Deep underground, in a ten-thousand-fathom abyss.
There was no light and no wind here, only endless, stifling heat.
The fire veins of the earth's core converged here, with magma pulsating on the rock walls like crimson blood vessels.
At the confluence of the magma rivers, a giant meatball floated in the air.
The meatball was a dark red, its surface covered in a network of blood vessels that expanded and contracted rhythmically, as if it were a massive heart.
With every beat, the surrounding magma surged, and the entire subterranean world trembled in sync with its breathing.
This was the lair of Ksitigarbha of Great Vows.
Pshhh—
A crack split open on the surface of the meatball, and a large amount of mucus gushed out along with hot steam.
A pale hand reached out from the fissure, followed by a smooth head, and then a torso.
Ksitigarbha of Great Vows stepped out of the meatball completely naked.
He looked very refined, with a face like polished jade and eyes like bright stars. A cinnabar mole sat between his brows, making him look like a compassionate young monk.
However, countless umbilical-like flesh tubes were connected to his back, and his feet stepped upon a lotus pedestal woven from countless living human hands.
"Amitabha."
Ksitigarbha of Great Vows pressed his palms together and softly chanted a Buddhist invocation.
His voice was as warm as jade and filled with pity, seemingly able to soothe all the pain in the world.
"I have finally fully recovered after my sleep. Today's red dust is as noisy as ever."
He had just awakened from a five-hundred-year slumber.
Five hundred years ago, he had frequently traversed realm barriers, using the earth as his jar, all living beings as his vessels, and demons as his gu.
Even he had to pay a price, exhausting his strength and flesh, leading to his five-century sleep.
But it had all been worth it.
The timing was perfect. Now that the Golden Buddha was about to descend, he only needed to harvest the gu he had raised. Then, in his peak state, he would welcome the Golden Buddha and forge a supreme golden body!
Ksitigarbha raised his head, his gaze piercing through the ten thousand fathoms of rock to see the creatures struggling for survival on the surface. His eyes revealed sincere pity.
"So much suffering."
"Birth, old age, sickness, death; parting from loved ones, meeting with hated ones, failing to obtain what one desires."
"All living beings suffer in the red dust, rolling in the cesspool like maggots, unaware of liberation."
Ksitigarbha of Great Vows sighed.
"The physical body is a boat in the sea of suffering; the soul is a flower on the other shore. If I destroy the bodies of all living beings and merge their souls into mine, we can be together forever."
"I will take everyone with me to become Buddhas and reach Sukhavati."
Ksitigarbha of Great Vows truly believed he was a good person, a savior.
For the sake of this grand vow, he could use any means necessary and bear the infamy of ten thousand generations.
"If I do not enter hell, who will?"
After a moment of self-indulgence, Ksitigarbha prepared to check the harvest in his gu jar.
Those were the chess pieces he had laid five hundred years ago—the gu he raised for the ultimate unification of all beings.
Ksitigarbha was about to smile, but then he frowned slightly.
"The Southern Region... is a bit too quiet."
He sensed that a wisp of his sub-soul left in the Southern Region of Gloomlight Province had completely dissipated.
That sub-soul was hosted within the thousand-eyed toad, a key pawn he had placed to harvest the Southern Region.
Although the toad had developed a rebellious streak, in Ksitigarbha's eyes, it was nothing more than a beast in a cage.
When the time came, he could harvest it with a wave of his hand.
But now, the cage was broken, and the beast was gone.
"Who disturbed this monk's mercy?"
Ksitigarbha of Great Vows was an extremely rational person; he never believed in coincidences.
The thousand-eyed toad had reached the seventh-stage symbiosis; even in Gloomlight Province, those who could kill it were few and far between.
"Let this monk perform a calculation."
Ksitigarbha of Great Vows sat cross-legged, and several fleshy strips extended from the meatball behind him, plugging into the back of his head.
His fingers moved in complex patterns as he chanted, "Causal lines, rise."
He cultivated the Aspect of All Beings, using his body to carry the karma of all beings. In the path of divination, he was confident he had few rivals.
Ksitigarbha wanted to see who was bold enough to touch his toad gu.
However, the moment his divine sense followed that severed causal line to peek at the truth in the Southern Region—
Vroom—
A surge of vigorous yet obscure death qi suddenly counterattacked from the other end of the causal line.
It was a vast sea of clouds that shrouded the sky, making it impossible to see anything.
Then, the clouds churned as if a pair of eyes that disregarded all life glanced back at him across endless time and space.
【Cloud Sea Resplendence · Heavenly Calculation Backlash】
"This is..."
Ksitigarbha of Great Vows' expression changed drastically before he could even process his alarm.
Bang!
A dull explosion rang out.
Ksitigarbha of Great Vows' head burst on the spot like a ripe watermelon.
Flesh flew, bones shattered, and red and white matter splattered everywhere, covering the lotus pedestal beneath him.
He instantly turned into a mass of writhing rotten meat.
The cave fell into deathly silence.
A moment later, countless tiny tentacles reached out from the meatball, piecing the rotten meat back together.
Bones reassembled, meridians intertwined, and finally, flesh filled in.
In just a few breaths, Ksitigarbha of Great Vows sat on the lotus pedestal once more, completely intact.
As the source of the Aspect of All Beings, as long as his images remained in this world, he was immortal.
"What an overbearing masking technique."
Ksitigarbha of Great Vows touched his newly grown head, his face pale and his eyes filled with shock and fury.
"I calculated nothing and lost a life for nothing."
"This monk does not believe it."
He would not allow things to escape his control; that would be a desecration of his great love for all beings.
"Since I cannot see through the Southern Region, I shall look elsewhere."
He closed his eyes again, his divine sense crossing ten thousand miles as he tried to sense another pawn he had placed in Cangzhou.
There was a locust there, another breeding ground for his gu.
"Hmm? The locust gu in Kushi County is also gone?"
Ksitigarbha of Great Vows snapped his eyes open, incredulous.
Five hundred years.
Could it be that because this monk slept for too long, the world has changed too fast?
Cangzhou and Gloomlight Province were far apart, separated by realm barriers.
Even for a seventh-stage symbiosis, crossing provinces required paying a heavy price.
Unless one were like the realm earthworm he had once parasitized, which possessed the power of an earth dragon and could travel freely with a smaller cost.
"Could it be the work of the same person?"
"No, impossible." Ksitigarbha of Great Vows shook his head, dismissing the thought. "How could there be such a coincidence? To slaughter through the Southern Region, wipe out Kushi County, and still mask heavenly secrets."
"This monk will see exactly which sacred being is obstructing my great work of salvation."
Ksitigarbha of Great Vows was somewhat irritable.
Anyone who woke up to find their vegetable garden picked clean by a thief would not be in a beautiful mood.
He raised his hand again, this time utilizing his original vow power.
"All beings suffer... Karma... Reveal!"
Snap.
A crisp sound echoed.
The finger Ksitigarbha had just raised snapped instantly, and then that familiar sense of destruction descended again.
He exploded once more.
This time the explosion was even more thorough; even the walls of the cave were smeared with a layer of his flesh.
After a long while, Ksitigarbha of Great Vows reconstructed his body again.
His face was so dark it looked like it could drip water.
"Dead again."
He still refused to believe it.
"If Cangzhou won't work, then how about Tianchi Province?"
"In the territory of the True Lord of Purity and Filth in Tianchi Province, this monk also left a backup plan."
Causal lines, rise.
Bang!
Another instant death.
"Western Desert..."
Bang!
"Central Province... Bang!"
In just half an hour, Ksitigarbha of Great Vows, who had slept for five hundred years in the depths of the earth, had blown himself up seven or eight times.
His speed of reconstructing his body became slower each time, and his face grew paler.
After the final reconstruction, Ksitigarbha of Great Vows sat on the lotus pedestal, remaining motionless for a long time.
He was tired.
Not physically tired, but weary at heart.
He had discovered a terrifying fact.
It wasn't just the Southern Region of Gloomlight Province and Kushi County in Cangzhou.
His gu in Tianchi Province, Central Province, and even other hidden corners—those fruits he had meticulously laid out for five hundred years, waiting to be harvested upon the Golden Buddha's descent—had all been uprooted!
Cleanly, without a single one left.
"Furthermore, the opponent is extremely proficient in the path of divination. Not only can they perfectly mask heavenly secrets, but they can even counterattack the seeker along the causal lines."
Ksitigarbha of Great Vows felt a chill.
"Exactly who is it..."
Ksitigarbha of Great Vows muttered to himself, his tone confused. He couldn't figure it out.
"Has some great expert descended upon this world?"
"Did I sleep for too long? Has the world outside changed too fast?"
Ksitigarbha of Great Vows didn't dare to calculate anymore.
If he continued, he would lose his entire foundation.
But he knew he couldn't just sit and wait for death.
He had spent several lives, and although he hadn't deduced the opponent's identity, he had confirmed one thing: the opponent was systematically clearing out his forces.
Ksitigarbha of Great Vows forced himself to calm down, returning to a rational mode of thinking.
"The opponent comes with fierce momentum, clearly targeting me."
"The Southern Region is gone, Cangzhou is gone... what do I have left?"
Ksitigarbha of Great Vows closed his eyes, carefully sensing his few remaining pawns.
A moment later, he snapped his eyes open, a flash of joy in them.
"Good, good."
"One gu is still alive."
"The Moon-Swallowing Gu, hosted by the Moon-Swallowing Wolf Saint in the Northern Region of Gloomlight Province."
That was another important seed he had planted five hundred years ago. Paired with the toad saint, it was the double insurance he had prepared for breaking through to a higher realm.
"Excellent."
Ksitigarbha of Great Vows breathed a long sigh of relief, relaxing slightly.
"Although the losses are heavy, as long as the Moon-Swallowing Gu remains, my plan can continue."
"Moreover, there doesn't seem to be anything unusual on the side of the Moon-Swallowing Gu."
Ksitigarbha of Great Vows stood up. The meatball behind him began to shrink violently, finally transforming into a dark red cassock draped over his shoulders.
"Since I cannot calculate it, I shall personally go to the north and wait."
"No matter who you are, if you dare come to the Northern Region..."
The lotus pedestal of ten thousand hands lifted him, slowly ascending toward the surface layers of the earth.
"This monk will surely ferry you into a Buddha and merge you into me."
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