The Sage Who Transcended Samsara

The Tyrant’s Invincible Blade struck at the Core Fragment of the Hao Tian Mirror that was already heavily cracked. Along with a cracking sound, the fragment was broken into two pieces, with one of them bigger than the other one. Apparently, being so heavily damaged, it would be even harder for the Hao Tian Mirror to restore sagacity.

Keeping both pieces of the Hao Tian Mirror Fragments, Meng Qi was in a much better mood. He smiled at Mister Luda and said, “Senior, just come to me at any time if you need to use the fragment.”

Mister Luda did not decline the offer. He nodded solemnly and said, “I owe you one.”

Actually, both Mister Luda and Meng Qi were different from the other martial artists in a sense that they were aiming at breaking off the connection with the additional self. Hence, one might think that the Hao Tian Mirror Fragment was redundant for them as they did not need to communicate with the additional self in advance. But in reality, this item would still be a big help for them to attain the Legendary Realm.

In normal circumstances, those who had reached the peak of Divine Fairy would have a subtle sense of the additional self. Nevertheless, it would be a painstaking process to utilize their loose bond with the additional self in order to spread their consciousness into a different time, space, and universe. Slowly, the bond between them would become stronger. Some people could even take control over it and turn it into their self-projection. When the additional self became so strong that it could affect the original self, a big change would happen in the people’s realm. This was when the people stepped into the Legendary Realm.

Undoubtedly, this was an extremely difficult and dangerous process. Aside from establishing a fine control over the subtle connection, one had to be wary of the danger of being taken over by the additional self. In a worst-case scenario, a weak point in their mind would lead to multiple personalities, and eventually, one might die of madness. Therefore, during ancient times, although there were a large amount of Man Fairies, Earth Fairies, and Divine Fairies, a mighty person of the Legendary Realm was rare to be seen. In fact, at that time, there were only less than twenty Legendary martial artists in a powerful force like the Nine Nether. Of course, the power of the Evil Demons and Evil Gods was growing stronger over time, thereby more than one hundred of them were actually having a combat capability as a Legendary person.

On the other hand, Buddhism used to flourish in the ancient times. It was even more popular than the Heavenly Court and Taoism. At that time, there were only hundreds of Buddhas, Maha Bodhisattvas, and Great Arhats in total from the main Buddhist Sects. Relying on the prophecy of Everyone will become a Buddha, the amount of Buddhas had increased to three thousand, which contributed to the Thousand Buddha Formation. Nonetheless, the formation was actually made up of the reincarnations of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and many Buddhas that had more than one identity. For example, before being reincarnated, the Guanyin Bodhisattva used to be called the Tathagata in her past life. All in all, only around one hundred Buddhas had attained the Legendary Realm. After the war at the Spirited Mountain, thousands of Buddhas had passed away. Apart from the Legendary Buddhas from the Spirited Mountain itself, the Buddhas from other Pure Lands or Buddhist Sects had also lost their lives after coming to help. Ever since then, Buddhism was not as popular as before.

Apparently, Legendary people had always been scarce. Although it was really hard to attain the Legendary Realm, people would always find a way. Meng Qi and Mister Luda were the special ones who chose to cut off the connection with additional self. At times, they did feel lost. On the contrary to the other martial artists who could depend on their subtle relationship with the additional self to achieve success, both of them were taking a different path. They had to rely on themselves completely to explore different universes and identify the features of the additional self in the respective universe. In this way, they would be drawing closer to the Da Dao, thereby being in the most suitable position to establish subtle connections. On top of that, it was never easy to leave behind their hidden markings. Before they could do that, they needed to find out a method of leaving hidden markings first.

If they were aided by the Hao Tian Mirror Fragment, they would be able to travel across different universes and feel the subtle connection between the universes. This would indirectly ease up the process of attaining the Legendary Realm. They might even be able to possess more Legendary features, just like Su Wu Ming did.

Keeping the fragments in his sleeve, Meng Qi said with a smile, “Senior, you’ve been helping me a lot. It’s definitely my pleasure to return the favor to you. This place is going to collapse soon, let’s leave.”

A colorless ancient lamp appeared inside his eyes. The black and white light that surrounded the lamp was like the karma threads that filled the world.

Grasping the subtle connection, he wielded the Tyrant’s Invincible Blade and slashed toward the crack of the Jasper Lake.

The blade beam was wrapping around Su Wu Ming and Mister Luda at once.

It penetrated through illusions and came to reality. In a flash, Meng Qi and the others had appeared in front of the Immortal Yun He and He Qi.

“Where is my big bro – uh, I mean, the Mad Emperor?” Meng Qi pretended that he did not hear Gao Lan’s words before.

The Immortal Yun He said smilingly, “As the Dharmakaya from all over the world are gathering here, Gao Lan is worried that the demon race may take advantage of this situation and invade this place. Hence, he has gone out to protect the human race.”

Meng Qi’s heart skipped a beat. Will my big brother grab this chance and go to the south?

Meng Qi did not bring Gao Lan along Jasper Lake because he wanted to leave a Dharmakaya at this place to defend against the Spear of Mythical Creatures, just in case. However, at the same time, he was worried that the Nan Jin Empire would be annexed by the North Zhou Empire. Hence, he was actually in a dilemma.

“It seems that the Mad Emperor prefers to take over an empire in an aboveboard manner. After performing divination by looking at the celestial phenomena, I see no war happening in the Nan Jin Empire – at least not in the near future,” added He Qi as he understood Meng Qi’s worries.

After the battle between Meng Qi and the Great Sage Equalling Heaven who turned imaginations into reality, the top part of the Palace of Frost was damaged. Sensing a change in the positions of the stars, He Qi had performed a celestial divination.

Hearing this, Meng Qi heaved a sigh of relief. Ever since his big brother had recovered from mental illness, it was getting harder to guess what he was thinking.

Feeling much more relaxed, Meng Qi, Mister Luda, and Su Wu Ming took out the fragmented Heavenly Weapons and Magic Weapons that they obtained from Jasper Lake. They were planning to share them with the people who had been guarding this place.

After all, Yun He, He Qi and Gao Lan had been devoting their time and effort to guard at the rear although their own sects and imperial palace were at the risk of being attacked. Their efforts as a reserve force should be appreciated.

Mister Luda took out the fragmented Glazed Lamp and gave it to He Qi, Su Wu Ming handed the fragments of Green-Flame Noxious Blade to Yun He, whereas Meng Qi was planning to pass the broken Qingli Sword to Gao Lan.

After doing all these, Meng Qi looked at the Immortal Yun He while taking out the Xuanming Sword, the Fiery Sword of Rosefinch, and the Eastern Yimu Sword which were all fragmented. He had also taken out the Killing Blood Sword and the Shell of Poison God, “Immortal Yun He, I wonder if you can pick a few from them to forge a divine sword?”

The Mountain-Moving Whip was very useful, so Meng Qi was not going to waste it.

“The Killing Blood Sword… did you kill the Rakshasa of the Bloody Sea?” at a glance, He Qi had recognized the Heavenly Weapon of the Blood Cloak Cult!

Without a Heavenly Weapon, the Blood Cloak Cult would be destroyed sooner or later. To date, two of the Nine Demonic Sects had fallen because of Su Meng!

Actually, He Qi, Yun He, Mister Luda, and Su Wu Ming were not surprised by Su Meng’s ability to kill the Rakshasa of the Bloody Sea – even the Poison God was beaten by Su Meng, let alone the Rakshasa of the Bloody Sea.

Meng Qi thought for a while and said, “To be honest, I might not be able to kill him without the help of the Core Fragment of the Hao Tian Mirror. The full power of the Killing Blood Sword was unleashed due to the return of consciousness of the Bloody Demon from the Nine Nether…”

This was an indication of the impending Great Trial.

Upon hearing that, all the Dharmakaya nodded their heads. Hiding their emotions, they had different thoughts in mind.

After a while, the Immortal Yun He looked at the materials presented by Meng Qi and said smilingly, “These fragmented Heavenly Weapons are of the Divine Fairy level. Coupled with the Killing Blood Sword and the shell of an Earth Fairy, they are more than enough to forge a Heavenly Weapon of the Divine Fairy level. But the problem is, the success rate is only twenty to thirty percent. If the forging process fails, all these precious materials will be wasted. Do you still want to go for it?”

The success rate is only twenty to thirty percent? Feeling shocked and doubtful, Meng Qi asked, “Immortal Yun He, you’ve forged a protective magic weapon using the dead body of the Northern Dragon, right?”

The Immortal Yun He turned his palm upward and summoned a palm-sized dragon. It was hovering around and blowing mist out of its mouth.

Pointing to the tiny dragon, he laughed and said, “Do you remember how big the dead body of the Northern Dragon was? I’ve undergone countless failed attempts and wasted a huge part of its body before this magic weapon is successfully forged.”

Ah… looking at the palm-sized dragon, Meng Qi was at a loss when he thought about the dead body of the Northern Dragon that used to be so big. It was definitely a sharp contrast.

It becomes so much more smaller!

“Well, I’m just joking. The dragon is able to control its own size, so actually it can grow up to hundreds of feet long. During the forging process, I’ve applied the mechanism that I learned from the Palace of Mohism. However, I still failed five times before the weapon was successfully produced. In fact, eighty percent of the dead body of the Northern Dragon was wasted,” said Yun He with a serious face. “With the materials you provide me, I can try forging it twice, but I can’t guarantee success.”

If this is the case, I might as well try to get the real Qingping Sword. It’s a sword that Senior Chonghe always wanted to get but he didn’t have a chance to do so. It’s also the sword of the Hierarch Tongtian, alias Lord Ling Bao! Meng Qi thought to himself. At my current realm, I’m able to acquire the classified information about the Qingping Sword from the Fairy World.

Just then, Yun He took a look at Mister Luda and the others. He pondered for a while and said, “After coming out from the Cave of Thousand Nature, I realized that the current word is actually way smaller than that of ancient times. Even though the Land of Essence – the birthplace of the human race – is retained, the original size of it during the ancient times was a thousand times larger.”

Yun He raised his head and released his Divine Sense to look at the countless stars through the barriers and the wind in the upper sky. He said thoughtfully, “Perhaps when the world was invaded by the demon race in the past, the Real World was broken into countless pieces, and only the largest piece remained. The rest might have flown into the universe and turned into stars.”

“From what I know, the number of stars in the ancient times was way less than that of the present time.”

“This is also the conjecture of many predecessors. After the chaotic era of the Devil Buddha, the Real World might have been broken up even more. As a result, many places that are recorded in the ancient books of the Middle Ages can’t be found anymore,” said Mister Luda. “This could also explain the occurence of Universal Fragments.”

As opposed to the broken pieces of Real World, the Universal Fragments were fragments of time. Although they were different in nature, both of them were very likely to occur in the event of a Great Trial.

Yun He nodded his head and said, “Well, I just remembered that the Golden Crow Sect, which is located at the end of Donghai, is very famous for their forging skills since ancient times. The materials that Su Meng has are definitely enough to be forged into a Heavenly Weapon of the Divine Fairy level. However, it’s too bad that this sect can no longer be found at present.”

“You might be able to find traces of the sect after having a Spiritual Wander into the Universal Fragments and travelling across the sea of stars. Perhaps they are still somewhere around the end of Donghai,” said He Qi to Meng Qi, trying to comfort him.

The end of Donghai was full of white mist, and there was no way to walk out of it. Apart from that, there was not any islands or living beings. It was as though everything was eradicated by a mighty person, thereby leaving nothing behind. After becoming a Dharmakaya, He Qi had explored the place several times, but he could not find any traces of the Golden Crow Sect.

A Dharmakaya was able to release the Divine Senses into any part of the world. After doing so, one might be able to find a Pure Land, a Taoist Cave or a Universal Fragment. These were all good places for them to improve their mentality and skills in martial arts. Therefore, it was common for the Dharmakaya from Buddhist Sects to have a Spiritual Wander to various Pure Lands so as to visit the lingering willpower of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

As Meng Qi was still new to the Dharmakaya Realm and had been getting stuck in all kinds of trouble, he had yet to have time to put his mind at peace and engage in Spiritual Wandering.

As for travelling across the sea of stars in the Real World, most of the Dharmakaya chose not to do it because it would be a time-consuming and dangerous journey. On top of that, without their protection, their sects or families would be in danger.

Meng Qi gave He Qi a slight nod after hearing his advice. For the time being, he was planning to have a Spiritual Wander to all over the world and travel across the sea of stars to search for the Golden Crow Sect. While doing that, he would try to acquire the Qingping Sword. If all these plans did not work, he would have no choice but to hand over the materials to Yun He. By then, all he could do was to collect more forces of virtues in order to improve his luck and pray for success.

…

After leaving the Palace of Frost, Meng Qi watched Mister Luda and the others return to the south. Then, he went to a deserted place and shuttled to the World of Gods again.

As soon as he entered the World of Gods, a small, red calabash jumped out of the void and turned into a short old man who was wearing a Taoist crown and a red robe. He was Luya.

Luya stroked his beard and looked at Meng Qi with a smile, “As expected, you’ve succeeded. Where is the Core Fragment of the Hao Tian Mirror?”

He never said a single word about the Demonic Monarch.

Meng Qi took out the bigger fragment that still retained the core features of the Hao Tian Mirror. Looking into Luya’s eyes, he asked, “Immortal Luya, where is the List of Deification?”

Luya took a look at the fragment and frowned slightly. He mumbled doubtfully, “It’s so badly damaged…”

“Relying on the Power of Vow, the Golden Emperor had appeared in the battle, not to mention that he had the Scorpio Axe with him. That’s why the Core Fragment is damaged once again,” said Meng Qi, putting on a serious face.

It seemed that Luya was not surprised at the appearance of the Death Mother. He chuckled and said, “I see.” Without fussing about the damaged fragment, he took out the List of Deification and said smilingly, “Other than the Devil Buddha and me, nobody else knows that you have the Tree of Da Dao. Thus, how could it be possible for anyone from the Nine Levels of Heaven to play tricks on you?”

No wonder Luya is so confident that he will be able to wake up the Demonic Monarch and acquire the Core Fragment of the Hao Tian Mirror. However, after all, he is still tricked by me… Meng Qi shifted his gaze to the List of Deification in Luya’s hand.

It was a list that glittered with pale golden light.

“Whose name do you want to remove first?” asked Luya.

Meng Qi answered without hesitation, “Jiang Zhiwei.”

He would save the one who was the closest to the Dharmakaya Realm first.

At the same time, he could see the name of Chonghe on the list!

This time around, he was not borrowing the Holy Whip. He wanted to observe and get more information about the situation first.

Luya nodded, moved his hand toward the list, and was about to erase the name of Jiang Zhiwei. Just then, he paused and smiled.

“Let’s talk about the next mission first. Otherwise, you won’t have time to listen to me talk anymore.”

Once Jiang Zhiwei’s name was erased, Meng Qi would need to return to the Real World immediately. He had to be very quick in helping Jiang Zhiwei to cut off the karma link with the mighty people. Otherwise, another Master of the Six Dao of Samsara might be seizing the chance to kill or manipulate her!

“What about the mission?” Meng Qi asked.

Luya said smilingly, “Help me to find someone.”

“Who?” Meng Qi was curious.

Luya had a serious look on his face.

“The Qing Emperor, or you can call him Lord Taiyi.”