Shi Fuyu pondered for a while to reorganized his words, then he said, "At first, many people did absorb the power of faith to cultivate--especially in the early stage of the Incense Era, however, the power of faith and incense had repercussion or side affects."
"Side effects? According to the records in the Profound Gate, faith and incense is very poisonous to the spirit. Is that what you mean by repercussions?" asked Feng Heng.
"It's not that simple. Do you know what faith actually is?"
"No."
"Faith is basically the aggregation of spiritual power of countless people. For example, when someone prays to either offer worship to a higher being or to ask them for something, a part of their spiritual power will combine with the spiritual energy between Heaven and Earth to form the power of Faith or Incense."
"The negative side of this is the fact these spiritual powers are not pure, but full of emotions and desires. As a matter of fact, the power of faith was first discovered when a monk accidentally absorbed this power in a temple while breaking through the Primordial Spirit Realm."
"That monk discovered that he could use the Incense to go through the Heart Demon Tribulation needed to turn his soul into a Primordial Spirit. Later, this method was used by Buddhist and other sects to make it easier to break through into that realm."
"However, faith is not only made of positive emotion or desire, but also negative one, which can easily affect a person' spirit, forcibly changing their nature. Especially later on in that era when Buddhist sect absorbed a massive amount of Incense Power."
"The majority of monks in that time became brutal and greedy. They would slaughter people for no reason. More importantly, they would enslave mortals to force them to pray and offer Incense to them."
Shi Fuyu paused for a moment, then took a short passage down memory lane. Meanwhile, Feng Heng hurriedly asked, "So, how did the people of that time deal with the problem?"
The question jolted Shi Fuyu from his memories, he smiled before answering, "This problem occurred in the early stage of the Incense Era, so I'm not very sure exactly what happened."
"What I do know was that it was solved by the Karmic Unbound Emperor."
"Karmic Unbound Emperor? Never heard of him," replied Feng Heng.
Shi Fuyu paused for a moment after hearing this, then he looked at his disciple deeply.
"Master, is there something wrong?"
"No," replied Shi Fuyu as he secretly sighed. "The Karmic Unbound Emperor was actually the first Buddhist Emperor of the Incensed Era. He created the Karmic Heavenly Flame and passed it down to the world."
"As a result, the Buddhist Sect could use this flame to burn out the impurities inside the Incense Power, thus making it easier to absorb."
"Since this flame has the name Karma, does that mean it could be used to wash away the Karma of the people who absorb Incense Power?" asked Feng Heng.
"You are correct, however, Incense is not as karmically binding as Qi Luck. As long as the person who absorbed the power accomplished the wish or desire of the people who prayed to them, they can still escape being bound by karma."
"Master, since the problem was solved, why did other people stop using that power?"
"That's because the majority cultivator labeled the Incense Dao as heretical or unorthodox. Not to mention that only the Buddhist Sects had access to the Heavenly Karma Flame."
"Furthermore, the flame did not completely solve the problem. At first everything was fine, however, the Buddhist Sects decided to expand their borders to all the other worlds in the community."
"They not only preach the philosophy and ideas of Buddhism, but also use these worlds to gather a massive amount of Faith. However, with this large amount of power, even the Karmic Flames could not remove all the impurities."
"At that time, the Buddhist Sect began to fracture due to the internal contradiction."
"You mean infighting?" asked Feng Heng with a surprise look on his face.
"Yes. The term 'Buddhist Sect' is used to refer to a coalition of all the different factions of that era that practiced the teachings of Buddha. So, you can imagine the contradiction with so many Emperor Lineages collaborating together."
"So what caused the split between them?"
"Well, one faction wanted to stop using Incense Power due to its harmful nature, or at the very least not absorb so much."
"The other faction was more aggressive and refused to stop. They believed that doing so would greatly decrease the power of the Buddhist Sect."
"So, which faction won in the end?" asked Feng Heng with an intrigued look on his face.
"At first, the peaceful faction had the advantage. After all, Buddhism is a sect that focuses on discovering the self, liberating the self from the Sea of Suffering and reaching Nirvana. For most Buddhist cultivators at that time, the power of Incense was just a means to achieve enlightenment at a more rapid pace and help more people liberate themselves from their suffering."
"However, things rapidly changed. The radical faction conducted a ceremony that contacted a powerful being using a massive amount of Incense Power. That being then gifted that faction the Western Pure Bliss Land, or Buddha World."
"Wait, Western Pure Bliss Land? Are you talking about one of the Six Forbidden Lands?" asked Feng Heng, visibly shocked.
Shi Fuyu nodded before replying, "Now it is considered a Forbidden Land, but back then, it was not."
"Western Pure Bliss Land was the holy land of Buddhism. Just standing there, you could feel the powerful Buddha Rhyme that increased understanding and enlightenment."
"At the center lies the Maitreya Bodhi Tree, a very powerful spiritual tree that may have reached beyond the Emperor Tier. Anyone who meditated under it will have the Maitreya Buddha Mother explaining the Dao to them herself."
"She was an unimaginable being that words alone could not express her sacredness. Just being in the divine presence of the Divine Mother Buddha was enough for any monk to know and experience what true Nirvana was--even for a brief moment. A brief moment that all monks pursue for their entire lives, even willing to give their entire life," said Shi Fuyu with a twinkle in his eyes.
"What? Beyond Emperor Tier? Master, does such a thing exist?" asked Feng Feng all flustered.
Shi Fuyu looked at his disciple realizing that he must have said something that he should not, so he immediately said. "You do not need to think about these kinds of things that are outside of your capabilities."
Feng Heng nodded mechanically, but the look of shock was still in his face. After seeing this, Shi Fuyu did not say anything, giving his disciple the chance to slowly process that information that he let slip.
And this quiet lasted a few hours. Then, Feng Heng took a deep breath to calm himself down before saying, "Master, so what happened between the contradiction of the two factions? And what does any of this have to do with my ancestor, the Absolute Beginning Emperor."
Shi Fuyu looked up and down at his disciple. After noticing that he had relatively calm down, he continued:
"Well, after getting access to the Western Pure Bliss Land, the radical faction labeled the other faction as unorthodox and almost destroyed them. Luckily, the peaceful faction had previously taken control over the Heavenly Karmic Flame, so they still found a way to survive."
"Master, wait, if the peaceful faction had control of the Karmic Flame, then how did the other faction refine their Faith Power?"
"Well, Western Pure Bliss Land also had this ability, so they did not need it."
Feng Heng nodded, then he asked, "So, what brought the destruction of Buddhism in the end? What about the Heaven Race you previously mentioned?"
"Be patient, I'm getting there."
"After eliminating their competitors, the Buddhist Sect began to gather incense using more radical means in order to power up the Western Pure Bliss Land."
"They mainly targeted the Small Thousand Worlds in our community. By creating catastrophe, then sending a Buddhist Emissary to save the world, they could gather very pure Incense Power."
"At that time, every time a Buddhist Emperor managed to prove the Dao, he would lead the world to conquer other worlds in order to gather more faith. Of course not all Emperors born in that era belonged to the Buddhist Sect."
"Other factions also managed to cultivate one of two Emperors back then, and those Emperors tried to deal with the Buddhist Sect, but they were not strong enough--especially with the protection of the Western Pure Bliss Land."
"The only Emperor that posed a threat back then was the Ancient Desolate Emperor of the Dao Opening Sect, however, since he had some karma with Buddhism, he did not attack them, but instead made a deal with them not to do anything to his sect in exchange for his neutrality."
"All of these actions actually garnered the ire of all the factions of the world, however, everyone decided to close one eye because of how powerful the Buddhist Sects were."
"However, when we created the [One World Nirvana Plan], everything changed."