Chapter 3119 - The Threelives Buddha’s Grand Dao

It was known as the Eight-Tiered Pagoda Alms Bowl, and it was one of Spirit Mountain Buddhist Court’s taboo treasures. It had unfathomable power.

But now, both the treasure and the Threelives Buddha’s body had been reduced to ash.

Su Yi’s eyebrows rose, but even though his hands had closed on nothing but air, he wasn’t at all wistful. He’d known right from the start that the Threelives Buddha would never let himself be captured alive.

No, more than that—he wouldn’t leave a single trace of himself behind to prevent Su Yi from taking advantage of it.

Hong Ling stood in the distance in a little boat. The boat emanated a rain of chaos light, and it looked incomparably mystical.

This was the Sky-Covering Boat, or rather, the Contented Heart Scepter. It had saved Hong Ling’s life just in time.

Her face was pallid, and her heart still palpitated with fright. Her eyes were a bit dazed.

She still couldn’t figure out why the Threelives Buddha would use the last of his strength and destroy himself just to target her.

Nor could she understand why Su Yi had saved her! It all seemed unbelievable.

“Fellow Daoist, could you discern any of this body’s mysteries?” asked Su Yi.

“If I’m not mistaken, that’s his Past Body, the lamp illuminating the past,” said the Buddha of Non-Existence. “When you illuminate its true nature, you grasp the present and see the future in turn.”

Su Yi’s brow furrowed. He vaguely got the sense that something wasn’t quite right. “Back in the God Domain, I severed his three incarnations’ heart devils. In the end, he fused his three incarnations into one, becoming the Threelives Buddha we know today. So why has he split back into three? Why have one body each for the past, present, and future?”

After a moment’s silence, the Buddha of Non-Existence shook his head. “To tell the truth, Fellow Daoist, I have no idea. It’s not just me, either. You could search all of creation, but I doubt you’d find any practitioner of Buddhism who knows these secrets.”

He paused, then explained, “The Threelives Dharma represents three starkly different Buddhist paths. Throughout the long history of Buddhism, no one else has ever fused them into one. He’s... the first!”

The Buddha of Non-Existence had a complicated look on his face. He said with grief, “There’s no denying it. He really is the first and only Threelives Buddha in existence. His talent, foundations, and wisdom are unparalleled throughout the ages. There’s no one else like him.

“But I can say with certainty that this path is a dead end!” the Buddha of Non-Existence said staunchly. "We Buddhist cultivators contemplate the Dao through meditation, and we have compassion for all living beings beneath the heavens. We seek to deliver all living beings. That’s the foundation of our Dao.

“But he seems to control the past, present, and future through his Dharma, and use his Dao to preside over all others. He wants to transform the whole world into a Buddhist pure land and force all living beings to chant sutras and revere only Buddhism.

“He wants all other orthodoxies to vanish from this world!” said the Buddha of Non-Existence. He looked at Su Yi. “Tell me, what do you think of his path?”

Su Yi fell silent. This was his first time hearing about the Threelives Buddha’s path. It didn’t sound like the path of a Buddhist cultivator focused on his meditation. It sounded more like that of a Demonist looking to rule over all others.

No, it was even more tyrannical. He didn’t just want to preside over all other Daos. He wanted to root out all other orthodoxies!

If he succeeded, no other orthodoxies would exist in this world!

After a while, Su Yi said, “It sounds... like he’s quite ambitious...”

The Buddha of Non-Existence sighed. “He stepped onto the wrong path. He’s no different from a demon hungry for world domination, and he sees all others beneath the heavens as his enemies, but his efforts are sure to bring harm to all Buddhists. It’s a deviant departure from orthodoxy!”

But against the Buddha of Non-Existence’s expectations, Su Yi said, “Those are the Threelives Buddha’s ambitions, but they don’t seem particularly connected to his Threelives Dharma.”

The Buddha of Non-Existence nodded. “True enough.”

Su Yi pondered out loud. “I’m just not sure what severing his Past Body will mean for him.”

The Buddha of Non-Existence paused to think. He finally realized what Su Yi was really getting at. “Are you worried that severing his Past Body means he’ll profit from this disaster?”

Su Yi nodded. Back in the God Domain, the Threelives Buddha used Su Yi's power of reincarnation to sever his heart devils and help him break through his shackles.

Su Yi couldn’t help but suspect that the Threelives Buddha was repeating his old tricks, and that he’d find a way to benefit from this disaster, too.

The Buddha of Non-Existence pondered briefly, then suddenly transmitted, “I can tell you the legacies that make up the Threelives Dharma.”

Su Yi was stunned, then moved, but he hurriedly refused. The Threelives Dharma was an unsurpassed Buddhist legacy. How could it be permitted to spread to the outside world?

Never mind the rest. If the Buddha of Non-Existence did this, his fellows would see him as an irredeemable traitor!

But the Buddha of Non-Existence didn’t seem concerned. He transmitted, “In my eyes, teaching you doesn’t count as leaking our secrets to outsiders. I can say with certainty that even if you acquire the Threelives Dharma, you won’t step onto the path of Buddhist meditation. In that case, what is there to worry about?”

The Buddha of Non-Existence said with the utmost seriousness, “My only request is that when it comes time to end things with my unfilial disciple, you give him a chance to repent.”

Su Yi’s eyebrows rose.

The Buddha of Non-Existence had a complicated look on his face. “After all, it was I who first guided him onto the path of cultivation. If he turns over a new leaf, he might well be able to turn his head and see the shore.”

Here, he sighed. “But I know that request is a lot to ask of you, Fellow Daoist. If it’s too much, I won’t push you.”

His gaze was utterly melancholy.

Su Yi understood how the Buddha of Non-Existence felt, but that didn’t mean he approved. The Threelives Buddha was an unfilial disciple who’d resorted to underhanded means to seize his own master’s Dao Heart and foundations in the Grand Dao. How could he possibly be forgiven?

Su Yi wasn’t a Buddhist cultivator, nor did he share the Buddha of Non-Existence’s compassionate mindset. In his shoes, Su Yi would have drawn his sword and mercilessly cut down his own disciple a long time ago. But of course, that was just his way of doing things.

“I can agree to that,” said Su Yi. “But even if I give him a chance, there’ll have to be conditions in place. There’s no way I can permit him to rise again.”

The Buddha of Non-Existence felt a massive weight lift from his shoulders. He nodded. “Excellent!”

Although he said this, both he and Su Yi knew that the Threelives Buddha would rather die than submit.

They conducted this discussion over transmission, and by the time they finished, Su Yi had acquired the complete Threelives Dharma.

The Buddha of Non-Existence, meanwhile, had moved back into the Book of Destiny. His body and powers of the Grand Dao had been destroyed, and all that remained of him was a wisp of spirit. Remaining in the Book of Destiny was his safest option.

“Why did you... save me?” Hong Ling asked suddenly.

Su Yi turned to look at her. The Heavenly Sovereign from the Primordial Divine Court had lost all of her aloof pride and splendor. She was now pale, bewilderment written all over her face.

Su Yi asked right back, “Have you figured out why the Threelives Buddha spent the last of his strength to kill you?”

Hong Ling said tentatively, “Was it because... he saw me as a traitor?”

Su Yi didn’t know what to say. He finally understood why the Threelives Buddha had been so frustrated with Hong Ling earlier. Her thinking really was overly simplistic.

But then, this wasn’t a bad thing when it came to cultivation. The simpler you were, the greater your compatibility with the Grand Dao, and the greater your focus. That, in turn, reduced the risk of trivialities leading you astray.

Perhaps it was because of her simplicity that she’d managed to prove her Dao and become a Heavenly Sovereign.

There was no lack of clever people in this world, but there was a shortage of simple, determined “fools!”

“He had two reasons for killing you,” Su Yi said casually. “For one thing, your death would make my enmity with the Primordial Divine Court irreconcilable.”

Hong Ling blinked. “But he was the one who tried to kill me, not you.”

A moment later, she understood. “Ah, I see. If I died, no one would listen to your explanations. The founder would undoubtedly blame you, and he’d never forgive you.”

Su Yi nodded inwardly. Good. She might be simple by nature, but she isn’t really stupid.

Su Yi continued, “Second, even though he went to his death, there was no way he’d dare to target me. If he had, there’d have been a risk of me capturing him alive before the last of his life force ran out.”

Hong Ling nodded repeatedly. “So that’s it. If you’d caught him alive, you could have ‘traced the vine to find the gourd’ and located his other two bodies.”

She finally understood.

Su Yi took out a jug of wine and had a sip. “Then do you think I’ll kill you?”

Hong Ling’s gaze focused, and she fell silent. She couldn’t say for sure. The Threelives Buddha was so shrewd, yet Su Yi had trapped and tricked him at every turn. How could she possibly guess what he was thinking?

When Su Yi saw this, he lost all interest in probing her. “Give me the Mirror of Mysteries, and I can leave you a path to life.”

Hong Ling’s brow furrowed. She was obviously averse to the idea.

But in the end, she compromised. “It’s really that simple?”

Su Yi teased. “Didn’t you urge the Threelives Buddha to surrender precisely because you trusted me to keep my word?”

Hong Ling felt a bit awkward and ill at ease, but she was thoroughly on guard. “You aren’t willing to let me go because you have some kind of ulterior motive, right?”

Su Yi said casually, “When you see your founder, just tell him honestly everything that happened here.”

Hong Ling mulled that over. “You... don’t want to be his enemy?”

Su Yi said, “Strictly speaking, there’s no grudge between the Primordial Divine Court and me. I naturally don’t want to become enemies for no reason.”

He flipped his palm, and the Cauldron of Fate floated into the air. “The Cauldron of Fate is indeed connected to True Progenitor Shi Yin, but you’d best leave me out of the Primordial Divine Court’s enmity with the chaos fiends. That’s all I want to say. Do you understand?”

Su Yi rubbed his forehead, a bit exasperated. There was no need to go to all this effort when talking to the Threelives Buddha. A few words were enough for his old enemy to realize what he was getting at.

But Hong Ling was different. He had to explain everything clearly if she was to understand.

Indeed, Hong Ling looked enlightened. “I’ll tell the founder that, but...”

Su Yi’s eyelids twitched. Is there a problem? Don’t tell me I wasn’t clear enough?

Hong Ling hesitated, then said, “The founder said that you were certain to become his enemy in his pursuit of the Grand Dao!”

Su Yi blinked. “Did Sovereign Venerate Yi really say that?”

“I wouldn’t dare put words in the founder’s mouth,” said Hong Ling.

Su Yi smiled. “I’ve got to say, Sovereign Venerate Yi is quite perceptive!”

This was the supreme, ruling expert of the early Primordial Era, the Sovereign among Sovereigns. Disregarding the clone he’d killed, they hadn’t really met, yet Sovereign Venerate Yi already saw him as his enemy in his pursuit of the Grand Dao.

How could Su Yi possibly be mad about that?