Chapter 767: Ferry Everyone to the Opposite Bank
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
In the spatial illusion, Monk Da Kong unleashed the Abhijna of the Amoghasiddhi Mantra. Endless verses of scriptures materialized and morphed into infinite stretches of golden paths.
In the chaotic battle in Space, the various moves and spells launched by other starlights landed on these golden paths. Regardless of their original target, these moves and spells changed their directions and, following the golden paths, channeled themselves towards the starlight that Zhu Yi’s soul had possessed.
Zhu Yi responded calmly. He morphed the starlight into a humanoid body and moved. He stepped into the void and with an uncanny maneuver, he evaded the barrage of powerful spells that lost their mutability by a hair’s breadth. It seemed almost as if the spells were not directed at him but the air beside him.
Celestial Fist of the Twenty-Eight Mansions, the form of the Chariot Water Worm!
The Chariot Mansion was wood-typed and had the shape of an earthworm. It was the seventh Mansion of the South, at the tail section of the Vermillion Bird region. The tail of the bird gave it control over its directions.
In ancient times, the wooden plank at the bottom rear portion of carriages was known as "Zhen," or "Chariot." It shared a similar position in the carriage as the Chariot Mansion in the Vermillion Bird region, giving the Mansion its name. The Chariot Mansion was once known as the "Sky Carriage" as well.
The Chariot Water Worm Form was the last move of the Celestial Fist of the Twenty-Eight Mansions, representing the restoration of all things to their original position. This finisher move was also an intricate maneuver technique: after taking a final step, one’s body would shift back to its starting position.
Zhu Yi used this finisher move as his starter move, which worked exceptionally well, allowing him to evade this enormous salvo of attack.
As Zhu Yi took the final step, his starlight soul body became seemingly unstoppable, like a "Sky Carriage," and whizzed towards Monk Da Kong’s starlight soul body.
The situation somewhat surprised Monk Da Kong: "It’s Emperor Chen’s Celestial Fist of the Twenty-Eight Mansions! Who is in that in the starlight body? Everyone’s souls had just entered the starlights. How did he master Emperor Chen’s Martial Way so quickly and become adept at using it?"
As Monk Da Kong had done preparations beforehand and used the starlight derived from the remnant soul of Zhi Guang Zen Master as his body, he did not have to accept the starlight soul bodies randomly assigned by the spatial illusion. This not only eliminated the uncertainty of the process but also got rid of issues of incompatibility with the new mantra received from the soul remnants. At the same time, this further increased his prowess. In this spatial illusion, his power was almost equivalent to Zhi Guang Zen Master reincarnate, who was at the third level of the Golden Form.
This experience was vastly beneficial to Monk Da Kong, which was partly why he was so determined to come to Yingzhou Celestial Mountain.
Even if he failed to gain possession of Yingzhou Celestial Mountain in the end, as long as he can make a safe departure, this would not be a wasted trip. The experience he gained during this journey has paved a smooth path for his advancement into the third level of the Golden Form Stage, which would likely not take long.
Hence, Monk Da Kong did not take Zhu Yi’s counterattack to heart. Even if the Great Sun Holy Man had been resurrected, he would only be at the second level of Immortal Soul Stage and would be no match for Monk Da Kong himself who was almost equivalent in strength to Zhi Guang Zen Master.
Monk Da Kong’s starlight soul body emitted waves of Buddhist chants, and the void around him froze under a Buddhist aura. Within the aura, countless Buddha chanted scriptures in unison, which seemed as if Nirvana has been brought to Earth.
"Fall!"
Monk Da Kong did not utter this word; it was the sound formed by the chants of the countless Buddha, which resonated within Zhu Yi’s heart.
An Acalanatha Spell Body emerged in the Space. Its right palm struck down at Zhu Yi. At the center of the palm was a "卍" symbol, which radiated an intense Buddhist aura.
Secret Buddhist Abhijna, Full Circle of Life Swastika Palm Print!
Faced with Monk Da Kong’s Full Circle of Life Swastika Palm Print, Zhu Yi’s starlight soul body switched to a gentle maneuver. He retracted both of his arms to defend himself using "Wall Water Yu Form," a move in the Celestial Fist of the Twenty-Eight Mansions that specializes in defense.
The Wall Mansion was wood-typed and took on the shape of Yu, a mythical beast. It was the seventh Mansion of the North and was on the exterior of the Encampment Mansion, seemed like the wall of a camp, hence its name.
Monk Da Kong still did not take Zhu Yi to heart. He fully utilized the power at the third level of the Golden Form Stage to overwhelm his opponent with his sheer might, hoping to achieve a swift victory.
While he had gained an edge with the Zen Master Zhi Guang’s remnant soul, he could not guarantee that he can solve this spatial illusion. Therefore, he would be more than happy to save time by resolving this battle quickly.
However, Monk Da Kong’s optimism did not last long. While the Full Circle of Life Swastika Palm Print breached the defense of Zhu Yi’s Wall Water Yu form, the attacks started to feel entangled.
He frowned: "Tail Fire Tiger Form?"
The Tail Mansion was fire-typed and took on the form of a tiger. It was the sixth Mansion of the East and consisted of nine stars that together form the tail of the Azure Dragon.
The Dragon’s Tail was the most attacked part of a dragon in battle, making it an omen of grave danger. In the Celestial Fist of the Twenty-Eight Mansions, it has been designed as a riposte move that exposed a loophole on purpose to execute a devastating hidden counterattack!
Zhu Yi’s move was never "Wall Water Yu Form" but "Tail Fire Tiger Form" all along!
Emperor Chen had fallen a long time ago, and descendants from his lineage were few and far between, hence hardly anyone in the Divine Lands are familiar with the Martial Way that he had passed down.
It was only thanks to Monk Da Kong’s upbringing in the historical powerhouse, the Great Thunderclap Temple that he could even identify Zhu Yi’s moves. It would be a tall order for him to fully comprehend the intricacies of Emperor Chen’s Martial Way as well.
Zhu Yi’s understanding and mastery of the Celestial Fist of the Twenty-Eight Mansions had been greater than Monk Da Kong had expected. Within such a short amount of time, while Zhu Yi was still incomparable to Emperor Chen, his power was almost equal to the Great Sun Holy Man reborn.
Seeing that Monk Da Kong fell for his trick, Zhu Yi took advantage of it. The arms of his starlight body swerved circularly, forming the shape of a giant net, trapping the arm of the Acalanatha Spell Body, stopping the Full Circle of Life Swastika Palm Print in its way.
The Well Mansion was wood-typed and took on the shape of a tiger. It was also known as Well Wood Tiger and was the first Mansion of the South Vermillion Bird region.
The Mansion comprised of stars that formed the shape of a net. Hence the Well Wood Tiger Strike took on the form of a net, which seemed like a bottomless abyss, trapping any foe that got caught by it.
Within a short while, Zhu Yi’s attack had shown a high level of mastery of the Celestial Fist of the Twenty-Eight Mansions by combining the attack of three different moves. Once the arm of the Acalanatha Spell Body gets ensnared, Zhu Yi could disable its arms with a twist of his arms.
Monk Da Kong quietly muttered a chant. The Acalanatha Spell Body radiated an intense wave of light, warping the void around it. Verses of scriptures formed stretches of paths again, and as Zhu Yi’s strike landed on one of these paths, the blow gets deflected away.
Zhu Yi’s target is no longer Monk Da Kong as his strike meets a Vast Sea Sword Sect move used by a chaotic cluster of starlight some distance away.
Monk Da Kong no longer dared to look down on his opponent, who turned out a lot trickier than he had expected. He unleashed the full power of the Abhijna of the Amoghasiddhi Mantra. The Abhijna breached Zhu Yi’s Celestial Fist of the Twenty-Eight Mansions, while the Full Circle of Life Swastika Palm Print continues to approach him, threatening to strike him down and restore a circle of freedom to the world.
"For such a high level of proficiency to be reached with the Abhijna of the Amoghasiddhi Mantra, it takes more than the Abhijna derived from the soul remnant within the starlight. Whoever resides in the starlight must be a practitioner of the Amoghasiddhi Mantra as well."
Zhu Yi confirmed his suspicions: "This person must be Monk Da Kong of the Great Zhou Empire, who had the Sarira of Zhi Guang Zen Master or some other powerful Buddhist cultivator of the third level of Golden Form Stage who specializes in the Amoghasiddhi Mantra!"
After reaching this conclusion, Zhu Yi realized that he was facing a formidable foe.
If he were to fight Monk Da Kong at the third level of the Immortal Soul stage with his cultivation level of the second level of the immortal soul stage, he would have absolute confidence in ending his opponent’s life.
Now that he had to use the cultivation level of the starlight soul body morphed from the Great Sun Holy Man, he would have trouble fighting against Zen Master Zhi Guang.
"I might as well test my other hypothesis."
Zhu Yi made the decision, and his soul started to tremor.
The soul contained in the starlight body breaks up into a million fragments. Instead of breaking down, these fragments morphed into millions of little people, each one of them looked like Zhu Yi himself.
Every one of these little people had traces of flame burning away, a sign of the fire of intelligence igniting the soul. Instead of genuinely burning, these flames merely ignited the force of Zhu Yi’s soul.
Zhu Yi had no time to regret that he could not fully ignite the fire of intelligence. He mustered all the force of his soul, and a word appeared on the body of each one of the little people!
The millions of words combined, forming a chapter of words that was so earth-shaking that his starlight soul body started to tremble.
It was Zhu Yi’s Essay of the Sages!
As his body was formed from starlight at the moment, Zhu Yi was unable to use any other Abhijnas and spells. However, the Essay of the Sages had been deeply engraved into his soul and represented the fusion of Zhu Yi’s cultivation and the essence of his thoughts, setting it apart from the other Abhijnas and spells that he knew.
At that moment, the chapter broke free from the constraints of the Great Sun Holy Man’s soul remnants and, making use of starlight, shaped itself into a majestic golden bridge!
The golden bridge flew across the sky, cleansing it of the lines of path-like golden scriptures. Sounds of book recitation replaced Buddhist chants and resonated loudly in Space.
The magnificent golden bridge destroyed the right half of the Acalanatha Spell Body in one hit!
At the sight of the golden bridge, Monk Da Kong immediately realized: "Zhu Yi, so it is you! But, here, how can you use your own Abhijna?!"
While he was astounded, he did not pause. Pushing the power of the Amoghasiddhi Mantra to its limits, Monk Da Kong condensed the broken Acalanatha Spell Body into a golden sphere of light.
It seemed as if Nirvana existed within the sphere of light, where Sankharas was complete. When one went inside it, one can easily achieve anything one wanted.
After forming the Buddha Spell Body to reach the second level of the Golden Form Stage, the Buddhist cultivator needed to attain the realm of Nirvana, turn all afflictions, cleanse all five skandhas and to gain the wisdom of Buddha in order to advance into the third level of the Golden Form Stage, which was equivalent to the third level of the Immortal Soul stage.
Reaching the realm of Nirvana was equal to attaining the way of the virtual entity.
The realm of Nirvana attained by practitioners of the Amoghasiddhi Mantra was known as the Nirvana of Industry, which embodies perfection, wholesomeness, the attainment of what one desired.
Zhu Yi looked at the Nirvana, his state of mind did not even flicker. He controlled the golden bridge and rushed forward in a valiant assault: "Your Mantra only ferries those with affinity to you, those who believe in you, while my golden bridge ferries everyone to the opposite bank!"