Chapter 484: Overlapping Worlds
Star Vylar's voice was on Little Sumeru Mountain one moment, and the next it was already at the foot of the mountain, actually chasing after them.
He didn't care about anything else, not even whether he killed his enemies; what he cared about most was his box.
His voice carried an uncontrollable fury, laughing in extreme anger: "You have some nerve!"
Under the box, Bangongcuo said in a low voice: "This kid really does have nerve..."
"You actually dared to collude with that Qin fellow to steal my box! You have some nerve, Great Lord!"
Star Vylar's voice came, now from the left, now from the right. Clearly, the darkness made it difficult for him to locate Qin Mu and the box's position in a short time, so he had to rush back and forth. Even so, with his speed, searching a radius of a thousand miles was no trouble.
Finding Qin Mu and the large box was only a matter of time.
"You think I won't kill you? You're too naive!" Star Vylar's voice came from the west, a hundred miles away. By the time he finished speaking, it had shifted to the south, also a hundred miles away.
Bangongcuo's face was ashen, grinding his teeth: "What does this have to do with me? I didn't collude with him to steal your box; I was just taking the chance to run away!"
On top of the box, Qin Mu said in surprise: "Star Vylar dealt with Wei Wu Shen that quickly? Such strength is truly terrifying!"
Under the box, Bangongcuo grunted and muttered: "My master has wasted his years... But it won't be easy for Star Vylar to refine my master's primordial spirit and turn it into one of his collections. Lord Qin, I have a brilliant idea that can both get rid of my master and eliminate Star Vylar!"
Qin Mu's voice came from on top of the box: "I know what you mean. You want to go to Southern Yang Mountain in the Great Ruins and unseal Wei Wu Shen's physical body. Star Vylar hasn't refined Wei Wu Shen's primordial spirit yet; he's probably separated the spirit embryo and soul within the primordial spirit and suppressed them separately. After all, Wei Wu Shen is a god. When he encounters his own body, he might be able to break free from Star Vylar's suppression. In his complete form, Wei Wu Shen's strength won't be weaker than Star Vylar's—it will only be stronger. Am I right?"
Bangongcuo nodded repeatedly, then remembered that Qin Mu couldn't see him nodding.
"Lord Qin truly is my lifelong archrival!"
Bangongcuo praised: "Lord, having an enemy like you gives me nightmares even when I sleep."
Long Qilin said: "Lord, I think he's insulting you."
Qin Mu said sincerely: "That is great praise. But Star Vylar might not be able to defeat Wei Wu Shen in his complete form. If Wei Wu Shen is released, the disaster would be extremely terrible. However..."
Worry crept into his heart. If Star Vylar refined Wei Wu Shen's primordial spirit, the disaster would also be unimaginable.
Just think about it: if Star Vylar refined Wei Wu Shen's primordial spirit, wouldn't he be able to kill anyone he wanted? Of course, Star Vylar had his own principles and wouldn't target people he didn't find worthy. But those who caught his eye were definitely beings who had reached the divine realm in some aspect!
Given his hobby, it was likely that all powerful beings who had reached the divine realm would be worshiped to death by him, and then he would happily cut off their divine-level limbs!
This would absolutely be a catastrophe, an incalculable blow to Dao techniques and divine abilities.
"If only these two could destroy each other, that would be perfect..."
Qin Mu sighed, but in his heart, he still agreed with Bangongcuo's proposal. He urged the box southward.
"You can't escape!"
Star Vylar's voice came from far and near. The night in the Great Ruins was too dark. Even with his heaven-and-earth-shaking divine abilities, it was difficult for him to find the traces left by Qin Mu and the box in a short time.
After a while, Qin Mu saw a shadowy natural moat appear in front of the box in the darkness. From the darkness ahead came the sound of waterfalls crashing down—not just one waterfall.
This was an extremely steep cliff.
"Oh, this is the cliff at the source of the Yong River!"
Qin Mu urged the box to the edge of the cliff and looked down. To his surprise, he saw patches of light coming from the cliff wall, though he couldn't tell what was emitting them.
His heart stirred. The last time he came here was with Xiong Xiyu and her daughter. Back then, he saw that this natural moat divided the Great Ruins into eastern and western halves, with the cliff reaching a height of several thousand zhang!
It was a cliff formed by a terrifying earthquake that had torn the entire Great Ruins apart, creating a huge cross-section running from north to south.
This was also the source of the Yong River. The river originated from the waterfalls on the cliff. The waterfalls converged to form the most magnificent river, which flowed for tens of thousands of miles before reaching Yankang, becoming the largest river in the Yankang Kingdom.
Moreover, Qin Mu had experienced a strange fog incident here.
He and Xiong Xiyu and her daughter had encountered fog blocking the river. In the fog, they had seen a Gobi desert, where the gods of the Shang Emperor era were building divine palaces. They had seen the ancient gods of the Shang Emperor era, following the Shang Emperor's orders, transforming the desert into an oasis. They had also witnessed the scene of the ancient gods of the Shang Emperor era digging the Yong River.
But the strangest thing was that they had seen the burial of the Shang Emperor era. Then, from the fog, gods of another era had walked out.
That was when the Kai Emperor and his ministers, inspecting the area, had encountered the strange fog and lamented the passing of an era!
Their experiences had become the strangeness that Qin Mu encountered.
The afterglows of two histories overlapped at the source of the Yong River, creating an incredible phenomenon.
At the time, Qin Mu had speculated that there might be entrances to other worlds here, and he had even seen the overlapping of five worlds' time and space!
"I wonder what strange things will happen at the source of the Yong River after nightfall?"
He felt both uneasy and expectant. He urged Star Vylar's box to walk down along the cliff wall. Under the box, Bangongcuo quickly hugged one of the box's legs tightly, afraid of being thrown off.
Meanwhile, on the golden summit of Little Thunderclap Temple on Little Sumeru Mountain, Little Tathagata sat in lotus position, surrounded by monks with mournful expressions. The demon ape knelt there, eyes wide open, tears suddenly falling and hitting the ground.
"I left Great Thunderclap Temple because my master was unfair. He let my senior brother succeed as Tathagata and didn't pass the position to me. Since all beings are equal, why can only humans be Tathagata and not demons? Since the Dharma is equal, why can only men be Tathagata and not women?"
Little Tathagata's face shone with a precious light, and he smiled: "My cultivation is no worse than my senior brother's, and I don't value human Buddhism as much. So I was indignant. I wanted to build a sacred land for demons. I left Great Thunderclap Temple and established Little Thunderclap Temple here. Great Thunderclap, Little Thunderclap—both are thunderclaps. Although the interpretations of the Dharma are different, both are the Dharma. Wei Wu Shen worshiped my soul to death. I don't have Star Vylar's strength, and now my soul is about to scatter. Zhan Kong, bring me the Xi Qi Luo."
The demon ape knelt forward and placed the Xi Qi Luo in his hands.
"My senior brother taught you the Tathagata Mahayana Sutra through the Xi Qi Luo. I took you as my disciple because of him. Great Thunderclap Temple and Little Thunderclap Temple are reconnected because of you."
Little Tathagata raised his hand, and the Xi Qi Luo floated in the air. He said: "You are the junior brother of Horse Tathagata of Great Thunderclap Temple. After I die, take the monks on the mountain to Great Thunderclap Temple. Horse Tathagata will take you in."
He took out a kasaya and a sutra scroll. The sutra scroll was placed on the kasaya, which was placed on the demon ape's hands. The Xi Qi Luo fell and pressed down on the sutra scroll.
"Tell Horse Tathagata: the Dharma says all beings are equal, so why are the demon statues in the temples all mounts of the Buddha and Bodhisattva statues? Can we demons also be equal?"
Little Tathagata's soul began to split and scatter. He continued: "Ask him again: if demons can also be equal, then since the Dharma was written by humans, can demons also write the Dharma?"
"Ask him again: saving humans is merit; is saving demons also merit?"
"Ask him again: eating humans is killing; is eating demons also killing? Plants, grasses, and trees can also become demons. Is eating them killing?"
"If he can't answer, give him the Buddhist scriptures I, the Demon Tathagata, wrote. Then he will take you in."
Little Tathagata put his palms together, a smile on his face, and said: "After I enter nirvana, take this stinking skin of mine to Great Thunderclap Temple. Ask him if I can enter the Ten Thousand Buddha Pagoda." With that, his soul scattered.
"Demon... Master!"
The demon ape prostrated himself on the ground, and all the monks chanted the Great Compassion Mantra together.
"Little Tathagata, with his own strength, founded Little Thunderclap Temple, making it the only sacred land in the Great Ruins, and the only sacred land for demons."
Xu Shenghua said softly: "There were no demons in Buddhism, but he gave demons their own Buddhism. The great monk's state of mind is no less than that of a Tathagata. Yanzi, I want to go and see the Buddha of humans and the Buddha of demons."
Jing Yan said: "I'll accompany you to Great Thunderclap Temple. It will be quite dangerous for Big Guy to lead these demon monks through the Great Ruins. It's better if we look out for each other."
Xu Shenghua said: "Little Thunderclap Temple has many experts after all. Crossing the Great Ruins shouldn't be too dangerous. The dangerous one is Lord Qin. He stole Star Vylar's box and took away the Great Lord of the Golden Palace. This Lord Qin..."
Veins bulged on his forehead. Jing Yan laughed: "Are you envious of him? Envious of his exciting life?"
Xu Shenghua nodded: "But I'm not that kind of person. Although I envy him, I don't want to live his life. I hope he can get through this calamity."
The Great Ruins Cliff.
A large box emitted a faint light, and the cliff wall also gave off a faint light. Outside, everything was shrouded in darkness that swallowed everything, but here, there was still light, which was quite remarkable.
The box walked down the steep cliff wall and stopped in front of a patch of light. Qin Mu examined the light closely and couldn't help showing surprise.
That ball of light was not emitted by a bioluminescent creature on the cliff wall, nor by some treasure. It was sunlight shining through a crack in the cliff's stone!
Qin Mu pressed his face against the crack and looked deep into it. He saw a green grassland, a bright sky, and a blazing sun hanging in the sky.
Bangongcuo also lay on the crack and looked inside, extremely shocked.
Seeing this, Long Qilin also stuck his butt out and looked into the crack, puzzled: "Is there a world hidden inside this cliff?"
"It's not a world hidden inside. Rather, this crack in the cliff connects to another world."
Qin Mu's eyes darted around, but he couldn't see more. He said: "I knew long ago that this place was strange, with five worlds overlapping... Quiet!"
Suddenly, two thick beams of light shone down from the top of the cliff, humming loudly. They swept past them without noticing them on the cliff wall.
"Star Vylar's eyes!"
Qin Mu breathed a sigh of relief. Suddenly, the two beams of light separated, a hundred miles apart, and shone onto the cliff wall, searching bit by bit!
Qin Mu was stunned: "Star Vylar gouged out his own eyes, and now these two eyes are flying in the air, searching for us!"
His scalp tingled just thinking about such a scene.
"Lord Qin, there's a big crack over here!" Bangongcuo's voice came.
Qin Mu quickly urged the box. The box strode toward the large crack on the cliff wall and then squeezed into the crack.
—Lalala, Zhai Zhu's birthday has passed. Thank you for your blessings and your tips! Zhai Zhu will continue to work hard and write even more exciting chapters! Brothers, put away your knives, put them away...