Chapter 756
The Buddha was forced into a corner: The ceiling of the Western Paradise was given away
But when Lin Zhu's slap pierced through his Buddha light and landed precisely on his face, the Medicine Buddha's expression changed instantly—first, incredulous shock, then anger, then a mixture of surprise and suspicion, and finally, all of it turned into a deep sense of frustration.
She even mentioned a detail, saying that when Lin Zhu whipped the Medicine Buddha, the Medicine Buddha was whipped so hard that he spun around on the spot, like a spinning top being whipped hard, spinning several times.
The scene was so shocking that she was dumbfounded, even standing at a distance. A dignified Buddha of the Eastern Pure Land of Lapis Lazuli was whipped into a spinning top in public by a half-step Quasi-Saint. No one in the entire Three Realms would believe it if it were told, but it really happened.
As the Buddha listened, his expression shifted from shock to pain, and then to a strange, indescribable look. He suddenly raised his hand to interrupt Guanyin Bodhisattva, frowning as he said, "Take a moment."
Guanyin Bodhisattva was taken aback, unsure of where she had said something wrong.
The Buddha looked at her with an extremely complex expression and slowly said, "We're all in the same unit; we share the same fate, one's glory is our glory, and one's loss is our loss. Guanyin, when you said those words, did you even notice the excitement in your tone? Are you really that happy?"
Guanyin Bodhisattva was stunned by the Buddha's question. She subconsciously recalled her tone and expression just now, and then her beautiful face suddenly turned bright red.
She was indeed quite excited.
This was an emotion she herself was unaware of, but after the Buddha pointed it out, she suddenly realized that while recounting Lin Zhu's experience of drawing the Medicine Buddha, she had a vague feeling of exhilaration.
It was a strong sense of empathy; she unconsciously put herself in Lin Zhu's shoes, imagining that the guy who had fleeced her until she was bankrupt was now subduing another Buddha, and she actually felt quite pleased with herself.
The scene of a near-saint wielding power to lash out at a Buddha in a world of radiant light is so contrasting that it would seem absurd and exciting to anyone who saw it.
Although Guanyin Bodhisattva was a member of the Buddha's camp, she had suffered too many losses at Lin Zhu's hands. Those experiences left her with a distorted mentality—she herself had been fleeced, and she wished that others would be fleeced as well.
Seeing the Medicine Buddha being whipped into a spinning top by Lin Zhu, she found a strange outlet for the pent-up frustration in her heart.
But this thought must never be uttered. Guanyin Bodhisattva quickly composed herself, adopting a serious and solemn expression, and said in a deep voice, "I lost my composure. But the problem is indeed very serious now."
She paused, organized her thoughts, and continued, "Lin Zhu had already taken pity on Sun Wukong and was prepared to cooperate with the journey to the West by putting the golden headband on him."
But this time, our Western Paradise repaid kindness with enmity—that's his exact words—he said it hurt the feelings of good people.
The Buddha's face turned completely black, even darker than the newly repaired stone platform.
He gritted his teeth and said, word by word, "I have lost more than a dozen acquired magic treasures, plus one innate spiritual treasure, and my body was also injured by that beast Medicine Buddha's Glazed Illusionary Light, almost damaging my golden body. What more does Lin Zhu want from me? Where was he injured? What did he lose?"
The mere mention of those dozen or so magical treasures made the Buddha feel as if his heart was bleeding. These treasures weren't like cabbages picked up on the roadside; each one was the culmination of countless years of his accumulated wealth.
The loss of over a dozen acquired magical treasures, plus one innate spiritual treasure, would be a devastating blow to any power. While acquired magical treasures are not as precious as innate spiritual treasures, they are still highly coveted items even by powerful cultivators at the Great Luo Golden Immortal level.
Any one of these items could easily persuade a powerful Golden Immortal to willingly convert to Buddhism and serve the Buddhist sect.
The Buddha knew this all too well. He claimed to be the reincarnation of the Daoist Duobao, and indeed possessed more magical treasures than others, but those treasures weren't acquired for free. Truly high-quality and powerful magical treasures are scarce resources in any era.
Over the years, in order to win over the people and consolidate his power in the Western Paradise, he has handed over quite a few magical treasures.
Those three thousand worldly people followed him to the Western Paradise. Although they claimed to have converted to Buddhism and sought enlightenment, why would they follow him? Can you keep people by just preaching and expounding the Dharma? To put it bluntly, you have to give them some benefits, like a good Dharma treasure, before they will be willing to stay sincerely.
While powerful beings at the Golden Immortal level can cultivate their own magical artifacts, genuine magical treasures are extremely difficult to obtain.
Especially in this era where the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is becoming increasingly scarce, rare and precious natural materials that can be used to refine magical artifacts are becoming increasingly rare, and master craftsmen who can refine magical artifacts are even rarer.
Behind every decent magical artifact lies the accumulation of countless resources and numerous coincidences.
He had just lost over a dozen magical treasures, including a primordial spiritual treasure, all to protect Lin Zhu, a demon king who didn't need his protection at all. Buddha felt so wronged he wanted to cry.
"I sacrificed my own clone to protect him, and he turned around and said we were ungrateful?"
Even the Buddha's voice trembled; it was a tremor that only occurs under extreme frustration.
He had lived for countless millennia, and in all his lives, others had always been the ones who suffered in front of him. When had he ever been bullied like this? Yet this time, he had nowhere to seek justice, because all the causes and effects pointed to a fact that left him powerless—he himself had taken the initiative to send the Medicine Buddha to Five Elements Mountain, he himself had sent his clone to block the Glazed Illusionary Light, and everything was his own decision. Lin Zhu hadn't said a word or asked for anything from beginning to end.
Guanyin Bodhisattva stood below the hall, clearly sensing the Buddha's distress. The Buddha's heart trembled, and that tremor emanated from the Buddha's aura, making the atmosphere in the entire Mahavira Hall oppressive.
She felt helpless, but she had no choice but to finish what she was saying.
"My God, the God of Hell has spoken."
Guanyin Bodhisattva bit her lip and continued in an extremely indignant tone: "Unless the Western Paradise sends the ceiling of the Law Enforcement Hall over, Sun Wukong can forget about wearing the golden headband."
He adopted a "goods delivered, please" attitude, saying this was the reasonable compensation the Western Paradise owed him.
As she spoke, she couldn't help but raise her voice, her tone full of indignation: "He's interfering with Journey to the West! What right does the God of Hell, a member of the Heavenly Court, have to meddle in the affairs of the Western Paradise? When have we in the Western Paradise ever suffered such humiliation?"
Upon hearing this, the expression on the Buddha's face could only be described in two words—utterly exasperated.
It was a deep, intense, and agonizing pain, a pain that pierced to the bone, yet was indescribable. Perhaps the newly repaired stone platform was indeed uncomfortable; although the fine cracks had been filled with magic, sitting on it for a long time still felt unsettling.
Perhaps it was because he had been sitting cross-legged on the stone platform for too long, his legs had gone numb, and a certain unspeakable part of his body had also suffered. Just like the expression on the Buddha's face at that moment, it was a standard face etched with obvious pain. He remained silent for a long time.
The atmosphere inside the main hall was extremely oppressive. Even the footsteps of the auspicious bodhisattva outside the hall had stopped at some point, as if the entire Mount Ling was waiting for the Buddha's answer.
After a long while, the Buddha finally exhaled a long breath. That breath carried a deep sense of helplessness and dejection, as if he had expelled the last bit of fighting spirit from his chest.
He leaned against the stone platform, looking incredibly haggard, his voice filled with exhaustion: "What else can we do? Even if we call the teacher over, there's nothing we can do about Lin Zhu."
The teacher he was referring to was naturally the Tongtian Sect Leader. But Buddha knew in his heart that Lin Zhu's actions were meticulous and all the causes and effects were plausible.
From beginning to end, it was the Western Paradise that started the whole thing. Medicine Buddha launched a sneak attack, and Tathagata's clone took the initiative to block the attack. Although Lin Zhu's so-called "compensation demand" was extremely absurd, strictly speaking, it did not really count as interfering with the Journey to the West. He neither stopped Sun Wukong from going to the West to obtain the scriptures nor directly attacked the Western Paradise. He was just asking for compensation.
As for the relationship between this ceiling and Sun Wukong wearing the golden headband, Lin Zhu did not say it explicitly, and there was no evidence from the Western Paradise.
"This kid seems arrogant and domineering, but he leaves no trace of his actions."
The Buddha's voice was deep and slow, as if he were talking to himself, or as if he were analyzing the situation for Guanyin Bodhisattva.
"It seems that he had already sown the seeds of all cause and effect, and calculated every step meticulously. Look at how he smoked the Medicine Buddha statue, smoking it so recklessly and arrogantly, but what did he ask for after he finished? He asked the Western Paradise to compensate him for his mental distress."
He presented his arguments logically and with evidence—it was the Medicine Buddha who launched the sneak attack, it was an avatar of the Tathagata who took the initiative, and Lin Zhu was the victim from beginning to end, a good person who was repaid with ingratitude.
As the Buddha spoke, the corner of his mouth twitched, his expression a mixture of wanting to cry and wanting to laugh.
"Even with the matter of Sun Wukong wearing the golden headband, he held the initiative firmly. If he hadn't asked Sun Wukong to wear it, that mischievous monkey might have just killed Tang Sanzang with a single blow. Tang Sanzang, on the other hand, had a thousand reverences for the God of Hell and ten thousand slanders against the Western Paradise."
In this situation, it's not that we're asking them to cooperate with the Journey to the West; it's that we're begging them to embark on the journey.
When the Buddha uttered these words, his voice was full of dejection.
He seemed to have all his strength drained away by something, his enormous golden body leaning crookedly against the stone platform. He didn't look like the ancestor of all Buddhas, but rather like an ordinary middle-aged man crushed by life.
He seemed to be secretly plotting something, but he didn't want others to see it. His eyes flickered slightly before returning to silence.
"I do not need these people to convert to the Western Paradise."
The Buddha suddenly spoke again, his tone carrying a sense of self-comfort.
"Otherwise, I wouldn't have used the golden headband to directly bind Sun Wukong; that wouldn't be the way to subdue people with virtue. I had long anticipated that the pilgrims wouldn't be so obedient, so I prepared the golden headband as a final means of restraint."
But he suddenly stopped. An image involuntarily flashed into his mind—the journey to the West had come to an end, and Tang Sanzang, with several disciples, had kicked open the gates of the Great Thunderclap Temple. The holy monk, the reincarnation of Jin Chanzi, stood in the center of the Buddha hall, shouting, "Don't move! Hand over the Tripitaka Sutra! Or I'll bury you all!"
The scene was so real that even the Buddha himself blinked.
He cursed inwardly—that was clearly the reincarnation of my disciple, how did he become such a monstrous figure? Although Tang Sanzang's memories of his past life were sealed, he was still rooted in Jin Chanzi at heart, and should have been the most loyal supporter of Buddhism.
But what about now? Tang Sanzang only has Lin Zhu in his eyes and only contempt for the Western Paradise. If he is influenced by Lin Zhu along the way, he might really do something like kicking down the Great Thunder Temple when he arrives at Mount Ling.
The Buddha was in great distress, but there was nothing he could do. He had truly resigned himself to his fate, dealing with Lin Zhu, that professional enforcer. That guy had calculated every cause and effect meticulously; even if you knew he was plotting against you, you couldn't find any flaws.
If you try to reason with him, he'll be even more reasonable than you. If you try to fight him, he'll be even more ruthless. If you try to outsmart him, you'll find that you're stepping into traps he's already dug.
The Buddha waved his hand, his voice full of helplessness: "Give it to him, give it to him. It's just the ceiling of a law enforcement hall, at most a mile or two in area. How much can he ask for? Give it to him."
He said this in a very casual tone, as if he were saying, "Give him a bowl of rice."
After all, Lingshan is a large and powerful family. Although the Law Enforcement Hall is quite large, the ceiling is just some building materials. Although the Buddhist patterns carved on it and the Buddhist treasures inlaid on it are very valuable, it is not something they cannot afford.
The Buddha thought to himself, "It's just a building that's only a mile or two old. I can just demolish it and send it away. I'll just consider it as buying some peace and quiet."
But then he suddenly remembered a detail and casually asked, "Just how big is the Hall of Law Enforcement?"
Guanyin Bodhisattva stood below the hall, and after hearing these words, she fell into a three-second silence.
In those three seconds, her expression changed several times, from hesitation to embarrassment, from embarrassment to difficulty, and finally to a cautious look as she softly replied, "Not much, only covering a few dozen miles."
The Buddha's eyes widened suddenly.
Those Buddha's eyes, usually half-closed, were now wide open like two golden lamps, their pupils filled with disbelief. His voice suddenly rose a thousandfold, echoing throughout the Great Hall: "What did you say? I—"
He abruptly stopped mid-sentence, swallowing back the word that almost slipped out, but the shock and anger in his voice were impossible to suppress: "The entire Law Enforcement Hall is dozens of miles long? Such extravagance and waste, will the Jade Emperor approve?"
What does "dozens of miles" mean? That's not even the size of a single Law Enforcement Hall; it's practically the size of a small town! For the Heavenly Court to build a Law Enforcement Hall covering dozens of miles, how many materials would that require? How many ceilings would it need? It's not just a matter of piecing together a few planks of wood. Every single ceiling panel of the Law Enforcement Hall is carved with the intricate patterns of the Heavenly Court's laws, incorporating countless precious celestial materials. Just crafting one panel would be priceless. (End of Chapter)