Seized by the System

When Fang Ning heard that the Bodhisattva Spirit King’s real body was going to descend, he knew at once that the situation would be difficult to handle.

From the previous confrontation between Zhi Nan and the devil lord’s real body, he realized something, in these two separate worlds, the real body and its incarnation that were originally supposed to be two sides of the same being, as well as one in heart and body was also facing great contradiction and conflict with one another.

The source of the contradiction was very simple. When this incarnation was left alone in the other world, just like the incident of the Fan Zhen town separation (TN: A historical event often referred to as the chaos of the Tang dynasty, which was largely due to a political split between the military and the central government), it had started to gain a sense of independence.

If both remained in the same world, then of course such a situation would never occur, for all the thoughts of the incarnation would be within the real body’s control.

Sitting on the flower hill, Fang Ning sighed, “Sir, what you said is true after all. There’s never been anything perfect about this. Having an incarnation is indeed good, since it can help the real body ward off disasters, but if it’s left aside for too long, it may start to rebel as well.”

“This is very normal, alright? You can’t expect a horse to run fast when you don’t let it graze. If it has to fatten itself while laboring and then be slaughtered for its meat afterward, why shouldn’t it rebel instead of waiting to be killed and served on New Year’s Day?” Sir System said righteously.

“Now we’ll see how the tension and conflict between this good god’s real body and its incarnation will be resolved.” Fang Ning was left without a plan, so he could only drag on and observe the situation.

He understood clearly how Zhi Nan dealt with the real body of his devil lord, which was by mastering Sir System’s Morality Technique in spite of himself and by switching away from the evil side through a painful process of severance, so as to release his suppressed kindness and eliminate the other eight of his kind in one go. In fact, until today, Zhi Nan had yet returned to his original state, which meant that he should be planning to confront the real body again in the future.

If devils used this method, then what about the Bodhisattva?

He wanted to see if there was any difference.

“Who cares how they’ll resolve their conflict? In any case, I won’t be at the losing end,” Sir System spoke adamantly.

“…” Fang Ning rolled his eyes.

At this moment, Chong Daqing sneaked over and said smoothly, “Hey, Great Azure Dragon, since you have nothing to do anyway, who don’t you ask your chef to cook us some rice and make us a picnic to eat?”

“…” Fang Ning’s face twitched as he deadpanned, “You wish.”

If he had the time to cook and eat, would it not be better for him to sneak in time and read a novel or two instead?

However, that was impossible.

“How stingy. I look down on you.” Once the great green insect realized that its plan would not succeed, it became indignant. “I was still thinking of telling you what the ways of that old Bodhisattva actually are.”

“Oh, pray tell,” Fang Ning quickly replied before whispering to Sir System. “Give me a plate of that glowing dish of yours.”

“How despicable. Every time you mess things up, I’m the one who has to make up for it,” said Sir System just as angrily.

“Don’t act like a child. Be more generous. Don’t you want to learn more information on this?” Fang Ning pointed out.

Sir System had to pull out a plate of the glowing dish to give to him.

Fang Ning placed it before the great green insect, trying to use it to win its favor.

“I was speaking thoughtlessly just now. Don’t take it seriously…” Fang Ning said calmly.

The great green insect’s eyes lit up as it promptly replied, “Actually, even if you didn’t offer me anything to eat, I would’ve also told you. After all, the last time you used this glowing dish when questioning me, I didn’t give you an answer.”

“Hmm, it’s such an honest insect. If it didn’t remind me of this incident, I would’ve forgotten about it already,” Fang Ning said to Sir System.

“Humph, you two drama queens. Who are you acting for?” Sir System said indignantly.

“For you, of course,” Fang Ning replied.

“…” Sir System was speechless.

Daqing was certainly just being polite. In the next moment, it had gulped down the entire dish.

Then, as it patted its belly, it said, “Unfortunately, it’s too little, but having a taste of it is already good enough. Now let me tell you what type of person that old Bodhisattva is…”

“You can speak slowly. There’s no need to rush,” Fang Ning urged in a serious manner.

“That old Bodhisattva is really a rare type of good person. This is what my old Dad originally said, if kindness were to be considered as a strange rarity among the gods, then this old Bodhisattva would be the strangest of the strange.”

Chong Daqing seemed to be immersed in an old memory. Its insect eyes showed traces of confusion, incomprehension, and even a hint of emotion.

“What’s the matter with this insect? How can its gaze be so filled with emotions?” Sir System wondered, uncomprehending.

“Even the most innocent person can experience a profound moment.” Fang Ning took the opportunity to stick it to Sir System. “This is very much like you. Even you have your clever moments too.”

“…” Sir System feigned ignorance.

Upon hearing the following words, they both soon understood why Daqing was experiencing such emotions.

“I remember in the few years before descending, I was starving, so I went to our Celestial Clan’s own land to find something to eat…” Daqing slowly began her story. “At that time, my vitality was dispersing, and I was left with no magic to provide support, so the harvest was very poor. The commoners started begging the deities and Buddhas for help, but none paid attention to them. This old Bodhisattva was the only one to intervene, and he asked me to exempt these commoners from delivering their harvest as taxes.

“I told him I was starving too. Then he cut off the meat on his leg and gave it to me… Said I could eat Bodhisattva’s flesh to quell my hunger, but mortals couldn’t. They could only eat food grown from the ground.

“I’ve only recalled this incident recently. I’ve forgotten many things when I descended. I didn’t realize that I’d actually shared such a history with my new Dad.”

“Then did you eat it in the end?” Fang Ning asked in a hurry. This was a real-life version of the Buddhist story about Buddha feeding his own flesh to an eagle. Who would have expected the Bodhisattva Spirit King’s real body to do such a thing?

One should know that this was originally just a mythical legend. Meanwhile, in real life, there was the true event of a great filial son feeding his own flesh to his hungry blind mother.

“Of course I didn’t. My old Dad suddenly appeared and forbid me from eating it, yet he still exempted those commoners from paying taxes,” Chong Daqing said resentfully, as if regretting not having eaten Bodhisattva’s flesh.

“That’s fortunate. If you’d eaten Bodhisattva’s flesh, you would’ve probably turned into an evil insect,” said Fang Ning, shaking his head.

“Okay, I’ve finished my story about that old Bodhisattva. If there’s nothing else, I’ll take my leave. You can take your own sweet time daydreaming here.” Chong Daqing felt rather embarrassed and wanted to sneak away.

“Wait a second. Didn’t you say that old Bodhisattva will be descending soon? Don’t you want to see what’ll happen between them?” Fang Ning tried to stop it from leaving.

Since Daqing and that old Bodhisattva shared such a karmic encounter, then this might have quite an effect.

“Then you wait for me. I’ll go find some of the honey fermented by the little bees to eat.” As soon as Chong Daqing finished speaking, it flew off towards a faraway flowery land.

Fang Ning did not try to stop it anymore. He thought about this for a moment. It seemed that this Bodhisattva Spirit King’s real body was really kindhearted to a pedantic extent.

Could it be that he, as a spiritual being descended to Earth, managed to still be kind to everyone, and had neither assumed the great air of a supreme deity, nor used his powers to exploit the sweat and toil of others?

Based on this point, this old Bodhisattva was indeed a rare type.

This was like finding a creature who loved small animals within the class of Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Nonetheless, Fang Ning had also seen the true ways of Buddha in those five bloodthirsty arhats, who had revealed the essence of the Upper Realm Buddhism to its fullest.

These advanced life forms could never be kindhearted people.