CHAPTER 472: CHAPTER 423 TURBULENT TIMES

The night wind howled, casting vast shadows like gigantic curtains, enveloping the city.

Under the moonlight, the dancing shadows of the trees, the pavilions and towers, and the deserted streets were all shrouded in profound darkness.

The lanterns left for night travelers quivered in unison, as if they might extinguish at any moment.

In the depths of the garrison, several soldiers preparing to reach for the Nearby Worm from Xingzhou suddenly froze. Countless pairs of hands made of shadows clung to their heads, faces, chests, and limbs.

RIP—

The hands tore simultaneously, ripping the soldiers to pieces. The specially made stone box containing the Nearby Worm was also engulfed by the shadows, drawn into the deep darkness, and disappeared from sight.

In the square of the Xingzhou Prison, the barrage of talisman arrows from the garrison soldiers continued.

Jianquan’s protective Buddha Light was invulnerable, so they targeted him with the darkest and most defiling substances.

Demon Blood, Netherworld Water, witch’s ointment...

A sinister aura twisted and spiraled on the courtyard walls, accompanied by ghastly green ghost fires and the howling of spirits and wolves. Without knowing the true situation, it was hard to tell who was righteous and who was wicked.

"Alas..."

The sigh echoed amidst the multicolored flames, faint and as if from nowhere.

With a flick of his hand, Jianquan sent the omnipresent shadows across the right side of the courtyard wall.

The solid wall, constructed from three layers of interlocked stone bricks, easily collapsed and disintegrated, taking the garrison soldiers standing on it crashing down with it.

Jianquan, already a renowned Zen Master of the Candle Cloud Realm, had now "fallen into the Demon Path," displaying a power that simply inspired despair.

After Gongsun Changyi and Xiong Tuohai were ambushed and killed, no one remained in the entire Xingzhou City who could contend with him.

"Master Jianquan!"

As Jianquan raised his hand again, Sui Yi drew her Yinghuo Longsword and asked loudly, "If the Six Paths of Reincarnation Illusion comes to be, what will happen to the six hundred thousand common people in the city?"

Jianquan paused his hand and answered calmly, "Their souls will enter the reincarnation I have created, achieving enlightenment and becoming Bodhisattvas. From then on, they will obtain eternal peace and joy."

Sui Yi did not stop and continued to ask, "And what of their physical bodies?"

"The physical body is not I; the five aggregates are empty. The physical shell is merely a simple vessel carrying the true self. Since there is now a grand path leading directly to the other shore of the sea of suffering, why care for this mortal coil, tainted by the defilements of the Five Defiled Worlds?"

Jianquan’s answer was as simple as he could make it. In his view, if a person’s self could achieve spiritual enlightenment, then the physical presence of a body was no longer important.

Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are inherently higher, enlightened beings and need not cling to the "human" form.

But this view was absolutely unacceptable to Sui Yi.

Once the body is forsaken and the soul taken away, then these people are essentially dead.

Death is like a snuffed-out lamp. Moreover, this fate would not be of their own choosing, and the actual outcome would be unknown, based entirely on Jianquan’s conjectures and assumptions.

Sui Yi pressed on, "If the Six Paths of Reincarnation Illusion is established, where exactly will you lead the eight hundred thousand common people of Xingzhou? Are you not afraid of provoking the full pursuit of the Academic Palace and the garrison? The Yu Country would not stand for such actions, and neither Zen nor Taihao Mountain would ever permit it."

Though Jianquan was a Candle Cloud Cultivator, how could he face both the Yu Country and Taihao Mountain simultaneously?

The Zhao Ming Organization could repeatedly provoke the Academic Palace without harm because they acted mysteriously, excelled at concealment, had tenuous connections to the mortal world, and left few traceable clues.

Jianquan, however, had too many disciples, and even many relatives of the same surname still lived in the world. His enemies would only need to use divination to determine his approximate whereabouts and then deploy massive manpower to pinpoint his exact location.

Once his location was pinpointed, Jianquan—having angered the Yu Country and Taihao Mountain (the Haotian Taoist Sect would never permit anyone to claim the creation of a new reincarnation cycle)—would face certain death.

"I understand," Jianquan stated calmly. "That’s why we must hurry.

After completing the Six Paths, I shall abandon this defiled earthly body and escape with eight hundred thousand souls to the Empty Realm Buddha Country, to become the Chaotic Wind."

Jianquan smiled faintly, looking at the shocked and bewildered Sui Yi. "Surprising, isn’t it?" he said. "The Academic Palace textbooks should have taught you about the Chaotic Wind. It’s an extremely special and rare First-level Deceit. It has no concrete form, existing merely as an ordinary breeze that cannot be predicted by any means.

Once a major disaster occurs nearby, the Chaotic Wind will rapidly expand, feeding on and intensifying the chaos, taking away lives and souls.

It’s indeed the perfect vessel for the Empty Realm Buddha Country.

I even suspect that the world’s first Chaotic Wind was created by an ancient sage who shared my very thoughts."

Sui Yi gritted her teeth in silence. He’s completely mad,

she thought. She realized Jianquan not only wanted to drag the common people of Xingzhou to their deaths but also intended to transform them into the Chaotic Wind. He planned for them to escape into the so-called Empty Realm Buddha Country, thereby continuing his Eternal Illusion Realm.

It was the same old problem: death extinguishes life like a snuffed lamp. No matter what Jianquan claimed, it could never be verified.

"I knew I shouldn’t have complained that leading this field assignment was too dull before we set out."

Sui Yi shook her head with a bitter smile, yet the Yinghuo Sword in her hand ignited with raging flames.

Her willow-leaf-shaped eyes gradually settled, revealing a resolve stronger than steel.

I wield my sword for those who cannot wield their own.

Sui Yi twisted the sword hilt and declared loudly, "Sui Yi, disciple of Du Qinyin of the Academic Palace, wielder of the Yinghuo Sword, respectfully requests guidance from this senior!"

She stomped the ground, which cracked beneath her feet, and like an arrow loosed from a bow, she charged toward Jianquan.

The Yinghuo Longsword tore through the sky. Its fierce Sword Qi ripped through the night like a radiant rainbow. Jianquan, who had maintained a serene expression even when ambushing and killing Gongsun Changyi and Xiong Tuohai without a moment’s pause, now actually furrowed his brow upon seeing the Yinghuo Sword Energy.

The sky-high flames triggered by the Yinghuo Sword Energy were visible even from the other end of the city.

"Senior Sister Sui has drawn her sword."

Dashing furiously across the rooftops at the other end of the city, Li Ang and He Fanshuang both fixed their gazes in that direction.

They were unable to participate in a Candle Cloud Realm battle. Thus, after Sui Yi had unleashed her Sword Qi, knocking them flying moments earlier, they had fled Xingzhou Prison and headed straight for the garrison.

The Nearby Worm was there. If they could find it, they could use it to contact Great Practitioners from Chang’an or Luoyang for reinforcements and figure out a way to save the common people of Xingzhou.

But looking at the current situation...

Li Ang glanced down at the streets below out of the corner of his eye. Wherever Jianquan’s shadow reached, faint, sacred Buddhist chants began to resonate.

The sleeping common people of Xingzhou, awakened by the Buddhist chants, stumbled dazedly out of their homes and onto the streets.

Still dressed in their thin nightclothes, they squinted, and, walking barefoot, silently made their way toward Xingzhou Prison.

As the saying goes, when people gather in the tens of thousands, they form a boundless ocean. Eight hundred thousand common people of Xingzhou surged onto the streets. As far as the eye could see, there was only a roiling sea of heads.