Chapter 692
Animal-like Survival Reactions
He was truly taken aback by the White Lotus Boy's sudden act of "recognizing his father".
This guy... to save his life, he really has no shame or integrity left at all! A mere attendant of a saint, with the cultivation of a quasi-saint, can he so readily kneel down and call someone "father"?
Little did Lin Zhu know that the White Lotus Child was truly terrified of him and the Dragon Clan. The crushing defeat in the Southern Continent, the exposure before Mount Ling, the near-annihilation by the Dragon Emperor just now... one thing after another had already shattered his pride and arrogance.
He has only one thought in his mind right now.
Live on! Live on at all costs!
Revenge on Lin Zhu? The thought occasionally flashed through my mind, but it was immediately suppressed by a deeper fear.
He had already formed a clear understanding in his subconscious.
Offending the Buddha might offer some leeway, at most resulting in punishment; but offending this smiling, menacing Lin Zhu would truly mean death, and before death, one might suffer endless torment and humiliation! Although Master Amitabha tried his best to protect himself, he clearly couldn't stop the raging Dragon Emperor, nor could he protect him at all times.
If he were to die now, wouldn't all the suffering, pain, and loss of face he had endured be for nothing? That would be such a waste! So, even if it meant kneeling and calling someone "father," even if it meant suffering unprecedented humiliation, he would seize any chance of survival! Cowardice? Can the struggle for survival be called cowardice?
Lin Zhu quickly recovered from his shock, his eyes becoming playful and profound.
He saw the deep-seated fear and humility in the White Lotus Boy's eyes. It was not a repentance after enlightenment, nor a sudden awakening of reason, but purely the most instinctive, animalistic survival reaction after being beaten and terrified.
He was like a mangy dog whose fangs had been completely pulled out and whose spine had been crushed, only able to grovel at the feet of the strong, trembling and begging for mercy, no longer daring to have the slightest thought of resistance.
"Ah……"
Lin Zhu chuckled softly, shook her head, and spoke with a hint of something ambiguous in her tone.
"It seems you've truly 'gone straight' now. However..."
He deliberately dragged out his tone, looking at the primordial spirit of the White Lotus Child, which was almost dissipating due to extreme tension.
At this moment, the White Lotus Child dared not hesitate in the slightest. Seeing that Lin Zhu's tone seemed to have softened, he immediately grasped at the last straw, his broken "body" crawling even lower, frantically conveying the intention to kowtow and confess his sins.
"Father, please see the truth! Your son deserves to die! His sins are grave! He should not have offended you! He should not have provoked the dragon clan! He should not have harbored resentment! Your son is willing to offer his true soul and serve you as a slave for eternity! He only begs for your life, Father! Spare me!"
He had never suffered such humiliation in his life, but at this moment, this humiliation became the only "price" he could pay, hoping to exchange it for a way to survive.
Looking at the White Lotus Child at his feet, who was like a puddle of mud yet bursting with an astonishing "survival ritual," Lin Zhu's twitching lips finally subsided, replaced by an almost indifferent calm.
He suddenly felt a bit bored. Bullying someone who had completely lost the will to resist, and even willingly trampled their dignity into the mud, seemed pointless.
"Alright, alright, stop howling."
Lin Zhu waved his hand, interrupting the White Lotus Boy's incessant pleas.
"I told you, how could someone as respectful to the elderly and kind-hearted as me really kill you?"
Upon hearing this, the White Lotus Child's primordial spirit suddenly shone brightly, filled with immense hope.
However, Lin Zhu's next words made him feel as if he had fallen into an ice cave.
"However..."
Lin Zhu slowly straightened up, and then, before Bai Lian Tong Zi could react, he stretched out a hand, spread his five fingers, and grabbed the "neck" of Bai Lian Tong Zi's broken primordial spirit body, lifting him up from the ground like a plucked chick!
"The necessary procedures still need to be followed."
The smile that the White Lotus Child feared most—a smile tinged with mockery and malice—reappeared on Lin Zhu's face.
Then, he took a deep breath, circulated his magic power, and shouted loudly towards the chaotic and noisy battlefield outside the Great Thunderclap Temple, where the roars of dragons and chants of Buddha resounded. His voice was clearer, more powerful, and more penetrating than when he exposed his escape.
"Hey—! Everyone outside! Look over here! We've caught another one trying to escape in the chaos! Your White Lotus Venerable from the Western Paradise is trying to run away again—!!!"
That shout was like pouring a ladle of ice water into a boiling oil pan, and it was amplified!
The sound clearly pierced through the roar of the battlefield and reached the ears of the high-ranking officers on both sides who were engaged in fierce fighting.
Amitabha Buddha, who was being forced into a somewhat disheveled state by Mo Bailonghuang's spacetime distortion tail attack, suddenly trembled upon hearing this and abruptly turned his head!
Having just forced back a Buddha, the Purple-Gold Dragon Emperor, whose dragon eyes were blazing with killing intent, suddenly raised his dragon head upon hearing the sound!
All the divine senses that still had the leisure to perceive the battle situation were, to varying degrees, directed towards the source of the sound—the entrance of the Great Thunderclap Temple.
The White Lotus Child, lifted high by Lin Zhu like a flag, his tattered primordial spirit swaying wildly in the wind, listened to the resounding announcement that echoed across the battlefield, and felt countless gazes that suddenly focused on him—gazes of shock and anger, violence, mockery, and pity…
His remaining consciousness completely vanished into a blank.
Shocked.
Utter astonishment.
And, what follows, is a despair and coldness deeper than death itself.
Lin Zhu... he... he actually... pulled this stunt again?!
Lifted high by Lin Zhu like prey and "displayed" to the entire brutal battlefield, the last trace of twisted belief and will to survive in the shattered core of the White Lotus Child's primordial spirit finally collapsed completely.
Endless despair, like the coldest frost, engulfed every wisp of his consciousness.
He didn't understand why things had turned out this way.
In his simple logic, aside from casually killing hundreds of thousands of ant-like mortals in that border town at the beginning of his trip down to the mortal realm, it seemed... he hadn't done anything particularly outrageous, right? As for those humans?
Who cares? On the journey to the West, demons devour people, and immortals fight each other, causing innocent bystanders to suffer—aren't these all common occurrences? Those mortals are born in the morning and die in the evening; their souls enter the underworld, where they are destined for reincarnation. What's the big deal?
He later made two more moves, once in the Southern Continent and once in front of Mount Ling, and he won both times! Although Lin Zhu interfered in the first time and he was beaten up by the Dragon Clan in the second time, the strength and prestige he displayed in the process were real, right?
But why, after winning the battle, did the Western Paradise end up in such a state? Mount Ling is ruined, the Buddha has perished, and I myself have fallen into such a miserable state.
Isn't the Western Paradise a top-tier sect in the Three Realms? Doesn't it have two sages presiding over it? How did it suddenly become a victim, being beaten down by the Dragon Clan and repeatedly humiliated by Lin Zhu, this "little guy"?
He couldn't understand it, much less accept it.
What was particularly unacceptable was Lin Zhu's repeated claims of "seeking justice for the hundreds of thousands of wronged souls in the border cities of the Tang Dynasty." To the White Lotus Boy, this reason was utterly absurd and laughable! To stand up for some nameless human beings who could be easily erased? To even risk offending the Western Paradise and instigating such a great war? How could that be possible! What kind of fool would act like that? What kind of logic is that?
In his view, Lin Zhu was just using a high-sounding excuse. His real purpose was to attack the Western Paradise, seek personal gain, or simply because he didn't like him!
"For...for those ants?"
The remaining thoughts of the White Lotus Child emitted intermittent fluctuations filled with incomprehension and mockery. Even in this state, he stubbornly remained entrenched in his own perception.
"Lin Zhu...you're hypocritical! You're just using this as an excuse to attack my Western Paradise! Those humans...they're dead, so what? Who cares? Who's truly angry for them? Don't...use such ridiculous reasons to embellish your despicable behavior!"
Lin Zhu looked down at the broken primordial spirit in his hand, which still exuded an aura of stubbornness. The smile on his face vanished completely, replaced by a cold, sneer filled with tangible disgust.
"Ha, even at this point, you're still deceiving yourself, still using those stupid eyes of yours, raised by a saint, stained with blood but unable to see it, to look at this world?"
Lin Zhu's voice was not loud, but every word was like an ice pick, piercing deep into the consciousness of the White Lotus Child.
"Slaughtering living beings, treating them like dirt, and then putting on an act of ignorance, even feigning innocence, as if the fault lies not with the perpetrator, but with those who accuse you of the crime. Which saint did you learn this from? Unfortunately, you've only learned a hybrid, a mere shell of its former self, nothing more than a clown, utterly disgusting!"
"I didn't! I'm not!"
The White Lotus Child was like a cat whose tail had been stepped on; his remaining consciousness fiercely refuted, but it was pale and powerless.
"Those humans...their...their deaths were their destiny! Yes...ah!"
Before he could finish speaking, Lin Zhu's five fingers tightened slightly, and a punitive magical force pierced through him, causing him to let out a painful groan.
"A calamity? What a calamity!"
The chill in Lin Zhu's eyes intensified.
"Is your miserable state today also your calamity? Is the calamity that the Western Paradise is suffering also its calamity? According to your logic, you and the Western Paradise should accept this calmly and remain silent. Why do you run away? Why do you fight? Why do you show such a resentful and unwilling ugly face?"
The White Lotus Child was speechless, his primordial spirit flickering chaotically, leaving only a delusional hiss.
"You're targeting the Western Paradise! You hate me! All this talk of wronged human souls is just an excuse! An excuse!"
Seeing the White Lotus Boy's unrepentant and incapable-of-understanding behavior, Lin Zhu completely lost his last bit of patience and extinguished the last possible possibility of "educating" him.
Some things are rotten to the core. They think they are high above the world, looking down on all living beings, but in reality, they have never even had the most basic reverence for life.
This situation is beyond redemption.
He stopped talking nonsense, his palm power flowed, transforming into an invisible yet tough cage, firmly imprisoning the White Lotus Child's broken primordial spirit in his hand, unable to move, and even the transmission of his thoughts was greatly suppressed.
At this moment, because of Lin Zhu's earth-shattering "second report" and the extremely conspicuous white lotus boy "flag" in his hand, the attention of the entire brutal battlefield was indeed forcibly drawn to him.
Nine true dragons circled in the sky, their dragon might vast, but their offensive noticeably slowed down. Pairs of dragon eyes, some fierce, some cold, some deep, all turned toward the entrance of the Great Thunderclap Temple where Lin Zhu was located.
In the Western Paradise, the remaining Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Arhats gazed at the scene with complex emotions. They looked at the White Lotus Child, who once represented the dignity of saints but was now being carried around like a rag doll, and at the unfamiliar young man in light clothing who stood before the ruins yet seemed to become the center of attention.
The high-ranking officials on both sides, whether it was Amitabha Buddha, Dipankara Buddha, or the three Dragon Emperors, all looked at Lin Zhu with a hint of scrutiny and unspoken wariness in addition to their initial surprise.
Who exactly is this guy who suddenly appears, whose behavior is unpredictable, and who always manages to precisely stir up the situation every time he shows up? What does he want?
"Hahaha! Good! Well done!"
The first to break the brief silence was the Purple-Gold Dragon Emperor, which let out a deafening laugh. Its dragon eyes burned with a light of pleasure and cruelty as it stared intently at the White Lotus Child in Lin Zhu's hand, its voice like rolling thunder.
"You brat! Is that piece of junk in your hand the very thing that murdered my dragon clan's direct descendant, the White Lotus wretch? Quickly hand over his soul to me! I will personally extract his soul, turn it into a celestial lantern, place it above the eyes of the four seas, and let it burn for ten thousand years to commemorate the spirit of my nephew Ao Lie in heaven!"
The Dragon Clan's Heavenly Lantern is no ordinary flame; it is a cruel torture that can slowly burn away the primordial spirit, causing it boundless pain that is difficult to completely extinguish!
Faced with the undisguised killing intent and demands of the Purple-Gold Dragon Emperor, Amitabha Buddha on the other side, despite the dimming of his golden body's light due to the fierce battle, quickly regained his compassionate and peaceful expression.
He clasped his hands together, nodded slightly in Lin Zhu's direction, and spoke in a gentle yet undeniably penetrating voice that resounded throughout the battlefield.
"Amitabha.
My benefactor, though Bai Lian has committed sins, she is ultimately a member of our Buddhist community, and even more so, a disciple of this humble monk. Her sins deserve punishment, but to annihilate her soul and spirit, and to burn her soul with lamps, would be contrary to the principles of Heaven and compassion. I implore you, benefactor, to return this wicked creature to this humble monk. This humble monk swears in the name of Buddha that I will severely punish her and give the Dragon Clan an explanation.
"For what happened today, this humble monk can owe you a favor. In the future, if you have any requests, as long as they do not violate the principles of Heaven and Buddhism, the Western Paradise will certainly do its utmost."
This is a well-chosen statement. It demonstrates an attitude of protecting "one of our own" while also offering a promise of punishment and compensation, attempting to gain the upper hand through "compassion" and "reason."
"Pah! You hypocritical bald monk!"
Upon hearing this, the Purple-Gold Dragon Emperor flew into a rage, his dragon whiskers flailing wildly.
"Just now you secretly helped him escape by sending a telepathic message, and now you're talking about severe punishment and confession? Your severe punishment is just locking him up to recite scriptures for a few years, and then finding an excuse to release him! Your favors? How much are your favors in the Western Paradise worth?"
"Can that be exchanged for the life of one of my dragon clan's true dragons?! Stop pretending! That brat, give me the White Lotus Primordial Spirit, and the dragon clan will remember your merit!"
Amitabha Buddha's eyelids were lowered, and he continuously chanted the Buddha's name.
"Amitabha Buddha, with compassion in your heart, Heaven cherishes life. Fellow Daoist Zijin, your sins of killing are too heavy, which is detrimental to the fortune of the Dragon Clan. Please reconsider."
"My esteemed benefactor, please discern right from wrong."
"you……!"
Enraged by Amitabha Buddha's seemingly kind but ultimately ineffective "for your own good" rhetoric, the Purple-Gold Dragon Emperor's purple-gold scales flared slightly with fury, and dazzling lightning crackled between its horns, indicating it was about to attack again. (End of Chapter)