Donghuang Ziji

Chapter 971 Buddha and Demon Divided Minds

As the Buddha saw it, Chu Tai sensed something and raised his hand to strike out with a palm.

A vast and pure Buddha light rose and spread outwards, with the Way of Taiyi hidden within it, spreading outwards with the concept of self-nature light.

This is the first manifestation of Buddha's light, and also the budding of the light of the mind, symbolizing the beginning of the Buddhist path and the foundation of many methods of cultivating the mind.

Chu Tai's palm shone with condensed light, and many precious lamps he had refined in the past appeared in his palm. The phantom images of precious lamps that had been melted down or still existed, such as the Taiyi Everlasting Lamp, the Sun and Moon Everlasting Lamp, the Jade Void Palace Lamp, the Doulu Heaven Lamp, and the Cuiwei Yin-Yang Lamp, all appeared in his palm.

At the same time, the various fruits of enlightenment in the Three Buddhas system, along with the convergence of numerous illusory lamps, merge into one, ultimately maintaining the form of the Emerald Void Two Elements Lamp, only with an added trace of the mysterious inner fire within the lamp flame.

Lifting it up, the inner light remains undying, not only illuminating the darkness but also reflecting one's true nature at all times, allowing the light of the heart to shine through Chu Tai's body, refining all the impurities and filth that arose after the war, and allowing the pure body and mind, like crystal, to spread their influence outward.

Heart to heart, guiding boundless light.

All beings who received the blessing of the Taiyi Dao felt a strange sensation. They could sense what Chu Tai was doing and the crisis under the oppressive force of the heavens.

At the same time, in the moment when the light is all-encompassing, the minds of all beings are briefly connected.

This move also activated the power of the Celestial Cauldron, causing the power of the Holy Kingdom system to begin to rotate rapidly, reconstructing a brand new Holy King's Path.

The Hetu diagram on the surface of the Donghuang Bell rotates, with the principles left by the sage Wang Xizhi serving as the central axis. This prevents the connected minds and forces from conflicting with each other, allowing them to remain independent and making it clear to everyone what Heaven intends to do.

"That's a good trick."

When the Heavenly Emperor of the Great Heaven, who manifested the Dao, saw this scene, a slight smile appeared in his eyes.

Chu Tai's move, seemingly borrowing the power of the Buddha, is actually a further integration of his own principles. He uses the Way of Taiyi to drive the power of the Three Buddhas system, essentially using the One to manifest the Mind, and the Mind to manifest the Buddha.

This method is exactly the same as the method used by the Supreme Dao Ancestor when he transformed the Qi into the Three Pure Ones, becoming the aggregate of all spirituality and the foundation of all minds.

'Even the process of him using the One to manifest the Mind, using the Mind to manifest the Buddha, and transforming the Buddha back to the Mind, can itself be traced back to the origin, back to the primordial spiritual light, or the primordial Qi…'

The Heavenly Emperor did not utter these words. He looked at the intertwining of the light of his heart, then glanced at his own incarnation, the Buddha Tathagata. With a thought, he appeared behind Chu Tai using the light of his heart and struck out with a palm.

At first, there was no wind or waves, no ripples, but in the next instant, the world changed, and mountains and rivers collapsed.

Chu Tai looked back and was surprised to find that this palm strike was neither brute force nor supernatural power, but rather based on the concept of "dependent origination and emptiness," which triggered the operation of the four elements of earth, water, fire, and wind. It seemed to be changing the mountains, rivers, heaven and earth, but in reality, it was the palm print that was empty, giving rise to the changes of "formation," "abiding," "destruction," and "emptiness."

Therefore, all the changes in the world and the collapse of mountains and rivers are actually the collapse of the mind's attachment to the concept of "existence".

Because one sees through the illusions of existence and attachment to self, the vastness of the heavens is no longer frightening.

The Buddha, with a palm raised to the sky, transmitted his message to Chu Tai: 'First, deal with the Demon Lord of the Buddha-Demon Path. The Heavenly Demon has broken through your mental barrier; he's trying to suppress the power of the three Bodhisattvas. I'll handle things here.'

A vast expanse of Buddhist light surged upwards, firmly restraining the power of heaven.

The descending heavens trembled slightly, and countless manifestations of celestial order appeared, depicting a supreme will.

"You want to stop me with a crippled avatar?"

"Why should Your Majesty deceive yourself?"

The Buddha's voice was gentle, and his aura was dim, yet it shook the order of heaven: "At our level, the past and future, all causes and effects, are nothing more than the lines on the palm of our hands, already fully revealed. Do you not know whether I can stop you or not?"

The pressure from all under heaven did not stop at all, but instead pressed on step by step, causing cracks to gradually appear on the golden body of the Buddha.

"But can your annihilation form still suppress the problems of your Great Heaven?"

"Amitabha, Your Majesty, why did you choose the Heavenly Demon Lord to help you? He never intended to completely submit to you. Of all the future, at least half chose to betray you. Why did you choose to help him now? Isn't it because you think you can suppress him? Aren't you afraid of his betrayal?"

"As for the problems of our Great Heaven, they have always been the problems of you and the Heavenly Demon. Now your power is basically concentrated here, and the Heavenly Demon has also transferred most of his power to this Eastern Polar Chenguang Great Heaven. The problems within our Great Heaven are not difficult to solve."

"After all, for you and me, anything that hasn't reached the first rank is easy to correct..."

The heavens remained silent, and the Buddha did not stop them. He simply clasped his hands together, and the boundless Buddha light dissipated under the heavens' might.

These shattered rays of light and the golden body transformed into countless tiny specks of dust, merging into the sky and staining the vast heavens with golden Buddhist light.

Heaven did not stand in his way; having foreseen all the possibilities of the future, he had already made the best choice.

Countless principles materialized, and a layer of celestial light appeared on the surface of "immaculateness." After coming into contact with "dust," the light quickly detached, transforming into a celestial curtain that emitted a faint golden light, slowly descending from the heavens.

Above that curtain, countless patterns of immortals, gods, and Buddhas are constantly changing, containing the principles of Heaven, the Tathagata Buddha, and part of Chu Tai. If it falls into the hands of anyone, it is expected to be transformed into a first-grade treasure.

But no one paid any attention at this moment. Tian needed to adjust his state slightly, and from the place of the Buddha's Nirvana, a ray of pure light appeared and fell upon Chu Tai, stimulating the second-grade Dao Fruit of the past Buddha, [Bodhi], to continuously change and give rise to [Nirvana].

From this point on, the system of the Three Buddhas is complete: the past Buddha attained Nirvana, the present Buddha attained Merit Buddha, and the future Buddha attained Equal Enlightenment Bodhisattva.

The power of the Three Buddhas merged with Chu Tai's body, and the twisted and surging power of the Buddha-Demon Dao Lord became increasingly clear in his perception.

At this moment, the Buddha-Demon Lord was entangled with the three illusory Bodhisattvas beside him, attempting to completely devour them, transform their Dao fruits into his own power, and make the Pure Land of the three Bodhisattvas an aid to his own transformation, so that he could transform his "Transformed Soil" into "Pure Land".

Although the three Bodhisattvas' attainments were suppressed by the Buddha's prophecy due to their blind faith in him, with Chu Tai's help and years of cultivation, they also developed some power to restrain the Buddha and the Demon Lord.

The Buddha's light emanated from the three Bodhisattvas, multiplying in countless ways, like roots entwining or vines clinging, deeply penetrating the golden body of the Buddha and Demon Lord.

Those Buddha lights were all-pervasive, even the purest could be corrupted, gradually merging into the body of the Buddha-Demon Lord through constant entanglement, penetration, and interference.

During this time, both Buddha and demon were struggling, attempting to reorganize their own principles and laws, rebuild the Pure Land Buddhist Kingdom, and refine the power of the three Bodhisattvas.

But the more he struggled, the more powerfully the three Bodhisattvas penetrated him.

After all, the Buddha and Demon Lords originally wanted to seize the Dao Fruits of the three Bodhisattvas, and what they are doing now is in line with the Buddha and Demon Lords' thoughts.

As beings born from the "transformed earth" and lacking a true original mind, neither Buddha nor demon can refuse such changes that conform to prayers.

His very essence, his will, and his power were all bound by the enlightenment attained by the three Bodhisattvas. Even though he was fully aware that discovering the existence of the three Bodhisattvas had given him an absolute advantage, and that given enough time, he would eventually assimilate them all.

But now is a critical moment of multi-party conflict, and the situation is fraught with danger. Even a moment's hesitation is a very dangerous thing, not to mention that what he needs now is years of honing and digestion.

To be stuck in a stalemate at this moment is tantamount to putting oneself under the blade that could fall at any time.

The Buddha and the Demon Lord generated boundless Buddha light around them, within which hundreds of millions of Pure Lands of Buddhas manifested.

These pure lands are the sublimated soil derived from the prayers of countless beings in the past. They are solemn and sacred, or infinitely blissful, or filled with the waves of passion and desire, layer upon layer covering the Buddha, demon, and Taoist masters, evolving into one cycle of reincarnation after another.

Endless illusions and mental phantoms constantly disrupted the aura of the Buddha-Demon Lord, attempting to prevent outsiders from finding him.

But such actions were of no use to Chu Tai.

In the past, the Three Buddhas system, with the help of three Bodhisattvas, coexisted with Buddha and demon for a long time. Now, although it has been further transformed with the help of the Tathagata Buddha, its connection with Buddha and demon has not been severed.

Moreover, the Buddhist light emanating from the three Bodhisattvas surrounding the Buddha-Demon Lord was a guiding beacon for Chu Tai.

Chu Tai pressed down with his palm, and the wisdom light corresponding to the Bodhisattva of Equal Enlightenment manifested in his palm. The Prajna wisdom ignored the layers of Pure Land obstacles and landed accurately on the heart of the Buddha-Demon Lord, drawing out the Buddha seal of the past.

At the same time, a series of questions entered the mind of the Buddha-Demon Lord.

"What are you? Buddha? Mara?"

"What is the Pure Land? What is the Transformation Land? Are you in the Pure Land or the Transformation Land?"

"Where is your heart? Where is your body? Is it the heart that governs, or the body?"

These inquiries directly point to the identities and significance of Buddha and demon.

This is also the problem that the Buddha-Demon Lord is least willing to face, at least before he devoured his true self and the three Bodhisattvas, he was absolutely unwilling to think about it.

Because once this question is understood, either he separates from his true self, or he becomes a dream and disappears.

Neither of these is something that the Buddha, Demon, or Daoist masters can accept.

He wanted to resist, but Chu Tai didn't give him the chance. Before the light in his palm dimmed, the [Meritorious Buddha] Dao Fruit of the present Buddha manifested, and its corresponding concentration manifested, pressing down on the heart of the Buddha-Demon Lord.

This is a question posed with a heartfelt inquiry, and it is also meant to elicit the power of the three Bodhisattvas' attainments.

When Chu Tai unleashed this attack and sensed the Pure Land of the three Bodhisattvas, he clearly understood why his current Buddhahood was that of the [Buddha of Merit].

The "Buddha of Merit" actually corresponds to three Bodhisattvas. They knew that they could not stop the Buddha and the demon from harming all living beings. Taking action rashly would only bring about boundless disasters. Therefore, they abandoned their own merits and vows to create a pure land to bear the countless beings who were deceived by the Buddha and the demon. They then used the prayers of the beings to further deceive the Buddha and the demon, making them mistakenly believe that they had assimilated countless beings.

But in essence, his so-called assimilation was nothing more than allowing those beings to enter the Pure Land of the three Bodhisattvas.

Of course, this move also makes the power of the three Bodhisattvas more closely connected with the Buddha and the Demon Lord, to the point that either the three of them will convert the Buddha and the Demon Lord, or the three of them will be corrupted by them.

At this moment, the three bodhisattvas' many efforts finally yielded Chu Tai's help once again.

With the power of concentration drawing upon the Buddha's light, and in conjunction with the prayers of many beings, it began to suppress the power of the Buddha and the Demon Lord, thus suppressing their minds.

"Don't even think about it!"

The Buddha and the Demon Lord were enraged, and the thousands of pure lands around them collapsed, turning into an endless sea of ​​suffering, attempting to drag countless lives down through prayers.

The three bodhisattvas manifested their phantom images, lifting up all sentient beings, allowing themselves to sink into the sea of ​​suffering, and at the same time, making their Buddha light intertwine more closely with the Buddha and demon lords, so that all living beings could completely connect with Chu Tai.

As the Way of Taiyi descended, the light of the heart manifested, and the lamp of the heart appeared. The Emerald Light of Yin and Yang fell before the Buddha-Demon Lord, and flames fell, igniting his golden body.

Chu Tai then unleashed his third palm strike. The past Buddha's Nirvana, along with the precepts, converged and pressed down once more on the heart of the Buddha-Demon Lord, shattering the Buddha seal of the Pure and Natural Awakened King Tathagata and drawing out the Buddha seal that the Buddha-Demon Lord himself possessed.

Instantly, wisps of pure Buddhist light emanated from the Buddha Demon's body, and he could feel something within him about to break free.

This force was not influenced by Chu Tai, but rather stemmed from his own realization. It seemed to originate in the distant past, before he was even born, or perhaps it was the most fundamental reason for his birth.

It belongs to the power of the Buddha-Demon Dao Lord's Dao Fruit and the original body of the Golden Body, or rather, it belongs to his original power.

"Now that I am born, why should I care about the past? Don't even think about influencing me!"

The Buddha-Demon Lord was furious and tried to suppress the power that had just emerged from its shell. The Heavenly Demon, who was being chased by Jade Calendar True Monarch and Monarch Demon Lord, sensed this scene, glanced back at Chu Tai's direction, and had a thought.

[Change] The Dao Fruit manifests in the hearts of the Buddha, Demon, and Dao Lord; [Chaos] The Dao Fruit blurs the power of the Dao Fruit of the Three Worlds Buddhas; [Separation] The Dao Fruit prevents it from being influenced by the true self.

At the same time, the Heavenly Demon's voice echoed in the ears of the Buddha-Demon Path Master: "Well, are you willing to accept my help?"

The Buddha-Demon Lord was silent for a moment. He was not unaware of the danger of accepting the Heavenly Demon's help at this time, but he had no choice.

Without external help, he will inevitably be assimilated by his id.

As the Buddha-Demon Lord accepted the power of the Heavenly Demon, the power of the three Bodhisattvas was immediately suppressed, and the influence of the Three Buddhas' Path Fruits on them was also hindered.

From this point on, the power of the Buddha and the Demon Lord was completely divided, and a red mark appeared on his golden body, causing different phenomena to manifest on the left and right sides.

Of course, the Heavenly Demon who helped the Buddha Demon Lord remotely was also caught up by the Monarch Demon Lord and Jade Calendar True Lord.

Among these two immortals and demons, the first-rank cultivator who is theoretically the most skilled in combat is somewhat angry. How much does he despise them to still have the mind to help the Buddha-Demon Dao Lord while being chased by the two of them?
"Look at the fist!"

The Demon Lord unleashed a sudden attack, causing countless concepts to collapse, leaving no room for the void and the light of time.

Despite his imperial appearance, the Heavenly Demon calmly swung his shepherd's staff, lightly tapping the void to block the fist of the Demon Lord, and then transformed it to block the four sword lights that jumped out from behind him.

(End of this chapter)