Chapter 632 — Where I Stand, There Is Youdu

Dharma King Molun and the remaining two Buddhas came in pursuit; Shen Fengqing seemed to have learned few divine powers, and the arts he used were the simplest of arts, yet they were the arts of Youdu, uncanny and unfathomable, and plucked up at random they left Dharma King Molun and the two Buddhas hard pressed to hold him off.

More dreadful still, the strength of his fleshly body was beyond compare: he tore the Buddha in his hands apart alive, and Buddha-blood rained into the golden sea. That Buddha's primal spirit, too, was devoured by the eye at Shen Mu's brow, spinning as it fell into the eye and vanishing.

The butterfly-wing patterns given off by the third eye at Shen Mu's brow grew ever larger and spread ever wider, and his strength grew ever more terrible; he turned about and met Dharma King Molun and the rest in open slaughter. Meanwhile, before the ruined temple, the monk Chenghuai flew up into the air and gazed far off at the battle in the golden sea, terror seizing his heart: the steamed-bun-shaped golden islands of the Great Brahma Heaven's golden sea were collapsing one after another, holy mountains smashed to powder, while the darkness pressed on, defiling and polluting that supreme holy ground.

Chenghuai's face went ashen, his whole body trembled, and his mind went blank. "Monk, come down!

" He suddenly heard a voice from below and hastily looked down: there at the gate of the ruined temple the honest, simple-hearted bhikshu was waving to him, having surely called many times already, though in his shock and dismay he had not heard. The bhikshu said with a smile, "Come down quickly.

The Great Demon King will be charging over before long. Let us hide in the temple a while.

" Chenghuai said hastily, "Brother Shen would never kill me!

" The bhikshu said with a smile, "Do you think that is really your Brother Shen? " Chenghuai looked toward the golden sea; it had all but become a sea of ink.

The giant infant that Shen Mu had become was pounding and battering one of the Buddhas, beating him into a bloody blur. Suddenly there came a roar that split the heavens and shattered the earth: Dharma King Molun's huge body came flying backward, out of the golden sea, tumbling and rolling, crashing down upon this island, crushing whole swathes of mountain forest as it rolled and smashed its way toward them.

And the infant Shen Mu had become was devouring the primal spirit of another Buddha; eating as he came, he hopped and skipped toward them.

Chenghuai could not help but shudder, and quickly flew down.

The bhikshu opened the temple gate and called him in; Chenghuai hurried inside, and suddenly remembered something: "The Great Brahma Heaven King Buddha allowed three people to enter and learn the True Scripture of the Imperial Throne. Brother Zhankong and the Emperor Shakra Heaven King Buddha have already gone in, and now I have come in as well; does that not fill all three places? " No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than the giant infant Shen Mu had become seized Dharma King Molun by one leg and swung him to and fro, smashing him about until mountains crumbled and the earth split, until Dharma King Molun was barely breathing.

The bhikshu hastily shut the temple gate, cutting off Chenghuai's view, and, pushing him on into the temple, said with a smile, "Brother, you have got the best of it.

Walk on inside and you will meet the Great Brahma Heaven King Buddha and receive the True Scripture of the Imperial Throne.

Go on, be quick! " Chenghuai went stumbling forward in a daze; the temple looked small, yet he walked a long way without reaching its end.

Suddenly Dharma King Molun's death-shriek came from outside, and Chenghuai shuddered with dread: "It is over. Brother Shen is doomed! He has killed so many Buddha-children, and now five Buddhas besides; even Dharma King Molun, a Buddha Patriarch, has died at his hands.

How could the Great Brahma Heaven King ever suffer him to live?

" He turned around and ran for the temple gate, thinking, "I cannot let the Great Brahma Heaven King kill Brother Shen.

. .

" Suddenly a Buddha's invocation sounded: "Well done, well done; turn back, and the shore is at hand.

" Startled, Chenghuai saw a towering Buddha appear before him, holy in every aspect, smiling as he looked at him.

"Chenghuai, had you walked straight on without turning back, you would never have seen me.

Because you turned back, you may receive my lineage. " The towering great Buddha said with a smile, "Come up, and I will transmit to you the True Scripture of the Imperial Throne.

" Chenghuai stepped forward; his heart was anxious for Shen Mu, and he was about to beg this great Buddha to spare Shen Mu's life, when the great Buddha said with a smile, "Your heart of a newborn child is not the same as Zhankong's. Zhankong is void of the four elements within his heart, a natural root of wisdom; your nature is not his equal, yet you possess what he does not.

Therefore what I transmitted to him was the Wordless True Scripture, and what I transmit to you is the Written Heavenly Book.

" A scroll of scripture appeared in the great Buddha's hand, and he placed it in Chenghuai's.

Though Chenghuai held the True Scripture of the Imperial Throne in his hands, he still feared for Shen Mu's safety and had no heart to read it. The great Buddha, not waiting for his plea, said with a smile, "Young Friend Shen has his own destiny; you need not worry. Meditate on it with all your heart.

" Only then did Chenghuai set his heart at ease. He opened the scripture and saw the characters upon the page leaping and reforming without cease, most wondrously, expounding the supreme truth of the Buddhist teachings.

Outside the temple, the giant infant Shen Fengqing swallowed Dharma King Molun, put out his tongue and licked his lips, and capered in such excitement that the earth shuddered without cease: "Old Earth Lord's seal has come loose again, hee hee, and so long as I eat every last soul in this Buddhist realm, I can break free entirely. Then I will remake this Buddhist realm into another Youdu, and I myself will be Earth Lord, I will be king!

Mmm, and I must go to Youdu too and fetch Mother over, so we can live out our good days together and never have to watch Earth Lord's face again.

. .

Eh?

There is an earthen temple here still.

I will smash it all at once, eat everyone inside, and then go on to the other Buddhist realms and eat them clean!

" BOOM— The temple gate shattered into four pieces, and the giant infant, moving legs absurdly short for his body, burst into the temple; ahead of him the road stretched long.

The giant infant strode on, toddling forward, and as he walked he found two legs uncomfortable for the purpose, so he simply went forward on hands and feet.

A rustling sound of sweeping came to him, and ahead appeared a sweeping monk; at the sight of him the monk flung down his broom and would have fled. The giant infant was overjoyed, caught the sweeping monk in one hand, and said with a laugh, "A bit old, but better than nothing. " With that he tore the sweeping monk's head off, plucked out his primal spirit, and drew it into the third eye at his brow.

"If it were me, I would not eat just anything.

. .

" said Shen Mu's consciousness within the giant infant, sulking.

The giant infant swallowed the sweeping monk's primal spirit into his eye and suddenly cried, "Oh no, I have been tricked! Which bastard ambushed me—" Shen Mu suddenly felt his own consciousness take the lead once more, and he was both startled and delighted; his body gradually shrank back to its usual size, and he saw the sweeping monk upon the ground, his head back on his neck, standing there leaning on his broom and looking at him with a smile. Shen Mu bowed in salute: "A rude fellow from the wild hills, Shen Mu, pays his respects to the Great Brahma Heaven King Buddha! "