As the distance closed, the small skiffs gradually expanded, their forms growing ornate and elaborate until they transformed into gigantic treasure ships with square prows. Densely packed mighty warriors stood upon the vessels, each brawny and bare-chested, muscles coiled and sinewy, their flesh gleaming with a bronzen luster.
Among the mighty warriors stood several glare-eyed Vajras brandishing all manner of weapons, with ordinary warriors reaching only up to their thighs.
The treasure ships sailed straight toward Wei Yuan. Having been wiped out once by the Buddha's palm descending from above, Wei Yuan's dharma body was less than half its original size, with only his head and shoulders barely breaching the surface of the water. Viewed from this vantage, the prows of the treasure ships loomed like hillocks.
Yet when the treasure ships closed to a certain distance, the imagery of the Sea of Bitterness shifted again, and they abruptly receded into the distance. This was not true distance; rather, the Sea of Bitterness around Wei Yuan was expanding, bringing every thread of Buddhist karma connected to him floating to the water's surface.
The moment the foremost treasure ship collided with this karma, the karma instantly coalesced from intangible to substantial, turning into an expanse of land. Land also extended from beneath the treasure ship, connecting with the terrain formed from the karma of Wei Yuan's devotees.
In the blink of an eye, a bubble surfaced within the Sea of Bitterness. Inside the bubble was a clearly demarcated continent. Mighty warriors and Vajras swarmed off the treasure ship, charging deep inland, while those disembarking behind them carried all sorts of Buddhist statues and dharma instruments, building temples and raising altars on the spot.
As the dharma instruments touched the ground and the Buddha statues took their places, the dividing line across the land shifted noticeably, beginning to push deeper inland.
Across the land belonging to Wei Yuan's side, many figures wandered, most of them mirage demons, with only a scattering of mortals. The warriors penetrating deep inland hacked down every human and slaughtered every demon they encountered. When mortals were beaten unconscious, they bound them with dharma instruments into long strings, which the warriors dragged toward the treasure ship like strings of dead fish.
What was going on?
Wei Yuan swept his great hand across, but scooped up only empty air. Gazing at the images within the bubble, he concentrated the vast majority of his divine senses upon them, analyzing with all his might. By now, the treasure ships were arriving one after another. The first ship and another one each opened up separate battlegrounds, while the remaining three gathered together, jointly opening a massive battlefield.
The combat tactics of the Vajras and mighty warriors were identical everywhere: first charge inland, then erect temples and statues. With each temple built, a vast swath of surrounding territory was converted into their own domain. Some warriors would then rest in the temple, their dharmic power fully replenished after a brief respite, before continuing their advance.
On the great battlefield, three young monks in moon-white robes stood in the center, each atop a ferocious-featured Wisdom King exceeding a hundred zhang in height.
The monk in the middle said, "That Wei Yuan has only just entered the Sea of Bitterness and possesses virtually no attainment here. At this moment, he must be racking his brains in utter bewilderment. By the time he comprehends it, we will have long seized his foothold in the Sea of Bitterness. When the time comes, I will need both of you to join forces with me to push the Heaven of Joy and Bliss completely out of the Sea of Bitterness."
A young monk sat cross-legged atop another Wisdom King. Frowning, he said, "There are still eight hundred thousand devotees within the Heaven of Joy and Bliss. If it is pushed out of the Sea of Bitterness and they lose communion with the Buddha land, they will likely either perish or fall into madness."
Sitting atop the Wisdom King on the right was a young girl. Hearing this, she remarked, "Why bother worrying on Shanle's behalf? Stripped of the uplifting force of several hundred thousand devotees, his rank might drop. Wouldn't that give one of us a chance to take his place?"
The young monk on the left looked enlightened and said, "So that's how it is! Senior Brother truly is shrewd!"
The monk in the middle shook his head. "I was entrusted by Senior Brother Shanle to purge the karma of the Heaven of Joy and Bliss; how could I plot to take his place? It is just that besides seven hundred thousand devotees, there are also tens of millions of mirage demons in the Heaven of Joy and Bliss.
"Such abominations residing in the Buddha land contaminate the Sea of Bitterness. They are a grave scourge that must be eradicated. Moreover, their numbers are so vast that they have thoroughly tainted the Heaven of Joy and Bliss. Even if it could be recaptured, it can no longer be kept."
The girl stuck out her tongue and said, "The thought of so many disgusting creatures infesting the Sea of Bitterness makes my skin crawl!"
Meanwhile, the Vajras and mighty warriors pushed relentlessly forward, the dividing line drawing ever closer to the interior. The demons and humans wandering the ground were in a daze, snapping back to clarity only when the killing tribulation fell upon them. Though they fought desperately to resist, they could not change their fate of being suppressed and slaughtered.
Watching the battle unfold, the young monk on the left grew eager. "Senior Brother, Senior Sister, I will go suppress some fiends and demons to accumulate some merit."
The central monk nodded in praise. "Subduing fiends, suppressing demons, and purifying demonic lands is great merit. Go."
The Wisdom King on the left strode forward, unleashing its divine powers as it flew into the interior. With every crushing palm strike or stomping foot, mirage demons and mortals within several tens of zhang exploded to death!
With a Wisdom King taking the field, the pace of the slaughter quickened drastically.
Back near the treasure ships, the monk said to the girl on the right, "There is plenty of merit left. Aren't you going to claim some?"
The girl shook her head. "No way, it's far too gross. Look at those creatures—many of them are still doing... that right before they die. If any juices splattered onto me when squishing them, I'd probably have to wash in the Pure Spring for days. Besides, there's plenty of merit, and Master will naturally make arrangements for me. Also, once the fighting here is done, just share a bit of yours with me."
The monk said, "The Immeasurable Clear Light Bodhisattva can illuminate past and future. This humble monk will certainly obey the dharmic decree."
The central battlefield was immense. Watching the Wisdom King advance deeper, the girl asked, "Chanming, how long will it take for that Wei Yuan to react?"
The monk pondered and said, "The Sea of Bitterness is no ordinary sea; every drop of water holds immeasurable karma. When ordinary cultivators first enter the Sea of Bitterness, they typically require over a decade of deep meditation and sudden enlightenment just to gain sight. It takes another thirty years to perceive all parts of their dharmic vessel and possess all five senses, at which point they can manifest a dharma body. After that, taking any action in the Sea of Bitterness demands at least a century of arduous cultivation. As for traversing freely, that is another matter entirely—one must forge a vessel capable of crossing the sea.
"This process can take more or less time. For instance, Senior Brother Shanle spent four thousand years. Yet the treasure ship he crafted is vastly superior to those of others, serving as the very capital of his attainment. The land beneath our feet right now is a part of it.
"So there is no need to worry. Wei Yuan can only watch right now. Without a hundred years of contemplation, he has no way to resist at all. In truth, that he could manifest a dharma body immediately upon arrival, and even return after falling out of the Sea of Bitterness, is already inconceivable. Most likely, he borrowed the status of the King Buddha. That is precisely what worries me—could the King Buddha suddenly return?"
The girl said, "Before I came, Master told me that the King Buddha cannot return at this time."
Chanming's eyes lit up, and he said joyfully, "In that case, the merit is firmly in our grasp!"
Meanwhile, in Wei Yuan's eyes, as his comprehension advanced, the Sea of Bitterness shifted once more. Where he stood, the color of the sea differed from the vast sea of light, leaning more toward cyan-blue and faintly sketching out an area.
The five treasure ships were wedged at the boundary of this area. Around each ship, a cyan-blue domain manifested, turning into a battlefield. Added together, the five battlefields already covered more than a third of the region. The central battlefield, where the three treasure ships converged, had already touched Wei Yuan's dharma body itself and encompassed nearly half of the Heaven of Joy and Bliss.
Wei Yuan raised a hand and unleashed a strand of sword qi, but it passed straight through the center of the battlefield without striking a thing.
These battlefields had been drawn into another dimension. Wei Yuan could barely see them clearly, let alone intervene. At this moment, he could only watch helplessly as patches of the karmic land were converted, and the wandering spirits were either slaughtered or suppressed.
Within the Heaven of Joy and Bliss, Shanle's original devotees chanted scriptures in unison, sustaining the five treasure ships with their vow-power.
The mirage demons, meanwhile, were dying in droves, the greatest casualties being the young demons. Mirage demons collapsed over the corpses of the young ones, weeping loudly. The Sea of Bitterness was a sea of karma; whether broken, converted, or suppressed, losing one's connection to the mortal world meant the dispersal of one's soul.
Having struck without effect, Wei Yuan stood motionless, instead channeling all his divine senses into the five battlefields to desperately gather every shred of information possible. Splendor of the Many Realms had long been operating at full capacity, while hundreds of thousands of cultivators gathered in Qingming to enter Splendor of the Many Realms together, putting all their effort into parsing the gathered data.
The entire war potential of Qingming was now tipping into this Dao struggle within the Sea of Bitterness.
The Sea of Bitterness within Wei Yuan's vision was steadily clearing, bit by bit.
The contemplation process that would take ordinary cultivators at least a century was being drastically shortened through the joint efforts of millions of cultivators and tens of millions of sentient beings inside and outside the worlds of Splendor of the Many Realms.
At this time, a progress bar floated in a corner of Wei Yuan's field of vision, inching forward at a slow but visible pace.
This was the stroke of genius of a cultivator within Splendor of the Many Realms, primarily designed to let the Immortal Venerable see the remaining progress clearly and thus preserve his Dao heart.
Although the progress was moving forward, it was still maddeningly slow. It had not even completed five percent, and reaching the threshold for limited intervention would still take at least several days.
Wei Yuan watched everything taking place on the battlefield calmly, firmly etching into his memory the figures standing atop the three Wisdom Kings.
Seeing Wei Yuan staring directly at her, the girl suddenly felt a prickle of unease and asked, "Can he see us?"
Chanming said, "Blessed by the Bodhisattva, we have long since merged into one with the Sea of Bitterness. He would need at least fifty years of cultivation to have any chance of seeing us."
The girl was relieved and said, "He looks so fierce! And he keeps staring this way—it's rather annoying!"
She extended two fingers and suddenly gouged toward Wei Yuan's eyes!
"Don't!" Chanming shouted to stop her, but it was too late, and a chill struck his heart.
Though separated by great distance, as the girl gouged down with two fingers, Wei Yuan's head jerked violently backward. His eyes snapped shut instantly as two trickles of blood slowly seeped from their corners. Two flecks of blood appeared on the girl's fingertips; she flicked them off in disgust and said, "There, now he won't be bothering me!"
Chanming sighed inwardly, then said in a genial tone, "That Wei Yuan possesses monstrous ferocity. In the lower realm, even when Senior Brother Shanle and Martial Uncle Baoxing joined forces, the Heaven of Joy and Bliss was still lost, and Martial Uncle Baoxing lost two minor boundary realms as well.
"Right now, we are taking advantage of his unfamiliarity in the Sea of Bitterness and his lack of comprehension, along with the Lord Buddha striking down to shatter his dharma body and severely diminish his attainment. That is why he can only endure our blows and watch us erase his foundation in the Sea of Bitterness.
"Our purpose is to push him out of the Sea of Bitterness, not to kill him. We do not have the power to kill him either. Moreover, I have heard that this fiend is proficient in the Dao of Karma. By attacking him, you have incurred karma. If he retaliates through that karma and harms you, I will have no way to answer to the Immeasurable Clear Light Bodhisattva."
Unconvinced, the girl lifted her chin and huffed, "I just wanted to vent some spite first. Who told him to glare at me!"
Chanming sighed. "He couldn't even see you..."
"I don't care, looking this way made me uncomfortable anyway... Wait, why is he looking over here again?"
The girl's voice trembled slightly, and she couldn't help shrinking back. Chanming looked over, and his expression changed as well.
Wei Yuan opened his eyes, revealing only two bloody, mangled sockets. Even as bloody water continued to stream from the wounds, Wei Yuan remained fixated in the girl's direction. A faint sneer tugged at the corner of his mouth, which, once blood trickled past his lips, twisted into a ferocious grin.
Chanming forced a smile and said, "It's fine. He shouldn't... be able to see us."
This time, the girl could find no peace of mind.
The progress bar before Wei Yuan's eyes suddenly surged forward by a huge chunk, straight past twenty percent! This was all thanks to the girl gouging his eyes. With such direct karma established, vast amounts of information were gathered in an instant, drastically accelerating the analysis.
Just then, the Sea of Bitterness trembled. The first treasure ship had completely converted its entire battlefield; the devotees had all been suppressed and slaughtered without a single survivor. The warriors returned to the ship, the battlefield dissipated, and the original cyan-blue color vanished entirely.
This treasure ship set sail once more, heading toward the central battlefield.
On the central battlefield, a Vajra took massive strides, rushing before a lone wandering devotee, and raised a massive foot to stomp downward!
Ordinary devotees did not even reach his ankles; though this devotee was twice as tall as an average mortal, he still barely reached the Vajra's knee. This stomp should have pulverized him into paste. Yet midway down, the foot simply could not descend any further; instead, light blossomed beneath it, shining brighter and brighter!
The Vajra looked down and saw that the youth—who should have been like a rat—had shed all bewilderment from his eyes, which now shone with restored clarity, while intensely thick light of merit surged around his body.
At the brink of life and death, karmic luck had actually descended upon this youth, awakening him within the Sea of Bitterness!
Tuoba Hong!
The progress bar before Wei Yuan's eyes skyrocketed, breaking through the first critical threshold of fifty percent in an instant. Relying on the karma of having personally enlightened Tuoba Hong, and bolstered by the blessing of the Arhat seat, Wei Yuan finally pierced through layer upon layer of obscuring mist and sensed the youth.
Without hesitation, Wei Yuan waved his hand, sending a wave of immense power across the void to bless Tuoba Hong!
With this mighty power bestowed upon him, the youth's hair and beard fell away entirely. Golden-red Buddhist light shimmered within him as his body swelled continuously, forcing the Vajra's foot higher and higher. The Vajra tried to pull his foot back, but the massive foot was now held fast in the youth's grip and could not be retracted.
Two more arms sprouted from behind the youth's shoulders, jointly gripping a long spear, and thrust upward from below—piercing belly, chest, and bursting straight out through the back!
Chapter 1258