Chapter 2853: Do You Believe in Destiny, Monk? |
The waters of the River of Destiny churned.
A monk in white walked atop blooming lotuses, his robes swaying around him. He was indescribably extraordinary, as if he’d risen above it all.
His gaze was calm and clear as he smiled at Su Yi. “The past is in the past, and the future is already here. In this lifetime, I’ve achieved enlightenment. I alone stand on the Lotus of Destiny.”
The crowd didn’t know what to make of that, but Su Yi roughly understood.
The Buddhas of the Past, Present, and Future had each suffered a Karmic Tribulation, plummeting out of Eternity.
The current him had obviously fused the past, present, and future into a single body, establishing a path far mightier than the one he’d walked before!
“In that case, I’m the benefactor who changed your fate,” said Su Yi. “Do you acknowledge that?”
The monk in white smiled. “When a Buddhist cultivates, he never seeks external means. The fruit I harvest today is the result of the seed I planted in the distant past. You destroyed my Karmic Tribulation in the God Domain, but I arranged it through my own efforts. How could I possibly consider you my benefactor?”
Su Yi chuckled. Buddhist cultivators all have ‘lotus tongues.’ Trying to talk to them never ends well.
Su Yi instantly realized that the “Xi Ning” the monk spoke of was actually Su Wanjun. It was just that Su Wanjun had never mentioned this encounter to him.
The monk continued, “Let me leave with the spirit of Rahu, and this ends here.”
Su Yi’s eyebrows rose. Only now did he realize that the monk was here for Innocence.
Innocence was standing beside Su Yi. She looked up nervously at him. “Master, you won’t let him take me, will you?”
Su Yi disregarded her and asked the monk, “Give me one good reason.”
The monk shook his head. “That is my condition. You can refuse, but if you do, you’ll be refusing the path to life I’ve left you.”
Innocence was instantly more nervous than ever before. She could sense the aura of a lethal threat emanating from the monk; it was as if she’d encountered her natural bane.
Most terrifying of all, the monk was far, far stronger than her!
Wen Zibo, Cheng Yue, and the others watched in silence, not daring to intervene. By now, all of them had realized that this was a Buddha from the Spirit Mountain Buddhist Court.
A long, long time ago, before the curtain even fell on the Devastation, the Spirit Mountain Buddhist Court changed dramatically, but the details were never made public. All the Heavenly Monarchs knew was that three Buddhas of the Spirit Mountain Buddhist Court died in meditation overnight, destroyed completely.
The Spirit Mountain Buddhist Court tried to cover it up. When word finally leaked, the rest of the world learned that the three Buddhas had been gone for a long time already.
Later, everyone learned that the three Buddhas had met with a Karmic Tribulation and died while striving for supreme fruition.
But after word got out, the Spirit Mountain Buddhist Court announced that the three Buddhas hadn’t really died. Rather, they’d left in search of an unprecedented, supreme Buddhist path.
A few years ago, rumors spread that strange phenomena had arisen over the Spirit Mountain Buddhist Court. A lotus that had withered for hundreds of thousands of years had bloomed with new vitality overnight, manifesting seventy-two worlds and illuminating three thousand Buddhist pure lands.
They said that such phenomena arose when a supreme Buddhist entered the world, and moreover, that this was the most unbelievable instance yet. It astonished the entire Eternal Heavens Domain. Every major faction tried to gather information and uncover the truth.
In the end, all they learned was that a new, mysterious Buddha had joined the Spirit Mountain Buddhist Court. No one knew his title or his foundations. They just knew that everyone in the Spirit Mountain Buddhist Court honored him as the “supreme, unsurpassed, and free one true Buddha!”
“Making conditions, huh?” Su Yi’s calm voice rang out, breaking the stifled atmosphere. “Very well. I’ll make a condition of my own. Leave here today, and I’ll target you and you alone. Refuse, and I’ll destroy the entire Spirit Mountain Buddhist Court, too.”
The crowd was stunned. After all, who didn’t know that the Spirit Mountain Buddhist Court was the greatest Buddhist pure land beneath the heavens, as well as a Heavenly Sovereign faction?
Su Yi’s threat seemed utterly absurd, yet no one dared to laugh at him.
In the Literati Continent, multiple Heavenly Sovereigns joined forces against Su Yi, but he escaped nonetheless. Now, numerous long-established Heavenly Monarchs were targeting him on the River of Destiny, yet he’d broken through their joint attacks and practically routed their forces.
If Su Yi escaped with his life, who was to say he’d never grow strong enough to duke it out with Heavenly Sovereign factions?
The white-robed monk narrowed his eyes.
Back in the God Domain, he’d fought Su Yi for years, sometimes openly, other times secretly. He naturally knew that Su Yi was a man of his word and not the type to make empty promises.
“Is it worth going to such lengths for the spirit of Rahu?” The monk sighed.
Su Yi said calmly, “You ought to ask yourself that. Is it worth going to such lengths for the spirit of Rahu?”
Boom!
Before Su Yi’s voice had even finished echoing through the air, the monk in white attacked.
The lotus swayed beneath his feet, and endless Buddhist light swept forth like the tide. Three thousand Buddhist lands appeared, with endless visions of Buddhist kingdoms and boundless Sanskrit chanting.
The nearby Heavenly Monarchs froze, unable to move a muscle. All of them were overcome with astonishment, as the monk’s power was obviously beyond the limits of a Heavenly Monarch. This was the majesty of a true Heavenly Sovereign!
Only now could they say with certainty that the monk in white was a Buddhist Heavenly Sovereign!
Su Yi waved his sleeve through the air. Cen Xinghe and Innocence vanished into thin air. A yellowed tome appeared in his hand.[1]
Fierce currents suddenly swept through the River of Destiny, like a raging tidal wave with astonishing force and momentum. The endless Buddhist light, three thousand Buddhist lands, and endless Buddhist kingdoms were instantly washed away. Even the Sanskrit chanting was drowned out by the coursing current.
The onlookers were astonished. All of them moved further away. Even so, many of them met with disaster as the current assailed them, pulling them underwater. These unfortunates vanished in the blink of an eye.
All that remained of them were their last, desperate screams.
Meanwhile, the crowd finally saw the source of the disturbance clearly. It was a snow-white toad the size of a millstone!
The toad stood upon the waves in front of Su Yi and roared, “Bald Donkey, who the hell gave you the guts to treat Destiny’s Chosen with such disrespect? You deserve to die ten thousand deaths for this!”
The toad was furious, and its wrath stirred up the surrounding one thousand miles of water.
This was the Star Toad, the unparalleled, mighty river denizen that occupied the waters outside Blue Peak Port. It was this toad who’d given Su Yi the Toad Palace Pearl. It had been lying in wait deep within the River of Destiny prior to this, but when Su Yi took out the Book of Destiny, it intervened without hesitation.
“Destiny’s Chosen?” The white-robed monk’s eyes shone with a strange light. A swastika slowly turned in the depths of his gaze.
He stared intently at the white toad for a moment, then said, “I cannot defeat you in the River of Destiny, but opposing me outside its waters would be little different from suicide.”
Boom!
He stretched out his hand and pressed down. The enormous hand of a Buddha suddenly appeared above the white toad, swathed in endless golden Buddhist light.
The toad bellowed, and a current of the River of Destiny shot out of the water and slammed into the giant hand.
But within moments, the current shattered, and the hand pushed the toad back into the water, stirring up a massive wave.
The monk, meanwhile, looked at Su Yi and smiled. “Destiny’s Chosen? The one appointed to control destiny? Might you explain in more detail?”
Su Yi gripped the yellowed tome and said calmly, “You’ve cultivated across three lifetimes, meditating and contemplating the Dao. Surely you understand the meaning of the word ‘Destiny’?”
The monk was just about to say something when… Whoosh!
The current churned, and the snow-white toad rose out of the water and roared, “Bald Donkey, dare you fight me in the River of Destiny?”
The white monk frowned. This toad doesn’t know when to back off!
The monk took a step forward, his hands forming seals. The power of the Grand Dao surged between heaven and earth, condensing into an unsurpassed Buddhist seal, like a towering spirit mountain descending from on high.
This strike wasn’t just targeting the white toad. It was targeting Su Yi, too!
This was the true majesty of a Heavenly Sovereign. In an instant, the toad was rendered immobile. The pressure was suffocating.
Su Yi sensed an impending lethal threat, too.
But just as the monk was about to strike the killing blow, an icy voice rang out. “Do you believe in destiny, monk?”
Accompanying this voice, a swath of dreamlike, colorful light appeared beneath the churning River of Destiny, and an indescribably terrifying, ferocious majesty erupted from within the current.
Kaboom!
The void shook on all sides.
A swath of dazzling, resplendent river water blocked that unsurpassed Buddhist seal, preventing it from descending any further!
Firelight interwove, and a peacock appeared on the River of Destiny. It stood on the water’s surface, its resplendent plumage spreading out like a fan and blanketing the entire area.
All eyes were instantly upon it. When the crowd saw the mystical peacock, all of them were stunned, and all of them gasped. What ferocious majesty!
The Star Toad laughed. “You’re as fierce as ever, Ol’ Peacock!”
Su Yi was stunned, too. The peacock’s arrival was entirely outside his expectations.
And when the monk saw the peacock, he too was unwittingly stunned. His gaze shifted.
1. Reading ahead, and considering that Xiao Jian's yellow scroll is called the Book of Destiny, we think a "tome" is a better translation instead of "scroll." We will change all previous instances of "scroll" to "tome" as well, but putting this note here so you aren't confused going forward. (Basically the term in the raws, 书卷, is a little ambiguous but usually means "scroll.") ☜