The great battle came to an end, and believers began crawling out from their cover one after another. Most were severely wounded, and some were left with barely half their bodies intact. Yet the aquatic radiance of the Spring of Longevity rose from each of them; no matter how grievous their injuries, so long as they had not died on the spot, they would slowly recover.
Barely over half of the believers had survived the Bodhisattva's final strike, a number far greater than Wei Yuan had anticipated. Bolstered by the Spring of Longevity, as long as their seas of consciousness remained intact, every one of them would pull through.
Fortunately, Wei Yuan had prepared thoroughly for this battle. Most of the core believers fostered in the early stages were cultivators from military backgrounds who had undergone long, rigorous training. Only because of this had they managed to find cover within a mere three breaths and survive the calamity. The Wisdom Kings and mighty warriors had not been so fortunate; every last one of them had been wiped out.
Countless motes of light now emerged across the battlefield, drifting down into the bodies of the surviving believers. These were the essences left behind after the fall of the Vajra Mighty Warriors, defined by Wei Yuan as merit.
As the Lord of the Buddhist Path across the Three Realms, Wei Yuan claimed the lion's share of this merit. Only Zhenyu and Shanle had survived this engagement. With two special Wisdom Kings, seven or eight ordinary Wisdom Kings, and countless Vajra Mighty Warriors fallen, the merit gained was more than enough for Wei Yuan to establish another Bodhisattva fruition.
Four usable treasure ships remained. Once they were claimed, the battlefield ceased to exist.
Within Qingming Immortal City, Wei Yuan's true body materialized and made his way to Zhang Sheng's dwelling. Zhang Sheng had already returned ahead of him. Several small birds perched or fluttered around him in leisurely contentment.
After taking a seat, Wei Yuan could not help but sigh. "A Great Bodhisattva stepping in with their true body—that truly takes the cake. They're a worse sport than I am!"
Zhang Sheng looked at him with a half-smile. "So you admit you're a sore loser?"
Wei Yuan chuckled without the slightest embarrassment. "When two armies clash, no hold is barred. All the more so when it comes to a struggle of the Dao. In a Dao struggle, all means are fair game. When subjugating demons and quelling evil, who talks about honor? That my true body could cross over was entirely my own capability."
Zhang Sheng asked, "I only wonder how you got in yourself."
Wei Yuan chuckled again. "Isn't that simple? I stood before a mirror, reflected on my past, and the more I thought about it, the more extraordinary I realized I was—and then I stepped through. The first time is always the hardest; it only gets easier after that."
Left momentarily speechless, Zhang Sheng changed the subject. "That Bodhisattva Boundless Radiance has formidable methods for manipulating time, but watching her, I felt a slight disharmony. It seemed as though there was some estrangement between her and that divine power."
Wei Yuan nodded. "I noticed it as well. Otherwise, relying purely on the power of the Seventh Grotto-Heaven, I should have only been able to stall her for a single breath. Yet in the end, it held for three."
In the preceding clash, Bodhisattva Boundless Radiance had deployed temporal power to compress the eruption of Buddhist radiance into a single instant. Wei Yuan had immediately wielded temporal power as well, shattering the distorted flow of time and forcibly suppressing it for three breaths. That difference between one breath and three was what allowed several times more people to survive.
Afterward, Wei Yuan had cleared a path with Counter-Slay, expending tens of millions in mortal karmic luck to slash open the Bodhisattva's true body. Zhang Sheng's sword light had followed right behind, tearing the wound several times wider.
A damaged true body was entirely different from the destruction of an avatar. Shanle had a limited number of avatars, and losing one meant one fewer, but those could always be rebuilt over time. When Boundless Radiance's true body was injured, it struck directly at her fruition. Even a severed fingertip shook her very foundation.
Thus, the situation became one where Shanle, unwilling to sacrifice a dispensable avatar, had stood by and watched Boundless Radiance's true body suffer harm.
That was why Zhang Sheng's sword light had detoured hundreds of li just to sweep past Shanle's face. That sword had tested Shanle's loyalty on behalf of the Great Bodhisattva.
After briefly reviewing the tactical shortcomings of the battle, Wei Yuan asked, "Why did you give me the largest share of that drop of Buddhist blood?"
"Haven't you already swallowed it? Why ask now?"
Feeling slightly abashed, Wei Yuan said, "You tossed it to me, so I ate it first without thinking much about it."
Zhang Sheng gave him a sidelong glare. "To build you back up. Just look at how much your Desolate Roar has deteriorated; it's as if you never cultivated it at all."
Wei Yuan decisively chose silence on that topic, refusing to take the bait.
Zhang Sheng added, "What you promised to Zhao Li and the Bao family has been put off for far too long. You should settle it promptly without worrying about me."
Wei Yuan grew solemn. "I never agreed to anything regarding Zhao Li."
"Princess Ningguo and the Sixth Princess have been here for a long time, and there is no returning for them. Since you didn't drive them away back then, you certainly cannot let them leave now. Besides, their cultivation is not yet high, so the timing is ideal."
"The Sixth Princess was forced upon me by Immortal Zhao Li in the first place—"
Zhang Sheng's expression turned serious. "A realm without an heir lacks stability. Right now, countless eyes throughout Qingming are watching.
"This is no longer merely your personal affair; it concerns all of Qingming, and even the Palace of Grand Beginning. Little Yun has been putting off breaking through to Scenery Command, likely with this very matter in mind."
"I—"
Zhang Sheng rose and pressed a hand over Wei Yuan's mouth. "It is enough that your heart has room for me."
Several months later, after finally refining all the merit harvested from the battle, Wei Yuan assembled candidates for the template Arhats and Golden Core Arhats. Through multiple rounds of rigorous selection and testing, two new Arhats were chosen at last, bestowed with specialized cultivation arts, and blessed with divine powers.
When the rite concluded, Wei Yuan earnestly exhorted the two newly elevated Arhats to cultivate diligently and attain the standards for ascension to their fruitions as early as possible. Both quasi-Arhats felt as if they were wandering in a daze, still unable to fathom why such fortune had landed upon them.
After extensive training, both had long committed the *Explication of the Four Sections* and the doctrines of the mainstream Buddhist sects to memory, and they were well-acquainted with various common manifestations of divine powers. Even so, they found something unusual about their fruition divine powers and the methods they were meant to practice.
The fruition title bestowed upon the Golden Core Arhat was Arhat Miluo Guangjia the First, a dharma name signifying that the sound of the Dharma would spread throughout all realms. The fruition title for the template Arhat was Arhat Duowen Xizhi the First, endowed with the divine power to gather every wondrous sound in the world.
A fruition's title necessarily corresponded to its divine power; otherwise, if believers were ignorant of the power, their aspirational faith would carry impurities, which would in turn destabilize the fruition.
This was common knowledge on the Buddhist path, and there was nothing amiss about it. The issue lay in the final words of the title: what did "the First" mean?
Could there truly be a Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth?
At the conclusion of the rite, an apprenticeship ceremony was held. Each of the two quasi-Arhats took on thirty-six disciples, equivalent to the rank of Vajra. Neither had ever laid eyes on these seventy-two individuals before, yet they were assigned to take them as disciples on the spot and distribute the corresponding cultivation arts.
The two quasi-Arhats voiced no objections—nor did they possess the standing to object. They could only follow the instructions given to them and accept every disciple with "hearts brimming with joy."
After taking them in, there was no need for the Arhats to do anything; others were tasked with instructing the seventy-two disciples. Furthermore, they possessed exclusive divine arts for bestowing techniques, distinct between the two groups.
Seven days later, the two quasi-Arhats concluded their rituals, successfully establishing a resonance with the two new fruitions. The moment that bond formed, Wei Yuan sensed it and awoke from his seclusion.
He checked the condition of the two quasi-Arhats and felt thoroughly satisfied. With a mere thought, he bestowed their respective exclusive divine arts and techniques, implanting them directly into their seas of consciousness.
The two Arhats had distinct duties. Duowen Xizhi was primarily responsible for listening; whenever his disciples spoke via secret arts, no matter how vast the distance, the words would instantly reach the Arhat stationed in the Heaven of Joy and Bliss. Duowen would then relay the message to Guangjia, who was also present in the Heaven of Joy and Bliss, and Guangjia would employ a secret art to transmit the message to his designated disciples.
In this manner, a message could be passed across the world. Even if it originated in Yizhou and concluded at the northern frontier of Jin, it could arrive in an instant once routed through the Heaven of Joy and Bliss.
These two Arhat fruitions were the crowning achievement born of the blood and sweat of countless researchers in Qingming.
Stationed in the Heaven of Joy and Bliss, the two Arhats could hear voices and convey decrees. Their disciples, deployed in pairs across various settlements, could facilitate near-instantaneous communication among six towns across three territories. Military directives and government orders could be transmitted without delay.
The significance of this could not be overstated. The moment Wei Yuan laid eyes on the blueprint for the two Arhat fruitions, he realized that the Heaven of Joy and Bliss could not be lost under any circumstances. No matter the means, he had to secure a foothold for himself within the Sea of Bitterness.
Chapter 1272