Stealing The Heavens

The Bodhisattva, who had imprisoned the souls of the three women in a jade-like lotus flower in one of his hands, gave Wu Qi a glance from across the distance, then burst out laughing. “Why did you say that, my benefactor? These three are my followers of Buddhism. They have a predestined relationship with the Buddhism League. I have made a great vow to ferry all the souls in the Nether World into the Buddhism League, so that they may all become Buddhas.”

With a wave of his hand, the Bodhisattva unleashed a beam of light and sent it toward Wu Qi. “My benefactor, you are still alive, but this place is the dwelling of the dead. You’d better leave here as soon as possible and don’t disturb the peace of my Buddhist Land anymore.”

The beam of light, though looked pale, contained an infinite mystery, and in it there was a shadow of a world — shockingly, it contained all the power of a Buddhist Kingdom! Although it was still dozens of miles away, the overwhelming pressure emanated from it had ripped the clothes of Wu Qi and those around him.

The Bodhisattva seemed to have only unleashed a weak strike, but in fact he intended to kill Wu Qi and his companions with it. The power of this Buddhist Kingdom was more than enough to suppress any ordinary Gold Immortal, no matter how strong he or she was. As for where one would be sent to and received what kind of treatment, only those from the Buddhism League knew.

As the Bodhisattva delivered the attack, many other Bodhisattvas and Arhats clasped their hands and chanted in unison, “Praise the compassionate and merciful Bodhisattva King Kṣitigarbha of the Six Paths!” As their chanting echoed out, the power of the light beam abruptly increased by ten thousand times.

The cultivation base of the Bodhisattva who delivered the attack was no more than the peak level of the realm of Bodhisattva, a small gap shy of the realm of Buddha. He was also the strongest of all the 800 Bodhisattvas here. The rest were far weaker than him, with the four strongest only having the overall strength about the same as third-tier Gold Immortals. But after the power of the light beam was increased by ten thousand times, its repressive force was no different from that of a casual strike unleash by an ordinary Buddha. With only the cultivation base of a Bodhisattva, he had unleashed the power of a Buddha. That was impressive.

Wu Qi snorted coldly. His body abruptly grew to a height of a thousand feet, with dragon scales densely covered his skin and two dragon horns emitting a dazzling rainbow light on his forehead. When the transformation was completed, he threw his head back and let out a long roar, which caused the surface of the yellow spring to swell with numerous waves, and then raised his hands to meet the light beam. “I’ve long heard that the grand magic of the Buddhism League is both broad and profound, well, I would like to see it for myself today!”

The Buddha’s light fell gently on Wu Qi’s hands. A vast pressure came weighing down on him, causing the cloud beneath him to sink and almost fall into the yellow spring, even with his current cultivation base. Then, a blaze of Buddha’s holy fire silently gushed out of the light, engulfing him and quietly burning. A purple-and-golden light radiated out from the dragon scales across his body and tangled with the flames, producing dull explosive noises from time to time.

At the same time, a gentle, benevolence voice rang faintly in Wu Qi’s ears. It kept urging him to turn over a new leaf and submit to the Buddhism League, telling him that he could become a Buddha by letting go of his cleaver. The voice kept penetrating into his spiritual ocean, but it was a pity that all the sound that entered into his spiritual ocean were devoured by him. It was actually a divine ability of the Buddhism League called the Divine Tune of Submission, which allowed the caster to conjure a magic tune with his mighty magic power and recruit someone into the Buddhism League.

The essence of this divine ability was pure Zen power of the Buddhism League. With the domineering nature of the Myriad Harmonization Grand Magic Wu Qi’s was cultivating, the power that penetrated into his body was no different to a tonic that was delivered to his door on its own. Therefore, he just held the heavy Buddha’s light with both hands, but let the voice continued to pour into his spirit ocean, while his divine soul, like the greediest glutton, opened its mouth excitedly and devoured them, constantly digesting them to nourish itself.

After a quarter of an hour of stalemate, when the mouths of half of the Arhats were too dried to speak and their faces began to turn pale, Wu Qi finally smashed the Buddha’s light to pieces with a punch. Just like that, the power of one world was violently destroyed by him. As the light shattered, a crisp crackle rang out from the lotus platform beneath the Bodhisattva who delivered the attack, then, one of its petals suddenly cracked with a long line.

Wu Qi laughed evilly. These monks came for wool but ended up sheared.

Those Arhats, who looked pale and could not speak, were the unfortunate ones who had infused their Zen power into the Buddha’s light and turned into the Divine Tune of Submission to attack Wu Qi. Their power was completely digested by him in just a quarter of an hour. As a result, there was not even a trace of willpower left in their minds now, and if they wished to regain the cultivation bases they had in their prime, it would take them at least three to five months to recover.

After draining the willpower of tens of thousands of Arhats and cracking the lotus platform, Wu Qi sneered at the Bodhisattva with his arms folded over his chest and said, “Let go of the souls of the three girls, let me escort them to reincarnation, and give me a compensation sufficient to satisfy me, and I’ll not hold you guilty of offending me today. If not, I will smash your bald heads and destroy your temples! See if you, the Buddhism League, can still meddle with the Six Paths of Reincarnation then!”

Amid his cold laughter, Dark Yin Celestial Tower flew out silently from the top of his head. Countless beams of silver-and-purple starlight shot out of it, condensing in the void into tens of thousands of stars the size of water tanks, all spinning restlessly. The rumble produced when these stars spun went straight into everyone’s body, causing their internal organs to shiver.

The Bodhisattva’s face flickered. The lotus flower in his palm transformed into a ray of white light and disappeared into his hand, bringing with it the souls of the three women. He had forcibly taken their souls into his own Buddhist Kingdom. He made it clear that he was unwilling to hand over the souls.

With a cold laugh, the Bodhisattva, clad in a rich kasaya fringed with golden tassels, pearls and jade pendants, a golden mandala flower on his head, and pink lotus flowers on his shoulders, said coldly, “I wonder which King of Great Yu are you, Your Excellency? Why do you trespass the Secluded Land of the Buddhism League and disturb our peace? Why don’t you just leave now? Are you going to cause a conflict between the Buddhism League and Great Yu?”

Wu Qi was a little surprise. With his current look—a Supreme Tower hovered over his head, and the form of a dragonman after exercising the Dragon Kill—he had killed three Buddhas, robbed Buddha Futu, and slaughtered tens of thousands of cultivators of the Buddhism League. Presumably, his look should have been widely circulated in Buddhism League, right? But why didn’t this Bodhisattva King Kṣitigarbha of the Six Paths even know who he was?

And he only accused Wu Qi of trespassing on the Secluded Land of the Buddhism League, but never mention his man had abducted Wu Qi’s friends!

Wu Qi snorted coldly, gritted his teeth and said, “I’m Tan Lang, Great Yu’s King of Dong Hai. A few months ago, I was the King of Dong Hai Province.”

After hearing Wu Qi spoke of his title, the Bodhisattva shook his head and said, “King of Dong Hai? I’ve never heard of you. Whoever you are, if you leave the Nether World now, I will not hold you responsible for trespassing on the Secluded Lang of the Buddhism League today!”

Wu Qi was stunned, and he looked at the Bodhisattva in astonishment. ‘How could he be so thick-skinned? He just doesn’t want to mention anything about the three girls! Also, how could he not hear of me? I’ve killed three Buddhas, robbed Buddha Futu, and for that Lord Buddha himself should have given an order for my arrest. So, why didn’t he respond to my name at all?’

“Oh, so this fella is that Kṣitigarbha? I’ve heard of his name,” said Ao Buzun. “He is older than the present Lord Buddha of the Buddhism League, Amitabha. Wait, no, he should be older than the Lord Buddhas of the last dozens of generations. He was the first disciple of Vairocana, the Lord Buddha of a hundred generations before today’s. When the Buddhism League decided to poke their hands into the Nether World, he had sworn a great vow to preside over the Six Paths of Reincarnation.”

Wu Qi’s eyes flickered as he vaguely understood something. He cleared his throat and smiled at the Bodhisattva, “Can Bodhisattva please return the souls of the three girls to me… Although I live in Dong Hai Province, I do have some very close friends in Buddhism League, like Buddha Futu, who is my closest friend.”

With a flip of his palm, Wu Qi produced the string of golden beads he robbed from Buddha Futu. He smiled at the Bodhisattva and said, “You see, this is Buddha Futu’s gift to me when I was promoted as King of Dong Hai.” The string of golden beads was a fiend-suppressing treasure crafted by Amitabha himself for Buddha Futu, and as soon as Wu Qi took it out, auspicious clouds swept across tens of thousands of miles and a surging Buddha’s light shone the whole sky. Even the yellow spring suddenly became as clean as a mirror.

Other Bodhisattvas and Arhats all turned to look at this Bodhisattva King Kṣitigarbha of the Six Paths, but he just glanced at the string of beads with his lips curved into a sarcastic smile. “You are wrong,” he said, shaking his head. “Let’s not confuse one thing with another. I’m talking about your great sin of trespassing on the Secluded Land of the Buddhism League. Even if you do know a few juniors of the Buddhism League, it won’t wash away your great sin!”

When Wu Qi heard this, he understood everything. Calling Buddha Futu a junior? This Kṣitigarbha surely had guts! Apparently, he was not in the same league as the current Lord Buddha, Amitabha. In that case, Wu Qi did not have to deceive him with these little tricks.

After putting the string of beads back into his interstitial world, Wu Qi pointed to the Bodhisattva and snapped, “Bald donkey, I will ask you again for the last time: will you hand over the souls of the three girls? If you hand them over now, I’ll turn around and leave. If you don’t…”

The Bodhisattva laughed coldly. “It’s a misfortune for the Buddhism League to have some unworthy disciples who colluded with someone as wild and arrogant as you. My fellow Bodhisattvas and Arhats, prepare the Six Paths Mandala Formation and help me release this group of evil spawns from purgatory!”

After pondering for a moment, the Bodhisattva said bluntly, “That string of beads is the supreme treasure of the Buddhism League. We cannot let it fall into the hands of outsiders. Kill this group of villains quickly and bring it back to where it belongs!”

Ao Buzun was so angry that he cursed, “Bald donkey, if you want to kill us and rob us of everything, just say so. What’s the fuc*king point to make it sounds so nice?!”

A sharp clang rang out as Ao Buzun drew his specially crafted knife.

The Bodhisattva smiled indifferently and said, “You are uttering nonsense, evil spawn! I’m just carrying out my duty of slaying the evils and protecting the Dao! Six Paths Mandala, raise!”

With the loud cry of the Bodhisattva, a massive flash of spirit light suddenly burst out from the great light wheel in the distance. Then, the mountains beneath those Bodhisattvas and Arhats began to tremble as dozens of giant beasts slowly broke out from rocks and soared into the sky, gradually fusing with the spirit light that had turned into nine light wheels.

In just the blink of an eye, Wu Qi and his companions were trapped in a formation shaped like a mandala flower. The Bodhisattva flew up into the air with many other Bodhisattvas and occupied all the key points of the formation. Without allowing Wu Qi and others to speak, flowers condensed of the holy fire of the Buddhism League came falling down like rain; a terrible heat swept over, and in just a flash Xiang Yu’s long hair was burned to ashes.

Without even giving Wu Qi another chance to speak, they had dealt a death blow. These disciples of the Buddhism League had proved themselves to be domineering and unreasonable.