On the Dragon-Slaying Platform, I was executed and became Yang Jian's brother-in-law.

Inside the Netherworld Palace of the Underworld.

The atmosphere was so heavy it seemed to drip water. Yama, the King of Hell, huddled below the table, his eyes darting around, his fingers frantically forming hand seals hidden in his sleeves, trying to communicate with Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva in the Cuiyun Palace.

"Don't waste your energy."

Su Bai didn't even lift his eyelids. He twirled the judge's pen between his fingers, his tone lazy yet chilling. "My 100,000 heavenly soldiers have not only sealed off the Gates of Hell, but have also laid down the 'Heavenly Net Formation' outside the Emerald Cloud Palace. Your backer is probably busy reasoning with my soldiers right now and can't hear your calls."

"Snapped!"

Su Bai slammed the heavy Book of Life and Death onto the table with a loud bang, startling Yama, who trembled and instantly lost the little bit of magical power he had just gathered.

"I'm short on time, I don't have time to play hide-and-seek with you."

Su Bai opened the Book of Life and Death, the pages rustling as countless names of living beings swept across the page like a swarm of locusts. His gaze, sharp as lightning, finally settled on a name that radiated a faint golden light.

[Jin Chanzi - Tenth Reincarnation: Chen Yi (To be determined)]

"Found it."

Su Bai's lips curled into a wicked smile. He dipped his brush in cinnabar, the crimson ink resembling flowing blood. "Want to journey to the West to obtain the scriptures? Want to achieve perfect merit? Have you asked the brush in this Grand Marshal's hand yet?"

……

Western sacred mountain, Great Thunder Temple.

When the Buddha saw Su Bai in the picture as he picked up his pen to write, the muscles at the corner of his eye twitched slightly, but he quickly regained his composure.

"wishful thinking."

The Buddha gave a soft hum, his voice brimming with powerful confidence, "Jin Chanzi is my second disciple, whose unwavering Buddhist heart is rarely seen in the world. He has listened to the Buddha's teachings for ten thousand years and has long since seen through the illusions of the mortal world. These ten lifetimes of reincarnation are merely a formality, washing away the karma on his body."

"Does Su Bai think that altering the Book of Life and Death and creating some hardships can shake Jin Chanzi's Buddhist heart? It's utterly laughable."

Upon hearing this, Guanyin Bodhisattva nodded slightly: "What the Buddha said is very true. Brother Jin Chanzi has deep roots of wisdom. For him, so-called hardships are merely resources for cultivation. The more suffering he endures, the more enlightened his Buddhist heart will become."

All the Buddhas of the West nodded in agreement. In their view, how could the methods of mortals corrupt the true Buddha's resolve?

However, the next moment, in the water mirror image that Laozi had deduced, as Su Bai's cinnabar brush fell, the scene of Jin Chanzi's reincarnation suddenly changed!

……

**First Life: The Tragedy of Upholding the Precepts**

In the picture, the red land is thousands of miles away, and people die of hunger everywhere.

In this life, Jin Chanzi was an ascetic monk who strictly adhered to the rules and precepts. His clothes were tattered, yet they were spotless; his face was sallow and thin, yet his eyes were clear and bright.

He walked to a village where disaster victims had gathered, carrying a bowl of white rice he had just received through alms. The aroma of the rice seemed so out of place in the air filled with the stench of decay and death.

Countless withered, emaciated hands reached out to him, and countless cloudy eyes shone with a longing for life.

"Master... please have mercy... give me some food..."

"Save the children...save the children..."

The cries of agony rose and fell, like a living hell.

Jin Chanzi watched all this with a look of pity in his eyes, and was about to hand over the rice in his hand.

However, at that moment, he looked up at the sky.

The sun was setting in the west; it was past noon.

Buddhist precepts: Do not eat after noon.

Not only should one not eat it oneself, but even the food one holds in one's hand, if not consumed by noon, is considered "impure" and "leftovers," and should not be given to others, lest it damage the "blessings" of sentient beings and also damage one's own "precepts."

This is a rigid, almost perverse, dogma, but in Jin Chanzi's understanding in this life, this is Heaven, this is the Way.

"Amitabha."

Jin Chanzi closed his eyes, chanted Buddhist mantras, and amidst the despairing gazes of countless disaster victims, he slowly poured the bowl of life-saving white rice into the dirty soil beside him.

"Noon has passed; this food is no longer food, but karmic hindrance."

He sat cross-legged and began reciting the "Sutra of Salvation," attempting to use Buddhist teachings to deliver these starving souls from death and to fill their stomachs with the scriptures.

"No!!!"

A mother let out a heart-wrenching scream as her dying child, nestled in her arms, breathed its last amidst the chanting of Jin Chanzi. Its eyes remained fixed on the pile of rice dumped in the dirty earth.

The disaster victims went mad. They rushed forward, grabbed rice from the dirty soil, and stuffed it into their mouths while staring at the "high monk" with hateful eyes.

Jin Chanzi continued chanting the sutra with his eyes closed, but his trembling eyelashes and the cold sweat seeping from his forehead betrayed his inner struggle.

They rigidly adhered to the precepts, yet watched helplessly as living beings starved to death.

Is this Buddha?

……

The Western sacred mountain was utterly silent.

The Buddha's composure vanished, replaced by astonishment. He hadn't expected Su Bai to start with the word "precepts" and set "observance of precepts" and "compassion" against each other to such an extreme degree!

But that's not all. The scene shifts, and the tragedy of the second life follows.

**Second Life: The Farmer and the Snake (The High Monk and the Demon)**

In this life, Jin Chanzi is a holy monk with a heart full of love and a determination to save all sentient beings.

A snowy night in an ancient temple deep in the mountains.

A severely wounded wolf demon, its body radiating a bloodthirsty aura, lay dead in front of the temple gate. Hunters, torches in hand, pursued it, determined to kill this wicked monster.

"stop!"

Jin Chanzi stood before the wolf demon, his expression solemn and dignified. "Heaven cherishes life; lay down your butcher's knife and you will instantly become a Buddha. Although this wolf demon is wounded, I see a glimmer of kindness in its eyes. It is also a life!"

The hunters were furious: "Master! This beast has eaten several people from our village!"

"All living beings are equal. Its cannibalism is the result of karma, while your killing it creates negative karma." Jin Chanzi said with a compassionate expression, "This humble monk wishes to use Buddhist teachings to influence it and guide it towards goodness, thereby atone for its sins."

The hunters, intimidated by the high monk's prestige, had no choice but to retreat.

Jin Chanzi rescued the wolf demon and took meticulous care of it, preaching to it daily. The wolf demon seemed to be truly moved, lying obediently beside the prayer mat every day, and even shedding tears of remorse while listening to the sermons.

Jin Chanzi was overjoyed, believing that he had finally achieved the goal of "saving all living beings".

However, one day several months later...

Jin Chanzi needed to go down the mountain to buy incense and candles. Before leaving, he stroked the wolf demon's head and said gently, "Disciple, take good care of the house and don't run around."

The wolf demon nodded obediently, its eyes clear.

But the moment Jin Chanzi's figure disappeared at the end of the mountain path, the "clarity" in the wolf demon's eyes instantly turned into a monstrous crimson and ferocity.

"I'm suffocating... This bald monk's chanting is driving my head crazy!"

The wolf demon roared and charged down the mountain.

When Jin Chanzi returned from his shopping trip, he no longer saw a mountain village with wisps of smoke rising from its chimneys, but rather a scene of utter devastation.

The entire village, all 108 people, were slaughtered! Severed limbs and torsos hung from the treetops, and blood stained the stream red.

The wolf demon he had personally rescued and carefully converted was sitting on a pile of corpses, chewing on the heart of the little girl who had once delivered vegetarian meals to the temple.

Upon seeing Jin Chanzi return, the wolf demon grinned, his mouth full of blood: "Master, I sent them to the paradise you spoke of. They are all very grateful to you."

Clang!

The incense and candles in Jin Chanzi's hand fell to the ground.

He stared blankly at the scene, at the wolf's face full of mockery, and at the villagers who had died tragically because of his "mercy".

"To save all sentient beings... To save all sentient beings..."

Jin Chanzi knelt in a pool of blood, tears of blood streaming from his eyes. "I saved a demon, but killed an entire village... Is this my compassion? Is this the Dharma?!"

……

As the story unfolds, in each of the third, fourth, and subsequent lives, Su Bai accurately captures the conflict between "ideal" and "reality" in Buddhist teachings.

Or perhaps, in the name of "not killing," they released rats carrying the plague, leading to the extinction of an entire city;

Or perhaps out of so-called "endurance," they allowed bullies to harass their wives and daughters without fighting back, ultimately leading to the destruction of their families and the suicide of their wives and daughters filled with resentment.

The pen in Su Bai's hand was like a merciless scalpel, cutting Jin Chanzi's originally perfect and flawless Buddhist heart into pieces.

Finally, the image freezes.

It was an illusory space where Jin Chanzi's true spirit manifested.

At this moment, he was no longer the second disciple bathed in Buddha's light, but a tormented soul with a distorted face and bewildered eyes.

He knelt in the void, his hands covering his head, surrounded by the wronged souls who had died tragically because of his "Buddhist teachings" in countless lifetimes.

What is good? What is evil?

"What are precepts? What is compassion?"

"If upholding the precepts requires sacrificing the lives of all sentient beings, what is the point of keeping these precepts?!"

"If compassion is tantamount to condoning evildoers, then what's the point of practicing Buddhism?!"

Jin Chanzi roared to the sky, and the pure golden light on his body began to become mottled, even faintly revealing a black demonic aura.

That's a harbinger of the collapse of faith!

That was the sound of a Buddha's heart breaking!

……

"not good!"

Inside the Great Thunderclap Temple, the Buddha suddenly stood up, and a look of fear finally appeared on his usually calm face.

He could clearly sense that in this predicted future, the causal connection between Jin Chanzi and Mount Ling was rapidly breaking down!

That unwavering Buddhist heart that he was once so proud of is now like a piece of cracked glass, which would shatter into dust with the slightest touch.

"This Su Bai... what a vicious mind!"

The Buddha's voice trembled as he pointed at the screen, "He's not just trying to kill Jin Chanzi, he's trying to destroy his spirit! He's trying to ruin my Buddhist pilgrim, to destroy the very foundation of Buddhism!"

Guanyin Bodhisattva also paled, and said urgently, "Buddha, if Brother Jin Chanzi's Buddhist heart wavers, how can this Journey to the West... how can this Journey to the West continue? If the pilgrims don't believe in Buddhism anymore, what's the point of obtaining the scriptures?!"

The Buddhas remained silent.

Yes, if even the leader thinks what he believes is wrong, how can he lead the team? How can he obtain the scriptures?

Su Bai's move was a million times more terrifying than killing Jin Chanzi!

In the scene, Su Bai, inside the Senluo Palace, looked at the gradually fading name of Jin Chanzi in the Book of Life and Death, and a satisfied sneer curled at the corner of his mouth.

"Old Buddha, you say his Buddhist heart is unwavering?"

Su Bai tossed the vermilion pen aside dismissively. "Now, do you still dare to say that?"