As soon as the words were spoken, a sharp CRACK echoed. The fat monk's body—along with his soul and True Spirit—crumbled into dust. He welcod Nirvana, reached his final destination, and t his ultimate end.
Lu Xuan gazed at the scene, his heart pounding wildly. He still felt sothing was off. When he noticed the chaotic clouds overhead beginning to dissipate, he hastily put away his Qing Ping Sword.
Just then, the chaotic clouds dissipated completely—or rather, they converged and solidified into a two-toned handkerchief.
The handkerchief's colors defied description. If one had to try, its left side was a hue of purity, and its right side, a shade of solemnity.
Two colors, coexisting. Two worlds, coexisting.
Lu Xuan silently put the handkerchief away, his mind racing and his eyes growing deep and profound.
anwhile, high above the Celestial Vault, another great uproar erupted among the Immortal Gods.
.........
Spirit Mountain.
Sakyamuni Buddha sat upon the Supre and Marvelous Lotus Platform, his head bowed as he chanted scriptures, preached the Dharma, and expounded upon wondrous principles.
At his sides, the various Buddhas were seated.
Below them, the Bodhisattvas stood respectfully.
And further below, the Great Arhats stood, their bearing solemn and their expressions compassionate.
Suddenly, Spirit Mountain trembled slightly.
The Buddhas opened their eyes, the Bodhisattvas were stunned, and the Great Arhats glanced over. All of them looked in unison toward the future Maitreya Buddha, who was seated beside Sakyamuni Buddha.
A look of sorrow and suffering appeared on this future Maitreya Buddha's face. He pressed his palms together and chanted:
"Compassion, compassion!"
Then, following the myriad dharmas across ti, boundless Tribulation Qi surged down and poured into his body. Before the astonished gazes of all the Buddhas on Spirit Mountain, Maitreya Buddha disintegrated and entered Nirvana!
'A Buddha... entered Nirvana??'
'No, this wasn't Nirvana. This was complete and utter death???'
The Great Bodhisattva Guanyin's hand trembled, spilling a few glittering, divine drops of water from her Mutton Fat Jade Purification Bottle. They crashed down upon the Jinluan Hall, causing the great hall to shudder!
"This... this... this..."
The Glazed Buddha was utterly dumbfounded. Then, the other Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Arhats finally snapped back to their senses. In an instant, all of Spirit Mountain erupted into a tumultuous uproar!
A Buddha had entered Nirvana!
Amid the trendous clamor, Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva—who, despite her title, was powerful enough to rival a Great Buddha—took a step forward and asked in a solemn voice:
"World Honored One, do you know what has happened? Why... why..."
Sakyamuni Buddha raised his head. He opened his eyes, which reflected Infinite Buddha Lands as nurous as the sands of the Ganges, and sighed.
"The Maitreya from another river of ti has been slain. He was forced into Nirvana—his body is dead, his Dao has vanished, his soul no longer exists, and his True Spirit has been extinguished. His death has traced itself back through all of ti, perating all of eternity, past and future."
The Buddhas and the few Great Bodhisattvas who understood the mysteries of the Daluo realm all gasped. Maitreya Buddha was one of the Three Historical Buddhas of Spirit Mountain, a symbol of the future, and he was also a Daluo!!
To be a Daluo is to achieve an Eternal Proof. Once attained, it is attained forever. Their past, present, and future beco one. They are Immortal, Indestructible, and Undying, able to roam freely throughout the ages, walk through the past and present, and be omnipresent.
And yet now, Maitreya Buddha had been slain, entering Nirvana across all ages and all of ti!
Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva's heart trembled.
'How could this happen? Why? Was so Ancient One or Enlightened One angered, passing judgnt upon Maitreya Buddha?'
Sakyamuni Buddha raised his eyelids slightly, sighed softly, and then smiled.
"Not so, not so... Do not ask, do not look, and do not concern yourself."
"From this day forward, the Buddhist Sect will have no Buddha of the Future."
With that, he lowered his head once more and resud chanting the great scriptures, as calm as if nothing had happened.
The other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas could only look at one another, their hearts so shaken they were all rendered speechless.
'A Buddha has entered Nirvana!'
.........
「Beyond the Thirty-Three Celestial Realms, upon the River of Ti.」
Even among Dao Fruits, there are distinctions.
There are nine great thrones of the Dao Fruit, and on each, one or two beings can be seated.
Those who occupy half a Dao Fruit throne are revered as Ancient Ones. These so-called Ancient Ones have witnessed all of history and surveyed the entire past. They can alter the great tides of fate and even overturn the past.
Those who occupy a complete Dao Fruit throne, however, are revered as Enlightened Ones. There are six such figures in all the realms, and every one of them was present here.
The six Enlightened Ones were either playing chess, debating the Dao, or fighting one another. They fought from the ancient Creation of Heaven and Earth to the Ancient Spring and Autumn Period, battled on into the age of the world's decline, and continued their wars into the future of the current world.
Amongst themselves, they would laugh and chat while plotting across eons, playing a life-and-death ga of celestial chess.
The Ancient are undying, and the Enlightened exist eternally. At their level, death was rely a state of being. Their battles were never about proving superiority; they were fought for the sake of their own grand 'sches'.
The Supre sat within Douluo Palace, refining a Great Pill in his Eight Trigrams Furnace. With a flip of his palm, he sent the Buddha Lord, who was wreathed in Infinite Pure Light just outside the palace, stumbling.
The Blind Daoist wielded the Three-Bejeweled Ruyi and gave a peerlessly beautiful woman a vicious, THUDDING beatdown, shattering her body an untold number of tis.
And yet, the woman was still smiling, as peerlessly beautiful as ever.
The La Daoist, anwhile, was playing chess against a Buddha Lord who held the Western Pure Land in his palm. He would place a piece, then scratch his head in frustration, looking as if he were about to lose the entire ga.
With a glare, he summoned four long swords, which transford into four Heaven-Reaching Divine Mountains. They stood tall within the Great Chaos, piercing through all of past and future to form the greatest Killing Array in history. He then snapped irritably:
"When we were playing, you glared at ! I'm not happy about it!"
As he spoke, he ford a Dharma Seal, causing the Killing Array to activate. Sword Qi crisscrossed in every direction, tearing through the myriad worlds and slashing toward the Buddha Lord.
The Buddha Lord was rendered speechless. As he neutralized streams of Sword Qi, each powerful enough to annihilate the Celestial Myriad Realms, he shook his head and glared.
"Spirit Treasure, when did I ever glare at you?"
"Just now!" the La Daoist said, full of righteous indignation. "For beings like us, ti is aningless! What's the difference between you glaring at now and you glaring at during the ga?"
"You..." Even though he knew this Great Celestial Venerable's character all too well, the Buddha Lord was still angered to the point of grinding his teeth, a resentful look creeping onto his face.
'If I'd known this was going to happen,' he thought, 'I should have fought the Old Lord instead. That would have been so much better!'
Suddenly, just as these Supre Venerables were fighting and feuding amidst laughter and banter...
The six Enlightened Ones all glanced over at the sa ti, their gazes falling upon the River of Ti flowing below them, connecting the past, present, and future. Near the middle of its course, they could see dense Tribulation Qi, the elents of Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water running rampant, and Yin and Yang thrown into disarray.
But it all vanished in a re instant, returning to normal.
"Hm?"
The Supre raised an eyebrow. He and the Buddha Lord wreathed in the glow of Infinite Pure Light paused their battle. They each froze the River of Ti to investigate why it had nearly snapped, but all they could perceive was a heaven-shakingly malevolent aura, with no further details visible.
"Let ."
The peerlessly beautiful woman rubbed her cheek, which had been swollen from the Primordial Celestial Venerable's beating with the Three-Bejeweled Ruyi. After shooting a glare at the Primordial Great Celestial Venerable, she reached her hand into the Years and pulled out a grand scene.
The scene ebbed and flowed, hazy and chaotic, impossible to make out. But as she manipulated the Years, advancing the ti within the scene to the mont when Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water ran rampant, the blurry image sharpened.
It showed an old Daoist, swinging down an azure longsword. The blow nearly severed the flow of Years and annihilated all realms, but it was ultimately blocked by a fat monk.
Afterward, the fat monk entered Nirvana on the spot. Simultaneously, every version of him along the entire River of Ti also entered Nirvana, returning to dust.
"The Qing Ping Sword?" The peerlessly beautiful woman's gaze shifted to the La Daoist. The two Buddha Lords also looked over, their expressions astonished.
The Blind Daoist simply cast a pitying glance at the La Daoist.
But the Supre, who had been sitting in Douluo Palace, abruptly shot to his feet. A murderous aura exploded from him as he ground his teeth and snarled:
"The Qing Ping Sword..."
He shot a ferocious glare toward the La Daoist, who imdiately clutched his head and scrambled away, shrieking in terror.
"A misunderstanding! It's a misunderstanding, Supre! This is all a huge misunderstanding...!"
The Supre grabbed Douluo Palace itself and hurled it at him, and the Great Chaos erupted.
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