On the Path to the Great Dao Chapter 301: Second Hell 39

The Immortal Bridge Blessed Land grew progressively denser with mist. Jin Lu Daoist stood beside the collapsed immortal bridge, his heartbeat quickening.

The fog ca on fiercely. Once he noticed it and tried to leave, it was already a little late.

Suddenly, a piercing shriek echoed from within the mist. Jin Lu Daoist’s heart jumped; he knew soone had been slain.

Another agonized scream followed, then another, until the cries never ceased, coming from every direction within the Immortal Bridge Blessed Land.

“Chen Shi was right. This place is extrely dangerous. We should leave imdiately!”

Jin Lu Daoist wasted no more hesitation and sprinted in the direction Chen Shi had gone.

He concentrated fully. Behind his head the miniature shrine floated, the divine embryo settled in place, and he condensed a sword qi to illuminate the surroundings, guarding against the dangers hidden in the mist.

He cultivated the Flying Immortal Sword Scripture. Rumor had it that this art could achieve Corpse Liberation Immortal status; the final step was to use the sword one had forged to die in one’s stead, trick the underworld officers, and have one’s true body escape death to roam free.

This sword scripture was the supre absolute art of Tai Shang Hao Yuan Palace. It was not as intricate and subtle as the Mysterious Subtle Sword Scripture, but when forging a single breath of sword qi, its destructive power was astonishing and could shatter any defense.

Around them, cries of agony rose and fell. Every mont so provincial graduate t a tragic end.

Jin Lu Daoist quickened into a mad run, streaking forward like a flash of light.

He rushed over a hundred li, reckoning he should be near the Blessed Land’s end, yet after dashing tens more li, the fog still persisted!

Ahead, more than ten provincial graduates were sprinting. Jin Lu Daoist brightened, about to converge with them, when a gnarly, jagged claw thrust from the mist, snatched one graduate, and then retreated back into the fog.

One by one, strange claws reached out of the mist, seizing at those graduates. Even the powerful among them could not evade; once gripped, they vanished.

Sensing imminent danger, Jin Lu Daoist unleashed his sword qi. His form rged with the sword qi, becoming a blade of light that cleaved through the air with a howl.

“One more!”

The instant he shot upward, a bony huge hand reached from the mist and caught the sword light.

Jin Lu Daoist froze in horror and struggled with all his might, but the hand’s strength was incomprehensibly imnse.

A gigantic mouth yawned open out of the fog, parting the surrounding vapors. A dexterous tongue lashed out, coiling around Jin Lu Daoist, and with a whoosh dragged him into its maw!

Falling into the monster’s mouth, he looked up to see teeth like white giant hamrs dropping from the sky, smashing into his body.

A single blow crushed his flesh to pulp!

His Primordial Spirit tried to flee; it had barely escaped the corpse when a gust of deathly wind blew it into the monster’s internal organs.

“Shouldn’t have... not listened to Chen Shi...” A useless thought flitted through his mind as he died.

The monsters in the fog devoured everyone in the Immortal Bridge Blessed Land, then ticulously searched again. Having found no survivors, many monsters turned on each other, trying to devour their kin.

Then a whistle sounded through the fog. Long whips cracked down, lashing those beasts until their hide tore and flesh was mangled.

Those ferocious monsters cald considerably and, like livestock, obeyed the whistle’s command, stampeding in the direction of one group of provincial graduates.

The mist flowed. From behind the monsters ca the faint sound of wheels turning. A ghost god with a giant wheel for a lower body and many arms retracted its whip and sped along through the fog.

It was herding; the monsters in the mist were cattle and sheep, and the provincial graduates and cultivators were fodder for the beasts.

Now one patch of grass had been eaten clean; it was ti to find the next patch.

Chen Shi and the others walked at the foot of those colossal Buddhas. Everyone looked up in awe. The red eyes on the giant Buddhas’ bodies stood out vividly in the dim light of the underworld.

One provincial graduate could not help himself and activated a fla spell. The fire sprouted wings and beca a phoenix of flas, soaring through the air.

Wherever the fire phoenix passed, the red eyes around it were lit up.

Those were eyes growing on the giant Buddhas’ bodies, and behind each eye were thick, long tendrils.

The eyes seed very curious about the fire phoenix and chased after it, but their tendrils were not that long. Usually after flying a short distance, they were pulled back.

“What are those eyes?” the provincial graduate murmured. “Are they underworld creatures or Buddha eyes? And these giant Buddhas — are they stone statues? Are whole mountains carved into statues? How could they carve so many?”

He was fearful.

If these Buddhas were carved out of mountain rock, how many laborers would that require? How long would it take?

And how could stone statues grow eyes of flesh and blood?

If the giant Buddhas were not statues of stone, could they be made of flesh and blood?

“Gurgle.”

A strange sound ca from the foot of the Buddha beside them. An eye-lid at the Buddha’s ankle opened, revealing a huge blood-red eye that rolled and stared at them.

Their scalps crawled. Most of them cultivated at Nascent Soul or Spirit Transformation realms and could no longer be called weak, yet facing those eyes on the Buddhas they still felt dread.

A blood-red eye floated upward to hover above them, watching them quietly.

The eye was about an acre in size and so distance away. Its red light stained the path ahead with a crimson glow.

They moved forward. More gurgling sounds rose as one by one giant red eyes sprouted from the Buddhas, floating above them to light their way.

Chen Shi’s expression sharpened. He paused lightly and silently unfolded his Nascent Soul force field, initiating Wind-Thunder Variation.

His Nascent Soul field ford a spherical domain centered on him, extending five zhang in radius.

That was likewise the coverage range of his Wind-Thunder Variation.

Most others didn’t notice his Nascent Soul field. Only Guo Daoist sensed sothing wrong, warily scanning around, and suddenly drew a talisman in midair with a finger, creating a thunder talisman out of nothing.

“Ssss!”

The thunder talisman flared, but no power erged.

Guo Daoist was stunned. “A Dao Field? Or what?”

The cosmic arts of the Celestial Master Mansion were profound. Guo Daoist cultivated the Nine Heavens Three Treasures Golden Scripture, the top-tier thod among the Ten Books of Cultivation. His talismans were stronger than other talisman masters’, yet the talisman he had just drawn had its power entirely “borrowed” away!

Around them was a kind of power he could not comprehend, siphoning away all thunder magic!

That made him suspect a Primordial Spirit Dao Field from a Refining Void realm cultivator!

Even so, Guo Daoist felt this phenonon was stranger and more eerie than any Primordial Spirit Dao Field he knew.

At that mont, a blood-red eyeball overhead quietly cracked open like a blossoming flower, splitting into five petal-like sections. In the floral center sat a blue-faced, fanged ghoul, and gore-like tendrils stabbed into the backs of those nearby.

The ghoul was two to three zhang tall, head down and feet up. As the tendrils silently withdrew from the backs of those it had latched onto, the ghoul fell down and reached for the tallest provincial graduate among them with a delighted indigo face!

The ghoul’s head was bald, bearing a monk’s tonsure scar, as if once a monk. Just as it approached the group, thunder rolled through the air. A blinding bolt of lightning tore through and pierced the ghoul monk!

The ghoul monk went limp and fell.

Everyone scattered. The ghoul monk landed, suddenly opening a cavernous mouth and emitting a piercing wail as it exhaled a stream of blood mist upward!

The blood shot into the sky more than ten zhang high, forming a sheet of crimson fog.

The ghoul monk, spraying blood mist, quickly deflated like a punctured balloon until it was nothing but a shriveled skin bag—huge in size, but an empty shell.

They stared in horror, retreating, unsure what had befallen the ghoul monk.

Guo Daoist stepped forward and drove a sword qi into the ghoul monk’s skin bag. The bag caved in but sohow blocked his sword qi entirely.

“This monk-ghoul has forged a Golden Body!” Guo Daoist exclaid, startled, glancing at Chen Shi as his heart pounded wildly.

“Ghost and God Domain! Chen Shi understands Ghost and God Domain! He—could he be a ghost god?”

People used the term Ghost and God Domain for spaces with bizarre cosmic rules they could not fathom.

Such domains were often created by demons, prehistoric remnants, powerful fractured artifacts, or other incomprehensible forces that affected a specific area of reality.

Chen Shi’s Nascent Soul field had effects similar to a Ghost and God Domain!

Even a high disciple like Guo Daoist could not discern how that ghoul monk had died.

This ghoul monk had died in a way beyond his comprehension; that was a Ghost and God Domain!

But how could a normal cultivator, not yet a Primordial Spirit nor possessing a Dao Field, have ford a Ghost and God Domain?

“He might not be human!” Guo Daoist recalled rumors that Chen Shi harbored many powerful demons within. His heartbeat intensified. “Chen Shi might already be dead! The Chen Shi standing before us could actually be a demon in disguise, pretending to be him to infiltrate the living world!”

Tian Yue’e, always frugal, rolled up the ghoul monk’s skin bag and slung it over her shoulder, smiling. “This ghoul skin is useful. We can sell it at Juxian Pavilion for a good price.”

Everyone envied her.

They pressed on. More ghoul monks erged from those strange giant eyes, but typically were struck by lightning before they neared the group. Wind rose within them, tearing their bodies from within.

Sotis water and fire erupted inside them, flas blazing from eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, or they spewed torrents that lted even bone.

Sotis they were crushed to pieces by invisible forces.

Those ghoul monks had likely been monks in life—bald heads, tonsure scars, Golden Bodies forged so tough their skin sacks resisted Spirit Transformation spells.

If these ghoul monks charged into their midst, the group would be helpless; they’d be slaughtered and beco the ghoul monks’ al.

“A formidable Golden Body!” Chen Shi could not help but ponder as he examined the ghoul monks’ skin sacks. He wondered aloud, “Were these monsters monks in life? How could the underworld have monks? How did they beco such ghastly creatures? Why do they dwell inside these bizarre eyes?”

Ahead ca thunderous rumbling, as if so colossal beings were clashing.

Chen Shi signaled the group to halt and stealthily approached. He saw two ghoul monks pinning a monk against a cliff face, battering him with blow after blow until bones broke and he lay dying.

Around them lay the shredded corpses of other monks, clearly killed by the ghoul monks.

The monk being beaten also cultivated a Golden Body — resplendent in golden light, about one zhang and six chi tall, handso in appearance — he was Wuchen the monk, whom Chen Shi had t on a few occasions.

His strength clearly paled compared to the two ghoul monks; his Golden Body was on the verge of being broken.

Chen Shi rushed forward. One of the ghoul monks imdiately abandoned Wuchen and turned to charge him. But when it closed to within five zhang, it was struck by lightning; a deathly wind entered its body!

This ghoul monk was much stronger than the previous ones. Realizing the danger, it clamped its mouth shut and sealed its nine orifices, retreating.

But simply sealing its acupoints could not resist the Wind-Thunder Variation.

Soon the ghoul monk’s body swelled, then could no longer endure. It opened its mouth in a howl, spewing blood mist, and in monts deflated into a skin bag!

The other ghoul monk attacking Wuchen was terrified. Seeing Chen Shi approach as if confronting a ghost, it shot upward and dove into an eye-flower mid-bloom. Tendrils pierced its back muscles; the petals closed, and it reford into a gigantic eye.

The eye retracted rapidly and embedded itself into the Buddha statue’s surface; the eye-lid closed, and the eye vanished.

Other eyes, seemingly startled, withdrew into the Buddhas and closed their lids. In an instant the towering Buddhas dimd; all the red glowing eyes disappeared.

Chen Shi stepped forward and helped Wuchen the monk up. “Monk, do you still have breath?”

“Yes.” Wuchen slumped and answered.

Tian Yue’e and the other provincial graduates hurried over to treat him and set his broken bones.

Guo Daoist used his Primordial Spirit cultivation to levitate Wuchen with law-force, preventing internal jostling.

Wuchen looked at Chen Shi. “Now you don’t owe .”

Chen Shi was surprised, not understanding what he ant.

They pressed on. Wuchen lay in the air, staring at the colossal Buddhas dotted across the world, then suddenly began to weep bitterly.

Guo Daoist asked with a laugh, “Monk, why are you crying?”

Wuchen burst into sobs, unable to contain himself for a long while.

After a mont he cald a bit, composed himself, and said, “Those giant Buddhas are our sect’s half-Buddhas, not stone statues. We are now in the Buddhist sect’s hell. Hell is subdivided for monks and laypeople. Our Buddhist hell has twenty layers. The secular world speaks of eighteen layers of hell — they are not the sa place.”

Chen Shi listened carefully; he did not know the distinction.

“The legend of Buddhist hell cos from the Divine Continent. In the sutras of Maitreya Bodhisattva there are ntions: hells nad Live Hell, Black Rope, Clutching, Wailing, Many-Wave, Pada-Purna, Avici, Kujula, Corpse, Forest of Knives, Forest of Swords, Splitting, Anavoda, Apobhra, Ajaja, Utpala, Kuntika, Kimpurusha, Patala, etc. — twenty layers in total.”

Wuchen’s face went blank as he murmured, “Our great Buddhist masters and virtuous elders followed Ming Dynasty soldiers to Western Ox New Continent. The Ming populace multiplied, and wandering souls had nowhere to go. These wandering souls’ dwelling ca to be called the underworld; at that ti the yin and yang realms had not yet fully separated. Without ghost gods to manage them, chaos would ensue.”

Thus the True King constructed the secular eighteen-layer hell and asked the Ten Kings of Hell’s avatars to guard it. China’s ghost gods, the many judges and underworld generals, were summoned as avatars to separate the yin and yang realms, hence humans and ghosts followed different paths.

“Our Buddhist masters also created the Buddhist twenty-layer hell to gather lost souls,” Wuchen said, gazing at the towering Buddhas. “According to records from Great Bao Guo Temple, during the True King’s Era the Buddhist sect’s three great sacred lands had many masters on the verge of entering Buddhahood. They vowed to enter Buddhist hell to break through, declaring they would not beco Buddhas until hell was empty. Many virtuous Buddhist masters followed these half-Buddhas to cultivate. After the True King’s Era ended, the Buddhist twenty-layer hell and those near-Buddha beings vanished without trace. Great Bao Guo Temple’s lore says they attained Buddhahood and entered the Pure Land. That inspired countless monks at our temple.”

He choked up and tears filled his eyes again.

He had been one of those monks spurred on by that lore.

Hu Guanghan, standing beside Chen Shi, asked, “Monk, are you saying these colossal Buddhas were the masters who once sat watch over hell?”

Wuchen wiped his tears, studied him, and asked, “You are?”

“Hu Guanghan of Wangwu County.”

“You’re not a great clan scion?”

“No.”

Wuchen gave no further answer.

“The Buddhas’ tendons and bones turned to stone, their flesh and blood to soil. They were extraordinarily powerful in life, far surpassing my teacher, Zen Master Bitter Bamboo. Their Golden Bodies had no leakage, hence their Buddha bodies remained.”

Wuchen lowered his head in tears. “Evil qi took root within them and grew grotesque eyes—neither fully flower nor fully eye. Those who followed the half-Buddhas beca monsters born from the flowers. They are not in the Pure Land at all!”

His grief overwheld him and he wept aloud.

Chen Shi did not know how to console him and patted his shoulder.

Wuchen cried even harder.

Seeing this, Guo Daoist hurriedly said, “Chen Patron, stop patting him. His shoulder bones are broken; you’re hurting him.”

Chen Shi withdrew his hand, looking slightly embarrassed, and asked, “Monk, how can we leave Buddhist hell?”

“We can’t leave!” Wuchen sobbed. “If escape were possible, why couldn’t those half-Buddha masters leave back then? We cannot get out! We are trapped here to die!”