Chapter 755
How could something else possibly happen? The Buddha had just coughed up blood, and now
She gritted her teeth inwardly, but dared not say it aloud. Although Lin Zhu's eyes were smiling, she was all too familiar with the coldness beneath that smile—it was telling her, "If you don't agree, I'll find another way to make you agree."
'Am I really going to have to give myself up here today?'
The thought suddenly popped into Guanyin Bodhisattva's mind, startling her. Her face instantly flushed red, filled with shame and anger. She abruptly turned her head away, gritting her teeth as she cursed, "Lin Zhu! You have blasphemed the Great Bodhisattva, you deserve to die!"
Lin Zhu was taken aback.
He stared blankly at Guanyin Bodhisattva's expression of both shame and anger, completely unaware of what she was talking about.
Blasphemy against the Great Master? Did I just say something? I only made a reasonable request for compensation. How is that blasphemy against the Great Master?
Lin Zhu frowned and thought for a moment, but he really couldn't figure out what Guanyin Bodhisattva was thinking. He was too lazy to think about it anymore, so he pushed Guanyin Bodhisattva away and said coldly, "Get lost. Women will only hinder my brother's journey in the martial world."
His tone suddenly turned cold, as if he were shooing away a fly that was in his way.
Guanyin Bodhisattva stumbled back two steps after being pushed, and when she regained her footing, her face still flushed and somewhat bewildered. Looking at Lin Zhu's impatient face, she didn't know what to say for a moment.
Lin Zhu ignored her reaction and said to himself, "Tell Tathagata to hurry up and send the ceiling of the Law Enforcement Hall to the construction site. Once it arrives, I will put the headband on Sun Wukong, and the journey to the West will be safe."
He paused, then added, "This is something the Western Paradise owes me. I haven't taken the opportunity to make any excessive demands, which is already giving Buddha a lot of face."
Upon hearing this, Guanyin Bodhisattva's face turned pale and then red, and she stared at Lin Zhu with gritted teeth for a long time.
The ceiling of the Enforcement Hall?
That's the ceiling of the Law Enforcement Hall on Mount Ling in the Western Paradise! It's carved with countless Buddhist intricate patterns and inlaid with countless precious Buddhist materials; it's priceless in itself! You just want it? And you talk like you're doing some kind of good deed?
Guanyin Bodhisattva opened her mouth, as if to say something in rebuttal, but in the end she swallowed all her words back.
She knew that reasoning with Lin Zhu was pointless. He didn't care about reason; he only cared about his fists. Right now, his fists were bigger, so whatever he said went.
If I keep pestering him, and he really changes his mind and makes even more outrageous demands, then I'll be really finished.
Thinking of this, Guanyin Bodhisattva could only sigh helplessly at the jade bottle. Without saying anything more, she turned into a beam of white light and sped off towards the west.
Just as the light rose, Guanyin Bodhisattva felt a strange, inexplicable emotion. She glanced back at Lin Zhu, only to see him already walking towards Sun Wukong, not even sparing her a second glance.
His back was tall and aloof, as if the person who had just patted her face, touched her head, and squeezed her wrist was not him.
A complex expression flashed across Guanyin Bodhisattva's face. She bit her lip, and her escape light accelerated, disappearing into the horizon.
This matter concerns the great calamity of the Journey to the West, and she dares not be negligent. Even if Lin Zhu is not a good person, the Journey to the West must continue; it is the general trend of the Three Realms, and no one can afford to delay it.
Meanwhile, deep within the Great Buddha Hall of Mount Ling in the Western Paradise.
The Buddha was sitting cross-legged on a stone platform that had just been repaired not long ago.
The stone platform still bears the cracks left from the last time it was besieged by the dragons. Although it has been repaired with magic, you can still see some fine lines if you look closely.
The Buddha sat serenely upon it, enveloped in a radiant aura, his countenance solemn and dignified, seemingly no different from usual. However, the slight furrow in his brow betrayed his true state of mind.
Suddenly, the Buddha's expression changed, and he abruptly opened his mouth—
"puff!"
A mouthful of golden blood spurted out, splashing onto the ground in front of the stone platform, turning the newly repaired floor tiles a golden hue.
At the same time, a strange green light flashed across the Buddha's body. The light clung to his body like a maggot, and wherever it passed, the Buddha's golden body trembled slightly.
That was the illusory light of the Medicine Buddha, the damage transmitted through the Tathagata's avatar.
The Medicine Buddha's move, the Glazed Illusionary Light, was indeed terrifyingly powerful. If it weren't for the fact that Tathagata's avatar sacrificed more than a dozen acquired magic treasures to withstand it, Lin Zhu, with his half-step quasi-saint cultivation, even with the Creation Green Lotus protecting him, would not have been able to emerge unscathed.
A significant portion of the damage suffered by the clone was transmitted to the Buddha through the causal connection between the clone and the original body.
The Buddha took a deep breath, and his body shone with golden light. Countless Sanskrit characters appeared in the void, transforming into golden chains that wrapped around, crushed, and purified the illusory light.
A moment later, the green light finally dissipated completely, and the Buddha's aura gradually calmed down.
He exhaled a breath of stale air, opened his eyes, and a hint of weariness and anger flashed in them.
One of his avatars was destroyed, and he also took a solid hit from the Glazed Illusionary Light. Although the injury wasn't fatal, it was definitely not minor. The Buddha Tathagata had cultivated for countless millennia and hadn't suffered an injury of this magnitude in a very long time.
What made him even more upset was that the injury was sustained while he was taking a hit for Lin Zhu.
He, the ancestor of all Buddhas in the Western Paradise, sacrificed his own avatar to protect a prison god in the Heavenly Court. If word got out, the entire Three Realms would laugh their heads off.
"The Medicine Buddha... went too far."
The Buddha muttered a curse under his breath, his tone full of annoyance.
"You've ruined sixteen of my acquired magic treasures, plus one innate spiritual treasure... You're really willing to go to such lengths!"
Those acquired magical treasures are fine, though precious, but the Buddha's resources can withstand them.
But that innate spiritual treasure was a genuine treasure. Even Buddha, the ancestor of all Buddhas, didn't have many innate spiritual treasures. Every time he ruined one, it pained him greatly.
"Beast!"
The Buddha uttered another curse.
However, he felt a little better after he finished yelling.
Although the losses were heavy, the Medicine Buddha is, after all, the Buddha of the Eastern Pure Land of Lapis Lazuli, with profound cultivation and powerful methods. With him stationed at Five Elements Mountain, he should be able to stabilize Lin Zhu.
The Medicine Buddha's radiant light is incredibly powerful and has a strong deterrent effect on the soul. Even if he can't defeat Lin Zhu, he can at least scare Lin Zhu.
The Buddha breathed a slight sigh of relief upon realizing this.
As long as the Medicine Buddha isn't exploited to the point of bankruptcy like Guanyin, and as long as he can maintain his Buddha's dignity, then there's still a chance to salvage the situation. Although Lin Zhu's methods are unpredictable, he's ultimately only a half-step quasi-saint, and he should know his limits when facing a true Buddha.
As long as the Medicine Buddha doesn't act foolishly and gives Lin Zhu a warning, making him realize that the Western Paradise is not to be trifled with, then things will be much easier afterward.
"If Lin Zhu obediently puts the headband on Sun Wukong, there shouldn't be any major problems."
The Buddha muttered to himself, his expression gradually relaxing.
He had already begun planning how to gradually advance the Buddhist eastward expansion strategy after the Journey to the West officially began, in order to make up for the losses at Five Elements Mountain. Although Lin Zhu was troublesome, he was ultimately just a minor character; the real big picture was the power struggle within the Three Realms.
As long as the journey to the West proceeds smoothly and the trend of Buddhism moving eastward continues unabated, today's losses can be made up for from other sources sooner or later.
The more the Buddha thought about it, the more convinced he was that his judgment was correct. He generally trusted the Medicine Buddha's abilities. Although the Medicine Buddha hadn't behaved well in certain matters during the Investiture of the Gods period, that was all in the past. Now, the Medicine Buddha was the lord of a sacred land; dealing with a half-step Quasi-Saint was a piece of cake for him.
Just then, the Buddha suddenly heard a familiar voice coming from outside the hall.
The voice was sharp and urgent, carrying a tone that sent chills down one's spine as it announced a death.
"Good heavens! This is terrible! Something horrific has happened!"
The Buddha's face instantly darkened.
The solemn Buddha face that had just unfolded began to darken and lengthen at a visible speed, becoming extremely ugly.
This voice sounds so familiar.
This is just too despairing.
The veins on the Buddha's forehead began to throb. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and felt an urge to curse rising within him. But he restrained himself—he was the ancestor of all Buddhas, and he had to maintain his composure.
He slowly opened his eyes, his gaze passing over the empty main hall and looking towards the direction of the hall's entrance.
really.
The familiar posture, the familiar white veil, as if wearing mourning clothes.
The Bodhisattva of Death stumbled into the main hall, her face filled with panic. Her long, plain white dress trailed on the ground, and with her characteristic expression of announcing death, she looked exactly like someone who had come to a funeral.
The Bodhisattva of Bane has arrived.
The Buddha had just finished spitting out a mouthful of golden blood and was sitting cross-legged on the stone platform that had only recently been repaired, recovering his composure. The stone platform still bore the marks of the cracks left from the last time it was besieged by the dragon clan. Although it had been carefully repaired with his magic, sitting on it still felt a bit uncomfortable.
He had just completely dispelled the lingering force of the Medicine Buddha's illusory light, and his aura had finally stabilized. Just as he was about to calm his mind and regulate his breathing for a moment, he heard a familiar voice that sent chills down his spine coming from afar outside the main hall.
"Good heavens! This is terrible! Something horrific has happened!"
The voice was sharp and urgent, carrying a tone of mortal proclamation that sent chills down one's spine. It pierced through the layers of restrictions on Mount Ling like a whirlwind, pouring straight into the Great Buddha Hall.
The Buddha suddenly shuddered, his solemn face, which had just unfolded, instantly froze.
His first thought wasn't to ask what happened, but to bury himself in the cracks between the newly repaired floor tiles and pretend he hadn't heard anything.
He subconsciously shrank back behind the stone platform, and the enormous golden statue actually made a move that was extremely incongruous with its status as the ancestor of all Buddhas—it raised its hand to cover its ears.
But Guanyin Bodhisattva did not give him this opportunity.
The footsteps of the auspicious bodhisattva still echoed outside the hall when Guanyin Bodhisattva entered first. She had just returned from the Five Elements Mountain, her plain white dress still dusty from her journey, but the expression on her face was more complex than the dust itself.
When she saw the Buddha covering his ears and shrinking behind the stone platform, she was stunned for a moment, but at this moment she could no longer care about being considerate of the Buddha's vulnerability, and said directly: "Guess what, a big problem has arisen."
Upon hearing this, the Buddha slowly lowered his hand from his ears. He raised his head, his expression like that of an old man cornered at the door by creditors, utterly weary and helpless. He clutched his head, his fingers digging deep into his swirling hair, his mind screaming in a frenzy—why? Why is it always like this? Can't he just sit here peacefully for a day? The stone platform was just repaired, the cracks from the dragon's attack haven't been completely smoothed out, and now this has happened again?
But he was, after all, the ancestor of all Buddhas, and no matter how furious he was inside, he still had to maintain a certain level of dignity on his face.
He took a deep breath and asked in an extremely uncomfortable tone, "With a powerful figure like Medicine Buddha there, how could something still happen? No matter how powerful the Prison God is, he's only at the half-step Quasi-Saint level. He can't possibly bully Medicine Buddha, can he?"
When the Buddha spoke these words, there was still a lingering sense of hope in his voice. What kind of being is the Medicine Buddha? He is the leader of the Eastern Lapis Lazuli Light World, possessing profound cultivation and formidable skills; his Lapis Lazuli Illusionary Light technique is unparalleled in the Three Realms.
Even if Lin Zhu has some strange methods, the Medicine Buddha may not be able to defeat him, but at least he can keep things under control and prevent him from being bullied to an excessive degree.
Buddha still held a sliver of hope, thinking that the "big problem" Guanyin Bodhisattva mentioned might not be related to Lin Zhu, but rather that something else had happened on the other side of Five Elements Mountain.
Guanyin Bodhisattva stood in the center of the hall. After listening to the Buddha's words, the expression on her face suddenly became extremely strange.
It was a complex expression—wanting to laugh but not daring to, wanting to speak but too embarrassed to say it. His lips twitched several times, and finally he couldn't hold back, saying in an extremely awkward tone, "Congratulations, you guessed right."
The Buddha's face instantly fell.
The speed at which it collapsed was faster than the melting of the snow on Mount Ling. It was as if all its strength had been drained away; its massive golden body slammed against the stone platform with a dull thud.
His face was filled with an expression similar to that of someone who had died—no, to be precise, it was even more painful than that of someone who had died.
When a loved one dies, at least you can cry and hold a memorial service to help them pass on, but at this moment, the frustration and helplessness in his heart prevented him from even crying.
"What exactly happened?"
Even the Buddha's voice trembled, not from anger, but from a deep fear. He was afraid to hear the answer, yet he had no choice but to ask.
He stared intently at Guanyin Bodhisattva's mouth, as if knives were about to spit out and pierce his already riddled Buddhist heart.
Guanyin Bodhisattva took a deep breath and began to recount the events from beginning to end. She spoke with appropriate detail and emphasis, especially describing in great detail the part about Lin Zhu slapping the Medicine Buddha.
She described how Lin Zhu slapped the Medicine Buddha's face repeatedly, each slap landing solidly and shattering the Medicine Buddha's protective aura.
Under Lin Zhu's hands, the Medicine Buddha's face was like a lump of dough, slapped until it was deformed, twisted, and swollen, eventually turning into a round, chubby pig's head.
Guanyin Bodhisattva also described the changes in the Medicine Buddha's expression in great detail. She said that at the beginning, the Medicine Buddha still carried an air of superiority and arrogance, protected by a radiant aura of Buddha, majestic and awe-inspiring, as if everything was under his control. (End of this chapter)