Chapter 247: Twenty Heavens
Translator: Ninetales Editor: DarkGem
Qin Mu, Old Ma, and the rest increased their speed, but Old Ma had to suppress Granny Si's heart, so it was becoming increasingly more tiring for him, which in turn slowed them down.
Cult Master Li was growing rapidly, and Granny Si's cultivation was becoming stronger and stronger. However, Old Ma didn't dare to exert his full force in fear of harming Granny Si's mind. Because of this, their journey had quite a lot of unstable variables.
Granny Si was waking up less and less, while Cult Master Li was waking up more and more. Qin Mu was burning with anxiety, but he was helpless.
This basin had originally been a sea and was probably the East Sea which the heavenly king's god statue had mentioned. The terrain here was incomparably complicated, with the ravines and chasms being thousands of yards deep and the mountain ranges being as sharp as blades.
The East Sea had lost its seawater and turned into normal land. Qin Mu felt that there was something strange about this when he listened to the villagers about the sea in the sky last night, but the seawater had disappeared when day came.
Yet where had it went?
The farther they went, the stranger and stronger the living beings became. There were even glowing jellyfish flying in the sky which hid in the temples when night descended. At that time, they were like colorful lanterns.
On their way, the group even met living flood dragons. Some of them lived in deep mountain streams while others lived in volcanoes, ruling over their territories.
As long as they weren't provoked, these flood dragons rarely left their caves. A couple times Qin Mu saw them flying out to catch humans to eat, but whenever they passed by their group, the flood dragons could see that they were very strong and didn't dare to be impudent and just flew past them.
After walking out of this basin, Mount Meru was only two days away.
During them, Qin Mu and the rest didn't dare to relax even when they were sleeping, always ready to suppress Cult Master Li, which was really tiring for them. Only the dragon qilin had enough sleep and was well fed, so his skin, scales, and fur were all bright and glossy.
Qin Mu and the rest simply jumped on the dragon qilin's back and let this behemoth carry them to Mount Meru.
Gradually, more and more villages they passed believed in buddhism. Every household worshiped a statue of buddha, while some even placed a buddha statue among the stone statues in the village, worshiping god and buddha together.
Qin Mu enquired about this and found out that some monks had come forth to preach and cured the sickness of the villagers, so they had won their hearts.
"Buddhism seems to have followers in Great Ruins as well." Blind smiled. "By saving the abandoned people of Great Ruins, Great Thunderclap Monastery do treat all living things equally, but isn't it really an opportune shortcut, borrowing the reputation of the stone statues to accumulate merit."
The closer they got to Great Thunderclap Monastery, the more buddhist temples were around. Some of these temples had flourishing incense burning in front of them and worshiped buddha statues of different forms. However, when it came to night time, the people and strange beasts of Great Ruins wouldn't hide in these buddhist temples but would come to places that had stone statues and god statues.
Qin Mu thought to himself, 'Old Rulai has put in much effort, but it's hard to compete against the gods of Great Ruins. Buddhism can cure sickness, but it can't save lives from the darkness.'
The mountains nearby gradually grew larger, and there were monasteries of all sizes standing on it in numbers. Qin Mu passed by a few of them and decided to stay in one since the sky was getting dark.
There was a lot of incense burning in front of that monastery, and a couple hundred monks in it didn't seem afraid of the night. They still continued to chant their buddhist scriptures.
'Could these monks have great divine arts that are able to defend against the darkness?' Qin Mu thought with astonishment.
To his surprise, most of the buddha statues gave off a faint divine light which blocked the darkness away. Qin Mu went to the front of one of them, and his face turned black.
The monks in this monastery had actually plastered a layer of pottery clay on the stone statues of Great Ruins and baked the clay into the appearance of buddha. They then pasted golden leaves on the outside and disguised the god statues as golden buddhas. When night fell and the stone statues shielded the place from the darkness, it would look like the buddha statues were exhibiting their buddha might to protect all living things.
When Qin Mu used his third eye, he saw that the gods who were protecting Great Ruins were giving off divine rays of ten thousand fathoms, not any buddha statue.
There were also some fierce and abnormal strange beasts that never left the temples even in the morning. The monks were used to this sight and the strange beasts were not tied up, but were free to roam around the monastery.
What was the most astonishing was that the carnivorous strange beasts in the monastery were well-behaved and seemed to have become vegetarian which was different from their fierce nature. They also prayed to Buddha. Some people of Great Ruins who sought shelter here said it was the power of Buddhism.
However, Qin Mu saw monks secretly feeding the strange beasts large chunks of meat which had the smell of anesthetic.
Qin Mu was astonished, and a frown came onto his face.
"Mu'er, don't bother too much," Blind said softly. "Great Thunderclap Monastery is close, so if we smash this monastery, Great Thunderclap Monastery will receive news about it and give us trouble. They might not save Granny Si then."
"Hypocrites!" Granny Si sneered. "This is the hypocrisy of Buddhism. There clearly have no great divine art of their own, so they took one from other people and call it their own, bragging that it's the power of Buddhism. Blind, Old Ma, you guys are hypocrites as well. You require Old Rulai's help, so you don't dare to expose the act of these bald donkeys!"
Qin Mu said, "Whether they have great divine arts or not, won't Cult Master Li know when we reach Great Thunderclap Monastery and meet Old Rulai?"
Granny Si chuckled. "Cult Master Qin, you are worthy to be the sacred cult master of our sacred cult. You are the cult master of Heavenly Saint Cult yet you have to beg Old Rulai of the enemy sect to help you. You're a disgrace to the reputation of our Heavenly Saint Cult! The awe-inspiring authority of our Heavenly Saint Cult is going to be spoiled by you! When I recover completely and return to the sacred cult once more, I'll reorganize it and show you what the sacred cult master should be doing!"
Qin Mu remained unmoved and asked, "What should the sacred cult master do?"
"Tear down the facade of these bald donkeys, smashing their buddha statues and revealing the god statues behind them!" Granny Si stated.
"Remove the anesthetics from the strange beasts and let them eat humans, so their true nature can be revealed and they will massacre all the bald donkeys here, cleaning out the entire monastery! Let the foolish people see all the bullshit! Buddhism looks impressive but it's worthless! Hehe, the so-called righteous path is actually dogshit, so bring that dog shit into the light, don't let them wrap their clay idols with a layer of gold! These are the teachings of our Heavenly Saint Cult, to have a pure understanding of nature!"
Qin Mu felt that the words were very logical, but the actions were too extreme. He also wanted to undo the anesthetics in the strange beasts' bodies, but after thinking that they would eat humans after regaining their senses, he could only drop the thought.
Finally, Great Thunderclap Monastery was in sight, and they could see a majestic mountain standing tall in the center of God Broken Mountain Range. The other mountain ranges were all sliced apart by a mighty force that had formed sheer cliffs and precipitous rock faces that were hard to cross even for birds. All the mountains were blanketed by snow, but this one. It alone stood surrounded by others, protected in their center.
It was weird to say it, but it looked like the mountain peaks formed stairs. Three thousand mountain peaks formed a circle which was the lowest layer of stairs. The second layer had nine hundred and ninety-nine mountain peaks and was followed by ninety-nine mountain peaks and nine mountain peaks. One layer was higher than the other layer, and they all surrounded the main peak in the middle.
Monasteries of all sizes stood in number among the mountain peaks, and they were all worshiping majestic buddha statues. Some mountain peaks were sculpted into a huge buddha, some monasteries were built on the buddha's palm while others in the heart.
"Really luxurious in style," Blind praised. "Old Ma, why do you buddhists like to wear gold and silver? Such glorious splendor, such luxury, wouldn't it be better used for disaster relief? To monks, the four elements are vanity, but the pockets can never be empty."
Old Ma said indifferently, "Who would worship and give offerings if we weren't luxurious?"
Granny Si sneered, "Hypocrite…"
Qin Mu shouted, "Shut up! Old Rulai will refine you to death later!"
"Rascal, you even dare to scold me!" Granny Si became furious.
Qin Mu was flustered and muttered, "Oh, it's granny. Granny, don't take it to heart, I thought it was Cult Master Li who had run out again."
Granny Si sneered, "Old Ma, I'm not saying you're one, but these bald donkeys are clearly hypocrites. Take a look around, see which monastery isn't grand and luxurious, indulging in a life of pleasure? Which buddha statue isn't wearing silver or gold? Among all the monasteries, only those of bald donkeys are this luxurious! These monks don't do anything productive, don't pay taxes, and complain when their benefits are being touched. In the meantime, they nurture their monk weapons, rebel, and want to control the general situation in this world."
"Shut up, demon!" someone shouted from mid-air, and Qin Mu raised his head to see a monk with buddha rays above them. He looked dignified, but it was obvious that he was furious after hearing Granny Si's words.
That monk then saw Old Ma. There was astonishment on his face for a moment, then he ran away while shouting, "This is bad, this is bad! Ma Wangshen is coming back up the mountain!"
In the monasteries on the mountain peaks, all the monks went into an uproar and flew up to form a formation in mid-air as if they were facing a great enemy.
Ma Wangshen said indifferently, "When I came back to retrieve my arm before, I created a small commotion. Let us go up the mountain."
Fire clouds grew under the dragon qilin's soles as he sprinted towards the main peak in the center.
That place was above the sea of clouds, so sunlight could shine on it, basking it in brilliant gold which was why it was called the golden peak. If they wanted to fly up to it, it would take some time even for the dragon qilin.
On their journey, they passed by thousands of temples and monasteries and most of them were filled with senior monks that had attainments in their cultivation and possessed remarkable abilities. None of them dared to come forward to stop them, but they weren't resigned to just let them barge into the golden peak of Mount Meru without any opposition.
More and more monks flew out while riding all kinds of strange beasts and surrounded the golden peak in a formation. There were layers and layers of monks densely packed together to subdue demons and devils..
Qin Mu couldn't help admiring Old Ma. 'The last time Grandpa Ma came here, he must have fought his way up and barged straight into the main peak.'
Old Ma made the dragon qilin stop in front of the tens of thousands of monks forming an impenetrable defense to protect the golden peak. He said, "I'm here to see Old Rulai, I have a request to make."
His voice vibrated, and various visions instantly filled the mountains—golden springs erupted from the ground; a lotus descended from the sky; the apparitions of eight races of demi-gods and semi-devils appeared high above as well as those of gods of the twenty heavens. The events repeated themselves with magnificent rays shining in all directions as they recited the many names of Buddha in unison.
This mastery of incantation dominated countless monks.
At this moment, an old voice laughed from the golden peak. "Ma Wangshen's cultivation has improved since back in the day. I'm guessing you must have cultivated to the twentieth heaven of Rulai's Mahayana Sutra, Brahma realm. Another step further and you'll be a rulai. Monks, you may retreat and let him come up. I've been waiting a long time for him."
"Twenty heavens?" Qin Mu was slightly stunned and looked towards Old Ma.
The impenetrable defense formed by the monks in front of them dispersed, and Old Ma let the dragon qilin go up the mountain while saying, "They are twenty realms in Rulai's Mahayana Sutra. Once a person cultivates all twenty realms of heavens, they will become a rulai. When I left Great Thunderclap Monastery back then, I had already cultivated to the nineteenth realm, Sakra realm. At that time, I was already a first-class practitioner in the world."