Wu Gou raised his wine gourd, tilting his head back to take one last swig.
He shook it. It was empty.
"Tsk, what a buzzkill."
He tossed the gourd aside and pressed his palms together.
"Namo Amitābha."
For the first time, Wu Gou uttered a Buddhist chant. He no longer wore his usual expression of mocking laughter or angry curses; instead, he was filled with solemnity.
Blazing golden flames erupted from Wu Gou's body as he ignited his very soul.
"Hey, big demon, watch closely."
Wu Gou transformed into a streak of light—the filthiest, yet most brilliant radiance imaginable.
"Thank you for accompanying me on this journey. And thank you... for bringing hope to all living beings."
Like a meteor surging against the current, Wu Gou broke through the confinement of the ghost domain and bypassed the interference of the realm earthworms, slamming violently into the center of the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows' forehead.
"Are you mad?"
"If we are to merge, it should be me devouring you!"
Feeling that power of common origin, the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows was utterly bewildered. "Doing this will only result in our mutual destruction!"
"If we die, who will be left to deliver the masses?"
Wu Gou's hearty laughter echoed between heaven and earth.
"Who said anything about mutual destruction? I'm here to perform your funeral rites!"
"If I do not enter hell, who will?"
"The hope of the Buddhist Sect does not reside upon those high lotus thrones, nor within those magnificent, gold-encrusted halls."
The streak of light instantly pierced through the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows' skull.
"It is in the dust, in the mud."
"It is in the heart of every ant that simply wishes to live."
Boom—!!!
With Wu Gou's return, the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows' humanity began to resurface.
The body that was once pure rotten flesh now began to sprout pink, fleshy buds at a frantic pace.
The Ksitigarbha of Great Vows let out a roar of agony.
Wu Gou had not vanished; he was wreaking havoc inside the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows' body, fighting for control.
The Ksitigarbha of Great Vows' rotting ghost domain became riddled with loopholes, its defensive power plummeting.
"Now!"
Cold light flashed in Chen Zhou's eyes.
A chance!
The opportunity Wu Gou had traded his life for!
Then, as Wu Gou wished, he would use the vows of all beings to slay the Buddha of all beings.
Chen Zhou took the Evil God Points he had just acquired and used Faith Conferment on all the followers present.
Huo Dou's size surged once more. He lunged forward, biting down on both realm earthworms simultaneously and tearing at them frantically.
The flesh that was bitten off continued to wriggle violently, attempting to regenerate.
"It's an all-you-can-eat buffet!"
Piao's eyes lit up. Her insect face covered her entire head as her mouth split open to her ears. She grabbed a severed section of an earthworm from the ground and stuffed it into her mouth.
Once it entered her stomach, it would never grow back.
"Namo Bone God!"
Wu Hai let out a thunderous roar. His body grew with the wind, transforming into a hundred-zhang-tall bone Arhat.
He abandoned all defense, even tossing aside his monk staff, and lunged forward to tightly lock the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows' golden body in a death grip.
"Amitābha. Senior Brother, stop moving," Wu Hai's voice was low.
"Get off me! You demons!" The Ksitigarbha of Great Vows struggled with all his might. Death qi erupted from his body, causing Wu Hai's bones to creak and crack as countless fissures of rot appeared.
Yet Wu Hai did not retreat a single step, keeping him pinned.
"Ancestor, I've got the old bald ass pinned down! Hurry and slaughter him!"
Su Xue lightly raised her delicate hand, and a massive orchid bloomed in mid-air.
While providing healing, she took all the death qi she had collected from the battlefield and, in this moment, reversed it into a surge of violent vitality. She poured it all into the flesh lotus platform beneath the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows' feet.
To a living person, this was a great tonic.
But to the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows, who relied on a balance of death qi and vow power, this sudden influx of vitality was lethal poison.
The lotus platform began to wither. The umbilical cord connecting him to the earth vein was exposed due to his unstable foundation.
Poison-Wing and Plague Rat had been waiting for this.
Poison-Wing's wings were like blades, and Plague Rat's claws were like hooks.
Together, they merged plague fiendish qi and Calamity Venom-Fire into a sharp blade, slashing down violently at the umbilical cord!
Snap—!!!
The causal lines connecting the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows to the people of the Northern Region were severed.
Without the replenishment of vow power, the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows' aura instantly withered.
"Why? Why do you stop me from delivering all beings?" The Ksitigarbha of Great Vows' eyes were filled with madness.
"Because you belong in hell."
The phantom of the Bone Altar behind Chen Zhou fully solidified.
Countless chains of death qi shot out from the altar, instantly piercing the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows' body and dragging him toward hell with brute force.
"Sacrifice."
Chen Zhou uttered those two words coldly.
"No! I am a Buddha! You cannot do this! Without me, the Northern Region is finished! The entire Gloomlight Province is finished!"
Due to the return of his humanity, the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows began to experience emotions, causing him to struggle and shout frantically.
Chen Zhou turned a deaf ear, pulling the chains with all his strength.
At the final moment before the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows was dragged into the altar to be devoured...
The struggle on that rotting, hideous face suddenly ceased.
The right side of the face remained rotten and twisted, but on the left side, the putrid flesh receded. It became exceptionally handsome, with a single crystalline tear hanging from the corner of the eye.
It was Wu Gou.
Or rather, that was how the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows was originally meant to look.
"Hey, big demon."
That half of the handsome face spoke. His voice was weak but gentle.
Chen Zhou's movements paused slightly.
Wu Gou smiled. "Sigh... I ended up dying by your hand after all."
"Tsk. With the massive amount of merit from killing me, you'll become a..."
"Stop."
Chen Zhou interrupted him coldly. "You are the great Buddha who could have attained a golden body. I am not."
The half-human face smiled through its tears.
"Fine. Then don't become a Buddha. Just be a demon. A demon is free."
"Got any wine?"
Chen Zhou curled his lip. "No. It's already the end; you still want a drink?"
Wu Gou laughed loudly. "Forget it, forget it."
"If there's a chance... could you go see for me?"
"See what the true Sukhavati described in the sutras actually looks like."
"See a peaceful world where there is no suffering, no plunder, and all beings are at rest..."
As the words fell, that half of the face also closed its eyes.
Boom!
The Bone Altar snapped shut.
【You have sacrificed a living corpse that has plagued the world for a thousand years. Your ghost domain has upgraded to: White Bone Ghost Domain.】
【You have obtained a realm earthworm egg.】
【You have obtained a complete divinity: Filth.】
【Your special building, the Myriad Herbs Life-Death Realm, has successfully drawn a special soul to be born. Go and take a look.】
【^_^】
The former ruler of the Northern Region, the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows, had thoroughly fallen.
With his disappearance, the death qi filling the sky and the rotting domain also dissipated.
On that empty flesh lotus platform, only two items remained.
A tattered, patched-up patchwork robe, and a golden, glowing sarira.
That was the only true, albeit filthy, Buddha of the Northern Region in five hundred years.
Chen Zhou stepped forward and picked up the sarira. After searching through the ruins of the Wolf Court for a long while, he managed to find a single jar of wine that had luckily escaped destruction.
He broke the mud seal on the wine jar. "What does a peaceful world look like?"
"Many have heard of it; few have seen it."
Chen Zhou placed the wine jar onto the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows' flesh lotus platform. He glanced toward the horizon and raised his hand in a phantom toast.
A toast to the journey here, paved with white bones and blood.
A toast to those who walked the same path; whether friend or foe, all are now of the past.
Rate on N.U.
