Longevity by Grinding Skills

Chapter 486: Chapter 486: Sword’s Rise, Sword’s Demise

The moment it appeared, time and space themselves seemed to be forcibly frozen for an instant.

This sword light was as vast as a surging Star Sea, yet as condensed as a needle that could pierce the heavens.

It ignored all distance. The very instant of its birth, its supreme sharpness already spanned the heavens.

Its target: the Glazed Buddha Palm, a manifestation of the Buddhist Sect’s supreme will, that was about to seize Xu Yunfan.

Where the sword light passed.

There was no world-shaking explosion.

No frenzied torrent of energy annihilation.

Only a silent, soundless...

TSS.

It was like a searing brand pressed into soft snow, or a razor slicing through the finest silk.

That Glazed Buddha Palm—imbued with the supreme Buddha Power, capable of seizing the stars and moon and suppressing the heavens—along with the billions of Cause and Effect Threads entwined around it, the boundless purifying halo, and the indistinct seated phantom manifesting behind it, failed to stir even a single ripple or offer the slightest resistance before the sword light from the Sword Peak’s apex cleaved it in two.

Clean! Swift! Absolute!

The bisected Glazed Buddha Palm froze for an instant before dissolving into countless pure, crystalline motes of light. Like fireflies scattered by the wind, they silently dissipated between heaven and earth.

The phantom also trembled violently, like a video with a bad connection. The lingering trace of cold anger and the detached indifference of imminent success on its face were completely replaced in that instant by an indescribable horror.

True horror!

A horror born of disbelief and incomprehension.

It instantly flooded the ethereal eyes of the majestic silhouette.

This was no mere fear in the face of power.

It was as if it had seen something that should never exist in this world, something that should not be here, right now—something reality-shattering, absolute...

Impossible.

The sword light did not stop. After annihilating the Glazed Buddha Palm, its momentum unabated, it lay stretched between heaven and earth like a supreme sword-screen dividing light and dark, separating life from death. It hovered there silently, its tip pointed at the phantom of "Sanzang," from whose face the look of horror had not yet faded.

A cold, pure Sword Intent silently locked onto him.

It was both a question and a declaration: ’This is a Sword Domain. Those who cross this line...’

’...are slain!’

Meanwhile, the small, dark figure saved by the sword light, Xu Yunfan, was struck by the terrifying aftershock of the Sword Intent. He could bear it no longer. His vision went black, and like a kite with a snapped string, he plummeted rigidly toward the wide, bluestone plaza at the Wansheng Sword Sect’s main gate.

The supreme sword-screen that stretched across the sky radiated a cold, pure Sword Intent as deep as an abyss and as vast as the sea. Merely by hovering before the phantom of "Sanzang," it unleashed a terrifying pressure sufficient to freeze a Divine Soul and sever the threads of cause, effect, and Reincarnation.

The sword light’s annihilation of the Glazed Buddha Palm was not a simple contest of power. It was more like an absolute dominion over, and negation of, some established Law.

The horror had yet to fade from the vast, ethereal eyes of Amitabha Buddha’s worldly manifestation when it felt the very foundation of its existence begin to give way.

That power—the glazed, pure light and boundless Buddha aura formed from the will of a supreme Buddha—was now emitting a silent, sorrowful wail and disintegrating under the deathly stillness and cutting intent of the sword light.

VMMMM!

The seated phantom trembled violently. Like a glazed mirror struck by a great stone, its surface became covered in countless fine cracks.

On that face with its downcast eyes, full of compassion for all living beings, the pain and disbelief of Sanzang’s true form was clearly revealed for the first time.

’World Honored One... Tathagata...’

A wisp of consciousness, so faint it was nearly shattered, tried to contact the Western Heaven Buddha Country, seeking a response or aid from that supreme existence.

However, what answered it was absolute silence.

It was as if the sword-screen before it had not only severed the Glazed Buddha Palm but had also cut an invisible thread of causality that spanned across infinite time and space.

The Bodhi Pure Land felt as if it had been sealed away behind an invisible barrier.

Sanzang’s heart—no, the core of the will currently occupying this projected Dharma Body—sank heavily.

’It isn’t that the World Honored One Tathagata has abandoned me, but rather...’

’The Southern Continent... the Wansheng Sword Sect!’

’The being who presides over the Sword Peak, who unleashed such a world-shaking sword strike...’

’His power and status are far beyond that of an ordinary True Monarch.’

’And this mountain gate is the territory of the Wansheng Sword Sect!’

’The one cultivating in seclusion on the Sword Peak, the guardian of this place, the current master of the Wansheng Sword Sect...’

’Pure Yang True Monarch!’

’The Wansheng Sword Sect is not just the leader of the orthodox righteous sects. Behind it is a supreme Daoist lineage that would make even the Nine Heavens Immortals and Gods take notice—a supreme lineage that has its own Daoist Lord!’

The Wansheng Sword Sect also had a Daoist Lord.

The will of Amitabha Buddha’s worldly manifestation came to an instant understanding. Pure Yang True Monarch had intervened, and by annihilating its attack projection with such an unequivocal, resolute posture—one akin to "exorcising a demon to defend the Dao"—he had made his intentions perfectly clear.

The Buddhist Sect was not to act so brazenly on this land.

The fact that this projected Dharma Body was not utterly annihilated on the spot, instead being allowed to dissolve into motes of light rather than having its consciousness obliterated, was already a show of immense tolerance from Pure Yang True Monarch. He was giving face to the World Honored One Tathagata, offering him a way to back down gracefully.

To persist would be futile. Forcing the issue would not only cause this costly, consecrated manifestation of Amitabha Buddha to be utterly destroyed, but it might also trigger an unforeseen, cataclysmic conflict between the Bodhi Pure Land and the Wansheng Sword Sect.

"Amitabha Buddha... So be it, so be it..."

The grand Buddha’s Name, laced with extreme helplessness, suffocating frustration, and a trace of lingering fear, echoed across the sky. Mixed with the faint sound of shattering crystal, it sounded utterly hollow.

The next moment, the cracked phantom, like the last remnants of snow completely melting in the sun, abruptly collapsed and burst apart.

There was no world-shaking explosion, only flakes of light as pure as crystal yet containing the essence of endless Buddha Power. Like fireflies in the wind, they rapidly dimmed and broke down, finally transforming into countless, nigh-imperceptible golden rainbows of Buddha Light that shot toward the distant Western Heaven, vanishing over the horizon in the blink of an eye.

In its place, only the physical body of the monk Sanzang remained, staggering backward as he coughed up a great mouthful of golden blood with a violent SPURT.

His face was as pale as gold foil, his aura decayed to an absolute low. Like a candle sputtering in the wind, he found it immensely difficult to even remain afloat.

His faded Kasaya was mostly soaked through with his own golden blood, sticky and cold.

The compassionate detachment in his eyes was long gone, replaced by a bone-deep terror, a daze of disbelief, and an unspeakable sense of humiliation.

He struggled to look up toward the sky above the apex of Wansheng Sword Peak, now once again shrouded by a chaotic sea of clouds. Deep in his eyes, unwillingness and venomous hatred swirled, but they ultimately dissolved into profound dread and powerlessness.

’I never imagined that Pure Yang True Monarch would actually make a move for a Demon Dao Daoist Master. And what a move it was—so powerful that not even the worldly manifestation of Amitabha Buddha could stop it.’

’I am certain of it,’ he thought. ’That Sword Intent did not overstep any bounds. He suppressed his power to my level, that of a Great Daoist Master at Foundation Establishment Perfection. Even so, I was unable to withstand a single strike.’

He clung to his last shred of Buddha Power, not daring to leave behind any harsh words, much less try to call on the World Honored One Tathagata again. He knew he had completely botched this task. He could only count himself lucky that the World Honored One Tathagata had never descended in his true form; otherwise, he would have surely been slapped into utter annihilation.

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