Chapter 669: The Power of Buddhist Kingdom
Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh_
The Buddhist Kingdom in a palm was similar to the immortals' interstitial worlds.
Unfortunately, Wu Qi and Ao Buzun were sucked into such a world. Here, the air was filled with the fragrance of incense and candles, refreshing breezes, and the light of relics that brightly lit up the entire space. The majesty of Buddhism was naturally embedded in every inch of the space. Not too far in front of them, the mountain stood mightily like a living monster, exuding a pressure so strong that it made Wu Qi frown, his bones creaked noisily.
But, there was a distinct difference between it and immortals' interstitial worlds. Usually, Heaven Immortals who were struck with good luck or had inherited profound legacy would have the chance to create their own interstitial worlds. Cultivators of Buddhist League, however, could only form their Buddhist Kingdom with the power of faith contributed by their believers. Here in this world, every blade of grass, every drop of water, every tree and stone, was made of pure power of faith. Without enough Buddhist energy and believers to provide the power of faith, there was no way a Buddhist cultivator could form their own Buddhism Kingdom.
Generally speaking, it was only those Gold Bodhisattva whose cultivation base was extremely profound and as strong as Gold Immortals who could form their Buddhist Kingdoms. But, the monk Wu Qi had just seen outside was at best a Gold Arhat. He was still a long way from the realm of Bodhisattva. So, how could he have created such a Buddhist Kingdom?
Wu Qi stood on a lotus flower and looked over at the mountain ahead. He saw at least ten million believers walking around the mountain while reciting the Buddha's name. With the monk's insignificant cultivation base, how could he gather so many devout believers? The number of ten million believers, excluding those who were meditating in the temples, was incredible.
In fact, only the most devout believers could be brought into the Buddhist Kingdom. Generally speaking, it was considered excellent to find a qualified devout believer among every ten thousand believers; and only one out of one hundred qualified believers would be brought into the Buddhist Kingdom. The presence of more than ten million devout believers here proved that it had taken a long time for this Buddhist Kingdom to accumulate such a large number of believers.
Wu Qi shook his head and mumbled in confusion.
Ao Buzun's eyes lit up as he looked greedily at the millions of believers walking slowly on the mountain. While chuckling, he began to explain to Wu Qi the benefits these believers could bring. They were actually dead. After their flesh died, their souls were brought here by the master of the Buddhist Kingdom, and divine abilities were used to reconstruct their fleshly bodies. Their flesh was an aggregation of pure energy and soul. Furthermore, their souls were especially strong because they kept reciting Buddhist scriptures for all year round. For believers who had lived here for more than a thousand years, the strength of their souls was at least a hundred times greater than that of ordinary mortals.
When Ao Buzun was still a lascivious dragon and was hitting up innocent girls everywhere, there were already daring Fiend immortals who targeted the Buddhist Kingdom of Bodhisattva. Once they had breached a Buddhist Kingdom, they kidnapped all the believers as fast as they could. If they could use these believers with powerful souls to craft Fiend artifacts, they would yield something that was many times more powerful than those made from the souls of ordinary mortals.
After listening to Ao Buzun's explanation, Wu Qi looked at him thoughtfully.
While laughing strangely, Ao Buzun spread his front claws and squinted at Wu Qi. He whispered to the latter that these believers were of such great value that even if he had no use of them, he could take them captive and trade them. In Ao Buzun's memory, he knew of several secret trading markets ran by Fiend immortals where believers captured alive from a Buddhist Kingdom were hot items. With ten thousand believers as a unit, each unit could be sold for an amazing price, enough to make an immortal rich overnight.
There were at least ten million believers who had lived here for a long time, but had little fighting power!
Wu Qi was palpitating with excitement. His eyes lit up as he stared at the mountain in front of him, and suddenly sneered. "This monk must be out of his mind. Since he has sent me here, he can't blame me for not being courteous, can he?"
He gave a wild laugh as he thought of another use of these believers. Even if he did not trade them, he could sacrifice them to Lei Meng. Originally, he had nothing to do with these believers; but since the monk had invaded his territory and even trapped him in this Buddhist Kingdom, they could not blame him for treating them cruelly.
Wu Qi opened his mouth and inhaled with all his might. Immediately, a ray of chaotic light shot out of his mouth. The believers walking slowly on the mountain suddenly exclaimed at the same time; their bodies floated lightly up into the air and began to fly along the ray of chaotic light toward Wu Qi's mouth.
"The sea of bitterness has no bounds, repent and the shore is at hand!" All of a sudden, a loud and clear voice echoed out of the largest temple at the top of the mountain. The voice, with a great Buddhist power, condensed in the sky into a thunderbolt and smashed into Wu Qi's spiritual ocean, trying to knock him unconscious. But, Wu Qi's spiritual ocean was vast and empty; his soul was hidden in that infinite spiritual ocean and protected by the Divine Flame of Order. As a result, the thunderbolt was like a small stone thrown into the sea, disappearing in just the blink of an eye without even causing a ripple.
Wu Qi snorted coldly, then performed a hand incantation gesture and pointed at the temple while reciting a spell under his breath. He wanted to destroy the temple with a thunderbolt. But, when he had done all that, he gave a cry of surprise. The spell he cast was of no use, as not even the slightest fluctuation of energy could be sensed. The thunderbolt he imagined would crush the temple did not appear.
Ao Buzun sighed and explained to Wu Qi what had happened.
According to the cultivation techniques they practiced, immortals' interstitial worlds had different extreme properties, such as lava, sea, ice, mist, thunder, hurricanes, and so on. But, Bodhisattva's Buddhist Kingdoms were all the same. There was no other energy in it save for the pure Buddhist energy cultivated by the cultivators of Buddhist League. How could an immortal use the energy of Buddhism? Therefore, when immortals were trapped in the Buddhist Kingdom, it would not take long for them to exhaust all the immortal energy in their bodies, and eventually become the object of slaughter.
That was why Wu Qi's attack failed. There was no natural energy for him to use here. He could not produce even a single spark unless he used his own energy.
"How interesting!" Wu Qi was amazed at the sudden enlightenment.
The life of the mysterious man who passed the Scroll of Stealing to Wu Qi began in the primitive times, lasting for dozens of Apocalypses before it came to an abrupt end. Therefore, the records of Buddhism in the Scroll of Stealing were limited to the period when the ancient Buddhas existed. So, although Wu Qi was able to identify the remains of the ancient Buddha Patriarch Miao Ying used to suppress the formation under the Deep Abyss in the Northern Ocean, he did not know much about the various methods used by the Buddhist League's cultivators today.
It was only after listening to Ao Buzun's explanation that he really understood the beauty of Buddhist Kingdom.
Wu Qi snorted coldly. Just as he waved his hand, prepared to muster his chaotic energy and turn it into a thunderbolt to attack the temple, countless figures suddenly rushed out of all the temples on the mountain. In front of the crowd of people stepping on clouds and flying toward him were three hundred burly men in gold armors, each standing tens of feet tall and having a golden dragon head. They were followed by more than a million mighty monks, who were clad in robes of different colors and carried the same white-colored monk's staff.
The monks fell into square arrays of ten thousand people, shouting the name of Prabhutaratna Buddha as they charged toward Wu Qi with their eyes gleaming ferociously. Wu Qi noticed at a glance that the three hundred dragon-headed men possessed only the overall strength equivalent to a thirtieth-tier Heaven Immortal. But, after being enhanced by some unknown force in this Buddhist Kingdom, they were actually emanating an aura that was as strong as a fifth-tier Heaven Immortal.
Of the one million monks, many possessed only the cultivation bases equivalent to a Nascent Soul cultivator. But, after the enhancement of that magical force, the aura emanated from them was no different from that of Heaven Immortals. Shrouded in a Buddhist light, they came running toward Wu Qi like a crowd of Arhats made of pure gold, shouting and screaming.
In other words, Wu Qi and Ao Buzun were facing three hundred high-tier Heaven Immortals and over a million Heaven Immortals!
Their faces turned blue. It was true that they were bold, and Ao Buzun did possess the cultivation base of a Gold Immortal. But, he had just stepped into the realm of Gold Immortal not long ago; so even if someone lent him ten guts, he would not dare to fight against more than a million Heaven Immortals at the same time!
Even if the million monks stood still and let him kill them, he would not have the strength to kill them all. And, even if they let him devour them without resistance, his belly would burst with so many monks.
Wu Qi quickly exercised the Chaotic Divine Eyes and glanced at the dragon-headed men and monks.
From every temple in the mountain rose a golden pillar of light, which stretched across the sky and fell into the heads of these men. Golden halos rippled around them, forming a translucent set of golden armor that only Wu Qi's Chaotic Divine Eyes could see. These armors were inches thick and inlaid with countless golden swastikas and golden lotus flowers. On each lotus flower stood a Buddha, all of whom had their hands locked into incantation gestures before their chests, and white light radiated from their brows to protect the bodies of the dragon-headed men and monks.
It was this set of armor that attracted the enchantment of some powerful beings and gave them the prowess far beyond their actual realms.
While staring at them, Wu Qi pointed to the dragon-headed men, then snorted coldly and said, "Their appearances look very similar to Wanying Dragon King and his kind. Are they members of some dragon clans?"
Ao Buzun gave a cry of dismay. Two tiny rays of light darted out of his eyes as he turned to look at the dragon-headed men. Soon after, he began to swear, cursing at certain Elders of the dragon clan and the leaders of certain branches with all kinds of dirty words.
"They are indeed members of the dragon clan. However, they have already abandoned the Dragon Transformation Script and turned to practice the cultivation technique of the Buddhist League!"
Ao Buzun trembled with anger. "These b*stards...How could they abandon their ancestors? How could they practice the cultivation technique of the Buddhist League?"
As he said that, three hundred dragon-headed men had arrived before Wu Qi. The leading man lifted a vajra scepter high up in the air and smashed it down toward Wu Qi's head.
"All evil and heterodox beings must bow down and convert to Buddhism once they enter the land of Buddha!"
The three hundred dragon-headed men roared in unison, and Wu Qi reflexively thrust his fist toward the scepter. Even with the enhancement of the Buddha's power, the strength of these dragon-headed men was no more than that of a fifth-tier Heaven Immortal. Hence, Wu Qi attached no importance to them.
A loud boom rang out; Wu Qi gave a snort and stepped back hurriedly. Although the dragon-headed man emanated only the aura of a fifth-tier Heaven Immortal, his strength was incredible. Wu Qi felt as if he had been struck by ten thousand mountains falling from the sky. His wrist bone was cracked, and even his shoulder was dislocated by the tremendous force.
As Wu Qi stepped back hurriedly, the dragon-men leaped toward him, all raising their scepters high up and smashing down on him.