To undergo tribulation at a time like this—Wei Yuan simply showed himself, guiding the third barrage of missiles to their targets before returning to Qingming.
Although the spot where Wei Yuan stood lay on the fringe of the Shattered Lands, he naturally harbored no fear of ordinary Nether Shamans or Spirit Shamans now. As for Sacred Shamans, having never truly crossed hands with one, it was hard to say.
The third barrage of missiles was small, with only five or six flying over. Below, the shaman commoners were already scattering in flight, leaving no concentrated targets. Wei Yuan thus slammed all five missiles into a single spot where two sharpshooter Great Shamans lay hiding, blasting both into critical condition.
Only then did Wei Yuan return to Qingming, arriving just as the heavenly tribulation began. The emergence of the Red Lotus Bodhi was bound to Wei Yuan by great karma, coming with the Universal Deliverance True Words of boundless might. It had thus become an inseparable part of the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World; its tribulation was equivalent to a partial tribulation of the Smoke and Fire itself.
This heavenly tribulation was extraordinarily bizarre. Atop the mountains of clouds, myriad Buddhas glared in unison with righteous wrath, and countless demon-subduing talismans fell like rain, as if suppressing some peerless fiend.
Meanwhile, ten thousand rays of vivid crimson light erupted from the trunk of the Red Lotus Bodhi. All the black and red karmic debt melted into that brilliance, shooting straight into the firmament!
Wherever struck by the crimson light, the demon-subduing talismans dissolved in vast swathes like melting snow.
The two sides were locked in a stalemate. Drawing upon his exceptionally rich experience with tribulations, Wei Yuan instinctively sensed that if this continued, it could drag on for an excruciatingly long time. With unending heavenly tribulation roiling inside his mindscape world, never mind presiding over the Dao Foundation Grand Ceremony, he wouldn't even be able to counter the Shamans' offensive.
Just then, Wei Yuan's heart stirred. Maiden Yin-Yang transmitted a thought: this tribulation was bizarre, and she requested permission to intervene.
A bizarre tribulation was nothing new—Wei Yuan had never encountered a normal heavenly tribulation in his life, particularly that unresolved inner demon tribulation in between, which he still didn't understand how it had ended. But Maiden Yin-Yang taking the initiative to intervene put Wei Yuan on guard.
Her essence was close to the Dao itself; she might have sensed something Wei Yuan had failed to perceive.
Knowing well that his constitution was peculiar, Wei Yuan dared not draw close, so he permitted Maiden Yin-Yang to intervene. Still, Wei Yuan found it somewhat odd: Maiden Yin-Yang was free to draw upon many things within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, so what could possibly require his explicit permission?
The very next instant, Wei Yuan found out.
A vast expanse of golden glaze karmic luck surged into the sky, sealing off the firmament directly. Intangible and formless, the golden glaze swept straight through the fiercely clashing crimson rays and demon-subduing incantations, disappearing above the heavens. With every surge of golden karmic luck that ascended, the myriad Buddhas atop the cloud mountain grew fainter and more illusory, and the power of the descending demon-subduing incantations diminished sharply. The crimson rays surged ever higher, turning from melting only dozens of incantations to counteracting hundreds at once.
The myriad Buddhas of the cloud mountain were seized with fury. Many lower-ranking Buddhas and Arhats rose from their lotus seats and actually dove downward, throwing themselves forward to subdue the demon.
At that moment, the Red Lotus Bodhi suddenly transformed entirely into a glazed, translucent crystal, radiating ten thousand rays of glazed Buddhist light that soared into the sky. Buddhist lights above and below clashed head-on—truly a wondrous spectacle rarely seen in this world.
Finally, the myriad Buddhas of the cloud mountain vanished, and the sky of the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World returned to its original appearance. Wei Yuan immediately flew to the place where the golden glaze karmic luck was stored, only to see that what had once been an immense sea of golden glaze now had only a few small puddles left, totaling perhaps a hundred or so strands of karmic luck.
This mysterious karmic luck that had originated from the Yellow Springs Grotto-Heaven had actually been expended completely during the Red Lotus Bodhi's tribulation? Could it be that this sea of golden glaze clouds had come into being solely for the Red Lotus Bodhi's tribulation?
It was just a bodhi tree—did it truly deserve such immense prestige?
When Wei Yuan thought it through carefully, it really did.
The tree was the bodhi before the Arhat of Vast Wisdom and Universal Deliverance. Ostensibly, its only special capability seemed to be neutralizing karmic debt, yet in the Palace of Grand Beginning's Hall of Merits, treasures capable of dealing with karmic debt could be counted on one hand, and all together they could not disperse as much as the Red Lotus Bodhi could. The Red Lotus Bodhi had only one method of neutralizing karmic debt: the Red Lotus Universal Deliverance True Words, which Wei Yuan had used last time to refine eight hundred thousand Shamans in a single breath...
Thinking of it like that, it was indeed somewhat... outrageous.
Wei Yuan stood dazed for a moment. Although he understood that this golden glaze karmic luck hadn't truly belonged to him, it had passed through his hands, and he had spent quite some time planning how to use it. Consequently, his heart still felt somewhat empty.
Pulling himself together, Wei Yuan flew over to the front of the Red Lotus Bodhi. The bodhi tree had actually grown slightly shorter; its trunk faintly shimmered with a glazed luster, and its leaves were emerald green, save for a dab of bright crimson at the tips.
Seeing Wei Yuan arrive, a little monk with ruby lips and pearl-white teeth stepped out from the tree. He wore a moon-white monastic robe and looked entirely pure and translucent, unsullied by the slightest speck of dust.
The little monk stood barely four feet tall, his shaven head lustrous and glowing like the finest carved jade. He offered Wei Yuan a bow and said, "Words cannot express my gratitude for Immortal Venerable's grace in helping me attain the Dao."
"You... why do you look like this?" Wei Yuan pointed at the little monk, finding the bald head exceedingly glaring.
"This monk has always looked like this. So it was in my past life, and so it was in the life before that. It was merely that in those past two lifetimes, the opportune affinity had not yet arrived, and I died prematurely, forced to return before the Buddha. Only upon meeting Immortal Venerable was I able to manifest in the mortal realm once more."
"You remember your past lives?"
"I remember what ought to be remembered, and I have forgotten what ought to be forgotten."
Wei Yuan frowned. That answer was as good as saying nothing.
"That glazed karmic luck—who gave it to you?"
Wei Yuan asked this crucial question, but did not expect an answer. Sure enough, the little monk wore a bewildered look, having no idea what Wei Yuan was talking about.
Yet no matter how Wei Yuan looked at the little monk, something felt off. When spiritual flora birthed spirituality and took human form to manifest in the world, the Bingli Divine Wood had been the first to cross its tribulation successfully, and Wei Yuan hadn't found it strange at all, accepting Bingcha quite naturally.
So Wei Yuan asked again, "You call yourself 'this monk'—then where is your Buddha?"
The little monk said, "This monk's Buddha is right before my eyes."
Wei Yuan was suddenly struck by a trance. He seemed to see a grand yet dilapidated great hall whose doors were closed on only one side, while the other side had partially collapsed. Looking down from above, the entire hall was dark and freezing cold. Only upon the table before him burned an ancient lamp, its flame as tiny as a bean, illuminating a space of barely ten feet across.
Before the table lay three prayer mats. On the left knelt a little monk; the rightmost mat was empty; and upon the central mat sat a grim skeleton of stark white bones.
Inside the hall, only the little monk's chanting of scriptures echoed, now distant, now near.
Wei Yuan snapped awake in an instant, breaking into a cold sweat. When he looked at the little monk again, it was as if he were looking at a ghost.
The little monk seemed entirely oblivious to Wei Yuan's shock, standing there quietly.
Wei Yuan steadied his mind and inquired about the little monk's divine abilities. After advancing in rank, the Red Lotus Bodhi's function was still to neutralize karmic debt, only faster and in greater quantity, and it was now able to slightly mitigate several special kinds of karmic debt.
"What special karmic debts?" Wei Yuan pressed.
The little monk couldn't explain either, merely saying that once encountered, it would naturally become known.
Chapter 837