"You... seek death?"
A question, so level it bordered on indifference, suddenly washed over this seething, chaotic, collapsing world.
In an instant—
The wind stopped.
The turbulent, shattered space solidified.
The Dragon Monarch’s colossal, writhing body froze mid-torment.
The aftershocks of the clash of Divine Techniques between the True Monarchs and Bodhisattvas lingered in mid-air, flickering in and out of existence.
The illusory figure standing with a sword was aloof and ethereal, as if it might disperse with the wind at any moment.
Yet it was this seemingly fragile figure.
That now exuded a terrifying pressure—purer, more fundamental, and more dreadful than that of the World Honored One who sat upon the golden lotus, one hand pointing to the sky and the other touching the earth!
Under the questioning of this figure, the image of the World Honored One, its features always obscured behind a soft halo, showed a distinct change for the first time.
Those eyes, originally like gems set in a painting, holding only constant Compassion and majesty, suddenly gained a spark of vitality.
It was an extremely subtle, yet unmistakably clear "turn."
It was as if a stone statue that had slumbered for eons was, at this very moment, infused with its first breath of life.
Its gaze slowly turned, landing on the illusory, sword-wielding figure a short distance away.
There were no sparks, no roars.
Then, the figure of the World Honored One stirred slightly and began to speak with extreme slowness:
"I..."
But the syllable was only half-spoken.
The illusory, sword-wielding figure seemed to have no interest in hearing him out.
His right hand, held in a loose grip, didn’t even show a significant wrist movement. Only his fingertips pressed down with an infinitesimal motion.
The Three-foot Cyan Blade in his hand, formed from pure light and shadow, suddenly—
erupted in brilliance!
In the next instant.
The cyan blade fell.
The movement was simple, direct, without any flourish—casual and unrestrained.
Like a woodcutter splitting a dry log, like a painter erasing a flawed stroke.
The blade carved an unremarkable arc as it descended toward the figure of the World Honored One.
Time, in this moment, was stretched to infinity and compressed to nothing.
Every living being, regardless of their Cultivation level, whether at the core of the battlefield or its fringes, "saw" the trajectory of that falling sword.
And they also "saw" what happened where the blade struck.
There was no earth-shattering explosion.
No world-destroying blast of energy.
Only a... silent "disintegration."
Like a sandcastle crumbling, like a soap bubble bursting.
The figure of the World Honored One, seated on the golden lotus and radiating an unparalleled might of supreme self-importance, was like a pencil drawing being erased the moment the blade touched it.
From head to toe, it turned from solid to ethereal, from ethereal to nothingness, dissolving inch by inch.
It didn’t even make a sound.
Even the illusion of the Twelve-Grade Golden Lotus beneath it melted like snow under a blazing sun, silently evaporating and vanishing without a trace.
Next was the World Honored One’s Handwriting, the Scroll that carried the secrets of the realm "Above the True Monarch" and had triggered this catastrophic slaughter.
The ancient scripture Scroll, struck by the lingering Sword Intent, trembled violently!
Then—
"CRACK... BANG!!!"
A shattering sound, incredibly crisp and utterly soul-shaking, resounded in the deepest depths of every living being’s Divine Soul!
This scripture, containing the mysteries of the realm Above the True Monarch, cracked inch by inch under the gazes of countless beings, all shocked into a stupor.
In the blink of an eye, it transformed into exactly forty-nine incredibly condensed, dazzlingly brilliant golden streams of Flowing Light!
These forty-nine golden lights, like forty-nine golden Celestial Dragons freed from their bonds, shot off into the chaotic void in all directions—up, down, left, and right—the moment they formed, letting out sharp, space-tearing shrieks!
Grab!
The most primal fire of desire instantly ignited within every True Monarch and Bodhisattva.
The Righteous Dao and Demon Dao, the old grudges of the Buddhist Sect, the dignity of the Dragon Race.
Before these fragments of opportunity for the realm "Above the True Monarch" that were now within arm’s reach, all of it was thrown to the wind!
"WHOOSH!"
"WHOOSH!"
"WHOOSH!"
"WHOOSH!"...
Almost in the same instant the golden lights scattered, a dense, scalp-numbing chorus of whooshes filled Heaven and Earth!
It was the True Monarchs and Bodhisattvas, abandoning their enemies, abandoning all restraint and calculation, pushing their speed and control over space to the absolute limit. They transformed into terrifying Escape Lights of various colors, each carrying the power to rip apart the Celestial Vault, and brazenly lunged for the fleeing golden lights!
The scene instantly shifted from extreme "stillness" to extreme "chaos" and extreme "madness"!
Sword light stretched for tens of thousands of miles, just to intercept a single golden gleam that brushed past;
A Buddha’s palm blotted out the sky, its five fingers closing like mountains, attempting to catch three or four golden lights in one fell swoop;
Demonic Qi transformed into a myriad of tentacles, writhing like a nest of snakes, frantically coiling toward the nearest stream of Flowing Light;
A dragon’s tail swept out, shattering a large swath of space, just to corner a single golden light;
Talismans rained down, sealing off all paths of escape;
Starlight formed a net, blanketing a region of the heavens;
The Yellow Springs formed a vortex, trying to swallow...
Hell opened its gates, intending to pull...
Thirty-two peak existences, all had gone mad with greed!
The Escape Lights and golden lights frantically chased, collided, and intertwined in the air!
Great Daoist Divine Techniques were unleashed as if they cost nothing.
All to hinder others and seize the prize for themselves!
The sky above Spirit Mountain had completely transformed into a hunting ground and meat grinder, driven by the purest desire and violence—a chaos beyond description!
The already-devastated Spirit Mountain and the earth below were stained a chaotic kaleidoscope of colors.
And just at this chaotic moment—as Heaven and Earth overturned, as all living beings descended into madness, as every gaze and sense was fixated on those forty-nine alluring golden lights—
"HUMMMMM—!!!!!"
A deep, immense tremor, as if echoing from the end of time itself, erupted without warning from the bottomless, massive fissure in Spirit Mountain!
The next instant!
A peerless golden light, its brilliance, nobility, and majestic splendor too dazzling to look at directly and beyond description, shot out from the deepest part of the fissure and soared to the heavens. It was like a volcano, suppressed for hundreds of millions of years, had finally found an opening!
The brilliance of this golden light instantly overshadowed all the other clashing lights in the sky.
A tree.
An ancient Divine Tree, so massive it was beyond imagination, holding up the entire Celestial Vault!
The entire Divine Tree exuded a supreme majesty—serene, stable, pervading all existence, and measuring Heaven and Earth.
Its trunk was as thick as a mountain range, a draconic spine of the earth, shooting straight up into the peak of the not-yet-faded golden light, as if truly connecting Heaven and Earth.
Its bark was not like the grain of an ordinary tree, but was a series of deep fissures flowing with the incandescent glow of molten gold. Within them, ancient seal characters, seemingly born of nature yet also inscribed by the Great Dao, floated and flickered.
Those seal characters were faintly discernible.
They were an eight-character inscription, ancient and profound, carrying supreme authority and prayer!
[Kaiyuan Tongbao, Eternal Prosperity for Ten Thousand Generations]
The Golden Tang Dynasty Imperial Soldier—[God of Wealth]!
...
「Deep within Spirit Mountain, in a land steeped in Buddha Light.」
It was a stark contrast to the "Saint Realm" atmosphere on the mountain’s surface, with its brilliant, all-encompassing light and solemn Brahma Chanting.
The deeper one went into the mountain’s belly, the more the surroundings took on a solidified feeling of being "suppressed" and "sealed away."
Qi Yun’s figure, transformed into a stream of Flowing Light, followed the increasingly clear and urgent guidance from Cai Shen’s True Spirit in his Purple Mansion.
He passed through ancient corridors and stone chambers, long since eroded beyond recognition by time and Buddha Power, but still bearing the marks of powerful Restrictions.
This place seemed to have once been a forbidden ground secretly built by the Nanyin Royal Family. Faded royal crests and long-defunct Guard Arrays could occasionally be seen on the walls.
But now, these vestiges of the past were all covered by a thick, even layer of golden "Buddha’s Fat" that exuded a soft sandalwood fragrance.
After passing through a giant bronze door completely sealed by Buddha’s Fat, the space suddenly opened up before him.
This was an extremely vast subterranean vault. Its dome hung high above, hidden within a dense fog of golden Buddha Light.
The ground was flat, engraved with a long-faded topographical map of Nanyin’s mountains and rivers.
And in the very center of the vault, a hundred-zhang-tall, Eight-sided Buddha Tower forged entirely from "Sealing Demon Buddha Gold" stood majestically. The Buddha Tower had nine layers, and huge, golden Scripture Wheels hung from the eaves of each layer.
The tower’s surface was densely carved with countless scenes of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Arhats preaching scriptures, expounding the dharma, and suppressing the Outer Dao.
Furthermore, golden chains as thick as a child’s arm, forged from pure Wish Power, coiled around the tower like giant pythons. The other ends of the chains were plunged deep into the surrounding rock walls and earth, tightly connected to the entire Spirit Mountain’s Earth Veins and Wish Power network.
Qi Yun’s gaze pierced through the layers of Buddha Light and seals, locking firmly onto the Buddha Tower’s lowest level.
Cai Shen’s true body—the Imperial Soldier [God of Wealth]—was behind that door.
’This is it! That’s right! These bald donkeys used an entire Acalanatha Demon Suppression Tower in coordination with Spirit Mountain’s Earth Vein Wish Power to seal me! What a grand gesture!’
Cai Shen’s voice rang in Qi Yun’s Heart and Spirit.
’The source of this tower’s power is connected to the origin Buddha Power of at least three Bodhisattvas!
’If you force your way in, you’ll be detected instantly.’
Qi Yun said nothing, merely observing the structure of the Buddha Tower and the energy flow of the Wish Power Chains.
His Daluo Heaven silently ran calculations, searching for a nearly impossible "gap."
After a long while, he slowly spoke, his voice exceptionally clear in the deathly silent, sealed space:
"Is there a way to reach your main body without alerting the seal?"
Cai Shen was silent for a moment. His golden, illusory figure appeared on Qi Yun’s shoulder, his small face uncharacteristically serious, devoid of its usual jest.
He studied the Buddha Tower suppressing his true body, a light flashing rapidly in his eyes as if he were weighing and calculating something.
Suddenly, he turned his head to look at Qi Yun, a slow grin spreading across his chubby face:
"Kid... wanna make a big gamble?"
Qi Yun’s eyes flickered. "How so?"
Cai Shen floated in front of Qi Yun, his small eyes burning brightly:
"I am an Imperial Soldier of the Dao of Wealth, wielding authority over the circulation of all wealth in the world!
I can sell, and I can buy.
Naturally, I can also... offer a Borrowing!"
"A Borrowing?" Qi Yun’s brow twitched.
"That’s right!" Cai Shen rubbed his small hands, his tone taking on a merchant-like quality.
"As long as you have collateral of sufficient value, I can temporarily grant a ’Borrowing’ for one complete use of an Imperial Soldier’s power!
"But afterward, you’ll need to repay this ’debt’ five times over, principal and interest!"
"Repay fivefold?" Qi Yun’s gaze deepened. "Senior, that interest is quite steep. It’s just..."
"But I am penniless at the moment. I’m afraid I have nothing that an Imperial Soldier would recognize as collateral."
"Oh, you most certainly do. Setting aside everything else, just this Dharma Body of yours... is enough," Cai Shen said with certainty.
"If it were the Dharma Body of an ordinary Foundation Establishment Master, it naturally wouldn’t be worth the ’debt’ of one complete use of an Imperial Soldier’s power.
But you are different!
You walk an unprecedented new path, with nearly infinite potential!
With this Dharma Body that treads a new path as collateral, my main body will approve this transaction!"
"But rules are rules. With this Dharma Body as collateral, I can fully activate my main body once.
After that, you have a hundred years.
Within one hundred years, you must repay five times the value of this ’Borrowing’ of the Imperial Soldier’s power.
If the hundred years pass and you fail to repay the debt..."
Cai Shen looked into Qi Yun’s eyes and said, word by word:
"Then, this [Great Brightness Shizhi Dharma Body], your collateral, will be directly repossessed by my main body. There will be no room for negotiation."
The subterranean vault fell into a deathly silence.
Only the towering Buddha Tower continued to emanate a constant, suppressive Buddha Light, its golden Wish Power Chains flowing without a sound.
Qi Yun stood quietly, the hem of his deep blue robes fluttering slightly.
A hundred years, a fivefold repayment.
Time trickled by, as heavy and viscous as the golden Buddha’s Fat slowly dripping from the vault’s ceiling.
Cai Shen didn’t press him, just waited quietly.
He knew this decision was not one to be made lightly.
Finally.
Qi Yun slowly raised his head.
In the depths of his perpetually clear and serene eyes, it was as if chaos was dawning, as if a spark had been lit.
He looked at Cai Shen, the corner of his mouth curving into a faint arc, yet one as sharp as a drawn Sword Aura.
"Good!"
...
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