His mother stood up, took one last look at her son hidden in the bushes, then suddenly ran in another direction with all her might, deliberately shouting loudly as she ran to attract the bandits' attention.
The bandits, as expected, were led away by her, chasing after her with strange cackles.
Lu Fan cowered in the bushes, staring intently through the gaps in the branches and leaves at his mother's receding back.
He closed his eyes, not daring to look anymore.
Between heaven and earth, only the sound of the wind remained.
After an unknown period, the sky completely darkened.
The night wind was chilling, howling mournfully as it swept across the wilderness.
Young Lu Fan crawled out of the bushes.
Following his memory, he first found where his father had fallen, and then his mother's spot.
He looked at the cold bodies of his parents, but he didn't cry.
He simply knelt silently, and with his tender, dirt-stained hands, began to dig into the hard yellow earth.
Without tools, he used his hands to claw and stones to dig.
His fingernails tore, bleeding profusely, but he didn't care.
He spent an entire night, finally digging a shallow pit, and carefully placed his parents' bodies side by side.
After doing all this, he kowtowed three times with great force.
Blood seeped from his forehead, mixing with the dust.
"Father, Mother."
"Your unfilial son cannot lay you to rest in peace. But rest assured, I will definitely return."
"This grudge from today, I, Lu Fan, swear to Heaven, if I don't avenge it in this life, I vow not to be human! I will not let go of a single one of those who harmed you!"
The young man raised his head, and in his eyes, which shone astonishingly bright in the darkness, burned an undying flame of hatred.
The light screen of the Karma Water Mirror froze at this moment.
The entire Execution Platform once again fell into silence.
The Immortal Officials of the Heavenly Court had complex and regretful expressions on their faces.
This hatred was too deep.
This resentment was too heavy.
If it were any of them, having experienced such a tragedy, they would probably have already fallen into the Demonic Path and unleashed a monstrous slaughter.
In this solemn silence, the voice of Pure Thought Bodhisattva slowly rang out.
"All of you have seen it."
He pointed at the young man kneeling before the grave, swearing an oath in the light screen, and said with anguish, "When will vengeance end? Only by laying down the butcher's knife can one achieve Buddhahood. This child's nature is originally pure. If he could let go of hatred at this moment and wholeheartedly pursue goodness, he might not be without achievements in the future."
"But he precisely chose the most wrong path! He was blinded by hatred, and the seed of resentment was planted in his heart. His subsequent life was lived for revenge. For power, he resorted to any means; for revenge, he killed people and seized treasures. This was the beginning of his descent into the Demonic Path!"
"The reason he is an enemy of our Buddhist sect is precisely because our Buddha preaches compassion and letting go. This goes against the obsession in his heart! He doesn't hate the Buddha; he hates everything that urges him towards goodness! Such a deluded and demonized person, if he is not utterly destroyed, it would be irresponsible to the Three Realms' Immortals!"
These inverted black and white remarks made all the Immortals of the Heavenly Court frown.
But just as Pure Thought Bodhisattva's voice faded, a hoarse, cold voice, full of endless mockery, rang out from the center of the Execution Platform.
"I curse your mother's compassion!"
Lu Fan, who had been kneeling there in silence, finally raised his head.
Beneath his disheveled black hair, his eyes were bloodshot, staring intently at Pure Thought Bodhisattva, like a malevolent ghost crawled out of Hell.
"You're telling me to let go, you bastard?"
"My parents were slaughtered like chickens, their bodies left in the wilderness, and you're telling me to let go, you bastard?"
"I, a seven-year-old child, buried my own parents with my own hands, and you're telling me to let go, you bastard?"
"I ask you, where was the Buddha when those bandits were killing? Where was compassion when my parents died tragically?"
"Now you stand here, impeccably dressed, with a solemn and majestic appearance, telling me when will vengeance end?!"
Lu Fan struggled, the Immortal Binding Rope on him creaked and groaned as he strained against it. He used all his strength to unleash his most venomous roar at Pure Thought Bodhisattva and all the gods and Buddhas of the Western Religion:
"I'm telling you! As long as I, Lu Fan, still have a breath in me, I will avenge this hatred! Those who killed my parents, I will surely kill them! Those who shielded the murderers, I will wipe out their entire clan!"
"Keep your compassion to yourselves for your own salvation!"
The Execution Platform was silent.
The Buddhist Bodhisattvas of the Western Religion, the Buddhist light behind their heads all paused, and their solemn and majestic expressions were instantly replaced by shock and fury.
The Immortal Officials of the Heavenly Court were even more dumbfounded.
They had seen bold people, but never one so audacious.
In front of the gods of the Three Realms, pointing at a Bodhisattva's nose and cursing with the most vulgar words of the mortal world...
This could no longer be called incredibly bold; it meant he simply had no intention of living.
"This fiend..." Pure Thought Bodhisattva trembled with rage, the Buddhist light behind his head flickering wildly, the mask of compassion completely shattered, leaving only a ferocious anger, "Truly... truly deserves ten thousand deaths!"
However, more Immortal Officials were attracted by a word in Lu Fan's speech.
Shielding?
Shielding murderers?
Taibai Jinxing's hand, stroking his beard, stopped. His cloudy old eyes looked at Lu Fan with a hint of inquiry: "Immortal Friend Lu Fan, you just said that someone shielded the murderers who killed your parents? What do you mean by that? Is there some hidden truth behind it?"
This question voiced the doubts in everyone's hearts.
Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King Li Jing, the Lei Department Generals, all cast their gazes of concern.
On the Execution Platform, upon hearing Taibai Jinxing's question, Lu Fan suddenly burst into a fit of laughter.
"Hidden truth? Hahaha! There's no hidden truth! There's only an unending blood feud between me and those bald donkeys!"
He stopped laughing, then slowly began to speak.
"After my parents died, I knew that without power, I was worse than a dog in this world. Carrying a blood feud, I traveled across the ocean, joining a Loose Cultivator Immortal Cave, and diligently studied Immortal Arts for ten years!"
"Ten years to sharpen a sword, its frosty blade yet untried. Once I achieved Human Immortal status and returned to my hometown, the first thing I did was to drag those bandits from back then, one by one, out of the crowd, personally cut off their heads, and offer them as a sacrifice to the spirits of my parents in heaven!"
"Unfortunately, the leader of that group of bandits, that One-Eyed Dragon, got wind of it in advance and fled."
"I chased him all the way, on the verge of killing him with my own hands. Guess where he ran to?"
Lu Fan's gaze, like a knife, pierced directly at Pure Thought Bodhisattva.
"He ran back to the east end of our village, into that temple that my parents despised the most when they were alive! He knelt before the Buddha, shaved his head, and repeatedly claimed he would lay down the butcher's knife, convert to our Buddha, and from then on, with an ancient lamp and scriptures, repent for the rest of his life!"
"And the abbot of that temple actually accepted him! He even gave him a Buddhist name, 'Huiwu'! What did he awaken to? Did he awaken to the idea that after killing and arson, as long as he hid within Buddhism, everything would be forgiven?!"
"I went to their door with my sword, demanding they hand over the murderer. But they blocked the mountain gate, saying things like 'The Buddhist sect is a place of purity, one must not harbor murderous intent,' saying 'Since he has converted, past events are like smoke,' saying 'Forgive and forget when possible'!"
"Bah!" Lu Fan spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, "When my parents died tragically, why didn't they say 'forgive and forget when possible'?!"