Bodhisattva, please help me in my spiritual practice!

Chapter 232 Painting Mountains and Rivers, Refining the Illusory into the Real

Ao Peng's expression was solemn; the extraordinary world had its own rules.

In the society before Ao Peng, casualties were commonplace in such large-scale projects, something no one could avoid, especially in ancient times when technology was not advanced. This is the cruelty of the real world.

However, in the world of Journey to the West, death is not an end, but the beginning of another cycle of reincarnation, which creates the current predicament.

The porters and boatmen who died building the Dujiangyan Irrigation System did indeed benefit future generations and were blessed with good deeds. However, the fact that they died in a special location caused their souls to be trapped under the dam, preventing them from being reincarnated smoothly.

To allow them to be successfully reincarnated, the dam under Dujiangyan would need to be dug up. However, this would immediately create a massive flood that would wreak havoc on the Chengdu Plain. Furthermore, no one could guarantee that the dam could be rebuilt intact after the digging.

Therefore, even Erlang Shen could not save the souls of the people who had helped him build the dam. That's why he didn't show himself when Cao Anshi came to the temple to ask him today.

Ao Peng ignored Cao Anshi and stepped forward in the manner of Kong Chan, placing his palm on Cao Anshi's mural. Instantly, endless resentment surged from the mural, transforming into the three poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance, and entered Ao Peng's palm. Clearly, this resentment was generated day and night by the wronged souls of the porters trapped under the dam.

These resentments now seep out through Cao Anshi's murals.

Because he was not afraid of the three poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance, Ao Peng did not immediately let go, but continued to investigate carefully.

Under normal circumstances, the Dujiangyan dam is completely sealed off, with the fortune of the people above and the primordial earth veins below, making this dam almost a huge treasure of merit. Therefore, supernatural powers and magic have no effect on the Dujiangyan dam.

However, Cao Anshi was special. Her resentment and karma were closely linked to the Dujiangyan Dam, and were the opposite of the merits of Dujiangyan. At this time, the white bone picture under Dujiangyan that she painted on the Erlang Shen Temple was like chiseling a small hole, allowing the resentment of the porters and laborers who had been suppressed for hundreds of years to seep out and corrode the merits of the dam and the earth's veins.

If this painting continues to exist, within a few days, the merits and earth's veins will be eroded and hollowed out by resentment, causing the dam structure to collapse, resulting in a section of this thousand-year-old dam collapsing like the Great Wall.

Just as Ao Peng was pondering, Kong Chan and Zheng Zimo saw that when Ao Peng's palm landed on the mural, he was able to absorb the three poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance from it. After Ao Peng absorbed the three poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance, the ink color of the area touched by his palm naturally became lighter, and even the painting became blurry.

The two looked at each other and were overjoyed.

The solution was right in front of him. Zheng Ziming quickly asked, "Fellow Daoist, are you able to control the three poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance in the mural? If you can control these three poisons, as long as you make the surrounding ink lighter, Kong Chan and I can join forces to paint a new picture on the lighter area, which will completely replace this picture and naturally solve the trouble here."

The three ghost generals also saw the changes here. They were suddenly startled. What kind of freak was this person in front of them? How could he be unafraid of the three poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance?

If Ao Peng can truly absorb the resentment that has accumulated here for a hundred years, it would be equivalent to collecting the ink from Cao Anshi's murals. With the help of Kong Chan and Zheng Zimo to paint new pictures, they could seal the "hole" that Cao Anshi opened in Dujiangyan. As long as the new murals are not removed, the "hole" will not be revealed.

Although it's only a temporary solution, it can at least guarantee peace and stability here for a few hundred more years.

Upon hearing their questions, Ao Peng removed his hand and decisively said, "No."

The two looked at Ao Peng's palm and saw that the blackened palm gradually returned to the whiteness of an ordinary person, without any signs of injury. The two smiled bitterly, thinking, "If you're going to lie, at least make it look convincing."

Ao Peng pondered, resting his chin on his hand. If he were to absorb resentment, he certainly could. Although some people died during the construction of the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, the number was not too exaggerated. At this historical juncture, they had only been suppressed for a few hundred years. With Ao Peng's silver-armored corpse body, which had built two eighteen-level hells, he was capable of absorbing the resentment sealed within.

But wouldn't that mean the souls of the innocent porters below would be suppressed forever?

Of course, it wouldn't be right to simply let Cao Anshi destroy the dike like that.

This is a train problem: how do you choose between justice for the minority and suffering for the majority? Nagarjuna Bodhisattva encountered a similar problem in the Dragon Palace.

However, Ao Peng came from the future, and he never got hung up on such philosophical questions. Because no one stipulated that a train could only run on two tracks. As long as you could create a third, non-existent 'track,' everyone would be happy!

Ao Peng must create a third, non-existent track, so as not to waste the methods he has learned!

After Ao Peng had thought things through, a radiant light of wisdom emanated from three inches above his head. This light shot into the sky, and all the gods and Buddhas around him could see it clearly.

"Oh no, stop him!"

Although the Witch Beast Ghost General didn't know what method Ao Peng had come up with, the wisdom light shining above his head resonated with the surrounding laws of heaven and earth, clearly indicating that there was a possibility that would allow him to resolve his current predicament.

However, before the Witch Beast Ghost Generals could act, a beam of precious light emanated from the brow of the True Lord Qingyuan Miaodao, who was sitting upright in the Erlang Temple. The light split into three strands, freezing the three Ghost Generals in place.

He hadn't found a solution before, so he was ashamed to face Cao Anshi. But he wasn't dead. Now that Ao Peng had found a solution, helping him break free from another layer of karmic shackles, how could he tolerate others ruining such a great opportunity!

Seeing that the True Lord of the Pure Source had manifested his power, Ao Peng had no more worries. He then made a grasping motion in the air and looked at Ao Zhu beside him, saying, "Please, Dragon Maiden, use your magic to mobilize the water veins here for me."

When Ao Zhu was illuminated by the wisdom light above Ao Peng's head, she was filled with boundless joy. She immediately roared and flew into the sky, transforming into a coiled divine dragon. The bright pearl under the dragon's chin shone brightly, reflecting the flow of water for hundreds of miles around Dujiangyan, transforming into a continuous stream of water elemental energy, which then fell as real water.

Ao Peng planted his feet on the ground and used his Earth Venerable Divine Power to begin mobilizing the power of the Xuanhuang Earth Vein. The true water and the Xuanhuang Earth Vein combined to create the best ink to paint the landscape here.

Ao Peng did not fetch paper or pen, but used his hand as a pen and the void as paper. He did not erase the original drawing of the Dujiangyan White Bone Map by Cao Anshi, but continued to draw Dujiangyan and the hundred-mile boundary of Qingcheng Mountain on this map.

The mountains are high and steep, surrounded by rivers. The landscape is like a painting in the air, with mountains and rivers as ink, stretching endlessly. A magnificent picture of a hundred miles of rivers and mountains leaps out in the air, with each mountain and river complementing the other, without any omissions.