Chapter 635 — The Soul-Reaving Strings

Shen Mu saw that his smile was slightly forced, tinged with bitterness, and so he did not press him further. Every man has his own secrets; there is no need to lay oneself bare before another's eyes.

Whatever surname King Buddha Sakra had borne in the mortal world, he was at heart not a bad man. Even bearing the name of a Buddha Patriarch, he remained warm-blooded and true to the old ways; to keep the Buddha Realm intact he was willing to shoulder infamy, willing to take the chamber pot and set it on his own head.

A man like that, even unwilling to speak of his past, still left one with a sense of solid ground underfoot.

The two of them worked without pause, and after the better part of a day they at last finished the Spiritual Energy Transfer Bridge. Shen Mu examined it minutely and found no flaw.

"There is still a great deal of divine gold left unused here. Young friend Shen, there is something off about that list you gave me."

King Buddha Sakra looked at the divine gold heaped like a mountain beside the altar. This divine gold was called Buddha-Origin Crimson Chromium, and there were besides timbers wrought from the Plume Buddha-Mother Tree. Following the list Shen Mu had given him, he had ordered each Buddha-kingdom of the Sakra Heaven Realm to offer up materials; the altar was finished, and no small amount of material remained.

On the list Shen Mu had given him, the Buddha-Origin Crimson Chromium and the Plume Buddha-Mother Tree had scarcely been used at all.

King Buddha Sakra, suspicion kindling, looked at Shen Mu and probed: "How are these materials to be disposed of?"

Shen Mu hastily opened his Taotie Bag. "We are fugitives; who knows when we may have need of them! Put them in my bag first."

Sakra stared at him. Shen Mu, not a blush on his face nor a flutter in his heart, stowed the Buddha-Origin Crimson Chromium and the Plume Buddha-Mother Tree away in his Taotie Bag. Soon one Taotie Bag was full; Shen Mu produced another, packed the remaining materials into it, then carefully tied the bags at his waist.

Both bags bulged; plainly both were full.

King Buddha Sakra laughed coldly. "Young friend Shen, the leftover materials filled precisely your two bags — as though it had all been reckoned out in advance."

"Is that so?"

Shen Mu, astonished, blurted out: "Had you not said so, I would never have noticed — they truly filled exactly two Taotie Bags! A monstrous strange business, a monstrous strange business! The twenty heavens of the Buddha Realm are truly no small matter. Most likely the Buddha Realm has a spirit, and knowing that I took the blame for it, has manifested and made me a gift! Excellent, excellent — I am half minded to take up the faith myself..."

King Buddha Sakra watched him the whole while, until he could speak no further, and then said with a grin: "Any clear-eyed man sees it at a glance; there is no need for young friend Shen to explain further. I will first plant my divine power, then activate the Spiritual Energy Transfer Bridge. You calibrate it and link it to Taihuang Heaven."

Shen Mu's face reddened slightly. He answered, went up to the top of the altar, and pressed his palm to the flat surface at its center. With a hum, the surface broke into countless tiny squares; the squares kept reassembling, becoming a sphere, runes flowing and leaping across its face.

He drew both hands outward; the sphere swelled, the little squares separating one from another, streams of light wrought from runes linking block to block.

He took out his reckoning instrument and calculated furiously for a while, calibrating the position of Taihuang Heaven. Little by little light gathered at the center of the sphere, until it became a tiny point at its heart.

Having fixed the position of Taihuang Heaven, Shen Mu brought his hands together; the sphere shrank, became a flat plane once more, and he pressed it back into the altar.

King Buddha Sakra had finished laying his divine power and came to the top of the altar. This Buddha Patriarch, youthful and handsome in appearance, looked out over the Sakra Heaven Realm with no little reluctance to leave.

"King Buddha, the longer we drag this out, the greater our peril," Shen Mu reminded him.

King Buddha Sakra nodded lightly. The clouds of care cleared from his face, and he laughed openly: "When I have washed the chamber pot clean, I will return to this place and be a Buddha Patriarch again. Why put on a child's airs? Young friend Shen, let us go!"

Shen Mu's primal energy surged out and poured into the altar's activating runes. At once light flowed, lighting rune after rune, and the whole altar seemed a giant beast waking from sleep, its layer upon layer of steps turning and shifting. At last the Spiritual Energy Transfer Bridge came alive, and a pillar of light shot up into the sky, straight beyond the heavens!

"On the way, one cannot feel time pass, but I calculated once: from Taihuang Heaven to the Wilderness Ruins takes one quarter-hour."

Shen Mu walked shoulder to shoulder with King Buddha Sakra into the stream of light and raised his voice: "From the Buddha Realm to Taihuang Heaven may take a while longer! A day and a night is one hundred quarter-hours; the moment to destroy the Spiritual Energy Transfer Bridge must come after we have arrived at Taihuang Heaven! King Buddha, the measure of time you use — is it the measure of the Wilderness Ruins?"

"Yes!"

King Buddha Sakra answered loudly: "My divine power will erupt in three quarter-hours and destroy the Spiritual Energy Transfer Bridge!"

The two figures vanished into the stream of light.

And at that very moment, in the Great Brahma Heaven Realm, the demonic aura of Youdu came surging; the place had become a demon sea. Youdu's demon nature and demonic aura had invaded, and little by little one could see Youdu creatures swimming here, now and again revealing long bodies and black scales in the murky ocean.

Suddenly the demon sea heaved and turned; a vast whirlpool opened, and a pair of dark giant horns rose slowly, turning, out of the whirlpool.

The waves howled and surged, louder and louder. And just then, on the island at the center of the Great Brahma Heaven Realm, a Reclining Buddha rose slowly from a ruined temple, light blazing abroad.

The Reclining Buddha lay within a lotus, a lotus of inconceivable size that towered above the ruined temple; the temple seemed to have become a golden spring, lotus leaves scattered all about, the lotus swaying gently.

The Reclining Buddha woke and raised his head, and saw a black god-devil rising from the demon sea: horns on his head, tiger's eyes, an ox's body, and a third eye grown at the center of his brow.

"Brother Dao!"

King Buddha Great Brahma said hastily: "That the affairs of my Great Brahma Heaven Realm should have disturbed Brother Dao and brought your avatar down to me — I am overwhelmed with dismay."

That horned, tiger-headed god-devil was none other than Tubo. He glanced about, his voice quaking: "Great Brahma King, your heaven realm has become a Youdu. Driving the Youdu demonic aura out of it would not be hard for you — why have you not done it? Do you need my help?"

King Buddha Great Brahma laughed. "I would never put Brother Dao to such trouble! Besides, the Youdu in my heaven realm is evidence; it must be kept, lest the Heavenly Court send down its blame. And the Buddha Realm has only light and no darkness, and cannot advance another step; it needs darkness for the Buddha Dharma to keep growing. Let this stretch of Youdu remain."

"So that is how it is."

Hearing this, Tubo understood the whole sequence of cause and consequence. "It was my failure to discipline him that let the Youdu Son-of-Heaven come to your realm and make trouble. I beg your pardon."

"You are too kind."