Chapter 1048: One Challenging The Horde
Despite being protected by the imperial weapon, he was nearly mangled by the pressure. At this time, his position was revealed and he couldn't hide any longer.
He was driven to insanity. As a God-Monarch from an imperial lineage with an imperial weapon, he was confident in even challenging a Godking without an equal weapon. However, a junior crushed him so easily.
He held his weapon and ran away, not wanting to stay for a second longer. Evil Buddha's horrifying might far exceeded his imagination.
"Face Buddha's wrath, the sword that shall sweep through the sky." Buddhist lights bloomed from Li Qiye's body and lit up the entire plateau. He chanted and derived the dharma while the monks in this place sang for him. The Buddhist affinity accumulated for generations became blessings on his body.
With this mantra, he spread out his palm. Another Buddhist ray emerged like a stout tree.
"Clank!" A sword assaulted the sky and swept forth. The stars and the galaxy were split. This one sword was extremely mystical and caused gods and devils to bow their heads.
"Whoosh!" Blood sprayed high up in the air. The God-Monarch's head rolled far away on the ground. His eyes were still wide open. Despite running away for tens of thousands of miles in an instant, he still couldn't dodge the Buddhist Sword.
An escaping God-Monarch with an imperial weapon would have a weakened defense. After he was killed, the weapon didn't pause at all and instantly disappeared into the horizon.
The world stood still once more while the Buddhist lotus quietly floated above the lake. At this moment, no one dared to cross the line at all. Li Qiye took his time walking to the lotus and nonchalantly stood on top of it.
At this moment, he gathered the affinity of the plateau again. Its rhythm swayed to his will. He became extremely holy while standing on the lotus. Anyone who was close to him would have the urge to prostrate and join the Buddhist order.
Despite Li Qiye's attempt of limiting his aura to prevent it from converting people, it was still immensely terrifying. No one dared to come close.
"One thought to become Buddha, another to become Devil." In the Buddhist City, South Emperor watched the whole event and said: "He is Buddha, capable of controlling the entire plateau. So many ignorant fools running to their deaths."
The whole world was silent while Li Qiye stood on top of the lotus undisturbed. As for the Soaring Heavenly Saintess, she had run away long ago.
He glanced past the crowd and slowly asked: "Anyone else want to take this Buddhist lotus?"
At this moment, the majority of the experts looked at each other in order to figure out what to do. No one dared to take half a step past this pond of thunder. Jikong Wudi, Zhan Shi, and the Mortal King were silent with ugly expressions.
"Very well, oh Merciful Buddha. It seems like all of you are still unwilling, I will give you young ones a chance." Li Qiye saw their cold expressions and unwillingness to leave. He smiled: "You, you, you, and all of you, come together."
Li Qiye casually pointed at Jikong Wudi's group, including Bing Yuxia and Bai Jianzhen.
This challenge astounded the crowd. Jikong Wudi, Zhan Shi, Heavenly Emperor Lin, the Jewel Pillar Mortal King, Bing Yuxia, Bai Jianzhen — all the supreme geniuses where here.
But now, Evil Buddha wanted to fight all of them by himself. The crowd had no choice but to turn silly. His showing was truly invincible.
A paragon murmured: "This is truly the number one among the younger generation, who can compete with him?!"
Who else right now would dare to challenge all the other geniuses here? Such a person didn't exist until Evil Buddha showed up.
The group of geniuses was silent. Even though they were powerful and confident, they didn't feel certain at this moment. They knew that this Evil Buddha was capable of controlling the entire plateau and its power to suppress all of them.
"We can give it a try." While Jikong Wudi's group was feeling uncertain, Bing Yuxia let go of the beauty in her embrace and exited her chariot.
Bai Jianzhen also stood up from the shade while readying her sword. A sharp glimmer flashed in her pretty eyes, revealing her frightening sword intent. She had changed completely at this moment, turning into an unsheathed sword with incomparable sharpness. Anyone would shiver while looking at her.
The Mortal King shouted: "I will go first." He was the first to step up to Li Qiye. He wanted to discard the annoyance brewing inside him after suffering the previous two defeats by challenging Li Qiye.
The first time, he underestimated the power of the dharma and was almost converted. The second time, he lost to a single finger from South Emperor.
"Very brave." Li Qiye smiled after seeing the Mortal King being the first to rise to the challenge: "Even though you have been an eyesore all this time, Buddha will be merciful today and shall spare your life."
"Don't be so arrogant!" The Mortal King shouted after Li Qiye viewed him as a fish on the chopping block. He had fought experts from all over the world, so being looked down on by Evil Buddha like this was truly shameful!
"Buzz—" A ray of light bloomed. After his shout, a treasure appeared above his head. It was as white as jade and poured down a sacred imperial power capable of suppressing gods and devils.
"An imperial weapon." Though people didn't recognize its background, even the foolish ones knew that it was an imperial weapon.
Everyone knew that the sacred school had never produced an Immortal Emperor. However, Jewel Pillar had an imperial weapon right now. This was indeed worth musing over.
"Very smart method, refining the finger bone of an Immortal Emperor who cultivates the Hell Suppressing Physique into a Life Treasure. It can avoid conversion as well as increase your own physique's power." Li Qiye smiled after seeing the weapon. He naturally knew who it belonged to.
"Seal!" The Mortal King didn't waste time speaking and shouted. Light erupted from his body in the form of strings. The Hell Suppressing Physique suppressed the entire world. Even the void was trembling and the area lost its brilliance.
At this point, he turned into a gigantic prison in an instant. A dark light floated around this huge cage, causing the celestials to dim.
"Pop!" When this cage came down, the void shattered. Nothing could stay intact under its pressure. Even gods and devils could only accept being imprisoned for an eternity.
The Mortal King had exerted his physique to its limit. Anyone would be horrified after seeing this. The absolute suppression from this physique was horrifying. The grand dao shattered and myriad laws screamed.
"Amitabha." Li Qiye didn't even move while facing this physique cage. He only chanted and formed a Buddhist mudra with both hands.
"Boom!" Thousands of Buddhist laws from the plateau shot into the sky. Each of them was as grand as a waterfall that had Buddhist images engraved on them. It was a very spectacular scene.
"Clank!" In the blink of an eye, the waterfalls came together to form a Buddhist mudra. Everyone here felt that the plateau was sinking. Even its vast territory couldn't handle the weight of this seal.
"Boom!" The physique cage couldn't out-suppress Li Qiye. Under the smashing of the mudra, it shattered completely. The Mortal King was blown flying while spurting blood. Even though the Hell Suppressing Physique was extremely tough, people could still hear his bones breaking.
He was smashed flying and disappeared into the horizon.
"The Mortal King is really unlucky." Many went silent after seeing this. The Mortal King had challenged Evil Buddha three times and all three ended in his defeat.
The rest of the geniuses stared at Li Qiye. They didn't have a strategy to deal with him, but fleeing without putting up a fight was not their style either.
Li Qiye looked at them and chuckled: "Are all of you coming together or one at a time?"
"I'm going!" Bing Yuxia rushed forward and immediately flipped her delicate hand.
"Boom!" A monstrous stone tablet fell from the sky. It had countless runes etched on the surface. The world was sealed along with myriad dao upon its arrival.
In this split second, she severed all things. Myriad laws lost their power while myriad dao lost their colors. One could even say that she had severed Li Qiye's connection to the Buddhist Funeral Plateau. At this time, he couldn't control its power and had lost its protection.
"Did she do it?" The crowd was ecstatic at this sight because Evil Buddha was too heaven-defying. People wanted to see a miracle that resulted in his defeat.
Jikong Wudi, Lin Tiandi, and Zhan Shi were all startled to see her method of severing the connection. This was the first time they saw Bing Yuxia doing this.
"Pop!" However, no one clearly saw what Evil Buddha did right afterward. His hand crossed through time and space. Even the tablet capable of cutting through all things couldn't sever this hand.
This penetrating hand instantly slapped Bing Yuxia's sweet buttocks. One slap and one squeeze, all at the mercy of his whim.
Chapter 1049: Only Domination
Bing Yuxia quickly leaped back and stared at him in horror. This Evil Buddha didn't only achieve the impossible by piercing through her Heaven Cutting technique, the part that was even more shocking was that only one person would do something like this!
"Girl, wait until you perfect your Heaven Cutting, then you can come back and challenge me. You still have a long, long way to go." Li Qiye patted his palms that still carried the fragrance and smiled.
After leaving the fight, she stared at Evil Buddha and immediately realized many things. No wonder why Evil Buddha seemed so familiar as if they had met before.
With Bing Yuxia out of the fray, Jikong Wudi's group of three glanced at each other and took deep breaths. They all came forward at the same time.
Each of them took one corner to form a horn-shaped formation to surround and destroy Li Qiye by delivering a fatal blow.
If even these three couldn't defeat Evil Buddha, then others would fall into despair for the bleak future of the competition for the Heaven's Will.
Time stood extremely still. Everyone held their breaths while watching this top-level battle of the younger generation. They were eager to see the result.
Jikong Wudi, Heavenly Emperor Lin, and Zhan Shi all stared intensely at Li Qiye. They didn't attack right away as they were looking for an opening.
"It seems like you all don't wish to attack first." Li Qiye noticed their intent and smiled: "Fine, I'll go first."
With that, he formed the Anjali Mudra. In an instant, an endless amount of Buddhist light blossomed along with chants. All the sacred monks in the plateau sang for him once more just like before.
The light engulfed the three geniuses and seemed to be casting a layer of gold on their bodies.
Even those watching on the distant horizon were shocked and exclaimed: "Conversion!"
"Boundless Supreme!" Lin Tiandi let out a long yell while chanting his daoist scripture. In the blink of an eye, a magnificent light descended from above as if a world of immortals was opening. It wanted to illuminate the entire plateau.
"Heavenly Emperor Lin is truly amazing, he is actually using a different immortal law to resist the Buddhist conversion." Someone praised quietly while watching the immortal light trying to purify the Buddhist light.
Though Lin's light was quite powerful, it was far inferior to the Buddhist's brilliance. At this moment, Li Qiye's light was the culmination of the entire plateau. Thus, when the immortal light came down, it was slowly purified and turned into pure gold. It was about to become a part of the Buddhist light.
"Long live the Supreme!" He took out a physical immortal scripture and flipped the pages then began to chant again. The nearly converted immortal light lit up once more. This allowed it to barely stop the Buddhist conversion.
"Now!" Jikong Wudi shouted. He understood full well that even if the scripture in Heavenly Emperor Lin's hand was incredible, it still couldn't withstand the power of conversion. They only had a split second's opportunity.
"Buzz!" Zhan Shi took several steps forward with the most powerful offensive rhythm he could muster. Even though he didn't attack just yet, his pace was leading the rhythm of the grand dao. The world moved to his whim while his steps seemed to be stomping on the dao heart of others to an unbearable extent.
With that, he took out a halberd and, with a shout, rushed forward to attack. There were no profound techniques or fancy variations. The halberd carried an unstoppable momentum. It was not just a thrust from a weapon, it was also Zhan Shi's will. He moved forward heroically and never faltered.
"Revered One of the World!" Li Qiye didn't look at the direct attack from the halberd. He simply created the mudra again by placing his palms together. A Buddhist wheel flew out from behind his head.
"Boom!" Zhan Shi's halberd struck the wheel to no avail. His attack could thrust through all things, but it couldn't penetrate this wheel.
"Die!" Jikong Wudi made his attack and unleashed an ancient talisman that he obtained from the Emperor Era Hall. He had completely grasped its profundities.
"Buzz—" The talisman stretched out and myriad eras passed by in the blink of an eye. No one could clearly see his attack as it arrived right in front of Li Qiye, aiming for his forehead. It was only one foot away by the time people realized.
"Watch over all sentient beings!" Li Qiye chanted a Buddhist phrase as the attack was about to pierce his head. At this moment, time seemed to slow.
Without a doubt, the talisman's effect was to speed up time in order to accelerate Jikong Wudi's death blow. However, before contact could be made, a magnificent light rushed out from Li Qiye's forehead like an ocean. Even if Jikong Wudi was swift, he would need millions of years before he could fly through this endless Buddhist ocean.
"Zzz—" Among the endless ocean, a Buddhist eye opened and emitted a shining radiance. It illuminated all living beings in order to grant them salvation.
Jikong Wudi immediately became frozen under this eye as his body exuded a Buddhist light.
"Bang!" While Li Qiye was dealing with Jikong Wudi, Zhan Shi let out a loud battle cry and unleashed his raging halberd to destroy the world with an endless barrage of fire. Facing such a fierce offense, even the Buddhist wheel suffered damage.
Heavenly Emperor Lin, on the other side, felt that the situation was quite unfavorable. He shouted and mustered his strength to open the scripture again.
"Rumble!" Boundless immortal runes descended. Each rune was as immense as a towering mountain. It combined with Zhan Shi's strongest halberd thrust to break through Li Qiye's defense.
"Ahh!" As the invincible attack was on its way, Jikong Wudi screamed loudly and gouged his own chest to grab his heart. He threw it on the ground and ran away at an incredible speed.
Jikong Wudi thought he could have killed Li Qiye using that great opportunity with his ultimate attack. He was only inches away from piercing through Li Qiye's forehead.
However, he couldn't escape the power of conversion from Li Qiye's ultimate dharma. The moment that eye opened, he would instantly be converted. Alas, Jikong Wudi lived up to his name. At the crossing of life and death, he destroyed his Buddhist heart. Although he suffered grievous losses from doing so, he still managed to escape decisively.
"Rumble!" Under the combined bombardment from Heavenly Emperor Lin and Zhan Shi, the Buddhist wheel shattered and the sea was about to break.
"Skanda, rise." Li Qiye let out a chant that echoed across the world.
"Boom!" A gigantic figure emerged from within Spirit Mountain. A huge Vajra stood on top of the mountain with a skyward Buddhist light. 1
Protector Skanda was the guardian deity of Buddhism. At this moment, all the affinity of the plateau condensed into this figure that was the legendary Skanda.
Skanda shouted. Even though he was thousands of miles away, his vajra weapon was not limited by distance.
"Boom!" With a deafening blast, the immense divine runes of Heavenly Emperor Lin were annihilated. Zhan Shi's endless barrage of thrusts collapsed as well under the attack of this vajra weapon.
No matter how domineering and strong their attacks were, they shattered before Skanda's might. Nothing could withstand his attack.
Both Lin and Zhan Shi were blown away to the horizon while vomiting blood.
"Clank!" A sword hymn resonated throughout the nine heavens. Right when Skanda defeated Lin and Zhan Shi with one strike, Bai Jianzhen made her move. Her sword slashed through the sky, causing the stars and myriad existences to lose their light.
This imperceptible sword was simply too fast. However, people still quivered before the unknown since they could feel the horror of its edge that was capable of destroying all things.
Once the exchange became clear to the spectators, they saw Li Qiye's fingers holding onto something as if he was picking flowers from the ground. However, he was not picking flowers and instead was tightly clasping Bai Jianzhen's sword.
"You have reached the essence of the dao of the sword and know when to deliver the fatal blow. Unfortunately, your opponent is me." Li Qiye easily held onto her sword while she couldn't move it in the least bit.
Despite all of this, Bai Jianzhen was still glaring at Li Qiye coldly without any emotion. She was as cold as the steel edge of a blade. Nothing could shake her emotions.
At this time, she abandoned her sword and shouted: "Die!"
Her sword dao emerged. She slightly turned her hand and her dao turned into a heavenly sword. With this, she became an entirely different person, a Sword Goddess that loomed above the nine heavens. Her sword could sweep through myriad laws.
"Dum—" Myriad realms quaked before the heavenly sword. It turned into countless swords that frantically attacked with an endless bloodthirst. The entire world shook before them.
"Mad Sword…" The world turned into a sea of swords with Bai Jianzhen at the center. They rampaged inside like torrential whirlwinds, leaving nothing behind.
It gave off the feeling of a mad tyrant with her sea of swords destroying an entire civilization and world. Anyone would shiver before such rage. The end of days had come.
It says Vajra here, but Skanda is a Bodhisattva on the Wikipedia page. ↩