Chapter 168: Absolute Beginning Emperor (3)
"[One World Nirvana Plan]? What’s that?" asked Feng Heng.
"Just like the name implies, it was a plan that allowed all the Buddhist cultivators to all reach Nirvana by combining all their consciousness together, thus reaching a realm One-Self, One-Being, or One-World."
"That sounds like a brilliant plan, so why did it cause the destruction of Buddhism?"
"It was indeed a brilliant plan, and one that had a high chance of success too. However, there were three major problems: one of was the energy needed to sustain such a powerful consciousness, second was a leader to bear such tremendous amounts of power, and lastly was whether Heavenly Dao would allow such a thing to happen."
"The problem of leader could be solved as long as a powerful Great Emperor was born in the Buddhist Sect. As for the other two problems, well they both had the same solution: Incense Power."
"As long as the Incense Power was enough, the energy required for this plan to succeed was more than enough. As for Heavenly Dao, the Buddhist believed that as long as reaching Nirvana was the belief or desire of all living beings, Heavenly Dao would not interfere."
"All living beings? You don’t mean..." asked Feng Heng.
"Yes. The plan of the Buddhist Sect was to conquer the entire Myriad Plane World, then gather Faith from the entire world."
Feng Heng looked at his teacher with his mouth open, becoming speechless. The entire Myriad Emperor World is vast and very powerful, beside the Human Emperor, the world was only conquered once again in the Devil Era.
Shi Fuyu could guess what his disciple was thinking, "Yes, the Buddhist Sect wanted to conquer the entire world, just the Great Qin Imperial Dynasty.
After calming himself down, he said, "I’m guessing that they did not succeed."
"Even worse, they did not even begin their plan before they were destroyed."
"How come?"
"The Buddhist Sect knew that the cultivators of the world would never allow someone else to conquer the world like the Human Emperor, so this plan was kept the highest level of secret. They planned to only execute the plan after they cultivate a powerful Great Emperor. Unfortunately, the plan was leaked."
"Leaked? How?" asked Feng Heng.
"Well, this is where your ancestor came into this story."
Shi Fuyu paused for a few seconds before continuing:
"In the Ancient Emperor Era, both Taoism and Buddhist were actually competitor and fought for the title of the Orthodox religion of the Myriad Emperor World."
"During that time, the Five Element Palace was the leader of Taoism, while the Taiyi Profound Gate was probably not even created yet. However, after the Incense Era, Taosim was completely suppressed by Buddhism to the point that the Five Element Palace was forced to close their mountains for generations, only coming out when they decided to fight for the Heaven Will Battle."
"As such, the Taiyi Profound strived during the Incense Era with the absence of the Five Element Palace. However, they were only considered an Immortal Land, not an Emperor Lineage as they did not cultivate a Great Emperor of their own."
"Immortal Land?" interrupted Feng Heng
"Just know that they are more powerful than Supreme Land, but way weaker than Emperor Lineages. You will get access to this information when you become more powerful later in the future," replied Shi Fuyu, so he just nodded.
"Your ancestor actually got the news about the [One World Nirvana Plan] from the Heaven Race."
"How would the Heaven Race get access to such a powerful secret? Let alone leak it?"
Shi Fuyu sighed before continuing: "The plan actually needed a tremendous amount of Faith, and as the Heaven Race was born out of Incense and Faith, they were the perfect people to use as a catalyst to execute it. Furthermore, the Buddhist Sect wanted allies before executing the plan."
"With this plan, the Heaven Race would have access to a tremendous amount of Incense Power, as such they could deal with the problem of the low population of their race. So, they were the perfect partner."
"As for your ancestor, no one knew his exact connection with the Heaven Race, however, after finding out about the plan, he secretly rallied all the cultivators of the world against Buddhism."
After a brief pause, Shi Fuyu continued, "Your ancestor was a heaven defying genius with a deep and scheming mind. He was very low-key during his rise and his reputation was not very loud."
"Everyone knew that he was powerful, but no one knew how powerful until the Heaven Will Battle."
"In that Battle, the Buddhist Sect had pooled together all their resources to cultivate a terrifying genius. Using all the Incense Power of the entire Sect--which by that time had spread through thousands upon thousand of Worlds--they created a Buddha Golden Body."
"I remember that day when the Golden Body was completed. Buddha Lights enveloped all the continents of the Myriad Emperor World along with multi-colored lotus. The chant of countless people in myriad worlds chanting reverberated throughout the entire World Community we are located in. It was truly a majestic sight."
"Unfortunately, it was useless," said Shi Fuyu with a sigh.
"Because of the ancestor?"
"Yes, because of Li Taishuang. In that generation’s Heaven Will Battle, he alone faced all the Heaven Chosens of the Buddhist Sect and killed all of them--even the one with the Buddha Golden Body."
"At one point, the owner of the Golden Body even sacrificed the lives of all the Heaven Chosen to increase his strength. After all, he was the embodiment of the hope and wishes of all the Buddhist monks, he was the aspiration of an entire Era."
"However, it was futile as he still failed under Li Taishuang’ sword. After that, your ancestor proved the Dao and took the name of Absolute Beginning."
Shi Fuyu took a few second pause after talking up to here, then the hand that was behind his back was secretly clenched as he continued:
"Do you think that things are over? No, this was just the beginning."
"After proving the Dao, the Absolute Beginning Emperor showed his ruthless side. He rallied all the sects that he had previously contacted and used the [One World Nirvana Plan] as an excuse to wage a terrible war against Buddhism."
"And he was relentless. The Absolute Beginning Emperor seemed to have a terrible hatred for Incense Power, so he set out to completely eradicate Buddhism, and he succeeded."
"He destroyed all the Buddhist Sect in the entire Myriad Emperor World, even the countless Emperor Lineages were not spared. Even the Heaven Race was not spared from his wreath--despite the fact that many of them still supported him."
"As for the Buddhist Sect, no matter what method they used, it was simply useless."
"During that period, countless Immortal Venerable and Dao Ancestors were killed and slaughtered. Many Will left over by previous Great Emperors manifested themselves, but they were no match for the Absolute Beginning Emperor."
"Even the Western Pure Bliss Land was not spared as it was also destroyed by the Absolute Beginning Emperor, And by that time, the Bliss Land had actually evolved into a Great Thousand World, only a little smaller before reaching the size of a Heaven Will World like the Myriad Emperor World."
Meanwhile, Feng Heng had twinkled in his eyes after hearing the exploits of his sect’s ancestor. As for Shi Fuyu, the hand behind his back further clenched, showing red veins on them. But he still continue:
"Do you think this was the end? No, the Absolute Beginning Emperor was truly relentless. Using his own Dao, he actually cut the Absolute Beginning of Buddhism, meaning he erased their origin from the world."
"So, disciple, what do you think happened to someone who has their beginning erased?"
"They will cease to exist. Without beginning, there is no living and no eventual end," replied Feng Heng after thinking for a few seconds.:
"That’s correct. With this method, all history of Buddhism was erased from existence, all their knowledge and philosophy, all their cultivation techniques, all their accomplishments, and even all memories of them. Anything related to Buddhism was completely gone, wiped out."
"This is the reason that virtually nothing is known about Buddhism in this Era."
Feng Heng was shocked, then he quickly asked something. "Wait, if what you said is true, there should not be any information ’whatsoever’ about Buddhism in this current era, yet there is still some news remaining about them floating? What’s more, the Western Bliss Pure Land is still a Forbidden Land! Not to mention that there are still rumors about the famous Buddhist Emperor Scripture [Past, Present, Future Buddha Scroll]!"
"The reason for that was a last resort of the Buddhist Sect. At the last moment before their destruction, they sacrifice to the Maitreya Mother Buddha through a Bodhi Tree Seed that was saved. The purpose was to leave a future for Buddhism, and they received a positive answer."
"The Absolute Beginning Emperor was furious and rushed in to completely destroy the remains of the Western Pure Bliss Land, but he failed. He had a Heaven Shattering Battle with the will of the Maitreya Mother Buddha, but he lost and was greatly injured."
"What! The Ancestor actually lost?" asked Feng Heng with a surprised look on his face.
"Yes, this was probably the only failure in his life. As a result of this, a few pieces of the history and inheritance of Buddhism managed to survive the passage of time."
Feng Heng nodded in acknowledgment before asking, "But teacher, what does that have anything to do with Wang Wei?"
"Let me ask you, you have read a lot of information about Great Emperors, do you think many of them were like the Absolute Beginning Emperor?"
"No, the majority of Great Emperors have left only a footnote in his history. As for the ones like my ancestor, there have been only a handful of them. And all of them displayed terrifying talents at a very young age... Wait, are you saying that Wang Wei reminds you of my ancestor?"
Shi Fuyu nodded before continuing:
"Whether it is strength, will, intelligence, and talent, this Wang Wei reminds me completely of the Absolute Beginning Emperor. What’s more, his Dao seemed to be more terrifying."
In fact Shi Fuyu did not tell his disciple the whole truth. As a matter of fact, he was a little scared of Wang Wei. The reason for that was that during that last strike--the [World Breaking Fist]--he suddenly felt a terrifying fluctuation from Wang Wei.
And Shi Fuyu had on felt this fluctuation from the will of the Maitreya Mother Buddha when she fought with the Absolute Beginning Emperor. As such, he knew that Wang Wei probably had a terrible secret that even he himself might not know.
As for Feng Heng, he became silent for a few seconds, "Master, so what are you going to do?"
"You should be asking yourself that question."
"In that case, let us continue with our original plan," replied Feng Heng after thinking for a few minutes.