Chapter 1734 — The Mortal World a Purgatory, No Buddha in All the Heavens

All at once the twenty heavens of the Buddhist realm and the Great Thunderclap Monastery were empty, leaving only the ancient temple, the ancient shrine, and the ancient bell, and the ancient-god monk standing in the Indra Heaven realm with a smile on his face. The bell tolled, dang dang. At the very top of the Buddhist realm, in the Great Brahma Heaven realm, there was a place called the Nether Capital, where in years past Shen Mu had transformed into a little Earth Lord and slaughtered on all sides, declaring that he would do away with the Old Buddha and make himself the Earth Lord of the Buddhist realm.

Originally the Buddhist realm had no Nether Capital, no birth, aging, sickness, death, or pain; but Shen Mu had made a great commotion and helped the Old Buddha purge the forces the Heavenly Court had planted in the Buddhist realm, and so the Nether Capital came to be here, and the demon gods and monsters of the Nether Capital could reach this place directly.

At this moment the Great Brahma Heaven King Buddha sat presiding over the Nether Capital, and countless demon gods and monsters swarmed like the tide, hurling themselves at this Old Buddha! The demon gods and monsters of the Nether Capital were formed from the evil and stray thoughts of all living beings, the filth within their minds; demonic qi is the most foul of vital energies. Seen from the Nether Capital of the Yuan Realm and from the Nether Capital here, the Great Brahma Heaven King Buddha was like a Mount Sumeru blazing with light, lying across the heartland of Jingping; let countless monsters and demon gods surge in, they could not stir his body! Behind his head were seventeen halos, each halo a heavenly palace; the Buddha-light converted the demon-nature and demon-thoughts of the many demon gods and monsters, turning the evil of living beings into karmic fire.

He was the last barrier guarding Jingping, keeping the Nether Capital from invading! If he were defeated, the army of demon gods and monsters of the Nether Capital would pour into the Great Brahma Heaven realm in one surge, come howling down from the Great Brahma Heaven realm, darkness would shroud the twenty heavens of the Buddhist realm, then drown the Great Thunderclap Monastery, and flood toward every corner of Jingping!

The Great Brahma Heaven King Buddha stood firm as Mount Sumeru, unmoving, and gradually entered a dream.

More and more of his cultivation was consumed, but more and more monsters and demon gods fell dead or wounded; gradually, fewer and fewer monsters and demon gods came surging in. "Big monk. " Suddenly a voice came.

The Great Brahma Heaven King Buddha woke from his dream and looked up, and saw an army of gods and demons, less than fifty thousand strong, that had at some point come here from the Nether Capital.

"The Heavenly Court's Divine Strategy Guard? " The Great Brahma Heaven King Buddha rose and greeted them with a question.

The commander at their head bowed slightly and said, "You Bijun, Eastern Chancellor and Marshal of the Divine Strategy Left Guard, pays his respects to the big monk.

His Majesty has issued a decree ordering me to take the big monk's life. Officers, form ranks!

" The fifty thousand gods and demons of the Heavenly Court's Divine Strategy Left Guard laid out their formation, and heavenly palaces rose one after another from the ground, as though the Heavenly Worthy Xutian himself had descended.

The Great Brahma Heaven King Buddha sighed. "The source and the self-nature are cultivated together as Buddha; how should delusion and enlightenment be bound by before and after?

Enlightened, one becomes a Buddha in an instant; deluded, one drifts through ten thousand kalpas.

The Xuanliao Demon Ape, the Xuanliao Demon Ape, it is the demon ape in the heart that must be subdued. Zhankong, you will understand this. Officers, if you please.

" You Bijun bowed and said, "In earlier years I received the big monk's kindness.

Today I will leave the big monk a whole corpse!

" She straightened up, unfurled her command flag, and the great formation of the Divine Strategy Left Guard closed in, drowning the Great Brahma Heaven King Buddha! At the foot of Mount Kunlun of the Dao Sect, Shen Mu killed another of Lingguan's avatars; but the Dao Ancestor was not at Kunlun.

At that moment he was in the Directorate of Works in Jingping, designing divine weapons together with the Dao Master Lin Xuan. Shen Mu headed straight for the Yuan Wood of Jingping, and even as he ran, his Nether Capital divine ability burst forth, arriving ahead of him above the Yuan Wood of Jingping and the capital!

His divine ability became a Book of Life and Death, blazing with golden light, shining in all directions. The Book had just locked onto the two Lingguan avatars that had already come to this place when Shen Mu's figure arrived; he killed one ancient-god avatar before the Wenda Hall of the Dide Heavenly Palace, and then slew the other ancient-god avatar within the imperial palace of Shangjing City. His figure rushed toward the Eastern Sea, and just then the surface of the Eastern Sea suddenly raised waves that reached the sky; amid the surging billows the Myriad Dragon Nest exploded. That Myriad Dragon Nest had risen in the holy land of the Ancestral Court, formed from the convergence of the vital blood of the cosmos.

In the most ancient times the Creator had sacrificed there, and in that holy land was born a divinity who governed vital blood: the Eastern Emperor, the Azure Dragon. Now the Myriad Dragon Nest had exploded, and the torrent of vital blood poured out at once, filling the sea's surface, dyeing the sky-high waves crimson, surging toward Jingping! Amid the towering waves two enormous divine dragons fought; suddenly one of them, an azure dragon, was torn into four and five pieces, meeting an untimely death!

Shen Mu flicked his fingers, and a lotus leaf appeared, settling on the crest of the waves; at once the great waves subsided, and no ripple rose. Shen Mu flew off, not to kill the azure dragon, but straight toward the great army led by Jiang Baigui, where many armies of gods and demons of Jingping had formed their ranks, locking a dragon-headed ancient god in place with formation after formation!

With Jiang Baigui as the eye of the formation, thirty-six heavenly palaces and seventy-two treasure halls all emerged, joining with the various armies to become a complete Great Heavenly Court formation, working together to grind down that dragon-headed ancient god. Shen Mu halted at once and turned back upon the other divine dragon.

"Seventh Young Master, you have already lost this battle!

" From the divine dragon's mouth came the voice of Lord Lingguan, crying, "If you save the Northern Emperor and Wei Suifeng, you cannot save the Western Emperor, and you will be even less in time to rescue the Lord of the Beast Realm in the Southern Heaven!

Even if you choose and discard, you cannot save everyone! " Bang!

He was smashed to pieces by Shen Mu. Shen Mu did not pause for an instant, but rose and sped away; on the road toward the Kan Land, he suddenly saw above the Great Thunderclap Monastery in the heartland of Jingping the twenty heavens of the Buddhist realm emerge, the twenty heavens encircling Mount Sumeru, sky high and clouds pale, towering and magnificent.

Suddenly a drop of black ink appeared on the Great Brahma Heaven realm, and then, as though the ink were spreading, it stained the whole Great Brahma Heaven realm dark; then this blackness surged toward the Indra Heaven realm, the Vaishravana Heaven realm, the Dhritarashtra Heaven realm!

Quickly the twenty heavens encircling Mount Sumeru were stained dark, and the darkness poured downward, pouring toward the Great Thunderclap Monastery.