Watching the Hall of a Thousand Dreams reveal its true form, Bedfellow forced himself to his feet. His constantly shifting face contorted as he tried to say something.
Chen Zhou had no interest in hearing his last words.
He raised his hand, his fingers curling into a phantom grip.
Death qi gathered into a giant hand, and ignoring the karma-fire still burning on Bedfellow's body, it suddenly squeezed tight.
After a muffled thud, Bedfellow's body was crushed instantly.
Losing its fuel, the karma-fire flickered twice in the air before slowly guttering out.
All that remained was a human slough as thin as a cicada's wing.
It retained Bedfellow's final curled posture, and the 【Calamity Brand】 on its face was still clearly visible.
The human slough quickly turned transparent, slowly melting into the deep dream.
Chen Zhou glanced at it.
He raised his hand and sent another blast of death qi toward it.
Struck by the death qi, the slough trembled. It did not break; instead, it used the momentum to vanish into the Hall of a Thousand Dreams even faster.
Chen Zhou looked at the entirety of the Hall of a Thousand Dreams—the endless corridors, the white cocoons hanging from the ceiling, and the slightly throbbing dark-red walls.
The entire palace was a living being.
A monster that existed by draining the dreams of all living spirits.
"I don't care what you are."
Chen Zhou slowly raised his hand. Death qi converged, and another giant hand emerged.
If he destroyed this place, he would see where the old fox behind Sukhavati could hide then.
Just as the giant hand was about to uproot the entire Hall of a Thousand Dreams, the palace suddenly shuddered.
A beam of dreamlight struck and dispersed the giant hand.
From deep within the hall, a voice that was neither male nor female rang out, gentle and compassionate.
"Amitabha."
"Senior Brother, since we both cultivate the Buddhist dharma, why perform such an act of extinction?"
As the voice spoke, dreamlight converged at the end of the hall.
A figure of solemn majesty slowly took shape.
He was shrouded in a soft halo, instilling a sense of tranquility in anyone who looked upon him.
"The senior brothers of the Bone Temple are truly all cut from the same cloth," Bodhisattva Jieyin said, looking at Chen Zhou and shaking his head slightly. "Knowing only how to fight and kill, adding only to your karmic slaughter."
"Since Senior Brother has visited my humble abode, why not have a cup of tea and discuss the dharma? Let me show you the hospitality of Sukhavati. How about it?"
Chen Zhou remained expressionless. The death qi did not dissipate; instead, it expanded further.
"Noisy."
He answered with action.
The death qi transformed into a gray pillar of light that pierced through heaven and earth, blasting straight toward the newly formed figure of Bodhisattva Jieyin.
"Sigh..."
Bodhisattva Jieyin sighed. He did not dodge or hide. He pressed his palms together, his lips moving slightly.
A strange Brahma chanting rang out from thin air.
"Senior Brother, let it go."
"The world is full of suffering; only in dreams can one find ultimate bliss."
"Sleep, Senior Brother. In my dream, you will find eternal peace. No more killing, no more pain..."
Bodhisattva Jieyin's Thousand-Dream Brahma Chanting attempted to dismantle Chen Zhou's mental defenses.
If Chen Zhou showed even the slightest hint of wavering, a parasitic egg would seize the opening and infest Chen Zhou's dreams.
However, Chen Zhou simply stood there quietly.
His black robes fluttered without wind, and karma-fire ignited once more, burning every invading sound of the chanting to nothingness.
The death qi seemed to grow even more violent as if provoked.
Bodhisattva Jieyin hurriedly propped up a shield of dreamlight, barely managing to withstand the blow.
"Hmm?"
Bodhisattva Jieyin looked quite disheveled, his face filled with shock.
"The Thousand-Dream Brahma Chanting is ineffective?
"You have no dreams?
"That's impossible! Even if one discards their flesh and cultivates an Arhat's golden body, as long as one is a living spirit, one must have consciousness. Where there is consciousness, there are dreams!
"What kind of Buddhist dharma have you cultivated to... to be able to discard dreams entirely?"
Chen Zhou's lips curled into a mocking arc.
"Take a guess."
Bodhisattva Jieyin's eyes narrowed. He put away his shock and regained his compassionate facade. "Since Senior Brother insists on this path, then forgive my rudeness."
As Bodhisattva Jieyin's figure retreated rapidly, the entire Hall of a Thousand Dreams began to tremble violently.
The white cocoons hanging from the ceiling began to split open one by one.
Countless beings that had been completely cocooned and had their souls drained dry became guardians of the Hall of a Thousand Dreams, falling from the cocoons.
They were grotesque. Some retained human forms but grew eight arms, while others were distorted masses of flesh, like crawling monsters.
Yet, without exception, they all wore smiles of happiness, as if they were all dwelling in ultimate bliss.
"Think you have the numbers advantage?"
Chen Zhou sneered, the death qi churning behind him.
A legion of one thousand fourth-stage skeletons stepped out from the shadows once again, meeting those twisted dream creations.
Pure death clashed with the eerie dreamscape.
A skeleton could shatter a cocoon guardian with a single blow, but once those monsters burst, they turned into viscous threads that tried to corrode the skeleton's frame.
For a moment, they were locked in a fierce, inseparable struggle.
On the other side of the battlefield, Chen Zhou had already engaged Bodhisattva Jieyin's main body.
With a wave of his hand, Chen Zhou's death qi transformed into a roaring black dragon.
Bodhisattva Jieyin, appearing solemn and majestic, pinched a beam of dreamlight with his fingers. Wherever the dreamlight passed, the cocoon monsters were empowered.
The death qi was blocked by the dreamlight, and the two forces ground against each other, annihilating one another.
"It turns out Senior Brother has also stepped into this realm. We are both at the first transformation of eerification. In this Hall of a Thousand Dreams, you cannot harm me!" Bodhisattva Jieyin's voice returned to its genderless, ethereal quality.
It was disgusting to hear.
"Is that so?"
Chen Zhou unfurled his ghost domain.
"You are the master in the dream, but in my ghost domain, I am the master as well."
Countless bone phantoms emerged. The dreamlight grew dim as the death qi attempted to completely assimilate the entire dream palace, turning it into his own domain.
Bodhisattva Jieyin was finally enraged.
"Although I was forced to end my secluded cultivation early, my Arhat's body has already reached minor completion. Since we are both at the first transformation of eerification, are you not underestimating me too much within this dream!"
Bodhisattva Jieyin's figure suddenly melted.
He no longer maintained that hypocritical skin; instead, he completely merged with the entire Hall of a Thousand Dreams.
The entire palace came to life.
The dark-red walls became writhing meridians, and the towering pillars became twisted nerve bundles.
The threads of the white cocoons at the top throbbed wildly, sucking the dreams of the beings within into the palace's main body.
This was Bodhisattva Jieyin's true form.
A massive insect hive that had lived for an unknown number of years by parasitizing the dreams of all living spirits.
A pressure far exceeding what had come before crashed down, slamming violently against Chen Zhou's ghost domain.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The two exchanged several more blows.
Chen Zhou's death qi was enough to annihilate dreams, but Bodhisattva Jieyin's dream power was nearly infinite. As long as there were still living beings dreaming, his power would not be exhausted.
Conversely, Bodhisattva Jieyin's great dream dharma and Thousand-Dream Brahma Chanting could not hypnotize an evil spirit like Chen Zhou.
The two sides fell into a stalemate.
"Heh... Hehehe..."
Bodhisattva Jieyin's laughter echoed from all directions of the hall.
"As expected of a successor of the Bone Temple, your Buddhist dharma is truly profound."
Bodhisattva Jieyin's will fluctuated again, and his face appeared on the writhing walls of meridians.
"In this dream, you can actually fight me to a draw. But you cannot do anything to me either."
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