planned to sacrifice ten million portions of human luck into a single strike, eager to see whether the golden body of the Buddha's hand could withstand it. When it came to patience, Wei Yuan was always confident. As time went on, whereas Wei Yuan had initially looked like a fool being pointed at by a Buddhist finger, it gradually shifted so that Shanle, holding out a single finger, looked like the fool instead. Without him noticing when, the Buddhist finger quietly vanished. Just as Wei Yuan let out a breath of relief, before he even had time to think of how to mock this short-armed Bodhisattva, his heart suddenly jolted. An indescribable sense of danger surged straight toward the crown of his head! In the heavenly light, an enormous hand emerged. The hand was originally formless and substance-less; it was only because the heavenly light parted wherever it passed that a gigantic hand spanning heaven and earth manifested! The giant hand plunged straight down to the lowest tier, and with a gentle sweep, it brushed away all miscellaneous debris upon the Sea of Bitterness—including Wei Yuan, who stood with his hands behind his back. The surface of the Sea of Bitterness was swept utterly clean. Yet the giant hand seemingly could not reach below the waterline; thus, Wei Yuan was left with only two feet planted atop the Heaven of Joy and Bliss. In the main realm, Wei Yuan's true body manifested. He fell to his knees on the ground and violently spat out a mouthful of blood—and once the bleeding began, it wouldn't stop, thoroughly mingled with countless fragments of his internal organs. That gentle sweep of the giant hand just now had erased everything of the dharma body Wei Yuan had manifested in the Sea of Bitterness, like a charcoal drawing wiped clean. The erased portions had completely vanished from the world, severely traumatizing Wei Yuan's true body as a result. At that moment, beneath the firmament of Splendor of the Many Realms, endless lightning materialized out of nowhere, as if descending into a sea of thunder! Yet the lightning only surged and died away across the firmament, annihilating everything there. Inside Wei Yuan's body, however, ten thousand rays of radiance raged. His internal organs constantly regrew and healed on their own, only to be repeatedly shredded by the radiance. Wei Yuan contained all the damage within his physical form, refusing to let it wound the Mind Manifestation World. Formidable though Splendor of the Many Realms was, the countless living beings within it were exceedingly fragile. If Wei Yuan did not channel the damage away from it, half of the sentient beings inside would likely perish. Fortunately, Qingming was extraordinarily wealthy at present. Wei Yuan urgently contacted Sun Yu and Xu Henshui, and moments later the two arrived escorting several carts of medicinal pills. Wei Yuan paid heed to nothing else; refusing nothing, he tipped box after box into his mouth, using the medicinal efficacy to counteract the radiance. He consumed pills continuously like this for three days, until the medicinal efficacy finally suppressed the heavenly light of the Sea of Bitterness. The moment his injuries showed signs of recovery, Wei Yuan—whose warning senses had never ceased ringing—immediately returned to the Sea of Bitterness. He watched as his form began to grow upward from the two large feet beneath the water's surface, and moments later, Wei Yuan stood once more with his hands behind his back. In the distance, several small boats were braving the wind and waves, crawling toward him at a turtle's pace. While the boats were still far off, a person aboard shouted, "You thieving petty scoundrel, get out of our Sea of Bitterness!"