Chapter 181 – Twin Revenants
Xu Disheng was still unaware of the tremendous uproar he had caused outside of the inner realm of the Luminous Cloud Abyss. At this moment, when he saw the person standing in front of him, a hint of doubt appeared deep in his eyes.
The disciple’s facial features were ordinary. He seemed to be an elite disciple at the peak Sea of Qi stage, but there was a rare, faint but still discernible aura around him which was surprising to Xu Disheng.
That person laughed and said, “Come.”
His voice was coarse, not like a human’s voice.
Xu Disheng’s eyebrows furrowed deeper. This person was very much like a ghost with high spiritual awareness who had transformed into a human.
But this was the Shangqing Sacred Sect, one of the overlord sects of the Shan Mountain Territory. There were countless powerhouses here, and even several Clone Avatar stage Greater Lords watching over the place. It would be strange for there to be even a hint of any sinister ghost thriving here, much less a ghost from the outside world. But this person’s aura…
It wasn’t exactly ghost qi, but it was similar.
High up in the sea of clouds at the center of the Luminous Cloud Abyss, Primordial Lord Yangze, seated on a spacious, luxurious couch made of clouds, inadvertently glanced over at the strange disciple.
Lu Wen’s voice grew even more coarse as he spoke. “Why are you still not attacking? I already killed four disciples. If you don’t attack me first, I can’t kill you.”
“There’s a protective mist energy. You managed to kill people?” Xu Disheng asked, raising an eyebrow.
Lu Wen’s face warped and contorted, already very much unlike a human face. After a few moments, he forcefully brought his face back into order, the hint of urgency in his tone growing. “Hurry up and attack, I want to kill you! There’s a really nice smell on your body!”
His fingers began to twitch, like he wanted to attack Xu Disheng. But as if there was some unknown kind of rule binding him, he couldn’t lift his hands at all.
With the protection of the mist energy, there really was no way to kill anyone by force here.
But there were strange things about this Lu Wen. Before the disciples could teleport out, a phantom image of a Bodhisattva statue with tightly closed eyes would appear before him, swallowing the disciples’ souls!
A bizarre occurrence like this should have been discovered by the spectators outside, watching the screens of light, but Primordial Lord Yangze had secretly made a move to conceal it.
The Bodhisattva phantom image was the ‘revenant’ that Primordial Lord Yangze had spoken of!
It was a dreadful being formed from the negative aspects of a Bodhisattva!
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The screen of light showing Xu Disheng’s perspective was being watched by too many people. Even Primordial Lord Yangze had no way of forcefully hiding it, so he could only watch over the situation to make sure nothing unexpected occurred.
“Why aren’t you able to attack if I don’t attack you?” Xu Disheng asked. He suddenly felt an indistinct, ancient aura coming from this person’s body. In his sea of consciousness, a fragment of a memory floated to the surface of his mind. The cyan jade flute, which had long been sitting in stillness in a corner of his sea of consciousness, unexpectedly began to emit a dull cyan glow once more.
… …
“Prajñā, where is your revenant?”
“The Human Realm,” the Bodhisattva of Prajñā said, looking at the youth beside him. “Everyone with the title of arhat and even Bodhisattvas all reincarnate their revenants into the Human Realm, allowing them to operate under a set of rules. You became a Bodhisattva recently, but you should also know about this.”
“I’m just a bit curious about your revenant, that’s all. Do you still remember what I spoke with you about last time?”
“I won’t help you,” the Bodhisattva of Prajñā said. After a moment’s thought, he continued, “After some time, I will be going to the Lesser Sun Realm and taking up a post as one of the three Bodhisattvas of the realm to gather merits. It would be best if you abandoned your thoughts of deviating from all living beings.”
“Suppose I told you that you could get a glimpse past that supreme boundary if you went to the Human Realm and found and absorbed the revenants of every arhat and Bodhisattva in the Great Buddhist Sun World… Would you believe me?” the youth said nonchalantly.
On the Bodhisattva of Prajñā’s face, a rare hint of terror appeared on his face. As he lifted his head and looked off into the horizon of Sahā Heaven, the divine light around him trembled slightly.
“How could you dare…” the Bodhisattva of Prajñā began.
“Don’t bother looking. Lord Buddha is asleep. He won’t hear,” the youth said.
“Impudent! You don’t act like a Bodhisattva at all!” the Bodhisattva of Prajñā shouted, true anger erupting forth. The halo behind his head shone fiercely with boundless divine light.
“We are both Bodhisattvas, what can you even do to me? Remember this, Prajñā. You will help me with that matter sooner or later. And only your twelve-petaled lotus seat will be able to help me.” With that, the youth’s figure morphed into golden motes of light and left Sahā Heaven.
… …
The memory fragmented to pieces. In Xu Disheng’s half-closed eyes, the golden glow of Buddhist divine light was shining.
Lu Wen’s face filled with terror. In a trembling voice, he shouted, “Who in the world are you?!”
Xu Disheng came back to his senses. When he opened both of his eyes fully, the golden divine light disappeared. In his eyes, which were always peaceful and calm, there was unexpectedly a hint of rage within.
Some being had intentionally let him see this memory!
And in this memory fragment, there was a good portion of it that was fabricated!
However, what was even more terrifying was that every time Xu Disheng was submerged in this memory in his sea of consciousness, he could sense the flaws and fabricated points in the memory, but whenever he woke up, the memory would seem incomparably real to him!
Xu Disheng channeled Soul Force into his eyes and examined Lu Wen.
Lu Wen was still looking at him with an expression filled with shock and fear, but there was a dreadful image superimposed over his body!
This image was a Bodhisattva with a frightening, sinister expression. His eyes were tightly closed, and tears of blood were streaming down his face in two rivulets.
As if the Bodhisattva felt Xu Disheng’s gaze on him, his eyes, which were trembling and crying tears of blood, started to open up!
A kind of sheer terror filled Xu Disheng’s heart. He had a premonition that if these two bloody eyes were to open up completely, he would definitely die!
In his sea of consciousness, the cyan jade flute began to blaze with cyan light, and Xu Disheng could feel its monstrous hunger. It trembled and stirred, as if it was about to transform into the Black Sky Yellow Earth Pagoda, then completely swallowed the terrifying phantom image of that Bodhisattva.
Xu Disheng’s eyes turned bloodshot, and he let out a low roar. “Return for me!”
Pouring all of his Soul Force into this command, he suppressed the stirring cyan jade flute. He submerged it deep into the depths of his sea of consciousness, where it fell silent.
