“I should call you the Demon Buddha shouldn’t I?”
As soon as Su Qin finished speaking, the golden-robed monk was in disbelief. He stared at Su Qin in shock.
He did not expect Su Qin to have recognized his true identity right away. Over the past 900 years, he spent every single day being trapped by that seal. Through the strength of his ability, he managed to become one with the seal a long time ago.
Since he practiced the Demon Buddha Path, he could also freely swap between Buddha and Demon identities. Unless the real Tuo A Luohan returned from the dead, no one would be able to tell who he was.
“How did you know that?” A faint black light glowed faintly in the depths of the gold-robed monk’s eyes.
“How did I know?” Su Qin did not answer his question.
Through his Truth Seeing Eye, Su Qin discovered that deep under the aura of the gold-robed monk laid that strand of evil energy. The Truth Seeing eye was a magical ability that Su Qin obtained from signing in. No matter how the Demon Buddha tried to conceal himself, he would not have been able to trick the Truth Seeing Eye.
“I’ve always been so curious to know how you ‘re still alive even after 900 years.”
Su Qin spoke up to that point and sized up the golden-robed monk with one look. He then shook his head and said, “I never guessed that you’d be willing to give up your physical body to take on the form of evil intent to struggle on living whilst at death’s door up till today.”
A first-rank grandmaster could nurture Spirit, while a top first-rank could condense Spirit to produce Spiritual Sense that interfered with external objects, scan one’s surroundings and even kill people through the air.
A true Luohan, someone who managed to surpass the level of a first-rank were able to crystallize their Spiritual Sense into essence. That was similar to the Daoist primordial spirit. Even if the physical body was destroyed, a Luohan could continue to exist and would not die immediately with the Spiritual Sense that was crystallized into essence.
However, once the nurturing of the physical body was lost, the Spiritual Sense was like a plant without roots. It would not have been able to sustain itself for long.
Yet, the Demon Buddha seemed to have placed his Spiritual Sense on Buddhist Mountain through some unknown method so that he could have lived on until now. Despite that, the Demon Buddha would not have been able to live much longer. Physical bodies decay and Spiritual Sense would have similarly undergone degeneration. It just took a long time compared to physical bodies decaying.
Also, without a physical body, the Demon Buddha had no way to unleash the battle power of a Luohan.
“You lured me in here to snatch my physical body and escape?”
Su Qin stared at the golden-robed monk and said, “This is your only chance. If you want to escape the seal, this is the only way to do so.”
The golden-robed monk did not respond after hearing Su Qin’s words. Su Qin did not know when it started but the gold robe that he was wearing silently took on a black tinge. The black stain spread at a terrifying speed in all directions.
Whoosh!
In an instant, the zen atmosphere of the Buddha Cave was replaced by a Demon Den that was filled with the roars of countless demons. An endless cloud of black evil energy filled the air. Multiple heads of monsters condensed from the evil energy one after another and bared their teeth at Su Qin.
“Not bad. You guessed right!”
The Demon Buddha gave up on his disguise. He looked at Su Qin like a ravenous wolf, “Your physical boy has undergone a transformation and it hasn’t gone down to the extremes of Yin energy or Yang energy. It hovers between Yin and Yang.”
“This type of physical body is rare and may only appear once every thousand years. The potential is unlimited. If I possess it, I’ll be able to return to the peak rank in less than a hundred years!”
The Demon Buddha was not too concerned about Su Qin, even though he had no physical body and relied only on Spiritual Sense. He was still not someone that a mere first-rank grandmaster could have defeated.
Even if the first-rank grandmaster already achieved Spiritual Sense and transformed their physical body, it would still be far from enough.
The Demon Buddha had not acted outside not because he was suppressed by the seals but because he had no way to extend his power beyond the boundaries of the Buddhist Mountain. However, since Su Qin entered the Buddhist Mountain, his life was in the hands of the Demon Buddha.
“I’ll allow you to obediently surrender your physical body now. I’ll allow your death to be a little more pleasant if you do so. If not, I’ll use spiritual fire to burn your Spiritual Sense for a hundred years!”
The Demon Buddha smiled coldly at Su Qin. The reason he said that was not because he was worried that they would both fight to the death. Instead, he was more worried about ‘harming’ his physical body.
“Really? You’re so sure that you’ll be able to beat me?” said Su Qin softly.
“Beat you?” The Demon Buddha could not help but laugh, “Over the past 900 years, even though I couldn’t completely break the seal, I’ve managed to tear off a tiny piece of the seal.”
“Tearing off a tiny piece of the seal isn’t enough to allow me to escape but the power that I can transmit is more than enough to kill you.”
It sounded like the Demon Buddha was telling the truth. Even though he did not have a physical body and could not unleash the battle force of a true Luohan, his power was still far above that of a first rank.
“Since you’re not going to surrender your body like a good boy, I’m forced to personally take your body from you.”
The Demon Buddha lost his patience and raised his right hand toward Su Qin and pressed down with a cold expression.
In that instant, the entire Demon Den shook and an overwhelming cloud of evil energy accumulated to form a giant hand that completely covered the sky, hurtling down toward Su Qin.
An ordinary first-rank grandmaster would have been unable to move at all under the power of the giant hand. Even a top-first-rank martial artist would have given up hope and awaited death when faced with that.
The Demon Buddha looked coldly at Su Qin, he considered Su Qin a dead man. He believed that even if Su Qin was ten times stronger than he was, he would still not have been able to survive that blow.
Just as the Demon Buddha was fantasizing about how he would claim Su Qin’s body for his own, Su Qin suddenly took a step forward. Looking at the Demon Buddha he said, “Don’t you want to know how I was able to see through your disguise?”
“Huh?” The Demon Buddha’s expression froze as soon as he heard Su Qin’s words.
‘That was true. How did he do that? Su Qin was able to recognize that he was not Luohan Tuo A but was the Demon Buddha who was imprisoned. Since he knew, why did he still walk into the trap on his own accord?’ wondered the Demon Buddha.
‘Is Su Qin an idiot? That’s not possible,’ thought the Demon Buddha.
Even the Demon Buddha did not think that the top first-rank martial artist was an idiot.
Right at that moment, Su Qin abruptly took another step forward.
“It’s because I needed time!”
Boom!
Suddenly, all five Buddhist Mountains rumbled making a loud noise. The sky suddenly seemed to be covered by a deep gold stained-glass like Buddha Palm, with Su Qin as the Centerpoint.
Countless golden Udumbara[1] flowers suddenly fell everywhere around them. Each flower seemed to represent a world; each leaf, an entire universe. Multiple, unlimited layers of sacred lands emerged before them.
At the core of the sacred lands sat a golden buddha statue that looked like an actual Buddha that oversaw all beings. Its gaze was indifferent. There was no favoritism, no hatred, no love, and no pity in it. A strong and powerful aura rushed and filled the air.
Creak!
Creak!
The Giant Palm in the sky that was formed from the condensation of countless evil energy clouds immediately dispersed. The Demon Den that contained the howls of tens of thousands of demons collapsed. Heavenly light permeated the air, illuminating everything in sight.
“This…”
The Demon Buddha who was confident that victory was in his hands looked as though he had been caught off-guard. He looked toward the vast expanse of the sacred land and at the golden Buddha that sat in the midst of it.
The golden Buddha pointed to the sky with one hand and touched the earth with the other. It hissed in a deep voice of great despair, “The True Meaning of Buddha!”
“This is the True Meaning of Buddha!”
[1] The Udumbara flower (婆罗花) -According to Buddhist scriptures, the Udumbara is a sacred flower that comes from the Buddha’s realms. The flower’s name comes from Sanskrit and means “an auspicious flower from heaven.”