Chapter 264: Buddhists Guarding the Forbidden Zone
"Amitabha!"
A Buddhist chant was heard under a golden Bodhi tree that was emitting auspicious aura and sweeping divine light. A young Buddhist boy dressed in a moon-white monk's robe stood up from the cushion under the Bodhi tree.
"Buddha's son!"
When they see the Buddhist disciple stand up, even the novice monks and nuns will come forward to serve him.
"Go and tell the venerables that I will be going on a long journey today. It will take at least three years, at most five years, and then I will return to the temple."
The young Buddhist had a calm expression, but his words were like a bolt from the blue or thunder from the sky to the monks around him. Everyone who heard it showed surprise and astonishment on their faces.
"Master Buddha, when will you leave?"
Several nuns came forward, and at the same time, more novices turned hurriedly and went to look for the temple's guardian Kāla and the Yakṣa general. Since the Buddhist was going to travel, he must have a guardian by his side.
"No need to do that, I can be alone."
The young Buddhist's face remained peaceful, but the novice monks and nuns around him were very anxious. How could they let this Buddhist travel so far away alone, and be away for such a long time?
But they had no time to stop him, as they saw the Buddhist disciple holding a rosary in his hand and wearing a simple monk's robe. He took a step forward and disappeared, and their presence could no longer be detected.
The power of divine feet, freedom and the ability to appear at will!
Tianlong Temple was suddenly in chaos.
No one expected that the Buddhist disciple, who would preach to the Buddhists in the temple every now and then, would leave so abruptly, without any entourage and without telling where he was going.
There were absolutely no signs before the incident, so many monks found it hard to believe the news. After confirming the news, they bowed their heads and burst into tears, unable to bear the pain.
Fayuan, the contemporary Buddhist disciple of Tianlong Temple, is different from any previous Buddhist disciple. His comprehension and understanding of the Dharma has reached the level of Arhats being obedient and Bodhisattvas lowering their eyebrows.
When this Buddhist disciple gave a sermon, even the venerables in the temple would come and serve as his guard. Every time he gave a sermon, hundreds of Buddhists would attain enlightenment on the spot, and their Buddhist practice would advance by leaps and bounds.
How could people not feel regretful and surprised when such a Buddhist suddenly went on a long journey?
Many Buddhists even gathered together and requested the Venerable to appear to maintain order to find the Buddha's son, but they were quickly reprimanded and admonished by the Venerable.
If there are no Buddhists preaching and those who cannot even bear to read the scriptures can return to secular life on their own. There is no need to waste time in this temple.
If you lose the Buddha's disciples, you will not be able to practice Buddhism?
Even more than one venerable showed up, and after a series of scoldings, the Tianlong Temple, which had become noisy due to the sudden departure of the Buddhist disciples, gradually quieted down, and the many quarrels and crying also subsided.
"What is going on? Why does a Buddhist suddenly want to travel far away? Who among you has bewitched him?"
However, after calming down the many troublesome monks in the Zen temple, several venerable monks who had appeared gathered together, also caught up in entanglement and sighing, and even tried to find out the reason why the Buddhist left.
"Who can bewitch a Buddhist disciple? Even if the formless demon descended to the world, it would be nothing more than a breeze blowing on the face of that Buddhist disciple. How could it possibly shake the Buddhist disciple's Zen mind?"
"Ah, what's going on with this Buddhist disciple?"
"Who knows, maybe our Buddhist disciple has noticed something. He has cultivated divine eyes, divine ears, and even divine destiny."
"... I have the six supernatural powers of Buddhism. What realm has this Buddhist disciple reached? The Buddhist disciple left with the supernatural power of walking on water. I watched for a long time, but I couldn't find where the Buddhist disciple went. Even if I were to follow him, I don't know where to go."
Another venerable sighed softly, and after hearing him speak, several other venerables looked at him in surprise.
"Venerable Ci Nan, remember that you are not specialized in the practice of the supernatural power of walking on water? Even you are unable to track down the whereabouts of the Buddha's son?"
"I can't trace it. The Buddha's attainments in this magical power are far beyond the reach of this poor monk!"
"What should we do? Could it be that the six great venerables like us have gathered together, but we can't even find where our own Buddhist disciples are? If this gets out, it will become a joke!"
"Then don't spread it. Even if we can find his trace, what does it matter? This Buddhist has already made a decision. Can I go against his wishes? Bring him back by force? Who among you has such confidence?"
“…”
As soon as these words were spoken, all the venerables fell silent. Faced with a Buddhist who had mastered all six supernatural powers in just a few years, none of them was not surprised and stunned. This was clearly a challenge to their common sense.
If one can cultivate any one of the six supernatural powers of Buddhism before attaining enlightenment, it means that one is born with wisdom. Attaining the Arhat level will be a piece of cake, and even becoming a Bodhisattva is not impossible.
Even if one can cultivate two doors, it is very possible to attain the Bodhisattva status, or even become a Buddha. As for three doors, it is already impossible. Human energy is limited, and no matter how talented one is, there is a limit.
Not to mention the Buddhist disciples in their Tianlong Zen Temple , even if we count all the other great Buddhist temples with a history of thousands of years, there has never been any Buddhist disciple who could cultivate all six supernatural powers of Buddhism before attaining enlightenment. Even if there is half, we can only search through the history of thousands of years, and perhaps find a few.
These few people either died halfway due to encountering powerful enemies, or were already sitting high on the Buddha's throne in Lingshan, overlooking the world with compassion and saving all living beings.
Before I saw this Buddhist disciple with my own eyes, the only ones who could cultivate all six supernatural powers of Buddhism were the Buddhas on Mount Lingshan who had lived through eons and were immortal. Even the Bodhisattvas and Arhats might not be able to master all six supernatural powers of Buddhism.
Precisely because of this understanding, when a Buddhist disciple who had achieved the six supernatural powers without attaining Buddhahood appeared in their Tianlong Zen Temple, even the Venerable had to bow his head.
When a venerable asked, who could forcibly go against the will of this Buddhist disciple and bring him back, no matter how arrogant the venerable was, he would remain silent at this moment. Bring him back? What a joke, it would be unacceptable if he was not defeated by the backhand.
“…”
In the silence, a venerable finally broke the silence and found a staircase for many fellow disciples.
"Why should we lose our composure here? Didn't the Buddha tell us before he left? He will definitely come back in three years at the least, five years at the most. It's just the time for us to meditate once. Why should we forcibly go against the Buddha's wishes? Just let him go!"
"Amitabha, Senior Brother is absolutely right!"
"Good, good, I also think so. There should be no demons in this world that can harm the Buddha's disciples. We don't need to worry about their safety!"
"What we said today must not be spread out and let the seventh person know, otherwise other fellow practitioners will definitely laugh at us."
"As it should be."
On this side, many venerables in Tianlong Temple have made a plan to cause chaos in a Buddhist sect that has been passed down for tens of thousands of years. The contemporary Buddhist disciples, Fayuan, have already set foot in the place where ghosts and spirits live.
Only
There is no grass on the mountain, no peaks reaching the sky, no visitors on the ridge, no clouds in the cave, no water flowing in the stream. There are ghosts on the bank, and there are evil spirits under the ridge. There are wild ghosts in the cave, and evil spirits at the bottom of the stream.
"Amitabha!"
Despite being in such a dangerous place, the young monk's expression did not change at all. He even dropped from the air to the ground, stepped on the gray bones scattered all over the ground, and walked forward, as if he wanted to measure this dangerous place with his own feet.
Suddenly, the young monk lowered his head and looked at a half-buried human skeleton under his feet, which was half buried in sand and broken bones. As he watched, he saw dark soul fire burning in the skull with many gaps.
"Hehe! Where did you come from, you monk? Your spiritual sense is quite sharp, but it's a pity that it's of little use."
"I am a poor monk from Tianlong Temple, the source of Dharma!"
The young monk calmly watched the skeleton demon crawling up in front of him. The incomplete body kept absorbing the surrounding debris as it stood up, and soon gathered into a relatively complete body.
"Tianlong Temple? I seem to have heard that you, a little monk, are not staying in the temple to chant sutras. What are you doing here? This is not the place for you. I am in a good mood today and don't want to eat anyone. You can leave now!"
Even though he had a relatively intact body, the skeleton was still shaky when he stood up, but he waved his hand towards Fayuan generously.
As the demons and monsters in the underworld, letting go of a young monk who was full of vitality and blood who broke into the underworld was just an act of impulse, but it can indeed be regarded as a great act of kindness.
"You, have you ever eaten a human?"
It was rare for an evil demon to be so kind, but the young monk did not focus on it. Instead, he paid attention to the key point. Even his calm tone changed a little.
"Hehe, of course I have. I'm tired of it. Back then, I followed my master to the human world and happened to encounter a huge country in the human world that had collapsed. People were everywhere. Men, women, young and old, fried, stir-fried, all kinds of flavors. I've tried them all!"
Upon hearing the young monk's question, the skeleton demon immediately let out a mocking laugh full of sarcasm and disdain.
Going to the netherworld and asking a demon like it whether it has ever eaten humans is a joke. It is like asking a tiger or leopard in the human world whether it has ever eaten meat.
"Amitabha!"
When the young monk heard this, a look of compassion immediately appeared on his face. He closed his eyes slightly, clasped his palms together, and chanted the Buddha's name. When he opened his eyes again, there was no longer any peace in them, only a solemn and indifferent look.
"What? Little monk, I am very kind today. It would be fine if you didn't take the opportunity to escape, but you want to attack me? Do you know where this place is? Do you know where I came from?"
"It's just an evil demon that needs to be saved!"
As he finished speaking, the young monk had already slapped out with his palm. Golden Buddha light shone in his palm, and a dragon shadow could be seen rising in it, with its scales and armor intact, every detail visible, as if there really was a dragon coiled in the young monk's palm.
boom--
When the palm strike came down, the skeleton, which was nothing more than a collection of broken bones and many debris and bone fragments, suddenly exploded. In the heavy Buddha's light and the dragon's roar, it was completely annihilated and purified, leaving no trace.
“Hehe, quite interesting, and quite impressive, but you can’t tell, it’s just a soul energy sent down by me. Even if you kill it with your magical power, what’s the point? To you, I am everywhere.”
Amid the strange laughter, a dark soul fire lit up in front of the young monk, followed by a second and a third. In the blink of an eye, there were thousands of soul fires burning around the young man.
Thousands of skeletons staggered to their feet from the earth and rocks that buried them, twisted their skulls, and looked at the young monk in unison.
This was an extremely horrifying scene. Not to mention ordinary people, even those practitioners with weak wills would be frightened out of their wits if stared at by so many skeleton monsters, and it would not be surprising if they were scared to death.
"Little monk, I have 36,000 skeletons, most of which are from the cannibals I eat. Even if I tell you, what can you do? Can you kill them? Hehehe!"
Sarcastic laughter came from all directions, but the young monk did not move after slapping his hands. Even though he was provoked by the demon, the expression in his eyes did not change much.
Chant
The next moment, a long and deep dragon roar was heard. In the skull of the evil skeleton nearest to the young monk, a dragon shadow with Buddha light suddenly emerged. As the dragon's body coiled, it extinguished the soul fire in the skull.
"This is……"
Something unexpected happened suddenly, and the demon, who had transformed into thousands of incarnations, was unable to react. He did not understand how this incarnation disappeared, but the next moment, he understood.
Chant
Chant
The sounds of dragon roars were heard one after another, and rays of Buddha's light and dragon shadows appeared in the skulls of the skeletal incarnations. Each dragon roar represented a skeletal incarnation being annihilated and purified by the Buddha's light.
In just a breath, the thousands of skeletons that stood up were submerged by the same number of dragon shadows, and the swaying soul fires were also extinguished by the Buddha's light.
"No!"
At this moment, the great demon that could transform into thousands of forms realized that something was wrong. It screamed in fear. It noticed the dragon shadow that was spreading towards the source of the soul fire that had been split into various parts.
"Little monk, no, no, Master, please spare my life!"
The young monk said nothing, watching indifferently the dragon shadows and Buddha lights rushing out from the bones all over the mountains. Then he continued to move forward amid the demon's wailing, pleas for mercy, and hysterical insults.
Not long after, the young man passed through the snowy Bone Mountain, and what he saw was a vast expanse of blood. The entire sky seemed to be stained with blood, and under this sky was a vast, dark sea that stretched to the horizon.
In this sea area, there are no aquatic creatures, only wandering dead souls and unwilling ghosts. When they sense that living people are coming, these dead souls and ghosts instantly become boiling with anger.
The young monk just glanced at the boiling Black Sea, then turned his gaze to the sky above the Black Sea. There was nothing unusual under the blood-red sky. Only a moment later, accompanied by a flash of golden light, a Taoist with his feet on a precious lotus appeared.
