Chapter 2340: Twenty Heavens
This realm was originally as peaceful as a Buddhist pure land, but now, black clouds covered the ground, thunder and lightning intertwined, and the entire space had become turbulent. It was as if demons had invaded the Buddha's land.
"Drip!"
Black raindrops fell, making the pitch-black world even darker and colder. The wind swept across the earth, its howl fierce and terrifying. The raindrops were heavier than sacred iron, striking the ground and smashing deep holes into what was once an extremely hard surface. A single drop of rain was like an arrow. The Buddhist pure land had suddenly become extremely dangerous.
Zhang Ruochen held an iron umbrella, a second-rank monarch sacred artifact, standing in the rain, looking ahead. In his field of vision, everything was vast and hazy, the scene dim. The curtain of rain was like countless broken lines, falling from the sky to the ground. Most of the raindrop lines were black, but occasionally, a golden line would appear. When it hit the ground, the hole it smashed was bottomless, containing the penetrating power to kill a Saint.
A strong sense of danger arose in Zhang Ruochen's heart. If it weren't for the faint Buddhist light still emanating from a copper temple on the Sleeping Buddha, he might not have been willing to continue forward.
"Where exactly is this place? Is it a Buddha realm, or a demonic realm?"
The path leading to the Sleeping Buddha mountain was difficult to traverse. The mountain path was even harder. The Dao locks between heaven and earth were denser here. Even with Zhang Ruochen's Great Saint realm cultivation, he felt that climbing the mountain path was very strenuous.
"Hua——"
A deep ghost gate swiftly drifted past Zhang Ruochen from the rain not far away. It appeared to be a gate, but it was actually a space rift five or six meters long. The rift flew very fast, and from the other end, power from the void emanated.
"Boom."
Another demonic thunderbolt struck the cliff, splitting off boulders the size of houses, which tumbled down the mountain.
"Croak, croak."
A strange and chilling cry came from a copper tree. On the tree perched a crow with blood-red feathers, its eyes like human eyes, staring at Zhang Ruochen with a bloodthirsty, murderous gleam. It flapped its wings and flew towards Zhang Ruochen, shrieking sharply, "Blood! Blood! Blood..."
"I haven't even sucked any blood yet, and you want to suck mine?"
Zhang Ruochen raised his hand and pointed, a vigorous and masculine finger force shooting out as a sword qi. The blood-red crow shook its wings, splitting from one into a flock, charging at Zhang Ruochen from all directions. The finger sword only killed three of them.
"It can even create clones."
Zhang Ruochen was somewhat surprised. White Purifying Divine Flame emanated from his body, forming a huge fireball. The blood-red crows crashed into the fireball, their feathers catching fire.
"Boom."
The fireball expanded with the space, turning into a shockwave that, like an autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves, blasted all the crows away, their bodies shattering. Only one blood-red crow escaped, flying into the darkness.
There were too many dangers in the darkness, so Zhang Ruochen didn't give chase. He muttered to himself, "A Nine-Life Blood Crow at the Thousand Questions Realm Great Saint level actually lives here. This is definitely not some blessed Buddhist land."
Since it was a place where opportunities were stored, how could there be no danger? Ordinary people couldn't reach the place of opportunity.
Zhang Ruochen held his umbrella and continued climbing higher. The only place in the Sleeping Buddha mountain that still seemed sacred was the copper temple at the top of the Buddha's head. At this moment, Zhang Ruochen stood outside the copper temple, facing three hundred and eighty-four bronze steps, majestic and magnificent, as if climbing them would lead to another world. He could vaguely see the outline of the copper temple and the thick copper pillars in front of it.
Stepping onto the stairs, Zhang Ruochen ascended step by step. There were fresh bloodstains and remnants of sacred weapons on the stairs. The bloodstains seemed to have merged with the bronze steps, impossible to wash away even with rain. Not long ago, a fierce battle at the Great Saint level must have erupted here, with someone injured, perhaps even fallen.
The rain fell more urgently, pattering loudly against the umbrella fabric.
Reaching the top of the bronze steps, Zhang Ruochen, clad in a blood-stained robe, stood between two copper pillars. He turned right and looked at the pillar to his side. The pillar was as thick as a millstone, over twenty zhang tall. On it was cast a tall and mighty statue with three eyes, each arm holding a sword, in a posture of raising a hand to slash the sky.
Although it was a bronze statue, it exuded an extremely terrifying power, an aura that could seize one's soul. Standing before it, Zhang Ruochen had to hold his breath, feeling immense oppression. If another Great Saint came, they wouldn't dare look at it directly. As for cultivators below the Great Saint realm, they would probably have already knelt before even reaching the bronze steps.
There were twenty such copper pillars, surrounding the copper temple on all sides. The bronze statues on the pillars were all different. There was a golden Bodhi Buddha tree, a giant holding a battle axe, a divine maiden with a human body and fish tail, a heavenly dragon with nine heads...
Zhang Ruochen walked beneath the pillars, not daring to scrutinize their forms closely. Just a brief glance made his head ache as if splitting, as if each one was a taboo figure that he, at the Great Saint realm, could not look upon directly.
"Who are they? Why are their statues cast on the pillars of this copper temple?"
Zhang Ruochen had read countless texts in the Seven Star Imperial Palace, but he couldn't find any corresponding figures in the records.
"They are the Twenty Heavens."
Yan Huangtu's burly figure emerged from behind the copper pillar cast with the nine-headed heavenly dragon. His divine light was restrained, lacking his usual sharpness. Facing his enemy, he showed no killing intent, looking like an ordinary strongman. But precisely because of this, Zhang Ruochen knew that Yan Huangtu's cultivation must have broken through again, becoming even more terrifying.
A Hundred Shackles Realm Great Saint not only had to break their shackles but also cultivate the rules of the sacred path. Some Hundred Shackles Realm Great Perfection Great Saints had only three billion sacred path rules within them. Others could reach ten billion. The difference in combat power between the two was naturally vast. Even at the same Hundred Shackles Realm Great Perfection realm, there was still room for improvement.
Seeing Yan Huangtu appear, Zhang Ruochen was not at all surprised. It was like meeting an old friend. His gaze was calm. "Twenty Heavens. Such a strange name."
"You find it strange only because they existed too long ago," Yan Huangtu said.
Zhang Ruochen asked, "How long ago?"
"At least three hundred thousand years, perhaps longer."
Yan Huangtu stood by the copper pillar, gazing at the pitch-black mountain below. "About three hundred thousand years ago was when they completely vanished. When the name first originated, probably only the greatest gods of today know."
"The Twenty Heavens represented the twenty most powerful gods in your universe. Before the Heavenly Court was established, they ruled everything, maintained order among the myriad realms, and intimidated the Ten Clans of Hell. All gods had to bow to them. In that era, the cultivators of the Hell Realm could only live in darkness. Where was their current glory?"
Zhang Ruochen listened quietly, as if a lost history book was being opened page by page.
Yan Huangtu continued, "Every era has different Twenty Heavens. What remains the same is that they represent the strongest of that era. The bronze statues on these twenty pillars are actually the earliest Twenty Heavens. How many tens of thousands of years have passed since our current era is unknown."
Zhang Ruochen said, "Then why not tell me about the last Twenty Heavens? Why did they completely vanish three hundred thousand years ago?"
Yan Huangtu seemed in no hurry to fight Zhang Ruochen. He spoke unhurriedly, "Legend says they went to do a great deed. All Twenty Heavens went together, but only two and a half returned."
Zhang Ruochen's eyes deepened, both shocked and puzzled. "Why two and a half?"
Yan Huangtu turned his face and glanced at Zhang Ruochen. "You should be most curious about the half, right? That half refers to the Sixth Patriarch."
"When the Sixth Patriarch fled back to the Western Buddha Realm, only half of his body remained. It is said that the calamity he encountered not only cut away half of his Buddha body but also half of his lifespan. That's why he died in the last eon."
Zhang Ruochen said decisively, "Impossible."
"Why impossible?" Yan Huangtu asked.
Zhang Ruochen said, "The Sixth Patriarch was the most powerful Buddhist cultivator in the entire universe over the past million years, the sixth Buddha. Who could cut away half his Buddha body and half his lifespan?"
Yan Huangtu's gaze was hazy and confused. "I know why you don't believe it. Your master, Xumi Saint Monk, was still inferior to the Sixth Patriarch. In your heart, Xumi Saint Monk should have an invincible influence, right? Unfortunately, the Sixth Patriarch was among the Twenty Heavens, but he was not."
Zhang Ruochen knew that Yan Huangtu was trying to disturb his mind. Having read many texts in the Heavenly Court and Hell Realms, Zhang Ruochen had gained a deeper understanding of Buddhism, the Kunlun Realm, and his master, Xumi Saint Monk. The records stated that even when Xumi Saint Monk's cultivation was at its peak, discussing scriptures with the Sixth Patriarch often brought him new insights and benefits, and he often felt inferior. Before the Sixth Patriarch, Xumi Saint Monk was just a junior.
Although Zhang Ruochen deeply respected Xumi Saint Monk and knew his boundless Buddhist power made him one of the rare great powerhouses in the world, he also held reverence for the Sixth Patriarch and dared not judge lightly.
Zhang Ruochen said, "In the battle one hundred thousand years ago, how many gods of the Hell Realm died at the hands of Xumi Saint Monk? How many planets outside the Kunlun Realm are still blood-red to this day?"
Yan Huangtu nodded. "Undeniably, when Xumi Saint Monk fell, he had indeed reached the level of a Buddha. The gods who participated in the siege against him all gave that evaluation. Unfortunately, that was his final glory. He vanished in an instant and never entered the ranks of the Seventh Patriarch."
As he spoke, Yan Huangtu walked towards the copper temple. Inside the temple was enshrined a bronze statue with a dragon's body but three heads. One head was a child. One was an old man. The middle head had no facial features; on its forehead was only a "卍" character.
Yan Huangtu bowed to the statue and said slowly, "He was one of the Twenty Heavens three hundred thousand years ago, Dragon Multitude."
Zhang Ruochen stared at the bronze statue, feeling it continuously grow taller, exerting an increasingly powerful oppressive force.
"Dragon Multitude was the former master of the Dragon Clan, the venerable of all dragons. He married nine wives and had nine sons, each extraordinary. The ninth son had the highest talent and the most extraordinary achievements, named Jiwang."
"As a cultivator from the Kunlun Realm, you should have heard his name, right?"
Of course, Zhang Ruochen had heard of Dragon Lord Jiwang. Legend said he wielded one of the Kunlun Realm's ten great divine artifacts, the Divine Dragon Sun-Moon Chaos Tower, and was a figure who roamed the myriad realms.
Zhang Ruochen said, "You said that three hundred thousand years ago, two and a half of the Twenty Heavens returned alive. Besides the Sixth Patriarch, who were the other two?"
"One was the master of your Heavenly Court's Heavenly Palace," Yan Huangtu said.
The master of the Heavenly Palace was mysterious and unfathomable. Zhang Ruochen knew little about him. But this person could sit in the Heavenly Palace and command the myriad realms, so he was naturally an extraordinary existence.
Yan Huangtu said, "The other is unknown. Perhaps only the Heavenly Palace master and the Sixth Patriarch knew who he was."
"Some speculate it was the Ten Calamities Wen Tianjun of your Kunlun Realm. Some speculate it was the Panyuan Ancient God of the Pangu Realm. Others speculate it was the previous patriarch of my clan."
Zhang Ruochen squinted. "Could a god from the Hell Realm be listed among the Twenty Heavens?"
Yan Huangtu was silent for a moment, then said, "In fact, there is a legend that the Twenty Heavens were not just twenty, but twenty-four. The other four came from the Hell Realm."
Then he laughed loudly and shook his head. "These are all just legends. How could we, juniors less than a thousand years old, possibly understand what happened hundreds of thousands of years ago? How could we know the secrets of beings at the heavenly level?"
"Time steals away, circumstances change. The rise and fall of the Heavenly Court and Hell are now just idle talk between you and me. Whether it was the Twenty Heavens or the Twenty-Four Heavens, they are long past. The glories of yesteryear have all vanished like smoke."
"Shua shua."
Outside the temple, sharp sounds of breaking wind rang out. Yan Zhexian appeared at the entrance, her exquisite figure casting a long black shadow on the ground in the reflection of the Buddha light. Behind her, there were more shadows on the ground.
Zhang Ruochen looked back at Yan Zhexian. "So you told me all this just to buy time."
...
When writing the previous chapter, I got excited and made a data error. The number of Yama Clan Great Saints stationed here that Yan Zhexian mentioned to Zhang Ruochen was written as two thousand seven hundred, but it has been corrected to two hundred seventy.