radicalducati Chapter 107 A False Bodhisattva Sitting in Hell, a True Ksitigarbha Subduing Demons in the Human Wor
Chapter 107 A False Bodhisattva Sitting in Hell, a True Ksitigarbha Subduing Demons in the Human Wor
Chapter 107 A False Bodhisattva Sitting in Hell, a True Ksitigarbha Subduing Demons in the Human World
The Demonic Cult's Dharma King, Zanfeng Licheng, was a young man.
He was younger than Luo Jueyun, but his martial arts skills were already superior. Of course, he wouldn't boast that his talent surpassed that of the martial arts alliance leader, but rather attributed it to the richer and more complete inheritance system of the Demonic Sect. Luo Jueyun's martial arts skills mostly came from fortuitous encounters, while Zan Feng Licheng was a Demon King selected and cultivated by the Western Forbidden Region.
Despite his young age, Zanfeng Licheng was quite knowledgeable. He had disguised himself and traveled to the Central Plains to observe the various factions governing the martial arts world.
In his view, the Central Plains martial arts world was a wild and untamed land, where heroes fought endlessly, the people were unstable and restless, the martial arts alliance was powerless to govern, and local sects arbitrarily shaped the social landscape according to their own preferences, creating all sorts of bizarre customs and traditions. In such a vibrant world, geniuses emerged every day, but often perished in the fighting and killing before they could grow up.
So naturally, like many powerful figures, he envisioned a peaceful and stable martial arts world that he could manage and rule, a vibrant and thriving realm where all things competed for survival, right before his eyes.
Unlike other martial artists who are still in the stage of fantasizing about the state of society, Zanfeng Licheng has the entire Western Forbidden Region as a living example around him.
Of course, even he, the Dharma King, clearly understood that the martial arts world of the Central Plains would not easily accept the Demonic Sect's way of managing its people. If he wanted to dominate the world, he would first need to reform the internal system of the Demonic Sect. He planned to take ten to fifteen years to complete this step, because any longer would be unacceptable.
Time waits for no one—this is a sentiment shared by every grandmaster. Having finally climbed to the top of this martial arts world, what awaits them is a life as fleeting as a mayfly.
A person's lifespan is inversely proportional to the things they want to accomplish, while the things a person wants to accomplish are directly proportional to their status and abilities.
Ordinary people who spend their lives in the fields and at the stove may feel that their lives are too bitter and too long.
The grandmasters who once dominated the world had too many ideas to accomplish, too many opponents to defeat, and too many responsibilities to shoulder. Each of these tasks was enough to make them grow old and gray, but the time that fate gave them was always too short, as if it were just a blink of an eye.
Strongman politics has a natural legitimacy in this world because the strong can use force and the threat of death to command all who disobey. But strongman politics always comes to an abrupt end because of their early deaths.
Every grandmaster must learn to reconcile with this damned fate in the rest of his life, to endure restless ambition and raging anger, and to use his position to gradually advance political issues, rather than relying on force to enforce them.
Zanfeng Licheng is more tolerant than anyone else. He has been playing the role of a child prodigy since childhood. In order to avoid being harmed by his jealous fellow disciples, he pretends to be stupid and acts crazy.
The martial art he chose was the most cruel one from the Demonic Sect, the "Entering Hell and Transcending the Original Vow Sutra." Practitioners must enter the Youfeng Cave beneath the Ksitigarbha Ancient Temple, a man-made hell with various punishments, starting from the slightest whipping of the skin. All sorts of tools and arrangements can create all kinds of corpses, including freezing, burning, plague, and metal wounds.
The monks who come here to practice only dare to endure the first few levels of hell, while the serfs and poor people who are captured often have to go all the way into hell, wailing in pain for months, and even being tortured to the point of near death, only to wither away for several years before finally succumbing to exhaustion.
Over thousands of years of continuous operation, a peculiar primordial energy slowly emerged in the resentful and malevolent Youfeng Cave, known as the Black Prison Wind. It is black in color and bitter in taste. Anyone exposed to its wind is as if they have entered hell. First, they suffer unbearable pain, then their skin and flesh are torn apart, then their bones are broken and their tendons are snapped, and finally their spirit withers and their will is extinguished.
Zanfeng Licheng is the second great master in the past thousand years, besides the monk who created this practice, to have mastered the "Sutra of the Original Vow to Enter Hell and Deliver Oneself".
He survived every level of hell and endured all the suffering without dying. Only when his heart was tempered to such an extent could he accept the dark winds of the hell and integrate them into his own spiritual energy.
Even now, Zanfeng Licheng still endures the torment of hell every day. He dares not let his power dissipate, for once his heart falters and his divine will retreats, he will no longer have the courage to bear the dark, eerie winds of the prison.
A person burdened by hell, if truly determined to achieve great things, will find no hardship or obstacle in the world that can deter him. Zanfeng Licheng can endure all humiliation as a gentle breeze, and all failure as dust on a mirror.
He was ruthless in using any means necessary to achieve his goals: bribery, buying off, flattery, betrayal, assassination. He disregarded his reputation and dignity.
As long as you're alive, keep moving forward.
Zanfeng Licheng believed he could see the future of the Demonic Sect unifying the martial world. He also believed he could end all the chaos in the martial world and even abolish the cruel blood sacrifice in the Western Regions, so that people could live a slightly better life than they do now. That would be enough. As long as successors could make progress generation after generation, the paradise described in the scriptures would eventually descend upon the earth.
Love. That's the answer Zanbong Ryeong used to get through hell.
It sounds unbelievable, but it's true: the most demonic land gave birth to the purest love. But Zanfeng Licheng's love has nothing to do with kindness; his love is a mechanical, metaphysical, lifeless thing, a true raging flood that will engulf all living beings.
At this moment, under the watchful eyes of the Holy Palace of Righteous Law, on the brutal battlefield, the Demonic Sect's Dharma King clashed with the strongest martial artist of the era.
All his wishes and all his love must survive this great calamity to continue to exist. If he cannot overcome this calamity called Lin Zhuo, then everything will be in vain.
The martial arts alliance leader blocked the wise and brave Heavenly Kings, while the white-robed righteous men stopped the remaining demonic cult members.
The most important battle was left to Lin Zhuo and Zan Feng to complete.
Having just drunk the rich soup, the hungry stomach still needs some time to digest, the celestial body's bones need some time to transform the nutrients into primordial essence, and the dantian needs some time to replenish itself.
This time won't be long, at most a dozen seconds. The time left for Zanfeng Licheng to defeat Lin Zhuo is only a dozen seconds. How short it is, yet it will determine the future of all living beings.
One was a chivalrous warrior determined to vanquish demons and monsters, and the other was a demon lord attempting to swallow mountains and rivers. The moment they clashed, the battle became terrifying. However, their extremely strong self-control prevented their true energy from leaking out and spreading even a little, thus avoiding any horrific scene. Otherwise, all the martial artists around them would have been caught in the crossfire and died to pieces.
Lin Zhuo casually swung his hammer, and Zan Fenglicheng met it with his short pestle, which resembled a prayer wheel, the powerful forces resonating together. The Dharma King's feet stumbled, his legs silently sinking into the ground, while Lin Zhuo lay on his back. The horse reared up, kicking towards Zan Fenglicheng, but was slapped away by a palm strike. The Black Prison True Essence penetrated the horse, causing its legs to suddenly convulse and collapse, neighing in agony. The horse did not panic and flee, but simply knelt and lay prostrate on the ground, unable to rise again.
The next instant, before Lin Zhuo could even get up, the chains in his hands writhed like snakes, driving the hammer head to smash towards a fleeting figure. The Dharma King, with his excellent agility, dodged, but the chains wrapped around him in mid-air, binding his left leg. He hurriedly channeled his true energy to shatter the chains, wasting a blink of an eye. Lin Zhuo then produced another pair of shackles and struck again.
The two clashed in this small space on horseback. The Dharma King's figure swayed and turned, wielding a pestle in one hand and manipulating his fingers in the other. He was able to use two extremely exquisite martial arts techniques at the same time. Combined with his nimble movements, his figure was blurred like mist, and the afterimages of his arms intertwined like blooming lotus flowers.
Lin Zhuo sat upright in the saddle, only shifting his upper body. He used a chain hammer in one hand to protect himself and raised his palm in the other to defend himself. He blocked and parried with ease, and his moves were free and unrestrained. Any one of his movements could be regarded as a short martial art, which would enhance the power of his true qi.
The apparent effect of the perfected "Supreme Dragon Transformation and Qi Control Technique" is to increase the basic learning multiplier of Qi cultivation skills. However, hidden behind this brief description is a supreme mastery of all martial arts, which is readily available and can be used freely. Every move is a martial art.
Zan Fengli had this feeling: when he fought Lin Zhuo, it was as if he was fighting against all things in the world, with all kinds of artistic conceptions emerging one after another, such as wind and frost, thunder and lightning, rainstorms and startled birds, cliffs turning into rocks, birds flying and beasts running, and it was as if the martial arts of various Jianghu sects, and even the Demonic Sect, were also included.
What kind of person could possess such a mind? Ever-changing, boundless. He could only think of the dragon, and that was the answer.
The true essence containing the dark, eerie winds of the Black Prison quietly seeped into Lin Zhuo's body, bringing endless pain and torment. A normal martial artist would probably be in excruciating pain at this point, with limbs spasming, internal organs burning, face red and eyes blazing, unable to move.
Lin Zhuo did indeed frown. His body showed signs of withering, his skin was wrinkled, and his muscles were loose. The erosion of the Black Prison Wind was similar to a spell, and even his invulnerable constitution could not withstand it.
However, he easily blocked every move of Zanfeng Licheng without being disturbed or affected in the slightest.
"Why?" Even Zanfeng Licheng, whose heart was calm and composed, couldn't help but feel a sense of doubt. "Can't you sense the hell that I bear?"
"Of course I can feel it," Lin Zhuo replied. "The hell you experienced, and the suffering of all the dead in that cave, are dissolved in this black wind, and I can feel it all."
"Is there not a trace of fear in your heart? Is there not a trace of reluctance at the loss of life? What belief allows you to ignore these tragic scenes? Is it love?"
Zanfeng Licheng suffered in seclusion in the artificial hell of Youfeng Cave. His former ego had died in the repeated pain and unbearable suffering, and instead gave birth to a selfless love, which allowed him to calmly and serenely accept all calamities and tragedies.
He made a grand vow to liberate all people from suffering and deliver all the evil spirits from hell, devoting all his compassion and weakness to this promise. He would not back down until his vow was fulfilled.
Zan Fenglicheng doesn't believe that just anyone can have such love.
"Love? Perhaps. But I don't need that kind of thing." Lin Zhuo's fighting spirit remained burning brightly.
A long time had passed, though it was only a blink of an eye, but Lin Zhuo's Qi Sea had already boiled and roared again, and the Dharma Seal between his eyebrows was as bright as a candle.
Zanfeng Licheng had tried his best, but he just couldn't defeat this exhausted martial artist. The best window of opportunity had quietly passed.
He wasn't desperate, just a little regretful.
The chain hammer began to roar and howl. Twenty layers of hidden dragon energy surged from between his brows.
"it's over."
"Yes, that's enough for me. But I would like to ask you to witness my final move."
The Dharma King leaped lightly into the air, pointed his fingers like a knife, and slashed lightly at Lin Zhuo on horseback. A line of dark light shot out like a crescent moon, meeting the Zhuo dragon that was rising from below.
In the final clash between the two martial artists, their fighting spirits resonated and their minds were in sync. Zan Fengli conveyed all the pain he had carried to Lin Zhuo, and he finally understood why Lin Zhuo was indifferent to all this misery and felt no guilt despite killing so many people.
Zanfeng Licheng saw that every dead person in Lin Zhuo's heart had Lin Zhuo's own face on them. Faced with the tragedy and sins of the world, this person actually chose to put himself in the shoes of every deceased and victim, to bear the same pain as them, and to continue their unfinished journey of life.
What a mad mind this is! If a normal person had to endure so much pain, they would have gone insane long ago!
After his initial surprise, Zan Fengli saw a corpse identical to his own in Lin Zhuo's mind. He then realized that he was dead, killed by the irresistible power of the Zhuolong's fall to earth. His body was shattered into pieces, and in the end, only his intact head would remain to proclaim his death to the world.
It was upon seeing this corpse that Zanfeng Licheng, through the method of mind-to-mind transmission, experienced all of Lin Zhuo's feelings for him—compassion.
Compassion is his answer to bearing all his sins.
The killings were motivated by compassion for the suffering of the people, and the deceased were remembered out of compassion for their hardships.
"So, I was just a fake Bodhisattva, and you are the true Ksitigarbha—I rejoice and praise you!"
The head of the Dharma King, still hanging in the air, slowly spun and fell to the ground amidst the horrified gazes of all the members of the demonic sect. A faint smile suddenly appeared on his perfectly sculpted dead face.
Thud! — Head hit the ground.
The victor of this battle has already emerged—
He sat motionless on his saddle, the number one martial artist as calm and collected as ever.