Chapter 749
Lin Zhu's Righteous Aura Overwhelms Medicine Buddha
'Power...is not everything!' Sun Wukong roared inwardly, his eyes burning with an unprecedented light. 'Old Lin...he's found another way! A way to make those bald monks in the Western Paradise suffer, feel humiliated, and even have to bow their heads! He is the answer! He is my hope!'
Lin Zhu never uttered any words of encouragement to him, nor did he make any explicit promises. But standing there, in his unique, lazy yet forceful manner, he tore a hole in the net woven by the Western Paradise, revealing a completely different possibility.
His very existence was like a flame lit in the darkness, instantly igniting the fighting spirit and hope in Sun Wukong's heart that had been almost frozen by despair! Sun Wukong deeply imprinted Lin Zhu's image in his heart at that moment, regarding him as a role model for his future path!
At this moment, Lin Zhu, whom Sun Wukong regarded as a "role model," was safely hiding behind the ever-collapsed Buddha's shadow.
He seemed to think the scene wasn't exciting enough, so he turned his head slightly and spoke to Guanyin Bodhisattva, who was also stunned and at a loss for what to do, in a matter-of-fact and even somewhat "weak" tone.
"Great Bodhisattva Guanyin, what are you standing there for? Can't you see that I'm almost dead from that damned illusory light? My back aches, my waist is sore, and I'm exhausted! Hurry up and come over here to massage my shoulders and back and soothe my frightened soul?"
"you……!"
Guanyin was so angry at this shameless request that she almost fainted. Her delicate body trembled, and she pointed at Lin Zhu, her lips quivering, but she couldn't utter a single complete sentence.
Looking at the tragic scene of the Buddha's avatars collapsing and magical artifacts exploding one after another, and then at Lin Zhu's "I'm so weak and need comforting" attitude, she felt an overwhelming sense of absurdity rush to her head.
Even the Buddha, who was desperately resisting the illusory light of the glass and was so distressed by the loss of his magic treasure that he was on the verge of losing his Buddha-mind, almost choked on his breath when he heard Lin Zhu's words, and the disorder of his Buddha-light intensified!
He's the victim, okay?! He's the one who was forced to take the bullet, suffered heavy losses, and had to say things against his conscience, okay?! Lin Zhu, you damned plague god, where are you about to die?! You haven't even lost a single hair!
However, seeing that Lin Zhu only gained an advantage verbally and did not make any other dangerous moves, Tathagata breathed a slight sigh of relief. As long as this plague god did not take the opportunity to make another underhanded move, his clone... might still be salvageable? At least, he had to hold on until the threat of the Glazed Illusionary Light was completely resolved.
However, the Medicine Buddha in the distance was already frantic with worry! He desperately tried to transmit his voice, which was trembling.
"Buddha! Get out of the way! Once the Illusory Light of Lapis Lazuli is activated, even I will find it difficult to completely control and retract it! If you continue to resist, this part of your soul will be completely annihilated! Is it worth it for Lin Zhu?!"
Was it worth it? The Buddha himself was asking himself this question with a heart full of pain. But he knew he was already in a bind.
If we retreat now, allowing Lin Zhu to directly face the illusory light, and if Lin Zhu truly possesses hidden abilities to withstand or even counterattack, all our previous "performances" and sacrifices will become a joke, and we'll completely enrage this plague god, making the Journey to the West impossible. If Lin Zhu dies... Tang Sanzang will still be in the hands of the enraged Sun Wukong! The Journey to the West will be finished immediately!
Faced with two evils, he had no choice but to continue to fight! At least until Lin Zhu demonstrated clear means of self-preservation or counterattack, he could not back down!
"The light of annihilation... This part of my soul can try to use this divine power to dispel some of the illusory light of glazed glass..."
The Buddha's mind raced. Although this avatar was powerful, it was ultimately not his true self. Many of its great powers and abilities were severely limited and consumed enormous amounts of energy. While the power of the Nirvana Buddha Light was immense, enough to rival or even suppress the Lapis Lazuli Illusionary Light, it would still be devastating to this avatar.
However, looking at the still surging, annihilating illusory light in front of him, and then at his own miserable state after sacrificing more than a dozen acquired spiritual treasures, including even a treasured innate spiritual treasure, he knew that relying solely on magical treasures to withstand the onslaught had reached its limit.
His clone, formed from Buddha's light and faith, is being gradually eroded and devoured by the illusory light of the crystal, starting from the edges, like a weathered sand sculpture, constantly collapsing and dissipating.
What alarmed him even more was that even though he tried his best to resist, the remaining force of the shimmering light was still nearly half as powerful, like a leech, penetrating the gaps in his layers of defense and spreading towards the "weak" bamboo behind him!
This residual power, though not as terrifying as a direct impact, is still enough to severely injure or even completely destroy any non-quasi-saint level expert! Lin Zhu... can he withstand it?
Sun Wukong also saw the remaining illusory light that was attacking Lin Zhu, and his eyes widened in fury! He tightened his grip on Tang Sanzang's neck, his eyes flashing with ferocity, and roared fiercely at the sky.
"You old bald monk! How dare you—!! If even a single hair on the Immortal Lord's head is harmed, I, Old Sun, will immediately make this monk pay with his life! I will make your Journey to the West the biggest joke in the Three Realms!!"
He was truly anxious and furious! The shamelessness and ruthlessness of the Western Paradise far exceeded his imagination. If Lin Zhu, his only "hope" and "role model," were to truly perish here, he didn't know if he could still maintain his composure.
Taking Tang Sanzang with him to his death, causing the Journey to the West to completely collapse, might be the most direct and insane revenge he could take!
Lin Zhu, however, seemed not to care much about the lingering illusionary light that was attacking him.
He gazed at the Buddha's shadow, now riddled with holes and like a shattered glass vessel, on the verge of complete dissipation, and sighed softly, his tone surprisingly carrying a hint of...appreciation.
"Tsk, Tathagata, you are a little bit smarter than I thought."
Lin Zhu's voice wasn't loud, but it clearly reached the ears of the soon-to-be-vanished Buddha image.
"You actually guessed what I was thinking and cooperated so diligently. I will remember this favor. Oh, and I will also remember the Medicine Buddha's courtesy."
Upon hearing this, the tattered Buddha image seemed to give Lin Zhu one last "look," its eyes filled with complex and incomprehensible emotions—resentment, anger, a hint of understanding, and... a deep sense of unwillingness.
He risked the annihilation of his clones and used his last bit of Buddhist power to try to see what Lin Zhu was relying on amidst the illusory light of annihilation and the impending burst of annihilating Buddhist light!
Just before his afterimage completely disappeared, he "saw"—a righteous aura that was indescribable, pure to the extreme, and vast to the boundless suddenly emanated from Lin Zhu!
That righteous light was not ordinary celestial or Buddhist radiance, but rather like the blazing midday sun, magnificent and supremely powerful, filled with the unparalleled will to cleanse all evil and uphold the righteous path of heaven and earth! The brilliance of the light even caused the Buddha's dying, fragmented eye to feel a stinging and burning sensation, as if looking at it for even a moment would burn away his Buddhist thoughts with this pure righteous fire!
"What kind of technique is this?! What kind of magical weapon is this?!"
This was the last vague thought before the Buddha's avatar consciousness was completely annihilated.
Even in death, he never truly saw what kind of supernatural power Lin Zhu used or what supreme treasure he offered up.
As the Buddha's avatar completely dissipated, the remaining glazed illusory light, powerful enough to threaten the life of a half-step quasi-saint, finally shone on Lin Zhu without any obstruction!
Sun Wukong's heart leaped into his throat, Guanyin held her breath, and even the Medicine Buddha, who was controlling the glazed light in the distance, stared intently with a hint of cruel expectation in his eyes.
However, Lin Zhu merely smiled faintly, a smile that seemed to indicate complete control, and muttered to himself, "Hmm, the ceiling... it's done."
Faced with the incoming light of annihilation, Lin Zhu neither dodged nor avoided it, nor did he even make any defensive stance; he simply moved his mind.
"Buzz—!!!"
A tremendous tremor, seemingly originating from the beginning of time and the resonance of the Great Dao, resounded throughout the universe! Immediately afterward, a pure white light, even purer, more vast, and more awe-inspiring than the Buddha's previous emanation, erupted from Lin Zhu's body!
Within that light, a faint image of a blue lotus could be seen, slowly blooming, one petal, two petals, three petals... layer upon layer, with as many as thirty-six petals!
On the lotus petals, boundless righteous energy, like the Milky Way hanging upside down from the heavens, surged and filled the entire world in an instant, completely dyeing the space that was originally filled with Buddhist light and rampant with glazed illusions into a pure white ocean of righteous energy!
The Thirty-Six Grade Creation Green Lotus! This supreme righteous treasure, enhanced and mutated by the system, is displaying its magnificent power for the first time in this Journey to the West world! Even Lin Zhu himself was shocked and amazed by the overwhelming righteous energy that erupted from its full power for the first time.
"Heaven and earth possess righteous energy—"
With a faint murmur from Lin Zhu, the pure white righteous energy seemed to come alive and have a will, transforming into a raging torrent that crashed head-on into the remaining force of the incoming glazed illusionary light!
There was no earth-shattering explosion, no extraordinary phenomenon of laws shattering. There was only a soft hissing sound, as if ice and snow were melting and filth was being purified.
The illusory light of crystal, which was powerful enough to annihilate life and freeze the soul, was washed away by this boundless, supreme, and unyielding righteous energy. It was as if it had encountered its nemesis, and quickly became dim and dissipated. In the end, it completely dissolved and disintegrated without leaving a trace!
The whole process was so fast that it took no time to react.
The terrifying residual power of the shimmering, crystalline light was as fragile as a dewdrop in the sunlight in the face of this righteous spirit!
Guanyin Bodhisattva was closest, and she felt as if a pure white sun had risen before her eyes. The light was not scorching, but it carried a pure righteous energy that penetrated her soul and made the Buddhist power within her tremble slightly. It stung her eyes so much that she couldn't help but shed tears, and she couldn't see what kind of magic treasure was at the center of that righteous energy! She was horrified.
'This...this righteous energy, how can it be so pure and vast?! It's simply...it's practically comparable to the legendary celestial clouds formed from the righteous energy within the chest of the great god Pangu! No, perhaps...it's even more powerful?!'
The Medicine Buddha, who had just arrived nearby and witnessed his killing move being so easily neutralized, was utterly shocked! His Dharma body, formed from lapis lazuli Buddhist light, fluctuated violently!
"When did such a supreme treasure appear in the Three Realms?!" The Medicine Buddha's heart surged with astonishment. "How could it so easily extinguish my Radiant Light?! This Lin Zhu… what is his origin?! If the details of this treasure are not known, it may be a greater calamity to my Western Paradise than Lin Zhu himself!"
An even more greedy and vicious thought uncontrollably surfaced.
'If...if I could kill Lin Zhu and seize this treasure...' He knew that even the Buddha himself would probably covet such a treasure! The urge to kill and rob almost consumed his reason.
However, that righteous energy came quickly and went just as fast. After the illusory light of the crystal was completely dispersed, the phantom of the thirty-six-petaled Creation Lotus and the endless pure white righteous energy seemed to have only been glimpsed briefly before quickly receding and dissipating. The colors that had briefly stained the world white also returned to normal, as if the scene that had just cleansed the universe had never happened.
Lin Zhu's expression remained unchanged, as if he had only done a trivial matter.
He patted off non-existent dust from his body, looked up in the direction where the Medicine Buddha was hiding, and spoke in a calm tone, but with an undeniable hint of mockery.
"Medicine Buddha, I have received your 'great gift.' However, it seems to have no effect. It appears that the same trick is useless against me."
As the words fell, a figure condensed from pure, glazed Buddhist light, with a gloomy expression filled with disbelief and overwhelming jealousy, slowly emerged from the clouds. It was none other than the true form of the Glazed Medicine Buddha! He stared intently at Lin Zhu, his divine sense frantically scanning the faint, yet unsettling, aura of a treasure that lingered in the world, filling him with apprehension and uncertainty.
How could a half-step Quasi-Saint so easily extinguish his Glazed Illusionary Light? Even if it was just the residual force, it was by no means something that could be done by ordinary means! That treasure... is definitely no less powerful than the legendary God-Slaying Spear, Pangu Banner, and other supreme weapons of slaughter! It might even be... superior!
Jealousy, like a venomous snake, gnawed at the heart of the Medicine Buddha.
He desperately wanted to act immediately, to kill Lin Zhu at all costs, and to seize that treasure! But the almost pleading order from the Buddha's avatar, and the unfathomable Lin Zhu who had just displayed terrifying abilities, forced him to suppress his urge to act immediately.
Lin Zhu looked at the Medicine Buddha whose expression was constantly changing, and spoke calmly, but his voice clearly reached the other's ears.
"Just now, was it you who ambushed me?"
Upon hearing this, the Medicine Buddha suppressed his greed and murderous intent, striving to maintain the dignity and arrogance of a Buddha, and said coldly.
"Lin Zhu, you have repeatedly jeopardized my grand plans in the Western Paradise, extorting and blackmailing others; your crimes are heinous. I am taking action only to kill this wicked creature who wreaks havoc on the Three Realms. What is wrong with that? If you know what's good for you, hand over..."
He hadn't finished speaking.
"Snapped--!!!"
A crisp, extremely loud slap suddenly rang out in this world that had just returned to peace!
Lin Zhu's figure appeared before the Medicine Buddha's crystal image as if by magic, the two of them only inches apart!
Lin Zhu's fair and slender hand, with an extremely casual yet swift speed that left no afterimage, slapped hard and solidly across the face of the Medicine Buddha, which was formed from glazed Buddhist light!
Time seemed to freeze once more. (End of Chapter)